Making their way back to Adam's house, barely before it was time for them to start an exhausted Anya got her wit and energy back as the adrenaline and excitement of everything she was about to do had peaked enough for her to get back to being wide awake. In front of his house, a group of another 20 people or so, brave enough to make the step and escape, had gathered. Among them, even smaller and younger Turned could be seen, all with the same frightened and worried look on their face, as uncertainty was the one thing that loomed over them constantly.

Anya approached Adam, "I'm here too...those are just it? I thought you said that there were many more cases and stuff?" she asked him.

"That, there are. But not all of those cases choose to leave everything behind. But with that said, we need to focus on the few we have here, now. Today is a small batch as well, so that makes it way easier to go under the radar. We have our guys already making an opening in the Larussian border, so we should be good. Are you ready?"

"Never could be for something like this." Anya fixed the bag on her back.

"Hehe, don't worry. Went on a couple of trips with Adam on this already! Should be easy-peasy, just follow along and we will be fine up until we get to Vardard. Kind of boring if you ask me, even took a nap while on my first trip, and let me tell you, some of the species that the Turned swap to have fur more amazing than a king-sized bed's mattress for leaning to sleep on."

Anya sighed, "Right...anyway. Adam, I'll let you lead the way."

"Won't be long. Run-of-the-mill truck that supposedly carries food will be all that we need. Haven't had an issue yet anyways, at least with the border tolls."

"Good...I'll help as much as I can with these guys. I'm definitely not an expert, but over their usage in Obsulyte, I've gotten my fair share of combat experience.", she looked at all the Turned, especially the little-looking ones, "Take care of them, once we get there. I'll be off your tail anyways since I have a plan in mind."

"That I will." he moved in front of the group and waved at them, "Over here, everyone! Let's get all of you folks somewhere safe."

Beginning their march as they slowly got up off the ground, benches and other seats they found, their chattering and talking among them stopped briefly as silence took over a long way towards their 'freedom'. The road they walked started behind Adam's safe house, going at a steep downhill into darkness, as lack of proper infrastructure rendered some parts barely visible, only hanging on by the natural light of the moon. The road as well as the lights gradually started to crack and fill with holes, showing just how little care went into the area, not because of the lack of time, energy, funding or anything of the sort, but simply an act so intentional that spoke rows about how though the world changed, the people inhabiting it never once did. Like always, Anya pondered alongside Kikaro, him following either behind or next to her while keeping her safe, and her lost in her ever-growing thoughts about subjects both recent, old and for the future.

"I can see you being anxious from a mile away." Kikaro walked up to her.

"Creepy street, no lights, the prospect of fleeing the country, I wonder why I'm stressed." Anya pointed out the obvious.

"Mmhhm. Yeah. That could be part of the reason why." Kikaro playfully said.

"You don't say," Anya said with a straight face.

"Hey, that's a page out of your book I also had, which you seem to have burned. Why be anxious and serious when not on duty? Granted, sometimes your silliness did overspill on serious matters...but hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Unless it leaves you crippled for life, but at least you'll be stronger mentally...assuming you get over the fact that you are forever a cripple after-" he was interrupted.

"Ok, I get it. Seriously though, put a filter on it with all these guys around. Unless you took a page out of Tiki's book too."

"What? It is human nature to humor dark times, helps wither through it better."

"So it is getting called out for saying stuff like this."

"Hey, never once gave them the go-ahead to call me out, neither did I direct it at them in any way or advertise it. Shall they wish to inject themselves and their input in my words, I think I'm entitled to inject my fist down their throat and rip their vocal cords clean off.", he shrugged.

"And that's why you are the bad guy," Anya folded her arms as she walked.

"What? I'm merely human. Eye for an eye and all that, hehe." he chuckled, "Though minimalistic because of my nature, everyone's actions have and must have consequences, including my actions. Granted when I brake my foes in half I lose a toy and fun, feel sad it's over, but it's still results. Now whether or not it's an equal and opposite reaction as I learned from that guy with the funny woman's hair that was struck by the apple thingy, that's subjective."

"You're still not getting out of the gutter here. And for your information, I am on duty. Like I told Adam, I will fight if need be, because you know very well that though they didn't have any issues, I'm a part of this convoy. With Dad knowing every spec of dust that moves in this city...I'm afraid. And though it was selfish of me not to mention that to Adam like Dante would've done, the right thing would be to make sure they all get there unscathed, shall dad wish to do his wacky shit."

"Yeah, I guess it's fine to take examples out of others...progress, at least she's not projecting.", he whispered.

"What was that?"

"Nope, nothing. But yeah, you're right. And it's not exactly what Dante, rather than really anyone with a heart and soul, would've done. But...it was a selfish move nonetheless."

