Land A Stranded Novel

by Theresa Shaver

  Chapter 8

  Six hours later and Alex didn’t even have the energy to moan. She didn’t know what was worse, the boredom of mile after mile of scrub landscape or the total exhaustion she was feeling. Hot and sweaty, her face felt like it would crack if she tried to smile, it was so dry from the sun and the wind. She tried to console herself with the thought of the great muscle tone she would have, but it didn’t feel that way at the moment.

  A couple of hours after they had started this leg of the journey, they had come upon an interesting sight. For a good five miles, every car they passed had its doors and the trunk standing open. It made navigating the wrecks more difficult and changed the dynamic of the ride for a half hour. Alex hoped that whoever had searched all the cars had found what they needed. They had also started seeing more people walking alone or in small groups. They had no issues with the other travellers, just envious stares. Quinn had pulled them over when one family had waved them down.

  Three children and their parents, looking dusty and tired, were travelling in the opposite direction and the father had waved them down with a shout for news. As the group explained what they had seen on the way to this point, Cooper handed out granola bars and a couple of apples to the children. Those were devoured in minutes and the mother couldn’t stop thanking him. They seemed like a nice family and after a quick group conference, they agreed to give them a gallon jug of water and a few packages of freeze-dried camping meals. Dara pulled out the sunscreen and asked the mother if she wanted to coat the children up with the lotion. As they pulled away, it seemed like such a small thing they had done, helping the family, but it made biking past all the destruction a little easier.

  Other than a few quick bathroom breaks on the side of the road, and one short stop to eat, they had been making steady progress. Lunch was hardboiled eggs and the bananas that Cooper had provided, but Alex was still feeling hungry. She wondered how many calories she was burning a day biking like this and amused herself by coming up with different diet titles like, “The Apocalypse Bike Diet”. She had thought she was in shape with all of her gymnastic training but her body was suffering like she was a couch potato. Only the second day of the disaster and she was already dreaming of Big Macs and french fries. Her mouth was watering at the thought of the fast food meal when Josh gave a “whoa” of alarm.

  They came to a quick stop and looked down the road to what was blocking the highway. Alex took advantage of the break to remove her bike helmet and vigorously scratch at her sweaty, itchy scalp. Two days of dust and sweat with no shower and her dirty hair was driving her nuts.

  Further down the road, someone had pushed abandoned cars across the highway to make a barrier. Alex could see at least three men with shotguns or rifles standing behind the road block. One of the men waved them forward and Quinn waved back turning to the group.

  “Okay, let’s stay cool and see what the deal is but be ready if they try anything.”

  As they pedalled closer to the road block, the man that had waved them forward came out to meet them.

  “Hey there folks, we’re getting a lot of travellers coming into town and we’ve set things up to greet them and get news and check on their intentions.” He looked them over, his face softening a bit seeing how young they all were. “Where are you kids coming from and where are you headed?” he asked. The other two men had come closer to hear their answer.

  Quinn answered for the group, “We were at Disneyland when the lights went out and we are trying to make it home.”

  The man was clearly surprised by this. “Disneyland? That’s over a hundred miles from here. You guys biked all that way in two days?” he asked skeptically. He looked at the other men in disbelief.

  “Yes, sir, we had a teacher who got us moving right away. She got us organized and on the road within an hour. We used all the spending money we had to buy these bikes and we’ve been going hard ever since,” Quinn assured him.

  The man let out a whistle of surprise, “Woo hoo, you kids should be mighty thankful to that teacher. She probably saved all your lives. I imagine the city is a cesspool of violence by now. So where is this teacher and the rest of your class?”

  Quinn looked sad as he told the man, “Part of our group headed for the coast to try and get a boat out. Our teacher, Mrs. Moore, stayed with the rest who wanted to wait for help to come. She wouldn’t leave them.”

  The man shook his head in disgust, “Damn sheep. What a waste of a good woman and teacher.” He paused to think. “A boat? Where are you kids going, where’s home?”

  “Canada,” several of the kids replied.

  All the men broke out in surprised laughter but stopped when they realized that the kids were serious.

  “Listen, you kids can’t be serious. Do you really think you can bike all the way to Canada?” one of the men challenged them.

