by AJ Newman
Tom examined the walkie-talkie and said, “Greta, come here. I need you to use your best Lucy voice. I wrote down what I need you to say. Then wait for a response. I’ll write what I need you to say depending on who answers and what they say.”
“Okay, I want to help even though I was fooled by them.”
“Greta, don’t be sorry. Sam fooled all of us and probably fooled Lucy.”
Tom keyed the mic and motioned for Greta to speak. Greta said, “Mom! Mom! Are you okay?
There was nothing but static. Tom motioned again. “Mom! Mom! Are you safe?”
There were a click and a hiss, then a voice said, “Lucy, I told you not to call unless it was an emergency. Is someone around?”
Tom wrote what to say, and Greta said, “No! Sam, I was worried.”
“Lucy, listen and do what I say. Start holding back some extra food and try to get some extra ammo. When the weather clears for a couple of days, the ranch will be attacked. It will be a devastating attack. Be gone before then. Make an excuse and go to the old cabin where Tom found the horse thieves. You’ll be safe there. Don’t tell anyone, and don’t get caught.”
“Sam!”
“Bye! Do what I told you to do!”
Everyone was speechless. Greta swooned and dropped onto a couch. Greta said, “The little bitch and fake mother bitch are like twin Benedict Arnolds. We should line them up against a wall and shoot them.”
Rick said, “Be careful what you wish for.”
Tom took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. “We need a plan that ends with us all safely in the cave. We change the codes for all the locks and prepare booby traps for the doors. We also have to begin… Rick, I want you and Granny B to put an evacuation plan together while the rest of us start on the low-hanging fruit. Go now and start planning.”
Granny B and Rick left the room. “Jerry and Jack, I need you to get the horses and mules ready for the trek. They’ll have to make several trips. Colt, June, Alan, and all you kids start packing as many supplies as the pack animals can carry in this snow. Y’all can go now!”
The ones with assignments left the room. “Doris and Kendra begin packaging food and moving it to the staging site to go up to the barn. Bill, Greta, and Kate, I want you three to start making booby traps for the perimeter around the ranch and all entry doors. I want explosives down in the canyon just in case they try to enter the bunker from that direction. I know that’s the most difficult to get to, but they might think that’s an easier entrance than our thick metal doors. I’ll watch over all groups. Kate, I need you after the meeting.”
Tom grabbed a glass of tea while the teams went to work on their assignments.
Kate sat beside him on the bench and rubbed his neck muscles. Tom said, “Don’t start something your ribs can’t follow through with.”
Kate sat up and saluted. “Yes! Sir! Boss. If Colt hadn’t shot me, my ribs wouldn’t hurt so bad.”
Tom said, “Kate, is there any way we can use the drones to help us find our way to the cave? I’m afraid we’ll get lost in the blizzard and freeze to death. I don’t want a modern-day Donner Party event.”
Kate thought for a minute. “All six of the drones we have at the ranch have the coordinates for all of our locations. Hmmm. The only way I can … Wait! There are two ways. We can follow the drone as it flies just ahead of us, or we can send one to the cave and use the built-in GPS tracker on the control monitor. It would show a blinking dot, and we just wander around until we get close to the dot. Can’t we just wait until the snow stops?”
Tom knew she wasn’t thinking. “Yes, it would be much easier and safer for us and the ones trying to find us. Two dozen horses and mules would leave a trail anyone could follow. We need the snow to cover our tracks.”
Kate slapped her head. “Dumbass me. I should know better.”
“I think your ass is pretty smart and well, pretty too,” Tom said as he started to hug Kate.
“Ribs, my ribs!”
“I think I should go kick Colt in the ribs,” then he smiled.
Kate’s brow raised. “Why the smile?”
“Because Greta and Colt were just about to go to their room to start their honeymoon when the Sam crap hit the fan.” Tom chuckled until he had Kate holding her chest.
“Tom, that was mean!”
Kate said, “I guess Granny B, and you were right about Lucy being older and not Sam’s daughter.”
