He took another look at the kids in the Ranger and stepped further back out of earshot. He looked at Quinn and the girls before asking, “How do you want to do this? The Ranger looks pretty tight with all the kids in it but with the temperature dropping, I don’t think it’s a good idea to have them exposed on any of the sleds. Better cramped up than frozen, I say. Emily why don’t you drive the Ranger with Alex and the kids. I don’t feel good about you driving one of the sleds without a helmet. You won’t have any protection on your face from the wind and you could end up with frostbite.”
Emily nodded with a frown. “All right, I’ll start out in it but I think we need to switch out every hour or so. That way you guys can get in and warm up. I can just use Alex’s helmet when it’s my turn to drive the sleds.”
Josh clapped his gloved hands together. “Done! I definitely won’t say no to a warm up now and again. Let’s get this train on the track people. I’d like to be home for some of my mama’s good cooking for supper.”
As the other teens moved around the Ranger to get ready to leave, Quinn squatted down in Alex’s open door. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small container of pain pills Leslie had left for them.
“I need you to take one of these before we leave, Alex. You haven’t had anything since last night and I know you’re hurting. That hurt is going to just get worse and worse as we go with every bump and jolt the Ranger makes.”
When her expression said she wasn’t going to take the pill, Quinn grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
“It’s okay, Alex. We’re all together now and we’re headed home. It’s okay to let go a little bit and let us take care of you. The four of us can handle anything that comes our way. Please, sweetheart, take a pill. Rest and start healing. I need you to get better soon because I have a lot of time and things to make up for with you.”
Alex’s expression softened at the love she saw in his eyes so she slowly nodded her head and held out her hand for the pills. She tugged on his hand to pull him closer and leaned over Bella as best she could to meet his lips for their first kiss in months. Emily climbed in behind the steering wheel at that moment so Quinn pulled back with a smile and gently closed her door.
Bella’s squeaky voice asked, “Is Quinn your boyfriend?”
Alex glanced at Emily and they shared a smile. “Yes, yes he is my boyfriend … finally.”
They pulled out with the sleds in the lead and Emily following them in the Ranger, across the road and into the park they had used previously to access the river. Any resistance Alex had to taking the pain medication disappeared after the first five minutes of the bumpy ride as they drove through the park and down the bank onto the river. The Ranger might be more comfortable and warmer but it was just as jostling as the sleds were and Alex felt every bump and movement in her shoulder and arm. Her head started to pound and nausea filled her stomach.
Forcing down the pain pills, she rested her head against the headrest and thought of all the questions she wanted to ask Emily about what had happened while they were separated. Without realizing it, she drifted off as the pain pills kicked in and washed everything away.
At some point her eyes fluttered open and she saw Dara behind the steering wheel. Before she had a chance to ask any questions though, the medication pulled her back into the darkness.
When she finally opened her eyes with some semblance of alertness, Josh was driving and the heater was turned up high, blowing hot air on her and making her feel sweaty and overheated. She glanced down at Bella, sleeping against her chest and realized she couldn’t feel her legs. The weight of the child on her for so long had put them to sleep. She had to clear her throat a couple of times before she could croak out a question to Josh.
“Where are we?”
He glanced over with a surprised look. “Hey there, Red, welcome back to the world. You were sure out of it there for a while. The good news is, we’re almost at Abbottsville. I figure another fifteen minutes and we’ll be there. We didn’t run into any trouble so far so we’ve been able to keep a steady speed. The bad news is, the temperature has plummeted back to arctic levels. It’s so cold that we’ve been switching out every thirty minutes so far and everyone’s had a turn inside to warm up.” At her surprised look, he laughed. “Like I said, you were out of it for quite a while. But don’t worry about it. I won’t tell anyone about your cute little snore.”
Alex couldn’t believe she had slept through so many starts and stops and driver changes but she knew how powerful the pain pills were, which was why she didn’t want to take them in the first place. She shifted slightly with a groan and repositioned Bella on her lap without waking her or Tanner who was leaning against her asleep as well so she could look into the back seat. She blew out a breath of relief when she saw all five of the kids back there sleeping. The motion of the Ranger and the high heat inside was hard to resist and Alex felt her own eyelids start to droop again. Shaking her head to clear it she took the opportunity to ask Josh some of the questions she wanted to ask Emily.
“What happened after you guys left for the zoo? Emily said you ran into a little bit of trouble but Josh, her eyes, they look haunted. What happened? And I don’t want the short version!”
Josh’s face turned grim as he stared ahead through the windshield. “I thought we lost her Alex. We got in and got the medicine without a hitch but on our way back to the zoo some of the guys from downtown ambushed us. They managed to separate Emily and hijack her sled. She hasn’t told me all the details of what happened when she was with them but I swear it couldn’t have been more than forty-five minutes before she escaped. We took the sleds and medicine back to the zoo and left Dara there to either wait for us or leave us to meet you guys. Cooper and I went back across on one sled to try and find her. We went up into one of the abandoned buildings that faced onto the street that they all seem to live on and we were scanning the area to see if we could find her before we went in.
