Beyond the New Horizon: The Last Sun,

by Christine Conaway

  Beyond the New Horizon;

  The Last Sun

  Book five

  By

  Christine Conaway

  Chapter One

  Sam led the procession away from camp, following the forestry road. By the second day of backtracking and clearing the way for the buckboard and buggy, they figured they were on the final approach to the roadway that followed the Saint Joes River. From their position above it, Sam looked at what was left of the road. He couldn’t be sure it was the one they were searching for because the Saint Joe was nowhere to be found. There wasn’t so much as a dried-up riverbed to indicate the river had ever been there. The roadway was broken and overgrown in places.

  At one time, the route had been a popular tourist attraction. The river, scenic mountains, fly fishing and camping, had brought to the small towns scattered along the route, their winter money in the form of tourist dollars. With winter on the edge of breaking when the lights went out, the only people who traveled the Saint Joe that time of year were the snow-snowpackmobilers and cross-country skiers. While they brought their share of dollars, it wasn’t as plentiful as during the summer months.

  In confusion, they looked down from their hilltop position. Even without the river to guide them, Sam felt sure they had to be above where the river used to run, but wasn’t sure if they were east or west of Avery. The necessity of clearing a path for the buckboard and buggy had forced them to use the gravel forestry roads when they were available. With the downed trees and rocks across the trail they had changed direction enough times that they were unsure exactly where they were in relation to the town.

  “What do you think? Is that where we need to be?”

  Sam looked from the road to Ben, “If the river is down there, I would say yes, but as we can see the river is gone. I’m sure we’re in the right area, but damn…now I don’t know what to think.”

  “There isn’t another paved road out here. My Dad brought us fishing, and I can tell you that we explored all these roads when the fish weren’t biting. I can tell you right now, that nothing is in the right place.” Joe looked at Jesse and Kenny to back him up. They both stared around and nodded.

  “Well, we’re wasting daylight, so let’s get down there and see what we’ve got,” Sam said and nudged Sham forward.

  As they worked their way down the incline, they kept an eye out for a clearer passage for the bigger buckboard. It was apparent they couldn’t bring it down the same way. They should have spent the time searching for another road down, but Sam was eager to get to the bottom to see if he could find tracks made by the tractors.

  As his horse slid down the last few feet, Sam saw the evidence that someone had been using the road frequently, but all the imprints were made by narrow wheel-based tires. They couldn’t have been left by the tractors, and he saw no marks from Charlie's wagon. Sam was pretty sure John’s path had not led them the same way.

  He raised his arm for the riders behind him to stop. Ben and Andy rode up to join him.

  “What do you think Sam? I’m pretty sure whoever is using this for a thruway is riding quads and motorcycles.”

  “I haven’t seen any horse tracks either,” Andy noted.

  Sam looked at the two men behind them and noticed they were one short, “Where’s Jesse?”

  “He went the other way for a short distance. I don’t think we’re far from Avery and he was going to make sure and get our bearings.”

  “Well Damn! I guess we’ll have to sit and wait until he gets back.” Sam was frustrated, he had to keep reminding himself that the young men were no longer children and he wasn’t their leader. No one had elected him trail boss nor voted him to lead their party, but dammit, they were going to bring trouble down on all their heads if they weren’t careful. He decided they needed to be reminded of the most important rule. Sam took the time to control his temper, his gaze following the direction that he expected Jesse to come from. In much the same tone, he would have used on Lucas he began, “As much as I hate to be the one who keeps having to say this repeatedly, I’m going to. We need to stay together. If one of us feels the need to venture off alone and I don’t care if it’s only to take a crap…someone needs to go with them. If we have our own agenda, one of or all of us is going to end up dead.”

  Joe flushed and then the color slowly drained from his face. “You’re right, and we should know that by now. I guess we weren’t thinking. He asked, and I told him it was okay to go.”

