Pushing On

by Ryan Westfield

  John didn’t know what was going on, but he’d noticed that his own night vision was getting worse. Not that the others could see well either. But when they could see a little at night, he could see nothing at all. Just a curtain of blackness and nothing else. Maybe it was a vitamin deficiency, or maybe his eyes were just going bad. He didn’t know, and it wasn’t like he could hop on over to his general practitioner for a checkup.

  They were hiking along a trail that was wide enough to walk two abreast. Derek and Sara led the way, chatting as if they were on their honeymoon hike again.

  John and Cynthia walked about twenty feet back.

  “We’ve got to do something,” whispered John. “They’re not listening to anything we say. I don’t know what’s going to happen when we come across danger.”

  “But what can we do?” said Cynthia.

  “Maybe we should break off and let them go their own way.”

  “They’re better off with us, though.”

  “This isn’t a charity. We’ve got to get something out of this deal. It’s not our job to protect them. Plus, they’re just as much of a danger to us as they are to themselves.”

  “You really think it’s that bad?”

  “Yeah. It’s definitely that bad.”

  “Well, we can’t leave them anyway. They’re the ones who know where to go.”

  “Right.”

  John knew she was right.

  The only option John could think of was to figure out the path on their own. One way to go about that was to be open with Derek and Sara and simply explain things to them. That might not go over so well. But John didn’t want to have to be sneaky about it.

  “Doing OK back there?” called Derek, turning over his shoulder.

  He had a big smile on his face, like he was just out for another jaunt in the country with his lovely wife.

  John flashed him a smile and gave him a thumbs up.

  As Derek turned around, John’s smile fell off his face immediately. He fell deep in thought, ruminating on the possibilities.

  It was only about ten minutes later when they came across him. He was the first person they’d seen so far in their trip.

  He was outfitted like a hiker, wearing a big backpack. He was wearing those zip-away pants, and a thin button-down sports shirt. He even had one of those adventuring hats.

  He didn’t seem to have any weapons on him, except for a fixed blade in a leather sheath on his belt. It looked like a custom, but John wasn’t sure.

  Derek and Sara waved the guy down, and stood there chatting happily with him while John and Cynthia hid in the background.

  “You think he’s a danger?” said Cynthia, in a low voice. “He looks harmless enough.”

  “We can’t be too careful.”

  “He looks fine.”

  “Doesn’t mean anything. He could be anyone. He could be capable of doing anything.”

  “What if he’s thinking the same thing about us?”

  “I hope he is. It’ll make him more hesitant to try something.”

  From John’s perspective, the scene was simply too weird. The three others were chatting like they’d just met at the summit of a particularly difficult climb. They weren’t acting like the world had fallen apart.

  “Hey there,” said John, finally walking up and introducing himself.

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Drew.”

  “We were just talking about how Drew should join us,” piped up Sara. “He’s an experienced hiker. We thought it’d be good to have another member of the party.”

  Drew nodded enthusiastically.

  “And he knows a shortcut,” said Derek. “Up ahead, he says there’s a way to shave off a few miles.”

  “Close to five,” said Drew, flashing a grin.

  “I don’t know,” said John. “Can I talk to you for a second, Derek?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  John took Derek off to the side, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Drew.

  “Look,” said John. “We’ve got to be careful. We don’t know who this guy is.”

  “Come on, John. Enough of this paranoid crap. Just because the EMP happened, it doesn’t mean everyone’s turned into some evil enemy. I know you’ve been through a lot, but you’ve got to lighten up and recognize when people are willing to help you.”

  “I don’t like him,” said John.

  “Well, Sara and I do. I’m not going to fall into your way of looking at things. You’re too pessimistic.”

  John had things he could have said, but he didn’t say anything except, “Maybe Cynthia and I should head off on our own.”

  Derek nodded stiffly. “If that’s the way you want to do it. If you’re that paranoid.”

  “Look,” said John. “I’m sorry it’s ending this way. But it’s your choice, how careful you want to be. And it’s our choice, too.”

  Derek nodded. He didn’t say anything, but he had that look to his face, like he was getting angry. Very angry.

  “We’ve helped you out,” said John. “With the guns, with gear. You could help us out by giving us the maps you have. The trail maps.”

  “No way.”

  “You already know the trails. You don’t need the maps, but we do.”

  “That’s the breaks.”

  The tension was thick between them. John could feel it.

  “We’ve helped you out.”

  “Not really.”

  John knew that wasn’t true.

  He saw Derek’s hand forming into a fist. Derek was bigger than he was, and taller, and he wasn’t as worn out as John was. Derek and Sara had essentially had a leisurely walk since leaving the suburbs, and they were in shape and used to hiking. John, on the other hand, had to fight for his survival almost every inch of the way. He was tired and he knew it.

  John had to make a decision. Leave, without the maps. That was one option. Take the maps—by force. That was another. It involved his gun. And he didn’t want to do that. He wasn’t going to hurt Derek. Or Sara. They may have made him angry, and they may have been stupidly naïve, but they weren’t bad people.

