Part 2: The Man on the Highway

“Big sis, I’m tired.” Avery says pulling Evelyn towards an old car wreckage on the side of the highway. She runs over, sitting on the rusted hood of the car closest to them. Evelyn walks over, settling her backpack against a rusted tire.  Zipping open the top of her bag, she removes a semi tattered quilt from within. Motioning to the girl to lie down, she lays it on top of her wrapping her snugly. “Is sis going to sleep too?”

“No, I’ll stay up and protect you. Go to sleep, Avery.”  

Evelyn kisses the girl on the forehead, moving across to different darker car. She takes out her assault rifle, checking the magazine, then settles the weapon on her lap. Reaching back into the backpack, She takes out an old candle lantern and lights it using matches from her pocket. Resting the lamp besides her, she closes her eyes for a second, listening to the noises that the wildlife were making all around her. The sound of footsteps crunching on the fallen leaves interrupts that blissful moment, bringing her back to reality. In response to the intrusion, she rapidly sits up taking a deep breath, pointing the weapon towards the noise.

“Who in the hell is out there? Come out where I can see you, or I will shoot into the darkness and you better hope I don’t hit you.”

“I’m not a raider or castle, let alone any type of threat.” A male voice echoes over the highway sounding close.

“Look whoever you are, I don’t want to be taking any chances with nobody. I have a little girl with me and people I don’t know shouldn’t be near her.” She says her finger resting on the trigger, ready to push in case of trouble. A man that looks to be a bit older than Evelyn, steps out into the lantern’s dim light. He had his hands up  to show her, he was not carrying any weapons. She gets off the car, slowly walking around him. patting down his legs and arms with her free hand, still pointing her gun towards his head, making sure he had no other weapons hidden away. “I’ll trust you for now, but not enough for you to be near her.” She gestures towards Avery. “Try anything and your brains scatter across the highway.”

“Don’t worry, I’m a wanderer like you guys, I can tell based on the backpacks and shaggy clothing that you have on yourselves. It’s some sort of code between wanderers not to attack each other without a purpose, so I won’t try anything” He says taking a water canteen out of his bag, while sitting down on one of the cars. “Where were you two headed?”

“Originally Louisville, but that place was nothing, but fallen ashes. We kept walking without a specific destination until we ended here in Nashville.”

“Yeah for me, I came into Nashville a few days ago, looking for evidence about a rumor I heard. Little did I know the city is overrun with raiders and those Castle thugs. I had to escape from them a few times, since I couldn’t really fight back because I had no efficient weapons. This whole trip, I couldn’t find anything useful that’s proves the story. In the end, I felt like this was a big waste of time.”

“I’m sorry you couldn’t find anything.”

“It's alright, as I head west, I’m hoping some type of truth presents its self to me. I don’t want to travel all this time just to find what I been told to be false.”

“What’s this rumor you’re talking about?”

“Some wanderers say that Yosemite National Park is like an Eden. This place is flourishing with animals and plants. The perfect place to live I say.”

“This sounds like a fairytale to me. A place like that can’t possibly exist with how badly the east is functioning with wildlife.”

“The west has a completely different climate you see; Before this virus ruined the planet, I was a geologist. I went to parks and natural conservation areas to study. It was the best time of my life; too bad the virus destroyed any hope of enjoying that again.”

She quickly covers her mouth holding a laugh in to not be rude towards what the man had said. “You were a geologist before the outbreak? What can you do? Sorry, I don’t exactly believe that.”

The man gets up and walks over to the hill besides the freeway. He removes a strange beaker and scoops the ground. “I’ll perform a little experiment to show I’m not lying. Water exists everywhere even in the soil; do you have a match?”

She stands up and reluctantly gives him a match from the box she used to light the lantern earlier. She still had her finger on the trigger of the gun.

“I’ll take that match and light it. Once that’s done, I’m going to place the fire underneath the beaker and cover the top. Watch the sides of the glass.” The man does exactly what he told Ellie and they watch the glass turn opaque. “The water present in the soil evaporates but when it can’t escape it sticks to the glass and becomes condensation.”

Astonished by this little trick; she instinctively takes the beaker from his hands and watches as the glass turns clear again. Noticing what she did, she sheepishly passes back the beaker.

“I’m sorry about that, fine I believe you were a geo what now. Never mind that, when my sister wakes up can you show her?

“As in sister, you mean the blonde girl sleeping over there? Oh wait, I never asked, what are your names?”

“I’m Evelyn  and she’s Avery.”

“Name’s Justin.” he says putting away a beaker and takes out a water canteen, passing it over to her. She looks at the canteen. reluctant to take it. He sighs and gives himself a waterfall without touching the rim of the container showing her that it was safe. She takes the canteen from him the second time and takes a swig from it. “So back to the Yosemite topic, since I got excited from wanting to show you my experiment. Like I said one piece of recent geological evidence, will prove this rumor.”

Evelyn nods not knowing a single word Justin said after “piece.” She finally takes off her finger off the trigger showing him, she trusts him a bit. He stops and smiles before saying “How about you two join me on my expedition. I could teach Avery a few things about science. I’m bored doing this all on my own.”

“I don’t know, She’s is the only family. I’m sort of super protective of her you know.”

“Then stay in the room when the lessons are happening. I’m fine with that.”

“I do have one question though, why do you have a baseball bat? You could easily knock one of those guys out and take his gun?”

He freezes and looks down ashamed of himself. “I can’t shoot a gun.”

“Looks like Avery won’t be the only one needing lessons.” She says patting him on the back. “Fine I’ll join you and this crazy thing you call an Expedition. But if this happens to be true, my sister and I are going to stay at Yosemite, what you want to do after that is up to you.”

 Avery begins to make movements and making angry noises of being disturbed in her sleep. Evelyn walks over and lifts the girl up onto her shoulders, in order to comfort her. “You lead the way Justin. The both of us will stay close behind.”

He gives a thumbs up and removes a map out of his backpack, he points towards the west and starts walking. Evelyn follows close behind with a sleeping Avery, her other hand nearby her pistol.