They carefully wrapped the note in one of the plastic bags Bob had used for the food in the cache, and then covered it under a small cairn of rocks, leaving just enough of the bag showing to let Eric know something was in there if he walked over to the grave site. Then, the two of them used sticks to sift through the rubble of the cabin. There were some metal tools and a few other objects that didn’t burn, but they never found an axe head or anything else worth salvaging that they could carry, and so they loaded up what they had from the cache behind the saddle on Tucker’s back and set out on their journey. Neither of them wanted to spend another night in the vicinity of the cabin, even if they didn’t have time to get far with what was left of the afternoon, so they headed back up the creek and stopped for the night near the place where Vicky had found the cave. Once there, they built a fire, so they could heat water for one of the freeze-dried meals. That second night was far more comfortable than the one before, as they didn’t have to try and fall asleep on empty stomachs, and they now had a blanket they could share. Sleeping close for warmth wasn’t quite as awkward this second time either, and they fell naturally into each other’s arms with little hesitation.
“I feel a lot better about our chances of making it now, Jonathan, thanks to Bob for leaving us what we needed.”
“He was prepared for everything, wasn’t he? He was such an interesting and knowledgeable man. It’s really too bad what happened to him. We could have learned a lot from the guy.”
“Yeah, if not for that stupid Jeremy and Brett.”
“I still think Eric went too easy on them, letting them go. He probably should have shot them then and there.”
“Probably, but of course when confronted they dropped their guns and played it off as an accident, whether it really was or not. I don’t see Eric as the kind of guy who would just shoot someone under circumstances like that.”
“No, I just wish the idiots would have tried something with him. He wouldn’t have hesitated to blow them away then.”
“Well, like he said, he didn’t do them any great favors letting them go the way he did. With no horses, no guns and barely enough food to get them down out of the mountains, I don’t imagine they had an easy time of it. And they may not have survived it after all.”
“Maybe not. It just sucks that Bob had to go that way. But a lot of bad things are happening to a lot of good people; like your grandparents, and now Shauna. Sometimes I wonder if any of us are going to make it through this, and if life will ever be normal again. I doubt it will. I really do.”
“It may not ever return to normal, Jonathan, but while we are alive, we can make the best of it.”
“I’m not complaining about that. I know we’re lucky to be alive, and I’m especially lucky to have you for a friend. Otherwise, it would be over for me out here.”
“And I’m just as lucky, Jonathan. I can’t tell you how awful it was for me those days and nights when I was alone hiding in that barn at the ranch, after having to bury my grandma and grandpa by myself. I don’t ever want to feel that alone again. It was horrible!”
Vicky snuggled closer to him as she said this, and Jonathan hugged her tightly, promising her that wouldn’t happen again. “We’ll stick together, Vicky, whatever comes next. I know Eric wants to get the hell out of the country and he’s got a great boat to do it on. He won’t leave without Megan, and I know he’ll do everything in his power to find Shauna too, if she’s still alive. But at some point, he’s going to be setting sail again, and if he’ll let me, I want to go with him. You ought to think about that too. From what I’ve seen since we left Florida, I don’t know if this country will ever be the same again.”
“Where is he planning to go? I never thought about the idea of leaving on a sailboat, but then, I’ve lived in the mountains most of my life.”
“Eric’s been all over the world in his line of work. He knows where all the bad places are and where to find the good ones too. He told me all about some of them when we were sailing across the Gulf. Whole groups of islands so far away from everything else that hardly anybody ever goes to them except a few other people with the kind of sailboats that can get there. He said there were places where you could anchor up for years if you wanted to, with coral reefs full of fish and perfect weather year-round. Wouldn’t it be nice to be soaking up rays on a tropical beach somewhere under the full moon instead of freezing our asses off up here? Think about it!”
“It does sound nice, Jonathan, and maybe I’ll dream about it when I fall asleep, at least as long as you stay close enough to keep me warm.”
Jonathan pulled her even closer to him with that and said he would dream of it too. And they soon fell asleep in each other’s arms, but when he woke it was to a bitter north wind sweeping down over the divide, shattering any dreams of tropical paradise against the harsh reality of their situation. Jonathan built up the fire for Vicky this time, and then they shared another quick meal and moved out.
“We’re going to have to find a campsite at lower elevations tonight,” Vicky said. “It feels like a front coming through, and I’ll bet we’re going to see some snow. We need to find an alternate route that doesn’t follow the divide too. That trail’s going to keep us too high for this weather. It’s way too late in the year for that already.”
Jonathan trusted that Vicky knew what she was talking about. They were faced with either taking their chances being seen by the wrong people while traveling the trails and roads of the valleys, or the prospect of dying of exposure in the high country. It wasn’t a difficult choice because freezing was certain if they stayed up there. They had to keep pushing south, and the only way to do that was to leave the divide and work their way through the mountains to one side. The map Bob had left showed a network of trails in the vicinity, and where they connected to what few gravel and paved roads there were. But the map was limited to just the national forest they were presently within.
