She wasn’t sure what to do. They’d see her if she drove. She decided to stay put. Next to her lay several pieces of rusted sheet metal. She jumped out, hefting one up and leaning it against the car. Maybe they’d think it was an abandoned vehicle. She slid back inside.
For several agonizing minutes she waited. Had they turned the other way? She didn’t see any headlights. And then she saw them, flashing on the buildings around her as they drove down the street.
They shone their lights down between the two buildings. One car had turned her way. She reached for the ignition, ready to start it up. Just as the headlights pierced the darkness behind her, the second car appeared in front, exploring the next street up.
But they still hadn’t seen her. As long as they didn’t spot the solar panel on the roof, they might think it was a derelict car. Maybe they wouldn’t notice it in the dark. She waited. The car behind her pulled past, down the little lane. The other car joined it a block away. The drivers stopped, talking to each other. Cracking her window, she caught snips of conversation.
“. . . couldn’t have been them . . .”
“. . . said those things killed Arch.”
“. . . didn’t see another car?”
She wanted to bolt, to swing the car out and make for another section of town. But they were too close. As they revved their engines, so much louder than her silent car, she smelled the scent of something rotten.
They pulled back around, each one taking another street this time. But as one of them turned, its headlights played over her car. She ducked down in time, but if they were familiar with this area, they’d remember there’d been no car there.
She heard one of them shout, “There!”
And that was all she needed.
She started up the car and shot out of her hiding place, the sheet metal crashing to the ground. She careened around the corner and back to the main drag.
All she could hope for now was that her car was faster than theirs.
She turned quickly onto the road, hoping she could lose them among the maze of streets. If she could get far enough ahead of them . . .
But the two cars worked in tandem, cutting her off at every turn. They could definitely communicate with each other. She flipped a U-turn and sped back toward the interstate, trying to outpace them. She veered onto the entrance ramp, gunning her motor. The car shot forward as she raced around an old wreck on the side of the street and sped onto the highway, pushing the car faster than she ever had before.
She was almost half a mile away before the two vehicles got onto the entrance ramp. She felt both terrified and giddy. She was faster than they were!
She pushed the needle on the speedometer higher and higher, reaching over ninety miles an hour along the interstate, veering around stalled cars when she saw them. Up ahead she saw a hill. If she could get over it, then cut her lights and veer off somewhere, they’d have a hard time pinpointing her location.
She saw that the two cars were falling behind in the distance. She crested the hill so fast that for a moment she was airborne; then the car hit the asphalt with a bang. She held fast to the steering wheel and gazed at the road ahead, looking for a place to pull off. Then her blood froze. Headlights flashed in the distance, at least six more cars. She didn’t dare turn her lights off going this fast. She saw a dirt turnaround in the median and whipped around on it, heading back the way she’d come. She’d been watching that side of the highway since she got back on, and hadn’t seen any wrecks. It was a risk, but she had to take it. She turned off her headlights and sped forward in absolute dark, keeping the car as straight as possible. She used the headlights of the two approaching cars to let her know where the road was. This stretch was very straight, so she used it to her advantage. Just before the two cars were about to pass her, she spotted some derelict vehicles on the side of the highway. She slammed on her brakes and slid off the road, pulling in next to them.
Sweat beading down her back, she waited. The two cars sped by. She thought of staying where she was, but when they met with the other six cars, it wouldn’t take them long to figure out that she’d turned off somewhere. So she pulled back onto the interstate, keeping her lights off. She reached the ramp, considering whether she should continue on the interstate. She hadn’t traveled this stretch, though, and with her lights off, she could plow into a stalled car. She got off at the ramp again, hoping they would think she had in fact moved onto the interstate. Driving as fast as she could, she sped through the desolate town, past the ruined M sign, and the initial place she’d parked.
When she was out of view of the highway, she dared a flash of her headlights to get her bearings. The road stretched for miles, up a little hill. She then switched off her lights and headed down the road cautiously. If she wrecked her car, it was over. She maneuvered past some potholes, switching on the dim yellow parking lights when she needed to navigate past an obstacle. She wove around some stalled cars, then debris from buildings that had long since collapsed into the street, mostly bricks and masonry stones, old lumber.
She ascended the little hill, atop which the crumbled road
