Episode 1

The Used Car

Clearly, this was going to be a good day.  Jill walked around the car, making sure it was free of major damage, the tires were inflated, everything checked out.

As she approached the driver's door again, she slowed, willing the result she wanted into being.

'Full tank, full tank, full tank, full tank.'

It was a mantra she used regularly as she prowled the parking lots, the streets, everywhere you'd expect to see a car.

Considering the population of the planet dropped by some percentage that, depending upon how precise you are might as well be 100%, you can pretty much expect to see a car everywhere.

She had grown up in a small town.  When she was 10, they told her there were 10 billion people in the world.  She had looked out the window at the trees, the town church and laughingly asked 'Where are they all?'

Now that there were barely 10 million left, the world was her town.  It'd been about 2 months since she had run into someone, just another stranger making their way from here to there.  Details tended to slip away these days.

Not surprisingly, the door opened to her touch and, a whoop of enjoyment escaping her lips, the tank was almost full.  The keys, of course, were right there in the ignition.  When everyone left... well, when *most* everyone left, they pretty much left stuff like that handy.  They knew that those staying behind might need things like a random car, although no one really understood why people would stay behind when there was such beauty awaiting them elsewhere.

Jill looks up at the sky and whispers a thank you, as she always does, to whoever was nice enough to leave her this gift.

Slowly, she pulls out onto the highway, heading towards Boston, wondering if she's too late to meet her dreams.