“What happened to us back there?” she said, slumping in her seat. “Were we really on another planet being attacked by living oil slicks? Or did someone slip some LSD into our morning coffee?”

Donny stuck an index finger through one of the holes in the windshield.

“We didn’t hallucinate these. And—oh, Christ. Look at the hood!”

Hari had been concentrating so much on the twisty mountain road she hadn’t noticed how large patches of the car’s paint job had been corroded away.

“Those things must have been secreting all sorts of acids. How do we explain this to the rental folks?”

“Vandals,” Donny said. “Antifa vandals thought we were Republicans and attacked us with acid. Works for me.”

As they neared the New York-Massachusetts border, they came upon a convoy of a dozen or so trucks hauling freight and tanker trailers toward Norum Hill.

“We never got a chance to talk about what they might be up to,” Donny said.

Hari had barely had time to think, what with all that had happened, but now…

“Tons of freeze-dried food and water to reconstitute it. Pretty obvious they’re planning on feeding people—either a select group for a long time, or a fair-sized population for a short time. Either way, it’s pretty clear they’re expecting an apocalypse.”

“But what kind? Environmental? Economic? Viral? Zombies? What?”

“Check the radio,” she said. “See if anything happened while we were out of touch. Try AM.”

“AM?” Donny made a face. “I didn’t think anyone still listened to AM.”

“It’s your best chance of finding an all-news station.”

After a few tries with the scan button it stopped on 810 where they suffered through traffic and weather and sports until Donny reached for the tuner. But Hari grabbed his hand when she heard…

“Did the sun rise late today? Most people don’t pay that close attention, but the folks at the National Weather Service do. That’s their job. And Doctor Claire Berkley, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, says that the sun did indeed rise late over Washington, DC this morning—five minutes and eight-point-two-two seconds late, to be precise. Doctor Berkley says it rose late by exactly the same interval at the Greenwich Observatory in England as well, and that it has been rising late all over the world. When pressed for an answer she stated:

“‘The only imaginable cause would be a shift in the Earth’s axis, which would, conversely, cause an earlier sunrise in the southern hemisphere. But sunrise was late all over the globe, and Earth’s axis is unchanged.’

“Doctor Berkley said she had no explanation yet. We will be following this incredible story. Meanwhile, in other news…”

“Holy shit!” Donny said. “The sun rose late? Late?”

Hari felt a chill, which graduated to tremors as she saw all the dominoes falling. Fearing she’d lose control of the car, she pulled onto the shoulder and skidded to a stop.

“What’s the matter? You okay?”

She could only shake her head. Not okay. Not okay at all.