He swung around in the darkness, trying to get the animal off him. He couldn’t use his gun in the dark, apparently. He switched on his flashlight.
It was a dog. A huge German Shepherd that had sunk its teeth into Smitty’s thigh. The dog was viciously pulling its head back and forth, tearing open the wound.
“Shoot it,” cried Smitty, struggling to get his own gun into position. “Shoot it, Kara!”
But Kara knew she needed to save herself. Now that the light was on, Smitty only had moments to live. He’d been right about not turning the light on, and she recognized that now.
She dashed away from Smitty, finding shelter behind a large tree trunk. She pressed her back into the roughly textured bark and turned her head to Smitty.
Another shot rang out.
Smitty fell down. The flashlight rolled away from him.
Kara had her handgun out and ready. She knew the dog would be coming for her.
She waited, staring into the darkness, listening for the dog.
But it didn’t come. Someone called out a nonsensical name. “Kiki,” or something like that. It was a female voice. She heard the dog running off somewhere.
Kara had heard the woman’s voice. The woman was close. And Kara needed her.
She wasn’t going to give up. Not when the woman was so close. This was her chance, even if it was crazy, even if it was too big of a risk.
“Kara!” cried Smitty. His voice was full of agony.
Shit, he wasn’t dead. It hadn’t been a clean shot.
“Kara! Help me.”
Kara said nothing. If she moved towards him to help him, she might get shot herself. And even if she could avoid that, there wasn’t any point in trying to save Smitty when the woman was there, ready to be taken.
Kara could take care of the woman. All she needed to do was neutralize Max’s brother.
Thinking of Max, Kara shuddered suddenly with anger. That whole family was… there was something wrong with them. Something too intense about them. They’d ruined everything.
But not this time.
“Kara!”
Kara got up and started walking silently away from Smitty, to where she imagined the dog had run off to. She had to walk bent over, with her hands touching the ground and the trees when she came to them.
She wouldn’t let the darkness stop her.
“At least shoot me, Kara, if you’re going to leave me!” Smitty’s voice was as full of pain as any voice she’d ever heard.
If she shot him, she’d lose a bullet. And she’d risk giving away her position.
Kara didn’t respond. She was determined. She’d get that woman, if it was the last thing she did. She knew she might not have been thinking or acting rationally. She was putting herself in too much danger. Another woman might come along sometime later. But the anger and desire distracted her every move. She let herself be swept along by the coursing anger.
8
“James,” said Sadie.
“What is it, Sadie?”
He could hear the worry in her voice, the sorrow, and the depression that had been creeping over her like some slow-growing but intense fungus.
“Never mind, I don’t know.”
James glanced up from the squirrel. Sadie was lying flat on her back on the ground. Normally she was concerned about getting herself overly dirty. Especially her hair. But that had all gone completely out the window. There were leaves stuck in her hair and on her pants.
“Come on, Sadie, get up and help me with this.”
“I don’t now how to do anything. I’m no help. I’m useless.”
“That’s not going to get us anywhere. There’s no point in feeling sorry for ourselves.”
“I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I’m telling the truth.”
“Listen,” said James. “You’ve got to cut this out, seriously. We’re both worried about Mom. But words aren’t going to help her.”
“And what is?”
“This soup.”
“It’s not a soup. It’s a dead squirrel in some water.”
James sighed. “Why don’t you do something useful and get me that book on edible plants. The one Max was reading.”
“There’s nothing to eat around here.”
“Get it.”
Sadie sighed and got up as slowly as possible. James could hear her rummaging around in the packs until she found the book.
She came back and tossed it into the dirt at James’s feet.
“There you go,” she said. There was anger in her voice.
“You know what Max says, Sadie, that we’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to keep pushing on.”
“Max says, Max says,” mocked Sadie. “And where’s Max now? Probably dead.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Why not? It’s the truth. We’re all just sitting around here like Max is going to come back and save us. But do you really think that?”
“I think he’s going to come back.”
“And what if he doesn’t?”
James was silent for a moment. The reality was that he didn’t want to consider that option. But what would Max have said? “If he doesn’t, we’ll find a way.”
“A way to what? What are we going to do? We’re going to have to leave here. We can’t survive here. No matter how many squirrels we kill or how many berries we find, it’s not going to be enough.”
“So we’ll find somewhere else.”
“How? It’s not like Mom can move. And we can’t push her in that hunk of metal, that stupid Bronco that doesn’t have any gas.”
“Just shut up, Sadie. Seriously, just shut up. You’re not helping.”
Sadie fell silent. She lay back down on the ground, closing her eyes.
The whole thing was starting to sound just like the arguments they’d had before the EMP. They’d gone a while being very civil to each other. Sadie had been trying to do her part, helping, learning how to fire a gun, doing the chores that she’d needed to do.
But that was when things seemed to have been going their way. That was when Chad had been alive, when they’d been at the farmhouse.
Things only seemed to be getting worse. Nothing good had happened to them since they’d left the farmhouse.
James still remembered Chad rushing that man back in the compound. He remembered Chad’s dead, lifeless face. He remembered the way Chad had glanced back at James. There’d been a pleading look in his eyes, a look that James would never be able to forget. Chad had screwed up big time, and he’d known it. But his last act had been to help save James’s life. His last act had been something good.
James would never forget that.
The water was boiling. The squirrel sat there in the thin metal pot, looking unappetizing even with his rumbling stomach.
Mandy appeared at his side. “Good work, James.”
“How’s my mom doing?”
“She’s good,” said Mandy. But there was a note to her voice that made James think she wasn’t telling the whole truth.
“She’s worried about us, isn’t she?”
Mandy nodded. “I think so.”
James didn’t know what to say. The situation was just so intense. He’d never dealt with anything like this before. And he’d never thought he’d have to.
His life before the EMP hadn’t exactly been easy. Compared to the other kids in his class, that was. His mom, unlike the other parents he knew, didn’t have the money to buy fancy things for him and Sadie. It wasn’t like they’d been broke or anything. But money just didn’t flow freely like it did for his friends. They’d had a discussion about James buckling down and studying hard, for instance, rather than taking the SAT prep course that was strongly recommended by the school and all the guidance counselors.
There’d been moments where James had gotten in trouble. A couple fights here and there, sprinkled throughout his years at school. Once a kid had insulted him, saying that he didn’t even have a dad.