Stranded Box Set Page 6

  Quinn and Cooper exchanged looks and shrugged.

  “I don’t see any troublemakers over there, just some tired people. Let’s check out the office and see what the deal is,” Cooper said.

  They biked over to the office and as they were getting off of their bikes, an older woman came out to greet them.

  “Hello there...Why - you’re just kids!” the woman was surprised. “What are you kids doing all the way out here?” she asked.

  Quinn stepped forward and replied, “Hello, ma’am, we are trying to get home but we’ve been traveling all day and can’t go any further. Do you have any rooms left that we could rent?”

  The woman had a sympathetic look on her face and was nodding her head. “Yes, I do have a room left. It’s a double so it would be a tight fit for the five of you but that’s all there is. There have been so many people walking in from the highway. I haven’t been this full in years. There’s no electricity and the water isn’t flowing but there’s an old hand pump on the well back behind that you can use.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Quinn said and put on his best boy next door grin. “Is it okay if we take the bikes into the room? I’m afraid if we left them out they would be stolen by morning. We would pay extra for that.”

  The woman waved her hand in dismissal. “Don’t you worry about the bikes. Take them in and keep them safe. It’s more important that you kids get home quickly than a little wear on old carpet. And don’t worry about paying me. If it was my own kids out on the road all alone, I’d like to think that someone would do the same. Besides I’ve made more money today than I have in the last two months,” she said with a laugh. “Now, what about food, it looks like you have some supplies in your little trailers, are you okay? I sold all the snack food and sodas to the other guests so I don’t have anything to offer you.”

  “We’re just fine for food and thank you so much for the room. I can’t tell you how relieved we are, knowing that we will have a safe place to sleep tonight but please let us pay you. We have cash and it would only be fair.”

  Alex thought Quinn was laying it on a little too thick with the charm so she quickly stepped forward and handed the lady some cash.

  “Which room is still open?” she asked, flashing her dimples.

  “Oh, just let me get you a key and a bucket. You can send one of these strapping boys to fill it so you can clean up. The toilets will flush if you fill the tank. Hold on, I’ll be right back.” and she turned back into the office.

  Alex gave Quinn an elbow in the ribs and rolled her eyes at his Who me? look.

  The lady came back out and handed a key to Alex and a bucket to Quinn.

  “There you go, dear. It’s the last room at the end. You come see me if you need anything else. Have a good rest.” She smiled as they pushed their bikes toward their room.

  The people sitting at the picnic tables were staring at them as they made their way towards the end unit of the hotel. An older couple and a mother and her little girl sat at one table with chip and snack bags and soda cans spread in front of them. The older man gave the kids a nod as they came closer. The other table had three men, one in a suit and two in dusty, dirty jeans and tank tops. They were drinking beer and empty beer cans formed a pile on the ground beside them. The man in the suit was taking in the bikes and trailers with a thoughtful expression. The two greasy guys were giving Alex and Dara the once over. Alex felt a shiver go down her back at the leering looks and pushed her bike closer to the boys.

  They got to the room and opened the door to a blast of hot, stale, cigarette-tainted air. With no air conditioning and being shut up all day, the hot California sun had heated the room up. Dara and Alex went in first and pulled all the curtains back and opened the front window and the small window in the back bathroom hoping for a breeze. The only thing that the open windows really gave was some natural light to see the inside of the room. The girls moved the small table and chairs out of the way so there would be room for the bikes and then helped the boys bring them in and squeeze them into the front area of the room. This worked easier once Josh and Quinn unhooked the trailers from their bikes.

  It was so hot in the room that they were all sweating in minutes. Cooper grabbed a pillow and started fanning it back and forth in front of the door trying to move some hot air out of the room. He kept it up for a few minutes and then gave it up as a lost cause and threw the pillow back onto the bed.

  Quinn went to the door and looked out as everyone slumped down on the beds with aching muscles.

  “I don’t like the looks of those beer drinkers out there. If we are going to have problems, it will be from them. I think we’ll have to post watches tonight just in case. Can someone make sure the bathtub is clean? I think we should fill it up now with the bucket so we won’t have to go out back later. Once it gets dark, I don’t think we should leave the room. Our bikes are worth gold right now and our supplies are probably worth even more.”

  “The way those guys were looking at Alex and me, it wasn’t the bikes they will be after,” Dara said with a grimace.

  “Good point. You and Alex should stay inside so they aren’t tempted to start anything.” Quinn said with a frown.

  “Sounds good to me, you big strapping boys can fetch our water and Dara and I’ll stay here and paint our toes!” Alex teased.

  As if planned, the three boys lifted their arms and flexed their biceps in muscle men poses.

  After the laughter had died down, Josh said, “How about you little women make us men some dinner?”

  “Oh yeah, that would be great. I’m starving,” Cooper chimed in.

  Quinn was nodding his head too, before he spoke up. “We can’t have anything hot. The smell would let everyone in this place know what we have. They probably only have snack food and the smell of hot food would draw them right to our door. So, it will have to be a cold dinner.”

  Groans all around answered that. After the work they did getting this far, they all wanted a good hot meal, but they wanted to avoid a fight even more.

