Dark Days Rough Roads Read Free Page A

emergency generators running and
limited power, they left in droves to go home and take care of themselves.
Roughly 30 percent had left then and almost the same amount refused to come
into work.
    Housekeeping,
food service, maintenance, and other support staff. They were underpaid and
would not care about working to keep the place running. Knowing it was a
permanent problem they would care even less. These workers would impact how
quickly the facility would fail.
    Haliday
stopped just before exiting the building as another guy was shaking a snack
machine. He looked at Haliday and asked him if he knew how to get a refund.
Haliday pulled out his knife, which had a window punch on the end, and pressed
it against the glass. The glass shattered. Haliday reached in and grabbed a few
candy bars, and told the guy to help himself.
    Haliday walked
out to his car and passed by a few others doing the same. The only difference
was he was going out to get his pack and gear and they were sitting there
trying to start their cars. He heard an engine start and looked in the
direction of the noise where he saw an old Ford F100. As odd as it was to see a
running vehicle; it didn’t surprise him.
    As it
slowly crawled through the parking lot passing a few cars dead in the aisles,
the driver stopped just as Haliday put his pack on and loaded his rifle, readying
himself for his walk home. The driver was an older guy in his late 60’s and he
looked at Haliday and asked him where he was heading. Haliday said, “East.”
Shockingly the driver told him he was heading that way and offered him a ride.
    Haliday
was not too sure about the proposal, but eyeing the passenger seat he saw a
smaller bag and an empty pistol case for a pistol which he noted was strapped
on the old guy’s thigh. Good company to be in. Haliday started to refuse and
the old guy said, “Hey, I’m looking for a little security until I get out of
this crack hood and you seem to be one of the only ones who knows what’s going
on, so I’m taking a chance.”
    “I saw a
gal in uniform get in her car, change, then pull a bike out of the trunk with a
pack and she took off before I could call to her. I’m thinking by your squared
away looks you two were friends,” he said. Haliday smiled and nodded, then told
the old guy he could stay with him about 20 miles due east and that was it. The
old guy said that was fine with him. There was a different setting altogether in
that direction.
    The two
pulled out onto the road, dodging cars here and there and drove a bit in
silence as they passed by people standing in the road and on the sidewalks.
There were actually a couple other cars running, older, but it was evident they
were just old, not selected or prepped like this old Ford was. They talked a
bit about just a little of this and that, no real subject and neither brought
up the EMP or the future. After about 30 minutes, Haliday said he was ready to
bail and the old guy stopped the truck in a clear area of the road as no one
was nearby.
    Haliday
shook his hand, told him thank you and wished him the best of luck. The old guy
said, “You’re quite welcome and I pray you keep safe.”
    Haliday
said, “Well sir, right now we all need to pray.” People started heading their
way and Haliday told him he better get going and waved goodbye as he started
off to the shoulder of the road and toward an access road. He heard the drum of
the old Ford’s engine dwindle away. He laughed out loud, even spoke out loud,
“Yep, we all need to pray.”

Chapter
2
     
    He
stepped down off the shoulder of the road, took a few more steps to cross over
the ditch and the ground under his feet felt spongy. When he looked closer, he
could see the soil was wet and since there had not been any rain in the past
few days, he didn’t know why. He squatted down a bit to pick up a leaf, which
was halfway in the muck, and grabbed it by the dry stem and took a quick sniff.
    It was
definitely water and not sewage,