Home: A Stranded Novel (21 page)

The girls looked at each other in consideration before Alex finally shrugged.

“Okay, I got nothing else so let’s go for it. Flying by the seat of our pants seems to be working so far!”

Dara snorted,
“Yeah, as long as we don’t get shot in those pants in the next few minutes!” Her face turned thoughtful. “The last three guards are not all going to be in the gym. They’ll have at least one or two guys at the front of the school keeping watch. Should we split up?”

Lisa started nodding.

“I should go in the gym. We know my mother isn’t in there to give me away,” she said with a trace of bitterness.

Emily gave Lisa’s arm a pat. “I’ll go too. Dara, your Mom and brother are both in there so you have a bigger chance of being recogni
zed. Alex, out of all of us, you’re the best shot so if you can take them out from a distance, do it. Lisa and I should be able to get close to whoever is in the gym with all those people as cover.”

They were all in agreement
, so after quick hugs they split up. Emily and Lisa went left towards the girl’s locker room door and Dara and Alex went right, farther into the school as they made their way towards the front entrance. Alex found it surreal to walk through the halls of her high school with a loaded gun hidden under her shirt. It made her so mad that buildings like this that was supposed to shelter and care for students had been turned into a prison. She only hoped that one day it would go back to what it was intended for.

Cursing from the front of the building had the girls slowing down and moving even more cautiously. They heard a deep hard voice bark out an order.

“God damn it, I can’t see anything from here! Go check the south side and see if you can find where that shootings coming from!”

A second voice chimed in, “You got it
, boss! Do you think it has anything to do with the guys not coming in with the workers this morning?”

The first voice was harsh and aggravated when it replied.

“What do
you
think, dumb ass! Of course it does! If there’s shooting in town that probably means the farms and road blocks aren’t under our control anymore! We need to keep those women and kids locked down to use as hostages. After you look on the south side, go check on Johnny and the other guys and make sure they have everyone in the gym.”

Alex pointed down the hall to the south to Dara and the girl nodded and took off as quietly as she could. They now knew where the last two guards were and Dara could surprise the one leaving the front of the school. Alex flattened
herself inside a doorway to a classroom as seconds later one of the guards came down the hall and walked towards where Dara had just run to. Once he was past and had turned a corner she sneaked out and quietly moved towards the front entrance where they had heard the two guards talking. She was halfway there when she heard hard footsteps heading in her direction. She swore at herself for not having her gun out and ready as she threw herself into another doorway and crouched down with her head tucked down. There was no way the guy wouldn’t see her so she went with the scared victim routine and hoped she would get a chance to surprise him. Alex knew the only reason any of this had worked so far was because these jerks underestimated a bunch of teenage girls and saw them only as hostages. She also knew that their luck couldn’t last forever and prayed that it wouldn’t run out in the next few minutes.

“What the hell! What are you doing out here? GET UP!”
were the words yelled at her, followed by a big boot kicking her in the leg.

Tears of pain welled up in her eyes from the kick and they helped with her cover story when she whimpered,

“Please don’t hurt me! I didn’t know what to do!”

Alex looked up at a very tall man with a shaved head and the coldest grey eyes she had ever seen. His face was blank with indifference as he stared at her and she felt her skin crawl. There was nothing human in his look.

“Get up and get to the gym.”

He reached down and hauled her up and off her feet with one hand and Alex was shaken by his strength. He started to turn away from her with his big hand still clutching her arm when the
sound of two gunshots rang out from the back of the school. They were closely followed by another shot from down the hallway where Dara and the other guard had gone.

Boss’s face was still indifferent when he turned back and dragged Alex towards the front entrance. He spoke calmly and almost to himself.

“Change of plans. Looks like the party’s over in this town.” He gave her arm a brutal yank as she tried to slow them down and sent her a dark look.

“Move it
, girl! You’re my ticket out of here.”

