Chapter 18 Lissa
Lissa left at dawn the next morning, hitting the road for the three-day journey ahead.
Last night, after planting her garden in hurried rows, she’d slept in restless bursts, each time waking with a sense of urgency and panicked fear for Cam.
With the sky pale, the sun not yet past the horizon, and the air still chilly, she hefted her pack and resolutely followed the path down the fading driveway without looking back.
Her best estimate was she’d be gone for a week and a half.
The journey had taken Cam three long days, so she’d allot four each way, just to be safe.
He’d talked about cutting across country, while she planned to follow the roads he’d marked on the map.
Once she arrived, she also hoped for a couple days to spend with him, which sent giant tropical-size butterflies flitting through her stomach.
She tamped them down. This trip wasn’t a vacation.
She needed to give warning about the imminent threat to xTerra’s community.
Lissa swallowed the lump in her throat, picking up the pace when she hit the main road.
She had no time to waste. She needed to travel hard to beat the Slains.
Though fit from hard work, she was least in shape after the long winter.
Still, she’d done yoga most evenings to keep strong.
Her pace picked up another notch once her muscles warmed.
As the day progressed, her pack grew heavy, and her shoulders ached.
She wasn’t used to this kind of travel anymore.
A journey without her cats also seemed strange.
She hated leaving them behind, but to hurry, it didn’t make sense to bring them.
She could trust them to take care of themselves.
Plus, she’d be returning as soon as possible. There and back.
Lissa remained alert, only stopping to check her map once when she reached the crossroads heading for the highway.
She imagined punching the destination into a Maps app on her extinct iPhone.
Paper maps were difficult to find because they’d been replaced years before the asteroid.
If she ran across an old general store, that might be her best bet to find a real one, but she wasn’t about to go out of her way and search.
This map wasn’t difficult to follow, and she was grateful Cam had labeled each turn as though driving, making navigation easy.
She didn’t have a compass and relied on his directions, that and the knowledge that road signs would direct her toward Edgemont, the town nearest his bunker city.
Without further delay, she turned north on Dodd Road, continuing for several miles.
Before long, she missed the bluffs and treed slopes around her place.
Out here was flat and empty, with few distinctive landmarks.
She glanced out at the barren grasslands as she hiked.
Tempting though the fields were, she’d best stick to the roads until the last section, where according to Cam’s directions, she’d cut cross-country.
Still, knowing the Slains were moving into position around xTerra, she’d have to be vigilant, watching for other travelers and vehicles.
She worried at her lip as she walked, convincing herself she would be brave, even if she intended to hide at the first sign of anyone.
Take cover. Ask questions later. Courageous and foolish were opposite sides of the same coin.
She sighed. While easier to travel, the roads were also the most likely route for Slains on the move.
They would have a forceful presence around xTerra if they were planning an attack.
The probability of running into them somewhere along the route was high.
More of a when than an if. She kept her feet moving, her eyes scoping out every possible danger, and alert for unusual noises.
Despite Lissa’s vigilance, the first day passed without incident.
Travel remained easy after she left the Crawford hills behind—most of the level countryside dotted with small stands of pines or junipers.
Houses were scattered, few and far between.
Though the asphalt was pitted from several winters’ worth of freeze-thaw action and eight years without repair, walking the crumbling roads was still easier than the uneven footing along the shoulders.
After five or six hours, she’d made excellent progress.
Once she never would have considered walking sixty miles. If she had a car, she’d have driven to xTerra in less than an hour. Still, Cam and his safety were worth the effort.
It was afternoon when she passed another former tourist site with a faded wooden sign, loose and banging against its post, for the Heritage Guest Ranch.
Though tempted to check the buildings for always-in-demand supplies, she carried on.
No time for scavenging. She continued another couple of miles further along Toadstool Road, passing a tiny, deserted town called Joder before deciding to camp for the night.
She watched for a likely spot after passing through because she didn’t want to sleep in the ghost town.
Sometimes, staying in places that should be inhabited, but were instead abandoned, reminded her too much of the world before the asteroid.
Best not to think about those days too much.
Her former life was like a story, one best kept at arm’s length, as though it had happened to someone else.
She also seldom thought beyond the immediate future, living for now.
At dusk, her feet weary and her stomach grumbling, she halted at a tiny house set a hundred yards off the road.
The place wasn’t much more than a run-down shack beneath three bare cottonwoods.
At their bases, several dozen saplings had sprouted and been left to grow in disorder in what used to be lawn.
She approached cautiously, but like most, the house appeared uninhabited—without smoke or sounds of occupation.
Poised to run if someone was inside, she banged on the door. The sound echoed.
No one answered. She exhaled and tried again, with the same result.
When she opened the flimsy door, wrinkling her nose at the foul musty smell wafting out—the powerful stench of a place overrun with rodents.
She backed out and down the front stairs.
She’d take her chances outside. Not wanting to walk farther with dark fast approaching, she circled into the backyard.
She set up her tent behind the house where she wouldn’t be noticed by anyone traveling along the road.
She kept her fire small, dousing the flames as soon as she finished boiling water to rehydrate her pasta dinner.
Despite her physical exhaustion, sleep was difficult to come by again, her mind continuing to whirl.
After waking before dawn, she unzipped the tent’s fly and observed the sky’s transformation from black to navy, then a faded jean color streaked with dull yellow.
She listened for sounds that might indicate humans nearby, but a few bird warbles and a distant coyote were the lone sounds.
With dawn imminent, she gave up on rest, ate a quick breakfast, and hit the road.
Lissa’s chest remained tight as she hiked, the day spread out before her.
It didn’t seem like she’d drawn a full breath since she’d overheard the news about the attack on xTerra.
What if she arrived too late? What if Cam hadn’t returned home?
Perhaps he’d been killed on the way. Even the thought made her stomach churn.
Best not to dwell on negative possibilities.
A million scenarios swirled through her mind as she trekked along the same highway he’d followed on his journey—Highway 71 running along the South Dakota-Nebraska border.
Out here in the open, swallows swooped through the air chasing insects, often landing on fenceposts to sing, their chirps and trills her entertainment.
She followed their acrobatic antics as they fed, flying through the fresh spring air.
Crossing the Ogala National Grasslands, the prairies were as brown as around her place, but they probably would be beautiful in later spring with thick green grass.
After lunch, she crossed into South Dakota and passed through another deserted town called Ardmore.
The small town was open to the elements, with broken windows and missing doors everywhere.
Some roofs were missing shingles or had jagged holes.
Most buildings showed similar signs of disrepair, and several appeared on the verge of toppling—perhaps damaged by a tornado.
She passed a gray and weathered barn with a collapsed roof and then a couple of vehicles abandoned roadside, probably left wherever they’d run out of gas.
Already, they were sun-faded and rusting.
One day, these derelicts would be unidentifiable heaps of decayed wood or orangish-brown rusted remains.
After a midday meal on the road, Lissa checked her map.
This town marked the approximate halfway mark.
Pleased with her progress, she pushed on, not camping until sunset, after another grueling march along the highway.
Her calves ached and her feet throbbed when she slipped off her boots.
She wriggled her toes and sighed. If she made it to xTerra in time, her effort would be worthwhile.
The second night was much like the first, her thoughts filled with worries about Cam, concerns about her reception, and fears about who she might encounter along the route tomorrow.
The closer to her goal, the more obstacles she envisioned.
Sleep was difficult to achieve. She’d relax and drift off, exhausted, only to jerk awake, heart pounding.
She dozed off several times, but true rest remained elusive.