Billings, Montana

1996, July 30th

8:00am

All Mary remembered after the ash cloud surrounded her was a swirling, heavy sensation as if she was on the brink of losing consciousness. She closed her eyes hoping the sensation to go away as she gripped Arthur's hand and held helpless Brandon against her breast with the other. Sudden as if she were in a car and breaks were slammed, she jolted forward with a force and a light blinded her, she blinked until the world appeared she was in downtown street. A large Wells Fargo building loomed above, greenery had overgrown the structure till is seemed to have its own dystopian beauty. Cars and other vehicles were emptied and abandoned all along the downtown strip, and most of the building were showing the same signs of overgrowth. Mary wondered why the structures had already started decaying and nature devouring them as she does. Arthur looked around.

"Now I told her to stay put, hopefully she listened." Arthur said to himself. Mary looked at him as he spoke. Brandon was still in her hands breathing steadily. A voice then spoke out down the far end of the street.

"HEY! I GOT YOUR MESSAGE HOSPITALS DOWN HERE!" The voice hollered from down the street. Arthur smiled and looked at Mary.

"Ah, there she is." They then headed down the street. When they came to an end, they saw Layla Harken standing noticing the boy in Mary's arm.

"Holy shit! Arthur what happened?" Layla said, Mary noticed her Washington accent at once. She wondered how far she was from Andrew.

"Layla, right now we need the hospital. Take us to it please." Arthur said. Layla nodded and ushered them to follow. They had walked the streets for a time when Mary couldn't help but ask.

"Where are we Arthur?"

"Billings Montana. Be thankful we are here I was worried we wouldn't make it." Mary was shocked, she was completely north, and couldn't believe how they got there so fast. This Arthur must be a man from God, he must be. Mary continued to wonder who the old man might be when they had finally stopped at building, Billings Clinic. Arthur looked at Mary.

"I must leave you now, Layla here will help care for your child. Brandon needs plenty of rest, and some treatment of his leg before you set off to the Rockies. Your son Mary should be fine. A man will be with Steve when he comes on august first, he will be a doctor I believe, and he will treat the wound. I wish I could have done more. But now I must be off." Arthur said pointing to the clinic.

"Where are you going?" Mary asked

"Not your concern. Your son is." And with that he turned it seemed the sun flashed and caused Mary and Layla to blink and when their eyes opened, he was gone. Mary stared in wonder; Layla approached placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Common, let get a place for him to rest and sleep, we can talk after." They both headed inside the clinic, it was quiet, and the lights were barley working. Layla continued down the hallway, Mary soon followed. Their footsteps echoed loudly throughout the building as they approached a room that Layla had gotten ready for her son. Layla stood by the door and presented it to Mary.

"He can rest in here, sorry it's not the best, but I could only find so much. Seems some people may have escaped before the soldiers showed." She spoke

"Thank you." Mary said and passed into the door to rest her child in the bed. She looked back at Layla.

"Could I get a bit with Brandon? We can talk after."

"Of course, take your time. I'll be in the lobby when you're ready." Layla said. Then she turned and walked towards the lobby. She had passed a set of double doors, when she could hear the faint sounds of Mary weeping in the room that she left.

It wasn't until an hour or so before Mary showed herself in the lobby, Layla was reading a small magazine labeled "nails gone wild", an article was talking about some people who let their nails grow out to almost gross sizes, Layla had a look of disgust as she read before looking up seeing Mary.

"You alright?" Layla asked putting the magazine down.

"Yeah just, it's all so much seeing him like that, what am I going to do. How are we going to bring him to Canada with his foot missing." Mary said tears beginning to return to her eyes.

"Hey! You can't think like that. Be glad that he is alive and has his head-." Layla stopped and looked down.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said-."

"No. No your right I should be glad he's alive, instead of feeling sorry for myself. I heard the care in your voice and bless you for helping me. You and Arthur." Mary said sitting down next to Layla in the lobby chair

"Well to be honest I didn't really know what I was doing. I just got this feeling, like a flash of memory. I knew I had to prepare for the arrival of an injured." Layla replied

"Regardless, Thank you." Mary said

"No problem." There was a pause.

"I hope I'm not asking too much but what exactly happened?" Layla asked

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Mary said

"Well considering I've been teleported around and seeing vanishing old men speaking crazy, I don't see why I wouldn't." Layla replied. Mary looked away.

"Well… I guess you know of all the bad stuff that's happened, so I don't need to remind us of what's going on around the world."

"Yeah, I read the announcement on a newspaper article, crazy stuff." Layla said pretending that it didn't bother her as much as it did.

"Well, my husband Andrew, Brandon, and I decided to hide out at an abandoned neighboring house, after some time Arthur showed up and told us about Going to Canada and how that's where we need to go etc. I'm sure he's given you similar advice, anyways we were on the road when our truck decided to poop out for no reason, so we had to leave it behind. We made it to Nebraska, can't remember what day, and camped in a wooded park, when we were attacked by a talking wolf." Mary told.

"A talking wolf? What did he say?" Layla asked looking at Mary with curious eyes.

"Yeah, Arthur said he's not exactly a wolf, but a person named Isaac the changer, he can change into many animals I guess, but he picks the wolf. And he said that we had to go to Idaho and not follow Arthur anymore, otherwise he was going to hurt my son. I wanted to say no I tried-." She stopped choking up a little then continued.

"I screamed no! Loudly with intimidation. Like an idiot. The wolf gave me this look of hatred for standing up to him, and then while Brandon was awake, he-." She choked up again her eyes beginning to water. She began again to stop the swell of tears.

"He was threatening to go for his neck, and Andrew was so angry, I blanked out, and then I remember Arthur appearing fire everywhere, I crawled to Brandon and held him until the fire stopped. Then Arthur seemed to have driven the wolves away. And he healed my sons wound, and would you believe it after he saves my sons life he apologizes. That man is our savior I'm sure of it. Anyway, he then brought us here, and sent my husband off to Lincoln Nebraska to gather people to fight." Mary said

"Wow that's quite a story. Mine is not that exciting, I was eating breakfast then everything happened and was knocked unconscious, I woke up in a crashed army truck and apparently it had been stopped and attacked somehow people were dead everywhere. And then Arthur appeared and started to talk to me, the whole thing threw me for a loop that I fainted, and he brought me here." Layla explained.

"Why?" Mary asked

"Well Arthur says I am his scout for a guy named Steve-." She was cut off by Mary.

"Steve! I've heard that name from Arthur too, its where Andrew is going to take those people to fight too, apparently, he's in St Paul Minnesota." Mary added.

"Well supposedly they will be here on August first, and Arthur implied there would be people with him. The old guy said I was to look west for the thing I'm scouting for, and I believe I'm supposed to show Steve what I found, and you for that matter what's going on over the Rockies and I'll tell ya it doesn't look good, and it grows worse I think." Layla said

"What do you mean?" Mary said confusingly. Layla got up.

"I'll show you, follow me." Layla spoke.