Endure Series (Book 2): Enduring The Journey:

by Kinney, K. D.

  “It’s just a flashlight.” Tammy hastily bent over to pick it up before he could touch it. When she stood back up, she tried to shove it against his arm and pressed the button. It barely nicked him when he jumped away from the snapping sound. While he was in momentary shock from her attempt to stun him, she hit the back of his hand loosening his grip on the gun and turned to his side so he couldn’t shoot her. She was able to grab and twist the gun. Tammy almost had it when he shifted his weight into her. She stumbled and he wrapped his arm around her neck. She elbowed him in the ribs hard where she hit him earlier. He wheezed. She ducked and slipped out of his chokehold and was able to pick up the stun stick again. He was watching her and was staggering as he reached for his gun on the ground. She hadn’t realized he dropped it. Tammy was fed up with the whole situation when she started to draw her gun.

  They both froze when they heard three shots.

  The only pain Tammy felt was in her chest when her heart jolted from the shock of hearing gunfire. She knew it wasn’t from him. Her face flushed and her breathing was heavy. It had better not have been one of her kids firing. Or perhaps someone else had arrived and was next in line to try and hurt them and take the trailer. She was not going to take her eyes off him. Tammy drew her gun anyway.

  “There’s no need to keep fighting, my friend. This fool is going to realize right about now he’s outnumbered and has a death wish if he even thinks of reaching for that gun.”

  Relief washed over Tammy when she saw it was one of the friends she’d made over the summer.

  Jess Ward was sitting casually on her horse with her shotgun pointed right at the attacker’s chest. “I have great aim. In fact, I’ve shot a few looters over the past few days. I don’t have the patience for freeloaders. I toss their bodies deep in the woods and no one has been the wiser what I’ve done. I suggest you knock it off or I’ll take you out right here and will leave your dead body for the mountain lions and the wolves to have for dinner.”

  Tammy’s four oldest girls were fanned out, standing on either side of the horse and each one of them followed Jess Ward’s lead.

  He lunged for Tammy when she wasn’t looking. He grabbed her ponytail, yanking her closer to him.

  Tammy wasn’t having it. He was a clueless fool. She pressed the stun stick against his leg and zapped it. He howled and collapsed, bringing her down with him. She zapped his arm and he cried out again letting go of her hair.

  Tammy scrambled to grab his gun and was on her feet making sure she moved far away from him.

  “Please, don’t kill me,” he begged, curled up in a fetal position unwilling to move.

  “I’m not gonna kill you. Mainly because I don’t wanna traumatize these kids. I am going to bring you in. You might actually enjoy our jail if you’ve been roughing it in one of those camps.” Jess unfastened a rope she had on the back of her saddle. “We’re gonna do it Old West style, girls.” She dismounted and was working on untangling the rope when the guy tried to scramble off. He was still in pain from the stun stick so he wasn’t able to get away so easily.

  Charlie and Amanda tackled him and sat on his back and legs while Jess tied up one of his wrists. He tried to fight them all off when she was going for the other one.

  “Tammy, I think we need you to stun him again.” Jess pressed her knee in between his shoulder blades when she sat up to look for Tammy. He stopped fighting and gave her his free hand. “That’s more like it. The sheriff might even give you a few crackers so you don’t starve to death. But I don’t know if you deserve much else. We have plenty of law-abiding neighbors to take care of out here.” Jess pulled on the rope after she tied it around his waist and motioned for the girls to get off his backside. She made him get up on his feet. Jess was about to wrap the rope around the horn on her saddle when he tried to take off one more time. She jerked on it hard and he stumbled trying to stay on his feet. “I think this is going to be fun parading you down the road like in the old days. If you can’t stay on your feet, I’ll have some fun dragging you along. We might even put you in the stocks and let the public throw things at you. Since food is a scarce commodity these days, it’s likely to be something far more unpleasant and a whole lot harder than a tomato.”

