\u00a0<\/p>\n
Selano had seen his share of Walkers up close.\u00a0 Clothes hanging in tatters, if they had any at all.\u00a0 Hair grown wild, nails and teeth broken.\u00a0 They were like stone age men, but without the resourcefulness.\u00a0 The Walkers didn\u2019t settle down and farm\u2026they hunted humans and animals and lived off of that, traveling from place to place.\u00a0 The eggheads were surprised that they had even managed to come together and create a tribal structure.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t imagine what it would be like waking up after five years or longer into a body like that.<\/p>\n
At Pueblo, Selano turned onto US 50.\u00a0 The federal route had been cleared in patches, but it wasn\u2019t safe to any degree.\u00a0 The old two-lane blacktop, when it wasn\u2019t eaten up by the Interstates, had rotted in the last few years.\u00a0 Rain and weather had filled it full of holes and, as you passed through the wilderness, it was stacked with dead cars.\u00a0 With the Walkers holding the crossroads in Albuquerque and all the mountain passes along 70, there was no other way west.\u00a0 Selano wondered if the back roads would claim them before the Walkers even had a chance to mess them up, though.<\/p>\n
Leaving Pueblo behind, 50 began the climb to the Continental Divide.\u00a0 The mountains began to close in ahead and to each side, the land breathtaking.\u00a0 It was breathtaking in the old world but, now, without the cruel hand of Humanity upon it for years, it had become pristine.\u00a0 The towns they passed were dead, the Arkansas River coming up to join them after a few hours.\u00a0 This was a land of clean air in the old world, now it felt like it had become a part of the sky.\u00a0 Selano rode with his window down, letting the crisp air wash around him, lift him up, keep him awake.<\/p>\n
By the time they got over the mountains and began the descent, the sun was down and a chilly evening followed them.\u00a0 Selano stopped in Montrose, still well over a mile high, and breathed the air for a few minutes.\u00a0 The Country Lodge sat alongside the main road, and he pulled over to the shoulder, facing west.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll sit out the night here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can drive.\u201d Isaac said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be messing around this road at night.\u00a0 Walkers, washouts, potholes, abandoned cars.\u00a0 All things that like to jump out of the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n
They took adjoining rooms at the abandoned Country Lodge.\u00a0 The place smelled of mildew and dust covered every surface.\u00a0 It was strange to be in a hotel this bad off.\u00a0 With the Walkers around, no sane person explored the countryside.\u00a0 The whole world was untouched, unlooted, left to quietly fall in on itself.\u00a0 Selano hated to see the decay.\u00a0 It seemed so lonely, all these poor, dusty buildings.<\/p>\n
He brushed the dirt off of the bed and lay down, fully clothed, looking past his boots at the dead TV screen.\u00a0 No power out here.\u00a0 Nothing to watch, anyway.\u00a0 Nothing to do but listen to the quiet night, the sounds of the town rotting.\u00a0 Were they the first humans to come through in a long time?\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t travel too far from the community unless you had a small army with you, or unless you were a runner.\u00a0 Selano knew there were quite a few runners who specialized in items that weren\u2019t considered acceptable by society\u2019s standards.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t get past the old checkpoints along the Interstate route, back when they were operational and, certainly, they couldn\u2019t get through\u00a0 the Walkers\u2026 But, somehow, they always made it.\u00a0 If you wanted something to snort up your nose, shoot in your veins, or wash down with whiskey you could find it.\u00a0 The black market must have come through the deserts and the byways, and those guys would shoot first.\u00a0 Hell, Selano would shoot first out here.\u00a0 He\u2019d shoot first at a van full of nuns.\u00a0 He wished he had some of that black market wisdom, though.\u00a0 What secret route did those boys use?<\/p>\n
Sometime around 3am, Selano heard noises that didn\u2019t belong to the night.\u00a0 Animals, probably, but he still went out into the hallway with his shotgun and paced between the two windows at each end.\u00a0 One opened to an alley, the other opened onto US 50, where he could see the truck.\u00a0 When the animal sounds or the wind or whatever it was stopped, he hauled one of the cushioned hotel chairs to the window looking out on his truck and sat down, shotgun across his lap, watching the night.<\/p>\n
It\u2019d been years, but he would never get used to empty roads, quiet cities, and lonely nights.\u00a0 No lights on the horizon, no planes in the air.\u00a0 As much as people got under his skin, he couldn\u2019t help but think that not even he belonged in this world without the soft bubble of civilization.\u00a0 No, not at all.\u00a0 This was not Man\u2019s world.<\/p>\n
The sunlight woke him up again.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t remember falling asleep, and it was dangerous to get lazy like that out here.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou been here all night?\u201d Isaac asked from the doorway to his room.<\/p>\n
