"Just another day starts" Greybeard thought as he was waking up and the light coming through the window was blinding him. Contrary to his previous ways of life, the city had developed some habits on him. Wake up, make coffee, check the paper to keep informed of the city's latest news and finally go out and meet the others of the crew down to the headquarters. Nothing was different that day and the whole routine took place like a clockwork. Greybeard was thinking of how life in the city was becoming a bit stale, the whole way driving towards the headquarters.

He even saw the same image as he parked. Jacquotte was sitting outside on a table, drinking her morning coffee. The only different detail of the day, was that her red hair was constantly getting in her face as it was windy that day.

"Looks like your hair are getting more coffee than you do, Red" Greybeard said as he took a seat in the table.

"Beats birds making a nest on your beard" Jacquotte said and stuck her tongue out..."I am bored" she continued and took another sip of her coffee.

"You know, I was thinking the same. It's the same thing every day. We should do something Red."

Jacquotte looked at him and he could see that the boredom was starting to fade away.

"What do you have in mind? I am telling you now... I am not interested in going to magician classes"

"You never saw my vision on this one. But no, I was actually thinking of a road trip to....." Greybeard made a pause to build some suspense "NIAGARA FALLS"

Jacquotte looked at him with half a smile in her face, as if she was half interested on Greybeard's idea.

"It has to be better than sitting here, doing nothing. When to we leave?" She said and took a position, ready to stand up from the seat.

"We leave whenever we want. Go pack a few things and I will get some water and food for the road. We meet back here in a couple of hours?"

"Sounds good to me. Two hours. Don't make me wait."

They both stood up and went their separate ways. Greybeard had just filled the tank with gas and he just needed to go to his house and get a few things. He always wanted to visit the great wonders of nature in the country and this was a good start. He was so excited that it only took him a few minutes to pack his bag. He placed the bag in the trunk and went to a close bakery to get some supplies. A couple of loaves and some fresh cookies would be enough. Leaving the bakery, he drove back to the headquarters where he was supposed to meet Jacquotte. He parked and looked at his watch. He knew that he messed up the times as he still had longer than an hour of waiting.

The thought of a road trip intrigued Jacquotte, it was something new and something different. She was always used to just getting up and going when things got stale, having a ship in the islands had it's benefits like this. Though this whole land thing was still a bit to get used to, she had yet to master the automobile. She understood the whole turning and wheel thing but everything else was still foreign to her. Thankfully for her Greybeard was quick to grasp it, he was her taxi. Well taxi minus the fees of course.

She made her way up to her room and opened her door, it was if a bomb exploded in there. Clothes and empty rum bottles littered the floor, you would think that someone ransacked the place looking for treasures. Though this was not the case, it was just her room. Needless to say she wasn't the neatest person in the world. With a smile she stepped in, found an old bag in the closet and proceeded to sort through the cloth on the floor. One by one she picked them up and gave them the smell test, one's worthy of the bag she placed in there and the dirty ones were chucked in the corner.

Once satisfied with her clothes she grabbed a couple bottles of rum and jammed them into her bag. Then grabbed a couple other essential items and headed back down stairs. She was well under the two hour mark that Greybeard had given her but figured what was the point of waiting. He should have known it never took her long to get ready.

Making her way down the stairs and out the front door she noticed Greybeard already in the car waiting for her. He had the top down and his seat reclined taking in the summer rays.

Jacquotte jumped down the flight of stairs and rushed over to the car. She banged on the door a couple times, which made the bearded one jump.

"What the hell!."

She tossed her bag in the backseat and jumped into the passenger seat, placed her feet onto the door and leaned back.

"I was just seeing if you were alive, nothing else." She said as she chuckled to herself, knowing all too well she did it to hopefully scare him a bit.

"Alive... I was catching a nap in the sun while waiting for you."

"Oh ok, well still. I was just making sure."

She tilted her head upside down and gave him a look.

"So Niagara Falls? What's that?"

Greybeard began to explain but knew if he went into it that she would ask a thousand and one questions. So he decided against it and ignored the question all together.

"You got everything you need? Cause once we pull away we aren't turning around."

She thought in her head for a quick moment.

"Well I have some rum, anything else we can get along the way if needed. So yeah I'm ready, let's get going."

Greybeard hit the gas and they left. The movement cause the bottles in Jacquotte's bag to hit eachother and create that distinct glass noise.

"You might want to check on your bag and rearrange the rum, Red. You don't want it spilled."

Jacquotte​​​​​​​ look back, reached in her bag and pulled a bottle out.

