Getting Out

17

Mandy stood frozen as the door opened. A man entered, and Max immediately sprang towards him. Max grabbed the man by the waist and pushed with all his weight.

The two of them crashed into the wall. The man grunted, and Max cried out in pain as the man did something to his arm.

Mandy couldn’t see what had happened. The two were a flurry of bodies.

The next thing she knew, it was all over too fast. Max was bashing his elbow repeatedly into the man’s stomach.

The man fell down, gasping for breath.

Max was holding his wrist in a funny way, as if it was injured. He looked down at the man.

The man started to move.

“Don’t move,” said Max.

The man moved anyway, lunging out towards Max.

Max kicked him in the stomach.

“Stay down,” he muttered.

The man twitched. Max gave him another swift kick.

“Max!” cried out Mandy.

“What do you want me to do?” said Max. “Bake him a birthday cake?”

Mandy saw that he had a point. After all, the man had kidnapped them and imprisoned them in this room. He didn’t deserve any special treatment.

Max wasn’t being cruel about it. Once the man had stopped moving, Max had stopped too. He wasn’t attacking him out of cruelty or enjoyment. It was survival, pure and simple.

“What are we going to do?” said Mandy.

“Got any ideas?” said Max. “Because I’m all out of them.”

“How’s your wrist?”

“Fine,” said Max.

But it didn’t look fine.

He bent down and examined the man. He took the rffle that was slung over the man’s shoulders. He tried to hold up the sight to his eye to examine it. Or maybe he was examining the barrel. Mandy wasn’t sure. She didn’t know much about guns. To her, a rifle was a rifle. A handgun was a handgun, whatever type it was.

“Here,” said Max, wincing in pain as he handed her the rifle.

Mandy took it gingerly. “Um, shouldn’t you carry it?”

“My wrist,” said Max. “I can’t work the gun.”

“I don’t even know how to use it.”

“It’s not that hard. Point and shoot, basically.”

“Basically?”

“Let’s go,” said Max.

“Go? Go where? If we go out there… there are a ton of people out there…”

“We’re going to have to risk it,” said Max.

He walked right out into the day through the doorway. The light seemed to illuminate him completely, even though it was cloudy. Mandy followed him and the brightness of the light surprised her.

The trees were all around them. They had never looked so beautiful. It had been a long time since Mandy had been out in nature. All last night had been dark, very dark, and she hadn’t gotten a look past the magnificence of the majestic trees.

“You see anyone?” said Max in a low voice.

Mandy shook her head.

They were out back behind the store.

“Maybe everyone’s inside,” said Mandy. “I bet they’re terrified.”

“Look over there,” said Max, pointing with his good hand. “A fire.”

Suddenly, they heard yelling.

“Look,” said Mandy, as they started jogging towards the fire. They could now see a group of figures around a man lying on the ground.

“I bet that’s Chad.”

Mandy didn’t know why they were running right towards a group of men with guns. She’d just moved automatically, perhaps sensing that it might be Chad.

But why was she trying to protect Chad? She didn’t even know him. And so far, he’d seemed more like a liability than anything else.

Max was running faster than she was. He had long legs, and good form. He ran easily across the slightly muddy field.

Mandy struggled to keep up, holding the rifle in both hands in front of her.

It started to dawn on her that this was a really bad idea. These men were dangerous. They were armed.

Up ahead, she saw one of them kick Chad in the stomach. Chad went limp.

What the hell was Max planning on doing when he got up there?

She found out soon enough.

“Hey!” yelled Max, waving his good arm.

“The prisoners!” shouted one of them.

“Stay back, Mandy,” yelled Max.

Mandy stopped in her tracks, doing as she was told. She held the gun dumbly, not raising it to a position from which she could fire it.

Was Max crazy? Normally he seemed intent on making the most practical decisions, decisions that would save his own hide.

But with Chad, it was different. For Chad, he’d risked their lives back at that mob. For Chad, he was rushing towards a group of armed men.

She hoped he knew what he was doing.

There were four men. Each now pointed a handgun at Max.

One looked at Mandy, and trained his gun on her instead.

Max was only about ten feet from them. Mandy was behind, but easily within ear shot.

Max held up his hands to show that he wasn’t armed.

The men didn’t speak.

“Listen,” said Max, firmly frozen in place. “We didn’t come here to harm you. We’re just like you… Confused and scared.”

“We’re not scared of nothing,” said one of men.

