Beyond the New Horizon (Book 2): Desperate Times

by Conaway, Christine

  “You won’t need the dynamite after all.”

  All three men looked at her, surprise on their faces, waiting for her to explain.

  “The lake has drained. There’s a stream running through the pasture now, but that’s not all. Gus found a way up the cliff behind us.”

  “I’m sure there had to be a way up there, but when we looked, we didn’t find one close.

  “It took him about three minutes to come down when I hollered at him, so it can’t be far. The boys went to check it out.”

  John looked relieved and worried at the same time. “I’m getting damn tired of this changing landscape. It makes me wonder how many more changes we have to look forward to and if we’re safe here at all.”

  “At this point, where else can we go? There’s nothing to say that this isn’t going on all around us. I guess we should be grateful for what little we have.”

  Journey looked at Andy, “How many times do think the ground can shift, without doing further damage to this piece of ground? I keep asking myself why we are still alive?”

  John sighed, “I’m asking myself the same questions. When I look at those mountains out there, I don’t see anything familiar to me. New peaks and I suppose new valley’s also. Which, if I assume rightly, new rivers, lakes, and streams too. I don’t know about the rest of you, but come spring, I want to see what is out there.”

  Ben laughed, “Yup…I have every intention of checking it out. Lucy and I talked about going west, but maybe a big circle would be better.”

  “Lucy? Lucy is going with you?”

  “Well, with Abby and me. At least if we can find some horses to call our own.”

  “Old Jake Minnaker had a herd. He’s the ranch east of the McMillan place. He supplied most of the dude ranches around here with well broke stock. You might want to check with him and see what, if anything, he has available.”

  “Last I was by there he had maybe 50 or 60 head out in the east pasture. Once we get set up for the winter here, maybe I’ll take a ride his way and see how they’re doing. There’s only him and Sandra left at home. The girls are both in Billings going to school.”

  Andy seemed to deflate when he realized what he’d just said. They had no way of knowing if Billings or for that matter if any of the big towns were left.

  “Well, we need to get to work on that smokehouse. Seeing as how Journey is so set on making pemmican, tomorrow we need to butcher one of those cows. As much as it goes against my grain to think about eating the stuff, she’s right. Back in the old days, trappers and Indians survived for months at a time with only that to eat.”

  Journey grinned at John, “You might be grateful to have it before spring gets here.

  “Dad!Dad! Come out here.”

  John put his jacket on and went outside. The others followed to see what the excitement was for. At the top of the cliff behind the trailer, they could see Matt and Lucas waving their arms in the air.

  “Dad, up here!”

  “I see you. Now get back from that edge! It’s undercut and could go at any time.”

  The boys backed up away from the edge. Rocks and debris continued to slide down the slope.

  “Dad! The house is gone. Did you know that?” Lucas hollered down to John. “Everything is gone.”

  “But not the hay barn. It’s still there, but there’s a river where the highway used to be.” Matt yelled.

  John shook his head. “Like I said. Changes everywhere.”

  “You two get back on down here. We’ve got work to do.”

  To Journey, Andy and Ben, he said, “Before the day is out, we need to go up there. Andy, maybe you and Journey will do it. Whatever we can salvage from Sam’s room and the sheds out back could be invaluable to us.”

  Andy put his hands in his pocket and looked at John, “I want to check it out first, but I may have another idea.”

  John stood up straighter as if he too had been hit with an idea, “Yup…I see where you’re going with it too. Check it out. Now, we have work to do.”

  “But John, maybe we should put the smokehouse off for a day. Sure wouldn’t want to have to build two.”

  John nodded, “Well, maybe we should go see now. Shouldn’t take long and we’d know.”

  “So are you two going to talk in circles or are you going to tell Ben and I what you have in mind?”

  Chapter six

  Gina turned away from the open door and went back to the tack room. She arrived just in time to overhear Amanda.

