Exodus » Mark

EXODUS » MARK

The rolling walkout started Friday — at 10 a.m.. The nearest first markers for these cohorts could be as far as Salt Lake City, Utah; Boise Idaho; and Phoenix, Arizona. All of the markers were outside California: this was to guarantee this was a ‘national’ action, and California sheriffs, highway patrol, and district attorneys would have no authority any more. Why and how any branch of the government could impede peaceful migration of thousands of citizens was unclear, but the value of these vampires was in the billions. That is a strong incentive to break moral and legal codes.

The US interstate system — has a simple numbering system: interstates running west-to-east are numbered as multiples of 10 starting from the southern border. In the south, the I-10 runs from Los Angeles, California to Jacksonville, Florida. In the north, the I90 (the longest) runs from Seattle, Washington to Boston, Massachusetts. Interstates running south-to-north are numbered similarly, but shifted by ‘5’ and starting on the Pacific Ocean. The I-5 runs from San Diego, California to Seattle, Washington. The I95 runs from Miami, Florida up to Bangor, Maine. This grid bounded by Seattle, Bangor, Miami, and San Diego represents the most-easily accessible (in time, by land travel) locations in the US. More remote towns are within relatively short travel times from each of the interstates and their interconnections. The interstate grid enables navigation techniques similar to finding shops in back alleys within the grid of a major city like Manhattan.

All of the first-day markers were very near these interstate grid points, and subsequent-day markers were also ‘on the grid’ if the final destinations were further east. This was to enable short travel times to any destination, including crossing the country: you followed the high-speed interstate grid until the destination was within a day of an interstate exit.

- 133 -

The goal was for each vampire — to reach their destination in time for their next scheduled dialysis session; i.e. in three days. The furthest dialysis caves were near Bangor, Maine and Miami, Florida, both of which are more than 3000 miles away from most of California. That requires driving 1000 miles every 24 hours, or 16 hours a day at 60 mph. That is too much driving for a person to do safely: DOT (Department of Transportation) rules for professional truck drivers is 10-12 hours (with some possible extensions) per day, so we used a 12-hour ideal to plan routes. On the interstates, speed limits are commonly 70 mph, so 3000 miles could be closer to 40 hours of driving over three days. We accepted that some vampires would need an extra day of travel in rare cases. Those vampires also had a second choice destination that was nearer if they needed to shorten the trip.

Actually, all vampires had a collection of shorter ‘treasure-maps’ to follow if they needed a shorter trip. These secondary maps guaranteed a vampire could reach a final destination within four hours of reaching a marker. The first day markers were all a full 12 hours away, but in that case the vampire could just return back to their home clinic if anything went wrong. After day one they were on a journey that needed to be safe and safely completable. Vampires are too valuable to lose even one in this exodus.

- 134 -