Chapter Text
Amber filled a glass, liquid gold it seemed to be. Ever since they had started serving drinks, more and more people found their way in to fill their glasses, most of which were those who still worked the mines — or who had worked alongside them during their time there. This was easier on the lungs, and easier to enjoy things. Like Felicia dancing from table to table taking orders, her charm and ability to bring smiles to exhausted workers didn't just lighten Vander's mood, but it also raked in the tips.
Purple swayed back over to the bar out of the corner of Vander's eye, turning his attention towards his friend after he slid the freshly poured glass to the young man at the end of the bar. Vander wiped his hands with a damp rag and slung it over his shoulder.
"Two whisky on rocks, two neat, one vodka tonic and two taps."
Felicia sited off, and Vander got to work quickly with a nod. Glasses clicked together and liquid filled each one. Once they were set out on a serving plate, Felicia was off with them. It was effortless, like clockwork between them; they had only been at this for a little over a year and things already felt second nature. The only thing that was missing was Silco.
Silco .
Vander found himself looking off at the empty space at the bar. He was never this late, not usually this late, but more than not he was probably caught up with Sevika in planning something related to their revolution. Something that was becoming more common as time went on. As things worsened in the Undercity, there was an uptick in violent crimes spanning across the surface as well as the Lanes. Brutal murders all ending in suicide by enforcer.
The more Vander thought about what he had been hearing from his patrons, the more he worried for his friend. The man wasn't the most mild-mannered — not that there was any judgment on Vander's behalf — he just preferred to be there to have Silco's back when shit did go down.
Tap. Tap.
Vander looked from the empty space to a woman sitting a few seats down, motioning for his attention. A smile reappeared on his face as he snapped back into 'customer service' Vander, leaning over the surface.
“Another round, sweetheart?”
"You know it, buttercup.”
The woman was a regular. She was pretty too. Nice smile. Maybe if Vander wasn't a masochist he'd give someone like her a shot, someone who was proactive in their interest towards him and someone he was sure did actually like him.
Vander mirrored her smile, giving a twinge of playful flirtatiousness glint in his eyes as he took her glass and mixed her a new drink.
Several shakes, then he poured and slid the glass over to her. Before more words could be shared between them, though, Felicia appeared beside Vander, moving past him to open their funds box and drop several payments and tips inside. She grabbed his arm, turning him and bringing him to lean down when she spoke.
"There's been another attack in the Lanes…”
Felicia whispered, her hand squeezed him to still the faintest tremble in her fingers.
"Tay said they were eating each other, tearing them apart with their hands..."
Vander looked at her suddenly, his heart dropped and his mind immediately leapt to Silco and Sevika.
"When?"
"This afternoon.“
Felicia answered quickly, looking around to make sure no one was close enough to hear.
"People are saying that it's some sort of drug or something driving people insane..."
A hand raised across the room at one of the booths, beckoning one of them over for another drink order, which caught both of their attention. The pair acknowledged them with forced smiles and nods then turned back to each other for a brief moment longer.
"If Sil and Sev aren't back by nine, then I'm goin' out to find 'em."
Vander said firmly, and Felicia agreed. She parted from the safety of the bar to attend to calling customers, and Vander watched.
The Undercity was already a dangerous place to live — crime, and worse than poor air quality, sickness in the streets... but in recent weeks it felt like the world was falling apart more and more. There were more cases of not only the random brutal murders, but also the enforcers were more trigger-happy, and much more present than they ever had been before. It only drove Silco's drive for justice and freedom further, as it did for Vander and their friends, but certain things mattered more to him.
" So , what time are you off tonight?”
The same woman from before raised her voice enough for Vander to hear, reminding him of where he was before Felicia came over. He grabbed one of the few dirty glasses passed over towards him, rinsing it and wiping it out with the rag from his shoulder.
"M’sad to disappoint you, but I'm closing tonight.”
Vander set the glass aside and grabbed another to do the same. The woman gave an over-accentuated pout, jutting out her bottom lip and batted her eyes. The attention was certainly nice, but there was a lack of stakes — or even consequences. The thought of actually following through with anyone here felt like more of a chore than cleaning glasses, but chatting up someone who was easy on the eyes and flirting with him was easy work. And, again, it was nice.
“Mm, well, I can always wait for you, if you were lookin' to let off some stress..."
