Land A Stranded Novel

by Theresa Shaver

  Chapter 4

  When Alex could no longer see Emily, she finally turned back to her group to see what was going on. Quinn, Josh, Cooper, and Dara were all kneeling around what looked like a map on the ground. Alex hadn’t even given Cooper and Dara a thought but guessed now that they were down to five, they would be getting to know each other much better. Cooper was this bad boy by reputation but that was all Alex really knew about him. He must be somewhat smart if he had chosen to come with them. Alex decided to keep an open mind until she got to know him better.

  Dara confused Alex. Up until grade six, Dara was a part of her group. Her family lived on a nearby farm and she and Emily and Alex had been in all the same activities and clubs. The summer before grade six, Dara’s parents had gotten a divorce and her mother and brother and Dara had moved into town. Things had stayed the same until halfway through the school year when Dara had started distancing herself from the girls. She would sit alone at lunch and recess and barely speak to anyone. Emily and Alex had tried to keep her in the loop but Dara just kept pulling away. By the beginning of grade seven, Dara was alone and Alex and Emily had given up. By grade nine, Dara was into black clothes and heavy makeup. She started coloring her hair weird shades and had gotten a reputation of being a Goth. Alex didn’t think she was a Goth but wasn’t really sure.

  “Not that it matters anymore,” she thought, “We are in this together.” Alex would take any help available.

  Mrs. Moore was talking to Mrs. Davis and broke away to speak to Alex. Mrs. Davis was gesturing to the remaining students to get up and get ready.

  She walked up to Alex and surprised her by taking her hand. With a very intense stare, she exclaimed, “I believe in you. I know you and the others can do this. You will make it home.” Shaken by Mrs. Moore’s intensity but also strangely more confident, Alex gave a firm nod.

  “I want you to take this, Alex.” Mrs. Moore reached into her huge purse and pulled out Mr. Carter’s wallet and money belt. She handed them to Alex and then took out her own wallet.

  “Take out the money and give the rest back to me and take this as well,” she ordered Alex and handed her the money from her wallet.

  “Mrs. Moore, I can’t take this! What will you do?” Alex cried.

  “Hush now and listen! Mrs. Davis has two thousand on her and all the other students and adults have money so that is all I need. Besides, this paper will be worthless by the end of the day. So take it and use it as soon as you can. Find a sporting goods store and get bikes and camping gear and water and food. Give all of it to get what you need and then get out of this deathtrap city fast. Now, one other thing before you go. When you get home and I know you will, if I’m not there that means I didn’t make it,” Alex tried to interrupt, “No, hush and listen. This is important! Go to my home. Do you know where I live? It’s not that far from your farm. Good. Go to my home and check the basement. It is full of supplies. If it has been cleaned out, don’t worry about that. Go back behind my old shed and there is a set of storm doors with a padlock on them. The key is under the kitchen sink. The storm cellar was enlarged and it is just as full of supplies and there is also a living space in it. Now, this is very important. Tell no one! No one! Not even your family. It is only to be used in dire straits. You must keep it safe for a time that is life and death. Do you understand? Being a little hungry from rationing is not an emergency. Starving to death is. There are food and medical supplies but if they are all used up, they cannot be replaced. Do you understand, Alex? This is so important for your future.”

  Stunned, Alex agreed. “Do you really think it will come to that Mrs. Moore? Starving?”

  “It is hard to say but people do terrible things when they are scared. There are plenty of livestock and crops where we live so it should be fine but there may be a lot of refugees from the cities. Then again, Canada might not even be touched by this but I doubt it. Anyway, time for your group to go.” Mrs. Moore surprised Alex again by pulling her into a tight hug.

  Quinn and the rest were all standing and waiting for Alex, so she headed towards them and they all started for the front gates. Alex thought that it was ironic that here she was in Disneyland for the first time and she hadn’t even gotten more than 300 feet inside and she was leaving again, never to return. Suddenly, she whirled around and called out to Mrs. Moore, “Thank you! I always looked forward to your classes! Good luck!” Alex could see Mrs. Moore standing alone watching them leave, then she slowly turned away.

