Willy stopped walking and rested the butt of the rifle on top of his foot. He frowned while looking up at the dark sky. “It used to be easy to tell the season by the weather or the position of the stars, but you can’t even count on that anymore. I sure don’t remember Orion, being this far north. You could always see it, but it was further south. As far as the time goes, who cares. It seems like we all have adapted to living by the rise and set of the sun.”
“Well, good on you. The only constellation I am familiar with is the Big Dipper, and I haven’t looked for it. To tell you the truth, nothing makes sense anymore. Right now, I feel like we’re flying by the seat of our pants out here. We’re headed somewhere that we don’t know if it still exists. Have you thought about what we’ll do if the town isn’t even there?”
Willy nodded, he pursed his lips in thought. With a sigh, he said, “I have, and does it make any difference? I guess if it doesn’t, we’ll just be nomads and follow our instincts. At least out in the middle of the desert we don’t have to worry about gangs or losing everything we own to cave-ins.”
“I’m not so sure I believe that it seems like just when we think we’re going to be okay, something bad happens. Guys like that Silas never give up. I have the feeling that somehow, he’ll come up with another army of miscreants, and they’ll show up when we least expect them. It’s beginning to feel like he has his sights set on us.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me. I guess we should have done more than string that nephew of his up on the light pole back in St. Regis. That should be a lesson for us, and that’s why we’ll always expect him no matter where we choose to end up. If not him, then others with the same principles. It ain’t going to get better any time soon, so we just watch our backs and always be ready.”
“Are you guys going to sit and B.S. all night?” Gina whispered, “Some of us are trying to sleep here.” She rolled over, turning her back to the fire. She had been listening to Willy and Sam talk, already awake, but hoping to hear something more positive than she was thinking. She, Andy and Journey had already had almost the very same conversation earlier while sitting with Ben. He was feeling guilty that he hadn’t finished off Silas right from the beginning when he and Abby had first fallen in with them. He had lamented that maybe Lucy and the baby would still be alive.
“Silas didn’t bring on the earthquake,” Andy had assured him to no avail.
“We wouldn’t have been in the cave if he hadn’t forced us out of the ranch,” Ben had countered, “and Lucy would have still been alive.”
“He didn’t force us out, and you know it. The volcano did, and if we hadn’t taken refuge inside the cave, we’d probably all be dead right now. None of us could have survived the cold.”
Ben had turned his back to them and pretended to sleep, but Gina hoped he thought about what Journey had said. She was right. They would have lost John and Mark regardless of where they were, and Gina still believed that each of them had a predetermined destiny. It wouldn’t have mattered how, but she believed that when your time was up, it was up. It all came down to decisions about what path in life a person took. Many times, she had wondered where she would have been had she not met Journey in Nursing school. Journey had pushed her through disregarding the hesitation that had always held Gina back. If she hadn’t continued, she wouldn’t have met Lucy, and they wouldn’t have been in the mountains when the world as they knew it ended. More than once since it had begun, she’d thanked God, for sending her Journey to guide her along her path.
Gina hadn’t realized that she’d fallen asleep sometime during her examination of her life, but felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Honey, you have the last watch,” Sam told her with a gentle shake. “I can stay up if you need more sleep.”
She reached for his hand and held it for just a few seconds. It was times like this, she was grateful for the path she’d been sent on. She had never expected to find love in the middle of the chaos. “I’m okay. Just give me a minute to wake up.” With a final squeeze of his fingers, she sniffed and turned her face to him, “Is that coffee I smell?”
He grinned at her, “As real as instant gets. All the MRE’s we salvaged have the little packets in them, and Evelyn took the packages apart, so yes it’s coffee.”
Gina groaned, “Oh my God, she’s my hero.” She went to sit up, but Sam was kneeling on the edge of her blanket and as delicate as the foil was, she didn’t want to tear it. The lightweight fabric had been all she needed to keep warm, but the ground under her hadn’t helped her tired body any. She felt bruised from every rock and bump under her. “Move so I can get up. You’ve got me trapped under here.”
“And that’s a bad thing? Why, I remember…”
Gina rolled her eyes, knowing he couldn’t see her, but she was sure he knew she’d done it and wondered if he felt as lucky as she did.”
“Don’t give me that look,” Sam said as he stood. He chuckled softly, “Don’t think I didn’t see that. Give me your hand.”
He pulled her to her feet and held tight a few seconds longer than necessary. Gina took a measure of comfort from his touch. They may have come together under extreme circumstances, but it did feel right to her. She had wondered if the world suddenly turned back to normal if either of them would regret the decision to marry, but somehow, she felt what they had would last, and it didn’t seem like anything was ever going to be normal at least not the way it was before the apocalypse. Maybe in time, they could establish a new normal, and that was okay.
There was only enough coffee for one small cup each, but as Gina sipped, she realized that the coffee was a comfort drink for her and not necessary for her to function as it had been before. She enjoyed it, but no longer needed it to fend off the early morning headache that had always started her days previously.
Coffee drank, Gina and Lucas set off circumnavigating their perimeter by walking in opposing directions. It was the technique they used at Willy’s direction. He thought that walking together allowed them to be too comfortable and the guards would miss something. They could pass each other halfway through their walk and exchange words with only a brief pause. Their perimeter extended out a half mile and when Gina met up with Lucas just under the halfway mark. He walked up to her quickly, and she wondered what was up. Had he seen something that caught his attention? Had she been lost in thought and slowed her pace? Gina hadn’t thought she’d been negligent in her observations, but maybe she had slowed down.
“What’s up?”
“I saw them? There was a herd of them?” He turned and pointed behind him. “Just when you go around that hump.” His voice was quiet but excited.
