Emma began to cry.
“Emma and Morgan had gotten close,” explained John. “This has been tough on her.”
“What have you eaten?” asked one of the parents. “You all look emaciated.”
“Mostly plants. We found some berries and have been living off them. We didn’t want to shoot our guns or cook food on a fire—anything that could draw the men back. So we’re pretty hungry.”
Sean started a fire to cook some of the meat Dan and Angus had left with them. “You don’t have to worry about them,” he said. “They are gone.”
“What about Zack and Darcy?” asked Zack’s mother.
“We don’t know. We saw Darcy riding away, and we think we saw Zack following her soon after, but we haven’t seen them since. We thought we should stay here in case they showed up.”
“And the others headed east?” asked Simon’s father.
“As far as we know. I know the desert is that way, but I don’t know if they crossed it. A lot of men went after them, and none have come back, so I don’t know what it means.”
The next morning, the three teens and their parents headed back north. They figured they could intercept the Scottish crowd and guide them into Yellowstone.
Zack’s parents and a couple of the others headed south in the hopes of intercepting Zack and Darcy, while Ben, Lila, and the rest of the group traveled east and quickly picked up the trails of their children and the miners, leading them to the edge of the desert. The trail was old, but it was clear where they had gone.
“We’re going across the desert,” stated Ben. “Let’s hope we can still catch them in time.”
Chapter 25
Immediately after leaving his friends to go in pursuit of the fleeing Darcy, Zack found himself once again under fire. Bullets were flying around him, so he stayed low in the saddle. Suddenly, he felt a burning pain in his side. He’d been hit. He started to slide off the saddle, but hung on, the thought of Clete’s torture occupying his mind. If he fell, that would be the end.
Somehow he kept going, holding tightly to his horse’s mane. Darcy was out there somewhere and she was so young and probably the most helpless of the group. She would never survive on her own. The things she was good at—the skills she inherited from her mother—wouldn’t do her any good if she was lost in the wilderness.
The shooting stopped. He was out of range. Well, he wasn’t dead. He looked down at his side. He was bleeding profusely. He was going to have to stop soon and try to block the flow. But he also had to find Darcy.
The trip had been a disaster almost from the beginning. The worst part was that it was his idea. Because of him, Morgan was most likely dead—if he wasn’t dead when he hit the ground, he would surely be dead by now at the hands of those men. And then there was the breakup of the group. They were all friends when they left—with the possible exception of Morgan—and now look at what happened. A rift between brothers; dissention, with John, Diana, and Emma not sure who to follow. Now Emma, who most likely had just had sex for the first time, saw her lover die before her eyes.
Only the foursome of Cat, Simon, Wade, and Yuki still seemed strong. He had underestimated them. They all had. They all knew that Cat had a special connection with animals, but she had always seemed ill at ease around humans. As it turned out, she was the strongest of them all, maybe with the exception of Simon—another person they all underestimated.
But it was all Zack’s fault. The thought made him want to slip out of the saddle and die along the side of the trail. But he couldn’t. He had to find Darcy. She was his responsibility.
He thought he heard his name. He slowed his horse and listened. There, he heard it again. He was dangerously close to passing out. His mind might be playing tricks on him. Finally, he saw her. Darcy rode out of the woods. She had been crying. For that matter, he probably had been too.
“Zack, you’re bleeding.”
That was the last thing he remembered before he passed out.
*****
It was dark when Zack came to his senses. His side was killing him. He was cold, despite a fire burning nearby. Where was he? He tried to raise up on his elbows, but it was too painful and he fell back down. He turned his head the best he could. He saw the fire, but between him and the fire was a pile of clothes. No, it was a person. It started to come back to him. It was Darcy. He could see the rise and fall of her body as she breathed. She was sound asleep.
Zack looked down at his side. There was a large bandage covering the wound. It was poorly applied, but it seemed to have done the job. He didn’t appear to be bleeding.
He fell asleep. When he awoke, he could see the beginnings of dawn—maybe four or five o’clock?
“You’re awake.”
Zack saw Darcy kneeling next to him, tears running down her cheeks.
“I didn’t know if you were going to live. You were really hot last night, and then you got really cold.”
“Where are we?”
“As deep into the woods as I could bring you. I’ve been worried all night that those men would find us.”
Zack thought back to the day before. The men wouldn’t know how far they’d gone. They wouldn’t have followed. At least he was pretty sure they wouldn’t follow. Well, there wasn’t much they could do about it right now. Not until he could travel.
“You stopped the blood,” he said to Darcy.
“I think I did a shitty job with the bandage.”
She had.
“You did fine.”
Suddenly he was tired again and felt himself drifting off.
He awoke to bright sunlight. Darcy had her back to him and was holding her rifle and looking into the woods.
“Could I have some water?”
She looked back him with relief on her face. She set the rifle down next to Zack and got a canteen from one of the saddles sitting on the ground.
Zack was impressed. She had stripped the saddles off and tied the horses to a branch near some grass. Early in the trip, she had always convinced someone else to do that for her.
