Grabbing the thermals, Mary lifted them up to see a cluster of dogs take a person that was running down to the ground. The gunfire went from a few single reports to nothing. Moving the thermals, Mary could see clusters of dogs around the house and started counting. “I think the pack took down sixteen people and it looks like they are eating them,” Mary admitted with a shiver and handed the thermals back.
Hanging them around her neck, “I think the horses need to jog for a little while, just to loosen their muscles up,” Sandy suggested, flipping down her monocular.
“Excellent idea,” Mary agreed, flipping her monocular down and both kicked their horses into a trot, but the horses it seemed, wanted to sprint. They both pulled back on the reins to keep the horses in a trot. It took a few minutes, but the horses finally settled into a nice trot.
“Tyler, hold the saddle loop and stand up in your stirrups like me,” Sandy said over her shoulder because this was the only way she found she could ride a horse in a trot. Using her legs as shock absorbers, Sandy glanced back and saw Tyler copying her and doing well.
Ten minutes into the trot, Sandy saw a dirt road heading east as they crossed another highway, and guided the horse to it. She didn’t like roads, but hated moving fast through fields because she couldn’t spot dangers the horse could hit or step in.
Ahead, she saw the dirt road intersected another dirt road at a T. She barely slowed, steering her horse right to the north road and glanced back to see Mary standing in her saddle like her. Turning ahead, “Shit,” Sandy grumbled, seeing three stinkers ahead.
Lifting her AR, Sandy quickly realized that was an exercise in futility and reached up to turn the IR laser on. When the laser neared the head, Sandy squeezed the trigger and the first muffled pop startled her horse, but he stayed in the trot. It took three shots before she hit the first and the distance was closing fast. Sandy saw another laser bouncing around and aimed at the stinker the other laser wasn’t aiming at.
Soft pops sounded off and both stinkers fell when the horses were only yards away. Not knowing how many times she’d shot, Sandy changed magazines and dropped the used one in the dump bag as the road turned northeast.
The few houses they passed all sat dark, but they saw stinkers move away from several as they approached. None of the stinkers were near the road when they passed riding side by side. Sandy glanced down and saw Dan in a loping run with his tongue hanging out.
Turning ahead, Sandy lifted the thermals and tried to make sense of the shaking view. “Slow down,” Sandy called out, slowing her horse. When the horse didn’t slow, Sandy yanked hard on the reins to give the horse the message she wanted to slow down. Ready to yank again, Sandy scanned ahead as the horse settled into a walk. “Asshole, you’re pissing me off,” Sandy grumbled at the horse.
“That’s Highway 73 ahead,” Sandy announced, scanning around and then looked back to see several dozen stinkers strung out behind them.
Glancing down at her watch, “We made eight miles that fast?” Mary gasped.
“Shit, Asshole wanted to set a land speed record,” Sandy huffed, still scanning ahead where the dirt road met the highway. “Will you shoot these two stinkers coming out on the road ahead?”
Letting her AR hang, Mary lifted up her bow as two stinkers stumbled up on the road from a dark house. Both stinkers moved toward them moaning as Mary let the first arrow fly and grabbed another arrow as the stinker jerked when the arrow hit the head. The other stinker tripped, and Mary held her shot while keeping her aim on the stinker as her horse started moving wide.
Only yards away Mary released, pinning the stinker’s head to the road and looked ahead. “Any more near?”
“No,” Sandy said, still scanning around. “Let’s get across the road into the field.”
Mary glanced back, lifting up the thermal monocular and could see the string of stinkers on the road behind them. When she heard the clatter of hooves on the roadway, Mary turned back around and guided her horse into the field across the road.
Out in the field, Mary turned and saw Sandy still scanning, but was concentrating to the north. “What?” Mary asked.
“You don’t hear it?” Sandy asked, not lowering the thermals.
Ignoring the sounds of the horses, Mary concentrated. “It’s a car,” Chris said behind her, and Mary glanced back to see Chris with his eyes closed, pointing north.
Like a blanket was pulled, Mary heard the hum of an engine and it was closing. “How far away did you hear that?” Mary gasped, very impressed.
