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  Alex looked at her feet in embarrassment. “Right, umm, good, I mean, umm, oh crap. I’m sorry, Josh. It was a really stupid thing to do. I’m sorry I left you guys to do all the work.”

  “Ah, don’t worry about it, Alex. You earned it. What you did in there was amazing. He’s going to be fine because of you. Besides, let’s just say, you provided the entertainment,” he said with an evil grin. “Something about black-haired, blue-eyed bad boys - and there was lots of singing too!”

  Alex closed her eyes in mortification, her face flamed red. She could picture her embarrassed face on public service posters for the evils of teenage drinking. Her head started to clear as the aspirin took hold. She opened her eyes and looked at her laughing friend.

  “Okay, I deserve a little teasing for last night but that’s enough,” she thought to herself.

  “Hey, Josh, remember this? ‘I would kill someone to keep you safe, Dara.’” she said as a sickly-sweet love declaration.

  His face went from laughing to blank instantly and he quickly changed the subject. “Right, I’m done. Let’s go check on Quinn, Doctor.”

  She laughed at him and grabbed his hand as they went into the clinic to check on Quinn.

  Later that morning, once everyone was awake and they were eating a breakfast of instant oatmeal, they had a group meeting. Quinn had woken up with clear eyes and hungry for breakfast so the boys had carried him on his stretcher out onto the porch and propped his upper body up with pillows so he could eat with them. Alex didn’t want his leg to be moved for a few days and they discussed what the plans would be.

  Josh led the discussion. “I think we need to plan on staying here for at least five days. If we go back on the road with Quinn and we get attacked again, we would be in trouble. I looked through the house yesterday and it’s untouched. I don’t think anyone has been here. There are a lot of supplies we can use and take with us and there are some generators that I might be able to get working. I say we stay put until Quinn is more mobile and then we go like mad for the border and home. We’ve been staying away from main roads to avoid people and we’ve been shot at twice so it doesn’t seem to be helping us. All this back-road driving is just making us lose time. Once we leave here, I say we head towards the interstate and once we get past Great Falls we get on it and try and make better time. I know Alex, Quinn and I have all been to Great Falls with our families for shopping. I’ve never seen that part of the interstate, from the border to Great Falls, with heavy traffic. What about you, Quinn?”

  Quinn didn’t answer him because he had fallen asleep again. His head was slumped down, with his chin resting on his chest. They took the empty bowl off of his lap and eased his upper body back down onto the stretcher. They decided to leave him out on the porch in the fresh air so they covered him up with blankets and moved out into the yard to finish the discussion.

  “I agree with you, Josh. We need to stay here and let him heal. We were so lucky with where he was shot. Those bullets could have hit bone or even worse, his main artery. As it is, he’ll be limping for a long time. I’m done with this back road driving too. It’s just taking too long and is just as dangerous. I agree that the northern part of the interstate was never very busy. There were always a lot of transport trucks and it was busy on a long weekend at the border crossing with shoppers but this happened on a Tuesday morning so it shouldn’t be heavy with car crashes. I’m ready to get home so that’s my vote,” Alex told them. Cooper and Dara nodded their agreement.

  “All right then, we should go up to the house and get it ready. We might as well stay up there for the next few days in comfort. Once we get Quinn moved up into one of the bedrooms, I’ll start working on the generators and see if we can get some power. We’ll need more water too if we are here very long.”

  Dara volunteered to stay with Quinn as the rest went up to the house to get it ready for the coming days.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Alex put her fork down and groaned at her stuffed belly. They had been on the vet’s property for three days since the operation and so far Quinn continued to improve. He was starting to complain about being bored and that his leg was itchy so Alex knew he was healing. She had switched him to Tylenol for the pain and packed up the stronger drugs for future emergencies. Josh had fashioned him a type of crutch and she was going to start him walking the next day. It had taken all of the first day for Josh to get one of the generators working but with much cursing he had it done by dark. Unfortunately, there was a fancy, hot water on demand system in the house and he couldn’t do anything to make it work, so they had running water but still had to boil it.

  On the second day, Cooper and Josh had poked around in the barn and found an ATV that they got started. They had gone out into the fields to see if there were any neighbors close by that the group would have to deal with. They found that the property was surrounded by forest and they couldn’t see any other homes. What they did come back with was very welcomed. Near the back fence-line, there was a small stream that ran through the property and six beef cows were nearby. When the water stopped feeding into their troughs, they must have gone to the stream to drink. Having been born and raised on a working farm, Josh had no problem rounding one up and getting it back to the barn.

  When Josh showed the girls the cow and happily exclaimed “Dinner!” Alex had clapped her hands in applause but Cooper and Dara just stared at him in confusion. When Josh saw that they didn’t get it, he laughed and howled at them.

  “Where do you think steaks come from? They aren’t born in little white foam trays covered in plastic wrap!” He laughed even harder at their shocked faces. When he got his breath back he reassured them. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it, just have the barbeque warmed up in a few hours and we’ll have a feast.”

