Shrugging as she put the bridle on her horse, “Johnathan shaved his legs for a bodybuilding show once and I thought he would continue, but he said he hated it,” Sandy said.
“Jason did,” Mary said, then picked her saddle up and put it on her horse. “Holy shit!” Mary panted. “I’m thinking you’re stronger than me.”
“So says the woman who carries back two five-gallon jugs of water,” Sandy scoffed, pulling the vest over her head. Strapping down the sides, Sandy looked at the ten magazines across her abdomen. They had taken all the plastic magazine holsters and mounted them, along with the four on each vest.
“I never said they weren’t heavy,” Mary grinned, since Sandy could only carry one jug at a time. “Let’s eat one of those nasty MREs while we ride and only take a coffee break.”
“Can I have the stew?” Sandy asked hesitantly.
Giving a shiver, Mary nodded. “By all means.”
“Ready to go over the memorized route?”
Pulling on her gloves, Mary gave a curt nod. “How about we do it together?”
Sandy nodded and took a breath, then both spoke simultaneously, reciting the route Bill and Johnathan had them memorize. Neither faltered reciting the two hundred mile route. When they finished, they checked each other’s vest and equipment.
“Your drop bag is loose,” Mary said, tightening the feed bag lashed to Sandy’s vest on the left lower edge.
“It would suck to lose that,” Sandy gasped, looking under her left arm and watching Mary tighten up the braided paracord holding the bag to the vest. After going over each other, they walked around the camp with the dogs to make sure they didn’t leave anything.
Sandy stopped, shaking her head. “Mary,” she called out, pointing. Mary turned around and saw Sandy pointing, and followed the finger.
“How in the hell did we forget those?!” Mary cried out, walking over and snatching up her folding chair. After Sandy grabbed her own, they lashed them to the pack horses. “I thought Johnathan was crazy, but I never knew what a difference it would make just sitting in a chair would have on me.”
Nodding, Sandy brushed a tear from her eye. “Yeah, he told me the small comforts can make a huge difference, like the coffee and hot food. It was a risk because someone could smell it, but we needed it to keep our spirits up.”
“Bill said the same,” Mary mumbled, reaching down to pet Ann.
Again they walked around the camp, much slower since they’d overlooked the chairs. Satisfied they weren’t leaving anything they needed, Mary walked over to the pile of gear they were leaving. “Sandy, where’s the tool belts?” Mary gasped, looking around in a panic.
“Um, I packed them,” Sandy answered in a small voice. “Sorry, but they were so proud of them.”
Walking over to Sandy, “I was going to pack them,” Mary whispered with a smile. “I would leave my chair to take those. I loved the way they would pat the tool belts down while checking gear.”
“Me too,” Sandy agreed.
They each took off their caps and put the head harness on, flipping the monocular up before putting their caps on backwards. Both turned to the setting sun but because of the trees, they couldn’t see it. Each took their sunglasses off and put them in the saddle bags.
“Lead or rear guard?” Mary asked.
“I’ll take lead first,” Sandy answered, checking her AR and then her Ruger pistol. Putting the .22 back in the shoulder holster, Sandy pulled out the Beretta. “I hate this heavy thing,” she snarled, checking it before dropping it back in the holster.
“Hey, if the holster would hold my Glock, I would carry that. I love my XD at home more, but the Glock is lighter,” Mary admitted, finishing her own equipment check. Grabbing her quiver of arrows, Mary hung them on her left side beside her drop bag. “You lighten your backpack?”
Climbing up on her horse with a grunt, “Yeah,” Sandy answered. “Still don’t think I can hang off the side of my saddle though.”
“I’ll do it if we can retrieve an arrow,” Mary offered, climbing up in her saddle. Lashing the lead rein from her first packhorse to her saddle, Mary turned around and looked at her three packhorses. “Not much further, guys,” Mary told the horses, and patted the horse under her. “When we get home, Sandy and I will fence off a pasture for you.”
“Damn right,” Sandy huffed, tying the lead rope to her saddle and then gave her horse a small kick. As her horse moved through the trees, Sandy hung her AR across her front and held her bow in her left hand, then checked the two quivers of arrows hanging off her saddle horn. Satisfied, Sandy started scanning around and then saw Dan looking to the right.
