As uneasy as Grace felt about going on a missing person hunt, she couldn't help but get excited as she began her usual routine in preparation of going on the road.

Grace got up at her usual early hour, but instead of going on her morning run, she headed for Seaside Bar. Tallulah always dropped in early in the morning to make sure everything was set up for the day, so Grace wasn't surprised to see her already behind the counter when she arrived.

"There's only one reason why you'd be here this early," Tallulah commented. "You talked to that guy?"

"Yeah, I talked to him," Grace confirmed.

Tallulah sighed and pursed her lips. "And now you're leaving again. You think you can find whoever he's looking for?"

"His sister," Grace supplied. "And I don't know. Really, no idea. But I can try."

"I figured you'd come to that conclusion," Tallulah said. She pulled out a cloth bag from behind the counter. "So I got this prepared for you."

Grace took the bag and peered inside to find a few days' rations of dried meat and some bread. Usually, the town saved dried food for winter, but Grace could usually get some to take with her on her trips, just for emergencies. In almost every case, she ended up giving it back when she returned. "Thanks, Tallulah," Grace said appreciatively.

"And in return you better go and see Angie, see if she'll give you anything," Tallulah said, her tone telling Grace to not argue. "If you get injured again, I don't want you out there with nothing to patch it up, even if only temporarily."

For once, Grace agreed with Tallulah's caution. Especially since she would be travelling with Hunter this time. It would be good to have a small first aid supply. The more people, the more chances of injury. "I'll stop by there now," Grace promised. "I swear."

Tallulah narrowed her eyes, suspicious that Grace wasn't arguing, but then shrugged. "When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"Then stop by tonight before you go to bed," Tallulah instructed.

"Of course."

Grace left the bar, and true to her word, headed to the hospital. Angie was waiting for her, and, like Tallulah, had supplies all ready.

The doctor didn't have any time to talk; she had a couple of patients from a minor fishing accident, so she just gave Grace the bag and wished her luck. Grace went to the communal dining area, sank down on a bench, and looked through what Angie put together for her.

The medical bag didn't have much, but given how hard it was to find supplies in general, Grace was touched that Angie gave her anything at all. The kit contained a small roll of bandages, some tape, two small packets of antibiotic ointment, and a needle and what looked like enough thread to stich up a small wound. Grace carefully drew the drawstring on the first aid kit tightly and tucked it into the bigger bag that Tallulah supplied. She would repack everything in her bigger pack later.

The most important part of her prep, however, took Grace to the school buildings. Not for any lessons, but because that's where the village stored all the practical books they had, including the supply of detailed California maps.

No kids occupied the school today. Most likely, they were out somewhere having a practical lesson. From what Grace could figure, they only had school in the school building once or twice a week.

Manny, however, one of the founding teachers, had his back turned to Grace as she entered. She cleared her throat quietly in an effort not to startle him, and when he turned around, clarity replaced the confusion that ran across his face.

"Ah, Grace, come in," Manny said, putting down whatever it was he was doing and taking a few steps toward her. "It's been a while."

"Hey, Manny," Grace greeted him. She didn't always come to look at the maps, she knew a lot of the surrounding terrain by now she didn't need guides, but on harder jobs, like this one, she always made a point to at least try to come up with an initial route. "How's your map collection?"

"I should have known." Manny motioned for Grace to follow him and took her into a smaller side room. Stacks of books and loose papers filled the tables, but Grace could navigate the chaos well.

"Not much has changed since the last time you were here," Manny admitted. "But unless you need something, I'll leave you to it."

"Thanks, Manny," Grace said, and she turned to focus on the mess in front of her as Manny returned to the main part of the school building.

Grace slipped off her jacket and deposited it on one of the emptier tables. She would be here a while.

The archive had two types of maps: the ones created before, and the ones created after. The ones from before were both the most and least accurate. They gave solid measures of distance and the locations of geographical landmarks, but the city names were useless.

