The country still works, mostly. Power comes on for a few hours. Some gas stations have fuel and some have a sign about it. There are towns with markets and towns with nobody, and a great deal of road in between. You are going to Boston. The only real goal is to arrive in one piece.
Settlements are checkpoints: reach one and you can always start again from there. Vehicles can be traded, lost, or left behind — you can walk, if it comes to that.
Type your name and your road follows you — same name, any phone or computer.
Fuel you carry is fuel nobody can refuse to sell you. Everything else is a guess about which kind of trouble you'll get.
Checkpoint saved. You can start again from here.