End Times
You Got A Missile Needs Launching?
The headlights first appeared from behind the hills as a faint glowing blob, the only thing that competed with the moon against the Bible Black sky. Then, as they approached, they became piercing spotlights cutting through the night, blinding Cassidy. Finally, a large SUV slowed to a stop. The driver was scruffy with a long ratty beard and dusty work clothes. But his car seemed new and solid.
“The fuck you doing out here, this late?” he asked.
Cassidy thought fast: hostile question or just curious?
“Guy driving me to Memphis got a call, threw me out and took off back the other way.”
The man nodded. “Plans change fast. Folks getting jittery.” Then: “Don’t go anywhere near Memphis. FEMA’s got camps there.”
“Is that so? I did not know that.”
The man looked at the woman next to him. She shrugged.
“We ain’t going that way, but we got a bed for you, some hot food.”
“I could easily be talked into that.”
Cassidy tossed his pack in the rear, climbed in the back seat and found himself sitting next to a much younger woman.
“What’s in Memphis?” she asked, soon as the car started.