  “I would do it again. You don’t know what it’s like Sam. We could have starved to death. Those two men gave their life so I could live. Don’t you understand?”

  Sam, his back to the door didn’t hear when Gina walked up, but Amanda saw her. She looked at Sam, “You get rid of that…that woman and you and I can have it all.”

  Sam had been shaking his head and continued to shake it negatively. Gina could only imagine what the rest of Amanda’s conversation had been like.

  “They didn’t give their lives so you could survive. The two of you killed your neighbor. When you’d picked his bones clean, you,” Gina pointed at Amanda, “You shot your own husband in the back. Jesus, you killed him so you could eat him.”

  Amanda continued to shake her head in denial while staring up at Sam.

  Gina glared at Amanda in disgust. “You shot him!”

  “Don’t listen to her Sam. Dave wanted me to survive. He said he would do anything for me.”

  Sam looked over his shoulder at Gina, “She shot him? Are you sure? She told me he just died. It was a heart attack or something.”

  Gina nodded, “A heart attack brought on by a bullet in his back. She hacked his arm off with an old machete. I expect if we look over there it will prove it, but I can’t see anymore. I’ve already seen too much as it is.”

  Tears were running down Amanda’s face, “Sam…Sam look at me. You know me. I wouldn’t hurt him unless I had to. You know Dave would have wanted me to do it.”

  Sam stood as it were the last thing he wanted to do. Leaning on the doorjamb, he seemed to collect himself and stepped out. Sam walked to the open doorway and stood. His shoulders slumped with the weight he carried.

  “Sam, please you have to believe me. Only to survive. That’s all I wanted. Please, Sam.”

  Sam looked back over his shoulder as if dreading having to go back inside. Gina went and careful to not look at Amanda, she pulled the door shut.

  From the doorway, they could still hear her, but her words were muffled. Gina took Sam by his hand and pulled, “Come on. Let’s walk for a bit.”

  The crisp air, velvet sky with its sparkling diamonds and the undisturbed blanket of snow all around them helped to make the situation unbelievable. Gina stopped when they reached what at one time may have been an orchard. A dozen skeletal trees were lined up in a row of three, already neatly trimmed. Across the field of white, she could see the moon sparkling off the water. She led Sam that direction. He seemed to be in a state of shock. He hadn’t said anything since she had taken his hand and led him away.

  “Where is their house?”

  Sam looked up and finally and looked around. His eyes widened, and he turned in a circle. Facing the water, he pointed. “It used to be over there. Right beside the freeway.”

  “Okay, it’s gone. What are we going to do now?”

  Sam shook his head sadly and sighed. “I honestly don’t know. After what she told me, we can’t take her back with us. I won’t take her back. Something is wrong with her.”

  Gina nodded, “We need to make a camp for tonight. Tomorrow it might look different. Right now we’re both traumatized, and we need to eat or at least get something hot in our stomachs.”

  Sam nodded, “On the back side of the barn is an open hay storage shed, and I think a small shop or something. If you’ll move the horses out there and feed them, I’ll get some wood together for a fire. I just can’t go back into that room right now.”

  Gina nodded and mad
e her way to the backside of the barn. To her surprise, there was more than just a simple hay shed. They had the same setup here as Sam had in his hay barn, only on a smaller scale. The length of the building had been divided into three sections. The end one, bales of hay were stacked neatly to the rafters, the middle section, had a travel trailer backed into it along with an old John Deer tractor.

  Gina let out a shriek of alarm when she found herself being flung to the ground. The earth underneath her rolled, and she was flung toward the barn. It only lasted seconds, but to Gina, it felt like minutes. When it stopped Gina lay on her back looking up at the stars. She didn’t move until she was certain the quake was over.

  Sam came sliding to a stop beside her and dropped to his knees, “Are you okay?”

  Gina just laid there staring up at him. When she thought she could answer, she nodded. And let Sam help her to sit up. “When are those going to stop?”

