Andy volunteered his horse to carry the packsaddle. Once they were loaded, Sam led Gina the way they had gone the night before. In the morning light, Sam could see the changes in the terrain between the two places. They were minor but still noticeable to his eyes.
Sitting on the rise above the Savage home Sam bellowed, “Hello the house!”
The figure of a man walking to the house stopped and looked up at them. His first reaction was to aim his rifle at them.
Sam waved and hollered down, “Hey Mark! It’s me, Sam Akins.”
The man settled his rifle back on his shoulder and waved them down. Gina noticed a curtain fall back into place as they neared the back of the house. She hoped it was the wife keeping an eye out for her husband.
As they stopped in front of the man, Gina could see a smiling face under the stocking cap pulled down low over his ears and above the knit scarf around his throat.
“Hey Sam,” he nodded at Gina, “Ma’am, what brings you out? We were going to head out your way and see if you survived the wrath of God.” He chuckled as if he’d made a joke. His eyes traveled past them to the beef on the back of Andy’s horse. “That wouldn’t be for us, would it?”
Sam handed the lead rope to Mark, “It’s all yours. John thought you could use it seeing as how you didn’t order any before this all went down.”
“Rightly so. We were going to but…never mind that. Tie those horses up and come on in. I’m sure Evie already has the pot on.”
Sam removed the meat from the horse and set it into a snow bank, which reminded him of the huge snow pile he’d seen behind the shed. “You building your own ski slope back there?” He pointed to the shed.
Mark stopped walking and with a glance at Gina, shook his head. He must not have wanted to talk about it in front of her, shaking his head, “Sad times.”
“We’ve had a few of those ourselves.”
“That was you guys I heard last night? Thought it was from west of here.”
Gina threw blankets over the horses, that she’d pulled from the packsaddle.
“Good woman, who takes care of her animals comfort before her own.”
Sam chuckled, “Yeah. My thoughts exactly. I plan on letting her hang around a while.”
“Bull! I stay because I want to, and I don’t call that hanging around.”
“Did I forget to mention that Mark is also Reverend Savage?”
Mark and Sam laughed at Gina’s obvious discomfort. She felt her face flush with embarrassment. “Yes, you did forget that piece of information. Sorry, Reverand.”
“You didn’t use the Lord’s name in vain, so no harm.” He led them to the mud room where they removed their boots.
When he opened the door to the kitchen, the fragrant odor of freshly baked bread wafted out. Gina felt the saliva forming in her mouth. They had had biscuits from mix and corn tortillas, but they had run out of flour soon after getting moved. The little they had salvaged from John’s basement hadn’t gone far.
Evelyn was a short, plump woman with curly gray hair twisted up into a bun at the top of her head with a tight curl of bangs above her eyebrows. Her blue eyes were faded and almost lost in her face when she smiled. Her hands were chapped and red, saying that Mark didn’t work outside alone. She wiped them on the hem of her apron and held one out to Gina.
Gina expected to shake and let go, but the woman held on and led her to a chair in front of the table. Looking around the kitchen, Gina felt like she’d walked onto a movie set from the fifties. The table was marbled green Formica with a band of metal around the edge, and the chairs were metal framed to match. The stove was similar to Mary’s but had two oven doors, and was big enough to cook more than a couple pots at the same time.
It was the smell of fresh bread that made Gina want to swoon. She laughed to herself because the word swoon was totally out of the fifties era.
Evelyn took a loaf of fresh bread off the warmer on top of the stove and began to cut it. “I sure hope you people would like to break bread with us. Mark hasn’t had his snack yet, so I hope you don’t mind.”
She set the sliced bread on a plate and put it on the table along with a jar that looked like strawberry preserves. “I apologize for not having any butter to go along with it, but we ran out a while back.”
Mark walked up to her and patted her shoulder, “Now Evie, you know I treasure your jam as much as butter. We’ll be fine. Now come sit down and quit fussing.”
Gina wanted to reach out and snag a piece of the warm bread, but Sam nudged her with his knee under the table. She realized heads were bowed, waiting on her.
“Lord, Bless this food we are about to eat and prepare us for the tribulations ahead. In Jesus name, Amen.”
Before his Amen was out, Mark was reaching for a slice of the bread. “We don’t stand on ceremony here, help yourself.”
Gina bit into her slice and moaned, “This is so good. I’d forgotten what homemade bread tasted like, and the jam is perfect.”
“Well, I remember that Mary makes wonderful bread and her cinnamon rolls were always a big hit at our church socials.”
“They were, and I’m not taking anything away from Mary. She made excellent bread.”
“Oh dear! Is Mary okay?”
Puzzled, Gina quickly rethought what she had said. The older woman had misunderstood her. “No, I mean yes, Mary is fine. We lost most of the flour when the house was ransacked. We saved what we could and then lost some of it in the quake.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve had any flour, is what Gina is trying to say. The house is gone, and we’ve been staying at Carlos’s winter camp. Right now we’re in the process of moving to the rooms in the hayshed.”
Mark cleared his throat, “It sounds like you have had your share of troubles too.”
