Nate sighed. “You better get some sleep once we’re on the road because I may tucker out pretty fast if I drive in this for long.”
“You’re from Montana. Don’t you get snow like this in the winter there all the time? We’re lucky that we don’t get hit with snow that bad when we’re in town. The kids have been too busy during the school year to spend much time at the cabin in the mountains in winter.”
“I’m getting older. I’ve been feeling my age. Especially since I started this journey with you.” He rubbed his face.
“Do you want me to take my turn now?”
“Has your head stopped hurting? Can you see better yet?”
“No and no.”
“Sleep now and hopefully you’ll be ready to drive once you’ve rested some more.” Nate made it to the main road. “I can hold out about another hour for sure. Maybe two.”
Snow flittered across the road like snow snakes the way it waved over the asphalt from the wind. Fortunately, it wasn’t sticking yet. The snow wasn’t as heavy as it had been, the flakes were smaller and accumulated on the vegetation but left the road clear for the time being but that was going to change quickly.
When there weren’t any more parked cars on the side of the road, Ben closed his eyes to get some rest.
25
Amanda
Amanda knew when they were all past the point of exhaustion. Zoe and Holly were in tears while they pushed. When they did have to stop to move a few cars with the rolling jacks, Charlie could barely lift her arms.
“I hurt so bad. I can’t do this anymore. Come on. Call it a day.” Charlie leaned her head on the car they just moved.
“I think we can go a little farther. It really smells where we left Old Betsy. I think there is a dead body close by. I hate all these curves in the road along the river. It’s like they repeat the same pattern for miles and I have no idea if we are anywhere near Banks yet.” Amanda sighed blinking away her own tears as she walked back to the Suburban. “I need to check on mom and give her more medicine. You guys can rest for a few minutes while I do that.”
“I’m afraid if I sit down, I’m not going to be able to get up again. I’m so done and so is Zoe and Holly. I’m sure you are too.” Charlie wasn’t giving up.
“What I’m afraid of is that we’re going to have to guard the trailer all night if we stop here.” Amanda had been keeping a close eye on the road behind them since they had the run-in.
“We can’t keep going like this. I bet we’re so sore tomorrow that we won’t be able to move this whole thing at all. This is miserable. I didn’t know I had so many muscles that could get this sore. We wouldn’t have to move so many cars if it was just the trailer, you know. I’m sure Old Betsy is the majority of the weight.”
“Yeah, but mom would have to walk and I doubt she’s going to be ready to do that by morning. Besides, how would we walk the trailer all the way to the cabin?”
“The same way we move it to the backyard and then back out to put it on Old Betsy. That long handle thing dad made for the tongue of the trailer makes it so easy to move.” Charlie gave Amanda a look like she was stupid. “It would be far easier, don’t you think? Everything we need is in the trailer already and there’s plenty of room left for all the crap that’s in the Suburban. Think about it, that handle dad made would make it so much easier to maneuver. Just turning the steering wheel and getting that whole monstrosity to move where we want it to go has been a nightmare.”
“But the trailer is lower to the ground and completely loaded. It’s heavy. Even if we use the handle, it’s going to kill our backs if we have to walk all bent over.”
Charlie shook her head and waved her off. “You’re thinking too hard. It will be easier. Just think about it some more. Of course, I know we can’t do anything like that until mom is feeling better. I sure hope she’s better by morning. Because I hate camping, sleeping in the Suburban is far worse than sleeping in a tent, and I really hate being stuck out here with crazy people.”
“Yeah, that was scary. Can you imagine if they were all men? I don’t know that we would have been so lucky.”
“We’ve fought off men at the house. I think we can handle it. Especially now that mom is letting us have the guns.”
“You are a little too happy about that. Don’t get carried away.” Amanda stopped Charlie before she got any closer to the Suburban. “I’m sure that you firing at those wolves brought those crazy women over to us. I don’t want to draw any more attention to us. I just want to get to the cabin.”
Charlie narrowed her eyes as she pointed at the hillside. “You can deal with those wolves on your own then.” She stormed off.
Sure enough, the wolves were back. A little closer to the Suburban than they had been earlier. She also noticed that the closer she got to the trailer, the stronger the smell. Maybe she wasn’t smelling a dead body and it was the chicken. She glared at Charlie before she opened the back of the trailer. “Zoe!” Amanda yelled her name until she finally got out of the car. “I need you.”
When she opened the back of the trailer, she was overcome with the nasty odor. It was definitely the chicken.
She made Zoe watch the road for those crazy people and the hillside to keep an eye on the wolves were watching them.
Zoe tossed a few rocks to keep the wolves at a distance while Amanda pulled out some tubs and moved everything around until she got to the tubs in the back of the trailer where the smell was strongest. The sun was doing a great job heating up the inside of the trailer. She finally got to the tub that had the bullet holes in it. She walked it a fair distance away from the trailer before she opened it and was overwhelmed with the smell of chicken that had been left out far too long. It was so bad, she gagged and her eyes wouldn’t stop watering. She had a weak stomach sometimes. Amanda moved the jars that were still intact out of the tub. She piled up the smelly wet newspapers until all that was left was the shattered jars and their contents.
