Alex sighed in frustration. “I’m glad they’re going but I’m sorry I blew up like that. How am I supposed to go in there now and answer all the questions they’ll have?”
Dara shook her head. “You don’t and you won’t have to. Your brother’s a pretty smart guy. He told them to leave you alone about this. He said you probably have PTSD and will need time to work through it. He told them that you might never tell them everything that happened and that they would need to be ok with that. He’s seen it before with a few guys on the force. He also told them that they need to loosen the reins a little and let you have more freedom to move around so that should help some.”
Alex closed her eyes and sent a grateful prayer up for Peter, for him being here and for his understanding. When she opened them and met Dara’s, she felt a huge weight come off her shoulders. She was also very grateful for her. Emily had always been her best friend but Dara was just as important to her now and she needed to trust her with something she had been keeping secret from everyone.
“How do you feel about getting out of here and going for a drive?” Alex asked her.
Dara shrugged and grinned. “If your mom is ok watching Jake then I’m happy to get away for a while. Where do you want to go?”
A grin split across Alex’s face, “Christmas shopping!”
Chapter Three
Alex wasn’t ready to face her parents yet so Dara went into the house and asked about Jake and if they could go for a ride to see some of their other friends. She left the house with Alex’s parent’s permission and a shotgun that Alex’s dad insisted they take for “just in case”. She also brought out extra snow gear that they would need to wear to protect themselves from the extreme cold.
Alex wouldn’t tell Dara where they were going and she decided that riding the horses would take too long and the extreme cold wouldn’t be good for them so she backed out one of the two working snowmobiles her family owned from the garage and waved Dara to climb on. They took off across the fields and enjoyed being away from the farm for the first time in weeks. Alex drove the ski-doo with the confidence of someone who has been riding and driving for years. She had learned how to ride a dirt bike at eleven and never looked back. One of the best things about growing up on a farm was that most of them had learned how to drive various machines earlier than most kids.
They made it to their destination quickly and she drove around to the back side of a house before parking and turning the machine off. Once the girls were inside the dim abandoned house, Dara looked around in confusion.
“Whose place is this and where’s the extra seasonal help to wrap all the Christmas presents I’ll be buying?”
Alex laughed as she pulled one thick glove off and ran a finger through the layer of dust on a side table.
“It’s Mrs. Moore’s house and you can wrap your own gifts this year.”
The girls walked over to the fireplace mantle and studied the dusty pictures of their teacher and her family.
“Do you think she’s still alive?” Dara asked sadly.
Alex gave a firm nod. “Oh yeah, I have no doubts about that at all. I’m not so sure about some of our classmates that stayed behind but Mrs. Moore will make it home. She’ll be here no later than the end of summer which is why what I’m about to show you is so important. Follow me.”
Alex led Dara down the basement steps, pulling a flashlight out of her pocket and lighting the way. With the snow outside covering all the basement windows, it was almost pitch black down there. She started explaining to Dara as they went down the stairs.
“You know how prepared Mrs. Moore was that day in Disneyland. She knew almost right away what had happened and what we had to do to survive. She’s been planning for something like this to happen for years. She told me a few things just in case she doesn’t make it home, but I truly believe she’ll get here.” Alex stopped in the middle of the small room at the bottom of the stairs and turned to Dara with a serious face. “We’re doing pretty well right now at home as far as supplies go. We have everything that we really need to survive even if we don’t have a lot of the luxuries we used to. The thing is, once certain things are all used up then they’re gone for good, so that makes everything so much more precious and we need to be very careful to make stuff last as long as possible.”
Dara raised her eyebrows in a “DUH” expression. “I’m well aware of that Alex. I know I won’t be hitting the mall anytime soon. What exactly are we here for?”
Alex bit her lip in hesitation before saying, “I trust you but I just need you to promise me that you won’t tell anyone, like ANYONE, aka Josh, about what I’m going to show you.”
Dara held up her hand in a mock oath taking way and pledged, “I, Dara Langston, do solemnly swear not to tell ANYONE, including Josh, what I’m about to see. I swear this on my membership in the Maple Leaf Mafia!”
Alex cracked up with laughter and threw her hands up, causing the flashlight beam to bounce around the room. “Ok, ok already!” She then turned and popped open the secret door built into the wall, reached around the doorframe and snagged a lantern that she had left there the last time she was here and moved further into the room turning on more lanterns until it was well lit.
Dara stood in the doorway with her mouth gaping open and her eyes scanning the rows of shelving piled high with supplies. She started shaking her head in disbelief until her eyes zeroed in on a particular shelf.
“Holy Mother Mary and Joseph! Is that Kraft dinner? Seriously? Is that one, two, three…Oh my God, ten cases of Kraft dinner! Alex, I will give you anything for just one box. One box from ten cases isn’t so much, pleeeease?”
Alex was laughing and it felt like the first real laugh she’d had in months. “Yup, you can have a box but really Dara, out of all this, why a simple box of KD?”
Dara had moved into the room to get a better look at what was piled up but she walked straight to the cases she wanted and ran a hand over them.
