“Get outta here! I’m armed and I’ll kill you all!” My voice is ferocious and serious, but they don’t stop.

“We want the boy.” Says the biggest one in a muffled voice, raising a huge automatic machine gun. The one on the right also raises a weapon, this one aimed at me.

“Step aside little miss,” it says in a man's voice, “your little knife is a child’s toy.” I bare my teeth and aim to hurl the dagger, but there's a sudden rush of air and huge blur of white and gold leaps toward the men. Soren roars and tears into the masked men, flinging one against a rock, pinning one to the ground under a huge talon, and clamping the last in his mighty jaw.

I don’t even have a chance to throw my knife , it’s over so fast. All the men are severely wounded, but none dead, unbelievably. He could of killed them easily. I have an idea now why the scientists made Soren a dragon .

Soren releases the injured men and backs away, growling. The least injured two abandon the unconscious third and take off the direction they came.

“Soren, we gotta go, now!” I shout, running towards the camper. There must be some sort of fort here those men came from. I hold the door open for Soren, who is back to human form but stark naked.

“Ugh, really?” I push him away from the door of the camper. “You have time to put your clothes on!” I say motioning towards his abandoned clothes. Soren turns bright red, he must have completely forgot in his panic. He sheepishly dresses and returns, scrunching his face in embarrassment. I go immediately to the cockpit and take off at top speed.

“Do you know those people?” I ask Soren. He shakes his head.

“Never seen them before.”

“They said they wanted you. Any idea what that’s about?”

Soren shakes his head again looking concerned.

“No.”

“Thanks for fighting off those people,” I say, “That was truly amazing. You were awesome back there.” Soren blushes and scrunches his eyes.

“They wanted to hurt you. And they insulted you.” He says.

“Well thanks for protecting me then.” He can be brave when he has to.

We fly on in silence for a while, watching the horizon lightening before dawn. I’ve been flying continuously south, we’re probably in what was once the USA now, but I don’t know. I’m not sure where to go, there’s nowhere safe. The pollution has gotten much worse and we are above a thick city. It might be what used to be Seattle.

“Petra, were not going back to the city, right?” Asks Soren nervously. I check my battery monitor.

“I’m afraid we have to. There’s nowhere else to go and I need to recharge my Camper somewhere.” I peer down through the thick city smog, scouting for a place to land. I see a big ground level lot full of junked up vehicles. There’s a clearing I could land in, and there might even be a functioning charging station.

I slow the Camper down to ground speed and land gently amidst the junk lot. I get out the air filter masks and hand one to Soren. At least we won’t need sunblock, there’s so much cloud cover and smog.

Before we step out I give some important instructions to Soren.

“Whatever you do, don’t talk to anyone, and definitely don’t transform. Cover your face if you can so no one can recognize you.”

I brush Soren’s golden hair over his brown eye, covering half his face. The air mask does a good job covering the rest. As I step out of the camper I feel Soren slide his hand into mine, and I give it a reassuring squeeze.

We set off walking in the direction of what looks like the nicer part of the city. Which is still filthy and run down. For the first couple minutes we don’t encounter anyone, except a lady smoking in a back alley, who ducks out of sight when she sees us.

The only living things are sickly black crows, croaking from the rooftops. In the distance six gun shots ring out rapid fire, and Soren jumps and clings tightly to my arm.

“It’s okay,” I reassure him, “We’re going to be fine.” We walk silently another block, and then I stop. Ahead I see a peddler stand, with big plastic bins of dirty clothes. A middle aged woman sits behind the booth, with a rusty single shot pistol resting in her hand and a hand rolled cigarette dangling from her lips. She has dirty blonde hair and her face is prematurely wrinkled from smoking.

I approach slowly, hands up to show I’m not holding a weapon. The woman notices us and stands, gun at ready.

“Ma’am, I’d like to buy some clothes.” I call, and the woman lets us approach, still watching suspiciously.

“What've ya got to give me?” Says the woman in a raspy voice. I take a bag of food I brought from the camper out of my pack.

“I can trade food.” I offer. The woman snatches the bag and inspects the rations. She nods curtly and hand us an old shopping basket.

“Whatever fits in the basket you can take.” She says gruffly.

“Thank you ma’am.” I say politely and start searching through the bins of clothing. Most of it looks like it was stolen off dead bodies. Which is unfortunately probably true. I take as many pairs of men’s underwear as I can find, and tell Soren to pick out some shirts and pants.

He shakes his head, still cowering behind me. So I pick for him. I grab the least gross and bloodstained clothes and call it good. I thank the woman again and continue on my way.

I’m looking for somewhere I can get information and hopefully speak to someone who’s part of the Stand. I’m impressed with Soren’s trust to follow me through the city not even knowing where we’re going or why.

After walking for about twenty minutes, I finally see a promising looking building. It’s built mostly underground, and though from the outside it looks abandoned, the Stand symbol is painted above the roof in faded spray paint.

Before entering I stop and look into Soren’s eyes.

“Don’t be scared, but be prepared for anything, ok?” I tell him. Soren nods, fidgeting nervously. I approach the door, Soren clinging to my hand.