James’ mind was panicking, and he couldn’t get himself to calm down. His thoughts were racing.
He didn’t want to tell his mother what had happened. He didn’t want the others to know, even though he knew he had to tell them. They’d all been through so much. This was just another blow, one that he, even though it was irrational, wanted to spare the others from.
“Let’s get a move on it, James!” called out Georgia, suddenly looking in his direction and seeing him just sitting there.
James knew it was time. He had to tell her. He took a deep breath and stood up.
Suddenly, a realization hit him.
There’d been a lot of food that’d been taken.
Too much for a single person.
So there were others out there. A group of them, and they were now well-fed.
The mob’s attack might not have been the worst of it.
3
Half a day earlier, hidden behind the trees, Max and Mandy had watched as their flipped over pickup truck had burned. They’d lost the majority of their gear, which had been packed away in the bed of the truck.
They’d been lucky to be alive. The men who’d burned the truck hadn’t gone looking for Max and Mandy. Max didn’t know why. And it didn’t matter.
They didn’t have much with them. Max had a water bottle that was half full. Nothing else in the way of food. All the pemmican had been in the truck. Max was furious with himself for not carrying some in his pocket. He should have known better, considering what he’d been through in the past.
There wasn’t any point in lamenting his past decisions, though. Not now. They needed to press on. They needed to keep going.
Max and Mandy had been walking for half a day. They’d been following a road that led north, according to their compass. It wasn’t one that they remembered from the maps. They kept off to the side, staying behind the cover of the trees when possible.
Max had his Glock with him. And a couple spare clips. He’d lost his rifle. He had his knife in its sheath, his compass, his Vostok watch, a fire starter and some alcohol-soaked cotton balls. He had some caffeine pills with him. Just a couple.
Mandy had her rifle, her handgun, and her Mora knife. That was about it.
They didn’t have any maps. They’d been burned up along with everything else.
“You doing OK?” said Max.
Mandy had stopped. She was breathing heavily. Her brow was sweaty despite the cool weather. Her hair was greasy and some of it stuck to her forehead.
“I’m fine,” said Mandy, having difficulty getting the words out since she was so out of breath.
“Let’s take a break,” said Max. “We’ve been going too fast.”
“No,” said Mandy, waving her hand at him. “I’m fine. Really. We’ve got to keep going.”
Max was having his own problems. His leg was still hurting intensely. Each new step seemed to make it worse. It was stiff and the muscles would occasionally spasm in rebellion against the work they were forced to do.
“You want me to carry the rifle?” said Max.
“It’s fine,” said Mandy. “I know your leg’s bothering you.”
Max hadn’t thought that anyone else could notice. But he supposed he must have been limping notably.
He knew he was better with a handgun than Mandy was. So he decided it’d be better if she had the rifle anyway.
Mandy had said she was fine to keep moving, but she gave no indication that she was ready to keep going. Instead, she remained in place, panting. Max decided to give her a couple minutes. He’d go when she was ready.
If something happened, if they had to fight, they had a better chance of surviving if they were as rested as possible.
It’d be a delicate balance. The faster they got back to camp, or found food, the less time they’d spend weak from near-starvation. But getting back quickly meant taking more risks.
Max didn’t know how long it would take to walk back to camp. He could guess, based on the speed they’d driven at to get here, but there were so many other variables that it wasn’t really worth it. A couple days, give or take, was the most likely, providing that they didn’t come across any unforeseen circumstances.
And Max was sure they’d come across unforeseen circumstances.
What he did know was that they’d need to find a source of food. They couldn’t make it all the way back on empty stomachs.
“Maybe we should try to find a vehicle,” said Mandy, breaking the silence of Max’s swirling thoughts.
“Too dangerous,” said Max. “You saw what happened when we were in the truck. It’s like being in a huge moving target. And for all we know, we were lucky. It could be worse on the way back.”
“You’re probably right,” said Mandy. “So what are we going to do? Where are we going to get food?”
“Well, it’s hard without really knowing where we are. We’re just going to have to do the best we can.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” said Max. “A house with some food in it. A convenience store that hasn’t been raided.”
“We have to find a more populated area first,” said Mandy. “There’s nothing along this highway, from what I can tell. And as you’re always telling me, a more populated area means more dangers.”
Max nodded. “I still don’t have a sense of what’s happened to the populated areas. But my guess is they’re less dangerous now than in the immediate aftermath of the EMP.”
“Sounds like more of a hope than a guess.”
“I don’t hope,” said Max. “That can get you killed.”
Mandy laughed.
It was good to see her face light up for a brief moment, the exhaustion seeming to fade away completely.
It hadn’t even been meant to be funny. Max had been completely serious.
But now he laughed too, laughed at the obstacles ahead that they faced, laughed at the apparent hopelessness of it all, at himself and his attitude and perseverance that had saved their lives too many times to count.
“Come on,” said Mandy. “Let’s go. I’m ready. Thanks for waiting for me.”
“Hey, I needed the break too,” said Max, even though it wasn’t completely true.
They set off, Mandy leading the way and Max taking up the rear.
He kept his eyes peeled as they walked, making sure to not get stuck looking only at the ground, as people tend to do when they get fatigued.
Mandy had lost some weight like the rest of them, but she still looked great. Her jeans were dirty and torn, but they still showed off her figure, and Max had to make sure he didn’t focus too much on her up ahead leading the way. It was certainly more of a magnet for his eyes than just the ground alone.
As they walked, the sky above grew cloudy as rain clouds blew in. The grayness didn’t last long before it started raining. It was a light rain, but they still got wet and eventually soaked as they continued on.
No one drove down the highway. The only sounds were of the rain and the occasional bird. Not to mention their own footsteps.
Max checked his watch. It read four thirty, the arrow-shaped hour hand pointing between the indices and glowing ever so slightly. The watch had an automatic movement, the kind that all watches had run off of before the invention of the quartz timepiece. It didn’t require electricity. But it also wasn’t as accurate as a quartz.
Max had regulated his watch himself, getting the daily accuracy rate as good as he could get it. But the watch still gained about five seconds per day. And that was back when he’d had a desk job in an office.
The timekeeping of automatic movements were sometimes affected by how wound up the mainspring of the watch was. And since the watch was charged by movement, a more vigorous lifestyle would keep the watch at a fuller charge.