Jericho first impresions

[Christoph the Magus]

Far too many contrivances for my taste, but heck - it's network TV. I just groaned when I saw the prison bus, which - of course - is filled with insane murderous nuts, who'll kill police officers at the drop of a hat.

You don't have to be a murderous nut to kill a police officer in this scenario. Assuming that the convicts saw the mushroom cloud it's not going to take too much brainpower to figure out that your're going to need new clothes, food, a gun w/ammo, water, etc. I'm not condoning murder obviously, just pointing out that you don't have to be "nuts" to kill a cop for those things if you belive that you're in the middle of a nuclear war. Times are likely to get tough quick (as evidenced by the riot at the gas station) and I wouldn't want to rely on the charity of others if I'm wearing handcuffs and prison stripes.

But yes, it sure is a handy plot device that the jail house bus grinds to a halt right outside Jericho...

 

[Brown Jenkin]

While I won't argue with the possibility of them driving to check things out, I suspect there's a Topeka geography problem in your guess.

Coming from Denver towards Wichita, with Wichita 200 miles away from Jericho and not taking the interstate (which he's not), that puts them at about Scott City or Lakin or so, maybe as far south as Ulysses, assuming a reasonably straight line between the two. That puts Topeka at least 275 miles away. Definitely close to Wichita than Denver, though not a lot.

I am basing my estimate because Witchita and Topeka are both about equal distance on the map from the I-70/I-135 intersection and any trip to either would likely go through that intersection.