Another grunted in agreement.

The other two didn’t seem so sure.

“We’re not with any foreign government,” said Max. “If you didn’t notice, we have American accents just like you. I’m from nearby. I grew up right outside Philly.”

“That’s just what a spy would say.”

“Listen,” said Max. “I don’t care what you fellows think. Because I already know exactly what you’re going to do. And I’m going to tell you what that is, in clear and simple language so that you can follow along.”

“Looks like you’re not the one in the bargaining position.”

“That’s what it would look like, yes,” said Max. “To an untrained eye. But what you don’t realize is that you’re the ones in danger right now.”

“How’s that?”

Max didn’t say anything for quite a while.

Mandy had the distinct feeling that Max hadn’t yet thought of what to say. He was thinking on his feet.

“OK,” said Max. “That lady back there. You see her? She’s not what she appears. She’s not just some ordinary girl. She’s a highly trained marksman, or I guess they say markswoman now. Whatever. She can take you all out before you have time to pull the trigger.”

Mandy groaned internally. She was sure that this wouldn’t work.

But to try to make Max’s lie more convincing, she raised the gun, putting her eye to the scope the way she’d seen people do in the movies. She pointed the gun at one of the men and hoped she was doing it convincingly. She put her finger on the trigger, but made sure to keep from applying any pressure. She didn’t want to shoot anyone by mistake.

“You see,” said Max. “You actually did catch some spies. We’re nothing but the best. The best spies, that is.”

Mandy had the feeling that Max wasn’t used to lying. But she had to admit it wasn’t that bad of a plan. These guys were so terrified of spies that just maybe it would… maybe. But Max didn’t sound too sure of himself. He did, in a way, but he was pausing a lot when speaking.

“Yup,” said Max, again. “We’re spies… The best… And she’s the best sharpshooter…” He was starting to repeat himself.

The guys were looking at each other questioningly.

Mandy knew she had to do something.

“Listen up,” shouted Mandy. “Drop the weapons now. Or I open fire. I guarantee I’ll take out three of the four of you before you can get off a shot.”

Mandy didn’t want to make it sound too unrealistic. She had no idea if it was possible to shoot three people before they shot her, but in her mind three sounded better than four. That just sounded too boastful and unrealistic.

Were they going to buy it?

They didn’t look too smart. They had dumb looking faces and confused expressions.

Mandy wished she knew how to do that thing with a gun that made that noise, the thing they were always doing in movies. Cocking the gun? She wasn’t sure. This wasn’t that type of gun. Maybe there was a bolt somewhere. But she couldn’t exactly go groping around with her hand looking for a bolt.

Chad started groaning from down on the ground.

“Aw, shit, man,” he said, loudly. He sounded as if he was in pain.

The moments were dragging on. Mandy didn’t know what to do.

“That’s it!” she cried out. She felt like the best strategy was simply to be completely overconfident. “You’re all going down.”

She moved her body, pretending that she was adjusting the way the rifle sat on her shoulder. She moved her trigger finger around a little, hoping they could see it moving, hoping that it was twitching or something.

“Ok!” shouted one of the men. He started lowering his gun to the ground.

“Drop it!” shouted Mandy.

“What are you doing?” said his buddy.

“Dude, she’s going to kill us.”

“How do you know that?”

“You were the one who said they were spies in the first place.”

“Drop it,” shouted Mandy.

The man dropped his gun to the ground.

Mandy held her breath as it fell, hoping that it wouldn’t fire as it hit the ground. In truth, she didn’t know if that actually happened, but she was pretty sure she’d seen it in a movie somewhere.

The other men followed suit.

Mandy held her gun on them, as if she knew how to fire it.

Max walked forward and picked up the guns. He examined them. She saw him open one of the guns and check for bullets. It was a revolver, she thought. The other guns looked different, more modern.

Max stuck one in his waistband and one in his pocket. He held another awkwardly with his good hand and pointed it at the men.

“How you doing, Chad?” said Max.

“Awful,” said Chad, loudly, nearly shouting. “They took my damn meds from me.”

“What are you taking?” said Mandy.

“Vicodin,” muttered Chad. He sounded as if he was in serious withdrawal.

Mandy could see it in Chad’s face. He was suffering. But she didn’t have much sympathy for him. He’d enjoyed the highs, and now he had to deal with the lows.

“Great,” said Mandy. “I told you, Max. He’s on serious shit.”

