The First Hours Read online

  Ryan licked his lips, “Ice-cream would be good right about now.”

  They stopped at the foot of the on-ramp to the north-bound interstate. Ryan touched Teagan’s arm and nodded toward the cars on the other side of the overpass. He let his held breath out when the few people standing watching them, scurried off when they saw they’d been spotted. Ryan wondered what had made them skittish enough to cause them to run and hide. They were adults, and he and Teagan obviously weren’t a threat, but these people seemed afraid of them. Ryan could understand the homeless people being wary of strangers, but these didn’t appear to be homeless, just stranded.

  After the altercation with the fat man, Ryan didn’t trust anyone and felt that he and Teagan, with their backpacks, would be seen as targets. The backpacks obviously contained something, and while they had used some of Teagan’s resources on Maddy and the kids, they were still bulky and visibly carried something. It may not be apparent what was in them, but he wouldn’t put it past anyone to want whatever they held. The best thing they could do was to move on.

  “Let’s go,” he told Teagan. “I don’t think we want to pique their curiosity.”

  “Why are they trying to hide from us?”

  “I have no idea, and I don’t want to find out. We’re going to have to be more proactive when we pass other vehicles. I don’t want to take a chance of someone jumping us.”

  “I didn’t like the feeling of being under a microscope. That was kind of creepy. Maybe when we stop, we should repack our bags. We could divide everything up between the two in case we were to lose one. And then you would have both hands free just in case.”

  Teagan was right. The shopping bag he carried was less than full, and he’d forgotten he carried it. If they could downsize into just the backpacks, it would allow him more freedom and putting a little of everything in each of the bags made sense. He didn’t plan on letting anyone rob them, but he couldn’t predict what could happen. He sure hadn’t expected the fat guy to accost him like he had, and it could have ended far differently had it not been for Teagan. He wasn’t going to put himself into the same position again if he could help it.

  “As soon as we find a safe place to stop, we’ll fix them, but we should walk as far as we can. It’s going to be dark soon.”

  “Didn’t you say we should walk when it’s dark? We aren’t that far from Salem, and I was thinking…”

  “That can’t be good,” Ryan teased. At the frustration on Teagan’s face, he added, “I’m sorry that was rude. What are you thinking?”

  “And you’re an ass too, but seeing as you apologized, you’re forgiven. A friend of my Dad doesn’t live far off the freeway. We could go to his house.”

  She hadn’t said how her father knew the man she was thinking of, but he had a basement gun shop, and she knew he sold guns without the hassle of registering them. Her father didn’t know she understood what was going on when they’d gone visiting. Being an officer of the law should have prohibited him from buying from Eric, but for some reason, it hadn’t. She also knew that Eric was one of those people who some would say he wore a tinfoil hat, but now, she thought he may be one of the smart ones. He also was the reason her father bought from Wise Foods, and Patriot Supply and her Dad also haunted sales at Cabelas and Mountain Equipment. Wherever backpackers and hikers frequented also carried ready to eat meals.

  Teagan knew that because she had a backpack complete with some of those meals, clothing, extra socks, and a pair of her old hiking boots, in the trunk of her car that had been there since she’d gotten her driver license and began driving. Her Dad always referred to it as her get home bag and, but she’d called it a pain in her butt every time she had to explain the bag whenever she used the trunk and friends were around.

  Nancy used to tease her about carrying it wherever they went, but she wished she had the bag now. It fit her shoulders and back, unlike the cheap kid’s bag on her back now. The straps were thin and rolled instead of being flat against her body as they were designed to and hurt her shoulders. Maybe once they sorted and repacked them the weight would be less. She thought she had the canned food in hers while Ryan had the boxed food and the little bit of fruit she’d bought. When she’d packed them, she hadn’t known she’d have company and planned on balancing the bags out one on her chest and the other on her back. She saw now, she should have balanced the weight at the time.

  Teagan stopped. Ryan almost ran into her. He grabbed her shoulders to steady himself and not bowl her over. “What? Did you see something?”

