Beyond the New Horizon (Book 2): Desperate Times

by Conaway, Christine

  “Come on John, we’ve got work to do.”

  John exploded, “You sons a bitches. I am coming for you!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, and his voice echoed, bouncing off the surrounding hills.

  Maybe it was saying the words out loud or the realization that they needed to get the meat taken care of, but he was finally moving. He straightened his back and shoulders and stomped off through the snow to camp.

  “They could be watching us right now.”

  Sam nodded and took her arm. “We’ll leave the tractor here, the walk will warm us and right now I could use the walk.”

  Gina nodded and wished she had something besides her cowboy boots on her feet. They felt like frozen blocks of ice at the end of her legs. She thought about the galoshes she had taken from her truck and wondered if they had made the trip from the cabin.

  Mary and the others had already heard from Lucas and prepared hot coffee. Once they were gathered around the table, John stood and seemed to gather himself and began giving out orders.

  Chapter Twelve

  The mood in the camp was somber, even the girls felt it. There was none of the usual teasing or laughter that followed them everywhere. With the new addition of Maggie, the competition for best friends had begun. Being only eight, Maggie was now the youngest and unsure how she fit in, but looked pleased to be standing between both of her new friends.

  Gina watched them until John drew her attention.

  “Janice, good to see you’re up and getting around. We’re going to need your help today.”

  “I had a baby, not heart surgery. What can I do to help?”

  “I’m going to need every able bodied person down in the field. Can you keep us supplied with hot food and drinks as well as look after both babies?”

  “John, surely I can help her. She’s not well enough to handle all of this alone.”

  John drilled Mary with a piercing look. “We need everyone in the field if we expect to salvage that meat. Janice can handle this.”

  Janice nodded and gave Mary a smile, “I can. I was raised on a farm, and I’m used to hard work. Looking after the food and the babies will be a piece of cake compared to what you guys will be doing.”

  “Now, Lucas, dress warm and go up top. I need you to keep watch up there and take the AR with you. Under no circumstances do you let anyone near the barn. If you have a problem, you know the emergency signal. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”

  Lucas nodded and began to dress for his time outside. “Do you want me to send Andy and Journey down here?”

  “Yes, tell them not to waste any time getting here either. Matt and Mike, gather up knives and anything you guys think will help with the butchering. There are skinning knives, and a bone saw in Carlos’ trailer under the sink. Bring them.”

  Lucas and Matt turned to leave, “Son…please be careful. This is a man’s job you have in front of you. If you think…”

  “I got it, Dad. I won’t take any chances.”

  “Lucas, get the binoculars from Andy and have him show you the tree.” Gina had to grin when Sam called them binoculars after ragging on her about them being no better than opera glasses.

  Lucas nodded and left the tent. Gina said a silent prayer that he wouldn’t have to fire his weapon three times signaling for help, or that he would be forced to take a life that day. She prayed none of them would, but someone had killed the cows and knew they were there. She couldn’t help but wonder what they would come for next.

  “You ready?”

  Gina blinked, Sam was standing in front of her waiting for an answer, while she had been lost in her own thoughts. “Yeah. Just a minute.”

  She went to Mary and asked about the totes and bags they had brought from the cabin, or if they had even made it there with everything that had happened at the time.

  “The black bags?” Gina nodded yes. “They, along with most of the stuff you brought, is safe underneath the trailer. It’s all stacked on pallets off the ground, so it should be dry.”

  Gina left to go and find her overboots. From under the trailer, she also pulled out the blue plastic tarp they had used to shelter the stock trailer, thinking they could put it on the trailer under the meat. As she kneeled at the crawl space under the trailer, Gina was reminded that her boots were too tight fitting to put another pair of socks on. She debated taking the boots off and donning a couple more pairs of socks to wear inside of the galoshes and decided they would be too ungainly and probably wouldn’t stay on. She pulled them on over her boots, at least given enough time, her feet might warm up.

