STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6

by Theresa Shaver

  When he got to his friends, Emily let out a sigh of relief and took the three map books he held out to put them in one of the cases. David opened the local map and he and Mason scanned the area to find a street sign. Emily noticed Mark glaring at David when he and Mason studied the map together and hoped he wouldn’t start any trouble. When they found what they were looking for, they pored over the map and plotted out the route they needed. Satisfied they knew where they were and where they needed to go, David folded the map back up and put it into the side cargo pocket of his shorts.

  Mason addressed the rest of the group, “Okay, we still have a long way to go. We’ll stay on this road for a few hours until we turn onto a road named Seal Beach Boulevard and Marine Drive. After that, it’s straight to the marina and hopefully some waves. Keep your eyes open for trouble.” He grabbed the handle of a rolling case and started away from them. Mark and David grabbed their cases and headed after him with Mark elbowing David out of the way so he could get ahead of him. Emily and Lisa trailed behind. Lisa heaved out a dramatic sigh.

  “This is so not my idea of a California vacation. As if we have to walk for hours more! This is so lame. God, I would kill for a Frappuccino!” she complained in a dramatic tone with a huge eye roll.

  Emily couldn’t believe how clueless the girl was. She knew that Lisa was shallow and spoiled but she didn’t seem to get the situation they were in at all. Emily hoped that Lisa would clue in soon or she wasn’t going to be any help to the rest of them. Emily tried to be understanding but she was scared and babying Lisa wasn’t going to help any.

  “Lisa, you get what’s happened right? We aren’t just going to be walking for hours more. It’s going to take us a really long time to get home, like a month or more. Even if we get out of here on a boat and make it to Vancouver, we still have to cross B.C. and get over the mountains. We’ll be walking for weeks. This is really bad,” Emily tried to explain.

  With another eye roll and a smirk, her voice virtually dripping with disdain, she replied, “I know all of you seem to think this is the apocalypse and all but really, really? The government will get it sorted out. There’s too much money in this country for it to stay messed up for long. I’m sure we’ll be fine as soon as we get out of this hellhole of a city. You’ll see. We’ll be home in no time,” she finished with confidence.

  Emily shook her head. “I hope you’re right, Lisa, but until we get out of here, let’s work together, okay?”

  Lisa gave her a fake, tight little smile and a quick nod then quickened her pace until she was walking beside Mason. Emily practiced an eye roll of her own at the girl’s back and huffed out a sigh. Where’s Alex when I need her, she thought. Looking around at the businesses they were passing, Emily noticed a lot of signs with Asian lettering and many had steel security doors blocking off their doors and windows. This city was so foreign to her. She had grown up in the country and Prairie Springs, the town closest to her farm, wasn’t even close to being a city. All these people on the streets made her nervous and she was anxious to be far away. She picked up her pace and closed the gap with the rest of the group.

  The street they were traveling on seemed to go on forever and the kids started to become numb to the bodies on the street and in cars that they passed. The gunshots had become less frequent and they hadn’t seen any violence in the last few hours. Their pace had slowed down and none of them had the energy to jog anymore. Mason, who was leading the group, came to a stop and turned to David.

  Waving behind him, he asked, “What do you think?”

  David studied the huge warehouse type store and the people who were pushing loaded carts out of it. “I think we should give it a shot. If we can get a couple of carts full of supplies it would go a long way to bribing someone to give us a ride out of here. Not many Costco stores on the ocean.”

  “Yeah, we can carry a lot more weight if it is piled up in the shopping carts. Everyone look around and try and find a cart.” Mason said as he started scanning the lot.

  The parking area was only half-filled with dead cars and the group looked down the rows trying to find any abandoned carts. They finally found one wedged between two cars and they all headed into the huge store. There was an open foyer at the front of the store between the two sets of doors and Emily was happy to see one row of carts left along the wall. They decide that three carts were enough so Emily pulled one out and so did David.

