“Nope, at least not for the first trip. He needs to make another himself. Once we get where we’re going, he’ll come back for the rest of his stuff. For now, there’s still some room on the back for some of our things.”
Gina shifted her gaze between John to Sam, “I didn’t see how you intended on pulling that big old wagon to start with because it’s got to weigh a ton without anything in it.”
John patted the neck of his gelding, “This guy and Sham are capable of pulling it, but Charlie is going to let us use his team after we get his first load there. And, it may not look like it, but other than the wheels, the whole bed is reinforced fiberglass. It doesn’t weigh hardly anything.”
“That’s all fine and dandy, but what about your earlier statement about adding people without a conference? How many is Charlie planning on bringing?”
For a second, a flash of sadness crossed John's face, “Just him. His boys and Cheryl’s son went into Butte three months ago to find Jesse’s girlfriend and never returned. He went looking for them with his brother-in-law and sister.” John shook himself as if he’d experienced someone on his grave, “He didn’t offer the story, but Charlie thinks he’s all that’s left of his family. His sister Cheryl and her husband were killed, and they never found the boys. He said they never made it as far as Missoula when he turned around and brought his sister and her husband home to bury.”
“Oh. Man, that sucks. What are the chances, the boys will come home and find him gone?”
“He’s willing to take the risk. He left a message where only they would know where he is and that he’ll be back. All three of those boys would be an asset to us if they ever show up. I don’t know anything about Cheryl’s boy. I wish we had gone to see him sooner.”
“Sounds like we should have. Are we changing our plans any? We still need the stuff from Olivia’s for our protection unless Charlie had a load of guns in that wagon.”
John shook his head, “Nope, but he does have enough diesel to use the tractor to move the trailer and whatever we can load it up with, to the new site. But, maybe we should use the tractor to go and get the guns and fence supplies instead?”
“Oh hell no! The idea of going in with horses, is not to draw attention and can you imagine who could hear us with that noisy ass thing? Thanks, but I think we’ll stick with the horses and cart.”
“I agree with Sam because what if the tractor broke down or something went wrong. We’d be finding our way back here on foot and with no way to carry anything. You can’t very well take the tractor off through the bush with no roads like we could with the horses.”
John nodded at Gina and without saying anything else, turned his horse to go back to where Charlie had stopped the wagon beside the hay barn. Gina frowned at John departing back, “Why do I get the feeling that your brother doesn’t like me? He’s never said so, but sometimes the way he looks at me, makes me feel that way.”
“My Dad likes you,” Lucas exclaimed. “He’s always telling my Mom how you remind him of the way she used to be. Whenever Mom criticizes you for not helping with the house chores, Dad defends you all the time. He says you have an inner strength that’s good for morale, and you’re always ready to go help, but he did say you and Uncles Sam are too much alike.”
“As long as it’s going!” Sam and Gina said at the same time. Lucas stared at them and then laughed at the expressions on Gina and his uncle's faces. “See? You guys even think alike.”
Sam shook his head, “And we don’t have time for this. We need to get the cart finished and go into St. Regis and back before that thing decides to blow again.”
It didn’t take long once they got the poles back to the hay shed for Andy and Ben to rig them to the bed. They used aluminum strapping that they found to attach them down the side. They were ready for Sam to climb to the attic and bring down the harness.
“Wait a minute. We still don’t have wheels or axles. How are you going to pull it without them?”
One of the men had set the framework on top of a bale of hay, and no one had noticed the lack of wheels. They had been overjoyed by just having the shafts.
“Well, crap! Who wants to ride over to Marks while I get the harness down? If someone doesn’t go now, it’ll be too dark to go later.”
Gina looked at Journey. She wanted to talk to her anyhow and question Mark about what he’d heard. Before Lucas could express the desire to go, “Journey and I will, we need to talk to Mark.”
“We do?”
“Yes, we do. Mark heard some pretty distressing news, and I think you need to hear it from him to make sure we have all of the facts. People somewhere are dying, and we need to know why.”
