Beyond the New Horizon

by Christine Conaway

  “Lucas, we need to get them to the other cabin. Can you drive the Jeep?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Been driving it going on two years now.”

  “Can you get it past the trailer?”

  Lucas looked at the bank along one side of the road and the hillside on the other. “No ma’am, but I can take the tractor on up to the cabin and come back for the Jeep. What’re you thinking?”

  Journey wasn’t sure. She wondered what the trailer was full of. She thought it was hay, but didn’t really know. They could throw some of the hay out and put the three adults in the trailer to get them up there.

  Journey rose and looked through the side slats. There was no hay, but she could see the front half was full of totes and bags. She pulled the pins out and unlatched the door. Piled in the rear were clothing and what looked like blankets and the three backpacks.

  “Help me, Lucy. Let's spread this stuff out and get them in here out of the weather. We’ll take them to the other cabin until we know what’s wrong. Gina managed to tell me they may have eaten bad food.”

  Journey looked up when Lucy sniffed, she saw the relief flood her face. “We don’t know this for sure, so we’re going to treat them as if they were exposed to something until we do know.”

  Lucy nodded and climbed into the trailer. Inside, she arranged a layer of clothing and blankets. She opened and spread Gina’s sleeping bag out on top. It took the three of them to lift the adults in, but soon they were lying side by side and covered with Sam’s sleeping bag.

  Both Sam and Gina moaned and struggled while they were being moved. Ben never made a sound. Journey thought he may have either been exposed first or eaten more of the poisoned food than the other two.

  “Okay, let’s get them out of here.” She blew on her folded hands trying to warm them. She knew she would be very lucky if none of them came down with pneumonia on top of whatever else they had.

  She relatched the door and watched the trailer chug off up the hill. Lucy had elected to ride in the back against Journey’s better judgment. She began to walk behind it when she remembered the Jeep. She ran back to it and climbed in.

  Journey looked at the shifter on the floor and grimaced. Gina had wanted to teach her to drive a manual shift for years, but Journey had always balked. Now she was going to have to teach herself or walk.

  Once she figured out how to start it and which shifter she needed to use and found a gear that worked, she lurched and bucked her way up the hill. For her, it was a bone jarring ride until she figured out she was in too high a gear.

  Journey grinned to herself in spite of the circumstances they found themselves in, Gina had actually forced her to learn to drive a standard shift. Journey hoped when Gina was better, she could appreciate the humor of the tale of her first experience at shifting. Of course, she only used two gears and one of them was the wrong one, but Journey was sure Gina would see the humor in it. Journey wiped her tears away.

  So much had happened to them in a few short weeks, and Journey felt like her emotions were in overdrive. One second she felt like they were all doomed to die and the next she felt like laughing. She needed to keep it together for just a while longer.

  If it was food poisoning, and not something communicable, she could handle it. Without medical facilities, she had no way to test for anything. With a prayer, Journey followed the trailer until it stopped.

  Lucas came running back, “Why don’t we unload the trailer and use it for them? The other cabin has no roof to speak of, and we would be closer.”

  “Not the best option for quarantine, but you’re right. We need to get these guys warm and some fluids into them.”

  “Got it,” Lucas told her and ran back to the tractor.

  Journey watched as he jockeyed the rear of the trailer around until the door could be opened right in front of the fire pit. She had to admit that Lucas seemed much more adult in his thinking than most 14-year-old boys.

  Once he was situated, Journey lurched the Jeep into the place the trailer had been originally parked.

  “I’ll be right back,” Lucas hollered at her. He was pointing into the trees and Journey had no idea what he meant by it. She waved as if she understood and opened the trailer door.

  Lucy was sitting beside Gina, who had her eyes open watching Journey.

  “Hey, girlfriend. Are you feeling any better?”

  Gina nodded, “Thirsty…water?” She croaked out.

  Journey got water from the pot sitting on the grill. It was still warm from being boiled. It would not only help to hydrate her, but would help warm her from the inside.

