The Nation Chronicles Series

The conclusion of the trilogy begins here... Ira killed the motor. The moon was clouded, and maybe, he reasoned, the boat would blow right by them. No sooner had he completed the thought though, then the clouds parted and the moon rolled out of the darkness. Bad luck, he thought. The moon, after the almost total darkness, lit up the water like daylight. The approaching boat reversed its own engine about forty yards away, cut in their direction, and drifted to a stop less than five feet from them. It appeared to have only one occupant to Frank. A tall pale-looking man stood smiling at them across the short distance, a machine pistol appeared in one hand, and Frank was sure he was going to fire. So sure, that when he spoke, it caught him completely off guard. "Frank, Ira, Jimmy, and Gary," the man said, as he pointed to each of them, and correctly named them. Frank had never seen the man in his life, and he was definitely somebody he would remember. He seemed race-less, as well as ageless, more like a wax dummy, than a real person. A shadow rose from behind him, and Frank drew in a deep breath as Annie moved into the light. He was momentarily confused, had she brought someone to help? If so, how had she known they would need help? Or even where they would be? When she moved further into the light however, he could see that her hands were tied, and that dried blood coated one side of her head, and the puzzlement quickly turned to anger. "You..." he started. "I wouldn't," the man replied calmly as he raised the machine pistol. "I don't want to kill you, but I will if I have to."

The wind kicked up along Beechwood Avenue in Seattle's red light district. A paper bag went rolling along the cracked sidewalk: Skipping over Willie LeFray's feet where he stood watching the traffic... thinking. One trick... The right trick... Somebody with money and he could call the night good. Just enough to get a good high... Or enough to get enough shit to get a good high tonight and maybe a good high tomorrow when it all wore off and the jingle jangles set in? ... Maybe, he decided. Maybe. Willie stood watching the cars as the paper bag bounded over his feet and tumbled along the avenue.

They spent that night by a quiet lake that reminded them of the one back in Washington. They were now in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, just outside the small town of Wamsutter. They were both becoming used to the traveling, and had each developed a routine they followed every night when they stopped. They had twice seen smoke off in the distance that day, as if to the east of them some great fire were burning. They had correctly guessed the reason long before they reached the fire. Someone, or something, had set the entire city to flame. For several miles before they reached and successfully passed around and beyond the city of Rock Springs, black oily smoke had hung over them in the sky. They had been forced to detour more than twenty miles to the south to get around the still burning city. Even from that distance they could feel the heat, and occasionally see the flames leaping into the sky. When they stopped that evening the glow of the fire was still visible in the distance behind them. They were both tired and dropped off to sleep before the last vibrant colors of dusk had fully faded from the sky. The next day they traveled steadily onward through the rising mountains. The going was slower and they had to stop several times to move stalled vehicles out of the roadway. Finally they had been stopped by the wreckage of three cars that had collided high in the Elk Mountain overpass. Joe managed to winch two of the cars out of the way, and together they had pushed the third off the roadway and over the steep rocky embankment. They had both watched as the car careened down the side, and finally flipped off a rocky ledge disappearing from view. At the expense of a small amount of paint, which was scraped from the truck as they passed the two remaining vehicles, they managed to get up and over the high pass before nightfall.