Dystopia: The Long Road by DJ Cooper Page B

woods on the opposite side of the camp from where they were.
    Dickie indicated to Danny to watch the area that the noise had come from, by signalling with two fingers pointing to his eyes then to the area the sounds had come from.  Before Danny could object he turned back to where Dickie had been to find him silently creeping into the woods, in seconds he was gone from sight.  Anxiously waiting for something to happen Danny kept scanning the area they had heard the noise, but heard nothing.
    After a few minutes Dickie emerged from the woods where the sound had come from and waved Danny over.  Danny came over quickly to find Dickie triumphantly holding out two rabbits he said were the source of the noise.
    The rest of the evening was uneventful, even quiet.  John sat watching the sun rise across the lake and wondered what surprises this trip may offer along the way.

Chapter 10
    “A changed landscape”
    “There is nothing new except what is forgotten.”
    -Marie Antoinette
                 
                 
    S eptember 25 th
    The group packed their camp, remembering to place things into the proper vehicles.  Taking some time to look at their maps again, they ventured in the direction the road took them to go south into Pennsylvania. They carefully charted the roads along the way to make sure they were avoiding cities like Scranton.
    After talking it over the guys formulated a plan to try and obtain some CB radios.  They found some information in an abandoned truck, noting a location outside of a larger city on the Pennsylvania state line.  It was one they had already noted, seemed like there was no way around.  They all agreed it would be best if they found some way to communicate while on the road with the other vehicles, and thought it was worth the risk.
    Once on the road, travel seemed slower than it had been the previous day.  A few hours into the day they came to a small town that had been burned to the ground, there was nothing left but some brick and mortar shells of what buildings remained. The insides of these were nothing more than ashes, little more than a few memories of the once tiny town.
    They slowly made their way through the one stop light town, each car with faces pressed to the windows, staring at the destruction.  No one could believe this entire town had been so utterly and completely erased from the map.
    Ray and Roger who were still in the lead at this point pulled over into a secluded rest stop off the roadway.  As each vehicle pulled into the rest stop, Ray signalled that each vehicle was to be backed into a space. This would make supplies for lunch close at hand, but also for ease of escape if necessary.
    It was still early in the day, not even noon.  John wondered why they chose to stop so soon and quickly headed for the lead vehicle.  Approaching the vehicle he was nervous about the look on the military men’s faces.  There was something very wrong in the way they looked and one thing he was sure of, was that for it to worry Roger and Ray, this was not going to be good.
    Approaching them he waved saying, “I’m guessing there is a reason for this early stop?”
                  Roger nodded waving him over.  Once he was close enough Ray said, “I don’t want to panic anyone so lets you and I take a short walk with the map.”
    This immediately raised the hairs on the back of John’s neck.  By this time Dickie had caught up to them and asked the same question.  Ray instructed him to follow as well.  They walked over to a group of large boulders and spread the map out on one.  Ray began looking it over with an intense and troubled look.
    John asked, “Is there something wrong with the route?’
    Ray looked at the map saying, “Do you have any idea what happened to that town?”
    John said, “No.”
                  Dickie without looking up from the map said, “I have an idea, but I hope I am wrong.”
    Ray looked at him and