Ryan Westfield - Pushing On

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.

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.

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.