Everyone was exhausted from the day, so the meal was quick, with very little talking. Those who had gone up into the building were quietly reflecting on the experience, which was frustrating to Harry and Darcy, who had nothing but questions.
Cat and Simon had settled into their sleeping bags when Cat asked, "Do you think anyone lives there?"
"Where?"
"In Salt lake City. In any city, for that matter."
"I don't know. I guess I doubt it. What would be there for them?"
Cat was silent.
"I suppose they would have some comforts," Simon continued. "They could find a nice house with comfortable beds and the illusion of living in luxury, but what then? They could grow a garden for their vegetables, but what would they do for meat and fish? They'd have to hunt and the city isn't very well stocked. And then there is the winter. Where would they get their wood? In the beginning they'd raid the local parks for wood, but eventually that would run out. Doesn't make sense. Besides, we didn't see any footprints."
Simon was fidgeting as he talked.
"Are you okay?" asked Cat.
"No. There's been something I've wanted to say for a while, and now I need to say it."
"Uh oh."
"No, nothing like that. Cat, you and I have been together a couple of years. We do everything together and we're best friends. We're way more than best friends and I can't think of being with anyone else for the rest of my life." He hesitated. "But in all that time we've spent together, held each other, and kissed each other, I've never told you that I love you. I love you, Cat."
Cat looked at Simon and tears rolled down her cheeks. She reached out and pulled Simon to her and they just held each other. Finally they separated. She looked Simon in the eyes and said, "And I love you, Simon."
They hugged again and kissed, then laid down next to each other.
"Everyone thinks we're strange," said Simon.
"We are. We don't fit into society. People can't understand that."
"And yet, here we are at sixteen, and we know who we want to be with for the rest of our life. How many other people can say that?"
Cat rolled onto Simon and kissed him. Simon put his hands under her shirt and in a flourish, had it up and over her head.
"That was tricky," said Cat.
"I thought so. I've been practicing it in my head."
They kissed again, their hands exploring the other's body.
"Uh, Simon…"
"I know. We agreed to wait, and we will. I'm good with that. But I'm also okay with doing this."
"So am I. I was just checking."
An hour later, they fell asleep in each other's arms.
*****
They were all up early the next morning. Breakfast was a hurried affair and an hour after waking up, they were on the road.
"I think we should stick to our plan and head south toward Las Vegas, then turn west toward the ocean," said Zack.
He didn't encounter any disagreement. While no one knew who was behind them, or even if they were following them, the desire to put many miles between them and whoever was back there was on everybody's mind.
They traveled for the day and into the next, always with one eye on the back trail. They tried following the highway south, but the earthquake damage made for hard going. They were actually happy to move into the hills, as they provided extra concealment.
The second night while they were camped, Morgan brought up a point many of them had already been thinking.
"We're traveling okay if we stick to the hills and mountains. Somehow, like Yellowstone, the earthquake didn't do as much damage. But as we travel on the ridges and I look down to the west, all I see is broken up land. I want to get to the ocean as much as anyone, but I'm beginning to think that it's not going to happen. And based on things Nick and Jason said, I just think it's going to get worse the further south we go."
"I think you're right," said William. "So where does it leave us?"
"I say we head home," said Harry.
"I agree," said Emma. "I'm tired of this."
"We came on this trip to explore," said Wade. "So we can't see the ocean. Who cares? There are plenty of other places to go."
"No, I agree with Harry and Emma," said Morgan. "It's time to go home."
Most of the others nodded in agreement. Darcy was the lone holdout, and Cat knew why. She had nothing to go back to. Her mother didn’t want her there and Darcy didn’t want to be there.
"Yeah, I think it's time," said Zack with a sigh.
Cat looked at Simon, who gave her an almost imperceptible nod of encouragement, then said, "We're not going back. Wade is right. We came here to explore. I think there are plenty of places east of here to check out. Simon and I are going to continue on."
"And we'll come with you," said Yuki.
"Suit yourselves," said Morgan. "I suggest we stay here tomorrow to rest up. We're low on food, so I'll go hunting. Then those of us who are going home can start back the next day."
It became moot the next afternoon. Morgan came riding back into camp in a hurry without any results from his hunt. He jumped off his horse while it was still moving and yelled out, "We're definitely being followed. And they're close. We need to move now!"
They were gathering their belongings and saddling their horses almost before Morgan finished speaking. In less than ten minutes they were ready to go. They had just mounted up when they heard the sound of metal scraping against rock.
Morgan turned in the saddle and raised his rifle just as two explosions erupted from the woods. Morgan jerked and then fell to the ground.
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was dead.
Chapter 17
Bedlam followed, with most of the teens not sure where to go. Cat and Simon only hesitated a second. They simultaneously pulled out their pistols and fired round after round into the woods, yelling to their friends to get out of there. Neither one of them expected to hit anyone, but they were trying to give the rest of the group time to escape.
