Beyond the New Horizon: The Last Sun, Page 6

  “Yeah, and next they’ll want to be joining up with us if they think we’re bigger and badder than they are.”

  “But Jane, there’s no such word as badder,” Lucy added.

  Gina, Journey, and Lucy burst into laughter. When Gina looked around at the surprised faces, she realized that only they had gotten the joke. “The orange juice commercial? Only they used the word gooder?” Gina shook her head while the other two women tried to sustain their laughter. “Never mind, a joke is no good if you have to explain it.”

  From the expression on Willy’s face, Gina felt sure that Willy had gotten it, but wasn’t going to indulge in laughter. He finally nodded and rubbed his hands together, “Okay, it seems we have a comedian in our midst, but let’s take care of this business. We’ll use the buckboard to take the bodies down the road, and when we’re finished, I propose we take the wheels off it and move it inside. It’s obvious it won’t fit through the opening with the wheels on.”

  Charlie, who had been sitting in silence, said, “We can move the rock we put there for our protection. It should be a wide enough entrance to get it through.”

  Willy nodded, “So, for tonight then, I think we’ll post a guard, not only for our safety but to keep an eye on our stuff. We should have unloaded it instead of doing whatever it was that we were doing. I’d hate to think what we went through to get it and then lose it to those guys.”

  Gina tried to think of what it was that had taken up the afternoon. Lucas and the girls had put together a pen for the goats, using the enclosure from the cart for a house of sorts, while she and Olivia had moved the rabbit hutch and chickens into their new home. They had unloaded the roll of chicken wire and made an enclosure for both the chickens and the rabbits. She had no idea how they would fair being in the same pen, but it was portable and could be moved as was necessary. The rabbits were free for now to eat the stubbly grass and couldn’t get out of it, and she had trimmed one wing on each of the hens so they couldn’t fly. The rooster was set free and wouldn’t leave his harem, just like the nasty billy who had been turned out, wouldn’t leave his family.

  She couldn’t remember the guys doing anything physical but re-hashing the battle. They had each seen what they’d done wrong and right, but from a different perspective, and while it had gone in their favor, Sam and the guys getting caught in a crossfire could have ended up far differently if Gina hadn’t disobeyed Sam. He hadn’t said anything about her and the others not staying where he’d left them, but Gina felt there would be an ass chewing coming at a later date. “No plans are set in stone,” she said and went to check on the horses. She needed some alone time, which seemed to be harder to find now that their family had had significant growth as of late.

  The family dynamics of the friendship between her, Lucy and Journey had been altered with the addition of their men. While they still had the connection, it had changed for all of them. They no longer looked to each other for moral support and guidance as they had before and Gina wondered if the other two women missed it as much as she did.

  Chapter Six

  Cornbread and beans were the fare for the morning and mostly eaten in silence. Evelyn and Journey had taken everyone’s duties, age, and size into consideration and doled out a portion into everyone’s bowl. Both Matt and Lucas had held their bowls out questioning the size of their serving.

  “This is it?” Matt looked at the bowl Evelyn still held in her hand, prepared to give it to Mark. “Why does he get so much?”

  “Because he has work to do this morning and you don’t.”

  “I have work too. I’m going to help with the bodies.”

  “Actually, you don’t. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you limping around here. What part of taking it easy do you not understand?”

  Matt lifted his leg and rotated his ankle for Mark to see, “See that? It hardly hurts at all.”

  “But it still bothers you, or you wouldn’t be favoring it, so for now, you can do the bidding of Mary and Evie.” Mark looked at Evelyn, and she nodded.

  “We’re going to start pounding down the bulbs from the cattails today, and it’s a sitting job that Matt can handle.”

  Matt stepped back in feigned horror, “that’s woman’s work. Please, can’t I help you guys today. I promise to use the crutch.”

  “Matt, we’ll take care of it, and there is no such thing as gender-specific work. We all do what we have to do, and if you don’t want to be regaled to doing dishes, I would suggest you be quiet and do as you’re asked.”

