He looked up at the others and everyone nodded so he folded the map and stood up. He grabbed one of the extra packs and Mason hauled the other one. They would have to take turns carrying them but the supplies were too precious to leave behind. No one spoke as they started north. They were still reeling from the betrayal of Joanna’s son and soon they fell in to a rhythm. There was nothing to do but walk, one foot in front of the other, every step taking them closer to their country and home.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The highway they were travelling on ran straight north to the town of Sumas. People in the campground had told them that the border guards weren’t allowing anyone through so they took the first eastbound side road. They walked past fields that hadn’t been planted and farmhouses that had been boarded up. Twice they saw men with cold faces standing in their driveways with guns. They kept walking. When the road they were on bent to the south, they cut across fields until they found another road going east. The fields were soft with spring mud and they were all exhausted by the struggle to get through them. When they got back onto a road, they would stop and scrape the sticky mud from their pant legs and shoes. Emily felt like she was walking in concrete blocks instead of shoes when the mud dried. They eventually came to a forested area and entered the cool dimness on a game trail. The forest floor wasn’t as muddy and they kept ploughing ahead.
Emily saw Lisa stagger over a root and called for a break. She had no idea how many miles they had walked but she knew that they all needed to rest and eat. Her best guess was that they still had three or four hours until dark. When she dropped her pack to the needle-covered floor, her shoulders ached from the unaccustomed strain the straps had caused. She was hungry and thirsty but she needed to just sit for a minute before addressing either need.
Looking at the others as they’d dropped down onto the forest floor, she could see that they were just as tired. It was to be expected. None of them had done any exercise in the last three weeks other than sitting on a boat and they all felt the pain in their muscles. Emily dragged her pack over and pulled out a bottle of water and two granola bars. They disappeared quickly into her hungry body and she added a strip of beef jerky to her meal. It wasn’t the most satisfying food but it gave her flagging energy a boost and she knew in a few hours when they stopped to camp for the night, they would have a hot meal.
While they rested, there was no conversation. That suited her just fine. There was nothing to say. When David stood, the others did the same and they trudged on. After twenty minutes of navigating the trail, there was a crash of foliage ahead of them as some large animal fled through the forest. All four of them froze in their tracks and Lisa let out a frightened squeak. Emily saw a flash of tan as the deer they had startled fled deeper into the forest away from the trail. They continued on, but it reminded Emily that bad people weren’t the only thing they might have to worry about. Bears, cougars even wild pigs could be a danger to them if they stayed in the forest, and they would have to be on watch for them as well. She slid her hand into her jacket pocket and felt the cold hard metal of the gun. She had put it in there before they left the campground that morning and was reassured by its presence. It wouldn’t stop a charging bear but it might help scare one off.
As much as Emily tried to stay focused on her surroundings, she found herself blanking out as she followed behind Lisa and David. Her eyes stayed on the floor of the forest to avoid tripping on the roots that covered the trail. It was two hours later when she walked right into Lisa’s back. Quickly catching her balance, she looked up and saw the light had changed. They were at the edge of the woods that they had been travelling through. Emily moved up to stand by David and she looked at what was ahead of them. There was an unploughed field that ran all the way to a town in the distance. There were several fires burning and she counted eight smoke trails. They backed up further into the woods and tried to decide what to do.
David rubbed his face in exhaustion. “I think we should move further back into the trees and set up a camp. I don’t know about you guys but I’m beat. The sun will be down in an hour and it would take longer than that to circle around that town. What do you guys think?” he asked.
Mason kicked at a root that was sticking out of the ground before answering, “Yeah, I think we’re done for the day.”
Lisa just nodded. Instead of replying, Emily moved back down the trail and started looking for a good place to set up camp. She found a decent clearing and dropped her pack. She asked Lisa to help her and they started searching for rocks. They collected enough to make a fire ring and she used a sharp- edged stone to scoop out some dirt before going to search for small twigs and moss to help start the fire. While the girls got the fire ring arranged, the boys started to collect dry firewood. Emily let David start the fire as he had always been better at it than her. She pulled a pot and a pan from the backpacks and started to sort through the food. Emily didn’t have a lot of energy left but she wanted a hot meal. Joanna had included powdered eggs, three tins of ham and a dozen potatoes in the supplies she had packed for them so that’s what they had for supper. It was simple to prepare and it filled them up.
After they had eaten, they washed the pan with as little water as possible and set the pot on the coals for hot water. As it was heating, she helped Lisa clear a spot for their blankets and had to dig up a few rocks that would have stabbed them. They only had a few blankets from the boat and Joanna hadn’t included any in what she had provided for them so Lisa and Emily were going to double up. With the water steaming, they used a wash cloth and cleaned themselves up as best they could before banking the fire and lying down for the night. The soft forest sounds and Lisa’s warmth coupled with the long day helped Emily fall asleep despite the hard ground.
