Staying Alive

17

The van was packed. Mostly. Chad had spent all morning carrying all the heavy stuff to the van and trying to figure out a way it could all fit inside. And that was counting on six people being in the van.

A huge pile of provisions lay next to the van. Everyone should have been working together to figure out what was absolutely crucial, what they really needed to bring. But everyone was so tired, and there was so much to do, that in the end a lot of the decisions were left up to Chad and Chad alone, since he was the one actually loading the van.

Chad’s muscles ached from the effort. He’d been getting fitter since arriving at the farm. But he still had a lifetime of inactivity behind him. It would take more than two weeks to catch up.

On top of the muscle soreness, Chad was simply exhausted. It wasn’t like the others had had any rest either. But Chad had spent all that time on the roof. It’d been probably the most stressful event of his life.

He’d frozen up when he’d seen the attackers for the first time. He’d gotten one in his sights, but the guy’d been running. And Chad had just kept waiting until he thought he could really get the shot. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to fire another shot in quick succession, so he’d kept waiting for the perfect shot. And that shot never came.

The others, Max, Georgia, and everyone—they probably thought Chad was worthless. After all, he was the one who’d been on watch. It’d all been his responsibility. If it hadn’t been for Georgia, who knew what would have happened.

Chad kept his eyes peeled as best he could, walking around to the other side of the house, to tell Max that the van was almost ready.

He heard footsteps running off to the side, by the woods. It was Georgia and Mandy, their rifles held in their hands.

“Chad,” said Mandy, using a loud whisper when she got close. “People. In the woods.”

Shit. This was the last thing they needed.

Georgia and Mandy didn’t stop running, and they motioned for Chad to follow them around to the other side of the house.

Chad lumbered along behind them, running as best he could, keeping his eyes fixed on the woods that they’d come from.

“What are we going to do?” said Chad, panting.

“We’ve got to get on the road now,” said Mandy.

“How many of them are there?”

“We don’t know. Saw a couple.”

“Max,” said Georgia, running up the wooden stairs of the porch. “Max, wake up.”

Max woke with a start. He instinctively reached for his Glock and had it in his hand before his eyes were fully open.

“We’ve got to hit the road, Max,” said Georgia. “Mandy and I saw people in the woods. More than one. No idea who they are.”

“Shit,” muttered Max, closing his eyes, as if he was thinking hard.

“We don’t have the energy to fight them,” said Georgia. “We’re all dead tired.”

“Yeah,” said Max, opening his eyes again. “Realistically, we’re not going to win, especially if they’re intent on taking the house. Better to just let them have it. We’re not going to make it through another day like yesterday.”

“But we’re not done packing,” said Chad. “I’ve got a lot of stuff in the van, but there’s plenty more I couldn’t fit in. If we left now, we’d be leaving a lot behind. And I mean a lot. I thought you would all want to go through it once more.”

“We can’t be cowboys about this,” said Max. “We’ve got to leave now, whether we’re packed or not.”

Everyone else was nodding their head, in agreement with Max.

Maybe Chad was just exhausted, but in his mind, the provisions were more important than risking another gunfight.

“Look,” said Chad. “Say we get out of here without getting shot, what good is it going to do us if we’ve left something critical behind?”

“You were the one packing the van,” said Mandy. “Let’s hope you did a good job.”

“Come on,” said Max. “We can’t discuss this any longer. How close were they?”

“Pretty close,” said Georgia. “And getting closer.”

Max stood up, gritting his teeth in pain.

Chad moved over to help him up.

“I’m fine,” said Max. But it was clear his leg was killing him.

The group cut through the house, taking one last look around for anything that they might need to grab. Chad stuffed a couple unused candles in his pockets. Not to mention a few pieces of cooked venison that were lying out on some newspaper.

“You’re driving first, Chad,” said Max, as they approached the van.

“I really hope we don’t need any of this, Chad,” said Mandy, eyeing the pile of left-overs on the ground. She spoke his name with disdain.

Truthfully, Chad could understand Mandy’s occasional disdain for him. How many times had Chad and Chad alone been responsible for almost getting them all killed? That didn’t mean it didn’t bother him. He wasn’t like Max. Things didn’t just slide right off of him. He felt everything. People used to tell him that he was too sensitive. Maybe that was why he’d gotten mixed up in drugs in the first place. The first time he’d popped a Vicodin, he felt all that sensitivity and anxiety just slide right off of him. Now, without the drugs, it was like he was entering the world again for the first time.

