Home: A Stranded Novel (18 page)

Josh was sputtering and Dara laughed at him
, “Forget it, Josh! It’s a solid plan. I’m with Alex.”

Emily didn’t even look at David she just nodded. They all looked at Lisa expectantly and she just shrugged. “I’m good to go
wherever you guys want me.”

Alex frowned at her response. It was like Lisa had been scooped out and an automated shell was going through the motions. They would have to keep an eye on her and try to help her work through things once this was all over. She turned her head and met Quinn’s eyes with raised eyebrows.

“Well?” she asked him.

His gaze was steady when he replied. “I flat out hate it and I’m scared out of my mind that I might lose you…but it’s a go. It’s our best chance
, but you better be so careful, Alex…all of you have to make it out of there. We’ve come too far to lose any of you.” His words might have been for all of them but his eyes never left hers and the love she saw in them took her breath away.

Looking in to his eyes at that moment, something clicked into place. It was an “
oh, of course” moment for her and she finally saw her future was with Quinn. Tearing her eyes away from him she caught sight of Cooper. He was just turning away but she caught the look of loss on his face and felt sadness for him. He would have seen it on her face. Her choice had been made and it wasn’t him.

They stayed up late in to the night going over the finer points of the plan before finally crashing and sleeping as late as possible. They would try and nap as much as they could the next day as they would be staying awake and running through most of the next night while they worked to free the farms. It was just past noon when Alex and Emily stumbled out of their bunks and joined the others for some food. Quinn, Josh and the other two boys had pulled all of the weapons they had accumulated out of the white cargo van and laid them out on the ground for an inventory. When Emily, David and Lisa got their first look at all the weapons and ammunition cases, they were speechless. After putting aside the eight assault rifles for the group's use, they were left with thirty five of the powerful weapons to hand out to the town’s men. There were also various shotguns, hunting rifles and handguns they had picked up along their travels. They would be liberating the guard's weapons as well, so Quinn suggested that they hold back some of the assault rifles at camp in case something went wrong and they needed them in the future.

Once they had decided what they were taking to hand out to the freed men, they started to load the farm truck. The plan was to drive the truck and the three ATV’s as close to Quinn’s farm
as they safely could before continuing on foot. When Quinn and Alex’s farms had been secured, they would go get the vehicles and move them up closer before hitting Emily and Josh’s properties. They would need them later in the plan to get in position to take out the roadblocks on all sides of town.

While the boys loaded the truck, Alex, Emily and Lisa made food. They used both ovens in the two campers to make batch after batch of buns that they mixed cut
-up canned ham in, as well as huge batches of pancakes. They wanted to be able to give the freed men something to eat so they would have some strength to help attack the rest of the guards. It wasn’t much, but it felt good to have something to feed the people they were going to rescue, and it kept them busy so they didn’t dwell on what was coming that night.

Cooper and Dara had gone to scout out the final roadblock
that was missed the day before. It was better to confirm the number of guards there instead of just assuming there were four.

Alex’s head came up from the camp stove when she heard Dara call out. She and Cooper came into the
campsite and went to the map to mark in the numbers before Dara walked over to Alex. Alex frowned when Cooper avoided looking her way and tried to think of what to say to him. Dara leaned over and took a deep smell of the browning pancakes before giving Alex a light hip bump. When she got no response from her friend, she followed Alex’s line of sight until they rested on Cooper, who had dove into helping load the truck with the other boys.

“You’re going to have to talk to him
, Alex. Everyone saw the look between you and Quinn last night. It was obvious that you two are in love. Cooper’s not in a very good place right now. He still blames himself for what happened to the town and now that he knows you’ve chosen Quinn, he’s in a dark place,” Dara told her with compassion.

Alex looked away from Cooper and flipped pancakes as she thought about what to say. She came up empty and huffed out a breath.

“What do I do? How do I explain to him that how I feel about Quinn just clicked in to place. I don’t want to hurt him but I can’t change how I feel!”

Dara rubbed her back in sympathy. “I know Alex
, and the timing sucks, but you have to talk to him. Just be honest with him. Cooper’s a really great guy and he will understand. But, Alex? You need to do it now, before we leave. We need his head in the game tonight.”

