Beyond the New Horizon: The Last Sun, Page 5

  Sam shook his head, and with help from Willy, he stood up. “Nope.”

  “Good,” John turned to look around. Gina watched him as he looked at everyone. She wasn’t sure of the attitude he was showing because she thought it was a direct conflict to his previous demeanor. At the ranch, he’d been convinced that no one was out to get them and accused Sam of being paranoid, but something about him had changed. She had no idea what could have happened on their journey, but whatever it was, he seemed to have developed a different, more tolerant attitude.

  John took charge of gathering the bodies, and the death count totaled twenty-three. While their side had two minor injuries; Journey to her forehead and Joe to his shoulder, when a tree limb had poked him.

  A total of two motorcycles, seven four-wheelers, and one three-wheeled ATV had been the delivered to them courtesy of the invaders. John and Willy checked them for gasoline and discovered that many of them were almost empty.

  “What are we going to do with them,” Joe asked.

  “Leave them, they’re going the way of the dinosaurs. We haven’t any gas other than what’s in them,” John answered.

  Joe frowned, “I meant the bodies. We can’t leave them lying around. By this afternoon they’re going to start stinking.”

  John pursed his lips and looked at the closest body, “Maybe we should load them up and drop them off where they came from?”

  “Load them up in what?”

  “That is a dilemma.”

  “Might I make a suggestion?” Willy asked as he walked up to where Joe and John were standing.

  “Sure, we’re open to suggestions.”

  “We could go and bring the wagons down. I’m sure that Sierra and Olivia are wondering where we are. They’re probably worried we’ve been gone too long, and neither Sierra nor Oliva could be called patient people. I’d be surprised if they both weren’t chafing at the bit.”

  Gina and Jesse walked up to hear Willy speaking. “That’s exactly what Jesse was just telling me. We need to get back to where we left them.”

  “And where would that be? Please tell me they aren’t back at the campsite we left you at,” Sam asked.

  “Of course not. They’re not far from here, just the other side of the burned down store.” At the expression on Sam’s face, she added, “And they’re well concealed.”

  His facial muscles relaxed, “Okay. You, Kenny and I can go get them.”

  “What are we waiting for,” Kenny said, eager to see his girlfriend.

  “And the rest of us can get this mess cleaned up,” John said.

  “And don’t forget to…”

  John held his hand up to stop Sam, “I know, check them for anything we can use. I may not catch on quick, but I do catch on. You go and do what you have to, and I’ll take care of this.”

  Chapter Five

  Lucas had come down from the eagle’s nest and was disappointed to have missed out on the action. When he’d seen the pile of bodies, he realized how lucky he had been. He and Sherry couldn’t see directly below them but had spent the time watching both directions on the road. They had seen the arrival of the last men but had no way to warm Sam that they were caught in a crossfire situation. Then, with the appearance of Willy and Gina, they had set the new men up in a crossfire of their own. While he and Sherry had heard the shots from directly below them, they’d had no idea which side was winning until the shooting stopped. As much as he wanted to know what was going on, Lucas knew better than to leave their post until someone called out to them to say it was okay to come down. Even when his mom said it was clear, Lucas had asked Sherry to stay and keep an eye on the road.

  He came out of the Cave just in time to see Sam, Gina and a guy he didn’t know getting ready to mount their horses and ran over to Sam.

  “Uncle Sam, can I go with you?”

  “Are you supposed to be doing anything else?”

  Lucas frowned in thought, “I don’t think so. Mom said to come down, and Sherry is up watching the roadway.” He looked at his father, “Am I?”

  John nodded, “Go ahead, but unless you plan on running all the way, you might want to borrow a horse.”

  “We need to take Joe, Sailor, and Sham back to pull the wagons.”

  “Wagon’s?” John asked in surprise. “What wagons? You guys brought the animals with you?”

  “Willy’s wagon, and a buggy full of supplies and the cart with the goats and chickens.”