  Teagan turned to face him. Their noses were a mere few inches apart. Ryan stared into Teagan’s wide eyes, “What? Teagan, what’s wrong?” Ryan didn’t want to remove his hands in case she fell over. Ryan gave her a gentle shake, “Teagan, talk to me.”

  “My mom died today.”

  Ryan shook his head to clear his ears, “What? How do you know?”

  He was confused because he’d heard that her mother died when she was born. “Oh,” Ryan didn’t know what else to say. Was this a day of mourning for her? Did she celebrate her birthday? Ryan had no idea what to say. Console or congratulate…

  “Teagan! Teagan, wait up.”

  Tegan and Ryan turned to face the voice, “What the heck?” Teagan breathed. Weaving their way between cars were three people on bicycles. The girl in front would have been hard to recognize had Teagan not known her voice. She certainly didn’t look like the well put together girl that had abandoned Teagan, all for a good time at the bonfire.

  “And look who she brought with her…I guess that takes care of me having to worry about him getting home,” Ryan murmured. He sighed with exasperation.

  Teagan saw Ryan was right. Following behind Deena was a girl Teagan didn’t immediately recognize with Trevor behind them. She stared hard at Deena and realized if not for the girl yelling out her name, Teagan wouldn’t have known Deena either. Her beautiful platinum bob looked like someone had tried to shave it off. One side was close-cropped to her skull, and the rest stood on end. Her eyes so beautifully made up the day before, looked like a raccoon’s. The black eye makeup was smeared down both cheeks as if she’d been crying and rubbing her eyes. Gone was the nice leather jacket, and her clothing was not what she had left Teagan wearing. As soon as Deena drew close, Teagan could see that Deena’s hair hadn’t been cut off at all. It appeared as if she’d burned it off. Singed ends stuck up from her scalp, her ear was blistered and without the matching earing as in her other ear. The red tank top and black capris had been replaced by baggy gray sweats.

  Teagan had to grind her teeth to keep from slapping the girl. As she was watching Deena ride up, Teagan noticed she was no longer wearing the shoes. Deena’s previously perfect pedicure was scraped up, ruined by the flip flops she wore on her feet. The toes on her closest foot dripped blood, but Deena didn’t seem to notice.

  Straddling the bicycle, she grinned at Teagan, “Well, look who we have here. I thought that was you. Hi, Ryan,” she sang. She made the effort to look up and down Ryan’s body and smiled at him, “Bet you’re glad we came along. You’ve probably had your fill of miss prim and proper by now.”

  “Give it a rest Deena,” Trevor said, stopping his bike beside hers. Trevor practically devoured Teagan with his bloodshot eyes, “You’re looking pretty hot today, Teagan.”

  “Trevor, maybe you ought to give it a rest. Where the hell did you go? I looked all over for you last night.” Ryan saw the dismay on Teagan’s face and wished Trevor and Deena hadn’t caught up with them. He was going to have to keep an eye on Trevor the rest of the trip and if he got out of line, put a stop to it no matter what he had to do to keep Teagan safe.

  Trevor wiggled his eyebrows at Ryan and grinned, “Wouldn’t you like to know? You should have stuck around.” His suggestive leer when he looked at Deena left nothing to the imagination.

  When Ryan looked closely at Deena, he wondered what lay just beneath the surface. She looked like she wanted to either cry or climb into
a hole and he had to wonder if Trevor was behind her appearance. Ryan shook his head in disgust, “I had better things to do than sitting around drinking.” He looked at Teagan, “You ready?” She nodded yes and without preamble, turned and began walking. Ryan followed her, leaving the three staring after them.

  “Hey! Wait a minute. We can double up here,” Trevor called.

  Ryan waved his hand to show they were good. He was pretty sure Teagan would be offered the seat on Trevor’s bike, and he knew she wouldn’t be excepting it. Ryan didn’t want to ask where they’d gotten the bikes, because he was sure they had to have stolen them from someone else. Trevor never had more than two cents to rub together, so he didn’t buy them.

  “Maybe we should have taken them up on the offer,” Teagan ventured. “You and I could share one and Deena could ride with Trevor seeing as they seem to have perpetrated a relationship?”

