Beyond the New Horizon

by Christine Conaway

“Steve?” the man called out, as he worked his jacket sleeve over his wounded hand. With his jacket laying puddled around himself his eyes darted back to the trees. The man shivered as if just realizing how cold it was.

  “I told you Steve is a little busy right now. Now, slowly push your jacket away from you.” Sam stood watching and saw the look that crossed the man’s face. “If he makes one wrong move, shoot his sorry ass!”

  The tension that had been building in the guy drained from his tense body, and he pushed the jacket away and looked up at Sam who had stepped closer to the fire.

  “Now, take off your boots, and set them in front of you.”

  The man looked up as if he couldn’t believe his ears, “My boots? Are you crazy? I’ll freeze.”

  “Your boots.” Sam said and looked at Lucy, “Lucy, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

  Lucy couldn’t believe it was actually Sam standing by the fire. When he called out to her, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry in relief.

  “Sam, oh my God Sam, I knew you would come.” As hard as she tried, she couldn’t stop the tears from coming.

  “Gina, come on out, Lucy needs you.”

  Gina didn’t care if she sounded like a herd of elephants as she broke through the brush and rushed to Lucy. She threw herself onto her knees and put both arms around her friend only to have her pull away with a loud cry. Then Gina saw how Lucy had one arm trapped inside her jacket.

  “It’s broken. My arm, I think I broke it when I fell,” Lucy sobbed out.

  “Let me see,” Gina told her and undid the zipper. As she straightened Lucy’s arm, she ran her fingers up and down the length of it from wrist to elbow. She sighed and pulled Lucy’s coat back over it. “It’s broke alright. We need to immobilize it until we get back to camp. Let’s move you over to the fire, so you can warm up.”

  Gina stood and reached down to help Lucy stand when her friend began to sob harder. She made a halfhearted attempt at standing and collapsed back down.

  “I can’t,” Lucy managed to say between sobs. “I can’t walk or stand right now.”

  Gina understood. If Lucy had walked as far as they had, her leg had to have been on fire. It had been in rough shape before she’d left, Gina could only imagine the shape it was in now. She knew imagining it wasn’t enough. She needed to see it, and that meant she needed to get Lucy to the light of the fire.

  “Sam, I need some help here. Lucy’s is freezing, and she can’t walk.”

  “Lucas, come on down son.”

  The man looked shocked when Lucas appeared out from behind a tree close enough that he could have spit on him if he’d tried. Lucas had another arrow set, ready to let go in an instant.

  “A boy? You let that little shit put an arrow in me?”

  Lucas looked at Sam, “Go ahead and help Gina. I got this.”

  Sam nodded and looked at the man, “If I were you, I would sit very still. He’s better with that bow than most men with a rifle.”

  “Where’s my friend? You can’t leave him out there to freeze.” As if realizing that he was the one in danger of freezing he went to reach for his coat.

  “Don’t!” was all Lucas said and drew the arrow further back.

  The man let his hand drop. His shoulders slumped as if he knew he was defeated. He mumbled something under his breath.

  “What’s that?” Luas asked.

  “You won’t get away with this. There are people who know where we are. They’ll come looking for you.”

  Between Sam and Gina, they had gotten Lucy close to the fire, and while Gina began taking off Lucy’s prosthetic, Sam walked to the guy, picked up his coat and boots. He held them away from himself as if the stench was more than he could bear. He dropped them in a pile on the other side of the fire.

  Lucy overheard what the guy had said to Lucas, “There’s no one coming to look for these guys. I heard the other one say that no one even knows they’re gone. They wouldn’t even know where to begin looking for them.”

  “Is that so. Well, that’s even better,” Sam said. He looked at the guy, “Stand up and take off your clothes.”

  The guy looked up, his mouth was open in silent protest, and his eyes were round circles. His face had flushed as if he was either angry or embarrassed.

  “My clothes…what for? You can see I’m unarmed.”

  “I don’t care what I can see, right now I want you down to your drawers. Get them off.”

  Gina looked at Sam, “Sam, he’ll freeze. It would be more humane to just shoot him.”