  “And the rabbits,” Willy added. “Don’t forget about Olivia’s rabbits.”

  Gina laughed, “How could we forget them, and we shouldn’t forget about the two surprises we had delivered along the way either.”

  “If momma Gus will let anyone near them. I swear that donkey guards them as if he were the proud papa. In fact, if you think about it, he hasn’t made so much as a peep or been his normal pain in the butt since their arrival,” Journey said. Someone had dressed the wound on the side of her head with a small bandage, and it stood out against her tanned skin.

  Without further ado, the four set off while John and the others watched them leave.

  “I can’t believe they made it here with the animals,” Mary said. “You know it means we’ll actually have fresh eggs and rabbit is delicious.”

  “You mean we’ll have more mouths to feed.”

  “Oh John, do you always have to bring up the downside of every situation? Just for once, please see the benefits of having them.”

  “But Mary…” She had turned and walked out into the sunshine. John stared at her because he had never known Mary to take sides against him. When they had first married, she had said that no matter if she thought he was right or wrong she would always back him. “Until now,” he muttered.

  “Come on kids, we have plenty of work to do. We’ve got animals to feed and pens to build,” Mary’s voice sang out.

  The sun was beginning to set by the time the buckboard and buggy rumbled up the road. Willy reined the team up outside the entrance. Sherry had spotted them as they came through the trees and alerted her Dad. John and Matt met them in front of the trees.

  Matt ran to help Olivia who was sitting on the front edge of the goat cart. As soon as he ran up, he stepped back and covered his nose with his hand, “Oh my God…how do you stand the smell?”

  Olivia glared at him, “They can’t help it. How do you think the rabbits and chicken’s feel having to smell that nasty goat the whole trip? Now you can either help me get them off the cart or go away.”

  Matt hadn’t expected such a pretty girl to be so ill-tempered but knew he was supposed to help her. “I’ll help, it’s just they all smell so bad.”

  Olivia stepped off the cart and laid the reins on the front edge. The little sorrel mare dropped her head as if she could lower her muzzle below the stench. More than once, Olivia had gotten down from the cart and led the horse because of the smell, but Olivia took offense because of Matt’s attitude. Did he really think she liked the smell or didn’t notice it and maybe he found himself above caring for the animals? Whatever his problem with them was, besides the smell, gave Olivia enough reason to take an immediate dislike to him and his arrogance. She had to admit, he wasn’t hard to look at, even as disheveled as his appearance was. She wondered if he was one of the big shots from the football team who thought he was above the rest of them.

  Olivia faced Matt, “Look, if you find them so offensive, go away. I don’t need your help. Just remember the next time you want eggs, or milk or rabbit stew how bad they smelled, and it’ll leave more for the rest of us.”

  Matt threw his hands in the air, “I didn’t say I wouldn’t help…Geez! Why are you acting so prickly?”

  Gina saw the sparks flying between the two teens and wondered what the problem was. She had thought that with Abby showing preference to Lucas, that Olivia and Matt would naturally be drawn to each other and even though they were young, the four young people had few options.

  “Problems?” Gina asked as she walked o
ver.

  “Naw, I was offering to help, is all.”

  “And I don’t need his help.” Olivia went to the back of the cart to untie the billy goat. He turned his horns toward her, and she batted them away. “Don’t even think of it mister or I’ll leave you tied right there.”

  As much as the stink made Olivia want to gag, she wasn’t going to let Matt see the effect it had on her. She untied him and went to drag the goat away from the cart when Matt pulled the rope from her hands.

  “I said that I would help you and I meant it,” he said through gritted teeth. He was trying to not breathe in as he spoke. He pulled on the goat, and it planted his feet, its neck stretched out as Matt pulled. Matt turned his back to the goat and began the task of dragging him inside the cave. When he heard a giggle from behind him, he turned, scowling at the voice. The goat immediately stood up on his hind feet and aimed his horns at Matt, he stepped away just as the goat landed right where he’d been standing. “What the hell?”

