The expressway buzzed in the distance like a restless hive as the two lovers passed the rows of tall corporative skyscrapers and financial buildings. The clouds of smoke from fires spread across the skyline of the city boundaries in widening diagonal columns, the rain started again, in downpours of frequent showers, the excess water making the air feel colder than it was. Erin still holding on to Young whispered, "They'll eventually find us. They found the commanders, they won't give up until they find us all." Young stopped and looked deeply into her hazel eyes, hiding behind her stringy unwashed fringe. He recalled their first meeting and how he used his "cheesy" charm to try and "chat her up". "Decker will make sure our tracks are well covered. There's no way they can locate us. Remember we know the system as good as anyone else. We worked for them." He held her tight at arms length "We'll be safe." Young said reassuringly. "I hope your right, I really do…" she whispered. The heavens opened once again, pounding the earth with thousands of raindrops. The rain bombarded the pavement, pattering like hundreds of drumming unsynchronised footsteps, droplets bounced off Young's waterproof brown coat racing and twisting down his broad shoulders.

They were now on the corner of 51st Street, it was surprisingly quiet and empty, many victims of the Grey Death were confined to their apartments, barricaded in by FEMA and UNATCO squadrons, whole businesses had shut down due to the lack of healthy workers. It was one depression after the other.

A few burnt out vehicles lay across the road, some had banked up onto the curb and were sprawled out on the cracked pavement. As Young walked images of the fierce fighting between UNATCO and the NSF flashed into his mind. He had seen many brave men, many friends die in front of him. He had witnessed the slaughter of the NSF in Hell's Kitchen, he, himself only just about escaped from the UNATCO assault managing to escape through one of the empty storage warehouses in the Warehouse District. Many of the NSF were forced to fight street to street, taking refuge anywhere, apartment blocks, local shops, hotels, anywhere they could find. UNATCO had sent in their "peacekeepers", which included the mechanically augmented agents; Young had witness one of these "mechs" operate how it relentlessly pounded the NSF with awesome power. The "mech" Young had seen was more like a machine limited with organic parts than a human being augmented with mechanisms. What was once a HE, had now become an IT, stomping around under a mass of mechanical augmentations, its legs were probably increased just to carry the huge bulk of machine parts. It seemed to have let go of it's human side as it eliminated the NSF troopers as if the were vermin. Young shook head free of the horrendous images he had locked away and crossed the road.

Whilst Decker had to construct all the security grids for the NSF bases like the Osgood and Sons Imports Warehouse and NSF Headquarters in Hell's Kitchen, Young was out in the field with Commander Grimaldi's men trying to give the NSF some more time to get the Ambrosia vaccine safely out of New York City and the U.S. Decker had not witnessed any of the violence. He had seen nothing.