Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
As it turned out, the door to the old gas station wasn’t even locked.
Samantha took a few moments to search it, worried that someone might be hiding out in there.
There wasn’t another soul around and from the looks of things, there hadn’t been in years.
The shelves were empty. A few of them were broken and sagging.
Random cans and other trash littered spots on the floor.
An old hot dog roller sat unplugged atop the counter, but thankfully there weren’t any petrified wieners left on it.
A cardboard stand advertised a snack that tied into a movie long ago released. It was possible the owner kept the display long after the film played in theaters, but Samantha didn’t find it likely. So she figured the store had closed at least ten or eleven years ago.
Walking past the checkout counter—where an open register sat, empty of money—she found one of the windows on the side was broken.
Snow was already starting to blow in through the jagged hole in the glass.
Looking around, she found a shelf that was about the right size to do the trick.
It scraped loudly atop the pocked, dirty floor as she scooted it toward the window.
Once it was lined up, it did a pretty good job of blocking the snow and ice, though some still blew in around the edges.
She kept going.
There wasn’t too much more to see. An open doorway—the door long ago removed—led to a windowless room in the back. Trash was piled in the corners. On one wall a broom rested against a dirty utility sink. She turned the knobs and waited a few seconds, listening and watching, but no water ever came.
She wasn’t sure she’d be comfortable drinking it even if it did work, so it didn’t really matter much.
If the storm lasted too long, she would need water eventually.
She had about half a bottle in the car that she’d bought at a convenience store in some little town between there and Los Angeles.
She’d left it in the cupholder, though, and there was a good chance it was nearly frozen now.
Besides, she wasn’t about to walk out in the storm.
As he came back into the front portion of the building, she looked out the windows and saw it was now a full-on blizzard.
“I could melt snow somehow,” she said, looking around to see if there was any way to start a fire—and a safe place to do it at.
Samantha would cross that bridge if and when the time came. Right now, she was safe and sort of warm. At least warmer than she’d be if she were back in the car.
Going back into the small room, she grabbed the broom and started sweeping. She was going to need a place to sit. And this was her temporary home for a while.
Might as well clean up a little bit, she thought.
The broom brushed loudly against the bare concrete floor. She barely heard it, lost in thought as she went about the chore. With all that had been going on, she hadn’t even realized what tomorrow was.
Christmas Eve.
She nearly sank into complete despair. The holiday was supposed to have been spent with Daddy and her new friends! Not holed up in some abandoned building in who-knows-where.
It was her choices that had led to this moment, she reminded herself. There wasn’t anyone else to blame.
The burden she carried was heavy.
Samantha didn’t know how she’d survive. The storm. And the guilt.
A shattering sound jarred Samantha awake.
She screamed and hopped up from where she’d been slumped against the wall in the back room. Her back hurt from leaning against the cinderblock. There wasn’t time to worry about that right now. Something was happening in the front of that old store.
Running through the door, she stopped just shy of the broken window.
The shelf she’d moved over it had toppled over and busted. The window’s glass had blown out further. Ice and snow were blowing in sideways, pelting everything loudly and making the already chilly temperature inside plummet to outright frigid.
Looking at her phone, she realized she’d been asleep for more than three hours.
During that time, the storm had reached epic proportions. The howling was ferocious. She shivered, as much from the sound of the roaring monster as the arctic blast.
The idea that she could ride out the storm probably wasn’t realistic. It was time to call first responders.
She dialed 9-1-1 but then disconnected the call before the operator even picked up.
Samantha had no idea where she even was! Could they trace her location? Maybe she could pull up her maps app and get a better grasp on what to tell them.
Of course, it would be hours before anyone reached her.
That was better than nothing, she figured.
“At least they’ll know where to find my body if nothing else,” she grumbled.
Her hands were trembling as she tried to pull up the app. More glass shattered. Now, it was a window in the front of the store that had blown out.
Snow was blowing in to her left and directly ahead. She’d have to retreat to the back room if she wanted to survive this thing!
She started to turn around, but stopped, hearing some sort of humming breaking through the savage wind.
What the heck was that?
It was hard to tell which direction it was coming from. The blizzard was blindingly disorienting.
More glass crashed. That wind was so sharp it was stabbing right through the brittle, ancient windows.
Screaming, Samantha put her hands around her head and crouched low as she scampered toward the back room. With the windows broken, snow would pile up in that front portion, and she might have to dig her way out when the storm passed.
If she was still alive.
Don’t think like that, Sam! Just keep going. One foot in front of the other. Survive!
The humming noise grew louder, becoming a rumbling growl. Against her better judgement, she turned just before going into the back room. Straight ahead, through the still-intact glass door and the shattered windows, all she saw was a churning gray and white whirlwind blowing about outside.
It almost seemed like a tornado!
She half expected the building to soar into the sky and swirl around in the air.
Through it all, though, she saw something appear that she wasn’t expecting.
Lights.
Just two at first. They were spaced out wide. But then a row of smaller lights between them and up higher appeared in the gray, spinning frenzy.
“What the—” She wanted to scream. Had a semi lost control on the icy road? Was it about to crash through the building and mow her down?
At least she’d die quickly. It was better than freezing to a painful end, she told herself.
But the massive behemoth stopped just shy of crashing into the building. The lights stayed on as it idled.
Samantha watched in astonishment as two figures appeared from either side of whatever was out there. Fear still gripped her.
Who were these people? What would they do to her?
One tried the door. She wondered if she should go unlock it for him, or would she just be inviting her own destruction inside? She was completely defenseless, isolated in an abandoned building in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime blizzard.
It didn’t really matter. They saw the glass windows had blown out beside the door and easily stepped through, their heavy boots crunching loudly atop the jagged glass shards and sleet on the floor.
The giant men were wearing heavy, fur-lined coats. With their hoods up and ski masks on, they looked quite menacing.
Until they lowered those hoods and peeled their masks off.
“Kendrick? Isaiah?” Samantha blinked, not beleiving what she was seeing.
Was this really happening or was she actually lying on the floor, freezing to death and hallucinating?
“Kendrick?” he said with a smile. “Don’t you mean, Daddy?”
She ran into his open arms. If it was just a dream, it was a sweet one, and she’d spend her last moments on earth in his embrace, even if it was just imaginary.
But the bitter cold that tore through that building with the next oversized gust of wind shocked her senses, letting her know that this was very real.
“You’re safe now, little one. Daddy’s got you,” he whispered.
“I’ll grab the gear,” Isaiah said.
Samantha heard stuff going on—boots atop the snow and glass, a door opening and closing—but she wasn’t sure what all happened.
A moment later, when Daddy finally let go of her, Isaiah had two large duffel bags.
They sagged as if heavy, but he still managed to toss one to Kendrick who easily caught it.
“That a back room?” Kendrick asked, jerking his head toward the doorway beyond the cash register in the rear of the store.
“Yes.”
“Any windows?”
She shook her head.
“We can camp out there. Come on, honey. We might as well get comfortable.” He chuckled as he led her back. “We’ll be staying the night here.”