She continued to talk to him, but the subject matter of her words was lost to the noise of the room. He was about to excuse himself from her already to attend to his other patrons when the front door swung open. Something that would have irked Vander if a dirty and bruised Silco and Sevika hadn't been the ones to stumble hurriedly through it. They didn't draw much attention, thankfully due to how loud it was in there, and trailed along the wall towards the back room.
Vander's heart dropped, and for a moment he made eye contact with both of them. Silco was holding a hand over his nose and Sevika was favoring a leg with each step. Something had gone down. They disappeared to the back as Vander moved from behind the bar, finding Felicia and taking her shoulder,
“Cover the bar for me.”
She had started to respond, asking what was wrong, what was happening, but Vander had already gone. Disappearing to the back, he nearly fell down the stairs when he was out of sight trying to reach the injured party.
They were in the common space, Silco sat on the couch with his head tipped back while Sevika paced on an aching leg.
“What the hell happened?"
Vander landed heavily at the bottom of the stairs. He moved with surprising speed to kneel in front of Silco.
"Our contact fucked us. Started going all batshit when we wanted him to lead us to the drop."
Sevika answered angrily as Vander coaxed the other into leaning forward and moving his hands. His nose hadn't been broken, but it was bleeding pretty damn good.
During times like these, Vander wished that his hands weren't so big — they got in the way more than helped. He held Silco’s jaw as subtle as he could manage, grimacing when the smaller blinked away the pain — then he grabbed a handkerchief to gently wipe the blood from his lips and chin.
"Then, we figured out it was a fucking set up."
Sevika finally found a place to sit down. She hissed as her adrenaline began to wane and pulled up her pant leg to inspect a swollen and bruised ankle. Vander’s hands relented when Silco took the cloth and held it to his nose. Annoyance was an understatement — the upset in his eyes weighed them down.
“We killed three enforcers before we fled. There were several witnesses.”
Silco spat, knowing that he had basically signed himself and Sevika up for death row and now was telling Vander of it.
He gaped at them both, blood running cold. He didn't even know what to say at first. The whole revolution act wasn't an idea anymore — it was real now, and they were wanted fugitives. Sevika and Silco looked at Vander expectantly, waiting for an answer. What else was he going to say other than,
"Fuckin' hell, guys..."
He wiped a hand down his face and leaned forward on his knees again, sighing. Vander looked at Silco, probably looking more like a worried dog than a man.
“You can't leave until we're sure this has all blown over.”
Vander watched as an ease lowered Silco's tightened shoulders.
“You know what this means if you protect us, Vander."
Silco warned, lowering his cloth to see if the bleeding had diminished at all. Vander reached up, brushing his fingers against his cheek to take the opportunity to check his nose again. Silco let him.
"I'm not fence-sitting, Sil, this is just serious shit."
Vander’s voice lowered, not caring for Sevika’s eye roll or groan at his gestures. Even though Silco had brushed off Vander's affections in the past, the moments like these — where neither of them minded — brought them closer together. Vander didn't care where the line between friendly concern or deep feelings was, not right now. All that mattered was the man before him. His best friend.
"I believe in the cause, but our family comes first. You come first."
Sevika scoffed at them, leaning her weight more prominently on the opposite side of her injury. Now, her judgment seemed to grow more clouded as the pain spread.
"We can't afford to think like that."
But Silco beat Vander to a response,
" Family is exactly why we are doing any of this. Our loved ones, our people.”
He snapped at her with a more fierce attitude than Sevika was giving, though it was clear that they both were still coming down from the situation they had just gotten out of.
"The reason we are doing any of this is not only for our future, but the future of our children and their children..."
Vander stood and offered a peaceful gesture, looking between them before stepping away to dig through their first aid kit. Something to wrap Sevika's leg, and a damp cloth to clean Silco's face.
"I believe in our cause as much as you both do, I jus' want us all to live to see it happen."
He assured them in his return. Silco swapped the pieces of cloth, tossing the first aside as Vander knelt in front of Sev, who gave him a dirty look. She wasn't really mad at him, Vander knew it — she got angry like he does when shit goes wrong or when he gets hurt. Anger was a comfortable emotion, especially when the alternative was usually sadness or disappointment. He got it. Raised eyebrows from Vander eventually received a sigh from Sevika, moving her swollen ankle over for him to attend to.