  Once she had drunk some, Gina struggled to sit up. “Ben? How is he?”

  Lucy was helping Sam to sit and gave him water, a few sips at a time. When he reached to take the cup from her, Journey cautioned, “Only a few sips at a time. We don’t want you vomiting it back up.”

  “Gina, are you sure this is a case of food poisoning? You didn’t come in contact with anyone from the outside?”

  Gina frowned, trying to think, “We did meet people, but I’m pretty sure we ate some bad food. Ben made soup from the jars I had left in the cellar. He apparently used the jars that I thought didn’t look good. The tomatoes had rust around the seal and some black stuff.”

  “Why would you let him cook it, then?” Journey was standing, hands on her hips, shaking her head. “You could have all died,” she looked at Ben who hadn’t moved, “Maybe…”

  “Don’t you even think that Journey! Ben is not going to die,” Lucy almost shouted.

  Getting some water into Sam and Gina seemed to help them. Neither had vomited it back up.

  Gina shivered and pulled the sleeping bag over herself. “It’s so cold.”

  “Yes it is, and you laying around in the snow didn’t help much either. Are your clothes wet?”

  Gina shook her head no. “I’m fine.”

  Sam, who had struggled to sit beside Gina answered, “If mine are wet, then hers are too, and mine are definitely wet.” He shivered violently.

  Journey nodded, “Take them off and get under the sleeping bag. Your combined body heat will warm you quicker than anything.”

  Journey watched Sam fumble with his zipper. When it became apparent he wasn’t going to do it on his own, Journey undressed both Gina and Sam and covered them up.

  Lucy, sat dripping water on to Ben’s dry lips. He moaned but didn’t wake. His lips did part, and she was able to get some of the liquid into his mouth. He swallowed. The whole time, Lucy was whispering to him, encouraging him to swallow.

  She and Journey finally had him undressed and under the blanket with Sam and Gina.

  “Build the fire up. We need to get some of that warm air in here.”

  Journey looked at Lucy and raised her eyebrows, “Yes ma’am.” Lucy never gave orders, and Journey almost gave her a salute.

  Journey heard strange noises from behind her and looked up from stacking on the wood. Lucas was coming through the trees with his arms full of blue tarp, more of which was trailing behind him than he carried.

  “What the heck…”

  “We’ll drape it over the trailer and stake it out front, so it traps the heat,” he told her as he climbed up on the side of the trailer pushing the tarp over the top.

  By the time the tarp was stretched over the trailer, the snowfall had all but stopped, and the temperature had dropped. Journey piled on more wood.

  The trailer was completely covered by the tarp and was filled with a blue glow from the firelight. Gina and Sam were both asleep, and Lucy sat beside Ben giving him water a few drops at a time.

  Lucy coughed, “It’s filling up with smoke in there. We need to vent it or something.”

  Journey looked inside and knew she was right. The tarp was funneling in the heat as Lucas had thought, but was also trapping the smoke. With a few adjustments of the tarp, the wind coming from the front of the trailer now acted like a fan, blowing the smoke out. They were losing some of the heat, but
it couldn’t be helped, it was necessary to vent the trailer.

  Gina and Sam had both quit shivering and were warm to touch, sleeping peacefully, cuddled around each other as if they’d known one another forever. Journey wished she could take a picture for blackmail purposes, but knew when Gina woke up, she was going to be embarrassed, and an embarrassed Gina was a pissed Gina.

  Early the next morning, before the sky had lightened at all, Journey sat on a log someone had placed beside the fire pit, with Lucas on the other end. Between the three of them they had kept watch, mostly it was Lucas and Journey on watch, while Lucy tended to Ben. He had not wakened, and Journey was beginning to worry about him. She wondered where they were going to find erythromycin or another comparable antibiotic to combat his food poisoning. She thought it was salmonella, but without lab work, it would be impossible to say.

