“Out of the frying pan and into the fire I guess,” Robert says as he lets out a sigh and rests his head in the seat.
“GPS… fastest route,” I say, as I begin to head off into the darkness.
The map lights up a red-lined route. It is not as bad as I thought. It appears that the only major city we have to worry about is Fresno. It appears that I have gone north enough that we will bypass the outlying cities of Los Angeles after all. It is good that Robert did not do anything stupid—especially when there was another way.
“Population of Fresno…?”
“Fresno California has an estimated population of three-hundred thousand people.”
“Arrival time to Fresno?” I ask as I shake my head. Perhaps we should find a way around it, if there is one… Then again, making this trip and avoiding contact with densely populated areas was going to turn impossible eventually. Then there is the risk of another nuclear strike. I’d like to not be around anywhere very large if that were to happen again.
“Four hours at this current speed and on the major roads.”
“Four hours,” Robert says as he rubs his hands together. “That’s not much time man.”
“Are we almost safe?” Claire asks.
“Things might get a little… rough,” I answer. “Soon though, we are almost there.”
I continue on into the night. My stomach feels sick once more—that uneasy nervous feeling that something terrible looms just beyond the next hill. I try and calm myself. I think of better times, I try and reassure myself that everything is going to be alright—even if I cannot get myself to completely, or even remotely, believe it. As the travel time begins to tick away. The sun begins to rise giving a golden glow to the air around us. I begin to see cars scattered along the highway, abandoned, burned, and some even have long dead bodies in them. I do not know why. I begin to worry.
As we pass through a series of large golden hills, we descend into a thick smoke. The smoke is so heavy that I can only see about a mile ahead of me. I rely on the map to guide me.
“Switching to recycling inside air… outside air quality is very poor,” the female computer announces.
“It’s from the fires,” Robert says looks out the window ahead. “This whole area has been burning—people have been starting fires and no one is around to put them out.”
“Fires…” Claire whispers.
“This doesn’t make me feel much better,” I say as the GPS routes us off of the main highway just outside of Fresno.
“Why are we leaving the interstate?”
“The road ahead is impassible,” the female voice answers.
“Distance to Morro Bay?”
“Two hours,” the car answers back.
We approach buildings. They have all been broken down—looted. A raging fire lies ahead of us as we navigate the streets. A woman carrying a baseball bat runs out and begins to strike against the windshield. Robert backs away as he is startled.
“Too loud…” Claire whispers.
“She’s normal…” I say as I glance over and the display on my glasses shows her as blue. “I… guess.”
“What the fuck then?” Robert says he places a hand over his chest.
We keep moving. She strikes the trunk as we pass her by. She does no damage. We navigate a maze of what I can only describe as pure madness. I make left and right turns to avoid vehicles in the road, overturned cop cars… there are bodies everywhere. People roam the streets; some of them bang on our window and ask for help, others just throw things at us. I feel bad that I am not able to stop and help. However, I know that I cannot trust anyone here. I just can’t afford to.
As we make our way down another long street lined with large office buildings. I see an orange glow from the smoke filled road. A few men armed with guns approach the Aggro as I near. They fire a few shots at him and he runs after them, screaming. I am just glad that he is not after us. As I grow closer, a severed arm crashes against the window—spraying bright red blood across my view.
“He’s angry…” Claire whispers.
“Let’s move a bit faster,” Robert says as the windshield wipers automatically turn on.
The spray of blood smears across the window a few times as a spray of water attempts to clean it. My view is obscured. A large strike comes from my side as the car is literally pushed a few feet to the left.
“Really…” Robert says as he places his pistol in his hand. “Let’s move a bit faster….”
My heart is beating heavily in my chest. This is the worst situation I’ve seen yet. Once the windows finally clear up I begin to move. I see the Aggro in my mirror. He does not chase as.
“I want to go home…” Claire whispers. I look in the rear view mirror and see her rocking back and forth.
“We’ll be out of this soon,” I say. There is not much I can do to make her feel better. I reach for a bottle of water and hand it back to Claire.
“Be… out of this soon.”
“I can’t take much more of this,” Robert says as he buries his head into his hands.
There is so much death everywhere. A body hangs from a pawn shop sign as we drive down another road. I take another bottle of water and begin to hand it to Robert as a spray of bullets bounce against the car. He takes cover; he looks to be on the verge of tears. I cannot blame him.
“Did I mention the car was bullet proof?” I ask, not remembering.
“Doesn’t make it any better…” Robert whispers.
“Any better…” Claire repeats.
My head begins to hurt as I realize I have kept my teeth clenched tightly as we make our way through the carnage. It feels as though I have been holding my breath. The tension and fear of the unknown is nearly enough to cause me to want to into the same states as Robert and Claire. I do not know how I am even managing to keep a modicum of calm within myself. I just know that we have to get through this—with as little incident as possible. Although I’d consider being hit with a baseball bat, having shit thrown at us, being shot at, and pushed by an Aggro pretty massively incidental.
The map keeps changing; I head down a small road that is piled with corpses on each side. All of them burned, charred. The heavy smoke makes every single turn another surprise of horror. We drive by a female Aggro feasting upon the body of a dead man in a black suit. I wonder if he was a Hunter.
I rush my way through the streets. We pass by fires, more gunshots. As I reach the edge of town a shirtless man blocks our path. He holds out a handgun and commands for us to stop. I shake my head. My glasses tell me he is normal. He must just want to steal the car.
He slams an open hand down upon the windshield as he points the gun at my head through the glass.
“Too loud…”
“Get the fuck out of the car,” I can faintly hear the man say. “I’ll kill you.”
I shake my head and the man begins to fire at me. The bullets bounce off harmlessly. This only seems to make him angrier. He begins to strike the window with the butt of his gun.
“Window down,” Robert says as he quickly places his pistol out the window and fires a single shot into the man’s chest. He falls back as he stumbles away from us. “Window up…”
He holds onto his wound as we drive on by. I can’t help but feel that situation could have been avoided somehow. I know Robert did what he felt he had to so that we could keep moving—perhaps he knew I wouldn’t run the man down. I look back… I’m not sure why I do. Moments later I see the man collapse to the ground, dead.
“We can’t afford to stop,” Robert says as he continues to hold onto his weapon. “Not until we are out of this hell.”
“I know,” I say as I nod.