Shit.
They really needed to work on the security.
They couldn’t be taking strangers in like this.
Rob started running towards the lake, determined to chase down the thief.
Behind him, the body of another stranger lay on the gravel. Blood leaked slowly out of the head.
8
Andy hadn’t been there long. But he’d been there long enough to realize that it wasn’t the place he’d been looking for.
The lake house was about the furthest thing from a secure bunker that you could find.
Sure, there was gear and some food.
But that was about it.
The people seemed like clowns.
First of all, they’d taken him on. And he didn’t have good intentions.
But he thought that’d been a simple honest mistake.
Andy had eaten his fill and then hung back and watched how things worked there at the lake house.
The woman was in bed and she seemed too weak to work.
She wouldn’t be of any use to Andy.
And one of them was obviously a drunk. Or had serious problems.
The others?
They were rushing off somewhere.
No one seemed to have a good grasp on how to survive. Or how to do what was necessary.
Andy had watched out the window as the big guy had chased after a stranger. He’d been clumsy. He’d barely known what he was doing.
Andy suspected that it was only a matter of time before the lake house ran up against more serious threats. Gangs and roving groups of starving, desperate people.
It hadn’t taken him long to realize that the lake house wasn’t the shelter he’d been looking for.
So the most logical thing to do?
Well, he had to look out for himself first and foremost.
So he’d grabbed as much food and gear as he could and he’d hightailed it out of there.
He got out the door without the drunk noticing much of anything. He was staring at the wall, apparently lost deep in thought.
The sick woman in the bed yelled out something at him.
But he just ignored her.
Andy was heading towards the lake when the big guy noticed him and started chasing him.
But when Andy turned around to look, the big guy had tripped and fallen face-down onto the ground.
Andy just laughed.
He was weighed down with the gear. But he had a head start. He knew they wouldn’t catch him.
He headed straight towards the lake, and then when he was out of view, hidden among the trees, he took an abrupt turn to the right.
He didn’t have much of a plan, except that he had to get far away from them.
Andy was sweating in the warmer weather.
It was tough carrying all this weight with him. But he knew it would pay off soon enough. He had enough food with him to last weeks. If not more.
Sure, the people at the lake house might starve. But that wasn’t his problem.
It was every man for himself now.
And only the smartest would win.
The cop’s clothes were uncomfortable. He didn’t have any underwear on. Not that he remembered why.
The pants were chafing his thighs terribly.
But fortunately, luck was on his side. It had been ever since he’d decided to take control of his own destiny and kill that cop.
Up ahead, through the woods, there was another house. And a dock that jutted into the lake.
There were two boats that had been dragged up onto the shore. A two-person canoe and a rowboat.
The canoe, being thinner, would probably be faster.
There was a paddle laying inside the canoe.
Andy dropped the stolen gear into the canoe before pushing it into the water.
He kept glancing over his shoulder, expecting to see someone coming for him. But there was no one yet.
When he got the canoe mostly into the water, he had another thought. If they did end up coming after him, it’d be hard to do it without a boat of their own.
Unfortunately, the rowboat was made of metal. Andy didn’t think he’d be able to put a hole through the metal, no matter how hard he tried.
So he decided to do the next best thing. He’d take the rowboat with him.
With some dirty, frayed rope that was lying near the rowboat, Andy got the two boats tied together.
Then he got them both in the water.
He was drenched in sweat by the time he was paddling the canoe away from the shore. The rowboat was in tow, floating behind him like a persistent ghost.
The paddling was hard work. He only got sweatier.
But he knew how to paddle.
He’d learned it when he’d gone on vacation as a kid. His father had taught him how to dip the paddle in the water and tilt it just the right way. His father had taught him how to paddle efficiently, how to steer.
And he’d taught him a moral code. The same moral code that his own father had taught him.
Andy was throwing that all out the window now. And he knew that. He was aware of it.
And he was OK with that.
He justified it to himself, saying that the situation was different now. The normal moral code had been the system of rules for one way of living. Now people were living differently. It only made sense that the rules had to change too.
Andy had big plans for himself. This gear was just the first step. He’d find that group, that place where he could be secure. He’d ingratiate himself there. He’d set something up. It’d take time, but he knew he could do it.
He’d have a family of his own one day. While the rest of the world burned, while everyone else starved, he’d be there with his family. They’d be well fed. They’d have protection.
Sure, there were details that still needed to be worked out. But he was a smart guy. He could do it. He knew he could.
And when his future son started to grow up, Andy wouldn’t teach him the moral code that he’d learned himself. No, he’d teach him the new code. Which was to look out for yourself above all else. Do whatever it takes.
Andy was getting ahead of himself. He was getting lost in his own thoughts.
He moved his focus back to paddling.
He had the food now. He had the gear.
If he let himself wander off into his thoughts, he might end up getting caught. No point in getting cocky.
So he kept paddling.
Harder and harder.
He was drenched in sweat and exhausted.
But it felt good.
The physical work felt good. The burning in his muscles felt good.
He was doing something with his life. He was making good choices.
There was purpose to his life now.
Maybe the EMP had been good for him. He already knew that killing that cop had been good for him.
More than a few times, Andy glanced behind him, checking to see if anyone was following him.
But there wasn’t so much as a sign of anyone.
The lake looked pristine. The clouds were breaking overhead and the light was glinting in just the right way off the ripples.
The lake was gentle. A gentle force. A beautiful piece of nature that seemed like it was put there just for him.
Andy was the only one on the lake.
For that moment, it seemed as if Andy was the only one on the planet.
As he continued to paddle, staring up at the brilliant sky, his mouth wide open, his eyes wide, Andy started to feel a sense of euphoria that he hadn’t felt since he was a child, rushing through a park on a summer night.
He felt it in his chest, a sense of profound happiness.
And he began laughing. Not a cackle, but a laugh of pure joy and exhilaration, a laugh that seemed to echo across the calm waters of the lake.
He knew he’d make it.
9
Jim knew something was wrong the moment he stepped around the corner of the house and saw the driveway.