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It had rained all day. MC unfolded a small tarp onto the sopping forest floor. “Couldn't be more than a day now” MC said to himself before curling up in his sleeping bag. “New York City, I'm bound to sell some pieces their, maybe enough to get me all the way down to the Carolinas.” MC didn't always talk to himself, but traveling solo for over a week had his nerves a bit shaky. MC thought about Carlo, his last kindred spirit. He was a 'good guy' as MC had often introduced him. Carlo was loud and tough, and couldn't let the smallest slight go unaddressed. That's why him and MC made a good team. MC was too nice. Never wanted to hurt anybody, no matter how awful or mean someone was. Carlo used to tease MC, “you just gunna let him say that to you! Where your balls at! A man ain't s**t wit out his pride.” MC would listen, but do nothing. He didn't understand it, violence. MC would retort, “Prides no virtue Carlo, look at the dinosaurs. They got real big, full of pride, and now they're all dead. It's the small creatures that live on. The ones that can live in the cracks and eat dirt.” It was always the same thing after that, “F**k the dinosaurs!” MC laid on his dry tarp, a ways into what he called “the freeway woods,” and imagined conversations he'd had, and some he hadn't with Carlo until finally he drifted to sleep.

The morning came quick. It was rounding summer and the sun was hot. Sometime during the night MC had squirmed out of his sleeping bag, because it was currently wrapped around his left leg. “Damn its hot” MC quietly complained. MC almost took his shirt off, but then decided their was no way anyone would pick him up looking like that; even with the shirt on his chances were pretty low.

MC's stomach ached as a frighteningly audible grumble roared deep within his abdomen. With one hand tightly clutching his belly, MC sat up on his tarp and started to rummage around his bag. After a minute or so the pain abated. “F**k, its been a long time since I've eatin'” in truth MC couldn't remember the last time he had eaten. He'd run out of money a week and a half ago, but had been lucky with the dumpsters the following few days. It was this last stretch that had been brutal, it was all air, water and sun. “It's hard to keep on the move without something solid,” MC thought, “The trees have got the right idea, if you gunna run on sun you better let the food come to you.”

In a few minutes MC was all packed up. He had one of those steel-frame hikers backpacks. One of those packs it looked like someone could carry their whole life in"" MC certainly didn't disappoint. Full, it probably weighed just under 35 pounds, and MC had an extra pair of shoes and a cooking pan tied onto that. All in all, it was clear MC wasn't moving too fast today.

It was a short walk out of the woods and onto the road. It wasn't a main highway, but MC was pretty sure it connected with the thruway in a mile or two. He'd taken sometime memorizing the road map in a rest stop a few days back. Once MC stepped out of the woods and onto the road, he let out a deep genuine sigh, smiled, hosted his heavy backpack more securely onto his shoulders, and began his trudge onward to the city.