90
It takes all night for you to dismantle, cut, re-align, and weld the damaged chassis. It is a difficult task, made even more so by fatigue, but the lessons you learnt when you helped Cutter to build this roadster over six months ago now prove invaluable. You work continuously, taking a break only when Kate sights a pack of Angelinos to the north. You turn off your torch and watch from the cover of the rocks as they pass along the highway heading south. Then, once they have disappeared, you resume the daunting task of repairing the crash damage.
It is an hour after dawn when the repairs are finally completed. In the clear light of early morning you can see for miles across the rocky plain that surrounds the highway south of Eldorado. It appears empty, although you remain on the alert every second of your drive to Sonora, the next town marked on your map, for it is in this direction that the Angelinos were heading when they passed you last night. You are less than a mile from the ruins of Sonora when you are greeted by the welcome sight of Interstate 10, stretching east-to-west across your path. This is the freeway you hope will take you all the way to your rendezvous with the colony at Kent, and then on through the mountains to El Paso.
You join the freeway and enjoy the feel of a firmer, clearer road surface beneath your wheels as you begin the long drive west. Still you can see no sign of the Angelinos, and Kate voices her hope that they have decided to search Sonora, thinking you may have hidden there last night. You want to agree with her, but suddenly, in the distance, you see something that proves her wrong.
