Stranded Box Set

by Theresa Shaver

They came to a stretch of roadway that had been under construction when the EMP hit and a billboard on the side of the road caught her eye. Someone had climbed up to it and painted over the ad with spray paint. There was an arrow pointing down towards a huge paving machine with the words “World’s Biggest Paperweight!” in bright red paint. Without thinking, she let out a snort of laughter that crashed through the silence and had her fellow students turning to look at her in concern.

  With both of her hands needed to steer her bike, she nodded towards the sign ahead. No one else laughed out loud like she had, though. The small smile on her face felt weird and she tried to remember the last time she’d laughed. They may have been safe in the tunnels before Marco came but there hadn’t been a lot of happiness. The last time she’d had fun and felt like a teenager was when she and Liam had jumped from balcony to balcony to open hotel doors. The smile left her lips. She felt old and weary. Her birthday had passed while they were in the tunnels with no one knowing and her mom too lost to remember. She was seventeen now but she didn’t think she’d ever feel like a kid again.

  One of the riders on a bike ahead of her started to wobble and in the few seconds April took to recognize it as Molly’s, the bike swerved and crashed into an abandoned car. The girl went down in a tangle of wheels. By the time the others skidded to a stop and the fallen girl’s best friend, Kara, and Mrs. Hardsky rushed towards her, she’d shoved the bike off of her and sat sobbing on the hot and dirty pavement.

  Mrs. Hardsky checked the crying girl over and used some water and a spare shirt from her pack to clean the scrapes on her knees and elbows. Kara talked quietly to her friend until the sobbing changed to small hiccupping cries. After a pat on the shoulder to comfort the girl, Mrs. Hardsky stood up and moved back over to the main group. She scanned all of the student’s faces and with a frown turned to Mrs. Moore.

  “She’s okay. Nothing broken that I can see but I think we should find somewhere to stop for the day. She’s exhausted, they all are. If we push too hard today no one will make it far tomorrow. I know we need to get out of the city as quick as we can but none of us are physically in the condition to push this hard. We have to work up to such a long day or someone is going to get seriously hurt and then we’ll all be stuck until they heal.”

  Mrs. Moore looked at the faces of her weary students and nodded.

  “I agree. Let’s walk our bikes to the next exit and we’ll look for a suitable place to spend the night.”

  There were groans of relief from many of the students. They were all hurting from the long ride. Liam went to Molly and Kara and helped them up. He checked over Molly’s bike for damage from her crash and to make sure it would make it to the rest stop. He and Walter had pulled apart a few bikes for parts and they had strapped extra wheels to two of the carriers. He hoped they wouldn’t have too much damage to the bikes as they went farther. Liam was good at repairing the basics but if they ran out of spare parts they would have to search for extra bikes. He didn’t think they would have much luck finding any after so long a time had passed since the EMP. They had been really lucky the scouts had found as many bikes as they had in the beginning.

  The group moved at a much slower pace as they walked their bikes towards the next exit off the freeway. April was happy that they were stopping and the numbness in her butt was slowly going away as she walked. She was nervous about where they would spend the night. After seeing the sea of rats and Mrs. Moore’s warning about roaches, April’s skin crawled in revulsion at the thought of being anywhere near the vermin.

  Once they finally made it to the exit, they found that the incline made it even more difficult to control the speed of the bikes, and April’s arms burned with the strain of trying to hold the bike back. It was sweet relief to make it down to the fairly level roadway. The students stayed silent and many heads swiveled around, looking for any threat that might be lurking in the businesses that lined the street. They had gone a couple hundred meters when Mrs. Moore pointed to a car dealership. They all followed her off the street into the parking lot where lines of once shiny new vehicles sat in dusty rows. They came to a stop in front of the showroom. Its walls were glass but the grime and dust made it impossible to see the sales floor inside.

  Mrs. Moore told them to stay together and wait while she and Liam went in to make sure it was clear. April’s mouth dropped open in shock when she saw that they both had handguns. She hadn’t known that they had weapons and it made her feel nervous and safe at the same time. She just hoped they knew how to use the weapons. It only took a few minutes before Liam came back and propped the double doors open. He helped everyone guide their bikes into the showroom and pointed out where they should park them for the night.

  April was relieved to lean her bike against a wall and she quickly dropped her heavy backpack to the floor beside it. Her shoulders ached from the weight and all she wanted to do was find somewhere soft to sit and stretch out her sore body. She turned and scanned the huge room they would call home for the night. It was surprisingly clean except for some dust and all the glass was intact. There were desks arranged around the walls and six vehicles sat in the middle of the room. Two were deluxe model minivans; there was also a convertible, a small SUV and two sedans, one with four doors and one with only two. The front reception desk was bigger than the other desks but what caught April’s eye were the two leather loveseats arranged in front of it. It had been so long since she’d sat on a couch that her feet unconsciously headed in that direction.

  Mrs. Moore entered the showroom from a door that led to deeper in the building and she waved the students towards her. With a sigh of disappointment, April changed directions and joined the others to hear what her teacher had to say.

