Matthew stood at the center of the table and raised both of his hands to try and quiet the crowd but was mostly ignored. It was the food that finally shut down the crowd.
A stern-faced woman who was standing to the side of the room at the head of a table covered in trays of bread and steaming pots, rang a cowbell repeatedly until the room finally became silent. With one final glare at the crowd, she gave a hard nod and called out.
“Tables two to nine. Line up! You can all blather on after you eat the food my team made for you!”
There were some good-natured chuckles from the crowd as the tables called rushed to line up for their supper, taking the focus off of Alex and her friends. Once the food lady was satisfied that order had been restored, she waved a server over and picked up one of the steaming pots and brought it to the raised dais. The server followed her with a tray of bread slices and they began filling the bowls set in front of each person. When they reached Matthew, he turned to Alex.
“This is my wife, Agnes. She handles all the meals here and makes a mean fish stew. Judging by the appetizing aroma, that’s what we’ll be eating tonight.”
Alex gave her a tentative smile. “Thank you, it smells wonderful and a hot meal is very welcome after the long day we’ve all had.” She nudged Josh who was sitting beside her with her elbow.
He nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, Ma’am. It does smell good! Thank you for sharing your meal with us. We would like to contribute some meat to your kitchen in thanks. I have a pork and a beef roast for you to add to your stores.”
Agnes stern expression cracked at his words and the ladle in her hand paused as she was filling Josh’s bowl.
“Beef? Pork? Oh my! It’s been a very long time since we’ve had either of those in the kitchen. Thank you very much!”
Josh smiled back at her. “Well, we are happy to contribute it after the generosity your group has shown us with food and shelter.”
Agnes nodded and moved on to fill Dara’s bowl with a softer expression. “I look forward to hearing about your travels.”
By the time all of the tables had lined up and served themselves, Alex and her group had finished eating. Matthew looked down the table at the group and asked, “Ready?” At their nods, he rose to his feet and whistled for attention. Once all eyes were on him and the room was silent he began.
“I would once again like to thank the talented kitchen volunteers for another tasty, filling meal. As you all know by now, we have guests with us tonight. They have thanked us for our hospitality by contributing some much-needed meat to our stores. They also bring us news of what’s happening outside the city and the country. I ask you all to save your questions until they are finished telling us about their journeys.”
They had already decided that Josh would do the talking for their group so he stood up and waved at the crowd with his trademark Josh grin.
“Hello, my name is Josh Green and my friends and I live in Prairie Springs. That’s a small town about two hundred kilometres northwest of here. The day the lights went out, we were all on a class trip in California. Some of us traveled by land across the U.S. to get home and some of us traveled by boat up the coast and then across Washington and British Columbia to get home. We spoke to one American soldier that told us what had happened. Multiple high altitude nuclear bombs went off over North America causing EMPs to fry everything electrical on the continent, from Mexico to Northern Canada. He also told us that the Middle East no longer exists after the U.S. retaliated.
“Everywhere we travelled was affected by the EMP. There were chaos and lawlessness everywhere but there were also communities like yours that have pulled together to survive. People who work together to grow food and provide security.”
Josh had to pause when the room erupted with yelled questions until Matthew’s wife rang the cow bell harshly with a glower at the crowd. Once they had settled down again, Josh continued.
“I know you have a lot of questions but I promise I’m telling you everything we know. So, here in Canada; the border guards told us that the east is a total wreck with no information coming from the government. Here in Alberta, there is some military organised and they’ve taken over Red Deer. What we were told was that they had no plans to come here or to Edmonton until the spring. We were in Red Deer this morning and now it looks like they won’t be coming at all. They plan on expanding farming operations in the rural areas. All of this information is just rumor and second-hand info. We don’t really know what their exact plans are but you shouldn’t expect them to come in and rescue you.” He had to pause again as the room erupted for the second time. After a few minutes, he just shook his head and sat back down. There was no point in trying to continue with the uproar his words had caused.
Matthew leaned forward to see around Alex and asked, “Did you speak with anyone in charge?” Josh shook his head but it was Alex that answered.
"Our friend Cooper enlisted and has been living with them for about seven months now. He has a better handle on what the military’s plans are. He’s the one who told us all about what they’ve been doing and what plans they have for the spring.” When Matthew started to ask another question, she cut him off with one of her own. “We need to get to the hospital to search for the medications our people need. You said there are people here that could give us information about that?”
He leaned back and pressed his lips together at her interruption but then nodded at the implied quid pro quo of information.
“There is a group that went out to search the hospitals for antibiotics and baby delivery supplies. We have a few ladies that are pregnant here. One of the people who went was your friend’s father. They would be able to give you more details but what they told us was that the closest hospital, Foothills was half burned out and the rest of it is filled with drug addicts. They barely escaped from there when the residents attacked them and they didn’t get anything useful. They carried on to the Children’s Hospital where they had much better success. All I know is that there is a group that is living there that will trade.”
He leaned back and frowned in thought. Just when Alex was going to ask him another question, a group of men and women stepped up on the dais. A tall man with dark hair and a dark beard stood ahead of the others and looked them over with grim eyes before speaking to Josh.
