“Animals?”
“More than you can imagine.”
There was silence for a minute. Cat still sensed that Peter wanted to say something.
“My mom says you saved her life,” Cat finally said.
“Ha, your mom was just fine. I didn’t save her. She didn’t need saving. She was lonely and lost. She thought your dad was dead. She would have come out of it on her own if I never showed up.” He hesitated. “What Lila never knew was that she saved my life.”
“How?” asked Simon. He had been quiet to that point, feeling that this was some kind of connection between Cat and Peter that needed to play out.
“How.” Peter said it more as a statement. “It’s a long story.”
Here it was, thought Cat. This was what Peter needed to get out. He was just waiting for the right moment.
“I gave your mom the impression that I was just travelling the country, observing what life had become. That was a lie … a huge lie. I was running.”
“From what?”
“Myself, mostly. In a sense, I’m still running. Living here is a penance of sorts. You see…” Tears came to his eyes. “I’m partly at fault for all of this happening.”
“All of what?” asked Simon.
He spread out his arms. “Everything. The event that happened seventeen years ago. The bomb. The devastation. The billions of people dead.” He held up his hand to prevent them from asking questions. “When I met your mom, I was close to committing suicide. So close. I was actually trying to find a quiet spot in nature to do it. When I met Lila, all that changed. Somehow, that week I spent with her filled me with hope. It couldn’t erase all I’d done, but I could somehow learn to forgive myself.”
He took a breath. Cat and Simon remained silent.
“I worked for the government at the secret facility that was developing the bomb—the civilization-ending bomb. I had majored in engineering in college. One of the best and the brightest, they said. They offered me lots of money and told me that I’d be doing essential work for the government to help safe-guard the security of the country. You have to understand—and it might be hard for you, growing up in this new world—but everyone was scared. Terrorism was rampant in almost every country, including our own. Something needed to be done about it.”
He seemed to drift back in time, then brought himself out of it. “Of course, it wasn’t supposed to do what it did. The bomb, I mean. It was supposed to be used for a specific target—a surgical strike, so to speak, but covering a larger area. The facility was top secret, even to most of the members of the government. The president knew, of course, as did his cronies. We didn’t know at first exactly what the bomb was going to be used for, but word eventually got around and we all—people like me who had been recruited—realized that it was going to be a lot more powerful than we thought. We each had our own little piece of the job, so we were never given the big picture. Once the word started circulating about its magnitude, it made some people—mostly the military people involved—even more fanatic about building it. For others, like me, it came as a shock to the system. Hell, why should I have been shocked? We were building a bomb. We all knew it. Who cared if it was a big one or a small one? A bomb is a bomb. Can I get you more coffee?”
The question came out of the blue and Cat realized that the story was hard for him. He had to take a mental break. He had been holding it in for many years and finally had an outlet. It was almost too much for him.
Cat and Simon declined, but Peter got up and made himself a cup from the water that had been sitting on the cook stove in the kitchen. When he returned to the living room, he apologized.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was going to be this emotional for me.”
He took a sip and set his cup down. “A few of us started to do a little digging. We couldn’t believe the rumors we were hearing. The bomb was designed to take out the power grid not just for a small part of a terrorist-run country, but for almost half the world—Russia, China, Japan, North and South Korea—countries that were our enemies, but also those that were our friends. I don’t know why, even to this day. World domination, maybe? Anyway, the more we uncovered, the more we realized the president was far more dangerous than any terrorist group. We knew we had to get the word out. But we were young and naïve. It wasn’t so easy to go to the media outlets—I just realized that these are phrases you’ve probably never used, or even heard in your life. What I’m trying to say is that we tried to spread the word, to warn people. It didn’t work. They found out who we were and eliminated us, one by one. I was the last one left and I ran.”
He took another sip of coffee. His hands were trembling.
“Everyone was after me—the government, paid assassins, and the police. The reason was never revealed, but they convinced the police that I was a terrorist myself. You don’t know how many times I came within a whisker of being caught … or killed. I went as far underground as possible.” He laughed. “That’s a term you don’t know. It means hiding. In this case though, it has a double meaning. I was literally underground in a tunnel when the bomb exploded. In a cruel cosmic joke, I was saved and billions of others died. The guilt that emerged was overwhelming. I wandered for almost a year trying to come to terms with it, but I had reached the end of the line. I couldn’t live with the guilt any longer. And then I met Lila. Her strength and her total dedication to her daughter—you—touched me in a way nothing else had. I knew I would never be free of the guilt, but I could somehow come to terms with it. When I left after a week, I knew I wanted to live.”
He shook his head. “At the same time, I couldn’t live around people, so here I am.”
“My dad was with the president when he died,” said Cat.
“Really? I hope he killed him.”
“He was sent to kill him, but before he could, the earthquake hit and the building fell on the president. My dad says he watched him die.”
“Good.” He stood up. “You kids must be exhausted.”
