Fighting Rough

10

Georgia’s back was stiff and painful. The cold weather was only making her injury worse. Still, she was getting stronger. She was much better off than she’d been a week ago.

She’d tried not to let it show, but she was worried about James. Very worried.

Despite the tough exterior she’d put on, Sadie saw right through it.

“He’s going to be fine, Mom,” said Sadie.

“I know,” said Georgia.

She winced in pain as she stood there, the snow blowing around her.

“We’ve got to worry about ourselves right now,” said Georgia. “We’ve got to be prepared for anything.”

Georgia’s mind was racing. At the camp, it was only herself, her daughter, and the two new members of the group, Jake and Rose.

It wasn’t exactly the fighting force that Georgia would have liked it to be.

Sadie was getting more competent with her rifle.

But Jake and Rose were a completely different story. They’d never touched a gun in their lives. It boggled Georgia’s mind that they’d been willing, before the EMP, to travel around the country in their van, without so much as a single handgun stashed safely away for self-defense.

Hopefully they’d change their tune soon. After all, while it may have been foolish to travel as they had without weapons in a pre-EMP world, it was downright suicidal to do so after the EMP. The world was different now, and Georgia doubted whether it would ever go back to how it had been before.

But so far, they hadn’t shown much interest in learning about guns, even when Georgia had offered to show them when she’d been feeling energetic a few days ago.

Georgia wasn’t feeling energetic now. She felt terrible. But she wasn’t going to let that stop her.

“Get Jake and Rose,” she said to Sadie, who nodded and dashed off through the snow.

Georgia stood there with her rifle, peering into the blank whiteness of nothing that swirled around her.

Suddenly, she heard something. Or thought she did.

But she couldn’t see anything.

Then she heard it again.

Georgia got her rifle ready. Her finger was on the trigger. She positioned herself in the direction she thought the noise was coming from.

Nothing now. No noise.

Georgia glanced over her shoulder to see if Sadie had reappeared yet with Jake and Rose. No, she still wasn’t there. What was taking so long?

Suddenly, figures burst out of the snow, coming into view.

Georgia recognized James immediately, despite the snow.

“James!” shouted Georgia.

She kept her gun up, though. She didn’t immediately recognize the others. For all she knew, James was still in trouble. Just because he was back at camp didn’t mean he was safe.

She pointed her rifle at them until she realized they were just John and Cynthia.

“Are you OK? What happened?”

Neither of the three of them looked injured, but it was hard to tell.

“They’re following us,” said James, completely out of breath, struggling to get the words out.

There wasn’t any time to ask “who?”

“How many?” said Georgia, instinctively gripping her rifle tighter.

“We don’t know,” said John.

“Could be a lot,” said James. “I shot two of them, I think. Can’t remember. It happened so fast. And John. He got one.”

“What were they armed with?”

“Semi-automatics.”

“Do you think they can follow you back here?” said Georgia.

“Definitely,” said Cynthia.

James and John nodded their agreement.

“Someone had the brilliant idea of making marks in the trees,” said Cynthia. “Creating a trail that leads right back to our camp.”

Georgia shot a glance at Cynthia. It seemed there was no end to her sarcastic witticisms, no matter how serious the situation.

At that moment, Sadie appeared through the snow, trailed by Jake and Rose.

“Oh no, are you all OK?” said Rose, shivering in the cold.

The wind was battering them all. They stood in at least a foot of snow. They couldn’t even see the van or the tent. The camp was completely invisible to them, even though they were standing in the middle of it.

Jake and Rose weren’t even carrying guns, even though there were plenty available for everyone now. The pot farmers had had plenty of guns. And there were enough bullets too. For the moment. They’d have to worry about their ammunition in the future. For now, it was survival. Immediate survival.

Max still wasn’t back. Neither was Mandy. But she couldn’t worry about them right now. They were on their own. There was nothing Georgia could do for them, or anything they could do for her. And no way to communicate.

Too bad those radios weren’t really portable. It would have been invaluable to have an easily portable means of communication.

Georgia’s mind was racing a mile a minute.

But this wasn’t the time for musings.

Quick decisions needed to be made. Life or death decisions.

For all she knew, a horde of heavily armed men were about to burst into the camp.

“We need to get out of here,” said James. “They’re going to follow us right back here.”

“But Max and Mandy won’t know where we went,” objected John.

“We can’t worry about Max and Mandy right now,” said Georgia. “But this is a good spot to defend from. There are trees all around us. We’ve got advantages if we stay here.”

In the back of her mind, though, Georgia knew that the real reason she wanted to stay was so that Max and Mandy could find them again. After all they’d been through together, Georgia couldn’t abandon them. Not like this.

Georgia’s back was killing her, and she felt physically weak. She’d need to take that into account. She wasn’t going to be able to rely on herself to step in when things got ugly. She’d have to count on herself possibility failing. If she didn’t do that, everyone might die. Her kids might die.

“OK,” said Georgia. “Jake and Rose, get a handgun each.”

“But I don’t even know how…”

“Get them!”

“We don’t even know the first thing about…”

“Find the safety, switch it off. Point the gun, and pull the trigger.” She spoke in a commanding way, daring them to challenge her. “Go!”

They rushed off into the snow, towards the van where the extra rifles were. There wasn’t even time to be frustrated or furious with them.

“The rifles won’t be of much use now,” said Georgia. “since we can’t see very far.”

John, Cynthia, and James were still staring off into the direction they’d come from. But there was nothing. Nothing coming.

For now.

“We’ll use the van,” said Georgia. “We’ll use it as a shield if we have too. Come on.”

Georgia couldn’t move that quickly through the snow with her injury. James held out his arm so she could use it as support, but she shook her head. “Keep your eyes peeled,” she said. “Don’t worry about me.”

Georgia was wracking her brain for what kind of defense they could set up. Most of the ideas, though, would take a long time to set up. And the others, well, they weren’t applicable in such heavy snow.

In the past, Georgia had relied on her rifles. She was a good shot at a distance. But that didn’t matter now.

This was going to be close range fighting because of the visibility. But it was also out in the open. Completely different than an urban environment.

The trick, thought Georgia, was going to be create the kind of environment that they needed, the kind of environment in which they would have the advantage.

Georgia still had a few tricks up her sleeve.