Almost one year to the day, the students and their teacher and chaperone said goodbye to the people that had become like family to them and headed north to Cranbrook. From there they joined the first convoy of spring that was headed east. It was a mixed group of older and antique trucks, cars and campers with people on ATVs and dirt bikes as well as bicycles spaced out between them. They travelled slowly as a group for protection and to help each other when needed. Some of the way they got to ride on the back of a truck with their bikes strapped to other vehicles and other days they rode their bikes until their legs felt like gelatin.
It was six-hundred miles from Cranbrook to their home, and it took them thirteen days to reach it. There were four men manning a roadblock at the entrance to Prairie Springs when they brought their bikes to a stop. As the two groups stared at each other, recognition came over one of the guard’s face, and he took a stumbling step forward with his mouth gaping open in disbelief. Before he could speak, Mrs. Moore leveled her famous teacher glare at them.
“Gentlemen, kindly move aside. There are some parents waiting in town that would like to be reunited with their children.”
Withering under her formidable glare, the guards moved to the side and watched as the teacher and her group biked past them. Mrs. Moore guided them towards the community center at the heart of their town. She didn’t want the teenagers she’d tried to protect for so long to return to empty houses if their families hadn’t made it through. The people they passed along the way shouted out in excitement if they recognized some from the group and quickly spread the word of their arrival.
Their long journey together came to an end as they climbed off of their bikes and eagerly looked around for anyone they might know; they were all nervous and scared about the fate of their families. Within minutes they could hear yelling coming from down the street and as one they turned to see who it was. A man was sprinting towards them and yelling April’s name. Her knees almost gave out on her at her first step but she stumbled forwards and started to run towards him with a sob hitching in her chest.
It didn’t take long after that for Jan’s husband and Jenny’s father to find them and their reunion was filled with shouts of joy and sobs of relief. Jessica, Susan and Cindy’s families arrived next for a similarly overjoyed meeting, leaving Mrs. Moore and Liam.
Eventually a man approached them with his shoulders slumped and a terrible sadness on his face. Liam slowly came to his feet.
“Uncle Aaron.” Liam studied his uncle’s face before asking, “They’re dead, aren’t they?”
The man’s face crumpled in grief. “I’m so sorry, Liam. I can’t believe you made it home. I thought I’d lost you all. There was some trouble here after the collapse and they didn’t make it. I’m so sorry!”
Liam’s face was blank when he nodded and turned to his teacher.
“Thank you for all you did for us. I’m going to go home now.”
She could do nothing in that moment for the boy she’d watched grow into a man. Her heart was heavy as she lowered herself to a nearby bench to wait. The rest would be coming soon and she’d have to explain how she’d failed to bring their children home as well.
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
The heartbroken teacher wearily pushed her bicycle down the country road. She passed her empty neighbor’s house with barely a glance. Looking up as she approached her own home, she was mildly surprised that her windows were all intact and her grass seemed to be freshly cut. Frowning to herself at the thought that someone had moved into her home, she leaned the bike against the gate and entered her yard. Faint voices were coming from behind the house so she crept along the side of it to see who was back there.
The slap of her screen door rang out.
“Okay, that’s all of it! The floors are swept, the sheets have been changed and there’s not a speck of dust to be found,” Dara’s voice called out.
Alex looked up from the soil she was tilling in her teacher’s garden and smiled her thanks.
Josh whacked at the ground beside her with his hoe and complained, “I still don’t understand why we had to do all of this on our day off.”
Emily and David were taking down freshly washed sheets from the clothesline to fold and put away and Emily called over her shoulder, “Because it’s a nice thing to do!”
Josh shrugged at her words. “I know that! I just don’t know why it had to be today. I believe she made it just as much as the rest of you guys but there’s no way to know when she’ll get here.”
Quinn walked over and handed a water bottle to his friend before tugging on one of Alex’s red curls.
“Alex had a hunch she’d be here soon so…” His words trailed off as he caught sight of the figure standing at the corner of the house with tears streaming down her face. His breath caught and in a choked voice said, “We believe in her as much as she believed in us.”
The group followed his eyes to see their teacher standing there with her heart in her eyes. She stepped forward with a smile to join them in rebuilding the world.
Frozen
Book Five
Prologue
The man stumbled under the weight of his trade goods as he reached the bottom of the stairs leading up into the community center where the market day was in full swing. He paused to catch his breath but the many scarves protecting his face from the bitter Alberta cold felt like they were strangling him, so he ripped them down with a shaking hand. A deep breath of frigid air had his fever-wracked body shaking so hard he almost lost his footing. His tired and burning eyes lifted to the doors at the top of the stairs with the hope that he might find the medicine he and his family needed to beat back the bug that they had all caught.