“It’s just sometimes Jake and I didn’t have a lot of food in the house when Mom was on a real bender, but I could always scrounge around enough change to buy a box or two of it. It’s comfort food, you know? It always made us happy to have it.”
Alex nodded in understanding. “I’m sorry you guys had it so hard. I wish I had of known.”
Dara waved away her concern. “Don’t worry about it. Things are so much better for us now that we live with your family. Hey, who knew the apocalypse would make Jake and my lives’ better!” Dara turned away and started looking at everything else. “How on earth have you been sitting on this for so long without telling anyone, or eating it all for that matter?”
Alex walked over to the small desk in the corner and pulled the sheets of inventory out of a drawer.
“Mrs. Moore was pretty clear on how to use this stuff if we needed too. She really hammered home that this stuff is last resort. It can’t be replaced, and being a little hungry from small portions and rationing isn’t an emergency, but having no food left and no way to get more is. All of this needs to stay put as a last resort. Can you imagine how fast this would be gone if people knew it was here? No, this is definitely worst-case scenario back up food. I know it’s tempting but it needs to stay here. BUT…I’d like to think Mrs. Moore wouldn’t mind if we took just a couple things for Christmas presents.”
Dara was scanning the inventory pages and nodding her head. “You’re totally right. This is the backup for absolute starvation. I can tell you it makes me feel better to know it’s here if something awful happens.” She lifted her eyes from the pages with concern. “Are you sure we should take anything from here? We are doing ok right now. It does seem like there’s a lot here but it would go pretty fast if we take some now and again. Maybe we shouldn’t.”
A slow smile came across Alex’s face as she pulled a second, larger stack of sheets from the drawer and handed them to Dara. “I knew you were the right person to tell. You get how important this could be to us if the worst h
appens. So, no, we shouldn’t take anything - except, well - there’s another storage area with double what’s in here, so maybe just one box?”
Dara snatched the pages from Alex’s hand and flipped through them before looking up and smiling back.
“Yup, one box it is!”
The girls settled down at the desk and started to make a list of the people who they wanted to give a special gift to and then scanned the inventory sheets for what it would be. Once they had it all planned out, they emptied one of the boxes of supplies onto the shelf and started to put in each gift they had chosen.
“You know this will have to be anonymous, right? There’s no way we could explain where all of this came from if they asked.” Dara pointed out.
“I know, and I’m ok with that. It’s not us that should be getting the credit anyway. This is all from Mrs. Moore. One day when she gets home, we’ll tell her what we took and if she wants, she can tell everyone. All I care about is giving our loved ones a little bit of old-world happiness. Besides, it’s Christmas so we’ll just say it was from Santa Claus!”
Dara paused with a box of markers and a colouring book in her hand.
“Do you know how grateful I am to be able to give these to my little brother? Just this small little gift from Santa will make Christmas for him.”
Alex nodded in agreement. “And a chocolate bar.”
Dara’s eyes lit up. “Really, I can give him one?”
Alex smiled. “Yes, but that one comes from you to him. He needs a gift from his big sister.”
The girls finished filling the box and started shutting down the lanterns. When they left, Alex was careful to shuffle around in the soap flakes covering the floor of the outer room to erase their footprints and she tossed another handful down on top of the smears to cover it even more.
When they got back to the farm, they hid the box of gifts in the camper and locked it back up so no one might stumble on them before they could get them wrapped up and delivered. Alex was feeling better about things after getting away from the farm even for just a few hours. She was ready to face her parents and make a plan to get Quinn and her back on track. All of that flew out the window when the girls entered the farmhouse and saw her parents, brother and sister-in-law sitting around the table with drawn faces. Her mom jumped to her feet and raced across to them at the door, pulling Alex into her arms before pushing her back and studying her face.
“Where did you go? Did you see anyone? Did you go into anyone’s house?” she asked, almost frantically.
Alex pulled away in annoyance. “Mom! Stop, we were only gone a few hours. I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself for that long, you know!”
Alex’s dad intervened. “We know you are, sweetheart. It’s something else. There’s been an outbreak in town of some kind of flu. Three people have died from it. Dr. Mack wants everyone to self-quarantine to try and stop it from spreading. We need to know if you two went to see any of your friends.”
Dara answered for them. “No, we didn’t see anyone. We just went for a drive and checked on some of our caches of supplies to make sure they haven’t been disturbed.” She sent a quick look Alex’s way to make sure she would be on board with the small lie before asking more questions. “How did you find out about this? When did it happen?”
Johnathan Andrews scrubbed at his face in relief. “Ok, that’s good that you didn’t have contact with anyone. Come on in and sit down and I’ll tell you what we know so far.” Once the girls had removed all their winter gear and settled at the table, he told them what he knew. “I took Jessie and her boys over to the Green farm to stay. They have the new long house that we were forced to build and it had a few empty rooms after some of their hands moved into town for winter. Ron had the driveway gated off and came out to meet me. He had tried to go into town this morning but the guards at the roadblock turned him back. They told him that last Sunday a man came into the community center for market day and collapsed. He was very sick and he died by the end of the day. Two days ago, people started coming down with symptoms. Every one of them had been at the market. Whatever this is, it’s moving fast from person to person and as of this morning twelve more people have come down with symptoms and three more people have died from it.
