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"Deal" I crawled over the back of the seat, turning to face the front of the van "But I have to get soain Mahir, can you watch the back? Just screae that," said Mahir, unbuckling his belt

I stretched out on theof cheap potato chips fro, pillow, and my jacket was a better blanket than I’ve had in so wind and the sound of ers strokedsome of the tension away, and the world faded out as I slipped into a shallow doze

I woke up several hundred miles and five and a half hours later Mahir was asleep in the rear seat of the van, and the radio was blasting--not that you could really tell The cloud cover seeht have been sunlight to cut through The as still co even louder than it had been when I went to sleep I sat up groggily, rubbing the grit from my eyes, and sice to clear my throat before I rasped, "Where are we?"

"About thirty oing to ask how she was still ahen I noticed the drift of Red Bull cans covering the floor Those hadn’t been there when I went to sleep

I rubbed uessed

"Sort of" Becks met my eyes in the rearview e of panic "The wireless is still out I can’t get a decent radio signal I stopped for gas about twenty o, and the place was deserted Open, but there was no one there I grabbed what I could, filled the tank, and ran"

"Did you grab anything but Red Bull?"

"Generic donuts, enough Coke to get you through Nevada, and some salmon jerky" She returned her attention to the road "I don’t think we should stop again if we don’t have to So out there"

"How do youwith the Cokes I grabbed one of those and a box of donuts, the kind so cheap that they may as well have been dipped in faintly chocolate-flavored plastic Then I half stood anddown next to her

"I haven’t seen another person since Burlington," Becks said Her hands were clenched on the wheel hard enough to turn her knuckles white "The streets were pretty noret ho to stock up on the things they didn’t keep in the house--about what you’d expect We rolled through Centennial so late that it wasn’t weird that the streets were empty, but the sun’s been up for an hour now There should be cars There should be commuters, even all the way out here So where the fk is everybody?"

"Maybe it’s a holiday?"

"Or " Becks pressed the radio scan button, scowling as it skipped through a dozen channels of static before settling back on the canned ht before "Allbut the preprograht now, I swear to God So"

"Have you tried to call anyone?" Making a call on an unsecured phone line could potentially blow our position It was a last resort With what Becks was saying, I wouldn’t have questioned the choice