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Rick nodded, then shook his head in confusion. “I’m sorry, but why are you up here, anyway? If you were down on the freeway, why would you come up here?”
Jack pointed down the length of the overpass. “This is the best way out of the city, man. Like, I don’t know if we can even get out, but the roads are a mess down there.”
“There are fires everywhere.” Samantha jumped in helpfully. “Plus, we heard on the radio that there’s been all sorts of looting going on. It’s getting insane out there. We figured we’d be better off up here, where there isn’t anything to loot to begin with.”
Rick spun back around to look at the pair. “A radio? A working radio?”
Jack nodded slowly. “Yeah, man, the city broadcast system. Bunch of speakers hooked up all over the place. It runs off some kind of emergency power, I think. Anyway there were some guys on there talking about how there’s looting and the best way out of the city is on the overpass. Oh, and some stuff about the military? I don’t know, man, we were busy trying to get away from all the burning cars and stuff.”
“Have you all seen any police? Or other emergency personnel?”
Samantha shook her head and shrugged. “We heard a few sirens, but that was a long time ago. I haven’t seen a single cop since we’ve been walking, and I’ve see a lot of people going by.”
As the fog from Rick’s mind continued to clear, he looked down the length of the overpass in front of him. The road that had earlier been filled with the burning hulks of cars was now home to people who were trudging along, slowly making their way in the same direction that Rick had been heading. He looked down at the ground where he had been sitting and noticed that his luggage was missing. “Did you see a piece of luggage here? A big black case?”
Samantha frowned. “Sorry, no. But there have been a lot of people going along here. One of them probably took it.”
“You did kind of look dead, man.” Jack shrugged sympathetically.
Rick sighed, more disappointed over losing the luggage than he would have expected to feel. “Well, thanks for stopping to check on me.” He stuck out his hand and Jack shook it enthusiastically. “I appreciate it.”
“Right on, man. Hey, if you want to walk with us, feel free. There’s a lot of walking to do, and hey, maybe we’ll find someone with a working phone!”
Rick looked around, still trying to get his bearings. His body felt weak, his head was still spinning and he was still trying to cope with what he had seen at the airport. “Yeah… yeah I think I’ll tag along. Thanks.”
As Rick, Jack and Samantha walked on, the pair started talking about their work at a technology startup and wondered what was going to happen the next day. Rick nodded politely as he listened, but his mind was elsewhere, wondering about his family and what was going on in Virginia. He hoped that whatever was happening—which he still couldn’t fully comprehend—was isolated to Los Angeles, but knew that was likely just a dream far removed from reality.
Chapter 6
Outside Ellisville, VA
As the gravel road turned into a paved one, Dianne began to see signs that the problems with her phones and the car catching fire were only small parts of something much larger. The first sign was the amount of foot traffic along the narrow two-lane road, which normally was devoid of all but the occasional car. Instead, however, there were dozens of people out who were walking, some wearing backpacks and dragging pieces of luggage behind them. There were even a pair of bikers going along that she had to pass, and though they rode what looked like racing bikes, they were bogged down with heavy packs on their backs.
“Mom? What’s with all the people?” Mark sat up in his seat as he looked around, a worried look on his face.
Dianne frowned and shook her head as she drove along, giving the cyclists and pedestrians a wide berth. “I don’t know, sweetie. Just hang tight and try to stay quiet until we get into town.”
The closer Dianne drove into town, the denser the foot traffic grew. She also began to see other cars on the road—just a few, but still a welcome sight—though they, like her truck, were all older models. As the two-lane road grew wider and a shoulder appeared on both sides that indicated she was close to town, she started seeing a more worrying sight.
“Mom are those—”
“Yeah, kiddo. Just like ours.” Dianne and the three children stared at the blackened husks of cars that started to appear along the road. A few still had flames flickering from the engine compartment and interior while most were simply smoking. Nearly every vehicle had at least one person standing nearby, their clothing blackened and covered with smoke and soot.
While the density of people was a welcome sight to Dianne, the sight of more burned out cars was worrisome, especially as more and more people began walking, jogging and running toward her truck as she continued on into town.
“Kids, make sure your doors are locked and your seatbelts are tight, okay?”
Dianne glanced around and looked at the doors, then looked at the back window of the cab to make sure it was closed. The people alongside the road, standing next to their vehicles, were beginning to swarm the truck, and Dianne increased her speed to get past them.
“Hey! Stop!” A man jumped out from behind a burned-out sports car and stood directly in the middle of the road, waving his arms in the air. Dianne gritted her teeth and slammed on the brakes, twisted the wheel and then hit the gas again. She heard the man cursing as the truck slid around him, and she glanced back to see him making an obscene gesture at her as she pulled away.
Unfortun
ately, however, the man wasn’t the last to try and stop Dianne’s truck. As the trees gave way to fields, houses and shops, people on both sides of the road shouted and pleaded with her to stop and let them in. Without having a clue as to what was going on, Dianne avoided people as best as she could, cutting through a small, sparsely-populated neighborhood on the edge of town as she tried to figure out what to do.
“Mom, what do all those people want?” Jacob piped up from the back seat as Dianne drove along slowly, her mind racing.
“I’m not sure, kiddo. I think they’re scared about whatever’s going on, though.”
