Neither boy had even looked up at the commotion but the older boy mumbled something. Alex thought that he looked around eight or nine. She crouched down beside him and asked, “What did you say, sweetie?”
The boy finally looked up into Alex’s eyes and she was shocked to see that they were full of rage.
“I said he’s not our dad! We don’t even know him and he’s an asshole!” the child said with force.
The pathetic man on the floor yelled at the kid. “Shut up, you ungrateful little shit!”
Josh poked him with the rifle barrel to shut him up.
“Tell me what happened, sweetie,” Alex asked the boy gently.
His eyes welled up and his little brother started to cry. “My mom was driving us to school and we had a crash. I couldn’t wake her up. I tried all day!” he cried out. Then in a whisper, “I think she was dead.”
“I’m so sorry, honey. There were a lot of car crashes that day.” She gently rubbed his back. “How did you end up with this man?”
The boy looked over at the man with fierce eyes. “No one came. All day we waited for help and we were hungry and scared. When it was getting dark, he came and made us go with him. He said we had to pretend that he was our dad because people would help us if they thought he had kids. He said he would beat us if we spoke to anyone. And he hit my brother lots of times to make him be quiet. He’s a really bad man. He robbed some people that were going to give us food. And they kicked us out of a shelter when they caught him stealing stuff. Please don’t make us go with him. We will be really good and quiet if we can stay with you guys,” he pleaded.
The camper door was thrown open just then and Cooper and Quinn were standing outside with their guns pointed in.
“What’s going on?” Quinn asked, eyeing the sniveling man on the floor.
“We’re just getting ready to throw out some trash,” Josh joked and shoved the man out the door. Quinn jumped back and the man hit the pavement hard. “Off you go, buddy. We’ll take care of the kids from here.”
He scrambled to his feet and whined. “My gun, please can I have my gun back. It’s dangerous out here. I need to be able to protect myself.
“That’s funny. It sounds like you just said something but that can’t be right because dead men don’t talk,” Josh said in an amused tone that turned menacing. “Start walking or I’ll start shooting.” He lifted his gun to his shoulder and took aim.
“Fine, fine I’ll go! The little brats were too much work anyways. You can keep them.”
The man jumped and took off running when Quinn shot the ground at his feet. Josh looked at him with a grin.
“What?” Quinn asked with a shrug. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Can we go now, please?”
After getting as much information as they could from the two boys about other family members, they checked the map and found that their grandparents lived in a town that was only forty miles out of the way. They drove the boys to the town and handed them off to the guards at a roadblock with promises from the guards to get the boys to their family.
Alex and Dara handed out buns to them all. The camper always smelled like freshly baked buns as the girls made them nonstop. They found that the buns made a great goodwill gesture and it smoothed a lot of tension with the people they ran into. Having a good amount of flour and baking supplies from Mr. Peterson’s house, they felt it was more than worth it to give buns away for some goodwill. They each knew how lucky they were to have transportation and supplies and felt it was a small thing to do to give back to the world.
They were getting closer to the Montana border the next day when they heard gunshots. Quinn was on the roof of the camper and Cooper was in the back of the truck on guard. They couldn’t see where the gunfire was coming from but Quinn caught sight of sparks flying off the top of the van on the driver’s side so he knew they were the target. Quinn let loose with his automatic rifle and poured bullets into the bush on the left-hand side of the road. Cooper followed suit and they kept it up until their clips ran dry. Alex was driving the truck in the lead and she sped up, trying to get out of range. Once they had gone around a few bends and put some distance between themselves and the shooters, she slowed down. It made for a stressful drive, never knowing if they would drive into danger at any moment.
It was a few hours later that they came upon an old, almost antique-looking school bus parked on the road beside three abandoned cars. They came up slowly and came to a stop fifty feet behind it. With the wrecked cars on one side and the bus in the middle of the road, there wasn’t room to safely go around.
