Billy was up on the roof. Beth, Jamie, Winston and Scotty were standing at the edge of the building as he was, looking out over the city. Things were crazy, and they seemed to be getting worse as the days rolled by. The police precinct was still burning. It had started sometime during the night two days before, and since there was no one to put the fire out, it had been raging for hours now. A few minutes ago, the roof of the building next door to the precinct burst into flames. Maybe the fire had started inside, or the extreme heat from the burning police precinct had caused it to burst into flame, spontaneous combustion, but it was a strange thing to watch. It appeared as though it had simply burst into flames all on its own. The animated conversation about whether it had been spontaneous combustion or a fire source from inside the other building that had simply burned through, had kept up for a few moments, and then they had all lapsed back into silence. Beth spoke now. "Where would we go?" she asked. "I think southeast," Scotty threw in. "Why not north or northeast," Jamie asked. "Makes no difference, I suppose, but this winter it might. That's why I think southeast." Billy said.
Beth nodded. "What's the radio say?"
"It's bad everywhere. Different people, different days, all talking about the dead. Some talk about the living too, gangs, shit like that, but the big deal is the dead. Every major city... Boston, Hartford, Manhattan, San Fran, Providence, Scranton, Miami... there are more. Every day you hear more places, and that's bad. But then there are the ones that you don't hear from anymore, and that's even worse," Billy said.
"So how is southeast better?" Beth asked. "Might not be better, as far as the dead are concerned: It might not be, but it will be warmer. I mean, no problem now, but winter isn't really over up north, and it will come again, and we had better be somewhere with our supplies settled in for it," Billy answered.
Beth nodded. "All of us?"
"A few others," Winston said. "Emma, down street. She has a baby. Don and Ginny across the street. They got a few friends too."
"Babies... I don't know about babies," Billy said. "Adults, okay. Children are bad enough, but babies? How do we take care of them?"
"Billy, should we leave them here to die?" Scotty asked.
"Fuck, Scotty. I didn't say that. Do we invite them along to get killed? I mean we're leaving the safety... Talking about leaving the safety of this building and going on the road."
Beth raised her hand. "Scotty misspoke, or you mistook what he said. Can we agree on that?" Scotty turned away and then turned back and nodded.
Billy nodded too. "Tomorrow... Tomorrow we scout it out. We need trucks... not a car. Something that can get us over the bad spots. And we'll have to see how far we have to go before we can hope to drive. We sure as hell can't drive here."
She shrugged. "Tomorrow," Billy agreed. "Yeah," Scotty added. Beth turned and looked back over the city, watching the building next to the precinct burn. Billy and Beth gather a small group and plan to leave the destruction of Los Angeles. Just getting out of the city will prove to be a battle and they will lose some of their party along the way...
