STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6 Read online

  No fire trucks, Alex thought, We sooo have to get out of this city. She picked up the pace.

  “Do you know where we’re going? I saw that you had a map,” she said to Quinn.

  “Yeah, while everyone was talking, Cooper popped into a souvenir shop and snagged one. He also grabbed a bunch of water bottles and snacks that the staff was giving away. He bought a cheap pack and stuffed it full. Smart guy, really quick on his feet, that Cooper.”

  Alex looked back at Cooper and saw he was carrying a pack that looked like it would burst any minute. She flashed him another smile of thanks and glanced at Dara who just looked away.

  With a shrug, she turned back to Quinn and asked, “Okay, so where to?”

  “Well, just up ahead we are going to hit a road called Katella Avenue. Then we go east on that until we come to a freeway called Orange or 57. That freeway should take us as close to the outskirts as we can get then we change freeways again. We talked about it and decided to try and take the main roads today to get as close as we can to the countryside but if they are too packed with wrecks, we might have to detour to smaller roads. The problem is the more detours we take, the more time we waste, so we just have to wait and see how bad the freeway is.”

  Alex nodded but was distracted by a group of bloody people up ahead.

  “We should try and help them, shouldn’t we?” Alex asked.

  Looking around the group for an answer she was surprised by their grim expressions and silence. Finally, it was Dara that answered Alex.

  “Mrs. Moore talked to us about this while you were saying goodbye to Emily. She told us that we would see many people hurt and that we would want to help. She said that there would be tens of thousands of people who are hurt along the roads and if we stopped to help everyone, we would never get out of the city. Also, we would exhaust ourselves and put ourselves in danger. She told us if we could clearly see a situation where we could help quickly and then move on that might be okay but otherwise we should just keep going. I know it seems harsh, but looking around, I feel so helpless. I mean, where would we start and when would it ever end?” She finished with a small sob.

  Alex was about to drop back and offer comfort but she was surprised when Josh beat her to it. Not that Josh was insensitive, but most of the time he was oblivious to others, especially girls. The pair dropped back a-ways and talked quietly. Dara even gave a laugh at something Josh said to her.

  Alex faced forward again and tried not to stare at the injured people they were passing. They had to go around a few cars that had jumped onto the sidewalk but it felt like they were making good time so far. After getting to Katella and turning east the road opened up and was wider than the one they just left. There were many restaurants and big box stores but she kept her eyes open for a sporting goods store or anything that might sell bikes.

  There were just as many crashes on this street and they came up to a tangled mess of six cars all smashed together with three men working on pulling it apart. One of the men was partway into a compact car and the other two were trying to push and pull a smashed BMW away from it. When the one man saw Quinn and the others coming closer he jogged over, out of breath.

  “Hey, can you kids give us a hand? There’s a little boy stuck in the smaller car and we are trying to get him out. He’s okay but really scared. His mom’s in the front seat and didn’t make it.”

  Without even answering him, the whole group headed straight for the pile-up. Finally, they could do something to help and maybe feel less guilty about all the injured they had passed by.

  “Can one of you girls get into the car with him? You are both much smaller than us and you could fit, no problem. He’s strapped into a car seat and we can’t get the right angle to get him out,” the man asked. “Hey Roger, back out of there, we got some help here.”

  The man that must be Roger wiggled back out of the small car and came over. “Thank God. I think the little guy is going into shock. We got to get him out!” The men looked at Alex and Dara expectantly.

  “I’ll go. No problem. Hey, Josh, give me your multi-tool please.” Alex volunteered.

  “Yup, Alex is the right choice. She’s really bendy,” Dara said, surprising a laugh out of Alex. She didn’t even know that Dara was aware of her gymnastic talents.

  With Josh’s multi-tool in hand, Alex crawled up on to the car and started looking at all the angles of entry. Finally, she slid in all the way where the bigger man couldn’t fit. Crouched in the passenger seat it was a tight fit with all the damage done from the accident.

