Getting Out

12

“Who are you with?” said the stranger’s voice.

Max didn’t dare to even move his mouth to speak. He didn’t need to give this guy an excuse to shoot him.

If only they’d taken the long way around that town… But it was too late now.

Max hoped that Mandy and especially Chad would have enough sense not to speak.

“Who are you with?” screamed the man. “Answer me!”

“It’s just us,” said Max, not really understanding the question.

His eyes were fixed ahead towards the strange barrier on the entrance to the town. Behind it, on either side of the road, he could see two squat buildings. One looked like It was some kind of general store, and the other might have been a bar.

Despite the intensity of the situation, Max’s mind was again on practical matters: he was burning a lot of fuel just sitting here idly. He knew he had to ask if it was OK to kill the engine. If they got out of this situation, they needed to have all the gas they could.

“Who sent you?” shouted the man. He sounded angry and confused. “The Chinese? The Russians?”

“No,” said Max, trying to keep his voice as calm and steady as he could. He didn’t need to give this guy with the gun more of a reason to get upset. “We’re not working with any foreign governments.”

“Then why are you here?”

Max hesitated for a moment. He didn’t quite know how to put it. “The power was out in our area. Everyone was going crazy. We’re just trying to get out… We’re just like you… just looking for a way to survive.”

“Bullshit,” shouted the man. “This is some kind of attack. Nothing works! The TV’s out. The radio!”

“It’s the same in our area,” said Max.

“Shut the hell up!” shouted the man, pressing the muzzle of the gun further into Max’s head.

“Look, man,” said Chad. “We’re not trying to do you guys no harm or nothing…”

“Shut up!” shouted the man. “Everyone, out of the trees!” It sounded like he was shouting a command to a group of people.

Sure enough, a moment later, people started emerging from the trees. Max could hear their footsteps approaching, but he didn’t want to turn his head, not with the gun against him.

Max didn’t know how many people there were.

They opened the doors of the Jeep, reaching through the windows to unlock them. Hands dragged Max out of the driver’s seat.

Something smashed into Max’s head and he fell unconscious.

The next thing he knew, he woke up in some back room somewhere. There was the new light of morning streaming through the windows. He felt dizzy and nauseous and his head ached terribly.

His whole body was stiff with pain and he felt like he could barely move. He wasn’t yet totally aware of everything. He didn’t know whether or not he was in the room with others. He didn’t know whether or not his hands were bound. But he knew enough to ask these questions to himself.

His mind knew the questions, but it was slow to find the answers.

Everything seemed to be coming at him in a stilted, strange way.

His stomach was painfully empty, and his throat was parched. It had been a long, long time since he’d eaten, or had any water.

Slowly, the events of yesterday came back to him… so much had happened in such a short amount of time.

Slowly, Max began to notice that his hands were bound together with what looked like zip ties. But he wasn’t tied to anything. He stood up slowly, falling over once in the process as his stiff muscles were slow to respond. That must have been some blow to the head, but Max was pretty sure that he remembered everything that had happened yesterday. He remembered the road block, and the man pointing the gun at his head.

“You’re finally awake,” came a voice from somewhere close to him.

“Mandy?” said Max, turning to look.

She was seated against the wall. Her hands were also bound. She didn’t look like she’d been injured.

“You all right?” said Max.

She nodded. She looked beyond tired.

“How about you?” she said. “That was some blow to the head.”

“I’m fine,” said Max, shaking himself a little.

Suddenly, he realized how screwed they were… the Jeep. They were separated from the Jeep, which was not only their means of transportation to the farmhouse, but what housed all of their gear… Max cursed himself for not having gone down fighting. He could have pulled his gun. He could have tried something, anything… Now maybe it was too late.

With both his hands zip tied together, Max felt for his gun in his waistband. But it was gone. His heart sank a little. It really was too late.

But it was never too late. Max knew he had to push on.

“Chad?” he said.

She shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she said. “They took him somewhere else, I guess.”

“What happened? I don’t remember anything after they hit me in the head.”

