The drive south proved rather uneventful, the most difficult part being keeping the Jeep on what was hopefully the road. Not that the Jeep would have any issues off road but on top of an increased risk from hitting something hidden by the snow it would slow their pace considerably. Marcus took a moment to wonder why they had passed so few abandoned cars along the way.
Hollywood movies always made it seem like every major roadway would be completely blocked by dead vehicles, but in a little over two hundred kilometers Marcus could count the number of cars he’d seen on one hand. With little else to do and tired of talking in his own head he’d taken up attempting to figure out the dog’s name.
“Lucille?” wrong guesses were met with a growl, this try being no different.
“Fluffers?”
“Rosie?”
“Letisha?”
“Kali?”
“Cinnamon?”
This went on for far longer than Marcus would ever admit to another human being.
“Peyton?” rather than a growl this was met with an enthusiastic barking, “alright, Peyton it is.”
Having learned the dog’s name Marcus briefly wondered if the dog was a boy or a girl but decided he didn’t want to know how he’d learn the answer. Instead he took another sip of the energy drink in his cup holder and put his focus back on the road. There was a small town coming up on the right and he was curious to see what had happened to it.
Something terrible apparently, the only evidence there had ever been a town here was a lone gas station sign, standing vigil like a red and white grave marker. Everything else had been completely flattened and buried by the disgusting grey snow.
Gripping the steering wheel a little tighter Marcus pressed the accelerator a little harder and quickly left the ghoulish sight in his rear view. It wouldn’t take long to come upon another ghoulish sight, this one even worse than the first.
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It was a rural property completely surrounded by a rather high chain link fence, which wasn’t too bad. The still writhing zombies suspended from poles at regular intervals around the property were a completely different story. Marcus decided pretty quickly that he did not want to stick around, a glance at the dog and its absolutely horrified demeanour suggested he shouldn’t.
The Jeep’s v6 growled as the big off road tires churned through snow and away from the tableau. Marcus realised that zombies might not be the only problems in this version of earth, he didn’t realize how right that statement was.
The next interesting thing they came upon was a massive wall, stretching into the distance in either direction. Built entirely out of crushed cars, which explained why Marcus didn’t see any on the road. It also didn’t have a gate, at least not where they were. One thing was apparent, Peyton did not like the wall, the dog was pressed against the passenger seat with hackles raised growling at the wall.
Marcus took one last look at the wall of metal that must have been fifty feet tall and wondered briefly if it was meant to keep something out or in. He decided that question definitely did not need to be answered at the moment, if it ever needed to be answered, made a K turn and headed in the other direction.
Turning onto a secondary highway Marcus looked over to find Peyton once again curled up on the passenger seat, the danger apparently passed. He then took a second to appreciate that the geography for the most part matched his earth. That is, until he nearly drove into the giant crater. It stretched off into the horizon in nearly all directions and seemed to fall away forever, though he knew that was just an optical illusion.
Putting the Jeep in park and grabbing his binoculars Marcus stepped out and surveyed the landscape. While not bottomless the crater was pretty damn deep, almost a kilometer straight down from the edge, while easily being three or four across. As his breathing slowed and his heart levelled off he became aware of two distinct sounds.
The first was a frantic barking from the passenger seat of his Gladiator, the second was difficult to describe but most definitely coming from the crater and was undoubtedly a very bad thing. Deciding for the moment that he was in way over his head and the dog hadn’t led him astray so far, Marcus jumped into the Jeep and advanced in the other direction hoping he’d never have to find out what was in that crater.
In order to avoid the crater of shit he didn’t want to know about, Marcus found himself driving towards the next province over. He also discovered that he needed to put gas in the Jeep and the sun was setting. In the middle of nowhere, in winter, in the post apocalyptic version of earth this was very much so a bad thing.
So Marcus did the only sensible thing he could think of, come to a complete stop in the middle of the road and got out to fill the Jeep. Peyton decided this was a good time to get out and do their business. Marcus thought watching the dog pee might let him know what gender it was. This proved ineffective in the knee high snow.
As was typical of the empty, apocalyptical earth it was disturbingly quiet, like hear your own heartbeat quiet. This would prove advantageous as the silence was broken by the sound of trees cracking. Not branches. Trees.
Marcus decided he had put enough gas in the Jeep and Peyton apparently agreed as the dog quickly jumped back into the passenger seat and began barking. Marcus started twisting the gas cap into place as a nearby stand of trees began shaking violently. Not just one or two but a whole stand of them.
In other disturbing news the earth had started shaking, violently. This was more than enough for Marcus to hop back into the Gladiator, depressing the brake pedal and starter button as he did so. Thankfully this wasn’t some piece of shit horror movie car but rather a well maintained modern vehicle so the Jeep turned over with a purr. Whatever was coming through the woods was coming very near the treeline as Marcus shifted into drive and shoved his seatbelt home.
The Jeep’s v6 growled as the big tires churned up clouds of snow and the Gladiator shot towards the ever encroaching twilight. Marcus glanced into the rearview mirror but all it revealed was an ever expanding cloud of the sickening grey snow blowing out behind the Jeep.