Ryan Westfield - Getting Out

So Georgia stayed twenty feet away. She thought that was safe enough, considering the circumstances.

“What are you doing here?” shouted Georgia.

Supposedly the man and women were named Max and Mandy. But they could be lying. Not that it mattered at all.

She studied the man’s face, as he squinted in the face of the bright light.

He didn’t look dangerous. He looked somewhat serious. But none of that meant anything. Not now.

“We’re…”

She could tell the man was hesitating. He didn’t want to give away what he was doing.

“Tell me,” said Georgia. “Or you’re dead.”

“We’re headed to a house,” said the man, supposedly named Max. “This is my friend Mandy… She was my neighbor. We knew we had to get out when the EMP happened. Our friend is in the car. He’s knocked out. And he’s going through… never mind. He’s injured. Not in good condition…”

Georgia had seen the headlights of Max’s vehicle earlier. They’d been coming right at them, and Georgia had wanted to avoid them, so she’d taken a turn off to the right.

She realized now what must have happened. It must have just been a small shortcut road that took them right back onto the main road. And when it did, she’d run right into their car, T-boning it.

For the first time in her life, Georgia had absolutely no idea what to do. And she couldn’t ask anyone. Her kids were, well, they were just kids. They were teenagers, and they might have thought of themselves as adults, but the truth was that they simply didn’t have that adult mindset, the mindset required to make difficult decisions.

Georgia studied the woman’s face. She looked kind, in a way. She looked trustworthy, and the man certainly didn’t look like any kind of criminal. But all her life Georgia had dealt with people who didn’t look like criminals, but had tried to screw her over on her pay, or undercut her in some devious way.

She couldn’t stand there forever, in the rain, swaying on her feet from exhaustion.

She went forward, risking it, and grabbed the gun from the man. He didn’t move a muscle.

She took the gun, identifying it as a Glock, and stuck it in her waistband carefully.

“Look,” said the man. “You’ve got the upper hand here… You can do what you want. But we’re just looking for the same thing you are… We’re trying to get out… Trying to survive.”

Georgia continued to study him.

The seconds seemed like hours. It felt like an eternity was passing slowly as she kept her gun trained on him.

Finally, the woman spoke.

“We’re tired and hungry,” she said. “We’ve been through so much already. We’re not looking to harm anyone. We stopped in a town, and they tied us up and knocked Max out. It turned out they were just scared. They didn’t want to hurt us, but they thought we were the enemy, without even knowing us. We ended up helping them, giving them some pain medication for a dying man who couldn’t get his dialysis.”

She paused.

“Keep going,” said Georgia. “I’m listening. Convince me that you’re not the enemy, because I don’t want you to be. I don’t want to have to… hurt you.”

“The world is descending into chaos,” said the woman named Mandy. “At least as far as we can tell that’s happening. Without communication, we don’t really know what’s happening out there. But before we got out here, we saw a mob descending on a store. They almost killed the man who’s passed out in the back of the Jeep. Max saved him, risking both our lives to do so. Society may be collapsing. Society may be dissolving. It’s going to be every man and woman against everyone else. Everyone for themselves. But that doesn’t mean that we have to act like that. We can help each other. We can share supplies, and… I think we’re lost. We need help, too, to be honest.”

Georgia made a snap decision. She hoped it wasn’t the wrong one.

“Are you hurt?” she said. “From the crash?”

“No,” said Max. “We’re OK, although we should check on Chad in the back seat.”

Georgia lowered her gun. She wasn’t sure how much they could see of her.

But they must have been able to see her enough, given the faint diffuse light from the headlights. They instantly relaxed their positions. Max slowly lowered his hands.

Georgia didn’t call out for James and Sadie. If something happened to her, she wanted them to be safe. She wanted them to have time to escape. Or for them to shoot and defend themselves.

Georgia walked towards them, her rifle lowered, pointed to the ground.

“I’m Georgia,” she said, extending her hand.

She hoped against hope that this wasn’t a mistake.

“Max,” said Max, shaking her hand.

No funny business. No secret attacks. He just shook her hand and that was it. He had a good, firm grip, and so did Georgia.

She shook Mandy’s hand next.

“Where are you two from?”

“Ardmore,” said Max.

“Me too,” said Mandy. “I’m his next door neighbor. Or was his next door neighbor, I guess.”

“I’m from Bryn Mawr,” said Georgia.

“Right down the street,” said Max, nodding.

“Let’s see how your friend is doing, OK?” said Georgia.

The walked around to the other vehicle, a Jeep.

Georgia tried to keep her eyes on Max and Mandy, to make sure they didn’t pull anything.

If they proved trustworthy, she would give Max the gun back. But there were so many things that could be weapons. Knives, sticks, flashlights, anything heavy. Georgia didn’t see the point of shaking them down, asking for weapons. Plus, she was past that stage. If she was going to do that, she should have done it already.

There was an overweight man passed out in the backseat of the wrecked Jeep.

Max crawled into the back seat to examine him, while Mandy and Georgia stood somewhat awkwardly outside in the rain, waiting.

Mandy was younger than Georgia, and had a good figure.

“He saved me, you know,” said Mandy, making what turned out to be something like small talk. “As soon as the power went out basically, two guys came and tried to… rape me. It was horrible. I didn’t even know Max, and he came busting in with his gun drawn and shot them both… They were so horrible. He’s always talking about how he has to look out for himself, but he always ends up helping someone. He saved Chad in the back, his old friend. Sorry, I’m kind of rambling on, I guess. I’m just still nervous… The crash really scared me. And we’ve been through a lot. I’m sure you have too. I don’t know what we’re going to do now. It looks like the Jeep is totaled.”

“Wow,” said Georgia. She couldn’t think of anything else to say. It was a lot to take in all at once.

“He’s OK,” said Max, who started to drag his overweight friend out of the car.

He got him down and his friend dropped heavily into the mud.

“He doesn’t need to be treated too gently,” said Max. “He’s an addict… It’s a long story, but it’s disgusting enough. We gave his pain pills away to someone who actually needed them. Not sure what to do with him.”

“What’s happening?” said the man.

“We had a car accident, Chad,” said Mandy. “Is your head OK?”

Chad lay in the mud. He was already covered in mud from head to toe. He looked completely disgusting. His hair was plastered with mud, long and unruly, covering part of his face. His clothes looked disgusting, like he’d been sweating through them before the rain. They were stained.

“Is he going to be all right?” said Georgia.

“I think so,” said Max. “Once he stops being such an asshole. He’s been giving us a hard time without his pills. He tried to attack me.”

Normally, this would have made Georgia worry for her own safety, but she’d dealt with addicts before. She knew how they behaved, and she knew how horrible it was for them to lose their drug of choice.