When they got to the front doors of the school, he pulled Alex in front of him and wrapped one of his big arms around her upper chest to use her as a shield. He scanned the parking lot and road for movement before pushing the door open and stepping out with Alex in front of him. They made it down the big front steps and into the parking lot before men started popping up from behind cars and in between houses across the street. They were all pointing guns at them.

Alex could barely breathe from how tight the man was holding her and she pawed at her sweater to reach the gun she had in her waistband. The Boss had a shotgun in his free hand but all he could do was point it at the men standing in front of him because of the way he was holding Alex. When he bellowed at them to back off, she finally caught the hem of her shirt and got it raised enough to get a grip on the handle of the gun and out of her pants. That’s when time seemed to slow down.

Just a
s Alex pulled her gun and pointed it down and back at Boss’s leg, Cooper broke from behind a parked car and ran towards them, yelling her name. He had his assault rifle up and was looking for a shot when she pulled the trigger. Her bullet hit Boss in the knee and the arm around her throat let go and flew wide. Alex dropped to the ground and rolled away from the raging man who brought up his shotgun and fired. At the same time he fired, almost every man facing him pulled their triggers and Boss was hit by at least eight bullets, killing him where he stood.

Alex didn’t see him die. Her eyes were glued to the sweet boy with the bad reputation who had just been shot in the chest. Their eyes held each other and she saw love and regret and pain in his before he crumpled to the ground.

Time sped up. Alex launched herself to her feet and sprinted towards Cooper’s fallen body. She fell to her knees and was stripping her sweater off in seconds. Her chest was heaving with sobs and she was chanting the word
"No" over and over again as she balled up the sweater and pushed it hard against his chest. Alex fought the person who pulled her away but went limp when she saw Dr. Mack take her place. He had a duffle bag that he was pulling supplies from and his hands were a blur as he fought to keep the precious blood from leaving the boy's body and save Cooper’s life. She was being held from behind, much like Boss had held her as a shield but there was no threat in the hold, only comfort. She realised that it was Josh holding her when she heard him curse under his breath.

Alex tore her eyes away from Cooper and the doctor when she heard her name being called frantically. Her gaze swept past Quinn and David and
she saw her father limping towards them with a panic-filled face. When he spotted her, his face changed to one of relief. Before he could come any closer the front doors of the school were thrown open and a huge flood of women and children came pouring out. Alex saw families come together with tears and laughter. She knew she should be happy about the town being free but found herself looking away and back down to Cooper. Dr. Mack had covered his chest in gauze pads and was wrapping it in place. He leaned back and looked around the crowd.

“I need to get this boy to my office! I need a stretcher!”
he yelled out to be heard over the noise of the happy crowd.

“MEDIC!
We need a medic here!” rang out and had everyone turning to find the source of the voice.

Josh’s arm dropped away from Alex and the curse he let out was full of bitterness.

“Son of a bitch!”

He stalked to the soldier that had called for a medic and started screaming in his face.

“WHERE WERE YOU? Why weren’t you here before? Cooper…my friend…where were you!”

More soldiers were walking up behind the first one and military trucks were turning onto the street a few blocks away. One of the soldiers raised his weapon and pointed it at Josh, barking for him to step back but the one who had called for a medic raised his hand to stop them. The soldier didn’t know what had happened here
, but he could see the anguish on this young man’s face. It was a look he had seen again and again as their relief convoy had moved through town after town since the pulse had knocked the power out. He put his hand on Josh’s shoulder and squeezed it in comfort.

“I’m sorry. We tried to come as soon as we could. We have surgeons who can try and help your friend.”

The anger drained from Josh’s face and he started to cry. He was shaking his head as he turned and walked back to his friends with tears pouring down his face. Alex opened her arms to him as he mumbled,

“It’s too late. You’re too late.”

Alex knew he wasn’t just talking about Cooper. He was talking about what they had been forced to do to free their town. It was something that they would have to carry with them forever.

Dara, Emily and Lisa made their way through the crowd and joined them. There was nothing any of the teens could do as soldiers ran up with a stretcher and carried Cooper away with Dr. Mack hot on their heels. Alex watched them go and shook her head at the irony of the Canadian
Army showing up after a bunch of kids had done most the fighting. She just prayed that their presence meant that Cooper would be okay and their town could get back to some semblance of normal.

