Beyond the New Horizon: The Last Sun, Read online

  “Thank God,” Charlie whispered. Realizing that he was the only one to express his joy, added, “The others could still be alive too.”

  Sam clamped his hand on Charlie’s arm, “That they could. We’re not ready to give up hope yet.”

  Sam didn’t begrudge Charlie his children, in fact, he was glad they were alive because it did offer hope that there were safe pockets the others could be in. Charlie and Willy had found Evelyn and Kenny in one, and now Joe and Sierra, so it stood to reason the others could be safe also.

  He swallowed the lump in his throat because he already knew there were two who did not make it, but he wasn’t going to say until they had eliminated the possibilities for Jesse, Mary, and Ben. He hadn’t disclosed that he understood Morse as well as the next guy but felt it better to keep it to himself, as he was sure that Willy was doing the same.

  When a hand appeared in the opening, Sam helped Charlie pull Sierra through. She groaned when they dragged her over the rock and Charlie winced as if he could feel her pain, or maybe his body hurt as much as Sierra’s did. They helped the girl through and passed her to Kenny.

  None of them could miss the sound of falling rocks as Sam dragged Joe through the opening, followed closely by Lucas who dove through head first. Sam grabbed him as more rocks could be heard falling. With a puff of dust, the opening closed in. Sam had Lucas by his arm and kept moving backward until he felt someone grab his belt from behind and pull him along with Lucas away from the cloud of dust and falling rock.

  Outside, Charlie and Kenny rushed Sierra, half carrying her, to where Journey had set up her equipment for treating any injuries. Sierra’s hair hung down covering her face and even through the dirt, it appeared wet with fresh blood. While Kenny wanted to stop and check her injuries, Charlie hustled them along, not giving Kenny the time.

  Evelyn set a fresh tin can of water beside her and Journey dipped a tee shirt in to wet it, and wrung it out over Sierra’s head. She continued until the water ran clear of mud and only pink-tinged water ran down. Satisfied that she had cleaned it as well as she could, Journey parted the girl's hair to see the damage. Head wounds, no matter how insignificant always bled profusely, due to the number of blood vessels in the scalp. Sierra’s was no different. She had sustained an open cut on the top of her head, but without sutures or needles, it would be impossible to close it up. She folded a square of tee-shirt and pressed it on the wound, with instructions for Kenny to hold it firmly in place until she told him otherwise.

  She then turned her attention to Joe. He had been luckier than Sierra, in that he had only scrapes and bruises. Journey cleaned them as best she could and then sank down beside Andy.

  “I guess it’s a good thing that Joe knew Morse-code or we might not have found them.”

  Andy looked at her with a frown, “that was kind of sexist, wasn’t it? Assuming that it was Joe who used the code…what if I told you it was Sierra?”

  Journey glanced at him to see if he was serious and saw that he was. Without his hat, and with the seclusion from the sun had erased the tan line from his hat. He no longer gave the girls the giggles when he removed the ball cap he had replaced the cowboy hat with. He wasn’t the type of man she had thought she’d ever end up with, she had always seen a doctor or a nurse at the very least by her side. In later years, she had always thought that given her lack of contacts that she would remain single. Now, she had a cowboy and realized that as diverse as their personalities were, they somehow complemented each other. In spite of the catastrophic circumstances they had met under, she was as happy as she had ever been. They seemed to find some common ground in every conversation and her talents, being different from his, made their lives interesting. They found common ground in their mutual love of horses and their shared desire to see them all live. She had worked tirelessly alongside the kids when it came to gathering the grass they used for feed. The only person who had outworked all of them was Gina. Gina was determined that all of the horses would survive their confinement.

  Journey frowned, she had no idea where the horses were or the goats for that matter. They had been so involved with digging out the cave she hadn’t given the animals a thought. She looked around and didn’t see either Gina or Olivia. Sam was sitting with Willy, Charlie, and Joe. Charlie looked like a beaten man, and Journey wondered what the men were talking about. She nudged Andy and tipped her head in their direction, “what’s that all about?”

