Preparation for the Long Journey

We took our breath, and tried to adjust ourselves with our current surroundings as we all came to one decision - to reach the nearest fire department which was around 20 miles to the south direction of our current location.

I gave Ryan my two bandages and he assisted me in treating my bleeding nose hole caused by my encounter with Jonathan earlier with his medical kit, as Jonathan himself watched our surroundings while waiting for us.

After we finished, we decided to search for vehicles for us to use for our journey since it would be very impractical to travel on foot for twenty miles. And so, we began to look for the nearest parking lot.

First, we walked towards the nearby stairs used by Jonathan and Ryan to get down to the canal. Then, as we reached the upper surface, we fast-checked our surroundings before proceeding to the nearest parking lot to our left side, to check if there was still any vehicle parked, and working good enough for our long journey.

When we finally reached there with a very cautious pace, we realized that it was actually the parking lot of a used car dealer.

There were only four vehicles parked - a white Chevrolet HHR station wagon, a black first generation Toyota Tundra pickup truck, a Volkswagen Routan minivan, and a fifth generation Subaru Legacy sedan.

I cannot be sure about the color of the minivan and the sedan since the lighting from the used car dealer even barely gave us any clear sights for our surroundings, but I was pretty sure for the color of the station wagon and the pickup truck.

"Stay alert and cover me while I break the glass and enter." said Jonathan as he approached the station wagon.

We stayed cautious towards our surroundings as he broke the window glass. After that, he opened the door and tried to hotwire it, but the car would not start - not even a sound of engine trying to start was heard.

"Nope... we cannot use this one.." he said as he sighed. "I guess its battery has not been charged yet after all. Let us try the other one..."

Jonathan headed to the minivan, and was preparing to break the window glass again before realizing that the front, back, and window glasses of the minivan were all grated.

"Tsk... great... a solid metal window grate" he said with a disappointment tone.

"Do you think you can break the grate?" asked Ryan anxiously.

"Definitely not, this window grate is far too thick." replied Jonathan. "I can almost guarantee that the former owner of this van used to have a large dog and bring it travelling with them."

"So, we try the sedan now?" I asked to Jonathan as the sedan was parked just about 5 feet right in front of us.

"No.. if there were some ruins or something else blocking the road and we have to force through it, the sedan may get serious damage." he replied. "Let us try the pickup truck instead." he continued as he headed towards the pickup truck about seven feet behind us.

Jonathan broke the window glass, and entered the truck driver cabin. Just then, we all just realized that the pickup truck was in right-hand drive - something quite unusual for a civilian vehicle in Chicago. As he moved to the right side of the cabin to hotwire the pickup truck, I was curious to see what was inside the glove compartment. I opened it, only to find a key car.

"Hey, look what I found." I said as I gave the key to Jonathan.

Jonathan tried to fit the key into the keyhole, to which it fitted, and the engine was able to start.

"Ha... it worked." he said with a bit of a relieved voice.

"Well, the gas is just a bit above half. Hope we can somehow find more on our way there." I added.

Without waiting any longer, Ryan and I entered the cabin, and the three of us started our journey to the south accompanied with one empty submachine gun, one empty sniper rifle, one medical kit pouch, and our combined anxiety.