The group got back into their familiar formation. Wolf had already studied the map, using the compass to find the right direction, and they set out. They were all anxious to see what they would find when they emerged from their swamp cocoon. As they moved, it became clearer and clearer that the terrain was drying out, and the foliage wasn’t quite as dense as it had been even the day before. As mid-day approached, Regan looked around Wolf and could see another body of water, causing her to groan inwardly. She was about sick of water. Though, it occurred to her, she might not have argued with a nice clean swimming pool.
“We need to cross here,” Wolf announced. “I can see an old road on the other side of this shallow river. We’re close, guys!” he said, his voice infused with excitement.
“Are you sure it’s shallow?” Regan asked, not wanting a repeat of the earlier river incident.
Wolf nodded his head, glancing up and down along the banks. “Yes, I can see rocks breaking up the flow of the water. Do you see?” he asked, pointing to where a V-shaped ripple could be seen on the surface.
She nodded her head. “Okay, let’s go. One at a time?”
“I’ll go first,” Fred volunteered, taking the first few steps into the waterway.
Regan watched as he slipped and slid on the rocks. The gangly man made it across without falling in face first, but barely. Still, if he could do it, she certainly should be able to. This time, Geno stepped up right alongside Tabitha, and they made it across together.
Once again, Wolf and Regan would be the last to cross. He walked into the water behind her and ended up passing her, extending his hand to help her the last few feet. She reluctantly took it, simply because she didn’t want to fall. There was no way she would admit she liked having someone look out for her and help her out. That would have made her weak. She was not weak—she was simply being smart, logical.
Once they were across, Wolf took another look at the map and then nodded into the distance. “Okay, guys, stay alert. We’re going to be on the outskirts of a town that skirts the swampland. We don’t know what we’re walking into. Situational awareness is extremely important. Use all your senses and trust your instincts. If those little hairs on the back of your neck stand up, listen,” Wolf lectured them as they stepped onto a dirt road with deep tire tracks dried in the mud. It was the first road she’d seen since coming into the swamp, and although it was bordered by swampland, it still gave her a thrill. They’d be out soon.
Geno scoffed. “I think we’ll know if someone is going to ambush us.”
“I doubt you will,” Wolf said bluntly. “You talk too much to hear what’s happening around you. Listen. Smell. Look. Anything that doesn’t fit is something to be concerned about.”
Geno looked as if he wanted to argue, but Tabitha grabbed his hand. “You’re right, Wolf. We can’t talk anymore like we have been.”
Regan silently thanked Wolf for saying what she had been wanting to say over the past couple days. Silence was golden, but Geno didn’t feel the same way. Now that his comments and banter wouldn’t serve the purpose of scaring off wildlife, she was glad to think he might give his voice a rest.
With cautions understood, they spread out, Wolf and Regan walking side by side along the compacted, single-lane dirt road. Fred was in the middle, and Geno and Tabitha were side by side in the back. They all remained quiet as they scanned the area around them. They were walking into a different kind of danger now that the swampland was ending. The panther had been bad, but Regan knew humans could be far worse.
As they moved farther down the road, there were more signs of civilization—signs warning of gators, boating rules, paths, and other odd directions. Tire tracks were embedded into the mud and the wildlife surrounding them had slowly begun to take on a more tamed look, as if they’d finally moved into areas where humans were more in control than wildlife.
“Don’t you think it’s odd we haven’t run into anyone yet?” she whispered to Wolf as the swamp fully receded on the right side of the road, opening up into fields, as well as other dirt and gravel roadways.
He nodded. “Makes me wonder what the hell happened.”
“There’s a farm up there,” she noticed after another moment. “Well, I guess it’s a farm, right? Looks more like a rundown barn and a shack,” Regan said a little more loudly as she pointed ahead at an old barn standing tall amongst the grass gently swaying in the breeze.
“Maybe it will be empty and we can find some food,” Geno said a little too loudly, earning him a round of hushes from the group.
Regan’s eyes darted back and forth, looking for any sign of life as they approached. The last thing she wanted to do was sneak up on someone. That’s how people got shot.
“Hello!” Wolf called out.
“What are you doing?” Regan hissed.
“I’m checking to see if anyone’s home.”
She rolled her eyes. “Great, now that we’re standing in the middle of the road with no cover, you announce our presence.”
“Uh, guys,” Fred said in a soft voice.
“What?” Regan and Wolf said in unison.
Fred used his head to gesture toward the side of the rundown house.
Regan and Wolf turned around and immediately put their hands in the air. It was instinct. When someone had a rifle pointed in your direction and looked menacing, you put your hands up. Especially if you couldn’t fire back with your own gun.
“We’re only passing through,” Wolf said as a man approached from the side of the house. “We’re not here to cause any problems.”
“Can you tell us what’s going on?” Fred asked the thin man who was now walking toward them, his rifle trained on Wolf.
The man looked at each of them in turn, taking in the sight of their dirty clothing. “Where you been?”
“We’ve been in the swamp,” Wolf answered.
The man didn’t look as if he believed them. Regan wouldn’t have been surprised to learn the man had a tinfoil hat stashed away in the ramshackle house he’d come from.