  “Seeing as I have been sitting all this time, I don’t know, but I can see that you want me to find out, so hold my chair, and I will return.” He arose, and Journey watched him walk off.

  Like the rest of them, Andy had continued to lose weight and had used his pocket knife to drill new holes in both of their belts. The adults hardly carried enough weight to hide their bone structure. Evelyn, who could only have been described as portly, before the snows came, had withered away to skin and bones and Journey had to wonder if she was eating her share or was she slipping it to the kids when no one was paying attention. Of all of them, only Sherry retained her previous slim stature. Looking around at her friends, Journey was reminded of the commercials that had been meant to tug at heartstrings with the underfed people from third world countries. Now it appeared as if they lived in a third world country themselves.

  She thought about having Evelyn increase the caloric intake and almost laughed out loud when she realized the only calories they would be receiving was from the meat that had been left in the smokehouse and maybe the cattail bulbs if they could find any more.

  The book that she had gotten from her friend in Whitefish wouldn’t help them, nor could the handwritten notebook Carlos had made for them because it appeared as if the sub-zero temperatures and snow had decimated any chance of plant life surviving. All around her, all she saw was brown. Even the few evergreens had lost their needles and looked dead.

  A tear started in the corner of her eyes and hung on her lashes before it fell. They had survived the worst three months of her life just to starve to death. Journey scrubbed her cheeks, erasing all traces of her tears, “Not happening,” she said and went to find Gina. If they had to, they could survive on the goat meat and if it came down to it, horse meat.

  She tried to remember how long without vegetables and fruit a person could survive before scurvy set in. Could they make it until spring? What would happen to them if even the roots of the plants had died off and didn’t return? She wished she had the book because it contained valuable information on surviving during harsh times.

  When Andy walked up to the men, he heard Joe. Charlie's shoulders hung as if he’d just been dealt the killing blow.

  “Dad, if it weren't for Jesse, Sierra would have been crushed under the rock. He pushed her to me just before the overhead fell.” Joe’s voice was strained and quiet, and Andy was sure for Joe to have to tell his father that Jesse was gone was as painful to say as anything he had ever had to deliver.

  Charlie put his hand on Joe’s shoulder as if it could stop Joe’s words, but it was out in the open, and they would all have to deal with it.

  “So, I guess we’re it then. There’s no chance that Ben or Lucy could have survived?” Sam asked, but hadn’t directed his words at any one person. He had barely said them loud enough for the others to hear him.

  Abby threw herself at Sam, pounding on him with her fists and screaming, “You take that back. My Dad’s alive, and so is Lucy!”

  Journey jumped up and hurried over to where Sam was trying to wrap Abby up in his arms with little success. She swung indiscriminately and kicked at Sam as if her rage could make Sam change what he’d said. As Journey wrapped her arms around her, Abby collapsed on the ground, sobbing as if the volume of her cries could bring her father back.

  Her screams had brought everyone to the fire, and as if it hit them all at the same instant that Ben, Lucy, their child, Mary, and Jesse would no longer be a part of their family, the tears began to flow.

  Abby’s screams had brought
Olivia and Gina running up from the lower end of the valley, red-faced and panting from the unaccustomed exertion the two women stared in confusion.

  “What? We’re not giving up! They could still be alive.” Gina looked at Sam, “We’re not stopping. What the hell is wrong with you people? We don’t know that they’re gone. Lucy wouldn’t quit looking until she’d found all of us if she thought there was still a chance and I don’t think Ben would either.”

  Gina looked at the sorrow on Sam’s face. She felt the color drain from hers and her knees gave way. Gina slumped where she fell, “You do know don’t you?” She sat for several minutes, stunned by the nod that Sam gave her.

