Sea (A Stranded Novel) (2 page)

Mason was nodding his head. Some color was returning to his face and he dropped his basket and headed for the door. Lisa and Mark followed him out. David turned to Emily,

“Come on, Em, let’s get everything ready to pack into the cases they bring back. We need to get moving.”

Emily bent down to the baskets and started to sort through all that they had grabbed. There were power bars, granola bars and beef jerky. The first aid supplies and bottled water and juices were grouped together and she couldn’t help but think
they wouldn’t last them long. She started down the aisles and started grabbing a few more things. Cup of soup packages and instant oatmeal were light and easy to pack. Crackers and a small jar of peanut butter went in as well. The store didn’t have a lot to offer as it was not a fully stocked grocery so she did her best, but knew they would need to find a better place to get supplies. There was nothing else worth carrying so she went back to the front of the store and grabbed a couple of lighters from the counter.

David was grouping supplies in piles to evenly distribute the weight when he saw Emily standing at the counter staring out the window.

“We're going to need weapons, Emily. We have to be ready to defend ourselves. That lady was right. Things are already getting bad.”

She met his gaze and thought about how easily those men just shot the clerk. “David’s right. We need guns
,” she thought. That jarred her memory and she quickly went around the counter. Trying not to look at the dead man, she reached down and picked up the small cardboard box she had seen. Taking it back to David, she handed it to him. He took out the two small bullets that were left and looked at her quizzically.

“Is there a gun back there? It would be really useful right now.”

She shook her head, “I think Mark took it. I saw him stuff something down the front of his pants and cover it up with his shirt.”

Davis stared at Emily intensely. “Ok
ay, don’t say anything about it. We will hope he has it but we won’t push him on it. I don’t know why he wouldn’t say anything but I don’t know why the guy would keep so quiet. We need to keep our eyes open for any other weapons we might be able to get our hands on, okay?”

Emily nodded just as the others came back into the store. They were carrying three hard
-shelled, wheeled cases. Mason’s and Mark’s cases were plain black but Lisa’s was neon pink with zebra stripes on it. Emily closed her eyes and prayed for patience. This girl was a total idiot!

“Lisa, are you trying to get yourself killed or worse? That case screams, “Look at me!” and which one of the boys will want to take a turn pulling it? Can you please start using your head here? We are very close to screwed and all you seem to care about is looking good. Grow up!” Emily was shocked at her tone as soon as the words left her mouth. She didn’t mean to be so hard on the other girl but she was starting to get really scared and it had just come out.

Lisa glared daggers at Emily and threw the case down. She turned on her heel and left the store. Emily was about to go after her and apologise when Mason grabbed her hand.

“Don’t. We both told her the same thing but she just ignored us. She
just needs a wakeup call. If she doesn’t get this new reality through her head soon, she’s going to get one of us killed. Let her steam.” He pulled her down and they started to fill up the two empty cases. When Lisa came back a few minutes later, she dropped a plain black case in front of them without a word and walked back down the cosmetics aisle.

It didn’t take long to pack the cases up and Emily kept trying to get a look at what was in Mark’s waistband but with his shirt covering it
, she couldn’t see anything. They left the store and started down the street again.

All their breathing was strained two hours later from the smoky pall hanging in the air from the multitude of fires raging out of control in the city.
They kept their pace as fast as they could but all the kids were tiring. Emily’s mind was numb from the horrors they had encountered on the way. Dead and bloody bodies were littered around massive car accidents and other bodies showed signs of violence. They had to duck down and take cover at least three times. People shooting at each other and at police had pinned them down twice. The other time, a group of thugs were beating anyone they could find and Emily felt like her heart would explode out of her chest at the senseless violence on display. She couldn’t understand how things had gotten so bad so fast. They weren’t the only people pulling luggage on the streets as others tried to make their escape from the battlefield the city had now become. The strangest sights were of people rushing out of stores carrying flat screen TV’s or computers. Didn’t these people understand that those items had no value without electricity? Once they had made it onto the Garden Grove Freeway, the landscape had changed from residential to business and that was where the shooting had started. Gunfire could be heard constantly, and Emily was starting to doubt that they would make it to the coast. They still had so far to go and needed to find supplies.

David and Mason had studied the map that Cooper had gotten before they left Disneyland but they needed to find one of their own. Things were degrading fast and they needed to be able to find alternate routes. They had slowed down to catch their breath when they came upon a small privately owned gas station that had no looters in the parking lot. Three big men that resembled each other were standing guard in front of the pumps. Each man was holding a shotgun pointed towards the street to dissuade any looters from coming closer. The kids stopped at the edge of the lot and had a quick conference. They needed a map and the gas station should have one. Mason was more than happy to let David approach the gun
-toting men. David turned away from the group and put his hands in the air, slowly walking towards the men. When all three shotgun barrels swung in his direction, his stomach lurched but he took a few more steps before stopping.

