[B]"Actually I was discussing only a little and it was a lament of having no one that can teach celestial navigation or owning a Sextant so we could know our Latitude[/B] she says as she uses a rough compass measurement to determine the distance between two points.

[B]"I'm worried about fuel and dependability issues as well if we were to take vehicles. 
Let's face it they require a limited resource to move and to find it requires exposing ourselves to danger.[/B] she says as she remembers the last of the brave men who died so that she could make it to Homestead.

[B]"I know vehicles are faster and more comfortable than animals but they are confined to where they can travel.
When I came here all alone I survived because I avoided any man-made structures, roads or towns.[/B] she says as she turns the book with the old buffalo migration routes on it.

Karen's eyes barely meet those of the men as she feels the old emotions of sorrow try once more to bring her to tears. Her mind swarms with old memories she has to bury each time they bubble back up.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Corporal Marks squats near Karen as they hunker down near a broken down school bus. He reaches out with his left hand an squeezes her arm to reassure her that she's not alone.

Thankfully Margaret Winters a former Tulsa deputy sheriff has stopped screaming as the walkers rip into her. Karen worries that she's going to fall apart if she has to see one more friend die so gruesomely.

Marks motions for Karen to get up and follow him back to the HUMVEE. She is quick to stand because at the moment he's the only other living person that she knows of in this town of horrors. 

They make a break for it both armed with powerful 12 gage shotguns which to clear a path to the only thing that can get them quickly out of here they don't hesitate to fire.

The report of the combat load shells echos around the buildings of what was once a quaint little main street. Marks dives in and stands in the roof gun hatch who's heavy machine gun lays useless for lack of shells. Karen dives behind the wheel and has to coax the battered utility vehicle into cranking as Marks has to maintain a steady suppression fire.

The vehicle heads off with a lurch of it's abused clutch only to die about three hundred yards up the road. Karen curses the machine stomping the floor when it sputters only to die short of restarting..

[B]"Karen!
They're coming from the left and behind, we gotta get out an run."[/B] screams Marks

Karen is about to agree when the moody military machine cranks and soon they're headed off.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Karen shakes off her reverie and looks down at the map hoping that no one noticed she'd totally zoned out