  “Yes! Do that so we can throw rocks at him.” Holly shouted. “He deserves it because he threw rocks at us and hurt Buddy.”

  “Aww, that sounds like a proper punishment to me, young lady.” Jess motioned for Tammy to come closer.

  “So, what’s the story? Did you and the girls walk that trailer all the way here from Boise? That’s dedication.”

  “No. The Suburban was still working after the power went out and we got most of the way here before it broke down. It seemed like we were much closer than we actually were. I guess if we had walked without bringing the trailer it wouldn’t have taken so long. We’ve been walking for a couple of days and it’s been rough getting this far. Banks was scary and that’s where this guy came from.”

  “I’m impressed. If you ladies want to rest for a bit, after I get him turned in, I’ll get the old Kubota tractor running. That thing is a relic and is the only thing that has worked just fine once I replaced the battery. I’m impressed that the old museum piece still runs. It moves so slow nobody is interested in it. I’m sure we can figure out a way to get that thing home. Except I don’t have much diesel left.”

  “Oh, I have some I can give you if you’ll help me get to the cabin. I’m not giving out ultimatum trades, what I mean is I don’t have the diesel on me here, it’s at the cabin.” Tammy would happily fill up the tractor and a gas can if it meant they didn’t have to pull the trailer up the mountain.

  “You’re speaking my language, girlfriend. I’ll see you soon.” She pointed at Tammy and smiled.

  “We don’t want to sit here for long when men like him keep popping out from the riverbanks and we’re so close. We’ll try to keep walking.”

  “If that floats your boat. But honestly, don’t push it. Let me help you guys out.” Jess turned her horse around and waved as she left, pulling the jerk along behind them.

  Tammy wanted to cry tears of happiness.

  “Mom, what did she say? Why are you crying?” Amanda asked. All the girls gathered around her and Tyson reached for her to pick him up. Charlie picked him up instead. Tammy was trembling but it was because finally, something good had happened.

  “Jess is going to help us get the trailer home.” She pressed her hands against her head pushing her hair away from her face while she was overcome with all the emotions. She turned away from her daughters so she could compose herself. It was a good thing Jess was going to help them out because she was feeling feverish again.

  34

  Ben

  Somehow Ben and Nate were able to find room in the Ranger for Natalie’s things. It took a lot of effort to make it work. She didn’t complain about how little room she had to sit in between the baby’s car seat and the suitcases. Instead, she kept telling them how happy she was that they didn’t have to leave anything of hers behind.

  The dirt road was a rough ride. They bounced around from what must have been hardened or frozen ruts that they couldn’t see under the snow. When they were finally off the dirt road, it was a huge relief to be on pavement again.

  After the sun had risen, they were finally headed to Whitehorse with clear skies on smooth snow-covered paved roads. That was the only bright spot of Ben’s morning. He was still miserable and it was taking its toll.

  Nate didn’t appear to be bothered that he was behind the wheel again.

  The baby had been giving Natalie quite the fussy fit once she was strapped in her car seat and bouncing around didn’t help. With the smooth road and the gentler vibrations of the Ranger’s engine, Lilly stopped crying and eventually fell asleep. Natalie was finally able to relax as she wrapped up in a blanket and folded over with her head resting on the car seat handle. Ben kept checking on her and was impressed that Natalie was able to sleep in that position
and never woke up from her hands or head falling off the handle.

  “I’d like to know her story,” Nate said so only Ben could hear.

  “Me too. She has some yellowing bruising on her face. Did you notice?” Ben whispered.

  “I did. At first, I thought she might have crashed her car when the engine seized. Now we know that didn’t happen. The bruises have to be from something else.”

  “Probably from someone else. I bet she’s running from the person that did that to her and that it was the baby’s father.”

  “Yeah, so sad.” Nate was concerned when he looked at Ben. “You might want to look at how far out of the way we need to go to get her to her family.”

