by Kim McMahill
They placed the travois directly on the cot, believing it best to keep the old man on a solid surface rather than to have his back supported by the sagging canvas of the cot. Niki didn’t even notice when Deuce left the tent as she bustled around, trying to make her grandfather more comfortable. She placed a dry sleeping bag over him and slid a thin pillow under his head. By the time she emerged from the tent, Deuce had a small fire going and a pot of water heating over the flames.
“Stella kept the sheep close and the old pack horse and Bess hadn’t wandered too far away. I took care of our horses and Storm will be back to his old cantankerous self by morning. He came through unscathed.” Deuce stirred the fire without looking up at her. “This water should be warm enough to wash Bernie up. I’ll see if I can round us up something to eat.”
“There should be a stringer of trout in the creek, as long as a bear didn’t find them. The fish were alive when I left, so I’m sure they’re still good. I was just coming back to camp for a knife to clean them with when the helicopter flew over and chaos erupted.”
“Likely story¾the lengths you’ll go to in order to avoid cleaning fish,” he joked as he dug through the camp box in search of a fillet knife.
Deuce couldn’t help but admire her. Not only had she survived an incredible ordeal and saved his life, she had fresh meat waiting. His mind flashed back to when she was ten and he took her fishing for the first time. He hadn’t been happy when Bob made him take her along, but now as the vision of the little girl with pigtails, a huge smile and admiration in her eyes filled his mind, he hoped she still had a little of that appreciation left for him.
Niki watched Deuce walk away. Once he disappeared into the darkness she picked up the pot of warm water and returned to her grandfather’s side. She washed all of his wounds and put antibiotic ointment on the scrapes and cuts. Other than possibly his back, it didn’t appear anything was broken.
“Papa, I think we need to keep you as still as possible for a while. If your back’s not broken, you may still have a serious fracture. I don’t think we can get you medical help, so it’s going to have to heal on its own. You don’t have a fever and your color is better than when I left you this morning, so that’s good news. Let me give you something for the pain and then I’ll get you some dinner.” She dug through her bag for a bottle of Ibuprofen.
Niki could hear fish frying and the smell drifted toward her as she emerged from the tent. She refilled the pot of water and placed it back on the hook over the fire, then knelt down next to Deuce.
“How is he?”
“He’s in quite a bit of pain, but hopefully the pills I gave him will kick in soon. I can’t tell you how happy I am, though, that he can move his toes. It’ll be a challenge, but I think if we keep him flat as much as we can and prevent him from catching pneumonia, he’ll survive. He’s tough,” Niki replied with as much confidence as she could muster.
Deuce handed her a tin plate with fish and beans on it, knowing she would feed her grandfather before she fed herself. He ate alone by the fire as he thought back over the events of the day. He pulled the cell phone out of his jacket pocket that he had grabbed when he went back to the barn for Traveler and turned it on. There was no reception and very little battery left. He turned it off to conserve the battery and stowed it. He would ride somewhere with cell coverage in the morning and try to reach Bob. He hoped his dad was safe and would have information as to the extent of the occupation and the status of the U.S. military’s defensive.
“He ate everything and then fell asleep,” Niki said as she picked up the plate Deuce had made for her and began to eat.
“Good thing you haven’t lost your touch for fishing. It’s been a long day and I wasn’t looking forward to just beans since we’ll be eating plenty of those once your grandfather is well enough to cook.”
Niki giggled as she carefully pulled the bones from the center of the small brook trout. Apparently she wasn’t the only person who wasn’t too thrilled about her grandfather’s specialty, but more importantly, Deuce’s confidence in her grandfather’s recovery helped ease the tension in her body.
She set her empty plate aside and disappeared into the tent. She returned a moment later with a clean wash cloth. She carried the pot of warm water over to where Deuce sat on the ground, his back against a log.
“Hold still, this might sting a little,” she said as she knelt down on the ground in front of him.