  “I don’t know, but we need to get in there, get the horses out and pull out anything we can use or take with us. The barn is leaning to the west, and I don’t think it can handle another one.”

  Sam pulled her to her feet, and they ran to get the horses. The horses were excited by the quake and eager to leave the barn. Gina captured their reins and took all four horses around to the backside of the barn. One at a time she pulled their tack off and tied them to the upright posts. Climbing up the stack of hay, she rolled several bales down. Back on the ground, Gina took a piece of twine from a nail and sawed the strings on the hay. She spread the hay in a circle and turned the horses loose. Dragging their lead lines they would be easy to catch, but she doubted they would leave the feed.

  Gina heard pounding from inside the barn, but before she could check it out, Sam appeared from around the corner, his arms loaded with one-by-fours.

  It only took Sam a few minutes with the aid of Gina’s lighter and the dry barn wood to get a fire going. He’d used his foot and cleared away a patch of snow and built it on the cement apron of the shed. Gina rolled a couple of the hay bales close to the fire. They would have to watch for sparks, but she thought it better than having to stand or sit on the cold ground.

  Before long, Sam had a pot of hot water and poured some into one of the dehydrated food packages that Gina had supplied. With forks in hand, they shared the meal between them.

  Had it not been for everything that had happened that day, the setting would have been perfect. The horses hadn’t left the hay, and their munching noises were almost musical.

  Sam had brought an empty water bucket from one of the empty stalls, filled it with snow and set it beside the fire to melt. By the time they were finished eating their meal, the snow had melted, and Sam offered each of the horses a drink. When empty, he refilled it with snow and set it back beside the fire to melt.

  They had saved an equal portion of their cheesy macaroni meal to feed to Amanda, but neither had been brave enough to take it to her.

  “I don’t know if I feel sorry for her or what I feel. Repulsed, is the best I can come up with right now. I don’t understand why they would resort to cannibalism. It hasn’t been long enough for all the food to be gone…has it?”

  “Andy said when he and Matt left, they only took what they could carry in their saddlebags. They had planned to go back with a pack-horse and get the rest, but Carlos had told them to wait for a few days. Then we showed up. Then I guess the quakes started and…well, you know the rest.”

  “Are you going to take that to her?” Gina asked. She didn’t want to, and right then, she didn’t think she could handle facing the woman. “Besides, you have to untie her so she can eat. I think you’re better equipped to restrain her if anything goes wrong. Myself, I would be too tempted to just put her out of her misery.”

  Sam, stood and picked the package up by a corner. He grabbed the spoon he had used and with a look at Gina, “I’m not untieing her for anything. I’ll be right back.”

  While Sam was gone, she got their bedrolls from off their saddles and spread them out on the unopened bales of hay she had thrown down earlier.

  When Sam returned, Gina was already inside her bag. Sam threw snow on top of their fire, extinguishing it and sat on the bale beside Gina. With his boots off, he climbed into his bag. He lay on his back with his hands under his neck with his eyes closed.

  He was quiet for so long, Gina thought he had fallen asleep. She turned on her side facing him and pulled her bag up close around her head. Warm and full she had almost dozed off when Sam began speaking.

  “She told me they had to walk home and it took them almost a week to get here. A group of people had moved into the house and ran them off. That’s why they were out here. She said by the third day, without food, they were getting desperate, and Jake showed up. I guess he was a mess when he got here after seeing Sandra raped and beaten to death. She said he barely got away himself. He’d been shot and died the next day. She said that’s when Dave decided to eat him.” Sam’s voice was almost too quiet for Gina to hear clearly and she moved closer. It was more like he was talking to himself.

  He sniffed and continued, “She said it was all Dave’s idea and she hadn’t eaten any of it. In the next breath, she was telling me how they couldn’t cook the meat because they didn’t have any way to start a fire.”

  “Well, that explains the lantern then,” Gina put in. She didn’t want to hear what Sam was saying, but she couldn’t stop herself from listening either.