As their friends cleared out—with Zack, Wade, and Yuki all following Cat and Simon's lead by shooting into the woods—Simon yelled, "Let's go!" The five remaining teens reached the woods on the other side under a hail of bullets. Miraculously, no one was hit.
They rode steadily for about ten minutes, then stopped to regroup. It was only the five of them. The others were nowhere to be found.
"Did everyone get out?" asked Zack.
"I think so," answered Cat. "I think we need to head east. The country is more open."
"What about the others?" said Zack.
"We can't go looking for them," said Wade. "We have no idea where they are. We just have to hope that they stay safe."
They all looked up when they heard the sound of a horse. In the distance, heading due south, Cat could see a single rider galloping along a trail.
"It's Darcy," said Zack. "I'm going after her. You guys go east. If we can meet up, we will." He took off after Darcy. "Stay safe," he yelled out over his shoulder.
They heard a noise coming from the woods behind them.
"We've gotta get out of here," said Wade. "Let's go."
They rode for hours, seeing none of their group or any of the people following them. When night fell, they found a small hollow to camp for the night. It was well off the trail they had been traveling on. They didn't dare build a fire, and other than a few pieces of jerky, they had nothing to eat. They took turns standing guard.
Yuki was taking her turn on watch while the others tried to sleep, but as tired as they were, sleep wouldn't come.
"Do you think it's the people who killed Clete?" asked Wade.
"It's got to be," answered Simon. "But if so, why are they following us? There has to be a reason behind it. Why would they leave their home—the one they were supposedly protecting by killing Clete—to follow us? It doesn't make sense."
Yuki came in and Wade left to take her place.
"I didn't think you'd b
e sleeping," she said.
"I'm glad you and Wade are with us," said Cat. "I hope the others are okay."
"I can't believe Morgan is dead," said Yuki. "I didn't like him, and I'm not sure many people did, but nobody deserves to die like that. He saved us. He saved us by warning us about them, and again when he took the first bullets, allowing us to escape. I'll never think of him the same way again." She started to cry, and that brought tears to the eyes of Cat and Simon as well. Eventually, they all fell asleep, Cat and Simon waking up during the night to take their turns at guard duty.
They were up early. There was a heavy mist in the air when they walked their horses out of the hollow and back onto the trail. There was still no sign of their friends, and they could only hope that they were safe.
By mid-afternoon they had reached the end of the mountain range and were standing on a ledge overlooking a vast desert. In the far distance they could see the outline of large peaks and far to the south were faint outlines of rocks, all a reddish-beige color.
"Red Rock country," said Wade. "My mom said she came here as a kid. Said it was beautiful."
"I think we’ll still have a better chance going east, but we have the desert in between us and the beautiful country," said Simon, who had been looking over the edge of the ledge. "I suggest we rest here for the night. It looks like a good flat spot under the ledge. Even room for the horses. We can cook some dinner and get a real night's rest."
During the day, Cat had killed a couple of large rabbits with her crossbow. With Simon standing guard in the woods at the top of the ledge, the others prepared the rabbits. They had nothing to go with the meat, but at that point, they didn't care. They just needed to fill their stomachs. Water wasn't a problem, as they had passed numerous lakes and ponds, as well as a few small waterfalls.
While Cat and Yuki cooked, Wade was peering at the map.
"I agree with what Simon said earlier. Our best choice is to cross the desert and try to make it to the mountains on the other side. The map says it was a state called Colorado." He looked up from the map with a worried expression. "We're talking a couple hundred miles across the desert. It could easily take us a week."
"Should we travel at night," asked Cat, "to avoid the heat?"
"Normally, I think that would be best, but with the crevasses, it could get dangerous at night."
"It doesn't look too broken up," said Yuki, shading her eyes against the sun."
"No, it doesn't look like there are any big ones," agreed Wade. "I'm worried about the small cracks, the ones harder to see until you are right on top of them."
"We can do the fastest travel in the early morning and early evening," said Cat, "then take it easy during the worst of the heat. We passed a stream a short way up the trail. We'll need to fill up everything we can with water."
"Do you think they are still chasing us?" asked Yuki.
"We have to go under the assumption that they are," said Wade. "Maybe at some point we'll understand why."
*****
The night passed uneventfully, although none of the teens got any sleep. They filled their canteens, as well as every other bottle they had, in the darkness of the night. They were up a little before sunrise and loaded the horses. It had been decided that they would ride the horses during the cooler hours and walk them in the heat. There was still no sign of their pursuers, but Cat sensed they were behind them.
"Did you see any horses when they attacked us?" she asked suddenly.
The others shook their heads.
"That's why they haven't caught up with us yet. I think they are on foot."
At that moment a shot rang out. The four teens ducked but no bullet hit anywhere close. Then three shots in succession. Again, they saw and heard no bullets.
"It's a signal," said Simon. "Someone has spotted us and is signaling to the rest. We've gotta go."
