Ryan Westfield - Getting Out

Sadie stepped out of the shadows. She was across from Georgia, at a right angle from where Mr. McKinney was pointing his gun.

Sadie held one of Georgia’s hunting rifles. She held it like she knew what she was doing. Her finger was inside the trigger guard, on the trigger.

Georgia looked at the gun, realized which one it was, and knew that it wasn’t loaded.

Georgia prayed silently to herself, to no one, to anything at all, that Sadie could pull this off. Mark McKinney seemed to be getting less stable by the minute. The more worried and the more anxious he got, the more likely he was to do something rash, and his gun was still pointed at James’s stomach.

“Drop the gun, Mark,” said Georgia.

“Drop it,” said Sadie.

Georgia was impressed. Sadie was holding the gun like a pro, and speaking like a pro. It must have been all the gunslinger movies she’d watched with Georgia when growing up. There were always standoffs in those movies, and the guy who won was usually the guy with the coolest demeanor, the guy who was the most relaxed and the most sure of himself and his abilities.

Sadie held the gun.

“OK,” said Mark McKinney. “I’m dropping it. But I want you off my property.”

“Whatever you want,” said Georgia.

He dropped the gun to the ground.

Georgia moved towards him and scooped it up. She put it in in the waistband of her jeans. It might be useful later. She had no intention of giving it back to him, not to the man who’d pointed a gun at her son’s stomach.

“Good work, Sadie,” said Georgia. “Now give me the gun.”

“Thank God,” said Sadie, handing the gun to Georgia. Sadie was visibly shaken as she handed the gun over. Her cool demeanor had vanished. You could see she didn’t like even touching the gun. “I don’t have any idea how to use it.”

“You did great,” said Georgia, knowing not to mention that it wasn’t loaded.

“A trick!” shouted Mark McKinney.

“Stay where you are,” said Georgia, pointing the rifle at him.

He looked her right in the eyes and he looked completely terrified.

“Where’s your family?” said Georgia. “Are they inside?”

Mark nodded.

“No one’s going to ask if I’m OK?” said James. “That nut job was going to shoot me.”

“Grow up, James,” said Georgia. “You’re fine. Now go into the shed and check for gas. We’re going to need extra gas if we’re going to make it up to the hunting cabin.”

“You’re going to rob me anyway!”

“We’ll leave your food and water,” said Georgia. She realized she might regret this decision later. But she couldn’t leave them here to die…

James was back a couple minutes later, holding his flashlight in his mouth. He had two cans of gas meant for a lawnmower, one in each hand.

“Let’s go,” she said to her kids. “And don’t move, Mark. I’m taking the gun. I don’t think you have the balls to shoot someone anyway.”

James loaded the gas cans, they all got in, and Georgia backed out of the driveway.

“Well that went well,” said Sadie sarcastically. “Looks like James should have done a better job being a perv and spying on Mrs. McKinney.”

“Shut up,” said James. “I’m the one who almost died.”

“He wasn’t going to shoot anyone,” said Georgia, but she wasn’t so sure she was speaking the truth.

Georgia drove slowly down the darkened street. The pitch black night seemed to swallow them up. The absence of light pollution was creepy. Not a single star shone in the sky. It was cloudy. The moon was gone, completely invisible.

“Mom,” said James. “I don’t get it. How are we going to get out of here? You heard the cop, the road is blocked off.”

Georgia didn’t say anything for a moment. “We’re just going to have to find another way.”

She was racking her brains for ideas. She couldn’t think of anything. How could they get out, if not for roads?

Then, an idea occurred to her.

It would be dangerous. It would be risky. It would be kind of crazy.

But there was a slight chance it might work.

And that just might save their lives.

Crazy ideas were just the kind of ideas she was looking for right now. The normal things wouldn’t work. Nothing was normal now, and it might never be again.

“Don’t go out there, Max,” said Mandy from the passenger seat.

“Yeah, man,” said Chad from the backseat. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“What other choice do we have?” said Max.

He had his hand on the door handle. He had a bad feeling about getting out of the Jeep.

But Max didn’t believe in permission. He believed in thinking rationally, logically. Not that he always managed it all the time. But who could?

“I’ll come with you,” said Mandy.

“Shit, then I’m coming too,” said Chad.

Max didn’t need to think about it much.

“Mandy, you come with me. Take the flashlight from the glove box. Chad, you stay here.”

“Aw, man,” said Chad.

“You’re too high to be useful,” said Max. Even though Chad was an old friend, Max didn’t have any problem speaking to him directly, even if it was harsh. This wasn’t the time to consider how people felt about things.

Max opened the door to the Jeep and got out. He left it running in case they had to make a quick escape. Not that they could get far on a busted tire.

“Maybe we should drive farther down,” whispered Mandy, appearing next to him in the darkness.

They both turned their flashlights on. They were high power LED flashlights, but the brighter they were set to, the faster the battery would die. And there was no way to recharge them now. Max needed to conserve the batteries. He had his on the second to lowest setting, and showed Mandy how to do the same.

“Maybe you’re right,” muttered Max. “But the farther we go, the greater the risk of damaging the wheel.”

He and Mandy shone their lights around the area.

“You see anything?” said Mandy

“Nope,” said Max. “I think we’re OK.”

He had to dig around in the back for a while to get out the jack and the wrench. There was so much gear covering everything that it took a little while. Fortunately, the spare tire was easily accessible on the back of the car.

Max hated to change a tire out so early. They had many miles to go, and that was the only spare tire. Yet another chink in his armor, yet another problem with his plans, yet another thing that he hadn’t planned like he should have. He’d thought he was prepared. Maybe he was doing better than some others, but it wasn’t good enough. He did have some of that chemical aerosol goop that you could spray into a tire, but Max didn’t like the idea of that. And it might be possible in the future to patch the tire, but Max only know how that would work in theory. He’d never actually done it before.

At some point, Max realized it might be good to turn the car off. There didn’t seem to be anyone there, anyway. And with a wheel off, it wasn’t like having the engine on would help them get away any faster. So he killed the engine.

“How’s it going out there?” said Chad.

“Shut up, Chad,” said Max.

Chad shut up, and Max got out of the car again and started to work. He loosened the bolts, got the jack set up, and then got the spare tire on.

Mandy stood guard, surveying the area carefully with her flashlight’s long beam. Anyway, for now, it was good that she kept the light turned on. Max was still a little worried that there might be someone out there.

While Max worked, his thoughts turned to Chad. How strange was it that he’d run into Chad there, in a situation like that? He hadn’t seen Chad in how many years? He couldn’t even remember in this moment. But his mind felt frazzled. He’d been awake for a long time, and his body was starting to crave sleep. But there were many hours and miles to go. He didn’t totally trust Mandy behind the wheel, given the unknowns in the situation. And he definitely didn’t trust Chad.