Emily sprang across the room and hugged Peter. “We can’t thank you enough! Oh, Peter…two days and we will be home! Thank you, thank you!”
He studied her face in seriousness. “I don’t know what happened to you out there, Emily, but from this point on I want to make sure you are safe.” He looked at the others. “I want all of you to be safe. So…who’s ready for supper? It smells like it’s done!”
Dinner was amazing and there was even enough for second helpings. Emily groaned from her stretched belly. None of them were used to eating so much after days of rationing. After the dishes were washed and put away they all settled around the coffee table for a game of Monopoly. There was a lot of laughter and Emily was surprised to realize how much she missed laughing. There had hardly been any reason to laugh since they left California.
The night wound down and when Susan went to bed the others followed quickly. They would have an early start in the morning and they wanted to get a good night’s rest. Emily and Lisa were sharing the queen-sized bed in the guest room and the boys were on the pull-out couch. It felt so good to lay down on a soft mattress with clean sheets and Emily figured she would fall asleep right away.
Two hours later, she was still awake staring at the ceiling. Her mind was on overload with thoughts of home and her parents. She finally gave up and got dressed. She quietly slipped out of the room so she wouldn’t wake Lisa up and crept through the house to the back door. She grabbed one of Peter’s jackets hanging by the door and went out to sit on the back patio.
The night was cold and crisp and beautiful. She let herself go back and retrace the whole trip in her head. All the horrible things that had happened and the things she had seen flashed through her mind. She was a different person than the girl that left Disneyland. They all were. Mason and Lisa had changed so much from the people they had been and she was glad that she could call Lisa a friend now. And David, he had always been a good friend but she saw him differently now. He was so much more than a friend and she wasn’t sure what that meant.
As if her thoughts had summoned him, he came out of the house and sat down on the bench beside her.
“Are you okay?” he asked softly.
She smiled and took his hand in hers. “Yes, I was just thinking and looking at the stars. They’re so beautiful, aren’t they?”
He squeezed her hand and said, “Yes, beautiful.”
When she looked at him, he wasn’t looking at the stars but at her. She felt her cheeks redden and she looked down at her lap in embarrassment.
“I’m an idiot, right?” she whispered.
He laughed and tilted her head up so she was looking at him. “Yes, but so am I for waiting so long.” He took a deep breath and stared deep into her eyes. “I’ve loved you since you had pigtails, Emily Clarkson, and I’ve waited all this time for you to notice. I almost lost you yesterday so I’m not going to wait anymore.”
“Oh, David, I’m sorry I was so blind,” she said sadly.
He was very serious when he said, “It’s okay. I know how you can make it up to me.”
When she raised her eyebrows in a question, he leaned forward and kissed her. It was the sweetest, most meaningful kiss of her whole life. Emily’s body lit up with love and hope. This was where she was supposed to be and this was the boy she was supposed to be with. When they pulled apart, they both had tears in their eyes and they held onto each other. David and Emily had spent almost every day together growing up and they knew that they would spend the rest of their lives together too.
Chapter 26
Emily looked down the line of trucks, an antique school bus and two antique cars that were parked at the visitor’s center. The owners of the toy haulers were finishing strapping down the quads and they were almost ready to go. They had already put their backpacks and extra supplies that Peter and Susan had given them in the front of the camper and all that was left was to say goodbye.
She turned to Peter and he handed her a letter to give to his parents. “Tell them we will be there in two months, in plenty of time to help with the harvest. Mom better get busy making cloth diapers because we will be out of disposable ones by then!” He pulled her in for a hug. “Be safe, Emily. Be careful and give my sister a kiss for me when she shows up.”
Her voice was too choked with tears to say anything so she just hugged him harder. David came up and shook Peter’s hand. Everyone thanked him again for all his help and then they were climbing into the trailer and pulling away.
The trip to Golden was the easiest day of travel since they had come ashore. They sat at the dinette and played cards while the miles passed them by. The convoy stopped at quite a few towns on the way but only long enough to get out and stretch their legs and say good bye to one of the vehicles that were stopping and then they moved on. When they finally got to Golden, it was just before supper and the four trucks filled with families set up the trailers and started BBQs. It all seemed to go so fast to Emily and she couldn’t believe that they were down to hours before they would be home. She expected to have trouble sleeping again but within minutes of crawling into one of the trailer’s bunk beds she was gone.
