He set his can of beans beside him on the bench.
“Sorry, it’ll be at least two more hours before anyone can get back on the train but don’t worry, it’ll be well before dark.”
Mrs. Moore inclined her head.
“Thank you; that’s reassuring to know but I wish to ask your advice on another matter. With the loss of three of my students, we now have three extra bicycles we won’t be able to use. We’ll take one apart and use it for spare parts but the other two can be traded for more supplies. I was hoping you would know people here or farther along the track that would offer a good trade.”
Albert leaned back against the bench and rubbed at his chin in thought before shaking his head.
“I wish I could help you all out but I don’t know anyone personally this far north. You’re getting off near Spokane?” When she nodded her head, he hummed in thought before continuing, “Well, I’ve been through that area a few times now with the train and I can tell you what I know. They’ve set up a different type of trading system there. They’ve got a bank of sorts but more like a pawn type shop. You take your goods to it and they determine what it’s worth and give you paper chits to use in the market. I’d say bullets and medicine would be of the highest value but with foot power, the main way people have to travel, your two bikes should net you a decent amount. Just don’t take the first amount they offer. Wish I could help you out more but that’s all I got.”
The teacher rose to her feet and thanked him. As she turned to leave, he asked her, “All them kids you have with you, they’re your students, not your blood?”
She stood looking at her group in the grass and without turning back to face him, told him, “Until I get them home, they’re my everything.” And went back to join them.
They ate the last of the fresh fruit and vegetables that night as they were starting to go soft along with a few handfuls of almonds for protein. When the water was boiling they each had a cup of tea sweetened with a single pink packet of artificial sweetener. Disneyland had boxes and boxes of the individually packaged tea bags sweetener that were light sand didn’t take up much room in their packs so they had a good supply but they still only used one bag for every three cups to make them last as long as possible.
As they waited to reboard the train for the night, they entertained themselves by sorting through the letters that they had taken from the first farm camp. They sorted them into piles by province and talked about some of the towns they recognized and places they had traveled to before the crash. The biggest pile was for Ontario and it was also the one that made them the saddest. With its huge population, they all knew that conditions there would’ve been the worst. The next biggest pile was for the Vancouver area and Liam was hopeful that they’d be able to pass them on to people they’d meet in the interior. He wondered what it’d be like to be a mailman now. Traveling across the country, searching out addresses that might not even exist anymore would be a dangerous job. It’d also be a huge adventure for the right person.
By the time the train repairs were completed and they were allowed back on board, they were all exhausted from the long hard day. The grief they all felt at the loss of their friends was mixed with the nervousness of what they would encounter the next day when they left the train for good.
April was so tired but sleep eluded her. She could hear the barrage of gunshots echoing through her head and even though she’d washed her hands more than once since it happened, she could still feel the sticky blood that had covered them earlier. She dozed off and on through the night but started awake often when others in the group would cry out or moan in their sleep as they relived the ambush and death that followed in their nightmares.
It was a relief to her when the bell rang out on the platform just before dawn and she was quick to get up and put away her blankets. Eating their small cold meal took no time and April watched Cindy as she inspected Liam’s wound. She smeared some of their precious antibiotic ointment over the stitches and rebandaged it. April couldn’t help admire his strength when he shook his head no to the offered over the counter pain killers saying he might need them more after they started biking again. They had very little in the way of medical supplies that Mrs. Moore had hoarded from under the park and he knew there wouldn’t be any more to be found after so long after the crash.
With a shriek of its whistle, the train pulled away from the station and started down the tracks. If nothing else happened to delay their trip, they should arrive at their final destination by midafternoon, giving them enough time to negotiate their trades for more supplies. They would hopefully find a safe place within the camp or town for the night and then set out towards the border early the next morning. April leaned her head back against the window and let the motion of the train lull her into sleep. Thankfully this time it came without any nightmares.
She must have slept deeply though a few of the stops. When Jessica nudged her awake, she said they would be getting off soon and she should gather her things. April just looked down at her still-packed bag and shrugged. There was nothing to gather. Everything she owned was in her pack already. She got up and started to walk down to the washroom and noticed that Liam was sleeping also. His face was slightly flushed and with a pang of worry she rested the back of her hand against his forehead to check for fever. If his wound became infected, their half-filled single bottle of antibiotics might not be enough to fight it. His eyes fluttered open at her touch and he gave her a sleepy smile before closing his eyes again and leaning into her hand. He was warm but not hot so April guessed it was just from the sun beaming in through the window at the back of his head. She let him sleep and moved on to tend to her own needs.
Twenty minutes later everyone was awake and they all felt the train start to decelerate. The tracks were at a higher elevation than the city of Spokane as it came closer from the west. They could see a large river running around the edge of the city that created a natural boundary. There was no real station at this stop but trees had been cleared away from the east side of the tracks and a wide path could be seen running down to a cluster for buildings and parking lots that had the usual tents and campers set up.