“You guys were ratted on?"
He asked. The other two bristled at him.
"Our guy started acting all weird, all twitchy like he was paranoid.”
Sevika answered. Her eyes darted to Silco. Her foot was pretty well swollen — Vander nearly couldn't roll up her pant leg enough to start wrapping a brace around it.
"He was touchy when we started asking questions, he couldn't answer any of them... then enforcers seemed to just come out of the woodwork and they gunned him down right in front of us."
Silco added with one final swipe over his lips, his face finally clean from his nosebleed. He leaned forward to rest his arms against his knees, shoulders slouched in exhaustion and his usual flamboyant nature gone.
Vander fastened the brace as best as he could manage and then readjusted Sevika’s pant leg and boots, carefully to ensure the avoidance of bringing her any more pain than she was already dealing with.
"It was you or them."
He nodded, sighing and pushing himself back to his feet. Looking between the battered pair, sympathy deepened across his features.
"They can all rot , 'specially with how many of us they've murdered."
A feeling of mutual agreement finally circulated between them — lifelong anguish from the topsiders' abuse on them and their people.
Sevika and Silco went on to explain in more detail the man whom they were convinced had sold them out and then was promptly betrayed outright, but Vander couldn't stop himself from sticking onto certain descriptions of this "contact". Twitchy, irritable, erratic behavior... It was all the same as the random murders popping up throughout the city. Something was going on, and it was being hidden from the public as much as possible. It twisted in Vander's stomach — his gut knew there was more to this, but there wasn't a lot to do in regards to fixing it or even figuring out what was happening without neglecting what he already had going on.
Leaving the two to recover, Vander returned to the bar upstairs and relieved Felicia. The guests had waned—much to Vander's surprise. Or maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised. Maybe it was a bad sign of low morale when even the most attended bar was losing customers this early in the evening. Normally, this was where people flocked in hard times to drown themselves in booze and conversation. But the air was different tonight.
Vander had barely gotten halfway through explaining Silco and Sevika’s situation to Felicia when a group of enforcers slammed open the front doors. The room silenced and tensed. Every eye turned to the uniformed intruders as they spread throughout the bar. At first, Vander assumed they were only searching for Silco and Sevika—but then he noticed the enforcers scanning each patron with a strange device he’d never seen before.
As subtly as he could, Vander slipped a hand beneath the bar and hit the panic button. It would switch on a light downstairs—a signal to hide. A new addition, and one Vander was suddenly very grateful they’d finished installing. He masked the action by pretending to wipe down a spill while Felicia joined him behind the bar.
It took everything in Vander not to glance toward the back door. His blood pressure climbed with the rising tide of dread.
One of the enforcers approached, a hand resting on the holstered gun at their hip. They still wore their mask. Vander kept eye contact, schooling his expression into neutral calm to avoid raising more suspicion.
“What can I do for ya’?”
He greeted them with a forced smile. Like clockwork, Felicia slipped into her best customer service voice and started cleaning glasses behind him.
“New city ordinance,” the enforcer said flatly, stopping just short of the bar. “All organizations are to abide by a curfew until further notice.”
Vander felt like the wind had been knocked out of his lungs. He had expected a manhunt, not a curfew announcement. The look on his face must have given him away—the enforcer turned toward the room and raised their voice.
“This organization is closed! As per the curfew now fully in effect!”
Vander and Felicia glanced around as other enforcers began scanning each patron. Most didn’t resist. Fear left the undercity dwellers stiff and silent. No one wanted to be the next victim of "death by enforcer"—or worse.
The enforcer leaned in close again, gloved hand pressed to the bar.
“Best to keep yourself and your loved ones safe and isolated until the curfew is lifted.”
Vander didn’t know why, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking, abruptly:
“What’s this all about, exactly?”
Despite the mask, Vander could feel the enforcer’s discomfort. The question wasn’t outrageous—but it clearly caught them off guard.
“Raids, shootings, now a curfew? People are scared.”
The enforcer recoiled, hand drifting back toward their gun—though Vander hadn’t raised his voice or shown aggression. They were starting to respond when a commotion drew all attention toward the back door. Felicia, arguing with two enforcers.
Vander’s heart dropped. Fear turned to anger as one of them grabbed her and shoved her aside.
“There’s no one back there!”
