But that was only his second priority. His first was not getting shot.
So he ran, heading in a straight line. The visibility was so bad that trying to zig-zag didn’t matter. He needed to put as much distance between himself and the enemy as possible.
It was hard to run in the snow, and he couldn’t see where he was doing.
But he ran and ran. He was already out of breath. His heart was pounding. He clutched his gun in his hand. It seemed it was the only thing standing between him and death.
Who were these people? Were they from the compound?
More shouting.
It seemed as if two people appeared in front of him suddenly. Of course, it was just because of the bad visibility.
They shouted at him.
James’s pulse was racing. Adrenaline coursed through him.
He raised his gun and pointed it at one of them.
How had they gotten in front of him? Had he accidentally run in a circle? Had he totally lost track of where he was?
The two figures in front of him had guns. But they didn’t raise them.
They looked familiar. Somehow.
James’s brain was a mess of chaos.
The two people were shouting at him. But he didn’t seem to register the words.
Something held him back from shooting, from pulling the trigger. A small part of his brain seemed to be telling him to hold off.
But why?
He’d die if he didn’t kill them first. He needed to shoot.
“James!” one of them was shouting.
The words of the two figures suddenly seemed to congeal. They suddenly started to make sense.
“James! It’s me, John. Max’s brother!”
“James! Come with us. What happened?”
James took a step closer, his gun still raised, his finger still on the trigger.
As he got closer, their faces came into better view.
Sure enough, it was John and Cynthia. The two newest members of the group.
There was no time to apologize for almost shooting them, though.
“Men with guns!” said James, not even able to catch his breath. He panted as he spoke the words.
“Where?”
“How many?”
“A lot. I shot one of them. No, two… Come on…”
“Camp’s this way,” said John, grabbing hold of James and pointing in a direction.
James peered in that direction, but he couldn’t see anything except snow.
“He’s badly shaken,” Cynthia was saying to John. Her voice sounded distant and strange to James.
“James, can you make it back with us?”
James managed to nod.
Snow must have gotten inside his clothes and shoes when he’d tripped and fallen. He was really freezing now, his body trying to warm itself up by shaking violently.
Cynthia grabbed James’s free hand, and started pulling him along.
“You two go first,” shouted John, above the noise of the wind. “I’ll follow.”
“I can make it on my own,” said James, pulling his hand away from Cynthia’s grasp. “You might need to use your gun.”
Cynthia nodded at him.
Cynthia led the way through the snow, her gun out and ready.
The three of them were weaving their way through the trees now. Mostly pines, completely covered in snow.
“You sure you know the way?” shouted James.
“John cut marks in the trees,” shouted Cynthia.
Sure enough, there were gashes in the trees, creating a path that led back to camp. The gashes were large and once James spotted one of them, he couldn’t stop seeing them.
“They’ll lead the enemies right back to camp!”
“They’re coming!” shouted John, from behind.
Cynthia and James spun around.
Sure enough, there was someone there. A tall figure, just his outline visible. Some sort of rifle in his hands. Just the outline of the rifle was visible.
James suspected it was a semi-automatic.
His mind seemed to be moving rapidly in a blur. Pure instinct took over.
James acted fast, before Cynthia did. He threw himself to the left, body-checking Cynthia with all his weight. They both fell to the ground.
John threw himself to the ground just in time.
The figure was firing. Bullets rained down around them, burying themselves into the snow.
John fired with his shotgun, from the ground.
The figure fell into the snow.
“Move!” shouted John, springing up from the ground.
Half of James’s mind wanted to go retrieve the gun. But there would be more of them.
James got up, and dragged Cynthia up along with him.
John was already there, urging them forward. “Move!” he shouted again.
The snow was still blowing in powerful gusts that almost knocked them down.
The three of them dashed forward, away from the corpse in the snow, sprinting towards camp.
But camp wasn’t going to be a safe haven. They’d been followed this far. There were more men out there. Heavily armed men. The slashes in the trees would lead them all right back to camp, right where James’s mother and sister were.
They’d have to fight. Like they never had before.
10
Georgia’s back was stiff and painful. The cold weather was only making her injury worse. Still, she was getting stronger. She was much better off than she’d been a week ago.
She’d tried not to let it show, but she was worried about James. Very worried.
Despite the tough exterior she’d put on, Sadie saw right through it.
“He’s going to be fine, Mom,” said Sadie.
“I know,” said Georgia.
She winced in pain as she stood there, the snow blowing around her.
“We’ve got to worry about ourselves right now,” said Georgia. “We’ve got to be prepared for anything.”
Georgia’s mind was racing. At the camp, it was only herself, her daughter, and the two new members of the group, Jake and Rose.
It wasn’t exactly the fighting force that Georgia would have liked it to be.
Sadie was getting more competent with her rifle.
But Jake and Rose were a completely different story. They’d never touched a gun in their lives. It boggled Georgia’s mind that they’d been willing, before the EMP, to travel around the country in their van, without so much as a single handgun stashed safely away for self-defense.
Hopefully they’d change their tune soon. After all, while it may have been foolish to travel as they had without weapons in a pre-EMP world, it was downright suicidal to do so after the EMP. The world was different now, and Georgia doubted whether it would ever go back to how it had been before.
But so far, they hadn’t shown much interest in learning about guns, even when Georgia had offered to show them when she’d been feeling energetic a few days ago.
Georgia wasn’t feeling energetic now. She felt terrible. But she wasn’t going to let that stop her.
“Get Jake and Rose,” she said to Sadie, who nodded and dashed off through the snow.
Georgia stood there with her rifle, peering into the blank whiteness of nothing that swirled around her.
Suddenly, she heard something. Or thought she did.
But she couldn’t see anything.
Then she heard it again.
Georgia got her rifle ready. Her finger was on the trigger. She positioned herself in the direction she thought the noise was coming from.
Nothing now. No noise.
Georgia glanced over her shoulder to see if Sadie had reappeared yet with Jake and Rose. No, she still wasn’t there. What was taking so long?
Suddenly, figures burst out of the snow, coming into view.
Georgia recognized James immediately, despite the snow.
“James!” shouted Georgia.