America The Dead Book Two: The Road To Somewhere by Lindsey Rivers Page A

me,” Patty said.
    Mike nodded. “Jeff, you and me., let's go get a
shovel. And this stays with us. Later on we'll sit down and talk to
the others if it looks like we have to. It doesn't look like we
have to right now. I will talk to Bob about it myself,” He nodded,
raised his eyes from the ground and then started through the trees
to get a shovel.
    ~On the road again~
    The camp began to break up at mid-morning. The
day was gray and overcast, a few drops of rain falling from the
sky. But the gray day and rain couldn't put a damper on the smiling
faces talking to one another, laughing behind the glass windows of
the vehicles as the caravan pulled away parallel to the highway,
riding through the grassy field which wasn't in much better shape
than the road.
    Each truck had a V.H.F. radio so
they could communicate with each other and a C.B. radio to monitor
everything else. The skip talk on the C.B. was light this morning.
Twice a voice bled through claiming to be from somewhere in L.A.
and warning everyone to stay away. The voice claimed the city was
on fire, gangs fighting for control of what was left. The dead were rising and walking the
streets.
    “ Feds?” Patty asked.
    “ Feds landed and took over the
streets?” Ronnie supplied.
    Patty nodded doubtfully. “I hope
so. Because it sounded like dead... The
dead are walking the streets. ” She trailed
off and turned her eyes back to the scenery, woods, fields, low
hanging gray clouds that slipped past the windows. “That's crazy,
though, right? ”she asked. ” Crazy? ”
    “ Yeah, nuts. I
think it was Feds . Maybe it means there are still people in charge there?
Could be,” Ronnie said. He pulled Patty closer to
him.
    The voice, a young male from the sound,
continued to talk on in a matter-of-fact voice, something close to
a monotone that suggested he was drugged or high. They were all
glad when whatever atmospheric conditions had brought the voice to
them passed, and the other skip took its place.
    ~
    Just before noon they came upon a small gas
station and convenience store area and stopped to top off the gas
tanks. The store looked well used; everything was picked over. But
no one came around, and no one called on the radio. They all got
out and stretched their legs, lunched on canned meat and energy
bars, washed down with vitamin water and sports drinks.
    Just after midday, they left the interchange
behind them and continued on their way. The heavens continued to
leak rain and the fields became harder to travel through, so they
stuck to the pavement, traveling slowly on the broken surface,
skirting the occasional abandoned vehicle, tilted piece of pavement
or washed out section of roadway. About twenty minutes later, they
consulted their map under the portico of a sagging motel office and
angled west, off the main highway, away from Syracuse and its
suburbs.
    The C.B. was useless, bursts of static and
people blocking each others transmissions. Thick black smoke
billowed up into the air several miles ahead, about where Syracuse
would be, and a plastic electrical smell hung in the air even with
the rain. But they saw no one at all, not even animals. They were
all happy once the black smudge in the sky had disappeared behind
them.
    A few minutes after that, a large herd of
horses grazing in a field popped their heads up when they saw the
trucks and then galloped after them for about half mile before
turning and pounding off towards a wooded area in the distance.
That kept everybody talking back and forth on the VHF radios for
awhile. Arlene thought possibly they were part of some range stock,
and they were used to associating vehicles with feed. Lilly worried
that they might be hungry, but Arlene assured her they had plenty
to eat.
    Mike had watched one large gray
horse spotted with black on its nose which had kept pace with his
truck. Steam had risen from his coat as he had stopped and then
turned away into the rain. Beautiful , Mike had
thought.
    "Beautiful,"