Quinn saw an older man stand up from one of the wrecked cars when he heard their engines. He had a shotgun in his hands but it was pointing at the road. He scanned the three vehicles and seemed to make up his mind. He smiled, gave a wave and placed his gun on the top of the car he was standing beside.
The kids were still a little on edge after being shot at earlier so Quinn and Cooper went forward alone. Barrels down, but armed and ready. As they came closer, the man almost seemed to recognize them. He had a big grin on his face when he greeted them.
“Well, hello! I didn’t think I’d run into you kids out here on the road. It’s good to see you! Can you give me a hand? Some cotton pickin’ yahoos shot at me down the road and thankfully they had terrible aim. All they hit was my spare gas cans. I’m trying to siphon some gas to get these folks to the end of my route,” he said and waved at the bus.
Quinn and Cooper looked towards the bus and saw a bunch of faces peering out at them.
Turning back to the old man with a frown Quinn asked, “Sir, you seem to think you know us but I don’t think we’ve met. Who are you?”
“Oh, where did my manners go? I’m Jasper Welch. I’m very pleased to meet you.” He offered his hand in greeting. “You’re those Canadian kids, aren’t you?” he asked while shaking the boys’ hands.
Quinn and Cooper look at each other in bafflement.
“Yup, heard all about you kids. I’ve been driving old Gertie back and forth, shuttling people ever since the lights went out so I hear all kinds of news. You kids are almost famous for takin’ out that gang in Nevada. Say, you don’t happen to have any of those buns, do you?”
Shaking his head in amazement, Cooper headed back to the camper to get buns and tell the others about the new legend they had become. Quinn stayed and helped the man fill up his jerry cans that had been repaired with duct tape.
They exchanged information about the best roads ahead and told each other their respective stories. After Quinn corrected some of the wilder details of the biker battle that the man had been told, they finished up with the gas cans and strapped them back on the bus.
“So, what made you turn bus driver, Mr. Welch?” Quinn asked.
“Well, I used to drive old Gertie here in parades and for special functions for fun but after everything quit working, I was worried about getting enough food so I opened me a bussing business. Depending on how far someone wants to go, is how many cans of food I charge. I don’t have a lot of competition.” He laughed and slapped his knee. “And for the first time since I was a young fella gas is real affordable!”
Quinn couldn’t help laughing with the good-humored man.
Just then Alex walked up carrying two grocery bags of buns and with a grin at the man said, “I hear an order has been placed for our famous buns.” She handed them over. “Now you share those out with your passengers, don’t keep them all for yourself,” she teased.
“Well, aren’t you the sweetest thing! It’s a real pleasure to see such goodness in this new world we’re in. I sure hope you all make it home.” He nodded at Quinn and Alex and made his way back to his old bus.
They stood there watching the bus drive away and Quinn had to laugh. “No phones, no internet and no TV and we manage to make the news in at least three states. What are the odds?”
Alex looked at him with a deadpan expression.
<
br /> “Well, I do make really good buns. Word was bound to spread,” she said and walked away with a flip of her hair.
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Crossing the border into Montana had everyone excited. They were almost back to Canada and so much closer to their homes and families. They were two hours into Montana when shots rang out again. Dara was driving the truck this time with Quinn in the back keeping guard.
It was uncomfortable riding guard duty but the boys insisted they do it with the girls driving. They rotated positions every few hours to keep themselves fresh.
The shots came from the right-hand side and Josh, who was on the camper lookout, sprayed the area with bullets. Cooper was driving the van in the middle of the caravan and he saw Quinn go flying sideways down into the truck bed. He honked his horn again and again and sped up until he was right on the truck’s tail.
Dara took the hint and hit the gas, quickly pulling away. Josh didn’t know if he hit the attackers but they stopped firing while he was spraying the area. They were speeding down the road faster than normal and Josh kept low in case there were more attackers. When they had gone ten minutes with no shots being fired at them, he felt the camper slow and start to pull over. He couldn’t see the truck with the van in front of them but he knew something was wrong when he hadn’t heard Quinn’s gun firing.