  “Just drop the rope, or he’ll do it again. You have to be smarter than him to get him to go where you want. Watch this.”

  Olivia helped the female goat from the cart and led her toward the brushy entrance with the two younger goats skipping along behind her. The billy began pulling Matt, intent on catching up with his family. Matt let go of the lead line and stared as the billy followed along behind.

  “You could have said something!” Matt grumbled.

  Gina laughed, “He’s too big to manhandle, you have to use some finesse to get him to do what you want, and she’s had some experience fighting with him.”

  Matt reached in to help Gina unload the cage with the rabbits. The chickens had been trapped in the front of the cart, by chicken wire and he wondered how they were going to unload them because they had no cage around them, but sat on an improvised perch.

  He lifted his end of the hutch and followed Gina. He realized the rabbits didn’t smell as bad now that the goat was gone. The pen had dried grass in the bottom of the cage, and it appeared to be fairly clean. “These guys don’t smell so bad.”

  “Neither do the chickens. It was all the goat. Even the momma and babies don’t smell as bad as that old billy.”

  “I guess I overreacted then, huh?”

  “You could say that, but building some new pens for these guys would go a long way to making it right with Olivia.”

  “Out of what?”

  “In the buckboard is a roll of cage wire we brought just for this.”

  “I guess it would beat cutting and stacking grass. Not that I want to score points with her.”

  “You do realize that cutting and drying grass is the only way we have to feed the livestock when the snow hits? Without the horses, we’ll all be walking.”

  “We used to turn our horses out during the winter, and they always found something to eat.”

  “But didn’t you also feed them hay?”

  “Yes, but…we didn’t have to cut, dry, and stack it.”

  “Well, sure you did, only you had machines to do the work. Now, we’ll have to do everything by hand and if it means we have to work sun up until sun down to provide for them, we will.”

  By the time they had all the animals safely penned in, Mary and Evelyn had supper ready. It was only beans and rice with the meat from the pheasant mixed in, but everyone agreed it was the best meal they’d had in weeks.

  The things from both the buggy and the buckboard had been unloaded and stored in the cave with the sorting left for the next day.

  As soon as the plates were empty, John called for a meeting. When Evelyn and Mary had gathered the dishes and moved to go into the cave, where they had set up a kitchen of sorts, John informed them, “This is a required group meeting with everyone attending.” They both had their hands full and lifting one hand to show she needed to set them down, Mary followed by Evelyn continued inside.

  John paced inside the circle of people waiting for Mary and Evelyn to appear. As soon as they’d sat down, he began, “I know this is something that we are not prepared to deal with, and we said, in the beginning, there shouldn’t be one person who led our group. We said we would hold a council for our decisions with everybody having a say in what happened.” When Sam held his hand up to have a say, John stopped him, “Give me a minute more.”

  Sam dropped his hand and waited. He thought he knew what John was getting to, but he wanted to have a say. He would wait and was surprised by what John said next.

  “We need a leader. One who has the knowledge and skills to make the important decisions and that person isn’t me. So, maybe you guys could put your heads together and come up with a name.”

  John sat down beside Mary and reached for her hand. He had already told her, that he couldn’t handle the responsibility. He didn’t think he could make unbiased decisions when it came to the involvement of his family members.

  No one talked or shared ideas it became clear they had no idea how to go about electing someone to lead the group. Finally, Lucy stood and scanned the people meeting each of their eyes with hers.

  “I don’t think there is one of us who can send our friends or family out, knowing there is a chance that they won’t come back. After today, our lives have changed more than any other time since this began. We do, however, find ourselves in a unique position.”

  Lucy waited for her words to sink in. As soon as she’d breached the cave entrance and had it confirmed by Lucas that there was only one way in or out she thought it was the perfect place for them. They had the eagles nest for surveillance and protection from the outside. The cliffs on either side would keep anyone out because of the sheer steepness on the outside. They could be scaled from their side because of the gentler slope. It would take time and care, but climbing up them could be done.

