At Taker City, the Takers stand guard at the gate, until Caleb, tired, wounded and dehydrated arrives at the Taker base, before falling on his face. The Takers open the gates and rush out to Caleb, who slips into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, Rocky is attempting to set up the traps after Kyle's visit, when suddenly, he hears the engines of motorcycles and engines nearby. Rocky looks around the corner to see Colm, Lynn and the Reapers destroying the traps and tracking Kyle's movement.
Colm: They were definitely here....spread out.
Rocky hides for a while, but then eventually begins packing up. He then hops in a spare car, starts the engine, then flies from his hometown. At the hydro electrical plant, Maya walks up to Marcus and his girlfriend, Vivian.
Vivian: Play your hand, boy. You're bound to lose either way.
Marcus: Don't try to rush me. I know your game, woman.
Vivian: That's how I play.
Marcus: Always a smug one. Well, it ain't gonna work.
Jenny approaches the couple.
Jenny: Hey, guys....
Vivian: Oh, hey there. You've got guts, Jenny. I'll give you that.
Marcus: Of course, she does. Jenny's a tough cookie. Killed a lot of Condemned and Krens during those times. She was just a kid back then.
Vivian: Didn't you kill a lot of Krens, too? Called yourself the raddie killer?
Marcus laughs.
Marcus: More or less. Anyway, running this bar is my early retirement of doing shit out in the wasteland.
Vivian: Yep...and I just take the money.
Marcus: Yeah, well, maybe I'm just letting you win.
Vivian: Well, actually...if you're the gambling type, game's poker. Three cards stud.
Marcus looks at his cards
Marcus: I'll raise you.
Vivian lets Jenny look at her deck of cards, in the deck she has a strong pair.
Vivian: Call or fold.
Marcus: Don't get to intimidated. I lose more often than I care to admit.
Jenny looks up at Marcus.
Jenny: He's bluffing. I've known this fucker for years now and he's got bullshit written all of over him. My Dad taught me how to call a bluff in poker, too.
Marcus laughs.
Marcus: Is that right?
Vivian reveals her hand.
Marcus: Oh, my strong pair....
Marcus reveals his hand, revealing a less strong pair.
Marcus: Shit...
Vivian laughs.
Vivian: That's why I'm the best!
Jenny: Nice game, Vivian!
Vivian: Pay up.
Marcus pours Shawn and Vivian a drink of alcohol. In another part of the hydro electrical plant, James washes his face in the bathroom sink, before he lays down in bed with Cassandra.
Cassandra: The famous James Burton.
James: Jesus Fucking Christ. Don't you start, too.
Cassandra laughs.
Cassandra: It's nice, but don't let it get to your big inventive head.
James: Yeah....I don't envy anyone right now. We don't even know if Kyle, Shawn or Sarah...or anyone else is alive...
Cassandra: You want to go look for them.
James: I do, but I don't even know where to start. Plus, I can't just abandon you, Maya and everyone else here. These people; they look up to me as their leader.
Cassandra: You wouldn't be abandoning me. You'd be giving the people hope.....
James: These people back at this hydro electrical plant want food, not a symbol of hope. Leading....it's stressful.....it is...
Cassandra sits her head up.
Cassandra: But you've given people hope.....
James: At what cost? We both lost a lot.....I sometimes wonder if it was just for glory....
Cassandra looks blankly at the wall.
James: I just don't want people thinking that I'm some type of celebrity when....
Cassandra: I know....
A few weeks later and after a few stops to get gas, Kyle, Shawn, Sarah and Rachel arrived in Chicago. According to their maps, they should just be able to stay on the highway and pass the city to continue west. Rachel woke up from the backseat then looks over to see Sarah sitting next to her.
Rachel: Are we there yet?
Shawn: No.
Rachel: Are we there yet?
Shawn: No.
Rachel: Are we there yet?
Shawn: No.
Rachel: Are we there yet?
Shawn: You know; this kind of remind me of a time we once played with someone who wasn't our friend.
Rachel: Really? What happened to him?
Shawn: I killed him with arrows laced with radioactive fluid.
Rachel: Oh.....So, are we there yet?
Kyle: Good fucking lord.
Sarah smirks a bit while Kyle and Shawn were not amused.
Sarah: Actually, yes, we are here! We're just looking for a place to get valet parking.
Rachel: Valet parking?
Sarah: It's when employees park your car for you. Fancy shit.
Rachel chuckles at this.
Shawn: Oh, shoot me now.
Shawn smokes a cigarette as Rachel coughs and waves her hand, waving around the smoke.
Rachel: Hey, Shawn! Don't you hear of secondhand smoking?!
Shawn: What? The window's rolled down!