  “Good idea.” Ben managed to find the big map without making too much noise. There was finally enough sunlight so he could see it clearly without needing a flashlight. Considering the map only showed the main roads, he was relieved to discover that where she needed to go was on the way. However, she had said that her family was likely in the blackout zone. If that was the case, the blackout area was farther north than he anticipated.

  A few semis heading north passed by. Perhaps that meant relief was heading to the areas that still had power. Hopefully, that also meant relief was heading to the blackout areas too. Perhaps the situation wasn’t so bad because enough time had passed and they wouldn’t have to worry about getting robbed. Perhaps they would make it to the U.S. border before things got sketchy.

  Ben wasn’t counting on it being safe. He knew better as he took mental notes of where all his self-defense items were located in the Ranger. They not only had themselves to look out for, now they had a baby and the baby’s mother to protect as well. He also needed to keep a close eye on Natalie. Ben wasn’t ready to trust her yet and that was another reason he wanted to be vigilant in case she was playing them and was planning to try again, to take them out once they were closer to civilization and farther away from whoever she was running from.

  Traffic picked up as the morning progressed, still mostly semis, soon other four by four vehicles were passing them and they had to keep to the shoulder, slowing them down because they couldn’t tell where the snow might have drifted to cover the drainage ditch.

  Nate tensed when another vehicle came into view and Ben was feeding off his friend’s tension. So many pickup trucks. A white one passed them and they both reacted when they saw it. Nate veered off the road more and Ben braced himself the best he could so he wouldn’t bump his injured arm by leaning against the door.

  Snow created a flurry on top of the road when traffic went by obscuring a decent view of the tires. The distinctive rims were the only thing Ben could identify. When the truck kept going and they knew they were in the clear, Nate picked up the pace. Their new traveling companions kept sleeping. The sun warmed the inside a few degrees and with the added bodies, the temperature in the vehicle was tolerable. Or perhaps it was actually warmer. If it was, perhaps the snow would melt off the road as the day went on. They were lucky that the road was mostly straight and flat as they headed to Whitehorse. Perhaps the altitude was lower because the snow didn’t seem as deep as it had been in Haines Junction but there was still plenty of it. Ben had no clue what to anticipate when it came to typical weather conditions in the Yukon. The terrain hadn’t been all that bad so far. Not as mountainous as he had anticipated. The wildlife, though. The animals were another story.

  They passed some flat treeless areas that looked like fields. However, it was hard to tell because they were covered in snow. Perhaps they were able to farm in the summer. As he researched the map, he noticed that the road would change quite a bit after Whitehorse. More windy roads meant more mountains than they had experienced so far. A longer stretch between towns meant more desolation was to come and he hoped the next leg of their journey would be less eventful than what they had already experienced.

  Whitehorse wasn’t all that far from Haines Junction. Soon they were passing more roads and signs advertising businesses on the outskirts of town. Ben kept his eye on every vehicle he spotted. But he had no idea who was pursuing Natalie. They wouldn’t suspect she’d be in a road-legal Ranger with them so he didn’t need to worry about that.

  As they closed in on the town, it surprised Ben how big the town appeared to be.

  “It must not be too bad in the winter if this many people live here,” Nate said as they passed another entrance into another subdivision.

  “People live in Barrow and in those remote villages in Alaska with no indoor plumbing.” Ben reminded him.

  “I guess some people wouldn’t know the difference.”

  “Or they don’t mind the cold and snow. Me, I can only take so much.” Ben warmed his hands in between his knees.

  “We’re old enough and have worked plenty of miserable winters to have that attitude. We’ve earned it.”

  “You fellas have been so busy sightseeing that you didn’t notice that there’s a Canadian Cop on your tail with their lights on.” Natalie pulled herself up so she was holding onto their seats as if she was sitting between them.

  “Shoot, were you driving too fast?” Ben looked around the front seat for the file of important papers.

  “I wonder. Just because we’re street legal in Alaska doesn’t mean we’re street legal here. You think?” Nate pulled over to the side of the road and kept rolling longer than he needed to in order to stall.

