“Hold on a minute…how come that’s still workin’?” asked Jo.
Reese grinned. “Because the tsunami didn’t affect the GPS satellites In orbit.” Reese looked down at the phone. “If he’d saved the local maps to his phone like I did, we’d have access to the maps even if the GPS satellites did go offline. As long as we can keep the phone charged, we should be good…”
Before them, as it had been the previous few hours before sunset, lay miles and miles of abandoned cars. Some had been wrecked and left on the side of the road, others had simply been caught in the mother of all traffic jams and abandoned. Bags, empty purses, boxes and other debris made driving impossible about a quarter mile ahead of them.
Jo squinted at the world illuminated in their headlights. "I don't much relish the idea of walking around here at night. What do you think? Shut off the lights and spend the night in the car, then start walking tomorrow morning?"
Reese frowned. "I don't want to spend any more time in this car than I have to."
"I'm right there with you…this thing smells like someone died in it…freakin’ teenagers don’t know how to take care of anything…”
“Well, it’s been a rough week,” Reese muttered.
"But I've done more walking in the past week that I have in the past 20 years!” Jo continued. “If I can put off another night of slogging around with that backpack, I'll do it, and gladly."
Reese sighed and accepted the inevitability of their situation. The relentless drive to reach South Carolina pushed him forward with constant pressure on his soul, but he wouldn't do Cami and Amber any favors if he showed up dead. He couldn’t risk a walk at night in unfamiliar territory—especially in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
"Is this the world we've inherited?" he whispered, as he looked into the darkness that swallowed them on the road to Boston.
"Oh, come on," Jo complained. "Don't be gettin’ all philosophical on me. I ain’t got time for that nonsense." She crossed her arms, settled deeper into her seat and rested her head against the headrest. "I'm gonna shut this thing off, and I suggest you get some sleep. Looks like we got us a hard day tomorrow.”
Reese lifted Ben's phone from the wireless charging pad in the center console and tried to tap out one more message. He’d sent over a dozen in the past 36 hours, and all of them still sat in the outbox of his message app, a glaring reminder of his failure. If Cami was right—and he got Ben's phone within range of a viable cell tower—then the messages would get through.
But he hadn't heard anything from his family since the tsunami hit. He sighed, switched off the phone and slipped it into one of the many pockets on his cargo shorts. His last task for the evening before he could sleep, Reese pulled the chef's knife he brought from Ellsworth—the same one intended for the back of the chief of police in Ellsworth—the one he’d used to defend himself against the raiders when they’d looted the Walmart. He tried to examine the blade after Jo switched off the car and plunged them into the inky black night. The barest hint of reflected light from outside made the 8 inches of steel glow. As he slipped it into the sheath which he now wore tucked into the sling for his wounded arm, he saw a glimmer of movement reflected in the blade.
"Jo,” he managed to say as someone slammed into the side of the car.
Jo screamed and jerked forward unsuccessfully in her seat. She slammed against the steering wheel and cursed like a sailor. A flashlight outside the driver’s window illuminated the cabin and temporarily blinded both of them.
"Open up—before I do something you're not gonna like!"
"What the—” Reese began, then froze when he looked out his own window, and saw a shadowy figure lean forward to tap a pistol against the glass.
"Open up, buddy—nice and easy now.”
"What do we do?" Jo asked in a high-pitched whisper.
"What choice do we have?" Reese replied. The shotgun lay useless in the backseat, and his pistol had been wedged between the console and his seat to keep it from rubbing against his thigh after the third hour of confinement in the car.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Jo growled, as her senses returned, and she glared at the man outside the car. "You're carjacking us? Now?" she demanded through the window.
"Better a carjacking than a double murder…yeah?” retorted the assailant.
"Look, come on out now, and we’ll let you go. All we want is your stuff, not you two."
The man outside Jo's window spoke again. "That's right—do what we say, you guys live another day. You try an’ fight us, and it'll go wicked bad for you."
Reese clenched his teeth in frustration. "Of all the stupid…”
"What am I doing here?" asked Jo, as she looked at Reese. "You’re not seriously thinking about giving these two jokers the car, are you?"
"Hey! I said now!” yelled the man outside Jo's window. He reared back and smashed the butt of the pistol into the window, shattering it as she screamed.
And just like that, they lost their car. The man outside Reese's door shined his flashlight on both of them as they stood, stripped of their weapons, and shivered against the chill air from the Atlantic a dozen miles away. Reese had never felt so helpless in his entire life—including the time he'd been aboard the Charming Betty, as they raced the tsunami to shore.
"You realize this is