  “She said that they went without for a couple of days after Jake was gone and Dave thought they should move to Jakes house, but then the earthquakes started. When they saw their house devoured by the gorge that opened up, Dave didn’t think Jakes house could have survived either as it sat closer to the road. She said Dave started acting all crazy and threatened to eat her next.” He fell silent.

  “Do you believe her? That that’s the way it happened?”

  “No. What she said next, almost made me sick. She said that Dave told her that they could go and see if Sandra’s body was still there. Then, she told me that we were lucky because we had young people, that they wouldn’t be as tough to eat.”

  Gina felt the tear as it rolled across her nose and dripped down her cheek. She could hear the pain in Sam’s voice as he repeated Amanda’s story.

  Sam gagged. He scrambled out of his sleeping bag and ran away from their camp. She heard him vomiting. He came back and laid back down. He was silent for several minutes.

  “You don’t have to tell me any more of it. I think I can see where this is going.”

  “I have to. I have to get it out, or I believe that it will make me crazy. Amanda didn’t tell me that she shot Dave, she said he just died, but now that I know, it makes it all the easier to decide what to do with her.”

  “Do I want to know?”

  “No,” Sam said and rolled toward her. He put both of his arms around her and pulled her, so she nested if front of him. Gina went to sleep, warm inside and out for the first time in days.

  The horses, stomping and snorting, woke them up. Clouds had rolled in, and it was too dark to see anything.

  “Stay here. Let me see what’s wrong with them.”

  “But, I’ll…”

  “Just stay here, please. I can’t worry about where you're at too,” Sam whispered.

  “Okay, but five minutes is all you get.”

  Sam slipped his boots on and hurried to the end of the barn where Gina had dropped the hay bales for them to eat. He couldn’t identify the trouble, but the horses were acting spooked. Gina had hobbled Bess to keep her from wandering, and she was rearing as if afraid of something in front of her. Sham wheeled around and let fly with both hind legs apparently protecting his herd. Sam heard when his hooves connected with something and he wondered if the big horse had kicked one of the others.

  Sam was apprehensive about walking into the middle of a dispute between the horses, but he didn’t see any other way to break them up. Sham was repeatedly attacking something with his
front feet, but Sam couldn’t see what it was.

  “I guess I do need some help,” he yelled to Gina.

  She was at his side in an instant. “I’m here.”

  “Grab the lead on Sherry’s mare, while I try to get Sham.”

  Gina didn’t think twice, but waded into the horses. She reached Sham’s head first and took hold of his rope. She backed him away from the group. Bess was snorting at something on the ground. “Was that a cougar?”

  Gina grabbed Bess and held her head. She couldn’t lead her away because of her hobbles, but she rubbed the mare's head to comfort her. The mare quivered with fear.

  “I’ve never seen her like this except the time we were attacked by a cougar.”

  Sam finally got the pack-horse’s lead rope and pulled her back. With his free hand, he snagged Andy’s gelding. It seemed as if all of the horses had ganged up on whatever had spooked them.

  “Let’s tie them around the back and then we’ll have a look. We’re going to need that lighter of yours to light the lamp.”

  “Are you going to go in and get it?”

  Sam stopped, “Oh, I forgot where it was. I’ll go.”

  He tied his two horses to one of the upright posts and went around the end of the shed. Gina removed the hobbles from Bess, led her around and tied the two horses to the next post down. It seemed as if moving the horses around to the back of the shed had settled all of them. Maybe they knew the danger was passed. Bess was the only one to continue staring toward the end of the shed. She blew loudly through her nostrils, and Gina was sure something had tried to attack the horses. They had reacted to the danger with the only weapon they had. Whatever it was, had been stomped into the remains of the hay and the snow.

  Sam came around the end of the shed and set his lantern on the trailer step. He went to the closest hay bale and sat. He leaned over and rested his elbows on his knees. Gina saw him take a couple of deep breaths as if steeling himself to look at whatever the horses had attacked.