Beyond the New Horizon (Book 4): Dark Times

by Conaway, Christine

  Beyond the New Horizon;

  Dark Times

  Book Four

  By

  Christine Conaway

  Beyond the New Horizon; Dark Times © 2017 Christine Conaway

  This novel is a work of fiction written from the imagination of the author. Any places, names or incidents, are coincidental. No part of the manuscript may be copied, printed, or used, without written permission from the author.

  Cover photography courtesy of Chancli Conaway

  Chapter One

  John turned on the tractor seat for one final look at his family ranch, or what it had become. There wasn’t much to see that looked familiar, but he felt the pull to see it one last time. With the buildings destroyed, the topography of the land in disarray, and the geyser that has sprouted up in the middle of his hay shed he felt betrayed by the land his family had tended for years. Sometime during the previous night, a crevasse had opened down the east side of the volcano, spewing black smoke and fumes out into the atmosphere. A pall of doom hung over the valley, destroying any feelings of safety and security he had previously felt around his home.

  “It’s time to go,” he said not caring or knowing that anyone heard him.

  The mountain, with its imminent threat, was his primary reason for leaving. John wanted to get his family as far away as possible before the whole mountain blew apart when it was no longer able to contain the immense pressure from below.

  In his dreams, he had seen the devastation that had rained down on his family home, and he had no desire to experience the catastrophe in real life. He’d had the same dream over and over again the past few nights and more than once he had been tempted to leave everything behind and just run.

  John had argued in vain with his brother Sam about forgetting about the guns and the animals, but Sam had remained adamant about getting the guns and anything else that Olivia’s Dad had hidden away. John had argued why Sam would take the word of a young girl that there were any supplies to be had.

  Their last conversation had not gone well, and John mulled it over in his mind, not knowing if he or Sam was right. “Oh, to hell with the guns. We don’t need them. Let’s just pack up and go.” John had argued.

  “What about the animals. You don’t think we need them either?” Sam had countered.

  “We can find more. You think those are the only ones that survived? I promise you that we can find more, we can plant gardens, we can hunt, and we have the cattle. What more do you want?”

  “I want a way to defend us if we have to, and you know as well as I do that time will come. Maybe not tomorrow or the day after, but six months or a year from now when the people who don’t know how to survive on their own and they’ve gone through every home and shop in the larger cities and towns, and after they’ve killed off every breedable animal, they’ll come looking. I don’t want to be the guy throwing rocks at someone who is using bullets.”

  “You don’t even know what’s there. It could all be gone for all we know. That girl could be lying just to get an escort to her home.”

  Sam had shaken his head, a sad expression on his face, “You don’t believe that. You know what she went through, and what her parents went through to protect the people. I have to think she’s telling the truth. On top of that, you said we could hunt. What are you going to hunt with, sticks and stones? You know the bullets we have won’t be enough to last the first year. Hell, we couldn’t even slaughter one of our cows unless you plan on beating it to death.” Sam shook his head, his expression sad. “We have to go John. I know you don’t see the importance of it right now, but trust me, in time you will.”

  John remembered feeling betrayed, “Well, I can see you’re determined to go and nothing I can say will sink into that thick skull of yours or stop you, so I guess if you’re lucky, we’ll see you again.”

  “That you will John. You can count on it.” Sam turned and walked off, leaving John to wonder if they ever would see him or the others again.

  He felt like Sam was headed out on a wild goose chase and that he was being influenced by Gina and the girl. He’d changed since meeting up with the three women, and now this young girl had somehow insinuated herself between Sam and his family also. John wondered if the changes were for the better or not, or perhaps he didn’t know Sam as well as he thought he did. Either way, John felt the wedge sinking further in, widening the gap between them all.

  With nothing left to say, John led his group out the end of the box canyon and was pleased to see that the way was as clear as when he and Sam had driven the cows in front of them. There would be no road until they crossed the open valley and came to the BLM land. The forest, or what was still standing, had been crisscrossed with forest service roads, and these roads were what John had in mind to use to get to the Saint Joes Wilderness area.

  The first three days were slow and time-consuming.They had to clear the path many times, where trees had fallen and once they had to move a rock slide out of the way. The road improved the fourth day until they came to a creek that John hadn’t remembered crossing with Sam, but he could see where the road continued on the other side. John reined in Clyde and held his arm up. Lucas, who was driving the big tractor stopped behind him.

  “Whats up Dad?”

  “We’ve got a water crossing ahead. The bank is steep going up the other side, but you should be able to handle it. As soon as you get out in the middle, give it some gas and don’t let off until you get up to the firm ground.”

  Lucas frowned, “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather drive it across?” Lucas’s experience on tractors had been on the smaller John Deere as he had never been allowed to drive the big tractor around the farm. He still hadn’t gained the confidence or felt comfortable driving the bigger Massey Fergusson.

  “No! You can handle it. You said you were ready for more responsibility; this is your chance. Just do what I said and you’ll be okay.”

  “Tell Mom and the girls to get off then. I don’t want anything to happen to them.”

  John rode to the back of the trailer and had Mary and the girls get down.

