Eleven

A month of walking.

Max and Mike walked side by side down the center of the road both of them pulling steel Gorilla carts.

They had left in early spring. In the last few weeks of winter Mike had taught Max everything he knew about living off the land. What to eat. What not to eat. How to tell direction using the Sun, the stars, and even the moon.

They had even tested themselves by going just outside of Hawkins and camping with no supplies except a two man tent, knife for each of them, and some wire, and a couple of lighters. If worse had come to worse, they could walk back into town and be ok. They really wanted to see if the could do it.

It turned out to be a complete success, much to Max's surprise. She couldn't believe how easy it had been, just knowing the right things to do made all the difference.

"Why don't they teach this stuff in school?" Max had complained when Mike was explaining how simple some of it was.

"There's all kinds of things they don't teach in school. Some of this Mr. Clarke hinted at, but he has a set number of things he needs to cover and that's handed down by the government or something. The library is a great place to find all this stuff.

"You made me feel a lot better about walking back to the west coast. I didn't really want to repeat the trip I had here but in the opposite direction. See, I knew you were good for something Wheeler."

"It's not like we have to camp out every night, there will be plenty of houses and motels along the way. It's only those long stretches of highway where we'll have to do that."

And so they had loaded up the carts. They were prepared to abandon them if necessary, but they didn't think their situation would ever get that desperate where they would have to.


"So, Wheeler, you want to tell me why you never had a girlfriend?"

"You can't have the job Max, we talked about this."

"Still not your type, I'm just curious Mike. Weren't you interested in any of the girls in school."

"That's the thing Max, doesn't make any difference how much the guy is interested, if the girl isn't, he's just wasting his time. And before you ask, you and I were friends, had we tried going out I think that would have just ruined our friendship. Whether we were each other's type or not, I didn't want to risk that, and I'm glad I didn't."

"Me too, Wheeler, I know there were some kids who couldn't wrap their head around it, but I didn't care. You're the best friend...more then best friend actually, that I've ever had. I don't regret a second of your bullshit."

Mike barked out a laugh, "yeah goes both ways Max," and then more thoughtfully, "to answer your question, I really wasn't interested in any of the girls at our school. Too many type A's, too many drama queens. I don't know what my type is Max." He gave a her sidelong glance and smiled "Still not you though."

"Yeah, you're breakin' my heart Wheeler."


"You know we're being followed right?"

"I know Max. I don't think we're in any danger. He's been keeping his distance."

"He? It's a she."

"I've seen the short hair through the binoculars. It's a he. Besides he's wearing clothes a guy would"

"I'm wearing clothes a guy would." Max said. "Anyway, I'm going to guess that's why you've been leaving food behind...it's for her."

"Yeah, Max he probably doesn't have the skills to live off the land like we do. I'm not sure why he doesn't just catch up and join us."

"Well, she is probably too scared."

"The guy I saw Max, didn't look scared at all, just cautious…"

Max shook her head. She turned to look back the in the direction they came from about to say something when she stumbled, fell to the ground and cried out in pain.

"Max!"

Mike got down his knees to see if she was ok. "I think I twisted my ankle. Don't think I can walk." She looked around. "Shit Wheeler, we're in the middle of nowhere."

Mike picked her up and carried to the side of the road, past the ditch to the tree line, and set her down on the soft grass, "I'll be right back." He went back to get the two carts from the middle of the road.

"Jeezus Wheeler, your arms are like steel cables, used to be you never had any upper body strength. You'll be able to carry some lucky girl across the threshold now."

"I"m not even going to ask you to try and walk on it. That will only make it worse if it's not that bad right now. It's going to hurt when I take you runner off. Count of three ok?"

Max nodded. Mike did it on "One." Max gritted her teeth but didn't cry out. He gently pulled off her sock, "ok I'm going to touch your ankle, but I'm not going to put any pressure on it ok? " Max looked at him, her eyes trusting his. He very lightly touched her touched her ankle at various spots. She winced in anticipation of the pressure, but she was nodding ok.

