Free Roads Less Traveled by C. Dulaney

south at a more reasonable speed just as the sun was beginning its ascent in the morning sky.
     
    * * *
     
    The first hour went by semi-smoothly; by sticking to the back roads, they had encountered only a few small vehicle accidents and surprisingly few zombies. Their route would take them southeast, making a wide loop around Pittsburgh and the surrounding suburbs. If all went well, they would travel this way out of Pennsylvania and then south through Maryland before finally entering the eastern parts of West Virginia. Their destination: Monongahela National Forest. Kasey was safely isolated within this thickly wooded mountainous region.
    They had traveled forty-four miles of the roughly 220 mile trip when it suddenly occurred to Ben he hadn’t called Kasey to inform her of their situation. He ran a hand over his front pocket, suddenly forgetting whether or not he had grabbed his cell phone as they scrambled out of the house.
    “Oh crap…” he mumbled.
    “I’ll check your bag,” Kyra said when she noticed his distress. She reached between Mike’s feet and started rummaging around. “Here, found it.” She handed the phone to Ben and smiled. Obviously relieved, he smiled back and nodded his thanks. He checked the battery bar on the screen and saw it was almost dead.
    “There should be a car charger in there too, Kyra. Would you find it for me?” He pulled the cigarette lighter from its power source and tossed it on the dash, then waited for Kyra to find the charger and plug it in for him. His signal was decent in this area so he dialed Kasey’s number. His heart began to sink as he listened to the ringing on the other end. He hung up after twelve rings.
    “What’s wrong?” Kyra whispered. She and Mike were now watching Ben intently. He just shook his head and kept his eyes on the road and the rear end of Jake’s Jeep.
    “Let me try, you drive,” she said as she took the phone and hit the redial. This time an automated message came on after the third ring. All circuits busy, it said.
    “Sounds like the lines are all tied up.” Kyra looked at Ben with the phone gripped in her hand.
    “Or they’ve finally gone down altogether. Try my laptop,” he said and nodded towards his bag. Kyra tossed the phone onto the dash and pulled the computer out. She flipped it open, turned on the power, and waited. Tense dread filled the cab of the truck. All three let out a huge sigh of relief when the welcome screen finally came up. Ben spared a quick glance at the screen.
    “She’s not online. And she won’t know to check for me there until tonight after I’m due to call her. Just send her an e-mail and tell her everything that’s happened this morning. Let me know when you’re ready to give her the details of our route and I’ll talk you through it,” he said. Kyra nodded and began typing.

Chapter Seven
     
     
    October 3 rd
     
    I woke up that morning refreshed and actually got a lot accomplished. After making many trips hauling food upstairs, I went to the attic for extra blankets, sheets, and the old heavy drapes I had stowed away up there after first moving in. I had just finished hanging the curtains in the spare bedrooms when Gus reminded me for the fourth time he was ready to eat lunch. Before heading downstairs, I went from room to room, looking out all the windows to check the perimeter. All was quiet, so off to the kitchen we went. I filled his bowl, then turned on the TV while fixing myself a sandwich.
    The local station had finally gone off the air. I flipped through the other local channels as I ate, the same multicolored screen showing on every station. Technical difficulties my ass , I thought. I tried the national news channels and CNN was still broadcasting. While the reporter talked, my eyes strayed to the names scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Portland, Boston, New York, Philadelphia…the list went on. All of the major cities in every single state had been lost. Efforts at