Mrs. Moore handed over the paperwork Albert had given them at the start of their train journey and soon after their bikes and carriers were unloaded and delivered. Mrs. Hardsky and Jessica helped Liam attach the three extra bikes to the three carriers with a mixture of rope, wire and bungee cords. They didn’t have enough hands to push the extra bikes to the traders and Liam would dismantle the one extra bike they were keeping when they found somewhere they could stay for the night.
Albert came over and looked the group over before nodding down towards the pathway.
“Head down towards those buildings. It used to be a college but they turned it into a relief camp. There’s a bigger one farther into the city but you all don’t want to travel through the wasteland of the city when you head out. Just ask around and I’m sure you’ll get directions for the next leg of your travels.” He looked the kids and adults over one more time before giving them a two-fingered salute. “Good luck. I hope you all make it home.”
They all thanked him for his help and said goodbye before steering their bikes down the path. They had to walk the bikes and the overloaded carriers down the hill and April and Jessica stayed on either side of Liam to help him with the heavier trailer. Everyone was sweaty and out of breath by the time they made it down to more level ground and a paved road that led towards the buildings and camp.
Chain-link fence had been erected around the first parking lot they came to with concrete traffic barriers placed strategically in front of the gate so a person would have to go in and out of them to move forwards. April guessed it was to stop someone rushing the gate straight on. The gates were currently wide open and people were coming and going freely as four men with rifles stood on either side of the opening.
Mrs. Moore approached two of them and had a quick conversation while the others waited at th
e side of the road. The group couldn’t hear what they were saying but from the one guard’s actions it was clear he was giving her directions. After a few more minutes, the teacher turned away and waved her group forwards and they followed her through the gates and into a parking lot. They pushed their bikes down the main road towards the buildings passing lines of tents of every kind from large sturdy canvas ones to children’s pup tents with faded cartoon characters on them until they passed between two building and into what was once a huge central quad. The grassy expanse that college students used to sit on or play Frisbee on had been turned into a central market. There were tables and stalls with makeshift tarp awnings set up in rows with people selling all kinds of goods and supplies. All the former park’s picnic tables had been moved off to the side and grouped together so Mrs. Moore had them claim two of them.
“Jan, you Jenny, Susan, Cindy and Liam please stay here with our gear. I’d like to canvass the vendors to see what they have and what they are charging before we attempt to do the bike trade. If we have an idea of what we need to spend on supplies, we’ll hopefully be able to negotiate a better amount for the bikes. I’ll take April and Jessica with me and be back shortly.”
The ones staying back dropped their packs and settled on the benches. Mrs. Moore opened the front pocket on one of the packs and removed a pad of paper and pencil before she and the two girls walked over to the market. There was a large range of goods to be had with handwritten signs displaying the amounts for each item. The chit amounts were meaningless to the girls but Mrs. Moore wrote down amounts for everything she wanted.
April and Jessica found themselves practically drooling over a table that contained personal hygiene items, from body wash to deodorant and even some makeup. They were both hopeful when their teacher wrote on her pad before moving them on to a stall that had camping gear.
Mrs. Moore spent the most time looking through racks of winter weather clothing and spoke with the vendor about getting a bulk discount before they moved on to browse the food stalls. Bags of potatoes and root vegetables could be had as well as clear plastic bags of ground cornmeal and a flour mixture that just needed water added to make flat bread. The teacher walked past a stall with canned vegetables and soups but stopped at a table with dried vegetables in bags.
As they headed back to the rest of the group, April asked her teacher how there could be so much stuff still available after seven months.
“Well, the population of this city was over two hundred thousand when everything stopped working. Many people probably died like everywhere else leaving a lot of homes to be scavenged. This camp most likely has a team that goes out and searches for goods to bring back. There were also warehouses and stores that had stock. This world was filled with products to be had so staples and whatnot will still be available for a while to come. Most of the food we’ve looked at was probably grown after the collapse.”
Mrs. Moore sat at one of the tables and went over her list. She would scratch off some of the things and add others before finally coming up with a tally and circling it. She leaned back and looked into the distance in thought. Everyone stared at her and waited for what she’d say next. She finally seemed to come to a decision and turned to the group.
“There are things we need whether we wish to go forwards or not. Food, of course, but winter clothing is a must. We cannot survive winter in sweaters and running shoes. There were no bicycles for sale in the market so I have no idea what they will give us for them but we many have to trade all three and possibly some of our bullets to give us enough for all the supplies we need. Do you all agree to that?” Everyone nodded in agreement. “Then let’s look at all the bullets we have and determine what we feel we can trade if necessary.”
The group quickly emptied the packs of the ammunition Val had given them and April added what she’d gotten after the ambush and made a pile on the table. It seemed like a lot and not nearly enough at the same time. The teacher frowned down at the pile before sectioning off some of the bullets and dumping them in an empty box. She sighed deeply and looked over the group again.
