Getting Out

20

The rain was falling heavily, and Max could hear thunder in the distance. The ground was already turning to a thick mud, and Max was glad that he’d changed into boots earlier.

His stomach was empty and his wrist was killing him. He was looking forward to getting back in the Jeep, driving to a safe, secluded spot, and finally setting up the camping stove. They still had a ton of perishable food taken from his refrigerator as well as Mandy’s. The stuff from the refrigerator was not chilled, but some of it might still be good. He’d be willing to eat just about anything now.

He knew that he’d taken a couple pounds of frozen chicken.

Despite his misgivings about the situation, Max realized that in a way Mandy was right.

These guys and the people in the town were in the same situation that Max and Mandy were.

They passed by the Jeep.

“I just want to check on Chad,” said Max. Really, he wanted to make sure that everything was there.

He did a once over on the Jeep. The keys were still in it. And everything inside seemed to still be there.

Chad was lying on his back in the mud next to the Jeep. The rain was falling heavily on him, and he was already soaked.

“How you doing, Chad?” said Max. “Those guys hurt you bad?”

“Nah, man,” said Chad. His voice had a dreamy, happy quality to it. “I’m good, man. I’m good.”

“You got your pills, then?” said Max, not bothering to hide the disgust in his voice.

“Yeah, man, I’m all right.”

Max left him there lying in the mud. Chad didn’t seem to care that he was wet and muddy.

Max wondered briefly why he’d bothered rescuing Chad. Maybe he’d have been better off getting beaten to death by that mob. That was a horrible thought, but that was what it was.

Max joined Mandy and the men. They introduced themselves to each other, shaking hands.

It was a little awkward at first, considering what had happened.

Mandy and Max told them about the men Max had knocked out in the back of the store. The men had just laughed it off, and gone to check to see if he was OK.

That guy’s name was Jim, and he joined them.

Once his buddies explained to him that Max and Mandy definitely weren’t foreign spies, he warmed up to them a little more, and he warmed up to them even further when he heard that they were going to check on Tod’s sick dad.

Tod’s house was up a little side street. The six of them trudged through the rain together, chatting idly.

Max was tired and exhausted and he knew that Mandy was too. The men, however, were much better fed. They’d been up all night, but they’d been eating hot dogs.

When Max asked them about it, it turned out the majority of them had large basements full of canned and nonperishable foods. They might not have been outright preppers, but they definitely were in that general area.

Tod’s house was cluttered, and it was clear that he didn’t have much money.

His wife and his two kids were introduced. They seemed like a sweet family.

Max pondered on how strange it was that an hour ago, they’d all been convinced the other party were dangerous enemies. Now, Max and Mandy were invited into the house, shaking hands with Tod’s wife, saying hi to the kids.

Tod’s wife had set out candles, which made the place seem not as creepy as it otherwise would have been, without power, the rain pounding down on the roof.

“Yup,” said one of the men. Max couldn’t remember his name. Names had never been his strong suit. “Looks like a storm’s really starting outside.”

It was true. Max could feel it in his bones. He was feeling worried about moving on out, but he had the idea that maybe he, Mandy, and Chad would be invited to stay here for the night, and continue on the next morning.

“Where’s your dad?” said Mandy.

“He’s upstairs.”

Tod led them upstairs. It was just Tod, Mandy, and Max. The rest stayed downstairs, huddled around the warmth of the fire.

Max wished he was downstairs too, drying out. He wished he could eat, and fall asleep by the fire, and never have to worry again about the difficult journey ahead of them.

It hadn’t been that long since the EMP, but already he was fatigued beyond the point he would have thought possible.

What was more, he didn’t know why they were going to see this sick man. It wasn’t like Max was a doctor. He’d worked in an office, and medical care and first aid were weak points of his.

“Were you ever a nurse or something?” whispered Max to Mandy, as he followed her up the stairs.

She shook her head. “I thought maybe we could help.”

Max sighed. He just didn’t see how they were going to help.

