[ IP ] What happened here ?

His radio had continued to chatter for almost 20 minutes after the.....event.....Jared could n't think what else to call it. Now all he heard was static. The voices had been a comfort, even in their panic it at least showed that something was still working, some order was at least being attempted. 
 
 He continued down the highway, the fire had long ago jumped the road and the air conditioner just pumped in fumes so he sat in his oven with wheels and kept driving through an endless tunnel of smoke and flame. No light at the end. 
 
 It had all started with a rumble. If he were still in California he would have called it an earthquake. The deputy, barely a deputy, tried to shake the dust from his short term memories. What felt like one long hell had started 3 days ago, with the smoke during the day and the fire at night it was getting harder to tell the difference. A rumble. It seemed so innocuous. Then heat, fire crawling over the low rolling hills faster than he'd ever seen a fire move. 
 
 Wait. 
 
 Before the rumble. 
 
 There was something else moving faster than it should. Shadows. The same ways they move in front of a passing car, but in the middle of the day. It had startled him at the time but he dismissed it as the midsummer heat playing a trick on him. Had that actually happened? How? 
 
 His attention was pulled back to the present by something else he was n't sure was real. Light up ahead, the smoke thinning and more importantly a small boxy silhouette framed in the growing circle of light. He did n't know where the next gas station was but wiped the sweat out of his eyes and accelerated anyways. 
 
 There was another shadow. A person, leaning against the SUV he had spied 20 miles ago. He felt his gut tighten up and his grip tighten on the wheel. Pulling closer did n't help, the stranger was wrapped in the shredded remains of countless different shirts, pants and sweaters leaving only a small patch of their face exposed. It did n't respond as the squad car finally came to stop 20ft and killed the engine. Jared could n't believe that the heat was actually worse outside the car, worrying his sweaty hands my slip on the service revolver he was squeezing so tightly. 
 
 `` Hello?'' Jared shouted over a ferocious wind. The light was so bright he was squinting at the silhouette as he slowly approached the still motionless figure. Stepping slowly and cautiously he kept approaching trying not to surprise this person. Trying not to be surprised. He kicked a rock towards the shadow. It stirred. Slowly, thankfully, it unsettled itself from the SUV and turned. Jared could n't see their eyes but could feel himself being examined. The stranger looked down at the hand choking the hilt of his gun and turned around again, unperturbed. Jared started to relax. The motion had seemed one of trust. 
 
 He circled the stranger to put the light at his back, tired of squinting at a shadow. As eyes widened so did his mouth, the barely exposed eyes were fierce and full of light but the skin around the belied years of skin care products. A woman. She glanced at him without moving her head then stared forward again. He followed her gaze out over where the rest of the highway should be. 
 
 [ End here? ] 
 
 He had n't noticed they were standing on a ledge. The ground fell away sharply, dipping low and deep and curving and leveling off into the distance, farther than he could see. Jared looked left and right, the ledge continued to the horizon in both directions as though something had decided to take an ice cream scooper to the landscape. With the wind in his face he looked back to the stranger met her gaze. The ferocity was gone, only tears. 
 
 [ Alternate Ending ] 
 
... only tears. 
 
 The radio in his car squawked. 
 
 
 Criticisms welcome!