  None of the group responded, just stared back at the men with determination. After studying their faces, the leader of the roadblock shook his head. “Well, you just never know. You might make it. In the meantime, it’s getting late so if you kids want, you’re welcome to stay in town tonight. We’ve set up a hotel as a refugee area and there’s room and a meal for you.” He waved toward town.

  “Thank you, sir, for the offer, but we plan on going another hour down the road today and then setting up camp for the night. We’re trying to make as many miles as we can every day,” Quinn said with a smile. “We would appreciate any water that you could spare, though. We’re down a couple of bottles. We gave some of our supply to a family with children that were walking.”

  “Now I know you kids was raised right! Are you sure you don’t want to stay in our town? We will need good people in the coming days,” he asked again.

  They all said thank you but no.

  “Alright, fair enough, I’d want to try for home too. John, ride back into town with these kids and help them top off their water. Give them two extra jugs as well,” he instructed one of his men. “What about food, do you have enough food?” he asked eyeing the two trailers they pulled. “We don’t have a lot of extra in town but I’m sure we could give you a day or two worth.”

  “Thank you, sir, that’s a very kind and generous offer but we stopped first thing this morning at a town and spent the rest of our money stocking up. We’re good to go for about a week or so. Please save the food for people who really need it,” Alex jumped in.

  “Alright then, good luck finding your way north and be real careful. This is the calm before the storm and I think it’s going to be a bad one.” He waved them through and they biked around the road block.

  John, the man that they followed into town was driving an old beat-up golf cart. Josh pedalled up beside him and pointed at the engine, “Carburetor?” he asked.

  John gave him an appraising look. “Yup, seems most older engines that don’t have a lot of electronics will still work.”

  Josh gave a nod and fell back with the others. As they came into the town, they could see that there had been work done to clean up the main road. All the useless vehicles had been moved off to the side and there were guards with guns walking in front of the businesses. They pulled into a parking lot and came to a halt. Pulling out their two empty jugs from one of the trailers, they passed them to John and he took them into the building. It wasn’t long before he came back out with another man, both carrying two jugs each.

  They handed them over and John asked, “Do you kids know what’s ahead of you? It’s just over sixty miles to the town of Baker. After that, it’s going to be a hard bike upwards. The elevation goes up double from where we’re standing to Mountain Pass before it goes back down and you head into real desert. You couldn’t pay me to go anywhere near Vegas, it’ll be even worse than LA. It’s going to be a real bitch of a trip. I wouldn’t do it on a bike but I guess I understand your reasons. It’s going to be dark in just over an hour so you better get a move on. Good luck to you.”

  They said their thanks and got back on the
highway that went through town. They were all quiet and thoughtful about what was ahead of them. Alex just wanted to stop for the night and eat and sleep. She could worry about the way ahead tomorrow. It took a lot of effort to get back up to speed after stopping in the town but once they cleared the last of it, they fell into the rhythm of navigating around stalled cars and started to make better time. Alex was so consumed with exhaustion and hunger that she was jolted out of her fog by Quinn calling out to her. She hadn’t even heard him the first time

  “Hey, I said we’re taking this side road to find a place to set up camp. You look wiped out, Alex. Let’s go find a home for the night,” he told her with a concerned smile.

  Alex took in their surroundings and noticed the ‘Ghost Road’ sign for the road they were turning down. Perfect, that’s exactly how she felt, like a ghost. The sun was going down and the shadows were long when they came to a trail with an old shed and rusted out pump jack in a clearing.

  Wheeling into it and dropping their packs, Alex stood still, numb and dazed. She wondered if a person could fall asleep standing up. Dara dragged an old plastic milk crate over and gently pushed Alex down onto it. She handed her a water bottle and an apple.

  “Just eat this and sip some water. We’ll get the tents set up and the stove going. Relax and get your breath back,” Dara told her.

  Alex nibbled on the apple but was still out of it. She vaguely heard the others talking as they set up camp and she thought she heard someone say something about her being in shock. Shock seemed like a good word to her, that’s how she felt; like someone had shocked her and she was in slow motion. She didn’t know how long she sat on the crate but at some point, Dara took away the apple and made her take two Advil.

  It was the sound and smell of a fire that snapped her out of the fog she was in. Slowly things started making sense to Alex again and she saw Quinn busting up old wooden boards for the small campfire they had going. Dara was unrolling sleeping bags and laying them out in the tents while Josh and Cooper were arguing about potatoes. It took a minute for that to make sense but then she understood what they were talking about. Josh wanted to just put the whole potato into the fire and Cooper wanted to fry them somehow.

