“When are we going home?” came a question from the back.
“We aren’t,” he answered honestly and the whispering rippled from one side of the room to the other.
Kaine whistled and everyone fell silent again.
“I wish I had good news, but the truth is that the world we knew is gone. Sudbury is gone. We are all that’s left and what we can and will do is lead the rest back to civilization.” Lescelle waited until what training he had in public speaking told him the crowd was willing to listen. “Here, at this one place, we have all the tools we need. It’s been done before in history—I won’t bore you with repeating the basics—and we can do it again. It was always those like us that did so.”
“What happened to the city?” asked someone.
“Raiders burnt it to the ground. City Hall is in ruins and we’ve lost too many already. We didn’t come here to take leadership away from those who got you all through the winter. We’re here because we had to run out and we have nothing.” Lescelle looked at everyone in turn before saying, “I ask only one thing—let us stay. Let us help you rebuild our society. Brick by bloody brick if we have to.”
* * * * *
Even in early spring the bush was thick. Derek was extremely glad he had taken the machete and the hatchet with him as they had to cut a new path around the wash out through the growth. It was a shame to have to cut their way through the new growth but necessity dictated that if they wanted to get through they had to do it.
It was not as large an issue as it could have been. The small creek they had encountered—as flooded as it probably had been during the early spring—was now only a quick jump over the shallow ditch.
“If this is only one of the small creeks, I’d hate to see what happened right beside the Vermillion,’’ Abigail pointed out.
Derek sighed in agreement as they rode through and to the other side and back down the other side of the creek to get back to the road.
The embankment on the other side was in better condition. They were able to remain on horseback as the horses climbed up the small gravel embankment and back up to the road again.
Two minutes later Zachary, who was in the front, started to laugh.
When they came around the corner, Derek realized why he was laughing. They had all forgotten about the large and very well stocked boat sales yard not even an hour by horseback from the farm. Since Sheridan’s farm was on the main part of the Vermillion—as was the boat dealer—they had a quick and easy way back.
And perhaps a quick and easy way to Lively, now that Derek thought about it. “You think we can find a few large enough pontoon boats to get us and the horses up river?” he asked Abigail.
She snorted, “Easily… why?” she asked and then she quickly figured out where he was going with it. “Oh… now that’s a smart idea and it could take a few hours off our trip. The problem is if there’s even enough fuel there to do it or we’re going to be paddling them up the river.”
“I have a feeling we’ll be doing that anyway,” said Zachary. “If fuel wasn't supplied to emergency services, then it certainly wasn't brought out here. They close in the winter so there’d be no reason to have it hanging around to turn rancid.”
“Would it be worth checking out?” asked Marissa.
For a long moment they looked at each other as they all thought about whether it was or not.
“It could be—but on the way back,” answered Derek. “And then, even if the fuel has gone rancid, getting any boat is easier when we’re going downstream versus upstream.”
“The river goes north very shortly after here anyway,” said Abigail. “However, it may be to our advantage. There’s a lake just after the first bend from here. The current is slow and I can tell you for certain that the road has to go over the river and the river has washed that bridge out completely. The creek was easy to cross with the horses, but the river won’t be. It’s too wide and too deep. We’d have to swim it and it’s still too cold for that.”
“How big is this lake?” asked Emilie, crinkling her brow.
“You had to have seen it,” said Zachary, surprised. “It follows the road. Most mistake it as the river, but, as Abby pointed out, the river goes north in less than half a kilometre.”
“Wouldn’t the boats—even if we have to paddle them—be easier, as Marissa said?” asked Emilie when she realized that. “And if the bridge is out we’d have a way across.”
Derek blew out a breath and admitted, “You have a point. Okay, let’s check out if they even have a big enough boat or two.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The first hurdle into the boat yard was getting through the locked gate. Jumping over it was not an option as barbed wire looped around the top like a prison yard fence. The five of them split up, but remained within sight of each other. Derek stayed at the gate with Abigail while Abigail tried to puzzle out how to get the gate open.
“I knew I should have packed the bolt cutters,” she mused. “I could have at least been through the links of the fence.”
Derek rummaged around in his pack until he took out one of his rugged multi-tools and a set of heavy duty wire cutters and pliers. As he handed them over to her, she crinkled her brow. “I don't think they’re heavy enough,” he admitted.
“Got a metal saw in that bag?” she asked.
“Yeah… I do,” he answered, pulling the case out.
She grinned as she took it from him. Opening it, she whistled and waved everyone back over. “Now we’re in business. I can cut through the lock with this. It’ll still take me ages to do it but at least I can get us into it.”
“How long?” asked Zachary.
“No idea,” she answered as she started to saw through the lock. But Emilie stopped her as she pointed to the weaker anchor points in the fence itself. “Oh, now that’s genius. Give me an hour and I’ll have a nice big gap.”