“So, all of the sudden, we see this guy falling off the tower. He’s just falling to his death to the ground below. Apparently, the guy who’s trying to run things down there, Emily called him the mayor, has made his base up in the tower.”
Alex interrupted him with the question. “The Calgary Tower? Like the Calgary Tower we went to for our elementary school trip?”
Josh nodded. “Yep, the very one. Anyways, I guess these maniacs had found a way to cut a hole or remove a panel of the safety glass that makes up the floor of the viewing area and apparently, they throw people through the hole in the floor as punishment. So - here’s this guy falling to his death, and Cooper and I are like freaking out that it’s going to be Emily next at any minute when another guy drops from the tower, but this one isn’t falling. He’s kind of gliding through the air sideways and down towards the ground. We figure out that he’s on some kind of zip-line they’ve Macgyvered up and we’re watching him through the binoculars, so we’re looking right in that area when like thirty seconds later Emily drops from the tower. Only thing is, she’s not harnessed up like the other guy. She’s hanging by one arm flailing around and trying to get a second hand onto it.”
At Alex’s gasp of horror, Josh turned to meet her eyes with his own haunted expression before turning back to watch the path ahead. “I swear to God Alex, I thought she was done. I thought I was going to stand there and watch one of my best friends drop to her death and there was not a damn thing I could do about it. I’ve never been more terrified in my whole life. Nothing I felt on the way home, including getting captured by that biker gang can compare to how I felt when I saw her dangling by one arm hundreds of feet in the air.” He swallowed hard and then shook his head to get the image out of his mind. “But then Emily turns into a superhero badass. She manages to get slightly more secured to the line and crashes into the back of the guy who went down ahead of her. She wraps her legs around his waist and with him bucking and thrashing trying to knock her off, she manages to grab his handgun and she shoots him in the f
ucking head!”
As soon as he said the f-bomb he took a quick look over his shoulders to make sure the kids were still asleep and then sent Alex an apologetic look. “Sorry about that, but man, it was so intense.”
Alex was just staring at him in amazement with her jaw dropped open so he went on with the rest of the story. “So now Emily is clinging to this dead guy when they reach the bottom of the zip-line and slam to a stop against a snowbank. Cooper and I are just standing there like idiots yelling at her behind the glass to get up and get moving when she finally pulls herself away from him. I guess he had her rifle because the next thing I see is her staggering across the top of the parking garage where they had landed, with it in her hands. All I wanted to do is race down there and start shooting people up but we gave her a few minutes to see where she would go so we would know where to follow. Minutes later, she comes blasting out of the parking garage on her sled! And it still had the trailer attached with all the medicine in it! I mean, freaking amazing. Tom Cruise couldn’t have pulled a better stunt in any Mission Impossible movie than what she did!”
All Alex could do was shake her head in disbelief. “Incredible!”
“She heads back the way they had brought her in, back towards where they ambushed us. Cooper and I double-time it back down to the ground, race to where we had hidden the sled and shoot down in that direction until we get to the intersection where we were ambushed. It’s still blocked by the dumpsters they had used earlier - but we could hear Emily’s sled engine on the other side so I just started yelling her name until she heard us. Once we got the dumpster moved far enough that her sled could fit through, she just collapsed into my arms, crying.” He stopped the story there and chewed on his lip while staring ahead. “As badass as it was what she did, I think it might have broken her.” He turned and glanced Alex’s way with a worried look.
“She hasn’t been the same since that happened this morning. We haven’t really had a whole lot of time to talk about it because we wanted to get out of there and get back to you guys but Dara is really worried about her too. Once we get home, I think we need to have like a group therapy session or something. I know I’ve had some issues dealing with some of the things we had to do on the way home and I’m sure the rest of us have been struggling too.” He glanced back over to Alex before turning ahead. “We didn’t have a whole lot of choice on what we did to make it home and I still believe going to Calgary to get the medicine was the right thing to do. But Alex, we take these crazy risks and I think it’s starting to do damage to us. We need to talk about it, all of us, instead of just holding it all inside and pretending like we’re dealing with it.”
Alex turned and faced the windshield while trying to process all that Josh had told her. She couldn’t believe her best friend had gone through that. She tried to understand what Emily must have been thinking of to be that desperate to throw herself out into the open air. Josh was right though, they were all feeling the mental damage from everything that they had seen and done and been through since lights out. She heaved out a breath.
“I heard my brother tell my parents that he thinks I have PTSD. Maybe he’s right. Maybe we all have it. It’s going to take a few days or maybe a couple weeks for all this to shake out once we get home but yeah, I think maybe we should find a way to talk about this stuff.”
