Getting Out: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller (The EMP Book 1) Read online

  9

  Georgia

  “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” said Mr. McKinney.

  “I don’t want anyone to get hurt either,” said Georgia.

  “Then put your gun down.”

  Georgia knew she had no other choice. She couldn’t risk James getting killed. If he was shot in the stomach, that might be the end. He’d bleed out… Who knew if the hospitals were even open. This was a panic situation, the type of situation in which normal people did things they never would do otherwise. For all she knew, Mr. McKinney could pull the trigger by accident. After all, his finger was inside the trigger guard. He looked jumpy and nervous. In the dim light of the camping lantern, she could see that his eye was twitching.

  Georgia slowly put the rifle to the ground. “I’m lowering it to the ground,” she said, speaking slowly and as calmly as she could.

  Her thoughts turned to Sadie in the car, and she hoped that she was OK. She also hoped she’d stay in the car, rather than come looking for them.

  “Good,” grunted Mr. McKinney. “Good.”

  Georgia laid the rifle on the ground and stood back up slowly.

  “Look,” she said. “I get it, you’re angry. We were coming to steal your supplies, that’s true.”

  “So you admit it then.” He still had his gun trained on James’s stomach, and he didn’t show any signs of pointing it somewhere else.

  “I admit it,” said Georgia. “But I thought you weren’t here, and that you weren’t coming back. A cop just told us that the whole area was blocked off. We figured no one else had been able to get home from work.”

  “Well I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “Look, we’ve known each other a long time. Do you think I’d actually try to hurt your family?”

  “I heard you say it yourself. You said it was either your family or mine. Well, I’m going to have to make the same decision.”

  “Please, don’t hurt James. If you need to shoot someone, shoot me instead. But shooting us isn’t going to help anything.”

  “No!” said James. “Mom, don’t say that.”

  “Don’t say another word,” said Mr. McKinney, glaring at James. His finger on the trigger seemed to be shaking.

  “Look, Mark,” said Georgia. “This is a crazy situation… Let’s just forget this ever happened, OK? We’re going to go back to our truck and drive away…”

  “What if you come back?” said Mr. McKinney. “I’ve got to think about my family.”

  Georgia suddenly realized that the rest of the McKinneys must be inside.

  Suddenly, a voice spoke from the dark.

  Georgia recognized it instantly. It was Sadie.

  “Drop the gun,” said Sadie, speaking from the darkness. “I’ve got a rifle pointed right at your head, and my mom’s been taking me to shooting practice since I was eight.”

  Sadie was bluffing. Georgia just hoped that Mark McKinney didn’t know that. But he was at work most of the time. He probably hadn’t noticed whether or not Sadie was heading off to the shooting range with Georgia or not.

  “I don’t believe you,” said Mr. McKinney.

  Georgia prayed silently that Sadie actually had a gun with her. If she was still scared of even touching guns, she wouldn’t have brought the gun with her. Then there was no chance. Georgia was seriously regretting her plan to rob her neighbors.

  Sadie stepped out of the shadows. She was across from Georgia, at a right angle from where Mr. McKinney was pointing his gun.

  Sadie held one of Georgia’s hunting rifles. She held it like she knew what she was doing. Her finger was inside the trigger guard, on the trigger.

  Georgia looked at the gun, realized which one it was, and knew that it wasn’t loaded.

  Georgia prayed silently to herself, to no one, to anything at all, that Sadie could pull this off. Mark McKinney seemed to be getting less stable by the minute. The more worried and the more anxious he got, the more likely he was to do something rash, and his gun was still pointed at James’s stomach.

  “Drop the gun, Mark,” said Georgia.

  “Drop it,” said Sadie.

  Georgia was impressed. Sadie was holding the gun like a pro, and speaking like a pro. It must have been all the gunslinger movies she’d watched with Georgia when growing up. There were always standoffs in those movies, and the guy who won was usually the guy with the coolest demeanor, the guy who was the most relaxed and the most sure of himself and his abilities.

