Surviving Chaos

by Ryan Westfield

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you hear anything?”

  “No,” said Georgia, sounding frustrated at the situation. As Mandy had thought a thousand times, it must have been torturous for an active woman like Georgia to be stuck in the Bronco, recuperating. Georgia had been trying to convince Mandy for days now that she was well enough to move, but Mandy had been stern with her.

  In truth, though, Mandy simply didn’t know whether it was OK for Georgia to move. Georgia was getting a lot stronger. That was obvious. Maybe strong enough to walk. But Mandy had vague ideas about something going horribly wrong if Georgia moved. She knew it wasn’t a spinal injury, and maybe her fears didn’t make sense. But she’d stuck to them, perhaps in some kind of selfish fear that Georgia wouldn’t be able to move as she once had.

  “Max,” James was saying. “What happened? Are you OK?”

  James moved aside to give Max some breathing room.

  Mandy finally saw Max.

  He looked pale and weak, and much thinner than when he’d left.

  But he was alive. He was breathing. He looked up at her and a wry smile appeared on his lips.

  “I heard a gunshot,” he said. “What happened?”

  “That’s Max. Always right to business,” said Mandy. “We’re fine. What about you? Are you hurt?”

  Max shook his head, slowly rising to the sitting position.

  “That’s it,” said Georgia. “Damnit, I’m coming out to see what the hell’s going on.”

  “Mom!’ said Sadie, rushing over to the Bronco. “You can’t!”

  “I’ve been lying down for days,” said Georgia. “I deserve a little fresh air.”

  Mandy, meanwhile, didn’t take her eyes off the stranger. But she knew that she might soon become distracted, with so much going on. It was the most activity they’d seen at the camp in days. They’d spent most of their time simply sitting, trying not to burn up too many calories, fetching water, and hunting for more edible mushrooms, which had become their main food source.

  “Sadie,” said Mandy. “Help your mom. I know she’s determined to walk, and she’s not going to take no for an answer. We might as well help her. Max, are you definitely OK?”

  “Yeah,” said Max. “I must have passed out from hunger. I’ve barely eaten anything since I left.”

  Mandy nodded at him. “James, you’re going to keep your gun on this stranger here while I pat her down. OK?”

  “Got it,” said James, glancing over nervously at his mom, who Sadie was helping out of the Bronco.

  “Keep your eyes on her,” said Mandy. “Your mom’s going to be fine. Right, Georgia?”

  “I don’t need any help,” said Georgia gruffly. She was understandably more than a little grumpy from having spent so much time immobilized, frustrated, unable to help.

  “Sorry we couldn’t give you a more exciting welcome back,” said Mandy to Max.

  “Frankly, it’s embarrassing,” said Max. “The way I passed out like that.”

  “Could have happened to anyone. You’re not a superhero, you know.” Mandy turned to address the woman. “Now nod if you understand. I’m going to frisk you. Check you for weapons. Obviously one false move and my friend here is going to shoot you. Don’t be fooled by his youth. He’ll do what he needs to do. Right, James?”

  “Right,” said James, his eyes fixed steadily on the woman.

  Mandy had her doubts that James would be able to shoot only the stranger, should something happen. It was hard to shoot just one person when two people were rolling on the ground, fighting, for instance. But the main point was to scare the stranger.

  Mandy started with her backpack. She took it off her, and tossed it to the side.

  The main thing that Mandy noticed was that the woman stunk horribly. None of them smelled that great themselves. But they’d had the advantage of the shower back at the compound. And they’d been rinsing their clothes in the stream occasionally, since there hadn’t been much else useful to do.

  Mandy would go through the backpack later. Next, she pulled the woman’s filthy coat off, and started going through the pockets.

  “Nothing,” she muttered, moving on to the woman’s jean pockets. There was nothing there either.

  “Shit,” said Mandy, turning to Max. “I don’t know what the hell to do with her. I’m stumped. She won’t talk. She’s shell shocked or something.”

  Mandy noticed that now that Max was back, she was automatically deferring to his opinion.

  Max was slowly rising to his feet, unsteadily. “You know,” he said, “I’m not sure right now. What I do know is that I really need something to eat. I hope you haven’t run out of food here, too.”

  “James, why don’t you get him some mushrooms?”

  “Mushrooms?” said Max, his voice weak.

  “We didn’t find any deer. And it’s been hard to catch the squirrels. They don’t provide much meat anyway.”

  Max nodded.

  “You,” said Mandy, to the stranger. “Sit over there. I’m going to find something to tie you up with until we can figure out if you’re a threat or not. If you could speak, I suggest you do it, since otherwise it’s hard to figure out what your intentions are.”

  Mandy was being a little rough with the woman, but it was a frustrating situation. And, anyway, tying the woman up was a hell of a lot better than just shooting her. She probably wouldn’t have gotten such good treatment if she’d run across another group. If she’d run into people from Kara’s compound, she would have been imprisoned there forever, like they’d wanted to do to Mandy and the others.

  Max fished into his bag and got some rope, handing it to Mandy.

  “I’ll keep my gun on her,” said Max. “You just tie her up.”

