“I promise I’ll answer as many questions as I can after I speak with my father. I know you all want to know what’s going on, but I haven’t seen him since before this happened and…I really need a hug from my dad,” she pleaded with them all.
Most faces softened and nodded, but she noticed that Mr. Beck looked furious and he had his eyes on the gun at her hip. Her hand automatically went to it and she challenged him with a hard look. There was another tense silence until two friends of her father’s stepped forward and took Mr. Beck’s arms. They were big men and Alex knew both of them worked with her dad on the volunteer firefighting team. They nodded reassuringly at her and led her old gym teacher away. Only then did Alex turn and look at her dad. He was standing in the door of his office and he smiled when their eyes met. She took a step towards him and she could hear the love in his voice as he said her name before his eyes rolled back in his head and he crumpled to the ground.
Chapter Nine
Alex froze on the spot and a soft keening sound came from her throat. Dr. Mack was at her father's side in seconds and he waved over another man. Alex watched as they picked her dad up and carried him into the office and out of sight. Her mind and heart were paralyzed into inaction and she didn’t know how long she stood there before Dr. Mack was shaking her arm.
“Alex, Alex, he’s okay! He just fainted. He has a high fever and getting up just took the strength from him. Come into the office.”
Alex numbly followed the doctor into the office and saw her dad lying on a pallet made up of hay with an old horse blanket thrown over it. His face was pale white except for two flushed red spots on his cheeks from the fever. When his eyes fluttered open and focused on her, the paralysis that held her broke and she rushed forward to kneel beside him. Her voice was lost in the joy of just looking at him. His hand came up and pulled off her cap, dropping it to the floor, and then settled softly on her red curls. His eyes welled up with tears and he said her name on a breath before his strength left him again and his arm fell to his side.
Alex grabbed his hand and lifted it to her cheek. “Dad…Daddy, I’m sorry I took so long.”
A faint smile of amusement flickered across his face. “I knew you would make it home. I never doubted it once. My firecracker, did you run the whole way?”
She gasped out a sobbing laugh at the nickname he had given her as a child. “Not quite, but we did have to bike for a few days until we found transportation.”
His eyebrows raised in question. “We? Who’s with you?”
Alex settled down beside him. “The whole gang made it, Dad, and a few others too.” She frowned at as she remembered the situation. “We’re going to save the town. We’ve been scouting all day and we’ll put a plan together to free everyone.”
Panic flared up in his eyes. “Alex, no. You kids need to get away from here. This gang is ruthless. You kids need to get somewhere safe.”
Alex started to shake her head. “Dad…I…we aren’t kids anymore. We…I’ve had to do things to get here that…” She hung her head in shame and couldn’t go on.
He gripped her hand tighter. “I heard what you said to Beck. The men you killed, were they trying to hurt you?” When she only nodded, he continued, “Then I want you to put it aside. You did what you had to do to survive. All that matters now is that you’re safe. I need you to stay that way.”
Alex looked into his face and saw how tired and weak he looked so she changed the subject.
“I brought you medicine! I brought everything Dr. Mack will need to get you back on your feet.” She let go of his hand and took her pack off. Dr. Mack moved forward to join them and his eyes lit up when she started to pull out the supplies that she’d brought. Alex handed him the blister packs of pills and he read the labels. The doctor nodded his head and started to pop the pills out right away. He handed some of them to Alex’s dad and she grabbed her water bottle so he could wash them down.
The doctor was looking through the bandages and suture kit and he smiled at her. “This is perfect, Alex! Now I can reopen that wound and drain it before stitching it up. With the antibiotics and the antiseptic, I don’t see why he wouldn’t heal up. You took a big risk coming in here, but I think you probably saved your dad’s life.”
Alex leaned over and kissed her dad’s cheek before turning back to the doctor. “There’s more. I brought a thermos of warm beef broth for dad and I also have some food for the rest of you. I know it’s not much but it was all that I could carry.” She pulled a handful of power bars and sesame snaps from the bag and held them out to the doctor.
When he saw what she was holding, he nodded. “Anything extra will help right now, and these are full of protein.”
Alex dumped the pack upside down until there was a mound in front of the doctor. His eyes lit up and then he frowned. “I need you to take all the packaging with you when you leave. If any of the guards find them, they will know someone’s been here. In fact, you will have to take everything back with you. Start popping the pills out of these blister packs. They’re different colours so don’t worry about mixing them up.” He handed her the pills and went to the door to wave someone over. Two men came in and their eyes went straight to the pile of food on the floor. Dr. Mack scooped the bars up and put them on the desk before addressing the two men.
“We need to pass these out to the rest of the men but every wrapper needs to stay in this office so that Alex can take them with her when she leaves. We can’t take a chance of the guards finding out she was here, so one of you get the men to line up and then start unwrapping and handing them out.” The two men moved quickly to do as he said and he turned back to Alex. “Okay, maybe you should help them to speed it up. I’m going to work on your dad’s leg now so you can take the garbage with you,” he told her, as he ripped open the bandages, scalpel and suture kit.