  The other option was to keep going with them, keep an eye on this new guy Drew, and try to come up with a plan soon in order to break away from the group with Cynthia.

  “What’s going on, guys?” said Cynthia, coming up to them.

  “Nothing,” said John.

  “You guys coming then?” said Derek, looking at John expectantly.

  John nodded. “Yeah, let’s go. I hope this shortcut is good.”

  “Oh, it is,” said the new guy Drew, flashing his annoyingly wide smile at them all.

  The five of them started off again.

  Once again, John and Cynthia hung back, away from the others.

  “This is crazy,” whispered Cynthia. “Don’t you think so? This guy could be anyone. He could have stolen all that hiking stuff.”

  “I know. But we’re just going to follow them long enough to figure out a plan. Figure out a way to keep going on our own. If that means stealing the maps, then that’s what it’s going to be.”

  “Seriously? You don’t seem like that kind of person.”

  “Maybe you don’t know me that well. I’m not above stealing. He won’t give us the maps, or even tell us where to go. Derek wants us along for the added insurance. He knows we can shoot, and he can’t. He doesn’t want to get his own hands dirty.”

  They walked for another half hour, taking the new guy’s shortcut, which was a thin trail, barely maintained. It was overgrown enough that John had to keep pushing branches aside. As he walked, his hand stayed close to his gun in its holster at his side. He wasn’t going to be caught by surprise. He kept alert, his eyes constantly scanning.

  13

  Drew

  Drew had done it. He’d snagged a live group. It was like fishing. You had to wait and wait, and for a long time it seemed like no one would come along. And when they had come along, Drew wasn’t sure if they’d bite or not.

&
nbsp; He could barely believe it when they’d taken the bait. They’d bought his whole spiel about being an experienced hiker.

  It hadn’t been hard for Drew to fake it all. Faking was what he was good at. He could don a persona the way an actor does when auditioning for a big role.

  Before the EMP, Drew had been something of a con man. No, he’d never gone to jail. And it wasn’t that he’d never gotten caught. It was just that he was clever enough to keep all his schemes above-board, legally speaking.

  But that didn’t mean that there weren’t victims. Drew had drained more than his fair share of bank accounts, and all through legal means. In fact, before the EMP, he was just about getting ready to settle down and retire. He had enough in his offshore bank accounts, not to mention his safety deposit boxes and crypto-currency investments, that he could live comfortably abroad for the rest of his life. That was the magic of favorable exchange rates, not to mention hoodwinking people out of their life savings.

  He’d been ready to live like a king. He’d been ready to live the life that he felt he deserved.

  But the EMP had changed it all.

  Drew wasn’t dumb. He was deviously clever, able to read people and situations with ease. He knew, after the first week, that everything had come tumbling down. Much faster than expected.

  And that meant that all his hard work had amounted to exactly nothing. His money wasn’t even just a string of zeros in a computer bank somewhere. Those computers weren’t on, and they likely wouldn’t ever be again.

  He had nothing.

  Nothing except the skillset he’d spent his life honing.

  When he’d been in the business world, he’d always looked for the meanest, most ruthless guys to team up with. Sure, they wore suits and didn’t look vicious, but Drew knew well that appearances didn’t mean anything. Drew had been able to align his own skills with that of people just as vicious as him. And that was how he’d made the real money.

  So after the EMP, Drew quickly teamed up with the most vicious guys he could find. He knew that he could use their muscles and they could use his brain. He’d be the leader, and in that way he’d get what he wanted.

  And he didn’t want to just survive. That was just the foundation. Soon, he’d move his way up the ladder. Soon, he’d amass his own little fortune here in the post-EMP world.

  First, though, he needed the basics. And they were severely lacking in that.

  After making his way out of Philadelphia, he talked his way out of any problem he came to, and when he couldn’t do that, he resorted to cold-blooded violence.

  Drew had taken a car to an upstate penitentiary. There, he’d found the prisoners freed. The electronic security system had shut down, and the guards had all fled. The prisoners had had no option but to escape, unless they wanted to starve to death.

  Drew felt sympathetic towards them. He saw himself in them. After all, if he’d been born with a little less intelligence, he would have wound up there himself.

  Many of the prisoners had already left, but others hung around, not sure what to do. It’d been years, if not decades, since they’d been out in the real world. Many didn’t understand the consequences of the EMP, and many were confused. They spent their time milling around the outskirts of the defunct penitentiary, unsure of what to do.

  People who were unsure of what to do were the easiest to manipulate. That was what Drew had always found. And that instinct didn’t fail him. Soon, he had his little band of big, muscular, vicious guys.

  Unfortunately, things hadn’t gone exactly as Drew had planned. A powerful militia group had formed in the suburbs, recruiting many of the prisoners, and Drew and his group found themselves unwelcome unless they submitted to the authority of the new boss.

  So Drew and his group had moved north, with plans to build a community there, on the outskirts of the new “government” that was developing in the suburbs.

  The group of his four big guys was lying in wait along the trail.

  Drew was leading the men and women he’d met right to his muscle men.

  The group Drew had found was armed. But only somewhat. Only two of them had guns, at least visible guns.

