The twins were amused by Zoe, who had pushed Maddison into the driver's seat and had the Firebird suit in pieces on the back seat, cables running to and fro. She had a tablet running programs on the arm control while she worked on pulling the back plate to pieces.

~ Okay, our standard approaches to a battery lock have failed. What haven't we tried yet Avi? ~

Data ran through her mind and she latched onto an idea. Taking the arm control, she removed it from the gauntlet and attached it to the backplate interface. Reattaching the rest of the major pieces, she added cables from her own battery supply, connecting to a couple of extra hidden spots. After making the final connection, the control unit lit up, the lock symbol replaced with a charging symbol.

"Yes!" she crowed. "No tech can stop me!"

Maddison reached over and patted Zoe's head. "Good work."

Poking her tongue out at Maddison, Zoe went back to work, breaking through the security systems built into the suit to try and stop people like her.

Well, people who were not Talented like she was.

~

A small beeping sound came from the console of the buggy as they drove. Touching the screen that had lit up, Tyson smiled at Hayden's image.

"Good afternoon Hayden," he said warmly. "Please forgive Zoe, she is a little preoccupied by a Firebird Kinetic suit we happened to acquire." He pointed his thumb over his shoulder to her.

Hayden laughed. "Yeah, that's her. Anything to report?"

"We did a decent trade at Newcastle, got a Firebird Kinetic suit, it's night camo painted, apparently Chinese. Zoe got past the battery lock and is working on the security now."

"How is she?" Hayden asked, looking past Tyson at her unmoving form.

"As far as we're aware, she is the same Zoe that we first met. There is a part of her mind I can't read any more, the part she says is in Avi. Don't worry lover boy, we're watching her."

"Hmmm? Who's watching who?" Zoe asked as she came out of the systems. "Hayden! Look what Tyson got me!" she exclaimed, holding up the suits helmet.

Light laughter met her enthusiasm. "Tyson told me. And as for who is watching who, Tyson and Maddison are watching you, for me."

"Okay!" Zoe replied, still happily playing with the helmet. "I'm going to keep working now," she said, not waiting for a reply.

"I'll make sure she does her report tonight," Tyson said to Hayden. "We have a bit to report on this area, but nothing too urgent."

"Perfect, merci. See you later." Hayden disconnected, leaving the twins with a happily humming Zoe.

"Avi, can you please send a message to Delta team with the information we got from Newcastle? They may need that info."

"Affirmative. Information sent."

"Thank you Avi. Oh, and what does 'merci' mean?"

"It is French for 'thanks'."

"Ah, merci Avi."

~

As the small group headed north, they broke away from the trade route, not wanting to run into anyone affiliated with Newcastle. They had managed to dodge any questions or thoughts that they were Talented, or tainted, but that didn't mean they were comfortable associating with them.

Delta team relayed to them that they were heading inland and north and had stumbled into a small community that were producing wine and other alcohols from the local ingredients. Zoe couldn't say she envied them, as she knew her Talent was affected by anything that affected her mind. Alcohol slowed her reactions and stimulants affected her logic. Neither of those helped in any way, but she knew others would enjoy a trade agreement with wineries outside their normal influence.

Checking in on Beta team, Zoe was pleased to find they had found shelter with a small town who were used to the aggressive weather. Scanning the weather maps, Zoe relayed that the storm seemed to be breaking, which Beta confirmed that the town had told them as much.

~

"There is a few small groups near your route," Mini said through the screen. "Nothing near the size of the group now at the airport, groups up to about five people. There isn’t a big community like Asquith or Llandilo that I can sense between you and the Atlas, but they might just not be in range.”

“What’s your typical range Mini?” Tyson asked, voice slightly subdued.

“I think about as far as you can sense when trying,” she replied, sounding drained. “Using someone as a signal booster depends on their own strength. You’re strong, so you’re a good booster, but there are still limits.”

“Got it, so a decent range, but I still need to be close enough. Rest little one, save your energy for those who need you more than us.”

“Good idea,” Mini replied, withdrawing her senses from Tyson. They both sagged a little at the same time, the connection being more of a drain than expected. Mini yawned widely as she closed the comms connection.

Reaching over to Zoe, Maddison tapped the distracted woman’s shoulder, getting her attention. Looking up, Zoe put the suit control panel down. “Yeah?”

“We have no real destination currently, other than avoiding the coastal towns allied to Newcastle,” Maddison said, talking for the exhausted Tyson. “Delta team is heading further inland, but Mini couldn’t get and decent read in the area. With Tyson, we could potentially find more people, but I don’t know how many people we could bring with us in Avi.”

“We can send them to Warnervale, we should still be close enough for most people to walk there easily enough.”

