Muse Wars Challenge 9 - The Road Ahead

Are you up for it? Anyone can join in, you just need to write a story as your interpretation of the photo in around 500 words. How nice would it be for some new bloggers to join in, it really is good fun.

Originally started by Melissa @ The Things I'd Tell You the subsequent challenges have been set by:

Tanya @Madmother (Challenge 2 and 8)

Menopausal Mumma (Challenge 3 and 6)

Lori @Random Ramblings of a SAHM (Challenge 4 and 7)

Gemma @ sometimes you just need to vent (Challenge 5)

Jen @ Jemikaan Challenge 9 - the first person to link to Jemikaan gets to set Challenge 10.

The message read : WE'VE BEEN HIT, STAY DOWN FOR AT LEAST 60 DAYS, THEN RENDEZVOUS AT DELTA. GOOD LUCK : They didn't even get asked to launch the weapon - the one they had guarded, had prepared to launch, going through the drills, but always hoping they would never be asked to turn the keys and then press the red button.

Since that message, they had been unable raise anyone on the radio. Their computers and TV were dead. There was nothing but silence. So they had rationed their water and food and tried not to go insane. Insane from not knowing, insane from fear of what they would find, insane from being cooped up in this small space with each other. Their relief never arrived, which could not be a good sign. And so they waited as instructed.

As each day passed they grew more fearful. What they would find when they rose to the surface, would there be toxic gases, radiation, armed soldiers? Day 60 arrived, they could put it off no longer, this is what they had trained for and so they donned their emergency suits, placed their gas masks over their faces then rode the elevator to the surface in silence.

Tentatively they had opened the door, Geiger counter in hand, watching the dial. Both were relieved when there was only normal background radiation readings. More confident, they left the building and walked to the truck. It was cloudy, with an eerie yellow glow to the sky, like sunset, but it was mid morning by their watches. The silence outside was more pronounced than before - there were no birds singing, no crickets or cicadas chirping just silence in the hot desert sun, just the noise of their own breathing through the gas masks, claustrophobic on their faces.

The truck roared to life and they left the safety of the silo grounds and headed out to the highway ... and now it lay before them, the long road to the unknown.