Kate glared at the fuel gauge, its needle hovering at a quarter of a tank. She cursed for the 10th time that minute. She had no hope of reaching civilization before her car died of thirst.
As she crossed the Rockies in her abused rental car, she decided to prioritize what she needed to accomplish. At least doing so would keep her mind off the deep-seated, primal fear welling up in her gut.
Okay. Think through this. First priority—find another source of fuel.
She frowned. If that meant stealing from a broken-down car or an accident scene, so be it. She had the means to do so now, thanks to her layover in Sedona. But she had to prepare for the worst-case scenario, too—if she ran out of gas, Kate would be on foot the rest of her journey.
That's a lot of miles…
Kate drummed her thumbs on the wheel as she rounded another switchback, resisting the urge to glance up the sheer face of the mountain. It'd been the same for the past hour: winding curve after a lonely stretch of straight road, followed by another switchback that transitioned into a winding curve as she climbed higher and higher into the mountains.
She made good time out of Flagstaff following the trick she learned from the would-be fuel thief, but the lack of cars she encountered on the road now made her worry if maybe she'd taken the wrong route.
Where the hell is everybody?
Phoenix had been an absolute nightmare and the traffic, accidents, and fires kept her from getting within a few dozen miles of the city. The more she thought about how bad Phoenix looked from the outside, the more she was glad she'd had the forethought to get the hell out of Los Angeles.
Five days after Impact, she figured Los Angeles to be an apocalyptic wasteland. Kate remembered as she'd left L.A., fires too numerous to count had already started. The raging infernos that consumed Phoenix paled against the conflagration she imagined eating Los Angeles.
Thinking of all those people, trapped and ignorant of what transpired all around them, lulled by the media into a false sense of security…it was a powder keg waiting to explode. Without electricity, the people in the major cities would be out of food and water within a few days—at best, a week.
She checked her watch. It's been almost a week already.
Kate ground her teeth. Almost a week without power. A week without TV, internet, or electricity to run basic necessities like refrigerators. She assumed a decent number of people had generators, but how much fuel could they have on hand to keep those generators humming?
Preppers would likely have enough to last weeks or months—maybe even years—but the average Joe with a generator on hand for emergencies or bad thunderstorms…
How much do you have? Maybe a few gallons in the garage and in your car?
And where the hell was the government? She hadn't seen a single police officer since the pandemonium in Los Angeles. Even with the fires around Phoenix and the huge accidents on I-10—she didn't see a single squad car or fire truck, and only two ambulances. One of them had flipped on its side and had been ransacked.
It made little sense. Kate gripped the wheel with white knuckles as she went around another hairpin turn and took it a little too fast. Applying the brakes going uphill in the mountains seemed counterintuitive and she was hard-pressed to slow down until forced. She wanted to get home as fast as possible, but she also didn't want to end up down the side of the mountain in a pile of burned wreckage.
Kate grimaced. One more turn and I'll have to hit the gas again. She willed the mountain's crest to appear sooner rather than later. Her only comforting thought was that she could coast down the mountain's other side.
There ought to be FEMA camps or something popping up by now, she thought, worrying away at the government's lack of response to take her mind off her fuel situation. If even half the conspiracy theories out there were only a little accurate, some governor or disaster relief agency out there should be doing something to help…
She took another hour to crest the pass. With no traffic in either direction for miles, she paused at an emergency pull-off for tractor-trailers and stretched her legs. She stood outside her car, inhaling the clean, crisp mountain air. The silence that surrounded her filled her with strength. The lack of airplanes above, cars hissing by on the road, and cell phones chirping in her purse set her on edge, but nature provided the background noise for which her ears so desperately longed.
Blue jays called to each other from the scrub pines on the north side of the road. A squirrel, chipmunk, or some other small rodent barked and skittered through the rocks, causing a mini-avalanche of pebbles along the road. The sun emerged from behind one of the heavy clouds floating high above and brought a moment of warmth to her face. She leaned back and closed her eyes, inhaling deep of freedom.
Then her gut-wrenching fear was back and sitting on her chest like a physical weight. Kate stood alone—completely alone—at the top of the Rocky Mountains, perhaps tens of miles away from the nearest human. If something were to happen to the car, if she were to run out of gas, suffer a flat tire, or run off the road…
I don't have hardly any food or water left after Stacy's detour…if I don't find something soon, I'll never make it home.
Kate closed her eyes and took a long, calming breath. Remember your training. You survived the kidnapping. You can handle this. This is no different from being shot down behind enemy lines. Survive. Escape. Resist. Evade. Stick to the program.