Selano coughed and stood up, \u201cYou hear anything last night?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve gotta be sharper than that out here, chief.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t lecture me, Selano.\u00a0 Can we make Union territory by nightfall?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll go up to Grand Junction and get on I-70, then drop down I-15.\u00a0 If the roads are clear, we can make Vegas by tonight.\u00a0 Cept the roads probably aren\u2019t clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll make time on the interstate,\u201d Isaac said, \u201cWe\u2019ve cleared the junk from most of 70, and the Union cleared 15.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not what I meant by clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
I-70 had been the old route to the Pacific Union until the Mountain tribe had settled in.\u00a0 For Walkers, they were pretty sedate.\u00a0 They held the interstate from Glenwood Springs to the Eisenhower Tunnel 50 miles out of Denver.\u00a0 The Union had gotten the shit kicked out of their runners along I-15 in Utah and had finally given up, taking the route through Albuquerque.\u00a0 The first step towards the Union and the Republic moving further apart, getting cut off.\u00a0 Just like with the East Coast.\u00a0 It sure as hell felt planned to Selano, no matter what the eggheads said.\u00a0 The tribes were working together.\u00a0 Split up the communities, then quietly pick them apart.\u00a0 That\u2019s what was happening to the Colorado Republic.\u00a0 The Northern camp were pressing in above Cheyenne, the Mountain camp 50 miles from the city, Kansas City fell years ago and there were reports of Walkers raiding across the Colorado border.\u00a0 Now they held Albuquerque.\u00a0 The Republic was an island.<\/p>\n
Breakfast was rations in the truck.\u00a0 No time to forage for anything fancy in Montrose, Selano wanted to get as close to Union territory as possible before sunset.\u00a0 The Interstates were held by the Walkers, and some of the Union\u2019s best runners were taken out on the stretch of road they\u2019d be hitting later that day.\u00a0 The Mountain camp was huge, a tribe of 10,000.\u00a0 Why they hadn\u2019t bothered Denver, nobody knew, but Selano was sure they\u2019d take the time to knock hell out of a crazy runner blasting into Grand Junction.<\/p>\n
US 50 was pretty clear between Montrose and Delta.\u00a0 Selano covered the distance in half an hour and then he was on the pock-marked, rippling final stretch to Grand Junction.\u00a0 The world was empty up here, flat country, a mile high on a little plateau.\u00a0 This was the big country, and real country, too.\u00a0 There were no more ranches or houses along this stretch of road.<\/p>\n
The weather had taken a serious toll on the road, though, and there were a few spots where Selano had to navigate the truck over rubble.\u00a0 It slowed them down and, each time he crawled through a section of road in low gear, he cursed repeatedly under his breath.\u00a0 Isaac kept silent the entire way, letting Selano deal with his own driving demons.<\/p>\n
When they finally hit Grand Junction, it wasn\u2019t a relief for either of them.\u00a0 Selano weaved through the city, climbed the interstate, and hissed through his teeth as he opened up on the cleared road.\u00a0 He kept an eye on every mirror and he felt like his head was about to spin off.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo Walkers, Selano, take it easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Selano cut a glance at Isaac, then pounded the gas and took off down the highway, a spray of rocks and trash flying out on all sides.\u00a0 Then he saw it ahead \u2013 the roadblock.\u00a0 A line of military vehicles stretched across the interstate.\u00a0 He braked, the truck stopping about 300 yards from the roadblock, and then sat there, staring ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell?\u201d Isaac asked, holding his rifle and glaring at Selano.<\/p>\n
\u201cTurn around, I guess.\u00a0 Where are the Walkers?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I was asking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh.\u201d\u00a0 Selano scanned the horizon, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d\u00a0 Then he saw Isaac\u2019s rifle.\u00a0 \u201cIs that a trank gun?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYep.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCould you, maybe, trade that for one of the pretty machine guns in the back?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is more effective if they come at us in force.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got, what, six shots, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more effective.\u00a0 They\u2019re scared of the cure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know about it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Northern camp does.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m turning around.\u00a0 We\u2019ll go down 141, though that\u2019ll be a nightmare.\u00a0 Half that road\u2019s probably gone.\u00a0 We could always head back.\u00a0 This shit would make a lot more sense if we had some backup.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDenver can\u2019t afford to lose fighters.\u00a0 Try 141.\u00a0 You said it first, Selano, this is a suicide mission.\u00a0 We get to the Union or die trying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m having second thoughts, chief.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHave them on 141, with this roadblock far behind us, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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