  “This will be a very good building for us to stay in tonight. Other than a vending machine, which has been cleared out, there’s no food here. This means that there shouldn’t be any rats or other vermin in the building. We’d also be safe from any other survivors who are scavenging for supplies. The building looks almost untouched and with nothing but useless vehicles in it, no one should come in here. I’ve checked the washrooms and the good news is that it looks like they haven’t been used since the blackout. Most of the water has evaporated from the bowls but each tank still has some water in it. We’ll scoop out the tank water into a bucket and only use one toilet in the men’s room and the women’s room and use that water to flush the toilet after everyone has done their business. There should be enough for at least two flushes, one tonight and one in the morning and we have hand sanitizer to clean our hands with. Now, we’ll be sleeping in the vehicles for the night. I know they won’t make the most comfortable beds but it’ll be better than sleeping on the hard floor. They are also clean inside and it’ll be one more level of safety against the elements. We’ll also be posting a watch. Mrs. Hardsky, Liam, and I will take turns staying up. I would like one more person to help take a turn. We’ll have to rotate a watch every night but for now, just settle in and relax for a while and we’ll get a meal prepared.”

  Once their teacher was finished talking everyone scattered and April turned back to the couches. She took a few steps towards them but shook her head. She knew if she sat down now she probably wouldn’t get up again, so she turned and followed her teacher to one of the bike trailers where they were pulling out cooking materials and food. It wasn’t fair that they had to do all the work just because they were adults. All the students would have to step up and help out.

  April knelt down beside Mrs. Hardsky and looked at the large empty coffee cans the woman was pulling out of the trailer. The labels had all been stripped off and she wondered what they would use them for.

  “Mrs. Hardsky, what can I help with?”

  The lady turned with a look of surprise in her kind, blue eyes and brushed a soft brown curl off of April’s face.

  “April, sweetie, you don’t have to help with any of this. Why don’t you go and find a soft seat to sit on until our dinner is ready?�
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  The kindness and pity in the woman’s eyes caused a lump to form in April’s throat and she looked down and spun an empty can, taking a moment to compose herself before answering.

  “Honestly, I think it might be better if I stayed busy for now,” she said in a soft voice.

  Mrs. Hardsky reached out and took one of April’s hands in her own.

  “I’m so sorry about your mom. I don’t know if you know this but before we came on this trip, she was always bragging about you to whoever would listen. I know things were difficult between you two at the end but she loved you so much and what she did with Marco was about loving and protecting you. She died doing the most important job a mother can do.”

  April swallowed hard and fought to keep the tears that filled her eyes from escaping.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Hardsky. That means a lot to me.”

  The woman pulled April in for a brief hug before pushing her back and looking into her eyes.

  “Okay, no more Mrs. Hardsky! That’s a mouthful and after all we’ve been through and the journey ahead, I think you should call me Jan.”

  April sniffed back her tears and gave Jan a small smile before holding up the empty can and raising an eyebrow in question.

  “Oh, that’s one of our cook stoves. None of the scouts could ever find any camping stoves but they found plenty of candles. When Jenny was in Girl Scouts, we used to do hikes and we’d use empty tuna cans and tea light candles inside them as mini stoves to make grilled cheese sandwiches on the trail. This is just a bigger version of that! They also make great little heaters in the cold.” Jan sat back and chuckled. “Who knew that Girl Guides would help us survive in the apocalypse?”

  April and Jan spent the next half hour setting up their kitchen on a cleared desk. They had three empty coffee cans with holes punched through the sides on the top and bottom. All three cans were set over fat, three wick candles that heated the coffee can tops quickly. They used thin aluminum saucepans on two of the stoves and filled them with soup. The third can had a pot filled with water for hot drinks or just to wash up with hot wet cloths.

  April enjoyed the work and was happy to learn some new survival skills. Her arm started to throb around the same time that dinner was ready to be served and she didn’t argue when Jan pressed two Advil into her hand and shooed her away with a paper bowl of soup and some crackers. As the other students lined up for the meal the two couches became empty and April gratefully sank into the soft leather cushion, using the coffee table between the two for her meal. The warmth of the soup, the soft seat and the pain killers soothed her battered body and she soon drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter Twelve

  April jolted awake to darkness. Her bladder was painfully full and she tried to remember where the washrooms were. Someone shifted beside her and in the dim moonlight she could just make out Jessica sleeping against the armrest on the other side of the couch. She heard footsteps heading towards her and the sound made her want to run and hide. As the person walked past the seating area, a beam of moonlight lit up his face and April’s breath whooshed out in relief as she recognised Liam. He must have heard her as he stopped and turned back towards her.

  “Liam, do you have a flashlight I can use?” she whispered in the dark.

  Liam moved over to her and crouched down beside her.

  “April, are you okay?”

  She nodded her head but realized he probably couldn’t see her so she answered him out loud.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, but I need to use the ladies’ room. Do you have a light I can borrow? I have no idea where my pack is.”

  Liam stood up and helped her to her feet.

  “Sure, just follow me. We don’t want to use a light out here because it’ll be seen through all the glass but there are no windows in the bathrooms so you can take one in there to use.”