  It almost seemed as though the car had been made skinnier as there was hardly any gap left between the front seats. There was still plenty of headroom left but with the front seats squished together, there was no clearance to squeeze between them. Alex examined the headrests and saw the little buttons on either side. Perfect! Removable headrests. She quickly got them out and twisted back to drop them out the window, giving herself more room. Alex had to work very hard not to look at the poor woman who was dead in the driver’s seat. Thankfully, the body was slumped forward on the steering wheel and facing the other way.

  She turned to look at the little boy in the back seat and it broke her heart. His blond curls were limp and his baby blue eyes seemed glazed over. If not for the rapid rise and fall of his little chest, Alex would have thought he was dead. He had a few drops of blood on his forehead but it didn’t look like he was bleeding, so it probably came from his mother. Alex looked around the back seat and saw a sippy cup, a soft green blanket and a baby bag on the floor. She reached back and snagged the blanket and cup and brought it into the front seat and tried to shake the glass off of it. After wiping the cup off with her shirt, she turned back to the little boy.

  “Hey, buddy. My name is Alex and I’m going to get you out of your seat so we can get out of the car. Can you tell me your name?” Alex said in a soft sweet tone. No response came from the child.

  “Okay, do you want your juice? Are you thirsty, buddy?” she kept trying. A slight flicker on his face made Alex think he was hearing her so she handed the cup back and held it in front of his eyes. Slowly his little hands came up and took the cup to his mouth.

  “Good boy! Have a drink and then we are getting out of the car. Okay, pal?” she encouraged.

  After a long drink, those baby blues met hers and whimpered, “Mommy?”

  Alex tried to smile but all she wanted to do was cry. What would happen to this little guy? No mother, no way to find his dad, all alone in this harsh new world. Alex shook those thoughts away.

  “Mommy’s not here right now but she loves you very much and asked me to help you out of the car. Okay?”

  The little boy stared at Alex like he was deciding and then nodded his head so Alex decided to get this done before he could ask anything else. Taking the cup away from him she grabbed the baby bag from the floor and stuffed the cup into it. She turned back to the front seat and stuffed the blanket in as well then shoved the whole thing out the window. Quinn was right outside the window and took it from her.

  “Is he okay in there?”

  “Yeah, I got him to drink and he’s ready to come out. Can you stay here to grab him when I pass him forward? I’m going to have to jackknife into the back to get him out and then I’ll pass him forward. It’s really tight but I can get back there. Tell those guys not to do any more car pushing. It might make things worse. Okay?”

  “No problem. Are you sure you’re bendy enough?” he asked with a smile.

  With a laugh Alex said, “Watch and learn, pal!” and she turned and slid over the top into the back seat and popped up.

  Feeling very pleased with herself, it turned into a red blush of embarrassment when she heard, “Nice view!” muttered from the front of the car. Quickly turning to the trapped boy, she plastered a smile on her face and started working on his buckles. She kept up a steady stream of meaningless words about being at Disneyland and from Canada to keep the boy distracted. Finally, she sat back fr
ustrated. The buckles were jammed and she couldn’t get them unhooked. Feeling something jamming into her hip, she remembered Josh’s multi-tool and got to work with the knife.

  “Sweetie, the buckle won’t open so I have to cut your straps to get you out, okay?” Seeing the panic on his face she quickly reassured him. “It’s okay, I’m an expert at this stuff and we have a brand-new seat for you. Okay?”

  With another unsure look at her and a big fat tear rolling down his face, the boy nodded.

  Poor kid, Alex thought, I wish this hadn’t happened to you.

  After getting him to raise his arms up, Alex started to saw away at the straps. It didn’t take long for her wrist to start getting sore and in her mind, she was cursing Josh for not having sharpened his knife. After what seemed an eternity, the belt finally parted and Alex could start on the next one. After the second belt came apart, Alex had to stop and rest her wrist and she realized just how hot and thirsty she was.

