Josh danced over to Lisa with a big grin and held up his hand for a high five. When she just stared at him blankly, he put on a fake pout.
“Aww, come on, Lisa, it worked, didn’t it?”
“What? What worked?” she asked, completely lost.
“I got you mad, right? I got you out of your head so you would just shoot. You were over-thinking it! It worked too. You hit your target four times!” Josh grinned and turned her to point at the tree she had shot.
“I hit it? I hit it four times.” She turned to Josh and beamed a huge smile. “I did! I hit it four times!” she said excitedly.
Emily walked over and put her hand on Lisa’s shoulder before giving Josh a bemused look.
“I really do love you, Josh, but do you have to be a total idiot?” she asked.
He gave her a wounded look. “Hey, I was trying to help!”
Emily just shook her head. “Yup, you pissed off a girl with a loaded gun. Smart, really smart.” She turned to Lisa. “If you have to shoot him, aim for his feet. We still need him for a few things!”
The two girls broke out in laughter as Josh stalked away pretending to be offended and Lisa felt the last of her nerves flow away. She looked at Quinn and winked.
“How about we try a bigger gun?”
When he threw his hands up in mock surrender, she laughed again and followed Emily over to the rifles.
The rest of the shooting practice went well and they all got comfortable firing the more powerful assault rifles on all three settings. They wouldn’t win any awards in accuracy but at least they all now knew how to use them. By the time they made it back to their base, it was late afternoon and the weather had turned to rain, so they stayed in camp and discussed different ideas for their plan. They all agreed that they needed to do more scouting and get more information but after seeing and hearing about how their families were being treated, they wanted to make their move fairly soon.
Lisa felt the camper shift as one of the girls got up and she pulled her sleeping bag down enough so that her eyes could peek over the edge. Alex was up and moving around the small kitchen area. Lisa was still surprised at how much she admired the girl after having such contempt for her when they went to school together. It was amazing how one month had changed her perspectives in life, and what she had looked down on before became things she admired.
The pressure of her bladder told her it was time to get up so she unzipped her bag and shuddered at the cold air that flew in. Spring mornings in Alberta were far from warm, so she was quick to layer up before shuffling in her thick socks to the tiny bathroom in the camper. They had no power or water working in the camper but the toilet emptied directly into a holding tank so they’d agreed to use it at night and first thing in the morning. Quinn had scavenged blue portable waste containers from some of the RVs they had looted and had explained to her how you could empty the holding tanks into them and then wheel them away to dump. She was still marvelling at all the things they had to do now, with no power, just to meet their basic needs. She used a bucket of water that was in the bathtub to rinse the toilet, and a bottle of water by the sink to brush her teeth and clean her hands and face before joining Alex at the small dining table.
Alex had brought her sleeping bag with her from her bunk and was zipped into it on the bench. She gave Lisa a warm smile and pulled it up higher when a draft of cold air sneaked into it.
“I never thought I would be this grateful for a camper in the woods! Can you imagine sleeping in a tent right now? We would be popsicles! You and Quinn have my many thanks for hauling this sucker back here.”
Lisa shivered, “At least it’s not snowing. Remember last year? We had a huge party planned at the lake for May long weekend and we ended up getting something like ten centimetres.”
Alex shuddered, “Bite your tongue! I don’t even want to think about snow. I’m already having nightmares about how we’re going to survive next winter without central heat!”
“Mmmmm, central heat,” Emily muttered as she shuffled into the room and squeezed in beside Lisa on the dining table bench. She opened the blanket she’d wrapped around herself and spread part of it over Lisa so they could huddle under it together. With a huge yawn, she asked, “What’s the plan for today?”
Dara answered her. She’d followed Emily into the room and was looking out the small window above the sink.
“Looks like the plan is to get very wet and very cold.” She turned and joined the other three girls at the table with a look of disgust at the weather outside. Alex moved over to give her space and they huddled together for a minute as they slowly woke up.
