Stranded (Book 5): Frozen

by Shaver, Theresa

Also by Theresa Shaver

  The Stranded Series

  Land – A Stranded Novel

  Sea - A Stranded Novel

  Home - A Stranded Novel

  City Escape - A Stranded Novel

  Frozen - A Stranded Novel

  Endless Winter Series

  Snow & Ash

  Rain & Ruin

  Follow the link to read more:

  http://www.theresashaver.com/books

  Excerpt from: Iced - A Stranded Novel

  By Theresa Shaver

  The woman stumbled when the toe of her boot caught on the crusted snow of the drift she was trying to navigate. She felt herself falling face first towards the snow-covered ground but was saved when both of the men she was traveling with grabbed her arms from either side and steadied her. She sent them both a weary smile for the help and looked ahead past the snow-filled field to the cleared road. Walking would be easier once they reached it. Her calves and thighs burned from the unaccustomed exercise but she ignored it and focused on being grateful for the chinook that brought the arctic temperatures up to survival levels and allowed them to escape from the death trap their home had become.

  When the town council had posted notices on every door of a forced quarantine, she had been slightly relieved. The sickness burning through the population terrified her. Knowing that they would now be forced to stay away from others, locked in their homes, gave her a sense of protection. Every time she or any of the others that lived with them went out, there was a fear that they would bring the sickness back with them and infect everyone in the house.

  It was the same day the notices went up when one of their roommates started to cough. That barking noise had frozen all eight of them with terror. Food and water were hastily gathered by each of them and then they all went to separate areas of the house in hopes of isolating themselves from the contagion.

  The two men who chose the basement rec room with her were long-time friends from before the lights had gone out and had been kind to her from the start as they settled into the new living arrangements. They divided the basement room into three quadrants, settled in and then waited to see what would happen with their sick roommate. They passed the time bundled under blankets to stay warm and talking about things they missed from the old world while trying to stay calm about their situation. All three were losing the battle when on the second day, the basement door was opened and a voice yelled down to them.

  “Two dead, two more sick! If you are all still healthy, don’t come up!”

  All three of them looked towards the ceiling with fear. How could this infection move so fast? People were dying just a few short hours after symptoms appeared.

  One of the men finally yelled back, “We’re all fine down here but we will run out of food and water in the next couple days.”

  There was silence from the top of the stairs for a few minutes and then a thump on the steps could be heard before the voice called down again.

  “I’ve left you some supplies on the steps. Wait until I’ve closed the door before coming up to get it. Good luck!”

  The door slammed shut and the three stared at the steps leading to the main floor. The man closest to the stairs threw back his blankets and pushed to his feet. He stood at the bottom of the stairs looking up in thought. He eventually turned back to his area and rooted around until he found a spare shirt that he tied around his face like a mask. He climbed the stairs slowly until he was high enough to reach out and snag the cardboard box that rested on one of the top stairs and then made a quick retreat back down. He set the box on a desk by the stairs and turned to look at the other two.

  “One at a time we can come take what we need. As long as we stay at least ten feet apart, we should be ok.”

  When they both nodded their agreement, he reached into the box and took a few items before carrying them back to his area. The woman went next and then the other man. They were all relieved that they could now stay in the basement for a few more days without having to go up for more supplies and risk infection. None of them considered that the supplies might have the deadly germs on them. None of the roommates realized that the last supply run to the community hall had been done by the roommate that had first come down with the illness and that he had brought the infection into the house. They didn’t consider that the ones he had infected had also contaminated the supplies in the kitchen.

  It was the next day that they started talking about escape. She posed the question first.

  “What do we do if they all die up there? We can’t stay trapped down here. We’ll run out of food and water, not to mention the cold! If no one’s left to keep the stoves going then the little bit of residual heat we get will disappear and we’ll end up freezing to death.”

  There was silence from the two men before one of them started nodding.

  “She’s right. We have to get out of here. We should leave and move into one of the empty houses.”

  The other man shook his head. “That doesn’t solve the supply or heat issue. We’d have to go to the community center for everything we need to survive and that just exposes us to another chance at infection.”

  It was another hour before the woman spoke up again. “We need to get out of this town! The council said the farms haven’t been exposed and they were still bringing food to the roadblocks so we could go there and ask to be taken in until this passes.”

  Hope flared on the men’s faces until reality set in. “We would never make it. The temperature is just too low to survive the walk.”

  She threw up her hands in frustration. “So, we stay here and die or try to leave and die? If that’s all we can hope for then I say let’s go while we are still strong enough to have a chance of success.” Her declaration was greeted with nods.

