{"id":529,"date":"2009-10-30T07:33:01","date_gmt":"2009-10-30T12:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=529"},"modified":"2018-10-30T19:57:31","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T23:57:31","slug":"judgment-day-part-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=529","title":{"rendered":"Judgment Day: Part 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very short entry today — what should have been included in Part 19<\/a>.\u00a0 There’s a section break after this so, in the interest of what little flow there is, I’ll keep the natural break and start the new chapter next week.<\/p>\n

Plus, this is a break for you all, who have been reading 1500-2000 words a pop.<\/p>\n

Also, I’m lazy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

He pulled the van onto the road, turned around and left his house and the naked body of the neighbor\u2019s daughter to the rain, the weather, the grey day.\u00a0 He picked his way back out to the main road and, from there, in whatever lanes were free of rush hour traffic, he headed north.\u00a0 After some time, he reached the Interstate\u2019s on ramp and paused, the wipers and the lights a strange sort of life to the dead rush hour, the lines of cars sitting lonely and the wide highway branching away, laden with traffic.\u00a0 He looked at the highway as a dreamer, a traveler.\u00a0 Enough was enough, just get out of the way of whatever was going on here.\u00a0 Go climb under a rock.<\/p>\n

Molly sat silently, watching him.\u00a0 \u201cHow far is Sugarloaf, again?\u201d She asked after a minute or so.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout an hour.\u00a0 Longer, with the rain and traffic.\u201d\u00a0 They would have to work their way up along the shoulder of the Interstate, or find a back route.\u00a0 It could be a hard trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be far enough, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

He looked sideways at her, \u201cI\u2019m willing to bet nowhere will be far enough.\u00a0 Shall we go?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if your friends are\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n

He shrugged, \u201cWe\u2019re batting a thousand when it comes to surviving the creatures.\u00a0 Hopefully we\u2019ll be able to spot trouble if it comes.\u00a0 If things look sour, we\u2019ll continue north and west, up to I-70, further still.\u00a0 Find an old house somewhere.\u00a0 Western Maryland can hide us.\u00a0 The mountains can hide us.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure of that.\u201d\u00a0 He had traveled the old two lane roads that I-70 had replaced.\u00a0 The Interstate ran parallel to the old Route 40, which was one of America\u2019s first cross country highways, twisting through the mountains and forests.\u00a0 There were countless places to hide along that road.\u00a0 Enough to give him a glimmer of hope.\u00a0 There was a whole world out there and enough shelter to hide two people forever.\u00a0 Going to Sugarloaf Mountain was feeling more and more like a mistake, but he felt obligated to check it out.<\/p>\n

He looked down at the road, took a breath, then inched the van down the ramp and into the main artery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very short entry today — what should have been included in Part 19.\u00a0 There’s a section break after this so, in the interest of what little flow there is, I’ll keep the natural break and start the new chapter next …<\/p>\n

Judgment Day: Part 20<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[404],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nachos-lousy-novel","tag-nachos-lousy-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":779,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions\/779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}