From the East on highway 64 came Sophie Quilla to Memphis, though she had already departed the highway and made it onto the more conventional streets stitched amongs the buildings in the main city. Somerville wasn't too far as cities went, in a car it would be less than an hour away. However, on foot, Sophie had spent the entire day before trekking under the hot sun, from dusk to dawn, walking down nearly 50 miles of road. Only the threat of raiders and other thieves made the night a less desirable setting for the journey. Though she was still tired and sore from the previous day of walking, but her rations wouldn't last forever, and Sophie felt like she had a mission to complete. It was a bit chilly, which Sophie's safari explorer get-up wasn't the best suited for, but she hoped at least that she wouldn't seem too ridiculous.

The UAF soldiers that had interrupted her secluded existence mentioned their outpost in Memphis, and described a building reminding her of the Memphis Pyramid. Unfortunately she had never visited the building in person, having no need to visit a sporting goods center before the war. Neither from the highway nor right now could Sophie see the outpost on the horizon, and she didn't think she'd ever be able to recognize the building from afar. Considering that the city looked like it had taken a direct hit during the Great War, Sophie assumed that the glass pyramid had most likely been shattered or completely destroyed.

Now in the midst of a ruined city, Sophie had resorted to wandering blindly in search of human life that didn't shoot her on sight. After rounding a corner a few blocks away from a major intersection, out of the corner of her eye Sophie could see a person-shaped blot slumped up against the buildings. Sophie left her beat-up shopping cart full of old books in the middle of the street while she approached the person to get a closer look, without her glasses she couldn't tell much about them. "Pssst, hey there!" Sophie said, not too loudly, as she jogged up to the person, "Hey, do you know where-" Sophie clamped her hand over her mouth to hold in a scream as the body came into focus. It was just a corpse, burned to death with lasers. Sophie could distinguish the wounds from those caused by plasma. Still covering her own mouth, Sophie walked backwards slowly until she reached the cart, and then looked around frantically. As soon as she did so, she heard a voice shouting from down the street. A woman who had entered the area from another street.

“Hey there friend! You wouldn’t happen to know how far off the next town is, would you?”

'[i]You dope! Don't you know there's some kind of killer on the loose around here!?[/i]' Sophie thought. She decided she would have to watch this person from a safe distance. There was no way she could help this person if she drew out an attacker, but if that happened Sophie could at least see who was nearby.

The plan was to quickly run until she could get a good view of France, then hide in the closest building, and to do it all silently. Though she took the sidewalk rather than run through the middle of the street, Sophie's approach was anything but silent. Her heavy feet stomped loudly as she run, the shopping cart squeaked like mad, and just as soon as France became a visible though indistinguishable blob in her vision, Sophie dove through an already shattered bistro window with the cart, knocking it over and dumping out all the books on the floor. Then she poked her head out to see if any other blobs approached the one shouting and waving her arms about. Oblivious to her own lack of ability in stealth, Sophie readied her empty 9mm pistol in preparation.