It was there, a spray-painted blue mark on a larger tree trunk.
“Yes!” said Mandy excitedly. “I knew it.”
“Good,” said Max, nodding.
He moved ahead of the rest of them. It was amazing to Georgia that he could move so quickly with all the gear that he was carrying. He didn’t seem as tired as the rest of them. He must have been in even better shape than he looked.
Max paused at the trail, waiting for the rest of them to catch up.
Georgia arrived next, then her children, and finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Chad arrived, crashing through the underbrush, wheezing heavily.
“Looks like the trail grew over a little,” said Max.
Sure enough, the trail wasn’t exactly what you’d call a hiking trail. There were plants growing where it would have been a clear path a few years ago.
“It’s only a couple years of growth,” said Georgia, examining it. “It’ll still be easier to walk through this, and we can walk three at a time. That would make me feel like we had a little more security.”
“Which way are we headed, Mandy?” said Max.
Mandy pointed in the direction that would take them north.
“Let’s take a break for lunch,” said Max. “I know we’re all tired, and we could use a rest. I know I could really use one myself.”
Georgia knew that it wasn’t quite true. Max didn’t really need a break. He was strong, and he didn’t seem as tired as the rest of them. He must have had a very regimented training schedule in the years before this event. Georgia knew that Max was doing this, encouraging a break, so that the rest of them didn’t get too tired. In her opinion, he was being an excellent leader.
They sat down in a close circle right on the trail, as Max cleared away some of the overgrown branches here and there, so that they could sit more comfortably. Max worked tirelessly with a large knife that he kept on his belt. He refused all offers of help, and encouraged them all to start preparing the food.
There was still some perishable food left. Some chicken that had been frozen, for instance, that wasn’t yet too rotten to eat.
Georgia helped Mandy start the cook stove. Georgia knew that they couldn’t rely on it forever. There simply wasn’t enough gas. But fortunately, she knew well how to make a fire, provided the conditions were good. Max had all manner of camping equipment, like flint and steel fire starters, that would last a long, long time. He had enough to start fires for many years to come. Georgia, on the other hand, had a couple of lighters with her as their supplies. Those wouldn’t last more than a few months if she was lucky. She envied the supplies that Max had. Although, then again, he didn’t have the firepower that Georgia had brought along.
When Max had finished cutting away the branches, he came over to Georgia.
“Georgia, could I have a word with you?”
“Sure,” she said, getting up. “You’re fine with the rest of it, Mandy?”
“I think maybe Sadie can give me a hand.”
To Georgia’s surprise, Sadie was happy to have something to do. She set to work with Mandy, cooking the food and figuring out how to distribute it to everyone.
It made Georgia happy and proud to see her daughter doing something useful, and to apparently take pleasure in doing so. Sadie still carried her broken phone with her, but she no longer checked it. It was a necessary change in attitude, and Georgia was finally able to see it. Maybe the version of Sadie who’d saved them from the McKinneys’ was returning. Sadie was growing up, perhaps more quickly than she would have otherwise done. It was a good change.
Georgia followed Max away from the group, back into the denseness of the woods, away from the trail.
“I wanted to ask you something,” said Max in a low voice, so they wouldn’t be overheard.
“Shoot,” said Georgia.
“I’ve been thinking about our destinations,” said Max. “I was so focused on just getting out of the chaos. It seems like, well I don’t want to speak too soon, but it seems like we’ve been through the worst of it for now. There might be more challenges ahead.”
Georgia nodded. Even over the short course of time that she’d known Max, she had a lot of respect for him. She was willing to listen to whatever he had to say.
“I feel the same way,” said Georgia. “While we were walking today, I started thinking about what the future holds for my family.”
Max nodded, listening carefully. “Me, too,” he said. “I’ve been trying to picture what life will be like at the farm house. I think the only way to really make it is to have some kind of agricultural system. You know, get the old farm working again. I’ll need to somehow get some animals, and plant crops. I feel confident that while those are going to be big challenges, there’s some way to overcome them. There’ll be some way to get the animals, and some way to get the seeds.”
“It does sound difficult,” said Georgia.
“But what I realized,” said Max. “Is that it’s going to require a huge amount of man power. A huge amount of work, human hours of labor. So I’ll just lay it on the line for you. Here’s what I’m proposing: that you and your kids come and live on the farm with me, Mandy, and Chad. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a hard road ahead, but I think it’s going to be easier if we all work together.”
Georgia liked the idea immediately. After all, she’d been preoccupied with how she and her kids were going to live. Basically her plan involved hunting for food. But she knew that there would be other problems that would crop up. There would be fresh potable water to obtain. There would be medical emergencies. Plus, the biggest threat to their safety could be the invading hordes that would come from the cities, tired and hungry and willing to try anything to survive. They would have a better chance of surviving if they were with Max.
“OK,” said Georgia. “I like it.”
“That was fast,” said Max, laughing.
“Well,” said Georgia. “When you hear a good plan, you’ve just got to go with it. We can work out the details over time.”