"There! Now no accident can happen" she said with a smile in her face while she was removing the cork and took a small sip out of the bottle.

"Want some?" she asked while shaking the bottle in front of Greybeard's face.

"Not while driving. You don't want to find ourselves suddently in a field, do you?"  he said laughing.

"Red, check in my bag. There is a map in there. How about you open it and figure out the best route we can take." Greybeard said.

Jacquotte turned back once more and started searching in Greybeard's bag. After a couple of minutes she turned back in her seat holding the map. She opened it an placed her finger where Chicago was. Then slided her finger all the way to Niagara falls to check the distance. Their time in sea and the skills they have developed, were proving to be really helpful even in land. Jacquotte stayed silent for a few minutes, examining the map, while Greybeard was driving them through the city. 

"So, what do you think? You are the captain here. Which way should I go?"  Greybeard asked.

"I am still trying to figure it out. Just take the next right and we will..." A suddent loud noise coming from the outside interrupted Jacquotte. 

Greybeard pushed the breaks and drove the car to the side of the road "What the hell was that? I will just go check the car. Stay on the map" He said to Jacquotte and stepped out to insepct if they hit something and if everything was ok with the car. He did a little circle around the car but nothing seemed to be alarming so he went back in the car and started driving again.

"Looks like it was nothing. Nothing can stop out trip, Red" he said laughing.

"Good. I found a route. You need to go forward for a few miles and then take a left. I need us to make a small stop." Jacquotte said with a giggle

Greybeard found the giggle suspicious but chose to ignore it and just follow the directions. After a few miles he did find a crossroad and took a left. Moving forward he suddently heard Jacquotte telling him to stop. He pushed the breaks once more and looked around. He couldn;t understand why they stopped there and turned to Jacquotte planning to ask her, only to see her pointing to a sign in the side of the road.

"The Zoo? What on earth do you want us to do here?"

“I like animals, I just wanted to go to the zoo.” 

Jacquotte looked at Greybeard with a big smile. It was a smile he knew all too well, it was one he knew meant she was up to something. He could see the wheels turning inside of her head. 

“Seriously Red, why are we here? 

“It’s a surprise, ok? Just do me a favor, pull up front and keep the car running. I’ll be in an out as quick as possible.” 

Relucantly he pulled the car to the entrance of the zoo and put the car into park. Jacquotte opened the car door and stepped out, closing the door behind her. Placing her two hand on the door she gave the bearded one another smile. 

“Ok, stay here and keep the car running. I’m counting on you!”

Before he was able to question her again she was already on her way into the zoo. Once inside she glanced over the map of the zoo until finding the primate area. It took her only a couple moments to walk to area and gave a look over what the zoo had to offer. She walked by the chimps, the apes and then the spider monkeys before coming to the squirrel monkeys. Her face lit up, instantly she knew this was the one. 

She gave a look around to find a way into the enclosure, there was a hidden door just off to the side. They tried to camouflage it as best as possible but it was still pretty obvious. She took a couple pins out of her hair and made her way to the door, took only a couple seconds to pick the lock as she entered the door. It was the back end of all the enclosures, knowing the squirrel monkeys were in the first door she went to turn the handle but it was locked. Once again she picked the lock, she opened the door to find herself in the enclosure. 

The monkeys all started to screech as panic set over them, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a couple peanuts. Instantly one of the monkeys interest piqued. Once in reach she grabbed the monkey, he immediately bit her finger causing her to drop him. 

“You little shit.”

A drop of blood dripped off her finger before she put it in her mouth, trying to stop it from bleeding. She knew at this point, she didn’t think this through enough. Exiting the enclosure without a monkey, she knew she was going to need some help with this one. So she made her way back out of the zoo to an awaiting Greybeard. Once at the car she stood there and just shook her head, with her finger still in her mouth. 

“You alright Red?”

Jacquotte sighed then shook her head. 

“You might want to park the car, there’s a monkey in there with my name on it but he’s being a pain in the ass.”

Greybeard burst into laughs hearing the reason for their stop. He knew that Jacquotte always wanted a pet but he never imagined she would go to that point of stealing one.

"So what happened and you did get it just now?"

"He bit me. LOOK!!" Jacquotte said and pointed her finger towards Greybeard.

"He's a tough one then. Let me look what I have in the back"

Greybeard stepped out of the car and started searching in the trunk. After a few minutes of searching, he closed it and moved towards Jacquotte holding a pair of working gloves, an empty bag made of cloth and another one filled with bread crumps. 

"Why do you have that stuff with you?" Jacquotte asked with a surprised and confused look in her face

"I just like to feed the birds some times. The gloves are for protection. Those things can be vicious." 