Kyle rolls his eyes. It seems in the last few weeks, Sarah and Rachel had started to form a bond. Kyle looks back, knowing why Sarah was getting attached to Rachel. Kyle shakes his head, pulling him out of his thoughts, then notices that the deeper they made into the city, the more cars began to pile up.
Shawn: If these damn car blocks become more frequent, then we're gonna have a big fucking problem.
Kyle: No shit.
Rusted and overgrown, sunburnt out and deformed from crashes and accidents. There were cars on every lane on both sides of the road, serving as monuments and reminders of the chaos that ensued on the days the Python Strain, The Krens wars have afflicted. Sarah looks out at the window and lowers her eyes then closes them, trying to keep her emotions in check and not cry in front of everyone. She then let's out a sigh and looks back at the window and notices that the car piles are become more frequent, just as Shawn stated. They zigzagged through the piles as best as they could until they reach what was once an exit that lead to the city, where cars were almost piled on top of each other. There was no way there were driving past that.
Kyle: Great.
Shawn: Fuck.
Rachel: Should we continue on foot?
Shawn: Not unless you want to make it to Taker city by Christmas.
Kyle looks at the situation for a moment.
Sarah: What are we thinking, Kyle?
Sarah leans forward and places a hand on his shoulder. Kyle sighs, looks ahead of them then looks back at the rear window and shakes his head.
Kyle: Fuck it.
Kyle turns his head forward and turns the truck left to the exit and starts to drive towards the city, but after driving down the street for a minute, a man walks out in the middle, clutching his stomach and screaming for help. Kyle stops the truck as he and the others look at this.
Rachel: Holy shit.
Bandit: Please! Help! I've been shot!
Rachel turns to the adults.
Rachel: Are we gonna help him?
The adults immediately put on their seat belts.
Sarah: Put your seatbelt on, Rachel.
Sarah hands Shawn his shotgun.
Rachel: Aren't we gonna help the guy?
Kyle: If that was his blood and his wound, yes...
Shawn: But it's not...
Kyle slams his foot on the acceleration. The man, realizing that they didn't fall for his trap, immediately drops the act and pulls out his gun out to fire at the truck, but he is hit by the truck before he manages to do anything. Dozens of other bandits come out of their hiding places and began to throw objects or fire their guns. Miraculously, most of it was missed, but familiar military trucks appeared from behind them to close off the road, Kyle realizes that they were missing on purpose. A few men, up ahead, pushed a bus down from a higher elevated street.
Rachel: Not good!
Sarah goes to wrap her arms, protectively, as the bus hits the backend of the truck, making them skid and spin until they hit an old drug store. After blacking out for a few short moments, Kyle wakes up and realizes that they were living on borrowed time.
Kyle: Everyone! Grab your stuff! We need to get the fuck out!
Everyone groans. Out on the streets, sinister voices and laughter from the bandits echoed, but it wasn't just bandits. Somehow, Colm, Lynn and the Reapers had gotten there first and Kyle realizes that it was their trucks that he saw blocking their way.
Kyle: Fuck....
The four get out of the truck and hide behind a counter and waited for the bandits to storm their positon, but nothing comes. A few moments later, they hear a voice.
Colm: They couldn't have survive that crash.
Lynn: A crash won't kill them. Spread out and remember; I don't give a damn what you boys take or if you kill the others, but leave Desipich to me.
Colm: Lynn....we're just here for Desipich. Not the others.
Abigail: Lynn....Colm...if I may, it's been a few weeks and it seems like the leads are dry....maybe...we need to just let it go.
Lynn: "Let it go"?
Selene: Roscoe was your boyfriend and you wanna let his killer go?
Abigail: I...
Abigail: I'm just saying we slaughtered an entire town and....it's getting out of control.
Colm: Blame Desipich. He's the one who made this out of control.
Sarah feels anger towards Lynn and Colm for talking ill of Kyle. Suddenly, all hell broke loose when a bandit, wearing a blue jacket and a gas mask, rushed in and threw a molotov cocktail in their general direction, but fortunately, he hit the car instead. With the gas tank leaking, it was only a matter of time before an explosion occurred. Not being able to go out the way they came in, the four were forced to go back further into the store.
Shawn: We're running out of store.
The four make it closer and closer to the back end of the building.
Kyle: There's gotta be another way. Keep an eye out!
The bandits were getting a bit restless.
Bandit: What the fuck are we waiting for?
Bandit: Seriously. We're taking orders from some old scared fuck and his batshit crazy daughter.
Bandit: Yeah, because this guy killed that old scared fuck's son. These guys aren't gonna stop til they get em. Besides, he didn't come alone. Apparently, he came with a woman. A very hot woman.
Bandit: Oooh....might be my lucky day.
Sarah: Ugh...fucking pigs.
Suddenly, Sarah is grabbed by a bandit.
Bandit: Hold still, bitch.
