Read Land for Free Online

wasn’t as filled up as it would have been later in the day. By the time the group got out past the parking lots and on to a main street, things were much different.
    There were car crashes everywhere and plenty of people screaming and yelling. Many people had bloody clothes and obvious injuries. There were no signs of emergency services. With all roads blocked with traffic accidents and no cars working, no ambulances would be coming. Off in the distance there were quite a few smoke pillars rising into the air. “No fire trucks” Alex thought, “We sooo have to get out of this city.” and she picked up the pace.
    “Do you know where we’re going? I saw that you had a map.” she said to Quinn.
    “Yeah, while everyone was talking Cooper popped into a souvenir shop and snagged one and he also grabbed a bunch of water bottles and snacks that the staff where giving away. He bought a cheap pack and stuffed it full. Smart guy, real quick on his feet that Cooper.”
    Alex looked back at Cooper and saw he was carrying a pack that looked like it would burst any minute. She flashed him another smile of thanks and glanced at Dara who just looked away. With a shrug she turned back to Quinn and asked, “Okay so where to?”
    “Well just up here we are going to hit a road called Katella Avenue. Then we go East on that until we come to a freeway called Orange or 57. That freeway should take us as close to the outskirts as we can get then we change freeways again. We talked about it and decided to try and take the main roads today to get as close as we can to countryside but if they are too packed with wrecks we might have to detour to smaller roads. The problem is the more detours, the more time we waste. So we just have to wait and see how bad the freeway is.” Alex nodded but was distracted by a group of bloody people up ahead.
    “We should try and help them shouldn’t we?” Alex asked, looking around the group for an answer. She was surprised by their grim expressions and silence. Finally it was Dara that answered Alex.
    “Mrs. Moore talked to us about this while you were saying good bye to Emily. She told us that we would see many people hurt and that we would want to help. She said that there would be tens of thousands of people who are hurt along the roads and if we stopped to help everyone we would never get out of the city and we would exhaust ourselves and put ourselves in danger. She told us if we could clearly see a situation where we could help quickly and then move on that that would be the right thing to do but otherwise just keep going. I know it seems harsh but looking around I feel so helpless. I mean where would we start and when would it ever end?” she finished with a small sob.
    Alex was about to drop back and offer comfort but she was surprised when Josh beat her to it. Not that Josh was insensitive, just that most times he was oblivious to others, especially girls. The pair dropped back a ways and talked quietly and Dara even gave a laugh at something Josh said to her. Alex turned back to the front and tried not to stare at the injured people they were passing. They had to go around a few cars that had jumped onto the sidewalk but it felt like they were making good time so far. They came to Katella and turned east. The road opened up and was wider than the one they just left. Alex could see many restaurants and big box stores. She kept her eyes open for a sporting goods store or anything that might sell bikes. There were just as many crashes on this street and they came up to a tangled mess of six cars all smashed together. There were three men working on pulling it apart. One of the men was half in a car and the other two were trying to push and pull a smashed BMW away from the smaller compact car that the man was halfway in. When the one man sawn Quinn and the others coming closer he jogged over out of breath.
    “Hey, can you kids give us a hand? There’s a little boy stuck in the smaller car and we