<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Rachel Bianchi</span></div><hr/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/7/72/Rebecca_cropped.jpg)</div>Rachel woke on the rough and hairy chest of a man. The gray hairs prickled her skin as she opened her eyes. It took her a few moments to remember where she was. Foster Hawkins had asked her to stay the night before. She usually slipped away in the middle of the night when that happened, but for some reason she actually slept through the night for a change. She had been sleeping off and on with Foster from the moment she joined the group. She was hardly exclusive to him. There was a time when sleeping with such an old man would have seemed odd and even repulsive to her, but no one who had survived the apocalypse could afford to pass up simple pleasures, however fleeting.<br/><br/>She detached her naked body from the sleeping man, and woke him as she rose from his bunk. His hand reached out and pawed her ass, trying to pull her back into the bed, but she slapped it away.<strong>“Forget about it, Foster. I need to haul ass, I wanted to head out before dawn, I’m hours late as it is.”</strong>She slipped into her clothes which were scattered all around the stripped cockpit. Foster had made this his bedroom and after the seats and most of the instruments had been taken out and a few mattresses has been put in, it was actually relatively spacious and comfortable.<strong>“I’m going to scout for stuff out in the south-east again today, I should be back in the late afternoon.”</strong>She didn’t wait for his reply but instead moved into the main compartment of the plane. She climbed out of the open exit by the rope ladder they had put in place to climb in and out of board. Once she hit the tarmac, it was off to the edge of their perimeter.<br/><br/>The place was already buzzing with activity, which was something rare for Rachel to witness when she departed most mornings. She preferred to be outside their fence and well on her way to whichever area she was scavenging, using the cover of darkness to conceal her hike. That would not be an option today. The machete on her belt was the only protection she’d have.<br/><br/>She reached the edge of their compound and moved to the other side of their fence. She had spent the last few days searching the homes of a small town a few miles towards the south-east of the airfield. Most of the good stuff had been hauled off months ago, but there were still some hidden gems for those who were willing to go over the houses with a finer comb. Batteries, electronics, spare parts, the occasional and increasingly rarer stashes of canned foods, tools, … anything they could use she would put in one of the two empty backpacks she now carried and haul back to the airfield. She liked the work, mostly because it could be spent in silence and most of the time, solitude.<br/><br/>She peered ahead and could see the edge of the town in the distance; it would take her a few hours to get there and then likely longer to get back with an extra load on her back. Another day had begun in her brave new world…<br/>