>>5407286>>5407304You press on the gas and get going. The mountains on either end of the pass, once just distant objects on the horizon, loom large. The winds are beginning to pick up, making moving anywhere especially unpleasant without a windshield no matter how much of a boon they are to the many nearby windfarms. The sun's behind you as you pick up speed and head towards the last obstacle between you and the freedom of the deserts west of the Colorado River.
You think of your mortality as you head toward the west. Your life is ultimately at the mercy of the Lord. The psalter, the book of Ezekiel, the book of Isaiah (books by flawed men like Solomon and the eponymous authors who were also plagued with hardships in their lives) for, no reason in particular, are prominent in your mind. Thinking of the great prophets and looking at the messy array of Christian items of veneration around you, you feel as if nothing is impossible. It is as if you possess merely a mustard seed's worth of faith, which is more than enough for the impossible journey before you!
"Hold on Jill!" you scream as sandy desert winds blow in your face. You accelerate hard, shifting from fourth gear to fifth gear, and then delaying your up-shift from fifth to sixth gear to take advantage of the extra acceleration you get from keeping your engine at a high RPM for a bit longer. This method of driving is reliant on not just a skilled driver who can time the delayed gear shifts just right, but also on an engine that's not about to blow up at any moment. You can only pray your engine is not in such condition at the present...
>Processing check for sudden engine failure...>... Pass ... and be confident in the knowledge that the Lord thy God will "give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness," as the good book says.
The highway is fraught with dangers. The cityscape at either side is nothing short of a hell-zone. Buildings burn as figures move about, presumably looting what they can from the rotting carcass that was once a great nation. On the road lie large numbers of abandoned vehicles that mean instant death upon contact, at least at the speeds you're going at...
[1/???]