“But how much time do we spend searching this area then? You’ve got four days before your plane is scheduled to leave, and what about the areas ahead of us that we don’t know about?"

"Let me work out how long it would take to drive to the airport." Quickly assessing, it took her a couple of seconds. "At normal, comfortable speed, we can do the trip in about ten hours. Taking regular stops and small detours? Maybe two days total, so we have time still. You have any ideas?"

"I do," Tyson said staring down the road. "There is a distorted mind ahead, I'm only just hearing it now. I think it may be a feral." Tilting his head like a cat listening, he swore softly. "There's more than one."

"Feral?" Zoe asked, having no idea what he meant.

Images crossed Zoe's mind, people driven insane for a variety of reasons, those who had lost an essential part of their humanity and lived on base needs. She shuddered. Displaying the map on her tablet, she got Tyson to show her where he thought they were as the buggy slowed to a halt.

"We can avoid them if you think they'll be an issue, but we'd be covering the same ground as Delta will be."

"Ferals are usually peaceful or afraid of outsiders. You should be fine."

Zoe stared hard at Tyson. "Right. And what about yourself?"

"The simpler the thoughts, the harder to filter and ignore them and ferals live on very simple thoughts. At worst I'll get a bad migraine from them while I'm close. Their minds are too close to human, but also too far away from human. It's like how I understand Avi, but can't read her, but if I could sort of read her. Trust me, I wish I could explain it better."

"So, in short, you'd prefer to avoid them?"

"Short answer yes. If you want to investigate for information, I won't stop you, I may just start singing loudly to try and drown out the noise."

"As tempting as that sounds, we will avoid them, for you. Have they noticed us yet?"

Tyson shook his head. "We're well outside their range. If we backtrack a little, we should be able to go around and still stick to avoiding the coastal towns."

"We seem to be avoiding a lot today," Zoe mused as she turned the buggy around and headed back to the last turn off.

~

Locky confirmed with Zoe that they were not far from them, and as they arrived at the road intersecting their path, the first of their tandem ATV's arrived, Kally driving with Jess sitting next to her.

"Zoe!" Kally hollered, jumping off the vehicle as soon as it stopped. She scooped up a small cloth bag and passed it to Zoe. "We got fresh grapes!"

"Oh!" Zoe exclaimed, opening the bag to find dark red grapes. She happily popped a couple in her mouth before passing the bag to Maddison, who joined in on the eating straight away.

"Let me look at you two," Jess said, tugging at Tyson's shirt as he started on the grapes. Tyson lifted up the side, showing his skin still slightly pink, but otherwise healthy. "I heard you two got into several fights straight away." Disapproval dripped from her matronly voice.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Tyson paused mid bite. "Yeah, sorry Jess, but we didn't have a huge choice."

She swatted him hard on the shoulder. "You were the worse off one too."

"But I'm better for your care," Tyson replied, grinning cheekily.

Jess swatted him again before moving to Maddison, who quietly and calmly lifted her shirt so she could be examined. Jess, pleased with her handiwork and Maddison's better than her brother's behaviour, favored her with a smile and a gentle shoulder pat. "You two really do need to stay out of trouble."

"Yes grandma," they both answered in unison, much to Jess' amusement.

"Their injuries have mostly been my fault Jess," Zoe said after swallowing her mouthful.

"You're just as bad as them," she said, going to Zoe's side. "Avi, be a dear and send me her scan results."

"Affirmative. Sent."

The small tablet chimed and Jess examined the results. Raising an eyebrow, she looked over the newer results and whistled slightly. “Damn, that was a powerful healer to do that.”

“Lina is one of the best,” Tyson agreed. “She gets a bit snippy when she does it, which, considering it actually hurts her, is fair enough."

"Oh?"

Tyson quickly described Lina's Talent to Jess, who shuddered in response. "Self harm to help others. Don't know if I could do that." Jess pocketed the tablet again before looking at the twins. "Notify me if she has any behavioural changes."

"Yes grandma," they replied again.

"I'll smack both of you if you keep that grandma nonsense up. Only Mini gets that privilege."

~

"The satellite map shows a small town just north of here," Locky said to the two teams. "Let's go scout and contemplate an evening meal. Kally, Jackson, go ahead with Gamma team. The rest of us will follow a few minutes behind."

Nods met Locky's plan and people swapped positions before the two vehicles moved on.

~

There’s a few people here, they haven’t noticed us yet. Tyson read ahead to the small town as they passed a friendly sign saying “Welcome to Woodville”. A church became visible through the trees as they crossed a tired and worn bridge.