Felicia shouted, throwing herself between them and the door.
“That’s our private home! You have no right!”
A few patrons stood up, calling out for the enforcers to stop—but weapons were drawn almost immediately. Orders barked out: stand down. Leave. Some obeyed. Some didn’t.
It escalated too fast.
The enforcer in front of Vander drew their gun and pointed it at him. Finger on the trigger. They were trembling—Vander saw it, felt it. This wasn’t a time to call anyone’s bluff, but Felicia being manhandled pushed something primal in him.
She shouldn't have stepped between them. That’s what the warning light was for. But Vander understood. He felt the same way.
Another shove sent Felicia to her knees, and they were through the door. Blood thundered in Vander’s ears. He tensed, voice rough with rage.
“You gonna shoot me?! You better kill me.”
His challenge sparked a chain reaction. Patrons cried out. A gunshot cracked the air. Vander ducked behind the bar instinctively, frantically patting himself down for holes. Fighting broke out. More gunfire. Chaos.
He reached under the bar for the rifle.
He had to find Felicia .
“Vander!”
Her voice rang through the noise, somehow perfectly clear. He crawled toward it, staying low, until he spotted her at the side entrance—bruised cheek, shaken but moving. Guilt crushed him.
“Fel, I got you!”
Vander pulled her the rest of the way to safety. She clung to him, breathless, gripping his shirt.
“Infected!”
The cry rang out. More screams. Stray bullets. Then—two bodies slammed against the bar.
An unholy screech followed, wet and gurgling. Someone was being ripped apart.
“It’s here!”
“Get it off!”
Nameless voices. Vander couldn’t tell who was screaming.
“Kill them all! Wipe it out!”
This was it. They were fugitives now. But they were not dying here. Not today.
Vander held Felicia close and readied to leave her. His rifle was loaded. He had done it himself last month.
“Get downstairs. Find the others.”
He tried to push her away, but she clung tighter.
“Are you insane?!”
They were going to die either way—but standing still guaranteed it.
“I have to do something. Fel!”
He pried her grip loose.
“Take care of Sil for me if this goes badly, alright?”
The anguish on her bruised face broke his heart. But she nodded. She knew. She was the only one who knew what Silco meant to him. The feelings Vander had never spoken aloud.
No time for more words. Vander surged to his feet, and Felicia ran.
It was a massacre. Blood soaked walls and floors. Bodies and overturned tables. One patron leapt on an enforcer, pinning her down. Savage figures—former patrons—ripped others apart with hands and teeth.
Then—
“Hey!”
Vander’s shout cut through the din. The rabid creatures twisted toward him, heads snapping unnaturally, eyes bloodshot, mouths lined with writhing tendrils.
They lunged.
Vander hit the floor just in time. One nearly landed on him. He flipped onto his back, firing three shots into its chest. Another closed in. Then another.
The rifle jammed.
“Fuck off !”
Vander shoved the barrel into a tendril-filled mouth and yanked the trigger until the mechanism snapped—an explosion of metal and gore. The first dropped, and Vander grabbed the second by the head.
He slammed it into the bar.
Again.
Again .
Again , until the wood stained red, until there was no more movement.
He’d never killed anyone like that before. Never seen a scene like this. Not in his bar. Not in his home.
His hands were red. Still warm. It made him sick. He grabbed a damp bar rag and scrubbed them, desperate to remove the blood before it could stain deeper.
“Holy shit…”
Felicia’s voice startled him. She stood with the others, all staring in shock. Gaping. Silent. It didn’t feel real until Silco ran to him—arms around his neck, holding him so tightly it nearly choked him. Their hearts pounded, frantic, seeking each other in the only comfort they had.
Vander pressed his face to Silco’s neck and held him until Silco let go. But they stayed close. Lingering touches. Silent trembles.
The others exchanged horrified looks until Vander finally spoke,
“Some of ‘em just went rabid. Started tearing people apart bare-handed. Like they’re sick…”
Sevika limped closer, inspecting one of the corpses. Even in death, tendrils wriggled through its teeth, twitching toward her warmth.
“We need to get out of the city.”
Felicia nodded, instead gathering weapons from fallen enforcers and passing them out. There wasn’t time to make sense of what happened. Just move. Survive. Evacuate. Trust no one.
