“How do we know you aren’t trying to trick us? You could belong to the gang. We don’t even know who you are.”
Cooper was quick to try and reassure them, “No, I’m not with them! I think we went to high school together. My name is Cooper Morris. I’m a senior at Prairie Springs High.”
He thought that would convince them but it had the opposite effect. Their faces changed to anger and hate and one of them spat out at him, “Get away from us, you scumbag! We aren’t going to fall for your trap! You and your father are the reason we’re in this mess. You’re disgusting!” The last word was said in a snarl and both girls grabbed their bags and walked back the way they’d come and settled back down to continue working.
Cooper was stunned by the venom in the girl’s tone and fell back onto his butt. He just sat there feeling waves of shame wash over him because of all that his father had done. He couldn’t even blame them for lumping him in with his father. The reputation he had allowed to develop painted him as a bad boy, petty criminal, so why would anyone trust him? He must have been lost in misery long enough for Dara to become worried because the next thing he knew, she was kneeling beside him and staring into his face with concern.
“What is it? What happened? Cooper, what did they say?!” He could hear the panic creeping into her voice and it knocked him out of his stupor.
“Whoa, it’s okay, Dara! They didn’t say anything. When I told them my name, they thought I was part of the gang and that I was trying to trick them. They won’t tell us anything,” he explained.
Dara looked at him in confusion. “I don’t understand?”
Cooper hung his head and muttered, “My father.”
Dara cursed softly. “Forget about them. We’ll try someone else.”
Cooper was shaking his head in defeat when a voice caused them both to freeze in panic.
“Is someone there?” They heard someone call from the other side of the fence.
The only thing that kept them from bolting was that the voice came from a female. Dara slowly turned her head and peered through one of the gaps in the fence. She saw the woman they’d seen further down the field when they’d been looking for someone to approach. The woman was pretending to pull weeds where the girls had been not that long ago and she kept stealing glances at the fence that Cooper and Dara were behind.
Dara pitched her voice low but loud enough to carry. “Yes, we’re here! We’re with a group that’s trying to put a plan together to take back the town. We need information. Can you help us?”
The woman looked to be in her forties but it was hard for Dara to make out too many details through the small gap in the fence. The woman didn’t even ask any questions. She just started to tell them the situation.
“The men are all out on farms. I don’t know what it’s like out there but we see them on Sundays and that’s when the guards are rotated. There are just over sixty gang members holding the town. Over twenty are on the farms watching the men and the rest are in town. Most of the women and children are kept in the high school and there are ten guards that watch over us in the yard and the park. The rest of the gang are split up around town at road blocks. They sleep in a few of the nicer homes but most are in the hotel at night. They have a pleasure house where some of the women work. We’re all locked into the school at night and I don’t know how many guards patrol. We’re paralyzed to do anything because they punish our husbands if we cause any trouble and they punish the women if the men do anything. They have executed more than twenty men and women since they took over.” She paused and glanced towards the bench the guard had been sitting on and froze when she saw it empty. In a desperate voice, she whispered, “Go! Get out of here! Good luck!”
Dara was about to run away when she had a thought that made her turn back. “Don’t let those girls tell anyone we were here. Don’t tell anyone!”
When she saw the woman nod her head and make a go away gesture, she spun around and followed Cooper out of the yard.
They made their way in silence back through the town without stopping until they crossed the main highway and had circled around the roadblock through the trees. Once they finally felt safe, Dara stopped Cooper with a hand on his arm.
“Cooper, those girls are wrong. It’s not your fault.”
Cooper lifted his head and met her gaze with the saddest eyes. After a few seconds, he dropped his head and continued walking. Dara rubbed her eyes at the injustice and followed him back to base.
Chapter Seven
Quinn finished the last turn on the jack to level out the small camper he and Lisa had brought back from the resort storage compound. As he stood up, he felt a deep ache in his thigh. The bullet wound had healed cleanly, but he still had pain after a day of activity. Absently rubbing at the ache, he turned and smiled at Lisa. The girl was almost unrecognizable from the stuck up, shallow cheerleader he had shared the halls of high school with. They’d left the campsite base to search the resort's many campers in its storage yard while everyone else had gone to scout the town and farms, and they were the first ones back. Quinn had been on edge all day long not knowing what was happening to his friends. For probably the hundredth time that day, he glanced at the old wind-up watch that had replaced his useless digital one that had fried with all the rest of modern electronics when the pulse hit.
Lisa passed him, carrying another load of supplies that they had filled the camper with. They’d decided early in the day to bring one of the campers back with them to make sleeping arrangements less cramped. Lisa had slowly driven the antique truck to the resort with Quinn walking ahead to watch and listen for any traffic on the two roads they had to cross to get there. It was slow going, but with the encounter they’d had the day before, they were being extra cautious.
