Hackett turned on the 'hoof', so to speak, pushing her body to go faster. She'd already lost the Infected trailing behind her, constant glances and turns proved fruitless, and her ears couldn't hear anything but her own footsteps and her heart pounding loudly in her ears. Some what was dampening her forehead, and her helmet felt itchy, a tell tale sign of sweaty hair. So she slowed, a little, and cursed her old maps. In her haste, she'd forgotten to check the river on the satellite, make sure it was still there. It figured that years without human intervention and some nasty weather would change the landscape, though drying up a whole river, or diverting it, Hackett had mused the idea of weather based effects over a long period of no human intervention. But she wasn't Ashleigh smart, she had combat sense, not much else. It didn't occur to her this was a rapid process.<br/><br/>Well, fuck it all. She winced at the explosion, the shock wave rushed over her like a wave, and she just stood there. Uneffected by the thickness of her helmet and the padded ear guards, she was merely pushed gently as the wave tore over all living matter, to an infinite distance until its energy dwindled to the point humans could hear or feel it. She crouched down and flipped up her night vision, her eyes refixed to the new darkness rapidly, thanks to the dull green of her night vision. She looked around with fresh eyes, whom were happy to finally get some fresh air. She kneeled down and looked about, her eyes catching what looked like a ridge or hill. She approached.<br/><br/>At the top, she gazed down, and recognized this area from the old sat photo she'd used to plan the route. The dried river bed. Shit, she'd run to far. It hadn't dawned on her to calculate how slow or fast Utem would go, she just wanted to lead a few away. Actually, she had wanted them to get a bit away so she could contact the States. She didn't know where the secondary was, but she wanted to find it before they were set up, at least so she'd have a plan of action. Hackett looked about, standing up and running a bit in one direction. She figured she'd find the path, and then go backwards to find the others. "<strong>Utem, I found the river bed, its definitely dried up. Just means we aren't getting wet today.</strong>" Hackett piped up on the radio, stumbling upon a smooth path and crouching down. She could almost see something, and flipped down her night vision. It wasn't them, it was a lumbering Infected. She raised her assault rifle as it looked about frantically. She fired once, catching it just below the ear and nearly into a cartwheel against a tree. Her eyes caught a infrared strobe, possibly one on someones helmet, though she didn't know who's. "<strong>I will wait for you at the end of your trail, I think I can see your infrared strobe, or someones.</strong>"<br/><br/>Hackett flipped on her rifle's IR designator, and kneeled down at the edge of the path, looking around quietly, waiting for the next thing to go wrong.