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Alex and Dara looked at each other and said in unison, “Hotel!”

“Ok, keep your eyes open for something after about an hour. There’s a junction coming up soon that we need to take north again and it’s going to be going uphill more so we’ll really feel the burn. We should try to be settled before it gets dark. With no street lights or business lights it will be hard to find anything after dark. So let’s fill up the bike water bottles and grab a power bar and hit the road. The longer we aren’t pedaling the stiffer our legs will get.” Quinn said, standing and folding the map that he handed back to Cooper.

Alex was glad that no one seemed to have an issue with Quinn taking the lead and was again thinking that Cooper was a good guy. Dara still confused her. They had spoken more today than in the past few years and she wondered again what had caused her to leave the group all those years ago. Maybe on this long trip home she would get a chance to find out.

As Alex was adjusting her pack, Cooper came over with a couple of T-shirts. “This should help for now but I’ll figure out something better when we stop for the night.” he said while wrapping the shirts around the shoulder straps and padding them to protect Alex’s sore shoulders. He tightened the straps, and in a surprising move, tucked a stray curl up under Alex’s hat stepped back and said “All set. That should help for now.”

Alex could feel the blush rising on her face and ducked down so her hat blocked his view. “Thanks.” was all she could get out. She could see his feet turning away so she risked a quick look to see if anyone had noticed the unexpected move and came face to face with Dara’s raised eyebrows. With her blush even redder she just shrugged her shoulders and started pedaling.

As the group got up to speed Alex let her mind wander. “What did that mean? Was he just being nice? Was he interested?” She felt like a silly girl that had just noticed boys for the first time. She had dated other guys and even made out a few times with them, so what was it about Cooper that made her so unsure and nervous. At that point Alex almost drove off the road so she shook her head and parked those thoughts for later, especially as she heard a small giggle coming from Dara behind her.

It was soon hard to think about anything except the road ahead and the burn in her thighs. She had lost all feeling in her butt a while back and counted that as a plus. They were definitely climbing higher and the pace they were going was slowing down. No one was talking, needing all their energy just to keep pedaling. It seemed like forever before Alex heard Josh wheeze out something. She hadn’t lifted her head to look around in a long time, concentrating on the road ahead so she wouldn’t run into any stalled cars. The road they were traveling on must not have been very busy this morning when everything stopped because the cars were spread out and most had just stopped. There weren’t any crashes either, so it was easy to navigate. They hadn’t seen any people around but after ten hours most would have walked away to find help. As she lifted her head and looked around she spotted what had gotten Josh’s attention. Down the road about a half a mile was an old looking motel. It was one story and the doors all faced the parking lot in front. There was an even older looking gas station attached to it and what looked like a mobile trailer off to the side. The group pulled up just before the entrance and scanned the building looking for trouble. At least half the room doors were open to let the light in and there were some people sitting at picnic tables at one end of the parking lot.

“I’m about done with this bike courier job. So I think this is home sweet home for the night.” Josh joked.

Quinn and Cooper exchanged looks and then shrugged. “I don’t see any bad asses over there, just some tired people so let’s check out the office and see what the deal is.” Cooper said.

They biked over to the office and as they were getting off of their bikes an older woman came out to greet them.

“Hello there...Why, you’re just kids!” the woman was surprised. “What are you kids doing all the way out here? she asked.

Quinn stepped forward and replied, ``Hello Ma’am, we are trying to get home but we`ve been travelling all day and can`t go any further. Do you have any rooms left that we could rent?”

The woman had a sympathetic look on her face and was nodding her head. “Yes, I do have a room left. It’s a double so it would be a tight fit for the five of you but that’s all there is. There have been so many people walking in from the highway. I haven’t been this full in years. There’s no electricity and the water isn’t flowing but there’s an old hand pump on the well back behind that you can use.”

“That’s wonderful.” Quinn said. “Is it ok if we take the bikes in to the room? I’m afraid if we left them out they would be stolen by morning. We would pay extra for that.” he asked with a boy next door grin.

