Max could hear the car now. He could hear its engine whining softly. It sounded like a regular civilian car. It didn’t have that heavy rumbling of a large truck. That was a good sign, but it didn’t mean they were safe.
Anyone could be driving that car.
This was the moment Max had been waiting for and dreading. The worst part about it was that he wasn’t yet in fighting form. He was still hobbled, injured, and partially broken.
But that didn’t mean he was going to give up.
He knew he could still put up a hell of a fight.
Max reached for his Glock in its belt holster. The weight of the gun felt reassuring as he removed it from its holster. He kept his finger outside the trigger guard. Just because society had collapsed didn’t mean he wasn’t going to follow basic gun safety. The last thing they needed was another gunshot victim.
“What do we do?” said Chad, making an effort to speak loudly enough that Max could hear him.
“Stay there,” said Max.
Chad had his rifle with him, but he wasn’t a great shot. He’d only fired a gun a few times in his life before. Despite Georgia’s patient training, he still wasn’t very good. And it wasn’t like they could waste a lot of ammunition on practice shots.
Max started to hobble his way around the house.
Suddenly, James and Sadie were at his side again, this time with rifles in hand.
“What’s going on?” said James.
“It’s coming down the driveway,” said Max.
All three of them could clearly hear the engine, clearly hear the tires on the partially-graveled driveway. But they couldn’t yet see the car. The house was blocking the view.
“My mom’s not back yet from her hunt?” said Sadie.
“I wish she was,” said Max. “She’s the best shot out of all of us.”
It was true.
“What are we going to do?” said James, his voice full of worry.
Max was worried too. He felt the adrenaline pumping through him. He felt his skin growing cold and his heart rate increasing. But he had to keep it together. And he couldn’t afford to let James and Sadie know that he was scared.
Being scared was only natural. He was only human, after all.
Max knew it was what you did with the fear that mattered. It was how you responded to it.
If he gave a hint to James or Sadie of his own fear, they’d just become more terrified. Max knew he needed them to be as effective as possible. It was likely that he wouldn’t be able to do what he needed to do on his own.
And he couldn’t rely on Chad up on the roof. If Georgia had been up there, acting essentially as a sharpshooter, he would have been a lot less worried.
They were halfway around the house. James and Sadie followed Max, who had to move somewhat slowly with his cane. Frankly, it was almost miraculous that he could walk at all, let alone go as fast as he was.
“What’s that?” said Sadie, suddenly sounding even more worried than before.
“Shh,” said James. “We have to listen.”
“No, seriously,” said Sadie. “Look over there.”
From where they were, around the side of the house, they could see three figures emerging from the woods. If you could call where the car was approaching on the driveway the front yard, then the figures were coming from the backyard.
“Shit,” muttered Max, staring at the figures.
They were far away, but he could see them clearly enough to note that they were armed. They had rifles. Possibly assault rifles.
Suddenly, Max remembered something. Someone was missing.
“Where’s Mandy?” said Max.
“Mandy?” said James.
“Yeah, you didn’t see her inside when you went to get your guns?”
“No,” said Sadie. “I thought she was outside somewhere.”
“Shit,” muttered Max.
The sound of the car on the driveway was louder. It was getting very close.
They had two sets of unknown visitors. And Mandy was missing.
3
Maybe Mandy was taking the whole thing harder than she should. After all, this was a crazy situation they were all in. They were lucky to be alive. Maybe expecting that something would have happened between her and Max was simply unrealistic. In fact, she knew it was unrealistic. Remaining “colleagues” or whatever they were was obviously the best choice. She knew that, but she was still feeling down about it.
When Max had gone to check on the well, Mandy had left through the door on the other side of the house. All six of the group had argued often over which door was the front and which was the back. They had arrived to the farmhouse initially from the side that faced the woods. Since that was their first impression, that side of the house had become “the front” for about half of them. But others argued that the side that faced the road was the front.
Mandy didn’t really care either way.
She had her rifle with her as she walked through the long grass and the weeds. She walked alongside the driveway that led towards the road. It was a winding path.
The sun was out, shining brightly. The grass swayed in the wind. But it didn’t look beautiful to Mandy.
So much had changed. Her mind was having trouble adapting to her new situation. It was having trouble adapting to this new world.
To say that everything had changed would be an understatement.
As she walked, she thought of the people she knew. She thought of her parents, her brother, her aunts and uncles. She thought of the other waitresses at work, and even of her difficult boss. She thought of random classmates from high school and even middle school. What had happened to them all?
According to Max, almost everyone was dead or was in the process of dying.
Without any sort of communication, there was no way to know. There wasn’t internet, TV, or phones. And it wasn’t like the postal system was functioning.
Maybe some day in the future, Mandy would find her family alive, safely holed up somewhere.
But she tried not to get her hopes up. She knew better than that.
She’d learned a lot in the last two weeks. She’d learned what it was like to be hungry, to go without. She’d learned to deal with the desperation she felt like a heavy pit in her stomach.
Mandy was far from the house. She turned back to look at it. It looked peaceful there, surrounded by nature, by fields that led into the forest.
Chad lay on the roof. If it hadn’t been for his rifle, he would have perhaps looked like he was lounging, rather than defending the house’s inhabitants from apocalyptic hordes.
Suddenly, Mandy heard a noise.
She was so surprised that she froze in place.
It was unmistakably the sound of a car traveling down the road.
So there were others. People were still alive, and some of them had functioning cars and even gas to burn on drives.
Maybe they were people like Georgia and the farmhouse group. Or maybe they were the savage killers Max was always warning them all about.
With any luck, the car would pass right by the driveway. With any luck, disguising the entrance would work.
But just in case, Mandy moved quickly over to a large tree. The trunk was huge, and she hid herself behind it. If the car did come down the driveway, she’d be out of sight.
Mandy sat with her knees towards her chest, her rifle pointed towards the sky, its butt resting in the ground.
She breathed deeply as she waited for the car to pass by the driveway.
But it didn’t.
She was halfway between the road and the farmhouse. From where she was, she could hear someone getting out of the car and moving the branches aside. She heard the gate opening, squeaking on its rusty hinges.
The car started driving down the driveway. Every sound, from its engines to its tires, sent another chill down Mandy’s spine. Her hands were shaking with fear.