Alex looked at her dad’s face and saw a grimace of pain pass over it before her gaze dropped to the dirty rag tied around his leg. She swallowed past her dry throat and felt sweat form on her body. After cutting into Quinn’s body when he was shot, she knew what was coming and was thankful that she could let a real doctor handle it.
She got up and went to the desk and started to unwrap the bars. Alex couldn’t help but flinch every time she heard her father moan or gasp in pain, but she kept her eyes on the desk. The man who was helping her kept stealing glances at her and finally asked her what was on his mind.
“How did you get all the way back here from California? There are a couple of people in here that had kids on that school trip. Is the power out everywhere? Did the government help you?”
Alex looked at the doorway where men were lined up and accepting the small amount of food with smiles. She hadn’t even considered the families of the students that had chosen to stay in the city when she and her friends had left. Clearing her throat, she gave him a quick rundown on what had happened, leaving out the more painful details.
“I don’t know what’s happening on the east coast but everything between here and California is affected. We walked and then biked out of the city area until we found a vehicle that would work. We got lucky and had some help, but there wasn’t any government anywhere. Some of my friends found a sailboat on the coast and sailed up as far as Washington and walked most of the way through B.C. They didn’t see anything different than we did overland. Um…only ten of us students left and tried to make it home. The rest stayed in the city to wait for help. I’m sorry…I don’t know what happened to them.”
The man was quiet and seemed to be processing everything she said so she checked on her dad and saw his eyes squeezed shut in pain. The doctor was putting stitches in an ugly gash in his leg so she went to his side and took his hand and tried to distract him.
“Dad - Emily and David and some others took a different route than I did and they went through Merritt. They saw Peter and Susan and stayed with them for a night. They’re both fine and they plan on heading here after Susan has the baby.”
Her father smiled through gritted teeth and breathed out, “Thank God! Your mother will be so happy to hear that. She’s been going out of her mind with worry not knowing what was happening with you kids.”
“You’ve seen Mom? Is she okay?” Alex asked excitedly.
“Yes, we get to see our families once a week on Sundays. She’s holding up but this has been hard on her. The not knowing what happened to her kids has been worse than the gang taking over the town. Your mother’s a strong woman. She can handle anything as long as she knows her babies are safe.”
As the doctor continued to work on his leg, they talked about the other families and what he knew about each. She watched his eyes slowly flutter as the painkillers started to take effect, so she leaned over and kissed him on his forehead.
“I love you, Dad.”
A faint smile crossed his face and then his breathing deepened and he was out. Alex took a minute to compose herself before turning to the doctor. He was finished stitching the wound and wrapping it with the clean bandages. He noticed she was watching him and saw that his patient had fallen asleep.
“You did good, Alex. This will make all the difference. He should heal up just fine now.”
Alex was looking at the clean white bandage. “Will that give us away? Where will you tell the guards you got the bandages from?” she asked worriedly.
“Don’t worry about that. I’m going to leave it for tonight, but in the morning, I’ll cover it with this rag. They'll never notice.”
Alex glanced at the door and saw that the lineup was gone. There was a mound of wrappers on the desk so she stood up and began to stuff them back into her pack. Dr. Mack cleaned up the medical supplies and brought them over to her. Alex looked around the room for anything they might have missed and saw the thermos on the floor beside her sleeping father.
“Is there any way you can keep this? If he hasn’t eaten because he hasn’t been able to work, he will need something on his stomach with the medication he will be taking, right?”
Dr. Mack nodded his head and took the thermos from her. “Yes, he will need it. I should be able to hide it without too much trouble. I also kept a couple of the power bars for him. He will need the protein in them to help get his strength back.” He looked at Alex with regret, “You have to get going, Alex. You’ve been here for almost an hour already. I don’t want you to worry. I promise I’ll take care of your dad for you.”
Alex reached out and took his hand. “We’re going to get you all out of here, Dr. Mack! I don’t know what the plan is yet, but I think it will be either Saturday night or Sunday. Just hold on for a few more days. Okay?”
“Oh, Alex, please be careful! I know you kids want to help but trust me when I tell you your parents would rather be locked up and know you guys are safe and free. It’s such a huge risk going up against these animals!”
Alex’s eyes hardened and she looked him dead in the eyes. “Some risks are worth taking, no matter what the cost.”
“Just be careful. I can’t come and patch you up if one of you gets hurt.” With a squeeze of her hand, Alex let the doctor pull her to her feet. She looked down at her sleeping father once more before following the doctor out of the office.
Back in the main part of the barn, almost all of the men were sitting or lying on any available floor space. When Alex walked out, all eyes turned to her. She was trying to find the words to reassure them when Dr. Mack addressed them.
“Listen up everyone! Alex needs to get going, she’s already been here too long. She has told me everything that she knows right now and we can talk about it after we get her out of here. The most important thing is that everyone keeps their mouth shut about this little visit. Her group is trying to put a plan together to free us all and their biggest advantage right now is that they have surprise on their side.” He paused and drilled a look at Mr. Beck who looked away in disgust before continuing. “I need a couple of tall guys to help Alex get back up that rope, so clear a space.”
