Beyond the New Horizon: The Last Sun,

by Christine Conaway

  Sam felt the unaccustomed warmth on his head as the ball of fire rose above the hill spilling its light and heat all around him. Sam looked up through his squinted eyes and silently thanked God for the return of the sun. Andy had said the just in the nick of time quake had saved them, but Sam wasn’t sure for or from what.

  “Hey! Hey, we’re up here.”

  Sam jumped to his feet and spun around trying to place the voice. It was Matt’s voice, and he heard cheering and hollers from several more voices as well. He stepped away from the fire and walked backward until he could see the top of the rock wall.

  Gina and the other two followed him back and stood using their hands to shade their eyes from the unaccustomed light. Standing on top of the rock wall, was Lucas, Abby, Matt, and Olivia, waving their arms for attention. They were dirt covered but seemingly unhurt.

  “Uncle Sam, we can’t get down. Where’s everyone else?”

  When Sam looked down, unable to answer, the four stopped their waving and stood still, expecting an answer from one of them.

  “Where’s my Dad and Lucy?” Abby asked as if she knew the answer, but had to ask anyhow.

  “We’re not sure yet,” Andy finally called up to them. “How did you get up there?”

  “Better yet, how are we going to get them down from there?” Journey asked. She knew they had nothing. No ladder, no rope…nothing that could aid them.

  “Lucas, is the security rope still there?” They had hung an improvised line from a spike pounded into a gap in the rock. Willy had made the spike out of a straightened horseshoe and hammered it firmly into a crack in the rock. The line was made from leather reins, braided paracord and lengths of rope, they’d hung down the shaft for an emergency descent.

  Lucas disappeared for several minutes and returned holding the coiled line in his hands. “I left the end tied on the nail. Should I throw it down?”

  “Wait! Is the shaft open? Can you get down into the cave?”

  Matt was already shaking his head in denial at hearing Sam ask. Sam dropped his shoulders and sighed heavily. “So much for that idea,” he muttered.

  He looked back up at the kids, “okay, toss it down and let's see what we’ve got.” He was sure the shaft wasn’t as high as the point of rock the kids were standing on. He stared in wonder as the line flew from Lucas’s hands and a coil settled on the ground at the base of the rock wall. He frowned, “How is that possible?”

  “Gina said it didn’t look right and I think she’s right. Look there,” Journey pointed at the line of scree lying at the base of the wall. Somehow the wall has settled into the ground, shaving of slabs of stone as it settled. “It’s certainly not as imposing as it looked before.”

  Sam tested the strength of the line by throwing his full weight onto it. If it wasn’t strong enough for his weight, it sure wouldn’t support the kids climbing down it. He would rather find out while standing on the ground than to have one of them fall when it let go. Satisfied, Sam stepped back with the bitter end in his hand.

  “Okay, one at a time and don’t waste any time getting down here.” Sam waited, pulling the rope taut to stabilize it. When he didn’t feel it moving as someone climbed down, he looked up. Not seeing anyone on the line he stepped back and saw both girls shaking their heads no. It was clear that no one wanted to be first down the line. Sam would make the decision for them.

  “Olivia, get down here. I remember how well you can climb, so you come down first and show us how it’s done.”

  Olivia laid down on her belly with Matt and Lucas holding her firm until she had her foot wrapped in the line and then let go as she dropped over the edge. Olivia hung for an instant and then as remembering how quickly the rope could part, came down it hand over hand as she dropped. She hadn’t used her feet to secure herself, but let them hang, searching for firm ground. Sam grabbed her leg and supported her the last couple of feet. As soon as both feet were on the ground, he passed her to Andy and hollered up, “Abby you’re next.” Immediately, he felt the shaking of the line as she came down in the same fashion as Olivia.

  He didn’t have to tell either of the boys who was next when Matt latched onto the line and repelled down the line. Lucas’s head disappeared, and then the rope fell in a puddle at Sam’s feet. He reached for the end and saw that it had been untied.

  “Lucas, dammit. Why?”

  His face appeared above them, “We’re going to need that. I can climb down from here.” He dropped out of sight and then his feet protruded over the edge. They watched as his foot groped for a foothold, followed by his other foot.

  They stared in silence as Lucas sent pieces of rock to the ground, pushed off ledges and handholds as he worked his way down the face.

  “If the fall doesn’t kill him, I’m going to kick his ass right up around his shoulders,” Sam ground out between his teeth.

  “Don’t forget he’s the one who climbed the shaft in the first place and he is right. Two guns and this line are the only possessions we have besides the clothes on our backs.”

  Sam looked at Gina and glared, “Stop defending him. What if he was to slip and fall? Would you still think it’s necessary to have the line?”

  “Probably. Without it, we can’t even use the horses for transportation, because if we can’t move that rock, we’ll have to find another way in and like Lucas said, there is a way at the other end of the valley.”

  “Sam, it isn’t a box canyon anymore. The two hills have opened up, and it looks like we could walk right through.”

