Ryan Westfield - Getting Out

Georgia shook her head. “I’ll carry the gun,” she said. “You’re going to be carrying supplies.”

James grumbled, but he did what she said, and he followed her into the McKinneys’ backyard.

“It’s so dark,” whispered James.

Georgia took out her flashlight. James had one too. But it was still dark. The lights from the flashlights were just thin pale beams fighting against the incredible darkness of a night without any power for miles and miles. For all Georgia knew, the whole country was like this. Without communication, there was no way to know.

“I don’t think anyone’s home,” whispered James.

“I know,” whispered Georgia. “Let’s not get into how you know their schedule.”

If it wasn’t so dark, Georgia was pretty sure that she’d be able to see him blushing.

The backyard had hedges that lined it. Georgia couldn’t see the pickup, and she was worried about Sadie, even though supposedly no one was in the area.

“Let’s make this quick,” whispered Georgia. “Just follow me. It’d be better if we don’t speak much.”

“Why? There’s no one here.”

“Shh,” whispered Georgia.

The house would be easy to break into. The kitchen faced the back, and there were huge windows that lined the wall, along with a sliding glass door.

Georgia peered inside. Sure enough, there wasn’t a spark of light. Not even a candle flickering far off. Likely, there wasn’t anyone home. She was friendly with the McKinneys, and she would have expected them to come over and ask what was going on with the power.

Georgia tried the sliding door without luck. It was locked.

They tried a window. That was locked too.

So she took the butt of her rifle and slammed it into the glass.

“Way to go, Mom,” whispered James. “Badass.”

“Shh,” said Georgia, as she stuck her hand carefully through the broken glass.

She lifted the window open.

“I’m going first,” she whispered.

It took some effort, but the window was large, and she could climb through it easily. The broken glass wasn’t a danger, since she’d simply slid the window open.

She shone her flashlight around, looking for signs of life. Nothing. She walked over to the sliding glass door and unlatched it, so that James could come in. She slid open the heavy door, and gestured for James to follow her.

But he didn’t move. He was standing frozen.

“James,” she hissed. “Come on.”

James didn’t respond. In fact, he didn’t move a muscle, not even when Georgia shone her flashlight beam directly on him. She put the beam on his face, and saw the expression of extreme fear there.

“Put the gun down slowly,” came a male voice. “Or your son is getting shot.”

“Mark?” said Georgia, surprised.

It was Mark McKinney, head of the household.

“I thought you were supposed to be at work.”

“Change of plans,” said Mark.

Georgia couldn’t see him. He was just a disembodied voice.

“So you came over to rob us,” said Mark McKinney.

“No,” said Georgia, keeping the gun in her hand. Mark didn’t have a flashlight, and he figured he wouldn’t be able to see her clearly, or see whether or not she’d put the gun down. He also didn’t seem too good at this: he’d told her to put the gun down, and then spoken to her anyway. “We came over to see if you were OK.”

“Lies,” said Mark. “I heard everything. I heard you talking in your truck. Like you said, it’s either your family or mine. And I’m not going to let you rob us. Now put the gun down like I said.”

Suddenly, Mark turned on a lantern that he’d had outside. The whole area became dimly illuminated.

He could see her and Georgia could see him.

He wore a grim expression on his face, and he pointed a .45 directly at James’s stomach.

“Let’s calm down,” said Georgia in a low voice.

“I’m not calming down until you drop that rifle.”

James didn’t move a muscle, but his eyes turned to Georgia. There was a pleading, terrified look to them.

“They’re coming!” screamed Mandy. “Go! Go! I thought you were going to go!”

“We can’t leave him,” said Max. He was looking at this guy who was supposedly named Chad.

“But they’re coming!”

Mandy was watching them in the rearview mirror. They were sprinting as fast as they could towards the car.

Chad was standing at the driver’s side window, panting, covered in sweat. He looked like a mess. His hair was matted and drenched. His employee golf shirt was ruffled, like he’d been grabbed.

Mandy didn’t understand what was going on. Max had been dead set on leaving them all behind and just going. Now the roles were reversed, and Mandy knew they needed to get out of there.

“Chad?” said Max. “Chad?”

But Chad didn’t respond. He didn’t say anything. He looked like he might have been in shock, or maybe on drugs. He had that glazed look on his face, like he didn’t really know what was going on.

Max opened his door and got out.

“What are you doing?” screamed Mandy.

The people rushing towards them were getting closer. Two of them had something in their hands, baseball bats, sticks, or rudimentary clubs. She couldn’t tell. But the way they were running terrified her. They’d already turned into animals.

Max had been right—they needed to leave .

“Come on, Chad,” said Max, grabbing his friend and shaking him. “Wake the hell up.”

Chad didn’t respond. He just gazed at Max vaguely. There wasn’t a spark of recognition on his face.

If there was anybody that should be left behind, thought Mandy, it was this guy Chad. What good would he do them? What purpose would he serve them?

Max opened the door to the backseat and started grabbing bags and supplies and throwing them onto the road.

“We need those!” screamed Mandy.

“He’s too big to put in the front seat with you,” yelled Max.

He slammed his body into the wall of supplies and stuff that was piled high in the backseat. He pushed his body against it, trying to cram everything into a tighter order so that it wouldn’t take up so much space.

“Come on, Chad, buddy,” said Max, trying to push the big man into the Jeep.

“They’re coming!”

The men weren’t far away at all. She could clearly see one waving a metal baseball bat wildly. His face looked insane—pure animalistic anger.

Mandy couldn’t believe it was all coming true. Society really was already falling into complete chaos.

“There you go, Chad,” said Max, slamming his weight against his big friend in the backseat. Finally, Chad was in. Max slammed the door and hopped into the driver’s seat quickly.

“Go!” shouted Mandy.

Max didn’t hesitate for a single second. He jammed the car into gear and they were off. He didn’t even bother closing his door. He simply let the acceleration of the car close the door for him.

The crazy men were only a few feet away. Mandy thought maybe one of them had touched the bumper.

She watched them in the mirror, disappearing as Max, Mandy, and Chad sped away.

Something hit the back of the car, making a small crack in the rear windshield.

“Someone threw a baseball bat,” said Max.

“Do you want to tell me what that was all about?” said Mandy, looking at Max. Now she looked at Chad in the backseat. Now that he was in the car, she could smell him. He stunk of potent weed mixed with sweat. It wasn’t a good smell. He stared blankly at the headrest in front of him. He was still panting.

“He’s an old friend,” said Max, not looking back at Chad. “He must be shocked. We barely got him away from those animals.”