  “Foil,” Alex croaked at them. The whole camp came to a stop and stared at her in confusion and concern. She tried again, “Foil. Cut the potatoes up and put them in foil with a little water. I got cooking spray.”

  It took a minute but they finally understood she was back and not just talking nonsense. Cooper gave her an encouraging smile and Quinn just nodded to her. Dara came over and squatted down in front of her, looking at her face.

  “You look better, Alex. Some color is back in your face and your eyes aren’t glazed anymore. You had us worried. When we stopped you were as white as a sheet and you were shaking. I think you were going into shock. Too much crazy, huh?”

  “Yeah, I guess, just kinda lost it there for a minute.” she joked.

  “More like twenty minutes,” Dara told her. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to keep going like this, at least not this hard every day.”

  She patted Alex’s knee and went back to the tents. Alex went over to Cooper to see if she could help with making supper. He had found the foil and was cutting up the potatoes.

  “Sorry about that, had to go visit la-la land for a while. Why don’t you let me take over for you? I make a mean foil potato surprise. I’ve got a secret recipe that I use,” she joked.

  He looked into her eyes intensely and grabbed her hand, “Okay, but no more trips, at least not without me. You scared the hell out me, Alex. We need you here with us.”

  If Alex hadn’t been in shock before, she definitely was now. She felt her cheeks flame up and mumbled a quick, “Sorry.” She looked down and grabbed the box of foil and started to make a pouch for the potatoes.

  She didn’t understand the feelings she had for Cooper. She could feel him staring at her for a few minutes before he turned away. Once she was alone she looked up and did a quick scan of the others to see if anyone had witnessed the exchange and met Quinn’s gaze. He was standing with an old board forgotten in his hand and a frown on his face. He had clearly seen the moment between her and Cooper and he wasn’t happy about it.

  This was more than Alex’s tired brain could deal with and she quickly turned away. This wasn’t the time to deal with boy issues she thought and stuffed her confusion down deep. Eventually, it would all surface, but right now making supper was all she could handle.

  She went to one of the trailers and rummaged around, looking for the rest of the supplies she needed. After going through both of the trailers she had finally found everything. The light was almost gone and Alex reminded herself to pull everything out in the morning and organize and repack everything.

  First, she sprayed the inside of her foil pouch with the cooking spray she had bought and added the potatoes. A small can of corn was added and a dose of dried mixed spices sprinkled on top. She folded the pouch closed except for one end and added a small amount of water. After sealing the pouch she gave it a good shake and placed it on the foldable grill that Josh had set up over the camp fire. Looking around for something to do while the food cooked, Alex saw that Dara had a steaming pot of water going on one of the camp stoves. Alex remembered seeing a sleeve of disposable coffee cups when she was pulling food out of the trailer and guessed it was another Cooper addition. They wouldn’t have to share coffee mugs tonight. After getting the cups and drink mixes like instant coffee and powdered hot chocolate, she flipped the vegetable pouch and grabbed the canvas bag full of toiletries. The tent that Dara had set up for them was open and she was sorting things out when Alex crawled in.

  “Hey, I didn’t have a chance to show you some of the stuff I got for us at the store this morning,” Alex told her. She dumped the bag of supplies out on a sleeping bag and Dara whooped in pleasure.

  “Deodorant! I could kiss you right now, Alex,” she exclaimed with pleasure while sorting through the rest of the goods. “Oh, shampoo! What I wouldn’t give to wash my hair. It feels like ants are crawling through it, it’s so itchy.” Grabbing the hair dye kit, she studied the shade. “This will work. Good choice. It’s almost my natural color so I won’t have to worry about root growth.” She laughed. Setting the box aside, she kept looking through the stuff and made a disgusted face. “Oh man, how much is it going to suck having our periods while biking all day. Thank God you grabbed tampons. Can you imagine if we didn’t have any; what a disaster that would’ve been.” Surveying the rest, she leaned back, “Everything we need except a hot shower.” She sighed. “After we eat, we should try and wash out some of our shirts. They’re pretty ripe. Hopefully, they will be close to dry by morning. And could you color my hair for me? Those guys at the road block today were definitely giving my blue streaks “the look”. No sense borrowing trouble. I don’t even care about the color. I only did it to try and piss off my parents and I don’t think they even noticed!” she said in a huff.