“Please don’t shoot
, sir! I have money and was just hoping to buy a map. My friends and I are just trying to find a way out of the city but we’re tourists and don’t know the area.” David took a shaky breath while the men looked him over. The men looked like family to David and it was the older man who finally gave a brief nod. He lowered the business end of his gun toward the pavement but kept it pointing in David’s general direction. The other two men both turned back to focus on the street. The older man waved David forward and started backing towards the store entrance.

“I’ve got a rack just inside the door, full of maps. Where you kids trying to get to?” he asked David in a gruff voice.

“Canada, Alberta, sir.”

The man’s eyebrows shot up in surprise and his face softened slightly. “Me and my boys went and did some hunting in northern British Columbia two years ago.
Beautiful country up there and the nicest people. That’s an awful long ways away. How are you planning on getting up there?”

David was thankful the man had relaxed his grip on the weapon and seemed friendlier. “We’re hoping to make it to the coast and try and find a ride by boat further north.”

The man was thoughtful for a moment before nodding. “Not a bad plan. If you could get clear of the major cities, you’d have a better chance overland.” He opened the door of the store and waved David ahead of him. The spinning rack just inside the door held all types of road maps and the man gave it a spin until he found what he wanted. “This one here is a local street map. It’ll help you find your way to the marina.” He spun the rack again and grabbed three thicker map books. “This one’s California and here’s Oregon and this one’s Washington. That way, wherever you land, you’ll know which way to go. Sorry I don’t have anything for Canada but these will help,” he said while handing the bunch over.

David started to reach in to his pocket but froze when the man brought his gun back up with a frown.

“Money, sir! I’m just getting my money!”

The gun dipped back down and the man shook his head. “No need
, son. Money doesn’t mean anything now. Just take them and get going. You kids have a long way to go. Good luck.”

He ushered David back out of the store and waved him on towards his friends who were grouped at the edge of the lot looking anxious. Halfway back to them, David stopped and turned back. He gave a wave and called out, “Thank you, good luck!” The three men all gave a nod and went back to scanning the street for threats.

When he got to his friends, Emily let out a sigh of relief and took the three map books he held out to put them in one of the cases. David opened the local map and he and Mason scanned around the area to find a street sign. Emily noticed Mark glaring at David when he and Mason studied the map together and hoped he wouldn’t start any trouble. When they found what they were looking for, they pored over the map and plotted out the route they needed. Satisfied they knew where they were and where they needed to go, David folded the map back up and put it into the side cargo pocket of his shorts.

Mason addressed the rest of the group, “O
kay, we still have a long way to go. We’ll stay on this road for a few hours until we turn onto a road named Seal Beach Boulevard and Marine Drive. After that, it’s straight to the marina and hopefully some waves. Keep your eyes open for trouble.” He grabbed the handle of a rolling case and started away from them. Mark and David grabbed their cases and headed after him with Mark elbowing David out of the way so he could get ahead of him. Emily and Lisa trailed behind. Lisa heaved out a dramatic sigh.

“This is so not my idea of a California vacation. As if we have to walk for hours more! This is so lame. God, I would kill for a Frappuccino!” she complained in a dramatic tone with a huge eye roll.

Emily couldn’t believe how vapid the girl was. She knew that Lisa was shallow and spoiled but she didn’t seem to get the situation they were in at all. Emily hoped that Lisa would clue in soon or she wasn’t going to be any help to the rest of them. Emily tried to be understanding but she was scared and babying Lisa wasn’t going to help any.

“Lisa, you get what’s happened right? We aren’t just going to be walking for hours more. It’s going to take us a really long time to get home, like a month or more. Even if we get out of here on a boat and make it to Vancouver
, we still have to cross B.C. and get over the mountains. We’ll be walking for weeks. This is really bad,” Emily tried to explain.

With another eye roll and a smirk, her voice virtually dripping with disdain
, she replied, “I know all of you seem to think this is the apocalypse and all but really, really? The government will get it sorted out. There’s too much money in this country for it to stay messed up for long. I’m sure we’ll be fine as soon as we get out of this hellhole of a city. You’ll see. We’ll be home in no time,” she finished with confidence.

Emily shook her head. “I hope you’re right
, Lisa, but until we get out of here, let’s work together, okay?”

Lisa gave her a fake, tight little smile and a quick nod then quickened her pace until she was walking beside Mason. Emily practiced an
eye roll of her own at the girl’s back and huffed out a sigh. “Where’s Alex when I need her,” she thought. Looking around at the businesses they were passing, Emily noticed a lot of signs with Asian lettering and many had steel security doors blocking off their doors and windows. This city was so foreign to her. She had grown up in the country and Prairie Springs, the town closest to her farm, wasn’t even close to being a city. All these people on the streets made her nervous and she was anxious to be far away. She picked up her pace and closed the gap with the rest of the group.