He said as much to her, finishing with, “You’re more capable than I thought.”
“I know what everyone thinks I’m capable of … the only thing I’m good at.”
“I never said that.”
“No, you didn’t. Morgan did.”
Images of Morgan, lying on the ground bleeding, made Zack want to start crying, but it was important that he remain strong.
“Is that why you two broke up? You never told me.”
“You never asked. You were just interested in sex.”
“Actually I wasn’t. I just wanted companionship. I felt I had let everyone down with Morgan pretty much taking over. You made me feel like less of a loser.”
Darcy stared at him. “No one has ever thought of me that way. Morgan didn’t. He wanted me to … to do things. Weird things. When I refused, he said I was a whore, just like my mother. He was right. I just didn’t want to hear it.”
“You’re not.”
“I am. When I came to you, I wanted to have sex, not because I really wanted to, but because I didn’t know what else to do. It was my one skill. Thanks, Mom. You did a great job raising me.”
“Now you have more skills. You patched up my wound, built a fire, took the saddles off the horses, and guarded me.”
Darcy gave a pleased smile. “Thank you.”
“When you covered the wound, did you clean it?”
“As best I could with some soap. I had to do it carefully.”
“Were there two holes or one?”
“Two. You must have two bullets inside you.”
“No, I was only hit once. It means the bullet exited. That’s a good thing. I don’t have a bullet inside me.”
He took in his surroundings and made a decision.
“Can you saddle the horses?”
“Of course. That’s another skill.”
“Good. Saddle up. We’ve got to leave here.”
“But you s
houldn’t move.”
“I have too. We need to put a lot more miles between us and those men. I don’t think they followed us, but we need to get further away.”
“Your wound will start bleeding.”
“I have to take that chance.”
“I can’t lose you.”
“You won’t. I promise.”
She gave him a doubtful look, but went about the process of saddling the horses. Zack slowly stood up. Leaning against a tree, he checked the bandage. Darcy really had done a crummy job. He had to smile though. He wasn’t sure Darcy had ever done anything constructive in her life. It wasn’t surprising, given her mother. In all honestly, he wasn’t sure how the mother and daughter had even lived as long as they had. No, that wasn’t true. Darcy’s mother had the unique ability to get men to do things for her, as long as she reciprocated the only way she knew how.
He watched Darcy struggle with the saddle for his horse. She was trying so hard to be an adult. He was suddenly sorry that he had had sex with her. She was only fourteen and he had taken advantage of her. He felt ashamed.
He carefully peeled off the bandage. There was a lot of dried blood and the process of taking off the bandage started the wound bleeding again. He hobbled over to his horse and reached into his saddlebag for a clean bandage. He also found two strips of cloth to tie around the bandage to hold it in place. Darcy saw what he was about to do and came over to help. As she held the bandage in place, Zack tied the strips of cloth tightly around his body. Between the strips of cloth and the drying blood, he was sure the bandage would stay in place.
Darcy was finished saddling the horses. Zack checked the job she had done. He didn’t want to be a mile down the trail, only to have the saddle slip off to the side and find himself face first in the dirt. But he needn’t have worried. He made a few minor adjustments, but was impressed by the job she had done. He told her so. She was pleased to get the compliment, but put herself down in the process.
“I feel so helpless. You wouldn’t have even had to check the saddle if Emma or Diana had done it—or Cat. Oh my God, Cat. She’s only two years older than me, but she can do anything.”
“Cat’s not perfect either,” said Zack. “Don’t compare yourself. We’ve all had different backgrounds. Look at her parents and now look at your mother. You had no control over your situation any more than she did with her parents or I did with mine. We’re on our own right now and you are stepping up. You’ll make some mistakes, but you’ll do fine. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
Darcy couldn’t help wondering what she had ever seen in Morgan. Zack was kind and supportive. Morgan was controlling. If she had to be in this situation, she was glad it was with Zack.
She helped him into the saddle. He cried out in pain as he swung his leg over the top, but once he was seated, he seemed to be okay.
“We’ll go slowly,” Darcy said. “I don’t want you hurting yourself.”
“Okay, doctor.”
Darcy blushed.
Zack had to smile. With a little encouragement, Darcy was now asserting herself. Good. He had to encourage her to do it more.
“You’re right. We’ll take it easy.”
“Which way?”
“Let’s keep on going south. Eventually we can turn east.”
“Not west?”
“I think we can abandon that idea. That was okay when there was a large group of us and we were exploring. Now we’re just trying to survive. There are towns all over the country east of here, but we have no idea what’s to the west.”
“That makes sense.”
They rode all day, stopping frequently for Zack to rest and check his bandages. As time went on, the bleeding dissipated, but it was still painful. Zack checked the map frequently.
“At some point we are going to have to cross some desert if we turn east.”
Darcy was looking over his shoulder.
“The Grand Canyon,” she said. “I’ve always heard the adults talk about the Grand Canyon and I read about it in school. I’d like to see it. Would that be okay?”
“You don’t have to ask. You are one half of this duo. Your opinion is just as important as mine.”