  “You may just be shouting to the authorities here that you’re planning some mischief in the woods with a loaded trailer on a Ranger. Poaching is a crime.” Natalie wasn’t helping.

  “Umm, we didn’t exactly cross the border legally to get here. And now we also have someone with us that we don’t have paperwork for. Or do you have anything on you that says you crossed the border legally?” Nate asked.

  Ben could tell his friend was on the verge of panicking.

  “I already told you that the border wasn’t closed where I came from. I could tell them you came from Haines too.”

  “I don’t know.” Nate turned his hands on the steering wheel, gripping it even tighter.

  “Just relax. There’s no need to panic until there’s something to panic about.” Ben slid the folder down beside his seat so it wouldn’t draw attention but also have it close in case he needed it.

  “Yeah, they might be the Whitehorse welcoming committee. Don’t ya know anything about Canadians? I’m sure they’re about to bring us a basket of goodies.” Natalie still wasn’t helping. But her comment did make Ben stifle a laugh.

  Even though Natalie’s comment humored him, Ben was uneasy when they were at a complete stop and the cop approached.

  “I see you aren’t from around here. Are you aware of the laws we have regarding UTVs and our protected wildlands?” The cop bent over so he could see all of them.

  “No, officer,” Nate answered. “But we’ve been staying on the main roads. Well, where we can see them.” Nate’s knee was bouncing and it shook the vehicle.

  Ben discreetly tried to stop him but it looked like he was being affectionate more than trying to calm his friend.

  The officer looked at each one of them. The silence was unnerving. “You have a lot of gear. Where are you headed?” He looked at the front and back of the UTV as if somehow he could figure out what they were up to.

  “Heading south, sir,” Nate said as he ran his hands along the bumpy parts of the steering wheel.

  “Most people are when they pass through town heading this direction down this particular road. Will you provide more details? Where are you coming from and where are you going? Please be specific.”

  “Alaska. From Haines, officer. I was in a bad spot and these fellas are helping me out.” Natalie leaned in closer between the seats.

  The lawman looked suspiciously at Nate and then at Ben. “Constable is the correct term. I need to see some identification.”

  Ben tried to figure out why she was trying to insert herself in the front with them until he remembered the bruising was si
gnificant on the side of her face that was most visible to the cop.

  “My baby is young, sir. She’s only a couple of months old. I had to get out of there. My boyfriend threatened to kill me, well, you can see he actually tried. They are taking me to my mom’s house in Fort Saint John where we will be safe.”

  “You realize that the southern part of Canada and the U.S. has no power, right? You won’t be safe for long with everyone fleeing to the north where they believe there are resources and it appears you have more than most. It’s a shame all this is happening while winter is setting in.” He shook his head.

  Ben held his tongue while Natalie continued to fabricate an impressive believable story. He was silently watching traffic when a white truck drove by. He wasn’t alarmed at first because he figured it was one of many white trucks they had seen that morning but it slowed down significantly as it passed.

  Ben managed to control his breathing in spite of his rapidly pounding heart. He nervously tapped lightly on the dash when the truck stopped. He was desperate to jab Nate so he’d notice. When he looked back at the constable, it was obvious he didn’t need to point it out. Nate’s face was white.

  “Tell him he needs to arrest Michael Winslow and Jack Nunan for assault. I want to press charges.” Natalie whispered in Ben’s ear.

  Ben shook his head. He had no idea what she was talking about.

  Nate pulled out his wallet. His hands were trembling as he handed his license to the constable.

  “I need to see yours and the girl’s too.” He pointed at Ben.

  Ben could feel his cheeks burning. Things were about to go very wrong. He tried to hand off his license as if he had nothing to worry about but he was so shaken up, he dropped it twice.

  Natalie was acting weird too, staying low in the back as she struggled to find her purse in all the stuff she had on her lap and around her. She was intentionally trying to stay hidden. The baby started to whimper as Natalie moved the car seat so she could check on the floor. She finally found it and handed it to Nate.