They all split off to pack, knowing full well they might never return. None of them understood what this was—but they all felt it. This was goodbye.
Vander zipped his bag and slung it over his shoulders, looking over to Silco, who was quietly deciding what to leave behind. His bag was full. His books and hair products were laid out—familiar comforts Vander had seen him reach for time and again.
“Out of room?”
Silco looked up at Vander’s voice. A sad smile tugged at his lips. He laughed at himself softly.
“Yes,”
he admitted.
“How vain of me—to be torn between old books and my pomade.”
Both were important to him.
Vander shrugged off his backpack and unzipped it.
“Here. I’ve got room.”
He packed the books himself, while Silco watched.
“They’ll be too heavy, Vander—”
“Please. I could pack your whole library and still carry you the whole way out of the city.”
Vander nudged him gently, smiling. Silco’s cheeks flushed.
“Maybe I’ll take you up on that. See if you really could.”
Now it was Vander’s turn to blush. They laughed, glancing away, butterflies fluttering despite the trauma.
“Is this all you’re taking? I still have space—”
“When you guys are done flirting, we really need to leave…”
Felicia’s voice cut across the room.
“Yes, all done, Fel,” Silco replied, rolling his eyes and zipping his bag.
One more look. One more lingering smile.
Then they were off—into a world that had already changed forever.
The Undercity had fallen to chaos in the matter of an hour, people killing people, infected ravaging anything they could reach, and crazed vandalism destroying familiar buildings and business. The only good luck they had was that the four of them were largely ignored at first, it wasn't until they got to Benzo's shop that they had to deal with a group of crazed infected.
They had no self-preservation, throwing themselves at the survivors with a desperation unlike anything ever seen before. Animalistic, with barely any semblance of the humanity they once had—it was horrifying and very quickly bringing the understanding to the group that there was no room for hesitation. They needed to act, to shoot first and to only protect each other.
Once they had gotten Benzo it was then the struggle to escape the city. Topside was blocking off the exits, trying to contain this outbreak with equally savage tactics. They were gunning down anything that moved, to the point that it was borderline impossible for them to get through, especially with Sevika's injury. She kept up, but it was becoming more noticeable that she'd need to rest soon. Vander had so much blood on his hands once they reached the outskirts, they all had. Turning to brutality when their guns ran out of ammunition and stealing what weapons they could after each firefight, Vander was their brute strength. Sevika would have been there with him too, but they weren't willing to take any more risks than they already were.
As the destruction of the very city they once called home fell to the distance, the reality of never returning to the life that was before tonight. They didn't even know what folly was happening, what caused this, or how they would go on. For now it was just getting to safety and finding a place to rest for the night.
Once they were a couple of miles into the wilds Sevika had slowed to a limp, grabbing and using trees for support and momentum to keep herself moving forward. Vander had been keeping an eye on her until finally stopping, the rest of the group paused as well when he switched his backpack around to the front.
"Here, hop on my back.”
Vander waved her over, but with the look she gave him he might as well have said he shit himself.
“Don't be like that, I'll carry you until we make camp, c'mon.”
She would have punched him if they were in any other situation but they weren't, and the pain was getting to her. Begrudgingly, Sevika gave in and limped to him, letting Vander lift her onto his back. The relief was immediate, and appreciated, even if Sevika wouldn't admit it, Vander could tell from the way she relaxed against him. They weren't the closest in the group, but he still cared and this would allow them to move quicker.
Vander caught a glance from Silco, he was glaring, clearly upset at something. Maybe that they stopped? Maybe he was upset over what they had just gone through in their escape? Either way, Vander hated it, stirring guilt within him. They were exhausted, maybe it was just that.
They set up camp in the rocks, finding a small overhang where they could have their backs against a wall. Sevika was the main focus, as much as she hated it, her ankle was a concern and all of the walking and running had exacerbated the swelling and pain. Felicia and Vander helped elevate her foot with a few of their backpacks, and fussed over her until she wouldn't allow it.
The night was cold, this far out from the pollution of the city and the protection from its buildings it was windy as well. Even with the coverage from the rocks they still bundled up under their jackets as much as they could.
"I had gotten a few hours of sleep before shit hit the fan.”
