Читать книгу The Macro Event - Andrew Adams - Страница 15

Chapter 9

0845, Day 1, Highway 160, West of Las Vegas, Nevada

Jake and Lee rode along at a comfortable pace, keeping in touch on the radios. They both wished like hell the bikes had storage racks for the backpacks or at least some of their gear. But they agreed they could not be choosy about the free bikes. Lee joked to Jake that he guessed the two shit bags that had stolen the bikes did not look for ones with accessories. They discussed that not having spare tires or patch kits was worrisome. Lee told Jake the story of how a pro motorcycle rider had once finished the Baja 1000 with a blanket (borrowed from a local Mexican family) wrapped around his front wheel. Jake laughed and said they should keep their eyes out for a blanket.

They had seen a few people walking. People acted leery and were keeping their distance from one another. This was resulting in little interaction between strangers. They lost count of the numbers of abandoned cars they passed on the roads. Occasionally, they would see a running car, but only older cars, trucks, utility diesels, and a couple of older school buses. The trucks and the buses were crammed full of people. Jake and Lee suspected the packed vehicles had been picking up stranded motorists along the highways. Lee commented to Jake, “It’s good to see some good people are helping out others.”

Lee and Jake decided to keep the bikes and stick to their plan. Abandoning the bikes for a ride to somewhere did not make sense.

Lee kept an eye on the Garmin, checking the programmed route. After about an hour on the highway, they came to the dirt road, and Lee radioed Jake to turn to the left. They turned onto the hard packed and level road. The road quickly worsened into soft dirt and up and down hills. The riders used caution, carefully steering around strewn broken glass all along the road. Clearly, the users of this road just tossed out glass bottles as they drove along.

Both men had to dismount the bikes several times and push them up hills or through deep sand. It was grueling, but they still figured the easy parts made up for the hard parts. They stopped several times to rehydrate and snack on something light. They knew the importance of keeping up their energy and body fluids. Lee determined on the Garman GPS that this dirt road was about sixteen miles long. Thankfully, the design of the mountain bikes was well suited for loose soil and dirt and had fifteen gears to deal with the steep hills. Luckily, neither bike suffered any flat tires, which was great considering all the crap on the soft dirt road.

Finally, around 12:30, the road improved, and the two riders headed down a hill and reached a paved road. Lee’s GPS identified the road as the Goodsprings Bypass, and they could see the buildings of Goodsprings in the distance.