The Road

It was a rainy night as the two people moved in the shadows trying not to be seen by any potential watchers. They had been on foot since Ansonia. Night time was a better travel time when you are on foot. You have a better chance of avoiding anyone that way. Since the collapse you could trust very few people except family and very close friends. The most benign looking farmhouse could contain some very desperate people willing to kill you for the contents of your pockets. Not to mention the roving gangs of looters. For a woman to be captured usually meant rape, enslavement and death when your usefulness was gone. For a man to be captured was death or totrure. The thin veneer of civilization had been completely erased when the money became worthless and the supplies ran out in the cities.

As dawn approached the man spied the old barn for an hour through his binoculars. He and his wife were exhausted. The barn would be a good out of the way place to hole up for the day. After an hour he cautiously approached the barn. It was indeed empty and it looked like no one had been around it for ages. After getting his wife into the barn they changed into some dry clothes and split an MRE and a cup of Ramen noodles. He would take the first watch until noon. As she slept he dried the weapons they had and hung out the wet clothes. Nothing was moving out in the countryside. It was a virtual no-mans land. If you had a home or place to go you were in it. They were on their way to the mans fathers house in northern Ohio. Their car ran out of gas just north of Ansonia, Ohio. They were now just outside of Saint Mary's, Ohio. They had decided against traveling on the I-75 corridor. The population density along the highway was just to high. Once they reached his fathers home they would be relatively safe. He lived in Williams County Ohio. It was a very rural county with a small population. Around noon the rain stopped and he woke up his wife to let her take watch. He was asleep in very short order. His wife got some items in order for their dinner and thought of how well off they were in comparison to other people. She knew little of her husbands preps. He ahd managed to squirrel away equipment for himself and her. She knew he had been buying army surplus items but she didn't know that he had been buying things for her as well. He had a pair of good waterproof combat boots and BDU's for her as well as an ALICE pack, sleep system, rain gear, canteens and every other item you need to live off the land. She had never wanted to hear about his "doom and gloom" theories. Now they had come true and she was glad he ignored her and went about his preparing whithout worrying her with the potentialites of the myriad of disasters that could happen. At 5pm she woke him and they had dinner and prepared for that nights journey. They would give the city of St. Mary's a wide berth and stick to country roads. If they kept making good progress they would be at his fathers in a week. Well before the truly cold weather hit.