Anya frowned a bit, "I know...."

Kikaro perked up, "I'm so proud of you!"

"Excuse me?" Anya got weirded out.

"All this time I've been stalking you, since young might I add, I've almost never seen you do this! Selfishness is the first step towards self-care." he gave her a thumbs up, smiling all the way, "Good job!"

Anya got even more weirded out, "It's literally a negative trait that everyone should seek to avoid, and plus, though I did it for the first time, around a dozen and more people are in potential danger-", she got Kikaro's finger in front of her mouth, silencing her.

"Sush! It's all good! You are caring for yourself! Care more! " he happily said.

Anya flicked Kikaro's finger away, "For full context, how long were you travelling the world for?"

"A long time, I can't even count back as to when."

"All alone? No friends or anything?"

"No one but me myself and I."

"Yeah, figures why you wouldn't have any friends," she whispered as she took a straight face.

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"What was that?" Kikaro calmed down.

"Nothing" she answered back the exact same way he did, "Let's just...focus, ok?"

"Easy to do." Kikaro obliged.

"Man, he's easily distracted." she sighed as she moved forward.

As they kept walking through the uninviting road, fewer and fewer souls surrounded them from the sidewalks, by the poorly maintained buildings, they eventually saw a group of people, Turned included, standing by a sizeable truck, all with heavy armor and gears. At least 10 of them were there, with two Turned holding large melee weapons, both glowing as they transmuted the Obsulyte surge from their body to them, and the rest of them holding on to very heavy equipment, assault and sniper rifles present. Getting closer, as the road started to somewhat normalize as they were getting towards the borders and tolls of the city, they got a better glance at them, realizing that they were wearing what looked like armor that was pulled and scrapped together in order to make each individual there, their own separate set. The contradiction between their weapons and armor was anything but extremely noticeable, the weapons being almost standard issue, maybe even a step above as their scopes, muzzles and overall outlook betrayed a sense of military-grade, looking finished, clean and polished, while their armor gave off a feeling of scavengers, something that would need experience to be made, without the proper materials utilized to bring it to form.

All of the soldiers stopped talking to each other as they turned to face the group, surprising the frightened Turned that looked for a better future with a friendly, greeting gesture as they closed in on them, one in particular, a Turned feline, calico looking male separating himself from the rest of his colleagues as he approached Adam.

"Alright, hi there everyone!" the Turned man fixed his gun, "Calm those nerves, by sunrise, you will be dancing along the Vardadian plazas. That I promise, since there will also be a lot of folks looking for company from people like you and me!" he turned to Adam, "Hey Adam. How many have you got this time?"

"With Kikaro and the girl there, we're up at 22. You doing alright, Jesse?"

"Eh, here and there. I won't lie to you, I've been through better days. We will have to take an alternate road tonight as well...we got called out. The road to Larussia, the one we usually take, is filled with border patrols now. At the very least, we got the lead yesterday and have launched the backup route." Jesse informed him.

"It's fine anyways. The backup route will last before I can no longer do this. I'm expecting to get fired any day now."

"Had a good run for as long as it lasted. Don't think bad, think of all the people you saved. Emphasis on the word 'saved'. Had I stayed in Reingard a little longer back then, I'm sure they'd have used some underline anti Obsulyte weapons to get me dead in a ditch somewhere."

"Thank god for that. Now, I'll be off and let you deal with the rest, Kikaro will be alongside you if you need him to take care of business...and I think so is she." he pointed at Anya.

"She's got combat experience? Maybe part of the rebels of Delpha or something like that?"

"Stick with 'something like that'."

"Maybe we can strap her a weapon then because bare hands ain't exactly the way to go outside a bar fight."

"Tell that to Kikaro." Adam chuckled.

"Hey, since this calamity, I ain't a believer in the way I was, but he is within the power level and the realm of a god. Don't tell me we've got two of them on our hands now."

"Hey, that's for you to figure out, all I know is that she knows battle as well."

"Alright, alright, I won't hold you any longer." Jesse nodded at his allies, "Get it open and let's load them up!"

The rest of the soldiers lowered the ramp to the truck, revealing the inside. Resembling nothing close to what a food truck would, the modified vehicle had a long table that span from one end all the way to the door, its own lights and what looked like ports for plugs, as well as a shelf with anything from games to books, resembling more of a lounge and a waiting area. On the sides, two large one-piece brown sofas span from one end to the door as well, being somewhat large enough to have space for all of them to sit on. Imprinted on the wall, slightly above the table, a sizeable fridge with all sorts of drinks and food was also installed, having everything that they might need for their travels, medicine included, as well as a first aid kit installed on top of the fridge itself.

