The Zephyr was almost five days overdue.
Wind lifted the dust off in little devils of twisting columns that randomly touched down throughout the remains of the town. Further out beyond the hulks of the Super Wal-Mart and Krogers Mara stood and swept the binoculars. The platform she stood on reached up a good hundred feet ending in the bulbous water tank that watered the town, affording her a look just over the edge of the horizon. She strained her eyes for the familiar shape of the Zephyr's four blade-like masts, but saw nothing but dirt-twisters.
The old asphalt highway, laid down back in the time of plenty, had finally succumbed to the advancing dirt despite the town's best attempts to keep it out. The barriers lay on their side.
Mara still knew the twists and turns of the highway she'd memorized since twelve, when she'd first realized it led to other towns and people.
"Mara, it's getting dark."
"Yes Ken."
Ken carefully put the binoculars into their pouch and climbed down the side of the tower. Pushing off down the dust piled at its feet she trudged down to Ken, now only a large silhouette in the suddenly approaching dusk.
"Your mother still wants to talk to you."
Mara didn't respond.
"She wants to work it out," Ken continued.
"I'm leaving. I've wanted to leave since I was twelve, come on Ken ... don't start this again." Mara started walking quickly towards the house.
)
When the fuel went, Mara's town turned to windpower. They struggled on as the lights left, as the cities fell fallow, and plastic became a memory. Their only link to the outside world is the Zephyr, and now it too has not shown up.