He stayed up in position, scanning the area for any threats while they stopped. When he heard Dara screaming for the first aid kit, his heart took a painful stutter. He knew Quinn had been hit. He kept watch over his friends and prayed.
Chapter Sixteen
Alex’s heart was pounding as she tore through the camper’s storage area for the first aid kit. It had to be Quinn. If Dara was yelling and Cooper was driving, it had to be Quinn who was shot. Her hands finally landed on the white box with the Red Cross on it and she ripped it from the cupboard. A mantra of “He’s okay, he’s okay” kept playing through her mind as she rushed out and around the van. She climbed up into the back of the truck and froze.
“So much blood, how can there be so much blood?” was all she could think.
Dara was only wearing her bra. Her t-shirt was wadded up and pressed to Quinn’s leg. Cooper was struggling with Quinn’s belt, trying to get it free from around his waist. It finally pulled out of the last loop and Cooper slid it around Quinn’s upper thigh, pulling it tight.
Alex could see that Dara was yelling, her face white and full of panic, but Alex couldn’t hear her. She couldn’t hear anything. She was lost in pain. She saw the serious little face of Quinn sitting on his grandpa’s tractor when they first met. She saw the time she had caught a huge fish and Quinn was there, giving her the biggest grin and hug. She saw Quinn in the stands cheering so loudly for her when she won her first gymnastics meet and so many other times that he was there for her. It wasn’t until he opened his eyes and lifted his head, looking straight into her eyes and trying to give her a reassuring smile that the world snapped back into focus and her hearing returned.
“Alex, give me the fucking case!” was the first thing she heard. Dara was yelling at her for the first aid kit.
Alex stepped forward and dropped to her knees beside Dara. She quickly flipped the case open and pulled out thick squares of gauze. Dara snatched them from her hand and replaced her blood-soaked t-shirt with them. Alex reached over and placed her fingers against Quinn’s throat, checking his pulse. She could feel his heart racing. In a complete turnaround from her panic attack, she felt herself settle and go calm.
In an authoritative voice, she addressed everyone. “All right, everyone settle down! Quinn, Quinn open your eyes and look at me!” He had his eyes squeezed shut in pain but at her tone, he opened them. “Okay, I know it looks bad and it hurts like crazy but you need to calm down. It’s far from your heart and you will be just fine after we bandage you up. You need to get your heart rate down. So just breathe deep and try and calm yourself. Dara, change that gauze and then wrap his leg with the tension bandage. Not too tight! Cooper, good thinking with the belt, we need to move him into the camper and then get somewhere we can take a good look at him so let’s move this stuff out of the way and slide him out the back. Do you think you can carry him or should we get Josh?”
“I can put him over my shoulder and get him to the camper if you’ll hold his leg still,” Cooper said.
They jumped down and moved supplies out of the way making a path to the end of the truck to slide Quinn out. Dara finished wrapping his leg and helped slide him from behind. They tried to keep his injured leg as steady as possible but he still let out groans of pain and they could see he was clenching his teeth against screaming. Cooper pulled Quinn over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and Alex tried to keep the leg still. Quinn was a big guy and Alex was surprised at Cooper’s strength, carrying him to and up into the camper. They laid him on the floor and Alex was scared to see that he had passed out from the pain. Josh ducked down from the roof and went white at the sight of his unconscious and bloody friend.
“What are we going to do?” he asked the other three. They all looked to Alex and she tried not to panic.
“We need to find a house or a store that we can look at his leg properly. Better yet, a town with a doctor. Grab the map and let’s see where we are.”
“Alex, I already know. We are hours from anything. We picked this route so we wouldn’t be anywhere near a town, remember? I don’t think he can wait three hours for us to get him to a town that might not even have a doctor and where we might end up in a fight for the trucks and supplies we have,” Dara told her in desperation.
