The stack of bins sitting in the middle of the yard that we had managed to get out of the main building need to be loaded into the cargo truck so I send the two younger boys over to feed the animals while Joslin, Ethan and I start lifting them into the back of the truck. Belle and Sasha go from cabin to cabin and pull out everything that needs to be packed as well - piling those items in the center of the yard with the rest of the bins.
Once we’ve managed to put everything into the back of the truck I turn and survey the yard of the camp with my hands on my hips. I let out an exhausted groan when I realize how much more work we have ahead of us before we can quit for the day. Joslin looks my way at the noise so I just point at what made me groan.
She follows my finger with her eyes and it makes her own loud groan. “Oh my God, we can’t leave that, right? We’re going to have to harvest the whole garden, aren’t we?”
I decide to just lower myself down to the ground and sit for a few minutes while I think about that and she settles down beside me and passes me a canteen of water. I take a deep drink of the tepid water and look longingly over at the hand pump where I know crisp, cool water is waiting for me but I just don’t have the energy even to crawl that way. Instead, I just let the almost warm water slide down my throat before answering her question.
“Well, not all of it’s really ready to be harvested yet and we no longer have any containers that we can transfer them into because they were all in the atrium. We put an awful lot of work into getting the garden set up and growing, so as much as I would love to just turn my back on it, we’re going to have to pull as much as we can. Even half grown fresh vegetables are better than no vegetables.”
She glances over to the playground where Ben and Matty are playing and then looks back at me with a mean expression on her face.
“If we’re rebuilding civilization then we’re going to need new laws. I vote that the first new law we create is to bring back child labor! Let’s make the monkey’s pull all the vegetables! Can I get a second on that vote? Please, pretty please?”
We both crack up with laughter and once I’ve caught my breath, I add to her dream. “Yes and while we’re at, can we get a waiter over here with dinner and a tall drink filled with ice cubes please?”
Her eyes go big. “Oh yes, that’s what I want and also a masseuse. I’ve never even had a massage before! I want someone to come and rub my feet and I’m willing to tip big for it!”
I laugh at her expression of longing and glance over at where Marsh is dozing. “Well, I think you might be in the market for that now. Think about how he can’t run away for at least a month. You could turn him into your foot rubbing slave.”
Her eyes get even bigger and her cheeks flush bright red when she chokes out my name. “Skylar!” That causes me to laugh even harder.
Lance and Rex drive back into the yard just then and Rex comes over and stands above us where we’re sprawled out on the grass giggling. He looks from Joslin to me and shakes his head with a smile.
“What are you guys doing?”
I flutter my eyelashes at him and say in a haughty tone, “We are waiting on the waiter to bring us our dinner and drinks!”
Joslin rolls over onto her side and braces her head on her hand before saying in the same tone, “I have a spa appointment that I’m waiting on.”
Rex’s smile grows even larger at our silliness. “Huh, and here I was thinking you girls were working hard.”
Joslin looks up at him and says, “We are working hard. We were also developing new laws for our new civilization. Law number one was just voted in with overwhelming support!”
Rex drops down to the grass between us and leans back on the heels of his hands. “Really? And what was law number one?”
I roll over until I can rest my head in his lap and look up at him. “We voted to bring back child labor so that we can make the monkeys pull all the vegetables from the garden and then do anything else we want our little minions to do.”
He barks out a laugh and then looks at us incredulously. “Do neither of you remember what happened the last time you asked the boys to weed the garden?”
Visions of newly grown baby vegetable plants ripped from the rows and thrown in the weed pile dance through my head causing me to pretend sob.
“The monsters! They killed so many baby carrot plants!”
I lift my head from Rex’s lap and push myself into it a seated position before getting onto my knees and up on my feet. I reach down and pull Joslin up as well and take her by the shoulders and give her a serious look.
“He’s right, the staff here is completely unreliable! The waiter isn’t coming and the spa just burned down. We’re going to have to do this ourselves. Brace yourself, we can do it!”
She shakes her head with a grim expression. “Fine, we’ll do it ourselves but I’m leaving a one-star Yelp review on this place before we go!”
We both crack up again and stagger our way toward the garden and the next few hours of work ahead of us.
Everyone pitches in to harvest the garden and other than loading the animals up in the morning we’re ready to leave. My stomach rumbles reminding me that I’ve barely eaten anything today and I look around the yard trying to figure out how we can make some food out here. All of our cooking utensils, pots, and pans were destroyed in the fire and judging by the lack of bins left out we’ve packed all the food as well. I look up into the sky and judge that we still have three or four hours of light left and then look around at all my exhausted friends and family. We had planned to spend the night here and then head to the bunker in the morning but it seems stupid not to just go now. It’ll mean another hour of work getting the livestock trailer hooked up and the animals loaded into it but I think it’s worth it for a hot shower, hot food and a soft bed to sleep on tonight.
