by Bruno Miller
And they did, because the truth was, he didn’t know if the Mustang and bike would be back to bother them again. It was what Emma and Sandy both needed to hear from him. Being up front about things was part of the no-sugarcoating-things deal he’d made with himself when it came to the kids. And after the morning they’d had, it was time to try some of that honesty out.
Emma wasn’t interested in her book anymore, and Ben noticed her attention was mostly directed out her window and occasionally behind them. Maybe it was a good thing he wasn’t the only one keeping an eye out for trouble. Not that the others weren’t on the lookout already, but the possibility of danger would keep them on their toes, and right now, he welcomed the help.
His thoughts kept flashing back to the last image he saw as they went around the corner and lost sight of the broken-down Mustang. The steam escaping from the damaged front end, the driver walking around the car with his hands flailing, no doubt yelling about what had happened to his car and them getting away.
He hoped the damage was catastrophic and the car was beyond repair. The bike was still operational, though, and Ben half expected it to appear behind them at any moment, although he thought it more likely the bandits would fix the Mustang and seek revenge together. Maybe there were more of them and they would return in even greater numbers. But now his imagination was getting the better of him.
If Emma weren’t here, he would have asked Sandy to stop, maybe even go back, so he could finish the bandits off. That would have guaranteed no future trouble from either of them, and he wondered if not doing just that was a mistake. Unfortunately, there would be plenty of time to think about all of it over the next few hours of driving and looking over his shoulder.
Chapter Nineteen
It was hard to believe that spending the night in the motel had cost them so much. One thing was for sure: they’d be camping somewhere remote tonight, no matter the weather. It would be a long time before Ben agreed to stay someplace like that again or went against his intuition for the sake of comfort.
The only good thing to come out of their pit stop in Falls Creek was the full tanks of gas he was especially grateful for. Considering what had just happened, it was nice to be able to drive for a while without worrying about having to stop for fuel.
Eventually, Emma went back to reading her book, and Bajer found a spot for her head on Emma’s lap. Sam had returned to her bed on top of the gear and was snoring loudly. Even the dogs seemed to know it was going to be a while before they stopped again.
The highway began to open up with wider shoulders and a third lane, allowing them to avoid obstacles with greater ease. Even Rita seemed to be growing more confident with each passing mile and was finding her rhythm behind the Jeep as their four-vehicle convoy wound its way westward along the interstate.
They were finally making decent time now, and Ben started to relax a little. They’d been stuck on the smaller mountain roads for so many days in a row he’d forgotten what it was like to drive at these speeds consistently. If they could maintain this pace, they just might make it to Cloverdale in a couple of days.
Ben checked behind them again. He’d probably continue to do so all the way home. He couldn’t shake the image of the Mustang pulling out from behind one of the wrecks.
Emma was sleeping again. He hadn’t noticed when she’d stopped reading, but he hardly blamed her. With the windows down in an effort to make the heat more bearable, the wind rushing through the Blazer was too loud for them to hold a conversation or focus on a book.
But the noise was a small price to pay to keep themselves and the vehicles cool. The outside sheet metal of the truck was so hot Ben couldn’t rest his arm out the window anymore. He would have been worried about the vehicles overheating if they weren’t able to keep the air moving like this. He still found himself looking over at the temperature gauge from time to time when he thought Sandy wasn’t paying attention.
Hopefully she didn’t notice and think he didn’t trust her. It just made him feel better to see things operating within tolerances for himself. He was already having a hard time believing they hadn’t had any mechanical trouble yet, with two unknown vehicles that had been sitting for who knew how long inside the compound.
At least Martin was taking it easy on the Scout so far today, although Ben credited that to the morning they’d had, not to Martin. The guy was a work in progress, far removed from his pencil-pushing life in the city. Ben had to keep that in mind and remember to cut him some slack. That was hard to do at times, especially when he put the others in danger. But it would all be worth it when they reached Cloverdale with a truck full of supplies. At least that was what Ben kept telling himself.
He couldn’t blame all their misfortune on the decision to travel with the others they’d met at the compound. They probably would have stayed at the motel last night whether they were with Martin and the older couple or not, given the intensity of the storm. Allie’s close call with the lightning strike was proof of that.
He wondered if the type of storm they experienced last night was what they should expect from now on. All the weather seemed more extreme since the EMPs. It was like they had lost a protective layer of the atmosphere. The sun today felt like it was only a couple of miles away, and the shadow lines it caused were so crisp they looked cartoonish.
Today was the first day they’d seen the sky this blue and bright. It reminded him of Colorado, but as refreshing as it was to see clear sky, he’d rather have the clouds and haze they’d grown accustomed to. At least then they would have a buffer from the direct rays of the sun. Until now, he hadn’t realized just how much relief the darkened skies had provided.
“Do we have any more water?” Sandy finished the last drops from her Nalgene bottle. Ben pulled a full bottle, one of three remaining, from beneath a pile of towels; he’d stowed them there in an attempt to shelter them from the heat. He missed the days when they were all in the Blazer together and Allie would keep the water cool by wrapping bottles in towels for insulation. She did a better job than him. And with Emma and two dogs climbing all over the place, he wasn’t sure why he even bothered trying.
