Emily started nodding her head. “When the mayor was questioning me, I told him that if they hadn’t ambushed us we would have left the city immediately because we had found the medicine we needed. As long as they don’t see or hear us again, I think you’re in the clear Matthew. If for some reason they do come nosing around, you’ll have Cooper and Lisa here with the assault rifles to back the rest of your guards up. Even if they do get organized enough to follow our tracks back to here, you can always tell them that we were here looking for help but you sent us on our way because you didn’t want any trouble. But honestly, I don’t think they’re even going to look this way for us. They’re just going to assume that we’ve left the city.”
Matthew glared at them for a few seconds before blowing out an annoyed breath.
“Let’s hope you’re right. Josh, why don’t we take another look at that map and plot you guys a new route to the hospital. I think it’s time you all got out of this city.”
While Josh and Matthew went over the map looking for a new route that would take them away from the downtown area, Dara and Lisa helped get Emily cleaned up. They washed the blood off of her face and out of her hair as best they could with the little bit of water that was left in one of the jugs that they had brought with them.
Dara was worried for her friend. Her silence and the haunted look in her glazed eyes made her think that Emily might be in shock from everything she had just gone through. There wasn’t a whole lot she could do for Emily right now with them having to leave soon, maybe just forging ahead and moving forward would be the best course for her. Getting her back to Alex and then home should go a long way to making her feel better. The bigger worry she had was just how much mental damage all of them had accumulated from everything that had happened in the last eight months. She knew that it would catch up to all of them eventually and they’d have to face the demons inside from all the things they had seen and done.
While everyone else was busy, Cooper went to work on sorting the medications in the three trailers they had brought back. Using the list Leslie had given them he separated out the ones that would be staying at the zoo from the ones the others would be taking home. Once he had it all sorted, he repacked the two trailers that Josh, Dara, and Emily were taking and strapped a tarp over them. There wasn’t a lot of room left in them once he was done.
Matthew and Josh finished plotting the route they would take to the hospital so Josh called the girls over to run through it with them. They bent over the map as a group and followed his finger as he drew it across the map.
“This is where we are right now.” he said with his finger hovering over the map “And this is where we’re going to go. Matthew says we can get across Memorial Drive on a small overpass at the back end of the zoo where we came in originally. That overpass will take us into the community of Bridgeland where we will use the surface streets to travel north while cutting to the west to hook up to this road called Edmonton Trail. That runs north up to the number one highway, or 16th Avenue. Once we’re on that we can follow it all the way to Shaganappi Trail, which was that big road we used leading from the river to the hospital. It’s going to be a bit of a challenge going through Bridgeland because the streets are crowded and not very wide and there’s bound to be plenty of disabled vehicles that we’re going to have to navigate around. It’ll cost us time but it keeps us away from anyone looking across the river. Once we hit 16th Ave, Matthew says it widens out into six lanes in places with decent sidewalks on both sides. It tightens up again around 14th Avenue where there’s a shopping center and a big technical school.” Josh stood up and looked to the girls. “The route is fluid right now and we’ll just have to see what we see as we go along but if for some reason we get separated just keep heading north until you find 16th Avenue. That road cuts through the city to the west and will take you to where you’ll see the big hospital where we left Alex, Quinn and the kids.” Josh looked down at his watch and chewed on his lip in thought for a moment before continuing. “It’s just now coming up to ten o’clock so we have two hours to make it to the hospital before they head out. We tried reaching them on the walkie-talkies but the range is too far. Hopefully, as we get closer, we’ll be able to make contact and let them know we’re coming. Anyone have any questions before we get going?” When Dara and Emily just shook their heads, Josh turned to Cooper and Lisa.
“I guess this is it, guys. Last chance to change your mind and come home with us.”
Cooper looked at Lisa and then they both turned to Josh and shook their heads.
“No,” Cooper said, “we’re going to ride it out here until spring. It feels like the right thing to do. That’ll give Lisa a chance to heal from her gunshot wound and reconnect with her dad. We’re going to miss you guys but I think we’ll definitely head your way in the spring. I don’t think we want to be around here once the thaw hits and the gangs start moving more freely.”
Matthew interjected. “Now that we know about Red Deer, I can see the majority of the community voting to relocate there as soon as the weather shifts for good. I agree with Cooper. The last real attack came just before the hard freeze so as soon as things warm up, I can see them stepping up their raids again.”
Josh nodded his agreement and then glanced at Dara and Emily again. “Well, I guess the only thing left then is to say our goodbyes and hit the road.”
Dara and Emily pulled Lisa into a three-way hug, being careful of her injury. With tears in their eyes, they stepped back and let Josh have a turn. Cooper received the same treatment from all of them as well. With their goodbyes said, the three teams moved to the sleds. Josh give Emily a concerned look when she climbed on to drive the second sled.
“Emily, where’s your helmet?”
With a frown, Emily turned to look over her shoulder at the trailer attached to the sled and then shook her head.