“They dragged you and me here,” she said. “That’s it. That’s all I know. I’ve just been waiting for you to wake up.”

“Who are they?”

Mandy shrugged.

“Did you see them?”

“Kind of. It was hard. It was dark. They had flashlights… some lanterns… There were about ten of them, maybe. It was hard to tell. They seemed like regular guys from the town or something… you know, small town people. The way they were talking, it sounded like they were convinced we were Russian spies or something.”

Max thought for a moment.

“He was asking me if we were with the Russians, I think,” said Max. “Or the Chinese. I don’t remember. My best bet is that they think this EMP was some kind of foreign attack. They’re probably just trying to defend their town. That must have been what that crazy roadblock was for…”

“Yeah,” said Mandy. “That makes sense. They definitely weren’t cops or army or anything. They were really unprofessional. They kept arguing about who was going to do what.”

“Hmm,” said Max. “Maybe we could use that to our advantage. So there didn’t seem to be a leader?”

“Not really,” said Mandy. “Maybe a couple of the guys thought they were the leaders. Seemed like they hadn’t really worked it out yet.” She paused for a moment then added, “I hope Chad’s OK.”

“He’ll be fine,” grunted Max. “A little roughing up wouldn’t hurt him.”

“How’s your head?”

“Fine.”

Max didn’t want to admit it, but it hurt, and it hurt bad. But his memory and thinking seemed to be there, or as there as he could hope for.

His body was running on nothing more than adrenaline, but that false energy was starting to fade. The hunger was there, and it wasn’t going to go away, no matter how much adrenaline pumped through his veins.

Standing up, Max examined the zip ties binding his hands. He remembered a video he’d happened to watch once, and did his best to imitate the move that the man in the video had demonstrated.

He held his hands, in fists, above his head. He brought them swiftly down towards his groin area, pulling as hard as he could. As the movement of his body caused his wrists to want to split apart, the zip ties snapped in half with a satisfying noise. He was free.

“How’d you do that?” said Mandy, surprised.

Max didn’t answer. Instead, he felt in his pocket for his pocket knife.

“Amateurs,” he muttered to himself, realizing that his knife was still there.

He pulled it out, flicked it open, and had Mandy’s wrists zip-tie free in seconds.

“Do you know where we are?” he said.

“Looks like the back of some store,” said Mandy.

Max looked around carefully for the first time. Indeed, there were all the things you might expect to find in the back of a small town store. There was a broom, a dustpan, some bags of trash that hadn’t been thrown out. The place wasn’t tidy. There were huge spots of dirt on the floor, and odds and ends scattered all about.

The only artificial light in the place, which of course no longer worked, was a single light bulb hanging by an extension cord that was draped over one of the beams to the roof.

“Hell of a place,” said Max. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

“But what are we going to do? They’ve got guns. They’ll catch us for sure. This is a small town. We’re not too far from the road block. They didn’t take us far… They’ve got to be all around.”

Max shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “Any ideas?”

Mandy was silent.

Max studied her face carefully. In the morning light, she looked different. All night they’d been talking in the car, but he hadn’t been able to see her most of the time. It had been as if he’d been talking to a disembodied voice almost.

He saw in her face that she was hungry and tired, but that she had some inner strength, some force that would propel her forward. He hadn’t seen that strength in her before.

He also saw that she really was beautiful. There were some minor lines on her face. She hadn’t had an easy life. She’d been through some shit. But she had those classically beautiful features that time or worry couldn’t touch.

Max was trying to think while he watched Mandy, but no plans came to him. His head still felt fuzzy from the blow.

“The only thing I can think of,” said Mandy. “Is that they seem really disorganized. Maybe we can use that to our advantage. You know, convince one of them he should be the leader or something, and then play them off each other?”

“This isn’t some comedy movie,” said Max. “This shit is real. That’ll never work.”

“You got a better plan?” said Mandy.

“Someone’s coming,” whispered Max.

He watched through the morning light in the dusty room as the door handle started to turn.