  Sadie held the gun.

  “OK,” said Mark McKinney. “I’m dropping it. But I want you off my property.”

  “Whatever you want,” said Georgia.

  He dropped the gun to the ground.

  Georgia moved towards him and scooped it up. She put it in the waistband of her jeans. It might be useful later. She had no intention of giving it back to him, not to the man who’d pointed a gun at her son’s stomach.

  “Good work, Sadie,” said Georgia. “Now give me the gun.”

  “Thank God,” said Sadie, handing the gun to Georgia. Sadie was visibly shaken as she handed the gun over. Her cool demeanor had vanished. You could see she didn’t like even touching the gun. “I don’t have any idea how to use it.”

  “You did great,” said Georgia, knowing not to mention that it wasn’t loaded.

  “A trick!” shouted Mark McKinney.

  “Stay where you are,” said Georgia, pointing the rifle at him.

  He looked her right in the eyes and he looked completely terrified.

  “Where’s your family?” said Georgia. “Are they inside?”

  Mark nodded.

  “No one’s going to ask if I’m OK?” said James. “That nut job was going to shoot me.”

  “Grow up, James,” said Georgia. “You’re fine. Now go into the shed and check for gas. We’re going to need extra gas if we’re going to make it up to the hunting cabin.”

  “You’re going to rob me anyway!”

  “We’ll leave your food and water,” said Georgia. She realized she might regret this decision later. But she couldn’t leave them here to die…

  James was back a couple minutes later, holding his flashlight in his mouth. He had two cans of gas meant for a lawnmower, one in each hand.

  “Let’s go,” she said to her kids. “And don’t move, Mark. I’m taking the gun. I don’t think you have the balls to shoot someone anyway.”

  James loaded the gas cans, they all got in, and Georgia backed out of the driveway.

  “Well that went well,” said Sadie sarcastically. “Looks like James should have done a better job being a perv and spying on Mrs. McKinney.”

  “Shut up,” said James. “I’m the one who almost died.”

  “He wasn’t going to shoot anyone,” said Georgia, but she wasn’t so sure she was speaking the truth.

  Georgia drove slowly down the darkened street. The pitch black night seemed to swallow them up. The absence of light pollution was creepy. Not a single star shone in the sky. It was cloudy. The moon was gone, completely invisible.

  “Mom,” said James. “I don’t get it. How are we going to get out of here? You heard the cop, the road is blocked off.”

  Georgia didn’t say anything for a moment. “We’re just going to have to find another way.”

  She was racking her brains for ideas. She couldn’t think of anything. How could they get out, if not for roads?

  Then, an idea occurred to her.

  It would be dangerous. It would be risky. It would be kind of crazy.

  But there was a slight chance it might work.

  And that just might save their lives.

  Crazy ideas were just the kind of ideas she was looking for right now. The normal things wouldn’t work. Nothing was normal now, and it might never be again.

  10

  Max

  “Don’t go out there, Max,” said Mandy from the passenger seat.

  “Yeah, man,” said Chad from the backseat. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
/>   “What other choice do we have?” said Max.

  He had his hand on the door handle. He had a bad feeling about getting out of the Jeep.

  But Max didn’t believe in permission. He believed in thinking rationally, logically. Not that he always managed it all the time. But who could?

  “I’ll come with you,” said Mandy.

  “Shit, then I’m coming too,” said Chad.

  Max didn’t need to think about it much.

  “Mandy, you come with me. Take the flashlight from the glove box. Chad, you stay here.”

  “Aw, man,” said Chad.

  “You’re too high to be useful,” said Max. Even though Chad was an old friend, Max didn’t have any problem speaking to him directly, even if it was harsh. This wasn’t the time to consider how people felt about things.

  Max opened the door to the Jeep and got out. He left it running in case they had to make a quick escape. Not that they could get far on a busted tire.

