Willy stopped what he was doing and came over to her. He used his little buck knife, made a couple of slices, and the branch broke off in his hands. “Once you get through the outer meat the limb, the inside breaks right off.” He sharpened the ends into points and shoved the sharp ends in between the tendons and the bone.
“What are we going to do with that?” Gina pointed at the pile of guts.
“I was going to leave it for the animals, but like you said it could attract the wrong kind, and we won’t be here, so we’re going to dig a hole and bury it.”
Gina walked over to the pile of guts and sorted through it until she found the heart and the liver. “Can you cut these free please?”
“You eat that stuff?”
“Sure and when Journey gets done with it, so will you. Eat or get tired of her preaching how good it is for you. Trust me; she doesn’t waste anything. You saw how she handled the rabbit bones.”
Willy chuckled, “They were good for as small as they were.”
“I wonder if she’s already building a fire up. I’m sure she’s excited about having a deer to smoke.”
“We can smoke all of it and have some to leave behind and some to take.”
Gina looked at Willy, with her serious expression. “We are leaving in the morning, aren’t we. No trying to put it off another day?”
Willy nodded, “That we are. My gut is telling me we need to go. I learned a long time ago to pay attention to it. I was thinking we could catch the horses tonight and tie them up, then pack what we’re taking with us and be ready to leave at first light.”
“Okay. I’ve had a bad feeling all day too. Now, so we don’t have to have this discussion in front of the others, I want you to use my saddle.”
He started to protest, and Gina stopped him before he could utter a word, “I insist because you’ll also be carrying your big gun, and our rifles too. The food and extra ammunition will go into the saddle bags, and I guess two bedrolls on behind.”
“Only two?”
“Yup. Only two of us will ever sleep at the same time until we get back.”
“Well, I appreciate the offer. I have to say I was wondering about riding that gelding with no saddle. Backbone like his could saw a man in two. I guess Bones would be a fitting name for him. Been wondering what to call him.”
Gina smiled, “Bones, is a good name. It sounds like the whole tribe is coming.”
They heard someone crashing through the brush, and sure enough, Olivia was trailed by Sierra and Journey. Journey held Lucy’s knife up for them to see. “We thought you might need this,” she said as she came closer.
“And you guys left Lucy back there alone?”
“We left her sitting in the middle of the table with Willy’s rifle set up on its tripod ready to take on anyone.”
“Does she know how to use that thing?”
“Probably, or she wouldn’t have set it up. She was loading the extra magazines as we left with a full one in it.”
Willy frowned, “Never would have thought a tiny little thing like her being in the military.”
“Now that I’ve seen this fine piece of meat for myself I’ll go on back and get ready to smoke it.” Journey leaned over the gut pile and searched around until she found what she was looking for and held them up, “Did you forget the kidneys?”
Gina scowled, “Really. We got the liver and heart already.”
“We can’t waste anything just because you don’t like it. Do you know how much nutrition is in the organs?”
Gina almost gagged, “But you know what those things do don’t you?”
Journey smirked, ‘Obviously you weren’t paying attention. The kidney filters the bad stuff out of the blood and produces urine; they don’t store it themselves. Kidneys are high in iron just like the heart and liver.”
Journey gathered up the other organs left sitting in the grass and put them in the bowl she’d brought and she and Sierra went back to camp.
While she watched Willy skin the deer, she told him what they knew of Lucy and how she had become their friend. She filled him in on what they were doing in the mountains and how they came together as a group. She told him a little about Matt and his family, and she told him about her first kill.
“These are desperate times indeed. We all have to do what we have to do to survive. It’s like living on the edge, you fall one way you can survive, but you fall the other way, the other guy survives. It’s a very fine line between living and dying. You have to learn to act, not react and you will always live to fight another day. You step off that edge too soon, and you can kiss yourself goodbye. But Miss Gina, I’ve watched all of you, and your edge might be just a little wider than the next guys. I see how you look out for each other and you have a purpose. It makes me feel good to have thrown my lot in with you.”