  “No! Please, I’m taking them off, just don’t shoot.”

  Gina grinned at Sam, she knew the effect her words would have on the guy. He may have been all brave and strong when they’d taken Lucy, but she thought they were now going to see his true colors.

  She and Sam had already decided what they were going to do to whoever had taken Lucy. They had a course of action for each of the possible scenarios. The guy didn’t realize how lucky he was that Lucy would be okay in time. Gina thought it would take longer for her soul to heal than her body.

  The man sat shivering in only a dirty tee shirt and boxers. He wiggled a little closer to the fire. Sam didn’t say anything to stop him, he just stood pointing his rifle.

  “Well, okay then. I guess I had better go and get Steve. I pretty sure he has finished his business by now and is probably wondering what's for dinner,” Sam looked at Lucas, “You got this Son?”

  Lucas nodded, and pulled out a Glock of his own, “I got this, Uncle Sam.”

  “Gina, look in the bottom of my bag. Journey sent some things she thought we might need. There’s a first-aid kit in there too.”

  By the time they heard Sam coming back with the second man, Gina had wrapped Lucy’s arm in an ace bandage and then wrapped her arm tight against her body. They had no means to make a cast, nor did they have any X-rays to see how bad it was broken. Lucy had full use and feeling in her fingers, and while it did hurt, she could move her hand. It was the best Gina could do under the circumstances.

  Steve stumbled out of the brush and fell to his knees in front of the fire. He refused to look up or around. Sam had already had him strip off his clothing, which Sam threw on top of the other guys.

  Gina couldn’t help but grin when she saw what Sam had tied the guy's hands together with. Man, she loved binder twine. Every day they found more uses for the used string.

  He pulled another length of it from his backpack, and tossed it to Lucas, tie him up,” he nodded to the first man.

  Lucas, leaned his bow against a tree and took the piece of twine from Sam, “Hands and feet?”

  “Good thinking Son, hands and feet. Do this one’s feet too,” he said and threw another string on the ground beside Steve.

  As soon as they were both tied by the warmth of the fire, Lucas and Sam dumped both of the guys backpacks out on the ground. They salvaged anything they thought they would find a use for including two more handguns and several boxes of ammunition for them.

  “You’re going to leave us up here with no way to defend ourselves?” Steve growled at Sam.

  Sam looked up from re-packing his backpack, “Not exactly. I’m leaving you this.” He held up a folded jackknife he had taken from one of the guy's packs.

  Standing, he walked to a pine tree opened it to expose a blade and stabbed it into the thick bark. With his six foot plus height, it would be far above the other guys reach.

  “What the fuck? How are we supposed to defend ourselves with that? We can’t even reach it,” Steve growled, “You’re going to regret the day our paths cross again, and trust me, they will cross.”

  Sam knelt down in front of where Steve now lay beside the fire, feet and wrists bound. “They better not cross. I better never see you again. Ever!”

  Steve could do nothing but glare, as he struggled against his bonds. Goosebumps had sprung up on his pale skin. He was shivering against the cold air and snowflakes that had begun to settle on him. He mumbled something
, but it fell on deaf ears as Sam stood and gathered up the pile of clothes.

  Both pairs of boots in one hand and the clothing under his other arm, Sam headed into the forest.

  “Watch them, Lucas,” he called over his shoulder. He returned a while later without them.

  Gina raised her eyebrows in question and then frowned. She looked at both men whose bodies were red from the heat on their front side and snow settling on their backside.

  “We’re going to leave them like this?”

  “I have no doubt they will find a way to get themselves loose in no time. They seem pretty industrious to me. We’re at least giving them options unlike they did for Lucy. Do you think the treatment they offered her is any worse or better than what we’re doing for them?”

  Gina looked at Lucy who was sitting staring at the men. Lucy looked up at her, her eyes were filled with hate. It was easy to see the men had made Lucy feel much like she had felt when they first met her. She looked defenseless and incapable of looking after herself. They had hurt her, physically as well as mentally.

