When she got back to the others they had all the bikes and gear close to the front door. It was obvious as they tried to divide the gear up that they couldn’t take it all. They were trying to decide what not to take when the manager pushed his own bike towards the doors. Attached behind the bike was a double child carrier that was packed full of supplies and its clear plastic windshield on the front was zippered closed. Quinn and Josh looked at each other and headed back to the bike area to get one as well.
Cooper was looking thoughtful about something and said, “Be right back.” and before the girls could say anything he headed out the front door.
“Where do you think he’s going?” Dara asked Alex.
“I have no idea but if the other guys can rig up a carrier we could have room to take a couple of tents.” as the girls got up to head back to the camping section the manager stopped Alex.
“Here take these.” and handed her the store keys, “I’m not waiting around for you guys, so lock the doors when you leave and drop the keys in the mail slot. If looters come for the store the door locks won’t stop them anyway. Good luck getting back to Canada and thanks for paying me instead of just stealing things.” and with that he was out the door.
Alex dropped the keys by the supplies and she and Dara grabbed another cart and went in search of tents. After finding what they were looking for and a few more things that they thought would come in handy they went back to the bikes. Quinn and Josh had gotten two child carriers and almost had them on the bikes. Cooper came in the front door carrying a few things and when he got to the group he dumped his stuff with the rest.
Seeing that he had been outside Quinn was surprised and asked, “Where did you go man?”
With a cocky grin Cooper announced, “Just doing a little looting for the common good. I went over to the home improvement store but there was no one there so I broke a window and grabbed some stuff we might need.” Nodding down at the stuff he brought in, he explained, “We might need to get around roads if they aren’t passable so I got us some wire and bolt cutters as well as two crowbars. I was thinking of chain link fencing and pad locks.” he bowed for applause.
Alex couldn’t help but smile at his cocky attitude and in truth it was good thinking on his part. The others thought so too and applauded him.
“Great job man, that will really save us time if we get stuck.” Quinn praised. “Okay guys that’s it. Let’s load this stuff up and we can spread some of it around the backpacks. Everybody make sure the water bottle holders are full and take an extra bottle in your pack. Also we have four guns and a can of mace, so let’s figure out who’s going to carry them. Does everybody know how to work a gun?” he looked around to take a poll. All three of the boys had fired handguns before and Alex was surprised when Dara said she had as well.
“I guess that leaves me out of the club.” she said. “I can shoot rifles and shotguns but I’ve never shot a handgun before so why don’t I carry the mace and you guys take the guns. When we get out in the country we can have a practice.”
“Sounds good,” Quinn said “You shouldn’t have any problem learning the difference and I know you’re great at target practice with a rifle so we can sort that out when we hit the countryside.”
They all got waist packs and stored the weapons and extra clips in them, except for Cooper who had taken the holster and belt off one of the cops outside. He pulled his shirt closed to cover it and then everybody got busy loading gear up. Within ten minutes Alex was locking the front door and dropping the keys in the slot.
“Well, shopping spree is over,” she thought, “now it’s time to physically pay for it.” Hitching her backpack into a more comfortable position and tightening the straps, she climbed onto her bike and followed the others down the road.
Chapter 6
Four hours later Alex was definitely paying the price. Her thighs burned and her shoulders where the pack’s straps rested were rubbed raw. She had gone through her bike water bottle for the second time and was in desperate need to relieve her bladder. She was very thankful that her bike wasn’t pulling one of the child carriers and felt bad for the extra weight that Quinn and Josh were pulling.
They had come a long way with only a few issues. The Orange freeway was heavy with car crashes but luckily, except for a few spots, it was a wide 5 lane freeway that had open sides and in some places even a pathway that ran beside it. In one of the tight spots they had had their first problem.
A man wearing an expensive suit and standing beside a fancy sports car that was across two lanes tried to wave them down. When he realized that the group wasn’t going to stop he jumped out to block the road forcing the group to come to a halt.
“Hey kid, I want to buy your bike!” he exclaimed.
“Sorry Mister, it’s not for sale. Can you move out of the way please?” Cooper answered.
“Of course it is,” said the man with a smirk, “everything has a price, name it and I’ll pay it.” he said waving a cheque book around.
“Really, we aren’t selling, so please move!” Cooper said again with more force.