  Matt glared at Willy and those watching waited for Matt to protest further. At a look from Sam, Matt’s shoulders dropped, and with a disgruntled sigh, he turned to find a seat. He said something under his breath, but his words were drowned out by Gus.

  Braying loudly, Gus came jogging into camp and ran up to where Journey sat eating her breakfast. He used his head to push at her shoulder, “Gus stop it. You don’t see me out there trying to steal your food.”

  As soon as he realized there would be none coming his way he turned and jogged back to his charges. His self-appointed duties of guarding the new foals seemed to be more important than eating cornbread.

  “Well, that was a pathetic attempt at sharing. In the past, Gus wouldn’t have gone away, until he’d scored and he didn’t even try with Lucy or me, which is unusual.”

  “I think we’re back to being just people and he has a new love.” Lucy laughed and pointed as Gus ran between the two new foals as if checking they were okay in his absence.

  John tapped the side of his bowl, drawing everyone’s attention, back to the unfinished business from the night before. “Seeing as no one has had any complaints or protests to Willy being elected our leader, his nomination will stand.”

  Willy was sitting in his unvarying posture; his elbows resting on his knees looked up and nodded, “I’m not sure why you people think I am any smarter than the other men here, but I appreciate the confidence. However, I think I would like to have a council for guidance. I’d like Mary, Joe, and Mathew to bounce ideas off. I don’t feel right making decisions that affect everyone else without all of you being represented equally.”

  By the grin spread across Matt’s face, he hadn’t seen that coming. He elbowed Lucas, who was trying to finish his cornbread.

  “We’ll try this arrangement to see how well it works out and anyone who feels the need, can and will be replaced at either their request or if I feel it’s good for the council. Everyone needs to have a say in what we do.” Willy looked around the group and found by their expressions that they seemed amicable to him and his idea of the advisory council.

  Satisfied, he nodded, “Now our first order of business is the bodies. We need to get this done before they get to stinking any more than they already do.”

  Without a discussion of who would be going, Willy, Joe, Charlie, and Sam rose to their feet. Sam had told Gina that he would be included but was a little surprised when John and Mark remained seated. It was apparent that sometime the evening before the men had discussed privately who would be on the detail.

  It was noon by the time the men returned from their grizzly task. Nothing was volunteered about how they’d carried the operation out, and no one asked. Mary had hot water sitting in a tub for the men to wash up in and clothing laid out for each of them. All four men’s clothing was marked with blood and other stains that no one wanted to know the origin of.

  Now they had to decide what to do about the vehicles. After checking the tanks and siphoning the fuel into jugs, they had less than twenty gallons.

  “I think we should keep one of the quads for emergency use and save the rest of the gas for Marks chainsaw,” Sam told them.

  Mark shook his head, “can’t use it unless we have oil. It’s an old saw and needs the mix.”

  Sam frowned, “We have oil. We just need a container to drain it into. We can use it for other things too.”

  “Lucas, Abby, Kenny and,” Willy looked around, “and Sam. You gu
ys can help me with the quads, and the rest of you know what needs to be done. Let’s get to it.” Willy clapped his hands as if that was the cue to get moving.

  Lucy and Gina headed down to the horses. Gina wanted to check to be sure Gus was doing an adequate job keeping the babies out of harm’s way. In the future, the little colt could be the mainstay of their breeding program. It wouldn’t matter that they knew nothing of his breeding, or who his sire was. What did matter was that he was born a colt and could survive the next few years until he was old enough to sire the next generation.

  Not one of the adults thought there would be any other transportation methods in use, other than walking, horseback or bicycle and they had no bikes available. To put a damper on bike travel, the roads would soon be impassable to wheeled vehicles. As Lucas had pointed out that tires would get punctured with no way to either replace or repair them in the future.

