Emma was probably happy to be included in the group with the other kids, but Ben knew conditions in the back of the Jeep were cramped, and he hoped she’d be ready to switch back to riding in the Blazer once they dropped off their new passengers. Emma wasn’t a big conversationalist, but he preferred to have her ride with him just the same.

  Ben was relieved Evelyn and Harper were headed in the same direction as them. He wasn’t sure he could get behind a significant detour at this point, even if it was to help someone out. Deep down, though, he knew they would have accommodated the pair no matter their destination; he and the others were different than the people living under the bridge and the rest of the unfavorable individuals they’d encountered along the way.

  This was the example he wanted to set for his kids. Just because the world had fallen into disarray didn’t mean they couldn’t show compassion to those in need. Banking some goodwill along the way was never a bad idea. And although Ben didn’t consider himself superstitious, lending a hand to an elderly woman and her granddaughter couldn’t possibly hurt, could it?

  34

  Ben was only mildly successful at tuning out Sandy and Evelyn’s conversation and involuntarily learned of the circumstances that had landed the woman and her granddaughter in their previous predicament. The EMPs struck while the pair were on their way to Kansas City to visit the zoo and aquarium for Harper’s sixth birthday. Fortunately, they were still quite a ways from the city when disaster struck. In another stroke of luck, the two were using the restroom at a convenience store when they heard explosions. A few seconds later, the shock waves hit, shattering glass and shaking the building to its core, leaving quite the scene for them to discover upon their exit from the bathroom.

  The two navigated their way through the pandemonium somehow, and after securing whatever food and water they could carry from the damaged gas station, they escaped the chaos and fled to the nearby woods. They’d been primarily following the interstate home, but they often veered into the wooded areas bordering the highway to avoid trouble. This strategy had served them well until an unexpected encounter disrupted their journey one night, leading to their capture by a group living under the bridge. Evelyn remained reticent about the details of their abduction and their time in captivity, a topic she wasn’t keen on discussing. Ben and Sandy respected her silence and refrained from pressing for more information.

  Harper reminded Ben of Emma when she was younger, and he was glad to see the girl warm up to Bajer and Sam. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for a kid that age to go through something like this. She’d be learning how to cope with the trauma of watching the world fall apart for the rest of her life. With any luck, she’d be at least partly successful in that.

  He liked to think she was resilient like his kids and Allie, but that was just something he told himself so he’d feel better about their current situation. The truth was, they would all be scarred by this historic event. The devastation was unavoidable, and no one was immune unless they hid out in an underground bunker for the foreseeable future, and that was no way to live, either.

  The drive from the river to Hayes, Kansas, didn’t take long, even in the oppressive heat they’d intended to avoid. Evelyn directed them down a secondary road when they’d reached the proper exit. Several country miles later, they found themselves pulling onto a dirt road that eventually led them to a small homestead. Or what was left of it.

  The house was gone, as Ben had predicted, but Evelyn took it better than he anticipated. She must have known or at least expected as much. How could she not have? But the discovery of their burned-down home did give Ben and the others reason to pause as they considered what was waiting for them in Durango. They all exchanged knowing glances, but no one said a word about the elephant in the room. Soon enough, they, too, would find out whether or not their house still stood.

  The homestead wasn’t a total loss, though. A barn and several small outbuildings still stood, including a cabin that Evelyn’s father built with his own two hands during the Great Depression. But most importantly, Evelyn and Harper’s family had survived, thanks to a tornado shelter filled with canned goods and various other supplies. Introductions were made and a plethora of goods offered to Ben and the others for bringing the two home.

  But the five other family members now had two more mouths to feed, so Ben and the others couldn’t accept their offer in good conscience. They wouldn’t escape empty-handed, though, if Evelyn had anything to do with it. Somehow, several jars of preserved food ended up in the back of the Blazer. Ben and the others were reluctant to take food from these kind people, but they had no qualms about taking advantage of the working well. They dumped the water they’d pumped at the river and refilled their water containers with some of the coldest, cleanest water they’d tasted in quite a while.

  Ben, Sandy, and the kids said their goodbyes while resisting further offers to take more food with them. They were all anxious to get back on the road and out of the sun if they could, although the latter was becoming less of a concern as the hours ticked by. Ben took over behind the wheel of the Blazer, and Joel continued driving the Jeep. Emma rejoined Ben and Sandy in the Blazer, but Ben got the impression she would have stayed with the other kids if there was more room in the back of the Scrambler. He briefly thought about trading vehicles with the kids but didn’t want to change an obviously solid formula that was working well for them and had gotten them this far.

  Ben and Sandy waved back at the ragtag family of survivors as they stood outside the tiny cabin and bid them farewell. The last thing he’d wanted to do was delay their progress today, but he was glad they could help Evelyn and her granddaughter reunite with their loved ones. The looks of joy on their faces when they realized they still had a family waiting for them were well worth the cost of admission, which, in the end, only amounted to a few extra miles of travel.