“It was for a survival show. Maybe you’ve heard of it—Skin of Your Teeth Survival?” Regan quickly explained, “This is Wolf Henderson. You’ve heard of him, right?”
She was hoping the guy didn’t live under a rock. Wolf was kind of a big deal, after all. The man stepped forward, scrutinizing Wolf a little more, and she guessed he recognized him.
When he nodded his head, she sighed in relief.
“I know who you are,” he grumbled, not lowering his weapon.
“We don’t have any guns and we’re not here to loot or cause you any headaches. We walked out of the swamp and are headed toward Naples. Can you tell us what happened? Our crew never showed up. We’ve been completely cut off,” Wolf explained.
The man eyed him closely and then, finally, lowered the gun. He shook his head, glancing off into the distance as if in amazement that they didn’t know and he’d be expected to explain. “Something bad. Real bad. EMP, from what I hear. One minute everything was fine and dandy, and the next, it was lights out,” he said, spitting out what Regan assumed was tobacco juice.
“When?” Fred asked.
The guy shrugged a shoulder. “Almost two weeks ago.”
“When our last week started, right after the crew must have left,” Tabitha muttered.
“Any news on who or what caused it?” Fred asked.
The guy shrugged. “I don’t know anything. It isn’t like information is free-flowing. There’s an AM radio station I can get, but it’s a lot of speculation. Ain’t no facts to be heard. The police and National Guard bailed out almost a week ago. You said you’re going into the city?”
“Yes,” Wolf answered. “My daughter and dad are there.”
The man grimaced, but didn’t say anything for a moment. Regan looked at Wolf, expecting to see him terrified. He didn’t seem all that worried, which didn’t make sense to her. She couldn’t say for certain, being an orphan and single, but she felt like he should have b
een panicking and racing to his kid.
“Anything more you can tell us would be appreciated,” Tabitha spoke up.
The man whistled low and shook his head. “Like I said. It’s bad. Real bad. I went into the city to try and get supplies last week, and what wasn’t burnt was burning, busted, or being guarded by folks I didn’t want to tangle with. I retreated, and ain’t going back ‘til this gets taken care of.”
“Is there a timeframe? Did the police or government say when we could expect things to be restored?” Fred pressed.
The man shook his head. “Nope. We know nothing. You want my opinion; I think we don’t know because the government don’t know. This is widespread, I’ll tell you that. I ran into a guy who rode his bike down from up near Georgia. He’d run across all walks of people who said the entire east coast was down.”
“Wow,” Geno breathed out. “What the hell?”
The man guffawed. “That’s what I said. I don’t know if we’re under attack from North Korea, Russia, or China, or if this is some kind of domestic terrorism. It is bad news. Bad, bad news,” he reiterated.
“Have they set up aid stations?” Tabitha asked.
The unidentified man looked beyond Regan’s shoulder to stare at her. “Nope. No aid. Last time I was in town, I heard the hospitals had been overrun. They tried to keep operating, I guess, but people lost their damn minds.”
Fred stepped forward. “I’m Fred, and that’s Geno, Tabitha, Regan, and you know Wolf,” he said, his hand extended.
The stranger shook his head, and didn’t extend his own hand to shake Fred’s. “I’m Robert, and I’d like to say it’s nice to meet you, but I don’t want you getting the wrong idea. I’m not going to shoot you, but you need to move on. I don’t want to be rude, but supplies are scarce, and I can’t afford a bunch of strangers stopping by to visit or ask for hand-outs.”
“It’s okay,” Wolf said, nodding his head. “I understand completely. We don’t want to bother you. Thanks for telling us what you know. We’ll be on our way.”
The man looked relieved to hear it, and seemed to relax fully for the first time since he’d approached. Regan realized he’d been worried about them asking for help, and wondered if he’d had to chase off others doing the same.
“Good luck,” he said, meeting each of their eyes briefly. “Watch your six. The roads aren’t safe,” he warned.
“Thanks. Take care, Robert,” Wolf said, and without any more preamble than that, the group was on their way down the dusty dirt road once again.
Fred took the position next to Wolf while Regan hung back with Tabitha and Geno. The mood of the group had changed once again. Now that their worst fears were confirmed, they were all faced with the harsh reality of their situation. Before, there had been a glimmer of hope that it wasn’t all bad. Regan had hoped it was more of an isolated problem. Thinking the worst while speculating, and then actually finding out the worst possible scenario had happened… it was hard to come to terms.
“This is crazy,” Tabitha said in a low voice. “I know we all came here to be survivalists, but I guess I never believed it could happen in our lifetimes.”
Regan nodded. “I don’t even fully understand what it is we’re dealing with. How bad is this?” she asked, raising her voice so that Wolf and Fred would hear her as they walked.
“Bad,” Fred answered simply. “Imagine the country as it was some two hundred years ago, minus the law.”
Geno made a strangled sound. “So, like the wild west days?”