  Ryan laughed, “Perpetrated a relationship? I think more like got drunk, and they did the deed. That’s not a relationship, but maybe we should. We’d cover more ground, and I’d like to get through Salem as fast as possible.”

  “You think they had anything to do with the fire at the gas station?”

  Lips set in a grim line, Ryan considered Teagan’s question. He didn’t think she had any idea that Trevor had always been fascinated with fire. His parents had always covered up and protected Trevor. Maybe her Dad, being a deputy sheriff knew about Trevor, but Ryan was sure his personal, as well as legal ethics, prohibited him from talking about it, especially to his daughter knowing she was one of Trevor’s classmates.

  “I hope not,” Ryan said. “I almost wish he hadn’t shown up and who is that other girl? Do you recognize her? Is she from your school?”

  “Never saw her face before in my life, but she’s wearing my shoes. Besides that, she looks way too old to be in high school. College maybe, but did you take a good look at Deena? I don’t want to sound like I’m passing judgment or anything, but she’s either drunk or high.”

  Ryan laughed softly, “And you were sharing a room with her? Somehow, I don’t see the two of you together.”

  “I wasn’t planning on spending time with her or anyone else. I was only going because there’s a lady I met online who was going to let me ride her horse. She was going to give me a couple of lessons.”

  “Well, shoot. I would have taught you to ride had I known you wanted to learn. All you had to do was to ask.”

  “Two reasons. One, I didn’t know you and two, I didn’t know you had horses. And besides that, didn’t you say you’ve been gone?”

  “Yeah, I was. I joined the Marines. I was all set to go too, and now I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

  From the corner of her eye and subtle glances, Teagan studied Ryan. Clearly, he was concerned about what would happen to him when he didn’t report. On reflection, she did remember Ryan from school, but he had been one of the upperclassmen and a jock. She’d always been under the impression that those who were involved in sports couldn’t be serious about furthering themselves scholastically. They walked around in letter jackets flexing their muscles instead of exercising their brains. Never had she thought it possible for them to have both. She thought the same about the girls too. The ones who had brains were never the ones who seemed to care about their appearance, and two of the girls; both cheerleaders, who had been pretty and popular were unwed mothers as seniors.

  She thought Trevor, the better looking of the two but getting to know Ryan better had given her a different perspective. Trevor was flamboyant and brash while Ryan was more subtle and caring, which made him the more desirable of the two brothers. Teagan decided right then she wasn’t going to get in the middle of whatever was going on between them. Her main and only goal was to get home as quickly as possible, and if it meant she had to share a bicycle ride, she would.

  A short scream behind them made Teagan turn around. Deena’s bike was lying on the ground with Deena sitting beside it. Both hands were wrapped around her foot, and Teagan could see the fresh blood. She ground her teeth together to stem her words. She wanted to ask Deena where her shoes were. If she’d been wearing them instead of the cheap rubber sandals, she wouldn’t have foot issues.

  “I can’t do this,” Deena whined. She pushed against the bike as if it were the bikes fault. “Trevor, you have to ride me.” She looked up at Trevor to see his reaction, “Riding these bikes was your idea.”

  “I’ll ride you alright,” Trevor told her, his grin having nothing to do with the bike. He pushed off and rode a circle around Deena and the other girl.

  “Don’t be so crude,” Teagan told him and went to help Deena. With a huff, Teagan dropped to her knees beside her. “Where are my shoes? If you’d been wearing them, you wouldn’t have this problem. What happened to you? Where are your clothes and your jacket?”

  Deena looked around and then down at herself as if she hadn’t realized or known how she was dressed. “I don’t know. Will you help me?”

  Teagan sighed, “Let me see your foot.”

  Ryan dropped down beside her. He had the roll of paper towels and pulled a sheet off. “Here.”

  Teagan cleaned Deena’s toes off as best she could. This wasn’t the first time she’d scraped them. She had scrapes that were crusted over with new scabs. Teagan turned her back to Ryan, “I think there’s some antibiotic cream in one of the outside pockets. Can you get it for me?”

