Ryan Westfield - Final Panic

Jessica and Rob described the body they’d seen in the house, and Aly recounted her story of what had happened to Jordan, how he’d been passed out drunk, and she’d done everything she could to save him.

No one was particularly upset about losing Jordan, least of all Aly. He hadn’t been good to anyone, and in his last moments, he’d decided to get drunk instead of protecting his niece like he should have been. It was almost a miracle that Aly had managed to get out of there alive.

It was also almost a miracle that nothing had happened to Jim and Aly after they’d passed out from exhaustion. They’d slept through the whole night in the RV with the door unlocked. No one had been watching. Neither of them would have been prepared for any kind of attack.

Jim didn’t waste any time feeling shame or embarrassment. He’d done everything he could. Sometimes things worked out that. He always did everything he could to prevent situations like that, but sometimes things simply didn’t work out the right way.

Somehow, before they knew it, an hour had passed, and they realized that they’d been sitting there talking with two dead bodies in the RV with them.

Jim and Jessica took it upon themselves to perform the grim task, dragging the bodies down the RV steps. They took them a little ways off the road and left them there. Burying them didn’t seem appropriate, considering the circumstances, and it would have taken a lot of manpower, not to mention calories. Calories that they couldn’t spare.

When they returned to the RV, Aly was going through the cupboards and handing things to Rob, all the while instructing him on how to prepare a breakfast.

“Just don’t go crazy,” advised Jim. “This food has got to last us a while.”

“But you managed to save the other stuff, right? The stuff that that fake cop guy, whatever his name was, stole?”

“Yeah,” said Jim, nodding. “But we’re going to have to go get it. After breakfast, I guess.”

“After breakfast?” said Jessica. “Why wait? We’re in an RV, after all. It’s a kitchen on wheels.”

They all laughed as much as their tired bodies would allow, and Jim used the keys he’d taken from the dead man, got into the driver’s seat, and started the engine.

“You know how to drive one of these things?” said Jessica.

“Not really.”

It turned out that it wasn’t that difficult. Then again, it wasn’t like there was any traffic.

Driving back around the lake in the RV was a lot easier than having to walk around it or having to swim across it.

As he drove, Rob was pouring out cereal, measuring out sugar, occasionally spilling things when they went over bumps. Aly was resting in a chair, observing and criticizing, and Jessica had taken it upon herself to review the entire RV to see what kind of supplies they had at their disposal.

“Lots of pills here,” she’d call out when she came across another stash of pills.

“Seems like that’s all they have.”

“Well, pretty much. There’s not much in the way of survival gear.”

“Hopefully no one’s stolen our stuff from where Jim stashed it.”

Jim ignored the chatter for the most part, and let his mind wander a little as he drove. He thought about what they would do next. It wasn’t just enough, after all, to have gear and supplies. Nor an RV.

No, they needed more than that. They needed a secure location. They needed to be strategic.

Maybe they could stay at the lake. But one couldn’t say that it had worked for them so far.

And now without a home, what reason did they have to stay at the lake? Sure, there were other empty houses that they could move into. But Jim found that now he had a different perspective on the post-EMP world. When it had happened, all he could think about was getting out of Rochester, getting far away.

Now he realized that there was more to it all than just getting out of the city. It was clear that the power wasn’t going to come back, and that society was just going to further disintegrate from here on out. They were in this for the long haul, and likely it’d be better to get even farther away.

“What’re you thinking about, Jim?” said Jessica, suddenly sliding herself into the passenger seat next to Jim.

“Where we’re headed next.”

“You’re thinking the same way I am, then. We can’t stay here.”

“I guess we could. But I don’t see a good reason to. And if we’re going to try to maximize our potential for survival, we’ve got to find a place where everything works out just right.”

“Stack the deck, you mean.”

“Yeah, if you want to use a card metaphor.”

“So where are we headed then?”

“Not sure yet.”

“How about Canada? Fewer people up there.”

“Too cold.”

“You’re from Rochester, aren’t you?”

“Born and raised.”

“And yet you’re afraid of a little cold?”

“Not afraid,” said Jim. “But the winter’s a different beast when you don’t have central heating. The idea is to find the perfect intersection of all the different variables. It’s not just about finding a place with fewer people. It’s about finding…”

“I get you,” said Jessica. “We need a place that’s easy to live at, yet no one else wants to go there.”

“It sounds impossible when you say it like that.”

“Yeah, it does.”

“We’ll do the best we can.”

“You really think we should leave?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe we should take a vote.”

Jim shook his head. “I’m going to get us out of this,” he said. “We’ll head to Pennsylvania.”

“Pennsylvania?”

Jim had simply opened his mouth and the words had come out, but now that he considered it, Pennsylvania wasn’t a bad option. It’d be a little warmer, and the northwestern part of the state was much less populated than the Eastern Seaboard.

“But why not go farther? Wyoming or something like that? We’ve got an RV. We can go as far as we want.”

“There isn’t much chance that we’ll be able to make it that far. Think about it, we need fuel for the RV. And fuel for us. If we drive across the country, we’ll be out in the open, not knowing where we are. Then we’ll be driven to do stupid things out of desperation, taking risks for gas and food. We’ll be sitting ducks, essentially.”

“Moving ducks, you mean,” said Jessica, apparently trying to make a joke.

“Targets, either way you look at it. Anyway, the shorter we keep our trip, the better off we’ll be.”

“But what about the owners of this RV? Didn’t they drive from across the country or something? They made it this far OK.”

“I don’t know if they were telling the truth. Look what they tried to do to my wife. And anyway, things are just going to get crazier from here on out. During the immediate aftermath of the EMP, a lot of people probably stayed put. Now they’ll be leaving their houses, and they’ll be desperate and hungry, ready to do anything to keep themselves and their families alive.”

“You’re saying they would have had an easier time of it when they were driving out?”

“Exactly. Who knows what things look like now.”

“You’re probably right. So, we go to Pennsylvania and then what? Find some abandoned house there?”

“Why get another house? We’ve already got one right here.”

“The RV?”

Jim nodded.

They were almost all the way around the lake, almost to the spot where Jim had hidden their gear and food.

“Stay in the RV?” said Jessica, sounding incredulous, and maybe a little annoyed. “Are you crazy? This thing is small. Ridiculously small.”

She was right. It might have been called a midsized RV. But really it was just a little larger than a large work van, the kind that plumbers used.