Getting Out

10

“Don’t go out there, Max,” said Mandy from the passenger seat.

“Yeah, man,” said Chad from the backseat. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“What other choice do we have?” said Max.

He had his hand on the door handle. He had a bad feeling about getting out of the Jeep.

But Max didn’t believe in permission. He believed in thinking rationally, logically. Not that he always managed it all the time. But who could?

“I’ll come with you,” said Mandy.

“Shit, then I’m coming too,” said Chad.

Max didn’t need to think about it much.

“Mandy, you come with me. Take the flashlight from the glove box. Chad, you stay here.”

“Aw, man,” said Chad.

“You’re too high to be useful,” said Max. Even though Chad was an old friend, Max didn’t have any problem speaking to him directly, even if it was harsh. This wasn’t the time to consider how people felt about things.

Max opened the door to the Jeep and got out. He left it running in case they had to make a quick escape. Not that they could get far on a busted tire.

“Maybe we should drive farther down,” whispered Mandy, appearing next to him in the darkness.

They both turned their flashlights on. They were high power LED flashlights, but the brighter they were set to, the faster the battery would die. And there was no way to recharge them now. Max needed to conserve the batteries. He had his on the second to lowest setting, and showed Mandy how to do the same.

“Maybe you’re right,” muttered Max. “But the farther we go, the greater the risk of damaging the wheel.”

He and Mandy shone their lights around the area.

“You see anything?” said Mandy

“Nope,” said Max. “I think we’re OK.”

He had to dig around in the back for a while to get out the jack and the wrench. There was so much gear covering everything that it took a little while. Fortunately, the spare tire was easily accessible on the back of the car.

Max hated to change a tire out so early. They had many miles to go, and that was the only spare tire. Yet another chink in his armor, yet another problem with his plans, yet another thing that he hadn’t planned like he should have. He’d thought he was prepared. Maybe he was doing better than some others, but it wasn’t good enough. He did have some of that chemical aerosol goop that you could spray into a tire, but Max didn’t like the idea of that. And it might be possible in the future to patch the tire, but Max only know how that would work in theory. He’d never actually done it before.

At some point, Max realized it might be good to turn the car off. There didn’t seem to be anyone there, anyway. And with a wheel off, it wasn’t like having the engine on would help them get away any faster. So he killed the engine.

“How’s it going out there?” said Chad.

“Shut up, Chad,” said Max.

Chad shut up, and Max got out of the car again and started to work. He loosened the bolts, got the jack set up, and then got the spare tire on.

Mandy stood guard, surveying the area carefully with her flashlight’s long beam. Anyway, for now, it was good that she kept the light turned on. Max was still a little worried that there might be someone out there.

While Max worked, his thoughts turned to Chad. How strange was it that he’d run into Chad there, in a situation like that? He hadn’t seen Chad in how many years? He couldn’t even remember in this moment. But his mind felt frazzled. He’d been awake for a long time, and his body was starting to crave sleep. But there were many hours and miles to go. He didn’t totally trust Mandy behind the wheel, given the unknowns in the situation. And he definitely didn’t trust Chad.

He’d felt an obligation to rescue Chad, but he knew he couldn’t count on him. Chad had let him down countless times in the past. Not only that, but Chad had let everyone down. They’d tried to have an intervention for him, but it was hopeless. It had been terrible, and Max shuddered at the memory now. He wondered if Chad even remembered it.

“Everything fine?” said Max, to Mandy.

“Fine,” she said, speaking in a low but audible voice.

The car door opened and Chad got out. His weight shifted the car and Max could feel it.

“Surprised you could lift the car up with me in it,” joked Chad.

“I’m almost done,” grunted Max, as he started lowering the car.

Next, he set to work tightening the bolts, working in a star pattern as he’d been taught.

“I think we’re all set,” said Max. “I almost want to say we should investigate what we ran over, but maybe it’d be better not to.”

“Yeah,” said Mandy. “Let’s just keep going. This place gives me the creeps.”

