If they're in Bellevue and they've just finished a mission, they may want to get out of there fast as Bellevue has the very best in police forces. There are two proper Barrens in Seattle - the Redmond Barrens on the Eastern side of the metroplex and the Puyallup barrens to the South. Both have much to offer a GM. The Redmond Barrens are adjacent to Bellevue, along the North-Easterly side. Police keep an eye on roads in and out of Redmond to make sure the scum stay in. There are around 500,000 people living in there, mostly hand-to-mouth barring the odd petty gang tyrant and Mafia or Yakuza gangsters. You know when you're entering Redmond. The Wireless Matrix gets spotty or vanishes entirely, the buildings are decaying and the roads suck, you'll see armed gang members lurking in the windows keeping a watch on their streets. If the runners are making a break for the border through Redmond, then have their contact (they've got a contact, right?) arrange to meet them in "the verge" - the nebulous wasteland between Seattle and the Salish-Sidhe nation. That's where most people slip across the border. It's a desolate zone, filthy from the ashfall from when Mt. Rainier erupted back in 2017 and not redeemed since. Only the gangs rule here, but if you make your way through it, and you have a contact who can guide you pass the Salish patrols, then you're out and probably on your way to, who knows? Vancouver, probably. Of course, if they're heading for the Verge, they'll pass such dreadful landmarks as Glow City, site of a nuclear metldown in the 2010's where the radiation still lingers and toxic shamans haunt the shadows. They'll pass direct through the Crash Zone unless they make a painful detour around it. That's where an orbital plane crash smashed apart the local buildings, including a prison. Many of the prisoners fled, but some remained, carving out a petty kingdom in the chaos. Now you know what "Barrens" means.
Or they could go South, through Puyallup. That takes them into Salish-Sidhe territory too, but heading in the direction of Portland in Tir Taingire. Maybe that's where they want to go. Puyallup is worse than Redmond. Redmond is a daily battle for survival. Puyallup is a painful wait for death. There's not a part of it that hasn't been affected by the explosion of Mt. St. Helens from the Great Ghost Dance, when Howling Dan Coyote unleashed Mother Nature against the USA. There are habitable city blocks, intact, adjacent to lava flows hardened to black basalt. The Ancients haunt this territory, tearing along the highways and sometimes (if they're particularly high), the glass smooth volcanic rock flows. Even the gangers who want to look tough wear breathers here, because the alternative is the filthy air scouring your lungs. Little islands of habitation hold those desperate enough to live here. There are old mines here, still accessible, that clans of orks have moved into and guard like fortresses against the elven gangs. Sometimes, you'll find lone shamans on vision quests camped out on the lava flats, or hiking up the slopes of Mt. Rainier to commune with the spirits there. Redmond is filled with human animals, but in Puyallup, you'll find the animal animals. Paracritters sometimes roam into Puyallup. You might find Hell Hounds near the volcanic slopes, slipping close to the villages at night to tear open trash cans or run down a drunk stupid enough to be coming home on their own. There are smuggling routes all through Puyallup though, and if you want to get across the border South, this is where you come.
I hope this helps with atmosphere and deciding where to send them and gives some ideas for encounters along the way. I don't have a normal go-gang, say the 405 Hellhounds statted up, but if you want a couple of example gangs, I have an opposition roster on my site. Direct link is
here. You'll find examples of both the Ancients and the Spikes in it. Be warned though, they're dangerous, and your players better know to run and hide. You can always tone them down a bit though.
One piece of advice: I ran a "Warriors" style adventure (as in the movie) where the PCs had to make a journey to safety. The group had a death wish from the start, determined to hole up and stay still, awaiting death, everytime they got a chance. If you're going to do a journey style adventure, make sure you do two things. Firstly - make sure you can keep the players running. My lot eventually ended up sitting in a building allowing a veritable army of gangers to accumulate ready to kill them. I remember saying something like: "If you just sit there, you're going to die". They sat there. I don't know why. Anyway, make sure your players know that they want to escape, not wait for death. I blame their history with D&D probably. They think my job as GM is to throw moderately challenging fights at them that they can beat and then take the credsticks. I have explained that no, my job is to set things up so that they die and their job is to find ways not to. I'm ranting aren't I? Anyway, point one is to make sure they know the default outcome is DOOM and that only by getting out of the way of DOOM can they survive. The second point is to have a few ways prepared in advance to derail ways of shortcutting your adventure. It would suck if they just got in a car and drove safely to their destination. It would likewise be a bit sucky if you as GM say: "uh, well, you can't, because, uh, you run out of petrol and no - you can't steal another car because, uh, there aren't any in Bellevue. It's uh, no car day". Set up a few ambushes, gangers with road spikes, a broken bridge that their mapsofts didn't account for, a toxic shaman with spirits using the Accident power, that sort of thing.
Oh, one final thing. A member of any Go-Gang they encounter in the Barrens has to shriek with maniacal laughter. This is mandatory. I recommend you practice it in front of the bathroom mirror and freak out your partner / housemates / neighbours very badly. I really mean it about the maniacal laughter! It's the most important part.
Hope all this helps - my hands are cramping!
K.