[i][color=ed1c24]Late October.  Missouri.[/color][/i]

Austin nodded, letting out a sigh as the strange boy yammered on strangely.  He looked to the trees, keeping his eyes peeled for movement in case this wackjob wasn't alone.  The grip on his rifle didn't loosen in the slightest, but he looked Will over.  Finally, as the boy put away his arrow, Jon was able to explain the situation.

"[color=598527]None of us like it, but he's right.  This foreset is crawlin' with 'em...  We haven't had to get too close yet, but let me tell you, from what I've seen already, I woudln't doubt they're coming from several directions.  We need to find us a path of least resistance and get out.[/color]"  The pilot shrugged his shoulders, taking a step in close to Jon and muttering quietly, "[color=598527]Look, I'm gonna go wake up the others, alright?  This kid can do what he wants.[/color]"  There was no doubt Will heard it, but Austin had clearly made it so that the message was not toward him.

With that, the vet walked back to their encampment and quietly started to rouse everybody.  He shook one person awake and like clockwork they moved on to the next and within only a couple of minutes you had a camp of groggy survivors rubbing their eyes and climbing to their feet.  Some were shivering, others were clearly just pissed off, but they knew better than to pick a fight and start shouting.  Some asked for just a few more minutes, but the requests were all denied.  Austin had only been on watch about two hours - he could function despite the fact that he got less sleep than the others and it was likely he would still operate better than most of them.  He'd be carrying the rifle today.

Rodney sat up when Austin moved over to wake him and saw that Lucy was already getting her stuff sorted out while Harris was still rolling around in his sleeping back, muttering and groaning.  He was not in pain, he was actually one of the least injured of the group.  He was just always complaining about the cold, or hunger or just having to move.  

Lucy finished getting her gear together and moved over to Austin, "[color=f6989d]anything new today, or just another day of walking, keeping ahead of the horde?[/color]"  She looked over at Harris who, to his credit, was actually moving today instead of having to be dragged out of his bag or threatened with violence as it was the first few days.  She felt somewhat bad for him.  He was beat up pretty bad, he was going through an entirely world changing experience, and he simply wasn't built for this.  She moved over to help Harris while waiting for Boggs to reply.