“Once I told Ron that we haven’t been into town or had any visitors for the last two weeks, he let us through the gate. We need to stay away from everybody until this thing burns out and Dr. Mack gives us the all clear.”
Alex sat back in her chair and thought about what such an illness could do to the population of her town. With people stacked up in houses to conserve heat and resources, it could be a wildfire of contamination. A bolt of fear struck her.
“What about our friends? We need to check on the others! They might not know about this or maybe they’re already sick!”
Her dad held up his hand for her to calm down. “Josh’s place is fine and so is everyone living there including David and his Mom and sister. After I left the Green’s I did the loop and stopped at the Mather’s. They also haven’t been off their property in a few weeks so Emily and Lisa are fine. The cold weather has kept us all from traveling much so that’s a blessing. The last place I stopped at was The Dennison farm. Quinn, Anna and all the people they have staying on their place are clear as well. Everyone should be fine as long as we stay put and away from others. Oh, and I have a few letters for you two, from your friends.”
Alex sagged back in relief to know all her friends were healthy, but disappointment flooded her when she saw that there was no letter or note from Quinn. She reached up and tugged on the small ring hanging from a chain around her neck and wondered if it would ever go back on her finger or if she should just give it back.
Christmas was a very subdued version of previous years with most of the gifts Dara and Alex had chosen for their friends and family undelivered. The weather had gotten even worse with such low temperatures that the quarantine was easily enforced. Except for the mandatory chores that go into running a farm in winter, no one left the house for more than a few minutes. Tempers raised and patience frayed.
Chapter Four
Alex was miserable after rehashing everything that had gone wrong in her head. She knew she should get up and get dressed and go help her dad out in the barn but she just wanted to stay buried under the warmth of the blankets. Dara shifted in the bed beside her but made no move to get up either so she just closed her eyes again and tried not to think any more about everything that had gone wrong.
A loud round of coughing shattered the silence of the still house, causing both Alex and Dara to shoot straight up in bed. Their eyes met in panic. It was here!
Alex threw off the blankets and raced for the door but her hand hovered over the knob in fear. It only took her seconds to realize that if one of them had it, then they all did. She yanked the door open and stepped out into the icy hallway to the top of the stairs.
“Mom, MOM?” She couldn’t keep the fear from her voice as she yelled down for her mom and practically dropped to her knees when her mom called back.
“It’s ok, Alex! Your dad just drank some water and it went down the wrong way. He’s fine. Everything is fine!”
She turned and walked slowly back to her room. Dara was sitting on the small cot with Jake in her arms and terror on her face.
“No, it’s not here. Dad just swallowed some water the wrong way but I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”
Dara closed her eyes and let out the breath she’d been holding and then kissed Jake on the top of his head.
“Come on sleepy head, time to get up. Go on downstairs and get some breakfast. Alex and I will be right down.”
Once Jake was dressed and had shuffled out of the room and headed down the stairs, Dara turned back to Alex.
“It’s been almost three weeks and we haven’t heard anything. It has to have run its course by now, right?”
Alex shrugged her shoulders in frustration. “I don’t know, but I
know I’m going to go crazy if I don’t get out of here soon!”
Both girls pulled on the extra layers of clothing that would keep them from freezing even inside the house before heading downstairs to join the rest of the family. They had just taken their seats at the table for breakfast when the sound of an air horn came from the front of the property. They all jumped up and ran to the front windows to see what was going on. At the top of the driveway was an old dump truck with a plow attached to the front. The driver blew his horn again and stuck his hand out the window to wave at the house.
Johnathan pulled the front door open, letting in a draft of bitter air, and waved back at the truck before slamming it shut just as quickly.
“Peter, let’s gear up and find out what he wants. You girls stay in the house please until we find out what’s going on.”
As much as Alex wanted to dash out there with them, she was also happy to stay inside in the semi warmth. Alberta winters had always had some harsh cold snaps but the temperatures this winter were so severe that it hurt to breathe the cold air. Once the men left the house, the girls and Jake sat down to finish the hot oatmeal breakfast. They mainly sat in silence except for the gurgling baby and Jake, who chatted about the dump truck maybe being a Transformer robot. The tension was thick with anticipation by the time the men came back into the house.
Their faces told of bad news. Johnathan dropped heavily into a chair at the table.
“Fifty-six dead and twenty-three sick. They wanted any bleach or medicines we might have left. He gave us a list of medications Dr. Mack is looking for. Alex, did you guys hold back anything from the medical supplies you brought from that vet’s clinic?”
Alex looked at Dara before shaking her head. “No, we gave everything we took from there to Dr. Mack. We’ve got some first aid kits in the caches but I don’t think there’s anything in them that would fight this virus. Uh, can I see the list of medicines he gave you?”
STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6 Page 81
