He braked hard and they didn’t stop, sliding toward the drop. Ben tried to steer out of the skid and the next thing he knew they were headed down, right for the trees.
20
Tammy
Tammy was either so cold she couldn’t get warm or so hot that she was sweating profusely. She barely woke up with the sun and when she stirred, her body ached all over. Her leg was the worst. It felt like it was inflated and it was angry at the world.
The girls were already up, they had been in and out of the Suburban a few times. She wondered if that was why she had been feeling both so hot and so cold.
“Mom.” Amanda touched her face. “You are burning up. Are you sick?” She hovered over Tammy.
“Oh, maybe I am. I thought it was just really cold all night and I have been so exhausted.” She pulled her blanket tighter around her. “Can you close the door?”
“What are we going to do if you’re sick?” Amanda looked out the window and wrung her hands before she felt Tammy’s face again.
All Tammy wanted was to go back to sleep. “I need to stretch my legs out. Do I have room to do that now? My leg is swelling from sitting too long and it really hurts from being cramped up from trying to deal with all the pedals and the steering wheel while I’ve been sleeping.”
Amanda scooted out the door and helped guide Tammy’s legs onto the front bench seat.
“Oww. That leg really hurts.” She closed her eyes trying to mentally block out the pain.
“It’s really hot, Mom.” She felt it gently before feeling the calf and ankle of her other leg. “And it is really swollen.” Amanda pulled up the leg of her sweats.
“Ow. Please don’t touch it.”
“Mom, I don’t know what’s wrong with it but it’s really swollen and red with streaks all around the bruise.”
Tammy couldn’t think, she shivered again. That meant something that wasn’t good. “I think I need an antibiotic. Can you find the tub with the meds in it? There should be a book in there called Alton’s antibiotics or something like that where you can look up my symptoms and see what I need to take. I need you to make me some vitamin C too.” She tried to curl up in a ball. “Please close the door while you look.” She kept her eyes closed. They were burning so badly whenever she opened them.
Tammy had no idea what the girls were going on about outside. She thought maybe the younger ones were crying or maybe it was Tyson. She couldn’t move without feeling more uncomfortable, her body hurt all over, and she was too cold.
When there was some rummaging around in the backseat she stirred and she woke again when the girls tended to the chickens. Charlie touched her shoulder but she didn’t want to open her eyes.
“We’ve fixed up the backseat for you, so you can keep sleeping there and we’ll try to get things moving today.”
Tammy didn’t want to relocate but the girls were persistent. They helped her into the backseat and let her have all the blankets she wanted. She took the medicine Amanda gave her and was desperate for more sleep. If she could just sleep for days, she’d feel so much better. She could sort of tell when they were moving but her body was throbbing with the beat of her heart so she was mostly disoriented.
The girls argued, the dogs barked a few times. But she was too miserable to respond to any of it.
Amanda woke her up at some point to give her more to drink and she swallowed more pills but had no idea what she was taking. Her eyes burned so badly that she didn’t want to open them at all. She wished Amanda had let her sleep because she was shivering all over again.
The next time Amanda woke her, she was sweating profusely and felt like she was in a sauna. “How hot is it in here? I feel like I’m in an oven or something.”
“It’s not hot. It’s actually just right. We’ve had the windows down some. There’s a cool breeze so we didn’t want to chill you by rolling them down too far.”
“I’m not cold at all.” Tammy still didn’t want to open her eyes. “My muscles hurt all over from when I was shivering though.”
“I’m giving you some ibuprofen.” Amanda felt her forehead. “Oh man, Mom. I don’t know if we want to know how hot you are. You could probably toast bread from all the heat you are giving off.”
“That’s not good.” Tammy was overcome with exhaustion again. “I just want to keep sleeping but I need to be up so we can get to the cabin.”
“We got this. You should go back to sleep so you can get better.”
The only thing Tammy was coherent enough to recognize was the lack of confidence in Amanda’s voice.
21
Ben
Ben struggled to move his head. It hurt. He heard Nate.
“Ben? Hey, now’s a good time to wake up.” Nate pressed something against his face.
He tried to wave him off but his arm felt heavy. The pain was pretty sharp on the side of his forehead. He wanted to rub it but Nate grabbed his hand.
“Don’t do that. It just stopped gushing blood and it was really bad.”
“Bleeding?” Ben started to sit up but it was a bad idea. “We hit the trees, didn’t we?” He was afraid to open his eyes when he could smell the blood.
“Yeah, but it stopped us from losing the trailer. I think we’re wedged in though. You got a decent little flesh wound. I hate how much head wounds bleed. I wasn’t sure you were going to wake up there for a bit. You’ve been struggling to come out of it for a long time.”
Ben opened his eyes slowly, trying to assess the damage, how badly his head hurt and wondered if he’d actually been dreaming while he was out. He could remember seeing Tammy and the girls as they struggled to get the Suburban to the cabin. It seemed so real. So did a conversation he had with his grandfather that had passed away years ago, long before he had married his wife. That may have been why he was so reluctant to wake up. He’d really missed his grandfather. He was telling Ben how proud he was of him. Ben didn’t want to leave but it was his grandfather who told him to wake up so he could get back on the road. His family really needed him. He went back to dreaming of Tammy. She was quite sick and the girls were doing their best to get them to safety.