“Listen kid, do you know who I am? I’ve got an important meeting with the star of the next Lethal Action movie and I can’t get my cell working. I need your bike to get to the studio, so how much? You guys have five bikes so you can double up.”
When Cooper just stared at the guy shaking his head the man got angry. “How about I drag you off that bike and just take it you little shit!” the man spit.
Cooper leaned back on his bike seat and with a calm face swung open his jacket and rested his hand on the gun holstered at his waist.
“Mister I’m sorry to tell you this but your money doesn’t mean anything and whoever you were yesterday you aren’t anybody today. It’s a new world and it’s not pretty so go back to your worthless pop can car and let us pass before you get yourself shot. After we are gone, I would suggest you start walking but I wouldn’t worry, I’m pretty sure your meeting is cancelled.” Cooper told him.
The man blustered some more and cursed them all but moved back to his car. Cooper waved the rest of the group forward but stayed facing the man until they were all past and down the road. Only then did he give the angry man a nod and continue after his friends. They had made another hour of riding before their way was blocked again. An eighteen wheeler had jack knifed across the road and there was no way through.
After backtracking for ten minutes they found an open space to get off the freeway. Quinn made good use of the wire cutters that Cooper had stolen and cut away the chain link fence. They had to walk the bikes through and carefully down the embankment to the pathway, with one person holding back the fence so they could fit through. They stayed on the pathway paralleling the freeway for half an hour before it started to angle away so they found a way back onto the road and kept going. It surprised Alex how few people they saw. Most were walking and a few were sitting beside cars obviously hurt but most of the freeway was deserted. They did see two different groups that looked like family units on bikes. They were loaded down and had small trailers being pulled behind. Alex guessed that they had the same idea and were getting out of the city as well.
At one point they were in a tight area of the freeway and couldn’t get off when they were forced to bike through a heavy cloud of smoke. On the other side they all had to stop and clear their smoke saturated lungs and stinging eyes. When their eyes cleared they looked over to the west of the freeway and saw a huge mega mall. It was on fire and burning out of control. It looked like a plane had crashed into it as the plane’s tail was sticking out of the side of a Bloomingdales. All that jet fuel had ignited and the mall was a tower of flames and smoke.
No one else had tried to stop the group and even having to weave around wrecks they made good time. Every time they came to an area that was undeveloped Alex thought they had finally made it to the outskirts of the city, only to pedal into another suburb with row after row of housing and strip malls. Being from an
area that was less populated it was hard for Alex to wrap her head around so many houses and people living so close together.
They were in an undeveloped area when Alex took a quick look at her watch and saw it was just after five o’clock. Even without her aching body and bladder Alex knew they needed to stop and discuss a plan for the coming night. She yelled ahead to the others and they all pulled up into an empty area on the side of the road.
“Sorry guys but I really have to go to the bathroom and anyway, we need to talk about the plan for tonight.”
With groans of relief and aching muscles everybody got off their bikes for a pit stop. Grabbing a roll of toilet paper and some hand sanitizer from her pack, Alex headed over to some bushes to do her business. Everyone else took advantage of the break to do the same. When Alex got back to her bike she did some stretches and rubbed some ointment into her shoulders.
“That doesn’t look good. I’ll make some padding for your straps so it doesn’t get any worse.” Cooper commented as he came up to her.
Alex smiled her thanks at him and couldn’t help thinking that he didn’t seem like such a bad boy to her. The way he handled that jerk on the freeway had impressed her and he seemed pretty smart, always thinking ahead for what they would need. She rummaged through her pack, came up with a couple of power bars and handed one to him.
“How far do you think we’ve come?” she asked him.
Cooper thought about it for a minute and finally said, “I would guess about forty five or fifty miles so far. Not bad considering some of the detours. We were lucky that first freeway was a straight shot in the right direction. We should take a look at the map and see what’s coming up so we can plan for when we stop for the night.” He pulled the map out of his inside jacket pocket and moved over to the others.
While the boys were looking over the map, Alex went over to Dara who was searching through her pack and handed her the hand sanitizer.
“Thanks, that’s what I was looking for.” she said and coated her hands. “How are you feeling? My legs feel like wet noodles.” she laughed.
