Ryan Westfield - Getting Out

Max studied him. He knew that sober Chad was a completely different person than high Chad.

“It’ll be good to have you along,” he said. “But it’s going to be a lot of work. We’re going to have to fight for our survival once we get there.”

Chad nodded. “I’m ready for that,” he said. “A fresh start is what I need… Could be the best rehabilitation program ever, really.”

Max chuckled a little. “We all need a fresh start,” he said. “We’ve been living hollow lives for too long, hollow little lives borrowed on credit. We knew deep inside that this day would come…”

Chad nodded slowly.

“So what’s with you and Mandy,” he said. “She’s your girlfriend or something?”

“Wow, you must have been really out of it,” said Max. “No, she was my neighbor. I’d seen her before, but we’d never spoken. I ended up shooting some guys who were trying to rape her. I would have thought that would have been the kind of thing you would have remembered, Chad.”

“Well, I was pretty out of it,” said Chad. “If I’m good at one thing, it’s getting high, really really high, and staying high.”

“You’re strong,” said Max. “You don’t realize it yet, but under that layer of fat you’ve been carrying about for years, there are muscles that want to work, muscles that want to work hard to eke out a living on the land.”

Chad laughed vaguely. “We’ll see about that,” he said. “I can only promise one thing, and that’s that I’ll try.”

“Good,” said Max. “Let’s go wake up the others. We’ve got to get some food and then hit the trail as soon as we can.”

“So the new people are coming with us?” said Chad. “How’s that going to work?”

Max shook his head. “Georgia said she’s taking her kids to some hunting cabin,” he said. “I don’t know where it is, but I imagine we’ll be parting ways today.”

Chad nodded.

Max and Chad made their way back to the campsite, where everyone was slowly waking up.

Mandy was the most awake, and she already had the stove going, preparing some instant coffee as well as two dozen eggs. “I thought they’d just go bad anyway,” she said.

“You’re right,” said Max. “We’ve got to start eating the perishable food as soon as we can. There’s no point in waiting. And we’ve got to remember to eat. We’ve gone too long strung out on hunger. It makes us create errors and problems. We’ve got to stay well rested and well fed, at least as much as possible, from here on out.”

“That sounds nice,” said Mandy. “That was the first time I’ve slept properly since leaving. Oh, and I’ve looked at the maps already.”

Max nodded. He was pleased that she was so useful, and taking so much initiative. It was good that he’d brought her along. He thought back to the time when he was considering whether or not to enter her apartment. Now, he was glad that he’d done it. At the time, it had felt like a terrible, terrible decision.

Mandy served the eggs to everyone. There weren’t any plates, so some ate the eggs off of pages of the atlas map, doing their best to keep the paper flat like a plate.

Max simply took the scrambled eggs in his cupped hands and ate them quickly. He sat on a rock, slightly apart from everyone else, watching them, and considering what would lie in store for them in the days ahead. This was a turning point, with the loss of the Jeep. But maybe it was good. The Jeep had to go sooner or later, considering the gas situation. And it had been a mental crutch for Max, a piece of his old life that he hadn’t wanted to give up. Better to get it over with in a single crash, like pulling a bandage quickly off of a painful wound.

Mandy and Georgia were huddled over the maps, discussing their routes.

Chad was off on his own, a serious expression on his face.

Georgia’s children, James and Sadie, were sitting by their mother.

From where he sat, Max could hear the conversation.

“So I think I know where we are now,” said Mandy. “And it looks like your hunting cabin is on the way to where we’re headed.”

Georgia grinned. “What do you say, Max?” she called out. “Are we coming with you, or are we just going to slow you down?”

“Better if we all go together,” said Max.

Now that they knew where they were headed, and it had been decided that everyone would go together until they reached the hunting cabin, they spent most of their time sorting through all the gear and food.

It was a big job, because in both vehicles, everything had been stuffed together in a very haphazard manner.

Max was dismayed to realize what he’d thrown out when he’d picked up Chad, to make room for him. It had been some food, but that wasn’t the worst of it. He’d inadvertently thrown out a bag full of ammunition, a bag full of medical supplies, and other odds and ends that he’d thought would be useful for surviving.

They had enough food for the hike and even after that. Even though there were a lot of them, the food was plentiful. Georgia had brought along a lot of food as well. For the most part, the parties kept their gear separate from one another. Georgia and her children carried most of their belongings, and Max, Mandy, and Chad carried their own things.

It turned out that Chad’s big frame could carry a huge amount. Of course, he would tire easily, because of his own extra weight that he was carrying, all those pounds of fat. Max warned him of this, and cautioned him to carry less gear. But Chad seemed determined to “pull his weight” among the group as it were, and he loaded himself with many extra things that might be useful.

Max lent Georgia and her children extra hiking backpacks. So they each had a large hiking backpack with gear strapped all over it.

Max carried a lot of weight himself. To repay him for loaning her the packs, Georgia lent Max’s party a rifle.

Initially, Georgia offered the gun to Mandy, but Mandy said she didn’t know how to use it.

“I’ll take it,” Max had said. He was familiar with rifles as well as handguns, even though he didn’t have his own. It was, by his own admission, a huge oversight in his planning.

In the end, Georgia had enough rifles for everyone. She didn’t want to leave them behind in her SUV, so despite Mandy’s protests, Georgia lent her one, as well as Chad. Georgia’s own children carried rifles, although it was clear that while her son knew how to use one, her daughter, Sadie held the gun awkwardly and at a great distance from herself, as if she was nervous of it.

So they looked like a very strange group of hikers, each with a gun.

But they were ready, and as they walked away from the cars, Max felt a sort of relief washing over him. Gone were the days of clinging to the past, to automobiles and machines.

It wasn’t as if Max was a Luddite. In fact, he appreciated technology and what it had done for his own life. It had made him comfortable. But he was practical, and he’d always understood the limitations of technology.

Mandy led the way, and Georgia walked beside her through the woods. Mandy knew the route, and was good with maps. She held a compass as she walked, and consulted it frequently.

Without Mandy, Max didn’t know what would have happened to him. Maybe he would have gotten lost. Maybe he would have tried to fight his way out of situations that couldn’t be fought out of. If he’d run into those villagers earlier, maybe he would have engaged them in a firefight where he would have been clearly outnumbered. He would have died. Or maybe he never would have even reached that little town… He didn’t know, and he put the thoughts aside, realizing that there was no point now in speculating about what could have happened. All he knew was that he was grateful for Mandy. And in the future, maybe he would be grateful for having Chad along.