Home: A Stranded Novel (4 page)

David and Emily sat holding hands at the picnic table as Quinn and Alex filled them in on what they knew was happening in their town. Lisa stood rig
id as she took in their words. They explained their plans to scout the town and farms and they showed them the map that they wanted to fill in with locations and guards. As they talked, Dara and Josh got food from the camper and started to make a meal. By the time they had finished eating, Alex had told them the story of their journey overland and David and Emily had filled them in on their own story. When they had gotten to the part about Mark, Lisa had to get up and leave the table. She didn’t want to hear about Mark and what he had done to her or how she had killed him.

Lisa was struggling with inner turmoil. So many things had changed in the last month and she didn’t know who she was anymore.
The cheerleader was dead, but the girl she had tried to be on the way home didn’t fit this new reality either. After walking round the campsite a few times she asked Alex if she could use the camper to clean up.

As she looked around at the interior of the
camper and all the supplies it was filled with, she couldn't help but think how much easier the trip in from the coast would have been with a setup like this. She pushed the thought away. They had made it so that was all that mattered. Then she remembered that they hadn’t all made it.

She entered the tiny bathroom and caught sight of herself in the mirror. The girl looking back at her was a stranger.
The long glossy hair she was used to was tangled and matted and the cat green eyes that used to spark and flash were dull and filled with sadness. She felt so lost and wished she could cry, but there was a great emptiness inside of her. Who was she now? She had thought that she would learn to contribute and be a good person, but now there was a war and she would have to fight. Shaking her head at her image she wondered if she could do it. Killing Mark had been a desperate move to save herself and the others. Could she fight knowing that she would have to kill on a premeditated basis?

The girl in the mirror could barely hold her head up. She reached up and rubbed the aching place on her scalp. The man on the road had pulled her by the hair like it was a leash and he had torn out a handful by the roots. As she looked into the mirror
, a ball of heat filled the emptiness inside of her. She had been used and assaulted and she had made a vow to never let it happen again. Until she was safe, and they had gotten their town and homes back, she would do whatever it took to stay alive and free, and she knew just where to start.

Lisa whirled away from the mirror and left the bathroom. She searched the drawers in the kitchen until she found what she was looking for and carried them back into the bathroom. She met her steely
-eyed stare in the mirror and nodded at herself in determination before grabbing a hank of hair and brutally slicing through it with the scissors she had found. If she was going to be a different person she would start with how she looked. No one would be able to use her hair against her again. She hacked away as best as she could with the dull blades and never noticed the tears that were finally flowing down her face. Shocked words brought her back to herself and she stopped in mid-cut. Turning her head slowly, she saw Dara standing there staring at her with an open mouth.

“
Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?!” she gasped.

When Lisa just stared at her blankly, Dara scanned the hair covered floor around her and then looked back up at her. Understanding and compassion flowed into her eyes.

“Let me help you,” she said quietly.

Lisa handed the scissors to Dara and let herself be led over to the table where Dara gently pushed her down on to the bench seat. Dara grabbed a towel and draped it around Lisa’s shoulders before asking,
“How much?”

Lisa swallowed and whispered, “All of it.”

Dara stared at her intently before nodding and moved behind her where she started to snip away at the ragged mess. She didn’t speak at first and the only sound in the camper was the sound of the blades snipping. As Lisa gradually relaxed, Dara finally started to speak.

“I understand why you want this. I dyed my hair black and put in blue streaks because I couldn’t stand to look at myself in the mirror. I didn’t
recognize the person I was anymore. When my dad left, my mother started to drink. She would get wasted and stay that way for days. My whole life changed. I had to take care of my brother and clean up my mom and the girl I used to be just disappeared. I didn’t know who I was anymore so I changed my hair and made it harsh because I felt like it was the only thing I could control and it expressed how angry I was. It also helped to isolate me from others because I didn’t want anyone to know what was going on with me. All anyone saw was a Goth chick and they left me alone. I know it’s not quite the same as what you are going through, but I do understand.”

Dara moved around in front of Lisa and after a few more snips stood back and sighed. The sound brought Lisa’
s head up and Dara smiled when their eyes met.

“I know you are feeling lost right now
, but you are here with us and you are a survivor. You’re part of our family now and we
will
get our homes back.” She paused and shook her head and then laughed. “But I have to tell you that I hate you on principle.” When Lisa’s eyes widened in dismay, Dara laughed again. “Here you are dirty and with all your hair chopped off and you
still
look like a supermodel!” A slow smile spread across Lisa’s face and she reached out and took Dara’s hand and gave it a squeeze.

“Thank you. Thank you for understanding.”
She rubbed her hands over her shorn head and laughed. “I feel lighter and kind of naked!”

Dara laughed, “You really do look great. Your
eyes and cheekbones are killer with that cut. If you want to know the truth…you look like you could kick some serious butt!”

Lisa beamed at Dara, “That’s what I want! I don’t want to be a victim anymore. I want to help fight for our town and families.”

Dara nodded in understanding. “Well, if a haircut was all it would take to win them back, yours would do it. Come on, let’s get this cleaned up. If you want we can gather all your hair up and burn it as a symbolic gesture to becoming a new you. Then I could put warpaint on your face and send you off to destroy the bad guys!” she joked.

Lisa had to laugh at the image but she turned serious before getting up. “I’m sorry
, Dara. I’m sorry I treated you so badly back in school. I was a real bitch to a lot of people. I’m not that person anymore so thank you for being nice to me.”