The woman waved her hand dismissing that, “Don’t you worry about that. Take them in and keep them safe. It’s more important that you kids get home quickly than a little wear on old carpet. And don’t worry about paying me. If it was my own kids out on the road all alone I’d like to think that someone would do the same. Besides I’ve made more money today than I have in the last two months.” she said with a laugh. “Now what about food, it looks like you have some supplies in your little trailers, are you ok? I sold all the snack food and sodas to the other guests so I don’t have anything to offer you.”

“We’re just fine for food and thank you so much for the room. I can’t tell you how relieved we are, knowing that we will have a safe place to sleep tonight but please let us pay you. We have cash and it would only be fair.”

Alex thought Quinn was laying it on a little too thick with the charm so she quickly stepped forward and handed the lady some cash.

“Which room is still open?” she asked, flashing her dimples.

“Oh, just let me get you a key and a bucket. You can send one of these strapping boys to fill it so you can clean up. The toilets will flush if you fill the tank. Hold on, be right back.” and she turned back into the office. Alex gave Quinn an elbow in the ribs and rolled her eyes at his “Who me?” look.

The lady came back out and handed a key to Alex and a bucket to Quinn.

“There you go dear. It’s the last room at the end. You come see me if you need anything else. Have a good rest.” she smiled as they pushed their bikes toward their room.

The people sitting at the picnic tables were staring at them as they made their way towards the end unit of the hotel. An older couple and a mother and her little girl sat at one table with chip and snack bags and soda cans spread in front of them. The older man gave the kids a nod as they came closer. The other table had three men, one in a suit and two in dusty dirty jeans and tank tops. They were drinking beer and empty beer cans formed a pile on the ground beside them. The man in the suit was taking in the bikes and trailers with a thoughtful expression. The two greasy guys were giving Alex and Dara the once over. Alex felt a shiver go down her back at the leering looks and pushed her bike closer to the boys.

They got to the room and opened the door to a blast of hot, stale, cigarette tainted air. With no air conditioning and being shut up all day the hot California sun had heated the room up. Dara and Alex went in first and pulled all the curtains back and opened the front window and the small window in the back bathroom hoping for a breeze. The only thing that really did was give them some natural light to see the inside of the room. The girls moved the small table and chairs out of the way so there would be room for the bikes and then helped the boys bring them in and squeeze them into the front area of the room. This worked easier once Josh and Quinn unhooked the trailers from their bikes. It was so hot in the room that they were all sweating in minutes. Cooper grabbed a pillow and started fanning it back and forth in front of the door trying to get some hot air out of the room. He kept it up for a few minutes and then gave it up as a lost cause throwing the pillow back onto the bed.

Quinn went to the door and looked out as everyone slumped down on the beds with aching muscles. “I don’t like the looks of those beer drinkers out there.  If we are going to have problems, it will be from them. I think we’ll have to post watches tonight just in case. Can someone make sure the bath tub is clean? I think we should fill it up now with the bucket so we won’t have to go out back later. Once it gets dark, I don’t think we should leave the room. Our bikes are worth gold right now and our supplies even more.”

“The way those guys were looking at Alex and I, it wasn’t the bikes they will be after.” Dara said with a grimace.

“Good point. You and Alex should stay inside so they aren’t tempted to start anything.” Quinn said with a frown.

“Sounds good to me, you big strapping boys can fetch our water and Dara and I’ll stay here and paint our toes!” Alex teased.

As if planned, the three boys lifted their arms and flexed their biceps in muscle men poses. After the laughter had died down Josh said, “How about you little women make us men some dinner?”

“Oh yeah, that would be great. I’m starving.” Cooper chimed in.

Quinn was nodding his head too but then stopped to think, “We can’t have anything hot. The smell would let everyone in this place know what we have. They probably only have snack food and the smell of hot food would draw them right to our door. So it will have to be a cold dinner.” Groans all around answered that. After the work they did getting this far, they all wanted a good hot meal but they wanted a fight even less.

