The first thing out was a loaf of bread and then a bunch of bananas. A box of frozen burgers was next, then a carton of eggs and a package of frozen breakfast sausage. Everyone was oohing and ahhing after each item.
“So, eggs and sausages for breakfast, or brunch now I guess, and then burgers for later. They’re still half-frozen so they’ll be thawed in time for supper. I did get some dry goods but I also grabbed a bag of apples and a small bag of potatoes to make things more appetizing,” he finished with a flourish.
Everyone was excited about a real breakfast and no one complained a bit about Cooper straying from the list. Alex put a pot of water on the one stove to boil, adding five of the precious eggs to hard boil them for a later snack. She cut the sausages into small pieces and started to fry them up. Once they were nicely browned she cracked the rest of the eggs into the pan and scrambled them up with the sausage. Josh dug out the jar of peanut butter and once the pan of eggs and sausage came off the stove, started to toast part of the loaf of bread. Once everyone had a plate of food they settled on the tarp that Quinn had spread out. There was no talking as they consumed the first real meal that they had had in over twenty-four hours.
Cooper and Dara cleaned up the dishes and cookware while Alex and Josh repacked the gear into the trailers.
Quinn was looking at the map with a frown on his face. “Well, it was sooo worth it, but so far today we’ve only made about twenty miles. What do you guys say to going hard until about seven tonight with just a quick stop for a snack? If we push it, we could make it another sixty or seventy miles.” That announcement was met by a chorus of groans but after a full breakfast, they were all agreeable.
Chapter Eight
Six hours later and Alex didn’t even have the energy to moan. She didn’t know what was worse, the boredom of mile after mile of scrub landscape or the total exhaustion she was feeling. Hot and sweaty, her face felt like it would crack if she tried to smile, it was so dry from the sun and the wind. She tried to console herself with the thought of the great muscle tone she would have, but it didn’t feel that way at the moment.
A couple of hours after they had started this leg of the journey, they had come upon an interesting sight. For a good five miles, every car they passed had its doors and the trunk standing open. It made navigating the wrecks more difficult and changed the dynamic of the ride for a half-hour. Alex hoped that whoever had searched all the cars had found what they needed. They had also started seeing more people walking alone or in small groups. They had no issues with the other travelers, just envious stares. Quinn had pulled them over when one family had waved them down.
Three children and their parents, looking dusty and tired, were traveling in the opposite direction and the father had waved them down with a shout for news. As the group explained what they had seen on the way to this point, Cooper handed out granola bars and a couple of apples to the children. Those were devoured in minutes and the mother couldn’t stop thanking him. They seemed like a nice family and after a quick group conference, they agreed to give them a gallon jug of water and a few packages of freeze-dried camping meals. Dara pulled out the sunscreen and asked the mother if she wanted to coat the children up with the lotion. As they pulled away, it seemed like such a small thing they had done, helping the family, but it made biking past all the destruction a little easier.
Other than a few quick bathroom breaks on the side of the road, and one short stop to eat, they had been making steady progress. Lunch was hardboiled eggs and the bananas that Cooper had provided, but Alex was still feeling hungry. She wondered how many calories a day she was burning biking like this and amused herself by coming up with different diet titles like, “The Apocalypse Bike Diet”. She had thought she was in shape with all of her gymnastic training but her body was suffering like she was a couch potato. Only the second day of the disaster and she was already dreaming of Big Macs and French fries. Her mouth was watering at the thought of the fast food meal when Josh gave a “whoa” of alarm.
They came to a quick stop and looked down the road to what was blocking the highway. Alex took advantage of the break to remove her bike helmet and vigorously scratch at her sweaty, itchy scalp. Two days of dust and sweat with no shower and her dirty hair was driving her nuts.
Further down the road, someone had pushed abandoned cars across the highway to make a barrier. Alex could see at least three men with shotguns or rifles standing behind the roadblock. One of the men waved them forward and Quinn waved back turning to the group.
“Okay, let’s stay cool and see what the deal is but be ready if they try anything.”
As they pedaled closer to the roadblock, the man that had waved them forward came out to meet them.
“Hey there folks, we’re getting a lot of travelers coming into town and we’ve set things up to greet them and get news and check on their intentions.” He looked them over, his face softening a bit at seeing how young they all were. “Where are you kids coming from and where are you headed?” he asked.
The other two men had moved closer to hear their answer.
Quinn answered for the group. “We were at Disneyland when the lights went out and we are trying to make it home.”
The man was clearly surprised by this. “Disneyland? That’s over a hundred miles from here. You guys biked all that way in two days?” he asked skeptically. He looked at the other men in disbelief.
“Yes, sir - we had a teacher who got us moving right away. She got us organized and on the road within an hour. We used all the spending money we had to buy these bikes and we’ve been going hard ever since,” Quinn assured him.
The man let out a whistle of surprise, “Woo-hoo, you kids should be mighty thankful to that teacher. She probably saved all your lives. I imagine the city is a cesspool of violence by now. So where are this teacher and the rest of your class?”
