Max and Chad…
John couldn’t believe it.
Max and Chad. In Pennsylvania. There was no way it wasn’t his brother and his childhood friend.
“Cat got your tongue or something?” said Dale.
Cynthia was staring at him. “You think that’s your brother? Wasn’t he named Max?”
“It’s definitely my brother,” said John. “I know Chad, too. No idea what he’s doing with Max… but… he’s alive.”
“That’s your brother?” said Dale.
John nodded.
He felt, for the first time in a while, that there was some hope for himself and Cynthia. He didn’t know why the news of Max gave him hope, but it did.
“Too bad we don’t know where he is,” said Cynthia.
“You don’t know where the other community is, do you?” said John, looking at Dale.
Dale shook his head. “Nope, nobody does. But I could hazard a guess.”
“A guess?”
“Well, there aren’t too many spots where I’d make one if I was the type to start up a community. If I wasn’t such a solitary guy, you know. And there were rumors for a few years of one… people were setting something up, some group… I forget off the top of my head.”
“Do you have it written down or anything? Or on a map?”
Dale laughed. “Nope. I’ve never been one to keep things on paper. Everything’s up here.” He tapped his head with his knuckles. “Except for when I forget it.”
John didn’t know what to say. For a brief moment, it had seemed like he might be able to find Max. Now that hope was dashed.
“How’d you hear those rumors?” said Cynthia.
“Oh, a friend in town,” said Dale. “Haven’t seen him since the EMP. But he’d probably still know, if he’s still alive.”
Cynthia and John looked at each other.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I think so.”
“You really want to find your brother?” said Dale.
John nodded.
“From what John tells me,” said Cynthia, “he’d be a big help to our survival.”
“Yeah,” muttered John. “But that was back when we thought he was at the farmhouse… Now, I don’t know…”
“I think we should try to find him,” said Cynthia.
“You think so?”
“Hell,” said Dale. “If I had a brother, and knew he was alive, I’d try to find him, even if he knew shit about surviving.”
John made the decision in an instant. “All right,” he said. “We’ll do it. At the very least, if we can find this community, maybe it’s a place we could fit into. Even if Max isn’t still there. You in, Cynthia?”
Cynthia nodded.
“OK,” said John. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a plan. For now, at least.”
“Stay for another day,” said Dale. “I’ll get you two well fed, and get some extra food ready for you to take.”
“You’ve done enough already,” said Cynthia.
Dale smiled. “I’ve got plenty,” he said. “And I want to help. So the wise thing to do would be to take what I give you.”
“Can’t argue with that, I guess.”
“You know what,” said Dale. “Maybe I’ll come with you two. Just to the town, that is. I’ll introduce you to Harry. He can be a cranky old geezer, but he sure as hell always knows what’s going on. Has his ear to the ground, so to speak.”
Cynthia looked at John, probably expecting him to decline.
“That’d be great,” said John, knowing that Dale would be a good man to have along.
32
Max and Mandy stood on the outskirts of the little campsite. It’d been a week since they’d gotten here, and in a strange way it had started to feel like home.
Max and Mandy spoke in quiet, hushed voices. They stood close together, both facing the campsite. They were dirty, tired, and hungry.
It was early morning, and Sadie and James’s snores could be heard from the Bronco.
“How’s Georgia doing today?” said Max.
“About the same. She’s going to live. And she’ll be able to walk and move. But it’s going to take a while. She needs time.”
“I guess that’s good.”
“She’s not getting worse. That’s a good sign. The antibiotics helped. No infection, from what I can tell. The fever’s been gone for three days. You did a good job getting the bullet out.”
“I hope so. All that reading I did before the EMP paid off.”
“It’s going to be a lot longer before she’s able to walk.”
“I know. Maybe weeks.”
“Maybe more,” said Mandy.
“She’s not going to get any better without food.”
“We’re running low…”
“You don’t need to tell me that.”
There was practically no food left. Fortunately, a small creek ran nearby, and they had enough water.
Max had set up some traps, like the ones Jeff had shown him. He’d caught a couple squirrels, but nothing bigger than that. And squirrels didn’t provide a lot of meat.
“Still no sign of any deer?”
Max shook his head. “Not unless you’ve seen any.”
“Nope, nothing.”
“We only have the handguns to hunt with anyway, and ammo is low.”
Mandy nodded. “What are we going to do?”
“I’ve been thinking,” said Max, “that the best thing is if I go find some gas.”
“You? Alone?”
Max nodded. “They need you here. You’re the only functional adult now. You’ll be able to catch more squirrels in the traps. Without me, it’ll be one less mouth to feed. You’ll be fine until I get back.”
“I don’t like the idea of you going alone, though. And why now? It doesn’t seem like we should leave yet. There haven’t been any cars that have come by. It doesn’t seem like they’re looking for us.”
“It might take me a while,” said Max. “Who knows where I’ll be able to find gas, and how long it’ll take me to get there and back. Once Georgia’s ready, we need to be ready to go. We’ll need the gas. We can’t stay here any longer than we have to. We’re too close to the compound, and food is scarce.”
“You mean it might take you days?”
“Hopefully. Maybe weeks. There could be a car with gas a mile away, or a hundred. We don’t even know where we are. There was nothing but woods when we were driving out here. I didn’t see any towns.”
“I don’t think you should go alone.”
Mandy wore a pained expression on her face.
“I have to.”
Max looked into Mandy’s eyes and saw that she knew it was the truth. There wasn’t any other way.
“When are you going to go?”
“The sooner the better. My bag’s already packed.”
“You mean today?”
“I mean now.”
“Now?”
“Right now, yeah.”
“You’re tired. You should rest first.”
Max just shook his head. “It’ll be better if you say goodbye to the others for me.”
“Max…”
“I’m doing this for all of us,” said Max.
Mandy took his hand in hers, and held it for a moment.
But she let it slip away as Max turned and walked to his pack, which he’d prepared during the night. He’d packed only a small amount of food, leaving most of what was left for the others.
Max shouldered his pack.
Mandy didn’t wave, and neither did Max. They looked at each other for a moment, and then Max turned and set off towards the road. The camp wasn’t visible from the road, so Max would leave himself a marker, something that only he would recognize.
It might be a long road ahead, but Max was ready.
They’d survived. That was the important thing. And they’d continue to survive. Max would do everything he could. And he knew the others would too. They’d made mistakes. Max had made many. But that’s the way life was now—it wasn’t a straight easy path from one point to the next.