Zack was seeing a side of Darcy he hadn’t seen before. He doubted anyone had ever seen it. She had grown up ashamed of her mother. Darcy herself had often been the butt of jokes. But now, given a little freedom and a lot of responsibility, she was thriving.
They ran across small towns from time to time—at least, what was left of the towns. In one they found a drugstore that was still standing. They searched it carefully, knowing that they couldn’t trust the integrity of the building. Most of what remained in the store was worthless to them, but they found a few items of use, mostly in the first-aid section. There were many packages of gauze bandages. There was tape for the bandages, but Zack wasn’t sure if it was still any good. He opened one package. After all those years, the adhesive had degraded and it was useless. There were elastic wraps, for ankle sprains and such. The elastic had long ago dried up, but the fabric could still be used to hold a bandage in place. They found numerous small items, including scissors, matches, and soap. The most useful item they found was water—cases of bottled water. They opened one bottle and tasted it. It was okay. It had a funny, slightly chemical taste. It was nothing like the fresh water they were used to, but it might save their lives if they hit a long stretch of desert with no water holes. They found some cloth bags and filled them with water bottles and the bandages, tucking some soap and a few of the other small things into their saddlebags.
They rode for many days, taking plenty of time to rest, eventually reaching the rim of the Grand Canyon.
“Oh my God,” said Darcy. “This is amazing! It’s like a whole different world.”
They ran across an information center. Much of it was in shambles, but they were able to find a map of the Grand Canyon. Using the map, they explored the canyons, losing track of the days. At night, their campfire would flicker against the canyon walls, creating a beautiful, almost spooky atmosphere. They no longer worried that they were being pursued. Zack wasn’t sure they ever had been, after that volley of gunfire when he'd been shot.
Zack’s wound was healing nicely and each day he felt a little stronger than the day before. Something else was happening. He was falling in love with Darcy. Away from her stifling life in Yellowstone, she was coming alive. He was finding her a caring, sensitive woman—she had gone beyond the “girl” stage. In turn, Darcy was devoted to Zack.
“I don’t want to go home,” she said one night by the fire. “That’s not even home to me. The thought of going back there scares me.”
“It’s because you’re not the same person you once were. You’ve found the real you and you are afraid that you would lose that person if you went back.”
Darcy nodded.
“Why should we go back?” Zack asked. “We’ve found each other. I’ve fallen in love with you.”
Darcy’s eyes lit up. She reached over and took his hand.
“I say we just keep traveling for a while,” said Zack. “Our parents, and most of the others, did a lot of traveling after the event. There’s nothing to say we can’t do that. If we run across a town that’s part of the Pony Express route, we can send our parents letters to let them know we are okay.”
“Not my mother. I don’t care about her. She never cared about me.”
“Okay. Maybe at some point we’ll find a town we want to live in. Until then, we just discover the country.”
Darcy leaned over and kissed Zack.
“It doesn’t matter where we go. I’ve already found all that I want.”
Chapter 26
Cat and her friends stopped twice during the night to rest. When daybreak hit, they were still trudging through the sand and the dust. They rode the horses sporadically, but the animals seemed as tired as the humans and they didn't want to run the risk of the horses collapsing.
At mid-morning they found another r
ock formation to rest against, but it provided little relief from the heat and the blistering sun. Simon climbed to the top and peered back the way they had come, shading his eyes against the glare, but to no avail.
Cat watched him as he climbed the rock and couldn't help thinking back to the day they had first met, and how he looked with his skinny arms and sunken chest. It had taken a long time, but he was now a strong, muscular man, and she admired him for it—not for the fact that he was muscular, but for the effort involved. Simon had to work three times as hard as anyone else to get the results he now displayed. And through it all, he never complained. He had spent so many years sick in bed and not able to do even the normal things that others could, getting himself healthy was a quest. The only time he ever had to be concerned was in the winter. His lungs, having been weak for so long, were still susceptible to infection. He would catch bronchitis at least once every winter.
Cat always knew that because she was a little different, her parents were forever worried that she would never find someone to share her life with. Well, she thought, they didn't ever have to worry again. She had found the love of her life.
"Hey…" shouted Simon.
The rest of the sentence never came. The bullet hit an inch from his foot, and a few seconds later they all heard the boom of a rifle.
Simon slid off the rock and hit the ground running.
"Move. Move. Move!" he shouted.
Tired horses or not, they climbed into their saddles and took off at a gallop. A few more shots were fired, but the teens were out of range by then. They rode a few miles until they felt their horses begin to falter under them. They had put enough distance between them and their pursuers to give themselves and their horses a rest.
Cat felt sick. She was dizzy and her head felt strange.
“You okay?” asked Simon.
Cat fell to her knees and threw up.
“Sunstroke,” said Wade, approaching with a pan of water he was using for the horses. He took off a bandanna he was wearing, soaked it in the water, and laid it across Cat’s face. “I wish we had some shade,” he said. “You need to rest.”
Eden's Legacy (Eden Rising Trilogy Book 3) Page 16