  But the encounter did more than provide a feel-good moment; it rekindled a perspective that Ben had started to lose. The meeting reaffirmed that amidst the apparent prominence of society’s worst elements, there remained individuals of integrity, full of kindness toward their fellow man. Evelyn’s family didn’t have a lot, but they were more than willing to share what they did have. Despite the challenges, these good-hearted people would persevere and find a path to survival. There was still hope for humanity, even when things were at their darkest, something Ben would do his best to remember when things didn’t go their way.

  Back on the road, Ben followed Joel as he navigated the tight curve of the on-ramp in the Scrambler, leading them up onto the westbound lanes of the interstate. He checked his watch and marked the time at just after two in the afternoon.

  “So much for sitting out the heat of the day,” Sandy remarked.

  “Yeah, but all things considered, I think it turned out pretty well. Don’t you?” Ben adjusted his seat and settled in for what would likely be several hours’ worth of driving, barring any issues or fuel stops.

  “Definitely. I’m so glad we could help. They were lucky they ran into us.” Sandy shook her head. “I hate to think about what would have happened to them if we hadn’t been there.”

  “Well, the important thing is that they’re home and with family now.” Ben sighed.

  “Do you think they’ll make it? I’d like to think so.” Sandy ran her fingernails up Ben’s arm and back down again.

  “I hope so.” He glanced at her and smiled.

  “I hope so, too.” Sandy stopped scratching his arm and turned to watch the monotone landscape fly by as they reached highway speeds.

  Ben wasn’t sure if Evelyn and her family would be all right. But they’d made it this far, and now, thanks to Ben’s group, they had an even greater purpose in Harper. He checked on Emma in the rearview mirror and thought about some of the things they’d been through. Without the kids for motivation, Ben wasn’t sure what things would look like for him. And that wasn’t a thought he wanted to dwell on for long.

  “At least we don’t have to stop for gas anytime soon.” Sandy leaned over, trying to block the glare from the instrument cluster with her hand.

  “Almost three-quarters of a tank left,” Ben reported. “That’ll just about get us to the border if my math is right.”

  “We’ll be home before we know it,” Sandy cheered.

  “I’m good with that.” Emma slouched down in the back seat and buried her nose in a book, allowing Bajer to stretch out on the remainder of the bench with a grunt of satisfaction. Life was back to normal as far as the little gray dog was concerned. She had her person, and she had her spot on the seat. It made Ben ponder how simple life used to be, although no one could have convinced him of that at the time. Life was also simple now in some ways, just a lot more dangerous as well.

  35

  The miles rolled by as the sun fell closer to the distant horizon. The drop in temperature gradually became more apparent, although the damage done by the heat and drought to the surrounding countryside was here to stay. Ben hoped the view out his window would change soon and wondered if the relief they were all looking forward to on the eastern slope of the Rockies would ever materialize.

  After dropping off Evelyn and Harper, they were less than 150 miles from the Colorado border, and after the last couple hours of driving, Ben was anxious to check the map, thinking they’d just about done that much driving since they parted ways with the pair and their family.

  The roads had been relatively free of wrecks and hazards, but these were desolate parts even in better times. There was nothing out here but flat, empty plots of land, fields that should have been full of vibrant green rows of corn, soybeans, and wheat. Instead, they were faded brown and strewn with weeds clinging to cracked patches of baked dirt.

  The empty roads made for good traveling, though, and there were long stretches of highway where they were finally able to coax the needle over into the far side of the speedometer. This, of course, had a price, and that was increased fuel consumption, but it was a tradeoff Ben was happy to make. He wanted to push through and reach well beyond the Colorado state line today, still not sure if that was possible or smart.

  The faint blue lines on his atlas had grown significantly thinner in both size and frequency. Ben also knew there wasn’t much between the Colorado border and the Rockies. The first hundred miles or so inside their home state wouldn’t offer much more in the way of resources than what they were looking at currently.

  He’d already begun to rationalize driving through the night again, but this time, he’d do it to avoid the heat. Pushing themselves through the midday sun out here in the flatlands was just as dangerous as any perils they would face on the road at night. At least that was what he told himself. But that could have been his thirst talking.

  Ben could have polished off the rest of his Nalgene without pause, but he was trying to set an example for the others. Now more than ever, they had to be frugal with their water or risk running out. For the first time, there was a real chance the water they were carrying would have to last them until tomorrow. Ben had his eyes on Pueblo, Colorado, where the Arkansas River dumped into the Pueblo Reservoir. It was probably too far to reach without driving longer than they should, but the tailwaters of the reservoir and the lower portion of the Arkansas, where the river crossed their planned route around Olney Springs, Colorado, were less than two hundred miles away. That was still a lofty goal considering the day they’d already endured, but it was their next best shot at finding water. And if they could pull it off, Ben was sure they could reach Durango the next day.

  Allie’s staticky voice broke the silence. “Come in. We’re gonna need to make a fuel stop soon. Over.”

  Ben raised his hand off the wheel, eyed the Blazer’s gauge, and nodded at Sandy.

  “Copy that. Better start looking. Over,” Sandy replied.

  Emma put her book down for the first time in a while and sat up in her seat, upsetting Bajer momentarily in the process. “Where are we?”

