Land

by Theresa Shaver

They decided not to have a camp fire that night and everyone took a turn at keeping watch. They were so close to being home they didn’t want anything to go wrong. They were up early the next morning and quickly packed up after a hasty breakfast.

  The closer they got to the border the more car wrecks they saw. They could see the cluster of buildings ahead and they could also make out groups of people and what looked like tents and campers clustered around the parking lots. It looked like most of the cars had been moved out of the road ahead but there was a line of them being used to block the actual crossing lanes. Josh pulled the truck to a stop before they got to the main group of people. They quickly got out and gathered by Quinn who was in the truck’s front passenger seat. People were already looking their way but no one was approaching them yet. Quinn stayed in the truck but had his window down.

  “Ok, it looks like they aren’t letting these people through for some reason. We are crossing this border no matter what so get your passports ready. Everyone sling a rifle and make sure you have extra clips. We don’t want to start a fight here but we will finish one if we have too. This is what we do. We drive straight up and stop in front of one of the crossing booths. Everyone will get out except Cooper, who will be up on the camper covering us. We show them our passports and maybe offer a bag of buns to sweeten them up. Keep your rifles on their slings unless we are threatened. These guys will all be armed as well and we don’t want to seem too threatening. Make sure you lock the doors when you get out. We don’t want one of these people trying to steal our rides. Stay close and keep going until we get up there. If anyone tries to get in the way just blow the horn and keep going. Everybody agree?” They all nodded and ran back to their vehicles.

  Once Josh saw everyone was ready he pulled ahead. They weren’t going very fast but kept a steady pace. Josh had to blow his horn once when three men tried to get in front of them and wave them down but they scattered when they saw he wasn’t stopping and if that wasn’t enough, the hard look and barrel of the assault rifle he stuck out the window and pointed their way was. The people lining the road all stopped what they were doing and watched the kids go by. There were little camp sites set up all along the road and from the amount of trash everywhere, they had been here for a while. More and more people were emerging from tents and campers to see what the new arrivals would do.

  Alex noted that a lot of older people were in the crowd, especially around the campers, and she guessed that they were Canadian snow birds who spent the winters down south. They must be trying to get back home. They came to a stop in front of a disabled car that was blocking the guard booth and they all climbed out and locked the vehicles. Except for Cooper, who stayed in the camper and scanned the crowd from the roof. There were only six guards on the other side of the barricade and as they came closer Alex could see that they were wearing Canadian uniforms.

  Alex was so happy to see people in authority who were actually doing their jobs that she gave them a big smile and waved. Her smile went away when the obvious leader started to shake his head with a scowl on his face. He marched up to the other side and stopped.

  He looked them all over and pronounced, “Border’s closed! Turn those vehicles around and move them away from here.”

  Josh pretended he hadn’t heard him “We have our passports right here sir! We’re all Canadians and we have nothing to declare.” he tried joking while holding his passport out.

  The man didn’t even reach for it and without a change of expression told them “It doesn’t matter. The border is closed. NO one gets across.”

  Josh scanned the faces of the five other guards and saw they were all looking sympathetic and some even frustrated. Before he could say anything else, Alex stepped forward and turned on the charm.

  “Sir, we understand you’re just doing your job. We’re just so happy to see the Canadian authorities after everything we’ve been through. Would you and your men like some fresh baked buns? We made them in our camper’s oven.” She smiled sweetly and held out a grocery bag filled with buns. The man leaned forward and his eyes were greedy as he took in how many buns were in the bag. As he went to reach for the handles he came face to face with Alex’s assault rifle barrel, right between his eyes.

  Alex had also seen the sympathetic looks the other guards had given them and hoped they wouldn’t do anything rash. She gave them a cutesy smile and focused back on the leader with a hard look and said in an impressive voice “Now you listen to me! We are Canadian citizens that just want to go home! We were in Disneyland when this happened and we went through hell to get here but we fought our way through it. You are not going to stop me from going home and you should be ashamed of yourself for trying. If all these people out here are Canadians and you stopped them from going home then you Sir, are a traitor to your country and the people you are supposed to serve. Now, tell me again why we can’t cross this border.”

  The other guards hadn’t moved and a few were even smirking at their leader’s predicament. The man looking down Alex’s rifle barrel was red in the face and his eyes were very angry.

  “It’s standard procedure to shut the border down in a nationwide emergency. We are following what the manual says. Now put that down, little girl. You’re not even big enough to fire it.” the man snarled as he reached for his side arm.

  Josh said “Uh oh. Shouldn’t have said that.” to the man in warning, as all the teens brought their guns up and pointed them at him.

  Alex was done, just plain done with condescending idiots like this. She pressed her gun barrel hard between his eyes and roared at him.

  “Mister I might have been a little girl when we left Disneyland but when me and my friends killed a group of bikers in Nevada, I stopped being one. Now take your hand away from that weapon or I’ll give you a third eye.”

  The man paled at her words and put his hands up.