  In the main warehouse of the store, someone had set up battery powered construction lights, and with the skylights, it was good enough to see by. It was still dim and warm but they were able to navigate around other people and goods that had been spilled onto the floor. After passing the now useless electronics section, they had to go around piles of smashed glass from the jewellery cases. After that, they hit the aisles of snack goods. Bags of nuts and trail mix were thrown into the carts and cases of power bars, big bags of beef jerky and big boxes of granola bars were also added. They passed by the linens section and came to tables piled with clothing. All of their clothing was back in the hotel that the class had been staying in so they started rummaging through the piles to find extra outfits. Emily was thankful that there were piles of yoga wear and quickly found her sizes. She grabbed a bag of socks and underwear and found a table that had light fleece jackets. Ready to move on to the next aisle she wasn’t surprised to find Lisa hadn’t gotten past the first table. The girl was holding clothes up to her body to make sure it looked good.

  It took Emily two seconds to decide to leave her to it. She wanted to get out of here and back on the way as fast as she could. Grabbing her cart, she pushed it away from the clothing area. The boys had finished up in clothing as fast as she had and split up. She could just make out Mason and Mark heading deeper into the store. David had gone the opposite direction and he disappeared down an aisle with batteries. On her own, Emily started on the bulk food. Cases of tuna, canned ham, chili and beans took up space in the cart. Huge bags of rice and just add water pancake mix were heaved in. Emily didn’t want to take too much of the canned food because of the weight, so she added bags of dried vegetables and fruit. The store had huge boxes full of ramen noodles but it was too awkward to take in her cart so she opened the case and started stuffing the individually wrapped squares in around the other cases and bags in her cart. Boxes of crackers and cookies went in and a box of instant oatmeal packages barely fit as well. Ahead of her was the freezers so she bypassed them and continued on. Without thinking it through, she grabbed a huge can of ground coffee but it only took a few steps before she stopped with a shake of her head. Putting the can back, she instead took three jars of instant. Her cart was piled high as she added four bags of dried milk powder. The rest of the store held fresh food and bottled water. She didn’t have enough room left for the water so she headed to the pharmacy area. Big bottles of multivitamins and Vitamin C were squeezed in as well as a much bigger first aid kit.

  As Emily turned down the next aisle, she saw Lisa scanning the shampoos. Lisa had a few items of clothing draped over her arm and a handful of fashion magazines held against her chest. She looked over and spotted Emily coming her way and scowled at her.

  “Finally! You left me to haul this stuff around when you took off with the cart,” she said impatiently.

  “Hey, thanks so much for your help, Lisa, but don’t worry I’m sure I got enough to feed you too!” Emily replied sarcastically.

  An eye roll and a “Whatever!” was all she had to say as she dumped her stuff on top of the overflowing cart. “Make some room in there. I need to fit in this shampoo and conditioner,” she demanded.

  Emily was fuming and had to get away from Lisa before she said something vicious, so she just pushed past her. “You’ll have to carry it yourself. There is no room.”

  Lisa whined at Emily’s back, “But it’s heavy!”

  “So is this cart!” was all Emily tossed back at her. She could hear Lisa growling in frustration and couldn’t help but rub it in by grabbing
a men and women’s five pack of deodorant and shoving it into the cart. When she heard Lisa squeal in outrage she had to smile and pushed it even more by pulling a large bottle of hand sanitizer off the shelf as well. Leaving the pharmacy area, Emily couldn’t remember anyone pushing her to act so petty and shook her head at the childish behaviour. This trip home was going to be hell.

  She spotted David pushing his cart her way with Mason and Mark close behind. Both of their carts were stacked with water bottle cases and clothes. David’s cart had two multi-packs of flashlights and packages of batteries. He also had five sturdy backpacks. Emily was happy she had just stuck with getting the food or they would all starve.

  The three carts came together and they all started to distribute the food and water to make the weight loads more even. When Mason held up the fashion magazines, Emily just shook her head and mumbled Lisa’s name so he stuffed them in where he could.

  David happened to look up and with a frown moved away from the carts. They all turned to see where he was going and saw him meet up with Lisa. He was taking bottles out of her arms and when she saw Emily watching she poured on the charm.

