Read Dead Highways: Origins for Free Online

see the latest news, praying that somehow a miracle had taken place overnight. Where was God when you needed him? Instead, there was no signal. I checked every station, even the ones I never watched like C-Span and NatGeo. They were all down.
    I snuck downstairs, trying not to wake grandma. Despite the apocalyptic news reports, I was in denial. My head was lost in a cloud of fear and doubt. None of this was real. I felt like I was dreaming, and at any moment I would wake up. Television was an escape from reality, not a reflection of it. Whatever happened in that rectangular box wasn’t the truth. It wasn’t the world. It was how man viewed the world. In order to see the truth you only had to turn off the TV and look outside. Then it will all become clear. And so I did.
    As I approached the long glass windows lining the storefront, a military humvee passed by on the street going no more than five miles per hour. A soldier was hunkered down at the rear behind some sort of machine gun, while someone from within the vehicle barked instructions through a horn mounted on the hood.
    “Attention. All citizens must stay indoors until further notice. I repeat, all citizens must stay indoors until further notice. This is not a request. This is for your own safety. Refusal to follow this order will result in severe consequences.”
    I figured the soldiers must have been stationed out of Patrick Air Force Base, about twenty miles away. I didn’t dare challenge their rules, even as they rolled further down the road and out of sight. Throughout the day, I heard that same vehicle or one like it pass by and bark similar instructions, even long after the sun went down.
    I kept checking the TV but still no signal. We didn’t have much in the way of food, seeing as how I had stayed inside glued to the TV all week, so that night I had to settle for one of grandma’s microwave dinners. Surprisingly, they smelled worse than they tasted. I sat across from her at our tiny kitchen table and ate in silence. I think by that point we both had a grasp on what was happening. I think we knew no help would come. I think we were both wondering how much longer we had.
    After we had finished dinner, I gave my grandma a big hug and told her I loved her. All of this made that break-in we’d had over a month ago seem like nothing.
    “What do you think we should do, Jimmy?” she whispered as I held her close.
    “What can we do?” I replied. “Just wait it out. That’s all. Just wait it out.”
    Since the TV was no use anymore, I checked the internet for anything new on the outbreak. Except for a few personal blogs, it seemed most reporting within the United States had stopped. I figured most servers were down. Internet service providers asleep at the switch. I did find some reports about the worsening conditions outside the U.S. But as I began to scroll through them, the power went out.
    And it never came back on.
    I decided I’d call Officer Robinson to see if he’d be able to tell me anything. Without television or internet, I felt completely disconnected. Robinson was a cop. He should know something. More than me, anyway. My cell phone only had half its life left, but luckily, it was still showing that I had service.
    Unfortunately, Officer Robinson did not pick up, so I left a voicemail. Next, I called 911, but it just rang and rang and rang. Later that night, when checking the battery life on my phone, I realized service was down. I powered off the phone and threw it against the wall.
    “Jimmy, what was that?” grandma said from the other room.
    “Sorry, grandma,” I yelled.
    Hours later I was in bed staring up at the ceiling, a single candle beside me on the nightstand the only light in the room—silence the only sound. I tried to start a new book, an undead mash-up called Titanic with Zombies , with no luck. My mind was incapable of focusing on anything but my fear of what was to come, and the frustration of not knowing.
    Finally, my