(http://www.tribute.ca/tribute_objects/images/stars/cherry_jones.jpg)<br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">CLAIRE ANDERSON</span></span><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Driving west and north through Wellington<br/><strong>With:</strong>Lilly, Olivia, Marcus and Desi.<br/><br/>After that I was in no mood to talk but if I kept silent this guy would think I was a bit crazy or something, or had issues with him, or something else bad. First impressions, right? I needed to be outgoing and friendly but I didn’t feel like it.<br/><br/>The young man spoke to his friend and I learned her name. Desi.<br/><br/>Then he spoke to me.<br/><br/><strong><em>"Thanks for getting us out of there, I doubt we would have been able to stay where we were for much longer."</em></strong><br/><br/><strong>“It’s no problem,”</strong>I said, a little dryly, a little forced. I wiped my left wrist over my eyes.<strong>“We have a car, you needed to get away. You don’t seem like the type to cause trouble.”</strong><br/><br/><strong><em>"So, like I said I'm Marcus and this is Desi. I don't know if you care but I just felt I should introduce us since you saved us."</em></strong><br/><br/><strong>“Pleased to meet you,”</strong>I said, watching the road and not really sounding like I was pleased at all. I turned to him and gave him a wan smile.<strong>“Hey, I’m sorry, things have been hard. Lost some good friends recently. I’m Claire. In the back are Lilly and Olivia. I’m thinking we should get out of town, find somewhere in the hills to sleep for the night, eat what we can and maybe come back into town tomorrow. Or go north. Cheyenne is up the Interstate. And if we go north west…”</strong>I stopped the car and pulled the crumpled map out of the glove box. I turned it round and folded it over again.<strong>“Hm. Laramie is up route 287. And some wildlife refuges. Hutton Lake… Bamforth. Those would most likely be empty of zombies and there’ll be fresh water. Maybe a cabin or a campsite. Fewer people means more chance of food stocks that haven’t been looted.”</strong><br/><br/>I threw the map back in the glovebox and selected gear and we lurched on, threading our way between abandoned vehicles and grubby heaps on the road that looked like piles of dirty laundry.