Beyond the New Horizon (Book 2): Desperate Times

by Conaway, Christine

  “You lead so you don’t spook the horses from behind.”

  Sam nodded, and after getting off the tractor and moving the six by six blocks from in front of the trailer tires, he started off.

  Gina waited long enough that he was a little way in front and she urged Mack forward following the trailer. The horses were content to follow along quietly behind Mack.

  They had decided on going home without getting anywhere near the river. They had no idea where the shooters had stopped or if they had even come further west, but Sam had wanted to avoid a confrontation no matter what. The going was slow, especially when they came to the hill leading down into the valley. They would go to the north here to go to the hayshed, or continue west down into the winter pasture.

  Sam stopped and climbed down from the tractor seat and stood to wait for Gina to catch up. When she was close, he waved her over.

  Gina climbed off Mack and tied him to the tractor and walked up to stand beside Sam. “Well, holy cow! Did this happen yesterday?”

  “Yesterday, last night or today even. How am I supposed to know? There have been tremors the past couple of days, and anyone of them could have triggered this.” He pointed further down the rim, “Look how that whole top has slid down. Kind of makes you wonder if we’re going to see some more changes.”

  “I kind of preferred it when I thought someone couldn’t get down there easily. Now you want to move up top?”

  “Unless someone knows the area and comes looking specifically for the hay shed, you can’t hardly see it from out where the highway used to be. There’s a rise in the terrain between the road and the barn.”

  “But, I remember Carlos saying the land around the trailer would be easier to defend.”

  “It was, but that was before all of the changes in the landscape.”

  “Do you think those guns we heard were from people fighting other people?”

  Sam laughed, and Gina realized how stupid that sounded even to her ears. “What I meant is, what if it’s the National Guard or the Military?”

  “Wouldn’t that be considered people fighting people? But, I can’t see the military or any military branch using firepower like that for no reason. Besides that, that was an eclectic bunch of firearms. More than one caliber and handguns too. So, I don’t believe it was the National Guard coming to rescue us.”

  “Wouldn’t you think they would be called up, or something? This was a catastrophic event. Someone should be doing something. Shouldn’t they?”

  Sam sighed because he knew she was voicing the same thoughts he supposed anyone in their position would have. Even for a brief time, he had wondered where the guard was or at least some kind of law enforcement.

  When the power had gone out, they’d waited for it to come back on. When the cars and trucks died out on the freeway, Sam knew it was more than a simple power outage. That was when he had taken the first trailer load of supplies to the cabin. He should have gone to winter pasture, to begin with, but he wondered if fate hadn’t intervened. Their paths may never have crossed, John could have died from his gunshot, Nathan could have starved to death, and maybe he would have never met Gina.

  Sam felt that for some reason, either through fate or coincidence, they had all been thrown into the same pot. While he didn’t believe in divine intervention, it felt right.

  “Are we going to stand here and admire the scenery the rest of the day, or what?”

  “And here I was thinking good things about you. Maybe I need to rethink that.”

  “Think all you want to, but can we do it on the move? In case you don’t realize it, while you benefit from the heat of your motor, I’m freezing over here.”

  He managed to look appropriately chastised, “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Go ahead and go in front of me if you’d like.”

  It had started to snow, a half hour before. The flakes were not actually flakes, but small frozen pebbles of white. They bounced when they hit and moved on, never settling. The wind circled the pellets in small whirlpools on the frozen ground, exploding puffs of white when a hoof struck them.

  Careful of their footing, Gina urged the horses into a jog, not only to get far enough in front of the tractor to avoid spooking the horses but to warm herself up.

  They found Lucas, Matt, and Andy moving bales of hay out of the shed and building a wall down the outside and up as tall as the shed roof.

  With a holler from one of the guys, John came from inside the hay shed. He wore short leather chaps, shiny on the legs with two hay hooks clutched in one hand. He was without a coat and steam rose in a cloud around his body. With one arm he wiped his forehead.

  “Jesus, John what the hell are you doing? Couldn’t you have let one of the boys do that?”

  “I’m fine,” he grumbled. “Journey took the last of my stitches out yesterday.”

  “Oh, so she knows you’re stacking hay and said it was okay?” Gina asked as she climbed down.

  “Well, she’s the one who took the stitches out. She didn’t say that I couldn’t stack it.”

  Gina shook her head, “Men!” She felt like her feet were cold enough to break. She stamped them gently to get her circulation going. Andy came walking up after depositing his hay bale on the row.

  “Was he good for you,” He asked nodding at his horse and taking the reins.

  “Yes, and I changed his name.”

  “Changed it? To what? What was wrong with his name?”

  “A horse recognizes his own name. I know that to some of you, they are only tools of your trade but trust me, they can tell what we say to them, and calling a horse, Horse, is not giving him a name.”

  Andy laughed, “That son of…Sam told you his name was Horse?”

  Gina saw Sam standing back listening to their conversation with a big grin stretching from ear to ear.

  Gina glared at him, “Yes. I called him Mack for lack of knowing any better.”

  “His name is Bling, and Sam damn well knows it.”

  Gina raised her eyebrows, “Bling?”

