Defending Camp

18

They’d spent a couple hours asleep in the cab of the truck. They’d decided against using the watch shift system. There were only two of them. If one of them had stayed awake, it would have meant spending twice as long parked and not moving. Or each of them getting half as much sleep.

The truck was parked off the road, behind a tree. Hopefully, if someone had come by, it would just looked like an abandoned truck. It was beat up and nothing fancy. Not that that was what mattered to anyone anymore.

Maybe it was risky. Mandy had had to convince Max to do it. She’d been dead tired, and she could tell he was, too. They’d needed the sleep.

She was still groggy now, her mind blurry, as she woke up. She’d fallen asleep leaning against Max’s strong shoulder.

She was still leaning against him now.

“You awake?” she said, speaking sleepily.

“Yeah,” said Max.

“Did you sleep at all?”

“A little.”

Mandy glanced up at Max, looking backwards at him. His face was covered in shadows. The sun hadn’t yet risen, and the moonlight drifted into the truck’s cab in patches, broken up here and there by the truck itself.

Mandy kept her head resting against Max for a long moment before finally rising under her own strength into the sitting position. Her body was stiff, and she felt like he could have really used another eight hours or so. But they weren’t aiming for beauty sleep here.

“What’s the plan?” said Mandy.

Max was being unusually quiet. Normally, he’d already have been explaining the plan, telling her about what they needed to do, what they needed to watch for, and what they needed to avoid.

“Huh?” said Max.

“Are you still asleep or what?” said Mandy.

“No, it’s not that. I was just thinking about…”

Mandy held for breath. Was he about to say “that kiss we shared yesterday?”

“…that cowboy from last night,” finished Max.

Mandy let the air out of her lungs slowly.

“That was tonight, Max,” she said. “It’s not even morning yet.”

“Something about it just doesn’t make sense,” said Max.

“Nothing about anything makes sense,” said Mandy.

“All right,” said Max, looking like he was trying to shake the idea out of his head. “Let’s get going. We’ll eat as we drive.”

Max started the truck, and slowly backed it up, driving across the bumpy grass until they reached the road again.

They ate as they drove. Mandy dug into the packs and unwrapped the pemmican, handing it to Max.

“The flavor isn’t great, is it?” said Mandy, her mouth full of the pemmican. It seemed to take forever to chew, and it wasn’t the sort of food you could just force down, swallowing without fully chewing it.

“Nope,” said Max. “But it’ll keep us alive.”

They drove through the sunrise, through the early morning. There seemed to be no one else on the road. Once in a while, they’d pass an abandoned vehicle. Once in a while, they’d pass some bodies lying on the side of the road. Some appeared to have starved, and others had died from bullet wounds.

Mandy found herself nodding off here and there, despite trying to stay awake. She knew she needed to keep her eyes peeled, despite Max saying that it was fine if she took a nap, telling her that she’d be more help the more rested she was.

When Mandy was finally wide awake, the sun was high in the sky.

“You’ve been driving the whole time?” she said.

“Yeah,” said Max. “You feeling any more rested?”

“I think so,” said Mandy. “You must be exhausted, though.”

“I’m fine,” said Max.

“Your leg OK, though?”

“Yeah,” said Max. “Doesn’t bother me that much.”

“Anything happen while I was asleep?”

Max shook his head. “It’s been the same scene the whole way. A couple of abandoned vehicles here and there. Haven’t seen anyone alive the whole way so far.”

“It’s pretty strange,” said Mandy. “Where did everyone go?”

“Well, they died off,” said Max .”Lack of food, violence, you name it.”

“Yeah,” said Mandy. “I wasn’t expecting to leave the hunting grounds and find the world fully inhabited. But if everyone died, my question is: where are all the bodies? Where is everyone? Dead or alive. You see what I’m saying?”

“Good question,” said Max. “And I’ve been wondering the same thing.”

Mandy had the map spread out on her knees.

“You know we’re almost at the point where we get off this road,” she said. “From there on out, it’s mostly the suburbs. Maybe we’ll see something different there.”

“Probably,” said Max. “And that’s where we have to be the most careful.”

“Why’s that?”

“Closer quarters. Houses close together. If there are going to be survivors, I’d expect them to be holes up in their homes, not out on the open road.”

“Good point.”

