Surviving Chaos

by Ryan Westfield

“Something like that,” said Tom. “At first they just wanted some small things. You know, the batteries I had. Don’t know why they wanted them, since they didn’t work anyway. But I gave them to them. But then they’d be coming by more and more frequently, and pretty soon they’d cleaned me out of all the food. There was quite a bit of stuff stashed away in that little ranger station. The guy who worked before me, I think his name was Jerry, he’d stashed all sorts of snacks. Mostly unhealthy ones, but they were food. He died of a heart attack, actually, which is how I got the job.”

  “Got it,” said John, trying to keep Tom from going off track too much. “He had an eating problem. What did they do to you then?”

  “They got rough with me. Beat me up a little bit. I had to flee into the woods. I have a little camp out there, by a tree. I’m scared to go back to the ranger station. This way, I’ll know if they’re coming. They don’t know where I stay, so they can’t sneak up on me again.”

  “Why didn’t you move farther away?” said Cynthia. “Why didn’t you just leave the area, if you’re worried they’re coming back for you?”

  “Well,” said Tom. “Truth is I don’t really know my way around.”

  Cynthia laughed. “A park ranger who doesn’t know his way around the park. That’s rich.”

  “Hey,” said Tom. “I’m new here. I didn’t have a chance to learn it all. It’s a hell of a lot to learn.”

  “No need to get defensive,” said John. “So you didn’t go far. I got that. Have they come back yet?”

  Tom shook his head. “Nope. Not yet. But I’m waiting for them. That’s why I pointed the shotgun at you two. When they come back, I’ll be getting my revenge.”

  John nodded. “Understandable, I guess. Sounds like they’ve been tormenting you.”

  “For too long. A man can only put up with so much.”

  Suddenly, Kiki started barking.

  “Does she hear something?”

  “I think so. Kiki, what is it?”

  “You think she can answer you or something?” said Cynthia.

  “This isn’t exactly the best time for your sarcasm.”

  John’s gun was back in his hand, raised. His eyes darted around the woods, but he saw nothing except the trees, and the brown leaves on the ground.

  “You’d better take this back,” said John, taking Tom’s shotgun and handing it back to him. “Now why don’t you show us a place to hide around here?”

  Tom nodded. “They’re coming,” he said. “It must be them.”

  16

  Max

  “So you said the name was Antrim, right?”

  Max nodded. “That’s the name of the town.”

  Max felt foolish for passing out. If something had really happened, if his friends had really been in danger, he wouldn’t have been able to help. He would have been more a liability than anything else.

  He didn’t blame himself for passing out. It wasn’t a sign of weakness. It was just the way the human body, any human body, responded after what he’d put it through.

  What he was embarrassed about was not recognizing the signs in himself, thinking that he was completely invincible, that he could push himself on and on without fuel, without resting.

  Max, though, resolved to get a better handle on what he was capable of.

  Pushing yourself too far was sometimes even more dangerous than any other option. It could have disastrous consequences.

  Of course, sometimes there wasn’t any other option.

  It wasn’t like he’d had food he could have eaten. It wasn’t like he could have sat down and taken a break.

  “OK,” said Mandy, sitting down next to Max near the fire. “So I’ve pinpointed our location. We’re right here.”

  Max took a look at the map and nodded. “So the compound is in Ryerson Station State Park, then?”

  “That’s what it looks like. So the big question is, where do we head next?”

  “Well,” said Max. “We don’t have much fuel. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get more.”

  “You’re still thinking we should keep heading west?”

  Max shook his head. “I don’t think so. Georgia’s getting better, but she’s not strong yet. She needs rest. And we’ve seen how dangerous traveling can be. I think the thing to do is get somewhere and hunker down, somewhere where we can survive the winter.”

  “Why not right here? There’s hardly anyone out here. Our prisoner over there is the first person we’ve seen.”

  “There’s not enough food,” said Max. “I don’t know why, but there aren’t any deer here.”

  “We’ve got the mushrooms.”

  “I don’t know much about mycology,” said Max. “None of us do. We don’t know if they’ll be available in the winter. For all I know, they’re probably seasonal. Plus, it’s a bad idea to base our entire existence on one single wild food source. Plus, I don’t know if we can actually live solely on mushrooms. I doubt it.”

  “I don’t know,” said Mandy. “That field guide says they’re very nutritious. They have some protein.”

  “Probably not enough,” said Max. “As far as I know, the only plant a human can subsist entirely on is the potato, and there certainly aren’t any potatoes around here.”

  “You can really live on just potatoes?”

  “You were just telling me you thought we could live just on mushrooms.”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “You just wanted to be optimistic?” said Max.

  “I guess so,” said Mandy.

  “That’s not going to get us anywhere.”

  “I know, I know. We have to be realistic. Trust me, you’ve told me that enough times already.”

  Max shrugged.

  “Are you OK, Max?” said Mandy. “What happened to you when you were gone? You’re still looking totally spent.”

  “Long trip,” said Max. “Had to walk the whole way.”

  “Was it dangerous?”