Ben handed the warm bottle to Sandy. “Sorry, that’s the best I can do.”
“Hey, at least it’s wet, right?” She unscrewed the lid and took a few small sips before setting it down. She did her best to pretend it was refreshing, but the look on her face told a different story. The water situation was starting to concern him; there was just too much going on to think about it before now. Some of the others had not been as frugal with their water supply as he would have liked them to be. Apparently, everyone had used a fair amount of water to get cleaned up last night and again when they were getting ready this morning. Ben hadn’t realized how much they’d used exactly because of how quickly they’d left the motel, but he had come to learn over the course of the morning that they were down to less than a few gallons.
He’d been clear—at least he thought he had been—that they needed to conserve what they had. Ben was hoping the water they left the compound with would last them a couple of days. But now they needed to add water to their list of needs. The fact that their supplies had gone warm many miles ago only added insult to injury. But at least now he had something to help pass the time: studying the atlas for a likely water source.
Their best bet, in his opinion, was about an hour away, where the interstate crossed the Allegheny River. Lake Erie sat at the headwaters for the Allegheny and should provide them with plenty of relatively clean, easy-to-filter water. According to his road atlas, the river looked to be fairly wide where they would cross, and that meant a bridge. It also meant the bridge might be impassable; based on what they’d seen, he was concerned that they might run into another roadblock.
They had two other options to cross the river if the interstate bridge was blocked, and he wasn’t crazy about either of them. They could head south and cross at Foxburg, but it was a twenty-mile trip out of their way and it would ta
ke them closer to Pittsburgh—or what was left of it. The other choice was only slightly less appealing, and it meant making their way directly through the center of Emlenton, Pennsylvania.
Ben didn’t know the town from any of the others on the map, but it looked like a decent-sized municipality. And it was the next closest river crossing if the interstate bridge was a bust. Not ideal, with people seemingly coming out of the woodwork all of a sudden.
He liked the sense of security of having extra supplies, but it came at a cost. That cost was anxiety; it felt like they had targets on their backs. And with four vehicles, there was no way they could slip through town unnoticed in the middle of the day. Maybe the heat would play to their advantage and keep people indoors.
Ben tried not to think about it, but it was hard not to, and deliberating his route helped take his mind off the Mustang and motorcycle he was sure would reappear at any moment.
Chapter Twenty
It would have been easy to take a nap while Sandy was driving, but Ben’s conscience wouldn’t let him. After the morning they’d had, he couldn’t allow himself that luxury. Emma was having no problem sleeping, however, and he hadn’t heard a peep from her in quite a while.
He turned to check on his daughter. Both dogs had been forced to find another place to lie. Emma was stretched out across the rear seat, and to his surprise, she still had the sub-zero-rated sleeping bag draped over her body and pulled up snugly around her neck. He couldn’t believe she was comfortable beneath that in this heat.
“Is Emma all right? She’s been awfully quiet,” Sandy asked.
“She’s still sleeping. I can’t believe she’s under the bag, though. She’s going to melt.” Ben continued to watch her sleep.
“Maybe you should wake her up and get her to drink some water.” Sandy glanced back at her. “She looks hot.”
“I know. I hate to disturb her, but maybe you’re right.” Ben pulled the sleeping bag away from Emma’s face and tried to gently wake her up. “Em… Em, honey, are you okay?” He noticed that her clothes were wet under the sleeping bag, and he pulled the rest of it off right away. “Emma, are you okay?”
He was relieved to see her eyes open as she slowly came to life.
“I’m fine. I was just a little cold.” She picked at her T-shirt while struggling to get upright in the seat. As soon as there was room on the bench seat, Badger jumped up and sat next to Emma, wagging her tail and begging for attention. Sam was more reserved and stayed put on the bed of blankets.
“Might do you some good to get some fresh air. Do you want to sit up here for a while by the window?” Ben offered.
“No, I’m fine.”
“Here.” Ben handed her a bottle of water.
Emma took a drink but pulled back immediately. “Yuck.”
“I know. It’s all we have, though. You need to try and drink as much as you can. You lost a lot of water sweating under there.” Ben glanced at the sleeping bag, which was now occupied by Bajer, who had made a nest in it after failing to get any attention from Emma. When he looked back at his daughter, he noticed the goosebumps covering her legs and arms.
“I’ve got a chill.” She pulled some of the sleeping bag out from under Bajer and used it to cover her legs before resuming her attempt at downing the warm water. Bajer stood up and made a few circles before sitting back down. Ben put the back of his hand against her forehead. She was hot, no doubt about it, but they all were. He couldn’t tell if she had a fever or not. His first thought was of the water they had taken from the compound. Maybe it wasn’t as clean as they’d thought. But if that were the case, wouldn’t they all be sick?
“What do you think? I can’t tell.” Ben looked at Sandy, who turned and felt Emma’s forehead for a few seconds while keeping one eye on the road.
