Read Online See Tom Run by Scott Wittenburg - Free Book Online

town.
    Leaving him right smack dab where he had begun:
alone, clueless and utterly directionless.
    When will this nightmare end?
    He could only do what he had to do. He had to track
down Erin—that was a given. If he could find her, he would somehow
get her away from Kyle the madman.
    Then, hopefully, they could move on from there. Find
out what in the hell was happening in this ghost town.
    He went into the living room to get his coat, still
draped over the chair. He was putting it on when he noticed a small
piece of paper on top of the sofa. He walked over and picked it up.
Hastily scrawled on the paper were three letters: nyc.
    New York City. That must be where Erin and Kyle were
heading—Erin had somehow managed to jot this down while getting her
coat!
    But why New York? She had mentioned that Kyle had
driven ‘all the way here’ to find her. Is that where he had come
from?
    He had no idea. But it was clear that she wanted him
to know where they were going. And that she wanted him to
follow.
    So follow he would.
    Tom spent the next few minutes hastily packing a few
clothes, some food and a few other items into a duffel bag. He took
a moment to wash up in the bathroom, grabbed his laptop and headed
back downstairs.
    Two minutes later, he was backing the Jeep out of his
driveway.
    Erin and Kyle’s footprints headed south toward Meadow
Street, which meant that Kyle had most likely parked around the
corner from Tom’s house to avoid detection. Coasting near the curb,
Tom kept his eyes peeled on the couple’s tracks until they suddenly
disappeared near the corner of Kenton and Meadow—where they had
apparently boarded Kyle’s car.
    Tom could clearly see where Kyle had backed into a
driveway to turn around before heading east toward the freeway.
    As Tom sped up and began following the tire tracks,
it dawned on him that he had no idea what kind of car Erin and Kyle
were traveling in. All he knew for sure was they were heading in
the direction of I-71, which meant they would head north on the
interstate toward Cleveland and probably pick up either I-80 East
or the turnpike through Pennsylvania en route to New York City.
    And unless he saw other cars along the way, it
wouldn’t really make any difference what kind of car Kyle was
driving—
    It would be the only one on the road.
    Tom drove to where Morse Road and the access road to
I-71 intersected then pulled over to the curb. It was time to do
some serious thinking. New York City was a ten-hour drive in good
weather. Should he risk spending that kind of time on what may well
be a wild goose chase?
    Two thoughts nagged at him in equal measures. On one
hand, he knew that Erin was in serious trouble and that he needed
to try to find her before it was too late. Not only was it more
than obvious that Kyle was a maniacal control freak but he also had
a gun and had already proven that he wasn’t afraid to use it when
things don’t go his way.
    On the other hand, he had to continue trying to
locate his family and find out what in the holy hell had happened
to everyone else in this town. He was so overwhelmed by the
absurdity of all of this that he had to keep pinching himself to
make sure it wasn’t all just a horrible nightmare.
    He finally decided that he would drive downtown to
make absolutely sure there weren’t any signs of life there. If it
was as desolate and lifeless as everything else he’d seen thus far,
he would turn back around and head for New York City.
    But first he was going to have to gas up. The thirsty
Jeep’s fuel gauge was resting precariously on “E.”
    He already assumed that the fuel pumps weren’t going
to work without any electricity so he would have to come up with an
alternative method to get fuel into his tank. He pulled back onto
Morse Road and headed for the Sunoco station a block away. He
pulled up beside a pump, got out and gazed expectantly at the
instrumentation. Not a single lit up numeral.
    Tom strode over to the mini mart and