Tom nuzzled his face into her hair. “But now we need to know who Lucy and Sam are and why they hid their identity from day one.”
Kate said, “Sam went from a dumb redhead to a ninja warrior right under our noses. I just can’t get my head wrapped around if she’s a bad guy or a good guy.”
Something in the back of Tom’s mind bothered him. “Hey! Wait a minute. Why didn’t the EMP’s fry the GPS satellites in orbit?”
Kate said, “If you read or watched any of the current military or science news, you’d have known the USA hardened our satellites over the past ten years. Every communication, GPS, and spy satellites were made to be EMP proof so our military wouldn’t be blind when the shit hit the fan.”
*
Chapter 10
The trek between the ranch and the cave.
The last twenty hours had been a blur as all the teams completed their jobs per Tom’s schedule of less than a day and a half. The most significant issue was that there was no way to take all their animals, supplies, and weapons. Tom sent everyone but his immediate family away from the supply rooms. Then he could shift guns and supplies they couldn’t take with them to the hidden rooms in the bunker. Tom rationalized that they might not be able to use the items now. However, later, he would regain control of the bunker and have the extra supplies and weapons waiting on them.
Tom hoped the snow wouldn’t stop suddenly and prayed they could make two trips, but his plan only had one massive trip by horse, mule, and horse and mule-drawn carts to the cave. He hoped to make a second trip if time and the snowstorm permitted.
Bill and Jack braved the howling wind to let all of the cattle out of the corral. Tom knew they would be better off out among the dense trees and bushes. Bill opened all the gates, but most of the cattle and horses remained in the barn, unwilling to go out in the wind and driving snow. Bill told Tom that was the best they could do, and at least the animals could leave if they wanted to go.
The goats were a different issue. Their legs were too short to walk in the deep snow, so they loaded them into a cart and hitched it behind two mules. The short-legged animals would ride in style, all huddled up together in the cart.
The horses and mules were loaded by 11:45 a.m. the next day. Granny B had prepared a cold lunch for all of them to fill their bellies before the trip. They rode away from the ranch by noon. Tom looked back and hoped the barn would still be standing when they returned.
The wind had died down a bit, but the snow steadily fell as they left. Visibility had improved to around fifty feet at best. Jackie and Kate led the way as they took turns trying to ride and keep watching the drone’s control screen. It didn’t help that the snowflakes melted and obscured the screen.
The snow was twenty inches deep with five-foot drifts against hills and bushes. They had to wander around like a drunken sailor to conquer the terrain. The horses had to raise their hooves higher than usual, which tired them faster than their usual gait. The cattle balked at trudging in the snow and had to be tied to the carts and mules. Tom stopped every hour for ten minutes and then moved out again at a painfully slow pace.
They stopped for a half-hour for some cold sandwiches after being in the saddle for over four hours. The animals and people needed the rest. Kate shocked her husband when she said, “Hon, we’re only about a third of the way there. We might have to stop and rest for the night before we get there.”
Tom’s instant reaction was hell, no, but he gave it some thought. “Let’s travel another five hours and see how close we are to the cave. Then we decide to push
on through or camp for the night.”
Kate leaned on Tom and yawned. “The good news is my ribs passed the state of killing me, and my chest is numb. I’m sleeping for a week when I get there.”
Tom rubbed his nose on hers and then yelled, “Mount your steeds, my merry men and women. We must trudge on!”
The horses obeyed their riders, but Jerry had to get after the mules to get them moving. They had clustered up to break the wind and didn’t want to move. Unfortunately, the kids learned several new curse words and a few used in unique ways before the mules were back following the caravan.
The wind began to howl, but the thick forest helped buffer the snow's bite as it blew sideways through any open spot. Most of the folks had balaclavas or scarfs and stayed relatively warm. All had winter coats, warm base layer underwear, and two pairs of pants to help survive the biting cold air.
