What if Brody and Madison Never Went to Chipper Ridge HS (Patreon)

Madison and Brody listened to their high school friend, Jenna, through the iPhone with total focus. It’s the first person they had spoken to since the start of the outbreak.

Jenna’s sigh came through the phone. “Well, Uncle Rich said school’s abandoned. Mr. Buckley sent all the kids home and locked up. Uncle Rich was going to head back there but came here instead. With all the grocery stores and the mall closed, school may be the best place to find food and medicine and stuff. If he wasn’t sick—“

Brody’s iPhone made a double beep and cut off. The outline of an empty battery showed on the screen, and then it dimmed to black.

“Darn it. That’s it for the phone. I checked every box in here and couldn’t find a charger,” Brody said, laying the phone on the floor.

Madison took a deep breath. She squeezed her eyes shut and stared at the tiny window. “This isn’t good.”

“What?”

“Well if Jenna is right, we know two things—“

Brody wanted to stop his sister right there. Jenna didn’t know anything. She was trying to sound important to Madison. If Brody interrupted his sister, it would only make Jenna seem right. So he let Madison continue without saying a word.

“First off, this outbreak is not ending anytime soon. Secondly, people are already fighting over food and medicine and whatever else they will need to survive this thing. We need to go somewhere that has all those things. But here’s the catch — we can’t go where other people will go. Even small stores, gas stations, 7-11s will all be looted. Maybe we can go to school?”

Brody stood and took clothes from a pile he found in storage. He stripped off his current t-shirt and slipped on one of his old t-shirts. “School seems like…” He wanted to call it stupid but doing so would anger Madison and make her want to go there even more. Half of her decisions were made based on the opposite of Brody’s opinion.

“School sounds like a good idea. What about Uncle Nate’s cabin?”

Madison sipped her tea and tilted her head to the side in deep thought. “That could work. No one knows about his cabin. I’m sure he has everything we would need there. If anyone knows how to survive this outbreak, it’s Uncle Nate. So we either go to school or Uncle Nate’s. What’s your first choice?”

“Let’s be real. You’re the brains of this duo and I’m the muscle. You should decide. I just wish we could get in touch with Uncle Nate. He’s probably at his cabin chilling right now, eating a steak, and watching one of his old cowboy movies on DVD.”

For the first time in a while, Madison smiled. “Let’s go to the cabin.”

---

They rode a bike along Old Bishop’s Road away from their family’s estate and made their way through side streets until they crossed the highway where it turned to forest. The roads were packed leading out of Nightfall, but people were sticking to their own plans of driving to remote areas or even crossing the border to Mexico. Brody and Madison had hiked the nature trails many times and had a feeling few people would venture this way. Though it was harsh terrain with changing grades, they walked for two hours without a break. Brody spotted a pitched tent in the distance, and the Milford twins approached it without hesitation. They had reasonable fear of the infected, but fatigue and hunger pushed even that basic emotion to the background.

The orange domed tent had no one inside, but numerous items were placed in the campsite. A cooler sat near a rolled sleeping bag. On the other side was a traveling storage chest. A flashlight stood upright alongside a backpack. A camp stove and frying pan was set up in the corner along with the clear plastic bag of cooking utensils, plastic cutlery, plates, and bowls. Madison stepped inside and opened the cooler. She took out a bottle of water and pressed it to the side of her neck.

“It’s still cold,” she said. She opened the top and swallowed a few gulps.

“Are you sure we should take things? This is someone’s stuff.” He lifted the lid of the storage chest and glanced inside. An assortment of food filled the interior which, in Brody’s mind, seemed to gleam like a pot of gold. He swallowed hard and felt his stomach churn.

“Brody, this is the end of the world. With all of these people dying and coming back as zombies, I don’t think police are going to show up and arrest us for taking water and a sandwich.”

“Well it’s not just about the police. There’s right and wrong.”

Madison rolled her eyes and took a bag of chips out of the storage container. “I don’t believe in that. Morality is just made up to control us. Look, if the person who owns all this stuff shows up, I’ll apologize and offer to pay them back for whatever we take. Will that make you happy?”

Brody was so hungry, he didn’t have the energy to argue with her. He reached into the chest and took out a wrapped Italian submarine sandwich. After the first bite there was no turning back. He finished the sandwich and a full bottle of water. Then he ate a few snack cakes and an ice cream bar. Stealing got easier after that. They took the backpack, dumped out the clothes inside, and filled it with the rest of the food and water. They wrapped up the sleeping bag and slung out onto the backpack with carabiners. Madison found a hunting knife and handed it to her brother. He slipped it onto his belt buckle, and the two of them left the tent.

---

Three hours later…

“I’m going to have to stop soon,” Madison said, shoulders slumped and holding a hand to her back. A gradual rise had them both leaning forward to walk up a hill to the start of dense forest.

“We can stop whenever you need to stop.”

“You say that now, but I wanted to take a break at that creek a few miles back. You yelled at me to keep going.”

“I didn’t yell at you.”

“It sounded like yelling to me.”

“Wait, do you hear that?” Brody said and stopped.

“You definitely were yelling and—“

Brody grabbed his sister’s arm. “No, I mean now. Do you hear shouting?”