It was creepy. Max didn’t want to admit it to himself. But there was something a little strange about this area.

There weren’t any houses around. Either side of the road was just woods, possibly stretching for miles. They’d already left the suburbs without quite realizing it. The suburbs had just sort of gradually faded away, and without light on in the houses, it was hard to tell how densely populated the area was that they’d left.

“Well,” said Max. “I guess we’re doing good. We’re away from most of the chaos. The less densely populated the area we’re in, the better.”

The sound of lighter came through the night. Chad was sparking up a joint.

“Chad!” hissed Max. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Just relaxing, man,” said Chad, speaking in a strange voice as he held the smoke deep in his lungs.

He exhaled and started coughing. It was a loud cough that seemed to echo all round them in the silent night.

Max suddenly realized there wasn’t a single other sound. It was dead quiet.

Mandy realized it at the same time, too. “There aren’t even any animals here,” she said, as she stared off into the depths of the dark woods.

“Let’s get going,” said Max. “Chad, put that out, OK?”

“OK, man,” said Chad, licking his fingers to extinguish the joint and presumably save it for later.

The whole area now reeked of weed, and Max had always hated the smell. It reminded him of something wet and rotting.

Max was halfway into the driver’s seat when Chad, who was still standing around fiddling with his joint, shouted.

“What is it?” said Mandy, worried.

She was already in the passenger’s seat, and she shut the door quickly.

“Shit, man, did you see that?” said Chad.

“What was it?” said Max.

“I don’t know, man… Eyes… A pair of eyes off in the woods there…”

“Get in the car,” said Max.

Chad got in, and his weight shifted the suspension of the Jeep.

“Let’s hope this tire holds up,” said Max, hitting the button to lock all the doors. He considered putting the child safety lock on, in case Chad tried something, but he thought better of it.

“What did you see?” said Mandy, turning around to face him in the darkness.

“Eyes,” said Chad. His tone was hushed. He sounded really worried. “But they weren’t normal eyes.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, they were definitely human… But there was something…”

“Come on,” said Max. “This isn’t a zombie movie.”

“I know,” said Chad. “But it was something… Maybe it was someone watching us.”

“You’re just high,” said Max. “You’re paranoid.”

“Maybe,” muttered Chad. “Maybe…”

“I’m worried about it,” said Mandy.

“Don’t be,” said Max.

The three of them didn’t talk much for the next few hours. Despite Max’s growing fatigue, he continued to drive. He kept his speed at about forty miles an hour, which seemed reasonable on these roads. He didn’t want to go too slow, or too fast. Too slow and they’d never get there. Too fast, and he’d just waste fuel and increase the chances of either an accident or something else. He couldn’t afford to blow another tire. Not now.

He tried not to accelerate much, and not to brake much either. Both actions would merely waste fuel. He shifted frequently to conserve more fuel, and when he could, he put the Jeep in neutral and let it coast down the long hills.

Chad eventually started snoring, falling fast asleep into his drug filled dreams.

Mandy stayed awake, although she was starting to fade a little.

Max was starting to become glad that he’d brought her along. It turned out that she was really good with maps, and figuring out where they were. Max didn’t want to admit it to himself, but reading maps had never been his strong suit. Sure, he could study a map and understand it, but when it came to figuring out where his actual location was… well, that just wasn’t his strong suit.

“Take a left here,” said Mandy.

They’d come to a fork in the road, and Max sat with the engine idling.

“You sure?” he said. “It seems like that way takes us east.”

“I’m positive,” said Mandy.

Max was surprised that he already trusted her so much. He took the left, accelerating slowly into the curve.

“You tired?” said Max.

“Yeah,” said Mandy, sleepily.

“Me too,” said Max. “But I figure the farther away we get, the better. Then we’ll have to shift strategies. In the future, it’ll be safer to keep ourselves well rested and well fed. But I think I’m OK for now.”

“This is a stupid question,” said Mandy. “But do you have any coffee or anything?”

Max gestured to the thermos that he normally took to work. Mandy took it from the cup holder and greedily gulped down the small amount that remained.

