I craned my neck, trying to see as far as I could from the roof of the big rig I was standing on, but I didn’t even see so much as a flickering light. Not one. The power was out for as far as the eye could see. At least now we knew where we were—eleven miles outside Springfield, Illinois. And the highway in front of me was littered with vehicles of all types. Some had made it to the side of the road, but the majority had come to a standstill in the middle of a lane. What in the hell type of event would cause that? This was far from a mere power outage. Of course, our plane practically nose-diving from the sky had clued me in that something took place to cause that, as had the fires burning on the ground. But this was even bigger than I imagined. Something much more widespread was going on, and the mild buzz of trepidation that had been rumbling in my gut since we came up on the gas station and the abandoned cars there, intensified.

I hopped down and looked around. Where the hell were Charlie and Emily? I heard some scuffling from the rear of the truck and headed in that direction, stopping when I came upon the two of them. The rear door of the truck was wide-open and a glance inside showed it to be mostly empty except for a few scattered boxes of cereal, two of which Charlie and Emily had snagged and were currently shoveling handfuls into their mouths.

Without ceasing to gorge herself, Emily reached next to her and picked up a third box of cereal and tossed it at me. I caught it and she grinned, her teeth filled with brown cereal flakes and pink dehydrated strawberries. I held back a laugh as she said, “Truce?”

She’d saved me a box. I was momentarily touched. “Slow down,” I muttered. “You’ll make yourself sick.”

Then I tore open the box, tipped my head, and poured the stuff straight into my mouth, trying not to follow Charlie and Emily’s leads, but mostly failing. God, I was so hungry I could feel my stomach eating itself. The crunchy cereal and the tart, chalky fruit were so good I moaned, my jaw working to grind the mass quantity of food enough that I could swallow without choking to death.

“Slow down,” Emily said with a cheeky smile. “You’ll make yourself sick.”

“Touché,” I conceded as I tossed back another handful. “Good find,” I said, nodding to the truck. We’d need some protein eventually, but this “meal” was going to allow us enough energy to make it to our next stop, wherever that might be. I saw movement a little ways down the highway and paused, squinting and craning my neck forward.

“What?” Charlie asked.