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“Seems like one,” said Mandy. “It’s too bad about his friend… But are you worried at all about having two more mouths to feed?”

Max shrugged. “More labor too,” he said. “It’ll be OK. It’ll work out.”

“What’s going on with you, Max? You seem different. What’s on your mind?”

Max paused and so did Mandy. They were standing in the middle of a small clearing where the wild grasses blew gently in the breeze. The sun was coming up and already starting to warm the air and the earth, if only slightly.

“Nothing,” said Max, turning again to look at Mandy. “It’s just that…”

“What?”

“After everything we’ve been through, I finally don’t feel anything at all. After yesterday, I mean.”

“You’re in a state of shock,” said Mandy. “It’s normal.”

“No, it’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“I’ve lost the sense that everything’s going to work out.”

“You’ve lost your sense of hope?”

“No,” said Max, speaking the words with a sense of finality. “I haven’t lost that at all. I don’t know what’s going to happen. None of us do.”

“You mean with the mob? That they could come back?”

“I think that must have been the last of the big groups in this area,” said Max. “The rest will have starved by now. I can’t imagine how they’d managed to stay alive up until yesterday as it was.”

“So what are you getting at?”

Mandy looked at him with an expression of slight annoyance, as if she really wanted him to spit it out once and for all.

But it wasn’t as if Max knew much more than she did. He didn’t have a crystal ball, and he didn’t know what the future held. He could make guesses and he could plan. But there was no certainty in anything.

“You think we’re going to make it?” said Mandy, breaking the silence of her own unanswered question.

“Yeah,” said Max. “I think we’re going to make it.”

And it was the truth.

The two of them fell into silence as they gazed off into the woods. Spring wasn’t far away, and the new season would transform the landscape.

“You ever think of having kids?” said Max, breaking the silence and looking over at Mandy.

Mandy blushed and smiled at him.

“We’ve got to start rebuilding the world somehow,” said Max.

“I guess that’s about as much romance as I’m going to get from you.”

“You never know,” said Max. “Spring’s on the way, after all.”

“Come on, let’s get some coffee and get to work. Or Georgia will have our heads.”

Max put his arm around Mandy’s back and they walked side by side back towards the camp.

* * *

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About Ryan Westfield

Ryan Westfield is an author of post-apocalyptic survival thrillers. He’s always had an interest in “being prepared,” and spends time wondering what that really means. When he’s not writing and reading, he enjoys being outdoors.

Contact Ryan at ryanwestfieldauthor@gmail.com

Copyright

Copyright © 2018 by Ryan Westfield

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Any resemblance to real persons living or dead is purely coincidental. All characters and events are products of the author’s imagination.