They started to hear sounds from outside so Alex parted the blinds and checked to see who was moving around out there. With a smirk at Dara, she told them what she’d seen.
“Looks like your boyfriend is on breakfast duty, he’s set up the camp stove under their awning.”
Dara let out a sigh. “Well, in that case, we should…stay right here and let him do it!”
Alex laughed, “You know he can burn water, right?”
Dara gave a one-shouldered shrug. “That’s okay, he has other talents.”
Alex gaped at her. “Seriously? He finally made a move?”
Dara gave a smug smile. “He might be a goof, but man oh man, can that boy kiss!”
Alex held up a hand in a stop gesture. “Okay, okay, I'm happy for you guys but please no details! Josh is way too much like a brother to me for that. Can I just say…EEEWWW!”
Dara laughed, “Fair enough. What about you? Have Quinn or Cooper made any moves again?”
Alex rolled her eyes. “No, thank God. I think they put all that on hold while we sort out what to do about our families, and now that I think about it, Cooper has barely even spoken to me in days.”
Dara frowned and looked down at the table before glancing at the other girls. “Yeah, he’s really struggling right now. He blames himself for what his dad did to the town and then…something happened when we were scouting.” She took a deep breath and explained how the two girls they had first approached reacted. “He took it really hard.”
Lisa was surprisingly the first to respond. “That’s total bull! It’s not his fault at all!”
Alex shook her head. “No, it’s not. We’ll have to find a way to make him understand and we’ll all have his back if anyone says differently. Agreed?” When all the girls nodded, Alex peeked out the blinds again. “Oh, crap! We've got to get out there!”
At the other girls’ concerned faces, Alex told them with a grim expression, “Josh just put a frying pan on the stove!”
They all scrambled to get out from behind the table and get dressed. They knew they were in for charred pancake pucks if they didn’t get Josh away from that stove.
The girls saved breakfast from disaster, and everyone ate as many pancakes as possible. They knew they would be burning up calories in the cold, wet weather as they scouted out the roadblocks set up around town. The plan was to stick together today and use the truck and bikes to circle the town. They would drive out a good distance and then use their bikes to get in closer to town on the main roads. It would take too long to walk around the town at a safe distance and check each road for guards, so Quinn would drive and drop teams of two at each road starting on the north side of town before circling back to pick up the first team and moving on to the east and then south side before finishing the loop on the west side and returning to base. Now that they had the radios, it would be easier to communicate if any of the teams ran into trouble.
They decided that Quinn and Lisa would travel in the truck because his leg was still healing and she was the least experienced with a firearm. They loaded up six bikes in the back of the truck and it made for a tight fit with three in the cab and five in the back, but it was better than walking.
There wasn’t a lot of talking for the five in the back, with the wind and rain blowing down on them. They kept their hoods up and heads down until they felt the truc
k slowing down. The first road they were going to scout ran in a north-south direction. The road ran between Emily and Josh’s properties so they would team up to bike down it. The plan was for them to bike as close to town as they thought was safe and then use the fields on either side of the road to get close enough to see if there was a roadblock set up. Everyone in the group knew the most likely roads that would be watched but they had to make sure they didn’t miss a group of guards. They needed to account for as many as possible if any plan they came up with was to be successful.
Josh helped Emily down from the truck bed and David and Cooper helped to pass down their bikes. Once they were ready, Josh reached under his jacket and turned on the walkie talkies so Quinn could contact them if anything went wrong. With a quick wave, the two pedalled away and Quinn drove to the next road that led into town and dropped off David and Alex. As soon as they were away, he drove to the area they’d first scouted on the main highway when they’d sent Cooper to the roadblock. There had been four guards there when Cooper had biked up and talked to his father’s friend but they wanted to confirm the number was the same.
