Ryan Westfield - Surviving Chaos

“She already knows there are four of us. And it wouldn’t be hard to find our campsite, if we let her go. Not that I’m planning on letting her go.”

As Mandy said the words, she suddenly realized that she had a big problem on her hands. Deciding whether or not the woman was a threat, and what to do with her, was going to be difficult. Especially if she wasn’t going to talk.

“You two lead the way,” said Mandy. “I’ll follow with her.”

Mandy gestured to the woman. “Do you understand me?”

The woman nodded.

“Come on. Follow them. And remember, I’ll have this gun on you the whole time. You can probably tell I didn’t want to shoot you, but, believe me, I won’t hesitate to kill you if you make one false move. Keep your hands above your head at all times, or you get shot.”

Mandy figured she’d wait until they got back to camp to check the woman for weapons. Maybe part of her was hoping the woman would do something stupid and reach for a weapon. It would give Mandy a clear indication of what she was supposed to do. She felt horrible for thinking that thought. But that was the way things had become.

When they were in sight of the camp, James and Sadie stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s someone there.”

“Where?”

“Past the Bronco. Someone’s lying on the ground there.”

“A body?”

“I’ll go check,” said James.

“Be careful. It could be a trick.”

Two people showing up on the same day, at the same time? That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?

“Do you know anything about this?” said Mandy, to the woman.

The woman shook her head.

But there was no way to know if she was telling the truth.

Sadie, Mandy, and the stranger stayed at the edge of camp, while James moved cautiously ahead to investigate.

Mandy watched James, and at a certain point, he broke into a run, heading straight towards the body on the ground.

What was going on? What had made him run?

“It’s Max!” he called out.

Max? It couldn’t be.

Mandy’s heart started racing.

She couldn’t believe he was back. That was a shock enough itself.

But was he hurt?

Was he dead?

What had happened?

Did the stranger do something to him? Just when he’d gotten back?

Mandy couldn’t leave the stranger with Sadie. Or at least she didn’t think it was wise to do so.

So the only option was to move slowly forward, towards Max and James, with the stranger leading the way.

“Is he hurt?” called out Mandy.

“I don’t think so. He’s waking up.”

James was crouched down over Max, making it hard to see him.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, they’d crossed the relatively short distance to where Max was.

“Mandy? Is everything OK?” called out Georgia, from where she lay inside the Bronco.

“I don’t know yet. Are you OK, Georgia?”

“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.”