They discussed the plan for a bit of time. Greybeard would try to grab the monkey using the gloves and Jacquotte would have the bag ready to put him inside. If needed, they would use the bread crumps to distract the monkeys and possibly make this mission easier for them. Jacquotte showed the way and Greybeard followed. Entering the Zoo, they noticed some weird movements. It looked like the place was full of Zoo employees, running around. Some of them were holding huge batterfly nets, while others were using some kind of special whistles. 

Jacquotte and Greybeard looked each other wondering what could be going on but they had their own mission to deal with so they didn;t bother too much with what was happening. They followed the path to where the monkeys were but the what they saw, gave them all the explanations they needed. The doors of the cage were open and there was not a single monkey in sight. It became clear that Jacquotte left the doors open and the monkey escaped which brought all the Zoo employees running around. 

Disheartened, as it seemed like a lost cause at this point, they took their way back to the car when the unimaginable happened. A monkey was in a small cage just on the side of the pathway. It was probably the way the Zoo emplyees planned on collecting those that they found. Without overthinking it, Greybeard wore his gloves and Jacquotte opened her bag. Smoothly and without anyone noticing them, the job was done and Jacquotte had a new pet. 

Entering the car Greybeard turned to Jacquotte and while smiling said "You have to find a name for it now"

Placing the bag on her lap Jacquotte slowly opened to giving the monkey a look over. Once they made eye contact the monkey screeched and lunged forward, quick to react Jacquotte was able to close the bag before he got out.

"Whoa! Seems we have a feisty little shit on our hands. You know, we probably should have just taken the whole cage. It may have been easier to train this guy if we could actually see him."

She looked over at him with a smug look. Suddenly the sound of panic and alarm went through the air as one of the keepers shouted towards the pair.

"That's them, over there. I saw them take the monkey."

At the same time Greybeard and Jacquotte glared at each other. A slight sense of panic could be seen on his face while she began smiling.

"This is why I initially went in myself, remember I have ninja like skills. You on the other hand have a lot to learn when it comes to being a ninja."

She could sense he didn't know what to say to this, so just stared at her briefly before Jacquotte spoke up some more.

"Greybeard... get into the zone. We need to get the hell out of here and like right now."

She snapped her fingers a couple of times as the monkey began screeching some more.

"I am a pirate, Red! We run towards our target and screem! YARRRRRRR!!" Greybeard screamed with full power as he let a loud laugh come out of him and step on the gas. The wheels spinned for a bit and the car left the Zoo parking lot leaving the screaming employee in the far back. Just a few miles down the road, Jacquotte saw a dirt road cutting into the woods and pointed out that they should probbaly avoid the main highways. This way they would be out of the city faster and low on anyone's radar.

Driving through the country roads in order to avoid unnecessary attention, Greybeard was trying to keep his focus on the road while Jacquotte was trying to calm the monkey by giving it bread crumbs which seemed to work slowly as the screaching wasn't happening so often any more and the monkey have stopped trying to bite her every time her hand was getting close to it's mouth.

"Can you stop playing with the monkey for a second there? You haven't looked at the map for a long time now. I think we might be lost, Red."

"How can we possibly be lost? We haven't passed a crossroad since we took that road." Jacquotte said but after rolling her eyes, she got the map out and took a look at it.

"Hmmm... This road isn't on the map" she said and stuck her tongue out as she used to do in cases like this.

"Well, It looks like we are moving east, which is good, but night will be down soon and I am not sure for how long the gas tank wil ltake us" Greybeard replied with a smile in his face.

"Isn't there anything helpful in that map?"

"Something helpful..."

Jacquotte glanced over the map once more before folding it up and putting it inside the door pouch.

"Well the only helpful thing on this map is if we back track and take actual roads. Cause at this point this road isn't on the map, so I have no idea where the hell we actually are."

Jacki leaned over to try and look at the gauges for the car but Greybeards beard wasn't cooperating today. as she wasn't able to see a damn thing. She tried to push his beard to side but it still didn't work, the wind was too strong and the beard was too plentiful.

"How much gas do we have left in the tank?"

Greybeard glanced down at the gauges, from his angle his beard was no where in the way.

"Uhm... not much. I'm actually a bit surprised we are still moving." He said with a nervous tremble in his voice.

"Well, then I guess we might be in a bit of a predicament here in a little bit. Good thing we know how to survive, remember that time we took that row boat from a local merchant. Got drunk on rum, both passed out and woke up on some strange island. The boat no where to be found. Took a couple weeks for someone to stumble onto the island, we were living off of coconut water and fish. You know, I think that was the most sober I've ever been."