Quinn and Cooper went out with the bucket, leaving Josh to guard the door. Alex used some of her water bottle and a hand towel to wipe the bath tub out and made sure the plug was pushed in. The toilet still had water in the tank so it was good for at least one flush. They would have to remember not to flush it after every pee or they would go through the water very quickly.

Of the five one gallon jugs that they had brought from the camping section, half was already gone. They would fill them up in the morning and try to keep them filled every chance they found water. Five people on bikes went through a lot of water and Alex was worried about the next couple of days. The route they had planned would take them past Las Vegas and it was in the middle of desert country so water would be very important and she was worried that they wouldn’t have enough.

Leaving the bathroom, Alex saw Dara pulling beef jerky and trail mix from the trailer, covering the freeze dried camping food with a sleeping bag so it couldn’t be seen. Alex got out one of the camping stoves and fuel and a pot so she could boil water. Even though they weren’t going to eat a hot meal they could have hot water to clean themselves up with and a hot drink.

Quinn and Cooper came in with a full bucket of water and went to pour it in the tub. Coming back into the room Quinn said, “This is going to take a lot of trips. That barely covered the bottom of the tub.”

Alex followed them to the door and saw Quinn approach the table with the older couple and mother and child. After some conversation the man got up and headed to a different room. He came out with a bucket and went into the room beside his and emerged with another bucket. He handed his extra bucket to Cooper and the three disappeared around the back of the hotel. Loud laughter drew Alex’s attention to the other table and she saw the three men still drinking. It seemed the pile of empties had grown and Alex wondered if the men had carried the beer from where ever they had been stranded. She saw that they were looking her way so she quickly backed into the room. She found herself hoping that they would drink so much that they would pass out and not cause any trouble.

It didn’t take very long for Quinn and the others to come back with three full buckets of water and the tub was filling up faster. After one more trip the tub was half full and they decided it was enough for the night.

“We’re going to help Mr. Thomas fill his tub up now. They’re going to share their room with the mother and little girl out there. So give us about twenty minutes and we’ll be in for the night.” Quinn told Alex, Dara and Josh.

While they were waiting Alex and Dara used the steaming water from the camp stove and some hotel soap and wash cloths to clean off the dust and sweat as best they could. It wasn’t a hot shower but after putting on clean shirts, they felt much better. Alex swapped out Josh from the door and he handed her his gun. She made sure the safety was on and tucked it into a pocket of her cargos. She stayed back from the door but had a good view of the drinking table. The older woman and mother and child had gone back into their room so the men were the only people outside that Alex could see.

On one of their earlier pit stops, Josh had gone over the basics of handguns with her and she felt more confident carrying it. It wasn’t that different from a rifle and Alex was a great shot, having hunted with her Dad and done target shooting with her brother.

Josh had used the last of the hot water to clean up so Dara refilled the pot and set it on the stove for the other two boys to have hot water. The room only had two coffee cups beside the now useless mini coffee maker but they could take turns having a hot drink after they ate their meagre supper. While waiting for the boys to return, Dara and Alex set up the small table between the two beds for more seating and placed the food and drinks as well as the map on it. It was getting dark outside when Quinn and Cooper finally came in and emptied one last bucket full of water into the tub. Alex was surprised to see the time was almost eight o’clock at night. As the two boys got cleaned up with the hot water she got out the lantern and a fat camping candle from the trailer and lit it. Alex went to the door and took a quick look out, noting that the beer drinkers were gone. She shut and locked the door and then pulled the heavy curtains closed. It wasn’t nearly as hot in the room as when they first opened it up but it was still very warm. Having the door open had helped to keep it cooler but Alex felt safer with it closed and locked now that it was getting dark. By the time she got the lantern lit everyone had gathered at the table to eat.