Amanda tried not to inhale the stink. Once she dumped the tub, she returned to the trailer to rinse it out really quick. She wrapped the good jars in some clean towels that were tossed in the trailer at the last minute to fill in the gaps. As she was placing the tub back where it belonged, Zoe started throwing all the rocks she could find. The wolves were pacing on the hillside.
“I’m not going to worry about the wet stuff on the floor right now. We can take care of that later. If they go after that pile of meat, just let them. That’s what they’re after. I doubt they get any closer but keep an eye on them anyway so I can keep reloading the trailer. I’ll make it quick. I want to get moving and put some space between us and them.”
As Amanda was loading the trailer, her frustration with Charlie was growing while the muscles in her back were spasming worse with every tub that she moved. “Go tell Charlie I need her help.” Amanda waved for Zoe to hurry.
But Charlie never came.
She leaned against the trailer once she was finished but she didn’t stay there long. The wolves crept closer to the pile of meat she left on the side of the road.
Amanda jogged to the driver’s side door. “Come on, I don’t want to stick around with those wolves around.”
“We can’t leave mom,” Mae said when Amanda opened the door.
“Where is she?” Amanda didn’t see her anywhere.
“I thought she was going to go pee. She’s down by the river and Charlie followed her.”
Amanda stopped what she was doing and tried to figure out where all her sisters were.
Holly was still in the Suburban in the far back helping Mae manage the dogs that were freaking out and she must have been taking care of chickens before that. Tyson was staring out the window at the river totally unfazed by the chaos going on in the car.
Zoe had returned to the Suburban but for some reason, Amanda didn’t see Zoe anywhere.
She finally heard them yelling over the rushing water. As she kept an eye on the wolves still stalking the meat pile, she
walked down the road and listened for the voices that were down the embankment close to the river.
She could finally see the three of them through the brush. Charlie and Zoe were struggling to help their mom along the trail that led up to the road. Amanda had never seen her mom look like such a mess. Her hair was wild even with most of it still pulled back. She kept looking over her shoulder and pulling away as Charlie and Zoe were struggling to get her to come with them as they climbed the steepest part of the embankment.
“Dad isn’t here. Come on, mom. We’re going to the cabin, remember? He might be waiting for us there.” Charlie was in obvious distress. That was uncommon for her. Miffed, annoyed, put-out, but hardly ever distressed.
“I can’t leave him,” their mom pleaded. Her face was white and shiny but the skin around her eyes was red. She struggled to walk on her bruised leg, limping along as bad as after she hurt it or maybe it was worse.
Zoe’s face reddened and as they got closer. Amanda knew that her sister was holding back sobs as tears spilled down her cheeks and she was holding tight to their mom’s arm.
“What’s wrong?” Amanda took a few steps down the embankment and the dirt gave way, nearly tossing her into the river instead of allowing her to follow the trail. She caught herself in time before her feet made it to the mud. She had already messed up a pair of tennis shoes when they rescued Tyson. Hopefully, she wasn’t about to mess up another pair. She wouldn’t be able to dig in the back of the trailer again once they returned to the Suburban.
“Mom is sure that dad is down the river somewhere. She got out of Old Betsy and could barely walk. She almost fell in the water when I was trying to catch up to her. I don’t know why she thinks he’s here. She’s sure she’s seen him and other people too.” Charlie rubbed her face on her sleeve. “Don’t people see people they love that have died right before they die?” She looked at Amanda like she would have the answer.
“You think dad is dead?” Zoe asked and stopped walking.
Amanda took the opportunity to slip into her sister’s spot and grabbed her mother’s arm. “I’ve got it. Go on ahead. Dad is not dead.”
“How do you know?” Charlie asked and she wasn’t hiding the tears anymore.
“Because he can’t be.” She took a good look at her mom before she checked to see how hot she was. “I bet Mom is hallucinating because of her fever. She was probably dreaming and didn’t realize she had been asleep. Let’s get her in Old Betsy and move things along. Hopefully, it’s not too late in the day to get as far as we can from the wolves.” She gave Zoe a gentle push. “Go see if you can help Mae and Holly with the dogs. They are ridiculous right now. I think that little dog is getting Buddy all wound up.”
Amanda had never been so relieved when Zoe did what she was told.
“We’re going to lose him. We can’t leave him there.” Their mom pulled against their arms almost causing the three of them to fall as they struggled up the loose dirt path.
“I saw him go this way. I’m sure we can find him and if we get in the Suburban, we’ll be able to do it much faster.” Amanda squinted so she could block the emotion from blurring her vision as she took the last few big steps to get to the top. Together, Charlie and Amanda got their mom to cooperate and they each took a minute to recover and help her regain her balance once they made it to the top. “We can catch up to him in this car. Here, climb in.” She guided her mom until she was in the backseat. Their mom wasn’t looking for their lost father anymore when she curled up on the seat as soon as she touched the blankets.
The two of them sighed in relief as they stood in the doorway together. They each removed a muddied shoe from her feet.