She felt like she had just closed her eyes when Mason’s angry curses jerked her awake. There was a soft hazy grey light of dawn and she could see him stomping around. She sat up quickly and grasped the gun in her pocket while looking frantically around for the threat. When she spotted David sitting with his head in his hands she relaxed slightly but still looked around in confusion. Lisa sat up and looked at Mason in annoyance.
“Mason! What is wrong with you? What’s going on?” she snapped at him.
He swung around to stare at her and opened his mouth to answer but then shut it and walked over to a tree and kicked it. Emily looked at David who met her stare across the almost out fire. Before she could ask, he told her.
“We were robbed. Somebody came in while we were sleeping and stole our packs,” he told her in a dead voice. She automatically reached down and flipped her and Lisa’s ground sheet back. Relief flooded through her at the sight of the two packs they had used as pillows.
“Lisa and I still have ours!” she exclaimed.
David closed his eyes in relief for a moment before they flew open in anger. “Arggggg! I’m such an idiot! We should have never had a fire until it was dark. They would have seen the smoke and known right where to find us. What a stupid mistake!” He dropped his head into his hands again.
Emily shook her head. It was a dumb mistake and so was not posting a watch. They were going to have to start being more careful if they had any chance of making it home. She pulled open her pack and dumped out the contents and did the same with Lisa’s. Eight water bottles, six granola bars, four power bars, two small bags of rice four packages of ramen noodles, one bag of beef jerky and some multivitamins was all the food they had. Two changes of clothes, two flashlights, some first aid, two toothbrushes, a stick of deodorant and a roll of toilet paper were all that was left for four people. They had lost almost everything.
Emily stood up and went over to pick up the pot and pan by the fire. She brought them back to her bag and started stuffing everything back in except for two water bottles. When she was done she handed one bottle to Lisa and one to Mason.
“Half for each of us, enjoy your breakfast.”
She started to roll up the blankets and make a sling o
f them. She was on autopilot and didn’t notice the others staring at her. When David said her name, she looked up and saw them all looking at her.
“What? People suck but they didn’t kill us and there’s nothing we can do so let’s go.” She stood and slung the blankets over her shoulder and across her chest.
Everyone was still standing and staring at her so she shook her head and started back to the trail. There was no point in dwelling on what they had lost. All they could do was keep moving. When she hit the trail, she stopped to wait and the others joined her in a few minutes. She looked to each one of her friends as they joined her and raised her eyebrows in a question. They all nodded determinedly so she fell in behind David and they headed north.
They had left their camp at dawn and walked for hours. They skirted the small town they had seen the previous day and kept going. She and Lisa passed the bottle of water back and forth taking small sips so that it lasted for two hours. The hunger she ignored. Emily knew that it was nothing more than a nuisance at this point. They had eaten well for the last twenty days and after seeing the starved people on the highway she knew her rumbling stomach didn’t mean anything. Her biggest concern was water. They would have to get more and as their small supply of bleach was gone that meant boiling and filtering it. All of that would take time. As she followed along, she kept her mind focused on what steps they could take to get food.
When David slowed down and came to a stop, Emily guessed that they had been walking for six hours and it was somewhere around noon. He dropped the pack that he had been carrying and looked off into the distance. They were in a field and there was a house not far away. When he asked if they still had the binoculars, she could only shake her head.
With a grim expression, he squared his shoulders.
“Okay, you guys stay here and take a break. I think that house is empty and I’m going to go take a look. If it’s abandoned, I’ll come back and we can all go in and see if we can find some stuff to help us.”
When no one objected, he turned and jogged towards the house. While they waited, Emily broke a power bar into three pieces and handed them out. The small amount of food only made her want more. David was back in less than ten minutes. He squatted down and took the small section of the bar that Emily handed him. As he ate it, she pulled another bottle of water out and they all shared it.
When David finished his portion of the water, he told them what he had found.
“Both the doors are wide open and a couple of the windows have been busted. I didn’t go in but it looks like no one’s been there for a while. I think we should go check it out. At the least, we might find some clothes for Mason and me.”
Everyone got to their feet and followed David to the ransacked house. When they walked in the open front door and into the destroyed living room, Emily tried not to let it affect her. The place had been trashed and she carefully stepped over a family portrait that was lying in broken glass on the floor. She looked away quickly and tried to harden her heart but it was hard not to realize that this used to be a family’s home. The kitchen was beyond bare. Whoever had come in here had ripped cabinet doors off and smashed all the dishes. She knew it was useless but she tried the kitchen faucets anyways. Nothing, they were bone dry. They all separated and started looking for anything they could use.
Emily wandered from room to room. She felt like a ghost. Is this what her home looked like? Had people came into her family’s home and ripped it apart? She went up the stairs and the first room she came to was done in shades of purple and pink. Stuffed bears had been thrown everywhere and posters of boy bands had been half ripped from the walls. An iPhone in a hot pink case caught her eye. It was half way tucked under the bed ruffle on the floor. She reached down to pick it up and saw that it was clipped to a dark purple school backpack that had been shoved under the bed. Emily sat on the bed and opened the zipper. It had a few binders and notebooks in it so she removed them and set them carefully on the nightstand. In the bottom of the bag were three Mars bars and a package of jolly ranchers. She closed her eyes and thanked the girl for the calorie-packed treats.