A small body came barreling through the crowd and threw itself at Dara. Her little brother Jake almost took her off her feet as he wrapped his skinny little arms around her. The look of love and relief that crossed Dara’s face was heartwarming and she just closed her eyes and raised her face to the sun. Josh had gotten control of his emotions and joined the pair. Jake beamed a smile his way.

“Josh! Your mom and sister are so cool! They’ve been taking care of me!” He turned back to Dara and his smile dimmed. “I don’t know where mom is. She never came to stay with us and the bad guys.”

Dara cupped her worried little brother’s face.

“Don’t worry about that right now. We’ll find out where she is later.”

She shot a look over his head at Josh and he nodded and turned to scan the people around them. He didn’t have to look very far to see his
dad, mom, and sister, Sofia, in a group hug. His trademark grin flashed across his face for a split second before he teared up again and joined them for his own family reunion.

Quinn was surrounded by his
grandparents, and Anna Dennison kept reaching out to touch him, running her hand through his hair and then grasping his hands.

Alex saw Emily with her parents and she had Lisa with her. She smiled when she saw Emily’s
mom pull Lisa into a loving hug. She searched the crowd for her own family, and found her mother sobbing into her dad’s chest. Alex threaded her way past David and his mom and little sister who were crying and smiling and holding each other in a tight little huddle. Alex’s dad saw her coming over her mom’s head and the love on his face helped to fill some of the emptiness she was feeling inside after seeing Cooper shot. When he turned Alice Andrews around so she would see her daughter, her breath caught on a gasp and she lunged at Alex.

“My baby girl!
My brave, beautiful girl! You’re here, you’re safe. Oh Alex…I was so scared I had lost you!” she said in a voice choked with emotion as she held her tight.

When her
dad wrapped his arms around both of them, Alex closed her eyes and let the weight of the last six weeks go. For that moment, she let herself be a little girl safe in her parents’ arms again.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Two days had passed as the town and its people tried to put the pieces back together. Families were reunited and loved ones lost were mourned. There were meetings held and new leaders were nominated as they tried to put together a plan to survive in this new, powerless world. The soldiers gave them news of what was happening in other places. There were many decimated cities and towns and a lot of people had died but they also brought news of communities coming together trying to rebuild. In Alberta, the pulse had stopped a hundred kilometers north of Edmonton. The small population to the north had taken in refugees and was working around the clock to send working parts south. It would take decades to fix and replace all that had been lost to the pulse and the world would never be the same.

Almost everyone in the town had gathered to see the soldiers off. They were moving on to other areas to check for survivors and give aid
, but they had given the town a working radio and the frequencies to the base the army had set up between Red Deer and Edmonton. The soldiers had also spent the last two days recruiting any able body person willing to join them. They needed more people to work at trying to restore order to the province. No one was surprised to hear that the western and northern parts of the country had fared better than the east. They had been in contact with other units across Canada that had specialized communications equipment that had survived the pulse. The lower population base and existing farms of the prairies had gone a long way to keeping people alive. Hundreds of thousands of refugees had fled north and west from the huge cities in lower Ontario and Quebec and the army had set up a huge base in Thunder Bay to process them and send them further west. The logistics of feeding so many people were huge but the massive acres of farmland in the prairies would need the labour of so many to plant and harvest future crops.

There had been limited contact with the United States
, but what they had heard was similar. Cities emptied and people died on the road. Smaller population centers fared better and areas with strong leadership had started to rebuild. The criminal element did its worst to the population but with the old laws no longer functioning, justice was swift, often brutal, and most times, final. No longer would criminals have more rights than their victims, and if lawyers were not quite outlawed, they were strongly frowned upon if they tried the old way of delays and technicalities for their clients. The world no longer had the time or the patience for long drawn-out trials and appeals when just providing the basics of survival already exceeded resources at hand.

