No one knows why it was so aptly named, but approaching the outskirts of town, it's clear the small suburb has seen better days. It could, in fact, be host to its own wake. There's a sign greeting them as they slow and then stop.

'Welcome to Finn's Wake' it reads, or once read before it had the pleasure of meeting the spray cans and bullets of vandals. Old broken beer bottles lay near the base of the sign and the dark matter that discolors the gravel and asphalt near it really doesn't need to be reflected upon for too long. Cars, some abandoned, some still with passengers slumped over steering wheels or collapsed in the backseat, litter the road into - and also out of - the town.

There is a heavy stench in the air, the scent of old sickness, death and decomposition. The stale tang of copper coats the back of Damon's throat, though this time it's hardly appetizing. The blood scent is wrong and off and tainted. He's smelled it often enough in Mystic Falls to recognize the smell of the end. It hadn't seemed as strong or potent back when he and Caroline cleared the highway, but the sun wasn't quite as high in the sky, and these bodies have had another day of stifling Virginia July heat to roast.

"How can anyone be alive in there?" The words come softly from the witch, murmured beneath her breath. If he were human, Damon wouldn't have heard them. He's not human, however, and because of that he looks over at her, a quick quip on his lips.

It dies immediately at the sight of her. Peering through the windshield with a mixed look of deep sadness and horror on her face. Her hands rest on the dashboard, and though she's looking out, Damon has the feeling that she's not so much seeing what's there as what she imagines might be there.

"We made it," Damon says. "It can be done. Just depends on how smart and resilient people are." He doesn't know why he says it. It would be easier to leave her to her wicked imaginings, and it's not as though she needs to be comforted. A frown pulls down his mouth, "Or it might be a wild goose chase."

Bonnie turns toward him, and there's something in her eyes that isn't scorn or chastisement. Damon wouldn't call it friendliness, but it's a few steps away from complete indifference. Her brows lift and just the faintest twinge as though an invisible string very carefully lifts a corner of her mouth, but doesn't complete the action. "For a minute there you were starting to sound like you gave a damn."

"Hmph." Damon makes a noise in the back of his throat, following it with an eye roll. "Thank god that passed."

He throws open the door and is out of the car before the witch can summon a reply. If she's going to summon one. Damon doesn't know, and he's not hanging around to find out.

The others are pouring out of the RV as Damon walks up to it. He hears and feels the witch following a bit behind him, more than he sees her. "Here's the deal," Damon launches in without preamble, "Caroline and I will go in there and look for her father. Everyone else holes up in the RV and waits."

"Why can't we come too?" The jock hovers behind Caroline, and Damon wonders if he's supposed to look supportive or intimidating. Whichever it is, he's failing at both and only manages to look like a hovering ape. "Safety in numbers. We can all stick together."

Damon usually doesn't talk to the boy, but this time he gives him that much courtesy. Or something. "Because you, and Ric, and Witchy are meals on legs. If there are any zombies in there at all, they're probably feeling peckish and will be glad to see you. Caroline and I can move faster, and they mostly ignore us. We're not -" And with that there's a pointed pause as Damon levels a look at the younger vampire, " - Going to spend all night searching the whole town for Papa Forbes."

"But -"

"If he's not at home, then he left or -" A twinge of pain in his head has Damon swiveling his head to glare at the witch. Bonnie tilts her head, gives him a smile and the pain increases marginally. A muscle in Damon's cheek tightens and he glares then turns back to Caroline. "Then. He. Left. We get back on the road and probably meet up with him in Atlanta."

"It makes sense, Caroline," Ric says in that paternal big-brother tone of his. "Searching the whole town will take forever. If he's not here, we'll just assume he moved on."

Turning on his heel, Damon heads back toward the Hummer, stopping to glare at Bonnie along the way. The teen witch is far too smug as she meets his gaze.

"Happy?" Damon asks, words dripping with sarcasm and annoyance.

Bonnie gives him a smirk that could rival his own. "Ecstatic. I knew you could play nice." She brushes past him and Damon realizes that no matter how well they got along on the drive, there are times when he still wants to bury fangs in her throat.

All right, maybe it's possible that he doesn't want to kill her, but shaking her up would be worth the aneurysm she's bound to give him for his trouble.

"If we're going to do this, let's do it, Blondie," Damon calls out over his shoulder. He steps up to the passenger door of the Hummer and holds it pointedly open. "I'd like to be back at base camp by nightfall."

"You don't have to be such an ass," Caroline grumbles as she climbs in.

"You don't have to be so predictable and annoying," Damon retorts.

They drive past the 'Welcome to Finn's Wake' sign in silence.

###

It's the look on Caroline's face when she and Damon return that tells Bonnie everything that she needs to know. There are no words as Bonnie wastes no time crossing the asphalt that somehow seems colder and emptier now, matching the empty sadness in Caroline's dull eyes. She envelopes Caroline in a hug, and the two young women stand there silently in the slowly lowering sun, clinging to one another.

"Great, just what we need right now: a Lifetime movie moment," Damon shakes his head at the display and brushes past the pair. Bonnie's far too concerned with Caroline to give the vampire the glare or scathing remark that he deserves.

"He wasn't there," Caroline says finally. She lifts her head, and shades of the typical Caroline try to peek out. Though her forced smile of optimism and the usual peppy spark in her eyes is dimmed with the hovering tears that Bonnie knows she's refusing to shed. "He left a note that he was going to head to Atlanta. He could have made it out before things got worse, right? He could be there right now."

"Or brains have become a favored dish of his," Damon calls out.

"Shut up, Damon," Alaric growls. It's not meant to be loud, but it carries in the stillness around them. Still, Bonnie is grateful that he's trying to keep Damon in line.

"He could, completely," Bonnie agrees with a bob of her head. She suspects her smile is as wavery as Caroline's and she knows that it comes nowhere near her eyes. But agreement right now plants hope, and hope is what they need.

"Or he could be dead. He could changed his mind and tried to come to Mystic Falls to find me, or tried to leave me a message - "

"Caroline ... Caroline ... Caroline, stop." Bonnie has to say her name three times, and squeeze the vampire's arms as tightly as possible to get her friend's attention as the blonde starts to derail herself. She really wants to roast Damon right now, and really hates how Caroline chose to start listening to his completely unhelpful mutterings at this particular time. "You don't know. Second and third guessing isn't going to do anything but make you miserable. All you know for certain is that he was alive to leave a message for anyone looking for him. Probably for you. Just in case."

"So what do I do?" Big blue eyes fill with tears, and Bonnie's reminded of when they were seven and Caroline skinned her knee and ripped her new sundress. How she looked up from her bloody knee and held the sundress, desperate for Elena and Bonnie to tell her how she was supposed to tell her mother.

They aren't seven now, and bandages and haphazardly applied needle and thread aren't going to fix this problem.

But Bonnie has something that might. She hesitates before offering because the outcome is as likely to be bad as it is good, but she'll give Caroline the choice. "Do you want to know? Do you really want to know?" She gives Caroline's hands a squeeze. "Do you want me to do a locator spell?"