  “About the usual.”

  Mandy sighed. “I knew you wouldn’t tell me anything.”

  “Let’s just say that we don’t want to end up in Antrim.”

  “OK, then where do we go?”

  “Did you ask Georgia about the deer here?”

  “Yeah, she said something about it not being the right habitat for them. The plants or something. I don’t know, she was pretty tired.”

  Mad nodded. “Well, here’s the radius that we might be able to travel in, in the Bronco with the amount of gas we have.” Max used his fingers as a make-shift bow compass that described a circle around their present location.

  “We can’t go that way,” said Mandy. “That takes us close to Pittsburgh.”

  “What about this? State Game Lands 179,” said Max.

  “Well, it sure sounds like there’d be deer. Or something to hunt, at least. It’s going to be all woods. I think we have a better chance of surviving out in the woods than in the suburbs, and certainly the cities.”

  “Suburbs, towns, and cities are out,” said Max. “At least until things calm down.”

  “You mean until they all kill each other off.”

  “Yeah. That’s the reality of the situation. The only thing about the State Game Lands is that it’ll be our only shot.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If we head there, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to get gas anywhere along the way. If it doesn’t work out there then we’re…”

  “Screwed?”

  “Basically. I doubt Georgia could make a long journey on foot.”

  “Well, I don’t think we have any better options.”

  “Nope,” said Max. “Doesn’t look that way.”

  “You think we can make it there on the amount of gas that we have?”

  “No,” said Max. “I doubt it. But we can make it most of the way there.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  “Walk, and hope that Georgia can make it.”

  “What about if we coast a lot of the way,
you know, try to conserve gas as much as possible?”

  “I was already figuring that in.”

  Mandy nodded.

  Max looked at her. The afternoon sun was glinting off her hair. Her face was getting more gaunt, as was his own, but in her eyes there was a spark of something. A spark of hope, of determination. She wasn’t going to give up, and neither was Max.

  “So when do we leave?” said Mandy.

  “Now,” said Max, standing up. “The longer we stay, the hungrier we’re going to get. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t really get full on those mushrooms. Although it was a lot better than nothing.”

  “I haven’t been full in days,” said Mandy. “But shouldn’t we wait until tomorrow? We’ll end up traveling at night.”

  “We’ll have the headlights,” said Max. “It’ll be better to go in the dark. Less of a chance of being seen.”

  “Not if we use the headlights.”

  “I mean if we have to walk.”

  “Oh. But now? Are you sure? Georgia’s not exactly doing great. She’s still really weak.”

  “We’ve got to keep going,” said Max. “We’ll rest when we get there. If it doesn’t work, we’ll need to find another place before winter really sets in. We’ve got limited time.”

  “I hate this,” said Mandy. “It always feels like we’re rushing against the clock.”

  “That’s because we are.”

  “OK, I’ll tell everyone.”

  “Got it. Let’s try to move out in an hour.”

  Max watched as Mandy walked off. Her hair hadn’t been washed, her clothes were ripped and torn and dirty. But as far as he was concerned, she’d never looked better. She’d changed, in the way they all had, becoming more independent, more resourceful. The challenges they’d faced had only strengthened their will to live, their will to push on and on, no matter what.

  Mandy hadn’t been like that from the beginning. Maybe the desire had been there, the seed of that type of personality. But it had taken the events to bring it all out of her and really let it flourish. Not to mention Max and Georgia’s influence on her.

  Georgia had been more like Max, before the EMP. In some ways, even more so. Max recognized that he himself had changed quite a bit since the EMP.

  It was as if, before the EMP, society had kept everyone hemmed in, performing their little functions. There were very obvious benefits to the society they had lived in, the one that had fallen. But there’d also been something wrong with it, a strain of sickness that ran through it. In Max’s opinion, a big part of that had been the way he and others had been hemmed in. They’d been told what to think, what to eat, and what to wear. None of it related to their real position in the world, their relation with nature and the elements.

  Real survival hadn’t been a concern.

  Max wasn’t blaming anyone. He didn’t know whose fault it was, if anyone’s at all. It was just what had happened.

  People had become more and more removed from the real world, to the point where simple tasks common a hundred years ago were so out of the reach of the average citizen that it was almost laughable.

  Many of those people would have a terrible time surviving. They not only didn’t have the gear and the food, but they didn’t have the skills either. Or the common sense. Or the drive.

  A lot of those people were dead already, reasoned Max.

  And none of this was accounting for the ugly side of human nature, the wicked and animalistic side that now reared its head, unhampered by rules or laws or common good.

  So there were two sides to it. Max saw that. He’d resented some of the restrictions placed on him in society, but at the same time, those same restrictions had had a purpose. To what end exactly, Max didn’t know.

  He was already tired, and he’d let his mind wander enough. He knew there wasn’t much point now philosophizing about this or that. The thing to do was to get ready.

  There was a long journey ahead of them.

  Georgia rested in the Bronco, shouting out things to her children, while Sadie, Mandy, and James got the campsite packed up as quickly as they could.