“That’s not going to be enough,” she said.

“I didn’t think of it before,” said Max. “But I might have some caffeine pills in the glove compartment.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” said Mandy, fishing around frantically in the glove compartment.

She found the bottle, shook out two pills without reading the label, and swallowed them dry.

“Here,” she said. “You’re getting too sleepy to drive.”

“Give me three,” said Max.

He took them from her carefully with his eyes still on the road. He wasn’t good at swallowing pills dry, and had to take them one at a time.

Max started feel much more alert within just a few minutes. That made sense, since he didn’t have any food in his stomach, and they weren’t slow release pills.

“I should have thought of that before,” said Max.

“It’s OK,” said Mandy.

“It’s not,” said Max. “You know, I thought I was all organized and prepared, but… I don’t even know where half my gear is. It’s buried somewhere in the back of the Jeep with Chad.”

“You’re doing great,” said Mandy softly. “I shudder to think where I’d be without you… And you saved your friend from that mob.”

“I don’t know if he’s exactly a friend,” said Max quietly. “I mean, we were friends… really close. Like I said, or maybe I thought it—I can’t remember now. I’ve been up for too long. I’m starting to ramble. Anyway, he’s more like family. A family member you just can’t get rid of, but one you have to try to help.”

Mandy didn’t say anything for a while.

The night was still pitch black. The clouds covered the stars and possibly the moon, depending on what phase of the cycle it was. Max had no idea, but he supposed it wasn’t anything close to a full moon, since that tended to illuminate things through the clouds.

Max felt better with the caffeine, and he felt better getting out of the densely populated suburban areas. He congratulated himself again for not taking a job in the city. Who knew what kind of hellish fate awaited the people stuck in the cities. Maybe they’d already turned into one huge angry chaotic mob, fighting each other to the death. And in a week or two? They might be eating each other. It wasn’t a joke. Max had read about the Donner party, and that rugby team that had crashed landed. Sooner or later, when humans ran out of food, they started eating each other. Usually they had the decency to wait until they were dead, but not always. Sometimes necessity dictated that someone be killed, or a lot of people be killed.

The road was in good condition. Max was able to easily swerve around the occasional pothole. The trees were thick and tall, creating a blanket of intense darkness on either side of them. The road was straight in parts for long stretches, with an occasional section of dense curves. At another time, Max would relish this type of driving. He still loved the feeling of shifting gears in the Jeep, his foot on the clutch applying just the right amount of force. He loved the feeling of the engine connected directly to the wheels as he downshifted into a curve.

“Does he just smoke pot?” said Mandy, breaking the silence.

“Huh?” said Max.

Chad snored on in the backseat.

“I mean does he do other drugs?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

“If he does harder stuff, he might go into withdrawal… I’ve seen it before at work. One of the girls was sniffing coke in the bathroom. Then once on one shift, the manager had some stomach problems and was in the bathroom the whole time. It was busy, and she couldn’t sneak off anywhere else. By the end of the shift, she was going nuts, screaming at customers and everything. I guess she was addicted pretty badly…”

“Where did you work?” said Max.

“It was at some Thai restaurant,” said Mandy.

“Well,” said Max. “I don’t know, honestly. I haven’t talked to him in years. In the past, it was mostly pot and alcohol, with the occasional pill. I think he was pretty into ecstasy for a while.”

“Oh, well that’s not addictive.”

“You sound like you know from personal experience.”

“Maybe,” said Mandy. “That’s all in my past now. I mean… yeah… in my past.”

“Good,” said Max, simply. The truth was, her past didn’t matter to him now. Most of the past didn’t matter. This was a new start. Everything would be new. The future was what mattered now, if there was a future to be had, that is.

“Anyway,” said Mandy. “Even if he’s just a really heavy drinker, he’s going to go into withdrawal.”

Max shrugged, even though Mandy couldn’t see his gesture in the darkness. “He’ll just have to deal with it,” said Max.

“It might not be that easy.”

