Max woke up well rested that morning and found that he was lying on top of some hay in the barn. He was hungry as always so he decided to walk to the house. It was a small house, one story, and painted red. As he walked up to the house he noticed that all the animals were roaming free, and were not inside the fence. He immediately ran over to the animals and tried calling them back into their holding grounds.
"Goddamn, why won't these stupid things come back?" Max thought to himself. He decided to go get his kitchen knife from his bag, thinking he would have to lure the cows back. Max had the knife now and faced the cow. "Get back inside!" he shouted to them, but they still stood still. He ran up behind one of the cows and gave it a small push. Still, the animal would not respond. Max started to become very annoyed so he pulled out the knife and pretended to slash the cow. The rest of the cows saw what Max had done, and were very scared. They all looked at him and went back inside the fence.
"Damn, I guess the best way to get someone to do something is just to put a blade at their face."
After this adventure he continued heading to Rich's house because he was now very hungry. He knocked twice on the door, but no one answered, so Max kept knocking for another five minutes. Eventually he heard footsteps and the farmer opened the door. “Couldn’t let me sleep in on the seventh day could you boy?”
“I was hungry,” Max replied in an annoying tone. The farmer stared at Max and finally let him inside the house. “What do you want for breakfast?”
Max had never chosen food before so he was quite excited. He decided to ask for toast and pancakes because those were his favorites. The farmer brought in a huge stack of pancakes and toast and put it right in front of Max. After about three minutes of wolfing down his food Max was finished.
Delighted and now in a pleasant mood Max asked, ”What’s your name sir?”
“Rich. Rich Gordon, and what’s yours boy?”
“Max” he replied.
“Just Max, no last name?” the farmer asked.
“Where I’m from we don’t have a last name. I just have the same name as my dad.”
“Well I’ll be damned,” the farmer said in a sarcastic tone.
Max sat at the table with a million questions burning in his head, but one question was bugging him the most. “Rich, what did you mean when you asked me if I was infected?”
Rich looked down at the ground, both sad and angry at the same time. “Listen up boy because I’m only going to tell you this once.”
Max sat straight up giving Rich his undivided attention. “There were times before towns like you lived in. There used to be millions of people living in harmony in all sorts of places, some together, some scattered. About a hundred years ago, there were trees everywhere and rivers going through every place. But one day a man came up with an idea that he thought would make everyone’s life much easier. A thing called food pills. He claimed that if you take just one pill a day regardless of size, your body would have nourishment and energy to sustain itself. Many people started to take this pill after it became available because it was so cheap and easy. But some of us knew it couldn’t be good for your body. A few months later, those who took the pill started having small symptoms, nothing major, but enough so it started to become noticeable. More months went by and people started to become more ill. They said about ninety-five percent of the population took a pill every day. Soon, the skin of the people taking the pill started turning red, and they came down with a terrible disease. Millions of people died immediately. Those who didn’t die turned bright red. They become crazy with rage, and made it their soul purpose to infect as many normal people as possible. These people were called the Red Death. They would swarm into cities and try to infect innocent citizens. They would run in with buckets of blood trying to pour it on as many normal people as possible. People went into panic, running off into forests and hiding, trying to rebuild civilizations. Some of these hidden communities survived and have been thriving, others have been discovered and their people were infected or killed. My wife was found and she was infected. As she turned more and more red her pain was intense. She told me to kill her, and I did. Now every small town has to hide knowing if one person is found the Red Death could find their hiding spot.”
The farmer was still as a statue and didn’t say another word.
Max sat bewildered, suddenly realizing why all of his choices were made for him, and why no one was supposed to leave the town.
Max looked up finally and with a sincere voice asked, ”Well Rich why are you out here then? Don’t you have a chance of being infected?” Rich turned his head slowly towards Max and muttered, “Because I don't have anything to live for boy. I might as well try to help people out before I die.”
Max had never known anything about the outside world. Max was certain the mayor knew about this, and he needed to warn him about all the farmers out in the open. He thought if one infected being found Rich they would keep going and find The Town. Max looked at Rich and processed all the information that went into his head.
“What if they find you or any other farmer around here? They’ll keep going and find our town.” Rich again looked at the ground, “Max, if us farmers don’t grow the food your town will die anyway, and a lot sooner.”
Max looked into the distance and thought about how they had to harvest food and keep away from the Red Death. As he thought, he came up with a plan to save the town, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to share it with the farmer, yet.
Days went on, Max would help milk the cows and Rich would let him sleep in the barn. Max was growing more and more worried, knowing at any time the Red Death could find his town. He knew his idea was crazy, but he realized it would be their only chance of survival. The town would have to stop running.