Once they’d made it to the storage compound, Quinn had used a pry bar to open storage compartments under the trailers and some of them had laundry chutes that Lisa could squeeze through to enter the main living areas and unlock the doors. They had to choose trailers without slide outs as they had no power to open the slides and get access to the cupboards and pantries. Quinn had been surprised at how many people left dry goods in their campers over the winter and they’d brought back enough food to last them for a few weeks if they needed it, especially if they had pancakes every day. Almost every camper they’d checked had a box of “just add water” pancake mix in it.
Lisa had surprised him throughout the day by taking the initiative on doing what needed to be done. She searched for, and hauled, supplies without complaint and hadn’t blinked an eye at squeezing into dirty storage compartments to gain access through the laundry chutes. She had some angry looking scrapes on her arms but she barely gave them a glance. She had definitely changed and Quinn was pleasantly surprised.
They worked together to unload the camper of all the supplies they’d gathered and make up the beds for the coming night. They had brought back more sleeping bags and pillows as well as two solar showers they’d found. Once they had the camper ready for occupancy, they went to work on rigging up the showers so the sun would have a chance to warm the water up. Lisa held up tarps while Quinn used scavenged rope to make privacy screens. They were both looking forward to even a quick shower later in the day. Anything would be better than the washcloth wipe-down they’d been using for so long.
With the final knot tied, Quinn looked at his watch for what seemed like the thousandth time. Living life without any means of communication was a huge adjustment. The uncertainty of what was happening with his friends was wearing away at him and he looked around for something else to occupy his worried mind.
He grabbed the small hatchet they had and started to stack up branches to cut for their fire. The only campfires they had were at night. To keep the smoke from giving away their location, they’d dug down and piled rocks in a low wall to shield the flames. Quinn finished cutting down the supply of wood they had on hand so he checked on Lisa, who was organising their supplies, before ranging out to
gather more branches. He had only gone twenty feet into the surrounding trees when he heard the sound of tires on the gravel road approaching their base. There was no sound of engines so he knew whoever it was had to be on a bike, but he still crouched down and moved quickly back towards the campers. He had just made it to the back side of the new camper they’d brought back when he heard Josh’s voice blurt out, “Whoa!”
Quinn moved quickly around to the front to see what was going on. What he saw made him smile and impressed him even more. Lisa was just lowering one of the assault rifles with a sheepish expression. Josh and David were straddling their bikes with their hands in the air. When Quinn gave a bark of laughter, Lisa lowered her eyes in embarrassment. Quinn saw Josh’s scowl and quickly intervened.
“Good job, Lisa! You were more prepared than I was. We have to stay on guard. It could have been anyone who stumbled onto our site.”
Josh’s face changed to a thoughtful frown before he nodded. “He’s right. Good reflexes Lisa, but I think we need to give you some instruction on that gun.”
Lisa looked from Josh to the large rifle in her hands before asking, “Just point and shoot, right?”
Josh gave her his cheeky grin while nodding his head. “Yup, that’s about it, but first you have to take the safety off!”
David and Josh parked their bikes and dropped their packs while Quinn showed Lisa how to arm the rifle properly. They would have to spend some time with her, Emily, and David on how to use the powerful guns but right now Quinn was more interested in what news the two boys had brought back.
All four of them gathered around the picnic table and spread out the hand drawn map. Josh and David leaned over it and started to put X’s on the properties they’d scouted out. Josh circled his family’s farm and leaned back.
“We did a wide circle north and then east to come up from behind our areas. There are a lot of empty houses out there. All the small acreages and hobby ranches have been cleared out so we stashed the bikes and just walked through the fields to stay off the roads. We checked David’s place first. It’s completely bare.” He showed them the route they’d taken on the map.
David’s face was grim when he put his finger on the X that represented his family’s small farm.
“We didn’t have a lot of stock but they took it all as well as all the feed from the barn. The house and cellar had been stripped of all food as well. I managed to grab some of my stuff but there was no sign of what happened to my mom and sister.”
Josh put his hand on David’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze before turning back to the map and running his finger through the area they’d gone through. “All of these places had been stripped as well. I gotta tell you, Quinn, it was creepy! Even knowing that these guys had rounded everyone up, I thought we would come across somebody that was still free. Anyway, we went through the Stockton’s fields because their place butts up against mine and there’s that strip of trees along the property line. I figured they would give us some cover to get a good look at my place. Holy crappin' cow was that place busy! I hardly even recognized the old place. There had to be at least a hundred men down there! A bunch of them were working on two different new buildings. They got a second barn framed up and being finished and some kind of long building that had lots of rooms framed in. I don’t know if it will be for housing or storage, but it’s big. The rest of the people were cutting meat. They had five hogs hanging and tables set up where feathers were flying. I can tell you that there’s a lot more stock being kept there than when we left for Cali. If I had to guess, I’d say they’re using my place for the main meat supermarket. It didn’t look like they’d done any planting in the fields, but it was so busy we stayed on the east side the whole time.”
Josh stared at the map on the table and just shook his head at all the changes he had seen on his farm. Lisa broke the silence with the most important question.
“How many guards are there?”
