[hider=+++]
(1) The courier is outbound from Cascadia on I-90. After refueling at Snoqualmie Summit, he meets the girl on I-906. She is being chased down the road by two men. The courier hesitates to stop, but eventually defies his better judgement and shoots one of the men with a long range, high powered rifle. The other man halts and escapes into the woods. The girl joins the courier in his car. They drive off.

(2) Interaction between the characters in the car. They are on their way towards Yakima. The intention is to follow I-82 and I-84 to Salt Lake City, and then onward to Denver and the Front Range mega-region.

(3) The characters stop in Yakima to resupply and sleep. There is an additional mouth to feed, which the courier had not expected when departing Cascadia. A local group of ‘purists’ antagonize the courier because of his augmentations. The situation escalates. The girl must decide whether or not to intervene with her presence. They spend the night in a hotel.

(4) The next morning, the characters continue towards Salt Lake City. It is an 8 hour drive with the courier. On the road, they run into an issue with the car. They stop in the rather barren city of Boise, half way to Salt Lake City. While eating at a diner before fixing the car, they overhear a conversation between a couple of locals. The locals seem to have trouble with strange individuals and horrifying creatures of the night. The courier asks the local mechanic about the conversation. The mechanic confirms it. The mechanic offers the repairs to the car for free if the courier helps the locals with their trouble. He refuses, but the girl insists that they help.

(5) They return to the diner and ask the locals about their troubles. They are subsequently invited to a ‘resistance’ meeting the same night. At the meeting, the locals describe their troubles in great detail—one of the biggest issues is kidnapping. The strange individuals that plague their off-the-grid living sounds a lot like the shady men that chased the girl. The locals are planning a raid on what they think is the gathering point for the cult-like strangers. The courier and the girl join the fight that very same night.
[/hider]