Beyond the New Horizon (Book 4): Dark Times

by Conaway, Christine

  “As soon as I get this cast-off, I’m thinking about leaving. If your dad doesn’t want me here and this is the way my life is going to go, I don’t want to be here either.”

  Lucas had met Matt’s eyes, working the inside of his lip while he considered Matt’s words, “I might have to go with you. Right now I feel like the unwanted red-headed stepchild. But before we do anything, I want Willy or Uncle Sam or maybe even Ben to teach me how to shoot, and you should too.”

  “Heck Lucas, you shoot a heck of a lot better than I do, especially when it comes to bows. What happened to your bow? I haven’t seen you with it at all.”

  Lucas had spent an hour telling him about Lucy’s kidnapping and rescue. Matt had been impressed with the way Sam had treated Lucas like an adult. Thinking about his words with Matt, Lucas decided that once they got situated, he might just go with Matt. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life hiding in the woods waiting for something to happen.

  “Lucas? Did you get that horse hooked back up?”

  Lucas jumped when Walker nudged him, and he realized that he had been lost in his thoughts. He hadn’t been paying any attention. He quickly stepped away from the horse's heads, “Yes Sir. They’re all ready to go.”

  Then get up in that seat and when I tell you, get them moving.”

  “What about gathering our stuff up? Dad won’t like it if we don’t.”

  “Other than the stove and that commode, the rest of it’s mine,” Mark told them as he walked to stand beside the wagon. “I guess I really didn’t need that mattress after all, and I’m sure not willing to climb down that hill and pack it back up here.”

  “Keep an eye on that side Mark, okay Lucas, give them hell…er heck…get them moving.” Lucas chuckled when he saw the look on Marks' face. It was evident to Lucas that Mark and Charlie had different definitions of hell.

  Lucas smacked the reins down on the horse's backs, and they strained into the harness. He could see their muscles bulge when they put their weight into pulling. Both Walker and Jack dropped their heads, laboring to move forward and finally the wagon began to move. Lucas felt the bumpy ride as the back of the wagon dragged over the uneven terrain. At one point he felt when the axle broke free, and the ride became somewhat better. When the horses began to bog down, he slapped them again and continued around the bend, where the hillside opened up on both sides of the road. Charlie had said to get the team up to the safer ground, and Lucas didn’t stop until he heard Charlie holler.

  “Whoa!” he hauled on the reins. Both horses were glad to stop, when they ceased pulling immediately. “Easy Walker! Good boy Jack.” He climbed down and went to the horses. They were blowing, but not bad. Lucas gave them each a rub on their heads and went to see the damage.

  At the back of the wagon, Lucas saw boxes and totes that had slid down the length of the bed. He had effectively emptied the back half of the wagon on the roadway behind him. He wondered why Charlie hadn’t stopped him sooner. Both he and Mark were walking up the road, and Lucas knew they could have seen the stuff sliding off.

  “Thought your Dad was stopped here, but guess I misunderstood him,” Charlie said.

  “No, we were up where the road flattens out, just past the glade.”

  Lucas turned to look and realized the wagon bed and horses blocked the back end of Mark’s trailer. “They’re up there. I didn’t see my Dad, but I think the girls are coming back.”

  Lucas was right; they could hear them talking and giggling. Or at least some of them were. Abby appeared first, and the look on her face said whatever the other girls were laughing about had nothing to do with her. She mouthed something at Lucas when she got close, and he read her lips to mean, “What did you do?” Lucas shrugged and jerked his chin over one shoulder. Her eyes opened wide when she saw the mess strung out behind them. “Oops,” she mouthed, and her lips settled into a thin smile.

  When Sherry and Maggie fell silent, Lucas and Abby turned to see John walking down the hill. He didn’t look at Lucas, and that was okay with him. Lucas went and picked up a now empty basket, and he and Abby began filling it with the scattered clothing, pots and household goods.

  John walked to where Mark and Charlie stood, hands on hips, surveying the wreckage.

  “I guess you got it moved,” John said. He shook his head in disgust, “What a mess.”

  “But, we got the horses into a safe place. I didn’t want to take the chance of any more rocks coming down and hurting one of them. We can replace our stuff, but I can’t replace them.”

  “Mary and I were talking, and we think it would behoove us all to take the tractors down to the valley. We’re not too far from where Sam and I put the cows, but getting to the valley and getting a camp set up should be our priority, then we can come back and get the stuff from the wagon.”

  “So, we’re just going to go off and leave my things here until we return?” Charlie was frowning as he spoke and Lucas thought that maybe Charlie wasn’t finding John’s solution quite as amicable ***as John. He was surprised to hear his Dad offer, “Lucas can stay with the wagon, he was saying how he wanted more responsibility, so this should be right up his alley.”

  “I’m staying with him then,” Abby declared as she stood straight, her hands full of the clothes she’d gathered.

  The three men turned to face her, “I don’t think so. Lucas is old enough to stay by himself. We won’t be gone more than a couple of days. He can occupy himself picking the rest of this up while we move the tractors.”

  “You won’t be needing me to move them, so I believe I’ll stay with Lucas, or he can go with you. Most of these are my belongings, and I chose to move the horses causing most of this mess, so I’ll be the one to stay behind.”