  “No. I guess not,” she sighed, “I guess I still need to get my thoughts realigned. This doesn't seem right, but it is somehow fitting.”

  “Okay, is everyone ready? This is where it gets interesting,” Sam looked from the un-named man to Steve, “Your things are out there,” he pointed to the trees, “somewhere out there. Of course, you’ll have to find them.”

  “We can’t leave,” Lucy announced. “At least we can’t leave them alive. We can’t let them go back where they came from.”

  Sam looked at Lucy and frowned. “Why not?

  Chapter seventeen…………Bringing Lucy home

  Lucy’s three rescuers stared at her, waiting for her to tell them why they couldn’t leave.

  “I planned on giving you a ride. I realize you can’t walk with your leg in that shape.”

  Sam and Lucas had neither stared at nor commented when Gina had removed Lucy’s prosthetic. Gina rubbed Lucy’s leg with some cream that Journey had sent and a clean sock to put over the stump. Journey had known what Lucy would be facing if she had had to walk any distance at all. Cleaned and covered, Gina had been able to fit the artificial limb back on.

  “It’s not that. Wherever those guys came from, they are holding another woman hostage. I heard him,” she pointed at the un-named guy, “complaining about the other guy not willing to share.”

  Sam looked at Steve, “Is that true? You’re holding someone else captive?”

  “Hell no! This is all his deal. I was only helping him is all. The woman he was talking about me not sharing is my wife.”

  “Satisfied?” Sam asked, looking at Lucy.

  She nodded, but the frown on her face said differently. “How do we know he’s telling us the truth?”

  Sam went over to Steve and inspected his hands, and pointed, “Other than he is wearing a wedding band there is none. We can’t go chasing all over the country trying to rescue everyone. On this, we’ll just have to give him a little trust.”

  “My Dad says that sometimes you even have to trust a rattlesnake. He says if you give them an out, they’ll leave without biting you.” He looked at Sam, “So this is kind of the same thing…right?”

  “That’s right Lucas.” He looked at Steve, “Consider this your out. Don’t come back.”

  “What about our things? How do you expect us to get free and find our clothes?”

  Sam looked at the fire and then threw more branches on it to build it up. He looked pointedly from the fire to Steve, “I’m sure you can find some industrious way to get loose and your clothes are out there,” he pointed to the trees. “Like I said, you’ll just have to find them.”

  Sam handed Gina the backpack, “Can you handle this?”

  Gina groaned as she took it, “Yeah, just help me into it.” It was heavier than any she had ever carried but far lighter than carrying Lucy. By the time she had shifted the weight around and tightened the straps, it didn’t feel quite so heavy.

  Sam crouched in front of Lucy, “Climb on.”

  Lucy seemed embarrassed that he was going to piggyback her, “I can walk. At least for a while.”

  “Come on. You don’t weigh as much as some of the packs I’ve carried. Besides that, we need to cover some ground, and we can do it faster with you on my back.”

  Lucy finally conceded and leaned into his back. Sam grabbed both of her legs, adjusting his grip to accommodate her prosthetic and stood up. After a couple of moves to adjust her weight he asked, “You okay?”

  Lucy frowned at Gina then grinned, “Giddy-up.”

  They walked for a couple of hours, taking short breaks every hour or so. The farther they got from the men, the longer the breaks were. They hadn’t talked at all, and Lucy appeared to doze between stops.

  Just when Gina didn’t think she could walk another step, Sam called a halt. The snow had stopped after an initial dusting, and the temperature had fallen. Clouds of steam seem to freeze as soon as their warm breath left their mouths.

  Gina hoped they were following the same trail back that they had taken to get Lucy, but to her, and in the dark it was hard to tell.

  “Lucas, Can you keep an eye on things while I go do something?”

  Lucas nodded and set his pack down. “Build a fire?”

  “No. You guys can figure how to share the two bags, and there are a couple of those survival blankets in the side pocket of my pack. Spread one out and cover yourselves with the other. I should be back in a couple of hours.”

  Lucas nodded, while Gina undid and then dropped her pack. She was too tired to ask where he was going or why. She was freezing and knew Lucy and Lucas had to be as well.