  Sam repeated everything that Joe remembered. Ben had been right behind Jesse when the roof collapsed, Joe had barely made out Jesse’s voice when he’d pushed Sierra toward him and only knew it was Sierra by the size of her and her leather bomber jacket that she never took off. He’d heard Ben yell for Lucy from not far away and he’d heard Mary’s voice calling out for John, then only the sound of rocks colliding as they dropped.

  No one ate or talked the rest of the day, each of them lost in their own thoughts and different stages of grief. Abby and Lucas had gone back to sit in the entrance to listen, but no one thought they would be rescuing anyone else. Too much time had passed, and with the additional collapsing of rock in the area they had already cleared, during the rescue of Joe and Sierra. There was no way anyone could have lived through it.

  Gina and Sam had wandered down to the horses. As much as they had fed the horses with the grass they had collected and dried, the animals were all thin. Gina wanted to cry when she saw bones showing through Sailor’s hide. They restlessly picked at the brown stubble, and several were stripping the bark off of the nearby trees.

  Snowflake, came up to Gina to nuzzle her, looking for the scraps of bread that Gina usually had in her pocket. The mare who had given birth to Snowflake and the dam of the colt looked worse than any of the others because of they had needed to produce milk for their foals.

  Sailor walked back to stand beside Joe and Bess as if he needed to give comfort to Joe. Gina could swear she saw the sorrow in the big gelding’s eyes as if he knew that Lucy was gone. Gina walked to the three horses who stood apart from the others and buried her face in Joe’s mane and let go of her tears. Tears for Lucy and Ben and for the little boy she would never know and for Jesse. Gina cried for Abby, Sherry, and Lucas, who would have to grow up without their only parents. She cried for all of them because right then, she didn’t see any of them surviving this latest disaster.

  How could they? They had no food, no shelter, very few guns and almost no ammunition for the ones they did have. They barely had enough clothing to keep them warm, and Gina wondered if any of them had the strength or courage to go on. She felt dead inside, and the burden on her shoulders was almost too much to bear.

  “It’s not all on you, you know. There is no way any of us could have predicted what was going to happen. If it helps you feel better at all, John, Willy and I have talked about the likelihood of more earthquakes. We all thought they were over. I promised John and Mark that I would see this through and look after their loved ones. We all lost someone we cared about today, and we have to find a way to go on for their sake. There’s not one of them who would have wanted it any other way.”

  As Sam talked, Gina gathered her feelings and listened to him. He was right, she had been ready to take the blame for the cave in and the deaths as if she could have foreseen any of it happening.

  Gina sniffed and dried her tears with the front of her jacket and looked around, “It’s not here though is it? This isn’t where we are meant to stay. It seemed too good to be true when we found it, Abby called it Sanctuary, but it isn’t really. We should have known from the ease that Lucas carved the stone away in his flue, that it could come crashing down around our ears.” Gina turned her swollen eyes to Sam, “What do we do now? Where do we go?”

  Sam looked around and saw nothing to hold them in the valley. The quake had opened up the box canyon almost as if it was pointing the way out and the direction it pointed was to the south.

  He sighed and put his arms around Gina, “No. I don’t think we can stay here, but I’m not sure if we can leave just yet. I don’t want to be on the trail and have it begin snowing again. We are ill prepared for surviving another blast like the last one. At this point, I’m not sure what to do. Whatever it is, we all need to have a say in what happens next. Let’s go back.”

  He tugged Gina along with him as he turned to go. She gave Sailor and parting rub on his forehead and wrapped her arm around Sam’s waist. She felt how thin he was through his clothes and knew they were all in sad shape and she wondered how far they could get, in the condition they were all in.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The remaining snow melted quickly over the next few days and a week later, other than everything living thing being varying shades of brown, it was like the mini ice-age had never happened. The sky remained blue with no hint of clouds.

  While the women and young people dug up the remaining cattails, the men used the wood from John’s smokehouse to shore up the entrance way of the cave. They moved the rock from out of the area to the right of the entrance and managed to salvage from their kitchen area. They avoided the fire pit area and sleeping quarters. A few pots and the dutch oven were deemed usable, and they found the crushed tin of seeds that Evelyn had stored.