  “Andy, how about you and Joe riding back and seeing where he is? I know I don’t need to caution you about silence.”

  “I can go,” Kenny said and made to rein his horse around.

  “Let Andy, I want you and Ben to…”

  Sam whipped his head back the direction they’d come from, “Oh shit! Everyone into the trees.”

  “What about Jesse?” Kenny asked as he swung his bay into the protection of the brush.

  “He'll be all right,” Joe said and followed Kenny.

  Sam, Andy, and Ben headed for some shelter of their own. They heard Jesse’s return before they saw him. He rode hard down the pathway made by the motorized vehicles, leaning far over the horse’s neck obviously unsure how far he had to go to where he’d left them.

  Joe gave a sharp piercing whistle, and Jesse veered off into the trees on their side of the road. As soon as he reached them, he flung himself to the ground and pulled his horse around behind him. “I almost ran into their camp, and there are some guys headed this way,” he panted. “They’re only about a mile from here. They’re set up where the old store used to be.”

  “What do you mean used to be? What’s there now?” Sam asked, never taking his eyes off the road. Over his shoulder, he scolded, “Joe, don’t ever do that again. You could have led whoever heard it right to us.”

  “I never thought about anyone hearing it over the sound of the bikes.”

  “And if there were others out there who weren’t riding bikes? Maybe someone coming from the other direction?”

  Sam stopped speaking as the deep-throated rumble of motorcycles continued toward them getting louder with each second, making the men shrink into the brush.

  The six men were hidden from anyone who wasn’t surveying the bushes closely and watched in silence as three motorcycles and a dozen four-wheelers drove by. They seemed not to have a care in the world as the men on the four-wheelers jockeyed for position behind the bikes. Bringing up the rear there was a Polaris side by side driven by a large bearded man. Clinging to the chicken bar beside him sat a person the McGrubber brothers all recognized.

  “Oh geez!” Joe breathed out. “How the hell…”

  “Oh my God! Tammy. Do we need to rescue her?”

  “Yee-haw!” Tammy screamed and stood up holding onto the top bars of the roll-cage. Her laughter hung in the air as the Razor rolled out of sight. It was clear to each of them that she was not there under duress, and no rescue was necessary. Somehow, she had found her way to these men and the thought that she had found the men so quickly, did not bode well for the others.

  After the loud parade of vehicles had passed, the men all sighed in relief. They continued to listen expecting the sound to fade away but were surprised when they could hear them shut down. Tammy’s voice got louder and cut off short as if a hand had been clamped over her mouth.

  “What do you make of that?” Andy looked at Sam as if he expected Sam would have the answers.

  Sam shook his head not having the answer. He looked at Joe and Jesse who had their heads together quietly talking. “Jesse, did it look like they had a camp set up there?”

  Jesse frowned, “I didn’t have enough time before they
came this way to see much. I saw the rock chimney that used to stand on the west end of the building; that’s how I knew it had burned down. There really wasn’t much else there. A few vehicles, I think a camp trailer but not much else.”

  “What’s between there and St. Regis?”

  Once the pavement ends, there isn’t much but a few wide spots and some campsites.”

  “And you’re positive that’s Avery?”

  Jesse looked at Joe and raised his eyebrows as if he found the idea that Sam would question him preposterous. He dropped his head when Joe glared at him. “I’m positive,” he finally said.

  “That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” Joe asked.

  Jesse had the grace to look embarrassed. He shook his head, “If I had to do it over again, I would have hidden and checked the place out after they all left. I panicked when they started toward me.” He looked at Joe and when Joe nodded for him to continue, “I think there are dead bodies there, piled up in the parking lot.”

  “Dead people? Are you sure?”

  “No…I’m not sure. Maybe it was just my imagination fooling with my mind, and it could have been tree limbs or something, I didn’t stick around to find out, once I realized they were coming my way.”

  “That’s understandable, but now we have to go and find out.”