Alex nodded and took a deep breath before handing the spatula to Dara and walking over to Cooper. He looked up at her as she came close and then quickly looked away and started to walk in a different direction.

“Cooper, please, can we talk?” she asked.

He came to a stop and she saw his shoulders slump from behind before he turned to face her. His eyes were filled with resignation as he looked at her. She waved her hand at the nearby trees.

“Let’s take a walk?”

He only nodded and followed her on to a game path deeper into the forest. Once they were out of sight from the camp, she sat down on a fallen tree and patted the spot beside her, asking him to sit with her. He kept his hands in his pocket and his dark blue eyes were unreadable before finally sitting down with a sigh. Alex pulled a piece of long grass from the ground and fiddle
d with it as she tried to think of what to say. She gave up and dropped it to the ground before starting with the easier issue.

“Why do you keep blaming yourself for what happened to our town?”

His eyes showed surprise at the topic, as it wasn’t what he thought she was going to say, and then he frowned and looked away without answering so she kept talking.

“Would you blame Dara for her mom being a drunk?
Or Lisa? Her mother’s ice-cold and working with the gang.” When he only shook his head, she asked, “Then why do you blame yourself for your dad’s actions? He made those choices, not you. You were thousands of miles away when it happened. How can you be to blame for any of it?”

Cooper scuffed his feet in the dirt and still didn’t look at her when he replied. “In my head I agree with you but my heart feels guilty
, like somehow I could have stopped him or made him a better person. I don’t know…it’s weird! I just can’t stop feeling guilty. Besides, no matter what happens tonight and tomorrow no one in that town will ever forget who my father was and they will always blame me in some way.” He finally turned and looked directly at her. His eyes were sad but resolved. “When this is all over, I’m going to have to leave. I can’t stay here Alex. I’m sorry.”

She scowled at him. “What are you talking about? You can’t leave! Where would you go? Cooper, this is your home!”

He slowly shook his head and a small smile crossed his face at her outraged tone. “It’s not. It’s not my home anymore, Alex. You didn’t hear the venom in that girl’s voice when I told her my name. That’s just a small sample of what it would be like living here.”

Alex got up and paced around in frustration. She turned to him and threw her hands up.

“They will know that you’re a hero! We’ll tell them about how we made it across two countries and we wouldn’t have been able to do that without you having our backs the whole way. We’ll tell them how you fought to free them and their families! They’ll know you’re nothing like your father!”

Cooper had leaned back and was admiring her angry tirade. She was so pretty and full of life. His feeling
s for her surged and he forced himself to finish it.

“It’s not only that, Alex.
I’m in love with you and it would kill me to see you with Quinn every day.”

Alex froze at his words and a soft “
oh” escaped her as she felt her eyes prick with tears. She fought to find the words to explain.

“Cooper, I…it just, I didn’t…
Arggg!” She spun away from him and kicked at a tree in frustration at the hurt she could see in his eyes. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before trying again.

“Quinn has been beside me since we were little. It feels like he’s always been there and last night…I finally
realized that he hasn’t just been beside me, but inside of me too. My heart, he fills my heart. I’m so sorry.”

Cooper leaned forward and picked an early spring daisy. He stood up and walked up to her and handed it to her.

“Never apologize for love, Alex. You and Quinn were made for each other. I’m happy for you. I mean it!” he said as she gave him a questioning look. “You guys are the best friends I’ve ever had. We’re going to take back the town and kick some butt. We’ll figure out the rest later, okay?”

Alex nodded and leaned in and kissed Cooper on the cheek. “Thanks for being such a great guy
, Cooper. I’m so glad you left Disneyland with us.”

Cooper smiled at her.
“Me too. You should go on back. I just need a few minutes, okay?”

Alex nodded and held up the daisy and winked at him before turning and heading back to the
campsite. Cooper sat back down on the fallen tree and watched her go. He was grateful for her support but he knew there was nothing left for him here. Once they had taken the town back, he knew he would slip away and try to find somewhere else he could call home.