Anya approached Jesse, "Really thought of everything, didn't you?"

"Everything and more. Oh, and, here." he handed her a gun with ammunition and it's the case, "Adam's recommendation is good enough for me. Make sure to watch out for recoil with this one. Anti-Obsulyte."

Anya grabbed the gun and quickly put the hilt around her, "Yeah, I've been shot before. Long story, but I know what this is about. So am I on guard duty now?"

"If you want to, that is. The gun was given to you as a two-way measure anyways because if we do need to fight to survive, you getting rid of something might become good enough collateral to let us get away with things too."

"Beats me. So, how many hours am I going to have to be stuck on a seat?"

"Count 14 and keep adding. We had a slight route change, but it'll still be way quicker than the 2-and-a-half-day trip it'd normally take by using the state highway. We could've run the plane option, but no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't find a suitable and safe airway to attempt it. We found some, but I'd rather keep the chances of success higher than 70%. The only danger we're running into, if we're unlucky as hell, is either Enmities or those Shadower things that recently sprung up." he pointed at Anya's gun, and "Even then, I doubt they'll actually pose a real threat with the stuff we got."

"What about the enhanced ones?"

"Enhanced what?"

"Those Shadowers you mentioned. In combat, I've seen them rapidly evolve and change. Their physiology is similar to Enmities but they're nothing alike. They're extremely intelligent, they know how to use weapons, have managed to study us while fighting them and make their own rank system, a chain of command and even use proper tactics, all while using this new form of Obsulyte to power themselves up. And the powered-up ones are a massive threat, I'll tell you that much." Anya informed him.

Kikaro stepped in, "You know, I do have powers too, enough to do something a little more than just beating random women in the streets."

"Excuse me?" Anya folded her arms.

"Hey, the female ninja lady was suspicious, to say the least, plus it was self-defense."

Anya turned at Jesse, "You know him well enough to not put a target on his back, front and head with what he's saying, right?"

Jesse shrugged, "I have zero idea as to what new misadventures he got himself into, but yes, I do. He's a good guy, although really, really weird and all over the place. Hard to make him focus on one thing too."

"Everyone has their pros and cons, right?" Kikaro chuckled, "Haha, wait until you see her cons under the influence of alcohol."

"If anything, you'll become a key factor why I'll die from alcohol poisoning where you're driving me at." Anya looked at Kikaro with a straight face.

"Don't worry, if need be, I'll just rip your kidneys straight out of your body if they go bad!" Kikaro happily said.

"Anatomy, biology and physics. Read a book." Anya sighed.

"Joking, joking! Of course..." he was stopped before he could continue by saying something even more unhinged.

"Truck, now." Anya pointed at the truck.

"Actually, we will be riding in the V.I.P. Those with weapons are always on guard on the three escort cars they're going to bring out, me included. You never know." Kikaro pointed at the side.

Just then, three every day, normal-looking cars flashed their lights, coming in from the right side of the road. One was green, the other blue and the last one white, with all of them being a range of types, one 4x4, another an average, everyday family car and the last one a long open roof car with three rows of seats, capable of fitting around 10 people by itself, all driven by Turned people who seemed to have the same outlook as the ones that were standing in front of, now instead helping load the truck full of its passengers.

"Convertible?" Kikaro politely asked, enticing Anya to get in the convertible.

"Convertible.", Anya instantly agreed to get in the convertible.

"I will be at the 4x4 if you guys need anything. Radio is supplied to everyone here, so communication is the one thing that won't be an issue. Now let's get this show on the road before daylight comes." Jesse jumped inside the 4v4.

Anya briefly took out and looked at her gun, "Hmm..."

She stared at her gun a little longer, lost in her train of thought as she finally took everything in, about what was happening now and what was to happen later on before eventually getting tapped in the shoulder by Kikaro, snapping her out of it. Loading her gun and pulling the safety up, she got into the convertible as the last few worried, everyday citizens that were now Turned got up into the lounge area. The engines were started on all four vehicles as they turned on their lights, driving in a straight line across the rest of the suburban area, before eventually reaching the city's borders, easily passing through it in the dead of night and following the highway for a few minutes straight. Eventually, as planned, they reached an open area where multiple forks and exits were present, them choosing to get off the road by taking advantage of the railing's absence. No road, no asphalt, just following a path that had imprints of their wheels from previous trips, they followed their path through the open fields bumping around left and right from the sheer lack of proper, equal levelled infrastructure, even that of a mere dirt road. Eventually, they reached yet another spot where they decided to go even deeper inside the open fields, completely disregarding even that highly hidden, out-of-sight path and now going completely off even the most basic, roughly forged path, and starting to slow their speed down as they carefully traversed through the up and down hills of the green fields towards their new horizons.