  “Hey Quinn, any chance of getting a bottle of water in here, I’m roasting,” she called. Quinn had been watching her progress through the window and quickly ducked out and was back in seconds. He handed her the bottle and she drank it down greedily.

  Quinn was halfway through the car window trying to get a look at the baby seat. “Now that you have cut the straps on this side, could you just sort of slide him out?” he asked.

  “I don’t think so. I would need to cut one more strap and then I could get him out,” she guessed.

  “Well, do your best. We really need to get out of here soon. These guys have been giving us some tips and routes to take and it’s going to take us a few hours on bikes to get clear of the main suburbs,” he prompted.

  Alex turned back to sawing at the strap and before long she had the little guy free. His little pants were soaked right through with pee but it didn’t bother Alex at all once he had his arms around her neck. It took some convincing to get him to go to Quinn but once he went it was quick work for her to be back on pavement.

  Alex grabbed the baby bag and rifled through it looking for a new diaper and pants and was happy to find them. Dara came over and took both. She settled the baby on the sidewalk on top of the blanket and expertly changed him. The little boy seemed to be entranced by the blue streaks in Dara’s hair, and he kept reaching up to softly pat at them.

  Alex slumped against one of the wrecked cars and wondered what they would do with the little guy now. She could hear someone yelling down the road and once again was eager to leave this city. Quinn came up to her and said, “We have to get moving. It’s getting close to noon and we’ve got a long way to go.”

  Feeling so helpless, Alex nodded and said, “What do we do with him?” just as Dara was bringing him over.

  The boy was reaching his little arms out to Alex with a smile when the yelling from down the road got closer. His small face seemed to freeze and he twisted in Dara’s arms and started to bawl.

  “Wow, now he starts to cry? After all that and now he’s crying?” Quinn exclaimed.

  Alex tried to take him from Dara but he wouldn’t stop twisting to get down. She had just got him held tight against her when a man that had been yelling from down the road was right next to her.

  “JACK! JACK! I’m here, buddy, Daddy’s here!” A man pulled the child from Alex’s arms and wrapped him tightly against his chest.

  The boy was clinging to the man and chanting, “Daddy, daddy, daddy,” repeatedly.

  Alex was in shock. What were the odds of this child’s dad finding him in this mess?

  “Thank you so much!” the man said to Alex and the rest of the people standing around him. “I’ve been walking for hours the route I knew my wife would take to get to Jack’s daycare and I didn’t think I would find them. My wife, Allison, is she here?”

  No one could meet his eyes and he knew that the worst had happened. He crumpled to the ground clutching Jack and sobbed out his grief.

  The man who had asked for their help was talking to Quinn and they broke apart with a handshake. Quinn waved his group back on the sidewalk.

  “Those guys are going to take care of them from here. We have to get moving so let’s just go. Keep an eye out for stores with bikes and let’s walk faster.”

  He started to walk away. Alex was the last to leave. She was staring at the reunited family and couldn’t help but feel more hopeful. If one child could find his way home then maybe she and her friends could too.

  Chapter Five

  The group made good time speed-walking down the road and after fifteen minutes or so Cooper pointed out a big sporting goods store next to a home improvement store and some restaurants. They weaved in between crashed cars and groups of people standing around talking and crossed the street to the shopping area. Once they were alone in the middle of the parking lot Alex called them to a stop.

  “Okay, guys. I’m guessing we don’t want to steal anything if we don’t have too, so let’s check the money situation. Mrs. Moore gave me all of her and Mr. Carter’s money but I haven’t counted it. Let’s get a total and just pool it all to offer to the staff in the store.”

  Everyone agreed to that so they pooled the money and Alex counted it out.

  “Holy crap! We’ve got almost five thousand dollars here!” she exclaimed.