“While I can’t speak for the others, I’m sure they feel as I do and we’re happy to have you.” She watched the hide fall to the ground.
“Now, take your knife and cut us a pole we can tie her to and we’ll head back to camp.”
Gina went and cut a long limb from the vine maple, Willy dropped the carcass to the ground and using the rope they’d hung her with tied the feet together above the pole. Her on one end and him on the other, they carried the deer back to camp.
Journey already had a smoky fire going in the rock fireplace as well as a blaze going in the firepit. She waved them over to the table. Someone had scoured the table until it was pretty clean. At least Gina couldn’t tell where the stains and dirt were because it was wet.
Journey went to work cutting off thin slices of meat, and Sierra carried them to Lucy who arranged them on the hot grill. She had propped the grate up higher with large rocks so that the meat would smoke and not cook.
Journey took one look at Willy and Gina, “You two go and get washed up. Willy, do you have anything else you can put on? We need to get those pants soaking before the blood sets, or they’ll never come clean.”
Willy looked down at himself as if he had expected to gut and skin the deer without getting blood all over himself. “I used to be neater than that.” A strange look crossed his face, leaving the women to wonder what thought had crossed his mind. Having heard from Sam who he had thought Willy was, and Gina didn’t want to know his memories, but was grateful that he was on their side.
When Willy came back, in a pair of brand new Levis, and a new looking tee shirt that read, “St Regis Museum of the Old West.” It was dark green with the outline and shading on the back depicting the buckboard pulled by a team of running horses.
“Nice tee shirt,” Olivia said with admiration in her voice.
“Well, there’s a whole box full of them behind the wagon seat. Lots of sizes, go ahead and help yourself. Only the one color though. Never did like those flashy yellows and reds. No white because they show everything and you can see them coming a mile away.”
“I think he’s talking about us Journey. He thinks we stand out like sore thumbs.”
“Yes ma’am, but I was too polite to bring it up.”
“Well, I guess we can change into one of those then, but I want to tell you something too. At night, no smiling, because all you can see is your white teeth and sure wouldn’t want to get you hurt because of your smile.”
“Gina! How could you be so rude?”
Oh, come on. I was just kidding, but last night didn’t you say you knew who was walking in the dark because you saw him smile?”
Journey flushed bright red, “You bitch,” she hissed softly to Gina.
Willy was trying hard to rein in his laughter, “Nothing I haven’t heard before, Miss Journey. My men used to want me to put black on them when we were going out on a mission. Best I ever did, was to chew on some charcoal.”
“And please stop with the Miss this and the Miss that, it’s okay to address us by our first names, we want you to. You’re making me feel old.”
Willy nodded, “I can do that, and it would be my pl
easure. Old school thinking on my part. My Mama would smack me in the head if I addressed a white woman by her Christian name. Just a habit.”
“A bad habit,” Gina told him.
“Journey, if you trust me to watch the meat, I think the rest of you should try to sleep. You might have some riding ahead of you tomorrow.”
Journey sighed and stood, “Thanks Lucy. Of course, I trust you. You can tell when it’s dry. The main thing is not to let it cook. If you hear the sizzle of grease dripping into the fire it’s too hot, just lift it up.”
“Willy, can you come with me to get the four horses? We’ll tie them up here, so we don’t have to chase them in the morning as you suggested.”
Gina and Willy walked in silence to where the horses had bunched up under the trees. As they got close, Gina almost squealed and clapped her hand over her mouth before a sound could escape. When she had herself under control, she whispered, “Oh my God, would you look at that. Oh man,” she walked closer. Standing beside the Appy mare they had gotten from Minnakers, was a white filly with black or dark brown spots all over her body.“Hey there pretty. Oh my god, you are so beautiful. I’m going to name you Snowflake.”
“She sure is going to be a looker, but too easy to spot if you were trying to hide.”
“Party pooper. I’m hoping by the time she’s old enough to ride, all of this will be over, and we won’t have to be hiding.”
“Don’t count on that Miss…Um…Gina. Like I told you I think we’ll be living on the edge for a long time to come. Maybe even long after you or I are both gone.”