  From their bags, she pulled out every sweater and jacket she could find. They were going to have a need for dry clothing before they finished.

  She dumped the load of clothing on one of the cots in the tent, held her hands over the woodstove for just a few minutes and declared herself ready to take on any task John had for her.

  Someone had carried the baby basket to the tent, and it sat in front of the stove with both babies asleep side by side. She smiled at Janice and traipsed off through the snow to where the others were already actively butchering the cows.

  John made short work of taking off the hides, while Sam removed the insides, setting the heart, liver, and other edible parts off to one side. Mary would gather them up and place them into a bucket. Gina jumped right in along with Journey, carrying the dismembered parts to the trailer and stacking them on.

  Andy and Mike had saddled two of the horses to herd the remaining cows and the bull to the hay shed, along with the rest of the horses.

  Gina and Journey must have had the same thought at exactly the same time. They both turned to watch the procession of cows and horses pass by them.

  Gina looked at Journey, “Gus! Where the hell is Gus?”

  “And the jenny is gone too,” Journey added. “Oh, hell no!” She turned as if she had a plan. Before she could take a step, Gina stopped her.

  “Journey, where do you think you’re going?”

  She stopped and wheeled to face her friend, “Where do you think? I’m going to get my mule back.”

  “First, let’s make sure they’re not hiding in the trees and if anything else is missing.”

  Sam and John heard her at the same time and stood up from their back breaking work. They both turned to look at the herd of animals.

  Sam looked around as if he fully expected to see the mule and Carlos’s jenny hiding in the herd of cows and horses. “Hold up Andy.”

  “Son of a…” John exclaimed, as his eyes took in every horse. “Sherry’s mare and Mary’s gelding are both gone.”

  Sam turned his eyes to trace the trail away from the pasture and saw where something had been dragged.

  On closer inspection, he saw tracks that could only have been made by human feet alongside tracks made by horses. He saw in the snow where Gus had been planting his feet and drag marks, “He didn’t go willingly.”

  “That settles it then. Let’s get this cleaned up here. Most of the meat can be put in a snow bank until we return. Mary, you and Janice can begin smoking some of it. The rest, bury it. Andy, you and Mike take the cows up top and see if there’s some way to pen them in. Leave the horses, we’re going to need them.”

  “Matt, girls, let’s get this loaded up. Andy, as soon as you’re done bring Lucas back with you. We’re going to need everybody we have to get our animals back.”

  Gina gave a soft whistle, Sailor perked his ears and came to her with Bess and Joe following behind. Sham followed Bess along with the rest of the horses. “Good boy,” Gina told Sailor and rubbed his ears and the side of his face and under his chin. Bess and Joe came for their share of the attention, with the others crowding close to see what the fuss was.

  With Sailor walking beside her as if he was haltered, Gina went back up to the trailer. The rest of the animals followed.

  By the goat shed, Gina and Journey strung out piles of fresh hay for the horses, thinking to keep them close for the night. She couldn
’t see where tracking after dark would prove smart or possible.

  It took an hour for the men and girls to lay the meat out on the tarp cover it and shovel snow on top. Mary picked our a few good sized chunks and went into the tent with them. It didn’t take long for the smell of cooking meat to bring them all inside the tent.

  Janice had started a pot of beans earlier in the day, and both of the babies were fast asleep in the basket.

  Gina was standing behind Janice looking at the bubbling pot of beans when Mary came over.

  “How did you get Nathan to go back to sleep?”

  Janice looked flustered for just a minute and confessed, “I know we never discussed it and I’ve been meaning to say something before this, but it seemed you were all a little busy today, but…” she sighed heavily, “I breastfed him.”

  Mary’s mouth dropped open, and Gina waited for Mary to unload on Janice. She was prepared to step between the two women if it seemed necessary. Mary surprised her after a few seconds of stunned silence when a grin appeared on her face.