  Gina had found a boulder to sit on while she lost herself watching the horses. Lucy walked down to get a closer look at Joe. Gina jumped when someone put their hand on her shoulder, and she automatically reached for her gun but came up empty. It was sitting on the box they’d set up for a gun cleaning station along with her 30/30 and Journey’s pistol as well.

  “Hey, you’re a little jumpy today,” Sam said as he sat on the rock beside her. “What are you doing out here by yourself? Isn’t that called insubordination of the rules?”

  “Oh darn! I guess they’ll have to tie me in the stocks and beat me then. I needed some alone time, but if you’d paid more attention, you would see Lucy right down there.”

  They watched Lucy meander from horse to horse taking the time to give them each a scratch while she inspected them spending extra time with the mare they had gotten from Minnaker’s. They had expected her to drop her foal close to the time the other two mares had, but she was stubborn. She had waxed up, and her bag was beginning to fill, but no foal yet, and no signs she was close to labor.

  Gina looked at Sam who was also watching Lucy, “What’s on your agenda for today?”

  “We’re going to get started on another smokehouse, while John and a couple of the others go and pull a couple of the older cows out for slaughter.”

  “Is that wise? If we eat them, what are we using for breeding stock? Seems to me that we should be saving all of them and hunting for deer or elk.”

  “If we don’t have food for the winter, we won’t have to worry about a breeding program, and he did say the older cows. Besides that, the kids said that other than on the outside, there aren’t any in this valley.”

  “You mean that they’ve seen.”

  “This valley isn’t that big, and Lucas has pretty much scoured it from end to end. Did you hear what he said about the south end?”

  “That there might be another way out?”

  “Yeah, and that means another way in as well. I’d like to check it out and see if he’s right. We need to know what our options are just in case.”

  “In case of what, those guys coming back?”

  “Them or others. I almost believe we will need to take this fight to them, eventually.”

  Gina laughed, “Why? If Mark is right, we won't stand a chance going up against a larger force. We should barricade ourselves in here and forget about them.”

  Sam sat straight up, his back stiff and he seemed to be holding his breath, his eyes darting around the valley. He let it out in a whoosh, “I can’t believe we never thought of that. Oh my God, Gina, that’s perfect.” He jumped up and went running back to the cave.

  “Dang girl, what did you say to him? I’ve never seen him that excited.”

  Gina stared at him, “Neither have I.” She turned to Lucy, “I said we should barricade ourselves in and forget about those guys, but I didn’t really mean it. Did I?”

  Lucy turned in a circle looking up at the hills down both sides of their valley. “It’s not only a good idea, but it may save all of our lives.”

  “By hiding? Somehow, I never expected to hear that from you.”

  “When it was only me, I wouldn’t have considered it, but it’s not. Now I have Ben, Abby and the baby to think of.”

  Gina shivered, “I just never thought of hiding. Does it seem cold to you? Either I’ve caught something or catching something, or it is turning colder.”

  “It is and if you notice the days are getting shorter too. Seems like the wrong time of year for that to be happening. Whatever happened to Marks radio? He hasn’t said anything about it in a few days, and it would be nice to hear what’s going on in other parts of the country.”

  “Sam said it wasn’t working. Even after retrieving the antenna wire there is nothing but white noise.”

  Lucy sank onto the rock beside Gina, lifted her foot to her other knee, removed her boot and began to massage it. She was starting to look like she would have the baby at any time and Gina was surprised she could get her foot up high enough to get it into her lap. If Lucy had figured the dates right, she should still have another two months before her delivery.

  “I guess white noise is better than voices speaking in a different language, threatening to conquer our country.”

  “Or our government spewing out propaganda on how they are setting up FEMA camps and how everyone should head to one. I may be wrong, but there was nothing about our government that inspired trust or allegiance before the shit hit the fan, and that surely can’t have changed in the past few months. I’m not altogether sure that John isn’t right and this whole scenario wasn’t dreamed up by someone the American public put their trust in.”