I take my idea over to Lance who just stares at me blankly from where he’s sitting at one of the picnic table benches but then he nods and pushes himself to his feet. He turns to the others that are sprawled around the area.
“She’s right,” he says tiredly. “I’d kill for a hot shower right now. Everybody up, let’s go home.”
I know it’s the right call when everyone except for Marsh pushes to their feet and moves toward the cabin with the chickens. Benny comes over to me and tugs on my shirt until I look down at him.
“Are we really going home, Sky?” When I nod my head at him his expression shifts from excitement to concern and he asks me, “Are we going to have to be stuck inside again? I really like being outside now.”
I pull him against me and plant a kiss on the top of his head. “No, we won’t be stuck inside ever again. I promise we will be able to go outside whenever you want. This winter when it snows, you and I are going out and we’re going to make the biggest snowman you’ve ever seen.”
He pushes away from me and does the funky little happy dance before whooping and dashing in the direction that Matty went before he screeches to a halt and turns back toward me, his little face is filled with confusion.
“What’s a snowman?”
I shake my head with a laugh and shoo him away and as tired as I am, my heart feels light. I’m going to be able to give my boy the best of both worlds now.
It only actually takes us half an hour to get the trailer hooked up and the animals loaded with everybody pitching in to help. When we drive through the gates of the camp, I don’t look back. This isn’t an ending, it’s the beginning of something else instead. I don’t know where we will be in the spring or who all will be with us but I do know this is the first step toward a renewal of all the things that we’ve lost. And I know that I won’t ever stop fighting to give Ben a better life. After so many years of doing it alone, I now know that with family at my back, we can do anything.
Read on for a peak at Land – the first book in the Stranded series!
Land
A Stranded Novel
Prologue
“So much blood, how can there be s
o much blood?” was all she could think.
She just wanted to go home. She was only seventeen, just a kid. It wasn’t fair. She had been hung from a wall to be raped. She had shot and killed people and now she was supposed to perform surgery on one of her best friends. Why did this have to happen to her? She just wanted her mom and dad. She wanted to go home.
When her sobs subsided, she stood back up and looked out over the fields. The voice behind her didn’t jolt her but the words did.
“There’s a reason why we all think you should be the one to do this, Alex. You’re our leader. You always have been. Right back to when we were kids and you marched us into the forest and bossed us around to build our clubhouse. You’ve always taken the lead. Quinn might be the responsible one but you are our glue. It was always you that held us together and organized all the adventures growing up. You have the biggest heart and you are one of the strongest people I know.” He gave a small laugh. “I wasn’t surprised a bit when you came through that door at the biker’s house. I knew you’d find a way to get free. You’re a hero, Alex. We trust you to do this.”
Alex shook her head in denial. “I’m scared out of my mind, Josh! I’m not a hero!”
He smiled a compassionate smile. “Don’t you know, Alex? That’s what a hero is. Someone who’s scared out of their mind and does it anyway.” He opened his arms wide and she rushed into them. He held her tight and said no more.
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Also by Theresa Shaver
The Stranded Series
Land – A Stranded Novel, Book One
Alex, Quinn, Josh, Cooper and Dara - setting out on foot with nothing more than some soon to be worthless cash and a little advice from a trusted teacher, they walk through a burning city that has come to a halt. The devastation they see as they make their way out of the city is a small part of the horror that the nation will become. As the days go by with no food deliveries and no water flowing from taps, civilization will start to crumble and it will be survival of the fittest. With five States and half a Province to cross they will need to plan well, count on each other and pray for a little luck. Even with that, chances are slim of getting home when you are Stranded.
Sea – A Stranded Novel, Book Two
Emily and her friends head to the California coast to find a boat back to Canada. They all felt that it would be much easier and quicker to sail home rather than go over land. They were wrong. Not only will they have to fight their way through the lawless city and the terrifying ocean, they will have a journey of hardship and loss as the biggest threat will come from within their own group. The trip home will change them all for good and bad as they are stranded at SEA.
Home - A Stranded Novel, Book Three
Five went by Land and five went by Sea. Nine made it through the chaos Home. With their town under siege, and their families both prisoners and slaves, they will have the biggest challenge yet. After witnessing the pain and suffering in the town, the group of teens has to decide just how far they are willing to go to save them. Life sucks when you are ‘Home’, but still Stranded.
City Escape – A Stranded Novel, Book Four
Mrs. Moore and the rest of the students that remained in California face the harsh reality that no one is coming to help them. As the city burns around them, they are surrounded by 18 million people with one goal…survival. Will Mrs. Moore’s determination be enough to save them? Surrounded by chaos, they must work together to find a shelter before it’s too late.