Chad got behind the wheel, and the rest clambered inside. The van technically seated eight, and there were six of them. The remaining seat, the one in the back right, Chad had piled high with gear. He’d stuffed things under the seats, and in the foot spaces. He’d put knives in the glove box and bandages in the pockets behind the seat. Everything was completely disorganized, a necessity of trying to fit it all in.

Chad closed the door behind him, his hand reaching for the keys which had been left on the dash. He suddenly realized that there was a small chance that the van wouldn’t start. He didn’t know why, but he had a horrible anxious feeling in his solar plexus, a tightness that would barely let him breathe—what if the van didn’t start?

“What are you waiting for?” came Mandy’s voice from the behind him.

“Let’s get a move on it,” said Georgia, in the passenger seat.

Max was in the way back, his eyes seemingly glazed over with pain. James and Sadie were completely silent. They seemed just as nervous as Chad.

Chad turned the keys.

The engine started.

He didn’t yet breathe a sigh of relief, though.

“There they are,” said Mandy, her voice rising in terror.

Chad looked off towards the woods.

Half a dozen figures or so were emerging from the trees. He couldn’t get a good look at their faces. They walked in a pyramid-style formation. The way they moved alone made Chad think of the military. They had large guns with them, held with the muzzles pointed down. Most of them wore camouflage clothes. Something about the way they moved made them seem… professional.

Chad knew one thing. You don’t want to run into professionals during the apocalypse.

After all, what would their profession be? Killing?

Chad was frozen in fear. His hand was on the shifter, his foot on the brake.

“Go!”

“Chad!”

Everyone was urging him to move, to drive. But it was as if he couldn’t get his body to respond. He couldn’t make himself even shift the van into reverse.

“Come on!” said Georgia, tugging on his sleeve.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Chad snapped out of it.

He put the van in reverse, spun the wheel, and hit the accelerator. Chad spun the van around, pointing it towards the road.

“They see us,” said Georgia.

“Are we going to be OK, Mom?” said Sadie.

“We’re going to be OK, Sadie,” said James.

“Go!”

“Go!”

Chad wasn’t sure who was shouting in the van.

He slammed the van into drive, and jammed his foot down on the pedal. The tires spun in the loose earth, and they were off, heading towards the road down the long, winding driveway.

Chad looked briefly in the rear view mirror. The men in formation were out of his sight.

There were no dramatic gunshots. No one shot at the van. No one ran screaming at them.

But the silence was almost worse. Because it meant too many unknowns.

The farmhouse was now in their past. What they had left behind was now gone, and it was unlikely it would be safe to return. Max had been both wrong and right—it’d been a safe haven for what felt now like a brief moment. And it had quickly become too dangerous. They were too close to the cities, to civilization.

They needed to get far, far away, to some unknown and unpopulated lands.

“Who were they?” said Sadie.

No one answered. Because no one knew.

The only thing that seemed certain was that the men weren’t friends. They’d come to take what they needed, and it wasn’t likely they’d be kind. Not with those guns in their hands, not with the way they moved.

“Here,” said Georgia, shaking out a caffeine pill and holding it out for Chad. “It’s the last one.”

“Thanks.”

“You OK to drive?” said Georgia. “We’ll take shifts. That way everyone can get some rest.”

“Not really,” said Chad. “But what choice do we have?”

“Right,” said Georgia. “I’ll stay up with you. Everyone else, get some sleep.” She turned her head around to address the rest of the group. “You hear me?”

Chad looked in the rear view mirror, adjusting it. James and Sadie had already fallen asleep, passed out cold, their heads tilted to the side and their mouths open. Max had fallen asleep as well. His injury must have really exhausted him, because it wasn’t like Max to let himself sleep while others kept him safe.

Chad felt a moment of panic. If Max didn’t make it, what would they do?

But this wasn’t a good time to worry about that, and Chad knew it.

Only Mandy remained awake, but she was looking out the window with a far-off look in her eyes. She wouldn’t be awake for long.

