Vicky could tell that Jonathan was fascinated with Wolf the way Shauna had said he was with Bob Barham. Jonathan had never met anyone remotely like either of them growing up in south Florida, but he was an outdoorsman at heart and could really look up to men such as these that had skills and knowledge far beyond his own. Wolf’s arrival meant their immediate worries about survival could be put aside. The man had complete confidence that he could get them safely to the reservation, and Vicky fully trusted him already. She knew she would sleep well that night, although with Wolf nearby, she and Jonathan would have to be more discreet about their newfound intimacy. She wasn’t bothered by that at all though, as she felt that her time of getting to know him was just beginning. Whatever the future held for them, she hoped they would be together, even if it meant following him to Louisiana. Whether he would go there or not was dependent upon what happened with Eric. Jonathan said that if Eric didn’t find Shauna soon, he had no idea what it might mean for his plans to take Megan back to the boat he had waiting there.
“I think he’ll eventually go,” Jonathan said, when Vicky brought it up as they lay there whispering after Wolf fell asleep. “I mean, Megan’s the reason he came back, not Shauna. I know he’ll do everything he can to try and find her, but if he can’t, Megan will be his priority.”
“There’s no way she’s going to agree to go though, and leave her mom missing out here. I know her pretty well. I can’t see her doing it. And, we don’t exactly know what’s up with her and Aaron either. I mean, she left with him when she broke up with Gareth. They may be pretty tight by now, you never know. If they are, she’s not gonna want to leave him here. And since he’s pretty into his heritage and tribal stuff and all that, he may not be willing to leave that behind to go off sailing across the ocean.”
“Yeah, I can see that. It’s kind of gotten complicated for Eric. His whole plan in the beginning was so simple. He told me all about it, how he thought he would just sneak right in to the coast in his kayak and find Megan and her mom there at their house on a nearby canal. But of course, they were gone because of the hurricane, and then he met me and that was the beginning of his complications, taking me with him.”
“I don’t imagine he saw it that way. Look how much you’ve helped him since.”
“Maybe, but I know I was a pain in his ass in the beginning. And then when we finally got to his dad’s place and found Shauna there, her new husband was the next problem. He was an even bigger pain in the ass and complication!”
“From the way I saw her looking at Eric just the few days I was around them, I don’t think she’s thinking about her husband much. She sure didn’t talk about him to me.”
“Probably because she never really wanted to divorce Eric in the first place. I think she tried and tried to make it work with him, and finally gave up. It literally took a war back here at home to get his attention, but I know he regrets the way he neglected his family before. He told me that several times. He’s probably really feeling like shit about now, with Shauna missing after the way he left us all in that cabin. He’s blaming himself, and he’s super pissed at those guys that came there and took her. I almost feel sorry for any of those poor bastards he finds. He’s going to take it all out on them. He really is!”
* * *
By the time Eric, Shauna and Luke hiked back to the road and then rode with Nantan and the others back to the work station compound where they’d left the horses, it was nearly midnight. The chief didn’t really kill his man, Wilson, like he said he was going to do, but the two of them didn’t seem to be on speaking terms when Eric and Nantan unlocked the supply room and led them out.
“You’ll find out why he talked soon enough,” Nantan told him, “because you will do the same when it is your turn.”
They had already made up their minds to take the chief back to the reservation with them; first so that Nantan and the security council could interrogate him about all the operations he might know of in the region that affected Jicarilla land. And after they were done with him, Eric figured he could leverage delivering him to the Army for his crimes in exchange for help with the transportation problem he was facing in getting his family to Louisiana. That would all come later though, of course. At the moment, Eric was under pressure from Shauna to get back to that reservation ASAP so that she could see with her own eyes that Megan was there and safe.
“There’s plenty of fuel here in the storage tanks,” Tommy assured him when Eric questioned the feasibility of just driving there. Returning by horseback was the safest and surest bet, but it would take much longer and since they didn’t have a specific reason to go back through the high country in the vicinity of the cabin, there was no point in subjecting Shauna to such a journey after all she’d recently been through. Nantan and the others agreed. They had enough firepower to fight their way out of most situations they might encounter, and the chief and Wilson would be additional insurance.