“Yeah, she’s a little warm, but in this heat, it’s hard to tell.” Sandy returned her attention to driving.
Ben could tell the extra attention was making Emma uncomfortable, so he turned around in his seat. “There’s a place coming up we can stop and refill the bottles with fresh, cool water.” He glanced back at Emma again. She was looking a little better now that she was sitting up.
“Dad, I’m fine. I’m okay.” She made a face and turned her attention to Bajer. He hoped she was okay, but his gut told him otherwise. There was no telling what was making her feel bad; it could have been anything. They had all been through the wringer over the past few days, and this morning was no exception.
Sandy shot him a quick smile. “She’ll be okay. Might just be a touch of motion sickness. All this swerving back and forth can get to you.” But Emma wasn’t paying attention to their conversation anymore. Bajer was stretched out, allowing Emma to use her as a table for her drawing notebook. He was glad to see her occupied with something other than staring out the windows at the brown and dying landscape. He was tired of looking at it himself.
“There it is.” Sandy nodded at the sign up ahead.
EXIT 45, 1 MILE.
“Isn’t that the exit you said we might need to come back to if we couldn’t get across the bridge?” Sandy asked.
“Yeah, let’s hope we don’t have to do that and go through town. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. The bridge should only be another mile or two ahead.” Ben turned the radio on and set it in one of the cupholders in case Joel needed to get in touch with them. If there was a problem crossing the bridge, he wanted to know right away. There was no need to waste any time trying to figure out what to do. Going back to the exit and taking the route through town wasn’t something he wanted to do, but putting it off wouldn’t help their situation.
Their priority was quickly becoming water, but his plan was to wait and get it on the western side of the river. It looked less populated and would be a better place to take a short break from driving. His map showed some secondary roads probably used for bridge maintenance or highway crews. They could use them to access the water’s edge. From the looks of things, he was guessing they were going to cross over the Allegheny at a pretty high elevation.
As they neared the bridge, the surrounding landscape began to fall away steeply from the highway. Sandy merged into the left lane to avoid a row of orange construction barrels. The two sides of the interstate came together just before the bridge, and the grassy median separating the east- and westbound lanes eventually turned into a thin concrete barrier.
Ben wasn’t happy to see one of their lanes closed due to road construction. The construction barriers cut their odds of finding an open lane across the river in half. There was no way around it, though; the lanes under construction were impassable, with bare rebar protruding from the surface.
With the road reduced to two narrow lanes bordered by concrete dividers on both sides, the space already felt tight, but Ben’s hopes for crossing sank further when they were funneled into a single lane. The entire bridge was under construction, and both directions of traffic had been joined into one lane meant to be operated by a flagman. He wasn’t surprised when the Scout’s brake lights lit up and the vehicle came to a stop.
“Come in, Dad. Over.”
“Go ahead. Over.” Ben shook his head at Sandy. “This can’t be good.”
“We’re gonna have to find another way. Over.”
“I’ll be right there. Over.” Ben opened his door, but there was only enough room between the truck and the concrete divider to open it partway.
“Do you want me to go?” Sandy offered.
“No, I won’t be long.” Ben slid out through the opening and closed the door so he could make his way to the Jeep. There was less than a couple of feet on either side of the row of vehicles; it was easy to see why the road was blocked ahead. He crossed over to the left side of the lane and prepared to pass the driver’s side of the Scout on his way by.
Martin’s door opened and he jumped out before Ben could pass. “Looks pretty bad.”
“Come on, let’s take a look.” Martin was already out of the truck, and Ben figu
red he might as well come along and help out if there was anything they could do to keep moving forward.
“You guys doing all right?” Ben didn’t stop as he walked past the Toyota, but he saw Rita nod through the windshield as he glanced back at the couple.
“Looks like we’re going back. There’s no way we’re getting through here.” Joel was standing up high on the doorsill of the Jeep and looking out over the line of burnt-out cars in front of him.
He was right. With the entire bridge reduced to one lane and the rest of it unusable due to construction, they had no options this time.
More than a dozen scorched and blackened cars were lined up bumper to bumper in front of the Jeep. They must have been waiting for their turn to proceed across the bridge when the EMPs hit. The first and last cars in the traffic jam were empty, but that wasn’t the case for the vehicles trapped in the middle. The skeletal remains of the victims were still visible through the busted-out windows. Some of the car doors were open; their occupants had attempted to escape a fiery death. The badly charred and decayed bodies a few feet from the open doors proved their struggles were futile.
They couldn’t move the cars out of the way—none of them even had tires anymore—and it would take way too much time and effort. But even more than that, Ben didn’t want to disturb the bodies. They stood there for a minute, taking it in. It was a grim reminder of how lucky they all were.
Standing here in the blazing-hot sun wasn’t getting them any closer to Colorado, and Ben felt more energy being sucked out of him with every second. There was nothing more to think about.
“All right, let’s head back to the last exit. Exit 45. It’s only a couple miles back.” Ben turned to leave.