1. Take the dirt road. You suspect David and Nicole went to Limestone, and you need to find them.
With no small amount of trepidation, you turn off the highway, doing almost a 280 degree turn, onto the dirt road heading down into the darkness and back the way you came.
Your headlights show only trees and rocks, and evidence of nature reclaiming what was once hers by grass and branches reaching out into the road. The ride is fairly bumpy, despite going slow, and you feel a deep chill enter your bones.
You reach to turn on the radio from long habit, before realizing the pointlessness of it. But then, shrugging, you flip it on anyway.
Nothing, of course. Dead air across all channels. You turn the tuner back and forth, hitting a blare of static on 106.4, but that's all. With a final twist you move to turn it off.
anyone
Your hand freezes over the off button. Was that a voice you just heard? Trembling, you turn the tuner again.
Nothing.
Slower this time.
... still nothing.
But you're sure you heard something. Very soft, but --
Something is ahead of you on the road. A large, dark shape.
You slam the brakes.
A deer looks up at you, eyes wide, caught in your headlights.
You steady your breathing, flick the lights off. The deer looks away, and continues to cross. Behind her, two fawns follow their mother, small white spots marking their flanks.
You sigh, turn the headlights back on, and continue.
Something about seeing the deer here reassures you slightly. Seeing life of any kind that is not dead or turned into a monster is refreshing.
You find yourself missing Nicole's soft voice. Even David's lilted and high pitched somewhat nasal tone would be a welcome thing.
Why the hell did they leave you?
Did they leave you? Or did you drive them away?
Questions in the dark. A whole world gone to hell, and you have no idea why, or what caused it. Are these things aliens? Some kind of invasion? Could they be some form of bio-weapon, developed by a rival government? Your own government? Perhaps developed by neither, some independent lab?
Something else? Perhaps a creature, or microbe, released from long slumber by a team of explorers drilling in the ice somewhere?
You shrug inside the car. Does it really matter? All that you care about is finding your friends and getting to safety.
But where's safe?
You hope somewhere is.
This infection, or whatever it is, seems to be only getting worse as time goes on. Maybe the government has some kind of handle on it, maybe they don't. All you know is if you don't avoid those helicopters, they'll kill you just like they killed the caravan on that bridge.
You drive on. The road continues to twist and turn, but heads in the general direction you want to go.
A turn off. Gravel instead of dirt. There's a rusty iron gate standing open, through the branches you can barely make out what looks to be some kind of cabin up the road a bit.
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1. Park here, check it out on foot. You might find people, supplies, or alcohol.
2. Drive up to it.
3. Ignore it. Keep on down the dirt road.
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Poll
4 (66.7%)
Author
Topic: The Ends (Read 59231 times)