He slowed the Growler to a halt, the heavy machine humming and rumbling beneath them. He looked around, to either side of the road, which had opened up considerably with a lack of cars. It didn't feel right. Too open. Too exposed. He shook his head. "We'll keep going until we can find cover of some kind," he called. "I don't like camping in the open at night. Big mutants like to move across the plains come nightfall." He throttled up again and turned off of the asphalt, across the grass, going slower as he cut a path through the tall, tan wheat. The mountain looked close, and if he'd been a betting man he'd have made an attempt to reach it before true night settled, but he didn't trust the path to stay true that long.<br/><br/>He turned off the grass into a depression with a shallow pool at one end, and parked alongside the water. He took one of the blankets out, and using some ties he secured it to the front and back of the bike, then the top of the rise, creating a shelter for them. It wasn't perfect, but at least the heat of the Growler's engine kept them warm as he gave her one of the cans of food and helped himself to another. As they settled in to rest they heard something huge moving nearby, growling and keening in the moonlight, its mass so great that the earth trembled by its passage.<br/><br/>The next morning Carson took her up to show her the footprints left by the monster, what had once been a bear, twisted by experimentation and chemical spills. Tufts of brown fur stuck to the edge of tall grass, and he was glad he had found the hollow. They got rolling once more, back to the road and on toward the mountain. It was only another hour or so before they came to the ruins of a highway, a once-elevated mass of concrete and metal that had perhaps led over the mountain range. It was there that they left the Growler, tucked away among the half-eaten hulks of dead cars and rust. He took the bags off of the side and handed her one, showing her the straps on the back that would turn it into a backpack.<br/><br/>"It should be another couple hours' walk to the base of the mountain itself," he estimated, peering through the landscape at the peak. "And then it's just a guessing game as to where the Runners are hiding out. Let's get moving while we can, I'd like to be<i>on</i>the mountain by sundown."