reasonable speed, putting his whole body behind his foot to push the stiff pedal. He also moved over to the left lane as far as possible from the dropoff beyond the road's shoulder.
The steering was a bit more hair raising without power, especially since even though the road wasn't too bad the edge was a steep slope dropping hundreds of feet to level ground below that would be almost as bad as a cliff. Using his own muscles he had to yank the wheel hard around even these wide corners to avoid that fate. The entire time, as he felt his speed increasing in spite of his efforts to brake and his car veered dangerously close to the edge at every turn, he couldn't help but think of some of the horror stories he'd heard growing up of accidents on these winding roads. He eventually put down the emergency brake partway, which mostly solved the problem, although he had to endure the stink of brake pads burning the rest of the way down.
Finally after over a mile of downhill driving he reached the bottom and released the e-brake, coasting towards the uphill stretch farther along. After letting momentum take him as far as it could he finally pulled onto a wide shoulder well off the side of the road and stopped the car. Once there he took a few moments to settle his rattled nerves, then punched the steering wheel.
He'd had more than enough gas in the tank to make the drive, he was sure of it! There was no way the driving he'd done this morning, even with idling at stop lights in traffic, had used up so much that he only had enough in the tank to go 25 miles. Either the gauge was off or his tank had a small leak or he'd overestimated how far he could go with the gauge at that point or something . Maybe all the extra weight of supplies in his car had eaten up more fuel than he'd expected?
But like it or not here he was, out of gas in a world where gas was near impossible to get. With that in mind, not long after he'd reached the bottom of the hill he'd had a momentary temptation to abandon all common sense and yank the wheel sideways. The wild maneuver would've sent his car veering off the road and onto a short but steep downhill slope to the valley below, bumping and jouncing its way towards a copse of trees at the bottom. With some luck he might've survived the wild descent and managed to roll behind their modest cover where the vehicle couldn't be seen from the road.
He'd opted to park right here on the side of the road instead. It wasn't that he was hoping to be seen and hopefully rescued, since he had a feeling no vehicles would be coming by any time soon. And even if they did they probably wouldn't stop, while if they stopped he could almost guarantee they wouldn't loan him any gas. He wouldn't be able to hitch a ride to the nearest station to fill up a tank, either.
If he'd been truly on his own he probably would've made that decision to give his car up as lost and try to hide it and its precious contents from potential thieves, but t hankfully even if he was a screwup who misjudged what he could manage in an emergency Lewis wasn't. Thanks to his cousin at least it wasn't the end of the world.
Well it was , but he wasn't exactly out of options thanks to Lewis's foresight and preparedness. He pulled out his phone. “Hey man,” he said when his cousin answered. “I'm out of gas about 25 miles southeast of Orem.”
“That's it?” Lewis demanded. “I thought you were keeping enough in the tank to make the drive down here if you needed to.”
“Enough plus a bit extra,” Trev agreed, trying to keep his voice calm as his anger at the situation flared up again. “I had less than I'd expected, or maybe I wasted more than I thought this morning trying to fill the tank before fuel vanished entirely.”
“Yeah you were talking about that before that guy tried to mug you. Were the gas stations all tapped out?”
“Nah, it was the President's speech. Someone in the government had already gotten to all of them and purchased
The steering was a bit more hair raising without power, especially since even though the road wasn't too bad the edge was a steep slope dropping hundreds of feet to level ground below that would be almost as bad as a cliff. Using his own muscles he had to yank the wheel hard around even these wide corners to avoid that fate. The entire time, as he felt his speed increasing in spite of his efforts to brake and his car veered dangerously close to the edge at every turn, he couldn't help but think of some of the horror stories he'd heard growing up of accidents on these winding roads. He eventually put down the emergency brake partway, which mostly solved the problem, although he had to endure the stink of brake pads burning the rest of the way down.
Finally after over a mile of downhill driving he reached the bottom and released the e-brake, coasting towards the uphill stretch farther along. After letting momentum take him as far as it could he finally pulled onto a wide shoulder well off the side of the road and stopped the car. Once there he took a few moments to settle his rattled nerves, then punched the steering wheel.
He'd had more than enough gas in the tank to make the drive, he was sure of it! There was no way the driving he'd done this morning, even with idling at stop lights in traffic, had used up so much that he only had enough in the tank to go 25 miles. Either the gauge was off or his tank had a small leak or he'd overestimated how far he could go with the gauge at that point or something . Maybe all the extra weight of supplies in his car had eaten up more fuel than he'd expected?
But like it or not here he was, out of gas in a world where gas was near impossible to get. With that in mind, not long after he'd reached the bottom of the hill he'd had a momentary temptation to abandon all common sense and yank the wheel sideways. The wild maneuver would've sent his car veering off the road and onto a short but steep downhill slope to the valley below, bumping and jouncing its way towards a copse of trees at the bottom. With some luck he might've survived the wild descent and managed to roll behind their modest cover where the vehicle couldn't be seen from the road.
He'd opted to park right here on the side of the road instead. It wasn't that he was hoping to be seen and hopefully rescued, since he had a feeling no vehicles would be coming by any time soon. And even if they did they probably wouldn't stop, while if they stopped he could almost guarantee they wouldn't loan him any gas. He wouldn't be able to hitch a ride to the nearest station to fill up a tank, either.
If he'd been truly on his own he probably would've made that decision to give his car up as lost and try to hide it and its precious contents from potential thieves, but t hankfully even if he was a screwup who misjudged what he could manage in an emergency Lewis wasn't. Thanks to his cousin at least it wasn't the end of the world.
Well it was , but he wasn't exactly out of options thanks to Lewis's foresight and preparedness. He pulled out his phone. “Hey man,” he said when his cousin answered. “I'm out of gas about 25 miles southeast of Orem.”
“That's it?” Lewis demanded. “I thought you were keeping enough in the tank to make the drive down here if you needed to.”
“Enough plus a bit extra,” Trev agreed, trying to keep his voice calm as his anger at the situation flared up again. “I had less than I'd expected, or maybe I wasted more than I thought this morning trying to fill the tank before fuel vanished entirely.”
“Yeah you were talking about that before that guy tried to mug you. Were the gas stations all tapped out?”
“Nah, it was the President's speech. Someone in the government had already gotten to all of them and purchased
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