  “Maybe we should drive farther down,” whispered Mandy, appearing next to him in the darkness.

  They both turned their flashlights on. They were high power LED flashlights, but the brighter they were set to, the faster the battery would die. And there was no way to recharge them now. Max needed to conserve the batteries. He had his on the second to lowest setting, and showed Mandy how to do the same.

  “Maybe you’re right,” muttered Max. “But the farther we go, the greater the risk of damaging the wheel.”

  He and Mandy shone their lights around the area.

  “You see anything?” said Mandy

  “Nope,” said Max. “I think we’re OK.”

  He had to dig around in the back for a while to get out the jack and the wrench. There was so much gear covering everything that it took a little while. Fortunately, the spare tire was easily accessible on the back of the car.

  Max hated to change a tire out so early. They had many miles to go, and that was the only spare tire. Yet another chink in his armor, yet another problem with his plans, yet another thing that he hadn’t planned like he should have. He’d thought he was prepared. Maybe he was doing better than some others, but it wasn’t good enough. He did have some of that chemical aerosol goop that you could spray into a tire, but Max didn’t like the idea of that. And it might be possible in the future to patch the tire, but Max only knew how that would work in theory. He’d never actually done it before.

  At some point, Max realized it might be good to turn the car off. There didn’t seem to be anyone there, anyway. And with a wheel off, it wasn’t like having the engine on would help them get away any faster. So he killed the engine.

  “How’s it going out there?” said Chad.

  “Shut up, Chad,” said Max.

  Chad shut up, and Max got out of the car again and started to work. He loosened the bolts, got the jack set up, and then got the spare tire on.

  Mandy stood guard, surveying the area carefully with her flashlight’s long beam. Anyway, for now, it was good that she kept the light turned on. Max was still a little worried that there might be someone out there.

  While Max worked, his thoughts turned to Chad. How strange was it that he’d run into Chad there, in a situation like that? He hadn’t seen Chad in how many years? He couldn’t even remember in this moment. But his mind felt frazzled. He’d been awake for a long time, and his body was starting to crave sleep. But there were many hours and miles to go. He didn’t totally trust Mandy behind the wheel, given the unknowns in the situation. And he definitely didn’t trust Chad.

  He’d felt an obligation to rescue Chad, but he knew he couldn’t count on him. Chad had let him down countless times in the past. Not only that, but Chad had let everyone down. They’d tried to have an intervention for him, but it was hopeless. It had been terrible, and Max shuddered at the memory now. He wondered if Chad even remembered it.

  “Everything fine?” said Max, to Mandy.

  “Fine,” she said, speaking in a low but audible voice.

  The car door opened and Chad got out. His weight shifted the car and Max could feel it.

  “Surprised you could lift the car up with me in it,” joked Chad.

  “I’m almost done,” grunted Max, as he started lowering the car.

  Next, he set to work tightening the bolts, working in a star pattern as he’d been taught.

  “I think we’re all set,” said Max. “I almost want to say we should investigate what we ran over, but maybe it’d be better not to.”

  “Yeah,” said Mandy. “Let’s just keep going. This place gives me the creeps.”

  It was creepy. Max didn’t want to admit it to himself. But there was something a little strange about this area.

  There weren’t any houses around. Either side of the road was just woods, possibly stretching for miles. They’d already left the suburbs without quite realizing it. The suburbs had just sort of gradually faded away, and without light on in the houses, it was hard to tell how densely populated the area was that they’d left.

  “Well,” said Max. “I guess we’re doing good. We’re away from most of the chaos. The less densely populated the area we’re in, the better.”

  The sound of lighter came through the night. Chad was sparking up a joint.

  “Chad!” hissed Max. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Just relaxing, man,” said Chad, speaking in a strange voice as he held the smoke deep in his lungs.

  He exhaled and started coughing. It was a loud cough that seemed to echo all round them in the silent night.

