Endure Series (Book 2): Enduring The Journey:

by Kinney, K. D.

  She scared the girls when she tapped on the window of the Suburban. “Sorry, I just need one of you for a few minutes.” Tammy rubbed her leg. The pain wasn’t the same. It was definitely persistent and not letting up.

  Zoe was eager to come help her. Her daughter stood in the trailer while Tammy stood outside and shined a flashlight on each hole she could find and she found five of them.

  When Tammy returned to the back of the trailer, Zoe gave her report. “I saw light come through all of them. There are three that look like the bullets might have gone through some of the tubs. I almost couldn’t see two of them very well because they are so close to the floor.”

  “Thanks. How’s it going in there? Have you guys eaten anything that resembles dinner? Have you been playing with Tyson?” she asked.

  “Tyson is okay. He gets so sad. We did eat more protein bars. I’m getting sick of them, though. Too much peanut butter for me. We keep feeding Tyson whatever he wants though. He did indicate to Charlie he needed to pee and she took him outside. That’s what she thought he needed but he wouldn’t go. I don’t know if he was scared or if he changed his mind about needing to go.” Zoe stared out the back for a minute. “I heard something.”

  “It was probably your sisters or the dogs.”

  “No.” She grabbed Tammy’s arm.

  “How did you hear anything over that generator?” She made sure Zoe let go of her so she could reach for her gun if she needed it. She turned off the generator to listen and hopefully prove that there was nothing out there.

  They both stood perfectly still and listened some more before Zoe returned to the Suburban.

  Zoe’s alarm over nothing didn’t help Tammy when she was all alone again. She searched the mountains. It was hard to see much of anything other than faint outlines of the terrain and brush. The rain had stopped but the sky was still overcast. With no glow from any lights anywhere, it was like standing in a black void. Except there was rushing water to the left of the road that kept her from feeling like she was stuffed in a closet.

  Something rustled on the hill. She pointed her flashlight where she thought she heard the sound and spotted a small bush that had been disturbed. She waved the light all over the hillside and didn’t see anything else. She climbed back into the trailer and created a path so she could carefully crawl over the tubs to the back corner. It took a lot of persistence and patience for her to maneuver everything to get to the one tub in the corner without everything crashing down on top of her. When she opened it, she was overcome with the smell of chicken that had been warm for far too long. Those jars had been wrapped with newspaper and the paper was all wet. She sighed and placed the lid back on. All that work. She shook her head. Hopefully not many had been damaged but still. She hated working with chicken and canning all that had been a tedious task with the power out.

  Tammy couldn’t get the tub out and had to leave it. Her leg was hurting too much to continue fighting with it. She put everything back and when she reached the backend of the trailer she felt very uneasy. She reached for the gun next to her hip and wasn’t about to be a victim anymore. She was in enough pain already. Then she heard the howls and the hairs on her arm stood on end as she shined her brightest spotlight on the hill. Near the top, she did catch the glow from the eyes of what was likely a wolf. She grabbed a sheet pan that was sticking up from one of the open tubs and banged it on the side of the trailer and whooped a few times. Some dirt and pebbles tumbled down the hill. Tammy backed away. She stopped when she realized it was from them running off and her family would be fine. She decided the generator didn’t need supervision as she set it up outside the trailer where she could see it from the side mirror. She set up two flashlights on top pointing to the front and behind the trailer so she could see if anyone or anything was nearby. She quickly locked up the trailer before climbing back into the Suburban.

  The girls were restless and bantering while they played a card game.

  “Girls, you need to clean up your cards and settle down. I want to get moving as soon as the sun rises in the morning.”

  “You weren’t back there very long. I thought you were going to let that generator run for a long time.” Holly hugged the seat before tossing her cards at Amanda which made her sister furious.

  “It’s still running. I can see it from here.” She watched the road and would turn on the headlights periodically so see what was out there.

  “You seem like you’re scared of something, Mom,” Holley shouted from the backseat.

  “You don’t need to yell. I am a little nervous. This place is not my favorite where there’s no light and we’re far from where I know we’d be safe. There aren’t even any houses along here. It’s too mountainous and rugged. Banks is still a few miles away. That will take quite some time for us to get there tomorrow so get some sleep, girls, so we are well rested before we have to push this thing on foot all day.” She shined a light at the tall grass and brush on the other side of the road and saw the reflection of another pair of eyes for a moment before it disappeared, likely heading down the embankment to the river. They could probably smell the chicken. If the wolves were going to be prowling around the Suburban, she probably wouldn’t be getting much rest.

  “I sure hope no one needs to go to the bathroom now because none of you are going out there until morning.” Tammy tried to get comfortable but her leg was throbbing.

  The girls moaned and complained but not one said they needed to go.

  17

  Tammy

  It was never easy getting all the girls to be quiet when they were all together and it was the worst at bedtime. The three youngest were whispering and giggling. Charlie let it be known she’d had enough of Tyson. He clung to her neck and was not going to sleep.