By the end of their third full day of travel, they had left the boundaries of that forest and were traveling by compass and guesswork, keeping to the trails and remote roads that led in the general direction they wanted to go. Twice when on such a road, they heard the approach of vehicles and had to quickly move into the brush to hide and wait for them to pass. On both occasions, the vehicles were running in company with others; the first a group of three pickup trucks, two of them pulling horse trailers behind them, and the second, a small convoy of SUVs following each other closely. They managed to stay out of sight both times, but close encounters like that made Jonathan nervous, and where the terrain permitted, they avoided using such roads and instead cut cross country.
This lower elevation route put them in proximity to ranches and isolated houses, but most seemed abandoned, and some were burned to the ground the same as Bob Barham’s cabin. Jonathan and Vicky took turns studying the intact ones carefully from a distance with the scope Jonathan took off of Shauna’s ruined rifle, but they saw no signs of life other than the vehicles that had passed. People apparently had either left on their own, or perhaps been killed or taken away like Shauna. Although he and Vicky figured some of those homes remaining might contain items they could use, they didn’t dare risk approaching them for fear someone might still be hiding out there that would shoot them on sight. It was far safer to make do with what they had, and so that was what they did.
Once they were a considerable distance from the last ranch they’d seen, and sunset was rapidly approaching, Jonathan had the opportunity to put the .22 Magnum rifle to use when he and Vicky flushed a rabbit that stopped after running just a few feet, presenting an easy target. He was pleased with his luck and told Vicky it was time to start thinking about hunting more, as they had no idea how long it was going to take to reach the Jicarilla reservation. When they were discussing the trip with Eric before he cut out on all of them, he’d estimated it would take about a week by way of the Continental Divide Trail. They had studied the maps enough that Jonathan and Vicky both had some idea of h
ow to find the place once they reached New Mexico, but the circuitous route they were forced to take now would no doubt add days of travel time.
They camped near the place where Jonathan killed the rabbit, in a sheltered creek bottom among a stand of towering pines. Then, Jonathan dressed it while Vicky built the cooking fire, and by the time they were eating, it was fully dark, and everything changed. The first indication they had that they weren’t alone was when Tucker became agitated. He had smelled or heard something out there beyond the circle of light cast by the flames, and then when Jonathan and Vicky heard the loud crack of a breaking branch, they knew someone, or something had stepped on it.
“It could be a bear!” Jonathan whispered, as he moved to reach for the .45-70 carbine. But before he laid a hand on it, a sharp voice from out of the dark stopped him short:
“Don’t touch that rifle! Put your hands up; high, where I can see them, and stay where you are! Both of you!”
Eight
FOR ERIC BRANSON, THE drive across the Jicarilla reservation in the battered old Toyota pickup bordered on surreal. Less than an hour ago, he’d been alone in the jail cell where he’d been held since his arrival, expecting yet another interrogation or worse when his Apache guards came to unlock him. Nothing could have prepared him for what happened next though, when he was led down a hall and through the doors of the tribal headquarters office. After all he’d been through and all the miles he’d traveled in search of his daughter, Megan was sitting right there in front of him! And now he was squeezed into the compact cab of the little truck next to her, as she sat in the middle between him and her friend, Aaron, who was at the wheel. Ahead of them on the dusty gravel road was Aaron’s uncle and aunt, leading the way back to their place where Megan had been staying since her arrival here.
Eric knew that Megan was beyond happy as she sat there between the two of them. She certainly hadn’t been expecting to see her dad here, and she’d been worried sick over her friend Aaron ever since she’d seen him abducted by the armed men who’d taken him away to their camp. When Eric told her he’d found that camp destroyed and littered with bodies, Megan had naturally feared the worst. Seeing Aaron suddenly drive up to the tribal headquarters in that old truck, alive and well, was almost too good to be true. Eric could tell it was the best day his daughter had seen in a long time, even though some of the things he told her during the drive no doubt brought back unpleasant memories from her recent past.
“Vicky’s grandparents were so sweet, and so good to us. They didn’t deserve to die like that. I can’t imagine what Vicky must have gone through, being all alone there after it happened. If we’d known that was going to happen, we’d have never left.”
“It probably wouldn’t have made a difference,” Eric said, “other than it may have gotten you both killed. You made the right choice to get away from Gareth and his friends.”
“I can’t believe he had the nerve to go back there, after all he stole from the ranch. And now he’s dead. I suppose it was bound to happen. Gareth couldn’t be content to just focus on survival, like the rest of us were doing. He was always looking for something more.”
“Yep, it sure seems that way to me, from what I’ve heard about him,” Eric said.
“I was a fool to ever listen to anything he said in the first place. I’m sorry, Dad. I’m sorry I caused you all that trouble without even knowing it.”
“You have nothing to apologize for and nothing to regret, Megan. We all make mistakes. The best you can do is learn from them.” Eric knew that Megan had been infatuated with Gareth, and maybe even thought she was in love with him before she found out who he really was. But hearing of his demise now, she didn’t exhibit any emotion to indicate that she still clung to even a shred of those feelings. Relief was all he sensed from her, and understandably so.
