Tribulation

by Scott B. Williams

“I’m going to tell Jonathan that he can go if that’s what he wants to do. There’s trade-offs to taking anyone vs. going alone, but that’s what I’m going with. Jonathan will pull his weight without being told to. I know Shauna is bound and determined to go too, but I keep hoping Daniel will handle that and I won’t have to deal with it.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that.”

  “I know. I haven’t seen him handle much of anything yet, but she’s got to know that leaving him to go off like that ain’t gonna make him very happy.”

  “The question though, is whether she cares what he thinks at this point. From what I’ve heard her say, I think she’d be absolutely miserable waiting here that long, still not knowing anything. She’s probably aware too that something could happen to you along the way, and then she’d never know. I really believe at this point she’d rather die trying to get to Megan than keep wondering like this. She knows it’s going to be a hard and dangerous trip. She’s willing to accept the risk.”

  “I know, dammit. I’m still thinking about it. Right now though, I’m just going to focus on getting ready. I’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do before I can leave. The first thing is to get that boat running and make sure it’s up to the trip. Then, I’ve got to prep the bikes. I really do want to rig up one of those trailers like I saw behind those two bikes in the group. That’ll give me a lot more load carrying capacity, and being single-wheeled like that, it’ll handle the same terrain the bike will. I’ll still be able to disconnect it and carry it over obstacles, if need be. I want to be as self-sufficient as possible on the road. That’s the whole point of going on the bikes. If we can carry our weapons and most of our food, we can find water at close enough intervals. There’ll be little or no need to make contact with any locals along the way, and that’s the way I want it. I’m really grateful to you and Greg for turning me on to that TAT route, brother.”

  “I’m glad you think it’ll work. I know it isn’t the most direct route to Boulder, but I believe it’s worth the trouble to keep a low profile.”

  “I’ve racked my brain ever since I’ve been back, Keith and I can’t think of a better plan. I’ll tell Jonathan my decision in the morning. If you’ve got time to run us back down to Curt’s place, I’ll get to work right away on getting that engine straightened out.”

  “Sure. Let’s take Dad too. He’s a better mechanic than either one of us and it’ll make him happy to help.”

  Eleven

  SHAUNA SLEPT LITTLE THE night after they returned to Vic’s place after his simple burial ceremony. She’d hoped to get a chance to talk to Eric alone that evening, but with all of Keith’s in-laws hanging around, that didn’t happen. Eric and Keith were exhausted after all they’d been through that day, and both were ready to crash as soon as they could get aboard the schooner. Getting away from Daniel long enough was another problem, and the two of them had argued into the night yet again.

  “If I had thought for a minute you would even consider something like this, I never would have agreed to come here with Andrew. I ought to take him and go back home now!”

  “That’s ridiculous, and you know it, Daniel! Getting out of Florida was the best thing we’ve done since the hurricane. There’s no going back there, at least not for a long time.”

  “And yet we get here and find the same conditions: no power, no phones, nothing open and still no way to get to our money! I don’t see how it’s any better, Shauna. Look what Eric ran into the first day, and then what happened to Keith’s house, and now Vic!”

  “I’m not saying things are all rosy here, but we had no hope of survival down there. At least here, there’s hope.”

  “Hope for what? That we won’t die tomorrow? What about the day after that? What about next week? Keith can’t protect us day and night. He couldn’t even protect his own wife!”

  “Don’t you let him or Eric hear you say that, Daniel Hartfield! Keith is doing the best he can do, and that’s a lot better than most. I wouldn’t have agreed to come here at all if I thought it was any worse than where we were. At least here it’s not just the three of us facing the world alone.”

  “No, it’s just going to be the two of us—me and Andrew—while you run off with your ex-husband for no telling how long.”