Sam chuckled softly, “John thinks they’re only beginning.”
“I believe John is right. Let me tell you what we’ve faced so far.”
By the time Mark was done talking, Sam and Gina were sitting open mouthed. The shooting they had heard a few nights prior had been Mark defending himself and his home.
“But, is God okay with you killing someone? I mean…”
Mark held his hand up to stop Gina, “God is okay with me defending myself and my wife. I didn’t go out looking for trouble, I was trying to keep us both alive. I’m sure God will deal with it when I get to heaven, and until then, I’ll do what I have to do to not hurry the process along.”
“So, is that what the mountain of snow is for? You covered them up?”
“I didn’t want to be reminded every time I stepped out that door. When spring gets here, I’ll give them a proper burial. I’m only sorry so many of those heathen’s got away.”
“They didn’t get far, but you can rest assured they won’t be bothering anyone else in the future,” Sam told them what had happened the night before and about the young girl. Evie had tears in her eyes by the time he was done talking.
“That poor girl. Why do people have to be so cruel? We should be pulling together to survive this. What with the government camps springing up down south, people have a place to go if they want to.”
Gina sat up in her chair, she had been listening with half an ear to Evelyn, but her last statement got both her and Sam’s attention.
“Government camps? Whose government?”
“I forgot you have no radio, so of course you wouldn’t know.”
“We have a radio, it belonged to Carlos, but we need to move the antenna up to where it reaches out of the valley. It hasn’t been our main priority, but maybe it needs to be.”
“Lucas said we don’t have enough coaxial cable to put it up any higher than it is and all he gets is static.”
Mark started to get up, “I can help with that. I have about 200 feet of RG-59.”
“Let’s wait on that Mark. I know that you know most of the people within twenty miles of here and I’m wondering how many of them made it.”
“I
haven’t heard anything from any of my contacts in Missoula, Billings or Helena. One fella I talked to up in Bozeman said they had increased volcanic activity in a place where supposedly there are no volcanoes. Never before have they gotten the readings they were getting just before the band of quakes started. He told me something completely off the wall. He said it was all hush-hush for the general public and I’m not sure how much of it is fiction on his part or how much is truth.”
“Well, he didn’t see the river of lava that we saw. It was like the earth just opened up, and molten rock spewed out. Did you see the river that flows where the freeway used to be?”
Mark shook his head, “I haven’t been off the property in months. Other than those guys the other night, you are the first living souls we’ve had any contact with since the Sunday before the power went off.”
“We’ve had a few interactions with people, and they weren’t good. Any of them. Is anyone talking about why the power grid went down?”
“There was some speculation as to what brought it down, but that’s just it, no facts to back any of it up. Think of it this way, if it was a nuclear bomb and it landed close we’d all be dead. If it was the North Korean’s, or Iran, I don’t think either of them have a delivery system that would reach this far north. If it were Russia, which I doubt, we’d be dead. It wouldn’t surprise me if some scientists weren’t playing around in Yellowstone trying to relieve the pressure off the caldera and it didn’t backfire on them. That would surely account for all of the quakes. Or maybe it’s just a whole bunch of coincidences.”
“It would take an EMP or solar flare to take out all of the power, right?” Gina looked around the table, “Wouldn’t our scientists know if it was a solar flare? And wouldn’t they know before it struck?”
“That’s a good question, but we may be confusing a solar flare with a CME. They could have two, possibly three days warning if it was a Coronal Mass Ejection. If it struck the United States anywhere, it would effectively wipe out our technology. Solar flares are a whole other story. They could disrupt things for a short while if I remember correctly, but a CME would be apocalyptic.”
“With two or three days warning, wouldn’t the government give us some kind of a heads up?”
“If you think about it Gina, what would happen then? People would go crazy trying to get away…and from what to what? Something no one has any control over? The best they could have done was to ground all flights. I’m sure they probably did that.”
“But what if they had given the warning, couldn’t people have shut their electronics down, unplugged or disconnected from the power grid?”
“I don’t know. I would like to think that someone would have warned us but…”
Sam scratched his chin, thinking about what Gina and Mark had just said, “I have never worn a tinfoil hat before, but, what if we weren’t warned for a reason? What if they wanted everything to fail?”
Mark laughed softly, “To what end? What could they hope to gain by their actions if that were true?”
Sam shrugged, “Hey, I’m just throwing it out there. Maybe the eruptions and the power going off was just a huge coincidence?”
“And what if God had a hand in this? I’m not sure I believe in coincidences like this. We have an earthquake in an area we shouldn’t have. Mark hasn’t heard anything about Yellowstone erupting, and I would think that’s where it would all start.” Evelyn sighed, “I guess we wait and see what else happens, but it feels like the beginning of the end.”
“Now Evie, don’t you be thinking thoughts like that. This isn’t a prophecy coming true, this is about…I don’t know what this is about actually. When I think about the people who would have already died, those that were machine dependant, pacemakers, people who relied on drugs to keep themselves alive or at least on the right track.” Mark shook his head sadly, “It pains me to think of the loss.”