  Quinn and Cooper went out with the bucket, leaving Josh to guard the door. Alex used some of her water bottle and a hand towel to wipe the bathtub out and made sure the plug was pushed in. The toilet still had water in the tank so it was good for at least one flush. They would have to remember not to flush it after every pee or they would go through the water very quickly.

  Of the five one-gallon jugs that they had picked up at the sporting goods store, half was already gone. They would fill them up in the morning and try to keep them filled every chance they found water. Five people on bikes went through a lot of water and Alex was worried about the next couple of days. The route they had planned would take them past Las Vegas and it was in the middle of desert country. Water would be very important and she was worried that they wouldn’t have enough.

  Leaving the bathroom, Alex saw Dara pulling beef jerky and trail mix from the trailer and then covering the freeze-dried camping food with a sleeping bag so it couldn’t be seen. Alex got out one of the camping stoves and fuel and a pot so she could boil water. Even though they weren’t going to eat a hot meal, they could have hot water to clean themselves up with and a hot drink.

  Quinn and Cooper came in with a full bucket of water and went to pour it in the tub. Coming back into the room Quinn said, “This is going to take a lot of trips. That barely covered the bottom of the tub.”

  Alex followed them to the door and saw Quinn approach the table with the older couple and mother and child. After some conversation, the man got up and headed to a different room. He came out with a bucket and went into the room beside his and emerged with another bucket. He handed his extra bucket to Cooper and the three disappeared around the back of the hotel.

  Loud laughter drew Alex’s attention to the other table and she saw the three men still drinking. It seemed the pile of empties had grown and Alex wondered if the men had carried the beer from wherever they had been stranded. She saw that they were looking her way s
o she quickly backed into the room. She found herself hoping that they would drink so much that they would pass out and not cause any trouble.

  It didn’t take very long for Quinn and the others to come back with three full buckets of water and the tub was filling up faster. After one more trip, the tub was half full and they decided it was enough for the night.

  “We’re going to help Mr. Thomas fill his tub up now. They’re going to share their room with the mother and little girl out there so give us about twenty minutes and we’ll be in for the night,” Quinn told Alex, Dara, and Josh.

  While they were waiting, Alex and Dara used the steaming water from the camp stove, some hotel soap and washcloths to clean off the dust and sweat as best they could. It wasn’t a hot shower but after putting on clean shirts, they felt much better. Alex swapped out Josh from his post at the door and he handed her his gun. She made sure the safety was on and tucked it into a pocket of her cargos. She stayed back from the door but had a good view of the drinking table. The older woman and mother and child had gone back into their room so the men were the only people outside that Alex could see.

  On one of their earlier pit stops, Josh had gone over the basics of handguns with her and she felt more confident carrying it. It wasn’t that different from a rifle and Alex was a great shot, having hunted with her dad and done target shooting with her brother.

  Josh had used the last of the hot water to clean up so Dara refilled the pot and set it on the stove for the other two boys to have hot water. The room only had two coffee cups beside the now useless mini coffee maker but they could take turns having a hot drink after they ate their meager supper. While waiting for the boys to return, Dara and Alex set up the small table between the two beds for more seating and placed the food and drinks as well as the map on it.

  It was getting dark outside when Quinn and Cooper finally came in and emptied one last bucket full of water into the tub. Alex was surprised to see the time was almost eight o’clock at night. As the two boys got cleaned up with the hot water she got out the lantern and a fat camping candle from the trailer and lit it. Alex went to the door and took a quick look out, noting that the beer drinkers were gone. She shut and locked the door and then pulled the heavy curtains closed. It wasn’t nearly as hot in the room as when they first opened it up but it was still very warm. Having the door open had helped keep it cooler but Alex felt safer with it closed and locked now that it was getting dark. By the time she got the lantern lit, everyone had gathered at the table to eat.

  “Mm-hmm, just what I wanted after a hard day’s work! Beef jerky and trail mix. This sure will hit the spot,” Josh joked sarcastically.

  No one was happy with the supper but they all understood it was better to be cautious about advertising what supplies they had. As they were eating, they discussed what their plan was for the next day. Looking at the map and trying to figure out distances wasn’t all that easy. Alex couldn’t help wishing for Google earth to zoom in and see what was ahead of them.

  She wondered if she would ever see a working computer with internet again or if even someday her future children would. It was those thoughts that finally brought the whole situation home for Alex. She had to quickly leave the table and race for the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before throwing up what little she had eaten. Alex flushed the toilet and splashed some water on her face. She stood shaking in front of the mirror, trying to get herself under control.

  A knock on the door and Dara came in. “Are you all right, Alex?”

  Staring at Dara through the mirror, Alex let out all she was thinking. “No more Google, no cars, no planes, no grocery stores, malls, cell phones, Facebook, new jeans, prom, TV shows, no more iTunes and damn it, we will never get to see the next Star Wars movie,” she ended with a half laugh, half sob. Dara’s eyes had gotten wider as Alex listed the things that were gone.

  “Oh my God! I think I’m going to puke.” She covered her mouth.