“We’ve got a ton of work ahead of us,” said Max. “And what I’m hoping now is that the place is in OK condition. We’ll have to work out the particulars as we go, I guess.”
Georgia nodded.
Suddenly, Max looked over her shoulder, deep into the woods.
“Turn around and look,” whispered Max. “I think we’ve got company.”
Georgia turned quickly so as not to miss it.
It was something way off in the distance, partly hidden behind a tree. It moved quickly, and if it hadn’t had been for Max pointing it out to her, she might have thought that she’d imagined it. But even if she couldn’t make out the object clearly, it was clear what it was. It was a bright red shirt, a color that certainly didn’t exist naturally in the forest.
It was another human.
Another human following them.
30
Mandy
They were back on the trail after having eaten.
Despite having sat down and rested, despite being well fed, they were all still tired. And there was a lot of grumbling and groaning as they got back on the trail, walking ahead.
Mandy figured that they had just about four more hours before they got to the farmhouse. Max and Georgia had announced the plan of Georgia and her kids coming to the farmhouse with them, and Mandy felt nothing but relief upon hearing the news.
She would have another woman to talk to. She would have more people there. In numbers, there was security, at times. Max had focused so much on getting away from everyone else, Mandy had been worried that he would reject Georgia and her kids after a time. But it was clear that they weren’t only not a threat, but actually an asset.
“Hey,” whispered Max, sidling up next to her. They were at the front of the pack, Chad taking up the rear, his groans and explosive grunts audible all the way up there. “I don’t want you to freak out, but there’s someone following us. Georgia and I saw a red shirt when we
were discussing the situation earlier.”
“Shit,” said Mandy. “I thought we were in the clear for now.”
“We’re never going to be totally in the clear,” said Max, keeping his voice low. “From now until we die, we’re never going to be able to stop looking over our shoulders.”
“Great,” muttered Mandy. “Just what I need. Have you told everyone else, so that they can keep an eye out for whoever it is?”
“Yeah,” said Max. “I just didn’t want to tell everyone at once, in case whoever’s following us is in earshot.”
“Makes sense,” said Mandy. “So what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” said Max. “For now, we’re just going to have to keep our eyes peeled and not do anything stupid. Make sure to keep your gun ready at all times.”
“I don’t even know how to use this thing,” said Mandy.
“Point and pull the trigger,” said Max. “Or if worst comes to worst, just point and threaten. Pretend you know what you’re doing. That might work.”
“That’s comforting,” said Mandy sarcastically.
Max would have shrugged if he could have, but it seemed as if his pack was simply too heavy for a motion like that.
“I don’t think we’re going to be attacked,” said Max. “We’re a large group, and I think it’s just one person following us.”
“How do you know?”
“I guess I don’t,” said Max. “But I think we would have heard them if there were more people, although it’s possible one person is following us and then leading a group towards us.”
“What do you think they want?” said Mandy.
“Probably food,” said Max. “Or our guns, our supplies. Anything, really.”
“You don’t think it’s just some lost poor kid in the forest?”
Max shook his head. “No,” he said. “Because if that was the case, if it was someone who needed help, wouldn’t they just approach us?”
Mandy realized that he had a point. She felt a dark pit of terror in her stomach. She didn’t like the idea of walking through the woods being followed by some unknown quantity of unknown people. It terrified her, chilled her to the bone. This was the stuff of horror movies.
“My main worry,” said Max, “is that we’re going to lead whoever it is right to the farmhouse.”
Shit. He was right.
“That could be bad,” said Mandy. “Then we’re going to have to worry about being attacked there.”
“Yup,” said Max. “I was hoping we’d get there without anyone else knowing about the place. At least for a while, that is.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“You’re not going to do anything,” said Max. “Except keep alert. I want the group to keep moving.”
“You’re planning something yourself?”
“I’m going to hang back a little,” said Max. “And see if I can catch whoever it is.”
“That sounds dangerous,” said Mandy. “Striking out on your own like that. What if the person’s armed? What if there’s a group of them?”
“It’s a risk I’m going to have to take,” said Max. “We can’t afford to hang back as a group. We need to get to the farmhouse as soon as possible. And I don’t think we’ll be able to catch him with more than just one person… I’ll be able to move more quietly, and use the group as a distraction.”
“I don’t know,” said Mandy. “I really don’t like the idea.”
“It’ll be fine,” said Max. “Can you let everyone else know what I’m doing? But tell them quietly, so that we’re not overheard. One by one.”
Mandy swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded.
“If I don’t make it back,” said Max, “just keep going. Get to the farmhouse, learn how to shoot properly. Georgia can teach you. And… just keep going. Don’t give up. And be on the lookout in case whoever it is reaches the farmhouse. At the very least, whoever it is won’t be able to follow you guys directly there. It’ll buy you some more time.”
