Chapter 11
As he closed the door behind her, she saw tears rolling down his cheeks and knew he understood.
They might never see each other again. Veronica could hear people in the distance.
Fires crackled in the air as chaos rained down on their otherwise quiet community.
She would be on back roads in a few miles but had no choice other than pushing the bike through town to get out of there.
Taking a deep breath, she ensured her weapon and backpack were tightly bound to her before double-checking the bags on the bike were locked shut.
The few spare parts she had lying around for the motorcycle had made it into the hard-covered bags as well.
She wasn’t about to take any chances. The only thing she wished she had was a gas can but knew picking one up along the way would be simple.
The vast majority of the population would have no need for fuel.
She could siphon out of vehicles as she went.
That was only going to work, though, if she had a spare gas can to put it in.
Otherwise, she was gambling by being stranded on the side of the road, pushing her bike with no fuel.
Even with everything going on around her, Veronica felt a small amount of excitement as she prepared to attempt to start the bike.
There was also a little fear behind the emotion, knowing that as soon as she fired up the motorcycle, people were going to hear it.
Bringing attention to herself was the last thing she wanted to do, but there was little choice in the matter.
As she turned the key on and the motorcycle’s lights came to life, she could hardly believe her luck.
That was just the beginning of the process, and as she hit the aftermarket switch to engage the starting system, the bike rumbled to life.
Without hesitating, Veronica quickly engaged the clutch and threw it into gear.
She wasn’t about to wait around for the curious people who would have heard the motorcycle start up.
Going to get out of the parking lot and onto the road.
She wasn’t surprised that almost immediately, a group of people were running in her direction.
There were two men who jumped out in front of her to try to slow her down, and she nearly ran them over in the process of maneuvering around them.
The world around her had been thrown into chaos, and the only goal on her mind was to make it to her family.
The screams and shouts of all the people around her were nearly drowned out by the sounds of gunshots in the distance.
As much as she hated to ignore everything, Veronica refused to stop.
She quickly gunned the throttle and weaved in and out of the stranded cars left on the street. Veronica knew there was trouble brewing, but she also knew the sooner she got out of town, the fewer people she was bound to run into. A moment later, she was on a two-lane road and heading out of town.
Veronica’s heart was racing as adrenaline coursed through her.
Little by little, the cars and people became fewer as trees surrounded her.
The sun had barely started to climb above the hills in the distance, lighting the way for her as she raced down the abandoned road.
Guessing how much fuel she had left in the motorcycle, it was a gamble, but when she saw a landscaping pickup and trailer off to the right of the road ahead of her, Veronica slowed.
She knew the vehicle was likely to have a spare gas can and the pickup was probably full of fuel.
As she pulled over to the side and shut off the bike, her eyes darted around.
She moved quickly, not wanting to linger in any one place longer than necessary.
Just as she had suspected, the fifty miles she had gone had nearly drained half of her fuel tank.
Unscrewing the cap, she stuck it in her pocket and raced to the trailer first. Veronica nearly jumped up and down with elation when she discovered not one but two fuel cans filled to the brim and ready for her to take.
Quickly strapping down one, she used the second to refill her tank before returning it to its place on the trailer.
Snagging a couple of straps that were holding down a push mower, she attached the gas can to her back saddlebags before screwing the cap back onto her fuel tank.
The ten-gallon jug would get her another two-hundred miles.
Veronica hadn’t seen another living soul since leaving the city limits.
She didn’t want to gamble with her luck.
Knowing that landscapers typically brought their lunches from home, though, she cupped her eyes over the passenger window and looked inside.
The doors were locked, but she saw three lunch boxes sitting on the seats.
Veronica didn’t like the idea of shattering the window but knew the more food she had, the fewer stops she’d be forced to make.
Refusing to waste any more time thinking about what she was going to do, she quickly broke out the side window of the truck.
Reaching in through the broken glass, Veronica unlocked the door and snatched the three lunch boxes sitting on the seat.
She wasn’t about to load herself down with anything else that wasn’t worth having, so she opened up the first one and wasn’t surprised to find a six-pack of beer.
Veronica chuckled at how people in that field of work were so predictable.
She wasn’t about to let the beer go to waste and quickly opened the other two lunch boxes to find now what else she was going to be carrying along with her.
The other two were loaded down with sandwiches and small bags of chips, along with a few cans of soda, as well.
Not wanting any of it to go to waste, she quickly threw it into her book bag before checking to make sure the gas can was secure on the back.
The ten-gallon can was going to come in handy farther on down the road, and she knew she was going to need every drop of fuel she could get her hands on in order to keep from having to make several extra stops along the way.
As soon as everything was strapped down and secured to the motorcycle, Veronica was on the road again.
Veronica moved quickly, glancing down at her atlas twice to navigate the rest of the way to the California border.
To get to her family farm, which was one hundred miles over the Colorado border, she would need to cross through the tip of Nevada and all of Utah.
It was a long, sweltering ride in the best of conditions, but crossing the desert land on an ancient motorcycle that hadn’t been tested was an outright gamble at best. She was up for the task, though, hoping that the majority of the road would be as abandoned as what she had already seen.
With a little more than nine hundred miles to go, Veronica tried to clear her head of what she had seen hours before and the consuming concern she had for her family and friends.
Bit by bit, her fear slipped away as the joy of riding the motorcycle took hold.
She adored riding, no matter the circumstances.
Nothing could dampen the elation she felt at knowing her bike, one she had built from the ground up, was running like a champ.
Veronica couldn’t wait to get home and show her brothers and her father, knowing that all three would be incredibly proud of her skills.
Even though the world around her seemed to be falling apart, Veronica was enjoying the open road.
The trees were starting to clear off in the distance, and she could see that the sun was coming up.
The closer she came to the sunrise appearing before her eyes, the more beautiful she realized it was.
Living in the city for so long, she hadn’t seen a good sunrise in quite a few years.
At that moment, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever witnessed.
The peacefulness of the situation unfolding in front of her caused her to reflect back on her memories.
She suddenly realized she hadn’t ever heard it so quiet before.
There weren’t any of the normal sounds she was used to from living in the city.
There was a small amount of guilt that rushed over her when she noticed she was enjoying the ride more than she should.
The guilt slowly faded away when she thought about everything she had worked so hard for up to that point.
Though life might not ever be the same for the rest of the country, she knew there was nothing she could do until she was back home with her family again.
The thought of helping others in need was not far from her mind.