Getting Home

15

“Come on, kid, don’t worry so much about it all. What happens, happens.”

“I don’t know,” said Dan. “I think one of us needs to be awake.”

Rob sighed and gently pushed some of the food away from him on the table. “Yeah, you’re right,” he finally said. “I’ll take the first shift.”

“It’s OK,” said Dan. “I’ll do it. You get some rest.”

“You sure?”

Dan nodded.

“Anyone ever tell you you’re mature for your age?”

“Yeah,” said Dan. “But that was before the EMP. I bet everyone my age is mature now.”

Rob said nothing. “OK,” he said. “I’m off to bed. Yell if you need me. Although if something happens, I’m sure I’ll hear it.”

“Where you going to sleep?”

Rob had initially been saying that they didn’t need to keep watch, that they should both just try to get some rest. He’d said they’d hear it if someone broke in.

Dan was still a little worried about Rob’s seemingly cavalier approach to safety. Would Rob want to go up to one of the bedrooms so he could rest comfortably? It would mean he’d be farther away if something happened, possibly out of earshot.

“I’ll sleep right here in the kitchen. That way I’ll be at the back of the house and you’ll be at the front of the house.”

“You’ll be OK on the floor?”

Rob laughed. “I’ve slept in worse places,” he said, getting up from his kitchen table chair and settling down onto the floor. He lay on his back, without even taking off his shoes. His head rested against the hard floor, but it didn’t seem to bother him.

So had Dan. But he knew it wasn’t easy.

But to Dan’s surprise, Rob had already started lightly snoring. He was out like a light.

Dan made his way back into the living room, where the unnamed woman was also asleep.

Dan was tired himself, but he knew that he wouldn’t fall asleep. The possibility of one of the scroungers breaking into the house would keep him awake. It was something about his personality. He wasn’t the type of person who would let himself succumb to fatigue.

The hours ticked by and Dan found himself lost in thought. His mind drifted here and there, but he managed to keep his thoughts focused on the future, rather than the past. There was no point in dwelling on what had happened, on what he couldn’t change.

It seemed like the only course for the future was to get to Max’s camp.

But what if that didn’t work?

Dan would need to come up with another plan. He couldn’t rely on others.

In his limited experience so far, the populated areas seemed simply too dangerous. It would be a cat and mouse game, hiding in abandoned houses, always waiting for the next intruder, the next soldier or individual who wanted what Dan had.

It’d be a life of constant fights, constant encounters. Dan knew he could live with feeling on edge if that was what it took to survive.

But he knew that he couldn’t survive endless encounters. Statistically, there was no reason he should remain alive if he kept fighting. He had no special abilities, no special training or skills that would make him superior.

Either he had to get out into the woods somewhere, away from everything, or he needed a group.

So he’d go to Max’s camp. If that didn’t work, for whatever reason, he’d press on, finding some safe place. He’d worry about food and drinking water when the time came. Simply not getting shot was the first priority.

The unnamed woman was starting to stir. She opened her eyes and looked around the room.

She saw Dan and made a little jump. Her face showed her fear and surprise. She let out a little yelp.

“It’s OK,” said Dan, getting up and moving over to her. He spoke in a calm voice, the way one might speak to a spooked horse. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

She stared at him with her eyes wide.

“I’m Dan. Remember me? We were captured by the soldiers together.”

The woman started to relax a little. Her body started to loosen up, the tenseness slowly fading.

“You got shot,” said Dan. “A new friend, a guy named Rob, got the bullet out of you. Do you remember him?”

She nodded.

“Are you still in pain? Can you speak?”

“Yeah,” said the woman. Her voice was hoarse.

“What’s your name?”

“Olivia,” she said.

“Nice to meet you.”

She nodded.

“Someone broke into the house when Rob was taking the bullet out of you. We had to fight him off. And now we’re in a different house, but in the same area.”

“Was he one of the soldiers?”

“No, I don’t think so. Just someone looking for food or weapons. Just a regular guy gone mad with desperation. I think the soldiers gave up on us. You’re the one who got us out of there, you know? If it wasn’t for you, who knows what would have happened to us.”

“Don’t mention it,” said the woman.

Her voice grew less hoarse the more they spoke.

She grew more comfortable as they talked, and she told Dan a rough outline of what had happened to her after the EMP. Before the event, she’d been a graduate student. She’d lived in university housing, not far from the main campus. She was one of the few students who’d actually understood the implications of what had happened. Everyone else, as she put it, was more than happy to stick their heads in the sand.

She’d barely been surviving by the time the soldiers picked her up. She’d been all alone. She’d convinced one friend to come with her, and they’d left campus together in an old vehicle that worked fine.

They’d lived for weeks on provisions taken from their campus dormitories, where they’d kept huge supplies of dried noodles, which they ate like crackers.

Olivia and her friend had had a few different run-ins, but none of them had turned violent until they’d encountered the soldiers. They’d shot her friend first without even asking any questions. Then they’d taken Olivia captive, and that was when Dan had first seen her.

