Saturday night Zombies

Josh's laptop realized it was a week or two out of warranty, and expired. He needed a computer, I have a spare computer; so we agreed that he and his buddy* Richard would meet me at the halfway point, outside Richmond, and make the exchange. The rendezvous point is 108 miles from my house, and the speed limit is 70mph for most of the way, so it should have taken about an hour and a half. Reality was coinciding with theory pretty well, right up to Mile Marker 214 or so, at which point traffic slowed, then slowed further, and then got down to "I really could walk faster than this." It never came quite to the point of turning off the ignition, but it was close. Eventually we crept up to the Rte 609 exit, where everyone had to get off the Interstate and follow Rt 60 parallel to the Interstate for twelve miles--and watch the eastbound lanes moving just as slowly as our westbound traffic--until we got to I295 and got back up to speed. I'd left the house at 5:48 and got to the rendezvous at 10:02, so roughly 4.25 hours. Coming back, they'd re-opened the highway so it was 1.5 hours.

The interesting question is, why was the Interstate closed? The main newspapers in the area didn't mention it at all. The signs that directed us to the detour said "Accident Ahead" but it would have to be a pretty impressive accident to close both sides of the highway.  One of the tiny local papers said the closure was due to brush fires, and on the trip back, I smelled smoke; but I didn't smell any smoke on the way up, or see flames. And the "highway department" trucks closing off the highway were white, and the workers wore white jump suits; but VDOT's color has always been orange. I don't recall seeing a man in a black suit and black tie and sunglasses at 8:30, but then I wouldn't remember that, would I? I do remember thinking about having seen him, though.

So it appears there was some kind of unusual activity in the area. Zombies? Mutants? Aliens? Killer sheep? I don't know. But it's certain that something happened, that some mysterious agency dealt with it, that "brush fires" destroyed the evidence, and local news didn't report it. I'm getting more shotgun ammo, just in case.

*Possibly "sidekick" or "minion" would be more accurate than "buddy". Josh has read all the Miles Vorkosigan books, and applies them.