Frozen – A Stranded Novel Book Five
When the teen’s town is hit with a devastating virus, they take it upon themselves to travel first to the closest military encampment to find the medicine their loved ones so desperately need. Stonewalled at every turn they make the hard decision to embark on an epic journey to a faraway city to search the ruins for help they need.
Traveling through a Frozen wasteland, they not only have to fight the elements and other survivors but also the inner struggles and changes each one has to accept and live with.
It’s not just the weather that has Frozen.
The Endless Winter Series
Snow and Ash – An Endless Winter Novel, Book One
Bomb after bomb dropped across the globe sending the world into a seemingly never-ending nuclear winter.
Skylar Ross is ten that day when she's ripped from dance classes and sleepovers to being an orphan in a prepper's paradise of a mountain bunker. Her determination to protect her baby brother keeps her locked away with nothing but responsibility and loneliness. Her father's words are a continuous echo, "Trust no one. Help no one."
Rex Larson is eleven that day. He's left stranded on the side of the road in a strange place far from home when his mother dies that first day. With his own small brother to look after, he is lost and alone. Rex has no choice but to trust complete strangers with his and his brother's future.
Two different survivors in two different circumstances spend the next seven years trying to survive until an explosive meeting changes both their courses and lives forever. Trust is almost impossible when you spend your whole life in the SNOW & ASH.
Rain and Ruin – An Endless Winter Novel, Book Two
A hailstorm of bombs has blasted the world into a nuclear winter. The survivors have now spent seven long years in the snow and ash scratching out a lonely, hard existence.
Although comfortable in her safe and supplied bunker, Skylar Ross longed for more of a life than what she has. She thought she found it when she rescued Rex but the evil that followed him inside her home threatened the one person she holds most dear. Can she put aside her mistrust of others and give him and his people a second chance?
Rex Larson fell hard for Skylar and was excited about his group joining her in the safety of her bunker until he was betrayed by one of his own. Exiled back out into the cold, he prays that Skylar will change her mind.
Forced to flee the town when a deadly gang moves in, the survivors huddle in the cold hoping the gang won’t find them and for Skylar to change her mind. When the weather turns for the first time in seven years, they don’t know if it means the earth is starting to heal or if it’s just more ruin.
Sun and Smoke – An Endless Winter Novel, Book Three
Skylar Ross and Rex Larson just settled into a new way of life when a simple mistake changes everything. General Bill Mallor, Skylar's Godfather, should have been a welcome sight when he and his men roll into town and save them. Instead, he becomes her biggest threat and enemy when he snatches control of AIRIA and evicts her from the only home she knows. She has to come to grips with the fact that she's just a powerless teenager with no weapons. She has no hope of beating him.
Joslin Frost should have died with everyone else the day the bombs dropped, but the General's son dragged her into a bunker. Thrown into a war, she experiences the hellish nightmare of the lower levels of AIRIA East. She survives by hiding and becoming a ghost.
Her hatred for the General has her playing the long game to bring the great man down. She's a teenager just like Skylar but she's not powerless and she has the biggest weapon of all…the truth.
Fire and Fury – An Endless Winter Novel, Book Four
AIRIA is dead. The bunker is shut down.
Skylar, her friends, and family lost their home in the bunker when the General and his men took control.
Joslin, working as a double agent on the inside, took the General down, freeing Skylar and the others. The cost was high with the loss of AIRIA and access to the bunker and all its supplies.
Forced to create a new home under the now clear sky is both a blessing and a curse for Skylar. Navigating new and old relationships to build a community is a challenge she hopes she's up to. Life in the summer camp Joslin found for them seems too good to be true as they build and grow all they will need to thrive. Skylar settles in, coming to realize the difference
between existing inside the mountain and living under the sky and swears she'll never go back. She should have known it wouldn't be that easy to start over in the apocalypse.
As new relationships form and old ones fray inside the community, an enemy they thought they were free from waits on the outside for the right moment to strike.
Scorched – A Dry Earth Novel
All choices lead to death when the sun has Scorched the world.
Claudia has never seen rain or any water that hasn't come from the old well behind her house. Now the well's about played out and today they closed down the ration stations, for good. The gangs are circling to rob and loot the little they have. Her only choices are to go north to the slave labor camps or stay and die by the gangs.
Her grandmother wants them to run south and follow an old map that will lead them to a secret valley with all the water they will ever need. She swears it's there but how can she drag her nine-year-old sister and an eighty-year-old woman out into the desert wasteland that surrounds them based on an old map?
Enjoy this clean, stand-alone adventure novel that moves at a fast pace!
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Please visit: http://theresashaver.com
Endless Winter Box Set: Books 1 - 4 Page 69