A rifle shot cracked the air. Madison covered her mouth to stifle a shriek. The two of them ran into a thicket and slipped behind the cracked trunk of a dying tree. There was no more shouting, but they heard someone talking at a normal level. It was close.

Madison pointed to an elm tree a short distance away, and the two of them creeped through the grass, heel to toe, pausing and listening every few yards. Uncle Nate’s instructions kicked back in like muscle memory, and they crossed the field to another crop of trees. From here they could see the other side of the hill where a log cabin was built. A two-tone blue-and-brown station wagon sat at the bend of a gravel road beside the cabin.

An injured man was stretched out on the ground, a bleeding wound in his stomach. Beside him were crouched two children, maybe ten years of age, hugging one another, both in Colorado Rockies baseball caps.

“That’s really all you had in here? Bunch of vegetables and oats and crap? What are you, vegetarians?” a voice said from inside the cabin. It was deep and throaty and some of the words slurred. “Answer me, dammit.”

The kids shook and cried but said nothing. They just stared down at the man beside them who was only now moving his hand.

“Let the kids go,” he said. Though his voice was weak, it had a strength from within, like the man knew he didn’t have a lot of words left in him and needed these to matter.

From the cabin came a man with long blond hair slicked back with a tail that hung across his neck. He had an untamed golden beard like a bird’s nest. A rifle balanced over his shoulder, pointing up at the sky. He took a few steps forward and one to the side. Though the ground was uneven, he wobbled like a drunk.

“Where are they goin’? Closest town’s a few miles back. They won’t be able to walk there before coyotes get them. Nah, they can stay here with me for now. Hell, they could stay here forever by themselves. Not like I’m sticking around this dump.”

The man on the ground lifted his head to see the blond haired stranger with the rifle. “There’s $200 in a boot under my bed. That’s all I have.”

“Way ahead of you, partner. I found that and that crap food you got. This place is a real bust. Cost me a bullet. Not even a beer inside. What are ya, some kind of New Age hippie?”

The father dropped his head back and coughed. The kids looked down at him, tears covering their cheeks.

“Dad? Dad?” one said and shook their father. He didn’t reply. They fell over his body and hugged him, crying growing louder.

“Let the man die in peace. Good thing you’re not my kids. Probably spoiled you. Bunch of sissies,” the golden haired man said. He turned and stepped next to a stack of fire logs, leaned the rifle against the cabin, and brought his hands down. A stream of yellow arched out and sprayed on the side of the cabin.

Brody slipped off his backpack and took a step away from the trees. Madison grabbed his arm.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, snapping.

He yanked his arm away from her. “I’m doing what’s right.”

He crouched and sneaked along the steepest part of the hill to the blindside of the golden-haired man. By the time Brody was only a few paces away, the man was zipping up. With a running leap, Brody tackled him low across the back, wrapping his arms around the man’s body. They slammed into the stack of fire logs, knocking them over, and the man hit the ground first with a thump that Madison heard as she ran out from her hiding place. One of the kids was on his feet and running for the cabin while the other stayed with the body of his dying father. Madison stood, shook her head, and ran towards the cabin

“Get the hell off me! I’ll kill you,” the man yelled. His head had a gash which dribbled blood down his nose, but he ignored it and stood up to face Brody who was also on his feet. Golden Hair took a side step towards the rifle, but Brody leapt in front of him to block his path. At this Golden Hair raised his fists and turned to a fighter’s stance.

“Just get out of here,” Brody yelled at him.

He crouched like a wrestler, and though he had not stuck with the sport, he knew enough to drop a drunk. Golden Hair ran at him, wound back his arm, and swung high. Brody ducked and shot left, knocking the man’s knee with his forearm. This sent him tumbling down again, and he landed flat on his stomach. His cheeks turned red, and the dribble of blood from his forehead turned to a river. He shot back up and ran at Brody, flailing wildly.

The boy reached the rifle first, but Madison stripped it from his hands, stepped away from the cabin, and chambered a round. “Stop or I’m shooting you,” she yelled at Golden Hair.

He stopped his wild swings, spun to face her, and smiled as blood ran over his lips and painted his teeth red. “Go ahead. I doubt you can—“

The rifle spat a bullet into the meat of his shin. Golden Hair drop to the ground and grabbed his leg as he screamed in pain.

“Ouch, my ears.” Madison opened her mouth like a yawn.

Brody looked down at the man and then to his sister. “You shot him.”

“He told me to. Besides, this jerk wasn’t going to listen to reason.” Madison chambered another round in the bolt-action rifle and waved over the two kids to the cabin. “Why don’t you two grab whatever you may need. Then we’re out of here. Brody, why don’t you check if…” She nodded towards the father.

The boy who stood near her wiped his eye. “Dad’s dead. He stopped breathing and everything.”

The other child had run over and took off her baseball cap. Golden blond hair fell from under it.

Madison smiled and ran her hand through the child’s hair. “You’re a girl. Okay, kids, chop chop. You have two minutes.”

Golden Hair squirmed on the ground. “I’m going to kill all of you.”

Madison rolled her eyes. “Oh gosh. Pathetic. Brody, check if there’s keys in the car.”

Within four minutes, Brody and Madison and the two children, whose names were Milo and Sunny, were in the station wagon and driving down the gravel road with one destination in mind. Uncle Nate’s house was only a few miles away, and with it, a place to survive the outbreak for as long as necessary.