Ryan Westfield - Getting Out

“You still with us, Chad?” said Max.

“Still here,” muttered Chad. “Not feeling too good though…”

Max got up, leaving Chad in the mud, and started examining the Jeep.

“Looks bad,” he said. “I don’t think either one of these is going to run again.”

“That’s what I thought, too,” said Georgia. “How far away is the place you’re trying to get to?”

“Mandy’s been doing the directions,” said Max.

“We’re lost basically,” said Mandy. “At least until day and then maybe things will get clearer. Truth is, I’m so tired now, I can’t think straight, let alone try to figure out where we are…”

“Maybe about 50 miles,” said Max. “So on foot that would be something around 16 hours at max speed. With all this gear that we’re going to have to haul, it’ll be… who knows. A week, maybe? What about you?”

Georgia was surprised at how quickly the conversation had become normal. She knew now that Max and Mandy weren’t a threat. They were like her. They would hurt people, but only to defend themselves. They would only use violence if they themselves were attacked, only if it was necessary.

Georgia thought back to how she’d made two attempts to steal, once from her neighbors, and once from the three women she’d become insta-friends with. She felt guilty about it, and neither attempt had gone well. She had the feeling that Max was too good of a guy to do something like that, to steal for his own benefit.

“I don’t know,” said Georgia. “We were heading up to a hunting cabin…”

“We?” said Max. “Who’s we? Who else is with you?”

Georgia had been avoiding telling them that she had her kids, but the uneasiness she’d felt was gone now.

“I’ve got my two kids with me,” she said. She pointed her flashlight into the trees where James and Sadie were hiding. She called out their names loudly.

After a few moments, James and Sadie emerged from the woods and came down to join them. Everyone introduced themselves.

Georgia noticed how cold and hungry they looked. They were younger than she was, and in some ways stronger, but they didn’t have that mental toughness that adults gained with years and years of experience.

Maybe Georgia needed help. It would be a huge undertaking for her to bring James and Sadie on a long hike with pounds and pounds of gear. But could Max and Mandy help them? She didn’t know how…

“We’re going to have to hike it, definitely,” said Max, coming back from looking under the Jeep.

Everyone was completely soaked.

“What do you say we set up a little camp?” said Georgia. “And get something to eat? We’re not going to be able to carry all the food we’ve got, considering the other gear. And I imagine you might be just as hungry as we are.”

“Sounds good,” said Max. “Yeah, I feel like we’ve just been dealing with a constant string of obstacles since leaving. We’ve barely even had time to eat, let alone actually sit down and prepare a meal.”

Georgia agreed, and they spent some time out in the storm trying to figure out what to do.

They thought of eating in the cars, but with the airbags deployed, with the sides smashed in, and the windows cracked and much of the glass completely shattered, the cars weren’t the shelter that they’d been.

Max set to finding the perishable foods, some of which had already gone completely rotten and the rest of them went looking for a place among the trees that might provide some shelter. Normally, as Georgia knew, it was not good to be under trees when there was lightning. But they didn’t have much choice. It was either stay out in the open on the street, and be miserable, being lashed by the elements, or risk it under the trees. The risk was small enough that it seemed worth it.

They found a place next to an outcropping of rock, some sort of boulder that had been sheared away by the eons of time. A pine tree was behind it, and it sheltered them somewhat. The rain still fell on them, but it was blocked by the thick boughs.

Max had a small camping stove, and the heat from it and the light was welcome. There wasn’t much point in trying to start a fire, since it turned out that none of them were experts at camping skills.

While Georgia had spent a lot of time in the woods, it wasn’t like she’d been making camp fires in a downpour. She’d always had gear with her.

Some of the food had already gone rotten, but most of it was still edible. There were steaks that had come from Max’s freezer, apparently. They were now perfectly defrosted, and it seemed generous to Georgia that Max offered the first three steaks to Georgia and her kids.

The hot, seared meat tasted wonderful. They ate with their hands, like savages, like cave men in distant times. This was what the world was going to turn into—the savage lands where people ate like animals, the lands that once were. These lands would become again something resembling their distant glory, and their distant savageness. The rule of might would again become the rule of the land. The weak would perish, and for some the coming night would be nothing but a nightmare until a swift and painful end. But for others, it would be filled with glory and adventure. Modern life had cut everything off from its citizens—life was dull and filled with drudgery. In the modern world, there was no danger, not even a spark of it. There was nothing in the modern world to excite a man, or a woman, nothing except constant and mindless entertainment.

There was one thing that Georgia knew, and that was that she was going to be among the survivors. She and her children would survive. She wasn’t sure about Chad, who sat apart from them, muttering to himself and shivering constantly. But Max and Mandy—they were like Georgia. They were going to survive too.

“Did you see that?” said Mandy.

“What?”

“There was something out there…”

“Where?”

“Out there… eyes… it looked like eyes in the night…” Mandy sounded scared. She seemed like a reasonable woman, but it was possible that she frightened easily. She didn’t seem like the type who’d spent much time in the woods before.

“Probably just a raccoon or something,” said Max.

“Do raccoon eyes… glow?” said Mandy.

“I don’t know,” said Max. He looked at Georgia for an answer. She could barely see his face in the flickering light of the little camp stove flame.

“I’ve never hunted raccoon,” said Georgia.

“I think it was something else,” said Mandy. “I think it was another person.”

“Out there, now?”

Jeremy was hunched over on his couch. He was tired and cold. The storm was relentless, pounding his midsize respectable house. He’d thought that he’d heard a tree falling in the back yard, but he’d been too terrified to even go look out the window.

Something was not right. Everything was very, very wrong.

It had been a couple days since the power had gone out. Maybe a day and a half? Jeremy wasn’t sure. He didn’t have his computer or phone to look at to check, and his memory was tiring, just like his body.

Jeremy had been on a good career path. He’d been proud of his career. He’d bought his first house just a year ago, the house he was now in. It wasn’t fancy, but it was a good investment. Jeremy was proud that he’d done the right thing: gotten a job after college, worked his way up, saved his money. He’d bought things with credit cards to improve his credit score. He had money in the bank. He hadn’t gone out to drink with his buddies to save money for his house. He hadn’t gone golfing much to save money.

But despite his frugality, he’d made sure to spend money on the important things—expensive suits, for instance, so that he looked good when it became time for the promotions. He bought a good expensive mechanical watch, and then upgraded the band, because he’d read an article in a men’s magazine about how a watch was an important feature in making a good first impression in business.