Quinn looked sad as he told the man, “Part of our group headed for the coast to try and get a boat out. Our teacher, Mrs. Moore, stayed with the rest who wanted to wait for help to come. She wouldn’t leave them.”
The man shook his head in disgust, “Damn sheep. What a waste of a good woman and teacher.” He paused to think. “A boat? Where are you kids going, where’s home?”
“Canada,” several of the kids replied.
All the men broke out in surprised laughter but stopped when they realized that the kids were serious.
“Listen, you kids can’t be serious. Do you really think you can bike all the way to Canada?” one of the men challenged them.
None of the group responded, just stared back at the men with determination. After studying their faces, the leader of the roadblock shook his head.
“Well, you just never know. You might make it. In the meantime, it’s getting late so if you kids want, you’re welcome to stay in town tonight. We’ve set up a hotel as a refugee area and there’s room and a meal for you.” He waved toward town.
“Thank you for the offer, but we plan on going another hour down the road today and then setting up camp for the night. We’re trying to make as many miles as we can every day,” Quinn said with a smile. “We would appreciate any water that you could spare, though. We’re down a couple of bottles. We gave some of our supply to a family with children that were walking.”
“Now I know you kids was raised right! Are you sure you don’t want to stay in our town? We will need good people in the coming days,” he asked again.
They all said thank you but no.
“All right, fair enough, I’d want to try for home too. John, ride back into town with these kids and help them top off their water. Give them two extra jugs as well,” he instructed one of his men. “What about food, do you have enough food?” he asked eyeing the two trailers they pulled. “We don’t have a lot of extra in town but I’m sure we could give you a day or two worth.”
“Thank you, sir, that’s a very kind and generous offer but we stopped first thing this morning at a town and spent the rest of our mone
y stocking up. We’re good to go for about a week or so. Please save the food for people who really need it,” Alex jumped in.
“All right then, good luck finding your way north and be real careful. This is the calm before the storm and I think it’s going to be a bad one.” He waved them through and they biked around the roadblock.
John, the man that they followed into town was driving an old beat-up golf cart. Josh pedaled up beside him and pointed at the engine.
“Carburetor?” he asked.
John gave him an appraising look. “Yup, seems most older engines that don’t have a lot of electronics will still work.”
Josh gave a nod and fell back with the others. As they came into the town, they could see that there had been work done to clean up the main road. All the useless vehicles had been moved off to the side and there were guards with guns walking in front of the businesses. They pulled into a parking lot and came to a halt. Pulling out their two empty jugs from one of the trailers, they passed them to John and he took them into the building. It wasn’t long before he came back out with another man, both carrying two jugs each.
They handed them over and John asked, “Do you kids know what’s ahead of you? It’s just over sixty miles to the town of Baker. After that, it’s going to be a hard bike upwards. The elevation goes up double from where we’re standing to Mountain Pass before it goes back down and you head into real desert. You couldn’t pay me to go anywhere near Vegas, it’ll be even worse than LA. It’s going to be a real hard, dangerous stretch of road. I wouldn’t do it on a bike but I guess I understand your reasons. It’s going to be dark in just over an hour so you better get a move on. Good luck to you.”
They said their thanks and got back on the highway that went through town. They were all quiet and thoughtful about what was ahead of them. Alex just wanted to stop for the night and eat and sleep. She could worry about the way ahead tomorrow. It took a lot of effort to get back up to speed after stopping in the town but once they cleared the last of it, they fell into the rhythm of navigating around stalled cars and started to make better time again. Alex was so consumed with exhaustion and hunger that she was jolted out of her fog by Quinn calling out to her. She hadn’t even heard him the first time.
“Hey, I said we’re taking this side road to find a place to set up camp. You look wiped out, Alex. Let’s go find a home for the night,” he told her with a concerned smile.
Alex took in their surroundings and noticed the ‘Ghost Road’ sign for the road they were turning down. Perfect, that’s exactly how she felt, like a ghost. The sun was going down and the shadows were long when they came to a trail with an old shed and rusted out pump jack in a clearing.
Wheeling into it and dropping their packs, Alex stood still, numb and dazed. She wondered if a person could fall asleep standing up. Dara dragged an old plastic milk crate over and gently pushed Alex down onto it. She handed her a water bottle and an apple.
“Just eat this and sip some water. We’ll get the tents set up and the stove going. Relax and get your breath back for a few minutes,” Dara told her with a concerned expression.
Alex nibbled on the apple but was still out of it. She vaguely heard the others talking as they set up camp and she thought she heard someone say something about her being in shock. Shock seemed like a good word to her, that’s how she felt; like someone had shocked her and she was in slow motion. She didn’t know how long she sat on the crate but at some point, Dara took away the apple and made her take two Advil.
It was the sound and smell of a fire that snapped her out of the fog she was in. Slowly things started making sense to Alex again, and she saw Quinn busting up old wooden boards for the small campfire they had going. Dara was unrolling sleeping bags and laying them out in the tents while Josh and Cooper were arguing about potatoes. It took a minute for that to make sense but then she understood what they were talking about. Josh wanted to just put the whole potato into the fire and Cooper wanted to fry them somehow.
“Foil,” Alex croaked at them.