  “You know the reason I’m going, Daniel. I would go by myself if I thought I could get there alone. I wanted to go before the hurricane hit, but I stayed there with you and Andrew because it was just the three of us. If it really meant leaving the two of you all alone, then I wouldn’t consider going now, but you’re not going to be alone. You’ve got a place to stay and there’s food and all the necessities to survive. You’ve got to understand that I just want Megan to have the same chance. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her, knowing I didn’t even try to find her. Eric has the ability to get there, and he’s got a plan. This is not about him, Daniel; it’s about taking advantage of an opportunity to finally do something for her. I know you don’t like it, and I understand why, but this is something I’ve got to do.”

  Shauna knew Daniel hoped Eric would refuse to let her go, and it was true that he’d been noncommittal every time she’d mentioned it. Eric was right when he said that it was going to be a hard and a dangerous trip, and he was right that her injured hand was going to make it harder on her. But Shauna was confident she could overcome the pain and push on. As long as she didn’t have to squeeze a brake lever with that hand, she could ride a bike. She could put weight on the heel of her hand for balance and do everything else with the other hand, including shooting handguns and rifles. She doubted Eric had already forgotten that she was left-eye dominant. She should have been shooting left-handed all along, but she’d done everything with her right hand all her life, and when she’d first learned to shoot from her father, it seemed natural to do that right handed too. Eric had corrected her later, and true enough, it was easier to aim left-handed, but it still felt awkward and slow, so she’d stuck to what she liked. It worked for handguns and rifles with scopes, but shooting one of Bart’s .22 rifles with iron sights, she’d easily switched to shouldering it on the left so she could align her eye with the front and rear sights. She could do so again, and she would soon get used to it. Shauna was confident she could do her part in any encounter they might have involving gunfire.

  If Eric agreed to let Jonathan go too, it wouldn’t be all up to her to cover for him, anyway. She hoped he would let the kid go, because she had used that argument with Daniel as well, that it wouldn’t be like she and Eric were going to be alone together for all that time. A buffer between her and Eric would be good in a lot of ways anyway, as old resentments were bound to resurface somewhere along the road. If Shauna let herself think about it too much, she’d start blaming Eric for the entire situation, maybe not fairly, but still perfectly understandable from her point of view. It was hard to say what path the three of them would have taken together as a family if Eric had been there with her and Megan through the years. Chances were good Megan wouldn’t be so far away from them in the first place, but Shauna didn’t want to start that line of thinking. It wouldn’t help a thing with what they had before them, and she was determined to do her best to suppress it.

  Other feelings Eric aroused weren’t as easy to ignore. Ever since that day she’d seen him step onto the dock at Bart’s place in Florida, she couldn’t help but notice how at ease he was with this situation compared to Daniel. Like his father, Eric was a man of skills and experience and had the willingness to use them without hesitation. He was back because he wanted to find his daughter, and he didn’t care what he had to do to accomplish that. At that moment, Shauna had felt a little jealousy that she too, wasn’t an equal reason for his return. She knew he cared about her safety and well being, but she’d found another husband and what they’d once had between them was long since over. No woman could be expected to put up with all Eric had put her through, but for a moment, she’d wondered if she hadn’t made the biggest mistake of he
r life. She would never tell Daniel now, but she’d made up her mind that day, as soon as Eric said he was going to Colorado for Megan, that she was going with him. Getting Daniel to agree to come here with Andrew was a necessary first step though, as she would have been wracked by feelings of guilt if they had stayed, because it was clear that Daniel couldn’t protect or provide for his son without help. Now that they were here though, and had a place to stay with Bart and Keith, Shauna felt she’d done everything she could for them. She would still feel some guilt for leaving, but not enough to stop her. Now all she had to do was convince Eric to take her with him.

  She was outside a full hour before dawn the next morning, waiting on the dock until Eric finally slid open the hatch on the schooner and stuck his head out. He didn’t see her standing in the shadows until she whispered his name.

  “I need to talk to you a minute, Eric. We can go over to Vic’s boat so we don’t wake anyone.”

  “What is it, Shauna? I’ve got to wake them up so we can get going right after daybreak. I want to get the boat running and move it back here ASAP,” Eric said, as he stepped down onto the dock.