  Andy shook his head and sighed, his back to her, “His registered name is A Little Bit of Bling” He pointed at the horse’s legs, “Four white socks, is his daddy’s trademark, hence the name, Bling.”

  “I guess that makes sense, but it is kind of a twinky name for a gelding. But whatever. He’s your horse.”

  As he led the horse off, Gina heard him talking to the gelding, “Mack huh? Not bad.”

  “Where is everyone? How’s Ben and the new people?”

  Walking up, John looked the camp trailer over. He noticed the door was tied closed with twine. “I take it you didn't find the keys?”

  “Nope and we had more important things to worry about. Did Journey tell you what I think is headed this way?”

  “She did. That’s why we’re going to make some changes in out living situation. We’re going to put this trailer down below and keep the younger kids, Mary, Janice and Journey down below.”

  “I understand the kids and mothers, but why Journey? Does she know this yet?”

  “She does, and for now, we’re going to let Ben stay down there too. Journey says to give him a few days, and he'll be almost as good as new. She doesn’t think he broke anything, but he has some pretty horrific bruises, but that’s all they are.”

  Gina held her hand out, and pellets of snow landed in her palm. “It looks like this is here to stay. Which leads me to ask, how we are going to manage with them so far away?”

  “We have the walkie-talkies. But honestly, we haven’t figured it out yet. With you guys bringing the tractor we may have to rethink this. We, as in Andy and myself, didn’t want to leave the trailer down there unguarded.”

  Sam had parked the trailer at the end of the hay shed and was standing behind John listening. He sighed and came up to stand beside John, “I think Gina might have a point. With the trailer down there and us up here, leaves us too spread out. We need to pick one place and build it up for security purposes. Whoever we hear
d shooting wasn’t target practicing…”

  “Sam, how do you intend to do that? In case you forgot, that trailer doesn’t have wheels or tires on it. I agree keeping us in one place is a good idea, at least for the winter, but down there we don’t have enough room for all of us, and up here I feel like we’re too exposed, but we need the room.”

  John turned to face Sam as he spoke and Gina wondered if there could be a compromise. She agreed with Sam they should all be in the same location, but which was better? To be up top where they did have more room or to be down below where they had the animals pastured? Gina didn’t have the answer, but knew they needed to make a decision before it was too late. If Sam was right about the group of people moving toward them, they needed to be prepared. Gina didn’t think hiding would be an option.

  “Where else could they be going if not here? They’d have a heck of a trip going to Spokane or even Couer D’Alene.”

  “I don’t know. What I do know is it didn’t sound good for whoever was on the losing end of that battle. I think we should have a group meeting tonight and make a decision before it’s too late.”

  “What’s the matter with right now for a meeting? We still have some daylight left, and if Sam is correct, it would be bad to put any decision making we have to do, off another day.”

  Andy called to them, “We have some coffee ready for whoever wants it.”

  At the end of the hay shed, someone had built a small fire inside half of a fifty-gallon barrel with a metal screen on top. The screen had small gauge openings to prevent sparks from escaping, but it worked perfectly to boil water or coffee on. Matt and Lucas sat in folding chairs holding paper coffee cups. Andy filled and handed one to each of them.

  “Now, maybe you guys can fill us in on what’s going on. Matt heard you guys saying something about moving the trailer up here?”

  “I had thought that, but it seems maybe I was thinking a little prematurely. It looks like winter is finally settling in, and we have to make some immediate decisions before it’s too late. So, I’m suggesting we head down to the trailer and have us a family meeting right now. Sam, can hook up our flatbed trailer to the tractor and we can ride down.”

  As if someone had lit a match under them, cups were emptied, and Andy was unhooking the camp trailer. It only took a few minutes to push the snowmobiles off the flat trailer and for Andy to hook it up.

  “Matt and Lucas, you guys drag a few of those bales out here. May as well take some hay down while we’re going and we’ll also have something to sit on.”

  Matt and Lucas nodded at Andy and hurried to do as they were told.

  Within a half hour, they were all loaded on the trailer, headed back the way Sam and Gina had just come from. Sam decided to take the longer route, not trusting the terrain that had sloughed off the hill enough to risk driving down it.

  Lucy, Mary, and Journey were standing outside the tent when the tractor pulled up.

  Mary held the walkie-talkie up and waved it, “I was just getting ready to call you guys to come have some soup.”

  John went to Mary and gave her a hug, “A woman who knows the way to my heart is through my stomach.”

  “Well, I guess I’m set then. I’ve been feeding it for a long time. The food is in the tent.”

  “Where’s Mike and Ben? Better have everyone come in there. We have some important decisions to make tonight.”

  “The three girls are keeping an eye on the babies, and the rest are in the tent already.”

  John took his customary folding chair at the head of the table while the other arranged themselves down the length of the benches on either side.

  Gina was surprised to see Ben at the table with Lucy beside him. Lucy looked up and smiled when she met Gina’s eyes. “Hey, Ben. How are you feeling?”

  “I’ve felt better, but I’m doing fine.”