Gina frowned because Lucas should have alerted the camp to the presence of any intruders. Gina slid the carry strap of her rifle from her shoulders. “How many? Were they heavily armed?”
Lucas’s eyebrows dropped, and he pulled his chin into his chest, his mouth wrinkled in a sneer, “What? Armed?” He realized they’d had a miscommunication, and he laughed, “No! The deer.” He turned and pointed, “There’s a whole herd of them right back there.”
“Deer? Really? Oh, Lucas, that’s great news.” Gina slid the sling strap back on her shoulder. If the deer had survived, she wondered about the other wildlife. She didn’t know if the weather had not been as severe here, or if the deer had moved south before the storm. What did it mean for the birds, rabbits and the rest of the animals? She had noticed the few scraggly stalks of grass pushing up through the dirt, and she and Journey had rejoiced. The horses had picked off the individual blades as fast as they found them as well as stripping bark from the trees. While they hadn’t lost any more weight, they hadn’t put any on either. When Gina looked at Sailor and Snowflake, it almost broke her heart. When she’d bought Sailor, she had promised to take good care of him and as thin as he was, she hadn’t lived up to the promise. Journey had reminded her the night before that had Gina not been diligent with her grass gathering and keeping the young people cutting and dryi
ng it, none of the horses, the cow or the goats would have survived. The three chickens were eating a small portion of human food, but Joe had said they weren’t doing well, and now they were too thin to think of eating them. Living inside a duffel bag had stripped them of most of their feathers.
Lucas stood in front of Gina shuffling from foot to foot, “Well, I guess I better get back to it.”
She nodded absent-mindedly. “Sure, it’ll be light soon. Finish the round, and I’ll see you back at camp.” The chicken's fate rested in Gina’s hands, and she wondered what she could do. Could she just turn them loose? Would they even survive? None of them were young anymore, but she had hoped when they settled, they would get at least one clutch of eggs to hatch, but as long as they were kept in the confines of a duffel bag, and eating people food, the idea of fertile eggs was laughable. “Unless I can build them another cage.” She said, dragging her words out as if she thought the words as she spoke them. As she completed her round, she went over their inventory of useable material. Gina stopped walking and looked at the ground around her, “Perfect…why didn’t I think of this before?”
On the ground all around were lengths of branches and young trees that had been uprooted at some time. In her mind, Gina pictured the wooden crates that had held chickens going to market when she and Keith had gone to rural Mexico for their honeymoon many years ago. The crates had been simple but effective. Gina began gathering the pieces as she walked back to camp. By the time she arrived, her arms were full, and her mind had already formed a construction plan.
“So nice of you to gather firewood, but we don’t need it. We’re leaving this morning,” Evelyn told her as she pulled the pink roller from her bangs, slipped it into her pocket and fluffed the hair with her fingers. No matter how she pulled the hairs down, they curled right up as if the roller still gripped them.
Gina smiled at Evelyn’s attempts and let the sticks drop around her feet. “This is my new chicken crate. If we ever hope to have chickens and eggs sometime in the future, we need to get them out of that bag and into the sunshine.” Seeing Abby and Maggie doing nothing but sitting and talking she enlisted their help. “Abby, Maggie, come give me a hand.”
With the two girls in front of her, Gina explained her idea. With Abby cutting off the sticks to length and Maggie tying the pieces of paracord where Gina instructed, they soon had a useable crate. As soon as Willy saw what they were doing, he rigged a holder for the crate on Gina’s saddle. They wouldn’t be able to ride as long as the cage was tied to the saddle, but no one would have to carry the chickens.
When they emptied the fowl into the cage, they looked surprised and stood blinking in an exaggerated manner that brought laughter to the girls and Gina. The rooster promptly fluffed his scrawny looking feathers and gave a half-hearted crow, and then pecked at Gina’s fingers as if he blamed his previous circumstances on her.
“Not again,” She told him and pulled her hands away. He was the same rooster who had given her some nasty scratches when she’d dragged him from his perch when he was captured the first time.
Maggie scraped the little bit of oatmeal left from the MRE’s they’d shared for breakfast, and the three chickens attacked the gummy gray mess with gusto.
The clothing they’d salvaged from the invaders was finally deemed clean, and dry enough to fold and store away, but no one wanted to wear it. The memory of where they had acquired it was still too new, and the idea of wearing dead people’s clothing didn’t sit well with any of them, but Willy knew that someday, and sooner than they realized, they would be grateful for the clothes and footwear.
With the gear loaded, the fire ring cleared away and anything to show they had been there erased, they set off. Sam led the way with Lucas alongside him. Sam thought they would reach the visitors center in three days if they didn’t have long delays. Setting up a camp like the one they had just dismantled would be considered an impediment. It would be dry camps for the next few days. Sam felt nervous being as exposed as they were right then, but looking back the way they had come from, it would be hard to hide. There were few hills and none tall enough to block someone’s view if they came looking. When speaking around the fire that morning, Sam hadn’t needed to remind everyone who they were. He expressed the need to get as far away as possible because he had no doubt that Silas would turn up at some time in their future. Sam and Willy had worn out the conversation on why they hadn’t gotten the man when they’d had the chance, but he’d let John influence him, and they’d let him go, with the idea that John could be right, and the guy wouldn’t bother them again. Sam hadn’t been here this last time, or Sam would have made sure that Silas didn’t walk or run away again.
Lucas grabbed his arm, jarring him away from his thoughts, and immediately Sam heard it. It sounded like a fast-moving Army coming over the rise.
“Holy crap! What now?”
Beyond the New Horizon: The Last Sun, Page 25