“They will both understand what will happen to them if they steer us into a C.R.I. checkpoint or some other trap. I will make the consequences very clear to them, and Wilson is already a believer!” Nantan said.
Luke and Tommy volunteered to take the long way back, riding the horses, so with that decided, Eric wanted to go ahead and roll out that very night, saying it was riskier to stay there at the compound than to be on the road, considering how they could be trapped there at the end of a dead-end.
“We’ll take the two best trucks and all of the weapons and ammo we can find here, in addition to what we already have. I’ll drive one of them and Shauna will ride shotgun with me. Nantan, you or Red can drive the other. We’ll secure the prisoners and put them in the back of yours, and I’ll follow behind.”
Shauna, of course, was delighted with this arrangement, as she wanted nothing more to do with that compound and had no interest in staying put anywhere until she saw Megan. Another night without sleep would make little difference now, and she was so wired and excited about the prospect of seeing her daughter that she told Eric she would be wide awake that night anyway as they got into the truck to leave.
“I’ll be happy to drive if you like. I’m really not tired, Eric.”
“No, I’ve got it. Try and get some sleep on the way. I’ll wake you if I need you or if we run into trouble, but I don’t expect we will. Nantan worked out the shortest route that avoids highways, and he said that with the roads empty like they are now, we’ll be there by midmorning if we don’t stop. You’ll be glad you slept when we arrive, because you and Megan are going to have a lot to talk about!”
“We all have a lot to talk about, Eric. This is just so surreal, I can’t believe that it’s happening!”
* * *
Thank you for reading Book Six of The Feral Nation Series. I hope you enjoyed the story! Please turn the page for information on the next book in this series and more:
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If the Feral Nation books are the first of my works you’ve read, you might enjoy my other post-apocalyptic and action/adventure books. Turn the page for the full list and links to my other published works.
More by Scott B. Williams
THE FOLLOWING LINKS WILL take you to the Amazon Kindle versions of my most popular books that are available now. New books are coming all the time so stay up to date by signing up for my book alerts via my New Release Updates
Feral Nation Series
Feral Nation - Infiltration (Book 1)
Feral Nation - Insurrection (Book 2)
Feral Nation - Tribulation (Book 3)
Feral Nation - Perseverance (Book 5)
Feral Nation - Convergence (Book 6)
The Pulse Series:
The Pulse: A Novel of Surviving the Collapse of the Grid (Book 1)
Refuge After the Collapse (Book 2)
Voyage After the Collapse (Book 3)
Landfall: Islands in the Aftermath (Book 4)
Horizons Beyond the Darkness (Book 5)
The Darkness After Series:
Enter the Darkness (Series Prequel)
The Darkness After (Book 1)
Into the River Lands (Book 2)
The Forge of Darkness (Book 3)
The Savage Darkness (Book 4)
Apocalypse Series:
Sailing the Apocalypse: A Misadventure at Sea
Nonfiction:
On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean
Bug Out: The Complete Plan for Escaping a Catastrophic Disaster Before It’s Too Late
About the Author
SCOTT B. WILLIAMS HAS been writing about his adventures for more than twenty-five years. His published work includes dozens of magazine articles and twenty-five books, with more projects currently underway.
His interest in backpacking, sea kayaking and sailing small boats to remote places led him to pursue the wilderness survival skills that he has written about in his popular survival nonfiction books and travel narratives such as On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean, an account of a two-year solo kayaking expedition he undertook at age 25.
With the release of The Pulse: A Novel of Surviving the Collapse of the Grid in 2012, Scott moved into writing fiction full time. His post-apocalyptic and action & adventure stories draw heavily on his personal wilderness and ocean experiences to create believable scenarios often set in dire circumstances. To learn more about his upcoming books or to contact Scott, visit his website: www.scottbwilliams.com
Dedication
DEDICATED TO RUTH TRIPP, with gratitude to a great teacher
Feral Nation - Convergence (Feral Nation Series Book 6) Page 18