There was shuffling as the men moved away from the area where the rope hung down. Alex knew she didn’t need any help to climb the rope but smiled gratefully at her father’s two firefighting friends who came forward to give her a boost. As she walked through the men to the rope, she was humbled by every man she passed as they reached out to touch or pat her. There were many, ‘Be safes’ and ‘Thank yous’, as she passed them. Taking one more look around, she gave a sad smile and a little wave before stepping into one of the firefighters cupped hands and shimmying up the rope. When she got to the top and the pulley, she swung a leg up and hooked it over the cross beam. Once again, she was grateful for her gymnastic training. With her backpack empty and lighter she had an easier time balancing and was soon over the rail and back in the loft, after pulling the rope back up and rewrapping it around the beam. Pausing to look back, her eyes darted to the office door. She’d done all she could for her father and she just prayed it was enough to get him through until they were free.
Going back out the hayloft door was more difficult than coming in, even without having to fight with the latch. She had to back out onto the elevator and brace herself on her knees so she could pull the two boards out with her. Being as quiet as she could, she still winced at every creak of the metal but she trusted Josh to alert her if any of the guards had left the house. Once the door was closed again, she slipped each two by four back in their brackets. There was nothing she could do about latching the door but given how lax the guards seemed to be, she didn’t think they’d ever notice it. As she inched her way back down the elevator, she thought about how overconfident the gang was by not patrolling or checking on their prisoners. A grim smile crossed her face as her feet hit the ground. They would use that confidence against the gang.
Hearing footsteps approaching, she ducked down beside the elevator and waited in the deep shadows to make sure it was Josh. When he walked past her hiding spot, she gave a soft whistle to alert him and stepped out beside him. They dashed towards the trees and soon were back at the tree that hid the radios and Alex’s rifle. When everything was packed back up and shouldered, she turned to Josh.
“Thanks for coming and having my back,” she told him with gratitude.
“Yeah, yeah but I get the shower first!”
“Shower? We have a shower?!” she asked in excitement.
Josh playfully punched her in the shoulder. “See what I gave up to come out here? You owe me big time…race you!” He took off crashing through the trees.
As Alex started to run, she let go of all her worries and for just a few minutes let herself be the girl she used to be, running after her friend through the trees.
Chapter Ten
Lisa woke to the sound of rain on the camper’s roof. It was a soothing sound and she pulled the sleeping bag higher up around her ears to stay in the warmth of it for a few more minutes. She flashed back two nights before and the news they had all supplied from their scouting. Everyone had been relieved by the news that Alex had brought back about their mothers and siblings, everyone except Lisa and Cooper. He knew his father’s fate but Lisa didn’t know anything about what had happened to her parents. She was pretty sure her father had been in Calgary when the pulse hit, as he had his main office there, but her mother didn’t travel in the same social circles as her new friends’ parents so they didn’t know her.
Lisa couldn’t help but wonder if her mother had changed. Had the hardship of living without electricity and modern conveniences made her a better person like it had her daughter, or had she found someone to take care of her like she had her whole life? Lisa hoped her mother had changed because right now she felt an emptiness inside whenever she thought of her mother. It would really be nice if that could be filled by love and concern. She pushed aside what she knew deep down that she would never have, and thought about the plans for the day.
Yesterday, they’d driven over an hour west into one of the many provincial parks in the area and found a secluded spot deep in the
forest to do some target practice. Lisa had never fired a gun before and she’d been nervous. Emily and David both had experience shooting rifles, so they had held the handguns with more confidence and it had only taken them a few practice shots before they were hitting the tree they were targeting. Quinn had been very patient with Lisa as he stood behind her and adjusted her grip and stance. He told her what to do and what to be prepared for but she still couldn’t help herself from closing her eyes and flinching when she first pulled the trigger. After a dozen shots, she was still too intimidated to come anywhere close to the tree trunk she was aiming for.
Quinn was showing her once again how to reload the gun when Josh started making jokes about her.
“Forget it, Quinn. Just give her some pom-poms and she can throw them at the bad guys! She’s never going to hit that tree; probably afraid she’ll break a nail or something!”
The old Lisa surfaced at his taunts and she wanted so badly to crush him like a bug with her trademark sarcastic venom, but she was trying to leave that girl behind in this new world so she ignored him. He kept at it and she felt her anger rise with every word.
“Hey, Lisa, maybe you can stand on one of the buildings roofs and distract the bad guys with a cheer. You could do a high kick and a cartwheel. That’ll really show them!” Josh taunted with a laugh.
When Quinn handed her the loaded gun, her temper was barely suppressed and in one motion she brought the gun up and fired without pause until it clicked empty. She was so pissed at Josh that she didn’t even acknowledge the fact that she had hit the tree dead-on with four shots. She glanced at Josh when he let out a rebel yell and was completely confused by his cheerful expression. Seconds ago the guy was throwing nasty insults her way and now he was doing a funky happy dance? What was with this guy?
STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6 Page 52