  Lucy laughed, “If it weren't for the earthquakes, I would be inspired to believe you, but I think Mother Nature had everything to do with those. Now, if there were some kind of a plague or disease going around that decimated the population, then your theory would hold water, but earthquakes…not likely.”

  “How about a carefully placed nuke? With the faults running through this country, it wouldn’t take much, and what if they didn’t plan carefully enough and it backfired?”

  “Now you are starting to sound paranoid. Give it a rest Gina. Whatever happened, just happened. It wasn’t planned or intentional. Now, aren’t we supposed to be doing something?”

  “I don’t know what’s on your agenda, but I’m evaluating the horses. I’m a little worried about that last mare. Wouldn’t you think the guy would have planned for all his mares to foal around the same time?”

  “I believe that it would depend on when she caught,” Lucy rubbed her belly, “maybe she wasn’t as fertile as some of us and didn’t catch the first time.”

  Gina laughed along with Lucy, “And if you didn’t look like you are ready to burst at any second, I would knock you right off this rock.”

  Lucy in a gesture that was foreign to her previously normal behavior, Lucy stuck out her tongue as she pulled her boot back on. “Only because you doubt your skills as a midwife.” Lucy frowned and looked closely at Gina, “Have you ever delivered a baby before?”

  Gina shook her head, “Nope, but I have delivered puppies, kittens, and a calf. How different could it be? Well, except for the multiple births of the cats and dogs, and I did have to reach in the cow when the calf presented with only one front foot. You should be a piece of cake.”

  “Sometimes I wonder how we could still be friends. You are evil!”

  Gina stood and pulled Lucy to her feet, and wrapped her arm around Lucy’s shoulder, “Because I am so damned loveable and you know it.”

  Lucy laughed, “Journey is loveable, you’re all prickly like a cactus, but given enough time, you do tend to grow on a person.”

  Gina didn’t know whether to be offended or not. She had to admit that the relationship between Lucy and Journey had always been more affectionate than Gina was with either of them, but she had never been a touchy-feely person even before the apocalypse, and now she thought it would be unwise to form any new attachments because she feared growing too close to anyone. A bullet could end a rela
tionship quickly, and the pain of losing another person she cared for, would be too hard. Even in her relationship with Sam, Gina knew she still held something back, and there was no other person she would want to ride out the apocalypse with. Maybe he felt the same way as she did because she thought that he was holding back too or perhaps he sucked as much as she did at any romantic involvement.

  “But you’re married to him,” Gina mumbled.

  “What’s that?” Lucy queried, “I must be losing my hearing.”

  Gina shook her head, “Nothing. I was thinking out loud.”

  “Well, we know how much trouble that’s gotten you into before.”

  Chapter Seven

  Gina’s idea of closing themselves off from the outside had found merit with the men and with the use of Charlie’s team they had dragged huge boulders to the entrance and set them in place. The smaller rocks from the previous attempt at building a wall were used to fill in the holes. They left enough room on one end to allow them to come and go if needed. A solid panel of tree trunks was constructed to cover the smaller entrance on the valley side, but it took two people to move it into place.

  As the days grew shorter and the weather turned cold, everyone worked. Every blade of grass was cut, dried and stacked inside the cave. Finally, Willy had to call a halt to the grass collection. He hoped there would be enough time for the remaining stubble to grow and provide enough feed for the last of the cows. They had culled their herd by four more, leaving them just ten head for the coming year as well as the bull.

  The men had rigged an old-fashioned rail fence out of split logs dividing the remaining pasture into three separate areas with the hope of managing the feed availability. Once the snow fell and lay heavy enough the cattle could no longer dig through it, they would be reduced to feeding from their stores.

  The herd had been further divided, keeping the mares, both foals, and their personal horses closest to the cave. Pens had been constructed inside the cave for the milk cow, goats, and rabbits. If it came down to it, the chickens could be penned in as well.