“That’s the third one I heard,” Sandy told her. “The first I heard when we were shooting those stinkers, but it was behind us. The next one was when the road turned northeast. This one, when I wanted to slow down because it sounded like it was on Highway 73, which I think it is.”
Able to tell the hum was louder, Mary nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it’s getting closer, but it’s not going that fast.”
“I know. It’s a truck,” Sandy said, and Mary turned and saw Sandy was looking northwest, but slowly turning west. Sandy lowered the thermals and passed them to Mary.
Taking the thermals, Mary lifted them and saw a truck slowly moving down the road they had crossed half a mile back. The truck slowed to a stop when it reached the road where they’d come out on the highway and crossed into the field. Mary could see a person in the back, looking around. “I think they are looking for us,” Mary admitted.
“Yep, they stopped where you shot those stinkers,” Sandy said, reaching over and grabbing the reins of Mary’s horse to guide it through a row of trees. Before the trees blocked her view, Mary saw the truck turn onto the road where they’d shot the stinkers, moving away from them.
When Mary passed the thermals back, Sandy let Mary’s horse go. As Mary took the reins, “That was stupid as shit getting on a road,” Sandy snapped at herself.
“Sandy, one of my pack horses stumbled hard in that field and almost pulled all of my horses down,” Mary cried out. “You getting on that road was the only way we could continue to move that fast.”
Guiding them near another string of trees, Sandy just nodded, still feeling guilty. “You think your horse is okay?”
“She’s not limping,” Mary admitted. “I’ll check her when we make camp. We can eat in the saddle tonight.”
“We aren’t going to see why they chased us, are we?” Chris asked in a trembling voice. “I don’t want to talk to them.”
“Neither do we,” Mary said, reaching back and patting his leg. “Sandy,” Mary sighed. “Get Tyler to sit in front of you and give him the thermals. We need out of here and he’s already proven he can watch.”
Nodding, Sandy let the thermals hang and reached back. “Tyler, stand up holding onto me and climb around,” Sandy told him and helped him move from behind her to sit in front of her. Then she passed him the thermal binoculars. “Keep the lanyard on, so you don’t drop them. They are a lot heavier than the others.”
Holding up the NVG binoculars, “Can you hold these, so I don’t lose them?” Tyler asked.
Taking the NVGs from Tyler, Sandy turned them off and shoved them in a rear saddle bag. “Whoa,” Tyler gasped, looking at the world in thermal. “I see stinkers,” Tyler announced, pointing south and then pointed west, “and they are going that way.”
“I feel better,” Mary admitted, riding beside Sandy. “Chris?” Mary said.
“Nothing’s behind us,” Chris told her, and Sandy turned and saw Chris looking behind them with the thermal monocular. As they rode on, the boys continued scanning around and Sandy was able to steer them around stinkers to their front.
Southeast of Woodburn, “Ms. Sandy, I see people,” Tyler announced, and Sandy yanked her horse to a stop and turned south where Tyler was looking.
“Let me have them,” Sandy told him, reaching down. Taking the thermals, Sandy lifted them and saw a group of people emerging from trees heading west. “About half a mile,” Sandy mumbled, “on foot. Looks around twenty people he
ading west.”
Mary could see shapes and handed the thermal monocular back to Chris. “We still have to cross I65, we need to go,” Mary said as Sandy passed the thermals over.
“It’s a motley collection,” Sandy told her, and Mary gave the group a casual scan before handing the thermals back.
“They aren’t a threat,” Mary said, and Sandy gave the thermals to Tyler and he went back to scanning around.
Reaching over and patting Mary’s leg, “I know, but we are out of the area they are searching,” Sandy said. “We haven’t heard vehicles and they have a pack of dogs from hell to deal with.”
“Hope they eat all their asses,” Mary huffed, and Sandy gave her horse a kick. Leading them into the trees, Sandy felt the tension ease from the entire group, including the horses.
“Are we following this river?” Tyler asked, looking around and then lowered the thermals, blinking his eyes.
“Yes, it’s a creek,” Sandy said, patting his belly and Tyler lifted the thermals back up. “We are going to try and follow it under the interstate.”
