Free Land by Theresa Shaver Page B

grabbed at the last minute from the store. It didn’t take long to pack the trailers back up and Dara came out of the bathroom with an extra toilet paper roll and stuffed it into her pack. Then they quietly wheeled the bikes out to the parking lot and hooked up the trailers. Alex went back in and did a quick last check of the room to make sure they didn’t forget anything. The pillows on the beds were tempting but with no extra room she wistfully left them and closed the door. Just as Alex turned from the door to get on her bike the older man that had lent them his bucket came out of his room. He lit a cigarette and walked over to the group.
    In a lowered voice he asked, “Getting an early start, aren’t you?”
    Quinn seemed to think about it and replied, “Sir if I could give you some advice, things are going to get really bad. We came from Disneyland yesterday and nothing’s moving. Planes fell out of the sky and burned with no one trying to put out the fires. We saw two policemen who had been shot. It’s going to be even worse today. People are going to get scared and scared people do stupid things. No one is coming to help. I don’t think anyone can come to help. You need to get out of here. There’s no food here and when those drunken guys realize that there are no cops around, it could get ugly. You should check with the lady that runs this place and see if she has anything with wheels like a stroller, wagon or even a grocery cart and fill it with as much water as you can and then the four of you should head to the closest town.”
    The man puffed on his smoke and then dropped it and ground it out with his shoe before replying, “I think you nailed it son. I didn’t sleep much last night thinking about it. I appreciate you warning me and I’m going to wake up the girls and get moving. Good luck to you kids. I hope you make it to wherever you are headed.” and with that he nodded at the group and went back into his room.
    As they biked out onto the road Josh started singing, “On the road again. Just can’t wait to get on the road again.” which was met by a chorus of “Shut ups.”
    For the first ten minutes it was very slow going. Everyone was feeling the effects in their legs from the day before but once their muscles warmed up it got easier. As they biked down the road Alex asked the group about stopping to buy food.
    “If we stop at the first small town or service station we come to we might still be able to buy more food. Yesterday most people would have been waiting for help to come and still be fairly calm. As time goes by today, people are going to start to panic and make a run to stock up on supplies. If we stop early enough we might get in before the panic.”
    “I think you’re right Alex.” Cooper said and the others agreed. “Let’s watch for a small town with a grocery. Service stations will have been overrun yesterday and most only have small amounts of grocery items. They mainly stock junk food. A small town food store will be better.”
    As their muscles warmed up they started making better time. There were lots of dead cars on the road but some had been able to pull off before crashing, leaving space for the bikers to get through. They passed by a few service stations with fast food restaurants and gas stations, but they kept going. Not many people were out and about but it was still fairly early in the morning. About eight o’clock they started seeing road signs for a town ahead, advertising privately owned diners and small businesses with nothing showing for the bigger chain stores. They biked past the exits and stopped about a mile past on a service road.
    Quinn opened the conversation with his ideas, “I don’t think we should all go into the town. Two of us should stay here with the bike trailers and three should go in. One person needs to stay outside the store to guard the bikes and two to go in and get what they can. Dara I think you should stay here with me. It’s