Max didn’t answer her.

The men were looking at each other. They looked terrified.

“Get down on your knees,” shouted Mandy.

They did as they were told, sinking their knees into the mud.

“Please don’t kill us,” said one.

“Yeah,” said the other. “You know, I’ve always been a big fan of hockey. I hear that’s big in Russia…”

“So you’re a traitor, are you?” said his buddy.

“No, it’s not like that. I’m just saying if they’re taking over, then I might as well get with the new sports. They’re going to need Americans to run their Russian hockey leagues or whatever.”

“Idiots,” said Max. “You think we’re really Russians or something?”

“You’re not?”

“I told you that from the beginning. But don’t get any funny ideas. That doesn’t mean she isn’t one hell of a shot. And we’re more than willing to shoot you. Now where’s the Jeep you stole from me?”

“Right where it was before.”

“You idiots didn’t even move it? Is everything still in it?”

All the men nodded.

“Amateurs,” muttered Max, more to himself than to anyone else.

“All right,” said Max, to Mandy and Chad. “Looks like this pleasant little detour is over. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Chad managed to get himself off the ground. His oversized body was covered in mud, both dried and wet. His hair was matted. He looked terrible. His face had gone all blotchy, and it was puffy yet gaunt at the same time.

“See you… Jeep…” said Chad, not really paying any attention to them.

He rushed off as fast as he could across the field, headed towards the Jeep, towards his pills.

“I guess he’s going to get his pills,” said Mandy coldly.

“Come on,” said Max. “Let’s go.”

“Wait,” said Mandy. “I’ve got a few more questions for these idiots.”

“What could you possibly want to ask them?”

“Don’t we need information? We haven’t talked to anyone else. I want to know what the hell’s going on.”

“What’s going on? Everything is broken. Nothing works. Society is collapsing. That’s what’s going on.”

“I want to hear it from them.” She still had her gun trained on them, even as Max was starting to walk away.

“So,” she said to them. “Tell me what you know.”

Max paused and looked back.

“They don’t know anything,” he said. “They’re idiots. They thought we were Russian spies.”

“What do you know?” repeated Mandy.

“Honestly, nothing,” said one. He seemed to be the smartest of the group. “Nobody’s come through here. We figured the US had been attacked.”

“Hmm,” said Mandy. “Quite the astute conclusion.”

They didn’t seem to know what that meant.

“Where’s everyone else in this town?” said Mandy.

“At home. Everyone’s hiding.”

“Then what are you men doing out?”

“Well, there’s no sheriff. He died a month ago from a heart attack, and I guess we never got around to getting a new one.”

“So what are you saying?”

“Well we just went ahead and deputized each other, I suppose. That way we’re responsible for the safety of these parts.”

“Are you all just idiots or something?” said Max.

Mandy didn’t say anything at first. But a thought came to her.

“And how’s everyone doing?” she said. “Is everyone all right?”

“Is everyone all right?” said Max. “Are you crazy? Come on, let’s get out of this podunk town. We’ve got places to go and things to do. And I’m starving.”

Mandy looked at the men. One of them wore an uncomfortable expression that she couldn’t quite read.

She’d always had a good read on people, and truthfully she knew that despite her own anger, these men had just been trying to protect themselves and more importantly their families. They’d assumed the worst, which wasn’t really that far off—or it might not have been. After all, Mandy and Max had no idea what had happened.

Mandy knew that these weren’t cruel men. Not deep in their hearts. They didn’t want to hurt Mandy, Max, or Chad, despite what they’d already done.

And something was wrong. She could see it in the man’s sad face.

“Who is it?” said Mandy, looking directly at him. She lowered her gun, pointing the muzzle at the ground. “Who’s sick?”

“Who’s sick?” said Max. “Are you crazy? Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“It’s my dad,” said the man, who noticed that Mandy had lowered her gun. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but he’s not right.”

The other men lowered their heads in sadness.

“He was on dialysis… We were taking him down to Philly twice a week. Obviously that’s not possible now…”

“That’s a long drive,” said Mandy. “Come on, take me to your father. Maybe we can help.”

They men looked at each other hesitantly.

“Come on,” said Mandy, waving her arm. “Take me to him. Come on!”

They got up slowly and started to walk towards her.

Max walked back to her. “What are you doing?” he hissed in her ear. “Don’t you remember what they just did to us? Now the guy supposedly has a sick dad that you want to help?”