dragons breath 01 - stalked by flames by susan illene Read Free Book Online Page A

stranded.
    A trickle of cars started appearing on the other side of the interstate, heading north. They flashed their lights at us and some even waved their arms out their windows.
    “Why would they be going that way?” I asked.
    “No idea,” Conrad replied, his tone just as baffled as mine.
    We’d passed Pauls Valley a few miles back and were getting close to the Arbuckle Mountains. Maybe some rocks fell onto the interstate during the earthquake? Even if they had, there were smaller highways people could use to go around.
    Traffic slowed even further as we continued driving. More cars passed us going the opposite direction also flashing warnings at us. A cold pit grew in my stomach. We tried the radio to see what could be going on, but none of the stations worked.
    “This is beginning to freak me out,” Conrad said, watching the other side of the interstate.
    “Me, too.”
    He heaved a sigh. “There’s an exit ahead. Maybe we should take it.”
    “We need to get to Texas. It’ll be safer there.” I wanted to get home to my family and put all this behind me. Whatever was up ahead, we’d find a way around it.
    “Okaay,” he said, drawing the word out. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
    About half the cars in front of us took the exit when we reached it. Traffic moved a little faster after that so the next few miles passed quicker than before. I kept looking for the Arbuckle Mountains ahead. Millions of years ago they’d stood tall and proud, but now they weren’t much more than jagged hills. Still, I should have seen some sort of rise by now.
    Traffic slowed again. Conrad rolled down his window and peered out.
    “There’s a bunch of cars stopped up there,” he said, ducking back inside. “Couldn’t see anything else.”
    After going about another quarter mile, traffic came to a standstill. The flashing lights of a police car reflected through windows, though I couldn’t see the cop from our vantage point. A steady flow of vehicles drove onto the median, using a gap in the highway divider to turn around.
    Then I noticed people walking along the interstate with shocked expressions on their faces. Others were hugging each other and crying. What the heck had happened up there?
    Someone pounded on my window. I jerked in my seat.
    “You’ve got to turn back,” a wild-eyed man said.
    “Why?” I asked, not rolling down the glass.
    “The road…it’s—there’s no way around it.” A woman yelled at him and he ran off toward her.
    I considered what to do. My curiosity burned too much for me to leave without at least checking on what had people this upset, and we couldn’t go anywhere yet anyway. We’d have to wait until some of the cars ahead cleared out before we could get far enough up to turn around. I pulled the keys from the ignition and opened the door.
    “Are you crazy?” Conrad shouted, giving me an incredulous look. “It could be dangerous.”
    “If it was dangerous people would be running around screaming. They’re not, and the police are up there so it should be safe.”
    “Fine,” he said, getting out as well.
    We weaved our way through the cars, trucks, and campers filling the interstate. They seemed to go on forever, but eventually we saw a thick crowd of people gathered at the top of a rise. They filled a space between police cars that had been parked sideways across the road.
    Whatever was beyond that I couldn’t tell. I squeezed my way through them, working to get closer to the front. When I finally made it to the spot where police had strung yellow tape across, my body turned cold.
    “Um, I don’t think we’re making it to Texas today,” Conrad said over my shoulder.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
    Bailey
    I looked down, ignoring a growing sense of vertigo.
    A giant chasm stretched before us, running east and west as far as the eye could see. There was no going across it. The other side had to be about a half-mile away and it was at least a few hundred feet deep.