• Yessie and I were the first two that reached the comm-station, trembling with nerves. The Tech Rev did have its perks; we could now use an old communications receiver as a kind of telephone station, and Byte had created frequency cells to act like cell phones, but only if they were tuned to a working line. Kinda like walkie-talkies on steriods. They had six thousand mile radius per cell and power to last three years witout a charge. Yeah, Byte rocks. You could give that chick a paper clip and in two days she'd hand you a grenade. Same paper clip, different results. Recon waited for a few more to gather around before hitting the speaker switch. "Elfy, you're on loud and clear." He said calmly.

    "Nyan! Okies!" We heard her say and we knew it was really her.

    "Elfy! For the love of the Gods, where are you?! We saw Utah and we flipped!" I yelled in relief.

    "Nyu... They wouldn't let anyone in. Bones, Shark, and I are staying with the Olympian Family for now. Ano... They want to say hi to Aries." She explained.

    Aries had joined us after having a spat with his Father, Saturn. He was the leader of the Skitter Boys, and my boss. In the Families, even if you left on bad terms and joined a different one, as long as you weren't an Outlaw, they were still nice. Sometimes it was a good thing to go to a different Family. "Elfy, you stupid, annoying, brain dead..." Yessie went on with her very loving titles for a bit while I just laughed and held her close.

    The Elfster had been our maid of honor and Bones was my best man, well best woman anyway. We had actually considered having Trouble be the maid of honor just to make everyone giggle. He was a very macho man, and to see him in a dress would have produced over ten thousand blackmail pictures in less than a minute. "Watashi no tsuma, let her speak!" I laughed to Yessie gently.

    We had this thing where we would call each other 'watashi no tsuma' and 'watashi no otto'. My wife and my husband respectively. If we were really in a lovey mood we would say watashi no ai, or 'my love'. She finally relented and I heard Bones in the comm system. "They shut down all entry points and had evacuated all of the Home-bounders from the state. The Dogs left all of the Left Behinders to fend for themselves, those arrogant, grub collecting, maggot festering,..."

    I almost fell over laughing from the bouts of explainatives the girls were using. "Bones! Kiddo, I'm glad you're fine, but we have to know the sitch." I said in a chuckle. "What's your E.T.A on getting back to Maryland?"

    "Three weeks Samurai. And it could be longer if the Dogs don't stop to piss on a bush from time to time." Shark said in his calm voice. "They've been tailing us for a bit."