Jason drove across desert, at some point he'd all but given up on roads almost entirely due to the outrageous amount of pot holes and the roads often had cars blocking them, often going across the flat desert, the occasional rock or tree he'd have to swerve out of the way of wasn't too big of a problem, anything smaller would be pushed aside by the old train plow he'd acquired from an antique museum, aside from the rocks, it'd also throw mutants aside, he'd often swerve to hit them when he was particularly bored, he often got dirty looks from the pair of androids in the passenger seat every time he'd run over a hopper or scavver which were mutated Hares and coyotes.

They barely spoke a word since he'd picked them up, though when he played some of his old cassette tapes the girl... Luna was what the old man had called it, had a small freakout, covering her ears as back in black played over the old radio. apparently she covered her ears.

Jason sighed and shut the cassette player off, Cassettes after the nukes were gold in terms of trade value. He looked out the slat where the window would have been, but had been replaced with a sheet of reinforced steel with an opening for him to see out of, it was shot out on the first week of the red years, that's what they called it after China nuked America. He'd driven through a rest stop only for some crazy woman with a shotgun to blast his window apart, he managed to duck down and drive out of there but he did get hit by a few pellets of the gun, digging birdshot out of your arm isn't fun to say the least, that wasn't to mention the glass.

in the distance through the slat he saw frowned as he saw a dark cloud in the distance. "Huh, looks like some rain..." He sighs, he hated the damned rain, acid rain was a pain in the ass.

Luna turned her bright blue eyes glowing as she tried to a look through the narrow hole in the steel. "That's not rain."

Jason turned, slowing the car to a stop and opened his door, he had a sinking feeling as he took a pair of binoculars from the glove compartment and looked adjusting, already he could see it was moving a bit too fast to be rain. what he saw was a massive writhing mass of large locusts. "Fucking shit!" He cursed as he threw himself back into the truck and slammed the door, closing the slat and locking it down. He shut off the engine, and looked out through the windshield.

"We should be driving off, why aren't we..." Orion the male android said, emotionless as always.

"That there is what we like to call a car killer, the insects will cover the windshield or even break it, and the wipers will do fuck all save smear their guts everywhere, but that's only half of it, the fuckers will get into the engine and gunk it up causing it to break down, if they get into the exhaust pipe they can possibly catch fire, those are just two examples of the shit storm we have, best thing you can do is shut it all down and wait them out."

"can't we outrun them?" Luna asked.

Jason shook his head. "Nope, they're fast little shits, their wings are strong and the wind's at their backs."

Orion frowned, seeming to try and figure out a way out of the situation, meanwhile Jason took out a book and took the strip of cloth out. not five minutes later he heard a thump of an insect impacting the truck, then another, and another, one hit so hard he heard a crack of it's chitin being crushed. before eventually the thumps were so constant and loud one would be forgiven for thinking it was hailing if it was from sound alone, except the windshield showed a swarm of brown insects, flying past, a few would land on the windshield, he could see the bright red back legs and large mandibles, as if their very presence wasn't bad enough, they had become carnivorous, he wasn't sure if radiation alone could cause such rapid evolution and mutation, but it was probably for the best, it might sound horrible since humans were no exception to their hunger, but these things consumed many large and dangerous mutants and all but ignored farms save for trying to get at their cattle.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Luckily after the first few farms were hit and word got around farmers managed to put up some chicken wire over the windows to their barns, and put things such as wax, metal or clay to make the doors air tight. not fool proof but it kept the majority of these large hoppers out.

"So uh, got any family?" Luna asked.

Jason felt a stab in his gut, it'd been a while since he'd thought about his wife and kids. "No." He said pointedly not looking up from his book, it was dark, and he could hardly see, turning on a light only guaranteed he'd be here for alot longer, after a while he gives up on reading as a whole and puts the bookmark back. "I had one, but I don't anymore."

"Oh, I'm... sorry." Luna says, a look of something resembling emotion crossing her face, Jason felt uncomfortable, it was easier to think of them as emotionless machines.

"Don't mention it, I'm serious, if you do I'll drop you at the side of the road and make you walk to Panama." Jason said, not joking in the least.

They both looked at out their window, their all too human glowing with blue binary in the reflection. "Hey cut that out you'll attract the bugs." Jason snapped.

"We see something." Luna says, pointing out the window, though her eyes did wink out.

Jason turned to see a car speeding through the swarm headlights on, insects swarming around their vehicle as they swerved about, he couldn't see much but he could see their windshield was white with cracks and then a hole appeared in the middle of it as several more insects impacted and fell through it, the car lost control and flipped into the swarm and disappeared, it didn't explode like some movie, but the smell of burning diesel did tell him that it might. "Huh, idiot, unfortunate I won't be able to salvage any new cargo if that thing catches ablaze, oh well, trailers full anyways." Jason says using the lever on the side of the seat to recline back. "let me know when this thing passes." He says, closing his eyes and drifting off to the thumping on the doors.

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Jason blinked awake to silence, he blinked again seeing dusty sunlight out the reinforced glass of the truck's windshield, he looked over to the side and saw the two androids looking at him, were they staring at him the entire time? He shook his head determining that it was better not to know.

He opened his door scaring away a few still lingering locusts who fluttered away with a click click click as their dark and yet distinct wings unfurled allowing them to almost hop through the air as they glided and eventually found a shrub to rest on.

he leaned into the truck and took out the old hand held chainsaw that he'd used to cut the barrel off his shotgun what felt like ages ago, it was a very useful tool that he used more often than he'd care to admit. He also checked the holster where the double barrel rested, he'd be needing it, though he did change out the buckshot for birdshot. he closed the door and moved to the hood before opening it seeing a few of the meddlesome insects inside, he batted one aside that leapt at him with the saw, a few more leapt away or at him eventually ending in most leaving the hood, he would have to check more thoroughly later, but there weren't so many that the engine would be at risk. problem was, now they were mad. many started flying about any there were about thirty of them they started to create a miniature swarm as they did, he grabbed the sawn off double barrel at his hip and blasted the swarm tearing a hole the small yet dark cloud, he fired again, this shot taking a few more of the little demons with the tiny pellets.

The swarm started forward, coordinated in their movement, though Jason heard a click and a ding ding ding as the door opened then closed soon after and the male android, Orion moved around to the front of the truck, he stretched a hand forward, and a bolt of lightning struck the insects, it seemed to chain from one insect to the next killing the swarm in seconds. Jason stared at the twitching burned insects. "let's get back on the road." He said getting back into the truck, and drove off into the desert.