Pushing On

32

Max and Mandy stood on the outskirts of the little campsite. It’d been a week since they’d gotten here, and in a strange way it had started to feel like home.

Max and Mandy spoke in quiet, hushed voices. They stood close together, both facing the campsite. They were dirty, tired, and hungry.

It was early morning, and Sadie and James’s snores could be heard from the Bronco.

“How’s Georgia doing today?” said Max.

“About the same. She’s going to live. And she’ll be able to walk and move. But it’s going to take a while. She needs time.”

“I guess that’s good.”

“She’s not getting worse. That’s a good sign. The antibiotics helped. No infection, from what I can tell. The fever’s been gone for three days. You did a good job getting the bullet out.”

“I hope so. All that reading I did before the EMP paid off.”

“It’s going to be a lot longer before she’s able to walk.”

“I know. Maybe weeks.”

“Maybe more,” said Mandy.

“She’s not going to get any better without food.”

“We’re running low…”

“You don’t need to tell me that.”

There was practically no food left. Fortunately, a small creek ran nearby, and they had enough water.

Max had set up some traps, like the ones Jeff had shown him. He’d caught a couple squirrels, but nothing bigger than that. And squirrels didn’t provide a lot of meat.

“Still no sign of any deer?”

Max shook his head. “Not unless you’ve seen any.”

“Nope, nothing.”

“We only have the handguns to hunt with anyway, and ammo is low.”

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

“I’ve been thinking,” said Max, “that the best thing is if I go find some gas.”

“You? Alone?”

Max nodded. “They need you here. You’re the only functional adult now. You’ll be able to catch more squirrels in the traps. Without me, it’ll be one less mouth to feed. You’ll be fine until I get back.”

“I don’t like the idea of you going alone, though. And why now? It doesn’t seem like we should leave yet. There haven’t been any cars that have come by. It doesn’t seem like they’re looking for us.”

“It might take me a while,” said Max. “Who knows where I’ll be able to find gas, and how long it’ll take me to get there and back. Once Georgia’s ready, we need to be ready to go. We’ll need the gas. We can’t stay here any longer than we have to. We’re too close to the compound, and food is scarce.”

“You mean it might take you days?”

“Hopefully. Maybe weeks. There could be a car with gas a mile away, or a hundred. We don’t even know where we are. There was nothing but woods when we were driving out here. I didn’t see any towns.”

“I don’t think you should go alone.”

Mandy wore a pained expression on her face.

“I have to.”

Max looked into Mandy’s eyes and saw that she knew it was the truth. There wasn’t any other way.

“When are you going to go?”

“The sooner the better. My bag’s already packed.”

“You mean today?”

“I mean now.”

“Now?”

“Right now, yeah.”

“You’re tired. You should rest first.”

Max just shook his head. “It’ll be better if you say goodbye to the others for me.”

“Max…”

“I’m doing this for all of us,” said Max.

Mandy took his hand in hers, and held it for a moment.

But she let it slip away as Max turned and walked to his pack, which he’d prepared during the night. He’d packed only a small amount of food, leaving most of what was left for the others.

Max shouldered his pack.

Mandy didn’t wave, and neither did Max. They looked at each other for a moment, and then Max turned and set off towards the road. The camp wasn’t visible from the road, so Max would leave himself a marker, something that only he would recognize.

It might be a long road ahead, but Max was ready.

They’d survived. That was the important thing. And they’d continue to survive. Max would do everything he could. And he knew the others would too. They’d made mistakes. Max had made many. But that’s the way life was now—it wasn’t a straight easy path from one point to the next.

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