Journey shrugged, “Let’s go then.”
It took only minutes for the two women to throw their saddles on Bess and Sailor and they waved when they rode off on the trail to Marks.
“Tell me what’s going on and why didn’t I hear this sooner?”
Gina spent the next hour, telling Journey everything she’d heard by way of Lucas’s eavesdropping.
“We knew it was inevitable. Without hospitals and doctors, people were going to die. I can’t believe someone didn’t think of burying the dead. What makes you think it’s the plague?”
“I am only passing on what Lucas told me. I wish Mark had said something to us instead of getting it from Lucas second hand.”
Gina laughed, “I think Mark is getting it second hand too. He only repeats what he’s heard on the ham. I keep thinking about the CDC in Georgia. What are the chances that it has been compromised? It’s that stuff supposed to be frozen or something?”
“Until whatever they are using as backup for electricity runs out of fuel, I assume it is. Honestly, I have no idea what goes on there. If it is without power, I find it hard to believe they didn’t have something in mind to cover all contingencies. When I think of all of the diseases they have stored in that place,…it could wipe every human off the face of the earth. Let’s just hope we are dealing with a rat population and not a breach of the CDC.”
Before they dropped off the hill down to Marks, they saw him standing by two bike frames that were propped up on their handlebars, their bare forks sticking up. All four wheels were off and leaned against the porch. He waved at them to show that he had seen them and hurried into the house.
As they rode into the yard, Mary and Evelyn with Matt supported between them came out onto the porch.
“Hey Matt, how are you feeling?”
“This young man thinks he’s ready to go home. We’ve been trying to talk him into staying longer, but he insists that you guys need him.”
“I don’t think you should come home yet. We have no way for you to get around, especially without crutches.”
Mark went over and knelt in front of Matt, he felt the cast up and down and used his knuckles to rap on it. He had Matt lower his foot to the ground and put his weight on it. “How’s it feel?”
Matt nodded, “Good. I think it’s dry now. Does that mean I can walk on it?”
“It does, but take it easy. For Pete sake, keep it dry and covered if you’re outside. And no running.”
Matt walked in circles trying out his new walking cast. “Thanks, Mark. It feels good, a little heavy but good.”
Mark chuckled, got to his feet and turned to Gina and Journey. “There are the wheels. I thought when John didn’t come right over that I better remove them. I can see it was a good thing I did.”
When neither Gina or Journey went to pick up the wheels, he asked, “Something else I can do for you? You both look like you have something on your minds.”
“We need to know what you heard about people dying and where. If we are going to have a full blown epidemic of some kind, we need to know what it is, before we can plan how to deal with it.”
Mark frowned, “John tell you that?”
“Nope, but someone overheard the two of you talking. Is it as bad as you said? Are there people in the bigger cities dying?”
“I fear it is worse than just a couple of people dying. Anyone who was without their medicines this long is probably already gone. From what I can make out, because of the chatter changing on an hourly basis, there is, what sounds to me, like a plague traveling around. I was reading up on what it could be, and I think we can eliminate cholera, at least for the time being. But, I wouldn’t bank on that for the future.”
“So many of the diseases we should fear have some of the same symptoms. Unless we can see the…”
Mark held up his hand to stop Journey, “The guy I last talked to said it looked to him like his wife was rotting from the inside out. He thought she had gangrene on her feet. He said both of them were black and now her hands and nose were turning dark too.”
Journey nodded, “Plague, and it sounds like it’s turned septicemic. Can you get him on the radio, I need to talk to him?”
Mark shook his head and sighed, “I’d like to too, but he hasn’t answered all day. Early this morning he said he wasn’t feeling well. Even I know that if his wife is that sick and he’s been doctoring her alone without any protection, I’ve probably talked to him for the last time.”
“Is there anyone out there who knows what’s going on? Maybe another ham operator? Is the disease widespread or localized or what? Where did this guy live?”