“I don’t know if my anxiety for my family is getting the best of me but I feel like something is very wrong at home.” Ben noticed the blood on the steering wheel.
“Of course there’s something wrong at home and there’s something very wrong here if you aren’t taken care of right now. You’re a bloody mess and I don’t know if you’re done bleeding. Look at yourself.” Nate showed him the small towel he’d been using to stop the blood. It was saturated.
Ben slowly lifted his head and there was not only blood all over the steering wheel, but it was on the dash, all over his hands, and his jeans were darker where the blood had soaked in. His eyelid felt funny where the blood was drying and collecting on his lashes. The smell of it, the distinct smell of iron, made his stomach turn. His hands started trembling.
“I think you’re going into shock now. Crap. I thought you’d be fine since you were out so long.”
“Talk to me.” Ben leaned his head back against the seat. “Was that moose huge or are we just that low to the ground?”
“That was a massive moose and the rack on it was gigantic too. Good thing you didn’t hit it, though. You would have knocked it off its feet and it would have destroyed the front end, probably would have landed on us.”
“I’ve seen moose in Yellowstone before but this one was a giant.” Ben tried to clean more blood off his face but he was probably spreading it all over. “I’m afraid to hit our water supply so early.”
“There has to be water near here. The map we looked at shows ponds and winding rivers all over this area.”
“I guess it was a good thing we stayed on the high ground, then.” Ben struggled to sit up. His head was throbbing all over and not just where it was bleeding. He wanted to get out of the UTV but they were on such an incline and he felt too weak to walk.
“Let me help you out. I don
’t want you driving yet.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
It was a struggle to climb out of the UTV. Nate laid out a tarp and eased Ben down on it.
Nate searched one of the maps. “I called Robert while you were out. He didn’t find out anything new and said we sure alerted them when we skirted around the Port of Entry building. He was relieved when I called to let him know we made it across. I did mention it was treacherous out here and I’d let him know if something bad happens. He said he’d still wait around for a few hours just in case. I didn’t tell him you were injured, though, or that we had an incident. Hopefully we can get this thing unstuck. I sure don’t want to wait too long to call him if we wind up stranded out here. I sure don’t want to walk back the way we came.” He had the collapsible bucket, a shotgun, and bear spray on him. “You rest. I won’t be gone long. I can’t really tell where we are exactly but if my guess is correct, there has to be water this way.”
He couldn’t hear anything except the breeze whistling through the pine tree needles once Nate had walked away. He had a clean sock and bottled water to clean up in the meantime. His head wound kept oozing blood.
“But we didn’t make it across that clearing that’s the actual border yet. We don’t even know how far we are from it now,” Ben said to no one in particular as he closed his eyes wishing he knew how to make his head stop hurting. He laid back down and attempted to ignore the pain. He struggled to stay awake. However, the dream he had while he’d been out kept luring him to sleep. He missed his family so much. He kept passing out and would easily slip into dreaming about his girls and the Payette River. He’d spent so many summers white water rafting and missed out for the first time that year so maybe that was why he was dreaming about the river while he was homesick for his family.
Ben had no idea how long he had been asleep when Nate woke him up.
“The river I found was beautiful. The water was so clear. I got everything cleaned up in the Ranger. I’m sure there’s more but it doesn’t look like a murder scene now.” Nate sat down beside Ben and offered him a protein bar.
The one he handed Ben was his least favorite but he took it anyway. He was feeling queasy the more Nate talked about blood and he could smell the blood saturated sock that was sitting next to his foot.
He struggled to sit upright. The fatigue from the crappy sleep he’d had for several nights and the headache were taking their toll.
“I’m going to get my medkit. I can get a good look at that gash now that it’s not oozing so much.” Nate was on his feet and heading for his suitcase.
“I’m going to stay put.”
“I don’t expect you to come with me. My first aid kit has something really innovative in it. I’ve used it before but I’m eager to see if it’s going to work well on your head. It’s like a string of butterfly bandages but it’s much better. It closes like stitches actually. If I can get it to work, it will keep that wound closed.”
Nate pulled out some large band-aid looking things and gently placed them on Ben’s forehead. It hurt as he messed with it. “These have strings that I’ll pull to close it up and then as long as the sticky part stays put, it will keep the edges together. I was told it’s better than stitches, and the wound usually heals with minimal scarring. My daughter-in-law was able to get these for me and I used them on my leg this summer. My leg looks pretty good.”
It didn’t take long for him to get it to work. It hurt but it was tolerable while Nate was messing with it.
“How big is it?” Ben asked.
“Well, it’s big for a head wound. I’d say about one and a half inches.” Nate checked it one more time. “What a weird place to have to stick these. It’s stickier than a Band-Aid so I’m sure they’ll stay put.”
“I don’t mind. I would rather not have a needle poking through my skin with no numbing stuff.”