“This group, this military group you say is controlling Red Deer, are they corrupt or are they helping the people there?”
Josh shrugged his shoulders. “From what we saw and what we were told, they seem like the real deal. They are protecting the people there and have organized housing, food and work for everyone. I don’t think they are getting orders from anyone higher up, though.”
The man made a face of frustration but asked another question. “So it’s safe there? No gangs or attacks?”
Josh slowly nodded his head in agreement. “That’s the impression we got from what we saw and heard.”
Before the man could ask another question, Matthew leaned forward. “Aaron, this will be a great opportunity to explore in the spring. We can send scouts north and if it is legit, we can hopefully move the whole community there!”
Aaron scowled at Matthew and shook his head angrily. “Why would we wait for spring? We could be attacked again any day! Now’s the time to get out of here!”
Josh went to speak but Matthew cut him off. “Aaron be reasonable! We don’t have the vehicles to move us all that far at once. This chinook can flip at any moment so going on foot is out of the question! It would take at least a week to walk that far. People would die when the temperatures plummeted again. We must wait until the freeze is over before we consider moving.”
The tension on the dais could be cut with a knife. The two men were locked in a fierce staredown with Aaron’s followers grumbling behind him. Josh tried to intervene by addressing Aaron.
“Hey man, I understand how you feel but they wouldn’t take you anyway. Our inside man and the soldiers manning the roadblocks at the e
dge of the city told us that they weren’t letting anyone else in until spring. They’re straining at the seams right now and don’t have the resources to feed any more people. They told us to come back in the spring once they start working on the fields for planting.” He tried to get through to the glaring man. “You’d probably be more comfortable and eat better here than you would there.”
Aaron pinned Josh with a disbelieving glare and spoke through gritted teeth.
“It’s their job to take care of us!” He moved his eyes down the table studying Alex and the other teens before he swung his gaze back to Matthew. “If these kids can do it then so can we. We’re going and no one will stop us!”
Aaron whirled around and pushed through his followers, then hopped off the dais before striding into the crowd of diners. Josh and Alex tracked the angry group with their eyes as they headed out of the dining room with concern.
Matthew and Quinn spoke at the same time.
“Stubborn fools!” came from Matthew.
“They’re gonna go for the sleds!” said Quinn.
Josh nodded in agreement with both of those statements. He was already bringing the walkie talking out from under the table when Alex shoved to her feet.
“We need to warn Cooper and Lisa!”
Josh and the other teens all pushed to their feet as well. Josh brought the radio to his mouth as he rose. “Cooper, come in.”
The reply was quick. “Here, all quiet.”
Josh’s mouth flattened in a grim expression before replying.
“Not for long, buddy. We believe some people are headed your way to try and take the sleds. We’re booking it back to you right now but be ready for anything!”
Cooper’s voice was rock hard when he replied, “They can TRY!”
Chapter Fifteen
Cooper and Lisa closed the door of the garage behind their friends as they left to go to the dining room. The deadbolt lock on the door required a key that they didn’t have so they moved a few small crates and a large toolbox in front of it to give them some security. Cooper double checked the lever locks on the overhead doors so no one could roll them up and take him and Lisa by surprise.
Once they felt secure they set up the small portable camp stove and started a pot of water to boil. Cooper had brought along a few packages of MRE’s that he had been squirrelling away in the barracks so all they needed was a little bit of hot water to complete their dinner.
He was happy to stay back and guard the group’s transportation and supplies with Lisa. The tension between Alex and Quinn was thick and he knew his presence was just aggravating the situation. He didn’t know what had happened between the two of them but he had no desire to get into the middle of it. It had taken a long time for him to get over Alex after he moved to Red Deer and he didn’t want to go through that again. He glanced over at Lisa as she laid out sleeping bags. Her expression was one of anger but her eyes were filled with misery. He understood exactly how she was feeling after the confrontation with her father. He also had two parents that had let him down in so many ways. His mom had abandoned him with a deadbeat drunk of a father that hadn’t cared about him at all.
He was just about to dish up their supper when the radio squelched and Josh’s voice came through.
“Cooper, no problems yet but stay frosty. I’m getting a sled envy vibe here. Over.”
Cooper looked at Lisa and then nodded before replying to him.
“Frosty like ice. Watch your backs. Out.”
Lisa joined him and sat down on one of the empty crates they had pulled over around the stove for seating. Her expression was still a mix of anger and sadness.
“Do you think they’ll try and take our sleds?”
Cooper bit his lip, opened his mouth to speak but then just shrugged. He let out a sigh.
“I don’t know. I’m sure they saw our rifles when we came in so they’d be pretty stupid to try.”
She just nodded and turned away with a lost look.
Cooper hadn’t really gotten to know Lisa that well before he was shot and went to Red Deer. He knew she had been a spoiled, mean-girl back before the lights went out and had gone through a major personality change just like all of them had since then. She seemed like a decent person now and he himself knew that what the world saw of a person wasn’t always the true story. He didn’t want to pry but she looked so sad and lost that he couldn’t help himself.