Dara reached down and pulled Lisa to her feet. “None of us are the people we were in high school
, Lisa. In a lot of ways we are better people because of all of this. Come on, let’s go shock everyone and teach you how to use a gun!”

Lisa shivered at that but then squared her sho
ulders. She was ready to fight.

Shock was exactly what they got when they left the camper. There were double takes and mouths dropped in awe. Lisa couldn’t help but blush as all eyes stared at her and she kept reaching up to touch the downy soft hair that was left. She made her way over to the picnic table where the homemade map was spread out. She lowered her head over it and studied it to avoid the attention. Emily came over and touched her hand. When Lisa looked up her friend was smiling.

“I love it. You look amazing and fierce.”

Lisa smiled back but was jolted by a wolf whistle. Josh stood on the other side of the table with his goofy grin.

“Wow, Lisa, I’m not ashamed to tell you that you scared me a little bit before all this happened, but now you terrify me! I can see you with two pistols strapped to your thighs and red, red lipstick. Kicking ass and taking names. Damn girl, you look hard core dangerous!”

She was laughing and shaking her head at his over the top compliment. “I just want to help fight and being dragged around by my hair is not very helpful
,” she explained.

Josh was n
odding emphatically. “Just nail them with that disdainful look you have patented, and they will run away whimpering!”

Lisa blushed again and turned back to the map.

“Can I help with this? There are a lot of walkways that run between and behind these houses that we might be able to use.” She ran her finger over the map through the areas she was referring to.

Quinn had stepped up to the table and was nodding his head.

“Anything you can fill in is helpful; the more detailed the better. Who knows when we might need a quick getaway? From what Cooper found out, we don’t think these guys are local so this is our home turf and that will give us a small advantage.” He looked around at the others and then up at the dimming sky. “I think we should stay put for today and lay out what we want to do tomorrow. We still need to search for supplies at the campground and we are going to need more shelter for all of us. I think we should find somewhere in that storage compound to hide at least one of those trucks and it would be nice if we can bring back another small camper so we all have a decent place to sleep. We will also need more food.” Quinn paused for a moment in thought before continuing.

“We all agreed that rushing into town was a bad idea and we planned on scouting out where everyone is and trying to get a rough estimate of how many men are holding the town. We need information and I think the longer we take to find these things out, the harder it will be on all of us so…I think we need to split up. We should split into teams of two and take different areas of the town and farms where people are being held. Another team should hit the resort and get as many supplies as they can. What do you guys think?”

Everyone was standing around the table at that point and there were serious nods all around. Cooper looked at the map before offering his opinion.

“
I agree. If what Buddy said was true, then almost everyone in town will be at the community center so we should be able to sneak around without too much trouble. It would be great if we could find out where these guys are staying. I think that I should go into town with Dara. We both know our way around and we know how to get out on the pathways if we need too.” He looked to Dara who was nodding. They had both spent many years walking the town as they didn’t have parents who were interested in driving them around. They would make the best team to scout it out.

Alex looked at Quinn and frowned. “Quinn, I think you are going to have to do the resort. Your leg is much better but it’s not up to running and crouching. You should take Lisa and get the supplies. Hopefully you guys won’t have any trouble but the resort looked pretty deserted. You should be ok
ay in there with just the two of you.

“
Josh, David, Emily and I will scout the farms. I think David and I should be a team and Josh and Emily should pair up.”

David frowned and started to shake his head as he put his arm around Emily. Before he could protest, Alex explained.

“David, Josh and I have more experience with the assault rifles and we’ve been in a few shootouts now. I know you guys had just as hard of a time getting back here but this morning was the first time you have had to deal with these types of people and I can’t stand the thought of losing you guys. Both you and Emily can handle a rifle but if something goes wrong it would be better if there was a gun with more stopping power with you. I also think that Josh and I have a better handle on what needs to be done if we do get caught,” she said the last softly.

David looked at her in disbelief. “
So what, you guys are hard core killers now? Give me a break!”

Alex felt her cheeks grow hot at his words. She loved David like a brother
, but he had no idea what he was talking about. After hearing about their journey home, she knew he hadn’t had to handle very much violence. Emily and Lisa had. She stared him down until he had to look away.

“David, I know what happened this morning was hard on you and I’m sorry we are now in a world that is filled with violence. None of us are
'hard core killers'; we are survivors. Here is the reality that you need to face. Those men holding our family are using them as slaves and probably doing evil things to them. I know those types of men because I have already killed many of them. They are not going to sit down and have a chat with us and then let us go. We will have to fight them and likely kill some or all of them to free our families. If you can’t handle that then you need to stay here and let us get the job done.”

David’s face was pale at her words and Emily turned and cupped her hand alongside of his face. When his eyes met hers
, they were filled with sorrow.

“Listen to me
, David. I have killed three men in the last month and every one of them wanted to hurt me. A piece of my soul will always carry a scar from it but I can live with that. We didn’t do anything wrong and we are good people. These men aren’t. They prey on the weak and innocent and they need to be stopped. There’s no one coming to help us, so it’s up to us to do it. If I have to, I will kill every single one of them to free and protect my family and friends. Alex is right. You don’t have to go with us but you also need to remember that your mother and sister are in that town and if you get caught by those men because you couldn’t bring yourself to kill them, then they will have one less person fighting to free them.”