“You can try one more time, but I am getting ready to take the antenna down and pack it and my radio up for the move. As soon as Charlie get’s his stuff where we’re going, he’s coming by here to take anything that I can’t fit in my wagon.” Mark pointed to his yard tractor where he had a four by eight-foot flat trailer hooked up. He had used fibreboard to build the sides up four feet and tied a rope around the whole thing to keep it together.
Gina couldn’t see what Mark had packed but assumed he was planning on taking everything that he owned and it looked like most of it was already in the trailer.
“Wow Mark, did you leave any room for Evelyn to ride in?”
“Ride? Heck no! I’m not riding in that thing. I’m driving it.”
It was then that Gina realized that gone was the flowered housedress that she’d last seen on Evelyn. She now wore a pair of dungarees, that looked like they could have belonged to Mark with their rolled cuffs. Her gray hair was pulled back behind her head except for the curly bangs on her forehead. They looked like she had removed the sponge roller and not bothered to comb them out. Her eyes were lost in the folds of her cheeks as she smiled, and Gina wondered how a person could look so happy with everything that was going on.
“We were going to come over and have a word with you, and I was hoping to catch Sam before he left for St. Regis. If I had another ten gallons of gas for the tractor, I could probably make it all the way. The thing is, I’m out of gas jugs. There’s still a half tank in Evelyn’s Caprice, but I have nothing to carry it in. I know that Zack sold some at the farm store and maybe there’s a way you could bring a couple of empty ones back and some chain oil.”
Gina had been nodding ready to say they could until Mark mentioned chain oil. “Chain oil? What’s that and is it at the farm store?”
“I have that old Stihl chainsaw, and I thought it might come in handy when we get ready to start building. The extra gas will let us get a lot of work done and way easier than the crosscut saw.”
Gina held her hands up, “I may not know what it is, but I’m sure that Sam does, so I’ll tell him.”
Mark nodded, “I hope it’s okay if Evie follows you guys back over there. Matt can ride on top if he wants. It’d save one of you from riding double.”
“I sure wish we could talk to someone on the radio about this disease.”
“Journey, without really knowing or seeing a case of it for yourself, does it really matter which it is? God willing we’ll never have to deal with it. Where John plans on setting us up sounds like the perfect hideaway.”
“It does at that, but who’s to say that someone else hasn’t already been there? Who’s to say they aren’t still there hiding somewhere? What are we going we do if someone else shows up after we’re already situated? We can’t kill or run off everyone.”
“Okay, okay! I’ll find out as much as I can before I dismantle the radio. Now you better go before it gets dark.”
“Thanks, Mark. I know you think I’m being silly, but we can’t afford to get sick without medicines. Gina and I only have so much knowledge, and neither one of us is trained in contagious diseases.”
“Maybe while you guys are at the farm store, you might see if there are any big animal antibiotics left. I know that Zack made a habit of stocking them for winter.”
“Great! You’re worried about the cows and horses…oh, I never thought about that.”
“You’re welcome. Come on Evie, if you’re going to drive that thing over, you need to get over here.”
Gina took the four wheels and laid them up beside Matt who was sitting on top of a stack of mattresses. “Don’t lose these.”
Gina and Journey climbed on their horses to follow the heavily loaded trailer when from behind them they heard Mark.
“Hey!” He hurried to them and held up to four-foot pieces of threaded rod. “I almost forgot, give these to Sam. He’ll know what they’re for and how to use them. I already put the cones, spacers, and nuts on them and here are some extra locknuts if he’d rather use them.”
“Axles?” Gina asked, leaning down to take them. She held her hand out, and Mark dropped a half dozen nuts into her palm. She slipped them into her saddlebag.
“Yup, because it’s something I’ll bet those boys forgot. You have to have some way for the wheels to attach and turn.”
Gina laughed, “You could be right because all of the talks about this cart they’re building, I never once heard the word axle. Thanks, Mark.”