Tyler let out a sigh of relief. “Good, because I don’t like goin’ over them.”
“We don’t either, Tyler, that’s why we are going under, or will try.”
Keeping near the creek, Sandy hoped the trees stayed with them as they neared the interstate. Still over a mile away, the smell hit them like a wall when a breeze blew in from the east. “Damn,” Sandy mumbled, able to taste the stinker in the air.
She leaned down to Tyler’s ear. “Stay quiet, we are close,” Sandy whispered and felt Tyler’s body turn to stone, but his head still scanned around, just much slower.
The trees further out from the creek fell away exposing a small grass-covered field, and Sandy saw the raised interstate two hundred yards away. Thankfully, she couldn’t see the roadway, and could only see the heads of stinkers heading north. Keeping in the trees at the bank, Sandy led them in a wide arc to follow the creek and sighed seeing there were trees right up to the bridge and a small dirt road for tractors under the bridge.
Lifting her bow, Sandy readied an arrow because she would only use a gun as a last resort. The closer to the bridge they got, Sandy could hear the footsteps dragging along and it unnerved her, realizing how many bodies it would take to be that loud.
Moving under the bridge, they could hear the mass of bodies shuffling above them through the yards of concrete and earth. Sandy felt her pulse skip a beat and her mouth go dry as her mind provided details to the numbers she didn’t want. Exiting the other side, they wouldn’t have trees for fifteen yards. Biting her bottom lip, Sandy just let her horse walk out and cover the gap before easing back into the trees. Turning around, Sandy sighed when she realized the interstate was too high, over thirty feet above them, for stinkers to see them unless they had leaned over.
Keeping to the trees, Sandy stayed with the creek as it turned south with a field on the other side. Sandy looked through the trees to the interstate and almost fell off her horse. All six lanes of the interstate heading to Bowling Green were tightly packed with stinkers.
She could feel Tyler hyperventilating and felt her bottom get wet. Almost certain she hadn’t peed; Sandy steered her horse away from the creek, praying it wouldn’t snap a large limb. Coming out on a dirt road Sandy had no intention of following, she led her horse over it and back into the trees. Leaning down to Tyler’s ear, “We are away. Keep looking around so we don’t stumble up on some and have to make noise,” Sandy whispered, and Tyler immediately went back into scan mode.
When they were two miles away and crossing a field staying near the fence row, Mary eased up beside Sandy. “You realize our camp spot is only four miles from the interstate right?” Mary asked.
Glancing at her watch, “The alternate was nine. You want to try for that?” Sandy asked, and Mary grinned.
“I want to try the third one fourteen miles away, but unless we are spotted by stinkers, we aren’t moving during daylight hours,” Mary told her and Sandy nodded, not even thinking about arguing that.
Hearing a sniffling, Sandy patted Tyler’s chest, steering them back into trees. “What’s wrong?” Sandy asked.
“I’m sorry,” Tyler whimpered.
Leaning down, Sandy kissed the top of his head. “Tyler, we spilled water in the saddle,” Sandy whispered, then kissed his head again.
Wiping his face, Tyler looked up at her giving a smile, then went back to scanning. Crossing creeks and roads, Sandy would steer away from the few stinkers Tyler spotted. Since most were on roads, that wasn’t hard.
It was an hour before dawn when they reached the second campsite at an oxbow, and everyone had to use the bathroom before unloading the horses.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Cabin, Kentucky
“No hanky panky while we’re gone,” Lance grinned, looking at Ian.
“Brah, you need to chill. I’m going to finish the tracked buggy and Carrie will be here,” Ian blushed. “How long you figure it will take you?”
Shrugging, “Few hours, if they set up like we told them,” Lance answered as Lilly came out of the house with Lori and Denny. “You ready to start for the outing tonight?”
“Hell, yeah,” Ian grinned. “If anyone has earned an exploit, it’s the pirates. Are you going to tell them where we’re going?”
Nodding as Allie and Jodi came out the backdoor, “Yeah,” Lance huffed. “And they aren’t going. They aren’t good enough for a scouting, at least not yet.”
