The Long Road (Surviving the Fall 6)

“Why wouldn’t it? It’s just a bunch of trees.”

“I don’t know. When I think about the end of the world I think about fires, meteors and rivers of lava. Not trees and snow and clouds in the sky.”

“Not everything’s terrible at the end of the world.”

“No.” Dianne pointed ahead of them. “But some things are.”

A few hundred feet away at the edge of Ellisville sat the remnants of several burned out vehicles. Rust was rapidly accumulating on their twisted frames and though they had only been there for a couple weeks they looked as though they had been sitting out for years. Jason took the truck through town slowly, keeping the engine as quiet as possible as they listened out through the open windows for any other vehicles.

Dianne assumed that there were still a few people left in town but after thirty minutes of driving and searching she was beginning to think that everyone up and left. “Where is everybody?”

“Gone to the big cities. Trying to get food and shelter from the government, I suspect. Not that there’s much food and shelter to go around anymore.”

“This reminds me of some natural disasters, like earthquakes and hurricanes. Everybody up and leaving due to floodwaters or something like that.”

“Does anything look different in town compared to the last time you came out?”

Dianne shook her head. “It’s been a while and we didn’t explore very much so I have no idea.”

“Hm. I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Besides, you know, the place looking like a tornado blew through.

“We should head west towards Blacksburg and see what’s out that way. If you’re up for some off-roading.”

“I think I can handle it.” Jason smiled and turned the corner, heading in the general direction of the highway leading out towards Blacksburg. He followed the same route that Dianne had taken just after the event, when she and the children had run into one of their after-school teachers who was leaving the city on a motorcycle. She had considered trying to go off-road to search for other people but decided instead to head back to the house.

With her and Jason now in pursuit of a gang who had burned down the Carson’s house she was glad that she had made her original choice. She was also looking forward to inflicting no small amount of revenge upon the people who had taken Tina and done who-knows-what with Dave.

Intended to help relieve the stress on the smaller roads and the main US-460 highway, the 460 business highway was split into north and south routes with the southern o

ne being the original and the northern one being the new one. The new northern road took a westerly route past Ellisville and through into Blacksburg where it merged with US-460 proper. Dubbed “the slow-way” by those in the area, the highway passed by Ellisville, went through Blacksburg and out to the northwest. Though it was relatively new it was under constant repairs due to the haste that had gone into its original construction. Traffic was nearly always backed up along all sections of the road including the on and off ramps near Ellisville.

“Wow.” Jason whistled softly as he saw the piles of destroyed cars clogging the ramp onto the highway.

“Yeah. It’s pretty bad, isn’t it?”

“If you think this is bad you should see what it’s like in the bigger cities.” Jason revved the engine as he went off-road into the soft dirt and grass, driving in a wide circle around the vehicles and the guardrail near the ramp. “Bodies everywhere, cities burning, more vehicles than this scattered everywhere. I can’t believe all of this devastation could be caused by some sort of malfunction.”

“Tell that to my phone and my car.”

“Damn. I forgot about what happened to our phone. Same thing happened to yours, huh?”

“If yours burned to a crisp then yes, exactly the same.”

“Hm.” Jason shook his head, focusing away from the conversation and back on where he was driving. The guardrail stretched for a good half mile and the ground was soft enough that the large truck felt like it was going to get stuck or slip into the rail at any second. Once Jason got them onto the highway Dianne breathed a sigh of relief before groaning at the sight before them.

“Holy cow. How… how are there so many cars here?” Before them stretched four lanes of burned-out vehicles as far as Dianne could see.

“They don’t call it the slow-way for nothing. Must have been bumper-to-bumper when it happened.”

“Huh.” Dianne sat back in her seat and thought for a few long seconds. “Then those guys can’t be based out along this way now can they?”

Jason’s eyes widened and he nodded thoughtfully. “That is a very good point. Where else would they go, though?”

Dianne opened up the map they had been studying at the house the day before and flattened out the section around Ellisville. “What if they’re using one of the back roads? One that would give them unrestricted movement while simultaneously keeping them away from major highways that would be too obstructed to use.”

“Like 407?”

“Exactly.” Dianne traced the path of the road out to the west. “It has plenty of connections between Ellisville and Blacksburg, it runs the whole way and it doesn’t see much traffic on account of how narrow and twisty it is.”