“Here goes nothing,” muttered Chad, as he slowed the van down to take the turn onto the road. The gate was already open. The original owner of the van had left it that way.

The tires of the van ran smoothly along the paved road.

It was strange to be driving the van on a paved road. It almost felt like the EMP had never happened, and society had never collapsed. After all, the driver’s seat was upholstered and comfortable. And there was air conditioning and even a radio. Not that the radio would work. And not that they’d use the AC, since it would use up far too much gas.

“Let’s hope this goes well,” said Georgia. “Who knows what we’re going to find out here.”

“We don’t even know where we’re headed,” said Chad.

“Max said you’d traveled west, right?” said Georgia. “I think he thought you were going to be our guide, since we don’t have any maps for the other states.”

“Are you serious?” said Chad.

“Yeah, that’s what he said.”

“I mean, I’ve bounced around a little, yeah,” said Chad. “But it’s not like I know the routes or anything. I usually took the bus… One time, I made a road trip to LA in an old jalopy that a friend lent me… To be honest, I was out of it most of the time. The only thing I remember is that the roof was caving on me.”

“You drove high?” said Georgia, disdain filling her voice.

“Uh, yeah, wasn’t my proudest moment.”

“Sounds like you haven’t had a lot of those.”

“Not really. Nothing I can do about it now, though.”

“You’re doing good, Chad,” said Georgia.

He looked over at her briefly, and she looked at him.

He knew she was referring to his effort to be responsible, to look out for the others, to do more than his fair share of the chores back at the farmhouse.

Georgia wasn’t the sort of woman to throw out excessive compliments. So, coming from her, it was kind of a big deal. Especially since Chad already felt like he’d screwed up so much at the farmhouse.

Chad drove on. Mandy had already fallen asleep, along with the rest of them. He and Georgia didn’t speak for the next half hour.

Being out on the open road was the strangest thing. The sun was shining, bright and cheery, and the country road couldn’t have looked more peaceful. The leaves on the trees were bright and green. It would have been a beautiful, relaxing drive, had the situation been entirely different.

Chad tried not to let his mind wander. But he couldn’t help it. He tried his hardest to think of practical things. They needed to know where to go, first of all. And they’d need food, not to mention water. And of course gas. They couldn’t go anywhere without that. They had just one tank. One pitiful little tank. Who knew how far that would take them, with six people in a fully-loaded down van that couldn’t have gotten the greatest gas mileage to begin with.

Chad couldn’t focus on any of that.

Instead, he found himself reminiscing about a trip he’d taken when he was younger, the year before he’d gotten involved in drugs. If he was being honest with himself, it was one of the last truly coherent memories he actually had. It’d been a hiking trip with the local camping group, and they’d headed up to the Poconos, where beautiful pine trees lined a small man-made lake. There wasn’t anything really exciting that had happened on the trip. It was more that there’d been a certain feeling he’d always associated with that area. It was the feeling of peace and calm… Chad had no idea why he was thinking about it now.

Max was injured. Everyone else was asleep. Georgia may have been there, but Chad was driving. And he was just as fatigued as the rest of them. He wasn’t ready for this level of responsibility. He just wasn’t that kind of guy, and he knew it.

Why couldn’t it have been Chad that’d been shot, rather than Max? He certainly wouldn’t have relished being shot. Or the ensuing pain. But he didn’t deserve this responsibility.

Max had been injured because he’d stuck his neck out for all of them. Chad hadn’t done so, though. So there wasn’t any more to think about.

“Chad!” said Georgia, sounding frantic. “What are you doing?”

That snapped Chad out of his daydreaming and thinking.

His eyes had been on the road, but he hadn’t really been focusing.

Suddenly, Chad saw it.

In front of them, on the long stretch of two-lane country road, there was a roadblock.

It was nothing more than some tree trunks that lay across the road.

If they collided with it, the van would be toast, and they wouldn’t have a vehicle, arguably one of their most important tools for survival.

Who’d put those logs there? Were there people lying in wait?

And if they couldn’t get through here, where were they going to go? There’d been no other roads since leaving the farmhouse driveway.

There was no time to worry about that now, though.

If only Chad had noticed it earlier.

He slammed on the brakes.

But the van was rapidly heading towards the logs.