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“That… may be difficult.” Dr. Evans peered out the window at a highway that branched off from the one they were on. It slowly rose into the sky, passing over homes and businesses on the outskirts of town. What he was looking at wasn’t the elevated highway itself, though, but the massive chunks of it that had come loose from the structure as a whole, crashing to the ground and crushing everything beneath them.
“What the…” Rick took his eyes off the road for a few seconds, staring at amazement at the highway before the bump strip at the edge of the road brought his attention back on driving.
Jane pressed her nose against the back window. “What happened out there?”
“I have no earthly idea.” Dr. Evans whispered as he studied the massive structure. “An earthquake, perhaps?”
“That’d have to be a pretty major earthquake, wouldn’t it?”
Dr. Evans nodded. “It would indeed.”
“So where should I go?”
“I would stay on this road as long as possible. It should pass through the city and out the other side without getting us stuck in the mishmash of small streets.”
As the trio drove along they all stared in wonder and fear as the signs of destruction increased both in scope and magnitude. Long cracks ran along large buildings and roadways, pieces of buildings’ facades lay strewn along the streets and strange shallow holes were visible in more than a few locations. Thin trails of smoke rose across the landscape, though whether they were from fires started by survivors or remnants of whatever disaster had befallen the area was impossible to say.
“This is creepy as hell.” Jane whispered from the back of the car, switching between the left and right windows as she gazed out at the destruction. “It looks like somebody shook the city half apart.”
“Is Kansas City on a fault line?” Rick wondered aloud.
“No idea.” Dr. Evans shrugged. “But this type of tectonic activity is less surprising than you might think.”
“Come again?” Rick glanced at Dr. Evans.
“When I was on Air Force One, before we crashed, I remember hearing people talking about mild to moderate earthquakes that were happening around the country. I have to wonder if Damocles had something to do with it. Perhaps by reversing pipeline flows, increasing the flow rate of fluids being pumped into the ground in exploratory wells or pressurized oil retrieval operations or other similar things.”
“Oh, great.” Jane rolled her eyes. “So this thing can cause earthquakes now, too?”
“That’s not entirely accurate.” Dr. Evans replied. “Damocles is an asymmetric weapon of war. It’s designed with countless types of attack methods ranging from direct to subtle. We know that certain types of widespread artificial underground activity can manifest earth tremors so it’s well within the realm of possibility that Damocles decided to ramp up that type of attack in some areas of the country.”
“At least the main road through the city seems relatively clear.” Rick said. While Jane and Dr. Evans had been busy watching their surroundings Rick had been focused on getting them through the city as quickly as possible. As they approached the center of the city Rick noticed that the number of intact vehicles was starting to increase. Most of them were burned out but there were more than a few that were still intact, which made him realize that they should take full advantage of the opportunity.
“Have you all seen anyone as we’ve been driving through?” Rick started easing up on the gas as he looked for a likely candidate vehicle in a safe location.
“Nobody. Unless that smoke is people, but I’m not convinced.” Jane put her chin on the back of Rick’s seat. “Why? You got an idea?”
“I’m just noticing that there are a decent number of vehicles that look intact around here. I know this thing only sips fuel but I hate letting a good stash of the stuff go to waste. What if we stop, siphon some gas from one of these cars and look around for some more supplies and maybe a gun or two while we’re at it? It’s a long drive to Washington and I don’t know how long it’ll be till we have an opportunity to stop again.”
Dr. Evans nodded. “Excellent point. I loathe the idea of stopping here but I think you’re right.”
“Jane?” Rick looked in the rearview mirror, not wanting to make a decision on stopping without it being unanimous.
“Absolutely. I need to stretch my legs anyway.”
“Perfect.” Rick pointed out through the right window. “I saw a cluster of vehicles over there a minute ago. I’ll swing back around. It looked like there were a few shops nearby so we can do a bit of supply searching, too.”
Rick tapped on the touchscreen and turned off the gasoline engine, switching their car over to run solely off of the electric batteries so that they could move around without being heard as easily. At the next intersection he turned right off of the main road and wound the car along the street until he got to the parking lot he had seen previously. When he pulled in he realized why there were so many intact cars and he laughed at the sight.
“Ha! Look at those!” Half the parking lot was filled with burned-out wrecks of modern vehicles that had been destroyed by Damocles. The other half, though, was filled with pristine—albeit filthy from all the soot and smoke in the air—cars from the thirties through the seventies. The classic car meetup was a staple for the downtown area and it had gone from a once-per-month tradition to something that was almost continuously ongoing in some form or fashion.
Rick drove slowly down the line of cars, soaking in the sharp edges and gorgeous curves that were staples of the older designs. Dr. Evans and Jane had their eyes glued to the windows as well and Dr. Evans finally spoke up. “Can’t we take one of these instead?”
“I sure as hell wish we could.” Rick nodded. “The gas mileage on them is going to be abysmal, though. Plus this electric motor and our solar panels—”
“Yes, yes.” Dr. Evans sighed. “I know. These things are just gorgeous, though.”
“You won’t get any argument from me on that one. Come on, let’s find a hose and get to siphoning.”