  “Thank you so much, David! You are so sweet. I tried to grab as much as I could for us but without a cart, this is all I could manage,” she gushed and flirted with him.

  David looked at the bottles and tried to smile. “Ok, thanks for the sunscreen and toothbrushes and paste. That’s a good idea but I don’t think the hair conditioner will be of much use.” He gave her a quick smile and turned away.

  Emily had to turn away as well, or she would end up laughing at Lisa. She caught sight of Mason’s stormy face and hoped he wouldn’t be too hard on Lisa. They all had a long way to go and there was already enough friction in the group. She was completely surprised when Mason snatched the bottles out of David’s hands and shoved the cart past him, pushing him to the side. Why would Mason be mad at David? She was even more confused at the nasty smirk on Mark’s face as he pushed past with David’s cart. Staring at the back of Mason’s head as he whispered to Lisa, Emily had a brief flash that Mason was upset about Lisa’s flirting with David. Shaking her head at the thought, she dismissed it. He was just being a jerk.

  “Let me push that, Em,” David said and she moved away from the cart so he could get behind it.

  They pushed their carts through the empty checkout stands and Emily had to look away from the two dead bodies with name tags pinned to their chests. They had both been shot and their bodies lay in pools of blood. Emily felt her stomach heave a little when she saw the shopping cart wheel tracks that had left a trail of blood all the way out the door. She was already getting desensitized from all the death she had seen, but the evidence of people pushing their carts past the dead men and through their blood was appalling to her. Emerging out of the dim store into the bright afternoon sun was welcome and she took a deep breath only to start coughing from the smoky air. She couldn’t wait to get away from this city.

  They made their way back through the parking lot and started down the street again. The EMP had been set off hours ago and the streets had emptied of people. There were still people walking but most of the wrecked cars sat empty. As the day progressed, most people had realized that emergency services weren’t coming and they had walked away from the accidents and headed to hospitals or homes. They had only been pushing the heavy carts for a half an hour when Lisa started to complain about her feet. She wanted to stop for a while and rest. Everyone was tired and ignored her. Emily’s feet were throbbing but she knew they had to get to the marina before night or they might not make it out alive.

  A few men eyed the loaded carts but Mark and Mason stared them down and they passed by without incident. Emily knew that they would end up in a confrontation at some point and was scared. They hadn’t found any weapons and she hoped their luck would hold out.

  With no one listening to her, Lisa had stopped her whining and was trudging along with the rest of them until they came to a huge green space. Her head came up and she looked through the chain link fence at the beautifully manicured lawn. “Look, it’s a park! We can stop and rest for a while and have something to eat. Please, guys? I just want to sit down for a while,” she pleaded.

  Mason looked over at the park and shook his head. “It’s not a park, it’s a golf course. The fence will go all the way around it. We can’t get in and if we stop and sit, your feet will hurt even more when you get back up. Come on, Lisa, it’s only a few more hours. Suck it up!”

  Lisa moaned in pain and frustration, “I would love to be sitting in a golf cart right now,” she moaned.

  They had only gone ten feet when David came to an abrupt stop. “Wait!” he turned to Lisa, “What did you say?”

  She looked at him in hope. “We can stop and sit in the grass for a break!”

  “No. The last thing you said, sitting in a golf cart.” He turned to Mason who was looking impatient. “Golf carts. They should still work, no fancy electronics. We can get a couple and drive them the rest of the way.”

  Mason shook his head, “Nice thought, but they would all be the fancy kind, full of electronics. The newer carts even have GPS.”

  David grinned, “Yeah, but I bet the maintenance carts are the older ones and they would have storage spaces on the back to haul groundskeeper tools. We should check. It could save us a couple of hours.”

  Mason was thinking about it with a thoughtful expression but Mark was sick of the Boy Scout so he butted in. “Let’s go already. We would just be wasting time looking for them,” he said forcefully.

