Land

by Theresa Shaver

  “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 OK 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 for 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 onto the car and started looking at all the angles of entry. Finally she slid in all the way where the big 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 head room left but with the front seats squished together there was no clearance to squeeze through them. Alex examined the head rests and saw the little buttons on either side. Perfect, removable head rests. She quickly got them out and twisted back to drop them out the window to give 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 she 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 probable 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.

  “OK, 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 and told the child, “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 ok 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 jack knife 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 anymore car pushing. It might make things worse. Ok?”

  “No problem. Are you sure your 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 back up in the back. Feeling very pleased with herself, it turned into a red blush of embarrassment when she heard a, “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 frustrated. 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 with, “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 half way 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 the yelling 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 are 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 hand shake. 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.” and 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 she and her friends could too.

  Chapter 5

  The group made good time speed walking down the road and after fifteen minutes or so Cooper pointed out a big sporting goods store in a shopping area that was next to a home improvement store and some restaurants. They weaved in between crashed cars and groups of people standing around talking and crossed over 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 money and Mr. Carter’s too but I haven’t counted it. Let’s get a count and just pool it all to offer the staff in this 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.

  “Well this should make things 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 got some smooth ways my friend?” he asked.

  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 and 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. She quickly checked him for a pulse and found none. The shock of seeing a dead body wasn’t as intense for her after being in the car with Jack’s mom. Alex guessed there would be plenty more bodies in the days ahead. Looking up at Dara she gave a shake of her head. The officer was young and had a surprised look on his face. Alex was going to move away when something made her freeze. His 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 clips 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 officers 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 alright.

  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 stores 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 up 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 and said, “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.” and he moved to get by Cooper again.

  “Listen man, it’s a countrywide maybe continent wide outage. We really need to talk.” Cooper tried again. The man gave Cooper a look like he was a weirdo and went around him heading for the parking lot.

  Cooper called after him, “Okay, but when your car won’t start come on back and I’ll tell you what’s going on.”

  The man didn’t even turn around, just headed for his car at a faster pace. The group waited on the sidewalk and watched the store manager get into his car. After a few minutes, he got out and stormed his way back to the kids.

  “All right what did you do to my car?” he yelled.

  “We didn’t do anything. I tried to tell you but you didn’t want to listen. Come over here and I’ll tell you what we know and what we’ve seen.” Cooper steered him over to lean against the wall of the store and proceeded to explain to the man what had happened earlier that morning and what they had seen on the trip so far.

  The man didn’t want to believe him but after looking over at the stand still traffic and many car crashes he started to waver. It was when he tried to use his dead cell phone and the kids showed them their dead phones that he finally seemed to believe. As he stood there stunned, Cooper told him what they wanted.

  “Look the best thing for you to do is go stock up on all you can from the store and then get home to your family. That’s what we are trying to do. This place is going to get hit by looters anytime now but that’s not us. We have three thousand dollars to pay you. Let us in and we can stock up, get some bikes and get out of here. So what do you think? Make some money or watch it all get stolen by the next group that comes by?”

  The man just stared at Cooper for what seemed like forever and then finally said, “Do you have cash?”

  “Yes Sir!” Cooper smiled.

  “Then let’s get busy.” He said as he turned and unlocked the door and held it open for the kids to go on in.

  The store was dim but with many skylights in the roof there was ample light to get around and fi
nd what they were looking for. Cooper was telling the manager where they were going and what they needed for bikes and supplies as Alex approached them with the money. The manager counted it and stuffed it in his pocket and told the kids to take whatever they wanted and that he was going to pack his own supplies. They all headed to the bike section and picked out bikes and helmets. They found saddle bags and storage containers that fitted on the bikes in different ways. After that was done they all headed to the camping section and picked up back packs and other gear. They grabbed freeze dried camping food, two small camp stoves, fuel and three lanterns. Sleeping bags, ground mats, two tarps and inflatable pillows went into the cart. After the camping gear was done they all headed into the clothing and footware departments to find changes of clothes, jackets and new footware if needed.

  Alex kept thinking that it would be a fun shopping spree if only the world as she knew it wasn’t changed forever. After finding some body wipes and a change of clothes, she headed to the change rooms. She felt sticky and stinky. Her shirt was stained with Jack’s pee and her pants had blood on the knees from kneeling by the bodies of the police officers. Alex quickly stripped down and washed as best as she could with the body wipes. Feeling much better she pulled the tags off of her new cargo pants and tee shirt. She had on her favourite low hiking boots and would keep them. A Tilley hat completed her outfit.