Generations of people who were used to instant gratification had to learn a new way of life. Entertainment, when there was time, stopped being about overpaid athletes, pop stars and movie stars. No one cared what the latest reality show star was wearing anymore. Local dances and bands filled that void
, with card game parties and pot lucks replacing restaurants and movie nights. For many towns, market day was looked forward to. People came together to barter or trade what they had and it replaced hours of mindless spending at shopping malls. One of the biggest changes for many people was that they now actually got to know their neighbours instead of just waving as they drove by. Life was much simpler, but it was hard. Medicines ran out and food was scarce until it could be harvested. People died and people lived and it would never be the same.

Alex stood with Dr. Mack a few feet away from her family and friends. They watched as soldiers loaded Cooper into the back of one of the trucks on a stretcher. He was going to recover
, thanks to the quick work of the army surgeon and a few blood transfusions, but it would take a long time. When he had regained consciousness and was told what had happened he had asked to go with the soldiers and be a recruit once he had healed. The army was taking quite a few people with them back to their base before continuing on their aid mission, and nothing the teens said could change Cooper’s mind. He didn’t have any family left in the town and felt he would always bear some of the blame for what his father had done.

Dr. Mack surveyed the crowds lining the street like they were waiting for a parade and sighed. Alex looked up at him, her eyebrows raised in question
.

The doctor looked around them before saying quietly,
“This is going to sound terrible but that gang saved a lot of lives.” At Alex’s horrified expression he held up his hand. “What they did to the people of this town was horrible and in a lot of cases, evil. But they also made everyone work and they took all the food from every house and store and rationed it out. If they hadn’t taken over, I have my doubts the town council could have gotten everyone to work together like that. There is a huge amount of food planted right now that will feed us this fall and winter. Without that gang, I don't know if that would have happened. People would have hoarded what they could until it was gone and then there would have been stealing and fighting among neighbours for any scrap they could find. Now we still have food in storage and crops in the ground. Look at all of these people, Alex. Most of them are in the best shape of their lives from the work they were forced to do. So many people in this town were overweight and unhealthy. They needed all kinds of medications because of that, but now they don’t. I’m not saying it was a good thing and if it had of continued, people would have started to starve from the low rations, but a lot of people will live longer because of what they did here.”

Alex looked away from the doctor with a frown and studied the people lined up on the sidewalks. There were some that were too skinny and gaunt but the majority looked healthy and strong. Their faces were tanned from being outside and she couldn’t see anyone with a belly hanging over their belt. They did look good. She would like to think that her town and neighbours would have come together on their own but a small part of her knew that the doctor was right.

Alex was distracted from her thoughts as a woman walked towards her and her group from the army truck. She was completely out of place with her stylish hair and beautiful clothes. The woman’s high heels snapped against the pavement as she glided towards them. Looking at the beautiful woman, Alex thought she could have come from the pages of a magazine, not the world of the past six weeks. As stunning as she looked, Alex noticed that there was no depth in her eyes as she stepped past Alex without a glance.

“There you are
, Lisa. I wasn’t sure if you would still be in the area.”

Alex had turned to watch the woman and saw Lisa looking at her with no emotion. Alex realized that this woman was Lisa’s
mother.

“I wanted to let you know that I will be traveling with these soldiers back to the base. I’m told they have some electricity there and I would be more comfortable.”

When Lisa didn’t answer but just stared at her mother like she was a stranger, the woman nodded.

“Well then. Take care
, dear.”

She turned away and took two steps before stopping. Alex could see her face and the expression that crossed it was like something had just occurred to her. She turned back to Lisa.

“You could come with me.”

There was no pleading or love in the statement. It was an afterthought.

Lisa cocked her head to the side and looked her mother up and down and her voice was filled with disdain when she answered.

“I’m sorry
, Claire, but I’m not interested in being a whore. Besides, my family is right here and I couldn’t leave them.”

Lisa used the woman’s name instead of the title of mother which she no longer deserved. Claire Kelly lifted her nose in the air and rolled her eyes just like her daughter used to do
, before turning on her heel and walking back to her future customers.