After a few minutes Mike said, "Good news, bad news. Good news is that it's not broken, it's not even sprained, very light twist, not swollen, probably not even going to bruise. I did bring some Aspirin along, will help with any internal swelling I can't see."

"Hurts like hell Wheeler, what's the bad news." Max said as she took the Aspirin.

"You probably shouldn't walk on it for a few days, so we camp here. If we need to we can double up one those Gorilla carts with the supplies, and I can pull you in one."

"Are they strong enough to take my weight?"

"Yean, they'll take something like seven or eight hundred pounds, we're ok there. That's why I got them over a Radio Flyer or some kiddie wagon."

Mike looked up at the sky. "Looks like we might be in for some rain tonight. I'm going to set up the tent. Gather some wood for a fire."

Mike had the tent set up in no time. When everything for a campfire was ready and he got it going. "I hope that guy has a tent, I think it's really going to come down tonight. It's still spring, that rain is going to be cold."

"She is going to be fine Wheeler."

"I"m telling you the guy I saw...was a guy."

"And I'm telling you the girl I saw was a girl. Why don't you just walk over there and get her to come over here?"

"She might run away, I'm not chasing after her her...and besides, I'm not leaving you Max."


Mike kept the fire going when they got into the tent, he figured the rain would put it out soon enough. It didn't take long for either of them to fall asleep with the sound of the wind and rain against the tent.

"Wheeler," Max hissed in Mike's ear. "I think there's someone outside."

Mike was awake in an instant , grabbed his flashlight and carefully slid out of the sleeping bag. "Whoever it is is going to be expecting me to come out slowly." Mike whispered, "I'm not going to do that. I'm going out fast and loud. Stay inside. Take the knife, hold it out in front of you, pointy end out front. If someone rushes in, they'll get a surprise."

Mike was out in a flash yelling, pointing the flashlight with a full beam out in front of him.

He caught the face of a girl with very short hair. She was his age, wide eyed, really scared, completely soaked by driving rain and shivering uncontrollably.


Mike managed to get her inside the tent after some coaxing. It was meant for 3 adults, so the three of them fit in it with a lot of room to spare.

The girl was almost quaking with how badly she was shivering.

"Max, get her into some dry clothes, and zip the sleeping bags together."

"Got it Wheeler," Max said and Mike turned around to give them some privacy.

After a few minutes of cloth rustling, and the sound of a zipper working it's way around, Max finally said, "we're in Wheeler. She's like ice, what's your plan?"

"She's between us, behind me, in front of you. Get friendly close, we need to prevent her from getting hypothermia." Mike crawled into one side of the sleeping bag..

The girl pressed close up against his back, Max wasn't kidding, she was cold as ice. He felt a bit of a chill as she shivered against his back and legs. He could almost feel her teeth chattering behind his head.

"How are you doing Max?"

"My ankle is throbbing, and now I'm cold."

"I don't remember you being this much of a whiner, Max."

"Screw you Wheeler."

Mike kept them in the same position for about an hour, doubling the time since the girl's shivering had stopped.

They were all at a temperature that would be let them sleep comfortably. Mike could tell by Max's breathing that she was asleep, and he was about to drop off himself when he heard, "thank you," in a small voice.

"You're welcome. You're safe, get some sleep, we can talk in the morning."


When Mike woke up in the morning he saw Max was out of the sleeping bag, she was looking at him with her eyebrows raised and giving him a smirk. She gave a nod to towards the girl.

The girl was snuggled up to him with her head on his chest and arms around his waist. Mike looked up at Max and mouthed "help!"

Max cleared her throat with exaggerated loudness.

The girl stirred and opened her eyes. Oh. Her eyes took Mike's breath away. When the girl saw how close to Mike she'd been sleeping, she quickly scooted away, said "sorry," and got out of the sleeping bag her face becoming very flushed..

"It's ok. How are you feeling? Can I see your hand?"

She hesitated but held out her hand to Mike. Mike took it gently and felt the the base of her thumb.

"Are checking her pulse, Wheeler?"

"Weak pulse is a sign of hyphothermia. Along with shivering. Just trying to making sure, we can't tell if she has slurred speech or not."

Mike saw the tattoo. 011.