Ch 2: Elaine Zeiss must decide whether to trust a powerfully built stranger to get her out of a city in chaos. This man, Sean Carpenter claims her family sent him to rescue her and that they must make their way to the lake front so they can begin a journey to an unknown place to rejoin them. Elaine is put aboard a boat with other strangers, but Carpenter is called away for another rescue. If he does not return in time, how will she know where to find the family?

Which Way Is Home?

Each day the smell of smoke had gotten worse and Elaine was no closer to finding transportation than she had been the day before. All airports, including O’Hare and Midway, had been shut down with the first report of the dirty bomb in Norfolk, and rumors were rampant that the District of Columbia had been hit from the Chesapeake side. That was puzzling. The Potomac would have been a better choice for the prevailing winds to carry the radiation toward the Capitol.  No doubt Annapolis, Baltimore and Philadelphia were in for it, and she  watched the panic on U-Tube until her laptop battery gave out. That was yesterday. She did get out emails to Ted and his dad but had no response before the battery failed. Her cell phone was useless; the lines were jammed.

On a routine overnight trip to a neighboring city Professor Elaine Lacy Zeiss is trapped away from home. In addition to interstate wildfires that rage out of control, the president declares a national emergency and closes all airports. Thousands are stranded, all trying to find transportation that will take them home. Elaine's with its full tank of gas is trapped in the hotel garage. Communications are jammed, public order is breaking down, and a man pulls her off the last train out of Chicago. He claims her family has sought refuge in another state. It is his mission to take her to join them.