Suddenly, the truck ahead stopped, the taillights growing bright. Rogers slapped the truck into park. The girls got very quiet as a spotlight hit the windshield, cutting through the haze. Neither Rogers nor Jacob spoke as a group of men with flashlights patrolled up both sides of the road, rifles aimed at the cab. Rogers lowered his window and leaned out. “Slow your roll, heroes, and get those damn rifles out of my face; I got a kid in here.”
The lead soldier put up a hand, waving the others off, then approached the driver’s window. He saw the rank on Rogers’ collar. “Sorry, Sergeant, we’re all on edge. What the hell happened?”
Rogers’ own eyes showed alarm. He looked across at Jacob then back at the soldier. “I don’t know. Do you have contact with the other stations, other gates?”
“No, Sergeant, the radio fuzzed out just before those things turned red… then the blast… You all are the first vehicle we’ve seen. Are there any more behind you?”
“I don’t think so. We were already on the road when they attacked. Listen, secure this gate, do what you can to lock it up then get your people out of here. Whatever they did back there, I’d say this position is no longer worth defending.”
The soldier’s eyes went wide as he looked past the truck and down the road toward the main base. “But, Sergeant, I can’t just abandon the post; I—I’ve got orders,” the soldier said.
“Look, I can’t make you leave, but I would highly recommend you do what I say. Find a place to hole up, someplace hidden back in the trees to watch the base from cover if you want. Try to stay on the radio, but just get the hell out of the open, okay?”
Rogers pointed ahead as the Blazer began to ease forward, showing James’ eagerness to leave. “We’ve got to go. There is a mission staging area not far from here, do you know it?”
“Yes, Sergeant. O.P. Thunder.”
“That’s right. If you can, try to get there,” Rogers said.
Rogers placed the truck into gear and rolled ahead after the lead vehicle. As the truck trekked forward, Jacob spied through the windows, making eye contact with the frightened and dirt-covered faces of the guard force. He wondered if they saw the same fear in his own eyes. The truck trudged over a rise in the road and snaked around concrete barriers before moving out onto the open roadway.
The fallout settled, and the sun burned off the heavy condensation, clearing the air. Jacob searched the sky but couldn’t find any of the globes. They rounded a corner and traveled north at a fork in the road. Laura was asleep next to him with Katy still in her lap. Off to the right, Jacob saw plumes of black smoke in the sky. He pointed at it silently, Rogers catching the signal.
“That over there is probably the closest thing to a big city around here,” Rogers said. “It’s a small village, maybe a hundred homes, some small shops.”
“You think they bombed it too?” Jacob asked.
“Maybe… or the residents are panicking, nearby refugees looting what’s left. Most of these areas up north were unscathed by the Deltas. The local military did a great job cordoning off the bigger towns and villages.
“But what we saw last night. That’s a game changer. I’m sure there are a lot of scared people this morning.”
Laura turned her head and opened her eyes. With a groggy expression, she glanced at Jacob then down at Katy. “How much longer?”
Following the Blazer, they turned onto another dirt road entering a sparse forest. “We’ll be there soon,” Jacob said.
Katy wiggled awake and scrambled, trying to sit up. She reached out for Jacob, who raised her back onto his lap. “Are we going home, Daddy?”
Jacob grinned. “Not yet, but we’re going to a cabin in the woods, just like when we went camping.”
She smiled and pressed her head against the window, watching as the trees passed by. Laura dug through a small bag at her feet and retrieved a bottle of water. Opening it, she took a sip before placing it in Katy’s hands then watched the road ahead of them as the thick tree cover blocked out the light. The road narrowed, becoming barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass.
The sides of the road banked up steeply. They occasionally passed a house or small hunting cabins with boarded up windows. Rogers explained that there were very few homes in the area; most of the places there were seasonal, and empty now. If people were living in them, they did a fine job of making the places look vacant. Most people from the towns and large cites didn’t have interest in the harsh backwoods. Even refugees traveling long distances from the camps tended to avoid the rough terrain. The forest isn’t inviting like a farm or small village, where people imagined they could easily take animals or food from the fields. The woods required skill, and could be very unforgiving to the untrained.
Rogers pointed to an abandoned vehicle on the roadside with the doors and trunk open. “City folks like to imagine they can survive out here deep in the woods, like they’ll live off berries and mushrooms. A rabbit in every pot, shit like that. In the months after the fall, I buried a lot of their kind.”
They rode silent for a few minutes before Laura spoke again. “Are the others here?” she asked. “Those… things?”
“The others? You mean the Deltas?” Rogers answered.
“Yeah. They were at the fences yesterday. Where did they go?”
Rogers scowled. “Those were on the south walls; the north side of the base was clear. We’re traveling through
