Staying Alive

35

Sadie’s tears had been slow to stop.

She remembered James pulling her, practically dragging her, away from the van and into the woods.

The four of them had sprinted through the trees. The branches had smacked into them, cutting them.

They’d run and run, and Sadie had cried the entire time. She couldn’t believe that her mom and Max had done what they’d done. Sadie had protested, but no one had listened. And she couldn’t believe that James had gone along with the plan.

Chad had led the way, followed by James and Sadie. Sadie’d never seen Chad run so fast. Mandy took up the rear, shouting words of encouragement, telling them to keep going, to keep running.

They’d all run until they couldn’t run any more, until their feet ached and their hearts pounded, feeling like they’d give out, until their lungs ached for air.

And they hadn’t stopped to rest. Chad had urged them forward, telling them they had to at least walk.

There was no way to know what had happened to her mom and Max. Sadie remembered hearing the van speeding away, the door slamming. But that was it. By the time the Bronco drove by, that evil, vicious looking SUV, Sadie and the others were too deep into the woods to hear it.

No one spoke as they walked through the woods for hours and hours. The hours turned into a full day. They’d seen nothing and no one, nothing except the endless trees.

Memories of her former life flashed through Sadie’s mind as she walked. She remembered the times that her mother had wanted to take her hunting, but Sadie had been more interested in watching TV and texting her friends. She remembered how she’d never wanted to go to school, to sit in those boring classrooms and listen to someone tell her stuff she either already knew or didn’t need to know. How she longed for a classroom now! Those climate-controlled rooms, once so bland and stark, couldn’t have seemed more appealing compared to the forest, the horrible forest that seemed to stretch forever, terrible and vicious in its own way. And those chairs! The straight-backed chairs permanently fixed to those tiny, obnoxious desks. What Sadie wouldn’t have given to have one with her right now…

Sadie felt guilty about even thinking about comfort when her mother was most likely dead. But she couldn’t cry any more. It felt like her eyes had no more tears to give.

“Sadie,” said James, tugging on her sleeve.

“What?”

“Didn’t you hear Chad and Mandy? We’re stopping for the night.”

“Oh,” said Sadie.

She felt dazed, lost in the strange world of her own thoughts.

“We can’t start a fire,” said Chad. “It’s too risky.”

“Here,” said Mandy, putting her arm around Sadie and handing her a bag of beef jerky. “Eat some of this. It’ll make you feel better.”

“I’m not hungry,” said Sadie, which was the truth.

But Mandy and everyone else urged her to eat, and she did feel better afterwards.

The night was long. Impossibly long. They had nothing to sleep in. No sleeping bags, and the ground was cold. Summer was approaching its end, and the cold weather would be coming in soon.

“James?” whispered Sadie, curled up in the darkness. “Are you awake?”

“Yeah.”

“You think Mom’s OK?”

Sadie didn’t know why she asked. She was already convinced that her mother and Max were both dead, and that the men in the Bronco would be coming for them soon.

“Yeah,” said James. “You know Mom, she’s tough. And Max, you can’t get anything by that guy.”

“Thanks,” said Sadie. She suddenly realized that she’d asked because she was looking for comforting words, even if she knew in her heart that they were wrong.

The group barely spoke in the morning, except for a brief discussion about whether they were on the right track to get to Albion, the small town that Max had mentioned.

Sadie didn’t get the sense that any of them actually thought there was a good chance of meeting Georgia and Max at Albion. But they all knew that they had to at least try.

After another few hours of hiking, in what Chad insisted was the wrong direction, they found Route 90, a huge, empty highway. The woods just miraculously ended. Sadie had never been so happy to see a highway in her life. It meant an end to the endless woods.

But she knew it didn’t mean an end to their suffering, to the horrors they’d already experienced, and would continue to experience.

It wasn’t true happiness she felt. More like the briefest of respites, like a single breath after laps and laps swimming underwater, only to be submerged once more, with nothing to do but swim and swim forever, hoping for that next brief breath of air.

“Come on, Sadie,” said James.

Sadie looked up. It’d been like she was lost in a dream. Chad was already halfway across the highway.

James and Sadie crossed the highway, Mandy trailing behind them, her rifle held in front of her, ready.

It was strange to look down each way on the highway and see absolutely nothing at all. Not a single car. Not even an abandoned one.

Albion was a small town on the other side of the highway. It took them another half hour to reach the edge of it.

Sure enough, there was a rusted out old granary there, just like Max had said there would be.

But there was no Max. Her mom wasn’t there either. No sign of the minivan. Or the Ford Bronco.

Sadie shuddered when she thought of that Bronco.

“Seems like no one’s here,” said Chad, looking up and down the abandoned dirt road. “The town must be really small. We can stay here for a while without much of a risk. What do you think, Mandy?”

“Let’s wait,” said Mandy.

There was an area off to the side of the granary, where overgrown hedges and trees would partially shield them all from prying eyes, if someone did come by this way.

The hours ticked by. The sun had already risen high in the sky and was headed down again.

Sadie couldn’t stand the waiting. She wanted to just know. One way or the other. She wanted to know what had happened. She was trying not to hold out hope that her mom and Max had lived. But now that they were there at the meeting place, she couldn’t contain the hope, and it seemed to burst through her, taking over her whole being. She’d become nothing but hope, a ridiculous and impossible hope that she knew she shouldn’t even be daring to experience.

“You hear that?” said Mandy, perking up her head.

Sadie heard it. It was the sound of an engine off in the distance.

No one spoke. Everyone listened.

“It doesn’t sound like the minivan,” whispered James finally, as the engine noise got closer and closer.

Sadie knew he was right. It sounded louder, rougher. The minivan had either been quiet or high-pitched and whiny.

Whatever it was, whoever it was, they were getting closer every minute.

“Look,” said James, pointing.

In the distance, there it was.

Unmistakable.

It was the Ford Bronco.

Coming right towards them down the road.

“Shit,” said a few of them at once.

They all had their rifles up and ready. Everyone except Sadie. She was too stunned to raise her gun. She’d known not to hope, but she’d let it get the best of her, and now… now she was beyond devastated.

“What’s the plan, Mandy?” said Chad.

“Shit if I know,” said Mandy.

“Shoot to kill,” said James. “Shoot as soon as they get out.”

They spoke tensely, knowing that they might have finally found their last living moments.

The Bronco stopped. It was close to them, but Sadie couldn’t see through the windshield. She just saw shadows and reflections playing across it.

The door opened.

“Don’t shoot!”

“It was a familiar voice. Impossibly familiar.

It was her mom.

Alive.

Sadie dropped her gun and ran towards her mother, tears streaming down her face.

“Mom!” cried Sadie.

There were tears in her mom’s eyes as Sadie embraced her, hugging her as tightly as she could, never wanting to let her go.

Max appeared, limping horribly. His face was black and blue, badly swollen. His nose was crooked, dried blood all over his face, poorly wiped off.

James joined in the hug, and for a moment it felt like it was just three of them in the world, their little family together once again. It was as if nothing had happened and nothing ever would happen to them again.

When Sadie finally looked up, Mandy was kissing Max, smashing her pretty face against his battered one.

All of them were laughing and crying, often at the same time.

Sadie felt good.

But she knew it wasn’t over. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

“So what’s the plan?” said Chad.

“Same as before,” said Max. “Head west.”

Sadie tried not to hope. She should have known better, but she found herself longing for a calm life, somewhere out west, in a remote spot away from the madness, where they could all start to live again, undisturbed.

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