  Alex was surprised by the admission. She didn’t know what Dara’s home life was like since she had stopped hanging out with them a few years ago but she remembered Dara’s mom and dad as being nice people. She started to ask about it when the smell of hamburgers came through the tent opening and Josh called out, “Grub’s ready!” Dara quickly left the tent with an embarrassed expression on her face, so Alex didn’t think she wanted to talk about it. Alex realized that she didn’t know anything about Dara’s life now and decided that they would get to know each other better on the long trip home.

  They filled their camping plates with spiced, steamy potatoes, corn and the hamburger patties on the last of the toasted bread. Two hot meals in one day would seem like heaven in the days to come and they all focused on enjoying the meal.

  Once they all had cups of hot drinks, Dara filled the pot to boil more water for the cleanup. They settled around the low fire and discussed the next day.

  Quinn started with, “Even stop
ping for a few hours today, we made a lot of miles. But I don’t think we can keep up that kind of pace every day. Especially with what’s ahead. I don’t know about Josh but hauling the trailers on flat ground isn’t that bad. Hauling them uphill will be killer. And we’ll all suffer once we hit the desert. I think we’ll have to slow down. That guy John is right about Las Vegas. All those tourists on top of the city population, it’s going to be a madhouse. I think we should start looking for back roads to get around it. We might even have to go overland.” He paused thoughtfully. “I wish we knew the area better. If it was home, between all of our knowledge, we could come up with ten different ways to avoid town,” he sighed. “I wish we had grabbed some binoculars at the camping store. They would really come in handy to scout ahead.”

  Cooper brought up a scary topic, “I think today and tomorrow will be the last of the goodwill from people. Two days without water flowing and no help arriving and they’ll start thinking clearer. No food shipments, no transport, tomorrow is when things are going to really start breaking down. The worst of society will start taking advantage of things and we might be biking into trouble anytime we get near towns. We really will have to stay alert for ambushes and be prepared to defend ourselves. What we have in those trailers could be worth our lives to some people.”

  Josh agreed, “We all have to be ready. Alex, Dara, if someone is going to try and hurt us you have to be prepared to defend us. My dad always told my sister, “One of the most dangerous things is a gun in the hands of a woman who won’t use it.” People, especially bad people, can tell when you don’t really mean it. So you two really have to mean it. Don’t hesitate. All our lives will be at stake.”

  Dara’s attitude flared up. “Yeah, thanks for the pep talk but try to remember who my dad is. I’m a cop’s daughter. He fed me, “Shoot for the center mass” with my Wheaties. I won’t have a problem and let’s not forget Alex’s brother is a cop as well. I have complete faith in her judgement. How about you, Josh? Are you going to scare them away with a cherry bomb?” she asked sarcastically.

  “Hey, that’s not fair! I might like to do pranks but in case you haven’t noticed, none of us are screwing around. We all want to get home safely. I mean look at you, changing your hair so you won’t stand out. Sooo not the Dara I know. Alex has barely said two words since yesterday and usually, you can’t get a word in edgewise with her. Have you seen Cooper steal a car yet? And Quinn…Okay, Quinn’s still Mr. Responsibility. But all that stuff is over. The faces we showed to everyone a few days ago? They weren’t the real us, it was just a way to get through the day. This is who we really are, people who will help others when we can and defend ourselves against the bad when we have to. So yeah, I might like to chuck cherry bombs in garbage cans at school, but here on the road, I will kill someone to keep you safe,” he said forcefully and with meaning.

  Everyone was shocked a little by his outburst and before anyone could respond he jumped up and walked away.

  Trying to reduce the tension, Cooper yelled after him, “Hey, I would gladly steal a car for you buddy!” they heard a half laugh, half sob as he kept going.

  After a few minutes of silence, Dara got up and walked out to meet him in the dark. Josh had always been like a brother to Alex, and after what he just said, she realized that she would do anything to keep him safe as well. They were all trying to deal with this new situation and Alex understood that they were all shaking off their high school personalities and becoming adults.

  “Well, Mr. Responsibility says let’s get this place cleaned up and hit the sack.” Quinn tried to joke but it came out flat.