Sandy pulled her horse to a stop and followed Dan’s line of sight. “Dan, don’t you even think of chasing that bunny rabbit,” Sandy hissed. “Dan, heel up,” Sandy commanded, and Dan hung his head low and turned around moving beside Sandy’s horse. “Good boy,” Sandy smiled, and Dan started panting with his tongue hanging out.
“I’m really sorry I never let Bill have a dog,” Mary admitted, moving up beside her.
“Well, the boys will be happy,” Sandy insisted. “I wonder how Dino will act?”
Riding on Sandy’s left just a horse length back, Mary chuckled. “As long as Dino gets food, I don’t think he cares about much.”
“As long as the kids are safe,” Sandy corrected, and the chuckle died on Mary’s face.
“Yeah, as long as the kids are safe,” Mary repeated. “I can still see Dino attacking the Kingston’s pit bull when it was chasing Lance and Ian down the street.”
“Hey, we told them to keep the spawn of hell locked up,” Sandy replied with no remorse. “Remember the Fourth of July party? Doug brought Dino over and had to lock Dino up when Allie and Carrie got in trouble.”
Giving a shiver, “I would’ve let them off when Dino growled at me,” Mary admitted, weaving around trees. Before they cleared the trees, both lowered their monocular. “I fucking love these things,” Mary declared.
“I think we would be home if we had found some in California,” Sandy proposed. “We move much faster.”
“I think we would be closer, but the horses would be much more worn down,” Mary countered. “That’s what we will have to watch for now.”
Reaching the tree line, they looked out over a grassy field. In the trees it was dark, but in the field it was still twilight. “Let’s let the horses graze until it gets dark,” Sandy offered.
When Mary nodded, Sandy kicked her horse and stopped in the field. It didn’t take long for the horses to start munching down. “Wish we had another railroad track to follow,” Sandy said, flipping the monocular up and turning on the thermal binocular.
“I wish we had used them before last night,” Mary scoffed as Sandy scanned around them. “I remember one in Kansas and looking at the map again, it would’ve taken us all the way across. All we would’ve had to do was detour around cities. If we had done that out west, then I really believe we would already be home.”
Lowering the thermals and turning them on, Sandy nodded. “Four stinkers in twenty miles after getting on those tracks. The next time we come close to one we could use will be Kentucky, but we already have a route that we had to memorize. I don’t want to risk it.”
“And I don’t either. We’ll stay on the route,” Mary declared, looking around. “Bill, Johnathan, and Doug went over those routes for a reason, and we don’t want to find out what those reasons are.”
“We already have found out why,” Sandy reminded Mary, watching Mary flip her monocular down.
Neither spoke as darkness continued enveloping the land and the horses munched away. When Sandy kicked her horse and moved off, Mary sighed, “Yeah, we found out humans are more dangerous than stinkers.”
Chapter Five
Moving across the field, Sandy turned her horse onto a small dirt road, staying on the right edge where grass was growing. Keeping the horse at a nice walk, Sandy kept scanning around, and every fifteen to twenty minute
s she would scan around with the thermal.
When they left the winding dirt road an hour later, Sandy groaned as she climbed off the horse with the bolt cutters. Cutting the three strands of barbed wire, Sandy headed back to her horse and climbed on. “We have picked up groupies,” Mary told her, and they froze hearing dogs barking far to the east.
Looking behind them on the road, Sandy saw over a dozen stinkers several hundred yards back. “Let’s see if they find where I cut the fence,” Sandy challenged, giving the horse a kick and steering it into the field. She looked up at the partly cloudy sky and then to the east to see clouds rolling in. “I’m so not in the mood for rain,” she droned.
“Hey, at least we don’t have to stop now,” Mary pointed out. “I’m sorry I made us stop in Colorado during that rainstorm, but I couldn’t see shit. All I could think about was my horse walking off a ledge and dropping into a deep gully.”
Turning around in her saddle, “Mary, I had been screaming at the top of my lungs for half an hour for us to stop, but nobody heard me because it was raining so hard,” Sandy panted, feeling the dread she had felt riding in the downpour. “I had to hold onto Johnathan’s packhorse because I couldn’t see his ass.”