He couldn’t help checking out Mandy’s ass as he followed her up the stairs. Even wearing pants, her legs looked long, shapely, and athletic, and her ass was muscular, firm, yet just large enough. And her pants being soaked didn’t help keep Max’s attention away. His eyes felt drawn to it like a magnet.

“Pop,” said Tod, already entering his father’s room. “There are some people here to see you. They wanted to see how you’re doing… We thought they were foreign spies, but it turns out they’re just from Pennsylvania like us.”

“Aw, shucks,” said Max, walking into the room. “Yeah, turns out we weren’t spies at all…”

Tod gave Max a confused look. Max supposed he himself was still a little bitter about the whole being imprisoned experience. And he also supposed that Tod wasn’t really up on sarcasm, or irony, or whatever it was Max was employing.

“How are you doing, sir?” said Mandy, kneeling down by the man.

He was propped up in his chair, various pillows helping to support him.

Max studied him. He looked like he was dying all right. Max knew that dialysis was serious business. Without it, this man would die, and there wasn’t anything he or Mandy could do about it.

Max knew that Mandy must have already known that. But she was a deeply caring person in a lot of ways. She wanted to confront the suffering of others head on. She didn’t want to run away from it.

Max wasn’t sure whether he wanted to run away from it or not.

The man looked really sick. Max hadn’t seen someone in this bad of shape for a long, long time. He had a slightly blueish tint to his skin, and he was breathing laboriously.

“How’s it going, sir?” said Mandy again.

“She asked how you’re doing, Pop,” said Tod.

The man looked at Tod and then at Mandy. His eyes went down to her breasts, and he stared at them for a moment.

“Good to see some nice sights around here,” he said.

“Don’t listen to him,” said Tod, blushing in embarrassment for what his father had said.

“It’s fine,” said Mandy. “How are you feeling, sir?”

“Pain,” said the man, his face going blank. “Pain, nothing but pain.”

Mandy looked at Max, who shrugged his shoulders ever so slightly. He didn’t see why they were here, except that Mandy had too big of a heart.

“Come on, Mandy,” he said. “We should be getting out of here.” There went his dreams of sleeping by the fire and having a good meal before getting back on the seemingly never ending road, filled with rain and storms, and countless obstacles that he still had yet to cross.

“Pain,” said the man. “I knew it would end soon. I had a feeling about this. When the power went out, I shrugged it off. But then my kids were telling me their phones weren’t working. I’m headed out, and that’s fine. I had a good run, I just didn’t know the end would seem so bleak and… painful. I just…”

He slumped a little in his chair, tired with the fatigue of having to speak for so long.

“What are you giving him for the pain?” said Mandy.

Max didn’t know what kind of pain the guy would be in. Max associated pain with broken wrists, broken bones, blunt trauma, that sort of thing. Maybe back pain, too, not that he’d ever had much of an issue with that.

“Just some aspirin,” grunted Tod. “We don’t have much more than that.”

“Well, what about those pills Chad has?” she said to Max.

“I’ll go get them,” said Max instantly.

Chad didn’t need those damn pills. But this guy did.

“I’ll be right back,” said Max, nodding to Tod, who nodded back.

Max jogged down the stairs despite his growing fatigue. His wrist was still killing him.

The rain outside was heavy, but Max was already wet. The thunder was crashing all around. It sounded like a bowling alley on steroids. Lightning flickered in the sky. The wind was intense. The trees swayed in the gusts like they would fall over.

The town looked different in the rain and the storm. It looked like a little oasis, a little haven being battered by the forces of nature.

Max knew that his own journey was changing. That was what the storm meant to him. So far, he’d escaped the clutches of his dying civilization. He’d battled other humans. He’d shot two of them. He’d done what he had to do to get out.

The further out he got, the less people he would encounter. That was going to be the big change for Max, and whoever was going to come with him.

Max knew what the future held. It was this storm. This storm was it.

Max would be facing nature, wild and intense, dangerous and possibly disastrous. There wasn’t any way to prepare for that. Sure, he had some gear. He had the Jeep. He had the guns.

