There was a jackhammer pounding against my skull. No, wait, that was the alcohol, wasn't it? I had sprawled out across the bed, with my feet laying on my pillows. Err- well my shoes were, I had apparently forgotten to take them off before I fell asleep.

I got up slowly, still trying to get used to my lack of coordination. As I stood, my eyes caught a bit of light from the window, which only stimulated my headache. With a mental note to never drink that much ever again, I stumbled into the shower.

The water helped a bit, but I still felt like shit. Sadly that didn't change the fact that I had stuff to take care of. I went over to the duffel I had been given earlier and started packing. There wasn't much to take, toiletries, clothes and the spare ammo I had stolen. Beyond that, I still had very little to my name. Everything I owned fit into a duffel, a box, and my arms; something I promised I would rectify as soon as possible.

Soon, the apartment was in the exact same state I had found it. Just as I sat down to wait for Emily's arrival, she showed up. I followed her over to that same garage that I had arrived in just days earlier.

Was it really that short of a time ago? It felt like I had spent weeks here not days. Regardless I was happy to finally be done with the whole thing. In just a few short minutes I would finally be subject to my own decisions and their consequences, not those of some faceless government or military. There was some irony here I supposed, exchanging one manager for another, but at least it was something I chose. That had to count for something right?

The garage had been almost completely unaffected by the attack, looking the exact same as I had left it, save for the absence of two bikes. Emily guided me over to the opposite end of the building, taking me to what I presumed was her car.

The first thing I noticed was how much newer the car was than anything I had seen so far. It looked almost new, and if it wasn't for the copious amounts of grime all over it I would have assumed as much. The car was actually a large truck, but it had a closed bed instead of an open one.

At Emily's instruction, I threw my stuff into the back, where I noticed there was a menagerie of boxes and bags already there. The only things I didn't put back there were the shotgun and pistol, the shotgun went in the backseat, and the pistol went into a holster Emily had loaned me.

My gear stowed, I stepped into the passenger seat, and before I knew it we were gone.

It ended up being a day and a half before we reached the city Emily worked at. The trip itself was only about four hundred miles, but without interstates, they didn't pass very fast.

As we went I saw a few people on the roads, some driving, some walking, and I even saw one driving a horse-drawn cart. But that was far from the only anachronism, there windmills that looked like they plucked right out of the medieval period. A village I spotted in the distance had both log cabins and cars.

Despite our slow pace, the scenery changed quickly. We only stayed in the woods for the first part of the first day, after that we onto a road that took us over a great plain that spanned almost a hundred miles.

While we traveled Emily took the time to give me an idea of geography. I had come out of the Dome into the westside of Erros, known for its low population and abundance of city-states. We were moving through the northwest portion of Erros now, on our way to the more "civilized" and densely populated north.

The Dome took up the center of Erros spanning nearly a hundred miles across. She mentioned that the Dome would remain at the size regardless of the size of the city inside. Back in the old days, people would use this to their advantage, traversing a twenty-mile wide city only to end up a hundred miles away from the starting point, though with the advent of motorized transport that had changed.

I also learned that Erros was contained within yet another dome, though this one was completely impenetrable and much harder to observe. This much bigger dome spanned around seven hundred miles, but its border was inconsistent with its smaller cousin.

Many who went near the border found themselves turning away from it for no apparent reason, and when asked why they often couldn't remember approaching in the first place. Those who were unaffected found themselves unable to continue after a certain point, blocked by a grey wall.

There were two more regions with Erros, the east which remained largely untamed and the south. The south, according to Emily, was comparable to the American wild west, a safe haven for criminals and outlaws alike as well as housing numerous nomadic tribes. Any attempts to penetrate it by organized government always ended in failure. The desert was much too barren to support large groups of people.

The country we were headed to was located almost to dead North of the Dome. It was small by Earth standards, but the note of pride I heard from Emily's voice when she claimed there were three whole cities under its flag implied it was pretty large for Erros.

It was called the Republic of the Motherland, founded shortly after World War 1 when a city full of white army Russian soldiers emigrated from the Dome. Nearly a hundred years later they had expanded into one of the most powerful and advanced nations in Erros; its capital boasting one of the few skyscrapers ever built.

When we stopped that first night we were still out in the middle of the great plain. Despite doing nothing, the day had been way too long for my liking. We had pulled over to the side of the dirt road and were sitting on top of a small hill.

Once I had stretched out my sore limbs I couldn't help but notice the sky. Sitting at the center of the sky like it owned the world was an entire galaxy of stars. There was almost nothing else in the sky, maybe one or two other orbs of light, so that grand centerpiece was the sole thing commanding my attention. It wasn't until Emily asked for help setting up camp that I was brought out of my stupor.

That night was otherwise completely unremarkable to me. The food was poor, the ground was hard, and my limbs were sore, but that great celestial being still stands out in my memory.

We got up early, Emily wanted to be back home before lunch and I was eager to see something besides the interior of the truck and the infinite expanse of grass.

A few more hours of driving later and I noticed that mountains had appeared in the distance. According to Emily, the capital of the RoM laid at the base of them. In an act of completely original naming, the capital was called New Petrograd.

As we got closer I noticed that we moved off the dirt path and onto a paved two-lane road. With the change to roads also came a change to scenery, we had moved away from the rolling plains and into farmland. As we got closer to the city I noticed that more and more houses dotted the countryside, surrounded by vast tracks of farm goods.

People started to emerge, mostly farmers out and about their daily business, but occasionally I would spot another traveler. I noticed a significant increase in the number of vehicles, many of the farmers owned various modern farming machines and trucks for hauling.

As suddenly as it began, the farmland stopped and was replaced by the outskirts of the city. The city was small, there was almost no suburban area to speak of and the city itself was only a dozen miles wide. But most of the buildings within were at least two or even three stories high. In the distance, I could see much larger buildings that towered above the rest like mighty gods looking out over a sea of mortals.

When questioned, Emily told me the city was home to around a few hundred thousand souls, and that the country in its entirety held almost a million.

Soon the car slowed to halt and we pulled up to a rather large building that stood just outside the city proper. It looked like we had finally arrived.