  Cooper and Dara were excited about fresh red meat but were more than happy to leave the preparations in Josh’s hands. All of their bodies were craving fresh protein and greens. They had been eating from cans for the past two weeks and the girls were thrilled to find potatoes that were still good in the basement pantry. The vegetables would be canned but it was still exciting to have fresh meat and potatoes. With the power on, they could do their baking in the kitchens big oven and they moved from baking buns to baking loaves of bread. They still had plenty of flour in the camper but were pleased to find another big bag in the house.

  Whoever had lived in the house had lived there alone. They had found only one bedroom that was being used with clothes in the closet. There were pictures of family members but only one man had lived in the house. Being out of town and in an isolated area seemed a strange place to have a business but the group was just happy to have a safe refuge while Quinn healed.

  Josh stuffed the camper’s small freezer with meat and then braved the stench of the house’s refrigerators compartment. Alex helped him clean out all the spoiled rotten food and cleaned the insides with disinfectant before putting the fresh meat in it.

  After an amazing feast of barbequed steak and baked potatoes, the girls brought out the cake they had baked in the house’s oven and they all went into the living room to eat dessert. Alex had wrapped and splinted Quinn’s leg to keep it stable while his wounds healed and with help, he could move from the dining table to an armchair and use an ottoman to prop up his leg.

  Even with the generator working they couldn’t use the huge flat screen TV that dominated one wall. It had fried with everything else that had a computer chip in it. It was still nice to just sit comfortably in a lighted room instead of around a campfire on the ground.

  Quinn fell into a doze as soon as he was done eating his cake and Josh and Dara started a card game together. Cooper was flipping through a magazine so Alex decided to go outside and take a walk. She missed the routine of gymnastics and her body wanted exercise.

  She slipped out of the house and walked down the driveway, enjoying the cool evening air. Emily was on her mind and she tried to picture where her friend might be.
Had she made it home yet? How long did it take to sail up the coast and walk across one province to get home? She couldn’t help but think of her family and what might be happening with them too. As she came back up to the house, she stopped at the edge of the wide lawn and decided she had to get her mind off home.

  Alex slipped her boots and socks off and dropped down into some warm-up stretches. When she felt her muscles were ready, she launched herself across the lawn and sprang into handsprings and cartwheels. She kept it easy because of the long, overgrown grass and worked her way back and forth in different combinations. Everything faded away as she pushed her body through different tumbles and she had a light coating of sweat when she finally came to a stop. She did a few more stretches and went to pick up her boots. Coming up to the stairs of the house, she was startled to see Cooper standing by the railing.

  Happy that the darkness would cover her blush, she wondered if he had been watching the whole time. She went up the stairs and sat on a deck chair to put her socks and boots back on.

  “I used to watch you,” he said quietly.

  Her head snapped up from tying her boot and she stared at him in confusion.

  “At school, I mean. When you would practice your routines in the gym, I’d watch you. It’s so amazing and beautiful the way you move from one flip to the next. It was like being able to see music. Okay, that sounded really dumb. Never mind,” he mumbled and turned away, embarrassed.

  “No, not dumb,” Alex said, standing and joining him at the rail. “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. Thank you. I never saw you there.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t think you would be too happy about the local hoodlum spying on you so I stayed back out of sight.”

  Alex studied him for a minute and asked, “So what’s that all about anyway, the whole bad boy reputation?”

  Cooper didn’t respond for a while and Alex didn’t think he was going to answer her until he finally said quietly, “It’s a joke, a scam.” Alex stayed quiet and waited. He turned to her and asked, “Do you really want to know?”

  When she nodded, he turned away and looked out over the lawn. “My dad’s an ass, a lowlife loser. He drinks too much, likes to be a bully and can’t keep a real job. My mom finally got fed up and left five years ago. I never had a lot of friends when I was younger and it got worse after my mom left. So, I’ve been a loner for a while. I mean, who wants to bring friends over to a dirty, dumpy house with a bully dad around. No one really knows much about me. Then a few years ago, I get a call from the bar to come get my dad because he’s drunk and stupid. I go over to the bar and the cops are loading him up into the back of a cruiser to take him home. They’re feeling bad for me and offer a ride so I’m climbing into the back of the cop car and some kids from school see me. That started the first rumors. Then I get suspended for fighting and that added to it. The truth was, I tried to stop this jerk jock from tormenting a freshman and he took a swing at me, so I put him down. After that, the rumors were flying and I just kept my mouth shut and went with it.

  “Do you know I’ve had kids ask me if I could sell them drugs, or get them an iPod for cheap? It’s such a joke. I’ve never broken the law in my life. My dad has some creepy friends and the cops come by now and then asking questions. They all know me and know I’m not like my dad, so when they see me walking they always stop and ask how I’m doing or if I want a ride somewhere. Every time some kid sees that it just fuels the rumors more. It’s all a scam. I’ve just been waiting for graduation to get out of there. I get really good grades and I think I can get a scholarship next year. At least I did until all this happened.”

  Alex stood beside Cooper and they looked out at the lawn together, both lost in thought. After a while, Alex sighed in frustration.