Dan told her about the plan to get to Max’s camp. He told her what he knew about Rob, which wasn’t that much, and that Rob was coming with them.

“Do you think we can survive at this camp?”

“Yeah,” said Dan. “If it’s still there, I mean.”

“They’ll let us in? I mean, they’ll accept us?”

“That’s the sense I get, as long as we’re willing to work. Do our share, and all that.”

“That’s never been a problem for me,” said Olivia. “I’d be happy to have something to do, something to build. Everything seems like it’s falling apart.”

“I know what you mean,” said Dan. “How are you feeling, anyway?”

“Better,” said Olivia, glancing down at her wound. “I think your friend did a good job on my wound.”

“And your ankle?”

She wiggled her foot around, moving it in all directions.

“Not great, but better. I’ll try to see if I can walk on it soon.”

“I don’t think you broke it, so it should get better.”

“Let’s hope so.”

Dan had found himself a seat on the floor, sitting cross-legged. To Dan’s surprise, when he looked up the next time at Olivia she was smiling down at him, looking almost as if she was trying not to laugh at some joke.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” said Olivia, still smiling. “How old are you, anyway?”

“Why?”

“Oh, I was just thinking how in our old world, I could be babysitting you, but you ended up saving my life. And now you’re taking care of me.”

“You saved my life, too,” said Dan.

“I guess we’re even then.”

“Are you hungry?” said Dan, feeling for some reason that he wanted to change the course of the conversation.

“Starving,” said Olivia. “But I don’t suppose there’s much food.”

“That’s where you’re going to be surprised. We found all sorts of stuff here. It’s incredible. But Rob’s sleeping in the kitchen. I’ll go in and bring you some stuff.”

“Thanks.”

Rob was snoring comfortably on the floor, still lying on his back. Dan tiptoed around him and gathered up a bunch of different foods. He made sure to get some tins of fish along with crackers and things like that. Olivia would need both protein and carbohydrate. The rest of the nutritional details didn’t matter so much.

She was ecstatic to see the food when he brought it back, and she dug in immediately. Dan joined too, having grown hungry once again. He’d gone so long without really feeling full that his body was relishing the opportunity for more food, more calories, and more nutrients.

They ate together in silence.

“So you’re supposed to wake up Rob for the next shift?” said Olivia, her mouth still partially full, a couple crackers in her hand.

Dan nodded.

“Why don’t you two just sleep? I can do the next shift.”

Dan shook his head. “You need to rest more than we do,” he said.

“I don’t want to be a burden on everyone.”

“It’s going to be more a burden if you’re still too weak to make the journey.”

“Fair point. And how are we going to get there anyway?”

“Walking, unless we can find a vehicle.”

“Where are we anyway?”

“Not really sure,” said Dan. “But we need to go northwest in order to get to the hunting grounds where the camp is.”

“And how far away do you think it’ll take us?”

“Without knowing where we really are, it’s hard to say.”

Dan watched as Olivia set her food down and stood up slowly. She put the weight on her ankle slowly, treating it gingerly. Her face began showing pain, and soon she was wincing. But despite it, she did manage to stand on both her feet. She held her arms out as if she might lose her balance and fall down.

“You’d better sit back down,” said Dan. “You don’t want to overdo it.”

“Just a minute longer. I know I can do it.”

But soon the pain was too much, and she flopped back, exhausted, on the couch.

Neither of them said anything, but Dan knew they were thinking the same thing.

What would they do if she couldn’t walk? Here she was, unable to stand up. There was no way she could walk all the way to the hunting grounds. It would take days, at a minimum.

But they couldn’t abandon her. They couldn’t just leave her there.

The silence hung heavy over the room.

“You two should just go without me,” Olivia finally said.

Dan shook his head. “No,” he said.

“Why not?”

“For one thing, you saved my life.”

“You’re just a kid,” she said. “You deserve to get out of this madness if there’s a chance for you.”

Before Dan could respond there was a loud crack that came from outside the house.

Dan stood up, grabbing his gun.

Before he could make another move, Rob had already rushed into the room, eyes wide and alert, gun in his hand.

No one spoke for another thirty seconds. Rob and Dan moved to the windows, looking out through the blinds.

“Did it sound like it came from the front of the house to you, too?” Rob finally said.

Dan nodded.

There seemed to be nothing in the street. No cars, no people. Nothing.

There was another crack. Louder this time than before.

Dan couldn’t identify the sound. It wasn’t a gunshot. It wasn’t thunder. The closest he could get was of some kind of material breaking, something stronger than wood, yet maybe more brittle.

“What do we do?” said Dan.

“We wait,” said Rob. “Whatever’s going on, what we know for sure is that there’s someone out there. The last thing we need to do is rush out into the open where we’ll be at a disadvantage. If they’re dangerous, let them come to us.”