  “I know. I just want to work out the rest of the plan so I can get ready too,” she said, walking ahead towards the shrimp trawler.

  “I don’t think there’s anything we need to work out, Shauna. I’ve decided to take Jonathan with me, so I’m not going alone, but you still need to stay here with your husband and stepson. Daniel is right to be pissed about you wanting to go with me. I would be too, if I were in his shoes.”

  “Daniel’s not going to be happy no matter what I do, Eric, unless by some miracle things suddenly go back to the way they were before. We’re more likely to get a divorce if I stay here than if I go. He’s starting to complain about things again, just when I thought after our Gulf crossing that he was finally getting a grip. We’ll make each other miserable here, his bitching about the conditions and me taking it out on him because I’m stuck here not knowing what’s going on. I’ll blame him if I’m not helping you find Megan.”

  “You shouldn’t, because it’s not up to him if you go. It’s up to me.”

  “She’s my daughter too, Eric Branson, and I’m the one who mostly raised her! You can’t stop me from going. It’s still a free country!”

  “I’m not so sure about that, but do you really have any idea how dangerous this is, Shauna? Do you have any idea how hard it’s going to be? Riding bikes halfway across the country isn’t like doing a triathlon for a few hours. You don’t get to go home to a hot shower and cold beer and dinner when it’s over. It’s going to be day after day of sweat, mud, exhaustion and hiding out, and that’s only if we’re lucky. We could also end up like Vic before we make the first ten miles.”

  “I don’t care how difficult it is Eric, and yes, I know the risks. There’s danger everywhere.”

  “And if something happens to both of us, then what? Megan loses both of her parents? How is that better?”

  “Eric you know damned well we’ve already taken that risk just to get here. She could have lost us both out in the Gulf if things hadn’t turned out like they did.”

  “I know. There’s also another possibility, Shauna, and I’m sure you’ve thought of it too. What if something has already happened to Megan? What if that’s what we find when we get there? Then what do we do?”

  “There’s no point in thinking like that Eric. But if you go and find out something like that and then you don’t make it back, where does that leave me? Am I supposed to just sit here wondering from now on? I don’t think so, Eric Branson. I need this for my own sanity. I can’t remember how long it’s been since I’ve asked you to do something for me, but I’m asking you now. You know me well enough to know that I won’t hold you up, regardless of my hand. You know how I am when I set my mind to something. Besides, it’s precisely because it’s so dangerous that you need me to go with you.”

  “How do you figure that? I know you can shoot and that you’re determined, but you don’t have any real combat training or experience, Shauna.”

  “No, and neither does Jonathan. But this isn’t a combat mission.”

  “It may as well be. There’s no telling what we could run into out there.”

  “And you said yourself that the key to getting there in one piece is to keep a low profile and avoid confrontation, and that’s why you need me. You need someone to keep you in check, Eric, because we all know how reckless you can be. I know you’re a badass Navy SEAL and all, and you’ve survived no telling what that I don’t even know about, but you can’t afford to get impatient and take chances on this mission. You’ve got one chance to get it right and no one to call if it goes sideways. Now tell me what I can do today to help speed up the preparations to depart, and I’ll get right on it.”

  “Just let me go deal with the boat this morning. The plan as it stands right now is contingent on that boat running and running well. I’m sure it will, but even if it does that doesn’t guarantee we’ll be able to get to the beginning of that trail by river. I was talking to Vic yesterday before we got to the old man’s house to see it, and he warned me about the possibility of a serious obstacle between here and the Mississippi River.”

  “What kind of obstacle?”

  “The lock that connects the Atchafalaya to the Mississippi via the cutoff at Simmesport. Dad had mentioned it before too, but since the fuel barges have been using the river we figured it would be open. We won’t know for sure if we can get through until we get there though. If it is open, then someone’s going to be operating it. The question is who, and how they’ll react to our request to pass.”

  “And I guess there’s no way around it, is there?”