Alex thought hard about what to do. She was so scared for her friend. They were on their own. “Okay, let’s brace him with pillows and blankets to keep him warm. We need to go. Dara, watch for a place to stop. It’s the best thing we can do for now.”
Cooper and Dara grabbed pillows and sleeping bags while Alex checked the gauze. It was spotted but the bleeding had slowed. She helped cover him up and then they all went back to their vehicles.
As Alex followed the truck and van she kept an eye on Quinn in the mirror. He was so pale and dark circles were already forming under his eyes. Her hands shook on the steering wheel at the thought of losing him. He was one of her best friends and even though there had never been any romantic moments between them, Alex always felt it was there under the friendship just waiting to develop. She was still unsure about her feelings for Cooper. There had been many times on this trip when she had caught him looking at her that made her stomach flip in confusion, but the possibility of a future without Quinn made her even more unsure of how she felt.
They had been traveling for thirty minutes with nothing to see but forest when Dara slowed down and turned off the road they were traveling on. They went for five minutes before she turned again into a long driveway and through a pair of gates with a sign that read Griffin’s Veterinary Services. The driveway opened up into cleared land with three beautiful buildings on it. They were made of river rock and weathered wood that suited the natural setting perfectly. The first building was the vet’s office. There was a matching barn behind that and further up the hill was a house with a wraparound porch.
After scanning the area and seeing no one, Josh dropped down into the camper and stepped over Quinn, who was still unconscious.
“Sit tight, Alex. I want to check the building for anyone before we move him.” He was out the door and racing towards the office before Alex could reply.
Cooper joined him and they both went into the building with guns raised. They were back in minutes with a stretcher and Dara met them at the camper.
Josh told them, “It’s empty but for the love of God, don’t open the door in the back! There must have been no one here since it happened because there are dead animals in cages back there and it doesn’t look or smell very pretty. There’s an exam room with big windows so it’s got lots of light. Let’s get him in there and take a look at his leg. I want to check out the house an
d make sure it’s empty.”
The two boys went into the camper with the stretcher but the girls stayed outside to give them more room. It was tight and awkward in the confines of the camper and they realized right away they wouldn’t be able to take him out the side door on the stretcher. They had to keep it straight out the door and move Quinn on to it. If Quinn had been awake, he would have been screaming in pain from all the jostling of his body but they got him on the stretcher and out of the camper. Alex rushed ahead and held the door for them.
There was a slight stench of rotting bodies but Alex had smelled a lot worse living on a farm. There was a light coating of dust on all the surfaces telling her that no one had been here since the lights went out. The exam room was bright with natural light from the two big windows but not as bright as it would have been with the fluorescent lights on.
They left Quinn on the stretcher on top of a large exam table. Dara grabbed a pair of scissors and started cutting up Quinn’s cargo pant leg so they wouldn’t have to try and wrestle them off of him. Alex unwound the tension bandage and removed the gauze padding. Dara cut the rest of the pant leg away but there was so much blood they couldn’t see the bullet wound. Alex looked around the room and saw a bottle of sterilized water on a counter with drawers and cupboard under it. She grabbed the water and poured it slowly over the bloody area. He had been shot on the outside of his thigh. Once the leg was clean and they could see the wound, she stepped back.
“Oh shit,” she whispered. Quinn didn’t have a bullet wound, he had two. She looked at her friends and saw Dara crying and shaking. Cooper and Josh were both pale and looking helplessly at Quinn’s leg.
She took a deep breath and said, “There’s no exit wounds, both bullets are still in his leg.”
Josh turned and left the room for a moment and when he returned he told them, “There are two holes in the side of the truck. He was shot through the wood so it would have slowed them down. They can’t stay in his leg or he’ll die of infection. Someone has to take them out.”
STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6 Page 16