  She waited while Ryan located the tube and rubbed some on Deena’s toes. She thrust the paper towel at Deena, “Wipe your face. You look like a raccoon.” She wanted to take the words back as soon as they were out of her mouth when she saw the confusion on Deena’s face. “Sorry, you’ve got eye makeup running down both cheeks.”

  Deena dabbed at her eyes until Teagan took the towel from her and holding Deena’s chin in her hand Teagan wiped the mascara off as best as she could while avoiding the freshly burned skin. Deena still wore the dazed expression Teagan had noticed when they’d first rode up to her and Ryan. It was like her eyes weren’t quite focused, and she over-exaggerated her eye blinks which to Teagan reminded her of a baby bird that had fallen from the nest. Teagan had looked after that bird until it died several days later. She hoped that memory wasn’t an omen.

  Teagan shook her head. Why would she even consider that Deena was going to die like the bird had? Even if she was right about what had happened, society couldn’t collapse so quickly. This was only the second day, and so far, nothing really bad had happened. Sure, the fat guy had attacked Ryan, but he hadn’t been the norm. Most people they’d seen had been active in avoiding any contact with them, and she suspected more were effectively hidden than they saw moving. People were instinctively afraid, and it didn’t matter that no one really knew what had happened just that something had shut down everything electronic. People were afraid of the unknown.

  “That’s going to have to do,” Teagan said as she got to her feet. She had cleaned and bandaged Deena’s toes with one band-aid and antibiotic cream on each toe. She held her hand out to help Deena up. “Come on. We can’t sit here all day.”

  Deena started to pull herself to her feet but jerked her hand away, “I want yours,” she said her eyes glued to Teagan’s Ariats. “You should have let me have them to start with,” she accused.

  Teagan’s mouth dropped open, “What are you talking about?”

  “That pair of cheap ugly-ass tennis shoes you stole my money for. You should have given me those,” Deena pointed at Teagan’s feet. “I can’t ride a bike in flip-flops, and I’m not moving until you give them to me.”

  “No!” Teagan told her. She walked to Ryan, “Let’s go. I’m not babysitting her any longer. She just wiped out any sense of responsibility I felt for her.”

  Teagan could see the conflicting emotions that flashed across Ryan’s face, and she wondered for an instant if she would be making the rest of the journey alone. It didn’t matter to her. She would divide up the remaining supplies with him
and find her own way home. They were still several miles south of Salem, and Ryan was right. They needed to get past the state capital before the next day. If she traded shoes with Deena, there was no way she could walk the 20 miles it would take to get around the city.

  “Hey! Where are you going? Teagan, come back here,” Deena’s voice rose into a screech. “Trevor, make her give them to me.”

  Trevor backed away his hands held out in front of him, “Leave me out of this one. I don’t care what you do, but I gotta jet.” He kicked up his bike stand and swung his leg over the bike. “Are you coming?” he asked the only person who had remained silent the whole time. The other girl stepped into her bike prepared to leave with Trevor.

  Teagan stared at the girl and moved to stand in front of her bike. With one hand on each handlebar, she prevented the bike from moving. “Take them off!”

  The girl frowned at Teagan then her face muscles tightened, “Move, or I’ll ride right through you.”

  “Those shoes and socks are mine. I loaned them to Deena, and she needs them back. Take them off.”

  “Hey, finders-keepers. I guess she should be more careful where she takes her things off then.” She put her weight on to one peddle to move the bike forward.

  Teagan shook the handlebars and refused to let her move, “I said, take them off!” Teagan was determined to have her shoes back, not that she would need them, but Deena did. While she was done with Deena, she wasn’t about to leave her stranded with nothing to wear on her feet. The girl was quite a bit bigger than Deena or Teagan, and Teagan hoped she didn’t have to physically fight the girl for the shoes, and if she did, she hoped for one of her ‘red moments.’ She’d only experienced seeing red twice in her life, and neither were fond memories for her. One was when a mal-nourished and beaten horse had been brought into the clinic, and the other was when she stopped some older kids from bullying a handicapped boy. When the girl began to climb off the bike, Teagan prayed for red.

  “Do it, Sandi. You know you took those shoes the minute Deena took them off and apparently they weren’t hers to leave lying around.”