The treads squealed in a shrill high pitch as the Schwarzkopfs continued on their path. By now they had gone off the road, and were beelining between the trees. When too clustered, they would merely drive over them, the trunks fortunately thin enough for them to not pose much of an obstacle. By this point the two troop transport Schwarzkopfs had fanned out ahead, and the "special" was in the rear. The special did not have turrets, but the lead two did. These turrets swiveled from position to position, their camera periscopes similarly restless. Crewed turrets were a thing of the past; they were now remotely controlled from the safety of the fighting compartment. 

The soldiers inside the Schwarzkopf were in a similar state of readiness, all clinging to the ceiling rails with one hand, their weapons with the other. [i]Not much farther now[/i] Kyle thought to himself. "An army marches on its stomach," Kyle had explained during an earlier briefing. "An insurgency isn't much different. Most of the targets are young, urbanized. It's highly doubtful they have much ability to live off the land, unless if one of them can some how summon steaks with their Hex powers." This got some laughs. He had no idea why. It was a bit of a shit joke. He just let it happen, then continued as soon as it died down. " Survival skills are similarly doubtful. Which is to say, they'll certainly have to scavenge. Break into places. Steal. No one with half a brain will let them into a Walmart or what have you. To be honest, we could probably just let them wander aimlessly and inevitably starve to death. But we wouldn't be doing our jobs, would we? They could harm or kill many if we just let them go free. Now, there's only so many places they could have reached in the hours since they broke out, and only so many destinations in the direction they're believed to have headed..." With a gesture, he had summoned a holographic map. 

It had been hours since that briefing. A lot of the possible places had been crossed off of that map. No recent signs of people moving through, only those who had evacuated. But the hunt continued, with eyes wide and scanning, and an ear perked attentively for any news from the other search parties.