  “Dang, I sure hope that stuff is tied down good or he’ll never let me forget that I messed up,” Lucas said to himself. He didn’t know what he’d done to make his father so angry with him all the time, but lately, Lucas couldn’t do anything right, and it had all started when he’d decided to help Matt. When they were together with everyone else, his Dad acted differently than when they were alone, and he had announced in front of everyone that he had forgiven him, for his foolish behavior as he called it, but Lucas knew he hadn’t really.

  Having gone over everything that had happened to him and Matt, Lucas realized there was nothing he would have done differently given the same chance over again. Matt was his friend, and that carried some weight with Lucas, and hadn’t it been his Dad who’d taught him that a man always kept his word and helped a friend out when asked? Lucas wondered about the double standards.

  Alone with his thoughts, but feeling his father's eyes watching him, Lucas pulled the throttle lever down and let off the clutch. For a second the engine roared, and he began to move. When the front wheels hit the water, a wave of icy water washed up and over him, but Lucas kept the lever open. The tires hit the bank, and at first, it felt like he was going to have to plow his way through the dirt when the wheels caught purchase and lifted up over the bank. When the larger back tires hit the bank of dirt, they simply climbed up the embankment, lifting the front of the travel trailer up and over the mud. They bumped their way to the top of the bank, and when Lucas was sure the ground was firm, he stopped. Looking behind, Lucas realized he’d crest
ed the hill and couldn’t see anyone.

  He heard the roar of the smaller tractor that Mark was driving and realized they could come over the top of the hill and plow right into the back of the trailer. Lucas quickly let the clutch out, the tractor leaped, and the motor died.

  “Crap!” he swore and started the tractor. “Slower this time just a little slower.” The tractor began to move, and Lucas swerved to the right trying to see behind and saw the front end of Mark’s tractor rising above the top of the hill. He pulled the throttle lever all the way down, and they leaped forward. Down a short slope, he saw the road directly in front of him and made a quick turn onto the gravel and drove until Mark and Charlie would have room behind him to park, and stopped. Mark came chugging up behind him.

  Lucas set the brake and shut the motor off. He climbed down and walked to the back of the trailer in time to see Mark jump off and run back up the hill and over the top. Lucas couldn’t decide whether to stay with the tractor and trailer or go back and see if he could help. He thought there had to be a reason that Mark went back. He could hear someone hollering at the horses and the crack of a whip as it was snapped in the air.

  Charlie’s voice rang out, “Gee Haw. Get up there!” Crack! Crack! Crack! Charlie was working his whip, but by the sound of his voice, Lucas didn’t think they were getting any closer. His mind made up, he ran to the top of the hill. Below him, the horse's legs had sunk up to their hocks in the mud the tractors had left behind. They were clearly unable to pull the narrower wagon wheels through the muck and up to the top of the bank.

  He saw Charlie climb down and go to his horses. When Lucas got there, he could hear Charlie crooning to the sweaty animals to calm them.

  “What do you need Charlie? We can unhook the team and probably pull you out with the tractor,” John told him.

  Charlie left Lucas holding the two horses and went to look the wagon over. After studying the position of the wheels and the depth of the mud and dirt surrounding the wagon he told John, “We’ll have to pull it out from the back and dig away some of the bank to lessen the slope of it. I don’t have the same traction on my wheels, and the horses are pulling against the wall of mud. I’m not sure the tractor could even pull it up there without using a shovel first.”

  “Lucas, go unhook the trailer and drop it where you stopped. Bring it back down here, but you’re going to have to…never mind. Help Charlie get those horses unhitched. I’ll get the tractor.”

  As soon as the horses were unhooked from the wagon, they had no trouble clearing the mud the tractors had left behind. Charlie tied them to trees close enough to keep an eye on them and returned to the wagon. Charlie removed the pins and dropped the pole. He and Lucas carried it to the top of the slope and set it aside.

  Before they were back down to the wagon, they could hear John returning. He came down the hill front end forward rather than backing down as he’d said to Lucas. John pulled a round nosed shovel out from beside the fender and tossed it in Lucas’s direction.

  “Dig out the front of the box so I can see the edge of it.”

  Lucas frowned, looked at the shovel stuck in the mud and waded in to get it. He had no idea how he could clear the mud away without it oozing back into place. He felt the water seep down into the tops of his boots, and he hoped it was only water and not the mud too.

  Lucas was able to scrape the thick muck away long enough for John to put the edge of the bucket against the bottom edge of the box and push the wagon back, just by extending the arms of the bucket.

  John climbed down, walked around the front of the wagon and stood with his hands on his hips, looking. He turned and looked at the opposite bank which now instead of having a gradual slope as when they’d started, the tractors and the horse's hooves had turned the ground into a thick muddy mess. He chewed his lip while he studied the situation.

  By the time John had looked at it from every angle, he was shaking his head. He sighed, “We’ll have to find another way around. I can’t see how we’re going to get the front end over that first hump.”

  “We could build a ramp. If we cut up a few of these fallen trees, we could use them to bridge the gap.”