“Somewhere on the other side of the river in a parking garage? I also don’t have any ammunition left.”
Josh’s eyes grew big in disbelief. “You used all five of your magazines to escape?”
Emily blinked at him a few times trying to process his question before closing her eyes in frustration.
“No, I did not. I panicked and forgot about the extra magazines under the sled seat. I was so desperate to get out of there at the end that my mind just shut down, I guess.”
He moved towards her and gripped her arms with an understanding expression.
“Emily, don’t be so hard on yourself. You managed to single-handedly rescue yourself against huge odds. You kept it together that whole time. There’s nothing wrong with being rattled by everything you managed to do.” He leaned in and placed a kiss on her forehead. “You did good, Em. Why don’t you reload so that you’re ready in case anything pops up on the drive to the hospital? And maybe put a couple extra mags in your pockets.”
Emily nodded and turned away towards the sled with a sad expression causing Josh to shoot Dara a worried look. The look she sent back to him was full of meaning. They were both worried about Emily’s mental state after what she went through. He wished there was something he could say or do to ease her pain but he knew it was only time that would help heal her. Josh could only hope that once they were all back together again and headed home, she would feel better.
With a final goodbye and wave to Cooper and Lisa, the two sleds pulled out of the garage. Matthew rode behind Emily on her sled to guide them through the zoo to the area where they would be able to access the overpass.
Chapter Fourteen
Alex looked down at the watch on her wrist and tried to keep the concern from her face so as to not scare the children that surrounded her. It was ten o’clock and as every minute ticked by, she grew more and more worried about her friends in the city and that they weren’t going to make it back here before noon. She glanced over at the back of Quinn’s head where he was positioned in front of a small gap in the curtains at the window. He’d barely left that spot since he awoke at dawn.<
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Since the scare at the door earlier, none of the hospital invaders had come out or approached the house, but he was convinced it was only a matter of time and the longer they waited in the house for their friends to show up, the chances of that happening grew.
Alex still had moments of dizziness and nausea but she felt much better than she had the day before. She was more concerned about the limited use she had of her arm then the concussion she suffered. She was worried that if they did come under attack, she would have a hard time controlling her rifle through the agony she knew the recoil would cause. Leslie had left them a stock of pain medication but Alex was afraid to take one for fear that it would muddy her mind just when things kicked off with the intruders. She was forced to push through the pain and keep a fake a happy smile plastered on her face to keep the children calm.
They had all woke up a few hours ago, hungry and ready to start the day. Before letting them up and escorting them back and forth to the bathroom, she was forced to explain to them why they had to stay as quiet as possible. Alex tried to be casual about it, but the kids had enough experience to know that strange people rummaging around the hospital was not a good thing, and it caused them all anxiety.
She had set up the one tiny stove they had and used her only cooking pan and some pancake mix to make one giant pancake at a time. At the same time, she kept up lighthearted conversation at not much more than a whisper volume to distract the kids. She cut the pancakes into sections and added a few slices of dried apples to each before handing them out to the kids, hoping it would be enough to tide them over until the others joined them. Even though she was feeling better than the day before, trying to create meals for nine people on one tiny stove with only one pan was exhausting in her current condition.
The house they were in was a treasure trove of entertainment for children. Before lights out, families with sick kids would sometimes stay for weeks at a time in the house while they were going through treatment. There were all kinds of children’s books and board games stacked on the bookshelves in each of the private living rooms. These had kept the seven kids stuck in a cramped bedroom entertained for the last few hours but Alex knew it would only last for so long.
She rubbed at the ache in the back of her head and forced herself not to look at her watch again because she knew that only minutes had passed since the last time she looked at it. The worst part was not knowing what was happening with her friends.
The walkie-talkie had stayed silent ever since they left, leaving her and Quinn in the dark as to how the medicine mission was going. She just wished she had some idea of where they were or if they would be here soon. The idea of leaving here without them and trying to get home with all these kids terrified her. She suppressed a sigh of worry just as she saw Quinn tense at the window. She had to grit her teeth hard to keep from asking him what was wrong and alerting the children that they might have a problem. Instead, she gently slid out of the armchair she had been resting in and picked her way through the mattresses to his side.
Her voice was low when she leaned over his shoulder and asked, “What is it? What do you see?”
He didn’t answer right away as he studied whatever was out in the parking lot. Alex was about to ask him again when he finally stepped back and took her arm. He guided her through the mattresses and out of the room, quietly closing the door so the children wouldn’t hear what he had to say.
“Two of them came out the lobby doors and they’re headed across the parking lot towards us. I don’t know what to do, Alex. We can let them beat at the door until they either break through or give up and just shatter a window but as soon as they make it through and I light them up, that’s going to give our position away and the rest of their people are going to pour out of that hospital straight for us.” He looked at the closed bedroom door with a frown and then back to her. “Some of them are going to have weapons and if they start shooting into this building one of those bullets is going to find a kid. Even with both of us shooting I just don’t see us winning without someone ending up hurt, maybe dead.”