  Once everyone was up, she would ask John about a pharmacy or clinic. If Ben didn’t show improvement by the next day, they would have to figure out how to get some antibiotics for him.

  Between yawns, Lucas stared into the fire, deep in thought. Firelight flickered on his puckered brow and Journey wondered what he was thinking about. She almost laughed, because what wouldn’t be bothering him? His whole world had been turned upside down and if John was right and Journey was pretty sure he was, nothing was going to be right for a very long time. Life for all of them had been thrown back into the stone age.

  “Are they going to be okay? Uncle Sam and them?”

  “Yeah. I think they will. By this afternoon Sam and Gina will be up like this never happened. Ben, it might take a little longer, but I think they’ll all be okay.”

  “But it did happen. What happens the next time?”

  Lucy came up behind them to get more water from the pot. She was doing what she could to get fluid into Ben, even if it was only one drop at a time. She filled the cup and paused as if she was trying to decide what to do next.

  Then, as if she wanted to hear Journey’s explanation, she sank onto the log beside her.“I’ve been wondering the same thing. How do we know anything we eat or drink won’t kill us or make us sick?”

  Journey wasn’t sure how to answer him or Lucy. She studied the fire. She didn't think she should be the one to have this conversation with them, but could see they wanted answers from her, and she chose her words carefully.

  “We have to watch our food closer. If it is food poisoning we’ll know by tomorrow. Until we get to talk to Gina and Sam, we don’t know what happened to them, but we do know they ate some bad food. This is only a small setback, and we’ll learn from it.”

  “What about those people? Like the ones who came to our house and the ones who took Lucy? Are we going to kill them all? My Dad says they don’t deserve to live.”

  “I am. They’re no better than cowards,” Lucy replied. She glared into the fire. Her jaw was set, and Journey knew the look. Lucy seldom took a stand on anything, content to go with the flow, but when she found a cause, she was like a dog with a bone. She would sink her teeth in and shake it until the end.

  “So am I!”

  “You guys, we can’t go around killing people just because we don’t want them here. For all of the bad people out there, there are still going to be some like us. Good people just trying to survive.”

  “How do we tell the difference?” Lucas asked, looking directly at her, expecting an answer.

  Journey had no idea. Of all of the members of their group, she had the least experience with killing anything. Lucas and his family hunted for food as well as killed their own cattle, to fill their freezer. Lucy and Sam and Ben had all seen combat and Ben had said that even Abby had hunted and fished with him. Gina, as far as Journey knew, had never hunted, but had taught Journey how to fish. It was all Journey could do to knock one over the head after she caught it. Once Gina explained they didn’t suffer as much as letting them suffocate, she had done it, but she hadn’t liked it one bit.

  “I don’t know. We’ll have to ask your Dad when he wakes up.” Journey stared into the fire, wishing she did know how to tell them apart. It wasn’t like being at war where the opposing sides wore different uniforms. These were all Americans.

  Journey looked up in relief when she noticed John leaning on Mary’s shoulder. She wondered how much they had heard of her explanation to Lucas.

  “How are you feeling John?”

  “Better. I needed some fresh air. The girls and Nathan are asleep, so this seemed like a good time. Do you think it’s safe to come closer?”

  “Hmmm…Gina said they have food poisoning and I am going to agree with her. Both she and Sam are feeling a little better and are sleeping. So, I guess it’s okay.”

  “But, can you be sure?” Mary asked as she helped John to sit in the only folding chair.

  “Nope. The only way to be sure is to wait until we can talk to them and I’m not waking them to see if they met people or what.”

  John sighed, “Guess we’ll keep our distance until then. I sure do want to know what they found at the ranch, though.”

  “Later, John. Let them sleep. Whether you know right now, later today or tomorrow isn’t going to make one lick of difference. Now, does anyone want something to eat?”

  “I do,” a voice called weakly from the trailer.