  As soon as everyone's bowl was empty, Mary and Lucy gathered them and put them into the pan of hot water sitting on the back of the cook stove to soak. Janice poured more water into the soup pot and added several cups of dry elbow macaroni along with a handful of uncooked rice a pinch of salt and a couple good shakes from the pepper can. After placing the lid on the pot, she went to sit down beside Mike. He reached for her hand to assist her as she climbed over the bench and sat.

  John waited until the women had all sat back down before he began.

  “Okay,” John said, taking a minute to meet every eye at the table. “We seem to have a dilemma here. Our group has grown considerably, and we obviously need more room than we have here. It has been suggested that we move this trailer up top, but there are problems with that too.”

  Gina raised her hand, John gave her the nod to go ahead. “I was thinking of what we could do to benefit all of us and why can’t one or two people stay down here to look after the animals as well as keep an eye on the smoker?”

  John nodded while scratching his chin. He looked the length of the table. “Does anyone else have a suggestion?”

  Gina had been watching the interaction between Lucy, Ben, and Abby the past couple weeks and thought if anyone should stay in the trailer it should be them. Before she could voice her opinion, Ben spoke up.

  “I would like to offer our services as far as keeping the stock safe and milking the goats.”

  “And looking after the chickens and the smoker,” Lucy interjected.

  John nodded, and looked around, “Does anyone have any objections to this plan?”

  “Does that mean you and Ben are a thing now? What about Abby?”

  Lucy began with a short barking laugh, “In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been a thing for a while now. If things were different, we would get married, but they are what they are. We’ve already said it to God, and that’s all that matters until we can find a minister. So, yes, we are officially a thing.”

  “So, that would leave Mary and me, Andy and Journey, Sam and Gina, Mike and Janice, Matt and Lucas, the three girls, junior and the two babies up top.”

  “No. Abby is going to stay down here with us.”

  John frowned, “I guess you would. Sorry Ben, I keep forgetting she’s your daughter.”

  “Once we get set up, the boys can take turns coming down to do chores for you. And of course, some of us will be in and out all of the time. As far as the tent goes, we’ll move it up top and use it for a cook tent as well as the guys can sleep in it unless there’s something else we’ve all missed.”

  John looked at Sam and then Andy, as if he was expecting one of them to speak up. “No? Okay then. Does anyone have any problems with this arrangement?”

  Matt raised his hand. At a nod from John, “I think there is another camp trailer over at the Walkers place and maybe there are two. They had that big old rodeo trailer that has living quarters in it.”

  John laughed, “I think there might be a problem getting them. Old man Walker and I don’t see eye to eye anymore. Haven’t for years.”

  “That’s just it. The whole family was in Colorado for the Nationals. They weren’t home when this all went down. Andy and I went by there before we came here to see Carlos, and turned the horses and barn animals lose. There was no one at the place. It didn’t look like anyone had been there for a while either.”

  “We still can’t go around stealing other people's stuff. What if they made it home expecting to find their belongings and we’d already taken them?”

  Matt looked like he wanted to say more, but Sam shut him down with a look. “John’s right. Right now we have bigger problems than bringing in more trailers. For now, I agree with John. We’ll move the tent and cook stove up top tomorrow, first thing. I think John and Mary should take over the camp trailer.”

  “Nope,” John said shaking his head. “I think we need to put Mike and Janice along with their kids in the trailer. It has the solar arrangement on top, and we might be able to rig up some kind of heat in there.”

  “There’s that little ceramic heater in the closet. Carlos used it
when it was really cold, and he was always bragging how little electricity the thing used.”

  “Can you see about finding it before we go up top, Mary?”

  “John, I can, but I think we should leave everyone where they are for tonight and make the changes tomorrow. The girls are probably already asleep, and it’ll be dark long before any of us can get situated. We can start first thing in the morning.”

  “Well, doggone it! Someone has to stay up top tonight. Half the horses are up there, and someone needs to be on guard. We can’t afford to have those people show up and no one there.”

  “I’ll go back up.”

  “I’m with Sam. I’ll go up too.”

  Gina looked at Journey who had remained quiet through all of the conversation. Gina couldn’t help but notice when Andy said he’d go up with Sam the look of disappointment that crossed Journey’s face. Clearly, she had expected Andy to ask her to accompany him.

  “Well, I think we need to keep a two-person rotation for guard duty, so how about Journey and I going up too?”

  Journey sat up straighter, “That sounds good. We can catch up. It doesn’t seem like I ever see you anymore.”

  Lucas had stepped out, and when he came back inside, he had snow in the creases in his jacket, on top of his head and eyelashes. “It’s really coming down out there.”

  “I don’t suppose anyone unloaded the hay?”

  “I did Uncle Sam, just now. That’s how I got covered with snow.”

  “Thank you, Lucas. Now, how about you women arm yourselves if you aren’t already and we’ll get out of here.”

  “Geez…talk about sounding like a chauvinist. You women…please.” Gina looked at Sam and rolled her eyes and patted her holster, showing everyone she was already armed. They were all getting used to her eye rolling, and everyone laughed.

  Gina shook her head and dropped one arm over Journey’s shoulder, “Come on, so we can get the best seats.”

  Chapter Eleven