Her friend Aaron had been listening to the conversation without comment as he drove, but when Megan said nothing else about Gareth, he questioned Eric’s other actions at the ranch.
“So, you just let Brett and Jeremy go free? Even after they killed that old man you were riding with?”
“I did. But only because I don’t think Jeremy meant to kill him. It was a mistake and Bob did have a gun in his hand. I know they were in with Gareth and with him when he tried to track the two of you down, but you know as well as I do that letting them go with no supplies or weapons wasn’t exactly doing them any favors. They really only had one option if they wanted to survive, and that was to head down out of the high country and try to find their way to one of the refugee camps. I have no idea whether they made it or not, but it’s not my problem and I haven’t given it any more thought.”
“You did the right thing, Dad. They did some stupid things, but it was Gareth that influenced them. He had a way about him that made people want to follow him, but the more that happened, the more he started changing. He went off the deep end pretty quickly, and I’m glad he won’t be hurting anyone else.”
“No, he won’t. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“No, but now I’ve got to worry about Mom! I can hardly believe she came all this way with you! That’s insane!”
“I don’t think it’s insane at all Megan. She is your mom, you know, and you know how tough your mom is. She’s not afraid of anything. She would have eventually made her way out here to find you with or without me.”
“I’m sorry I put you both through all that worry. I should have tried to get home as soon as the semester was over, before things started getting bad. It’s just that no one thought it was going to get this bad.”
“You made the best decision at the time, Megan, given the information you had. You were a lot better off staying put than going back to Florida, considering the impact of that hurricane.”
“So, our house is like totally destroyed, huh?
“Not leveled like some, but yeah, that whole area is uninhabitable now, and will be for the foreseeable future, because nobody’s there to restore services.”
“That’s really sad. I feel so bad for all my friends and the other people I know down there. I hope they made it somewhere safe and somehow survived. I feel bad for Andrew and my stepdad too. I know it must be hard on them, losing everything and having to leave it all behind.”
“They’ll be okay. They’re with your Uncle Keith and your Grandpa, so they’re as safe as they could be anywhere right now.”
“That’s awesome that all of you sailed all the way to Uncle Keith’s from Florida!”
“Daniel wasn’t too happy about the idea at first, but he came around.”
“And he was cool with my mom taking off out here alone with you?”
“I wouldn’t say he was exactly cool with it, but he managed to deal with it. It’s not like he had a choice. Your mom wasn’t having any part of staying behind, and there was no way I was bringing him and Andrew with us.”
“I can see that. They wouldn’t have been able to handle all you’ve been through to get here.”
“Not likely. The way it turned out though, your mom and I didn’t end up traveling together most of the time anyway.”
“And now you’ve left her waiting again,” Megan said. “I can’t imagine that she’s happy with you about that. I can just hear her now, the day she woke up and discovered that you left without telling her.”
“I’m sure she had a few choice names for me, especially after she read my letter, but it couldn’t be helped. I didn’t want anyone slowing me down once I knew where you were headed. They are safe where I left them, and they have everything they need right there in that cabin. The only problem is that now I have to go back there to get them.”
“Not by yourself though, right? You know I’m going with you.”
Eric hadn’t thought that far ahead yet at all. Until that afternoon, his entire focus and mission in life was finding Megan. He’d vowed to turn over every rock in these mountains to find her, if that’s what it took, and he’d fought his way through a world of
shit to get here. But now that he’d found her alive and unhurt, he needed to make plans for the next phase. Getting Shauna, Jonathan and Vicky was a top priority, but he wasn’t ready to commit to taking Megan with him just yet, at least not until he had a better understanding of the situation here on the reservation, so he could assess whether or not it was safe to leave her here.
“If you go, I’m going with you,” Aaron said to Megan, before turning to Eric: “My uncle and my other relatives will help us too, Mr. Branson. They will provide horses, supplies, weapons, whatever we need…”
“We’ll talk about that later,” Eric said. Despite his run-in with the militia forces in the mountains and getting thrown in jail by the tribal police here on Jicarilla land, finding Megan hadn’t taken as long as Eric had expected when he left Shauna and the others behind. The three of them were well-supplied at the cabin, with plenty of food, firewood and other necessities, so it wasn’t like he had to leave today to rush back after them. There was still a lot to talk to Megan about, and many questions to ask her about all she’d been through in these months that changed her life from a carefree college student to a refugee of war in her own country. There was no need to burst her bubble now, but Eric doubted he’d be taking her and Aaron with him when he went back to that cabin. As much as he hated the thought of letting her out of his sight again, it didn’t make sense to expose her to more danger than necessary. It was going to be tough and risky enough getting all of them back to Louisiana, and Eric still had no idea how he was going to go about doing that. It was a bridge to be crossed when the time came, but for now he was content to be sitting there with his arm around Megan’s shoulders, knowing she was alive and unhurt.
Feral Nation Series Box Set 2 [Books 4-6] Page 41