Hot cereal and canned fruit was served at dawn for breakfast. With no electricity, people had started to get up with the sun and go to bed early. With everyone pitching in to clean up, they were on the road by seven. The teens weren’t used to traveling so fast after days of walking so they were all surprised when they felt the trucks slow down and stop. When they opened the camper door, the first thing they saw was the highway sign for the exit to Highway 11 and Prairie Springs.
Emily jumped down on to the road and ran over to it. She reached up and ran her hand over the name of her hometown.
“So close,” she thought to herself and spun around to smile at her friends.
It didn’t take the men long to unstrap and unload the quads and after much thanks and hugs and handshakes, the small group of teens stood and watched the trucks drive away. When they couldn’t see the trucks anymore, they climbed on to the machines and made the turn east. As they drove down the road that would take them home, they were all smiling.
They had to stop and fill the gas tanks a few hours later and even though they wanted to hurry, they took the time to siphon more gas so they would have full spare gas cans. No one wanted to stop to make food so they ate as they drove and kept it to deer jerky and granola bars. Emily’s cheeks hurt from smiling at every landmark she recognised.
They were coming up to the access road to the lake and all the RV resorts when two old pickup trucks pulled on to the highway and blocked the road ahead. It was only twenty minutes to town from there so they all assumed that they were townspeople on security. The teens stopped the quads and got off. They were all grinning and trying to see if they recognized anyone when four loud motorcycles drove around the trucks and stopped.
Emily felt a shiver run down her back. Something was wrong here. None of the men looked like they were from her town and when they got off their bikes, they pointed rifles and shotguns at them as they advanced. The looks the men were giving her and Lisa confirmed that they were in big trouble.
A man with long greasy hair and dirty yellow teeth stepped ahead of the others and gave them a huge smile. He zeroed in on Emily and she shrank back from his cold, reptilian eyes.
“Hello, pretty girl! So nice of you to come to our party and you brought a friend!” His rough voice oozed fake charm.
Emily lifted her chin and swallowed the lump in her throat. “Who are you?” she asked cautiously.
He kept walking towards her and stopped when he was a few feet away. Still smiling, he gave her an exaggerated bow but when he came up from it he was no longer smiling and he had a handgun pointed at her head.
“Let’s just say I’m the Prairie Springs Welcoming committee. You and your girlfriend are welcome. The boys…not so much! Get into the truck!” he roared the last command.
Emily was frozen. What was going on here? What was hap
pening in her town? Who were these animals? The man made an ugly face at her and cocked his gun. He opened his mouth to yell at her again but before he could a voice called out from the ditch on the side of the road.
“I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to go anywhere with someone as ugly as you!” the voice taunted.
Emily’s eyes flew wide. That voice, she had known that voice all her life. Her head turned as if in slow motion and there she was. Her red gold curls gleamed in the sun and she stood tall and fierce with the biggest gun Emily had ever seen pointed right at the nasty man.
He swivelled around and moved his gun so it was pointing at Alex. “Well, what do you know? Look guys, we got another pretty little girl to join the party!” and he laughed.
A voice from the other side of the road called out. “Hey! It’s really stupid to tease a redhead with a big gun, mister. If I was you, I’d duck and cover ‘cause she looks pissed!”
Emily knew that was Josh yelling out and she wondered who else was hidden around the road. The long haired man kept his eyes on Alex the whole time but his mouth moved in to a smirk.
“Don’t worry, buddy, she’ll be playing with my big gun soon enough!”
Emily was looking at Alex and her heart was pounding. Every childhood memory flashed before her eyes. Every adventure they had shared every secret they had giggled over was right there. “That’s my sister!” she thought as she pulled the gun from her pocket and with her last bullet shot the man threatening her.
As gunshots filled the air around her she felt herself being thrown to the ground as David tackled her and covered her body with his. As her head slammed into the hard pavement, her last thoughts before darkness took her was, “This is wrong. We don’t have to fight any more. We are HOME.”
To Be Continued…End of Book Two
Coming Soon
City - A Stranded Novella
Mrs. Moore and the rest of the students that remained in California face the harsh reality that no one is coming to help them. As the city burns around them, they are surrounded by 18 million people with one goal…survival. Will Mrs. Moore’s determination be enough to save them? Surrounded by chaos, they must work together to find a shelter before it’s too late.
Home - A Stranded Novel
Five went by Land and five went by Sea. Nine made it through the chaos Home. With their town under siege, and their families both prisoners and slaves, they will have the biggest challenge yet. After witnessing the pain and suffering in the town, the group of teens have to decide just how far they are willing to go to save them. Life sucks when you are Home, but still Stranded.
Sea (A Stranded Novel) Page 21
