Surviving Chaos

14

Mandy had been returning from getting water when she’d come across the woman. She’d thought first of the woman back at the farmhouse that she’d killed with her knife. They looked, at least to Mandy, remarkably similar. Not in their overall appearance, but more in the way they carried themselves. They’d both had that look of desperation about them.

Mandy had seen the woman before she’d been seen herself. She’d drawn her gun and pointed it at the woman, telling her to freeze. The woman had just kept moving, glancing furtively back at Mandy, walking away from her.

So Mandy had fired her gun in the air. Maybe it hadn’t been the best move. It had been the loss of a bullet, for one thing.

And it also meant possibly attracting unwanted attention from anyone else who might be in the area.

But Mandy had done it, acting partly on instinct.

She couldn’t let the woman just walk away.

Mandy needed to know who she was, where she’d come from. And any other information she had. More importantly, Mandy needed to know if she’d be a threat.

But the woman had seemed to be in a daze, unable or unwilling to respond to Mandy’s threat of violence.

Maybe Mandy should have just shot her.

But she hadn’t. Instead, she’d shot the warning shot.

It had worked.

The woman had spun around, a look of intense fear on her face. The sound of the gun had startled her out of whatever kind of daze she’d been in.

“Who are you?” said Mandy.

The woman hadn’t answered at first. Instead, she’d put her arms in the air, even though Mandy hadn’t asked her to do so.

Mandy took a good look at the woman. She was wearing a winter jacket, even though it wasn’t yet quite cold enough for a jacket like that. She had a small backpack with her, the kind that kids took to school before the EMP. It looked only about half full.

The woman had nothing else with her. No weapon that Mandy could see, although of course that didn’t mean anything. She could easily have had a gun or a knife with her, concealed under the jacket. Or a thousand other different things that could be used as a weapon, whether that was their intention or not.

“Mandy! Are you OK?”

It was James. Mandy turned to look. Sadie was right behind him. They were running through the woods, nearly tripping on fallen branches and roots.

James had his gun out.

“What happened?”

“I found someone,” said Mandy. “I’m not hurt.”

“We were worried. We heard a shot.”

Mandy explained why she’d discharged her gun. James nodded, but Sadie protested, saying that she should have just killed her.

“Just killed her? I’m surprised to hear that coming from you, Sadie.”

Mandy knew Sadie had been having a rough time, but that didn’t mean it shocked her any less. Of all of them, maybe Sadie had been the one least likely to use or suggest violence, even when it was obviously necessary.

Mandy kept her gun trained on the stranger, who didn’t move. But her eyes went to James and Sadie, and widened in surprise.

“You left your mother alone at the camp?” said Mandy.

“Shit,” muttered James. “I’ll head back, unless you need help. What are you going to do with her?”

“We’ll all go back together,” said Mandy. “We’ll take her with us.”

“But then she’ll know where our camp is.”

“She already knows there are four of us. And it wouldn’t be hard to find our campsite, if we let her go. Not that I’m planning on letting her go.”

As Mandy said the words, she suddenly realized that she had a big problem on her hands. Deciding whether or not the woman was a threat, and what to do with her, was going to be difficult. Especially if she wasn’t going to talk.

“You two lead the way,” said Mandy. “I’ll follow with her.”

Mandy gestured to the woman. “Do you understand me?”

The woman nodded.

“Come on. Follow them. And remember, I’ll have this gun on you the whole time. You can probably tell I didn’t want to shoot you, but, believe me, I won’t hesitate to kill you if you make one false move. Keep your hands above your head at all times, or you get shot.”

Mandy figured she’d wait until they got back to camp to check the woman for weapons. Maybe part of her was hoping the woman would do something stupid and reach for a weapon. It would give Mandy a clear indication of what she was supposed to do. She felt horrible for thinking that thought. But that was the way things had become.

When they were in sight of the camp, James and Sadie stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s someone there.”

“Where?”

“Past the Bronco. Someone’s lying on the ground there.”

“A body?”

“I’ll go check,” said James.

“Be careful. It could be a trick.”

Two people showing up on the same day, at the same time? That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?

“Do you know anything about this?” said Mandy, to the woman.

The woman shook her head.

But there was no way to know if she was telling the truth.

Sadie, Mandy, and the stranger stayed at the edge of camp, while James moved cautiously ahead to investigate.

Mandy watched James, and at a certain point, he broke into a run, heading straight towards the body on the ground.

What was going on? What had made him run?

