This year I am working on a story called Bob vs. The Alien Slug Monsters. Instead of an outline I have a basic list of plot points I want to cover between meeting Bob and sending him off to fight the king of the slugs. There is more of a cast of characters than an actual outline, so we will see how the story develops. And with that intro we continue with Bob Versus the Alien Slug Monsters…
Day 26: While the bomb or whatever actually caused the damage took out the road, he could still walk to the other side and get into Centerville if he had to.
While the bomb or whatever actually caused the damage took out the road, he could still walk to the other side and get into Centerville if he had to. There was a way into town. Bob let his eyes look past the hole and the rubble thrown up when it was made. He could see a path he was fairly certain was stable that he could use. If needed he could walk into town, he just wouldn’t be able to take a car.
Bob let his eyes move past the rubble, following the path to the other side and the unbroken asphalt of the street on the other side. It appeared clear all the way into town. The retirement community was up on a hill. While the walk down the road and around the curve took him down a little, from where Bob stood he had a good view into town. He could see many of the streets and a chunk of the buildings on this side of town.
The streets were empty. No one was driving. He couldn’t see anyone walking. Bob frowned. There appeared to be no movement at all in town as far as he could see. Several of the buildings looked lopsided as though they had chunks taken out of them as well. He was too far away to see the details but it looked as though the taller buildings had been hit with the same thing that took out the bridge and the road here. A thought occurred to him and Bob eased himself forward. He didn’t walk past the creator in the road, just far enough down it that he could lean over and see part of the old Centerville Highway.
Before the interstate was built it was the main access point into and out of town. Even now Centerville Highway was the main access point to the interstate on ramp. If he stretched, he could see a part of it. What he saw was not good. Instead of the grayed out asphalt pockmarked with darker spots where fresh asphalt was used to patch potholes, Bob could see one really large dark spot across all lanes of the Centerville Highway.
“I’m betting that is not fresh asphalt,” Bob muttered to himself. He felt slightly exposed and eased himself back to the tree line. Thinking he might have seen all that he was going to see, Bob turned and walked back towards Golden Meadows. He kept his path close to the tree line. Given the state of things, Bob was more worried about being spotted moving around than he was in being hit by a speeding car.
As he walked Bob thought of Centerville, pulling up his mental map. The Centerville Highway was the main road out of town. There were other exits but they were on the other side of town and he would not be able to see them from here.
‘If you didn’t know the Golden Meadows was on this side then the loop could look like it was taking you out of town,” Bob mused. ‘And the same could go for our houses.” Bob thought about it as he walked.
Ten til Midnight 