He cursed the travelers he had traded with that had brought the germ to his doorstep. At the time, he hadn’t thought much about the coughing they all seemed afflicted with because he was eager to have the bottles of booze they wanted to trade for food. Alcohol was in short supply eight months after the event that had shut the lights off and he knew he could make some fantastic deals with it at the market. Now he just hoped he could use the booze to trade for medicine.
He had just made it to the doors and pushed them open when the first agonizing cough hit him. It was so severe that he didn’t even see the group of people leaving the market and he crashed into them all. With his scarves pulled down, the germs infecting his body were free to spread to them all with every cough. As blackness closed in, the last thing he heard was the sound of the liquor bottles in his bag hitting the floor and glass smashing.
Many people in the market turned at the sound and rushed to help the ailing man. As hard as the recent months had been on the people of Prairie Springs, they all had a great sense of community. That made it even easier for the plague to spread.
Chapter One
Chinook
shi-noo k, -nook
A chinook, (meaning “snow-eater”) is a warm dry southwesterly wind blowing down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains capable of creating drastic temperature increases in short periods of time.
Alex squeezed her eyes tight and burrowed deeper under the covers when a shift by Dara beside her in the bed opened a small gap and allowed the cold air in the room to trickle down her back. More than anything, Alex wanted to keep the warmth around her for as long as she could. First thing in the morning upon waking was the only moment of her day that she felt truly warm.
She tried to fade back into the peacefulness of sleep but it was too late. Her brain had clicked on and the anger and sadness soon followed. The cold was numbing and miserable but she thought she could handle it if everything else hadn’t gone so wrong. She squirmed even deeper under the covers as Dara got up to throw a thick piece of wood into the modified stove at the center of the room before hurrying back to the warmth of the bed. They had developed a routine where they took turns each day to get the fire going again and the room heated up before they even attempted to get out of bed and dressed for the d
ay.
It had been almost nine months since the lights went out. It seemed like forever ago that she and her friends had set off from Disneyland on the epic journey to get home to Canada. They all suffered the internal scars from what they had been forced to do on the trip and the battle of rescuing their town from a gang that had taken it over.
Ironically, it was because of what the gang had forced the townspeople to do that they were in such good shape halfway through the winter. The gang had emptied every pantry, grocery store and cellar of food and stored it in the community center while forcing the townspeople to plant crops in fields and gardens in every park in town. They had been put on starvation rations causing many of them to drop unhealthy weight they had been carrying around on their bodies. By the time Alex and her friends had helped rescue them they were all abused and tired but many were also the healthiest they had been in years. With all the food in town in one location, the newly formed town council was able to stretch the rations out until the first crops were ready to harvest. As sad and traumatic as the town’s takeover had been, they were all able to continue working together after they had their freedom to ensure a bumper harvest. Something that most likely would not have happened if they hadn’t been forced to work by gunpoint.
It was glorious to be home safe with their families, but all the teens had changed from the actions they were forced to take to make it home and then free the town. Unfortunately, their parents and families had a hard time accepting these changes and they became fiercely overprotective. New restrictions were placed on the teens that they had never dealt with before. Alex tugged the covers higher over her head and let her mind drift back to the end of summer and the last time she really felt happy.
************
Alex jumped down from the wagon almost before it came to a stop. She raced to the back and grabbed the huge bag of buns that she had baked as her contribution to the harvest party being held on Quinn’s grandparent’s farm. She couldn’t wait to see her friends and catch up. It felt like it had been forever since they had all been together.
With most of the harvesting being done by hand, the sheer amount of work has left little time for socializing. Add to that the restrictions that her parents had put on her movements since she had gotten back from California and that meant she hardly ever saw anyone anymore if they weren’t working on her family’s farm. She understood in her heart why her parents wanted her close by, but after years of being able to roam around the woods and her friend’s properties as well as the trip home, she was starting to really resent being treated like a child. She was trusted with more responsibilities on the farm than a lot of the adults that were there to work as field hands, but she wasn’t allowed to cross a few fields to visit with her friends. She might be a teenage girl in years but she was an adult in so many other ways.
Alex ignored the other people climbing down from the wagon and pretended not to hear her mom when she called out to her to stay close by.
Really? Where am I going to go except across the yard? she thought sarcastically.
Alex dashed through the growing crowd towards the barn where lines of tables were already groaning under the weight of so many bowls, pots and platters of food. After the last few months of carefully controlled portions, everyone was going to enjoy the rewards of the harvest at tonight’s feast. She found an empty spot on a table and placed her bag of buns on it before she whirled around and started scanning the crowd for her friends. Josh’s huge bellow of laughter had her darting around the side of the barn and following it to the yard behind.
Her feet slid to a stop as a grin split across her face. There they were. Josh had David in a headlock as they stumbled around in a circle while Emily, Dara and Lisa stood together rolling their eyes and laughing at them. It was so good to see her friends but her eyes locked on to the one she missed the most and her feet carried her across the floor to him. Quinn caught her up in his arms and swung her around before settling her back on her feet and resting his forehead against hers. They just stood there staring into each other’s eyes until Josh started making kissing and moaning sounds. The finally broke apart with grins on their faces and turned to their friends.