  Tammy had to work pretty hard to convince him to let go of Charlie and once she finally succeeded, she wrapped him in the softest blanket she could find and helped him get comfortable against her chest. She softly hummed some of the songs she used to sing to the girls when they were young. His fear would come in waves. She found the booklight that had been stashed in the glove box and handed it to him. His head rested against her heart as he played with the light. He would start to relax and almost drop it. Then he would hold it up so he could see Tammy’s face before he relaxed again.

  “You’re safe with us. You can sleep easy now.” She stroked his soft baby fine hair and continued to hum while she kept an eye on what she could see outside which wasn’t much. But she could hear the howls of the wolves nearby. They stayed way too close all night long. Tammy slept in short fits and would jump, waking up again and again. Fortunately, Tyson was finally sleeping soundly because her body twitches didn’t disturb him at all.

  She sighed as she leaned against the door unable to sleep and reminisced about simpler times. When her days were more about figuring out how to maintain her house while trying to enjoy the time she had with her toddlers when they weren’t showing their ornery side. She’d watched and cared for plenty of boys over the years but it didn’t mean she was prepared to take one on again. Especially when life for all of them was so uncertain. She wasn’t about to give him up, though. She would care for him as if he was her own. As she kept watch and listened for the wolves, she was surprised when she realized she was actually relieved she’d left the city behind. If she had to take on the boy back there, she would have totally freaked out.

  However, she wasn’t certain that she was going to maintain her sanity much longer if she didn’t get some decent sleep soon. Sleep deprivation was messing with her mind. She knew there couldn’t be a pack of wolves circling them all night. Tammy had to be hallucinating, thinking she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and kept searching for them every time she looked out the window. She would close her eyes and her head would fall to the side waking her up again. She very gently eased Tyson down on the seat.

  As soon as she sat back up, Buddy and Mitsi were suddenly awake and alert. Buddy was growling. Mits
i jumped up near the window and froze, staring hard at something. That time Tammy wasn’t imagining the wolf that was standing in the street far too close for Tammy’s liking. She honked and that sent Buddy into a frenzy of barking. The wolf darted down the road, running past the trailer. She really didn’t want them hanging around back where she couldn’t see. They wouldn’t be able to get inside it but if the strong odor coming from the trailer was luring them, they may not be so easy to scare off.

  All the girls woke up and were wanting to know what was going on. Buddy kept barking and Mitsi was far too eager to join in. At least she had covered Tyson’s ears well with the blanket. He was sleeping so well that all the noise didn’t seem to bother him.

  “Pull Buddy back.” Tammy waited for Holley and Mae to get a good hold on him. She opened the windows a crack.

  When he barked again, she could see a wolf run down the road until he was far from the light cast by the flashlight sitting on the generator.

  “Why did you open the windows?” Zoe asked.

  “I was hoping perhaps our scent and the dogs barking would scare the wolf that’s been lurking near the trailer and I think it worked. So it’s all good now.” She kept watching the mirrors. “See if you all can settle back down.”

  “Mitsi is acting like she wants out,” Zoe said.

  “Nope, she’s going to have to wait.” Tammy sighed. Her heart was racing. It would take time to get everyone back to sleep again.

  Buddy was turning out to be a good guard dog, though. He was such a good watchdog that he woke everyone up again when a raccoon showed up. All of the girls screamed when they saw the little furry bandit reaching inside the Suburban through the window that was still open a crack. Buddy jumped on top of Zoe and almost got its paw. She cried out in pain. Her scream woke up Tyson. Amanda comforted him while Tammy took care of Zoe’s wounds.

  After that scare, there was no sleep for Tammy. She fed bits of a protein bar to Tyson while he played with the steering wheel. He played silently which seemed unnatural for a little boy his age. Tammy waited for him to rub his eyes before she had him lay down to try to go back to sleep on his own. He just wanted to hold her hand and she settled in, resting her head on the seat and kept watch, hoping to deter Buddy from waking up everyone again.

  Tammy had no idea if her muscles were complaining from sitting in the same position in the front seat too long but her leg was bothering her more the longer she sat there. She slouched down in the seat and with the little space she had, she tried to find a place where she could prop her leg up. Even that didn’t stop the throbbing. Her eyes burned so much she had to keep them closed. Maybe she would fall asleep after all. It had to be that time of night where it was the coldest because she kept getting chilled. When she wrapped a blanket around her, it wasn’t enough. She grabbed another but it didn’t matter, she was still cold. The windows were fogging up from her body heat. The rest of the windows were barely foggy at all. She turned on the ignition to try turning on the heater but it wasn’t going to heat up unless the engine was running and it wouldn’t turn on. Instead, she rolled up the windows that she could reach.

  It seemed that they might finally have a peaceful stretch. She worked on getting comfortable again. Which was impossible with her throbbing leg and the chills but she managed to settle against the door and once her eyes closed, she might have shivered once or twice but that was all she could remember.