As Cat and Simon got up, Peter said, “Thank you. Katie—Cat—isn’t it funny that your mother saved me the first time, and now here you are, the spitting image of you mother back then, here to listen to my confession. Thank you.”
*****
Cat and her friends rode out the next morning, heading northeast. If it was as beautiful twenty miles away as Peter had indicated, it might be where they would settle. If so, would they see Peter again? Cat knew it didn’t matter. An important connection had been made and a story that had never been told came out, and while it was important for Peter to get it out, Cat realized it was equally important for her to hear it to connect the dots in her family history. All these years her mother thought she had succumbed to a moment of weakness. In fact, she did what she had done so well so many times over since the event happened—she saved yet another life.
Chapter 31
It took Ben, Lila, and the others three days to cross the desert. They changed mounts often and had made sure they had enough water for both themselves and their horses. The tracks were easy to follow. In addition to those of Cat and her friends, there were the footprints of about thirty men. After seeing the feet of the men they killed, Ben had no questions as to how they could have done it barefoot. They probably didn’t even feel the heat.
They were scared. Cat and the three others were capable of handling themselves, but against what odds? Thirty to four was just too overwhelming. Their best bet would have been to stay ahead of their pursuers, but were they able to? Anything could have happened. Ben wasn’t prepared to lose Cat, and if something had happened to any of the kids, there would be a slaughter when he caught up to the group of miners.
“Stay positive,” said Lila, riding beside him.
“There you go, reading my thoughts again.”
“Not hard. It was written all over your face. I have great faith in all of them. There aren’t four smarter and more capable kids around. They will find a way to survive. They probably already have. Remember, w
e’re two or three weeks behind them.”
They found their first clue as to the group’s resourcefulness when they arrived at the box canyon. At the top of the ridge were the bodies of two dead miners. Animals had gotten to the men, leaving the bloated forms badly mutilated. Flies by the thousands swarmed around the two men.
“Serves ‘em right,” said Wade’s father. “Especially for what they did to Clete. God, I hope the kids are alright. We never should have let them go.”
“Do you really believe that?” asked Lila.
He lowered his head. “No, I guess not. We’re all proud of our kids and we know they can take care of themselves. Hell, we weren’t much older—if that—when this all happened, and they have more skills than we had. I’m just worried … as I know we all are.” He squeezed his wife’s hand, then said to the others, “Let’s go.”
There were two more swarms of flies at the bottom of the cliff. They held their collective breath that these two bodies were also miners. They were. They also had to hold their breath from the smell.
“These guys stunk when they were alive,” said Ben. “Hard to imagine it could be any worse, but it is.”
“Over here.”
Nick and Jason had wandered from the group and were now near the cave entrance.
“Someone had dynamite,” said Nick, as the others approached. “They blew the opening.”
“Well, they were miners,” said Sean. He stood up in his saddle and looked around. “This is the only way out of here, so we have to assume the kids used it. The entrance had to be large enough for the horses. So why did the miners blow it?”
“I know,” said Aaron, who had dismounted and was inspecting the entrance. “These are all small rocks. I think they were here to hide the entrance to the cave. See the bushes? Not much left of them, but they are the only bushes around—hardly natural. And they are in a straight line. The kids probably found the cave and made a small pathway through the rocks.”
“The miners could have done the same thing,” Linnea reasoned. “Why would they blow it open?”
Sean answered it. “Tactically, it was their only choice. They knew if they went through the opening one by one, they would most likely be cut down. The kids would have been waiting for them. In fact, they probably did try to go through singly, with disastrous results. What worries me is that the kids wouldn’t have been expecting something like dynamite. Cross your fingers.”
Ben, Sean, and Aaron led the way on foot, guns at the ready. Lila had wanted to be part of the first group, but Ben convinced her, because they would be moving in the dark, and because of her only having one good eye, to follow. She reluctantly agreed.
Ben was still searching the first chamber, checking out the few bodies, when he heard Aaron exclaim from the second chamber, “Holy shit!”
They all rushed in to see what Aaron was looking at. Their flashlights revealed a couple of dozen bodies. All of them were miners.
“Holy shit is right,” said Ben. “I guess that answers the question of how capable our kids are.”
“Here is where they were,” said Yuki’s mother in heavily accented English.
Scattered around the exit to the chamber were dozens of shell casings.
“Think they got them all?” asked Jason.
“If not,” answered Lila, “the miners would have been stupid to continue on. I can’t imagine that there could have been more than a half dozen of them left.”
“But they didn’t turn back,” said Sean. “We would have seen them. Assuming there were any left, this would now be a grudge match. They would have nothing to lose. I suggest we tread lightly and be aware. The last thing we need is to get caught in an ambush.”
“Worse than that,” said Mike jokingly, “our kids might have to save us.”
The levity was appreciated, but they still left the cave and went into the half-buried town on high alert. While the town would normally have been of interest to them, they were too anxious to catch up to the teens to give it more than cursory attention.
When they ran across the bodies of the remaining miners in the rocks the next day, they were pretty sure the kids had ended it there, and they all began to breathe a little easier.