The ones from after were the exact opposite. Not very reliable when it came to pinpointing exact locations, they did a better job at indicating the, at least approximate, locations of permanent settlements that had popped up since the bombs. Instead of city names like Los Angeles and San Jose, smaller places such as Seaside and Arden scattered the page.

The newer maps also split the state into zones. If the area was white, then it was fine to travel. Red meant hostile groups held the territory. Black meant the bombs had rendered it uninhabitable. So far, Grace had been able to avoid both red and black on her travels, but she had heard stories from people who hadn't been as fortunate. They weren't pleasant.

Grace worked with a combination of the two. Usually, she could get a pretty accurate idea of how long she would be on the road be comparing older and new accounts of the landscape.

The newer maps varied in accuracy. A lot of travelers would make their own on their journeys, and so whenever someone passed through with a map, Manny or someone else in the school would copy it down. At first, it was impossible to tell how accurate anything was, but as they gathered a larger collection, it became easier to cross check them with each other and come up with something that was fairly accurate.

The only part Grace completely trusted with the area in a 50-mile radius around Seaside. She had done those maps herself.

Grace had been to Arden several times, so she wasn't worried about that part of their journey. It was a little farther south than what used to be San Luis Obispo, and it would take her and Hunter about three days to get there. Grace could cut down a day if she took her bike, but she had already decided against it. There was no point; Hunter didn't have one.

No, Grace was looking for potential leads of where to start looking for the missing train. She hoped someone in Arden would know something, but she didn't want to bet the entire trip on it. And besides, if someone in Arden gave her a town name, she wanted to have some idea of where they would be going.

Grace focused on the towns along the coast. Up north, she figured Anna had started out somewhere between where Redding and Eureka used to be. But she spent little time on the towns close to the starting point. If something had happened to the train at its starting point, Anna would have most likely just returned to the family who took her in.

No, Grace turned her attention to towns that scattered the coast between Arden and the remains of the Bay Area. About a year and a half ago, a passerby confirmed that both the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridges had been destroyed, so the train would have to go completely over land on the Oakland side. But that also meant that once they hit San Jose, they would have to veer west. Southeast of San Jose was completely red.

That meant the train most likely disappeared somewhere between Oakland and San Luis Obispo, an almost 250-mile stretch. It wasn't a narrow stretch, but at least it was narrower than before. Now, Grace could examine what towns were on that stretch and who might know something.

She gathered a few maps that had the most details about that area and began to compare town names and locations. After just under an hour, she came up with four potential sites that, if all else failed, she and Hunter could fall back on: Rushers, Oktana, Cherry, and Kalina.

Grace rolled up a few of the smaller maps that had the most details of the area she and Hunter would be traveling too and stuck them in the bag from Tallulah. Hopefully, it would be enough.

Grace headed back to her house where she properly packed her bag with all of her new supplies. There wasn't much to add, but she did make sure she had her (only) change of clothes, Oreo cookies, and, even though she wasn't bringing her bike, her new tire patch kit. It could come in handy.

With everything neat in her pack, the bag just waiting for Grace to put it on her back the next morning, Grace headed off to her dinner shift. Yasmin had most likely already heard that Grace would be leaving—Tallulah always kept her updated—but it was up to Grace to inform the rest of the crew.

Hari took it well, given that he was being left in charge. Grace figured he was getting used to it by now. None of the rest of the crew reacted all that much, also getting used to her absences, although Grace did notice a few concerned looks from Cassie and Tom.

Grace found Hunter at dinner. He was absentmindedly picking at his food, but sat up straight when Grace dropped down across from him.

"You'll be ready at first light tomorrow?" she asked him.

The conviction in his nod surprised Grace, but it also reassured her. He was actually prepared to do this.

"Alright, I'll see you then." Grace took her plate of food with her as she headed back to her house. By now, the news that she was leaving again would have spread around the rest of the town's population, and she didn't really want to deal with questions.

Her last stop before home was the bar. She didn't have to say anything. Grace just stepped inside, made eye contact with Tallulah, and gave her a nod.

Tallulah just stared back as Grace left her sight.