  “Might work,” John said.

  Mark pulled his chainsaw out of his wagon and set to work. He cut trees into lengths longer than the width of the wagon wheels, and they began filling in the space with the cut tree trunks. By the time they were finished, they had lost a couple of hours and several gallons of sweat. The girls, Mary and Evelyn, carried the cut limbs and filled in the gaps. It wasn’t pretty, but they agreed it would probably do the trick, especially without the horses having to climb up it.

  Lucas’s feet were beginning to itch, and his wet boots squeezed water out with every step. He knew they would dry eventually. Lucas had sized them with water when they were new to form them to his feet, but then, he had soaked them in fresh water and left them on until they’d dried. But then, there hadn’t been any mud used in the process, and they had fit his feet perfectly.

  While Mary and Evelyn fixed them sandwiches from tortillas, Lucas walked up the creek, not only to wash the mud away from his clothes but to see what was up there. He was surprised when he found a path that had apparently been used for a hiking trail, and while it was narrow, he thought the wagon could pass between the brush and tree trunks. Behind him, Lucas could see where the trail continued back to the north and wondered why his father hadn’t looked for a different crossing rather than spend hours building a ramp. He shook his head and walked back toward the wagon. Lucas wasn’t going to say a word about the upper crossing. If Charlie had had to use the horses, he would have, but seeing his father getting ready to hook a chain to the front of the wagon, he was determined to keep this knowledge to himself.

  As he walked back, he saw the water flow was almost at a standstill and barely moving. Looking at the edges of it, he realized that it must be a new creek. Under the water, where he would expect to see bedrock, he could see where grass still grew, gently swaying with the flow, and the banks of the creek were undefined.

  As he stared at it, the surface began to jump up and down as if being pelted with raindrops. Lucas was puzzled because he held his hand out to catch some drops and it wasn’t raining, but then the ground shifted under his feet and began to vibrate. Lucas stumbled when the ground tripped him up. “Dang!” he swore as he landed on his backside beside the water, his hands scrambled in the dead leaves and dirt to hold on. As soon as the trembling stopped, he jumped to his feet and hurried back the short distance to the wagon.

  Lucas heard the horses snorting and turned to find they were both stomping and pulling back from the still swaying trees they’d been tied to. Needles, dead twigs and small pieces of branch covered their heads and backs. He saw Charlie stumble his way through the mud to Jack and Lucas headed for Walker. The horse calmed as soon as Lucas put his hands on him. He looked over at Jack to catch a grateful expression on Charlie's face. His hands were busy brushing the tree mess off Jacks back.

  To Luca’s way of thinking; how a man cared for his animals said a lot about their values and Lucas was reminded of the jenny and Matts horse and his own values. The animals were gone because of his and Matt’s bad decisions. He felt sad, for the loss of the horse and mule and for something he felt that he and his father had lost after the incident. He wasn’t sure what it was, but when he thought about it, Lucas realized his Uncle Sam treated him more like a thinking adult even with the errors in judgment. “But he ain’t my father,” Lucas told himself. He wondered if maybe that wasn’t the difference.

  As soon it appeared the tremors were over, John hollered at him, “Lucas, leave that damn horse alone and get over here. I need you to get down there and wrap this chain around the front axle.”

  “I’ll do it. That boy has done enough,” Charlie said, as he walked over to the wagon.

  “He can do it. No sense all of us getting dirty.”

  Lucas could feel the friction between the two men and kn
ew he didn’t want to be the cause of disharmony in their group. Sam had already explained to all of the kids how they would be asked to take on more of the responsibilities now that their lives had changed, and Sam had stressed how they all needed to get along and not complain. He said they needed to think and act like young adults.

  “I’ll do it,” Lucas said, walking back into the mud. He took the end of the chain and dragged it under the wagon. With it wrapped around the axle several times, Lucas hung the hook over the length of chain securing it. He tried to stay out of the water, but for some reason, the flow had increased, and by stepping away and looking at the wagon wheels, it was obvious the depth had risen by several inches.

  Lucas glanced up the waterway and saw that where the water had sat in slow moving pools, it now had small ripples as if the flow had increased.

  He stood up and nodded at his father. He thought he saw something on his father's face he couldn’t identify. The way he wouldn’t meet Luca’s eyes, made him wonder if the expression could possibly be shame. His look had reflected what Lucas felt inside every time his dad had brought up the loss of Carlos’s jenny. Lucas saw no way to replace her and tried to compensate by doing more and working harder without being told.

  Everyone must have felt the tension in the air and Mark intervened, as if trying to change the subject, “You want to make camp here for the night?”

  “Nope. We can get through this and maybe a couple more miles before stopping,” John said as he walked to where the tractor sat. ‘Lucas, when I get close enough, hook the end of that chain around the bucket.”

  Lucas sighed and picked up the end of the chain. He was surprised when Mark came over and took it from him. “I’ll do it. I think you’ve paid penance enough for today.”

  Lucas released the chain to Mark and went to stand by Charlie. “What you did for old Walker sure did help me. Settled that horse right down and I thought you might want to learn to drive them.”