  Each night they fell into an exhausted sleep around the fire. Sam and Willy butchered several of the chickens that had managed to survive, but Gina had drawn the line about killing them all. She used twine to tie up the rooster and two of the younger hens. The young goats were butchered, and the meat hung to dry in the smokehouse. Olivia’s rabbits had perished in the cave in, and she had never mentioned them again.

  Abby and Lucas had finally given up on listening for the voices signifying that someone else had made it, and barely talked to anyone. Charlie seemed to age more with every passing day until Kenny had loudly reminded him that he still had two sons who needed him. It had been an emotional confrontation between the three men, and everyone had felt the anguish of letting go.

  As if it had sparked something in each of them, they began to talk. Sam brought up the idea of heading south, while Charlie wondered out loud if they wouldn’t be better to head back to the ranch or to St. Regis. The reminder from Sam of how cold it would be, come winter, solidified the idea of heading for a warmer climate.

  As the days grew warmer, attitudes and outlooks for the foreseeable future improved, to the point someone would forget, and laughter would sneak out. Gina couldn’t help but think that something was still missing, besides the people who were no longer with them. She felt like they had unfinished business, but couldn’t put her finger on what it was. She commented to Sam and anyone who would listen, more than once that it wasn’t time to leave yet.

  On the fourteenth morning after the rescue of Joe and Sierra, Evelyn called everyone to the fire and announced something that had been on her mind.

  She stood in front of her captive audience with her hands on her hips, and somehow she had found her pink roller and wrapped her bangs up in it. She had abandoned her dress and wore a pair of pants they had pulled from the cave and one of Marks old flannel shirts.

  Evelyn looked around at each of them in turn, being sure to make eye contact with each of them, “Today we are going to lay our loved ones to rest.” She paused to let her words sink in. “We haven’t taken the time to properly say goodbye, and I think it’s time. We can’t leave here without saying something or at least acknowledging the ones we are leaving behind. I had Kenny make this for us to mark their grave.” She waved at Kenny, who got up and went behind the smokehouse. He returned carrying two short logs he had used twine to hold them together. When he stood beside Evelyn, he turned it to face them and held the sign up for everyone to see. On it were the names, John, Mary, Mark, Jesse, Ben, Lucy, and little Charlie. He
had carved them out with a pocket knife and blackened the letters with charcoal, and while the carving was crude, it was legible.

  “This sign will mark the place where we have laid our family to rest.”

  “That’s what was missing,” Gina said in a whisper. “We didn’t have a funeral or anything. It was like we were all just forgetting them and it didn’t feel right to me.”

  “We will never forget them,” Evelyn said, her voice cracking. She patted her breast, “they will always be here, in our hearts.”

  Sam nodded, “but first we have something to do. Everyone needs to help.”

  He got up and went to the pile of rocks and boulders they had piled outside the entrance. Sam picked up a rock, tossed it into the opening. He picked up another and handed it to Abby. She looked at it and tossed it in beside his rock. After each of them had thrown or rolled one in, they began picking up and throwing them all back where they had pulled them from. Without moving a wall of rock, there would be scavenging no more from the cave, and filling the entrance in was as therapeutic as filling in a grave. As they worked, they began telling anecdotes and funny stories about the people who were buried inside. They remembered them in their hearts, and the process made it easier to let go. When the entrance was covered, Willy placed the sign at the entrance to the cave, propping it with one final stone.

  With more energy than any of them had displayed the past two weeks, they returned to the fire. Eyes were red, and some were swollen and some still held tears, but now there were smiles around their fire for the first time since they’d escaped.

  Evelyn stirred the pot on the fire, and the aroma of chicken soup greeted them. They had recovered several spoons as well as a couple of forks from the rocks and sharing them, they ate from the same pot. It was only chicken, cattail bulbs and some of the smoked beef, but it was food for their souls that day. They shared stories until the sun was slipping behind the hillside.