This rain is savage. If I went off-road in this weather I'd probably skid into a gulley. That would do it for me, but my battle-tank of an automobile would almost certainly uproot several trees in the process.

At least I'm the only car on the highway. No one would recognize me through this storm anyway, but the vacantness of the street still gives me a little bit of comfort. I don't have to worry about feigning innocence or hiding my shotgun if I get pulled over. Actually, it's probably a good idea if I don't stop when a cop flags me down. No sense in pussyfooting around the issue, I'm on the lam.

At the rate I'm driving, I'll be two states out of the way before dawn. I suppose that's good time, but I still don't really have any place to go. I would've liked to have avoided this whole shitstorm, but sometimes in life you just end up in a slump and the only way out is to keep moving forward.

That mentality seems to be paying off for me, now, because there's an open gas station up ahead. The torrential rain seems even more fierce as I step out of my car and walk to the entrance of the convenience store. The guy at the counter says he's just about to close up, but he let's me come in when I tell him I only need to use the restroom. I figure that this as good a time as any for an inventory check.

The bathroom's pretty clean as far as gas stations go, although one toilet is out of order and covered in tape. Anyway, the first thing to look for is bullet holes. I seem to be good, and my clothes don't have any tears in them. Now I move on to weapons. My piece is stealthily hidden in its holster, much to my contentment, still practically hot from the firefight a few hours ago. I'm a little chagrined, however, once I check my boot and find that my knife is missing. I can't remember if I used it and left it in somebody during the scuffle or if it just fell out. It's too bad, because I liked that knife. It had a load of snake venom in the hilt that would inject itself into somebody when I stabbed them, kind of a quick-fix solution in case I ever had to grapple with another ascendant. I've got to keep it in mind to make another.

After I'm finished with all that I experience an immediate spike in adrenaline when I look outside the bathroom door and see a solo LEO conversing with the man at the counter:

"...Bernhard Longstreet. He's about 6'1", bald..."

"Hey."

When the deputy turns around he gets a good, half-second look at the inside of my snubnosed revolver's barrel before I blast a hole into his forehead. There's no way he's surviving that. The cashier's screaming and shit now, so I off him too.

After the mind-blowing rush I got from my fresh kill subsides, I deposit my gun back into its place and frantically turn off the lights before checking outside for any more lawmen. Luckily, there doesn't seem to be anybody coming this way. The fellow's patrol car seems to be empty, too, but I don't want to rip any tools off from him because I'll be screwed if they track me down with them.

It'll probably be prudent of me to poison the trail of bread crumbs I'm leaving behind. One of the trip-wire pipe bombs I have in the trunk should come in handy right about now. After removing it from my car and shielding it from the rain, I bring it over to the front door and attach the length of wire from one end to the next. That'll do the trick.

I suppose I've got one long, tough road ahead. But in arduous times like thse, it's good to know that I can still have a little bit of fun every now and again.