Strange Monsters of the Recent Past: American Hexcrawl

Strange Monsters of the Recent Past: American Hexcrawl
It’s all over for humanity, and I’m heading east.

On the seat beside me are an M1 carbine and a Thompson submachine gun. There’s a special reason for the Thompson. I traded an M16 and 200 rounds of ammo for it to a guy in Barstow. He got the worst of the deal. When things get rough, carbine and .45 ammo are easier to find than the 5.56mm rounds the M16 uses. I’ve got more ammo for the carbine than I need, though I’ve had plenty of chances to use it.

There are fifty gallons of gasoline in the car, in cans. I have food for six days (I don’t know if that many are left.)

When things really fell apart, I deserted. Like anyone else with sense. When there were more of them than we could stop. I don’t know what they’ll do when they run out of people. Start killing each other, maybe.

Meanwhile, I’m driving 160 km/h on Route 66. I have an appointment in the desert of New Mexico.

God. Japan must have gone first. They deluged the world with them; now, it’s Japan’s turn. You sow what you reap.

We were all a little in love with death and the atom bomb back in the 1950s. It won’t do us much good now.

The road is flat ahead. I’ve promised myself I’ll see Meteor Crater before I die. So many of them opened at Meteor Crater, largest of the astroblemes. How fitting I should go there now.

In the backseat with the ammo is a twenty-kilo bag of sugar.

http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/strange-monsters-recent-past/

Hexmap of the US, 30 mile hexes. Divided into zones where different monsters rule. Martians in from New Jersey fight the saucers that destroyed DC. Gila Monsters and Ants rule the Southwest. etc etc.

Scientists, soldiers, and ordinary people fight a losing battle, trying to hold back the monsters.