  Alex caught up to Quinn and gave a brief smile and nod to Dara and Cooper as she passed them. He looked down at her and asked, “Ready?”

  “Ready!” she replied.

  Alex checked her watch and was again surprised to see that only an hour and a half had passed. It felt like forever since this all began. At only 9:40 am, it was promising to be a very long day. She told Quinn the time and he suggested they plan to have bikes by no later than noon. While the students had been organizing themselves, there had been a steady stream of people leaving the park but it had been fairly quiet. Some crying kids but no one seemed to be panicking. Alex guessed that it helped that it had happened so early and the park wasn’t as filled up as it would have been later in the day. By the time the group got out past the parking lots and onto a main street, things were much different.

  There were car crashes everywhere and plenty of people screaming and yelling. Many people had bloody clothes and obvious injuries. There were no signs of emergency services. With all roads blocked with traffic accidents and no cars working, no ambulances would be coming. Off in the distance, there were quite a few smoke pillars rising into the air. “No fire trucks,” Alex thought, “We sooo have to get out of this city.” She picked up the pace.

  “Do you know where we’re going? I saw that you had a map,” she said to Quinn.

  “Yeah, while everyone was talking Cooper popped into a souvenir shop and snagged one, and he also grabbed a bunch of water bottles and snacks that the staff was giving away. He bought a cheap pack and stuffed it full. Smart guy, real quick on his feet, that Cooper.”

  Alex looked back at Cooper and saw he was carrying a pack that looked like it would burst any minute. She flashed him another smile of thanks and glanced at Dara who just looked away. With a shrug, she turned back to Quinn and asked, “Okay, so where to?”

  “Well just up here we are going to hit a road called Katella Avenue. Then we go east on that until we come to a freeway called Orange or 57. That freeway should take us as close to the outskirts as we can get then we change freeways again. We talked about it and decided to try and take the main roads today to get as close as we can to the countryside but if they are too packed with wrecks, we might have to detour to smaller roads. The problem is the more detours we take, the more time we waste. So we just have to wait and see how bad the freeway is.” Alex nodded but was distracted by a group of bloody people up ahead.

  “We should try and help them, shouldn’t we?” Alex asked, looking around the group for an answer. She was surprised by their grim expressions and silence. Finally, it was Dara that answered Alex.

  “Mrs. Moore talked to us about this while you were saying goodbye to Emily. She told us that we would see many people hurt and that we would want to help. She said that there would be tens of thousands of people who are hurt along the roads and if we stopped to help everyone we would never get out of the city. Also, we would exhaust ourselves and put ourselves in danger. She told us if we could clearly see a situation where we could help quickly and then move on that might be okay but otherwise we should just keep going. I know it seems harsh, but looking around, I feel so helpless. I mean, where would we start and when would it ever end?” she finished with a small sob.

  Alex was about to drop back and offer comfort but she was surprised when Josh beat her to it. Not that Josh was insensitive, most of the time he was oblivious to others, especially girls. The pair dropped back a ways and talked quietly. Dara even gave a laugh at something Josh said to her
. Alex turned back to the front and tried not to stare at the injured people they were passing. They had to go around a few cars that had jumped onto the sidewalk but it felt like they were making good time so far. They came to Katella and turned east. The road opened up and was wider than the one they just left. Alex could see many restaurants and big box stores. She kept her eyes open for a sporting goods store or anything that might sell bikes. There were just as many crashes on this street and they came up to a tangled mess of six cars all smashed together. There were three men working on pulling it apart. One of the men was half in a car and the other two were trying to push and pull a smashed BMW away from the smaller compact car that the man was halfway in. When the one man saw Quinn and the others coming closer, he jogged over out of breath.

  “Hey, can you kids give us a hand? There’s a little boy stuck in the smaller car and we are trying to get him out. He’s okay but really scared. His mom’s in the front seat and didn’t make it.”