There was a narrow trail leading from the ledge down to the desert floor far below. It was steep and they had to walk the horses, often sliding a few feet in the process. It took them an hour to reach the bottom. The sun hadn't been up very long and already they were exhausted. If the heat this early in the morning was any indication, Cat knew they were going to be in trouble. But they had nowhere else to go. She looked up to the ledge from where they had started, shading her eyes from the morning sun. People were standing on the ledge looking down on them.
"Look," she said, pointing.
"Oh my God!" exclaimed Yuki.
"How many do you figure?" asked Simon.
"At least thirty," said Wade. "They are all over the place up there."
They heard a shot, then another.
"Hard to be accurate shooting downhill," said Cat, "but they might get one of us by sheer luck. Let's go."
They mounted their horses and took off east across the desert. When they were well beyond shooting distance, they stopped and looked back. They could make out the forms of many people working their way down the slope.
"No horses," said Simon. "You were right. We have to ride as far as we can before walking the horses."
They rode for two more hours before it became obvious that the horses needed a break. There was no shade anywhere. They put some of their water into a container the horses could drink from and let each horse take a turn. Each of the teens took sips from their canteens, but were well aware of the need to conserve their water.
"Your face is bright red," Simon said to Cat.
"Yours is too. It's not even noon yet, is it?"
"Mid-morning, most likely," said Wade. "We have a lot of hours to go before the sun goes down." He was looking back the way they had come. "Who knows where they are? All I can see are heat waves."
"We have to be at least a couple of hours ahead," said Cat, "and we had the advantage of riding for the last couple of hours, so it's probably more than that. They are on foot, so the heat will slow them down."
"We need to walk, too," said Simon. "The horses need a rest."
"There are some rocks up ahead," said Wade, pointing. "Trouble is, I can't tell if they're two miles or ten. I guess we just keep going and find out."
The heat was unbearable. They tied shirts to their heads to help block out the sun, but it only helped marginally. They had encountered no wide crevasses, but cracks in the ground were everywhere. They had to be aware of where they were walking.
"I wonder what they are doing back home," said Yuki, trying to somehow distract them.
"Probably wondering what we are doing down here," said Simon.
The conversation didn't go much further than that and they lapsed into silence. As it turned out, the rocks Wade had seen were closer to the two-mile mark. They cried out in joy when they approached the rocks, but the joy was short-lived. The whole thing was only fifteen feet high and twenty feet across and provided no shade.
"I still say we rest a while," said Wade.
Cat looked at the sky. "In another hour the sun will be low enough in the sky to give us some shade on this side. We can be out of the sun until it gets cool enough to start off again."
"Do you think we're safe here?" asked Yuki.
"We don't have a whole lot of choice," said Cat. "We all need the rest, including the horses."
They gave the horses some more water, had a few sips themselves, then settled down against the rock. Less than an hour later they found themselves in the shadows. It was still unbearably hot, but at least they were out of the direct sun.
*****
Cat woke up with a start. It was dark. It was cool. She could see the stars overhead. They had overslept!
She looked around in a panic. The others were asleep and the horses were standing quietly off to the side. She shook each of them and whispered, "Get up. We overslept. We need to get going."
They were all wide awake in seconds, each nervously looking back toward the west. Cat climbed into the saddle and waited for the others to get settled before moving off into the night.
It was a cloudless night, allow
ing them to see the ground fairly well.
"I know we weren't going to travel at night," said Cat, "but it's easy to see tonight, so I think we should keep going. Let's just be extra careful of the ground."
There were no arguments from the others. Fear was driving them, as was the anticipation of traveling in the coolness of the night.
Cat just knew that they had to put a lot of miles between them and their pursuers. How many miles had they lost by sleeping? Were they even still being pursued? The not knowing was almost worse than knowing.
Either way, they just had to keep going.
Chapter 18
With bullets flying all around during the attack, William’s horse plunged into the woods on the western side of the clearing with William barely hanging on. He could hear a horse behind him, but was too concerned about falling to look to see who it was.
His horse was spooked and was galloping through the woods, branches slapping at William. He was ducking as low as he could to avoid the branches, while at the same time trying to calm his horse down.
The other horse was still behind him. He snuck a look. It was Harry, and he was also trying to control his horse. They went about a mile before they were able to bring their mounts to a halt. William slid off his horse, while keeping hold of the reins in case the horse got spooked again. Harry stopped next to him and jumped off his horse.
“Oh my God, William! They shot Morgan! Oh my God, oh my God.”
“Harry, calm down.” William stood up, wiping the dust off himself.
“They shot him right in front of us. I was next to him. That could’ve been me. What are we going to do?”
“The first thing you’re going to do is calm down.”
“But what about the others? Are they dead too? What are we going to do?”
William jumped on his brother and threw him to the ground. Harry landed hard and cried out in pain. William stood over him.
“Just shut up for a minute and let me think.”
Harry just laid there, not sure whether to be more scared of their attackers or of his brother.
Eden's Legacy (Eden Rising Trilogy Book 3) Page 12