A young man, barely more than a gangly teen, yelped in surprise as the pair of vehicles came into view of the front of the church. A pair or burley men came running out of a nearby building, bows in hand. Taking in the vehicles and the relaxed posture of the riders, the leading man signalled to the other to lower his bow. “Hello strangers, what brings you to Woodville?”

“We’re travellers,” Tyson spoke up, getting up from the buggy and approaching the men, leaving his rifle in the buggy and leaving his swords sheathed. “We’re making our way through and are looking for a place to rest for the night. We’re willing to share food and information for lodgings for the night.”

The men relaxed. “Then you’re welcome here,” the lead man replied, offering his hand to shake. Tyson gripped it warmly. “The name is Mark. This is Jagger,” he added, pointing a thumb to the other man.

Tyson introduced everyone, letting the men know four more were on their way. As the introductions were made, Kally approached.

"Do you have any objections to someone praying in your church?" she asked.

"None," Mark replied, waving her towards the church.

You're good to go, they aren't being deceptive.

Kally nodded thanks as Zoe relayed through Avi to the others to approach. The small town was simple, barely more than a handful of houses and families. Zoe did note that the gardens and open areas were covered in vegetables and flowers of all kinds and that no one seemed to be wanting for food.

"Your gardens are well grown," Zoe spoke up as she parked Avi to the side of the road.

The men nodded. "Evelynn is the one who keeps our gardens growing. She has a knack for keeping plants producing and growing." As if hearing her name, a woman, maybe a year younger than Zoe appeared from behind a house. Mark waved her over.

Evelynn was a soft looking woman with no hard edge to her. Her clothes looked like plants were growing from her, covering her like a long flowing dress. Twinned through her hair were flowers, mirroring the ones growing around the town. "Hello strangers," she said, smiling like a sunflower in full bloom. "Please feel free to harvest ripe fruits and vegetables, but take care of all other plants. Any intentional damage will not be tolerated."

Definitely Talented, Tyson hummed. Definitely something.

Maddison smacked the back of his head. "You're staring. Stop it." She turned to Evelynn. "Sorry about that, he forgets himself sometimes."

Evelynn chuckled. "That they do. Do you drink tea?"

"I certainly do," Maddison replied. She quickly introduced everyone before beginning to happily converse with Evelynn.

~

It wasn't long before the last four arrived and the evening prep went ahead. Zoe detailed her mission to the town, but found they were content with what they had and had no want for more.

Zoe understood, to a degree. For her, she wanted tech, and to get that, she had to travel, where the town only wanted to live peacefully with full bellies, which they could do, here.

When asked about the ferals nearby, they shrugged, stating the ferals occasionally harvested from the gardens, but never made their presence known otherwise, so they didn't mind them.

Maddison returned with Evelynn as the small town gathered for the evening meal. Maddison's hair had been rebraided with a row of flowers down each side, giving the appearance of a flower tiara, humming happily to herself. "You really should wash in the river," she told Zoe as she sipped from a glass bottle with strawberries, mint and water in it.

Zoe sniffed herself and threw a glare at Maddison, who just laughed at her. "It's relaxing, is all."

The townspeople happily shared in the vegetables and fruit offered and a few took small, polite amounts of the meat.

"We don't normally eat flesh," Evelynn stated. "Most of what we need is provided by the garden and a little from the river. We do not begrudge you from eating so, but you may wish to sleep indoors. We find visitors who sleep outside after eating red meat tend to vanish in the night."

The entire two groups, Maddison and Tyson excluded, paused in eating their meal and shared glances around. "She's not lying," Tyson said around a mouth full of potatoes. "She's actually a little fond of us."

Evelynn's light laugh broke through the tension. "Your mind reader is right," she said, patting Maddison's cheek softly. "I am fond of you."

"Wait, you're not bothered by our Talents?" Zoe said, mildly surprised.

"Hardly, when my own is clear as a midsummer sky. You aren't welcome to stay for an extended time, but you are welcome for a couple of nights."

A thought crossed Zoe's mind. "The ferals nearby, they sort of protect you?"

"Yes, though we hardly need it. Everyone here is skilled with bow and I am hardly a slouch. The trees protect me as needed." Evelynn smiled warmly. "The reason no group is welcome to stay long is because those who do eventually bring disharmony to us and upset the balance. It's hardly our choice, as the gardens provide enough for us to eat and the rest goes to producing more as compost. Any extra consumption takes from somewhere in the cycle."

"Then, thank you for your hospitality," Locky said as he finished his plate. "We will move on in the morning, and, if it is advantageous to you, we would like to trade some seed stock."

Evelynn's face lit up like a child offered candy. "That is a trade I will happily make," she stated, chuckles coming from a few. "But first, let us eat and rest. We can trade in the morning."