  Max set about pouring the gasoline from the pesticide container into the Ford Bronco.

  Somehow, the gas seemed to be much less than what he’d thought he’d had. But there really wasn’t any way to measure it other than by eyeballing it.

  “You think we have enough gas, Max?” said Georgia, from the inside of the Bronco, as Max held the plastic tube and poured.

  “I hope so.”

  “What am I going to do if we have to walk?”

  “You’ll be fine. I’ll make you some crutches.”

  “I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it on crutches.”

  Georgia spoke quietly now so that the others, probably particularly her children, couldn’t hear her. Max knew that she didn’t like to admit weakness. It was hard for her to do so, as it was for many.

  “If you can’t, we’ll make you a stretcher out of wood. Don’t worry, you’re coming with us no matter what.”

  “Thanks, Max,” said Georgia, in a quiet voice.

  “No need to thank me. You’d do the same for me.”

  “What are we going to do with the stranger?”

  “Take her with us. It’ll mean a little more weight in the car, but she’s pretty skinny.”

  “You think we can trust her?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Maybe we should leave her here.”

  “Maybe,” said Max. “But I get the sense that for whatever reason leaving her here would be the same as killing her.”

  “We can’t risk our own lives helping a stranger,” said Georgia.

  “Maybe you’re right,” said Max, pulling the plastic tubing out from the Bronco, and screwing the gas cap back on. “The real problem is that we don’t choose the situations we’re in.”

  The others came over, carrying various things. They started loading them into the Bronco.

  Max went over to see the stranger, who was still tied up.

  “You ready to talk?” said Max.

  She didn’t speak.

  “We’re taking a real risk bringing you along,” said Max. “That’s the plan, at least. Should we leave you here? We don’t want to take you against your will.”

  She didn’t open her mouth and she didn’t move.

  “This would be a good time to talk, if you’re going to,” said Max. “Frankly, I don’t get this whole not talking thing. You weren’t born like this, were you?”

  The woman shook her head no.

  “OK, so shake your head to indicate yes if you want to stay here.”

  The woman didn’t move.

  “So you want us to take you along?”

  The woman shook her head yes.

  “All right,” sighed Max. “Sooner or later, you’re going to have to talk to us, no matter what you’ve been through.”

  He undid the woman from the tree, but kept her hands tied. He helped her to the Bronco, which was just about loaded up.

  “We all set?” said Max.

  Everyone murmured yes.

  The mood of the group was grim and subdued. They’d left so many temporary homes at this point that it wasn’t a cause for excitement. Everyone knew very well that danger always seemed to lay in store for them when they hit the road.

  “I’ll drive,” said Max, getting into the driver’s seat.

  He cranked the engine and it turned over a few times before the engine roared to life.

  “Doesn’t sound good,” said Max, listening to the rumbling sounds of the rough engine. “But it’ll get us somewhere.”

  Max was able to drive right out of the woods through the path they’d cleared. They hit the road, and Max took the opposite direction from the one he’d headed down when he’d left about a week ago.

  They’d be heading south, hopefully reaching the game lands before tomorrow.

  Max drove at about 55, since he remembered that the best gas mileage c
ould be attained at that speed. He accelerated excruciatingly slowly, and tried to avoid hitting the brakes at all costs.

  They couldn’t waste a single ounce of gas.

  Since there weren’t any other cars, there wasn’t much need for the brakes anyway. There were hardly any stop signs out in this rural area, but the ones that were there Max simply blew through.

  Max put the Bronco in neutral at every chance he could, letting it coast along.

  On down hills, Max turned off the engine, to further save gas. When it came to the turns, the power steering was off. But it wasn’t that hard to steer when they were going fast enough, the momentum making turning the wheel manually easier.

  Everyone was quiet for the most part during the drive. Georgia had drifted off to sleep from exhaustion.

  James and Sadie seemed nervous, and while they were awake, they kept their thoughts to themselves.

  The stranger sat there, completely mute, never uttering so much as a sound. Which was about what they had come to expect from her. Her presence made Max nervous. They’d have to figure out what to do with her as soon as possible. Her appearance, out of nowhere, couldn’t have come at a worse time.

  Mandy and Max were the only ones who spoke. She consulted the map constantly as the darkness fell around them, trying to commit the entire thing to memory for when she could no longer read it.

  They drove all night. Max kept the headlights off when he could, but when he really couldn’t see, he had to turn them on.

  He flicked them on to head around a turn, leaning in with the wheel, and then flicked them off again.

  “Why don’t you just leave them on?” said Mandy.

  “I don’t want to announce our presence any more than I have to,” said Max.

  The engine was off, and they were coasting down a hill. Max liked having the engine off and the lights off. They could move without causing any noise, going completely undetected to their new home.

  Max just hoped there’d be food for them to hunt when they got there.

  They’d hit the bottom of the long hill. Max let the Bronco coast a little bit longer on the flats way before turning the key again to start the engine.

  The engine turned over, but nothing happened.

  “It’s not starting,” said Mandy.