The whole camp came to a stop and stared at her in confusion and concern. She tried again, “Foil. Cut the potatoes up and put them in foil with a little water. I got cooking spray.”
It took a minute but they finally understood she was back and not just talking nonsense. Cooper gave her an encouraging smile and Quinn just nodded to her. Dara came over and squatted down in front of her, looking at her face.
“You look better, Alex. Some color is back in your face and your eyes aren’t glazed anymore. You had us worried. When we stopped you were as white as a sheet and you were shaking. I think you were going into shock. Too much crazy, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess, just kinda lost it there for a minute,” she joked.
“More like twenty minutes,” Dara told her. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to keep going like this, at least not this hard every day.”
She patted Alex’s knee and went back to the tents. Alex took a deep breath and pushed to her feet before going over to Cooper to see if she could help with making supper. He had found the foil and was cutting up the potatoes.
“Sorry about that, had to go visit la-la land for a while. Why don’t you let me take over for you? I make a mean foil potato surprise. I’ve got a secret recipe that I use,” she joked.
He looked into her eyes intensely and grabbed her hand, “Okay, but no more trips, at least not without me. You scared the hell out me, Alex. We need you here with us.”
If Alex hadn’t been in shock before, she definitely was now. She felt her cheeks flame up and mumbled a quick, “Sorry.” She looked down and grabbed the box of foil and started to make a pouch for the potatoes.
She didn’t understand the feelings she had for Cooper. She could feel him staring at her for a few minutes before he turned away. Once she was alone she looked up and did a quick scan of the others to see if anyone had witnessed the exchange and met Quinn’s gaze. He was standing with an old board, forgotten in his hand, a frown on his face. He had clearly seen the moment between her and Cooper and he wasn’t happy about it.
This was more than Alex’s tired brain could deal with so she quickly turned away. This wasn’t the time to deal with boy issues she thought and stuffed her confusion down deep. Eventually, it would all surface, but right now making supper was all she could handle.
She went to one of the trailers and rummaged around, looking for the rest of the supplies she needed. After going through both of the trailers she finally found everything just as the light was almost gone. Alex reminded herself to pull everything out in the morning and organize and repack everything in an order that would make finding things easier and faster.
First, she sprayed the inside of her foil pouch with the cooking spray she had bought and added the potatoes. A small can of corn was added and a dose of dried mixed spices sprinkled on top. She folded the pouch closed except for one end and added a small amount of water. After sealing the pouch she gave it a good shake and placed it on the foldable grill that Josh had set up over the campfire. Looking around for something to do while the food cooked, Alex saw that Dara had a steaming pot of water going on one of the camp stoves.
Alex remembered seeing a sleeve of disposable coffee cups when she was pulling food out of the trailer and guessed it was another Cooper addition. They wouldn’t have to share coffee mugs tonight. After getting the cups and drink mixes like instant coffee and powdered hot chocolate, she flipped the pouch of potatoes on the fire and grabbed the canvas bag full of toiletries.
The tent that Dara had set up for them was open and she was sorting things out when Alex crawled in.
“Hey, I didn’t have a chance to show you some of the stuff I got for us at the store this morning,” Alex told her. She dumped the bag of supplies out on a sleeping bag and Dara whooped in pleasure.
“Deodorant! I could kiss you right now, Alex,” she exclaimed with pleasure while sorting through the rest of the goods. “Oh, shampoo! What I wouldn’t giv
e to wash my hair. It feels like ants are crawling through it, it’s so itchy.” Grabbing the hair dye kit, she studied the shade. “This will work. Good choice. It’s almost my natural color so I won’t have to worry about root growth.” She laughed. Setting the box aside, she kept looking through the stuff and made a disgusted face. “Oh man, how much is it going to suck having our periods while biking all day? Thank God you grabbed tampons. Can you imagine if we didn’t have any; what a disaster that would’ve been.”
Surveying the rest, she leaned back. “Everything we need, except a hot shower.” She sighed. “After we eat, we should try and wash out some of our shirts. They’re pretty ripe. Hopefully, they will be close to dry by morning. And could you color my hair for me? Those guys at the roadblock today were definitely giving my blue streaks “the look”. No sense borrowing trouble. I don’t even care about the color. I only did it to try and piss off my parents and I don’t think they even noticed!” she said in a huff.
Alex was surprised by the admission. She didn’t know what Dara’s home life was like since she had stopped hanging out with them a few years ago but she remembered Dara’s mom and dad as being nice people. She started to ask about it when the smell of hamburgers came through the tent opening and Josh called out, “Grub’s ready!” Dara quickly left the tent with an embarrassed expression on her face, so Alex didn’t think she wanted to talk about it. Alex realized that she didn’t know anything about Dara’s life now and decided that they would get to know each other better on the long trip home.
They filled their camping plates with spiced, steamy potatoes, corn and the hamburger patties on the last of the toasted bread. Two hot meals in one day would seem like heaven in the days to come and they all focused on enjoying the meal.
Once they all had cups of hot drinks, Dara filled the pot to boil more water for the cleanup. They settled around the low fire and discussed the next day.
STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6 Page 8
