Frank asked, “Sir, some of us don’t have any mounted weapons or sensors…”
“You’ll tuck in as close as you can to the armored vehicles in front of you. You do have rifles, so if anyone approaches you, shoot them. Don’t worry about if it’s right or wrong. Remember the caves where they ate people they caught? We don’t know if any of these people are related to those or not. Are you willing to risk it?”
Frank shook his head. “No, sir. I understand. I have two girls in my SUV…”
“First of all, it’s not yours, we loaned it to you to drive south. If you don’t think you can handle the coming situation, I’ll be happy to pull the women out and put a couple of soldiers in their place.”
“No, sir. I can protect them.”
“Good. If there’s no other questions, then the tanks will pull out first and the Bradley’s will follow. They’ll use their TOW missiles to destroy any large debris the tanks can’t push aside. From now on, speed is our armor. If you think there’s something in the snow shoot it. If your thermal sensors show a bloom, shoot it, if you even feel there is a threat, shoot it. Load up and let’s get out of here.”
The two lead tanks left first. They were followed five minutes later by the Bradleys. A couple of minutes later two loud bangs echoed through the convoy. The captain smiled thinking, there goes the first bridge. A moment later he heard the distinctive sound of the 50 caliber machine guns firing. Five minutes later he heard an explosion. Must have been a Tow missile striking a large chunk of debris from the bridge or a roadblock. He sat in the command trailer checking the mile markers which had been raised to a height of six feet so they stood above the snow. He marked off their location on the map table.
The convoy sped down the freeway at 45 Mph, they passed the remains of a bridge destroyed by the tanks and saw the large debris field pushed aide by the tanks and Bradleys. Frank smiled to himself looking at the debris. “Honey, I wish I was here to watch the tanks fire. They blew the shit out of that four-lane bridge, I heard two cannon firings and they blew it completely apart. It’s amazing what those tanks can do.”
“What if there were people up there?”
“Do you mean the people like those who wanted to eat you?”
“There can’t be more of them, can there be?”
“We don’t know. I’m glad we’re with the army. It’s the first time I’ve felt safe in over two years. You had it easy living in your own home and everything.”
“Really? Every day the television said we should leave then they stopped reporting that, they just said Canada no longer existed and if we had remained behind then may God bless us and watch over us because all government services were ending that day at midnight and they did. It’s a good thing my daddy had a large supply of wood and food. The snow was so bad he had to go on to the roof to clean the snow off or it would become so heavy it would crush our roof which it did to a couple of our neighbors. Only a few other people remained behind in our town. Most of my friends had already left…”
“Why didn’t you leave earlier?”
“My mom thought the weather would change, that it had to change. She kept saying it couldn’t continue to snow forever…”
“Yeah, I heard the same things. And look, three years later and it’s still snowing. I was so scared waiting for my parents to return, I never did find out what happened to them. I miss them so much. I wish they’d returned. I have nightmares at night of them freezing in the snow and crying out in pain. I see my mom crying and reaching out.”
“That’s horrible, I have nightmares of that cave and the evil man who was going to rape me and then, maybe eat me and my sister.” Trinity looked over at the speedometer, “We’re really moving now. I don’t think I’ve driven this fast since the rock hit and changed the world.”
“Changed the world is an understatement. Eastern Russia is gone, Canada is already covered by glaciers and snow. Our government said we no longer exist. I wonder what’s going on in other countries.”
“I think everyone is suffering. The waves destroyed every coastal city and the waves washed inland destroying everything they touched. Millions died because they couldn’t get inland or they refused to move. Millions more have died or will die from the cold and lack of food. Without communications we don’t know what’s going on around the world. We may never know.”
Trinity nodded, “Do you think we’ll ever learn what happened?”
“Not us, maybe our children will…”
Trinity leaned over and kissed Frank on his cheek, “Our children? I like the way that sounds. I can’t wait…”
Ariden said, “Can you guys cut it out? You’re getting gross.”
Trinity made a face to her younger sister, “Go back to your reading.” She turned to look at Frank, “Why would people worship the devil?”
“I don’t know. I think the conditions have changed a lot of people. Many might have gone a little crazy…”
“A little? I’d say worshiping the devil is more than a little. I’d say eating people is more than a little crazy.”
“Yeah, but I guess when the food ran out what, where they going to do?”
“The food shouldn’t have run out, there are thousands of homes and stores loaded with food why would they eat people? It’s so gross.”
“I don’t understand it either. Wait, did you see that flash?” The
