Ryan Westfield - Surviving Chaos

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?”

Georgia 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.

“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?”