“It’s Max!” he called out.

Max? It couldn’t be.

Mandy’s heart started racing.

She couldn’t believe he was back. That was a shock enough itself.

But was he hurt?

Was he dead?

What had happened?

Did the stranger do something to him? Just when he’d gotten back?

Mandy couldn’t leave the stranger with Sadie. Or at least she didn’t think it was wise to do so.

So the only option was to move slowly forward, towards Max and James, with the stranger leading the way.

“Is he hurt?” called out Mandy.

“I don’t think so. He’s waking up.”

James was crouched down over Max, making it hard to see him.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, they’d crossed the relatively short distance to where Max was.

“Mandy? Is everything OK?” called out Georgia, from where she lay inside the Bronco.

“I don’t know yet. Are you OK, Georgia?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you hear anything?”

“No,” said Georgia, sounding frustrated at the situation. As Mandy had thought a thousand times, it must have been torturous for an active woman like Georgia to be stuck in the Bronco, recuperating. Georgia had been trying to convince Mandy for days now that she was well enough to move, but Mandy had been stern with her.

In truth, though, Mandy simply didn’t know whether it was OK for Georgia to move. Georgia was getting a lot stronger. That was obvious. Maybe strong enough to walk. But Mandy had vague ideas about something going horribly wrong if Georgia moved. She knew it wasn’t a spinal injury, and maybe her fears didn’t make sense. But she’d stuck to them, perhaps in some kind of selfish fear that Georgia wouldn’t be able to move as she once had.

“Max,” James was saying. “What happened? Are you OK?”

James moved aside to give Max some breathing room.

Mandy finally saw Max.

He looked pale and weak, and much thinner than when he’d left.

But he was alive. He was breathing. He looked up at her and a wry smile appeared on his lips.

“I heard a gunshot,” he said. “What happened?”

“That’s Max. Always right to business,” said Mandy. “We’re fine. What about you? Are you hurt?”

Max shook his head, slowly rising to the sitting position.

“That’s it,” said Georgia. “Damnit, I’m coming out to see what the hell’s going on.”

“Mom!’ said Sadie, rushing over to the Bronco. “You can’t!”

“I’ve been lying down for days,” said Georgia. “I deserve a little fresh air.”

Mandy, meanwhile, didn’t take her eyes off the stranger. But she knew that she might soon become distracted, with so much going on. It was the most activity they’d seen at the camp in days. They’d spent most of their time simply sitting, trying not to burn up too many calories, fetching water, and hunting for more edible mushrooms, which had become their main food source.

“Sadie,” said Mandy. “Help your mom. I know she’s determined to walk, and she’s not going to take no for an answer. We might as well help her. Max, are you definitely OK?”

“Yeah,” said Max. “I must have passed out from hunger. I’ve barely eaten anything since I left.”

Mandy nodded at him. “James, you’re going to keep your gun on this stranger here while I pat her down. OK?”

“Got it,” said James, glancing over nervously at his mom, who Sadie was helping out of the Bronco.

“Keep your eyes on her,” said Mandy. “Your mom’s going to be fine. Right, Georgia?”

“I don’t need any help,” said Georgia gruffly. She was understandably more than a little grumpy from having spent so much time immobilized, frustrated, unable to help.

“Sorry we couldn’t give you a more exciting welcome back,” said Mandy to Max.

“Frankly, it’s embarrassing,” said Max. “The way I passed out like that.”

“Could have happened to anyone. You’re not a superhero, you know.” Mandy turned to address the woman. “Now nod if you understand. I’m going to frisk you. Check you for weapons. Obviously one false move and my friend here is going to shoot you. Don’t be fooled by his youth. He’ll do what he needs to do. Right, James?”

“Right,” said James, his eyes fixed steadily on the woman.

Mandy had her doubts that James would be able to shoot only the stranger, should something happen. It was hard to shoot just one person when two people were rolling on the ground, fighting, for instance. But the main point was to scare the stranger.

Mandy started with her backpack. She took it off her, and tossed it to the side.

The main thing that Mandy noticed was that the woman stunk horribly. None of them smelled that great themselves. But they’d had the advantage of the shower back at the compound. And they’d been rinsing their clothes in the stream occasionally, since there hadn’t been much else useful to do.

Mandy would go through the backpack later. Next, she pulled the woman’s filthy coat off, and started going through the pockets.

“Nothing,” she muttered, moving on to the woman’s jean pockets. There was nothing there either.