The day wore on, and Mandy took over driving. Max was intent on staying awake the whole time, his hand near reaching far from his Glock, his eyes covering every inch of the area through the windshield and the cab windows.

“You’ve got to sleep, Max,” said Mandy. “You’re not going to be any use if you’re too tired to react when something happens.”

“I’m fine,” said Max.

“Don’t give me that. I know you too well at this point. You’ve got to admit you have a tendency to push yourself. And usually that’s good. That’s gotten us out of some life or death situations. But really, Max, right now you need to get some sleep. I’ll be fine. I’ll wake you up if something happens.”

Mandy ended her words with a kind of half-hearted laugh, as if the idea that something could happen was preposterous. But she knew as well as Max did that something happening was a very real possibility.

“Fine,” muttered Max, finally closing his eyes.

Mandy glance over at him occasionally as she drove, watching him sleep. His right hand, in his sleep, had drifted over to the handle of his Glock. Even in his sleep, he was trying to protect her. That’s why he pushed himself. It wasn’t usually for his own benefit. Almost always, he was trying hard to save everyone else, trying to do the right thing.

Mandy wished she’d known Max before the EMP. They’d been neighbors, after all. It was absurd now to think of the missed opportunities they’d had before life had changed and society had collapsed, apparently never to return to its old state.

Mandy had been going out with Ted, an all around no-good sort of guy. Somehow, she hadn’t been able to see who he really was until he left. He’d been the sort of guy who’d never had a real job. Instead, he’d floated between bands and various scams.

What would have happened if she’d met Max instead of Ted? Maybe she would have seen him some day in the parking lot, said “hi,” and invited him over for a drink.

But would anything have happened? She’d been a different person before the EMP. And Max probably had too. He hadn’t spoken much about his past, except to say that he’d worked in an office at some pointless job.

Maybe the EMP, in a strange way, was giving them all an opportunity to become the sorts of people that they’d never been able to be. Mandy knew that she wasn’t meant to work in restaurants and bars. It was a fine job, but it wasn’t her calling. It wasn’t everything she was capable of.

And obviously Max was capable of much, much more than simply sitting in an office chair and crunching numbers. Or whatever it was that he was doing. Mandy didn’t even know what type of company he’d worked for. It was apparently so unimportant to Max that he’d never even bothered to mention it.

The road that stretched ahead of Mandy was the same as it’d been. Nothing going on.

She drove for another half an hour, with Max asleep in the passenger’s seat, before arriving at the exit she knew she needed.

Should she wake up Max?

No. Better to let him sleep.

Mandy downshifted to slow down, rather than applying the brake. She knew she’d save gas that way.

The off-ramp wasn’t anything fancy, just a stretch of road that led to a simple two lane road.

She thought again of waking up Max. She knew he would have wanted her to. It was a change of environment. A chance for new things to go wrong.

But he needed to sleep.

He’d been pulling long watch shifts back at camp. He’s been trying to give everyone else more rest, pushing himself to stay up for long periods of time. And she knew his leg was bothering him, even though he’d never admit it.

He needed the rest.

Mandy kept her eyes moving as she drove slowly along the road.

She drove south, glancing up at the sun to make sure she was headed in the right direction.

Glancing over at Max yet again, Mandy was surprised that he hadn’t woken up with the change in speed. His mouth was open, and he snored lightly.

Mandy drove past a few large parking lots, a couple big box stores. Billboards lined the streets, and trash tumbled around in the wind. Empty plastic bags, mostly, and a couple empty food containers. Some newspapers. All sorts of things.

Mandy passed only one abandoned car, a minivan with all the doors open and no one in sight.

Up ahead, though, there was something.

Mandy downshifted, slowing the truck down.

“Max,” she hissed. “Wake up. There’s something on the road.”

Max continued snoring, not stirring.

“Max,” she said, speaking more loudly. “Wake up, Max.”

He remained asleep.

The object on the road was in view now. It was a public bus, parked perpendicular across the road.

“Max!”

Mandy reached across the bench seat and grabbed Max by the arm.

“What’s going on?” said Max, speaking briskly. He was ready for action, his Glock already out.

“I don’t know,” said Mandy.

A noise behind them.

In the rearview mirror, two black SUVs were approaching, seemingly out of nowhere.