  On the fourth morning since the plague had come into the house, they dressed in every piece of clothing they could find in the basement, pried open a frozen window that sent a small avalanche of snow into the room and one by one crawled out into the front yard. Two things greeted them. Utter silence and lack of movement in the neighbourhood, and a much warmer temperature than they expected. They worked their way through the walkways and alleys, trying to keep out of sight until they reached the first open field. Half way across it, two of them started to sweat with fever but chalked it up to exercising in so many layers of clothing. The cold and exercise had them all thirsty and they went through the little water they had brought quickly, so when they started coughing they assumed it was due to thirst. None of them ever entertained the thought that they might also be sick as they trudged towards the distant farms.

  David Perry leaned his back against the gate blocking the main driveway of the Green farm and adjusted the sling of the rifle over his shoulder in annoyance. Everything seemed to annoy him since his friends had left the day before to find medicine. He just couldn’t understand why they would want to throw themselves back into the danger they all knew was out there. Making it home from California after the lights went out had been a terror-filled journey, not to mention the battle to free the town. At least they hadn’t had to do too much once the first group of adults had been freed. The adults had taken over the fight and he had stayed out of it.

  David knew that most of his friends had been forced to kill others in self-defense but he was lucky enough not to have been put in that position. He kicked at the softening snow under his boot and thought about the look of pride in Mr. Green’s eyes when Josh told him they were going to search for medicine. Josh’s dad hadn’t even objected once to his son running off to play hero. David just didn’t understand. Why couldn’t some of the men go instead of a group of kids? When Alex and Emily’s parents had shown up yesterday in a panic after they discovered that the girls had gone too, there had been a full-blown argument between the adults. When Alex’s brother weighed in on the side of the teens, David was furious. Here was a former police officer giving his approval of their quest and he used their experiences crossing the country to ju
stify that they stood a good chance of succeeding.

  In David’s opinion, that was one of the biggest reasons that they shouldn’t have gone. They had been through enough already. Why couldn’t they just stay safe and let the adults handle things? He didn’t want to be a soldier. He had seen the effects of that with his father and how it had destroyed his family. The hardest part of not agreeing with his friends was the distance it was creating between him and Emily. She wasn’t interested in his opinions on the matter and every time he brought them up she would just dismiss his concerns without even trying to listen. She hadn’t even said goodbye to him when the girls had picked up the trailers they were going to take with them. Just a quick wave and then she was gone without a backward glance.

  He shook his head and shoved himself off of the gate. Was it really so bad that all he wanted was to stay here with his mom and little sister? To just be safe and not have bullets flying at him or have to shoot people? He just wanted to live his life as close to how it used to be before the lights went out. He didn’t think that made him a bad person.

  He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t hear the crunch of snow under boots coming from the other side of the fence. It took the bark of a cough and a voice calling out for him to spin around in surprise.

  “Thank GOD! We didn’t think we would make it!”

  David’s eyes widened in surprise at the three people approaching the gate but it was the way the trio staggered and swayed that had him taking a step back in concern. When the woman between the two men doubled over with a coughing fit, his concern turned to fear and he took three more steps back and held up his hands.

  “Stop! Don’t come any closer! Where…why did you come here?”

  The taller man looked past David at the farmhouse with glassy eyes. “We need help. I worked for Mr. Green during the harvest.” His eyes tracked back to David. “Do you have any water? We ran out halfway here.”

  David spun around and searched the yard for someone to help him but there was no one in sight. He spun back when he heard the chain on the gate clang against the metal post. All three had moved up against it and one of the men was trying to unwrap the chain that held it closed.

  David’s heart was pounding in fear when he asked, “Are you from town?”

  The woman gasped out a breath against another cough and nodded. “Yes, we had to get away. Everyone is dying! Please, do you have water?”

  David shook his head violently. “You’re sick! How could you bring that here? You’re going to infect all of us!”

  The woman was shaking her head in denial when the sound of the front door to the house slamming shut rang out. He was filled with relief that one of the adults were coming to help. That relief turned to terror when his little sister, Emma’s voice called out.

  “Davy? Are we having visitors? Did they bring any kids to play with?”

  David was frozen in fear when one of the men raised his boot and put it on the middle cross post of the gate to pull himself up so he could climb over. He finally found his voice and screamed out, “Stop! Emma, get away from here!”

  He could hear her small footsteps squeaking in the snow as she moved closer. When the second man raised his foot to the gate to try and climb too, the words Quinn had fired at him in contempt when they talked about sick people showing up, flooded his mind.

  “It’s no different than them pointing a gun at our family!”

  Too much was happening at once. Emma was right behind him asking who the people were. Both men had reached the top of the gate and the woman was doubled over again in a coughing fit.

  There was nothing he could do. They were going to kill him and his sister and everyone on the farm.

  The strap of his rifle slipped down easily with a jerk of his shoulder letting the gun drop into his waiting hands. He breathed out and whispered to his sister, “Close your eyes.”

  As he pulled the trigger at a distance where he had no chance of missing the three from town, he closed his own eyes.

  To be continued…