“Shit,” said Mandy, turning to Max. “I don’t know what the hell to do with her. I’m stumped. She won’t talk. She’s shell shocked or something.”

Mandy noticed that now that Max was back, she was automatically deferring to his opinion.

Max was slowly rising to his feet, unsteadily. “You know,” he said, “I’m not sure right now. What I do know is that I really need something to eat. I hope you haven’t run out of food here, too.”

“James, why don’t you get him some mushrooms?”

“Mushrooms?” said Max, his voice weak.

“We didn’t find any deer. And it’s been hard to catch the squirrels. They don’t provide much meat anyway.”

Max nodded.

“You,” said Mandy, to the stranger. “Sit over there. I’m going to find something to tie you up with until we can figure out if you’re a threat or not. If you could speak, I suggest you do it, since otherwise it’s hard to figure out what your intentions are.”

Mandy was being a little rough with the woman, but it was a frustrating situation. And, anyway, tying the woman up was a hell of a lot better than just shooting her. She probably wouldn’t have gotten such good treatment if she’d run across another group. If she’d run into people from Kara’s compound, she would have been imprisoned there forever, like they’d wanted to do to Mandy and the others.

Max fished into his bag and got some rope, handing it to Mandy.

“I’ll keep my gun on her,” said Max. “You just tie her up.”

“Can you manage that?”

Max laughed. “I passed out. I’ve been through worse. Let me do something useful.”

Mandy nodded. She set about tying the woman up. The whole time, the woman didn’t speak. Mandy got her tied securely around a tree.

If she really tried, the stranger could probably figure a way out of the rope. Given enough time, anything was possible. So they’d have to figure out something to do with her before they went to sleep. Even with someone watching, it was too much of a risk.

James was over by the fire, and he called out to Max, telling him that the soup was ready.

“Can’t wait,” said Max. “I’ve never been a big fan of mushrooms, but I swear I could eat anything now. Oh, by the way, I got the gas. Not much. But it’ll get us somewhere.”

Mandy nodded.

She didn’t know what to say. So she said nothing. Saying thank you simply wasn’t enough. Max had done so much for her, for all of them, that there was no way to repay him, to properly thank him. If it wasn’t for Max, Mandy would either be dead or living out the rest of her life locked away in that compound, existing in a purely nightmarish fate.

“How you feeling, Georgia?” said Mandy.

Georgia was leaning heavily on Sadie, and still leaning against the side of the Bronco. Pure determination was on her face, but there was also intense pain.

“Perfectly fine,” said Georgia, through gritted teeth.

“Your back hurt?”

“Just a little.”

“It’s like she can’t put weight on her legs,” said Sadie. “I don’t understand what that has to do with her back.”

“Well, it’s like people who’ve thrown out their back,” said Mandy. “They can’t stand up.”

In reality, Mandy didn’t know what she was talking about. She wasn’t a nurse. But it had sounded good, and she thought it might have the effect of putting Sadie slightly at ease about her mother.

“Her body’s also weakened,” added Mandy. “But you’ll pull through, won’t you Georgia?”

“I’m doing fine,” said Georgia, speaking the words with great effort.

“Why don’t we get you something to eat, and you can try again after that?”

Georgia nodded. Mandy could tell she didn’t want to admit defeat, but that she knew she wasn’t capable of walking just yet. Her body was weak.

Mandy went over to sit down next to Max by the fire. He had already just about finished his first bowl of mushroom soup. She and James had become quite good at hunting for the mushrooms. Now, they knew where the mushrooms tended to grow, and they’d found plenty.

“Sorry we don’t have anything more filling,” said Mandy, eyeing Max’s bowl.

Max shook his head, apparently indicating that it was enough. He didn’t stop chewing even for a moment.

“I can’t believe you made it back. I was really worried about you. Did anything happen?”

Max just shrugged.

“So you got the gas?”

Max nodded.

“And did you figure out where we are?

Max nodded.

“OK,” said Mandy. “After you eat, and you’re feeling a little stronger, we’ll talk about where the hell we are. I’m assuming you figured something out that can help us locate our position on the maps?”

Max nodded, finished chewing, and finally spoke. “I know where we are all right. Could you get me another serving, though?”

Mandy glanced over at the tied-up stranger as she got up.

“We’re going to have to figure out what to do with her,” Mandy said.

Soon it would be night. If the woman had been traveling with others, they might come looking for her. If she’d been through something horrible, it might mean that there were others in the area, others who could do harm to Mandy and the others.