  When people began to become restless, she realized she’d been lost in her own thoughts for a long time.

  “Sorry. What I was thinking is that we should use a popular vote in big decisions, but for everyday matters, we should all have a say. What we do need is an advisor. Someone who has the skills and conscience to guide us correctly. So, having said my piece, I’d like to nominate Willy.”

  Lucy sat down and began massaging her knee. Ben reached for and squeezed her hand. He knew her well enough to know that she did it out of habit when she was nervous or upset. She had told him, that she still had the sensation of her foot being itchy and the urge to stretch her toes. It was like her leg and foot were still there, but she couldn’t see it.

  Willy sat with a frown on his face. He was puzzled, by Lucy’s statements. He had tried to remain in the background, supportive, but not overly assertive. He didn’t understand why Lucy would put his name forward. They didn’t know him, so how could they trust him to make decisions for the benefit of the group.

  “I’ll second the nomination. I know we don’t know Willy all that well, but I explicitly trust him to make decisions, putting our best interests first and foremost, and he wouldn’t show bias like some of us would.”

  Gina sat down. She hadn’t realized that she’d stood up. Gina looked at Sam and wondered if she’d offended him by not putting his name out for consideration. She knew he would be head-butting John at every decision and was happy to have both brothers out of the equation.

  “I think we should sleep on it for tonight and get back together in the morning after breakfast,” Mary said. She patted John’s hand, “and now, Evelyn has created a little surprise for dessert.

  She’s made us a special dump cake out of the canned fruit Charlie contributed to our stores. However, it will be delayed for a short time while the girls wash our dishes, so we have clean ones to eat off.” She looked pointedly at John as if it was his fault desert had been delayed.

  Evelyn called Sherry and Maggie into the cave to take care of the dishes.

  “While we wait, let's clear up some of the business from today.” Sam looked at John, “what about the bodies? I saw you had cleared them out, but what a
re we going to do with them?”

  “We took them down the road. We have no way to bury them, and none of us felt it would be proper to burn them, but I guess that’s as far as we thought.”

  “String them up,” Willy said. “Hang them from trees lining the trail all the way to St. Regis. It might deter anyone else from thinking we will be an easy conquest and maybe leave us alone.”

  “That’s a little insensitive, isn’t it? Some of these men might have families, and then there’s the smell. Maybe we could dig a mass grave and bury them.”

  “John, I would say the only families some of these men had were their prison mates. The number of tattoos and their clothing indicates to me, that they are either escapees, or someone deliberately set them free from the prison. What we should really be concerned with is the guy or guys who got away.”

  “Come on Mark, we’ve killed so many of them, there can’t be many left.”

  Mark laughed without humor, “John, do you know how many prisoners there were incarcerated in the prison system just in Idaho? If someone turned all of them loose…” he shook his head a look of sadness on his face. “That’s not even taking into consideration the people who would naturally gravitate to someone who is promising to provide for them and hand them a license to do as they please. The few we’ve had to deal with would barely make a dent in their numbers. When one drops, there are ten more willing to step in and take their place.”

  “That’s not counting the women who are willing to drop all pretense of womanhood and are turning into monsters just the same as the men. I’ve met women who I wouldn’t want to face alone and who are as cruel as any man and some of them are willing to take up the oldest occupation known to man just for a crust of bread. We have to do something to put a stop to this, and I vote yes for Willy’s idea. We need to make ourselves, if only in theory, to seem as bad and as ruthless as they are.”

  Gina looked at the faces around her and saw repugnance, disbelief, and acceptance. “They have no idea of our numbers so they’ll either avoid us or rechallenge us if they don’t feel threatened by us. At this point they have no idea what we’re capable of and hanging those men from trees, may give them an inkling.”