  Max suddenly realized there wasn’t a single other sound. It was dead quiet.

  Mandy realized it at the same time, too. “There aren’t even any animals here,” she said, as she stared off into the depths of the dark woods.

  “Let’s get going,” said Max. “Chad, put that out, OK?”

  “OK, man,” said Chad, licking his fingers to extinguish the joint and presumably save it for later.

  The whole area now reeked of weed, and Max had always hated the smell. It reminded him of something wet and rotting.

  Max was halfway into the driver’s seat when Chad, who was still standing around fiddling with his joint, shouted.

  “What is it?” said Mandy, worried.

  She was already in the passenger’s seat, and she shut the door quickly.

  “Shit, man, did you see that?” said Chad.

  “What was it?” said Max.

  “I don’t know, man… Eyes… A pair of eyes off in the woods there…”

  “Get in the car,” said Max.

  Chad got in, and his weight shifted the suspension of the Jeep.

  “Let’s hope this tire holds up,” said Max, hitting the button to lock all the doors. He considered putting the child safety lock on, in case Chad tried something, but he thought better of it.

  “What did you see?” said Mandy, turning around to face him in the darkness.

  “Eyes,” said Chad. His tone was hushed. He sounded really worried. “But they weren’t normal eyes.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, they were definitely human… But there was something…”

  “Come on,” said Max. “This isn’t a zombie movie.”

  “I know,” said Chad. “But it was something… Maybe it was someone watching us.”

  “You’re just high,” said Max. “You’re paranoid.”

  “Maybe,” muttered Chad. “Maybe…”

  “I’m worried about it,” said Mandy.

  “Don’t be,” said Max.

  The three of them didn’t talk much for the next few hours. Despite Max’s growing fatigue, he continued to drive. He kept his speed at about forty miles an hour, which seemed reasonable on these roads. He didn’t want to go too slow, or too fast. Too slow and they’d never get there. Too fast, and he’d just waste fuel and increase the chances of either an accident or something else. He couldn’t afford to blow another tire. Not now.

  He tried not to acceler
ate much, and not to brake much either. Both actions would merely waste fuel. He shifted frequently to conserve more fuel, and when he could, he put the Jeep in neutral and let it coast down the long hills.

  Chad eventually started snoring, falling fast asleep into his drug filled dreams.

  Mandy stayed awake, although she was starting to fade a little.

  Max was starting to become glad that he’d brought her along. It turned out that she was really good with maps, and figuring out where they were. Max didn’t want to admit it to himself, but reading maps had never been his strong suit. Sure, he could study a map and understand it, but when it came to figuring out where his actual location was… well, that just wasn’t his strong suit.

  “Take a left here,” said Mandy.

  They’d come to a fork in the road, and Max sat with the engine idling.

  “You sure?” he said. “It seems like that way takes us east.”

  “I’m positive,” said Mandy.

  Max was surprised that he already trusted her so much. He took the left, accelerating slowly into the curve.

  “You tired?” said Max.

  “Yeah,” said Mandy, sleepily.

  “Me too,” said Max. “But I figure the farther away we get, the better. Then we’ll have to shift strategies. In the future, it’ll be safer to keep ourselves well rested and well fed. But I think I’m OK for now.”

  “This is a stupid question,” said Mandy. “But do you have any coffee or anything?”

  Max gestured to the thermos that he normally took to work. Mandy took it from the cup holder and greedily gulped down the small amount that remained.

  “That’s not going to be enough,” she said.

  “I didn’t think of it before,” said Max. “But I might have some caffeine pills in the glove compartment.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” said Mandy, fishing around frantically in the glove compartment.

  She found the bottle, shook out two pills without reading the label, and swallowed them dry.

  “Here,” she said. “You’re getting too sleepy to drive.”

  “Give me three,” said Max.

  He took them from her carefully with his eyes still on the road. He wasn’t good at swallowing pills dry, and had to take them one at a time.