Nate unloaded the trailer and pushed it up the embankment on his own. It was a more complicated endeavor for him to back the Ranger up the slope to flat stable ground. Ben did his best to guide him but shouting caused his throbbing head to scream in agony.
Nate never complained about having to take care of everything on his own. Ben also needed help getting into the Ranger once Nate loaded everything back into the trailer and secured it.
Ben closed his eyes and held onto the handle on the rollbar above the window and kept his head secure against the back of his seat while Nate muttered to himself as he somehow got the thing turned around and back on track. He handed Ben the maps before they were off again.
The bumpy trail didn’t bother Ben when he had been driving and Nate never complained as a passenger. They were also being pursued by drones and a border patrol truck at the time. So they had been preoccupied. Now that they were in a secluded area as they were working their way back to the main road, it was hard for Ben to handle the jostling. His head would bump against the seat occasionally sending a shock wave of pain through his body.
When he couldn’t tolerate it anymore, he opened up one of the sections of the map. “Are we anywhere close to that road? Do you know where we are?” Ben hadn’t been paying attention to where they were going.
“We made it past the clearing that is the border. That was a while ago. I’ve been working my way slowly to what I think is the East. I’m trying not to mess up by heading north to quickly to find the road and wind up meeting the border patrol again, but I don’t know. I haven’t seen any indications of a road when there are decent gaps in the trees over that way.” Nate looked at Ben. “You’re super pale. Are you okay?”
“Not so much. It hurts but I don’t want to stop if you think we’re close. If we get on an actual road, I’ll be okay. If we’re not close, I need to stop for a few minutes.”
Nate stopped the UTV and pulled out the papers with the satellite views. After he examined them for a few minutes he sighed. “I have no idea. Since we crossed the border, we haven’t seen any landmarks here. If we found more standing water, then we’d be far to the south. The road goes to the east for a bit and then drops south. I hope we’d find it soon but if we are actually heading more south than east, then we’re going to miss it.”
“Have you been watching the compass on the dash?”
“When I can, when I’m not navigating around trees and finding the best way to get over and around some of the hidden logs in our path. This terrain is something else. I didn’t want to bother you because I know you’re uncomfortable but having another set of eyes to watch the map and the compass would be helpful.”
“I’m sorry.” Ben rubbed the back of his head and tried to think through the pain that was consuming his head. “Let’s rest for a bit. I’ll take some more pain relievers and then maybe I can be useful getting us back on track.” As he was getting out of the Ranger he had to hold onto the side and wait a second for the dizziness to go away. “This is not a good way to start our trip.”
“I’m ready to take off this camo net. I want a clear view of where we are headed since we’re in the clear now.” Nate flipped the netting on his side onto the roof and had the thing off in a matter of seconds.
Before Ben could even do anything to help, Nate had made a place for them to sit on the ground with a tarp and a blanket. Guilt washed over Ben. He’d been so worried his friend was going to drag them down and there he was, stepping up big time. Ben was the one that had become useless.
He took a couple of pills and laid down to rest. Rubbing his eyebrows to hopefully ease the pain, he was also working on calming his racing thoughts and easing his anxiety that there could be something seriously wrong with his head. He needed to stay calm, he needed to heal fast, he needed more than anything to get home.
22
Amanda
Amanda wasn’t sure how to help her mom. She gently uncovered her leg to see if there had been any change since she last checked it. There was red swelling all around the black and blue bruise on her calf. It didn’t look any better but it also hadn’t gotten
any worse. So maybe the antibiotics were working. Her mom almost looked as if death was trying to take her, though. Her face was pale and she was wet with sweat with her hair stuck to her face and she could barely lift her head.
All Amanda could do was try her best to encourage her sisters to continue on, getting them closer to home. Pushing the Suburban and the trailer with only Charlie and Holly helping while Zoe steered and managed the brake was not all that productive. They were only inching along with a tremendous amount of effort. Her sisters were complaining and she was too about how sore they were from pushing the day before and it only got worse the longer they kept at it. It didn’t help that they had to stop and move a few cars that didn’t want to be moved out of the way.
Amanda rubbed her back after she aggravated it moving a minivan with a jack.
“How long do you think mom is going to be out of it?” Charlie asked as she slowed down while they walked back to the Suburban so Amanda would have to slow down too.
“I don’t know. I think she’s sick with something serious. It’s not the flu. I’m thinking it’s an infection. Her leg didn’t look any worse so I think we caught it in time and I believe we’re treating it the right way. For days she’s been telling me that she hasn’t had enough sleep so maybe that’s why she’s so sick from it.” Amanda stopped to stretch her sides. “I think I hurt myself.”
Charlie turned so she was in front of Amanda and she leaned closer. “What if she’s so sick she doesn’t recover and she dies? What are we going to do?”
Amanda narrowed her eyes at her sister. “Don’t even talk like that. Mom will recover. In the meantime, we do everything we can so she will get better. At the rate we’re going, I’m sure we’re going to spend a second night out here.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t look like we’ve been going uphill this whole time but it feels like it. This is ridiculous.”
Endure Series (Book 2): Enduring The Journey: Page 14