  David nodded, “Yeah, okay but just let me climb this fence to the top. If I see anything we can try for them, otherwise we’ll keep going.” Without waiting for a reply, David quickly scaled the fence and stood on the top scanning the course. It only took him minutes to drop back down and everyone looked at him expectantly. “I can see the roof of a building in the direction we’re heading but I don’t know what it is so let’s keep going and I’ll climb up again when we get further.”

  They continued on down the street for another ten minutes before David climbed the fence again. He dropped back quickly and shook his head so they kept going. Lisa was letting out little whimpers and Emily tried hard to ignore her as her own feet throbbed in sympathy. The lush green lawns seemed to go on forever before Emily could see a cross street coming up and the end of the golf course. As they neared the end of the fence, they could all see a small building with a garage door. They stopped the shopping carts beside the fence and David climbed over and dropped to the other side of it. He disappeared around the side of the building out of sight.

  “What a waste of time. Who’s this guy think he is, MacGyver?” Mark growled.

  Before anyone could respond, David came back around with a grin on his face. “There’s a window on the other side. I could see four of the old style carts in there and they all have truck bed style areas on the back so we can load the supplies.”

  “How are we going to get them out?” Mason asked, still not convinced.

  “We break the window and get the door up. There are all kinds of tools inside we can use. Then we cut the fence and peel it back and drive them right out.”

  Mark started to laugh, “Some Boy Scout you are, break and entering, stealing private property and damaging property. What’s next, Dave? You want to go rob a liquor store? I might just start to like you after all!”

  David frowned at the big red head. “It’s too late to be worrying about stealing now,” as he waved at the loaded carts. “And it’s not like we’re hurting anyone. This could help save our lives so I’m okay with it. It might be wrong but desperate times and all. You going to help me with this or what?” he asked.

  “I’m your man! Stand back.” Mark scaled the fence and with a grunt heaved himself over.

  Chapter Three

  Emily held the fence back as Mason drove the last of the three golf carts they were taking through and onto the sidewalk. They emptied all the sho
pping carts into the back storage areas and climbed in. Lisa didn’t help with the loading but dropped into the seat of the first one out and didn’t budge. There were only two seats per cart so they had to take three and Mark was happy to drive his alone. Emily rode with Mason and David was stuck with Lisa. When Lisa offered David a smile and a power bar, Emily thought she could see a tightening of Mason’s face but she ignored it. They were all stressed and David wasn’t a part of Mason’s social group but she hoped he would warm up to him.

  Her feet were screaming in relief from finally being able to sit down after being on them for hours. She didn’t have a watch but from the position of the sun, she knew it was late afternoon. As the golf cart jerked forward, she turned around and pulled out two water bottles and some beef jerky for her and Mason. They had barely spoken all day and this was the first time that they had been alone. Emily snuggled closer to him and he gave her a quick kiss on the head before turning back to drive. The extra wide sidewalks had no problem accommodating the narrow golf carts and they didn’t have to worry about the smashed up vehicles blocking the road. They weren’t traveling as fast as a car would but it was way faster than walking.

  Groups of people watched them as they went by but only one woman tried to flag them down. Emily looked away as they passed her and she was suddenly saddened by not stopping to help anyone all day. The street they had been following turned into a true freeway and they had to navigate around more crashes as the sidewalks ended. It slowed them down and at one point the boys had to push a couple cars out of the way that had completely blocked the road forward. The only people left on the freeway were the ones that were too injured to walk away and Emily knew that those poor people were doomed. No one was coming to help. More than once, she felt tears streaming down her face and Mason would squeeze her leg in comfort but they always drove on. She felt a huge amount of guilt and couldn’t help but think of her family, wondering if they were also injured as people walked past them without helping. She tried to think about where her parents would have been when the pulse stopped everything. Her mom worked in town but she didn’t leave for work until eight, so with the time difference, she would have still been at home, not driving. Her dad worked on the farm so he would have been there as well. She was an only child so she didn’t have any siblings. Alex was as close as a sister would be and Emily felt guilt again at leaving her. She worried about Alex and her other friends that had gone overland and hoped that they were safe and were making good time getting out of the city.