  18

  Ben

  Around midnight they loaded up and were on their way in Robert’s truck. Ben wanted to know what the scenery looked like around them as they headed into the interior of Alaska but it was too dark. He decided it would be best to get some sleep so he slouched down in the back and watched the headlights from passing vehicles light up the tops of the trees as they passed by. However, the few hours of sleep he got beforehand was just enough to prevent him from falling asleep easily.

  His thoughts kept slipping back to his family no matter how hard he was trying to focus his ruminating mind on how they were going to make it across the border undetected. He wondered what it was like in Boise, if his neighbors were pulling together, if their church friends were keeping an eye on Tammy and the girls. Perhaps she had given their congregation all the extra food storage they had set aside to help their friends when the time came. Or maybe she had loaded up the girls and headed to the cabin already. If she had, that meant she was also surrounded by pine trees and wildlife like he was. Instead of traveling, he hoped she was safely locked inside the bunker at the cabin.

  Something was niggling at the back of his mind, some sort of anxiety that perhaps things weren’t going well for his wife. A lot of his concern was because he knew how paralyzed by anxiety Tammy could get. The potential that it could rapidly turn into Hell on Earth in town also concerned him. Thinking about how bad it could be for his family just made him nuts and the pace they were going in Robert’s truck wasn’t fast enough. It also bothered him that Nate had no urgency to get home because he knew his wife would be safe because she was far from town, more than prepared on their farm, and she had protection because their grown sons lived nearby. Ben wouldn’t have felt so frantic if his family had been in a similar situation.

  He had to stop thinking and mulling over things he had no control over. He closed his eyes and prayed to ask for comfort. What he wanted was the knowledge and comfort only a cell phone call could bring, though. His chest tightened, his anxiety climbed, and he knew something wasn’t right. He sat up and looked out the window wondering if it was their own safety that he should be concerned about. Maybe they wouldn’t make it past the border and he was going to be stuck in Alaska. Hopefully, they wouldn’t wind up in a jail cell. If he was stuck there, he would probably have to wait until the planes were flying again or wait until winter and the worst was over. That was out of the question. There would be no waiting. He was going to make it home or die trying.

  He watched the trees and wouldn’t allow any more thoughts to take over his mind. He needed to rest and he needed to be ready to push it hard. A couple of white flecks flew by the window. Ben clenched his jaw. Snow wasn’t going to stop him either. No, he wasn’t going to watch it snow. He pulled his stocking cap down and settled back down in the seat again. His eyelids started to close. Once his mind stopped racing, he fell asleep.

  When Ben woke up again, the truck was stopped. There was snoring coming from the front seat. He sat up to look out the window because there was a lot of light considering they’d been traveling on one of the most remote highways in Alaska.

  Street lights lit up the street. They were parked by a gas station and he struggled to read the nearest signs. Finally, they were stopped at Tok, the last decent-sized town before they’d get to the border. The sky was just beginning to lighten with the first hints of sunrise. They were so far north it could take some time before the sun would actually make an appearance. He rubbed his face and contemplated going back to sleep. His anxiety was still amped up. He wasn’t prone to that kind of anxiety. He always knew how to push through it but Tammy was on his mind. It had been seven days, a full week had passed since the event. Not knowing what was going on at home was maddening. Maybe it was because he was finally going to be in charge of his journey home and it was nerve-wracking to think about what the Yukon wilderness would be like. At the same time, he relished the independence to head out on their own and make the best time they could to get through Canada. He could actually visualize what it was going to take to get there and it was within his reach. He was doing a good job convincing himself that it wouldn’t be long. Before they knew it, they’d be home.

  Tok was the last real town with services close to the border. After he checked the map, he figured they probably still had an hour or more to go before they were where they needed to be. He needed a bathroom, maybe getting out of the truck would stir Robert and Nate and they could keep going.

  When he returned to the truck shivering when he climbed in, Nate was stirring but Robert wa
s still sawing logs.

  “Wow, that’s some chilly air,” Nate whispered once Ben closed the door.

  “Yeah, I think we need to layer up already.” Ben pulled the blanket tight around his body. “I think I’m easily chilled from being cold and wet far too long yesterday. It usually doesn’t bother me that much.”

  “You think that thing we’ll be driving has a heater? I don’t remember seeing anything like that.”

  “If it does, I doubt it does much. I noticed it wasn’t very airtight either. That’s just vinyl covering on top with clear vinyl windows. I think we’re going to have to get used to bundling up. At least there isn’t any snow on the ground. I thought I saw snowflakes earlier, though.” Ben tried to think of other ways they could create heat while they were on the road without using flames.

  “If the sky must drop snowflakes, let’s hope that nothing sticks until after we made it through the desolate parts.”

  “I’m more concerned about what we’re getting into when we do get to where there are people and there’s been no power for weeks.”

  “One step at a time.” Nate turned to gaze out the window.

  “Look who’s talking.” Ben smiled. Maybe Nate would be easier to deal with when it was just the two of them.

  “I’m looking forward to only having to deal with one crazy person on this next part of our journey,” Nate smirked at Ben.