When Max had finished cutting away the branches, he came over to Georgia.
“Georgia, could I have a word with you?”
“Sure,” she said, getting up. “You’re fine with the rest of it, Mandy?”
“I think maybe Sadie can give me a hand.”
To Georgia’s surprise, Sadie was happy to have something to do. She set to work with Mandy, cooking the food and figuring out how to distribute it to everyone.
It made Georgia happy and proud to see her daughter doing something useful, and to apparently take pleasure in doing so. Sadie still carried her broken phone with her, but she no longer checked it. It was a necessary change in attitude, and Georgia was finally able to see it. Maybe the version of Sadie who’d saved them from the McKinneys’ was returning. Sadie was growing up, perhaps more quickly than she would have otherwise done. It was a good change.
Georgia followed Max away from the group, back into the denseness of the woods, away from the trail.
“I wanted to ask you something,” said Max in a low voice, so they wouldn’t be overheard.
“Shoot,” said Georgia.
“I’ve been thinking about our destinations,” said Max. “I was so focused on just getting out of the chaos. It seems like, well I don’t want to speak too soon, but it seems like we’ve been through the worst of it for now. There might be more challenges ahead.”
Georgia nodded. Even over the short course of time that she’d known Max, she had a lot of respect for him. She was willing to listen to whatever he had to say.
“I feel the same way,” said Georgia. “While we were walking today, I started thinking about what the future holds for my family.”
Max nodded, listening carefully. “Me, too,” he said. “I’ve been trying to picture what life will be like at the farm house. I think the only way to really make it is to have some kind of agricultural system. You know, get the old farm working again. I’ll need to somehow get some animals, and plant crops. I feel confident that while those are going to be big challenges, there’s some way to overcome them. There’ll be some way to get the animals, and some way to get the seeds.”
“It does sound difficult,” said Georgia.
“But what I realized,” said Max. “Is that it’s going to require a huge amount of man power. A huge amount of work, human hours of labor. So I’ll just lay it on the line for you. Here’s what I’m proposing: that you and your kids come and live on the farm with me, Mandy, and Chad. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a hard road ahead, but I think it’s going to be easier if we all work together.”
Georgia liked the idea immediately. After all, she’d been preoccupied with how she and her kids were going to live. Basically her plan involved hunting for food. But she knew that there would be other problems that would crop up. There would be fresh potable water to obtain. There would be medical emergences. Plus, the biggest threat to their safety could be the invading hordes that would come from the cities, tired and hungry and willing to try anything to survive. They would have a better chance of surviving if they were with Max.
“OK,” said Georgia. “I like it.”
“That was fast,” said Max, laughing.
“Well,” said Georgia. “When you hear a good plan, you’ve just got to go with it. We can work out the details over time.”
“We’ve got a ton of work ahead of us,” said Max. “And what I’m hoping now is that the place is in OK condition. We’ll have to work out the particulars as we go, I guess.”
Georgia nodded.
Suddenly, Max looked over her shoulder, deep into the woods.
“Turn around and look,” whispered Max. “I think we’ve got company.”
Georgia turned quickly so as not to miss it.
It was something way off in the distance, partly hidden behind a tree. It moved quickly, and if it hadn’t had been for Max pointing it out to her, she might have thought that she’d imagined it. But even if she couldn’t make out the object clearly, it was clear what it was. It was a bright red shirt, a color that certainly didn’t exist naturally in the forest.
It was another human.
Another human following them.
30
They were back on the trail after having eaten.
Despite having sat down and rested, despite being well fed, they were all still tired. And there was a lot of grumbling and groaning as they got back on the trail, walking ahead.
Mandy figured that they had just about four more hours before they got to the farmhouse. Max and Georgia had announced the plan of Georgia and her kids coming to the farmhouse with them, and Mandy felt nothing but relief upon hearing the news.
She would have another woman to talk to. She would have more people there. In numbers, there was security, at times. Max had focused so much on getting away from everyone else, Mandy had been worried that he would reject Georgia and her kids after a time. But it was clear that they weren’t only not a threat, but actually an asset.
“Hey,” whispered Max, sidling up next to her. They were at the front of the pack, Chad taking up the rear, his groans and explosive grunts audible all the way up there. “I don’t want you to freak out, but there’s someone following us. Georgia and I saw a red shirt when we were discussing the situation earlier.”
“Shit,” said Mandy. “I thought we were in the clear for now.”
“We’re never going to be totally in the clear,” said Max, keeping his voice low. “From now until we die, we’re never going to be able to stop looking over our shoulders.”
“Great,” muttered Mandy. “Just what I need. Have you told everyone else, so that they can keep an eye out for whoever it is?”
“Yeah,” said Max. “I just didn’t want to tell everyone at once, in case whoever’s following us is in earshot.”
“Makes sense,” said Mandy. “So what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” said Max. “For now, we’re just going to have to keep our eyes peeled and not do anything stupid. Make sure to keep your gun ready at all times.”
“I don’t even know how to use this thing,” said Mandy.
“Point and pull the trigger,” said Max. “Or if worst comes to worst, just point and threaten. Pretend you know what you’re doing. That might work.”
“That’s comforting,” said Mandy sarcastically.
Max would have shrugged if he could have, but it seemed as if his pack was simply too heavy for a motion like that.
“I don’t think we’re going to be attacked,” said Max. “We’re a large group, and I think it’s just one person following us.”
“How do you know?”
“I guess I don’t,” said Max. “But I think we would have heard them if there were more people, although it’s possible one person is following us and then leading a group towards us.”
“What do you think they want?” said Mandy.
“Probably food,” said Max. “Or our guns, our supplies. Anything, really.”
“You don’t think it’s just some lost poor kid in the forest?”
Max shook his head. “No,” he said. “Because if that was the case, if it was someone who needed help, wouldn’t they just approach us?”
Mandy realized that he had a point. She felt a dark pit of terror in her stomach. She didn’t like the idea of walking through the woods being followed by some unknown quantity of unknown people. It terrified her, chilled her to the bone. This was the stuff of horror movies.
“My main worry,” said Max, “is that we’re going to lead whoever it is right to the farmhouse.”
Shit. He was right.