Sinkhole

(Early Morning January 5th 2013- the road out of town)


Mick leaned back against the overturned cab and tried hard to remember how to breath deeply.The pack was like an anchor.
"damn...oh damn.... " the oxygen was sweet but icy. Mick drank in gulps of it and savored the burn as it filled lungs not used to running with so much weight to carry. "rule number one.....cardio...no zombies yet...but...rule number one definitely applies whoo.......where the hell did coyotes come from in downtown Atlanta...the zoo? oh hell........the zoo.....lions and tigers and bears....oh fuck"  Laughter bubbled up and threatened to overwhelm sanity.

She'd been prepared for motorcycle gangs, street thugs and maybe an angry mob but the two half starved looking coyotes scavenging on I-20 had come as a shock. Fortunately she'd managed to discourage them but the shots had brought out some two legged predators and she'd had to make a mad dash for an off ramp and better cover.

"I mean ...cut me a break it's only been ...how long has it been a week and a half...two weeks? Go clean up some dead bodies, chew up those damned rednecks, make Atlanta more beautiful ya mangy little bastards. and what's up with attacking travelers? the whole damned city is wide open for discount shopping and you have to come after me for my backpack...too damned lazy to go raid a Wallyworld or is that just not fun for you?"she reloaded the ruger target pistol and wished for something with a bit more stopping power. She was babbling, it was a stress response and she realized that well enough to tighten her lips over the flow of words.

She slowly raised up to the point where she could see over the edge of the cab and  took a look around cautiously. Evidently the Deliverance road-crew rejects had given up after the first two or three blocks worth of running and dodging. 

The air no longer burned as it went in, her heartbeat slowed to a regular thud rather than a hard hammering.
"got to keep moving"
so far she hadn't seen a sign of civilization in the hour and a half she'd been on the road. There'd been precious few people....most of them had run or ducked as soon as they saw her. That was a disheartening indication of the way things were going in town. "when things go to hell....they really go to hell" most of the tall buildings loomed , unchanged aside from a few broken windows. If you kept your eyes focused upward things looked almost normal aside from the lack of contrails. It reminded her a bit of the first week or so after 9-11 when the skies had been empty.....damned eerie.

 No traffic noises nearby...no people sounds.....no birds.

She crept through the maze of buildings more than a bit spooked by the silence. Finally her ears picked up the sound of splashing water. she turned towards the sound and followed it to Centennial park. The fountains rained water down steadily..unchanged. The park was an oasis in the midst of the wreckage perfect aside from a message tagged on a wall " THE FUCKING END IS HERE" in a rusty brown substance that Mick refused to think about the probable origin of.

There was something wrong with the skyline, it took a moment but when she came to the edge of the park and the world dropped off into a vast smooth sided nothingness that seemed to have no end it finally clicked. The CNN center was gone and in it's place was the perfectly smooth hole not quite as big as the grand canyon but startling in it's depth. No hint on the complex was within view...no hint that it had ever been there aside from the signs for parking.


"Jesus....."