Jake shook Marcus's hand firmly while assessing his new companion.  When he was offered the flask he held up his hand and shook his head. "No thanks buddy; at least one of us needs to keep a clear head.  Between the smoke from that fire and the noise your chopper made coming in, we have to keep on our guard.  It might have woken the dead for miles around."<br/><br/>He listened to Marcus's question and chuckled a bit.  "There is no calvary, or army or anything anymore.  As far as I know you and I are the last two humans alive."  He paused for a second to let the information sink in.  The last few people he had met had expected some sort of rescue and were a bit shocked to hear none was coming.  "My unit was wiped out at the battle of St. Louis and within 12 hours of that I lost all contact with any sort of organized government or military.  I've heard rumors of pockets of civilization that survived.  Hell one guy I heard on the radio claimed folks were heading out to see.  Said he saw aircraft carriers turned into giant refugee camps.  But until I see it myself or get definite confirmation, I'm going to assume we're on our own."<br/><br/>Jake looked around for a minute, scanning the horizon for movement.  "We should think about shelter.  It make take a while but I can guarantee some dead heads are going to wander into town to see what the commotion was about.  I can handle a few but I would rather not have to fight a horde from behind a car."