  “Oh, for Christ's sake…why? What difference does it make if it’s bodies or tree limbs piled up? If they’re people, they’re already dead. There’s nothing we can do to change that, other than maybe put us in jeopardy if they decide to come back and we don’t hear them,” Ben’s face grew red as he spoke.

  “Come on Ben, don’t you want to know who we’re dealing with?”

  “Geez…you of all people should recognize these guys by now. They’re the guys who took hostages in Haugan, the men who tried to steal your friend Lucy, the people who shot your brother, the people who tried to shoot us at the ranch, the people who ate your neighbor. They’re all cut from the same cloth, stamped out with the same cookie cutter. Different day, different time, but the same circumstances. They’re nothing more than a civilization out of control. I think we need to find your brother and then get back to Willy and the women.”

  Ben sat down and glared up at Sam. He thought that putting them in harm’s way was a stupid idea. All he could think about was finding John and bringing Lucy and the other women to where ever John was.

  Ben had already decided that if the situation wasn’t suitable for him, Lucy and Abby, he would move on. Lucy had agreed that they had to put the welfare of Abby and their unborn child ahead of the group. It wasn’t a decision they had come by lightly, but the future of their family had to be given priority. He would gladly give his own life for any one of the people he now called family, but he wasn’t ready to jeopardize his children. Finding John was foremost on his mind because there he would also find Abby. He’d had qualms about letting her go with John, but she and Sherry had hit it off, and he never had been able to deny her anything. Ben had thought that it was Lucas who had been the draw for Abby. “And that ain’t going to happen anytime soon,” he mumbled.

  “What’s that?” Sam asked. “You don’t have to whisper. Anything you have to say can be said out loud.”

  Ben, hadn’t realized he’d said it so loud, but it gave him the perfect opening to say something else that was on his mind. He looked around at each of the men, “This isn’t the time I would pick to say this, but I think we need to forget these guys. We do what we came to do and avoid a confrontation at all costs. That bunch that went past outnumber us, and until we get Willy and the women here, we’re probably outgunned as well.”

  Sam felt the other’s eyes on him waiting for his opinion. Sam looked around at their faces. He shrugged, “Truthfully, I’m not sure what to do. Ben, everything you say makes sense and it does seem like the best plan. Seeing Tammy with them, makes me think we should have stayed together. My common sense tells me to find John and hurry back and get the girls because if I know anything, I know they won’t wait the specified time before they follow us. Gina thinks I trust her to do as I asked, but as sure as we’re sitting here, she had something crossed.”

  Andy laughed because Journey had already said that Gina had something up her sleeve. She hadn’t said what it was, but she felt sure that Gina would be in the thick of things whether Sam gave his approval or not. “It worries me that Tammy is with those guys and not back with the girls. Did she escape or did the women let her go and why? Why would she be down here? How could she have found these men without help? Myself, I didn’t think she was capable of having a coherent thought, let alone finding her way out of the woods, and finding these guys.”

  Andy looked at Joe, “you guys would know her better than any of us could, so that’s just my observations.”

  Joe held his hands up in front of himself, “Hey, I didn’t want anything to do with her. We let her come with us because she used to live in the area and at one time I knew her family. For a time I dated her sister, but that was it. She was always a little bit off.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about her. Tammy always had an agenda, and if it wasn’t about her, she didn’t give it the time of day. She was fixated on Joe, and I think when he rebuffed her advances, she went ballistic. Just before you guys came to the farm and we talked about taking her back to Missoula just to get rid of her. I think if you guys hadn’t shown up, we would have.”

  “Now that I think about it, what are the chances she knew Arlus or Roy before the shit hit the fan? She spent quite a bit of time whispering to Roy when she thought no one was watching and several times she chose to stand guard with him.” Kenny shook his head at the memory, “I wondered at the time if they had some kind of scheme going. What are the chances those two had something to do with her leaving the women?”

