Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (early reader books txt) 📕

shedecided. Unlike most vacations where she was just exhausted,period, and ready to get home and back to her routine—to get intoher ‘safe’ little rut.

The traffic didn’t actually thinappreciably until she was south of Macon. She was halfway home bythen, though, and her mind had begun to seesaw back and forthbetween conference highlights and formulating a list of the choresshe needed to take care of before she went back to work.

The sun sank toward the horizon as shepassed Macon. She was glad of it. The glare through her sidewindows had been bothersome, but then she began calculating how farshe still had to drive and what the possibility was that she’dmanage to get off the interstate before it was completely dark.After checking her gas gauge, she realized she needed to stop for afill up. She didn’t think she could make it home with what she hadand she definitely didn’t want to start hunting a gas station afterdark—or risk running out of gas on the interstate because she’dtried to make it home without stopping.

Irritated at the necessity,which practically guaranteed she wouldn’t get off the interstatebefore dark, she watched the road signs until she saw a gas stationand pulled off. There was a choice of two stations, she discovered,and no sign of a town. She debated briefly on which to stop at butsettled on the one that wasn’t as busy. The gas price was the same.The smaller place just wasn’t as appealing because itwas small and didn’t haveanything to tempt travelers but a tiny conveniencestore.

Well, she wasn’t looking for supper.She could wait to eat until she got home. There were plenty ofrestaurants to choose from in Valdosta.

When she’d filled her tank, she wentinside to pay and grab a drink and a snack to tide her over untilshe reached her destination.

As she reached her car again, shelooked up at the sky to try to gauge just how much daylight she hadleft. Pleasure wafted through her when she caught sight of afalling star. Smiling faintly, she watched it, her smile fading asshe discovered the damned thing looked like it was heading straightfor her. Instead of fading as it burned out, the light got brighterand brighter and the ball of light bigger and bigger as it gotcloser and closer.

Disbelief and uneasiness replaced thepleasure of watching a shooting star along with the growingconviction that it wasn’t a shooting star at all. Crashing plane,she wondered, feeling her heart leap uncomfortably?

She squinted her eyes, trying to piercethe light surrounding the thing to see the object itself. She couldsee something that looked dark and cylindrical—shethought.

Missile?

Couldn’t be.

It looked like one, though, and theconviction settled inside of her that the damned thing was gettingway too close for comfort. In fact, it seemed to pour on atremendous burst of speed as she watched.

Dropping her purchases, Anya abruptlywhirled and began to run. She was dimly aware that several peopleemerging from the convenience store at that moment gaped at herlike she’d lost her mind. There were cars on the road, heading backto the onramp of the interstate. She leapt the shallow ditch anddodged one as she raced across the road, scared, and yet more thanhalf convinced that she was just making a fool out ofherself.

She’d barely cleared the narrow two wayroad when she heard a roar of sound that nearly drowned out thesudden chorus of screams and yells behind her. She wasn’t certainafterwards if it was the blow of the concussion that threw her tothe ground or if it was the fact that she twisted her ankle as sheleapt from the asphalt. Everything happened too fast for her mindto process it. One moment she was convinced she was going to behorribly embarrassed for acting like an idiot, the next she heardwhat sounded like a sonic boom and then she felt a sharp pain inher ankle and found herself rolling down the steep embankment onthe other side.

There was a sound in her ears that wasalmost like the roaring of the ocean when she finally came to astop. Her head was spinning and dull pain was rolling through herbody from every direction. Dizzy, completely disoriented andconvinced she was dying, Anya closed her eyes and lay where shelanded, trying to throw off the dizziness anddisorientation.

Muffled sounds penetrated the roaringin her ears but between her inner focus and the partial deafness,she couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was hearing. Slowly,the dizziness and disorientation subsided. Once it did, she beganto feel a multitude of aches and pains but, to her relief, nothingintense enough to suggest that she was seriously damaged. Realizingthat she was just bruised and that she’d probably been too shocked,and limp, to sustain anything serious, she opened her eyes, slowlypushed herself upright, and looked around.

The light around her had dimmed enoughthat she realized she’d lost a good bit of time while she laystunned on the embankment, but there were no cars moving on theinterstate and no lights—anywhere that she could see. In point offact, the interstate looked like a parking lot, or rather more likean untidy child’s car collection. There were cars on top of cars,crushed cars, cars and trucks laying crazily on their sides. Cloudsof steam were rising from busted radiators. The smell of burnedrubber was thick in the air.

For many moments, Anya merely staredopen mouthed at the pile up, searching with her gaze for anymovement. Where were the people, she wondered blankly? Ashorrendous as the pile up was, everyone couldn’t bedead.

Unable to process what she was seeing,Anya’s mind abruptly leapt backwards to the falling star, herconviction that it was going to land on top of her, and her race toescape. Grunting, she heaved herself to her feet, looked around toget her bearings and began climbing up the hill she’d rolled down.Slipping and sliding on the grass, she finally managed to reach thetop again. Shock rolled over her when she took in the sight thatmet her gaze.

Both gas stations appeared to beintact—basically. Most of the cars were gone and despite the factthat it was almost completely dark by now, there were no lights—andno signs of any