  “Can you manage that?”

  Max laughed. “I passed out. I’ve been through worse. Let me do something useful.”

  Mandy nodded. She set about tying the woman up. The whole time, the woman didn’t speak. Mandy got her tied securely around a tree.

  If she really tried, the stranger could probably figure a way out of the rope. Given enough time, anything was possible. So they’d have to figure out something to do with her before they went to sleep. Even with someone watching, it was too much of a risk.

  James was over by the fire, and he called out to Max, telling him that the soup was ready.

  “Can’t wait,” said Max. “I’ve never been a big fan of mushrooms, but I swear I could eat anything now. Oh, by the way, I got the gas. Not much. But it’ll get us somewhere.”

  Mandy nodded.

  She didn’t know what to say. So she said nothing. Saying thank you simply wasn’t enough. Max had done so much for her, for all of them, that there was no way to repay him, to properly thank him. If it wasn’t for Max, Mandy would either be dead or living out the rest of her life locked away in that compound, existing in a purely nightmarish fate.

  “How you feeling, Georgia?” said Mandy.

  Georgia was leaning heavily on Sadie, and still leaning against the side of the Bronco. Pure determination was on her face, but there was also intense pain.

  “Perfectly fine,” said Georgia, through gritted teeth.

  “Your back hurt?”

  “Just a little.”

  “It’s like she can’t put weight on her legs,” said Sadie. “I don’t understand what that has to do with her back.”

  “Well, it’s like people who’ve thrown out their back,” said Mandy. “They can’t stand up.”

  In reality, Mandy didn’t know what she was talking about. She wasn’t a nurse. But it had sounded good, and she thought it might have the effect of putting Sadie slightly at ease about her mother.

  “Her body’s also weakened,” added Mandy. “But you’ll pull through, won’t you Georgia?”

  “I’m doing fine,” said Georgia, speaking the words with great effort.

  “Why don’t we get you something to eat, and you can try again after that?”

  Geo
rgia nodded. Mandy could tell she didn’t want to admit defeat, but that she knew she wasn’t capable of walking just yet. Her body was weak.

  Mandy went over to sit down next to Max by the fire. He had already just about finished his first bowl of mushroom soup. She and James had become quite good at hunting for the mushrooms. Now, they knew where the mushrooms tended to grow, and they’d found plenty.

  “Sorry we don’t have anything more filling,” said Mandy, eyeing Max’s bowl.

  Max shook his head, apparently indicating that it was enough. He didn’t stop chewing even for a moment.

  “I can’t believe you made it back. I was really worried about you. Did anything happen?”

  Max just shrugged.

  “So you got the gas?”

  Max nodded.

  “And did you figure out where we are?

  Max nodded.

  “OK,” said Mandy. “After you eat, and you’re feeling a little stronger, we’ll talk about where the hell we are. I’m assuming you figured something out that can help us locate our position on the maps?”

  Max nodded, finished chewing, and finally spoke. “I know where we are all right. Could you get me another serving, though?”

  Mandy glanced over at the tied-up stranger as she got up.

  “We’re going to have to figure out what to do with her,” Mandy said.

  Soon it would be night. If the woman had been traveling with others, they might come looking for her. If she’d been through something horrible, it might mean that there were others in the area, others who could do harm to Mandy and the others.

  15

  John

  “What do you want?”

  “I want my old life back, but that’s not going to happen.”

  “Let me rephrase that,” said John. “Why are you pointing a shotgun at us?”

  “I’ve got to be careful.”

  “I can understand that.”

  John was starting to get a read on the guy. He must have been a park ranger of some sort, judging by his uniform. And he didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would kill them out of malice.

  But out of necessity?

  Maybe.

  Given the right circumstances, everyone was capable of things they’d never even considered. John remembered what he’d seen back in the city, right after the EMP. Those images would never leave his mind, nor would the images of Lawrence and the others being murdered in front of him.

  “We’ll give you whatever you want,” said Cynthia. “You want food? Ammo? You can have it.”

  “No we won’t,” said John.

  Cynthia glanced over at John. “I don’t know if you noticed, but he’s got a gun pointed at us.”

  “Yeah,” said John, speaking slowly. “But if we give away our gear, we’re as good as dead. It’d be better if he just shot us here. It’d be better dying a slow death from hunger.”

  To John’s surprise, the man slowly lowered his shotgun.

  John and Cynthia glanced at each other.

  John did what he had to do. He reached for his handgun, drew it from its holster, and pointed it at the guy.

  “I don’t know why you lowered your gun, but that might have been a bad move on your part.”

  The guy looked shocked. “I thought you weren’t the sort of people who would hurt me. That’s why I lowered my shotgun. I thought you were good people.”

  “Because we were talking about you shooting us? Because we were talking about dying from starvation? What made you think we were good people?”

  “Because of the way you were talking to each other. Like you’re friends.”

  “Maybe we are good people,” said Cynthia. “Or at least decent people, trying to survive like everyone else. That doesn’t mean we’re going to risk getting shot. If you give us the opportunity, we’re going to defend ourselves as best we can.”

