Afterthought

Chapter 4

Once the sun had risen into the sky, Elizabeth got up and walked out of the chamber. If it weren't for the reinforced force field aligning the chamber, due to a lack of oxygen, she would have suffocated.
After accepting the death, Elizabeth qualified her limited options. Talking aloud helped her collect her thoughts. "I need to go to Chicago," she concluded after weighing her options. It was the nearest operational city-state within the vast area.
After the economic collapse of the United States, each of the states one-by-one descended into chaos. However, the authority of the remaining industrialized cities formed their old city states.
Since people naturally seek order, the prospect of this idea attracted lost people and resulted in the overpopulated cities. With the depleting Great Lakes and the infertile soil, many people of the city die of starvation. Knowing these daunting truths, Elizabeth packed the left over food and water into one of the terrain mobiles. While she put on her terrain gear, checked the fuel supply in the terrain mobile: a half full tank of gas and a quarter charged back-up battery. She figured this would be sufficient to get her to at least the outer walls of Chicago.
Elizabeth started the massive machine and speedily drove away from the base.

Elizabeth drove on for ours. She had run out of gas, so her battery went into play. The battery read 10% when the vehicle made an unannounced halt. Puzzled by why the vehicle stopped, Elizabeth got out of the terrain mobile and inspected the outside. The sun had almost set and the darkness of night was ominously slithering towards her. She had stopped in a dead forest where the greenery died from the aridity of the environment and only the skeletons remained. With the sun completely set, she got back into her car and turned the lights on. She waited for ten minutes wondering what she should do next. Then she noticed something strange about the car: it felt lopsided at one end. Elizabeth got back out of the car and inspected the tires. She noticed one of them was deflated. Suddenly, she heard footsteps close by. She reached back into we car and extracted a flashlight. Turning on the flashlight, she saw about seven men advancing toward her with crude weapons. These men were definitely not worthy if the name. Such foul creatures they were! Holding crude weapons and wearing rags for clothing. Their untidy and filthy appearance made them animals. They sure acted like animals. They stood gazing at Elizabeth and her supplies. Once they were finished observing, they charged forward towards her. Elizabeth dived into the automobile and secured the doors and windows before she was man-handled by the animals. She would either have to figure out how to drive them off or wait until they went away. Just wait. Wait.