Athena continued driving through the wasteland, her fingers gripping the steering wheel tightly as she kept her eyes on the road ahead.
The further north she traveled, the worse the destruction became. Once-thriving cities had been reduced to skeletal ruins, entire highways cracked and broken apart.
Vehicles, stripped of their useful parts, lay abandoned on the sides of the road, many covered in dried blood.
She was now several miles away from the last known coordinates of the military base. But as she approached a small town along the way, she felt a creeping sense of unease.
The town was eerily silent. Not even the sound of the wind could be heard. She slowed the jeep to a crawl, her senses on high alert.
There were signs of life, rooftops covered in makeshift barricades, homes boarded up from the inside, and abandoned market stalls with goods still rotting in the sun.
