"Cathartes Aura on the Road from Nowhere" Sneak Peek: Chapter Seven

I plowed through most of Chapter Nine this weekend.  As soon as I'm done with this post, I'm going back to it.  Bringing a story like  this to a smashing climax is a buzz I hope at least some of you have felt.  I remember it from the end of "Apocalypse Zoo".  I've never hit a walk-off home-run, a buzzer-beater, or a game-winning anything, but it must be a similar feeling.

Chapter Seven gives the readers what I hope they're starving for: answers.  Some characters sit around the campfire and explain their own tiny piece of what happened.

“Always ecstatic or angered.  One day

Gives lobster and champagne to everyone

Saying: ‘This is the end.  Lets go out strong.’

The next day, sells freeze-dried rations, water,

And wind-up radios out the back door.

Meanwhile, I try to run a restaurant.

Crazy don’t make good hospitality.

Needed some mountain air.  To get fat on trout.

Changed my voicemail greeting to: ‘I quit, tweak.’

Took my ass and his best whiskey hiking.”