  “No, I’m going to stay. I want to stay!” Lucas had already decided he needed some time away from his father and staying with the wagon would give him that. He needed time to contemplate the new relationship they seemed to have come to.

  The look that John gave Lucas would have at one time made Lucas change his mind and back down, without saying a word, but not that day. Sam had shown Lucas more about himself the past four or five months than he felt his father had shown him the past couple of years. Once his Dad had decided to stop raising cattle because of the government’s interference, his Dad had changed. They used to be a family operation, but the past year before the lights went out, their conversations had gone from”Hey buddy, how about we take the four-wheelers out and check the tanks,” to, “Lucas did you do the water tanks…. those tanks better not be frozen over?” To Lucas, it seemed like his father was always mad about something, and his short, clipped instructions held none of the comradery of their past conversations.

  As much as Lucas missed those days, he found himself glad they were over. It wasn’t that he didn’t love his father, it was more like he’d lost some of the respect he’d had for him. Lucas remembered his father's actions at the house before his Uncle Sam came back from moving stuff to the cabin. Sam had told him not to let them on the property or feed them. He said it was okay to offer them food, but not to make his Mom cook all of it. Lucas remembered his Dad telling his Mom, “They’re not going to hurt us. They know and will remember that we tried to help them. They’re just as afraid as we are.”

  Sam had been right, the people were only thinking of themselves, and they didn’t care if John’s family had provisions they had already shared or not. They wanted all his family had, and then when the family’s stores had been cleaned out, the people would have moved on to the next place. It had taken his Dad getting shot for his Dad to see the light and Lucas could only imagine how it could have gone differently if Sam hadn’t shown up when he had.

  “That’s fine, but Abby, you’re staying with us. Mary needs your help right now, so I need you with us.”

  Abby chewed her lip, apparently torn by indecision. “No sir, I’d rather stay here. Before my Dad left me, he told me to make decisions for my benefit and staying here is what I
think would be in my best interest.”

  John threw his hands up in frustration, “Fine! Stay here then. Sherry, Maggie, back to the wagon. Mark, can I assume you are going or do you plan on staying behind too?”

  “No John. I plan on going with you, but I think leaving the three of them here is probably a good idea. The young ones can salvage anything worth saving. I’m with Charlie though. If it were all my stuff, I wouldn’t want to go either, and like you said we are coming right back as soon as I get unloaded. I think it’s a good idea to leave them with a couple of guns and their horses just in case they have problems. If we know about these roads, someone else is bound to also.”

  John sneered, “Yeah, throngs of bad guys could be traveling these same roads right now. You’ve been listening to that brother of mine too much. If it weren’t for that damn volcano, I wouldn’t have even left. Nobody is going to come looking for help this late in the game, and his idea that large bodies of people are going to be moving throughout the country is hogwash.”

  Charlie had walked to where Lucas and Abby stood side by side and leaned close, “You better get on up to your wagon and get whatever you think you’ll need and get back here before he changes his mind.”

  Lucas nodded, and with Abby beside him, he jogged down the road, mentally making a list of everything he deemed his. By the time they arrived at the wagon, his list was short, his clothes and the AR that Ben had given him to use and his horse. Carlos had bought him the horse for his fifteenth birthday last year. It was only a rescued mustang the old man had adopted and broke himself, but Lucas didn’t care for bloodlines or breeding, he cared that the horse had proven to be a good one and versatile.

  Mary had tried to talk the two of them into staying, but once Lucas had explained that they would be leaving Charlie alone with his wagon, she was okay with him staying behind. Mary was not okay with Abby remaining, but when she saw she couldn’t talk the girl out of it, Mary packed them a food bag. Abby found her backpack; the one she had with her the first day and slipped it over her shoulders and buckled and clipped it up. Abby bounced it on her back to adjust the weight and groaned with the weight of it. It seemed heavier to her, but she remained quiet.

  Lucas only took a minute to tie the food bag behind his saddle and stuffed a change of clothes in his saddle bag, and he was ready to return. When he realized that Abby hadn’t laid claim to the horse that she’d been riding he frowned at her. Abby shook her head and turned to walk back down the road. She was walking with her body forward to keep the weight of it from pulling her over backward.

  Lucas led his gelding alongside her, “At least let me take your pack. I can hang it off the saddle horn, and you won’t have to carry it.”

  Abby grinned and nodded in relief. She had already realized she wouldn’t be able to pack the thing all the way back to the wagon. Her father had the only other key to her padlock, and she wondered what he had added to hers. He’d told her that she was only to open it if she found herself in extreme circumstances and Abby couldn’t wait to see what he’d added to it because it was definitely heavier than when she’d taken it off.

  “Okay,” and she began undoing the clasps on the front of it. Lucas reached down like he thought it would weigh very little and groaned when he had to use both of his hands to pick it up, and Abby had to help boost it up so he could hang the shoulder straps over the horn. The horse had to step sideways to balance the weight.

  “Dang, how did you even carry it this far? What have you got in this thing, a dead body?”

  She giggled, “I hope not because if I do, my Dad had to have put it in there.”