Emily left the room and went into the master bedroom down the hall. David and Mason were sorting through the pile of men’s clothing on the bed so she went into the attached bathroom. It was a spa like setting with a huge sunken tub. There were bottles of lavender bath salts and creams on the side and she imagined sitting in a steaming tub of hot water filled with bubbles. With a sigh, she turned away and started to search through the cabinets. Two towels and a half roll of toilet paper went into her new empty pack. After digging around under the sink she came out with a half filled box of tampons and sighed in relief. Taking one last look around the room, she started to leave when something made her stop. Her forehead furrowed in concentration. What was she missing, something about the tub and a hot bath? When it came to her, her face broke out in a grin and she raced into the bedroom.
“David! We need to find the hot water tank. It should be filled with clean water!” She told him happily.
He smiled at her and started nodding. “Good thinking, Emily! Can you put these clothes in that pack? I’ll go down into the basement and start looking for it. See if you can find some containers or plastic bottles we can use.” He handed her the clothes he had picked up and left the room. Mason followed him with a confused look on his face.
When she got downstairs, Lisa was in the dining room and she had some things spread out on the table.
“Emily, I found a sleeping bag! It was in a garbage bag in the garage and look, this is lamp oil. We can use it to help start our campfires, right?”
“Good job, Lisa! That will definitely help.”
They were in the house for almost an hour and they left with water, a few candy bars and a much better frame of mind. They walked all afternoon through fields and on roads where they could. Emily estimated that they had walked around twenty to twenty-five miles that day when they finally stopped. They moved into a wooded area and crossed a stream before finding a cleared area where they set up camp. After two days of walking, they were all stiff and sore and starving. The stream that they had passed had given Emily an idea so while the water boiled on the small fire David had lit, she used the utility knife he had found at the house and started to cut and strip small green branches. She bent them into shape and used the bark strips to tie it all together. It was almost full dark so she used the flashlight to make her way back to the stream. She scanned the stream until she found a narrow spot and collected rocks. Placing her trap into the water she used the rocks to wedge it in tight and weigh it down. With any luck, they would have a fish for breakfast.
Lisa was fascinated by the trap and asked question after question on how to make one. Emily smiled over at David as she was remembering the summer that they had learned how to make one. Josh had gotten a Dangerous Book for Boys manual for his tenth birthday and had proudly shown off the trap he built from the instructions. Of course, Alex had made it into an adventure. They had all built their own and set off to see who could catch the most fish. Quinn had won and they were completely grossed out when his grandma had made them all gut and clean the fish before she would cook them for the group. Emily looked at David and they started to laugh. They had the same memory of Josh dumping fish guts down Alex’s back and how she had chased him all around the farm until he begged for mercy.
They shared their story with Mason and Lisa over a split package of hot ramen noodles and beef jerky. Lisa had a sad smile on her face when they finished the story.
“You guys are so lucky. You both have great friends and amazing memories. I wish I did,” she said, looking down.
Emily reached over and grabbed her hand. “You do have great friends and we are making memories together every day.”
Lisa smiled gratefully back. It was fully dark and they were all tired from another long physical day but they had learned their lesson from the previous night and tonight there would be a watch posted. Emily wa
s happy to take the first shift because it meant that she would get uninterrupted sleep after she was done. They would have to change the roster every night to make it fair. The sounds of the forest and her friend’s soft breathing kept her company until she woke Mason to take over. As she closed her eyes she pictured Alex smacking Josh across the face with a dead fish in payback so she fell asleep with a smile on her face.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The smell of cooking fish woke Emily and Lisa up that morning. She opened her eyes and looked at David, who was tending the pan on the fire. When he saw her looking at him, he smiled.
“I figured you caught them so I should clean them! You did good, Em. There were two decent-sized ones in the trap. This is going to be a great day. There are two cups of hot water over there for you girls if you want to wash up. These bad boys will be ready in a few minutes and I made some rice to go with the fish.”
Emily had to smile. It was a much better way to wake up than yesterday. Fish and rice to start the day sounded pretty good. She poured out some warm water on a cloth and scrubbed her face and arms. She and Lisa braided each other’s hair to keep it out of the way and a quick rinse of their toothbrushes had them ready for the day. Even without seasoning, the fish was amazing and everyone scraped their plates clean. They all pitched in to clean up and used the nearby stream for washing.
Once all the backpacks were on and the bedrolls slung, they started north once again. They didn’t really know where they were but they had to be close to crossing over the border. It was two hours into their third day of walking when they left a field and climbed onto a paved road. Emily’s leg muscles thanked her for the even surface. Walking through muddy, hilly fields was hard work and climbing over fences was annoying. The road ran east so they walked into the sun. A glint of steel in the distance flashed at them now and again and as they got closer they saw it was an abandoned car. All of the doors were open and there was trash spread out around it. There was nothing they could use so they just leaned against the sun-warmed metal and took a break.
STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6 Page 38