They continued to drive in silence. Mandy turned her flashlight on, and Max had to tell her to put it on the lowest setting. It was just one candlepower, but it was enough that she could study the map. She was poring over it, really trying to understand it.

“Now we have a choice coming up,” said Mandy. “There’s a town about ten miles up ahead. A small town. Population 1,200, if the back of the atlas is right.”

“Probably about right,” said Max.

“We can go through the town,” said Mandy. “Or we can go around it.”

“Around it,” said Max.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too. I mean, like you’re always saying… the less populated an area, the safer we’ll be, right?”

“Yup,” said Max. “We’re going around it.”

“OK, but here’s the thing,” said Mandy. “If we go around it, we’re adding at least three hours to our trip.”

“Three hours? Are you sure.”

“Something like that,” said Mandy. “Maybe more, actually.”

“Damnit,” said Max. “We can’t afford to lose that much fuel.”

“I thought you had the extra gas in the back.”

“I do, but that’s just about enough to get us there. We can’t count on the gas stations working.”

“That’s what I figured, but I thought you had enough.”

“I do… But we’ve got all this gear. We’ve got two more people than I’d counted on. And that takes up gas. And Chad counts as two. If we have to take another detour later on… No, we can’t do it. We’re going through the town.”

“But what about that mob we rescued Chad from?”

“We?” said Max.

Mandy didn’t answer.

“I thought it sounded like you were trying to convince me to go around the town.”

“I don’t know what to do,” said Mandy. “You make the decision. It’s your car.”

“We’re going through it,” said Max. “Maybe everyone will be asleep.”

“It’s probably just a couple buildings off of the road anyway,” said Mandy. “I bet we’ll just drive right through it.”

“What’s this town named anyway?” said Max.

“Marxburg,” said Mandy.

“Never heard of it,” said Max.

They drove on. The ten miles went quickly. They only had the sound of Chad’s intense snoring to keep them company.

Max rolled his window down partially and let the cool air flow over him. It felt good and kept him awake. He wasn’t exactly anxious, but perhaps a little preoccupied with what might happen in the town.

They’d climbed up one of those short Pennsylvania “mountains” which in other areas of the country would be considered nothing more than large hills.

They were on the descent when they spotted the town. Max had the car in neutral, and they were gaining momentum on the straight downward stretch of road. He put the car into fourth to engine brake, and then third, and then second. He didn’t want to be going too fast through the town.

“Shit,” said Max.

“What’s happening?” said Chad, suddenly waking up and sounding startled.

“They’ve got something in the road,” said Mandy.

Indeed they did. There was something in the road all right, but Max didn’t have any idea what it was. From this distance, it just looked like a pile of crap stacked up in the road.

“What the hell?” said Max.

He applied the brakes and slowed the Jeep down even more.

As they got closer, they could see more clearly what was in front of them. It really was a huge pile of junk that had been piled in the middle of the road. It looked like a rudimentary road block, or a shield behind which soldiers would hide in battle. It was made of old couches, chairs, dining room tables, cardboard boxes, all manner of things.

“Can we go through it?” said Mandy.

Max stopped the car about a hundred meters in front of the big pile of junk.

“Just blast through it, man,” said Chad, who immediately started coughing intensely after he spoke.

“I don’t think we can go through it,” said Max. He studied the pile carefully. It turned out that it wasn’t just made of furniture. There were some steel rods that ran through the structure. Max couldn’t tell how it was constructed, but he figured the thing had a steel skeleton. “Whoever made this didn’t want cars to go through it. If we try, I think they’ll already have some kind of plan in place for that.”

“Then what do we do?”

“Don’t move a muscle, or I won’t hesitate to put one right through your skull,” came a stranger’s voice from outside the car.

Max moved only his eyes. In his peripheral vision, he could just barely make out a man standing next to the driver’s side door.

Slowly, the man moved closer. He moved his gun until the cold metal muzzle was pressed again the side of Max’s head.

Max didn’t dare even open his mouth to speak.