~

A temporary camp was made in the cool rooms of the old church for the majority of the two teams. Maddison stated she would do a late patrol as she felt restless from inactivity during the day.

During the night, Zoe awoke to Tyson groaning in pain in his sleep. Gently shaking him, he awoke and immediately clutched his head. "Ferals nearby," he growled before starting to hum to himself.

"Can I do anything?" Zoe asked as she lifted his head and slid under it, letting his head rest on her lap.

"Not much," he growled.

She started to sing a soft lullaby while stroking his hair, just as her parents had done for her. She almost stopped singing when Tyson joined her song, but just kept singing, happy that he was distracted from the pain.

~

The morning broke clear and warm, the town waking with the first bird calls. Zoe woke, leaning back against a wall, Tyson's head still in her lap. She was exhausted. From what she understood of Tyson's ramblings, there had been a large number of ferals near them. Zoe hadn't heard a single thing, but Avi had confirmed that nineteen individuals had visited, picking the town clean of meat that had been left unsecured. That left the strangers with just their cured meats, but no one seemed to mind all that much.

Yawning widely, Zoe packed her gear alongside Maddison, who looked refreshed and eager. "You look way too happy," Zoe grumbled.

"I am particularly well rested and looking forward to further adventures.” She moved a couple of bags and found another with little pouches of seeds in it. “Evelynn will want these.”

“What the hell has gotten you in such a good mood?” Zoe grumbled again.

“You don’t wanna know,” Tyson answered as Maddison hurried off. “Thank you for your assistance last night. I have no idea how much worse that could have gotten.”

“It’s fine, I likely couldn’t have slept through your groaning anyway.”

“Sorry for that.”

“I’ll live. I don’t need to direct Avi thankfully.” She tapped the console screen as the first connection beep resounded. “Bonjour mi amor,” she said to Hayden’s face before yawning widely again.

“Late night?”

“Just had issues sleeping, nothing big. Have three days to cover just under eight hundred kilometres, so we can take it easy.”

Hayden nodded, a map overlaying on the screen. “You’re going to head this direction?” he asked, a path lighting up, heading almost straight north rather than going along the coast.

“Yeah, and Delta team will mirror us a little further inland. We might have to find a few more air ports along the way if we find another community like Llandilo and Asquith.”

“Well, so far you have been getting the largest commitments in regards to people wanting to join us, so you must be doing something right.”

She rubbed her eyes and sat in the passenger's seat. “I still wonder if it was a stupid idea for me to go alone.”

Maddison patted her shoulder. “You’re not alone,” she stated, making herself visible to the camera. “Morning Hayden. What’s the story morning glory?”

Confusion crossed his face for a moment. “Not much. We’ve had a few small groups come join us recently, but nothing like the numbers the Australian mission is going to pull in.” He looked away at a sound and waved over someone. “Is Tyson around? Mini is going to seek out some more people.”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Tyson grumbled as he lay on the back seat after pushing the Firebird Kinetic suit into the foot well. “Go ahead Mini.”

Mini’s face frowned as she closed her eyes. Barely a breath later she opened her eyes, glaring at the camera. "He's useless today," she stated. Where's Grandma, she will be better than him."

"I'm here little one," Jess said as she passed the front of the buggy. "Go ahead."

Zoe rubbed her neck, trying to release the tension that had been there all morning. She already had their travel path planned and expected to cover a lot of empty terrain. Her satellite mapping hadn't shown much, other than terrain and the occasional town.

"Wow, there's a really strong Talent near you, stronger than Zoe," Mini stated as she sought out others. Zoe pulled her visor on and took a short video of Evelynn planting the seeds that Maddison had given her. She had to admit that the woman had a certain air of confidence in her abilities, more than anyone else she had met in her life. Zoe was a little envious, as she was still trying to figure out her own Talent.

Mini finished, relaying that there were small pockets of Talented along the paths the two teams had taken, but not as strong or clear as Evelynn. Zoe sent the video to Mini, who stared at it. "She's very strong."

"And she is content to remain here in her town," Zoe replied. "Thank you Mini. See you soon."

"Bye!" Mini replied, ending the communication. Data appeared on the screen as Zoe overlaid the points Mini had given her over the map, forwarding the data to Locky.

~

The town insisted on replacing the teams meat stock they had lost to the ferals with pickled and dried vegetables, small pots containing flowers and a few bags of seeds, native plants they weren't likely to have back in Europe.

Happiness evident in everyone's faces as the two teams were told they were welcome back when they returned to Australia. Maddison was the last to get into the buggy, giving Evelynn a long hug before taking her usual perch.