“Alright, we’ll take all three bikes and the bullets for trade but we’ll start with just the two bikes and see how much that will get us.”
They packed their gear back up and pushed the bikes through the market to where the main trades were done. The bank was set up in what had been the student’s book store. Mrs. Moore went in by herself with her pad of paper. Inside there were handwritten signs all over the walls stating set trade amounts for different goods. All the books had been removed and the back part of the store was roped off with piles of different goods behind it. The man behind the counter was flipping through an old magazine and wearing a Walmart greeter’s blue smock complete with a yellow smiley face button pinned to it. He looked up as the teacher approached the counter and set his magazine aside. He greeted her with a wide smile that matched his button.
“Hello, welcome to the apocalypse, how may I help you!”
Mrs. Moore just stared at the man with her eyebrows raised. It was look that had many of her students quaking over the years and the man quickly lost his smile and mumbled, “Sorry, bad joke.” Before asking again, “What can I do for you?”
The older woman nodded.
“I have two fairly new bicycles in good working order that I would like to trade.”
The man was all business as he pulled a large ledger from under the counter and flipped to the section he wanted. He asked if they were mountain or street bikes and buried his head back into the book when she answered him. Taking a small piece of scrap paper from a pile, he wrote a figure down and slid it towards her. She picked it up and compared the figure with the one she had on her pad before shaking her head and writing her own figure on the paper and sliding it back to him. The man screwed up his face and pulled at his lip before finally nodding.
“I can do that.”
Mrs. Moore stared at the wall behind him in thought. The amount he’d agreed upon wasn’t quite enough for all the supplies she wanted the group to have. A sign on the wall behind him came into focus. It advertised rates for accommodations. It listed the amounts for tents, cots or a dorm room. Under the rates were the words HOT SHOWER with another amount after them. She quickly did the math and came to a decision.
“If you’ll match that price for a third bicycle, then we have a deal and I’ll purchase accommodations for the night as well as hot showers for eight.”
The man wrote down some figures and did some math before asking, “You have the bikes here?”
She pointed through the window at her group.
“Alright, I need to take a look at them but as long as they check out we have a trade.”
Mrs. Moore followed the man out of the store and stood by as he looked over the bikes. He nodded his head and stuck out his hand for her to shake. When he went back into the store she turned to her group and smiled.
“Who would like a hot shower and a clean bed for the night?”
Chapter 21
A week later, April sat on a log staring into the dying embers of a campfire. She shivered as a gust of wind made sparks from the fire dance in the air and pulled the zipper on her new winter jacket higher and her knit cap lower. She tortured herself with the memory of the steamy shower that had felt like heaven. It was the last time she’d felt warm and clean in the past week.
They had done all the shopping for supplies that afternoon before staying the night in one corner of a huge gymnasium that had been filled with cots. A generator had provided the shower rooms with hot water and even with a four minute time limit she’d scrubbed the dirt and sweat off and quickly washed her hair. The cots had felt like fluffy clouds after sleeping on the wooden floor of the train but after camping out on the cold ground for the last week, the train floor would be a treat to her exhausted and sore body. She cradled the shotgun on her lap a bit tighter and glanced over at Jessica who was taking the watch with her. The girl had her nose buried down i
nto her scarf but she was rocking slightly so April knew she was still awake. Grabbing a large split branch, she tossed it onto the fire and leaned closer to the heat as the wood caught and thought about the last week they had spent on the road.
They had left the college camp early in the morning and traveled north around the outskirts of the city. There had been people traveling the road as well but they hadn’t run into any problems. The group’s progress was slow due to Liam’s injury but they had still managed to make it to a former resort town by the second night and they had slept in a looted store. Two days after that they had come to an eerie and hopeful sight. The Canadian border crossing sat ahead of them with abandoned buildings and empty inspection booths. They had all been happy to cross into their home country but it also took away any hope they had left that their home hadn’t been affected by the crash.
For the last three days they had been steadily rising in altitude as they biked deeper into the mountains. They had passed through a few empty towns and hadn’t seen a single person. The area they were traveling through was back to back National Parks and after all this time the group guessed there’d be no one left camping or hiking for pleasure. Even with the lack of people around they still posted a watch through the nights in pairs in case someone came past on the highway they were following. If they lost the supplies they had with them they would all die. Each night seemed to be colder than the last and frost crunched under their feet in the mornings.
April was started out of her thoughts by the sound of one of their two tents’ zipper opening and turned to see who was up. Jan Hardsky poked her head out of the flap and looked around before crawling out.
“Everything okay out here, girls?”
April nodded and Jessica’s muffled moan came from behind her scarf.
“How much time until your watch is over?” she quietly asked so as to not disturb the others sleeping in the tents.
Stranded (Book 4): City Escape Page 18