  Without even answering him, the whole group headed straight for the pile-up. Finally, they could do something to help and maybe feel less guilty for all the injured they had passed by.

  “Can one of you girls get into the car with him? You are both much smaller than us and you could fit, no problem. He’s strapped into a car seat and we can’t get the right angle to get him out,” the man asked. “Hey Roger, back out of there, we got some help here.”

  The man that must be Roger wiggled back out of the small car and came over. “Thank God. I think the little guy is going into shock. We got to get him out!” The men looked at Alex and Dara expectantly.

  “I’ll go. No problem. Hey, Josh. Give me your multi-tool please.” Alex volunteered.

  “Yup, Alex is the right choice. She’s really bendy,” Dara said, surprising a laugh out of Alex. She didn’t even know that Dara was aware of her gymnastic talents. With Josh’s multi-tool in hand, Alex crawled up on to the car and started looking at all the angles of entry. Finally, she slid in all the way where the big man couldn’t fit. Crouched in the passenger seat, it was a tight fit with all the damage done from the accident. It almost seemed as though the car had been made skinnier as there was hardly any gap left between the front seats. There was still plenty of headroom left but with the front seats squished together, there was no clearance to squeeze through them. Alex examined the head rests and saw the little buttons on either side. Perfect, removable head rests. She quickly got them out and twisted back to drop them out the window to give herself more room. Alex had to work very hard not to look at the poor woman who was dead in the driver’s seat. Thankfully, she was slumped forward on the steering wheel and facing the other way. She turned to look at the little boy in the back seat and it broke her heart. His blond curls were limp and his baby blue eyes seemed glazed over. If not for the rapid rise and fall of his little chest, Alex would have thought he was dead. He had a few drops of blood on his forehead but it didn’t look like he was bleeding, so it probably came from his mother. Alex looked around the back seat and saw a sippy cup, a soft green blanket and a baby bag on the floor. She reached back and snagged the blanket and cup and brought it into the front seat and tried to shake the glass off of it. After wiping the cup off with her shirt, she turned back to the little boy.

  “Hey, buddy. My name is Alex and I’m going to get you out of your seat so we can get out of the car. Can you tell me your name?” Alex said in a soft sweet tone. No response came from the child.

  “Okay, do you want your juice? Are you thirsty, buddy?” she kept trying. A slight flicker on his face made Alex think he was hearing her. So she handed the cup back and held it in front of his eyes. Slowly his little hands came up and took the cup to his mouth.

  “Good boy! Have a drink and then we are getting out of the car. Okay, pal?” she encouraged. After a long drink, those baby blues met hers and whimpered, “Mommy?”

  Alex tried to smile but all she wanted to do was cry. What would happen to this little guy? No mother, no way to find his dad, all alone in this harsh new world. Alex shook those thoughts away and told the child, “Mommy’s not here right now but she loves you very much and asked me to help you out of the car. Okay?”

  The little boy stared at Alex like he was deciding and then nodded his head. So Alex decided to get this done before he could ask anything else. Taking the cup away from him she grabbed the baby bag from the floor and stuffed the cup into it. She turned back to the front seat and stuffed the blanket in as well then shoved the whole thing out the window. Quinn was right outside the window and took it from her.

  “Is he okay in there?”

  “Yeah, I got him to drink and he’s ready to come out. Can you stay here to grab him when I pass him forward? I’m going to have to jackknife into the back to get him out and then I’ll pass him forward. It’s really tight but I can get back there. Tell those guys not to do any more car pushing. It might make things worse. Okay?”

  “No problem. Are you sure you’re bendy enough?” he asked with a smile.

  With a laugh, Alex said, “Watch and learn, pal!” and she turned and slid over the top into the back seat and popped back up in the back. Feeling very pleased with herself, it turned into a red blush of embarrassment when she heard, “Nice view!” muttered from the front of the car. Quickly turning to the trapped boy she plastered a smile on her face and started working on his buckles. She kept up a steady stream of meaningless words about being at Disneyland and from Canada to keep the boy distracted. Finally, she sat back frustrated. The buckles were jammed and she couldn’t get them unhooked. Feeling something jamming into her hip, she remembered Josh’s multi-tool and got to work with the knife.