Cooper and Dara were going to scout this location and Dara gave a shiver as rain slid down her back when she stepped out of the warm interior of the truck. They unloaded their bikes and headed down the road to the trees that they had used the first time to spy on the roadblock.
Quinn and Lisa did a U-turn in the truck and headed back to where they’d first dropped off Josh and Emily. When they made it back Quinn pulled to the side of the road and shut the engine off. He was feeling guilty for sitting in the warm, dry truck while his friends were out in the cold rain putting themselves in danger. As if she’d read his mind, Lisa brought up the next part of the plan.
“I’m not looking forward to being out in that rain, but it will feel good to be contributing. I kind of feel like we’re getting spoiled in this truck.”
Quinn smiled at her. “I was just feeling guilty about that, but you’re right. We’ll be just as wet and miserable once we get to the south side.”
Using the bikes only worked on this side of town where it was mainly farm fields and country roads. The south side of town backed onto forest land with a golf course in between and only one main road running through it to enter the town. They’d decided to scout out the golf course to see if the gang was using it for gardens like they had with the park. They needed to know if they were holding people in that area. They would leave the truck in the forest on one of the wellsite lease roads and walk in on foot through the trees. The entire group planned on scouting it out, and they would split up and circle the golf course before checking the main highway’s roadblock for numbers.
Lisa broke into Quinn’s thoughts. “There they are!”
Josh and Emily rode towards them and dismounted from their bikes. Quinn flipped up his jacket’s hood and stepped out to give them a hand loading the bikes back into the truck. Once they were secured, Quinn suggested that Josh and Emily get into the cab to warm up. Josh could drive them to the next pick up spot.
Josh shook his head. “Thanks, man, but we’re soaked through. We would just get the seats wet. Besides, you need to keep that leg warmed up for when we hit the south side. After that, we’ll all be wet, and I’ll take you up on that offer on the way home.”
Emily agreed by hopping into the bed of the truck and making a “let’s go” motion with her hand. Quinn frowned in guilt, but agreed and got back into the truck and started it up. He knew how bad his leg would be aching after they scouted out the golf course on foot. The damp weather was already aggravating his leg injury and he was in for much worse.
David and Alex were already waiting by the side of the road when they came to pick them up. Josh waved Quinn back into the truck and he and David loaded up the next pair of bikes. With a bang on the side of the truck to let him know they were ready, Quinn drove them to the last pick up spot. The four in the back huddled together for warmth as they waited on the side of the road for Cooper and Dara to make an appearance. It didn’t take long before they were spotted heading back towards the truck and their bikes were quickly loaded up. Quinn did another U-turn and headed away from the roadblock area. They would have to do a large circle around it to keep the sound of the truck’s engine from being heard.
Once they’d gone around far enough, Quinn turned on to a road that would take them back west towards the town. They had been driving for ten minutes and were getting closer to the area they were going to hide the truck in when a sign came into view that had him slowing down. He pulled over to the side of the road and hopped out to talk to his friends in the back. Dara and Lisa jumped out of the cab and joined him.
“Hey guys, I know we were going to park back in the trees and walk in to the golf course but I just remembered that the dump’s northwest end backs almost against the eighteenth hole. What if we park in the dump and walk from there? It would put us a lot closer.”
Josh lifted his hood up so he could meet Quinn’s eyes. “I’m up for anything that will mean less walking in this miserable weather. There’s a bunch of junked cars in there that David and I pull parts from. We can put the truck back between some of them and it should go unnoticed. I doubt these guys are using the dump anyway, so let’s do it.”
Everyone else agreed so Quinn jumped back in behind the steering wheel and took off. He made the turn onto the access road to the dump and followed it to the gates and past the small office shack. He didn’t give much thought to the gates being opened and drove deeper in on the dirt pathways that led to different dumping areas. When he saw the junk cars and trucks, he drove slowly past until he found an opening between an abandoned school bus and a rust covered cargo van.