  “Feel free, I already did,” Alex told her. “It just hit me. We’ve been go-go-going since the moment this happened that I finally realized that it’s done. All the things in our lives that we took for granted every day are over. If we want music we’ll have to make it. If we want food we’ll have to grow it. It’s like we just got cast in a really bad Pioneer Village reality show.”

  “Oh shit, do you think we’ll end up sister wives, pumping out babies and farming?” Dara exclaimed.

  Alex couldn’t help it. It was all too much to process and she burst out laughing and couldn’t stop, even with tears rolling down her face. Dara started giggling and they both ended up howling with laughter and holding onto each other. The boys must have thought that they had lost it because none of them came to check on them. After they settled down and caught their breath they washed their faces and went back out to the main room.

  All the guys were staring at them, afraid to say anything, and that set the girls off laughing again. The table had been put back and the food cleared away. There were two mugs of steaming hot chocolate sitting on the nightstand between the beds and the girls immediately claimed them, sitting back on one bed to drink.

  “Sooo, you guys okay?” Quinn asked. When Alex and Dara only nodded, he continued. “All right, Cooper is taking first watch until midnight, then me until three am and then Josh until six. You two can have tonight off and take a turn tomorrow night. Josh will wake us in the morning and we should try to be out of here by six-thirty. Hopefully, the drunks won’t cause any trouble and will be sleeping it off when we get away from here. I say we bike for an hour and then stop and cook a good breakfast. We are aiming for somewhere between the two small towns, Yermo and Baker for the end of the day. That’s the best guess we can make. It will depend on how the road is and what we run into on the way. It’s going uphill a lot so that will slow us down. We also have to be careful about our water and keep an eye out to fill it up whenever we can. We’re really lucky it’s only April so it’s hot during the day but not scorching. That’s about it. We should get to sleep as soon as we can, tomorrow is going to be even harder than today was.”

  Alex and Dara made up two more mugs of hot chocolate for Josh and Quinn and Alex put a little more water on the camp stove to warm for Cooper to wash with. When Quinn and Josh finished their drinks, they laid down on the double bed closest to the door. Alex and Dara climbed on the other bed and settled down to sleep.

  Alex was so tired that she thought she would be asleep in a second. The belly full of warm chocolate and the soft bed should have done the trick but she couldn’t stop thinking. Her thoughts were full of her parents and brother.

  “What was happening at home? Were they all okay or hurt? What if they were driving at the time and had a crash?”

  After a hundred what-ifs, Alex couldn’t bear it anymore and switched her thoughts to Emily. “Where was her best friend right now? Did they make it to a boat? Would she be okay with the jerks she was traveling with?”

  Alex couldn’t stop thinking and didn’t think she would be able to sleep. After tossing and turning, she gave up and just stared up at the ceiling. She could hear Josh snoring and Quinn breathing and Cooper shifting on his chair by the window. Just as she thought she might as well get up and do something like filling the water bottles in the bathroom, she felt her hand being held. Dara gave Alex’s hand a squeeze of comfort and then just held it in the dark. Alex realized that her parents and best friend might be far away, but she had a friend right beside her as well. One that she didn’t even know she had been missing so much. With that thought, Alex fell asleep still holding her friend’s hand.

  Chapter Seven

  Everything must have been quiet during the night because when Alex woke up, there was a soft light coming in around the curtains and everyone was still asleep - except for Josh by the window. Tilting her watch, she saw that it was ten minutes to six and decided to get up.

  She tried to quietly slide off of the bed but as soon as she stood up a groan came out at
the pain in her legs and butt. Alex staggered to the bathroom, trying not to whimper and ignoring Josh’s muffled laughter. He obviously knew just how sore she was because sitting on the bathroom counter was a container of Advil and a bottle of water. Alex imagined that they all would be starting their day with the painkiller.

  While waiting for the drugs to kick in Alex put the lid down and sat on the toilet seat beside the tub. She started filling up the gallon jugs from the tub and topping off the bike water bottles. Once that was done, she limped back out to the main room and grabbed some dried fruit and half a power bar to eat. After having thrown up her supper last night she was starving. The food took the edge off but she was definitely looking forward to a big camping breakfast down the road.

  They had enough food for all of them to eat for five days. After that, they would have to start looking elsewhere. She hated the idea of them being forced to scavenge or loot to feed themselves but she knew it would come to that eventually or starve. It would be a good idea to stop in a small town today and see if they could still buy some food. Alex still had almost two thousand dollars in her pocket and they might get lucky in a small town.

  The others were all up by then and Quinn was passing out foldable camping toothbrushes that the girls had grabbed at the last minute from the store. It didn’t take long to pack the trailers back up and Dara came out of the bathroom with an extra toilet paper roll and stuffed it into her pack. They quietly wheeled the bikes out to the parking lot and hooked up the trailers.

  Alex went back in and did a quick last check of the room to make sure they didn’t forget anything. The pillows on the beds were tempting but she wasn’t ready to start taking things, especially from someone like the nice hotel owner. Besides, there was no more room on the bikes. With a wistful look, she left them for the next traveler and closed the door. Just as Alex turned from the door to get on her bike, the older man who had lent them his bucket came out of his room. He lit a cigarette and walked over to the group.