Read Breakdown: Season One for Free Online Page B

miles. That Air Force guy I told you about, Andrew? It’s his family’s place. He said they’d let me in. If I get there safely, I’ll tell them about you and your family.”
    It was John’s turn to nod.
    “Time to go, Thom. You ready?”
    “Think I’ll make it all right, John. You just take care of your family. I’ve got a long way to go to get to mine. Might be I make it back this direction. You mind if I jot you guys down on my map?”
    He smiled. “We’d be honored, wouldn’t we, Talia?”
    The woman smiled. “Any friend of John’s is a friend of mine.”
    Unfolding the map, Thom took a pen and circled the address.
    “Let’s see that. Where’d you say home was for you?”
    Thom handed him the map and the pen and pointed to his house about 15 miles north of the river.
    Clicking the pen, John drew a route for Thom.
    “These are the roads you’ll want to take. Cross the river at the bridge on Broadway. If it looks like it’s blocked, I’d head to the next bridge down. It used to run car and rail traffic, but it just runs rail now. Folks might not think to cross there, and it won’t be clogged full of dead cars. You’ll need to start thinking a bit outside of the box. Most of the folks here will try and get home the way they always get home. They’ll follow their commute, sticking to major highways most of the time.” He swallowed, and continued, “This isn’t the best idea. Pretty soon, folks will start looting, if they haven’t already. Might take a bit for that to happen, since social media is down.
    “Good folks’ll take a while longer to start going crazy, but the lawless ones’ll be taking advantage soon.” Gunshots punctuated the night as if on cue to emphasize his point. “Most likely some shop owners defending their stores from looting. You remember the L.A. riots? Same situation.
    “You’re going to want to stick to the lesser-traveled routes. If you usually take I-35 north the entire way home, find some other routes that achieve the same goal. Stay to the side of the road, just off of the shoulder if you can. If you see something blocking the road, exit the highway and wait at least ten minutes for signs of activity before you move further.” He looked up at Thom, checking for comprehension. Thom nodded that he understood, and John moved on.
    “I’ve also marked some roads you’d never want to take on foot during a normal night. I wouldn’t step foot in them even during the daylight hours now if you can avoid it.”
    He extended a hand again, and once more Thomas took it, wrapping him in a hug with the other arm. Handing the map to Thom, he said, “You get out of the city, Thom. You get home and stay safe.”
    “You do the same, John. When all of this is over, I’ll stop by and we can have some barbeque and a beer sometime.”
    John nodded. “When it’s all over.”

Episode 2: The Road North

Chapter 1 – Into Darkness

    Stepping into the street and seeing the door of the Willis home close behind him made Thomas Monroe’s heart sink. It meant heading from safety into danger, from the known into the unknown, and, very importantly, from light into dark.
    He needed to get home, about 15 miles north of Kansas City, to a town called Liberty. There, he’d gather some things and head toward Columbia, over 100 miles away, to pick up his daughter from college. Next, they’d head south to the Jackson Nursery, where they’d hopefully find refuge from one heck of a storm.
    The overcast night sky promised rain, filtering out the majority of starlight, and the moon was nowhere to be seen, which meant that the only light Thom had to navigate by was the eerie glow of the fires burning all over the city.
    As John had mentioned, fire would be an issue. Moments after the EMP struck, power lines and transformers were hit with a massive energy spike that fried them, melting some of the lines and causing many of the pole-mounted transformers to burst into flame.
    This, combined with the