Notes from the Future: Audio and Handwritten Journal, Part IV

Part IV

[The following are combined excerpts of audio and handwritten journal entries made in the days following the quake. Handwritten entries italicised.]

June 23

10:15 pm

I am trying to read the atlas in the dark; we have no safe light source. The streetlights are out again. I keep falling asleep. I'm trying to stay awake, but waking and dreaming are blending and it's getting weird. There is so much smoke, it's almost impossible to tell what outside is real. I thought I saw someone standing out there in the dark, looking at us, beckoning frantically for us to come out, come out, and pointing up, up the hill. So frantic. I was going to wake V, but whoever it was, if it was in fact anyone, disappeared.

[Sound of car braking, gently, motor idling. Sounds like traffic, other cars around.] 

Veronica: Honey.
               Sweetie-pie, wake up.
               Tad.

Edward: Whrrrrrsgggh.

Veronica: I need you to wake up and look over there at those cars. What are they doing?

Edward: Msssrrrnnng.

Veronica: Edward Hightower, you wake up and look, goddammit!

Edward: Wuhm?

Veronica: Take these.

Edward: 'Noculars ... ?

Veronica: Look over there at that Jeep Cherokee, with the soldiers around it. Is that lady giving birth?

[Thumping, sliding, a gasp of pain from Edward; throat clearing.]

Veronica: Shhh ... they saw another car watching them and they took them out of the car and they haven't come back.

Edward: If ... if she's giving birth, that soldier should not be pointing a gun to her husband's head.

Veronica: What the hell is that other guy doing? 

Edward: I can't see, but she's ... I don't ... I don't think she ...

[A scream from the woman, distant; a cry of distress from her husband; sobbing; a car door slams.]

Edward: The other guy isn't a soldier. He's got blood on his face.  Is he eating --

Soldier: License and Registration, Ma'am.

Edward: Jesus.

[Thump, scuffle as Edward, startled, drops the binoculars.]

Veronica: Yes, officer, one moment ...

Edward: Hey, whatkindofanofficer ... are you?

Soldier: Sir, that is none of your concern. We need identification and cooperation so we can process you and get you across the water.

Veronica: Yes, officer --

Edward: He's not a cop.

Veronica: I'm sorry, officer --

Edward: He's not a cop, that's not a real gun.

Soldier: Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the vehicle.

Edward: Shoot me, assfuck. That's a prop gun. Look at the welding on the side, there, honey.

Soldier: Sir! Out of the car! Now!

Veronica: Oh my God, I think you're right.

[Footsteps and raised voices as other soldiers converge. They are distracted when a woman goes running by with a baby some months old, from a car farther up in the line. A voice calls out in the darkness:]

Voice: Catch her! She has something I want!

Veronica: Say-o-nara, fucko.

[Veronica puts the car in drive and floors it, swerving to the left up half on to the island in the center of Bollinger. Edward screams in agony and Max thumps against the right rear window; more voices raise in anger or fear; lots of Doppler effect yelling. A thump and scream when she hits a soldier and sends him up over the car to land on the pavement behind.]

Veronica: Sorry! Actually, not sorry!

Edward: None of their uniforms match; I think that last guy had a cheerleading rifle.

Veronica: Oh my God.

[Roaring of the river of fire as it nears.]

Edward: Most of the road is gone. Jesus, the road is burning up like when the the the tanker hit the overpass in Oakland --

Veronica: Should I --

Edward: I don't --

Veronica: Fuck it.

[Thumping, rending scraping sound as the Honda lurches onto the concrete island and Edward screams again; another giant scraping thump, then a third.]

Veronica: Wooo-hoo!

Edward: Mmmph.

Veronica: Almost there ...

[Ominous rumbling sound.]