Of course there were rumors about the tomb’s being empty. The women had come back just after sunrise full of wild stories. But rumors are only rumors, women are always telling wild stories, and for at least two of the people who had followed him, there was nothing left to do but get out of town.

And where did they go? They went to Emmaus. And where was Emmaus and why did they go there? It was no place in particular, really, and the only reason that they went there was that it was some seven miles distant from a situation that had become unbearable.

from The Magnificent Defeat