Cassie sighed and swung her feet back and forth idly as she took in what was left of the Detroit cityscape from her high perch. From the roof of the skyscraper she’d claimed for herself, she could see the complete and utter desolation that the city had been thrown into. Buildings were decrepit and generally crawling with the undead, the more easily accessible places having been ransacked years ago, and in the northwest corner of the city was an impact area from one of the many meteors that had crashed into the States. Barely anything remained standing in that section of the city, except for the odd little shop that huge crater and quake resulting from the hit had spared and some FEMA tents and equipment and tents from when the world was still trying to staunch the bleeding. Didn't work out too well in their favor.

Actually, the woman admitted to herself with a little smirk, nothing had really changed much since the apocalypse; the city had been a pretty shitty place for years before. Not even the generous covering of virgin snow could trick someone into thinking this place had ever been pure. Even so, she still got a pang of nostalgia looking over the city. She remembered driving to it with her parents to see the Red Wings play hockey at the Joe since she had been in pigtails, going to one of the many venues with her friends to see their favorite bands when she was a teen, and even BASE jumping for the first time off the top of the very building she sat on now. Her and her dad, together… despite her mother’s protest that their daughter’s first BASE jump not be an illegal one. 

The memories prompted her to look down at the photo clutched in her gloved hands for the first time since she entered the city. A group photo with all the divers from her drop zone sprawled around or on their plane, blue skies above them and summer fields behind. The family she grew up with. All sixty-something of them smiling and laughing while they sang the song of the skydiving team in which they all belonged. And sitting in the door of that plane was a young Cass sitting between her parents, her arms wrapped around their necks in a one-armed hug as they sang with the rest. She could still hear them all bellowing the bawdy song of the Flying Hellfish as they swayed with the rhythm and she sang along in her head now.

[i]You can tell a Hellfish by his dick
By his dick!
You can tell a Hellfish by his dick
By his dick!
‘Coz it’s twenty inches thick
And it’s always in a chick
You can tell a Hellfish by his dick

You can tell a Hellfish by her tits
By her tits!
You can tell a Hellfish by her tits
By her tits! 
‘Coz they’re really nice to squeeze
And they’re always flappin’ in the breeze
You can tell a Hellfish by her tits

Oh glorious! Victorious!
One keg of beer for the four of us
Lucky there’s no more of us
‘Coz it’s barely just enough for us
Damn near! 
Pass the beer!
To the rear!
Of the plane!
HELLFISH![/i]

Cassie giggled to herself, the sound of it getting caught up in the swirling winter winds rushing through the city. She was glad she decided to grab this picture off the wall covered in a menagerie of similar ones when she’d stopped by the drop zone on her way to Mackinac, just like she always did. Not only had she made it a place for respite during her travels where she could reminisce and be at home, but she also wanted to bring a little something of her dad to show Brianna every time she came to visit. Cassie’s daughter would never get to meet her grandpa, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t get to know the great man that he was. Though, she admitted to herself, she'd probably wait a few years before teaching her little Squish the lyrics to the Hellfish song; three was a bit young for that special brand of nonsense. 

Despite her want to linger a bit longer on her ledge, the increased pounding on the door to access the roof told her that the time for dawdling had passed. She’d done what she came to do her in the first place anyway, having found a path she could drive through to safely make it from the city from her superior height, so there was really nothing but her own procrastination keeping her where she was. So she stuffed the photo down several layers of clothing and into her bra for safe keeping and hopped up to her newly booted feet and faced back towards the only entrance to the roof. She waited impatiently for the few minutes it took the zeds she’d attracted to bust down the door and stumble their way towards her. “Wow, I expected a little bit more of a crowd than this,” she told them with a sigh, “Must be getting too damn sneaky for my own good.”

Her lopsided smirk grew as more poured through the door to fill up the roof space. That opening may very well have been the only entrance, but it most certainly wasn’t the only exit. At least, that is, for Cassie. With a cackle she grabbed the lead zombie by the shoulders and pulled him backwards off the ledge with her, the two back flipping into the open air while the rest ambled off the edge after them. Cass pushed the zed away from her and as soon as she heard that sweet rush of air fill her ears she threw her parachute open. She steered herself towards the truck she had parked a bit down the road even while she allowed herself the satisfaction of looking back to watch dozens of zombies careen off the two hundred and seventy-two story hotel to their second, much more permanent death. Best part of the zombie apocalypse? That.

She landed softly next to the Ford diesel truck -with attached plow for additional snow and zombie slaying capabilities- she had commandeered and quickly stripped off her rig and threw it and herself in the front seat. The engine was still warm, so it started up quickly for the woman and she started to follow the path she had created in her head to escape the confines of the Motor City. Cassie was still about three hundred miles away from Mackinac Haven itself, but she planned to make it there in one straight shot. After all the help Petey and the Sentinels had given her to get her this far, she would be damned if she let all their sacrifice go to waste. The haven needed to know that their safety was at risk and that they may very well be in the 1007th’s sights now. She planned to make sure they had the most time possible to build up their defense. The only problem she really foresaw was physically getting onto the island without a boat. Well that, and she supposed the horde of zombies she knew would be waiting off the coastline for the water between them and the haven to freeze over. But, you know, mostly the boat thing. Joining the polar bear club was currently not high on her list of things to do, nor did she think her cold-intolerant, crotchety body really would appreciate it.