Driving into oblivion

The next day, Natalia and Marcelina were on the road, driving North to colonial Canada, they were still in Mexico and had a very long journey ahead of them.

"You sure you don't want me to drive?" Natalia said placing her hand on her partner's shoulder. "You've been at it for days. If you are getting tired of it we can switch for a bit."

"Don't worry, I prefer it this way, I will tell you when I get truly sick of it."

"I had a feeling you would say that," Natalia chuckled, "You love being in control."

Marcelina raised her eyebrows, "Naaaah. That's not it." She looked over to Natalia who gave her a pointed look. Marcelina slumped and said in defeat, "That's absolutely the reason."

Natalia ruffled her red hair and teased, "Well boss then get us there before time runs out!"

"Are you ordering me around now?" Marcelina said jokingly, "That's not how this is supposed to work." She grabbed Natalia's hand which was still ruffling her hair and twisted it lightly.

"Ow ow, I yield before you!"

The two joked and talked while moving on ahead, they weren't surrounded by a thick jungle so the chance of an ambush was very slim. They could just relax and take in the scenery.

"You know what I hope we will run into soon?" Natalia said, "A radio station. Listening to some music, maybe catching some news."

"We haven't heard any of those in a long time. Ever since we crossed into Mexico it's been complete silence. Down south there were plenty of them supported by the city-states and that had a pretty long range. Here I think because of the destructive civil war there aren't many left."

As the day progressed, the scenery around the two started to dramatically change. Blown-up tanks, tipped-over trucks, holes in the road from explosions, and shrapnel everywhere. This part of the country wasn't as lucky as Perdido to be spared from the destruction and devastation of the civil war.

Death and destruction could be seen everywhere, bones and what was left of human remains. Their jeep was now entering a completely destroyed town. What town it was they didn't know, as it had no sign in order to be identified. The windows of the jeep were closed shut, and Marcelina turned on the vehicle's Geiger counter to check for radiation. The scan revealed if they would be killed by radiation if they opened their doors or windows. Stopping here was not an option.

"We best get out of here as soon as possible," Marcelina said pressing on the gas pedal and increasing speed. The howling wind cut into the vehicle making an eerie sound, and the pair recoiled in dread. There was something very wrong with the sights they had come across, an area devoid of life, a place robbed of its history and at the end of its future. The girls felt like intruders, disturbing the lost souls who fell to this war here to be damned for eternity. One could almost hear their screeching in the sound of the wind. While it was not uncommon for towns and whole countries to be wiped out in grand battles and wars of destruction, these parts felt particularly cursed. The first is the widespread use of nuclear weapons, and the second reason is the finality of this conflict. There will be no more wars after the solar fissure, no deaths and victims, no victors or triumphs, no rebuilding or redemption, and no new beginnings. This was the final dot in Mexican history and this war-torn region.

There will be no one to later examination of the conflict, no archeologists to dig up the ruins, nobody to examine the remains, nobody to write books to chronicle and memorialize the war. All will be lost to the unstoppable and swallowing dark abyss we call time. Before the times of the collapse and imminent solar fissure, there was some solace in the fact that your troubles, sacrifices, and suffering would eventually pass, and new life would take over. No such relief would come, this was the dying earth's final breath.

Marcelina shook her head trying to let go of the various dreadful thoughts her mind came to as the pair drove through the ruins. She tightly gripped the steering wheel and said:

"We're going to get there, to Greenland, we just have to keep moving forward."

Natalia looked at her with determination: "Of course! We don't have much to lose, death waits for us no matter what we do. We might as well give it our all."

***

Several days passed with the girls driving through the war-torn Mexican countryside. They had to take several detours, they were not able to drive straight north because many roads were either destroyed or completely blocked by debris in the towns they were passing through. This took far longer than expected but they were finally back on track, still in former Mexico but on their way to the Canadian colony of Greenland, eventually to the island itself.

Considering that they have been driving through uninhabited, radioactive and infertile land for some time now, the girls were running low on food. While they had their water tanks maxed out in Perdido, the food there had gone bad and even though the land was fertile, there wasn't anyone to make use of it. They had hoped to run into a community of farmers or a village, but they found nothing but ruins.

Using the jeep's Geiger counter, Marcelina was able to learn that they escaped the radiation inflicted areas, she had hoped that they were back in a part of Mexico that was spared effect of the civil war. Driving at full speed they will need to somehow find a solution to their food shortage.

Marcelina had a worried look on her face, her mind racing to figure out what they were going to do next. As she considered herself in charge of this trip, it was her responsibility to solve this predicament.

Natalia, seeing her partner in distress, placed her hand gently on Marcelina's back and attempted to soothe her, "Don't worry, we will figure this out together. We've been in tougher shit before, we're going to run into a village eventually or we will find something else. Okay?"

"Yeah, you're right, I just don't like us being short on anything. It means we will have to rely on someone else."

Natalia drew her riffle, "We can always offer a service of protection to farmers from marauders in exchange for food, just like the samurai in old Japan!"

Marcelina grinned and relaxed, "Just like the samurai."

Continuing their journey, in front of them was another abandoned town, unlike the war torn ones, this one was more like Perdido. Which means a chance someone lives there, which means a chance to find food.

"Let's see if this town is radiation free," Natalia said entering the prompts on the device.

The device came back with a clear sign and the two stepped out of the vehicle. Marcelina drew her pistol and said: "We don't know what we are going to find here. Lets try to find out the name of this place, we are kind of lost, I have no idea where we are anymore."

Natalia pressed a button on her rifle, "There might be people here, but if not you know what that means?"

"What?"

"More cute clothes for me," Natalia winked.

Marcelina laughed, "We don't have any more space for that stuff."

"There can never be too much."

"Anyways let's search."

After a long search, they found nothing. There weren't even new clothes for Natalia to add to her collection. They found some old newspaper but due to larger humidity in this region, the paper degraded so that it was too damp and degraded to be read.

Standing in the middle of the main road the two girls wondered, "What are we going to do now?"

Marcelina placed a finger on her chin, "Hm I suppose we ought to continue north, I hope we are able to finally encounter some other people."

"Speak of the devil," Natalia said grabbing her binoculars, "Look over there."

"What is it?" Marcelina turned around also her binoculars in hand.

"Who is that," Natalia said sounding a bit scared, "And why are they walking, alone."

In the distance, right at the edge of town, a myserious figure, wearing all black and a wide-brimmed felt hat. There were white crosses marked on his black clothing, on his feet were cowboy boots. It was hard to tell if he was armed or not, his outfit concealed any possible weaponry.

This person moved closer and closer to them, Marcelina wondered if they were alone, were they in a group, was this some kind of trap. Was this person a friend or foe?

Before any of these questions could be answered, the man in black raised his head looked straight at them, and started waving, grinning.