  Lucas inadvertently trapped Abby’s long blonde hair under the strap of the backpack, and she couldn’t move until he freed the strands. With her hair in his fingers, he wondered how it could feel so soft and look as wild and bristly as it did at the same time. Lucas felt his face flush and quickly dropped the braid. Abby either didn’t notice he’d held her braid longer than necessary or didn’t care or possibly she was too young to be worried about it. He didn’t know how old she was, but it seemed to him that she didn’t have much in common with his sister Sherry and she was twelve. Lucy had called Abby precocious, but Gina had called her, “Too damn old for her age.” Lucas almost laughed out loud until he realized that Abby would want in on the joke. There was no way he was going to repeat a conversation he’d overheard nor let her know he’d been thinking about her hair.

  “Let’s go before my Dad changes his mind about me staying.” He saw Abby look at him funny, “What?”

  Chapter Three

  They passed Mark, John and the girls somewhere about the middle of the trail, “Be careful and make sure you get that mess cleaned up right away. We’ll be back in a couple of days. Be ready to go.”

  Lucas turned and watched his father’s back side move away from them. He stared at him, but couldn’t think of anything meaningful to say. Frowning, Lucas tried to dredge up something, but he had nothing. Finally, he shrugged and set off down the trail.

  “Wow, what’s up with your dad? I understand him being mad at me, but that’s no reason to take it out on you.”

  “I don’t think he’s mad. Charlie says he is scared and isn’t thinking clearly. I guess I can understand it. The last couple of months before the lights went out he started acting strange and got awful headaches. He and my mom went to Butte to the hospital for some tests, but I never did hear what they were for, but after that, they went to Missoula every week for a long time. He still gets the headaches, but I guess they aren’t as bad now.”

  “I wonder if my Dad and the others will catch up to us seeing as it’s going to take longer now for us to go back?”

  Lucas laughed, “Abby! We’ve only been gone three days. They probably haven’t left for St. Regis yet. I heard Sam and your Dad talking, and they figured it would take us a week to get to where they left the cows and another few days to get down to the valley by the river. If they were going to follow us, I’d say maybe it would be two weeks from now.”

  Charlie stood up and waved when he saw them come around the bend on the road. Lucas and Abby waved back.

  “I like Mr. McGrubber. He reminds me of a country singer my Dad used to listen to.” She laughed, “I guess I should say if he were fatter he would look like him, because they both have the same white hair and beard, and his name was Charlie too.”

  “Charlie Daniels…Yup, Uncle Sam listened to his music too. I don’t think anyone is fat anymore. Charlie used to be way fatter than he is now.”

  “I think I’m going to miss hearing music the most…”Abby said, her voice wistful, “and maybe milkshakes, and my Dad’s homemade bread.”

  “I’m going to miss school.”

  Abby stopped and grabbed his arm, “You’re kidding, right? School? Nobody misses school.”

  “I do. I was in an accelerated program so I could graduate early and go away to college. I’d already applied for a scholarship to U.C. Davis in California. I was going to be a large animal vet.”

  “I can’t imagine your folks being okay with you going away to school. How old are you anyway?”

  Lucas stopped walking, and frowned, “That depends on what the date is. Do you think it’s February or March?”

  “I think it’s February. My birthday is in March, and my Dad would never forget it. I’m going to be thirteen.”

  “No, you’re not. I heard him say you’re only eleven. My birthday is in March too. What day?”

  “The third, and my Dad has been a year off on my age forever…Well, ever since my Mom died. He said it was his way of keeping me from being a teenager. I was born in 2004, and this is 2017, you figure it out. When’s yours?’

  “March seventh, but I guess it doesn’t matter how old we are in years anymore and I guess there’s no more school or football or anything fun.”

  “This is fun. At least some of it’s fun. I liked my Dad and me being together all the time, but now he has Lucy too.”

&
nbsp; “Does it bother you?”

  “Oh heck no. I love her, and she treats me like I’m really her daughter. She didn’t have any kids before you know.”

  “You two going to stand up there and jabber all day?” Charlie hollered, but his voice wasn’t angry sounding.

  “Coming!” they replied in unison and began walking.

  “Why didn’t you take the horse you were riding?”

  “I thought it was obvious. I don’t know how to ride very well. Besides that, I can walk as fast as these horses do, so there was no need, and I didn’t know who it belonged to or who to ask.”

  “You looked like you knew what you’re doing when I saw you,” Charlie said having overheard her explanation. “I guess if we’re going to be here for a while together, and after we get this cleaned up, young Lucas or I can give you some pointers on the fine art of guiding the horse.”

  “That would be cool. I wouldn’t mind riding one of them,” Abby said, pointing to where Charlie had unhooked the Percheron’s and tied them both to separate trees. “There’s no way I could fall off of them.”

  Charlie chuckled, “That’s because their back’s are so wide, but the idea you can’t fall off would be a misconception because our legs aren’t long enough to be able to grip around their barrel to hold on. Maybe tomorrow, if we get this cleaned up I’ll let you try to ride one of them. Both Walker and Jack are broke to ride; they’re just a little pig-headed when it comes to starting and stopping.”