"Well," Joe said, "if we're going to take side roads, we're going to have to get another map, and that means we're going to have to go into the next city to get one. I'm not thrilled about that, but we're also going to need to pick up more ammunition too. Either way, we have to at least follow 90 into the next town down the line. No way around it," he almost seemed as though he were hoping that she would come up with some alternative as he spoke.
"No other way," she said, "so... I guess we better get moving?" She allowed what she had meant to be a statement to rise at the end and turned it into more of a question.
"No," Joe said immediately, "no way. It'll be dark soon, and I really don't think that would be a smart move at all. No, I think we should wait it out here tonight, and get on the road early in the morning. We should be able to make the next town without a map. I don't even know what the next place is, but it can't be too far, can it?" he didn't wait for a response; he had asked the question more of himself than her. "No, I'm pretty sure it won't be far. We've been running into lots of small towns every twenty, thirty miles or so, and most of them at least have gas stations. We should be able to get a map fairly easily. After we do though, that's it. We get off the main road, and stay off it."
~ 2 ~
Far to the east, in the city of Rochester, Frank Morgan sat on an overturned five gallon bucket talking to Gary Jones.
Frank had spent most of last night, and all of today at the makeshift barricade pulling his shift of guard duty, plus some. Something, no one knew quite what, had changed on the north side of the city yesterday morning. It seemed to Frank that almost nothing was easily explainable any longer. He had known somehow that something had changed, and it seemed that everyone else had known at the same time. Just known? Yes, just known, he assured himself now, as he listened to Gary. It made absolutely no sense at all to him, but nevertheless he had accepted it as genuine.
That also was an oddity for him, he realized. Being a reporter had taught him to never just accept, or settle for any one explanation, but he had. He had not questioned it at all.
One part of his mind listened to Gary, and the other part kept chewing at him about the way he had accepted the feeling that something had changed along with everybody else. He couldn't reconcile it with the way he was, but he also knew that he had changed a great deal in just a very few days, and, he supposed, that had been what had allowed him to accept it.
"...nothing last night?"
He only caught the tail end of what Gary had said, and was about to ask what he had said when Gary repeated it on his own.
"No trouble? You saw nothing last night? Sorry," Gary said and smiled, "I hate to presume that you didn't hear me, but you seemed a little gone there for a few seconds. You okay?"
"Guess so," Frank said, with a sigh, "I'm just trying to figure out what the hell's going on. Everything's changed, and it's almost like living in the friggin' Twilight Zone. Feel this, just happen to know that, it doesn't make a hell-of-a-lot of sense to me, and that guy, that Ira Pratt guy, he's one spooky friggin' guy too. He's Cora's ex-husband, Cora's dead ex-husband? How the hell am I supposed to be able to buy that?" Frank shook his head from side to side. "Does he really know what's going on? I just don't know, Gary, I just can't accept that God's come back, and some big fight's going to take place for everyone who's still alive. I mean... well... do you buy that crap?"
"I don't know," Gary said quietly, "but I think it'd be pretty naive to sit here and think that nothin's going on. I mean that would be stupid. Do I believe God's involved? Do I believe that Ira Pratt is your baby sitters long dead husband?" he shrugged his shoulders uneasily. "I can't say. I don't believe I've made up my mind yet. But I do think it's pretty damn obvious that something's going on here, and it ain't got much to do with normal things, if you get my drift."
"Oh yeah, you're getting drifty all right," Frank responded, "but... well, do you think it’s God, or something like God?"
"Maybe, maybe not. I think... Yeah, I guess I do think it's at least something unexplainable. No, that ain't right. I guess I do think it's like God or something. Hell I don't know. A God-like thing? Some sort of higher power? Maybe that's what I can explain it as. Sounds sort'a ridiculous even putting it that way though."
"I get you," Frank said, "it's the same way I feel. It's like something I can't put my finger on, and that's why the bastard's chewing at me. Gary nodded quietly. "I guess though, that I have to say I can at least accept the higher power thing," Frank continued, "it's about the only damn way to explain things, I guess. Well, maybe more like simple good and evil. Maybe that's what it's more like to me." He paused when he realized that he had begun to ramble, and
