The New Regime

The next morning as the fog was rolling into the valley from the hills, Devin drove Amanda and Liz back to Greene. They had stayed the night at the party, sleeping uncomfortably in the car due to the fact that all three of them were intoxicated and didn't dare drive home in that condition. There was enough chaos going on all around them - the way Amanda saw it, they didn't need to help make any more of it.

The drive was quiet, grogginess hanging over the three passengers as hangovers took their toll. They had woken unmercifully early that morning, and when Devin insisted they get home as soon as possible so they could sleep in an actual bed, Amanda didn't have the heart to argue.

Hearing Devin flip on the turn signal to get off the highway and onto the road going past Amanda's place and into town, Liz perked up from the back seat.

"Oh, dude. Can you drive me back to my house? Ryan dropped me off and it's way too early to knock on his door. I really don't want his parents to kill me..." Liz said, and Devin grumbled but complied anyway and stayed on the highway. Knowing he was aggravated because Liz lived out on the back roads on the other side of town that headed toward Binghamton, Amanda reached over and placed her hand at the back of his neck, slowly rubbing the tense muscles.

Going through the intersection further down Route 12 even though the light was red, Devin continued driving, his eyes threatening to lazily slip shut. Seeing the intersection so empty, the gas station on the corner not being broken into or having its windows smashed in, even at this early hour, set a pang of unease through Amanda. She was so used to seeing the chaos of life all around her that for it to be gone just didn't seem normal to her. She wondered if maybe, just maybe, this meant that things were going back to normal. Maybe some sort of order had finally been found.

Slowing down, Devin turned onto Foster Hill Road, driving up into the hills encasing he little valley town. The fog was horrible when trying to get up the first hill. But once they were enough, the clouds cleared, and there in the field to the right, Amanda saw two lone people, standing in the middle, wearing bleak grey suits. And not the business kind. They looked almost like baggy grey jumpsuits from where Amanda was. It was so weird to see anyone standing out in the open like that, especially out in the wooded, back roads areas like Foster Hill.

Shaking it off, Amanda leaned back into her seat, saying goodbye to her cousin as she was dropped off.

Turning around and heading back down the hill, the open field was on Devin's side, and Amanda looked again as they passed by. No one was there. Not even anyone walking to or from the field either. Where had those strange people come from, and why were they standing in that field?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sitting back at her apartment later that afternoon, after she and Devin had gotten more sleep and Devin had gone back to his own place, Amanda decided that maybe it was a good idea to watch the news. She doubted she'd find out anything about the two strange, grey-suited people she'd seen up on Foster Hill, but maybe she'd see that her feelings were right - that things had gone back to normal, or at least as normal as they could have after the world had been so turned upside down.

And once the news was on, Amanda didn't pay attention to the newscaster reading off the newest story, but was rather focused on the images flashed in front of her. Videos were being broadcast of fires being put out, store fronts being rebuilt as people helped each other clean up their communities. It was a shock, but it all seemed very promising, and Amanda wondered if maybe she, Devin, and Liz had stuck around, they'd have seen the miracle in action, seen the way people suddenly changed.

But as time would soon tell, Amanda would come to think that they should have all left that sleepy little town. For good.