They all jumped out of the truck and walked back on the pathway they had driven on. Josh led the way and they followed him through the area towards the northwest corner. Every now and then a gust of wind would hit them that brought the faint smell of rot and the girls would wrinkle their noses. They came to the perimeter fence and Josh pulled a pair of wire cutters from his pack. They knew they might have to deal with fences on this trip so they’d come prepared. It was easier to cut through the fences than to try and have everyone climb over them and risk being seen. The perimeter of the dump was separated from the golf course by fifty feet of trees and they all were happy with the coverage.
When they came to the tree line, it was clear that at least this end of the course hadn’t been cultivated for growing crops. The once manicured lawns were starting to go wild, but they still looked like a golf course. The group split up with each team going separate ways to scout the whole course. Lisa, Emily, David and Cooper headed north towards town and would use the trees that had been planted between the backyards of houses backing on to the course for cover as they moved west. The others would travel south and circle west to check out the clubhouse and further on, the road that ran beside the course into town for a roadblock.
Lisa’s group stayed in the trees until they merged with the strip that protected the homes backing on to the course from any wild golf balls. They headed west and tried to stay in the middle of the narrow strip of trees in case there was anyone in the houses that might look out and see them. They’d been traveling for a while without seeing anything when Cooper came to a stop and raised his hand so the others would stop also. He looked back at them and then pointed ahead towards the backyard of a house further on. There was a trail of smoke from some sort of fire coming from one of the homes. Lisa squinted through the rain and let out a small gasp. When all eyes swung her way, she swallowed hard.
“That’s my house! That smoke is coming from my backyard!” she exclaimed.
Cooper frowned and looked back at the smoke trail. “Is there a fire pit in your backyard?”
Lisa nodded. “Yes, my dad put it in a few years ago for company parties. My mother hated it and had it replaced with a decorative propane model, though. She hated the smell of woodsmoke getting in her hair and clothes.”
>
“Well, it’s a wood burning fire now. What kind of fence runs along the back?” Cooper asked.
Lisa thought about it for a minute before replying. “It’s a chain-link fence with plastic wooden strips woven through it. It’s only about five feet tall though and it has a wrought iron gate in it.”
Cooper looked at the others. “Okay, let's get closer but move to the golf course side of the trees. There doesn’t seem to be anyone on the course so we should be good from that direction. We’ll take a look and see if anyone’s in the yard from there.”
The closer they got to Lisa’s yard, the tighter her stomach got with nerves. She had no idea why the gang would be using her family’s home when so many others sat empty. When they were directly behind her yard’s fence, they crouched down and waited for any sounds to be made from the yard. When nothing happened for a few minutes, Lisa moved a few feet forward and over to look through the gate. From her angle, she could see that the backyard was empty, but there was a fire going in the pit with a large pot suspended over it. She couldn’t smell any food being cooked in the air but there was steam rising from the pot. Movement caught her attention as the back door opened and slammed shut. A teenage girl crossed the deck and down the stairs. She walked straight to the fire and picked up a long wooden spoon and dipped it in. When the girl flipped her long bangs away from her face, Lisa’s eyes grew large. She flinched when Cooper put his hand on her shoulder from behind.
“Do you know who that is?” he asked, almost directly in her ear.
Lisa nodded. “It’s Payton Abrahams. She… was my assistant Captain on the cheerleading team. I have no idea why she’s at my house though.”
They stayed crouched down and watched the girl stir whatever was in the pot. Lisa studied her former teammate’s face. They were not what you’d call friends, as Lisa never really had any close friends, but the two girls had spent a long time together on the cheerleading team. Payton absently stirred the pot while looking blankly into the distance. The slump of her shoulders was a far cry from the confident cheerleader who used to walk the halls of the high school. When the girl reached a hand up and wiped away tears, Lisa moved forward. Cooper tightened his hand on her shoulder to stop her but she shrugged it off and moved closer to the fence.
STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6 Page 53