  Sam looked at Matt. He hated to take his eyes off of Lucas, but what Matt had just said surprised him. Gina had said there were changes, but Sam hadn’t looked around nor paid much attention when he got out. He couldn’t testify the walls had lowered, but he remembered the wall of rock towering over their heads, and the length of line that had hung on the ground before Lucas threw it down, said that something had happened.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lucas let go and jumped the last few feet to the ground. Before he could turn or move, Sam wrapped him up in a bear hug.

  “I can’t breathe,” Lucas managed to say.

  “I should kick your ass for that asinine stunt. What the hell were you thinking?”

  Lucas pulled away from Sam, “I thought we would need the line, and besides, that climb was a piece of cake. I watched and looked when the others went down, and I planned out my whole decent. Now, where is my Mom? How come you guys are out here, and is that one of our chickens over there?”

  They turned and looked. Sure enough, one of the hens was busy scratching at the base of a bush, looking for anything she could eat.

  First Gina began to laugh, and soon the others joined in. There was a lot of back-slapping and hugs. The laughter released the tension the adults had built up while watching the young people climb down.

  As soon as the excitement died down, Andy and Sam carried out the wooden poles, they were able to salvage from the horse corral. A couple of the upright posts that had just sat on top of the rock floor, the men carried out to use as seats around the fire.

  “Okay,” Sam said, rubbing his hands together, “we need to have a plan for tonight. We have no jackets or clothing other than what we have on and no bedding of any kind. If the temperature drops again we need a warmer place to stay rather than out here. Besides that, with the snow melting, this ground is going to get muddier than it is right now.”

  “What are we going to eat, and don’t say my chickens because that’s not an option. At least for now. Tomorrow I may be forced into changing my mind.”

  Sam shook his head, “for the time being the chickens, rabbits and the cow are all off limits. We’ll probably regret not having them come spring. So, does anyone have any ideas as far as food goes?”

  Lucas looked at Matt and unbuckled the slim pack from around his waist. “Do you think there is anything left to hunt?” Lucas asked as he pulled his 45 from the fanny pack. He reached in again and handed a pistol to each of his f
riends. When he looked up, the adults were staring at him, “What? These are ours. We don’t have many bullets, but if there’s something to shoot we can use them.”

  “How is it that, and I’m embarrassed to admit, the four of you have your guns when we have only two between the four of us?”

  “As soon as the shaking started, Matt and Olivia gathered them up and put them in my bag. Olivia carried them up, and I held them when she climbed down.”

  Sam nodded, but there was something they needed to talk about before they could worry about their food situation.

  He chose his words carefully so he wouldn’t sound accusing or judgmental of the young people. “Where were you guys when the quake started? Did you see anyone else?”

  Lucas hung his head as if just remembering there were others trapped inside, “No. I didn’t see anyone, but we heard screaming.” Lucas’s chin quivered, but he didn’t cry. “I heard my mom hollering something to someone, but couldn’t understand what she said.”

  ******************************************************

  On the other side of the cave, a hand reached out through the snow. “I’m out.”

  The opening which had steps to the outside, had caved in with the quake. Without the meager light from the fire and with the dust hanging thick in the air it had been impossible to find the door by sight. Charlie and Willy shifted rocks and rolled boulders away from where they thought the door should be until Charlie found the logs the door had been constructed from.

  To Charlie, it felt like it had taken hours to clear the debris enough to remove the logs out of their way. Finally, with only the cold, wet snow blocking their exit, he and Willy began to dig in turns.

  Willy had been ready to give up until he no longer felt the heavy weight pressing down on him. “I think I’m out,” he reported.

  Pushing up, Willy forced his head and shoulders through the crust and paused, shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight. “Thank you, God,” he breathed, trying to catch his breath. At one point, Willy had been sure they were trapped within the confines of the cave, but now they were free. His limbs tingled with exhilaration. He felt an immense sense of euphoria at the sight in front of him.

  The surface of the snow was crusty but wet, and Willy looked around in amazement. Where had the snow gone? There was still snow, but most of it seemed to be around the front of the cave. It looked like whatever had gathered above the opening had slid down blocking the previously cleared entrance. He saw the smokehouse Matt and Lucas had built standing alone. The pile of logs collapsed beside it, was all that remained of the one that John and Mark had constructed.

  Willy forced his tired body forward until he was clear of the opening. Turning around, he reached his hands down to grab Sherry, who Charlie was pushing up to him. She had been clinging to the puppy when Charlie had pulled her from the rubble and hadn’t uttered a sound as Charlie felt for broken bones or abrasions. She hadn’t answered when asked if she’d been injured, but he had felt the dog wrapped up in her arms. The animal whined when Charlie included him in his examination and he’d felt a warm wetness, but couldn’t say if it was from Sherry or the pup.

  “Are you okay?”

  Sherry turned wide haunted eyes to him and nodded, “Mom?”

  “Honey, I don’t know, but I’m going to go and help Charlie move some more rock. Can you go and wait by the smokehouse?”