  With the help of the lantern, they cleaned up the dishes and Alex collected dirty shirts to wash. She didn’t know how well they would wash but it would be an improvement from the sweaty, stinky mess they currently were. After swishing them one by one through the hot water with a couple drops of dish soap she wrung them out and draped them over the bikes and trailers to dry. Dara and Josh were still out in the dark together so Alex went to the tent and grabbed some of the toiletries and handed them out to Quinn and Cooper. A bag of baby wipes in hand, she closed the tent flap and tried to wash off the day’s grime. It felt like heaven to be partially clean and she really didn’t want to put her dirty clothes back on. She was worried about space when she grabbed clothes from the sports store, so all she had grabbed other than socks and underwear was a spare outfit. A pair of shorts and yoga pants, an extra shirt and a jacket that could be rolled up was all she had extra. The shirt she had just removed was dirty and the other one was air drying so she pulled on the jacket, which had a nice cozy fleece lining. After wearing her cargo pants for two days, they could almost stand up by themselves so she grabbed the yoga pants and shimmied into them. Fresh socks helped cushion her feet. After that, she tackled her hair. The normally bouncy, strawberry blond curls were dirty and matted. Brushing it ruthlessly, she got all the tangles and knots out and it did seem to help her scalp feel less itchy. Feeling almost normal, she put her boots back on and headed back out of the tent.

  Dara and Josh had come back while she was getting cleaned up and as Alex walked past him, she lightly bumped shoulders and gave him a wink. “Just so you know how much you mean to me, I’ll wash out your dirty clothes if you hand them over,” she joked with him.

  With an evil grin, the old Josh surfaced. “Aw, thanks, Alex, I’ll go grab you my dirty underwear!”

  “Nice try. I don’t love you that much! Give me your shorts and shirt, you fool!” she laughed.

  She had put yet another pot of water on to heat after she had done the first bunch of shirts and she was getting worried about their water supply again. Even with the two extra jugs that they had got at the last town, they would have to find more every day. Dara was cleaning herself up in the tent while Alex finished washing the extra clothes and she passed out her dirty clothes with the promise to take on the next night’s laundry duty. By the time she had hung up the last shirt to dry, her hands were aching from the hot water and wringing out the clothes. She couldn’t help but think of all the simple things they used to take for granted. Turn the washer on and walk away, voila! Clean clothes. Turn the microwave on and walk away - instant hot food. Everything was so much work now - but the worst was the dead piece of plastic she had left back in the sports store. Not being able to instantly talk to her parents or friends was killing her. The total uncertainty of what was happening at home was so hard. With a sigh, she tilted her watch to the lantern’s light and saw it was just after eight. She had to laugh at herself for wanting to go to bed. Most nights it was close to midnight before she would go to sleep and for the last two nights, she was out by nine.

  Alex scanned their camp site and saw everything was put away so she joined the boys at the extinguished campfire. They were working out the night’s guard schedule. Alex and Dara had not taken a turn at the motel so she offered to stand a watch tonight.

  “Thanks, Alex, but last night doesn’t really count. Except for Quinn who had to wake up in the middle of the night, it was pretty easy sitting in that room. So we decided that Josh will go first until midnight and then he’ll wake me up and I’ll wake Quinn at three,” Cooper told her just as Dara joined them.

  She disagreed right away. “I’ll take the last watch so Quinn gets a full night’s sleep. It’s really sweet that you guys are trying to let us off watch but don’t forget, you and Josh are pulling the trailers, Quinn. You need rest. Alex needs tonight off but she will be ready to take her turn tomorrow night. Right, Alex?”

  “You bet. I’m sure I could stand a watch tonight. I’m sorry about earlier but I feel much better now.”

  Everyone shook their heads at that so she agreed that she would take her turn the next night.

  “One more thing before we turn in, guys,” Quinn advised, “We need to put out the fire and keep the lantern off. It’s like a beacon to anyone out there, advertising that we’re here and the light would ruin any night vision, making it harder fo
r us to see anything coming our way. So keep the lantern close but keep it off unless you need it. Don’t take any chances, if you think someone’s coming, wake us up, better safe than sorry.”

  Alex shivered, thinking about sitting out here all alone in the dark. From all the camping she had done at home, she knew that outside sounds in the night could be scary. Crawling into her sleeping bag was so sweet for about two minutes, then all the grounds bumps could be felt in her sore muscles. Her last thought before sleep took her was that they would need to find more toilet paper.