She opened her eyes and a new clarity filled her vision. The vista spread out before her no longer looked scary—it looked like something waiting to be overcome and conquered.
I have a vehicle; I have fuel; I have supplies. I know what to do.
Kate got back into her car. She shifted into gear and began the long, fuel-saving coast down the mountain.
As the car rolled on humming tires around curve after curve, slowly making its way east, she kept an eye on the sun and clouds above. Kate knew at any moment, a sudden winter storm could flare up over the mountains. Late-season weather, especially at high altitudes, was unpredictable at best.
As the sun traced its arc across the sky toward another inevitable setting, Kate worked her way out of the mountains, keeping the little car at a steady, controllable coast. She even allowed herself to smile at one particularly long stretch of road as the car gained speed—she had hardly used any gas on the downhill coast.
Her body on autopilot, Kate retreated into her mind and for the first time since Impact, allowed herself to open the door of worry that led to Jay and Leah. She wondered if he ever got her texts sent after takeoff on the aborted flight to Hawaii.
For a moment, she imagined what he must feel, worrying about his wife, perhaps even imagining she was dead somewhere out in the ocean. Kate put herself in Jay's shoes and the heartache that flared up surprised her with its vehemence. She had to slam the door on those thoughts and clear her throat, bringing herself back to the present.
Kate focused her imagination instead on Leah. She was a smart girl, attractive the way girls with intelligence often are in that she didn't know she was beautiful. Leah had a way about her that made Kate smile. Though Kate and Jay didn't plan on having children of their own, she often thought if she'd had a daughter, she might be like Leah.
The girl had attitude to spare, no doubt used as a shield to protect herself during the drawn-out death of her mother. Kate saw the same thing in Jay. Laid-back and easygoing on most days, if something caught Jay's eye and reminded him of Monica or her long bout with cancer, he'd close up and resort to sarcasm or indifference in his day-to-day dealings with other people.
In the beginning, that attitude hurt Kate more than she could ever let on. She liked to think she knew Jay better than Monica ever did. After all, Kate and Jay had been sweethearts throughout high school. Jay had been her first love, and she had been his. They were meant to be together. The fact that when it was time to graduate, they went in different directions, made little difference to Kate. No matter where she went, she always carried Jay with her.
Though fate had been cruel to Jay by giving Jay Monica and Leah, then snatching away the woman he loved, Kate reminded herself the wheel of fortune had also delivered him to her again.
She clenched her teeth, fighting the unfairness of it all. They'd only been married a year. After so long apart…they hadn't even had their anniversary yet. It wasn't fair. She glared up at the sun, riding high between clouds.
"This is all your fault, you stupid son of a bitch. If you'd only burped in another direction…"
Kate laughed at her own anger. May as well get angry at the air for allowing me to breathe. It's not like the sun gives two shits about anything on Earth. It's just a ball of gas and fire.
Kate sat in silence, allowing her mind to shift into neutral. For a blessed few minutes, she thought of absolutely nothing other than the road and listened to the hum of the tires as her car coasted down the mountainside.
At the tail end of the trip down the mountain, a mini-van on the side of the road caught her attention. It was the first time she'd seen another vehicle in hours. The young male driver jumped out of the van as soon as he saw Kate's approaching car and frantically waved a green t-shirt in the air. Kate shifted lanes to put as much distance as possible between her car and the van.
"Sorry kid, I'm not falling for that again." As she said the words, she hated herself for not stopping, but memories of Stacy's betrayal were still too fresh in her mind. She only needed to glance down at her wrists to see the red marks where Alan's duct tape restraints had held her captive.
A shiver went down her leg as she thought about what twisted activities Alan and his kid might've had in store for her if she hadn't been able to escape. And that bitch Stacy would’ve let it all happen.
Kate looked straight ahead and kept her jaw tight as she coasted past the young man waving by the van. "Help!" was all she heard before the car rushed by and his voice was lost to the sound of the tires.
Kate glanced in the rearview mirror and saw him jumping up and down, throwing the shirt on the ground. Two more figures emerged from of the van and stood next to the driver—all three of them males and college-aged.
Probably some kids leaving school for winter break. Maybe they're just on their way home…
She clenched her jaw and kept her eyes locked forward, grateful for the first sharp turn in the road that blocked the van from sight. Whatever the hell their story was, it was no concern of hers. Kate flicked her gaze to the mirror, relieved to see only the curving road, pine trees, and rocks behind her.
Mission first—I have to get home to Jay. I have to help Leah. I'm not going to let anything get in my way again.