“Oh,” Mary gasped, feeling relieved. “Bill acted a little upset that I threw a tantrum, but I was done. I didn’t care we had only been traveling for two hours.”
Turning back around in her saddle, “When Johnathan asked me if we should stop, I told him if we didn’t, I was shooting his horse,” Sandy disclosed. “I told him he was a surgeon and could fix it, but we were stopping.”
Hearing Dan growl, Sandy glanced down to see which way he was looking, then turned to her left. Seeing shadowy shapes like dogs in the distance, “I fucking hate dogs that aren’t Dan and Ann,” Sandy grumbled, hanging her bow off the saddle horn. Raising her AR to her shoulder, Sandy cocked her head so the monocular over her left eye didn’t hit the scope. A hundred and fifty yards away from a small stand of trees, over thirty dogs stared at them crossing the field.
“Nice size pack,” Mary noted lifting her AR. “I’ll start on the left.”
“I’m shooting that big fucker in the center,” Sandy announced. “On three, ready?”
“Ready,” Mary answered, easily able to spot the shadowy outlines of the dogs in her ACOG.
“One, two, three,” Sandy counted, and both squeezed their triggers three times in quick succession. Each moved their crosshairs at another target as the dogs started running back into the small stand of trees. Watching another dog drop, Sandy moved her aim at a dog running away and squeezed the trigger three times again.
She watched the dog drop and snap at its butt, then struggle to stand up but collapse back down. Lowering her AR, Sandy picked up the thermal and scanned around. When she turned to the small stand of trees, Sandy saw several warm spots in the field. “What the hell?” Sandy mumbled, pulling her horse to a stop.
“What? More dogs?” Mary asked, but couldn’t find any in her monocular or scope.
Handing over the thermal, “That’s not dogs halfway from us to the trees in the field,” Sandy stated. “In my monocular, it looks like dark smudges in the grass. If I hadn’t used the thermal, I wouldn’t have seen it.”
Studying the hot area, “Whatever it is, I can say it isn’t stinkers,” Mary replied with certainty. “Stinkers never show up that warm, and whatever that is it’s dead.”
“Let’s see what they killed,” Sandy said as Mary handed the thermal back. “We’ve seen dogs taking down a cow, but if they are taking down more than one, we need to tie up and hobble the horses every night.”
When Mary gave a nod, Sandy kicked her horse heading for the spot in the tall grass. Ejecting the magazine, Sandy put it in her dump bag and slapped in a new one. “Thank you for reminding me,” Mary said quietly behind her, slapping in a new magazine.
Ten yards away from the spot, Sandy turned to the side and threw up. “Oh my God!” Mary gasped, feeling nauseous. Scanning the carnage, Mary saw the corpse of a toddler ripped apart and slung her head to the side as she puked.
“Let’s go,” Sandy gagged out, then pulled the back of her glove across her mouth.
Still heaving, Mary kicked her horse and steered it past Sandy, leaving the carnage behind. Pulling out a bottle of water, Sandy moved up beside Mary, keeping a lookout while Mary finished heaving. Rinsing her mouth out, Sandy drained the bottle and tossed it aside. Normally they saved bottles, but she didn’t want to smell the puke.
In the stand of trees, she could hear some of the dogs they’d shot whining. Dan and Ann looked at the trees, growling. “Dan, Ann, heel,” Sandy snapped in a low voice. The dogs stopped growling and fell in beside them.
Yanking a bottle of water out, Mary rinsed her mouth out then drained the bottle. Tossing the empty bottle away, “They had guns,” Mary gasped.
“I saw four bolt action rifles, a pump shotgun, and three revolvers around the bodies,” Sandy replied with a shiver. “They did kill four dogs, but Johnathan said only an automatic weapon can hold off numbers.”
“How many bodies did you see?”
“Five adults, two that looked like teenagers, a toddler, and a bloody infant carrier,” Sandy answered in a broken voice. “The pack attacked them less than an hour ago.”
“When we entered into the field and we heard dogs barking, do you think that was why?”
Nodding reluctantly, “Yeah,” Sandy admitted. “They were on foot in a field. They never had a chance.”