  Mrs. Moore and Mr. Carter must have had a lot of money on them because the students had only a couple hundred dollars each. She cocked her head to the side in consideration before nodding.

  “It makes sense. They would have needed this much to feed all the students three times a day. Not to mention paying the busing company to transfer us to and from the park. Having this much money should make things a lot easier. We just offer more than the price tag and no one will say no to that.”

  “Alex, put two thousand in a different pocket and don’t mention it to anyone in the store,” Quinn instructed. “Cooper, do you want to try to do the deal? You’ve got some smooth ways, my friend.”

  Cooper wasn’t even listening. He was staring at a cop car over in the corner of the parking lot. Both of the front doors were open but no one was around.

  “I think there are police over there on the ground,” he said quietly.

  They all had a good respect for the police in their town. Alex’s brother was an RCMP officer and Dara’s dad was a city cop. After a quick look at her friends, Alex started to move towards the cruiser and they all followed her. The closer she got to the car it was easier to see that there was an officer on the ground. He had been shot and his chest was a mess of blood and his young face was frozen in a surprised look.

  She quickly checked him for a pulse and finding none, gently closed his eyes. The shock of seeing a dead body wasn’t as intense for her after being in the car with Jack’s mom and Alex briefly wondered how many more bodies there would be in the days ahead.

  Looking up at Dara she gave a shake of her head. Alex was going to move away when something made her freeze. The officer’s handgun was still in the holster on his belt. Dara must have been thinking the same thing because she squatted down beside the body and looked Alex in the eye.

  “If people are already shooting cops, what chance do we have? We should take his gun and anything else we can use. We have to start thinking about protection, right?” Dara asked.

  Alex found herself nodding. Guns didn’t bother her at all. Growing up on a farm you got used to seeing and respecting guns. Alex was a pretty good shot with a rifle and not bad with a shotgun, but had never fired a handgun before. She reached over and unsnapped the holster and removed the gun. There were other objects on the belt and she quickly made a pile of extra magazines of bullets and a can of mace. The flashlight didn’t work and Alex didn’t think the baton was something they needed. Meanwhile, Dara had pulled up the officer's pant leg and was unstrapping another smaller holster and gun off his leg. She then got in the front seat and popped the trunk. As she got out of the car the boys came around from the other side of the car where they had been checking on
the other policeman on the ground.

  Quinn spoke up, “We should take…” and stopped when he saw the pile of goods beside Alex. “Good thinking. We stripped the other cop as well. This feels so wrong but I think we will need it more than they will now. Let’s check the trunk and see if we can find a bag to carry this stuff until we get into the sports store,” he said.

  The trunk had a large first aid kit and more ammunition for the guns. There was a gym bag that they emptied out and filled with all the equipment they had collected. There were also some folded blankets so Alex took two and went and covered the fallen police officers. She tucked the blankets under the bodies to anchor them and briefly bowed her head and said a quiet, “I’m sorry,” over both. She tried not to think of the men’s families and said a quick prayer that they would be all right.

  When she stood to go, the rest of the group was waiting and they made their way to the big doors at the entrance of the store. Just as they stepped up onto the sidewalk, a guy wearing a golf shirt with the store's logo came out and turned to lock the doors behind him.

  Cooper approached him while the others hung back. “Hey man, are you the manager?” he asked.

  Without even turning to look at Cooper, the guy said, “Sorry, the store’s closed. Try back tomorrow,” and turned to brush past him.

  Cooper put his hand up in a hold-on gesture and said, “There won’t even be a store here tomorrow. Don’t you know what’s happening out here?”

  The guy gave Cooper a weird look. “There’s a power outage. I sent everyone home earlier and have been catching up on paperwork. I’m sure it will be back on by the end of the day.”

  He moved to get by Cooper again.

  “Listen, man, it’s a country-wide, maybe continent-wide outage. We really need to talk.”

  The man gave Cooper a look like he was a weirdo and went around him heading for the parking lot.