Josh was still lost in thought so David answered her. “We counted eight. We stuck around and watched for over two hours, so unless some of them were in the house and didn’t come out there were eight walking around. They all had shotguns or rifles but we were too far away to see if they had handguns too.”
When he fell silent, Lisa leaned over and picked up the pencil and wrote the numbers on the map in the circle around Josh’s home. Josh was thinking hard and he finally raised his head and looked at the others.
“We’re going to have to go back. We need to know the schedule of the guards and what they do at night. Where do the workers sleep? How do the guards patrol? Stuff like that.” He looked around the campsite and then back at Quinn. “Hopefully the other teams will find out more but we’re going to need a few more days of watching to get a better idea to come up with a plan.”
Quinn nodded thoughtfully before his expression changed to one of concern. “Did you see anyone you know?” He wanted to ask if Josh had seen his dad but was afraid of upsetting him if he hadn’t.
Josh sniffed and looked away. Looking out into the trees he nodded. “Yeah, my dad was butchering a hog and I recognized some people from town and a few of my neighbours.” When he turned back there was a steel rage shining from his usually happy eyes. “I saw Mr. Lock from the feed store. The only reason I recognized him is because he’s the only man over six foot five that I know and he always wears that dumb blue floppy hat. You remember how big he is? Last time I saw him he had to be over three hundred and fifty pounds, now he’s a bean pole. My dad used to have that big belly. Well, it’s gone now. I think they are starving our people.”
Quinn took a step back at the news. His mind flashed to his grandfather. The man was over six feet tall, but he had always been lean and wiry without a lot of bulk. How would he survive at his age without food and having to labour all day? Quinn felt hopelessness flood through him and with a shake of his head he shoved it away. Alex and Emily would be back soon. They were scouting out his home before moving on to their own. Until they got back with news of his grandfather, he wouldn’t lose hope.
A flicker of movement in the trees had Quinn reaching for the handgun on his hip but he relaxed as he saw Dara and Cooper step into the campsite. He studied their faces for some sign of what they’d seen in town but Dara’s small smile of greeting told him nothing. Cooper looked like he was far away and wouldn’t meet his eyes as he walked over and dumped his pack beside the picnic table. Josh grabbed Dara and gave her a fierce hug before draping his arm around her shoulders and looking relieved to have her back safely.
Quinn tried to get a read on what was going on with Cooper, but the guy just stood staring down at the map in silence, so he shot a questioning look at Dara. She just frowned and gave a small shake of her head before looking away. When she took in the new addition in the camp she brightened.
“Hey, that’s great! Last night was a little cramped in the van. Now we can spread out a bit. Does it have enough bunks for all of us? As cozy as it was with us all in the van, I could do without the lovely boy aroma I woke to this morning!”
Josh gave her a nudge and grin. “How do you know that was from us guys? We all ate chilli for supper. It could have been from you girls!”
Dara laughed “After more than a month in close quarters with you? I could pick you out of a line up with my eyes closed just using my nose!”
Quinn saw Cooper’s head come up and a brief smirk crossed his face at their teasing, so Quinn asked him what they needed to know.
“Did you guys have any trouble getting through town?”
Cooper’s face turned serious again. “No, we made it through with no problem at all but we couldn’t get very close to the community centre. We were going to use Fairways Park to come up to it from behind but they’ve clear cut all the trees out and fenced the whole thing. They’ve turned the whole park into one gigantic garden. We went into a couple houses that back on to it and had a good view from the second-floor windows. We could see that they’re using both the commu
nity centre and the high school to house people.”
Quinn frowned at the information. “We’ll have to find a way to get closer. We need more detailed information on how many guards are stationed there.”
Dara shot a nervous look at Cooper before facing Quinn again. “Well, yes and no.” She bit her lip and looked at Cooper again before blurting out, “We made contact,” in a rush.
Everyone but Cooper looked at Dara in shock. Quinn overcame his first and stammered out, “What? We all agreed…”
Dara cut him off before he could finish his sentence.
“I know we agreed not to make contact with anyone from town but we couldn’t get anywhere close to where they are being kept and there were some women working close to the fence so I just took a risk.” She stared everyone down defiantly before continuing, “Look, we need information and that was the only way we were going to get it. I told her not to tell anyone so we should be fine.”
Josh rubbed Dara’s back in comfort and faced Quinn. “She’s right. We need to know certain things and just watching isn’t going to do it.” He picked up the pencil and handed it to Cooper. “X out everything you know is empty and clear and circle what’s occupied. Write in the number of guards where you can. When Emily and Alex get back, we’ll add their info to the map and then decide what to do next.”
As Cooper filled in the map, Dara explained what the woman had told them about the guards at the school and around town. She took the pencil from Cooper and drew in the one roadblock they knew of and marked in that there were four guards when they’d last seen it. Beside the map, she wrote in the number sixty-five and circled it. Underneath that she made a minus sign and wrote the number seven. When Josh asked what the numbers were for, she straightened up and tapped the first one with the pencil.
STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6 Page 50