  “Oh my gosh. What a brilliant idea. Thank you!”

  Gina relaxed at hearing Mary’s words. It was something that Gina had wondered about right after Janice had her baby.

  “Benny doesn’t use all that I seem to provide for him, so I took it upon myself to share.”

  “Benny?” Mary asked.

  Janice flushed, “I know everyone here has helped us, but I think if Ben hadn’t put his life in jeopardy, none of us would be here today, so we named him Benjamin J. Barber.”

  “The J is for? Let me guess, Journey.” Gina nodded, “I like it.”

  “Speaking of Ben, where are he and Lucy?”

  “They’re in the trailer fixing Lucy’s leg,” Journey answered. “He’s worried she wants to go with you guys to get the animals back.”

  “Well, of course she’s going. We all are. Except for Janice and Maggie.”

  “Oh John, is that wise? Abby and Sherry are just little girls. Do they have to go?”

  “Mary, three months ago they were little girls, now they’re both young women. Either one can handle a rifle as well as you or I can, so yes they have to go. We need to put a stop to this thievery right now. Those cattle were our future food source as well as for breeding. Now we have four cows and the old bull.”

  Matt was the last to come inside the tent and heard John, “Actually, there are four or five more cows down in the trees. I was just coming in to see what you wanted to do with them.”

  “Good! I was hoping my initial count as off. We lost three of the first-year heifers and two cows. It just makes me sick. I can’t believe we didn’t hear them.”

  “Well, there have to be more cows somewhere then, because my last count was twenty-eight cows and the bull. Of course, that was before the quakes, and I didn’t know how many you had before then.”

  “Thirty,” Sam provided. “And I bet I know where a couple more of them are.”

  “That old brindle cow?” John asked him.

  “Yup, remember last year she took both of her calves up into the high meadow for the winter and we thought the wolves had gotten them?”

  John laughed, “And she came waltzing in with them and a new calf, come spring.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking.”

  “Well, she wasn’t any of those we just butchered, so I guess we’ll leave her there. Now, what are we going to do about these thieves?”

  “Andy and I can go see where they’re holed up,” Sam volunteered.

  “Or we can all go and take care of this problem right off the bat.”

  “Is taking care of them making sure they move on or what? The way I see it, the next time they show up, they may come looking for more than meat. We have women, children, food, and shelter.”

  “I think you’re right. If we don’t put a stop to them now, they’ll be coming back for the rest of the cows, and we can’t let them get away with taking the horses. Our lives may depend on having transportation some day, and I don’t intend on having to walk if we ever have to leave here.”

  They finished eating in silence. Gina wondered what the penalty was for theft nowadays. She knew they used to hang people for horse stealing, but she was pretty sure the practice had become extinct. She also wondered what she would be capable of when faced with the possibility of using her firearm to secure what was theirs. People’s lives couldn’t be worth the cost of a cow, or even a half dozen cows or more even. She felt herself deflate with the sadness that washed over her leaving her weak and breathless.

  She looked up and found Sam staring at her, and she gave him a weak smile. She had just come to the realization, that the group of people who had selfishly slaughtered the cows, wasting so much of them, could have put her group into a position she was sure they would rather not be in.

  Gina didn’t see John, Sam or any of the other men as being vindictive or selfish. She was positive if their situation had been dire enough to kill someone else's cows, John would have gone out of his way to help the other group, but not at the expense of his family. He had proven that by his and Mary’s actions from the beginning.

  Sam sat down beside her and dropped his arm across her shoulder. “Don’t try and overthink it. John would have gone out of his way if they had come forward before they decided to take matters into their own hands and killed the cows needlessly. They wasted more meat than we would have eaten all winter.”

  “I know. I keep wondering if…never mind. I guess it doesn’t matter now.”

  “You wonder if they have families they’re trying to feed? You wonder if we are doing the right thing by going after them? You wonder if we should go?”