  One of them looked like he might be a problem. He was suspicious of Drew. Drew knew how to sense that.

  But that wouldn’t be a problem. His guys would take care of them all.

  Drew’s guys, lying in wait, were getting hungry. It was only a matter of time before they got fed up with Drew. Drew knew he had to prove himself soon, or else risk losing his little group that he was going to do so much with. He was going to lead them to great heights.

  Drew was smiling to himself as the five of them walked along.

  Up ahead, Drew recognized a small boulder that marked the spot where his guys were lying in wait.

  “We’re making good progress,” called out Drew.

  “We’re lucky we found you,” said Derek.

  “No,” said Drew. “I’m lucky I found you.”

  14

  Mandy

  Max had been resistant to the idea, but in the end, he couldn’t say no.

  Mandy couldn’t believe their luck. Kara had driven ahead of them, leading the way for the Honda and the Bronco, taking them all the way into the heart of the compound.

  Kara, a beautiful woman who had a sort of elegance about her, gave them a tour of the community.

  Mandy almost cried for joy when she saw the showers. They were rigged up so that there was even hot water. Mandy didn’t listen to the explanation about how they’d gotten hot water without electricity. Probably it involved someone heating up the water over a fire. But she didn’t care. It was hot water, and she was already relishing the time she’d soon spend in the shower.

  It had been weeks since any of them had bathed, and while they’d all gotten used to the smell, Mandy could tell that Kara wasn’t used to it. She was polite about it, but whenever she got close to Mandy, Max, Georgia, or whoever else, she couldn’t help wrinkling her nose a little.

  Kara and the dozens of others had been living in relative comfort since the EMP. As they toured the compound, Kara gave them a rundown of the history of the place. Basically, some friends, years ago, had gotten together and planned this thing out. Word had gotten out, and people had joined up. Most everyone who lived there now had contributed something major to the facility.

  Since the community had been started before the EMP, they’d had the luxury of trips to Home Depot, of ordering supplies online, and also just simply stocking up on food and provisions.

  “There’s a fully functional medical facility,” said Kara, gesturing off to the right. “We even have a doctor. He was a surgeon before the EMP, and he’s highly qualified. Of course, he’s going to have to learn to get by without x-rays and other high-tech things from our now bygone era.”

  Kara spoke as if the pre-EMP world would certainly never return. It shocked Mandy a little bit. Sure, that was the way Max had always talked, but secretly Mandy had held out some hope that things would eventually go back to normal. She’d hoped that the government would eventually get its shit together and basically come in and save everyone. She’d hoped that it was merely Max’s own pessimism talking, but to hear it from a stranger, that was something different.

  “What about the defenses?” said Max, looking around the large compound.

  “Well,” said Kara. “As you can see, we have concrete walls around the entire property. All our food is grown within the walls, and there’s a registry for people coming and going. That way we can cut down on people sneaking in, should they find us. But as you can see, it’s a pretty hard place to find. We chose it to be out of the way.”

  “The guards are always there?” said Max, eyeing the rudimentary towers, manned by men with rifles.

  “Of course,” said Kara. “We’re serious here about security, if that’s what you’re worried about, Max.”

  Max didn’t say anything.

  “Let me show you the new crops,” said Kara,
pointing off to one of the fields.

  “This is awesome, Mom,” said Sadie, as they all moved to follow Kara.

  “It’s nice,” said Georgia, in a noncommittal way.

  “You don’t like it, Georgia?” whispered Mandy, so that Kara couldn’t hear her.

  “It’s nice,” repeated Georgia. “I just want to be cautious.”

  “What’s there to be cautious about? This is what we’ve been looking for.”

  Georgia didn’t answer. Instead, she looked behind them. “Where’s Chad?”

  “I’ll go get him,” said Mandy, spotting him. “Looks like he’s wandered over to that guard tower.”

  “Hurry back,” said Georgia. She sounded nervous, as if she didn’t want Mandy to get separated from the group.

  Mandy didn’t see the cause for concern, but she was anxious not to miss more of Kara’s tour, so she hurried off towards Chad.

  Mandy must have been in a good mood to go look for Chad herself, but that didn’t stop her from criticizing him when she found him.

  “Hey, idiot,” she said, tugging on Chad’s sleeve. “What the hell’s gotten into you? You can’t just go wandering off all the time.”

  “I’m fine,” said Chad.

  But he didn’t look fine. His eyes had a dead look to them, and his pupils were small and contracted.

  “Idiot,” muttered Mandy, pulling him towards the group on the other side of the compound. “I know you’re on something. You don’t fool me.”

  Chad didn’t say anything, but followed along dutifully.

  When they arrived to where the rest of the group was, Kara was patiently explaining the different plants they were growing.

  “These are potatoes,” she was saying. “They’re not too hard to grow, and they provide a lot of calories for the work that you put in. That’s the thing we think about the most—does the reward meet the required work? That’s the big question around here, and you’ll hear us talking about it a lot. We have a lot of mouths to feed, and we don’t want to be reliant on hunting, in case things change on the outside and it becomes too dangerous.”