“I can’t believe she listened to you. Nothing I said worked. She was sure she saw Dad and Grandpa heading for the river. If I had been helping you, I don’t know that we’d still have a mom. It all happened so fast.” Charlie rubbed her face on her arm. “I was about to help you when I realized she got out of the car and started wandering off.”
“Oh,” Amanda rubbed her lower back. “That was scary and I’m so happy you got to her before something bad happened.” She waited for her sister to move out of the way so she could shut the door. “We need to move this down the road a little farther and then I do want to call it a day.” She put up a mental block. One that would subdue her pain, her worry over her mom, her worry that what Charlie said might have had some truth to it, that their dad was gone and he and Grandpa were there because their mom was about to die. Amanda kept burying those thoughts so she could feel numb as she did most of the pushing to get them farther from the wolves and the people that were out to get them. By the time she said they could stop, she had nothing left to give.
26
Ben
“Ben. Ben, wake up,” Nate nudged his shoulder to wake him.
“You ready to switch?” He struggled to open his eyes and unwrapped the scarf around his head that was protecting him from the frigid cold. There was a heater in the Ranger but it put off little heat. The vinyl window coverings were mainly a wind and snow blocker so it was still cold. At least they were dry. When he could finally see, he was shocked at the amount of snow that had already accumulated. The sky was so gray that it made the snow that was falling look gray as well. There were some snowed over tracks on the other side of the road but no markers to indicate where the pavement actually was once everything was snow-covered. The tree line and bushes were so far away from the road that Nate had to be struggling with navigating.
“I’m close but that’s not why I woke you. Look behind us. That truck has been following us for a few miles. They’re keeping their distance but they passed us coming the other way and might have made it to Beaver Creek before coming back this way. They should have overtaken us by now, even with the snowfall. Our speed is limited. I thought about going off-road but we’ll leave tracks and there’s been a lot of ponds in this area so I’m afraid the ground is waterlogged and I don’t want to get stuck. I don’t want to stop either. Can you watch them and tell me if I’m just being paranoid?”
Ben turned around and looked for what vehicle Ben was talking about.
The snowstorm blotted out the sun. It wasn’t dark yet but headlights were necessary. He spotted a white truck a fair distance away with no headlights on which made it harder to locate.
“Our lights are on, aren’t they?” Ben turned and sure enough, they were. He checked the speedometer. They were going thirty-five to forty miles an hour but it was a decent speed with the whiteout conditions.
“Are you going as fast as you can go or only going as fast as you’re comfortable with?”
“A little of both. I could go faster but I’m using those tracks at the moment as my guide and they’re getting harder to see.”
“Yeah, try speeding up some more if you can. I want to see what that truck will do.”
Nate sped up but not by much. The distance didn’t grow, the truck was actually catching up and was definitely going much faster than it had been.
“They’re gaining now. Maybe pull over as far as you think you can but keep going so they can pass. At least I hope they pass us.”
“Their lights still aren’t on and I think they’re gaining on us now because we’re in a straight stretch and they know we can see them.”
Ben didn’t want to assume the worst but if there was no gas at Beaver Creek, they might be wanting to take what they had or maybe it was a border guard.
“Was it a government vehicle do you think?”
“Oh, I didn’t think of that but I don’t like that possibility any better.” Nate leaned closer to the steering wheel to stretch his back. “I’m ready to switch and there’s no stopping. We’re heading into some hills now. Man, I don’t like these guys. Turn on your lights, fools.” He looked at the side mirror.
“Nate, turn.” Ben braced himself in case Nate didn’t turn in time or if he lost control in the snow. The only drop off he’d seen for miles happened to be along the turn
he needed to make right then.
Nate turned but they went straight until the tires gained traction again. Nate had slowed down to make the turn but overcorrected and they were headed for the hill on the other side of the road.
“Uh, are you meaning to go off into the hills?” Ben grabbed the handgrip above his side window
“Might as well.” He gunned it to the top and drove them into the brush and they were sliding and bouncing all along the trail Nate was blazing through the snow-covered grass and brush. He came to a stop once they were in the trees where the pickup couldn’t follow or track them from the road. Nate was breathing heavily as he searched behind them and all over looking for the truck. “If they aren’t waiting for us, they should show up any second now.” He pointed at the road.
Ben knew within minutes that the truck had stopped or was perhaps trying to follow them up the hill. They sat for a few more minutes. “We can’t sit here like this. Umm, go now. Turn off the headlights. Head out of the trees but stay close to them to stay out of sight. Once we’re down the hill in full view, get us closer to the road and keep going.”
“That’s going to be hard in this weather.”
The falling snow was creating visibility issues.
“Maybe we will be far enough ahead that they won’t see us.”
Nate did just as he was told but they weren’t able to sneak ahead. The truck was waiting and sped up to overtake them once they were near the road again.
Nate slowed down when the truck passed them and he nearly stopped to see if they would keep going. To their dismay, the truck slowed down as well.
The vehicle couldn’t have been government because of the gear they could see piled up in the back of the truck under the camper shell. Ben wanted to know how many people were in the double cab.
“What do you think they want? The back of their truck is full.”
Endure Series (Book 2): Enduring The Journey: Page 17