Gina stopped walking. They had each caught two of the horses and were leading them back to the camp. “Do you really think so? Don’t you think that someday the government is going to come out of hiding and start rebuilding?”
Willy shook his head, but Gina barely caught the motion out of the corner of her eye, “Rebuilding what? There won't be anything left to rebuild. They’ll come in with whatever soldiers they can round up and make any survivors their chattel. They will own us lock, stock and barrel, and there won't be anything we can do about it unless we are willing to fight for our freedom, just like back in the old days. No, ma’am, I don’t see no good coming out of our Government any time soon.”
Gina thought about it the rest of the walk and realized that Willy was probably right. Every citizen would have to work for the government and accept the handouts they gave. They would eat potatoes, and the governing body would eat steak. “Not in this lifetime,” she mumbled.
“What’s that?”
“I was just thinking out loud.”
Willy laughed mirthlessly, and when she looked, he wasn’t showing his teeth.
The End
Dear readers, Thank you for reading book three in the Beyond the New Horizon series; Living on the Edge. Please find below, the first chapter of book four. As of yet, it is unnamed, but I thought you might like to have a glimpse of the trials that John and his family are going through on their move to Saint Joes Valley. They never thought the move was going to be easy, but had they known in advance just how bad it was going to get, they may have chosen to stay at the ranch.
Chapter One; Darkest Times
John looked back over his shoulder for one last glimpse of his family ranch. There was really nothing to see, but he looked anyhow. He raised his arm to his brother Sam and the others who would stay behind until the second trip. His eyes rose away from the ranch to the smoking volcano that dominated the horizon. He could see a plume of black smoke coming from a crevasse down the side of it.
The mountain was the reason they were leaving. John had wanted to get as far away as possible before the mountain blew apart. 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 had the same dream over and over again the past few days and more than once he had been tempted to leave everything behind and just run.
Somehow he and Sam had done a reversal of personalities and John couldn’t decide if it was Gina’s influence or if Sam functioned better under stress.
John had argued with 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.
Their last conversation had not gone well, “Oh, to hell with the guns. We don’t need them.”
“What about the animals. You don’t think we need them either?”
“We can find more. You think those are the only ones that survived? We can find more, plant gardens. We can hunt. We have the cows 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 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 cities and towns after they’ve killed off every breedable animal, they’ll come looking. I don’t want to be the guy throwing rocks at someone 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 hopeless look on his face, “You don’t really believe that. You know what she went through, what her parents went through to protect people. I have to believe that she’s telling the truth.”
John had left the next morning, taking the vision of Sam standing beside the small group of people John hoped to see again someday.
They went out the end of the box canyon, and John was pleased to see that the way was as clear as when he and Sam had ridden it. There was no road until they crossed the open valley and came to the BLM land. The forest, or what was still standing is 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 day the going went well 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. He held his arm up, and Lucas stopped the big tractor.
“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 to the firm ground.”
Lucas frowned, “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather drive it across?”
“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, 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?
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 washed over him, but he 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 t
ires hit it, they simply climbed the embankment, lifting the front of the trailer house up and over the mud. They bumped their way to the top and when Lucas was sure the ground was firm, he stopped. Looking behind, Lucas realized he’d crested 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. He saw the road directly in front of him and made a quick turn onto the gravel and drove up until the other two would have room behind him to park, and stopped. Mark came chugging up behind him.
Lucas saw 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. Lucas set the brake and shut the motor off. 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 really working his whip, but by his voice, Lucas didn’t think they were getting any closer. His mind made up, he climbed down and ran to the top of the hill. The horse's legs had sunk into the mud created by the two tractors in front of them, and the front wheels of Charlie's wagon were buried to the front of the box. He saw Charlie climb down and go to his horses. When Lucas got there, he could hear Charlie crooning to the sweaty animals to help calm them.
“What do you need Charlie? We can unhook the team and probably pull you out with the tractor.”
Beyond the New Horizon (Book 3): Living on the Edge Page 28