“Ugh, I thought you guys were gonna ogle each other all night! Come on! Let’s get this party started!” Josh teased.
“Hey, try ogling with your own girlfriend and it might be a party for YOU!” Dara poked at him.
Josh dramatically fell to his knees and clasped his hands in front of his heart.
“Oh, love of my life, I do solemnly vow to ogle you all night long once the sun has set and the music starts but most importantly, NOT until I’ve filled me starving belly at least twice!”
Everyone was laughing as Dara shook her head in exasperation. “How did I ever end up with such a romantic idiot like you?” she asked mockingly.
“Epic cosmic lottery win?”
Trying to hold back her laughter, Dara hauled Josh to his feet, planted a kiss on him and started dragging him back around the barn to the food tables. Everyone else followed but Quinn held Alex back until they were alone.
“Man, I miss you. I can’t stand knowing you’re across a few fields but we still hardly see each other!” he told her.
Alex groaned, “I know. My parents are driving me crazy. If I’m out of sight for more than ten minutes they start to get frantic with worry! I don’t know how much more of their overprotectiveness I can take. I just want some space and the freedoms I used to have. It’s like they don’t think I can take care of myself anymore!”
Quinn tugged on one of her loose red gold curls before tucking it behind her ear.
“My grandparents aren’t quite so bad but even they’re keeping me close to home. I get how worried they were when we were gone but I think we proved just how capable we all are.” He sighed and pulled her closer. “I miss you and I want to be with you. With winter coming it’ll only get harder for us to be together so I have something to ask you.” Quinn took a deep breath before continuing. “We’ve known each other almost our whole lives and I think I’ve loved you for just as long. We’ve been through so much together in the last few months. The world is such a different place now and we’ve learned that anything can happen in an instant. I want us to be happy and grab as much life as we can. Your birthday is next month and then we’ll both be eighteen. So…Alex, will you marry me?”
Alex’s mouth dropped open in shock but it only lasted for an instant before it turned into a face-splitting smile. She threw herself against him and yelled out, “YES, yes, yes, yes!”
None of the old-world restrictions mattered anymore. She knew this boy, this man, and she loved him with every fiber of her being. They had all seen how quickly things could change and go bad. Grabbing a chance at happiness was all that mattered.
Quinn slipped a small ring on her finger and with love and hope on their faces went to share the news with their families and friends.
There were a lot of mixed reactions to their announcement. Of course, their friends all cheered and congratulated them, but Alex’s parents were a different story. Her dad frowned and her mom started shaking her head immediately.
“No, no kids. I know you think you love each other but you’re both WAY too young to really know what that means! You’re just kids.”
Quinn’s grandmother tried a different tact. “Perhaps a long engagement would be best? That way you could really be sure and a few years down the road we could talk about it again.”
Harry Dennison was the only adult that showed any kind of support. He looked closely at both of their faces and saw what the others didn’t. Love, happiness and determination. He started nodding and held up one huge hand to quiet the other adults before speaking.
“You both have always been more mature than average teenagers your age. We all trust you and give you great responsibilities on the farm so it’s only fair that we trust you in this as well. After all, Anna and I got married when she was only seventeen and that seemed t
o work out just fine.”
Alice Andrews, Alex’s mom, jumped in at that. “Oh, Harry, that was a different time!”
Harry chuckled, “Take a look around, Alice, we are back in that time. Things have reversed back to when I was a young man. This new world is very unpredictable and they deserve a shot at happiness.”
The adults continued to argue so Alex and Quinn slipped away and joined their friends at another table after grabbing heaping plates of food from the buffet. Josh started laying out plans as soon as they sat down.
“You’ll need a place of your own but it’s too late to start building before the cold hits and I’m sure you don’t want to spend the winter in the tree house. I think we should haul over one of the nicer campers from the RV storage yard at the resort. We can insulate the crap out of it, skirt the underside and then frame up a carport shelter over it. We’ve got over a hundred bottles of propane that we kept back from what we took from the resort so that’s our wedding gift to you guys. That should keep you in heat for the winter. BUT, you have to let us come hang out in your new clubhouse once the cold hits with the heat on high!”
They spent the rest of the party eating, dancing and making plans for the future. It was the last time Alex truly felt happiness.
Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes and onto her pillow at the sad memories that came next.
She had woken up the morning after the harvest party with joy in her heart and dressed quickly to go meet her friends. They planned on going to the RV resort to pick out her and Quinn’s new home. She was ready for her parent’s objections but was planning on going anyway. It was time they understood she wasn’t a child anymore. When she ran down the stairs and entered the kitchen she wasn’t surprised to see her parents waiting for her at the table. She just didn’t expect to see the tears pouring down her mother’s face or the deep lines of grief etched into her dad’s.
STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6 Page 79