Sarah leans forward then jerks her head backwards, slamming the back of her head into the bandit's face.
Bandit: Ow! Fuck!
The bandit let go of Sarah, who bends down, grabs a shard of glass and slices the man's throat.
Bandit: Hey!
A gunshot rings out as the four sprint inside the building, avoiding gunfire.
Rachel: Guys...
The adults turn around to see other dead tourists and their possessions were laying around the room.
Kyle: Fucking hunters. See, this could've been us....and imagine what they would've done to you with you being a girl.
Rachel: But they just talked about Sarah.
Sarah: Doesn't matter if they were. They see a young girl your age, the better and men like this will take advantage of that. Rapists don't discriminate because of your age. The younger the better. Understand me? I'm hoping this scares the shit out of you, cause I don't want that to happen to you.
Rachel: Yes.....
Shawn: Yeah, except these guys are hunting for us, specifically, cause they're in bed with the Reapers.
Rachel looks at the pile of clothes.
Kyle: I knew I should've turned the fucking truck around.
Sarah: Can't argue with that.
Rachel: We survived.
Shawn: Just barely.
Kyle: C'mon. Let's get the hell outta here.
The four head through a door and up the stairs. They get up the top steps and head into a room where there were mattresses scattered across the room.
Rachel: Guess this is where the bastards sleep.
Shawn: You mean slept.
The four find scrap and supplies, then head outside when they see a pile of burned bodies.
Rachel: Oh, my....were these guys infected?
Kyle: Don't think they were.
Sarah: Let's just get moving.
The group go up another set of stairs.
Kyle: All right. There's the bridge, that's our way out of this city.
Kyle points towards a large brown bridge, then Rachel runs over the railings and jumps down.
Sarah: Hey, Rachel, slow down. Wait for us, dammit!
Kyle, Shawn and Sarah vault over the railings and catch up with her.
Rachel: What? I'm right here.
Sarah rolls her eyes at Rachel.
Kyle: How about you let us three go first? And keep your voice down. We don't know how many of these fuckers are.
The four walk along the platform then jump into the street.
Rachel: Okay.
The group walk down the street, passing by abandoned cars. Rachel starts whistling.
Rachel: Oooh! I'm whistling!
Kyle: Oh, great. Something else you can drive me nuts with.
A gunshot is heard.
Rachel: What was that?
The group looks over to see a large gate in front of them.
Shawn: Shit. I don't know.
Kyle: Get down.
The four of them go hide behind a car and see three men climb on top of the bus that was blocking the entrance. The three men just talked among each other as they climbed down and start to walk away while Kyle, Sarah, Shawn and Rachel, quietly, made their way around them until they disappeared. They climbed up onto the bus, walked across it and jumped down to see it was old Zeus Corps quarantine zone.
Rachel: That bridge looks pretty fuckin far.
Sarah: We'll get there. Don't worry.
Kyle: Ugh. This brings back memories.
Rachel: Good or bad?
Kyle: Definitely not good.
Rachel: Stop holding out on rations. They wouldn't give people their food?
Kyle: Some times they ran out.
Shawn: Most times they held it for themselves.
The four got through the processing turnstile. They push through it when Rachel whispers.
Rachel: I hear more bandits.
The four of them go through the door and stop as they listen, then hear talking.
Sarah: Yeah, I do, too.
Kyle: Let's keep it down when we're going through here.
The four crouch and make their way, avoiding them as best they can. Eventually, they make into the warehouse, where they hear more men upstairs. The four quietly make their way up to see that the upstairs area was a bookstore and there were a few men standing and talking. Sarah goes into her backpack and pulls out the nail bomb and throws it over to the bandits. As it explodes, Sarah hears the metal tear through flesh of the men which made Rachel slightly cringe at this. They hear hurried footsteps as the four went and hid behind a counter, when we saw a couple of men running towards them.
Kyle, Shawn and Sarah popped up and fired out guns at them, head shot on both of them.
Kyle: That was too damn close.
The four start to walk out of them room.
Rachel: Damn, look at all these books. I wish I had more room in my backpack for them.
Rachel looks over the shelves.
Shawn: So you're a reader, huh?
Rachel: Well, my Dad always took up my time from reading, but when I'm not running from Skinners, infected or bandits. Yeah, I love to read. I also love listening to music, too.
The four made their way out of the bookstore and into a back alley where they find a couple of corpses in Zeus Corps armor hanging by a warning sign.
Kronos is dead!
Give up!
Rachel: Man, you'd gotta be crazy to string up soldiers like that.
Kyle: Well, this was after we took Kronos down. Back when Kronos ruled the wasteland, you did this and you're dead.
Shawn: Or worse....but these guys rose up.
Sarah: And we're fighting them?
Kyle: Yep.