“We have to remember, that anything we know or think we know right now is only supposition. Until Mark can get some concrete facts or at least talk to other people around the country, we’re still only guessing. I say before we start worrying about the cause, we concentrate on our solution.”
“I’ll be getting to work on finding out whatever I can in the next few days. But you’re right Sam, we need to help ourselves first.”
“Whatever happened, happened and we can’t change that, but we can look after each other and stay safe. On that note, we need to get on back before John sends out a search party.”
Evelyn whispered something in Mark’s ear, he nodded and rose from his chair. “Wait just one minute, we can’t pay you for that beef, but we can give you something in return.”
“There’s no need. Coming here and spending time with you and allowing us to pick your brain is payment enough.”
“You just sit right there young man. I like to keep my account paid in full.” He went to go into another room and turned back, “How many souls are now living with you?”
Gina began to count them off on her fingers. Her eyes widen with the realization she had to use each finger more than once. “Wow and we were worried before we rescued Mike and his family.” She looked up, “We have eighteen people counting the two babies.”
“Eighteen?” Sam asked in disbelief. “No wonder the tent was so crowded.”
“Mike Barber? Janice and Mike?” Evelyn asked, her eyes lit up with excitement.
“Yes from across the freeway?”Gina said.
“Oh my word, I’ll be right back.” She bustled off up a narrow staircase.
“Sam! I could use some help here,” called Mark.
Gina stood in the cozy kitchen thinking how much Lucy and Journey would have appreciated meeting these two people. Journey would have loved the retro interior, which to these two was normal and Lucy would have treasured the kindness and genuine affection Gina had found here. She stood at the stove taking in the warmth when she heard the footsteps on stairs.
“Oh dear, I didn’t realize I had collected so much. The ladies from church got together a few things for when Janice has that baby. Would it be too much to ask you to take this to her?”
“No, that’s fine. Our packsaddle has two empty bags on it. And, Janice had a baby boy a couple of days ago.”
“She did? Well, that’s wonderful. I wondered how they were doing, but we’re too old to go riding around the country checking on everyone. You tell her we’re keeping them in our prayers and now we’ll have to add the rest of you too.”
Gina laughed, “I’m sure we could benefit from it. I’m certain when the weather clears someone will visit. If you have any problems, you can reach us on the radio. I’ll have Sam give Mark the channel numbers.”
“Oh, we’ll be fine. It would be nice to talk to them and maybe Mary too. How’s that little one of hers doing?”
“He’s doing fine, and I meant any health problems for the two of you. We have Journey who was a nurse and me. We can handle most of the little things, but the way things are now, Journey, at least, is delving into the bigger problems.”
Sam and Mark each came from the back room with a sack of flour over their shoulders. Both men had a dusting of white on their clothing and hair, so there was no doubt what the bags contained.
“This seems like an awful lot for two hindquarters,” Sam grunted.
“You saw what there was. Evie used to bake for the church, and now with only her and I this will all go to waste long before we ever use it up.”
“Well, thanks, Mark. You know what channel we’re on, and Lucas is usually on it in the evening right after dark.”
“Reminds me, let’s get these loaded, and I’ll grab that wire for you.”
Sam saw Gina pick up a cardboard box and raised his eyebrows in question, “Baby clothes for Janice, and there’s some will probably fit Nathan too.”
Outside, Gina packed the clothes into one side of the pack saddle. Sam put the coil of wire into the other and tied the flour on top. Mark gave them a small tarp to
cover the load, with the condition they return it the next time through.
Evelyn grabbed onto Gina’s hands before she could mount, “You take good care of that boy, and give our best to the family. Wait one more minute,” she hurried back into the house and returned quickly with a brown sack. Gina could hear the clink of glass as she put it in her saddlebag.
“Strawberry jam?”
Evelyn nodded, “And some good mountain blackberry too.” Her chin quivered, and Gina thought the woman was going to break down in front of them.
“We’ll be back. Maybe some of the other women will come too once the weather gets a little warmer.”
“You do that honey. We’d sure be tickled to have you. God speed and keep you safe.”
Gina looked back as they rode back over the rise and lifted her arm and waved, Mark had his arm around Evelyn. They were still standing watching her and Sam leave. They waved back and turned to go inside their house.
“So, did you find out what the snow pile was all about?”
“I did. It’s safe to say that Mark and Evelyn can definitely look after themselves. Guys showed up the other night, telling them their house had been confiscated and gave them ten minutes to get their things and get out.”
“I can see where that didn’t work. So there are bodies under the snow?”
“Several. Apparently, when Mark asked who it was being confiscated by one of them was stupid enough to aim a rifle at Mark. Evelyn was standing behind him in the doorway. She made a panic move and shoved him out of the way, closed her eyes and sprayed the yard with bullets. Mark had to put two of them out of their misery because they were gut shot.”
“Oh my God…no wonder she seemed so disconnected. She seemed fragile, even though she was all cheery and hospitable. There was something about her I couldn’t put my finger on.”
“I saw that, and Mark told me she doesn’t remember the guys being there or the shooting. Maybe it’s her way of keeping her sanity.”
Beyond the New Horizon (Book 2): Desperate Times Page 18