  Sherry looked around, stopping when her eyes lit on the wooden structure. She frowned, “Dad’s fell down…”

  Her voice trailed off as if she’d realized her father was gone and his contribution toward their survival hadn’t lasted any longer than he had. A tear had gathered on her cheek, and she wiped it before it had the chance to fall, leaving a swath of pink skin. Dust covered every inch of her and Willy wondered how he must look to her. He had been spitting dirt with every wad he had hawked up. He had curbed the impulse to blow his nose until he was alone. Somehow, using two fingers and blowing, didn’t seem appropriate with the others in full view.

  “Take your pup and wait for us over there. I’m going to send Kenny up to keep you company. Just be careful you don’t fall on the ice. It’s still pretty slippery.”

  Willy waited for Sherry to slip and slide her way off the melting snow pack until she was safely down and headed toward the small building.

  “You okay up there?”

  “Yep. Coming back down. I thought it would be good to send Kenny up to keep an eye on her, and maybe he can get a fire going or something.”

  “Look what I did find,” Charlie said once Willy had reached the cavern floor. He held up the spade part of the folding shovel. Something had broken the handle part off, but at least it could be made usable again.

  “It’ll take some work, but most of the snow left out there is sitting all around the opening. Twenty feet away, there’s nothing.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding. The last time we looked out everything was covered, and that wasn’t more than a week ago.” Charlie shook his head, “I sure don’t understand what’s going on.”

  “Damnedest thing I ever saw. I’m beginning to think the man upstairs didn’t intend for anyone to live, but we’re still here, so I guess we make the best of it. Is Kenny okay to go up there? I sure don’t want that little girl wandering off alone.”

  “She couldn’t wander far if she did, but Sherry’s a smart girl, and she’ll do what you asked.”

  “You better go up and have a look for yourself, because you need to see the changes up there to believe them. Nothing I can say would do it justice.”

  “Dad! I hear someone.”

  Evelyn, who had been sitting quietly in the dirt, looked up at Kenny with relief on her face, “Who?” She had been sitting, leaning against a boulder with her eyes closed. Her lips had been forming words in silence as if she were saying a prayer for the ones who hadn’t escaped when the ceiling collapsed. She’d told Charlie and Willy that she was sure she was being called home until Kenny had grabbed her arm, pulling her under the shelter of an overhead shelf that had protected them both from the falling rock. After the quake had ended, they determined that neither of them had sustained any debilitating injuries. Unable to see anything and racked by coughs, Kenny and Evelyn sat until they heard someone on the outside clearing the rubble. Feeling for loose rock, Kenny began working from their side, passing them back to Evelyn who put them behind her.

  The visibility wasn’t much better than when they were trapped, but the chamber in front of the open doorway cast a glow of shadowy light.

  “The others? Did anyone else make it?”

  Willy had sighed, “We don’t know yet. Sherry and you two are the first, besides Charlie and me. We’re trying to clear out the snow tunnel. We need light if we are going to be able to see what we’re doing.”

  “I may not be able to see, but there’s sure nothing wrong with my ears. We should be able to hear something.” Evelyn said as she wiped her face off with the hem of her shirt. Her efforts produced streaks of skin and dirt, “and I’m damn sure going to be listening.”

  For Evelyn to use cuss words, Willy thought she must be suffering from shock, as was Sherry. As near as he remembered he’s never heard the woman even use the word darn before unless she was talking about sewing. It just wasn’t her style to use profanity.

  “If there’s anyone to hear,” Willy mumbled and went to trade places with Charlie. He had laid for a short while after the rocks had quit falling evaluating his limbs, and he was afraid if he moved the vibration would send more rocks showering down on top of him and Sherry. Hearing Charlie grumble and complain about rocks pelting down on him had stirred Willy to movement. It was then he had discovered that Sherry had somehow retrieved the pup from his bed and had him clutched to her. Willy still wasn’t sure how Sherry had come to be clutched to his side, but he was glad she was. The three of them had sat in a coughing, hacking silence until they’d heard Kenny holler for help. Just knowing that there was another person besides t
hemselves had spurred the two men into action clearing the way for Kenny and then to find Evelyn too, had encouraged them to get some light.

  Once the men had opened the tunnel allowing light to filter down, Evelyn looked around the space. A haze of dust clouded her vision, but the visibility was good enough to see the destruction of their home. Loose rock covered the floor with a wall of it sitting where the fire pit had once been situated. The fire pit where Lucy had been resting the last time Evelyn had seen her, but she wasn’t going to think about that right now. She couldn’t, or nothing would get done. Her concern right then had to be for those she knew were alive. There was no doubt that Sherry would need her for the foreseeable future with the loss of first her brother and then her father and now her mother as well, did not bode well for the young girl. Evelyn felt the weight of responsibility falling on her shoulders when all she wanted to do was curl up somewhere and let nature take its course. With Mark gone, Evelyn had wished for God to strike her down and offer her a way into heaven. She hadn’t asked or prayed about it, but as long as she was breathing on her own, Evelyn knew she couldn’t do anything to hurry the process.

  Trying to decide where to start, she saw the edge of one of their cast iron pots, sticking out from a pile of rocks and it reminded her that she needed to begin collecting anything of value and a pot, be it the only one, it was a start.

  Evelyn had gathered several pieces of cookware and several knives and forks that had been put to soak on the edge of the fire, post-earthquake, when Charlie called down to her.