  April held on to the back of Liam’s sweater and shuffled after him. He was more confident in his steps as his eyes had adjusted to the dark after being on watch for the last few hours. When they reached the women’s washroom, he opened the door for her and passed her a small flashlight. It was the same cheap novelty kind, with a picture of a mouse on it that she had in her backpack. April was grateful to have working flashlights but she’d be happy to never see another cartoon mouse ever again. Rolling her eyes at the silly thought, she tugged on her Sleeping Beauty sweatshirt. With almost every piece of clothing they all had covered in the brand, she knew that wouldn’t happen anytime soon. April relieved herself and had to quickly snatch her hand back from the flush handle as she instinctively went to flush. It was a habit so ingrained that it would take years not to automatically reach for the flush handle. She was just happy that the bathroom didn’t smell too bad. Moving to the sink she reached for the tap and again pulled back when she remembered that there was no water. With a frown on her face as she coated her hands with hand sanitizer, she realized just how lucky they had been the last few months underground with power and a supply of water. They would have to adjust to this new world five months after everyone else had.

  April used her small light to guide her back to the door and shut it off before pulling it open. She flinched back when she bumped into Liam who was standing directly in front of the door. He gave a small laugh.

  “Sorry about that! I just wanted to make sure you didn’t come out here with the light on. This place is like a giant fishbowl with all the glass walls and a light would be seen from far away.”

  April’s eyes widened in concern and she tried to see out into the parking lot.

  “Are there people out there?” she asked in a panicked whisper.

  Liam took her arm and guided her back to the seating area while he explained. “We heard some breaking glass a few hours ago but it wasn’t from close by. I don’t think anyone is around but it’s better to be cautious. The last thing we need to do is deal with other survivors in the pitch black of night.” He stifled a yawn as he said the last part.

  April was feeling wide awake and alert. Her body was stiff and she had a kink in her neck from sleeping sitting up on the couch. She figured walking around would help loosen her muscles up. Liam was clearly tired so she offered to stay up and do the rest of his watch so he could get some sleep.

  “Wow, are you sure? You just have to walk around and listen for anything strange and help anyone who wakes up get to the bathroom.”

  April had to smile as he was already curling up against the couch cushions and closing his eyes. Her eyes were slowly adjusting to the dark but she stayed by the couches and waited for things to become clearer. She listened to the sounds of the others breathing in their sleep punctuated now and again with soft snores until she felt more confident about moving around. As she made her way slowly around the outer edges of the room, she could make out the vehicles with their doors wide open and feet sticking out of a few. In the next few hours as she walked in circles it seemed like the world outside was empty. She remembered that even in her small town at night there’d be sounds from a car driving by to the soft hum of the fridge or furnace kicking on. Now there was nothing but silence and it was almost enough to drive a person mad.

  April spent those quiet hours thinking about her mom and coming to terms with what had happened and how she’d have to move forward. Over the past few months, she’d tried hard not to think of her dad and what might’ve happened to him or how he must be feeling about his missing wife and only child. She prayed he was okay and was waiting for her to come home. April decided that she wouldn’t tell him about what had happened to her mom in the first days. She would just tell him that Laura Davis had protected her with her life.

  She was so lost in thought that she didn’t hear Mrs. Moore get up and found herself flinching again when the woman came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Spinning around, April was surprised at how well she could see her teacher and it was only then that she realized that the dawn had come. Mrs. Moore waved April over to the desk they had set up for the
ir kitchen. It was the furthest away from the vehicles where people were sleeping so they wouldn’t have to whisper.

  “You must have taken over for Liam last night,” the teacher stated as she lit the candles before placing two of the pans on the makeshift stoves and adding water to heat.

  April nodded. “I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep so I gave him my spot on the couch. Mrs. Moore? Are we going to have enough water?”

  She had seen the empty jug they had used last night and now a second jug being half emptied. They had far to go and not a lot of water.

  Mrs. Moore nodded at the empty jug.

  “No, we won’t have enough to get very far but I plan on finding more as we go. There are water sources on the route we plotted but we’ll have to boil it before drinking it. There are also many places to find water that a lot of survivors might not have known to look for like in the toilet tanks here as well as hot water heaters. It’s time-consuming to scavenge it but we should always be able to find water in an urban area. At this point, food will be our biggest challenge. Almost every area will have been completely picked clean. We have enough for the next five days and it’s my hope that we’ll be well out of the city and have found a community that will assist us at that point. I’d hoped to leave a little later into the fall harvest but we should be alright. I do have knowledge of hunting and gathering so we may be able to supplement our food with fresh meat sometimes. Things might get tight, April, but I believe we’ll make it.”

  When the teacher talked about hunting it reminded April of the two handguns she’d seen the previous day.

  “Um, I saw the guns you and Liam had yesterday. Does he know how to use one?”

  Mrs. Moore nodded. “Yes, he went out with the scouts quite a few times and they taught him how to shoot. We actually have three more guns in the trailer and plenty of ammunition. The scouts said it was easier to find guns and bullets than water in the first few days. Once we’re out of the urban area, I would like to teach most of you girls how to shoot. In this dangerous new world, it is a skill that everyone should have.”