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was. In a way, going crazy seemed much more preferable than the alternative—that all of this was real.
    Russ shined his flashlight into the driver’s face.Squinting, the driver threw up a hand to shield his eyes.
    “And what if it’s not there,” Russ asked. He kept his tone calm and steady. “What if you can’t find the next town? What if we’re all that’s left? What will you do then?”
    “Buddy, you mind getting that light out of my face?”
    “Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do mind. Because you guys need to wake up, man. You need to learn more before you go driving off into that.”
    “Fuck you.”
    “Suit yourself.” Shrugging, Russ lowered the flashlight. “It’s your funeral. But don’t say we didn’t try to warn you.”
    “Robbie,” my grandfather called from the darkness. “Let them pass. Let them come.”
    “Listen,” I said. “Do you hear anything? Anything at all?”
    The driver paused, humoring me before responding. “No, I’m sorry, but the only thing I hear is you guys delaying us with this bullshit story you’ve cooked up for whatever reason. Now move aside. We wait any longer and the chief will have our ass.”
    “But—”
    “You heard me. Move along.”
    I held up my hand. “But you’re not—”
    “Good-bye.”
    Shaking his head, the driver turned toward the road again. The passenger whispered something to him, but I couldn’t hear what it was. The driver rolled up the window, and the truck moved slowly forward. The tires concealed the strange, red symbols that had been painted on the pavement and crunched over the line of salt.
    “Wait, goddamn it!” I waved at them in frustration, but the driver ignored my shouts.
    “Idiots,” Russ muttered.
    We watched them go. The brake lights never flashed once, but neither did they pick up speed. The truck crept forward, and the darkness swallowed it inch by excruciating inch. First the headlights were snuffed out. Then the emergency lights on top of the cab. Then the taillights.
    And then it was gone.
    Fade to black.
    We stood there, waiting. I’m not sure for what. Shouts maybe. Another toot of the horn. The sound of the engine. But there was nothing—just silence.
    Then the screams began. They sounded like they were coming from a far distance, but I was sure they were much closer than that.
    Christy began crying again, shuddering against me. Russ let out a sort of garbled squawk. I said nothing. I couldn’t have if I’d wanted to. There was a lump in my throat and it was hard enough to breathe, let alone speak. My nausea grew stronger. I clutched my stomach as a cramp ran through me.
    “They’re gone.” Christy’s upper lip glistened with snot, reflected in the flashlight beam. “Should we go after them?”
    “No,” I told her. “No way. Not unless we want to end up like that.”
    “We can’t just leave them out there, Robbie!”
    “Listen.” I grabbed her shoulders. “Do you hear anything? The screaming has already stopped. It’s quiet again. Whatever happened to them, it’s already over.”
    “He’s right,” Russ said. “We tried to warn them. Our conscience is clear.”
    I nodded. “Even if we did venture out there, it wouldn’t matter. There’s nothing we can do for them now.”
    “There is one thing we can do,” Russ said. “Not for them, but for those who are left. We need to warn people. Tell them what happened, in case anyone else wants to leave.”
    Something growled in the shadows. We all spun around, peering into the blackness, but there was nothing there. The darkness shimmered. Once again it reminded me of a heat mirage on a hot summer road. We watched it apprehensively, but nothing solid appeared.
    “Did you guys hear that?” I asked.
    “The chainsaw?” Russ nodded. “Kind of hard to miss, right?”
    I shook my head. “It wasn’t a chainsaw. Something just growled at us.”
    “I heard something different,” Christy said. “It wasn’t either of those.”
    Russ turned back to