  “I saw a sign for US-40 west a little while back. It said twenty-three miles to the exit.” Sandy pulled out the atlas and began to study it. “Isn’t that the road we want?”

  “Yes, and the state line isn’t too much farther past that, maybe fifty or sixty miles,” Ben confirmed.

  It was hard to believe they were this close. After the distance they’d traveled, the remaining miles seemed cruel and unnecessary, but they also gave Ben a sense of hope. The realization that they were so close to the state line filled the truck with silence once again as they processed what that meant.

  “Does that mean we’ll be home tonight?” Emma asked, her voice unusually energetic.

  “We’ll be home tomorrow.” Ben waited for the expected sigh of disappointment, but historically, it wasn’t the worst announcement he’d ever made by far.

  Emma sat back in her seat. She wasn’t upset, but Ben could see the wheels in her head spinning. He’d felt bad about not being able to answer her last question with a yes, but the reality was that they were close. He’d never been able to say with confidence that they’d be home tomorrow, and the phrase almost sounded foreign when he spoke it out loud.

  “Gas station ahead. It’s on our side of the interstate, too. Over,” Allie announced with enthusiasm.

  A minute later, they were following the Scrambler off the highway onto the exit ramp. A weathered and peeling Dairy Queen billboard advertising a location that didn’t exist anymore gave them a brief flash of shade as they made a right onto the secondary road leading into the Sinclair’s parking lot. This wasn’t so much a town as it was a few scattered buildings in the middle of nowhere. But unlike most places they’d stopped at, the buildings were intact here, and Ben found himself feeling guilty for wishing they weren’t.

  They made the obligatory loop around the place, looking for anything suspect, but they saw nothing. The EMP-induced power surge that had caused so many places to burn to the ground had somehow spared this place for one reason or another, but the looters hadn’t. It was plain to see from the parking lot that there was nothing left inside the store.

  The surrounding buildings looked about the same, although one of the places was a Firestone farm tire center, and for the life of him, Ben couldn’t figure out what looters stood to gain from ransacking a place like that. Then again, he didn’t understand why, in a crisis like this, anyone would take the time to vandalize a place just for the sake of destruction. Spray-painted expletives on the side of a building served no purpose and certainly weren’t integral to survival, but vandalism like this was prevalent almost everywhere they went. He chalked it up to the product of an already unhappy population pushed over the edge and released from the constraints of normal societal expectations when the system crumbled. But whatever the reason, Ben was glad whoever left their mark here had already moved on.

  “Haven’t seen one of these since Colorado.” Joel looked up at the Sinclair’s sign towering over the parking lot above them while he unrolled the fuel hose.

  “I don’t have to look at the map to know we’re getting close now,” Allie added.

  “Tomorrow we’ll be home,” Sandy announced to the others, then looked at Ben. “Right?”

  “I don’t see why not. Put in a few more hours this afternoon and make camp somewhere quiet tonight,” Ben agreed.

  “That shouldn’t be too hard.” Brad spun around, eyeing their surroundings. “Not much out here.”

  “But that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down. In fact, I’d say now more than ever, we need to keep our wits about us and pay attention.” Ben didn’t intend to put a damper on the kids’ obvious enthusiasm about their progress, but he didn’t want them getting comfortable yet.

  Complacency wouldn’t help them finish the trip safely. In his opinion, they were much too far from home to even consider celebrating. All that considered, it was a welcome change to discuss the end of this odyssey that had taken them thousands of miles from one side of the country to the other. The difference this time was that Ben had figured them to be no more than ten hours from Durango at normal highway speeds, although they were about to leave the big interstate behind.

  The wide-open four-lane interstate that had brought them through several states continued north for a while, then cut west again toward Denver, but they were getting off at the next exit. US-40 west was what they’d be using to head slightly south toward the bottom corner of the map. He’d had his eye on the Arkansas River below the big reservoir in Pueblo but was reconsidering the plan in lieu of someplace closer on the lower section of the river.

  Ben’s confidence in their ability to reach the river below Pueblo was unshakable, perhaps fueled by their proximity to the state line or the infectious excitement emanating from the kids’ eager chatter about nearing home. Regardless, he couldn’t help but get caught up in their enthusiasm, and for a brief moment, all was well in their little world, despite their bleak surroundings.

  They finished fueling the truck in what felt like record time, although that was likely due to the jerry cans already being full. Sandy took stock of the remaining water while they cleaned up the refueling gear and themselves. Ben made a quick mechanical check of both vehicles, looking and listening for anything obvious that might ruin their momentum, but he found nothing.

  “Nalgenes are topped off and we’ve got about three gallons left in the big tank,” Sandy reported.

  Ben laid the map out on the Scrambler’s hood and outlined his travel plan for the others while Allie took notes with a pencil on the back of a lottery ticket that had escaped the ravaged gas station. Once everyone was clear on the route, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Ben reminded them all to conserve water once again. With everyone on the same page and the dogs finished taking care of business in a cluster of dead shrubs nearby, they loaded up and headed back out onto I-70 for the last few miles before the exit.