While they waited and listened to the sounds of the saw, they took the opportunity to take a break and eat lunch. With a pop, one anchor was gone and Abigail took a break, letting someone else in the group to take over. Each time the telltale pop of an anchor let go, the saw would get passed to another person until each anchor point in a section of the fence was cut off. The whole gate simply fell to the ground on the other side of the fence with a clatter.
Zachary and Abigail then dragged the gate out of the way of the road and the horses. “Let’s see what we have,” said Derek.
Derek walked around the boat yard aimlessly for nearly an hour. Before the snow fell, he had been out this way and had seriously considered buying one of the boats in the yard. Hard to believe that in such a short time—it had only been fall the year before—that the same yard only reminds me of what we’ve lost, he mused.
The strange part was that the boatyard was untouched. No one had been interested in anything in it with survival being the first thing on their minds and without a way to fuel one of the numerous power-boats what was here was a bit useless.
I’m just not seeing anything of use and it’s starting to get dark… and we haven’t even set up camp yet, Derek grimaced as he put his hands on his hips.
All the boats so far had been bass fishing boats—too small for what they needed—and larger power boats but no flat top pontoon style boats. The boat yard was large enough to spend an entire day in and they might not find what they needed.
Dammit, I give up—wait, what’s that? Derek turned around the corner of the building and looked down to the docks.
Something surprising at the dock alerted Derek—a boat they needed greatly. Derek ran down to the dock and stopped right before walking onto it. He whistled and then waited a few moments.
Not too long after the rest of his group came down to the docks with the horses in tow.
“You find something?” asked Marissa.
“Look at this,” he said, grinning. “All we need to do is straighten the dock out.”
Abigail sighed. “More work than you think, bu
t doable.” There was another pause. “So… this is what this place looks like from this angle.”
“Something for tomorrow,” said Derek. “Wait, were you here before?”
“Yeah, it’s where I got the bass boat to come downriver. I had been using the Cessna but it was too ungainly,” she answered. “It’s actually my fault that it’s all crooked like this.”
He nodded and shrugged, “No use worrying about it now. Let’s make camp up from the river a bit and we’ll get a fresh start of it in the morning.”
Abigail nodded her agreement and pointed out, “This is going to make getting through that fence seem like a cake walk, you know that, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” he answered as he pulled the pack for the tent off the horse.
Setting camp was a complex, but quick job. Despite the fact that they were only planning to stay one night, he wanted to make sure camp was properly set just in case fixing the dock took a bit longer than expected.
The first thing to decide was where the tent would be set up. A flat area of the boat yard, but still out of sight from the road, was chosen. Zachary and Abigail went back to the gate and set the boat back to how they found it.
By the time they returned, the tent had already been set up with the ground sheet below it. Both these things—in the hands of Derek and Marissa—took less than ten minutes to do and the tent was up, secured and ready to use.
Abigail looked around and said, “Are you planning on staying awhile?”
“This didn’t even take half an hour to set up,” said Derek. “It will take the same to break down and if it rains tomorrow you’ll thank me. Even if it doesn’t, you’ll still thank me for the shade.”
* * * * *
The straggly group slowly made its way up the hill to the gate and came to a stop. Unlike the raiders from the winter, these barely looked like they had the energy to continue, let alone try to rush the gates.
Jeremy frowned as he looked down and counted them.
There were no more than ten of them and the oldest looked to be only around his mid-teens. “That’s far enough,” he ordered down at them.
“We were sent here by Derek Moss and Constable Radzinsky,” said the oldest. “We’re what’s left of Whitefish.”
Jeremy sighed and caught a few of the sideways glances from those patrolling the wall. There was only one way they could have learnt those names—and then know to make their way here—and that would have been on Derek and Zachary’s orders. Jeremy shook his head ruefully, wondering how they could help them but he turned around to the gate keeper. He said, “Open the gate… let them in. Send a runner down to Sheridan and tell her she’s got incoming needing attention.”
“Yes sir!” was the crisp answer.
Minutes later, one of the patrolling militia ran down the road towards the farm. The bar reinforcing the gate and holding it closed slid to the side and the gate slowly dragged open. They had yet to figure out the finer details of fixing this to open and close easier.
They filed in through the gap in a thin line and once through Jeremy gestured for the gate to be closed and barred again. The children—as they were all no more than their mid-teens—stared around in wonder. Jeremy suddenly worried about what the state of life was outside if these children thought that this was better.
“All right,” he said as he came down to them. “Follow me and my wife will set you right.”
“Will there be food?” piped up one of the younger children.
Jeremy stood wordless in surprise and then sighed. “I don’t how much there will be but there should something waiting for you when you get there.”
They had not even made it to the bottom of the hill when a wagon pulled by a team of horses and driven by Nathan met them on the road. He was hardly surprised to note that Sheridan had come herself. She took one look at their faces and turned to Jeremy. “Put the younger ones in the wagon… it should take them all and we’ll take them straight to the house. It’s clear they need medical attention.”