She gently touched the warm wet cloth to one of the deepest cuts on his face. He flinched, but didn’t pull back, so she continued to clean the dried blood from his wounds. After the cuts were cleaned she dabbed antibiotic ointment on the cuts and scrapes.
“Why’d they do this?”
“I guess I wasn’t particularly helpful. They asked me a lot of questions about the tower on the ranch and where some underground launch facility is located. Of course I didn’t know the answers, but they didn’t believe me. Until a month ago I thought the damn thing was a cell phone tower, which is what the lease agreement says. They also wanted the names and whereabouts of all our employees. Apparently their English was good enough to understand me when I told them to ‘go to hell’.”
Niki smiled and shook her head. Only Deuce would tell a half dozen heavily armed soldiers where to go in no uncertain terms.
“What about Frank and Joe? Have they come back yet?”
“No. Hopefully they’ll approach the ranch with caution like you did and hightail it out of there before they get caught. They should be on their way back from the high meadow. If I had any idea which way they might be riding, I’d try to intercept them. Frank’s cagey¾courtesy of his time in Vietnam. He’s not likely to waltz up to the ranch without noticing something’s out of place, so I’m not too worried.”
“There. The cuts aren’t too bad, but the black eye and bruises will stay for a while. If it’s warm enough for you to go shirtless tomorrow, since I don’t think any of Papa’s clothes will fit you, I’ll try to scrub the blood out of your shirt. As for the swelling and the black eye, the only thing cold we have is the creek. So I guess if you’re worried about swelling you can go dunk your head in that refreshing little sliver of pure snowmelt.”
“I’ll be fine,” he replied as he grabbed her wrist to stop her from tending to his wounds.
Niki’s eyes locked on Deuce. She didn’t know what to say or do. She was able to hold it together as long as she was taking care of others and keeping busy, but with her hands now idle, she felt tears filling her eyes.
Deuce pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her, forcing her to bury her face in his chest. She was so small that she felt like a child in his arms. At first he could sense she was holding her breath and then he could feel her shoulders begin to shake.
“Go ahead. Let it out. You deserve it,” he said as he stroked her hair and held her tight.
Niki couldn’t hold it in anymore. She clung to Deuce and cried until she fell asleep in his arms.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Storm ran as Niki clung to the saddle horn. The sound of helicopters, dirt bikes and gunfire drowned out every other noise. She felt the ground give away as the horse lunged over a cliff. Niki tried to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth. She bolted upright to a sitting position, disoriented, confused and frightened.
“It was just a bad dream,” she whispered as she glanced over at her grandfather and watched his chest rise and fall. “Papa is alive and resting comfortably and I’m snug in my own sleeping bag.”
She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to work the tangles out of the long strands. No, it hadn’t been a nightmare. The narrow escape at the control tower the previous morning came back to her in a rush. The sight of Deuce bound and poised for execution, the feel of pulling the trigger on the 30-06 and watching the man drop to the ground in a lifeless heap spun through her head. The last thing she remembered was crying while being cradled in Deuce’s arms.
He must have carried me into
the tent and put me in my sleeping bag without even waking me. I had to be more exhausted than I thought if I didn’t feel him pulling my boots off.
Niki reached for her footwear and slid them on. Outside the tent she looked around for Deuce, but he was nowhere in sight. She hated the mild tinge of panic his absence sent through her mind. She refused to give in to fear, so she buried the uncomfortable feelings and walked over to the fire pit.
She started a fire with wood Deuce must have gathered early in the morning and placed the coffee pot on the hook hanging over the fire. She waited until she saw murky liquid begin to perk in the little glass bubble in the coffee pot’s lid. Satisfied the coffee would soon be ready to warm her body and wake her mind, she went to the tree where the food was stored out of a bear’s reach and lowered the supplies. She dug around until she found what she needed to make pancakes and set about doing something which brought a brief respite from her new, less than predictable, and absolutely terrifying life.