  They turned to see Sam up on one elbow, pulling the sleeping bag higher on his chest as if realizing he had only a tee shirt on. His eyes grew round looking down at the person snuggled to the front of him. Her back was to him, but he could see Lucy and Journey, so there was no question who was sleeping beside him. On the outside of Gina, Ben lay covered to his chin until Sam pulled on the sleeping bag. Ben groaned and made a half-hearted reach for it. His hand flopped back down as if he had given up.

  Sam sat and realized he was pulling the blanket with him and covered Ben back up. “Are you going to sit there and stare or is someone going to give me my clothes?”

  Journey rose and pulled down some of the clothing that they had hung on the open trailer door to dry and carefully tossed them to Sam.

  “These would be yours. Your jacket is still too wet, we had to wash it.”

  “Mary, isn’t my other coat in the cabin?”

  Mary looked at Journey to confirm she didn’t have it on, “I’ll get it. Not that it will fit.”

  “It’ll be better than nothing.”

  “Well, I guess you are right there. Sam can drape it over his shoulders if nothing else,” Mary mumbled as she walked back to the cabin.

  Light headed, Sam had to grab for one of the totes stacked behind him to steady himself. He rubbed his stomach with the palm of his hand as if it hurt. “Dang…I feel like someone kicked me while I was out.”

  He realized he was standing in front of his family and women he barely knew, in a tee shirt and blue plaid boxers. He relaxed his arms and held his clothes in front of himself, and shivered. “Can a guy get a little privacy here?”

  John laughed, “Why? Who do you think undressed you and put you to bed? Get some clothes on before you really do catch something.”

  The simple act of putting on his shirt and Levi's had drained the color from his face and Sam collapsed onto the back deck of the trailer. “Wow, I feel like crap.” He rested his face in his hands and scrubbed his face.

  “And you’ll probably need a couple of days before you feel completely well. Food poisoning is nothing to play around with, even mild cases like you and Gina have.”

  Sam looked behind himself and saw Gina watching him, and at Ben who still hadn’t woke up. “Why is Ben so sick?”

  “Because he ate so much. He was eating the whole time he was cooking. I didn’t eat that much because I didn’t care for the tomatoes. I like tomatoes, but not when they come in cans.”

  “If I hadn’t been so hungry, I wouldn’t have eaten it either. It didn’t taste bad…just kind of funny.”

  “Well, you’re both lucky you have weak stomachs. If you hadn’t thrown up as much as you did, you’d
probably be a lot sicker right now.”

  “Is that what’s wrong with Ben? I don’t remember him vomiting but just the one time. He just collapsed.”

  Journey nodded, “I think so. Food poisoning can affect people in different ways. Two people can eat the same thing, and only one gets sick. We have to start using our senses when it comes to our food.” Journey tapped her nose to emphasize, “If it smells bad or funny, throw it out. If it doesn’t smell like you think it should, throw it out. Commercially canned food is a bit easier if the can is damaged and bulging it’s spoiled. Use your eyes on home canned foods. If the color isn’t right or there are signs of corrosion around the lid or rust or black, throw the contents out.”

  “I had some jars that were canned years ago set aside for disposal,” Mary told them in her quiet voice. “Now, I wish I had gotten rid of them at the time. No one goes down there but me, so I didn’t think.” Mary had brought out a cast iron skillet and set it on the grate to heat.

  “Don’t be blaming yourself. No one could have predicted any of this. I just wish we had fed it to those people who burned the house,” John said shaking his head.

  Mary shook her head, “But we didn’t. The girls are making pancake batter, but I’m afraid that’s the last of it.”

  “Well, as soon as we can figure out some better sleeping arrangements, and I can get in the trailer, we brought back some surprises for you.”

  Mary turned back from her walk to the cabin, a look of hope on her face, “The root cellar?”

  Sam nodded, “Yup. We lost some of it due to vandalism, but Gina saved quite a bit.”

  As if he just that moment realized, Sam blurted out, “John, what about Carlos?”

  The color drained from John’s face, “Shit! In all of this, I forgot about him.”