  “You did the right thing closing the border when it happened, but that was over twenty days ago. So, as a Canadian citizen and taxpayer who helps pay your wages, I’m here to tell you that you are FIRED!” she glanced towards the other guards, “Any of you have a problem with that?” When the other officers shook their heads, she continued, “Good, do any of you have restraints?”

  One of the guards stepped forward, “Yes Ma’am, I got some right here.”

  “Thank you sir. Please restrain this man before he gets himself shot. You can let him go after these people have all been cleared through.” she told him.

  As the guard came over and took his boss’s gun off him Alex was surprised at how quiet it was. She turned and looked at the crowd of people behind her. They were all watching and waiting in silence.

  One of the other border guards walked over to Alex and her friends “Excuse me Miss but did you say you took out a group of bikers in Nevada?” When they all nodded their heads, the man’s face split in a huge grin “Holy crap! Are you guys the Maple Leaf Mafia?”

  They all stared at the man in shock. Josh started to howl with laughter “I told you it was a catchy name!” In the silence of the waiting crowd, everyone heard what was said and at Josh’s reply the crowd let out a huge cheer.

  After discussing things with the group of border guards they helped to get things moving. They had the guards open two channels through the crossing. One was for Canadians with any form of ID that had an address in Canada and one for people who claimed to be Canadians but had no identification.

  The new leader walked with Josh and told him “I’ve wanted to do that for a while. We shut everything down on the first day as per procedure but as the days went by and people started showing up with passports we all felt it was wrong not to let them through. We have a hardened radio that still worked and we spoke to the military but they were pretty busy and didn’t offer much help.”

  Josh looked sharply at the man “The Canadian military is still functioning? What’s going on in our country?”

  “Well I don’t know much but what we’ve heard on the radio isn’t
pretty. The pulse stopped up north, just past Edmonton and straight across the country but we don’t have a whole lot of population up there. The major cities in the East are gutted. You couldn’t pay me to get near Toronto or anywhere in Quebec. Calgary and Edmonton are bad but a lot of people just walked out so the countryside around any city is also a mess. We have heard a lot of small towns with radios saying things about barricading against refugees and other places have set up aid stations - but with no food being shipped in and the growing season just starting, there will be a lot of deaths in the next few months. The prairie provinces are lucky because they don’t have huge populations and there’s a lot of livestock, but if it’s not managed right it won’t matter. So where are you guys headed? Where’s home?” he asked

  “Our town’s called Prairie Springs. It’s in Central Alberta, about an hour west of Red Deer.”

  The guard made a face “Prairie Springs, Prairie Springs, I heard something about that town a few days ago. There was some chatter on the radio about it.” He paused to try and remember and shook his head. “I don’t know. It was some warning about staying away from it. We were changing the dial and I just caught a moment of it, sorry.” They came to the line of people who wanted to cross with no identification and the guard sighed “Now how am I going to work this mess out? Things are going to be hard enough up north without a flood of hungry Americans coming in, but how do we figure that out?”

  Josh studied the people waiting in line and saw the first was a family of four with a small boy and girl. He grinned at the guard and said, “Follow my lead.”

  He stepped up to the family and crouched down in front of the kids “Hey there guys, you ready to go home?” They both nodded shyly. “Are these your parents? Do you live in Canada?” When the kids both nodded he smiled at them “Ok you have to pass a test. Are you ready? Here it is. What do you call a dollar in Canada?”

  The little boy grinned a gapped tooth smile and yelled “A loonie!”

  Josh nodded and stood.

  “Pass!”

  He moved down to the next and greeted the woman “Ma’am, can you tell us a Canadian football team?”

  She looked at him in confusion and answered, “Sure, there’s the Stampeders, the BC Lions, the…”

  Josh cut her off with, “Pass!”

  The next people in line were a couple and he asked the woman “What party did you vote for in the last election?”

  She answered without even thinking “Democrat.”

  Josh shook his head and made a sound like a buzzer, “EEEEE not in Canada, fail! Back of the line for you!” he left them sputtering and moved on to the next group.

  There were six senior citizens grouped together. He smiled and nodded at them and asked, “What drive thru do you all get your coffee from?”

  They all started to laugh and said in unison, “Tim Horton’s!” with a few “Double Double’s” thrown in as well.

  Josh laughed with them and turned to the guard “Pass! Do you get the picture here?”

  The guard shook his head in laughter. “Now that is streamlining the bureaucratic process my friend!”

  After that, the group of teens loaded up and went through the check point. As they crossed in to Canada they all let out a cheer and some even had tears rolling down their faces.

  Chapter 20

  The three vehicles easily detoured around Lethbridge and Fort Macleod which were the two closest cities to the border. They got on Highway Two and headed north. This highway ran straight up through the province and passed through Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton. It was the equivalent of the American Interstate but with less car wrecks due to the lower population. Other than detouring around Calgary, a city with a population well over a million, they were done with back road driving. They wanted to go home. Before the lights went out, it would have been a six hour drive but they kept their speed down and kept alert for ambushes. None of the kids were very concerned about trouble as Canada had very strict gun laws and unlike the American population, the average citizen didn’t have hand guns or assault rifles. There were still plenty of hunting rifles and shot guns in the area, but nothing like in America.