  Gina looked around the tent and saw the babies, the girls, Mary and John, Journey and Andy, Mike and Janice, and the boys. She turned and looked at Sam, “I can do whatever I need to do to keep my family safe. I do see where these people could come back when we aren’t prepared and wipe us all out just like they did with the cows. So I guess we go first thing in the morning?”

  “Nope. We go tonight, so dress as warmly as you can. Without the clouds, it’s going to be cold and as bright as daytime out there. The moon on the white snow will show us the way.”

  By the time they were dressed and saddled it was decided that Mary, Janice, Junior, Sherry, Abby, Maggie, and the babies would be staying behind.

  John didn’t see any reason to expose the girls to whatever was going to happen without a good reason. He felt the adults could handle whatever was going to happen.

  John faced them sitting on his gelding, steam rose from the horse’s noses framing them all in a cloud of steam. It was evident the horses felt the tension in the air and seemed eager to move, dancing around instead of standing still.

  Everyone was armed with something and carried extra ammunition in their pockets.

  “I’ll keep this brief because we’ll freeze if we sit here long. We’ll ride single file until we know where they are. There are only a few places possible for them to be holed up in. Because only so many people know where we keep our cattle during the winter months whoever is behind this is local. We already know or suspect where they are not so that only leaves a couple of places. I can’t stress how important it is that we go as quietly as possible. There’s no point in announcing our arrival ahead of time.”

  Finished speaking John turned his horse and led the way. Everyone else fell in behind him with Gina followed by Sam bring up the rear of their little army.

  Sam had been right in his prediction, once the moon climbed over the hill, it lit up the pasture like daylight. From a distance, they were able to see where the butchering had taken place and avoided having to pass close by.

  They rode in silence, and even the horses must have understood the need for stealth because they didn’t so much as snort as they plowed through the field of white.

  After an hour John stopped and waited for them to bunch up around him. “Another half mile if they stay on course is the Savage pla
ce. I don’t expect them to be there, but we’ll check it out before we go in. Sam, Andy, and Ben, we’ll let you take the lead and wait for you to see if they’re there. If they are not, the next place is about a mile from there. We’ll stop here and break for a few minutes and give everyone a chance to stretch their legs and take care of anything they need to take care of.”

  With a nod at Gina, Sam led the way for the other two men. He had noticed the difference in the terrain as they’d ridden and couldn’t help but wonder if the Savage place was still there or if like the Minnaker’s it had been swallowed whole. The Savage home was located on the same line of low hills as the Minnakers so it wouldn’t be hard to believe it too was gone. He hoped not, Mark Savage had been the minister of their church as long as Sam could remember. There were only Evelyn, and Mark left at home now. Their kids had married, and not one of them had stayed in the area. He was sure that eventually, John would have gotten around to checking on them and he hoped they weren’t too late.

  When they came to the point where the trail in the snow veered away from where Sam knew the Savage home to be, Sam reined in.

  “This is kind of strange. I figured for sure the tracks would lead us to Mark Savages, but for some reason, they seem to be avoiding it. I guess we press on. Andy, will you ride back and let John know?”

  Andy, riding last in line, turned and rode off at a jog.

  “I know this is a lot to ask, but do you mind waiting here for them to catch up? I’m just going to ride over and see if the house is still there. I’ll only be gone a few minutes.”

  Ben had his coat pulled up close around his face, but Sam saw him nod and lift his hand in acknowledgment.

  He kicked Sham and plowed through the deep snow. Had it been under any other circumstances, Sam would have found great pleasure being out for a moonlight ride with Gina. The sky was as bright as he could ever remember it being with stars shining he was sure he hadn’t seen before. It was almost like the earth had renewed herself with by turning off the lights, airplanes, car pollution, and people. He thought people were the biggest polluters of all. After the eruption, the wind had remained steady out of the southwest blowing any of the ash or smoke off to the northeast. He and John had been grateful and surprised that none had fallen in their valley.