Something just occurred to me; the MC is asleep when the bus reaches its "destination", right? He gets woken up by a tearful Lizzie or whatever her name is.
What if the whole cliffhanger ending thing is actually a dream / nightmare brought about by the fat goth's rant on the bus? I did a quick search and was surprised to find nobody suggested this common trope yet, unless I somehow missed it.
It would explain both Tony not mentioning / having information about the dystopian landscape they're driving into, along with the gas station having fresh goods. Also the apparent lack of devastation on the way out of Meteor Valley (no wrecks, no corpses, no giant quarantine wall with military evidence, etc.)
Thoughts?