  As they traveled down the highway through field after field they were happy to see people out working in them. There were a few farm machines working in fields that looked like they had been taken from museums. A few people stopped working when they heard the cars go by and waved. None of the kids could stop smiling at the sight of crops being planted. This area would have food before too long.

  They circled around Calgary and weren’t surprised to see trash and dropped belongings everywhere. As people walked away from the city and headed out to the countryside looking for food, they had abandoned suitcases and other belongings that had become too much of a burden to carry.

  There were bodies lying on the side of the road where people had just given up and sat down to die. Other bodies showed signs of a more violent end. After getting around Calgary without a problem they stopped and made the decision to cut across diagonally towards their town. The corridor between Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton was always heavy with traffic and they decided to take secondary highways the rest of the way. It was an easy trip and they were approaching a small town about an hour’s drive from their home when they decided to stop and see if they could find out any news about their town. Josh had told the others about what the guard had heard on the radio and they all wanted more information instead of just going in blind.

  There was the now routine road block on the outskirts of the town that was being manned by three guards. They pulled to a stop and they all climbed out and approached the barricade. The three men didn’t seem all that concerned by the group and none of them aimed their weapons at the kids. The teens had all left their assault rifles in their vehicles but all still had side arms in holsters.

  Quinn limped ahead and waved at the men. “Hello! We’re headed up to Prairie Springs and we were hoping for some news of the town’s status. Will we be able to travel through or do we have to back track around your town?” he asked in a respectful voice.

  The oldest man studied Quinn thoughtfully and asked, “Aren’t you Harry Dennison’s grandson, Quinn?”

  Quinn grinned and thought, “It’s good to be home where everyone knows everyone.”

  “Yes Sir, I am. My friends and I got caught in the States on a school trip when the lights went out and we’re just trying to make our way home. Do you have news about my family?”

  “Well, that sounds like a heck of a tale to hear, if you kids came all the way up from the States. I haven’t heard anything about your Granddad but we’ve heard some things about the town. Hold your hats for a minute and we’ll move this car out of the way. You can give me a lift into the town center where we set up a meeting place and we’ll tell you all we know.”

  The man waved the other two guards over and they quickly pushed the broken down car out of the road. When Dara pulled the truck through the road block the older man climbed into the back and they headed into town.

  As they drove past homes, they could see many people busy at work. Most of the front lawns of homes had been ripped up and planted as gardens. There were groups of people standing in line with jugs and buckets waiting for water at a pump station. There was another area with tables set up and huge pots of steaming water where people were washing clothes. As they pulled up to the town’s meeting area they could all smell meat cooking on a barbeque. There were four giant grills set up in a row and each was manned by cooks.

  They got out and locked their doors out of habit. The older man led them towards the dining area and took a deep smell of the cooking meat. “Good timing on your part, supper will be ready in about twenty minutes. You kids must be starved for some red meat.” he smiled proudly at the barbeques.

  “Actually sir, we would be happy to contribute our own meat so as not to put a strain on the towns food supply” Quinn offered.

  The man gave him a sharp look “Now y
ou kids didn’t steal some poor farmers stock did you? We won’t abide looters in this town.”

  Quinn laughed “No, no, we butchered a cow in Montana. The property was abandoned and the cows were going feral. We have a fridge freezer in the camper and brought some with us.” he assured the man.

  The man nodded his head “Alright then, good thinking!” he held out his hand to shake, “Name’s Tom Jacobson. I’ve got a place just outside of town but we finished planting it yesterday so I came in to town today for some company. We have a communal supper every day for everyone who works in the fields.” He looked around his town with pride. “Yup we’ve done real well here. Lots of refugees walked in from the city but we made it clear there would be no free ride. We all work to get the crops planted and we’ll all eat. I imagine we’ll have to tighten our belts between now and harvest but we’ll get by.”

  “Oh there’s Mike now! He’s been organizing everything around here and will know the latest on Prairie Springs. Mike! Hey Mike, I got some people you need to meet over here.” he yelled.

  Mike made his way over to the group and introductions were made all around. He grimaced when he heard where the kids were headed.

  “We don’t know a lot but what we’ve heard isn’t good. About five days into the emergency, a group of gang bangers and hard cases went into town and took it over. They had fifty or so men and they were all armed. They went out to the farms and rounded everyone up and put them in one place. That’s all we really know. Everyone that walks that way comes back with stories of being shot at from roadblocks and anyone with a working vehicle that goes there doesn’t come back at all.”

  “I’m sorry kids. I wish I could tell you more but we just don’t know what’s happening there. The only other thing I’ve heard is that they are out planting the fields but no one can get close enough to get more news.” He gave them a sad smile “You guys are welcome to stay here if you want.”

  The group was silent, trying to absorb what they had just heard. Quinn nodded to Mike “Thank you sir. We would be grateful if we could stay the night in your town but I think we will head that way tomorrow and scout things out.” He looked around at his friends and they all nodded.