3

MAX

Max used the butt of his pocketknife to shatter a glass window of the basement. It was one of those houses built on a hill, so that the basement was above ground and exposed on the rear end of the house.

“What’s the plan?” said Georgia. “What if someone’s inside?”

“It’s a risk,” said Max. He left it at that.

Max used his elbow to knock out the glass that remained in the pane. He shined his flashlight—which he tried to rarely use because of the battery—into the dark basement.

“I don’t see anyone,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean much. They’d have heard the glass shattering, obviously. I’ll go first.”

Georgia seemed to know better than to argue with Max.

Max was badly bruised from the fight. Everything hurt. The best way for him to keep his mind off the pain was to keep active. Both his body and his mind. That’d always been the way he was. He’d felt so frustrated at his job, before the EMP, partly because all the work was directionless. Pointless. Now he had a purpose. A real one.

Gun in hand, Max squeezed his way through the narrow window.

“Looks clear,” said Max.

He kept his eyes glued to the staircase as Georgia worked her way through the window.

“Musty,” she said, curling up her nose and sneezing. “It has that feel of a house that no one’s lived in.”

“Well, we can’t go by that,” said Max.

Georgia gave a stiff nod.

The basement was sparsely furnished. A set of free weights and a bench sat in one corner, looking like it’d been collecting dust for a long time. A door led to the garage, which was built into the basement.

Max motioned for Georgia to cover him, threw open the door, and moved into the garage swiftly, leading with his Glock.

His flashlight illuminated the pitch-black garage. There was a car. That was good. But before celebrating, Max checked the other side of the car, as well as underneath it.

It was clear.

“Good news,” said Max. “But stay out there, in case someone comes down the stairs.”

Max knew that the house was most likely completely abandoned. But there wasn’t any sense in taking chances when they didn’t have to.

“Does it run?”

“I’ll check.”

This was a car that had spent the majority of its life in the garage. There didn’t seem to be a scratch on it. It wasn’t exactly Max’s style, not that that was important in the least.

It was a Honda Civic, souped up. The muffler was huge, and when Max, finding the keys on a hook, cranked the engine, the sound was almost deafening. The owner had likely removed the catalytic converter for better airflow. The sound of unfiltered exhaust began to fill the garage.

Max checked the gas gauge before quickly killing the engine. After all, the garage door was still closed.

There was gas.

“Looks like we have our second car,” Max said.

“Should we check the rest of the house for provisions?” said Georgia.

Max agreed, and together they moved swiftly through the rest of the house, clearing each room. It wasn’t a large house, and it didn’t take long.

Only after assuring themselves that there was no one hiding under a bed or in a closet somewhere, waiting to attack them, did they start looking through the house for things that could be useful to them.

“Aside from the car,” said Georgia. “This is a bust.”

“Yeah,” said Max, looking through the kitchen cupboards. “Looks like whoever lived here took just about everything useful you could think of.”

“Let’s head out. Think they’ll be excited to see the new ride?”

“James will. He loves those types of cars.”

Max laughed, and it made his face hurt. The huge guy he’d fought had hurt him bad. But Max had hurt him worse. And that was what was important.

Whoever was still alive was the winner.

Back in the garage, Max threw open the door. Light poured in, shocking their darkness-adjusted eyes.

Max put the Honda into reverse. It had a short, stubby aftermarket shifter, as well as all sorts of extra dials on the dashboard.

“You think this thing’ll be reliable?” said Georgia. “Sometimes these are great for going fast, and not so good at not breaking down.”

Max shrugged. “It’s all we’ve got. Unless we find another car.”

The Honda moved faster than Max had expected. Even in reverse, just tapping the accelerator lightly sent the car zooming out of the garage. Max had to slam on the brakes just to keep from going too far off the driveway.

Max brought the car up to the Ford Bronco, where everyone was waiting.

“Holy shit,” said James, getting out of the Bronco. “Nice ride.”

Mandy laughed nervously when she saw it.

“I just hope it works,” said Georgia.

Something seemed off to Max. Something was wrong.

It hit him suddenly. “Where’s Chad?”

Chad was nowhere to be seen.

Everyone spun their heads around.

“Shit,” muttered Mandy. “That asshole’s left us.”

“No one was watching him?” said Max.

“I was watching the street,” said Mandy.

“Me too,” said James and Sadie together, looking guilty.

Max couldn’t chastise them. You couldn’t expect people to watch the guy who was watch.

“Chad’s been so much better since stopping the pills,” said Max. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe someone took him,” said Sadie.

“Like kidnapped him?” scoffed James. “Why would they do that? Plus, we would have heard something.”

“We’ve got to find him,” said Max.

“Let’s just get out of here,” said Mandy.

“We can’t leave him,” said Georgia.

“Remember, Mandy,” said Max. “He saved our lives back at the farmhouse. We’re all going or no one’s going.”

“So what do we do?”

Max didn’t say anything.

The truth was that he didn’t have the slightest idea, short of going around the neighborhood looking for Chad like he was a lost dog.

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