  She never saw Sam leave. By the time they had the thin foil blanket on the ground, and both of the sleeping bags laid out, she and Lucy were shaking from the cold.

  “Do we need to keep a watch?” Gina asked Lucas.

  “I don’t think so, or Uncle Sam would have said.”

  With Lucy in the middle, they bundled up together for warmth. Gina and Lucas pulled the zippers to the tops and snuggled down.

  Gina didn’t think she could sleep, she was shaking so hard, but woke when Sam pushed Lucas closer to the middle and laid down beside him.

  “Do you want me to stand watch?”

  “No, go back to sleep. We’ll leave as soon as it gets light.”

  Gina had thought she would lay awake, but surprised herself when she woke to the smell of smoke. She heard the popping and crackling of a pine fire. Feeling someone beside her, Gina turned and looked at Lucy’s still sleeping face. Gina could see the dark circles around Lucy’s eyes and hoped she would feel better when she woke up. Lifting her head, she saw Lucas and Sam crouched on their heels beside a small fire. Their heads were bent close together as if they were talking, but doing it quietly. Gina slid the zipper down and slipped out of the bags. She reached between the layers, grabbed her boots and pulled them on.

  “Good morning,” she whispered loud enough for the two guys to hear her. She didn’t want to startle either one of them. “I’ll be right back,” Gina said and found a tree far enough away that she had some privacy.

  Sam had a pot of water boiling, by the time she returned. He held up a couple of small foil packets and grinned at her.

  “Please tell me that’s coffee.”

  He nodded and put the contents of each packet into two tin cups, one of them looked very much like hers. Sam poured the boiling water in and without stirring, he handed it to her.

  “For some reason, we don’t have anything to stir it with.”

  Gina reached behind herself and came up with a bare branch. She broke off the thick end of it and stuck it in her cup, stirred the contents and handed the twig to Sam. “Sure we do. You just have to be creative.”

  He inspected the twig before he stuck it in his cup, “Yeah, and sanitary too. If this is what you do when you girls camp, it’s a wonder none of you have gotten sick.”


  Gina smiled, “You know, I guess it really is a wonder. We have always gotten our water from the creeks as long as they were fast moving and we’ve eaten so many fresh things we’ve found growing wild. But, maybe that’s why we haven’t gotten sick. Our bodies are immune to germs or something.”

  “That may be, but now we have to start filtering and sanitizing everything.”

  “Uncle Sam?” Lucas had gotten to his feet. “Do you hear that?” He was looking around as if trying to hear something.

  “I can’t hear anything,” Gina said.

  Sam held his hand up for silence, “You’re right Lucas. I don’t hear anything.”

  “That’s good. Right?” Gina didn’t like the way both Sam and Lucas were looking around.

  “The birds have gone silent. Either someone or something startled them, or it’s a fluke. Let’s wake Lucy up and get out of here. We’re only about 2 hours away from the cabin.”

  Sam buried what was left of their fire, while Lucas began packing up the things they had used to make coffee.

  As soon as Gina had Lucy sitting up, she handed the last few swallows in her cup to her. “Drink up girl, we’re going to get out of here. Sam’s upset because the birds all went quiet.” She saw the frown Lucy gave her, “Don’t ask me, but it seems to have him worried.”

  “Okay, can you help me with this?” Lucy had somehow taken off her prosthetic during the night, but it only took a few minutes for Gina to help her put it on.

  “Uncle Sam said we need to hurry and make tracks.” He handed them each a breakfast bar, “He said for Lucy to do whatever she has to do, while we roll these up.”

  “Yeah, she definitely has to do that,” Lucy agreed. She looked around, for a place to go, but with the morning light and the loss of leaves on the surrounding bushes and trees, there weren’t many options.

  Gina could see how nervous the thought of going anywhere by herself made her feel. “I’ll go and block for you if you want.”

  Lucy smiled gratefully, “Thanks,” and went behind the closest big tree. Gina stood with her back to Lucy and watched Lucas and Sam roll up the sleeping bags and fold the survival tarps.