Mandy was too choked up to speak. She suddenly realized that she cared for Max. She didn’t want to see him go, but she knew that there was no way she could convince him otherwise. He was a headstrong individual. Once he made up his mind, he was going to follow through with his plan. She had to believe in him. She had to have confidence in him. She had to have faith that it would work out. But she couldn’t rely on something as nebulous as faith. She had to make things happen. There was no fate at work out here in the woods, after the fall of civilization. Things were what you made of them, not what was handed to you.
31
Max
Max stepped off the trail into the woods, pretending he was going to take a leak. He let Mandy, Georgia, James, Sadie, and Chad pass him by.
He stayed there for a moment as he watched them disappear into the woods, down the trail. They would be at the farmhouse soon enough. Hopefully he would get there too.
He was glad that Georgia was with them. She knew how to shoot properly, and it seemed like her son had some training as well. The others would be lucky to get off a single good shot if they were facing a real enemy.
There were a thousand things that could go wrong with this plan.
But Max had to do it.
He briefly considered how much his position had changed in such a short time. He’d started out only interested in helping himself. Now he was risking his own life to help the others, others he hadn’t known for more than a few days, with the exception of Chad.
But Max knew that he didn’t have much of a chance of surviving on his own. Just like the others needed him, he needed them. It might be possible for him to grow his own food somehow in the future by just himself, but he knew that the possibility of actually pulling it off drastically increased with each extra person he had with him.
Max didn’t think about this too long. He had other things to occupy himself with.
He still had his heavy pack on, since he couldn’t have asked someone else to carry it. It would severely limit the speed at which he could travel. But at least he’d made a great effort to secure everything on the outside of the pack so that nothing rattled around. During lunch, he’d reorganized things on the inside of his pack, moving them around, putting soft things between hard metal things, to reduce the noise that he would make.
He had a compass with him, and Mandy had explained to him exactly how to get to the farmhouse through the woods. All he had to do was follow the hiking trail until he reached a certain creek. Then from there it wasn’t far to the road, cutting through an old field. The farmhouse was off the road, at the end of a long private drive. In the future, Max hoped to cover the entrance to the private drive with brush. If he did that and removed any mailbox that might still be there, it would make the place almost invisible from the road.
Max had vague memories of the farmhouse as a kid, a large old building on a huge property. Not that property boundaries mattered now. But what did matter was that Max knew that the soil was good. It had been good before, and nothing had changed. It would be good in the future too.
Max held one of Georgia’s rifles, and his Glock was still in its holster where it belonged.
Max had initially planned on retracing their steps, to find the person who’d been following them. But now that he was apart from the group, he realized that it would be better just to stay put. That way, he could catch whoever it was coming along the trail, without any chance of missing them.
Max set his pack down next to a tree. There were some dead leaves, and Max used them to cover the pack. He put some dead branches on top of it as well.
Then, in case someone spotted the pack, he moved about twenty feet away from it, further off the trail, but still in view from it.
The hunting rifle was nothing fancy, but it worked, and it had a good, accurate scope on it.
Max, moving more freely without being burdened by the pack for the first time in a long while, lay down on his stomach. He wanted to keep himself out of v
iew as much as possible.
He positioned the rifle comfortably in front of him, and put his eye to the scope. With its magnification, he could see much farther than he could otherwise. While that was a huge advantage, he realized that the narrow nature of the scope might cause him to miss someone coming at him from his periphery. It was the old sniper’s problem, and the reason that so many snipers had lookouts there.
So Max had to play the game of putting his eye to the scope and then removing it periodically. He didn’t allow himself to get stuck in just one “setting,” or he knew that he could easily miss someone approaching.
Ten minutes went by, as Max lay there, diligently switching between the scope and his normal eyesight. Twenty minutes went by. Still nothing.
Then Max saw something. Off in the distance. A flash of red.
Max put his eye to the scope again. He could clearly see with the magnification a very thin man moving through the woods. He didn’t seem to have a pack on him, or any gear whatsoever. He wore a red long-sleeved shirt, that must have been hot in this weather.
He had long, greasy, uncombed hair that hung down around his face.
Max paused, thinking. Who was this man? He didn’t fit any profile that Max could think of.
He wasn’t a soldier, and he didn’t seem to have a gun. He didn’t look like an ordinary citizen, with his long greasy hair. He certainly wasn’t a hippie or a pothead. He was…
Then it hit Max.
The prisons.
The man must have been an escaped prisoner. That would make perfect sense. He had that gaunt look that Max had come to expect from prisoners. He’d spent some time in years past volunteering at local prisons. He’d found it valuable and interesting for a time, but gradually had given it up. Over time, Max had found that the prisoners who didn’t know how to read, in large part, did not want to learn.
Max thought it through. The EMP must have damaged the prison’s security system. Max imagined that any good prison would have some kind of backup generator, but that would only last for a certain amount of time. Prisons were built for power outages, but they weren’t built for the end of civilization. There might have been a riot, a rebellion, or the guards might have simply abandoned the prison to tend to their own families. The doors might have simply automatically popped open, if they were electronically controlled, when the generator had stopped.
Getting Out: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller (The EMP Book 1) Page 20