When Alex walked back into the
campsite, her eyes went to Quinn and she felt a quiver in her stomach at the look he gave her. She tore her eyes away from him and went to help the girls fill plastic bags with all the food they had made. She hoped there would be plenty of time in the coming days for her and Quinn to deal with the emotions they were feeling. Right now, though, they needed to focus on the plan.

They spent the rest of the afternoon trying to nap to get rested up for the
night ahead. After a filling supper of stew and baked buns, they loaded the last supplies they were taking and headed out. Alex drove the farm truck with Lisa and Emily in the cab beside her. Cooper and Dara sat in the bed of the truck while Quinn, David and Josh followed behind on the ATVs. Alex kept the truck’s speed down so the boys could keep up, and to keep the noise down. Her shoulders were tense and her hands sweated on the steering wheel. She was so worried that they would get caught at this crucial stage. Her shoulders relaxed with relief when they left pavement and headed down a dirt road to where they would leave the vehicles. When she came to the end of the road, she flipped the truck around so it was pointed back the way they had come and shut it off. She left the keys under the floor mat so they would be easy to find when they came back for the truck later that night.

They had
given themselves plenty of time to get to Quinn’s farm before dark. They would be carrying a lot of supplies through the trees and they wouldn’t be able to move as fast as before. The boy’s backpacks were filled with ammunition, and the girls had food and water. Everyone slung as many rifles as they could and they covered what they left behind in the truck with a tarp. Walking through the trees being so weighted down was a challenge, and it was slow going. They took breaks and after an hour they finally came to the clearing where their tree house was built. After a quick look to make sure it was clear, the group entered it and dumped the supplies against the trunk of the tree in relief.

Quinn, Alex and Josh left the others there and carried some of the supplies to the spot that
she and Emily had used to spy on Quinn’s farm when they had scouted it out. There was still an hour before the sun went down and they wanted to take a look at the farm before they lost the light.

Alex scaled the same tree and used the binoculars to scan the farm yard.
There was no butchering going on this time and she could see men walking in from the far fields to the barnyard. They were setting up tables and Alex guessed that they were getting ready to feed the workers their nightly meal. There were only four guards in the yard that she could see, but the other two might be bringing people in from the fields. Alex tried to find Quinn’s grandfather in the men crowding into the yard but he wasn’t in sight. Her pulse went up when her mind flashed to the pit at the dump filled with elderly people. She silently prayed that the guards were smart enough to know the value of Harry Dennison’s vast knowledge of farming. Her breath left her in a whoosh when she finally spotted him standing by a water trough that was being filled with water by a hand pump. She watched for a while, as men came up and scooped water out to wash off some of the dirt of the day before heading to the food line. When Harry turned his head in the direction of the trees, Alex felt like he was looking right at her. She knew that was impossible and the sun was going down behind her, with no tell-tale reflection coming from her glasses this time. A small smile crossed her face. Harry knew someone had been watching them a few days before and he was looking at the trees in hope that someone was coming to help them. She wished she could give him a signal but in a few hours it wouldn’t matter. He would be free.

Alex swung her glasses away from the man and did another search for the two missing guards. When she saw them walking behind the last of the men coming in from the fields, she dropped the glasses back into her shirt and climbed back down the tree to Quinn and Josh. The smile must have still been on her face
, because they gave her a weird look, so she told them what had happened the first time with the binoculars and how Harry had warned her with a hand gesture. Quinn just smiled but Josh started to laugh.

“I’ve got five bucks that says your
grandpa doesn’t even blink an eye when we open up that barn later. I’ve got another five that says he asks us what took so long!”

Alex snorted a laugh and threw her arm around Quinn. “Can’t you just hear him?
‘Did you bring me back a bottle of Crown from the duty free store at the border?’”

Quinn dropped a kiss on Alex’s head. “God, I miss him. I can’t wait for this to be over
,” he murmured against her hair.

Josh beamed at him like a proud father
. “Look at you two! If this was high school, you’d be king and queen of the rebels!”

Alex rolled her eyes at him and pulled out the binoculars and offered them to Quinn.
“Do you want to go up and take a look?” she asked, waving at the tree.