But it would be him against not just the elements, but against the faceless void that people called mother nature, the unsympathetic beast composed of a thousand beasts all together.

There would be moments, Max knew, when he would be hungry and cold. He would be on the verge of starvation, unless he could use his own wits to outpace what was going to come for him no matter what. That was death, cold and silent, the grim reaper facing him down with a pointed scythe and not a care in the world, breathless and boney.

Max knew there was no end in sight. Civilization had collapsed. Gone were the comfy baths, gone was hot water entirely. Gone was everything he’d known. Gone was the fast food. Gone were the grocery stories and the automobiles. Once the gas was finished, there would be no more point to the Jeep. There’d be no point to his cook stove either.

Max would have to learn everything again. He’d have to do what people had done on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years, and that was survive, even when the faceless void yawned its impressive toothless grin right in his pitiful human face.

But there was hope. There was a way to cheat death. And that wasn’t mere survival. It wasn’t finding comfort among the wilderness. It was procreation—creating more humans so that the human race could continue. For how long, no one knew. An eternity stretched in front of him, a great chasm from which there was no return, and year by year it would swallow the humans given to it. It would swallow them eagerly without compulsion or feeling. The human race would continue mating, giving birth, dying, throwing humans right into that ceaseless void, wherever it was, wherever it appeared. It would swallow that old man up soon enough, and it would swallow Max up when it had the chance.

Max must have been more tired than he’d thought. This was heavy shit he was thinking about. His mind seemed to be reeling. It seemed to be in some strange place.

The rain pounding forcefully onto him, Max approached the Jeep.

“Chad!” he screamed. “Get up! What the hell are you doing?”

Chad was lying in a pool of muddy water, the rain pounding down onto him.

He was facing the ceaseless void of nature, the intense majestic forces that could destroy him in an instant without a care.

They were up against nature. And it wasn’t just Max and Chad. It was everyone, everywhere.

Chad had never looked happier. A huge grin was plastered on his face.

“Chad!” screamed Max, bending down and putting his mouth right to his ear.

“Huh?” said Chad, finally realizing that Max was there. He was as high as a kite.

“Get up, Chad,” said Max.

He bent down and picked up the immensely heavy Chad. He seemed heavier now than he had before, if that was even possible. It was just the illusion the water was providing. Heavier things were always wet, and Chad was one of them.

“Hey, man,” said Chad, his eyes glossy and his pupils wide. “Funny seeing you here.”

“You think I could have one of those pills, man?” said Max. He knew that if talked Chad’s language, he’d hand then over.

“Sure, man,” said Chad. “I’m happy you’ve finally come around. You were always such a square, man. But now that civilization’s ending, you’re coming around… I like that, man.”

He handed the pills to Max. Max checked them. Fortunately, no water was getting into the airtight bottle.

Max shook the pills, hearing the sound of them rattling around.

“You know, there aren’t going to be any more of these,” said Max. “There aren’t any more factories to make them. You know that, right?”

“I know, man,” said Chad. “But got to enjoy it while you can, right?”

“Sure, man,” said Max, talking down to him, but Chad didn’t even notice. “Got to enjoy it while you can. But you realize you’re going to have to face the withdrawal sooner or later, right?”

“Sure, man,” said Chad, a happy look on his face. He wasn’t all there. “Say, aren’t you going to take one of those pills?”

“Yeah,” said Max. “I’m going to take all of them.”

“I tried that once,” said Chad vaguely. “Ended up in the hospital.”

“I’m giving them all to a dying guy,” said Max. “He actually needs them.”

“What?” said Chad, despair suddenly appearing on his face and in his voice. “You can’t do that! They’re mine.”

“I can do what I want,” said Max. “I saved you. The only reason you’re alive is because of me… because of our past. And you know what? You’re completely useless. And this guy needs the pills way more than you. He actually needs them. You? You’re just a coward.”