Jacki chuckled slightly, Greybeard didn't seem too amused by it.

"Well let's see how far we can get, hopefully we will come across something here soon."

The pair continued down the dirt road, passing by an old beat up sign. It was weathered to the extreme, could really make out the letter on it but there was an arrow pointing down the road. Just then the car started to sputter and slow down before shutting off completely.

"Well Red! I think we are out of fuel, time to start walking."

The pair opened their car doors, took their bags. Jacki made a little leash for the monkey which she had yet to name, nothing seemed to pop in her head yet but knew it needed to happen soon. Very carefully Jacki opened the bag and slipped the leash around the monkeys neck, he screeched for a quick moment but calmed down once she gave him a peanut from her pocket. He was a quick learner this little guy. Confident the leash was secured she opened the bag, he quickly scampered up her arm and sat on her shoulder.

"Well will you look at that, there may be some potential with this little guy after all."

She closed the car door and started walking, Greybeard quickly caught up to her as the pair walked down the road. They walked and they walked and they walked some more. Was about an hour of walking and with the intense heat, it wasn't a pleasure one. Jacki was close to overheating and needed a moment to rest, she found shade under a tree and sat down.

"Ya got to give me a couple minutes bearded one. This heat is a killer."

Up a head was a little bit of a hill.

"Red, I'm gonna walk up to that hill. Use it as a vantage point and see if I can see anything, just hang here and I'll be right back."

Jacki picked up her hand and motioned for him to go. She watched as he turned and headed forward up to the top of the hill, making sure to keep an ever close eye on him. Once at the top he turned back towards her and screamed her name.

"RED! RED!!" While motioning for her to come meet him. It took her a couple moments to gather herself before slowly making her way to him. Once in vocal range but not yet at the top of the hill she inquisitively asked him "What? What is it?".

"Look Red, it's a town or at least at one point it was a town. I think we should go check it out, there might be supplies there for us to continue our journey."

Jacki looked over the town then back at him.

"Uhm... ok... You lead the way..."

"Be careful going down. The ground is steep and it doesn't look very solid." Greybeard said and took a first step downhill.

Jacquotte followed closely, stepping on his footsteps. Just a few steps before they were off the hill and back to flat ground, Greybeard's foot met a root from a bush and clamsy as he was, he took the fast way down. While trying to get up he heard a laugh and looked towards Jacquotte's direction and saw her laughing. Then she jumped on her ass, slided the rest of the way down and approached Greybeard.

"You sure offer some good laughs" she said and extended her hand towards him "Need some help to get up?"

Greyberad looked up and saw Jacquotte smiling. "I planned on doing this all along, Red. It's faster this way" he said and grabbed her hand to get up.

He looked up and noticed that the sun was starting his descent "We need to move. it would be better to get to the city while there is still some light"

By what they saw when they were standing up to the hill it looked like this town used to be on some kind of an old road but with the new highways people slowly abandined it and it remained as it was, without care. Non the less, they could still find plenty of things that they could use. Maybe they could even get lucky and find some gas although this scenario was holding slim chances in Greybeard's mind.

The pair continue walking, following the dirst road that would lead them to their final destination. It was so peaceful and quiet that Jacquotte let the monkey down to the road just to run and play around as far as the leash was allowing it to.

"Thought of any names for it yet? Maybe something inspirational would work" Greybeard said while looking at the monkey running around

"I really can't decide on anything. I think I will just name him based on his character and this could take some time." Jacquotte replied.

They walked some more looking at the monkey and telling stories from their old lives on the islands and the sea when after some time Greybeard noticed something on the side of the road. It was an old sign wit hthe name of the town written on it. It was made of wood and the name was not visible any more since a big part of it was destroyed from the weather while some plants were covering the pole. It looked very similar to the sign they encountered earlier but there wasn't an arrow on it this time. it seemed as if it was there to welcome travelers within the town's limits. He gave a nodge to Jacquotte and pointed towards the sign.

"Can you make it out, Red? I can see something that looks like "OAN" but I can't make the rest." 

Jacquotte took a closer look at it while the monkey was making it hard for her to hold the leash,

"No, nothing more than this "OAN" really. maybe we will find something inside the town that will tell the name" she said and moved forward.

Just a few feet later they reached the first buildings. Most of them were made out of wood and the time passed without being cared for, was showing off. They walked until they reached some crossroads. They looked around trying to find something that would win their interest but all buildings seemed similar from where they were standing.