  “Sweetie, the buckle won’t open so I have to cut your straps to get you out, okay?” Seeing the panic on his face she quickly reassured him with, “It’s okay, I’m an expert at this stuff and we have a brand new seat for you. Okay?”

  With another unsure look at her and a big fat tear rolling down his face, the boy nodded.

  “Poor kid,” Alex thought, “I wish this hadn’t happened to you.”

  After getting him to raise his arms up, Alex started to saw away at the straps. It didn’t take long for her wrist to start getting sore and in her mind, she was cursing Josh for not having sharpened his knife. After what seemed an eternity, the belt finally parted and Alex could start on the next one. After the second belt came apart, Alex had to stop and rest her wrist and she realized just how hot and thirsty she was.

  “Hey Quinn, any chance of getting a bottle of water in here, I’m roasting,” she called. Quinn had been watching her progress through the window and quickly ducked out and was back in seconds. He handed her the bottle and she drank it down greedily.

  Quinn was halfway through the car window trying to get a look at the baby seat. “Now that you have cut the straps on this side, could you just sort of slide him out?” he asked.

  “I don’t think so. I would need to cut one more strap and then I could get him out,” she guessed.

  “Well, do your best. We really need to get out of here soon. These guys have been giving us some tips and routes to take and it’s going to take us a few hours on bikes to get clear of the main suburbs,” he prompted.

  Alex turned back to sawing at the strap and before long she had the little guy free. His little pants were soaked right through with pee but it didn’t bother Alex at all once he had his arms around her neck. It took some convincing to get him to go to Quinn but once he went it was quick work for her to be back on pavement.

  Alex grabbed the baby bag and rifled through it looking for a new diaper and pants and was happy to find them. Dara came over and took both. She settled the baby on the sidewalk on top of the blanket and expertly changed him. The little boy seemed to be entranced by the blue streaks in Dara’s hair, and he kept reaching up to softly pat at them.

  Alex slumped against one of the wrecked cars and wondered what they would do with the little guy now. She could hear someone yelling down
the road and once again was eager to leave this city. Quinn came up to her and said, “We have to get moving. It’s getting close to noon and we’ve got a long way to go.”

  Feeling so helpless, Alex nodded and said, “What do we do with him?” just as Dara was bringing him over. The boy was reaching his little arms out to Alex with a smile when the yelling from down the road got closer. His small face seemed to freeze and he twisted in Dara’s arms and started to bawl.

  “Wow, now he starts to cry? After all that and now he’s crying?” Quinn exclaimed.

  Alex tried to take him from Dara but he wouldn’t stop twisting to get down. She had just got him held tight against her when the yelling from down the road was right next to her.

  “JACK! JACK! I’m here, buddy, Daddy’s here!” A man pulled the child from Alex’s arms and wrapped him tightly against his chest.

  The boy was clinging to the man and chanting “Daddy, daddy, daddy,” repeatedly.

  Alex was in shock. What were the odds of this child’s dad finding him in this mess?

  “Thank you so much!” the man said to Alex and the rest of the people standing around him. “I’ve been walking for hours the route I knew my wife would take to get to Jack’s daycare and I didn’t think I would find them. My wife, Allison, is she here?”

  No one could meet his eyes and he knew that the worst had happened. He crumpled to the ground clutching Jack and sobbed out his grief.

  The man who had asked for their help was talking to Quinn and they broke apart with a handshake. Quinn waved his group back on the sidewalk. “Those guys are going to take care of them from here. We have to get moving so let’s just go. Keep an eye out for stores with bikes and let’s walk faster.” He started to walk away. Alex was the last to leave. She was staring at the reunited family and couldn’t help but feel more hopeful. If one child could find his way home then she and her friends could too.