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Mahir’s proposed route was a good one, cutting through the corner of Missouri and into Kansas Fro, and Utah before hitting the ho before we got to California, only two had laws forbidding self-service fueling stations, and those were the te’d be spending the least overall tiht, we’d be able to avoid stopping in either state for anything longer than a bathrooood The more we could stay away from people, the better
While the tank filled, I washed the windshield, checked the tires, and didfroanization that had the power to declare martial laithout any justification more sophiicated than a sneeze I couldn’t believe the CDC was doing this alone, or that the entire CDC was involved--Kelly clearly hadn’t been, and I illing to bet that all the other team members who’d died hadn’t been either Still, a properly seated cabal of people willing to do anything to get their way is h to be a major problem, especially when they have essentially infinite resources to throw around At the sa to stay at least so with artificial outbreaks and assassinations made to look like natural deaths All that spy shit is necessary only when you’re trying to pretend you don’t exist
Becks ca out of the convenience store with a paper sack in each ar her lips It faded as soon as she was close enough to be out of the cashier’s sight, and she yanked the van’s rear door open without so et herself and our supplies inside I unhooked the fuel puto watch Becks unpack bottles of water, sodas, and snack food all over the backseat We’d told her to buy assuspicion Apparently, this s thatfor a bachelorette party, including a bottle of cheap Everclear knockoff and seventeen bags of M&Ms
"Next ti the ‘look atthe tank" She chucked a bag of M&Ms at ht it and passed it to Mahir "No, no proble our pictures on the news, the dickhead working the counter didn’t know anything about it There’s been a minor outbreak alert in Memphis, and the area around the CDC there is on lockdown, but it wasn’t a big enough deal to peel Dicky’s eyes off et the saure for it Mahir ht do a little better We can try it next tirab a bottle of Coke before she could chuck that at o, then?"
"Should be" Becks pulled her jacket back on before opening one of the bags of M&Ms "Mahir,weather projections on our route They had a storht," he said, and grabbed a drink before he started pecking away at his phone
I slid ine We’d been holding still long enough, and we had a long da safe
We crossed into Kansas an hour later, and I risked pulling off the road, into the parking lot of an abandoned pre-Rising rest stop The gate across the entrance wasn’t even chained If anted to go in there and get eaten, that was our probleligence," ate out of our way
"That’s good," I said agreeably "How are we going to explain e’re doing out here? Are we on a sightseeing tour of the haunted cornfields of North Aot back into the van, pulling forward until ere corown trees surrounding what must have once been a pretty nice picnic area People used to bring kids and their dogs to places like this, letting they before they got back into the car and continued their drive toward the Aet you thrown in jail for child abuse Not even the Masons were that crazy, and they did a lot of dangerous things witharound in the grass near an unsecured structure and a bunch of trees is a good way of taking yourself out of the gene pool
Becks stood guard with her rifle while I took the fire-and-forget phone over to the re without coe rock, tossed it into the hole, and set it on fire A few squirts of lighter fluid fro, delicate circuitry and ht of the flareen wires burn purple What’s up with that?" No answer I looked up "Mahir?"
He was staring toward the low brick building that contained the restrooms and water fountains like adown?" he asked "It’s like a bloody crypt, right in the ht to be civilization"