Josh gave a curt nod of agreement and then jutted his chin ahead. “Well, put that in your pocket and store it for later because there’s the welcome sign to Abbottsville. I really hope they’ll let us into that Community Center and that they’ve got some kind of heat going on. We need to take a break before we make the next leg of the trip.” He glanced back at the sleeping kids for a second. “I cannot believe we have not heard a single, “are we there yet or I need to pee!” Taking a break so they can get out and stretch and go to the bathroom will make the last leg of the trip home easier on all of us.”
“You’re right, it’ll be good to get out and move around for a little while. Hey Josh, I know bringing these kids home with us was the right thing to do but did any of us really think about what our parents are going to say when we show up with them? I mean, can you just see it? Hey, Mom and Dad sorry about taking off on you but yay we found the medicine everybody needs. By the way, we also brought home seven kids for you to adopt, cool?”
Josh barked out a laugh. “Oh my God we didn’t even think about that did we?” He shot her his typical huge grin and shrugged. “It’s all good. I know my mom always wanted more kids so she’s good for at least two of them. Quinn’s grandma will fall all over herself to take in a few as well. That just leaves you and Emily to convince your families that you always wanted a little brother or sister. I mean, come on Alex, you took down a gang of bikers and Emily jumped out of a tower. How hard can it be to convince your parents to take in some orphans?”
Alex just glared at him with a stern, annoyed look causing him to howl with laughter. “What? Too soon?” His laughter was so loud from her reaction to that he woke up all the kids in the Ranger.
His laughter got even louder when from the back seat one voice said, “Mister? I really need to go to the bathroom.” And another said, “Are we almost there yet?”
Chapter Seventeen
The sleds and Ranger drove past the unmanned roadblock where they had stopped on their last trip. They knew it hadn’t been abandoned completely because there was a barrel beside it with smoke wisps coming off of it. The guards used it to stay warm but with the temperature dropping so much they probably retreated back into the town. They followed the street into town and pulled up in front of the community center where they had previously shared a meal and learned the information they needed about their town being held hostage by the gang.
Quinn shut down the engine of his sled and unclenched his frozen fingers from the handlebars. His whole body was numb with cold and he was looking forward to taking a break indoors to thaw out. He hoped that he would get to see Tom Jacobson, the man who had recognized him as Harry Dennison’s grandson the last time he came through. If not him then he hoped Mike, the leader of the town, would remember them and allow them to rest for a little while before they headed the rest of the way home.
Dara and Emily climbed off their sled, both moving just as slowly as him. They made their way over to the Ranger where Josh had rolled down his window. Quinn leaned in to get a look at Alex and see how she was doing. He was surprised to see her and all the children were awake and staring back at him. With a smile for Alex, he turned to Josh. “Why don’t you guys stay put and keep the heater running while me and the girls go inside and see if they wouldn’t mind us coming in for a bit.”
Josh gave him a cheeky grin. “No problem! I’ll just hang out here in the sauna.”
Quinn shot him a dirty look before his own frozen face crept into an amused smile. “Enjoy it while it lasts buddy. You’re up for a turn on a sled when we leave here.”
That dimmed Josh’s grin a little bit but he just nodded and rolled the window back up to keep the heat in and the cold out.
Quinn, Emily, and Dara walked down the path to the main doors of the community center and were happy to see candlelight in some of the windows of the building. It was only three in the afternoon but when the temperature started dropping, dark cloud cover moved in, making the light look closer to twilight.
The door was unlocked and swung open easily. The teens moved into the front lobby and removed their helmets. Right away they could feel a difference in the temperature from outside. It wasn’t exactly warm in the lobby but without the wind that had kicked up, it felt almost balmy. They followed the sounds of voices down one of the hallways to the conference room they had been in on their earlier trip.
Standing in the open doorway, they scanned the room that had around thirty people in it. Some people were playing cards or board games and others were knitting or working on projects. In one corner of the room, there was a table with children at it. The adult supervising them seemed to be teach
ing them math. A few people finally noticed them standing in the room and pushed to their feet with concern. Quinn was looking for either of the two men that he had spoken to on his last trip when Mike walked into the room from a side door.
He zeroed in on the newcomers and with a frown strode quickly across the room towards them. As he got closer, he must have recognized them from before because his frown turned into an uncertain smile of welcome.
When he was close enough to speak to them without yelling, he focused on Quinn.
“Hi, aren’t you the kids that were through here last spring? You were headed to Prairie Springs, weren’t you?”
Quinn thrust out of hand for Mike to shake while nodding his head. “Yes, yes we are. You guys were kind enough to put us up for the night while we figured out what was happening in our town.”
Mike pumped Quinn’s hand with a relieved expression on his face.
“Well, this is something. We were really relieved to hear that everything worked out for your town. I’m sure you know we’ve done some trading back and forth since. Your town has really helped us out with some things we’ve needed.” His expression turned quizzical. “What are you guys up to? The chinook we had seems to have left us earlier today. Pretty dangerous for you guys to be out there right now.”
Stranded Box Set Page 108