The street they were traveling on seemed to go on forever and the kids started to become numb to the bodies on the street and in cars that they passed. The gunshots had become less frequent and they hadn’t seen any violence in
the last few hours. Their pace had slowed down and none of them had the energy to jog anymore. Mason, who was leading the group, came to a stop and turned to David.

Waving behind him
, he asked, “What do you think?”

David studied the huge warehouse type store and the people who were pushing loaded carts out of it. “I think we should give it a shot. If we can get a couple of carts full of supplies it would go a long way to bribing someone to give us a ride out of here. Not many Costco stores on the ocean.
”

“Yeah, we can carry a lot more weight if it
is piled up in the shopping carts. Everyone look around and try and find a cart.” Mason said as he started scanning the lot.

The parking area was only half
-filled with dead cars and the group looked down the rows trying to find any abandoned carts. They finally found one wedged between two cars and they all headed into the huge store. There was an open foyer at the front of the store between the two sets of doors and Emily was happy to see one row of carts left along the wall. They decide that three carts were enough so Emily pulled one out and so did David.

In the main warehouse of the store
, someone had set up battery powered construction lights, and with the skylights, it was good enough to see by. It was still dim and warm but they were able to navigate around other people and goods that had been spilled onto the floor. After passing the now useless electronics section, they had to go around piles of smashed glass from the jewellery cases. After that, they hit the aisles of snack goods. Bags of nuts and trail mix were thrown into the carts and cases of power bars, big bags of beef jerky and big boxes of granola bars were also added. They passed by the linens section and came to tables piled with clothing. All of their clothing was back in the hotel that the class had been staying in so they started rummaging through the piles to find extra outfits. Emily was thankful that there were piles of yoga wear and quickly found her sizes. She grabbed a bag of socks and under wear and found a table that had light fleece jackets. Ready to move on to the next aisle she wasn’t surprised to find Lisa hadn’t gotten past the first table. The girl was holding clothes up to her body to make sure it looked good.

It took Emily two seconds to decide to leave her to it. She wanted to get out of here and back on the way as fast as she could. Grabbing her cart
, she pushed it away from the clothing area. The boys had finished up in clothing as fast as she had and split up. She could just make out Mason and Mark heading deeper into the store. David had gone the opposite direction and he disappeared down an aisle with batteries. On her own, Emily started on the bulk food. Cases of tuna, canned ham, chilli and beans took up space in the cart. Huge bags of rice and just add water pancake mix were heaved in. Emily didn’t want to take too much canned food because of the weight so she added bags of dried vegetables and fruit. The store had huge boxes full of ramen noodles but it was too awkward to take in her cart so she opened the case and started stuffing the individually wrapped squares in around the other cases and bags in her cart. Boxes of crackers and cookies went in and a box of instant oatmeal packages barely fit as well. Ahead of her was the freezers so she by passed them and continued on. Without thinking it through, she grabbed a huge can of ground coffee but it only took a few steps before she stopped with a shake of her head. Putting the can back she instead took three jars of instant. Her cart was piled high as she added four bags of dried milk powder. The rest of the store held fresh food and bottled water. She didn’t have enough room left for the water so she headed to the pharmacy area. Big bottles of multivitamins and Vitamin C were squeezed in as well as a much bigger first aid kit.

As Emily turned down the next aisle
, she saw Lisa scanning the shampoos. Lisa had a few items of clothing draped over her arm and a handful of fashion magazines held against her chest. She looked over and spotted Emily coming her way and scowled at her.

“Finally!
You left me to haul this stuff around when you took off with the cart,” she said impatiently.

“Hey, thanks so much for your help
, Lisa, but don’t worry I’m sure I got enough to feed you too!” Emily replied sarcastically.

An eye roll and a “Whatever!” was all she had to say as she dumped her stuff on top of the
overflowing cart. “Make some room in there. I need to fit in this shampoo and conditioner,” she demanded.

Emily was fuming and had to get away from Lisa before she said something vicious so she just pushed past her. “You’ll have to carry it yourself. There is no room.”

Lisa whined at Emily’s back, “But it’s heavy!”

“So is this cart!” was all Emily tossed back at her. She could hear Lisa growling in frustration and couldn’t help but rub it in by grabbing a men and women’s five pack of deodorant and shoving it into the cart. When she heard Lisa squeal in outrage she had to smile and pushed it even more by pulling a large bottle of hand sanitizer off the shelf as well. Leaving the pharmacy area, Emily couldn’t remember
anyone pushing her to act so petty and shook her head at the childish behaviour. This trip home was going to be hell.

She spotted David pushing his cart her way with Mason and Mark close behind. Both of their carts were stacked with water bottle cases and clothes. David’s cart had two multi packs of flashlights and packages of batteries. He also had five sturdy back packs. Emily was happy she had just stuck with getting the food or they would all starve.