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wrong direction. At eleven, I can tell you, the fact that they drove onto the interstate using the off ramp made a big impression. I think that’s when I knew something big was happening. As I watched the truck guy picking little bits of gravel out of his chest, I began to wonder what it might be.”
     
    Terry had to shake his head back to reality when he realized that Bill had stopped talking. He had never heard a firsthand account of the beginning of the Breakdown, and he was fully absorbed in the tale. “Wow. That’s amazing, sir.”
     
    “Call me Bill, ok? I’m not sure why I’m telling you this story. I don’t think I’ve even thought about it for years.”
     
    “Well, sir… uh, Bill. I’d appreciate it if you would keep going.”
     
    Bill took a deep breath, and said, “Ok, it’s not much of a tour, but if you really want to hear it…”
     
    “Definitely.”
     
    “Two hours later, every parking lot at busy Corner was crammed full of cars, trucks, RVs, and motorcycles. We had seen a few try to use the secondary roads to get around the road block, but they always came back with a sheriff’s deputy following them. Our car was buried in the lot behind at least six or seven cars, so we weren’t leaving any time soon. Tommy was napping in the back seat. He was only seven at the time. Mom always called him her happy little accident. I never knew what that meant until much later. My parents came around back and walked us over to the narrow strip of grass by the trees. By that time, we were totally familiar with the territory and the people around us. Everyone had grown tired of socializing and swapping stories and lots of folks were following Tommy’s lead, taking naps in their cars, or wherever they could find a quiet patch of shade. The end result was that we had enough space to talk without being overheard.
     
    Dad pulled us in close and said, “Listen, Tommy doesn’t need to know this yet. Agreed?” We all nodded, knowing we were finally about to get some answers.
     
    “Here’s what I know. You guys know about satellites?” We nodded again.
     
    “Ok, well the Chinese launched a bunch of missiles to shoot down our satellites. They got a lot of them, ones that we use for military communications, phone and TV, taking pictures of the planet, and the ones that make my brand new dang GPS work. All of these satellites are very important to us. They make it possible to do a lot of the stuff we have to do every day. You guys with me so far?”
     
    More nodding.
     
    “Our leaders seem to have taken the Chinese attack very seriously, and we have shot back. We shot down their satellites first, and then launched a full-scale nuclear attack on China itself. We are sure that we got all their satellites, but we are not sure if they have nuclear missiles they can fire back at us. If they do, they will attack as many cities and military bases as they can. Any place they hit with a nuclear missile is gone, ok? Even if anything is left, people will get sick and die if they are too close, and nobody will be able to move back into those areas for a very long time.”
     
    Lucy spoke up. “So, Daddy, does that mean we killed a lot of Chinese?”
     
    “I’m sorry, honey, but yes. Millions probably.”
     
    Lucy was quiet for a minute, and then said, “But Daddy, I thought you and Mom said that people are way more important than stuff, like satellites.”
     
    “That’s true. I still say that, but the reason is that we didn’t know why they shot our satellites. They could have just been trying to take over the satellite business, or they could have been doing it to blind us so we wouldn’t see their missiles coming until too late. I’m sure our leaders thought that it was safer for America if they made sure that couldn’t happen. Either way, terrible things are happening right now.”
     
    “Why can’t we just go home?” Mom asked.
     
    “Well, the soldier I talked to told me that they were