Glancing behind them, Mary saw the few stinkers that had managed to find where they’d cut the fence were diverting to the carnage. “The stinkers are going there. I wish we had shot the heads,” Mary said in a breaking voice.
“I’m sorry I was curious,” Sandy mumbled, lifting the thermal up.
Moving her horse up beside Sandy, “Don’t be,” Mary told her. “We’ve seen dogs getting bolder, but never saw evidence of them attacking people. Johnathan and Bill shot at any dog that looked at us. Now we will shoot any dog we fucking see.”
Feeling the realization of everything against them and her face set in stone, Sandy nodded as tears ran down her cheeks. “If we have to fight the turning of the earth, then we will.”
Mary nodded as Sandy guided them out of the field and Mary was thankful there wasn’t a fence. “Should we put the leashes on Dan and Ann? I don’t want them to run off.”
“It could get tangled up in the horses legs if we are attacked by something,” Sandy pointed out. “Bill and Johnathan taught them well and they always stay close.”
Scanning behind them, “Yeah, but I think they really want to chase a rabbit,” Mary said, trying to lighten the mood. Hearing Sandy chuckle, Mary sighed feeling slightly better and tried to push the images of the slaughter from her mind.
“Yes, they really want to chase a rabbit,” Sandy agreed. “When we get home, you and I will go catch them one and let them chase it around the yard.”
Only following the road a mile to use a bridge, Sandy led them off the road and back into fields. “You know, I never would’ve believed you or I would be able to memorize a path that didn’t involve roads and signs,” Mary confided.
Lifting the thermal, Sandy looked around with a smile. “Yeah, how many times have we gotten lost in Nashville? Even with the GPS?”
“Now we are following the lay of the land, landmarks, and using a compass. I was amazed when Ian and Lance got those merit badges and I realized they weren’t following little roads in the woods,” Mary chuckled.
The chuckle froze in Mary’s throat upon hearing a steady thump in the air to the north. “Is that a helicopter?” Mary asked when Sandy turned and cocked her head.
“It sounds like it,” Sandy admitted, looking to the north. “It sounds like it’s coming from the north.”
“Can we move over to those trees?” Mary asked, pointing to a row of trees that ran along the field to separate it from the next field.
Kicking he
r horse hard, “Yeah, I don’t want to meet them,” Sandy agreed, getting her horse into a fast trot. Reaching the trees, Sandy slowed and pulled into the fifteen-feet-wide stand of trees. Steering her horse to move with the trees, Sandy stopped once her packhorses were also under the limbs. Seeing Mary do the same, Sandy turned to the north and could definitely tell the helicopter was getting closer.
“There,” Mary said behind her, and Sandy glanced back and saw Mary was pointing more to the northeast.
Turning around, Sandy lifted the thermal and had no trouble spotting the hot spot in the sky. “It’s one of those military helicopters that looks like a bus with a blade at the front and back.”
“It doesn’t have on any lights,” Mary noticed as the chopper sped south. “For a flying bus, it seems to be going pretty fast.”
Hearing Sandy give a whimpering groan, Mary moved her horse up beside her as Sandy turned off the thermal. “What’s wrong?” Mary asked, then felt stupid because everything was wrong. “I mean, what got you down so fast?”
Waving her hand at the sky, “That means the military is still active,” Sandy sobbed. “They tried to put us in a camp and take away what few guns we had. I was hoping they were all dead and we could just get home and survive this on our own with the kids.”
Reaching over and grabbing Sandy’s arm, “That’s what we are going to do,” Mary stated. “I don’t care if nuns holding newborns step out and try to stop us; we will mow their asses down and continue home.”
Wiping her cheeks off, Sandy nodded and then grabbed her bow, pulling an arrow out of her quiver. Mary gave a startle seeing that and swiveled her head around, and saw a stinker walking through the narrow stand of trees ahead of them coming towards them.
Pulling back the bow, Sandy barely paused before releasing the arrow. Watching the stinker’s head jerk back Mary nodded, impressed with the shot. “Told you that you would get the hang of shooting the bow with the monocular.”
Moving her horse up, Sandy gave a broken chuckle. “Never thought about it,” Sandy admitted.
Forsaken World (Book 5): Homecoming Page 6