Fred stopped walking, standing in the middle of what had turned into a gravel road, and turned to face the three of them who’d been walking behind him and Wolf. “Basically. Right now, there will still be some semblance of order. Most people are going to expect things to be fixed sooner than later, but then they’ll give up. If this thing lasts longer than a few months, expect everything to change drastically. People are going to be dying from sickness. There’s going to be lawlessness and violence as people all fight for the same limited resources. They’ll fight to the death. Most people don’t know how to fend for themselves when it comes to food and basic necessities. You add that to a loss of electricity, running water, law and order… people will panic.”
Wolf was nodding his head, agreeing with Fred’s horrible predictions.
“Okay, so there isn’t any power. There are generators,” Geno pointed out.
“Those will last for a while, but then they’ll run out of gas,” Wolf replied quietly. “Gas pumps rely on power to run. There will be no way to refill the gas tanks.”
Regan was starting to get the full picture. This wasn’t simply a power outage they faced. Everything would be different—primitive. Looking around her, she could see a few houses dotting the fields, but no activity. That was definitely not a good sign. And the sun was starting to feel a lot hotter now that she thought about a lack of running water and air conditioning.
“No banks, no hospitals, no grocery stores, no way to buy more ammunition. There won’t be any manufacturing of things like toilet paper and batteries,” Fred pointed out. “Kids won’t have school and adults won’t have jobs to report to every day.”
Geno cursed aloud while Tabitha and Regan stared at Wolf and Fred.
“How will anyone survive?” Tabitha breathed out.
Wolf shrugged. “This won’t last forever. Depending on how widespread it is and what actually caused the damage, we’re probably looking at about five years before our world returns to normal.”
“Five years!” Regan exclaimed. In her worst moments, she’d thought this might last six months. And they were talking five years?
“That’s if the human population of the U.S. survives,” Fred said as if he were talking about everyday matters. “No power means all those nuclear power plants aren’t going to have cold water pumping through them to keep a nuclear meltdown from happening. If the government wasn’t prepared for this, and prepared well, things will get a lot worse as their systems break down.”
“No way!” Geno cursed again, running his hand through his hair. “We survive this, but we’re going to die anyway?”
“You watched the news when the whole Fukushima thing happened, right?” Fred asked.
Regan vaguely remembered hearing about it. Her brain was still hung up on the phrase, ‘nuclear meltdown’.
“That is truly worst-case,” Wolf said, shooting a glare at Fred. “There are diesel generators on standby that will help keep the rods cooled. The government isn’t completely useless, and they’ve known for years that something like this was possible. They’re not going to let all ninety-nine nuclear reactors across the Unites States be that vulnerable. Let’s not borrow trouble or worry about something we can’t control. We focus on today. This could all be wrapped up and civilization back on the path to normal within a month or less.”
Fred was shaking his head, almost apologetically. “I don’t think so. The technology that will need to be replaced has to come from somewhere. How will the country buy what’s needed to rebuild with no commerce?”
“No one can say for sure,” Wolf answered. “Experts have tossed out varying opinions about this kind of thing for years. The key is to be self-sufficient.” He looked around at the group, then back down the road in the direction they’d been heading. “Fred, I think we’ve explained the scenario well enough.”
Fred chuckled darkly. “In this day and age, people are going to die because we are lazy and dependent on technology. No one knows how to grow their own food, hunt, or use their hands to do anything. No amount of explaining is ‘good enough’, Wolf.”
“You make that sound as if it’s funny,” Tabitha said with a scowl.
Ignoring Wolf’s gesture that they should move on, Fred shook his head and answered. “It isn’t funny by any means. We’ve lost touch with the old ways. We’re easy targets. The people who survive are going to be those who can learn and quickly adapt, and who have knowledge of the old ways of living.”
“Let’s keep moving,” Wolf said gently. “There’s no point standing here and wondering what’s going on. We need to get an idea of what we’re up against,” he added, and then he resumed walking, his feet kicking up dust as he did.
Everyone followed his lead.
“This is crazy,” Tabitha commented. “I don’t think I can really grasp what they’re saying. It’s too hard to believe.”
“You’ve never watched any of the apocalypse movies?” Regan asked.
Tabitha scrunched up her nose. “No. I’m not a big fan of science fiction.”
From up ahead, Fred started laughing. “There’s nothing fictional about what’s happening now.”
Tabitha glared at the back of the man’s head. “My bad for assuming our government would have figured out we were vulnerable and done something about it.”
He was still laughing. “That is a terrible assumption.”
Tabitha looked as if she would attack the man, but stopped when Wolf held up a hand for their attention. “We’ve got company. Everyone get together.”
The five of them walked in a tighter formation as they made their way farther down the road. The approaching group came into more focus then, and they all relaxed a bit. Regan watched as a small family of four slowly walked by, heading toward the swamp. They never said a word, and barely even looked their way—neither the two teenagers nor the adults Regan assumed to be their parents.
“That was weird,” Regan whispered to Tabitha.
Her friend nodded her head. “Very.”
More houses dotted the landscaping as they walked into one of the small towns on the outskirts of the swampland.
“Stay alert,” Wolf ordered.
Some houses had clearly been looted and abandoned, judging by the trash and debris strewn about the yards. Other houses had people with guns at the ready, peering from windows or standing on porches. Wolf instructed the group to keep moving and avoid eye contact as much as possible.
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