“Tell me about it. I think we’ll be paying for this tomorrow which really sucks as we will be biking even farther.” Alex groaned. “I’m not looking forward to sleeping on the ground tonight. Do we have any Advil? Like by the case?” she joked.
Dara laughed, “Yeah, why didn’t we hit a drug store before we started. There’s that first aid kit we took out of the police car. Let’s hope it has some.”
The boys called them over to the map and explained the game plan. Quinn told them, “We did really well so far and we aren’t that far from being away from the major suburbs. So I think we should try to go another twenty miles, so about two more hours and call it a night. We need to decide if we should camp out off the road or try for a hotel.” He scanned the group for opinions and when no one answered he continued, “I think it would be safe for tonight to stay in a hotel. Most people would have been walking and will be tired so there shouldn’t be any problems. It’s tomorrow and the coming days that things are going to get crazy. What do you think?” he asked the group.
Alex and Dara looked at each other and said in unison, “Hotel!”
“Ok, keep your eyes open for something after about an hour. There’s a junction coming up soon that we need to take north again and it’s going to be going uphill more so we’ll really feel the burn. We should try to be settled before it gets dark. With no street lights or business lights it will be hard to find anything after dark. So let’s fill up the bike water bottles and grab a power bar and hit the road. The longer we aren’t pedaling the stiffer our legs will get.” Quinn said, standing and folding the map that he handed back to Cooper.
Alex was glad that no one seemed to have an issue with Quinn taking the lead and was again thinking that Cooper was a good guy. Dara still confused her. They had spoken more today than in the past few years and she wondered again what had caused her to leave the group all those years ago. Maybe on this long trip home she would get a chance to find out.
As Alex was adjusting her pack, Cooper came over with a couple of T-shirts. “This should help for now but I’ll figure out something better when we stop for the night.” he said while wrapping the shirts around the shoulder straps and padding them to protect Alex’s sore shoulders. He tightened the straps, and in a surprising move, tucked a stray curl up under Alex’s hat stepped back and said “All set. That should help for now.”
Alex could feel the blush rising on her face and ducked down so her hat blocked his view. “Thanks.” was all she could get out. She could see his feet turning away so she risked a quick look to see if anyone had noticed the unexpected move and came face to face with Dara’s raised eyebrows. With her blush even redder she just shrugged her shoulders and started pedaling.
As the group got up to speed Alex let her mind wander. “What did that mean? Was he just being nice? Was he interested?” She felt like a silly girl that had just noticed boys for the first time. She had dated other guys and even made out a few times with them, so what was it about Cooper that made her so unsure and nervous. At that point Alex almost drove off the road so she shook her head and parked those thoughts for later, especially as she heard a small giggle coming from Dara behind her.
It was soon hard to think about anything except the road ahead and the burn in her thighs. She had lost all feeling in her butt a while back and counted that as a plus. They were definitely climbing higher and the pace they were going was slowing down. No one was talking, needing all their energy just to keep pedaling. It seemed like forever before Alex heard Josh wheeze out something. She hadn’t lifted her head to look around in a long time, concentrating on the road ahead so she wouldn’t run into any stalled cars. The road they were traveling on must not have been very busy this morning when everything stopped because the cars were spread out and most had just stopped. There weren’t any crashes either, so it was easy to navigate. They hadn’t seen any people around but after ten hours most would have walked away to find help. As she lifted her head and looked around she spotted what had gotten Josh’s attention. Down the road about a half a mile was an old looking motel. It was one story and the doors all faced the parking lot in front. There was an even older looking gas station attached to it and what looked like a mobile trailer off to the side. The group pulled up just before the entrance and scanned the building looking for trouble. At least half the room doors were open to let the light in and there were some people sitting at picnic tables at one end of the parking lot.
“I’m about done with this bike courier job. So I think this is home sweet home for the night.” Josh joked.
Quinn and Cooper exchanged looks and then shrugged. “I don’t see any bad asses over there, just some tired people so 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 travelling 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. “Is it ok if we take the bikes in to the room? I’m afraid if we left them out they would be stolen by morning. We would pay extra for that.” he asked with a boy next door grin.
The woman waved her hand dismissing that, “Don’t you worry about that. Take them in and keep them safe. It’s m
ore 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 ok? 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, 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.
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