Ryan Westfield - Getting Out

Max checked his watch. Twenty minutes had gone by. It might already be too late. People surely would be realizing by now that it wasn’t just the power. They’d start panicking. Who knew what would happen next.

If there was one thing Max had learned in his hours of internet research, it was that no one really knew what was going to happen when the shit hit the fan.

It had hit, and it was about to splatter everywhere.

“What’s going on?” she said again. “What’s happening? Who were those men?”

Max took a good look at her. He hadn’t really gotten one earlier, with all the commotion.

The bodies were still on the floor, but strangely they didn’t affect Max in the slightest. He’d had his little episode of brief panic in the darkened stairwell after work, but he seemed to have gotten over it quickly enough. His mind was set on his mission, on achieving the objectives that he knew (or hoped) would be crucial to his survival.

She was an attractive woman in her twenties. She was thin, but had the kind of womanly figure that Max liked—a full figure, with hips, a good ass, a large chest. She had long dark hair that hung down her shoulders. A woman of the old style, nothing odd about her. No tattoos, no extravagant makeup. She looked fit and healthy.

Max sat down on the couch next to her.

“Listen,” he said. “There’s a lot going on.” He didn’t bother trying to make his voice soothing. There wasn’t time for that now, and he knew it. “Things have changed, and they might never go back to how they were before.”

“What are you talking about?” she said.

“It’s not just the power,” said Max. “Everything’s going to be gone. People are going to be… well, you saw how they acted.”

She didn’t seem to be catching his drift. “They’re animals,” she said, carefully avoiding looking at the corpses. “I can’t believe it… I just can’t… Shouldn’t we call the police or something?”

“The phones won’t work,” said Max. “Nothing works. And it might never work again. Listen, this is important. This could be the start of the breakdown of our modern society. One event like this… I think it must have been an EMP. If it was a coronal event or some kind of weapon… I have no way of knowing…”

“We’ve got to call the police!” she said, almost hysterical.

“Do you have food? Water? Do you have a firearm?” Max’s mind was jumping right to the practical. If he was going to leave her here, he wanted to know that she at least had a chance of surviving. She seemed like a nice girl. She didn’t deserve this. But then again, not many did. No one deserved to see their society come crumbling down around their feet while they starved to death and fought tooth and nail for the last morsel of food.

“What?” she said. “What are you talking about? You just shot two men… I mean, I know it was justified, but… aren’t you worried?”

“Worried?” said Max, momentarily confused. “Look, you’ve got to understand what’s happening, for your own safety. Unfortunately, there isn’t much time. There was some kind of EMP…”

“EMP?”

Max sighed.

But at least she’d stopped crying. And at least she was somewhat listening to him now. She seemed more ‘with it.’

Finally, Max had the bright idea of taking her into the kitchen, away from the bodies. They seemed to be bothering her much more than they bothered him, which wasn’t much at all.

Not that he’d ever seen a real dead body before. It wasn’t that unusual for someone to go their whole adult life without ever seeing a dead person. That was what modern society did, it took the normal things of life and sheltered everyone from them. Death was for morticians to deal with, for EMTs, for doctors, not for regular people. Everyone was sheltered, and that was going to come bite them in the ass.

“Look,” said Max. “What you need to know is that the power’s out, on all devices, and it’s not going to come back in. You can tell something’s different, right?”

She nodded.

Now she was listening. And she seemed to think Max knew what he was talking about, because she was listening very carefully.

“So what do we do?” she said.

Max didn’t say anything for a moment.

He wasn’t really thinking. He said it automatically. And as soon as he said it, he instantly regretted it.

“Come with me,” he said. “I have an old farmhouse… inherited. I’m getting out of here. People are going to become animals. You already saw it.”

Why was he trying to convince her to come with him? Was he crazy? She’d slow him down. He couldn’t bring everyone he met alone the way with him to safety. And he hadn’t even left his apartment building yet.

“Come with you?” she said, mulling the words over as she said them. There was that pensive look in her eyes.

“Yeah,” said Max. “I’m getting out of here. I mean, think about it. The shipping systems are gone. There isn’t going to be food. You saw those animals in there.” He gestured into the room with the two bodies.

She shuddered at the thought.

Damnit, thought Max to himself. Here he was, being too soft. Really, what good would she do him in the woods, out on the road? She couldn’t even stomach the sight of some bodies.

“There was a truck…” she said slowly.

“A truck?” said Max, confused.

Meanwhile, all he could think about was getting out of there and getting on the road.

But for some reason he stayed. He didn’t know why, and maybe he never would.

Maybe there was something about her. But this wasn’t a damn love story and Max knew it.

“Yeah,” she said. “Some kind of military truck. I saw it with Mrs. Kerns, you know the neighbor… It was huge, with this big gun on the back… it circled slowly around the parking lot. It was really eerie. And the weird thing… It didn’t have any US markings on it.”

“No markings on it?” said Max, worried. “Are you sure?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

Max pondered this for a moment.

“I saw a truck like that coming in,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure I saw US markings on it. I thought it was the army… I figured they’d been dispatched. What I think will happen is that the police and army will put up roadblocks pretty soon. They’ll start clamping down, imposing a curfew. But meanwhile, communications will never come for them. Supplies will never come. They’ll be confused just like the general population… It’ll devolve quickly after that. There’s only so long you can keep the chaos at bay, even for the military…”

“Shit,” muttered Mandy. “Shit, shit, shit….”

“What?” said Max.

“There are two guys dead in my living room… And you’re telling me the world is ending… I really should have gone to work today.”

She was freaking out.

Max looked at his watch. “Look,” he said. “I shouldn’t even be telling you to come with me. Here’s the deal. I’ve got to leave now. Are you coming with me or not?”

Mandy didn’t say anything for a moment. She seemed to be studying his face. Max had gotten this look before. He’d noticed that cops and people like that had a way of studying your face to tell whether or not you were full of shit. Mandy had that way of looking at him.

Maybe there was more to her than met the eye. She could be useful after all.

“OK,” she said.

“OK?”

“I’ll come.”

Max nodded. “OK,” he said. “Let’s get to work. What supplies do you have?”

“Supplies?”

“Food, candles, flashlights, knives, guns…”

She laughed nervously. “I’ve never even touched a gun,” she said.

Max groaned internally, but he pushed through it. This wasn’t the time for ideology. It was the time for being practical.