Chapter 1

Tuesday

“TELL ME AGAIN when the world ended,”Randy said.

“You know that as well as I do,”his partner Josh said.

“I know,but going through the story makes the miles fly by.”

They were currently in the middle part of Tennessee,driving easterly along a four-lane highway.The pavement was in decent condition,considering it hadn’t been maintained in more than three years.Most of the main highway had long since been cleared of obstacles,but when they ventured down secondary roads there were always problems to deal with.So far that day,they’d only had to stop four times to push abandoned vehicles off those secondary roads and out of their way.They tended to avoid the interstate highway system because those highways typically bypassed small towns and communities.And the interstate system had been clogged with semis and theirtrailers—vehicles that were much too heavy to be pushed aside,at least,not without wreckers.US numbered highways were much better for their purposes.

“The world ended three years ago,on May 20,2020,”Josh said,“and these days everybody refers to it as 5-20-20,or sometimes simply as‘the crash’.”

“That’s not precise.”

“Okay,the end began when the earth entered a massive amount of unusual solar activity on that date.And the end was complete when the entire planet had rotated through it.”

“That’s better,”Randy said.“Ever wonder why the scientists who spotted the solaractivity didn’t say more about it?”

“What was there to say?”Josh said.“It was unusual activity,and they watched it closely,not knowing what it meant,until it caught up with them.They must have been shocked when their instruments stopped working.”

“Yeah.”

“Of course,the world didn’t really end.”

“Yeah,but it might as well have,given that every computer chip on the planet stoppedworking when it hit that solar activity.”

“Right,and I wish we knew more about that,”Josh said.

“More?”

“I’d like the answers to a bunch of questions—including,but not limited to:a)was the damage permanent?I mean,when the solar activity stops—if it stops,that is—will computers start working again?and b)if not,will some smart people begin to develop computers using regular transistors instead of miniaturized ones?Oh,shit!”

“What?”

“What if the solar activity has already stopped?How the hell would we know?”

“Good point,”Randy said,“but one thing’s certain,solar activity stopped or not,the computers are still dead.I tried to boot my old laptop the other night,and…bupkes.”

“Wait a minute?”Josh said.“If the world had actually ended,wouldn’t we,by definition,be pushing up daisies?”

“Okay,so it wasn’t the end,just an apocalypse.”

“An apocalypse—but we’re not going to let it be the end of us.”

“Apocalypse—not,”Jake said.“I like that.”

“That makes two of us.”

It had,in fact,been a disaster of almost unimaginable proportions.Airplanes in flight for example—as airplanes entered the zone of solar activity,their computers had stopped working.Which meant that the pilots suddenly had little or no control over their craft,and thousands of people had died in the ensuing crashes.An airliner had actually crashed in a county adjacent to theirs,and they’d made their way to the crash site to have a look.Similarly,ships at sea had stopped moving,and it wasn’t difficult to imagine the plight of tens of thousands of cruise ship passengers stranded at sea with dwindling water and food supplies.Trains stopped running—as didautomobiles,causing more than a few car crashes on the interstate and other highways as drivers lost control of speeding vehicles.

“At least we still have transistor radios that work,”Randy said.

“Yeah,but the transistor radios in old cars can’t find any stations on the air.On the other hand,if you’re lucky enough to have one of the older ham radios,you can communicate with others.Although their numbers are few and far between.”

“Yeah,but we still get a bit of news that way.”

“Right.I just loved hearing about food riots and other horrors in the inner cities.”

“Sarcasm noted,”Randy said.“Besides which,there hasn’t been any news that you really could call good.”

“Frankly,I’m just as glad we don’t know the details of every tragedy that happened during that period.My overactive imagination doesn’t need any prompting along those lines.”

“Which is why we’re riding along the highway in a 1975 Ford Econoline Van that’s nearly two decades older than we are.”

“Thank God for old vehicles,and the people who keep them running,”Josh said.

“We both qualify in that respect.”

“Yeah.You talked me into taking all those shop classes in high school,and it’s paidoff in ways we couldn’t have imagined back then.”

“It’s getting late,”Randy said.“Are you anywhere near ready to stop for the night?”

“As it happens,I am.And if memory serves,there’s an old country church a few miles up the road,one that we can pull around behind and be out of sight from the highway.”

“Works for me.”

A couple of miles down the road,Josh spotted a sign and read,“Trinity Presbyterian Church.Just what I’ve been looking for.”

He drove the van around behind the church,where they found a small pavilion that had obviously been used for church picnics.

“How convenient,”Randy said.“A nice screened-in building.We won’t have to worryabout bugs tonight.I don’t remember this place—was I with you when you were here before?”

“No.You stayed home when I made that trip.”Josh pulled the van and trailer up behind the pavilion and killed the motor.“Time for Rex to earn his keep.”

Randy opened the passenger door,allowing Rex to hop out of the van.“Rex,patrol,”he said.

The Irish Setter began roaming around the church grounds and adjacent cemetery,takingcare of his needs as he did.Several minutes later,he returned to where Josh and Randy were waiting.

“That wagging tail and happy-go-lucky look says it all,”Josh said.

“Yeah.That looks like an old-fashioned hand pump over there beside the church.Why don’t you get our sleeping bags set up while I check out the water supply?”

“On it,”Josh said,and opened the rear doors of the van.

Randy retrieved a water container and carried it over to the pump,where he pressed thepump handle up-and-down a few times.The water was rusty at first,but he was eventually rewarded by a steady flow of what appeared to be clean water.He filled the container and carried it back to the van.

“This water looks good,”Randy said,“but it’s from a shallow well,so I think a couple of water purification tablets are in order.”

“That’s better than risking a serious case of the runs or worse,”Josh said.“I still haven’t forgotten the last time that happened.”

“Do you think we can risk a fire?”

“Not now,but maybe after the sun goes down.”

“Right you are,”Randy said.“I’ll get things set up.”

A couple of hours later,having consumed a light supper,they settled down for the night.It was a warm evening,so they slept on top of their sleeping bags with Rex curled up at their feet on the sheepskin doggie bed they carried with them.The van and trailer were locked up tight,and given the dark color of both,they wouldn’t be easy to spot from the highway,even on a moonlit night.

“Wanta fool around a bit?”Josh said.

“Talk about silly questions.”

“I’ll take that as a yes—”Josh didn’t complete that sentence because his mouth was suddenly covered by Randy’s.

Later,Josh said,“How long have we been doing this?”

“Since we hit puberty and found how much pleasure our bodies could give us,and that’s a lot of years.”