Page 69 of Citadel

“I can’t tell. Let’s get off the road.”

We move to the side, staying out of sight in the trees until we’ve gotten close enough to the Jeep to see better.

It’s empty as far as we can tell. And there isn’t anyone around. Just empty, crumbling pavement and a lot of overgrown trees.

“Maybe they’ve run out of gas,” I say.

“Yeah. That’s probably it. Stay here while I check it out.”

Since it seems safe enough, I don’t object, staying hidden the trees while he walks over to inspect the Jeep.

“No gas,” he says after a minute. “And they haven’t left anything here. They ran out of gas and so kept going on foot.”

“That’s good then. We’ll have a better chance of catching up with them.”

“Yep. And at least they were still on this highway when they abandoned the Jeep. Let’s keep going.”

We start walking again with a new surge of energy, and we don’t stop for the next hour until we come to a fork in the highway.

Two highways branch off from the one. Long ago, there would have been road signs to indicate the road names and the cities on their route. But the signs are long gone. It’s not even clear which fork is the continuing highway. We have absolutely no idea where to go.

We stare at the intersection for a long time, trying to guess which direction to take.

We have no clue though. Which means we’ve got a fifty percent chance of going the complete wrong way.

“Damn it,” Cole mutters, kicking at a piece of broken asphalt.

The absolute frustration in his tone is exactly what I’m feeling myself.

I wander from one road to the other, hoping for some sort of inspiration. What I see instead are two small twigs crossed in a perfectXon the side of one of the roads.

“Cole!”

He runs over. Stares down to what I’m focused on.

“This has to be purposeful.” I lean down to look more closely. “Someone did this.”

“Your sister?”

“I bet it is. She’d know we wouldn’t know which way to go, and she’d try to give us a hint. This is probably the best she could do. We should go this way. We have to. What else can we do?”

“Yeah. She’s smart. It makes sense. We’ll go this way.”

He might not be as confident as I am about Breanna leaving us the sign, but he doesn’t have any better ideas.

A small chance of going the right way is better than no chance at all.

10

For the restof the afternoon, every time we reach a fork, exit ramp, or crossroad off the old highway, we look for signs from Breanna. We find two more twigX’s, always indicating we stay on the main road, so it seems clear this road is the most direct route to wherever they’re going.

We keep walking as the sun starts to set since we need to make up time to catch up with them. But there’s only a slim moon tonight, and Cole’s flashlight doesn’t provide much extra light.

When we almost miss a thirdXin the dark, Cole mutters, “We better stop for the night.”

“Yeah. My feet are killing me, and the worst thing we could do is walk miles in the wrong direction because we missed one of Breanna’s signs.”

“Let’s get off the road far enough to build a fire. I’ll have to hunt us something to eat.”

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