Mad World - Descent Ch. 02

With that silence fell over the car and even Esmeralda and Fernanda appeared shaken and thoughtful.

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Time passed, and soon enough we arrived at Highway 395. What we found was smoke rising from Connell. The whole of it looked to have been bombed back to the Stone Age.

Gail pulled off the road onto the shoulder, turned to me, and said, "Here we are, make your phone call."

Pulling my iPhone out of my pocket, I turned it on, and scrolling through my recent calls I found Eleanor. I tapped the screen and it started to dial. The phone call then immediately ended with a notification stating, "No Service."

I was so excited that I had forgotten to check if I had any bars. Now that I looked, all I saw was the letters SOS in the top right-hand corner.

Turning to face Gail I said sheepishly, "No bars."

Gail sighed, "Well, it was worth a try. Truth be told, what meager cell service we had and the landlines have been down since the EMP that first week after D-day."

"Could I convince you to take me to the Tri-Cities?" I asked in a pleading tone.

"Do you think it fairs any better than that?" Gail asked, gesturing towards Connell's smoking remains.

"Just take me close. Let me see. If it is, then we can turn around and go home," I said.

Gail looked at me doubtfully for a few minutes as she made her decision. Then, she put the car in gear and we sped off toward the Tri-cities. What awaited was more horrible than I can describe.

About thirty minutes later, we topped a small plateau some distance north of Pasco and saw the massive funeral pyre that was the Tri-cities. Gail brought the car to a halt at the nearest turnaround.

"Do you still want to go down into that?" She asked.

There was a long silence as my hopes and dreams of reuniting with my wife and daughters crumbled and my heart broke. Gail was nice enough to let me be. Instead, she put the car into gear and drove back to Kahlotus and to her home.