Benzo offered himself to take watch for the group while they slept, or tried to, and the others agreed. Vander had spoken up initially, not believing if he would be able to actually get himself to relax enough, but once he settled back against the wall his eyes grew heavy. Felicia sat beside Sevika, still trying to tend to her - which Sev seemed more inclined to accept. Vander didn't think too hard on it. As long as someone was able to look after her. Vander’s mind was more occupied on the man sat a few feet away from his side; he still seemed upset.
Silco sat with both his arms and ankles crossed, leaned back with his head resting against the rock. His eyes were closed, but Vander could tell that he was still awake. Silco shivered, even in his jacket buttoned and his hands tucked away. He hadn't said a word to Vander since they left the city, maybe the gravity of the situation had finally hit him?
Vander moved closer, and immediately Silco looked at him.
Yeah, he was certainly in an attitude about something.
Despite the fierce look in his eye, Silco didn't move away or tell him to fuck off, so Vander gave him a small smile and pulled off his jacket.
"Your teeth chatterin's gonna keep me up.”
Vander whispered. They were close enough now for their shoulders to touch and when they did brush together Silco sat up. His light green eyes flickering between Vander and his jacket until it was wrapped around his shoulders, then Vander saw the smallest glimpse of appreciation.
Maybe he needed comfort.
“C'mere…”
Vander's voice softened even more, still a little nervous about rejection. His heart was in his throat, and it just about leapt out of him when Silco obliged him and moved under Vander’s arm. There was no snarky comment, no endless stream of complaints or criticism. Just quiet action. Though, again, today warranted some change in behavior - even Vander still felt pretty shaken up.
Vander caught a glance from Felicia and for a moment he thought she was going to tease them like normal, but this time she just smiled. Warmly. An encouragement that he appreciated.
He would have offered warmth to any of the others here, but the action for Silco meant so much more, and then he felt a hand gently smooth up against his chest. Looking back to Silco he watched as their bodies melded so comfortably together, also making sure that his jacket stayed wrapped around Silco. Vander rested his cheek against Silco’s head and for a moment, it didn't feel like the world was falling apart.
Vander couldn't pinpoint when exactly he fell asleep, or if Silco had done so before him, but he woke just after the sun broke over the horizon and flooded their campsite with gold. It was quiet. And peaceful. Benzo sat at the entrance still, looking out at the expanse of wilderness in his own world of thought, Sevika and Felicia were both still asleep, and so was Silco. It was then that Vander realized that Silco's hand had moved to rest underneath his shirt, sparking a wave of arousal from the palm of his hand. Vander's cheeks flushed as panic set in, Silco had even lifted a leg atop of Vander’s which only made it worse. He needed to calm down before the others woke up.
Silco shifted, his hand flexed and moved through Vander’s chest hair and his head dragged up more to where Vander could see his features, his lashes fluttering open. More panic, Vander was sure his growing embarrassment would be discovered then he'd never hear the end of it. He closed his eyes and focused on calming himself, his mind jumping between feeling Silco against him and where they should go once everyone was up, or what they would have for breakfast. Vander tensed when Silco moved again; they had packed some snacks, but maybe they shouldn't break into their rations so soon since they weren't sure what their future would look like.
"Vander, can I get some water?”
Silco mumbled quietly, it was a whisper and wasn't loud enough for Benzo to hear. Without even thinking, Vander reached for his bag and grabbed his own flask and Silco moved his hand out from beneath his shirt to take it. The loss of that touch felt cold.
“D’you sleep alright?"
Vander asked as Silco sat up more, the jacket had started to slip from his shoulders, but Vander quickly corrected it for him. If the circumstances were different Vander might have acted on the impulses he was feeling, like how badly he wanted to take Sil’s face and kiss him. Silco looked at him with sleep heavy in his eyes, softly handsome,
“Yes, very well…”
Silco answered, handing the water flask back to the other,
"Thank you, for keeping me warm through the night."
Vander chuckled as quietly as he could, hoping the blush that appeared on his cheeks wasn't as obvious as it felt.
“You kept me warm too, so I guess we're even."
Silco flashed him a smile and went to lean back into Vander, but stopped when Benzo cleared his throat at them. It wasn't much longer before the others woke, mostly due to conversation, but nonetheless they were all awake and needed to discuss a plan. Felicia checked on Sevika's ankle, it was better than it was the night before but it was still in no condition to be walked on. Not that they had anywhere to go, but they couldn't just stay where they were forever.