“I’m glad because Jennifer was freaking out in the Nazi camp. I told her to relax, but she was wound so tight if she would’ve farted, I think she would’ve exploded,” Ian admitted. “But she did move well, just stiff and she did what we told her without hesitation.”
“Yeah, if this was going to be a deed I’d let them go, but now the other side gets direct action on the spot, so that increases the stakes. It’s rare we do exploits, but the dickwads started it and we don’t even have to worry about the cops,” Lance said with a nod, watching the group climb in one of the new crew cab Polaris Rangers they’d gotten. “It was really nice of the Nazis to deliver us new rides,” Lance grinned.
“Would’ve been better if they would’ve been dampened when we got them,” Ian huffed. “That diesel we used could be heard over fifty yards away. We’re lucky stinkers didn’t follow us back from the ambush site.”
“Well, it’s quiet now,” Lance said, watching Lilly climb behind the steering wheel. Cranking up the Ranger, Lilly reached out to touch the dash and feel it vibrate, confirming it was cranked and Lance grinned. “Don’t think we’ll get it as quiet as the gas ones, though.”
“Be cool, brah,” Ian said, patting Lance’s shoulder.
Seating his mask on his face, “You too,” Lance said, putting on his helmet. Climbing in the UTV, he glanced back to see Denny and Lori on the outside of the backseat with Allie between them. He looked between him and Lilly at Lori. “Um, where’s Dino going to sit?”
“He’s on the trailer,” Lilly told him.
Leaning out, Lance saw Dino on the small five-foot trailer that was loaded with gear, sitting up rather regally, like he was surveying his domain. “Glad because Dino not going isn’t an option,” Lance said.
“We ready?” Lilly asked, grabbing the shifter.
“I am,” Lance replied, and Lilly dropped the shifter into drive.
Turning around and driving around the cabin, Lilly shook her head. “I don’t know how you two got this one so quiet.”
“Gas is easy, but this one is brand new. Hell, the Nazis only put a hundred miles on it. All the other ones we worked on were used and several years old,” Lance told her as the inner gate started to open and Lilly slowed.
“How are the new bots doing?” Lilly asked, easing through the inner gate and the outer gate swung open.
“Surprisingly, the gun bots are doing well, but we’ve already identified some problems that have to be addressed,” Lance chuckled. “The
new battle bots are doing great and it seems the wheeled version doesn’t use as much power to move. It’s early, but it looks like they are ten percent more efficient, but I’m not jumping to conclusions just yet. The tracked bots aren’t showing the vibrations to the body that the wheeled bots are.”
Driving along the fence, Lilly risked a glance over at Lance. “You had doubts about the gun bots?”
“No, they are highly-crafted machines, and we’ve learned those tend to break or fail much more often. We learned on some deeds, the more complicated the machine, the more problems we have,” Lance told her as the fence fell away and Lilly started up the slope. “We made it as robust as we could and I only wanted to put out one gun bot so we could refine the design like we did with the battle bots, but Ian wanted to go straight to production after proof of concept.”
Reaching the ridge, Lilly followed it until she reached the diversion fence chute. “You be careful going to check on them,” Lilly said, weaving through the chute and then started down the slope.
“Humph,” Lance scoffed. “There are nine different ways I can shut them down remotely. If I have to walk up to one and shut it down, I’ll shut that motherfucker down with a sniper rifle. I’m not walking up on one of those things.”
Giving a relieved sigh, Lilly pulled into the yard of the build house and shook her head at all the trailers and the growing collection of supplies, what Lance and Ian called it. Junk, what Lilly and Jennifer called it. She was just thankful some of the ‘supplies’ the boys had brought to the cabin were now moving over the ridge to the build house. Neither she nor Jennifer or anyone else had been to the research area, but had seen the boys hauling equipment there. Just the fact the boys used the research area to work on stuff that was too dangerous to test or work on inside the fence or at the build house scared the living shit out of Lilly. They made chemicals, bombs, and bots inside the fence. The gun bots were first tested at the research area, but were moved back to the cabin. Knowing what the boys built and tested inside the fence, neither Lilly nor Jennifer really wanted to go to the research area.
Forsaken World (Book 5): Homecoming Page 27