He sipped from the cup, and then continued. "I guess eventually we'll all give it up...all the phone lines are dead, and no internet. I think most of us expected, at first anyway, that the phone would ring, and there'd be someone on the other end telling us what to do. Either that or a big military group would move in and take over. That didn't happen though. No soldiers, no phone calls, nothing. So I guess we're waiting along with everybody else, and I guess I could just get out of this car and walk away, but then what?" he arched his eyebrows questioningly as he finished.
"I guess I see your point," Ira said, "but I ain't so sure waiting for somebody to show up is the answer. I came in from the north, and I can tell you, there ain't nobody coming from there."
"So I heard. Had a group come in this morning that said pretty much the same thing. I don't know," he shook his head while he blew on the steaming coffee, took another sip, and then continued. "They said they didn't pass a soul the whole way in, and they came from Watertown, way up north, said they spent last night in Fairport."
"Passed through it myself, Fairport, that is," Ira said, nodding his head. "Didn't see a reason to stick around there. It's pretty much empty."
"Maybe," the young man agreed. "But you should be careful if you go back that way. If you don't stay here that is."
"Why's that?" Ira asked. After what he had gone through today he had no intention of going back in that direction at all, but the way the young man had said it had made his heart skip a beat, and he wondered why he had brought it up.
"Well... It goes back to what I said about the north side. From what the group that came in this morning said, it isn't safe. When they stopped last night they had some trouble. Could've just been some kids, I guess. I doubt it though. There doesn't seem to be any kids anymore. Anyway, they said somebody came by this gas station they were staying at, driving a gray Lincoln, and...Hey! You okay?" the officer leaned across the seat and looked closely at Ira. His eyes had suddenly seemed to bulge outward and he had drawn a sharp breath inward.
Ira's mind was replaying the earlier events. He shook his head to clear it before he spoke.
"Did you say gray Lincoln? Gray?" Ira fought to keep his voice low but the panicked question betrayed him. Somebody else seen it too? He asked himself. The young cop was staring at him warily as he leaned across the seat towards him.
"Are you okay?" he asked again.
"Yup. Guess so," Ira said, still shaking his head. "I did have a small problem, and you ain't gonna believe it, but I'm pretty sure I seen that car myself." He paused for a second considering what to say before he continued.
"Well... I mean... What did they say they seen?" He had managed to convince his mouth to smile as he stopped speaking, and stared back through the open window at the young tired-looking officer inside. "It just shocked me sort'a is all. I don't want to get into the whole thing, but I did have a run in with a gray Lincoln myself, and I guess you sort'a surprised me is all."
The young man stared back at the nervous smile that played across Ira's lips. "You know," he said, "you look the same way that Frank Morgan guy who came in earlier looked, when he told me about that gray Lincoln. In fact the whole bunch of them looked that way. Same as you. Like they were about to shit their knickers, as my grandpa used to say. What the hell is it with that car?"
"I ain't sure it's anything with that car at all," Ira said, as the smile gave up and left his face. "I ain't so sure you'd believe what I do think it has to do with though."
He paused, thinking about how much he should say. The young cop was looking at him like he thought he might be a little on the crazy side. He continued carefully.
"I don't know for sure what I seen, so I can't really say. I guess it just took me a bit by surprise is all. What d'you say that fellas name was?" He let the tension that had crept into his shoulders begin to bleed off, and forced the smile back onto his face as he looked in at the young man and waited for his reply.
"The group that came in this morning?" he asked.
Ira nodded his head, and kept the smile fixed grimly on his face. In his mind he saw the green blood-like fluid that had jetted out of the neck of the man when he'd shot him. It was like a small movie in his mind that refused to stop playing, and now it was getting harder to hold the smile, but he struggled with it as he waited for the young man to reply. Did they see him too? He asked himself.
"Frank Morgan," the young man replied. "He had a pretty good size group with him when he came in. Like you, he wasn't all that willing to discuss that car and what happened. He asked me if anybody else had seen it, and then just clammed up about it. Listen, it goes back to what I said about the north side earlier. There're a couple different ways to get in there, and quite a few that lead off East Avenue. From there it's pretty much a straight shot into Fairport. Probably some of the bad-ass's from there,
