Rob twisted the key in the ignition.
The car started and Dan felt it start to speed away.
“What took you so long?” Dan managed to say.
“You know how these things go,” said Rob. “Packing for a trip always takes longer than you’d think.”
“It was my fault,” said Olivia. “I’m sorry, Dan.”
Dan wondered what she’d meant, but she didn’t elaborate, and he didn’t ask.
He was alive. That was what was important. No matter how bad his injuries were, they’d heal with time.
They drove in silence. Rob seemed to know the streets well, and he seemed comfortable taking the various turns.
The streets were narrow and the houses remained close together.
Dan looked out through the windows. He was sure that his eye was black, and he could feel the swelling already starting. But he could still see well enough.
There was no one out there. To be seen, at least. Those who were out there were in hiding.
In this area, at least, the battles were raging mostly behind closed doors. Those who remained were still fighting for their lives, but they were doing it mostly in private.
Dan remembered back to when he’d been holed up in his grandfather’s house, anxiously waiting for someone to break in, for something to happen.
Those who’d remained in their homes would be in the same position now. Only worse. Food was only getting scarcer. And people were only getting more desperate.
How would it end? What would be the final outcome to those who hadn’t fled?
No one was coming to help. That much was certain at this point.
And no new communities seemed to be developing. At least not here. Not yet.
Instead, it was just a further breakdown of society. More tears in the social fabric.
Violent tears.
“How you two doing?” said Rob, from the front.
“Not bad,” said Dan.
“Olivia?”
“I’m glad to get out of there, but do you really think we can get all the way to this campground?”
“Let’s hope so,” said Rob. “If this car will make it, then I think we have a good chance.”
“What if we run into someone?”
“We’ll just have to take it off the cuff, as they say.”
The three of them fell silent, and the drive continued. The houses grew further and further apart, and soon they were out on the open road.
Rob took them down back roads, rather than the highway. He seemed to know them well.
Night fell, and they drove on. Rob didn’t use the headlights unless it was absolutely necessary. It was better not to call too much attention to themselves.
Olivia fell asleep at some point, and her slight snores echoed through the noisy car. Rob pushed the car onward, driving as fast as he could without the lights.
Dan stayed awake the whole way. The pain, for one thing, didn’t let him go to sleep.
And his mind was active. If the camp was still there, if Max was still alive, what would his new life be like?
Maybe it’d be a new life, full of peace, free of worry. At least as free of worry as a post-EMP life could be.
22
“I can’t believe we’re almost back,” said Mandy. “I just can’t believe we’re here.”
Max nodded.
He agreed. It was strange to find themselves back on the hunting grounds. He almost couldn’t believe that they’d made it.
If it hadn’t been for Mandy’s unusually good sense of direction and memory for landmarks, Max didn’t think they would have gotten there. It wasn’t that he had a bad memory for those things, just that Mandy’s was superb.
“You think they missed us?” said Mandy.
“I just hope they’re still alive,” said Max.
“This was a lot easier driving out of than walking into,” said Mandy as they set off down the access road that they’d driven the pickup down not so long ago.
“I’m just happy we’re still walking.”
“Always the optimist.”
Max found himself smiling. A brief smile, but a smile nevertheless.
“Did I just see you smile?” said Mandy. “You got my joke?”
“Maybe I’m happy to be back.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say you were happy.”
“There hasn’t been much to be happy about.”
“Except for being able to walk. And not lying injured or dead in a ditch somewhere.”
“Sometimes I wonder how we even did it.”
“That makes two of us.”
It was a couple more hours of walking back to the camp.
“Well,” said Mandy, pausing. The van and the tent were in view. “Here we are.”
“Come on,” said Max, leading the way.
“I was waiting for you to say that we need to get to work,” said Mandy.
Max gave a tired laugh. “I think we both need a rest. We’ll start work tomorrow.”
It was early in the morning. Everyone would most likely be asleep, except for whoever was on guard duty.
But he didn’t see anyone. Maybe they were hiding. Maybe they’d found a new spot to watch from.
“Stop!” shouted someone, frantically. “Don’t take another step!”
Max and Mandy froze.
“James?” called out Mandy. “Is that you? It’s us.”
Sure enough, it was James. He emerged from behind a tree on the other side of camp. He carried a rifle, and looked thinner than when they’d left.
Mandy started to walk forward.
“Stop!” called out James again. “I’m serious!”
Mandy froze.
“I thought you’d be happy to see us!”
“There’s a trap,” called out James, walking towards them.
Max was already looking around. His eyes settled on the ground, where it looked like dead leaves had been rearranged to cover up something.
“A ditch?” said Max.
“Yeah,” said James.
“Good work,” said Max.
“Well, it’s not that deep. It’s harder to dig than we thought.”
“I thought you were bringing someone back with you,” said James.
“It didn’t work out,” said Max.
The reunion didn’t quite have the same tone that reunions did before the EMP, like when families would meet each other at the airport arrival gates.
Things remained subdued even as everyone woke up and came sleepily out of the van and the tent.
They were happy to see Max and Mandy, of course, but Max soon learned just how rough a time they’d had of it while they were gone.
There’d been a huge band of chaotic people, acting as a mob, that had attacked them not long ago. And then another smaller one just a couple days ago.
For some reason, the second mob had been scared off. But they were still out there, somewhere nearby in the woods.
Georgia was doing better, but she’d recently pushed herself too hard. She looked OK now to Max, but he could still see that something was hurting her. He recognized the look in her face when the injury was acting up. He knew it well, since his leg still bothered him.
They’d gone hungry. And only yesterday they’d made the dangerous trip past the gathering mob to the deer that Georgia had seen shot just a couple days ago. They’d managed to drag it back to camp.
“You wouldn’t still have some of that deer lying around, would you, by any chance?” said Mandy, trying to make a joke out of it.
“Sure,” said John. “You two must be starving.”
Half an hour later, they were all sitting around the smoldering campfire eating venison and drinking coffee with sugar.
Max and Mandy handed out a couple of the bags of chips that they still had left. They’d already drank all the soda, but some of the flavors weren’t to their likings, despite their hunger.