Max started walking swiftly away. He pulled his jacket close to him, to keep the gales of wind from blowing it open.

Chad ran after him. Max could hear his footsteps splashing in puddles.

“Give me the pills,” he shouted.

Max didn’t answer.

He didn’t even turn around.

The next thing he knew, Chad’s fist hit him in side of the face. It was a hard blow, and Max reeled from it, almost losing his balance.

“You don’t want to fight me,” said Max. It took every ounce of his self-control not to hit Chad back. But he knew that it would just create more problems for him later on. If he seriously injured Chad, he’d be the one who had to deal with it. That was his code of honor, his own system by which he had to live by, even if no one else did.

Chad growled like an animal. “Give me those pills,” he said. There was spittle coming out of his mouth. His face was flushed and red. He seemed not to notice the wind or the rain in the slightest.

Chad charged at him, lowering himself as if he was going to tackle Max.

Max stepped to the side easily and stuck out his leg. Chad tripped over it, and went flying face first into the mud.

Max was disgusted by his behavior, and didn’t even turn around to look at him, to see how he was.

He opened the door again, fighting the wind.

He climbed the stairs with heavy, wet footsteps.

“Here you go,” he said, handing the pills to Tod.

“He should take one whenever he feels discomfort,” said Mandy, who looked like she’d dried off just a little bit.

“What are you, a nurse?” said Max.

She didn’t answer.

The old dying man was asleep now, but Max could see the pain still on his face. He was glad that he would have the pills, and not Chad, but he knew that now he’d have to deal with Chad in withdrawal mania for however long it took for that shit to leave his system completely.

Max wanted to do nothing more than collapse on the floor downstairs, by the fire.

But he knew that wasn’t happening. Not that Tod wasn’t grateful. In fact, he wouldn’t shut up about it. He was saying that these pills would give his dad some relief in his final moments.

Max was beyond exhausted. He kept repeating to himself that he was exhausted, like a tape-recorded voice that wouldn’t stop in his head.

The world around him seemed to be fading. His mind was over-active. People’s voices were getting dimmer, and less important.

But one thing he could read loud and clear was the expression on Mandy’s face.

He saw it on her as clear as day. He saw how empathetic she was, how much it pained her to see this man dying, to consider all the people around the world in pain, dying without assistance, dying from starvation and a thousand horrors.

“Come on, Mandy,” said Max.

He took her hand and it felt warm in his. His own felt cold and clammy.

They said goodbye, and declined all offers of a hot meal from the fire. Max knew they had to be moving on. The faster they got to their destination, the better.

They walked hand in hand into the storm, into the rain, into the chaos of the natural world.

“What’s going to happen to everyone?” said Mandy. Her voice sounded distant.

Max didn’t answer.

He knew what she meant.

He was wondering the same thing. Somehow he’d been able to hold it all back until now, the thoughts of what this really meant.

He’d been so focused on his own personal survival, on what he needed to do to get out. In a way, that was a defense strategy, a personal thought shield against the true horrors of considering humanity at large right now.

If the entire world had experienced the EMP, which Max was thinking was more and more likely, given the complete lack of communication or help from the outside, then… well, everything was screwed.

He didn’t know how else to put it to himself. Images of children, men, women, elderly… all over the world… dying a thousand deaths. He felt like the Buddha, under that tree right after enlightenment, when he confronted the suffering of the world. There was no great force to confront, no greater pain to battle…

“Are you OK, Max?” said Mandy.

“Huh?” said Max.

“You have that faraway look in your eyes. Are you OK?”

“My wrist is fine,” said Max.

“I meant… you know, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” said Max. “But you better drive. My wrist is still messed up.”

“I thought it was fine?”

Max didn’t answer her.

“Chad!” yelled Max.

Chad was knocked out cold in the mud.

“What happened to him?”

“Who knows,” said Max. “Now help me get him into the Jeep.”

They dragged him towards the Jeep, not taking too much care with his body.

“What’s your deal with this guy, anyway?” said Mandy.

“Long story,” said Max.