Tom saw Lucy riding along with her hands bound, and Jack was holding the reins to her horse. She’d thrown a fit about leaving the ranch, but a stern talk from Tom got her motivated to obey orders. He’d told her she had two choices. One was to come along peacefully. The second was to come along peacefully but gagged and bound. When he said they’d throw her over a pack mule and tie her down, she calmed.
Tom felt the next five hours were the longest and coldest hours of his life. “Kate, are we there yet. Are we there yet?”
“No! My dear child. We are approximately two hours from the cave. I’m dead on my butt; however, I vote to move on and sleep in a warmish cave over trying to huddle up in this mess.”
There was ice all around Kate’s fur hood, and her balaclava had icicles hanging down. Tom brought her close to him and said, “You have icicles hanging from your balaclava.”
Kate snickered, “Look in a mirror, mister snotcicle. You’re just lucky I met you in the summer. Yuck.”
“Thanks, darling. Hey! Everyone! Kate says, take five minutes, and we’re moving on. Pass that on to everyone,” Tom yelled into the now howling wind.
Two more hours passed, and Kate said, “We’re here – somewhere. The entrance has to be up there somewhere.”
Granny B walked over to them. “Dad burn it! This place looks a little different in the snow. Let me get my bearings.” Granny B began walking down the snow-covered draw, looking up to the rocky hillside. “There it is! Just have the adults dismount and follow me single file. Tell the kids to duck when we go through the entrance.”
Fifteen minutes later, all the crew and animals were inside the cave out of the wind, and the fires were blazing. As tired as everyone was, they placed the kids by a fire and unloaded the animals. The half dozen cattle were placed in a side tunnel with plenty of hay and water. The horses and mules were taken to their cavern and supplied with fresh grass and water. Greta’s rabbits and their cages were placed in a side cavern and let loose after Greta blocked the entrance. Jacob and Joe helped her throw some hay down for them along with a bucket of rabbit food. The goats were placed in with the rabbits. Not by design, but rather necessity. They just didn’t have enough separate rooms to store all the different types of animals in various caverns.
Tom assigned jobs to everyone and asked Bill to start several fires to warm the area. Bill struggled to carry firewood and had to stop and rest often. Tom noticed and helped him.
Tom asked, “Are you okay?”
Bill snapped back at Tom. “Yes! I’m okay! Damn, we’ve been on the trail for eleven hours, and you jump my ass for taking a break.”
“Bill, I was just worried about you.”
Bill huffed, “Well, don’t worry! Remember that wolf nearly tore my leg off. Sometimes it hurts, and I have to take a rest stop.”
Tom saw Lou walk up to Bill after Tom left and sat down beside him. Tom could tell she was worried about the man she’d begun to care for. He wasn’t sure what set Bill off, but he did know the man was struggling to move even light loads.
Tom wanted to test the partitions to see how they handled getting rid of the smoke and needed several large fires to flush out any lingering snakes. Tom asked several others to help bring more firewood up to the fires.
Tom whistled as loud as he could. “Hey! Gang, come over here.”
He waited until they gathered around him and then said, “The fires have been burning for about twenty minutes. Remember to be careful because a few snakes could show their ugly heads. If possible, get away from them and let Rick and me deal with the monsters. We’ll post an extra guard tonight just to help watch for snakes. Don’t get pissed at them for shining their flashlights around your sleeping bags.”
Everyone went back to what they’d been doing, but a few minutes later, they complained about the buildup of smoke. Tom asked Granny B to join him at the front barrier. “I think I remember there was a breeze that blew from the back of the cave and out the front opening.”
Granny B thought for a few seconds. “You’re right, but I think it might change with the seasons or maybe with which way the wind blows.”
Tom pointed to the front door. “I guess we’ll open both doors and see which way it’s blowing today.”
Granny B slapped her grandson on the back. “That’s using your noggin’ for something besides a hat rack.”