Alex turned away and looked at the barricaded front door in thought before spinning back to him. “The two that are coming across, are they armed? Did they have guns?”
He shook his head. “Not that I could see in plain sight but they might have handguns under their jackets. What are you thinking?”
“We should open the door.” At the disbelieving look that crossed his face she held up a hand. “No, hear me out. Who says we have to shoot first? There’s only two of them, right? Even if they do have handguns our rifles can beat that. What if you open the door and just talk to them? See what they want and maybe you can just get them to go away.”
He opened his mouth to dispute her crazy plan and then slammed it shut when he heard a childish giggle through the door. The idea of bullets flying anywhere near those kids terrified him. If there was any way he could talk his way out of this it was worth a shot so he just nodded his head instead.
“Okay, we’ll try the diplomatic approach first but I want you in the bedroom with the kids ready to open up on anyone who makes it past me.”
Alex nodded her agreement and reached out to cup his cheek. “You’ve got this, Quinn. If they won’t go away with talk let them in and close the door and then we can take them out inside. At least that way the rest of the people in the hospital won’t hear the gunshots.”
He swallowed hard and pulled her against him briefly before pushing her towards the bedroom door just as he heard boots walking up the entrance ramp. As Alex opened the bedroom door and slid through, he could hear her calling to the children softly to get down on the floor and be quiet.
He turned toward the barricaded door and took a deep breath before rushing toward it to move the heavy chest just as the doors started rattling. As soon as he had the chest swung far enough away from one of the doors he reached in and turned the deadbolt, grabbed the door handle, and pulled it open with one hand while bringing up his rifle into the ready position with his other.
The two guys standing on the other side of the door stumbled backward in comical shock at the door opening for them. Quinn scanned them up and down and could tell right off the bat they were junkies by the open sores that dotted their skin and their bloodshot eyes.
“What do you want?” he asked them in an even tone.
His question seemed to surprise them even more than him opening the door. They turned to look at each other for a moment before focusing back on him. The one on the right answered.
“We want to know what you got in there.”
Quinn shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal and said, “Kids. We’ve got the kids that used to live in the hospital before your people attacked it yesterday.”
His answer seemed to confuse them more than anything and then the guy on the left asked, “Uh, you got any medicine or drugs in there?” like it was a normal, reasonable question.
Quinn shot him a ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ look while shaking his head. “No man, it’s been eight months. There’s no drugs left anywhere. Besides - you can’t give drugs to little kids. It’ll hurt them.”
Both the men nodded their heads with wide eyes like what Quinn had said was the most profound statement ever, so Quinn just plowed ahead with his spin story.
“We left everything in the hospital. We just took the kids so they would be safe in case you guys came back.” When the two men looked at each other with the uncertainty of what their next move should be Quinn was struck with an idea.
“We even left the morphine. We left that over there because it was too hard to get at.”
This got their attention and they stumbled over each other trying to ask where the morphine was in the hospital.
Quinn was starting to be amused by these two idiots so he had to bite back a smile when he told them, “You know, in the pumps.”
When they just looked at him blankly, he explained. “You know those boxes on a pole that they
put beside patient’s beds and when a patient is in pain, they can hit the button and give themselves a shot of morphine? There was a nurse in there with the kids, she’s gone now - but before she left, she told us that there was a bunch of those boxes full of morphine. She couldn’t find the keys and she didn’t have the energy to try and pry them all open to get at it. They should still be over there in lots of the rooms.”
The guy on the right got a huge grin on his face. “That’s awesome man! Thanks so much for telling us.” His expression turned shady. “Man, if anybody else comes over here don’t tell them. We don’t want to share. Okay?”
Quinn gave him a thoughtful look. “I’ll make you a deal. You don’t tell any of those guys that we’re hiding out in here with the kids and I won’t tell them about the morphine if they come. It’ll be our secret. Deal?”
The guy who couldn’t stop grinning nodded eagerly. “Deal man! Deal!”
He then turned and launched into a quick run across the parking lot back towards the hospital. His friend just stood there for a minute watching him go before turning back to Quinn.
He looked almost sad when he asked, “Are you going to move those kids somewhere safe?”
When Quinn nodded that they were, the guy asked, “Soon? Some of my friends aren’t very nice anymore and I don’t want to see any little kids get hurt so you should try and move them real soon, okay?”
Quinn studied him for a moment, seeing the man he used to be, before giving him a sad smile. “We will. We’ll have the children out of here within the next two hours. Hopefully, nobody else will come around before that.”
The guy glanced over his shoulder at the hospital before nodding at Quinn and started to walk backward.
“I don’t really have any control over anybody but I’ll try to keep them away so you can take care of those kids.” The sadness cleared from his face and it became animated and excited like a little kid. “Thanks again for telling us about the morphine!”
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