Grabbing a hoodie from the backseat, she threw it on and bounced on the balls of her feet trying to generate warmth through the activity.
She had to hurry, though, because she wouldn’t last long in that cold, exposed like she was.
Going to the trunk again, she was about to unlatch the spare tire when a car horn blared. Spinning around, she saw a vehicle careening straight toward her.
Samantha leapt out of the way.
The car fishtailed all over the road and narrowly avoided hitting her stalled vehicle.
It kept going.
“Hey,” she muttered. “You could have at least stopped to see if I’m okay.”
Samantha started walking back to the trunk, but the ground was so slick she could barely stay upright.
“Explains why the car was having trouble.”
Tears began to stream down her cheeks. This was a hopeless situation. There was no way she could realistically change the tire. She didn’t have the first clue as to what she was doing.
With desperation setting in, she looked around. That’s when she saw an old building on her side of the road just about a hundred yards away. She’d completely missed that earlier!
It was tough to make out much detail, because the snow and ice were blowing something fierce now. But from what she could see, it was a gas station. There weren’t any cars around it, and it didn’t even appear to be open.
It was better than nothing, though. She could take shelter in there—even if she had to break a window to get in—and ride out the storm. Once it was over, perhaps she could call someone. Or maybe she could call 9-1-1 when she got in and see if first responders could reach her.
Either way, the building was her only hope.
She grabbed her stuff and slowly trudged toward the structure. As she went, she thought of Kendrick and her friends. She’d give anything to be with them now. But she only had herself to blame for the predicament she was in.
The predicament that just might kill her.
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” she whispered, hoping the words would somehow reach Kendrick’s ears.
“I’m sorry for everything.”
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.