  “No, not by boat. I’m telling you this because the boat ride may be shorter than expected, which means we’ll be on the bikes a lot sooner. I hope that doesn’t happen though, because picking our way north on back roads and avoiding towns will take longer and expose us to more potential trouble. At least on the TAT we’ve got detailed directions and won’t have to worry about navigation as much. It’s deliberately laid out to avoid pavement, so it will bypass most populated areas.”

  When Eric left with Keith and their father a half hour later, Shauna felt positive her powers of persuasion had worked. Eric hadn’t come right out and told her, but she could read him and she knew she had worn him down. Daniel and Andrew were still in the house, probably still asleep, because none of them had gotten much sleep the night before. Eric had asked Jonathan to stay there while they were gone to get the boat, and after they left, Shauna found him out back of Vic’s house, looking over the bicycles.

  “Have you picked the one you want to ride, Jonathan?”

  “I’m still trying to decide. Eric’s already got dibs on that Surly. It’s old and pretty beat up, but it’s the best one of the bunch for carrying a lot of weight. He said he figures he’ll be pretty loaded down, and he weighs more than I do anyway.”

  “They all look heavy to me,” Shauna said. “Nothing like my carbon fiber Cannondale I use to compete on.”

  “I’ll bet that was sweet! A light bike is great for hauling ass, but you wouldn’t be able to ride a bike like that where we’re going. Eric said it’d be mostly gravel roads. That’s why I’m thinking I’d rather have the Specialized. It’s an old-school hard-tailed mountain bike they converted for touring. It’s just as strong as that Surly, probably. It’s got an aluminum frame, but it looks pretty well built. Do you think you could ride the Trek? It looks like it might fit you.”

  Shauna straddled the other bike to see. It was a hybrid commuter-type bike but closer in design to a mountain bike than the pure road bikes she was used to. The more upright riding position would take some getting used to, but would probably be better with her injured hand, as she wouldn’t have to put as much weight on it.

  “Yes, it’ll work, Jonathan. I’ll be doing all my stopping with the front brake, but I guess if we’re loaded down and riding gravel, we won’t b
e going all that fast anyway.”

  “Eric said figure on averaging about 10 miles an hour. It seems slow to me, but I’ve never ridden a bike with a bunch of stuff packed on it, and he’s talking about piling even more stuff on a trailer, if he can find what he needs to rig one up.”

  Shauna took this comment from Jonathan as a good sign that she’d broken Eric down, even if he hadn’t told her for certain himself. “So he’s not planning to take the third bike apart to make the trailer?”

  “No. You wouldn’t have one to ride if he did that. He told me before he left this morning that Keith said they could probably find another decent mountain bike somewhere around town to get a wheel off of. He said he’d make a trailer for him to pull and you and I could just carry our stuff on the racks. He said one good trailer would give us enough space and weight capacity to carry all the gear and ammo we need.”

  Shauna smiled when she heard this. Eric had made up his mind, even if he didn’t want to tell her yet. She was going to Colorado! She rode the bike out to the road in front of Vic’s and turned south to go a half-mile or so before turning back. It pedaled easy and with its triple chainring in front, had a wide range of gears to handle the hills. When she pulled back in and left it with Jonathan she was satisfied that she could ride it, even though she felt a twinge of pain radiating from her hand up her forearm. That told her she was going to feel every bump, but Shauna was determined not to show it. Now that this was settled, she had to somehow try and make Daniel feel better about the situation.

  “Do you mind spending some more time fishing with Andrew when he wakes up?” she asked Jonathan. “Daniel and I have some things to discuss before I leave, and besides, he likes fishing with you and he’s going to miss you when you’re gone.

  Jonathan said he’d be happy to do it, and Shauna saw from the grin on his face that he knew Shauna had more than a ’discussion’ in mind. The kid was well aware that the couple had few opportunities to be alone together since they left Florida. Now that it was settled that she was going, Shauna hoped to put the arguing behind the two of them and do everything she could to assure Daniel that she wasn’t leaving with Eric to be with Eric.