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Barbara Gordon leans back in her chair rubbing at the bridge of her nose. She turns to Dinah, "I'm worried about Cassandra. I'm not sure this is the best thing she could choose to do. I mean--" she cuts off at rush of sound and light.

All of the computer monitors in the cabin have small blinking indicators "CONNECTION LOST". "Zinda?" her voice is calm, "What just hit us?"

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Dinah swallows, painfully, and walks forward at an almost funereal pace, eyes wide and darting all over.

"It's a wasteland," she says. "The whole city's entirely deserted and half these buildings are demolished. Looks like Godzilla's been on the rampage, and not this morning, either."

"That's..." Barbara swallows. "How long ago, do you think?" Should they be looking for survivors?

Which is pretty much exactly what Dinah's thinking, too.

"I'm looking now."

The airport building is the closest, and she stops to examine a convenient part of rubble that's been knocked off the otherwise seemingly functional building.

"It's not fresh, but there are no plants growing on the rubble itself. Animals have been around, th..."

That's her interrupting herself when she finds what exactly has been covered by the rubble.

"About four weeks," she says, quietly and certainly.

Barbara's silent for a long moment. "No sign of people?" Dead or alive? "They probably evacuated, but... from what?"

"Some sign of people."

Dinah's voice suggests that if she mentioned throwing up this time, she'd be serious. Otherwise, it's still subdued.

"Nothing recent, though. I'm going to check the building."

"Be--" Barbara shakes her head. Dinah will be as careful as she usually is. Not very.

"I've got a link to what I'm pretty sure is a military recon satellite," she says instead. "We should have some sort of idea of what the area looks like from above in a few minutes." As soon as she cracks the security system.

"As long as you tell me before I get stomped by whatever it is," Dinah informs her.

"OK, the building looks empty, but stable. Which is more than I can say for any of the planes outside. No power though, but lots of computers."

The audible shudder on that word is deliberate.

"Looks like the place was emptied out quickly. Sudden evacuation? Wait...

"OK, there've been looters by in the past week or so."

"Evacuation, but still looting. Can you tell what they took?" Because if there are computers still in place these are some awfully odd looters. Leaving behind the expensive electronics?

"Food, mostly," Dinah says. "Starbucks is stripped bare."

Of course there's a Starbucks. It's an airport.

"But Tandy - looks like a Radioshack - that's mostly intact. Apparently they're after survival, not money."

"That's not an encouraging sign," Barbara's hands are still flickering across her keyboard. "Ha! Got eyes in the air now. Hold on while I load up..." her voice trails off.

"Oracle?"

Dinah steps away from the shop, into the middle of the desreted check in area.

"You still there?"

Is that an 'OMG it's awful' silence, or a 'run Dinah run!' silence?

Her voice, when it comes back, suggests the former. "Dinah... The entire water-front is just gone." she swallows. "I think... Whatever happened here, it was bad." Her eyes are scanning frantically for some sign of survivors in the satellite imagery.

"I'm getting that."

Dinah looks around at the airport and sighs internally.

"I'm going to head out, Oracle. Look for survivors. Maybe we can help."

"I hope so," Barbara's voice is soft. "You'll probably need some sort of transportation. The airport's on the outskirts of town. I'm guessing that's why it's mostly intact."

Dinah pauses by the door again, running her hand over her face.

"OK. I can hotwire a motorbike. Guess no one's going to miss it now."

"This imagery could be higher resolution," Barbara mutters. Then, more clearly, "Parking lot's to your east. Looks like there's a motorcycle on the south side... Or possibly a compact car. It's hard to tell on this thing."

"Right."

With a target in mind, or at leats a direction, Dinah breaks into a jog on her way over to the parking lot.

"This is bad, Oracle."

Stating the obvious, but it gives her something to say.

"I think it might be most of the city."

There's a long moment of silence as Barbara looks over her screens. "I think it may be more than the city, Dinah." She swallows, "We need to find someone who knows what happened."

It shames Dinah how easy she finds it to hotwire the bike, and by the time she's leaving the airport, she's more worried about how guilty she doesn't feel.

"Any suggestions welcome for where I should go, here."

Barbara's still looking, but... "There's a hill, a big one, about a mile east. You can probably see it from where you are. I haven't spotted anything yet, but it's probably the best place to evacuate to in the area, assuming people are still around."

Dinah looks up and spots the hill.

"Gotcha," she says, revving up a burst of speed.

"So talk to me, Babs. By 'more than the city' what are you thinking?"

There is a long moment of silence while Barbara considers not answering. But Dinah deserves to know.

"I haven't had time to sort the data I've got, and I don't have nearly enough, but... Dinah, I can't find an intact city within a hundred miles."

The moment of silence is extended.

There's nothing that can be said to that, really.

"OK, I'm at the road going up the hill now. I don't see any survivors, though."

"It looks like there might be a fairly large camp near the top of the hill. But... I don't see any signs of activity around it now."

"I see it."

Dinah skids to a halt just outside the demolished shelters, ripped tents and strewn sleeping bags around the torn up lookout point.

"Don't try and get a better look."

She's never been more glad for Shiva's diet, because if she'd had that chocolate mouse at lunch she really would be losing it now.