At the top of the hill, Journey rode back to Evelyn on the tractor, “Let me take the wheels from the back and Gina thinks you may as well take the wagon down below. When we leave, it will be down from down there.”
She rode to the side of the trailer, and Matt handed her up the wheels. She balanced them on Bess’s neck and her saddle horn and waved at Evelyn. Evelyn nodded and chugged off down the now well-worn trail.
Back at the hay shed, the men were sitting around laughing. Gina could see where they had thought of axles after all, by the two-by-fours fixed to each side of the bed. Someone had drilled holes in it to match where the axles would go through. She held the two rods up that Mark had given her. “Need these?”
Ben shoved Sam in the shoulder, “I knew he would think of them. What’d I tell you?”
“Yes, you did say that someone would think about the axles. Now, seeing as you are the man, go put them on.”
“Are you guys going to try it out tonight? Did you get the harness to fit the mare?”
With a grumble, the earth began to shake. The little sorrel mare still tied at the corner of the hayshed reared up, pulled back hard enough to break her lead. She galloped down the hill as fast as her legs could carry her. Sailor, who never moved when ground tied, sensed the panic in the other horse and danced in a circle dragging Bess, whose reins were hung over his saddle horn.
Gina looked at Sailor and knew he would keep himself out of harm's way and ran into the improvised horse shed. She began unclipped leads. As the horses pulled and fought against being tied to a building that was shaking and groaning, Gina turned them loose one at a time. She didn't see Sam until they met just past the middle as the last horse galloped out the end. Sam grabbed Gina by the arm and began to run. The wall of hay they’d stacked along the edge of the cement slab, wobbled and fell, knocking Gina off her feet. A bale landed on top of her, but before she could push it off, Sam picked it up and threw it out of the way. He grabbed hold of her arm and ran, batting and shoving the bales away to the outside instead of down on top of them. The building screamed as it seemed to be ripped apart from the inside. The roof parted, exposing the metal beams. The concrete raised up in the middle a
s if some massive thing was under it, pushing it up. The earth screamed as hot water began to rain down on them. Andy had Journey by the hand dragging her away. Gina pulled her arm free from Sam’s grip and ran back down the outside of the bales.
“Gina! Stop! Where the hell do you think that you’re going?” He began to run after her. “Gina, leave them.” He saw what she was after. Her stupid chickens. The last of the bales across the end fell giving the chickens a way out, but he could see the stupid things clinging to the board he’d put up for roosting on. It didn’t matter that one end stuck out in the open, the chickens, already panicked and flapping their wings, held on. Gina plucked them off one at a time and threw them into the open. Loose feathers flew everywhere. She followed them out the opening and sank to her knees. The ground continued to shake and roll under her. Sam, saw the building collapsing and realized she was in the way. He ran, grabbed her and dragged her behind him. Gina scrambled trying to get her feet under her, but Sam didn’t give her time.
With a groan of protest the building fell. The water that came up from the opening in the ground under it was boiling. Gina cried out when it fell on her face. Sam reached down, wrapped an arm around her and lifted her to her feet. He carried her along until they were out of the deluge.
“Sailor and Bess? He won’t leave where I left him.” Gina’s voice was high and unnatural sounding.
“It’s okay. Sailor’s okay, and he pulled Bess clear.” Sam pointed to Sailor and Bess standing away from the fallen shed and out of the falling water. His feet were spread far apart, and his head hung down as if ashamed that he had disobeyed his orders. His eyes were huge, and he blew loudly through his nostrils. Bess crowded close to him as if he’d been her savior. Both horses were shaking, and their sides heaved as if they had run a great distance. The horses were wild-eyed and afraid.
Gina climbed to her feet and ran to where the two horses were. She wrapped her arms around Sailors neck and began to cry. Sam gave her a few minutes to express her grief and fear and then stepped in.
Beyond the New Horizon (Book 3): Living on the Edge Page 6