“How are you doing? I mean, with the whole long lost father thing?”
Her head whipped towards him, a dark expression on her face, but that softened when she saw the genuine concern on his face. Her face went from furious to heartbroken in an instant, but her voice was filled with contempt when she finally spoke.
“What an epic fail at parenting! I mean, what kind of Dad doesn’t even know what country their kid is in? He clearly didn’t care enough about me before all this happened to care where I was so why not just enjoy the freedom of dumping me after the apocalypse?”
Her tone said she didn’t care but the tears welling in her eyes told a different story. Cooper gave a slow nod of understanding.
“I know all about being dumped by a parent and let down by the other. It sucks. It sucks big time.”
The tears finally overflowed her eyes and she dabbed at them angrily. “I hate that it hurts so much! I knew neither one of them cared that much about me but I just don’t know why! What’s so wrong with me that they couldn’t love me?”
Cooper shook his head. “No, no, don’t for a second think that this is your fault somehow! This is them being crappy human beings. Neither of our parents knows what the word family means! I really think we’re better off without them. Screw them! We get to make our own family now.”
Lisa wiped her eyes and nose and sniffed back future tears before nodding in agreement.
“Yeah, that’s the one major thing I learned since this all happened. You don’t need to be blood-related to be a family. Emily and her parents just took me in and made me one of their own. I’m so grateful to them and all our other friends for loving and accepting me the way they did. Especially after the crappy way I treated most of them before lights out. Thank God there are people in this world that are kind enough to give second chances or I would probably be dead right now!”
He gave her a small smile of agreement. “They are a pretty awesome group. I’m glad they were there for you.”
She cocked her head to the side and studied him for a moment. “What about you, Cooper? Why didn’t you come back? You know we all would have been happy to have you come home. There would have been a place for you just like there was for me.”
He frowned and looked away before answering her. “Yeah, I know, but there’s bound to be some deep scars after what my dad did to the town. Not everyone would be as welcoming as you guys.” He looked back at her and raised an eyebrow. “Then there’s the whole Alex, Quinn thing. Can you say awkward?”
Lisa snorted a laugh. “Uh, yeah, they managed awkward just fine without you there!”
He threw up his hands in confusion. “What happened? As much as I wanted to be the one for her, it was pretty clear that those two were destined to be together!”
Lisa nodded in agreement. “I think they still are. Quinn’s just lost his way right now. His grandfather passed away suddenly from something that could have been prevented before when medication was available, and it threw him for a loop. He’s lost so much with his parents dying when he was just a kid and now Harry passing. He’s filled with anger at the world and it made him push everyone away. It’s not just Alex, he’s pushed all of us away. He wasn’t even going to come with us on this trip. I think Josh basically goaded him into coming.”
Cooper could understand being angry with the world. He hadn’t had very many breaks himself. They dug into their meals in silence until Lisa asked about his time in Red Deer.
“It was…it felt like I was just killing time. For the first month, I was in their hospital recovering from the gu
nshot. I basically laid there feeling sorry for myself, getting shot, losing Alex and not being able to go home. It was a real pity party. After I got out of the hospital, they put me through basic training but I was still recovering so it wasn’t really military training, more like how to follow orders training.” He paused and wiped his mouth, looked down into his pouch of half eaten food and shook his head. “I wanted to help people. I don’t know what I thought I’d be doing but it wasn’t what I did.
“The summer months were all about farming crops. Getting them planted and tended was the biggest thing they did. The fields around town were just swarmed with refugees working but it still didn’t seem like there were enough people to get all the food we’d need for the coming winter. There were teams of soldiers who traveled around the central part of the province that scavenged and brought more people back but I wasn’t on one of those teams. Once the harvest was done, it switched to preserving all those crops. People were working like dogs to get everything put up before it spoiled. I honestly can’t believe how hard everyone worked. It was amazing. Once that was done, we switched to stripping the city. Every house, apartment, office building and store was searched and stripped of everything that could be reused or repurposed. They have warehouses filled to the seams with shelf-stable food and goods for the future.”
Lisa held up a hand to interrupt him. “Wait, there isn’t a shortage of food there?” when he shook his head she frowned. “The people we saw lining up for food looked pretty thin!”
He shrugged. “They ration everything. The doctors told them how many calories people needed to survive every day and that’s how the menus for the day’s meals are created and served. The people might look thin and miserable but no one is starving. There’s just no excess anymore. It’s a hard life now and the people there aren’t really happy but they’re safe and they’ll live.”
Lisa frowned and shook her head in disbelief. “I just can’t imagine living like that. Day in and day out, the same drudgery! I mean, we worked really hard on the crops and harvest too but we also had a lot of community events that were fun. At least until winter hit, then it was impossible to get out and see anyone else.” She got to her feet and took his empty food pouch along with hers and tossed them into a garbage can. When she sat back down across from him she asked, “So what are you going to do after this? Will you go back to Red Deer? Do you think you’ll be in trouble for leaving the way you did?”
Stranded (Book 5): Frozen Page 11