Home: A Stranded Novel by Theresa Shaver Read Free Book Online Page A

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