“One of the younger ones asked about food,” said Jeremy.
“Gramma already has that covered,” answered Sheridan and a small smile wisped onto her face before she turned serious again. “For now it’s a light but nutritious broth. If they’ve been without for too long anything heavier won’t be any better.”
Jeremy saw her look across the clearing to the river in the distance. “I’m sure they’re fine.”
Sheridan looked at him in surprise. “Who?”
“Your mother’s half of your family,” he answered. “The ones on that Reserve… and the others scattered around.”
A small smile, one not quite reaching her eyes, graced her face. “You know, despite what Hollywood would lead you to believe, we don’t have mystical powers over nature. With things the way they are, my family—and the community—would be as bad off as anyone else.”
“True,” he admitted. “But your Uncle is plenty experienced with hunting—like Derek.”
“Also true,” she admitted, and then she sighed. “I just hope that my Uncle Garrett isn’t the only one Derek manages to find, if he gets where he’s going.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The next morning rain nearly swamped their efforts. Derek gazed forlornly out of the screen and down at the docks as Marissa put her hand on his shoulder.
“At least the added preparation last night is saving us from some serious discomfort now,” pointed out Emilie, looking pointedly over at Abigail.
“All right, all right,” Abigail conceded. “Don’t get me wrong I’m glad you made sure we’re not soaked, but I wish we hadn’t needed this. This is going to put us behind schedule.”
“I didn’t think we were even on a schedule,” said Zachary.
“We aren’t,” answered Derek. “But it doesn’t mean that the rain doesn’t slow us down. I could have done without it.”
“It’s still spring,” said Abigail. “I’d expect rain to slow us down for a while yet. At least it isn’t in the height of bug season.”
Derek grunted his agreement.
‘Bug season’ in the area was brutal. Clouds of mosquitoes, black flies and other biting insects were often thick enough to see from a distance.
Even more reason to find some supplies, or even life back on Sheridan’s farm would soon be unlivable as the bugs would simply make it almost impossible to get anything done. Given how wet and rainy it was already told Derek that it could also possibly be one of the worst years for them, too.
Just to add to everything they were already facing.
Rubbing a hand on his face he remembered another detail he had almost forgotten. It was spring—and past the spring melt. Another animal would be coming out of hibernation if it had not already done so.
The black bear.
He turned to the others and he could see that Zachary and Abigail also had remembered the same.
“Oh… crap…” breathed Abigail. “I’m amazed we haven’t seen any bears yet.”
“My thoughts exactly,” said Derek, pointing at her. “We not only have food—which they’d be attracted to—we also have horses.”
“Great…” groaned Zachary. “We are on a bit of a schedule then. “We need to get on the move as soon as possible. The longer we stay in one place the more likely it is we’ll attract one… or two.”
“Or two?” asked Emilie.
“Bears are not loners,” answered Derek. “They can be, but they’re also a social animal and can get along with others of its own kind if resources are rich enough. And given what happened—and the various houses now abandoned—resources will be plenty this year for the bears.”
The grislier fact was that those who had died over the winter would also likely end up as food for the same bears. He did not voice this and he did not have to. The only up side to this was the distraction this would cause the bears.
The major, and far more serious, implication was that the bears would now have a taste for human flesh. O
nce a bear became a man-eater, it was a very unfortunate fact that it would always be one. The next generation of bears would go from fearing humans and human habitation to possibly actively hunting humans. Of course, this would add to the ever growing list of what a wandering person needed to contend with.
Anywhere a bear considered home was now hostile. Unfortunately, that meant all of Canada and into the US.
Derek sighed heavily, wondering how they were going to survive the summer. If they thought the winter had been deadly with the sub-zero temperatures and no heat the summer was now just as deadly with an active predator in their area. Those who survived the winter now had to somehow survive with also being hunted for food.
The rain continued to fall in massive torrents for another day. But it tapered off over night. By the morning of the third day, the rain stopped and a misty fog rolled in making visibility a bit soupy.
Abigail woke up first and poked life into the fire for Marissa, as the two found some way to make breakfast and boil water for tea. “Is Derek still asleep?” asked Abigail.
“He was sort of awake when I moved the covers getting up, but I think his eyes closed again after I was out of bed,” answered Marissa, grinning. “He’s not exactly a morning person.”
Emilie came out of the zipped up side room of the large multi-room tent, wiping her eyes as she did. “Do I smell breakfast?” she asked, nodding at Zachary as he came around the back of the tent.
Marissa nodded, and Emilie and Zachary sat down on milk crates they had found yesterday, watching the dew and rain drip off the tarp. “Thank God that rain finally stopped,” said Abigail, shaking her head. “Not sure what we would have done if we were stuck here another day.”
“Watched my husband go insane,” answered Marissa as she looked at the tent as Derek flipped the flap aside as he walked out to join them. “Oh, look who decided to finally wake up.”
Derek only grunted as he sat down on the last of the milk crates, wiping his face.
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