  “I don’t get it. I’m a teenager and I don’t understand teenagers, myself included. Things can be so hard and confusing and we make it even worse for each other. Why are we so quick to sell each other out? Did you know Dara used to be one of my best friends growing up? She started to change when we hit junior high and I just let her go. All I saw was her crazy makeup and funky hair. I never tried to find out what was underneath it all, and now that we’re back together, I can’t imagine how we could ever not be friends. I never talked to you. I heard what was said about you and took it for fact and never gave you a chance. Why, why do we do that? We’re all struggling with things and we’re all scared sometimes so why do we make it even harder on each other?” She turned to Cooper and took his hand. “I’m sorry I never talked to you, and I’m sorry I didn’t make the effort to see who you are under the reputation. I’m so glad you came with us. I’m so glad I can say you are my friend.” She leaned in and kissed him softly on his cheek.

  Cooper was humbled by this girl’s kindness. He had watched her over the years and admired her but now he felt something even more for her. The question was, could he have a chance with her?”

  Before he could say anything more, Josh came out onto the porch. He took in their closeness and raised an eyebrow. “Cooper, you want to help me get Quinn up to bed?”

  “Sure, man, of course.” He let go of Alex’s hand and followed him in.

  Alex stayed on the porch thinking for a while about Cooper and how easy it was to misjudge people.

  ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

  They had been at the Vet’s clinic for six days, and everyone was getting anxious to leave. They were all thinking about home and how close they were. When Quinn snapped at her for the third time over changing his bandages, Alex had enough. She called everyone out to the porch and helped Quinn down the stairs to the lawn. He was doing well getting around but stairs were still a problem. Once they were all gathered around she began.

  “Okay, we’re all getting pissy about not being on the road so this is what I think. Tomorrow will have been a week since Quinn was shot and he’s healing really fast, faster than I thought he would. So, Quinn, if you can walk from here to the clinic without falling down or stopping, we leave in the morning. If you can’t do it, we stay for a few more days. There’s no point in leaving too soon only to have you re-injure your leg. A few more days of healing might make all the difference in a fight on the road, so give it your best shot. But seriously Quinn, if it’s too much, stop. Don’t push yourself too hard or we’ll be here even longer.”

  Quinn looked around at all his friends who were giving him encouraging smiles and nodded. He kept his crutch with him as he walked towards the clinic but tried not to use it. He was almost there when he knew he wouldn’t make it. He took another step but had to stop and lean on his crutch. He hung his head in misery as he heard his friends walk up behind him.

  Alex came around in front of him and she had the biggest grin on her face, confusing him. She slipped under his arm to give him support and squeezed him tight.

  “Holy crap! That was amazing! I can’t believe how far you got. Great job, Quinn!” She beamed at him happily.

  “What are you talking about? You said I had to make it the whole way,” he said as she helped lower him into a deck chair in front of the clinic.

  “Well yeah, but I didn’t even really think you’d make it halfway. You’ve been such a jerk today, I mean, we all have, that I was trying to make a point.

  “Quinn, you were shot, twice! It hasn’t even been a week. We need to stop being so cranky and deal with it. But after seeing how far you’ve come, well, in my professional doctor’s opinion, I say…we leave in two days!”

  Everyone cheered and Quinn started to laugh. He looked at Alex and said while laughing. “You are so mean.”

  The next two days were filled with busy activities. They stripped the house of all useful supplies, and more importantly, the clinic of its precious medical supplies. They pulled everything out of all the vehicles and repacked it all, leaving out some extra things they didn’t feel were priorities. Josh and Cooper were determined to fit the ATV they had got working in the back of the van. They had all been
practicing every day with the assault rifles after finding out there were no other properties around that would hear them and they were all getting better at controlling the weapon. The semiautomatic setting was the best option as it let off three round bursts and didn’t speed through the ammunition clips so fast.

  They boiled pot after pot of water and took baths and washed their clothes. Quinn kept exercising and stretching his leg in small bursts to avoid overtiring it. Alex and Dara baked cookies and buns and filled Tupperware with the baked goods. They still had two more cases of yeast packages and plenty of powdered eggs and milk. They didn’t know what would happen at the border but they wanted to be prepared for bribes or a fight. It was amazing what a bag of buns would do to a person’s attitude after weeks of a steady diet of canned food.

  After topping up their water tanks and bottles, they were ready to go and Alex couldn’t sleep. They were leaving in the morning so they had had another huge meal with cherry pie for dessert made from a can of pie filling she had found when cleaning out the pantries. She was anxious to get over the border. There really wasn’t all that much different about the two countries but something about being in her own country soothed her. After tossing and turning for an hour, she gave up and went downstairs. She wandered around the main floor for a while and finally went out onto the front porch.

  Quinn was sitting in a chair with his rifle propped up beside him. “Hey, Alex, what are you doing up?” he asked when she sat in the chair beside him.

  “Can’t sleep, too keyed up about leaving, I guess. What about you? Isn’t Josh supposed to be on watch tonight?”