Pushing On

13

Drew had done it. He’d snagged a live group. It was like fishing. You had to wait and wait, and for a long time it seemed like no one would come along. And when they had come along, Drew wasn’t sure if they’d bite or not.

He could barely believe it when they’d taken the bait. They’d bought his whole spiel about being an experienced hiker.

It hadn’t been hard for Drew to fake it all. Faking was what he was good at. He could don a persona the way an actor does when auditioning for a big role.

Before the EMP, Drew had been something of a con man. No, he’d never gone to jail. And it wasn’t that he’d never gotten caught. It was just that he was clever enough to keep all his schemes above-board, legally speaking.

But that didn’t mean that there weren’t victims. Drew had drained more than his fair share of bank accounts, and all through legal means. In fact, before the EMP, he was just about getting ready to settle down and retire. He had enough in his offshore bank accounts, not to mention his safety deposit boxes and crypto-currency investments, that he could live comfortably abroad for the rest of his life. That was the magic of favorable exchange rates, not to mention hoodwinking people out of their life savings.

He’d been ready to live like a king. He’d been ready to live the life that he felt he deserved.

But the EMP had changed it all.

Drew wasn’t dumb. He was deviously clever, able to read people and situations with ease. He knew, after the first week, that everything had come tumbling down. Much faster than expected.

And that meant that all his hard work had amounted to exactly nothing. His money wasn’t even just a string of zeros in a computer bank somewhere. Those computers weren’t on, and they likely wouldn’t ever be again.

He had nothing.

Nothing except the skillset he’d spent his life honing.

When he’d been in the business world, he’d always looked for the meanest, most ruthless guys to team up with. Sure, they wore suits and didn’t look vicious, but Drew knew well that appearances didn’t mean anything. Drew had been able to align his own skills with that of people just as vicious as him. And that was how he’d made the real money.

So after the EMP, Drew quickly teamed up with the most vicious guys he could find. He knew that he could use their muscles and they could use his brain. He’d be the leader, and in that way he’d get what he wanted.

And he didn’t want to just survive. That was just the foundation. Soon, he’d move his way up the ladder. Soon, he’d amass his own little fortune here in the post-EMP world.

First, though, he needed the basics. And they were severely lacking in that.

After making his way out of Philadelphia, he talked his way out of any problem he came to, and when he couldn’t do that, he resorted to cold-blooded violence.

Drew had taken a car to an upstate penitentiary. There, he’d found the prisoners freed. The electronic security system had shut down, and the guards had all fled. The prisoners had had no option but to escape, unless they wanted to starve to death.

Drew felt sympathetic towards them. He saw himself in them. After all, if he’d been born with a little less intelligence, he would have wound up there himself.

Many of the prisoners had already left, but others hung around, not sure what to do. It’d been years, if not decades, since they’d been out in the real world. Many didn’t understand the consequences of the EMP, and many were confused. They spent their time milling around the outskirts of the defunct penitentiary, unsure of what to do.

People who were unsure of what to do were the easiest to manipulate. That was what Drew had always found. And that instinct didn’t fail him. Soon, he had his little band of big, muscular, vicious guys.

Unfortunately, things hadn’t gone exactly as Drew had planned. A powerful militia group had formed in the suburbs, recruiting many of the prisoners, and Drew and his group found themselves unwelcome unless they submitted to the authority of the new boss.

So Drew and his group had moved north, with plans to build a community there, on the outskirts of the new “government” that was developing in the suburbs.

The group of his four big guys was lying in wait along the trail.

Drew was leading the men and women he’d met right to his muscle men.

The group Drew had found was armed. But only somewhat. Only two of them had guns, at least visible guns.

One of them looked like he might be a problem. He was suspicious of Drew. Drew knew how to sense that.

But that wouldn’t be a problem. His guys would take care of them all.

Drew’s guys, lying in wait, were getting hungry. It was only a matter of time before they got fed up with Drew. Drew knew he had to prove himself soon, or else risk losing his little group that he was going to do so much with. He was going to lead them to great heights.

Drew was smiling to himself as the five of them walked along.

Up ahead, Drew recognized a small boulder that marked the spot where his guys were lying in wait.

“We’re making good progress,” called out Drew.

“We’re lucky we found you,” said Derek.

“No,” said Drew. “I’m lucky I found you.”