  “You mean like they did something to them?” Ben was shaking his head no as he asked. “I don’t see that happening. If she disappeared, they would either move if they thought she would do that or make themselves invisible.”

  “I feel comfortable with Willy looking after them. If there had been a gun battle of any kind, I think we would have heard it, because it may have taken us the better part of two days to get here, but I’ll bet we’re still within hearing distance, if shots were fired.”

  “Ben’s right Sam. We would have heard if anything had happened. There’s no way those women and Willy would have gotten themselves into a battle. Personally, I think these men wouldn’t have stood a chance against that bunch. They’re fearless if you haven’t noticed.”

  “They may be fearless, but they’re still women,” Sam told them, “For now, I’d like to think that somehow, she got loose on her own and stumbled into these guys. We can’t be both places at once, and I think we have to put some trust in their abilities to remain safe.”

  “I guess you won’t mind then if I pass that bit of information along?” Andy chuckled and ducked when he saw Sam’s hand reach out. “But if it helps, I think they will take care of themselves, and if she escaped or they turned her loose, they’re better off without her. The way she was when we left, I find it hard to believe she had the mental capacity to find her way anywhere.”

  Sam looked around at the others, “I agree, but that still doesn’t give me an idea what you guys think we should do. Go back or press on?”

  “Sam, I can’t speak for these other guys, but I say rather than get caught out in the open, we tuck in for tonight with the horses and do a little exploration on foot. Maybe we’re too far west from where John and the rest could have crossed, at least on foot we’d be quieter and see more of what’s on the ground in front of us.” After speaking Andy sat back against his tree trunk. Looking around he realized that Sam, Ben, and Kenny had as much to lose as he did. They had each left someone behind who mattered to them.

  “Maybe we should have explored that slide a little better. For all we know, they could be stuck somewhere on the other side or right in the middle of it,” Ben said, witho
ut looking at Sam. He had seen the dilemma on Sam’s face and thought he was thinking the same thing.

  Sam wiped his hand down across his face. The stubble covering his cheeks itched, and his hand aggravated the almost healed burns on his cheek and forehead. Both men had already voiced his thoughts and Sam wanted to kick his own ass if he could have reached it. They should never have split up in the first place. Neither time. He had no idea if John had made it down to the valley floor or where he would have gone if he had. He realized the mistake of taking for granted that things would go as planned. Now, they were three groups instead of two with no idea which way to go.

  “Okay, Ben and Andy, you two go ahead and go east. Keep to the brush, and don’t go more than a couple of miles. These guys use machines to move around, and John has horses. Those are the only tracks you’re looking for.”

  Joe intervened, “I think one of us should go. We at least know the area somewhat. It’s another six or seven miles to where the pavement ends, but with the changes in the hills, it’s hard to say how much that’s changed but…”

  Ben shrugged, “Joe’s probably right. I’ve never been in this area before, so maybe he should go.”

  Sam nodded because Ben was right and he had thought the same thing. He just wasn’t used to delegating tasks to the new people. The names Ben and Andy rolled off his tongue first because he’d been around them from the beginning. “Okay. You two go, but be careful.”

  Joe and Andy knew they were looking for any kind of tracks, from the tractor or the horses and Charlie’s big horse’s feet would be easy to spot if they had come down the hillside. They set off staying well away from the roadway.

  Ben, Sam and the two McGrubber boys pulled the tack off the horses, tied them further back in the trees and sat to wait.

  Sam fidgeted, stood up, sat down and got up again. He began to pace around the tree he’d been leaning against. He kept looking at his wrist as if he expected to see a watch. He was troubled by Ben’s words about John being trapped somewhere. He had taught them and hadn’t wanted to waste time, confident he would find nothing. Now he wasn’t as sure. What if they had been stranded in the slide? What if they were still trapped amongst the trees and boulders? What if they’d had injuries? What if John needed him? The questions didn’t quit. Finally, he couldn’t stand the not-knowing. “We need to go back.”