Tom and Rick cut a two-inch by two-inch hole in the plastic of both partitions as high in the plastic as possible. A steady stream of smoke came out of the front partition’s hole. Tom said, “I wonder what the smoke looks like leaving the cave’s mouth. We don’t need to be giving our position away.”
Rick started to walk outside to see what the smoke looked like when Tom motioned for him to come back. “We don’t want to leave any footprints outside. This is a job for Jackie and the drones.”
Jackie was busy, so Tom asked Kate to launch one of the drones from inside the cavern. A few minutes later, the drone was at the cave's mouth and found no one around. Kate directed the drone to increase altitude and flew around the area looking for any intruders. There wasn’t anyone around, so she turned back toward the cave. The smoke trickled up the side of the rocky hillside and was too dissipated to be seen from further than fifty feet.
Tom increased the exit hole size until most of the smoky air flowed out of the cave. There wasn’t a cold draft, but Tom knew they’d lose heat but also knew they needed the fresh air.
While Rick and Tom were busy getting rid of the smoke, Alan had killed three rattlesnakes. Tom and Rick walked up just as Greta handed Alan a rattlesnake bitten kid. Tom asked, “Is the goat dead?”
Greta had tears in her eyes. “Yes, one of the stupid snakes bit the kid even though its mom had stomped on the darned thing several times.”
Tom looked at Rick. “I guess the meat wouldn’t be edible?”
“I’m not eating it,” Rick said and then carried the kid’s body through the back barrier door on his way to drop the body in the shaft at the back of the caverns.
June had cooked a pot of beef vegetable soup to go with fried jalapeno Spam on crackers. Tom ate his meal between Kate and Jackie. “I know it’s not a steak smothered in mushrooms, but this is quite tasty to a starving pilgrim.”
Rick laughed as he took a bite of Spam and crackers. “I don’t like Spam, and when everything recovers, I’ll never have Spam again.”
Tom shook his head. “I just hope the world recovers, so we don’t need to eat Spam even though I like Spam. Rick, we need to make another trip back to the bunker in the morning. I figure the two of us, plus Jerry and Jack, will make the trip. We need Jack because I want to herd six to ten more cattle over here.”
Jackie interrupted. “We don’t have ….”
Tom stopped her. “I know we don’t have room or hay for them. I plan to butcher them, freeze some meat, and smoke the rest. I might even try to salt some of the meat.”
Jackie nodded. “That makes sense. We can freeze some buckets of water and pack the meat on the ice. We could even cover it in snow and straw to help keep it cold.”
Tom looked around the cave an
d saw everyone was worn out and barely awake. They retired to their sleeping areas one by one except for the two guards who would pull guard and snake watching duty.
Tom slept like a baby until Jerry woke him at four o’clock for the last watch of the night. He poked his head under the sleeping bag and kissed Kate on the forehead.
Kate said, “Look for those bad snakes before you get out of the sleeping bag.”
Tom shined his flashlight around the room to make sure there weren’t any snakes waiting to bite him. None were in sight, so he dressed in the dark to save his batteries. Tom knew it was only a matter of time before all batteries would be discharged and worthless. He made a mental note to search for rechargeable dry cell batteries and all the large lithium batteries that powered everything from children’s vehicles to starting lawnmowers. The rechargeable batteries made him think about solar cells.
He only found one snake, and it was a small garter snake. He pitched it out the back door that led into the rest of the cave system. Tom made his rounds as the others began waking up for the day. The group’s rule was that everyone had to be up and ready to work before the sun rose over the mountains. Even though most of his people complained, he kept that practice during the winter. He preached that they had to be ready for an attack anytime the sun was up.
*
Chapter 11
Mendoza’s headquarters in Ashland, Oregon
“Carlos, over a hundred people are protesting in front of the building. Ten of their representatives are in the main office to give you their complaints,” the assistant explained.
Carlos slapped the blonde on the butt and rolled out of bed. “Send what’s her name back home when she wakes up. Now, what does that whiny asshole want before I’ve had my Bloody Mary and breakfast?”