By the time the cakes were done, Deuce rode up. She watched as he dismounted in one fluid motion and unsaddled Traveler with the ease of someone who had done those activities so many times that it took no more thought than walking or breathing. He slipped off the bridle and secured Traveler’s halter, hobbled the horse, unclipped the halter’s lead rope and slapped the horse gently on the rump. She watched as the young gelding ambled off toward the rest of the horses.
As Deuce turned and strode toward her, she could see that his black eye and bruises had faded some, but all the injuries reminded her just how close he had come to dying. His hair was in need of a trim and looked more unruly than usual since it wasn’t tucked away beneath the well-used straw hat he always wore. Dark stubble covered his chin and upper lip and dried blood left large patches of red on his denim shirt, but he was still so handsome it nearly took her breath away.
Niki averted her gaze, hoping he couldn’t see the approval and yearning in her eyes, and quickly finished preparing breakfast. She handed him a plate of hotcakes and a cup of coffee. He nodded and gave her one of the smiles she had so deeply missed seeing as of late. Sharing breakfast with Deuce, surrounded by spectacular scenery and warm sunshine felt perfect, but she knew the second either one spoke the reality of their predicament would crush her illusion of someday sharing a normal family life with the only man she had ever wanted.
“How’s Bernie?” he asked, killing the moment as Niki had suspected.
When she looked at her grandfather lying helplessly on the cot it was impossible for Niki to harbor any illusions of normalcy or any fantasies of a fairytale ending to their current predicament. Though the situation had drastically improved over the past twelve hours, they were far from out of danger and her grandfather’s survival remained less than certain.
“His breathing looks better, but I didn’t have the heart to wake him. Rest is about the only thing we can do for him right now.”
Deuce nodded and took several bites of the hotcakes Niki had drizzled with blueberry syrup. He shook his head and made a groan of appreciation as he looked at her and studied her face.
“I didn’t know you could cook anything besides chocolate chip cookies.”
“I do most of the cooking when I’m out here. I figure Papa must get tired of his own fare, so having someone else do it for a few weeks a summer is probably a real treat. Besides, if I don’t cook when I’m here, I get beans.”
Deuce chuckled and shook his head as he rose to refill his coffee cup. He turned to Niki, a grim look on his face.
“I rode to the top of the hill this morning and was able to get enough cell phone reception to call Bob. He’s okay and his group of ranchers all made it to D.C. without incident, but the city, along with most major cities and military bases in the U.S., are currently under siege. He didn’t know if or when he could get out and come home. He’s going to try and find us help, but he didn’t have a lot of confidence we’d be a top priority right now.”
Niki let the news sink in. She hadn’t realized Deuce had a cell phone or that he would be able to contact Bob, so she hadn’t had any expectations. She had already figured they were on their own, so was unfazed by the information.
“Did he have any details? What’s happened?”
“The U.S. was caught off guard. We were watching the CCIS closely, especially the troops on the Canadian border, but never dreamed they’d be bold enough to mount an unprovoked offensive on American soil. Simultaneously the East Coast was hit by Russian forces stationed in Cuba, the Southwest and West Coast by the Chinese coming up from South America, and the Midwest has been invaded by Iranian’s from Canada, hoping to neutralize any resistance from weapons scattered around the West and Midwest.”
“Is there any hope?”
“Bob said if the U.S. can hold its own until our Allies mobilize, then we’ll probably be able to kick the CCIS back out of the country. The CCIS launched a very successful and coordinated attack on the majority of our airbases and navel ports across the country. Our domestic defenses have been pretty thin ever since the early 2000s when we got into simultaneous wars. Unfortunately every fanatic and hothead in the world knows it. On the plus side, not many planes or ships were destroyed since most of our resources are currently deployed around the globe. They’re rushing back home as quickly as possible, but for the time being our defense has been reduced to hand-to-hand combat in the streets of America.”