"What do you think, Red? Should we stick together or seperate to coever more ground?"

Jacquotte gave him a sideways look as if what had just came out of his mouth was utter ridiculousness. This was a classic ghost town and after all these years Greybeard should have known that Jacki doesn't do ghosts. It was probably one of the only things that truly freaked her out. It actually stemmed from an encounter with a ghost ship years ago. It was a story for another time, memories that she didn't want to think about in this moment.

"Separate... the sun is going down, it will be dark soon and want to explore separate?

A sudden crash was heard from the building across the way, an old general store. The sound made Jacki jump as she took a couple steps closer to Greybeard and made her way standing directly behind him. She peered her head to the side, taking a look towards the general store. Making sure not to blink, her eyes jetted back and fourth. Greybeard looked down at her with a smile.

"Red, there's no such things as ghosts."

Just then a shadow of something went across the dirt covered window inside the old store.

"What the hell was that? Did you just see that?"

Jacki fixated her eyes onto the window waiting to see if the shadow would appear again. Greybeard glared at the window then back down at Jacki.

"I don't see any..."

Before he could finish Jack shushed him and pushed his head towards the old general store.

"Just watch, I swear I just saw something."

To make her happy he watched the window for a moment or two before shaking his head and taking a couple steps towards the building.

"Red, there's nothing there. I tell you what, stay right there I will check it out. Okay?"

Hesitantly she nodded and watched as he slowly made his way up to the old general store. The door was closed but with a lack of a handle it was easy to open. All he had to do was give it a slight push. The door swung open as he looked in for a moment then glance back at Jacki who was nervously watching his every move. He took a step in and gave another look around, turned back to Jacki and motioned for her to come forward. Just then he let out a scream and acted like he got pulled into the store, the door slamming behind him.

Jacki's heart immediately began to race. It got faster and faster by the millisecond, fearing the worst she pulled her gun off her hip and took a step in the direction of the general store. That's when everything went black as she crashed to the ground, in a cloud of dust. The combination of the heat, her heartbeat and her fear of ghosts made her pass out.

Greybeard watched through the window just to see if his joke worked, when he saw Jacquotte dropping to the ground, clearly unconscious. Cursing for his stupid idea, Greybeard run out to where Jacquotte was laying. He turned her around and placed his ear close to her mouth to check for breath. A feeling of relief runned through him when he was sure there was no major issues. He looked around and decided that the best way to go with this, would be to get Jacquotte in the store. 

He stood up and kneel down in order to pick her up when he noticed that she was still holding the monkey's leash which made him smile. He took the leash of ehr hands and tied it to his belt. Then picked Jacquotte up and moved her into the store. He took out his water cantine, poured some water in his palm and tried to clean her face of the dirt. Once cleaned, he tried to get a few drops of water in her mouth just to keep her hydrated. Now that her relative safety was taken care off, Greybeard had to create some light since the night was almost upon them. He tied the leash on a pipe nect to Jacquotte and took a small walk around to find some dry wood in order to start a fire.

Greybeard walked out of the store and looked around. Luckily enough, he saw some old chairs laying around in the building next to the store. Luckily enough, it didn't take too much force to break them down. It seemed that time and nature has done this for them. He started moving towards the stor with an armfull of firewood when he noticed that there was wind building up. He looked up but saw no clouds so at least they would avoid rain. 

Greybeard entered the store and picked a place to set up the fire. The wood was dry and just a spark fro mthe lighter was enough to get the fire started. With that taken care off, he turned to Jacquotte and made a new effort of waking her up. He poured some water in his palm once again and passed it over Jacquotte's face. this time he noticed some movement in her eyes. he thought for a minute and knew eactly what to do. he took a bottle of rum, removed the cork and brought it right under her nose. The trick worked perfectly since Jacquotte immediately opened her eyes.

"What..... what happened? Are you ok?" she said, clearly still a bit disoriented.

"I am fine. You passed out in the middle of the road, Red." he picked his water cantine and showed it to Jacquotte "You want some water?"

She grabbed the cantine and took a few good sips out of it. "I think I smelled something else here. Do you have the rum with you?"

Greybeard laughed at the love she had for rum "I do but first you need to wake up fully. Then you can have..." His words were interrupted by a loud noise which made Jacquotte jump up on her feet.

"Did you hear that? Something is going on here, I am telling you!"

"i did hear it. But it's probably the wind." Greybeard said and took a look outside. 

He looked towards the direction the noise seemed to came from but he couldn't see anything that could create it.

He looked back at Jacquotte "You think you are good enough for us to go searching around a bit? Maybe we can find some gas?"