  She had her gun trained on the park ranger as well.

  The park ranger looked like he couldn’t believe what had happened.

  “Maybe it was dumb to lower your gun,” said John. “But now I want you to do something smart. Put the gun on the ground. Slowly. Then step away from it.”

  The park ranger did as he was told.

  “Never lower your gun,” said John. “Unless you’re sure of what you’re doing.”

  “Don’t kill me,” said the man. “Please, don’t kill me.”

  “Why shouldn’t we?”

  John had the feeling he was a good guy. A decent guy. Obviously, he hadn’t wanted to hurt John and Cynthia, since he’d lowered his gun far earlier than he should have.

  That didn’t mean he wouldn’t take precautions.

  “What’s your name?” said John.

  “Tom.”

  “Tom what?”

  “Tom McGlover.”

  “You have a family?”

  Tom shook his head.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m a park ranger.”

  Tom was practically shaking in fear.

  “Please don’t kill me.”

  “Just answer the questions. Tell us your story?”

  “I was at work when it happened.”

  “The EMP?”

  Tom nodded.

  “Then what?”

  “I couldn’t go anywhere.”

  “Why not?”

  “My truck didn’t work.”

  “It didn’t work?”

  “Yeah, how would you expect it to work after an EMP?”

  John shrugged. “The cars I’ve seen worked.”

  Tom gave him a suspicious look. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  Tom shrugged. “Well, all I know is mine didn’t work.”

  Cynthia glanced at John, but he didn’t know what she was thinking.

  “You look like you haven’t eaten anything,” said John.

  “I’m hungry all right.”

  “Hungry enough to kill us for our food?”

  Tom shook his head, looking horrified. “Of course not. I’ve been getting by. I know how to get food.”

  “It doesn’t look like it,” said Cynthia, glancing meaningfully at his thin frame.

  “I was skinny before.”

  “You think he’s a problem?” said Cynthia.

  John shook his head. “Nope. I don’t.”

  “Can we trust him?”

  “I don’t know. I guess we have to.”

  “We don’t have to do anything.”

  But John already knew which way his decision was heading. He already trusted Tom, whether or not he should have.

  The safest thing to do would have just been to kill him. Safest in the sense that he wouldn’t pose a threat.

  Of course, in those terms, Tom, alive, could also potentially help them. He could give them information. Tips and tricks. Ideas on edible plants. Ideas on which way to head.

  If he was a different sort of person, John could have just demanded all the information, and then killed him.

  John wasn’t like that.

  Maybe it was weakness. He didn’t know.

  “OK,” said John, moving over to pick up the shotgun that Tom had set down. “Any false moves, and you’re dead, got it?”

  Tom nodded.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “It’s not over yet,” said John, moving over and starting to frisk Tom while Cynthia kept her gun trained on him.

  “He’s clean,” said John.

  “I won’t try to hurt either of you,” said Tom, his voice raspy and weak. “Really, I won’t.”

  “Where have you been staying? In that building over there?”

  Tom shook his head. “No,” he said. “I mean, I was, before the trouble started.”

  “What trouble? The EMP?”

  “No, I mean the group that lives at that community, that compound.”

  John and Cynthia looked at each other.

  “So what happened?”

  “They started out fine. Just a group of people who�
��d gotten things prepared before the EMP. I asked to join them, when they came by, but they said I wasn’t a good fit. Not sure what they meant by that.”

  “I have an idea,” said John.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Turns out they’re looking for a specific kind of person.”

  “What kind?”

  “Female.”

  “Oh,” said Tom, still looking confused.

  John and Cynthia told Tom a brief version of what had happened to them. They left out some key details, like what had happened with Max. John didn’t want to give too much away, but he wasn’t quite sure why.

  Slowly, throughout the conversation, John and Cynthia lowered their guns. Tom had started to relax, and he seemed more and more like a good guy by the minute. He wasn’t overly boastful, in the way that Drew had been. He didn’t seem like a scammer, trying to sell them something, trying to trick them. He really just seemed like an honest guy.

  Tom told them a little bit about what it had been like to work as a park ranger here. For him, it had been the ideal job.

  But it turned out that Tom was far from a wilderness or outdoor expert. In fact, he’d spent most of his life working in a soap factory, before finally finishing the night school classes required and lucking out by getting the park ranger job just a few months ago.

  “So you’re pretty new at all this?”

  “Yeah,” said Tom.

  It was disappointing, but John was sure that Tom could help them in some way. He just wasn’t sure how yet.

  “So tell me more about the people who’d come by from the compound.”

  “Well, they were nice enough at first. Offered to trade things with me. But as the weeks went on, they got meaner. More demanding. More intense. I don’t know how to explain it. I’d gotten kind of friendly with one of them, knew him on a first name basis and everything, and I asked him what was happening. When the others weren’t around, he whispered to me that something was going on at the compound. He told me they were under orders to take what they needed and make no more trades. He didn’t seem happy about it.”

  “Let me guess,” said Cynthia. “Was the leader’s name Kara?”

  “That’s what he said,” said Tom.

  “And so you refused to give them something, and they gave you trouble?”