“So what do we do?”
“From atop the hill I could hear distant helicopters and I doubt they’re ours. So, we try to remain undetected, get Bernie back on his feet as quickly as possible and hope like heck reinforcements arrive in time to oust the invaders and restore the peace and security we’ve all come to count on.”
Niki was stunned by the news that the crisis was so widespread and the CCIS was so entrenched across the country. She hoped Doris, Kate and the neighboring ranch families were safe. She imagined the big cities were the hardest hit, along with rural areas unfortunate enough to be staging sites for long-range nuclear weapons. She rose and wandered to the tent and poked her head in. Her grandfather still slept, so she rejoined Deuce around the fire.
“We need a plan. We can’t just sit here and wait or I’ll go crazy. The control tower soldiers gave me a persistent chase, you escaped and we killed a man at the ranch. If they think we’re a continued threat, are particularly vengeful, or if they still believe you know more than you do about the tower or some underground launch facility, they may come looking for us.”
“I would almost bet on it. The man you shot at the ranch wasn’t just some low-level foot soldier¾he was the infamous Colonel Nadari.”
The blood drained from Niki’s face, making her feel lightheaded. Now she knew why his face had seemed familiar. She had seen him on television before leaving Denver. He was an important military officer and probably too well connected for his men to not attempt to avenge his death.
“Oh God, what have I done?”
“You saved my life¾you didn’t have a choice, so don’t even think about it. For now I think we should move our camp north, tight to the base of the hill on the other side of the meadow, and try to camouflage it in case a helicopter flies over.” Deuce pointed to the rise she had climbed on her first full day in camp. “There, the hill will be at our backs, the creek to one side, the forest to the other and the sheep and dogs will be between us and the direction someone would most likely approach from.”
Niki struggled to force the knowledge that she had killed a high ranking IRGC officer out of her head, one related to the Iranian President, and focus on the situation at hand. She couldn’t take the shot back, and even if she could, she wouldn’t. Deuce would be dead if she hadn’t pulled the trigger, so it really didn’t matter who his would-be assassin was, but unfortunately the reality made their continued survival all the more unlikely. She doubted her actions would go unnoticed or unpunished.
“Let it go, Niki. You can’t go back and you can’t beat yourself up over so
mething you didn’t start, but were forced to finish.”
“I know. Sorry if I’m having a tough time dealing with my first killing,” she mumbled sarcastically.
Deuce reached over and grabbed her hand. He gave it a firm squeeze, but said nothing else, knowing time would be the only thing to ease the trauma she had suffered in order to save his life.
“Maybe we should picket the mules on the far side of the sheep at the edge of the trees. Those two would give us ample warning if anyone approached,” Niki said as she slid her hand out of Deuce’s grasp.
“Good thinking. I also thought I could convert your cot into a more suitable hospital bed for Bernie. You could use the one he’s on when were done. I’ll take his old wooden panniers apart and use the nice flat boards to extend the length and strengthen the cot to give him something more comfortable to lay on than the round pine limbs he’s on now.”
Niki grabbed her sketch pad and followed along as Deuce described his vision. She loved the deep, assured tone of his voice. He always sounded so confident and strong, making her want to crawl into his lap where she was certain to be safe until the crisis was over.
“If I reverse the hinges where the cot folds in half now and put some braces in the back, I could make something similar to a deck lounge chair. That way we can sit him up while keeping his spine supported and immobile.”
“Like this?”
“Exactly. I’m afraid if we don’t get him inclined some, he might develop pneumonia. And besides, he would be more comfortable, and hopefully more cheerful, if we could adjust his position a little without aggravating his injuries.”
“Well, let’s get to work.” Niki dropped her sketch pad on the ground next to Deuce. “I think it’s nice enough now, so off with the shirt. I’ll try to scrub those blood stains out and hang it in the sun to dry while the temperatures are still warm.”