“I’m beginning to think they didn’t need us after all,” said Aaron.
“You think?” answered Ben.
With the terrain now easy to navigate and switching between horses, they were able to make good time. Late that day, they were rounding a bend and came across a lone man sitting on a rock. It only took them a second to determine that he wasn’t one of the miners. They rode up to him slowly.
He looked them over and his face broke into a smile.
He pointed down the canyon.
“They went thataway.”
*****
“Oh … my … God!” said Lila.
She dismounted and walked over to Peter, who had hopped off the rock.
“Howdy stranger,” he said.
They hugged and Lila called Ben over and introduced the two men.
“Thank you,” said Ben, shaking Peter’s hand. “You kept her going so many years ago.”
“I didn’t, but that’s a story for another time. Cat can tell you about it when you see her.”
Ben and Lila both looked puzzled.
“It’s a story I’ve only ever told once, and Cat and Simon were the only two to ever hear it. Thanks to them for taking the time to listen, I don’t ever have to tell it again.”
“Are Wade and Yuki with them?” asked Wade’s mother nervously.
“They are, and all four are in good shape”
“Where are they?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say they are about twenty miles northeast of here. It’s too late in the day for you to catch up to them, so I suggest you come and pitch your tents at my place and start fresh in the morning. I’ve just made a large batch of venison stew—your kids ate most of my last batch.
*****
They rode into the valley about noon. The first thing they saw was the river. It came out of the opposite side and then turned and meandered its way out of sight down the middle of the valley. The second thing they saw were the animals. A small herd of buffalo peacefully chewed some of the ankle-high rich green grass that covered the valley floor. In the distance dozens of deer drank from the water’s edge. On the side of the river where they stood, a forest ran the length of the river as far as the eye could see. It ran up to the side of the valley wall a mile or two back from the flowing water.
On the other side of the river was the prairie, extending about the same distance to the rock walls on the other side. In the distance, along the wall under a large overhang, they could see two small specks. Tents!
They crossed the river in a shallow area and rode toward the tents. Now they could see horses with their heads down munching grass. And then they saw it—movement on top of the overhang. It was the kids, all four of them, and they were jumping up and down and waving.
Ben looked over at Lila as they rode just a little faster. “I never doubted she would be okay. After all, like mother, like daughter.”
Chapter 32
It was two months later. Ben and Lila rode down the dusty road that led into the town of Paradise. Behind them, riding the two tractors with the trailers carrying the solar panels and generators, were Aaron and Sean, their horses tied behind the trailers.
Ben felt some nervousness, knowing that his presence, at least initially, would be met with various degrees of hate. It had been eight years since he had last set foot in Paradise, but he knew that to the residents time meant nothing when it came to a certain man named Ben.
They had observed the town from the hills outside town. The power plant was still there, a silent, blackened hulk. The area around the plant was devoid of activity. The focus of the town had shifted away from the empty building. The rest of the town looked remarkably clean and almost cheery. Flowers hung from porches and the town had a fresh feel to it. The word was that the
town had been righted, purging itself of the negative elements. The population had swelled to almost 200, many of the additional numbers being children born over the last eight years. It paled in comparison to the high of over 500 when the town had power. But it was an unhappy 500—at times a violent 500.
Maybe he was wrong. Maybe they wouldn’t hate him. After all, he was coming bearing gifts. But hate was a strong emotion, one that didn’t always dissipate easily over time.
A crowd had formed in front of them, their attention as much on the tractors as the people.
“Hey Sean. Hey Aaron.” An older man stepped out in front of them. Ben was ignored, even though he was in front.
“Hey Ozzie,” said Aaron. “Got something for you.”
“Don’t want it.”
“You don’t know what it is.”
“Don’t matter. Don’t want him,” he said, pointing at Ben.
“Fine. There are other towns that might want it. Your loss.”
Aaron turned his tractor around, Sean following suit.
Ben watched Ozzie. The old man was obviously torn, but his hatred had won out.
Ben turned his horse to follow the others when someone from the crowd called out, “Ozzie doesn’t speak for all of us.”
“Shut up. You’re new. You don’t know what this one did.”
“Oh God, Ozzie, I’ve heard the story a million times, mostly from you. When are you going to let go of it?”
Ben broke in. “Look, I did what I did. Frankly, given the same circumstances, I’d do it again. Your community was a cancer on the landscape. People died because the people in charge of this town caused it to happen because of their greed. If I hadn’t done what I did, who knows where you would be now? All the reports I get are that the town has become something special. The people here care about each other. We were given a gift recently and we wanted to share it with you, as a way to help with your resurgence. These are very powerful solar generators. The tractors are solar-powered as well. With the generators are very simple instructions on how to build more of them and how to build windmills. It’ll take some work, but it can be done. A couple of years from now, this town could be totally electric again. The best thing is that you will all be in charge of it. You don’t have to rely on anyone else telling you what you can and can’t do.”
Eden's Legacy (Eden Rising Trilogy Book 3) Page 20
