Although he hadn’t seen another person since he left Kyle on that road, Eric stopped often along the trail to look for movement in the distance, especially in the direction where he was headed. There were plenty of places on this trail where it would be easy to run into an ambush, so he had to balance the need to move quickly with the need for reasonable precautions. Moving at night might have been safer in that regard, but now that he was off the roads, he didn’t feel that it was necessary. And in this terrain it would be too easy to make a misstep that could cause serious injury, not to mention how much colder it would be after sundown.
Anticipating a frigid night wherever he stopped, Eric made sure that he wasn’t on an exposed ridge by the time it started getting dark. He left the trail and descended into a drainage to the east, working his way down into a tall stand of timber until he found a large rock outcrop under which to shelter and where he could build a fire that wouldn’t be seen by anyone on the trail above. He kept the fire small and sat close, staring into the flames and thinking about all the things he wanted to ask Megan when he saw her. Mainly, he wanted to ask her forgiveness. He hadn’t been there for her, and now he knew her life might have been quite different if he had. Maybe not better, but he could have done a lot more to try and make it so. Daniel had come along and taken his place and had given Megan a lot of the things that money could buy, but he wasn’t able to do what Eric was doing now. He couldn’t come rescue her here even if he was willing. But Eric knew that if he had been there for her, Megan wouldn’t need to be rescued to begin with. And Daniel wouldn’t be in the picture at all. He couldn’t blame the man for filling the void he’d left with Shauna, because she’d given Eric every opportunity to make it work, but he blew it anyway. And now as he sat there alone in the cold huddled over that tiny source of heat that the high-altitude air seemed to suck away into space, Eric would have traded everything he had and everything he’d ever done to be back in his old home with Shana and Megan, the way it should have been. He sat there thinking these thoughts late into the night, until he finally zipped into his sleeping bag and dozed off, letting the flames die down to coals as he listened to a chorus of coyotes in the distance.
Eric woke before dawn, too cold to sleep any longer despite the high-quality sleeping bag rated for minus ten Fahrenheit. He doubted it was that cold, but he knew those ratings didn’t mean a lot either. When he checked the thermometer function on his watch, the reading was actually plus fifteen; certainly cold enough, but it would warm rapidly when the sun came up. Eric rekindled the fire long enough to warm up while he ate an MRE and got his boots on, and then he was packed and moving out at first light. The sunrise over the mountains was spectacular from back atop the ridge top trail, and Eric paused for a minute to appreciate the best part of it. After looking around for signs of other hikers and seeing nothing, he set out again to the south at a brisk pace.
By midmorning, he’d reached a saddle where another trail diverged into a drainage off to the west, and with the sun behind him now, he could see a lone cabin far below in a small, isolated meadow. Horses grazing nearby and smoke from the chimney told him that someone was home, and Eric figured they had a pretty good set-up, their place backing up as it did to millions of acres of national forests and other uninhabited federal lands. Eric knew there were private holdings like that sprinkled throughout the big national forest areas of the West, and from Kyles maps, it appeared that the ranch Megan had headed to was in a similar situation. Eric stared for a moment longer at the tranquil little remote homestead, thinking that whoever owned it was doing quite well compared to what was going on in the rest of the country. He could only hope it was as peaceful at Megan’s destination.
It took a full day of hiking to reach the next gravel forest service road that reached the trail, this one dead-ending there at the divide rather than continuing through the pass to the east. After consulting his maps, Eric determined that this was the correct one—the road that would take him where he needed to go. He found a small overhang under a rock ledge nearby to bivouac for the night, and at dawn he was on the move again, this time walking down the rough gravel road that was in reality, every bit as remote as the hiking trail he’d left. There were no signs of tire tracks or other disturbances on the road to indicate recent use. Whether that was good or bad, he didn’t know, but he figured folks that lived out here were pretty self-sufficient and unlikely to drive around wasting precious gasoline unless they had a damned good reason to.
Eric followed the deserted road for nearly ten miles. In Shauna’s letter, she’d said that Megan’s friend told her the ranch was the last one on it before it petered out and ended at the divide trail. Eric didn’t know whether the property was on the north or the south side of the road though since the map he had of this area wasn’t detailed enough to show individual structures like houses. It did show that the national forest boundary ended at the head of a long valley that headed up a few miles west of the trail though, and he knew he must be nearing it by now that the road was beginning to level out and appeared to be better maintained.
While he would have preferred to survey the ranch from a distance, as he’d done when he spotted the remote cabin yesterday, he doubted he’d get such a view of this one. The road farther up wound through dense spruce and aspen forests with no open overlooks, and now entered the more open ponderosa pines of the lower elevations. When he eventually came to barbed wire cattle fencing on the south side of the road though, he knew he was getting close. Rather than approach the ranch from the road where he might be spotted and seen as a threat, Eric decided to cross the fence and follow it from within the tree line until he saw either the house or drive and could assess the danger. It wouldn’t be unreasonable for landowners out here to shoot trespassers on sight, considering all that was going on now, so it was simply prudent to ensure that he saw them before they knew he was there.
Once inside the fence, he expected to see cattle droppings or other signs of livestock, but there was nothing recent, and though he stopped often to listen carefully, he heard no sounds that indicated either domestic animals or human activity nearby. Eric knew that didn’t mean much though. Ranches out here were often vast, and nothing in Shauna’s letter indicated the size of this one. Any cattle that might have been in this area could be on a faraway range on another part of the spread, and the house could still be far from earshot. Eric kept working his way west, paralleling the road and fence, knowing he would eventually come to an entrance road leading from the one out front, as there was no other access by vehicle if the maps were to be believed.
He eventually came to a long gravel drive as expected, nearly a mile west of where he’d first crossed the fence. Still having seen or heard nothing to indicate anyone was around, he checked for tire tracks but saw only some faint hoofprints of horses. The drive wound uphill through the pines and open meadows, and Eric kept to cover as much as possible as he followed it, certain that it would lead him to the ranch house. There were more fences to cross along the way, with cattle guards in the drive wherever they crossed. Finally, Eric topped a small rise where he had a view of the home site. There was a barn or stable farther back that was still standing, but the house that had been there was burned to the ground. All that remained was a pile of charred rubble and a stone chimney, along with the blackened body of an older pickup truck that must have been parked in an adjoining garage or carport. Eric’s hopes fell as he stared at the scene of ruin before him. If this was the place that had indeed been Megan’s destination, then she wasn’t here now, and neither was Shauna and Jonathan. He still didn’t see any livestock either, and the silence was overwhelming, the land here seemingly as desolate as the mountain wilderness from which he’d just descended. Even so, Eric didn’t drop his guard as he approached, moving through the trees and stopping here and there behind the larger ones to look and listen.
When he moved closer to the remains of the house, Eric noticed two nearly identical rock piles in what must hav
e been the backyard. They were the right size and shape to be graves if the bodies were above ground and covered with stones by someone who didn’t have the time or means to dig into the rocky ground for a proper burial. Eric studied the other building still standing a couple hundred yards back. He could see that it was indeed a horse barn or stable now. The front gates were open and from where he stood, he could see some of the empty stalls. Keeping the M4 at ready, he approached the rubble of the house to get a closer look. The black soot didn’t look like it had been washed by rains since the fire, but there was no heat or smoke either, so it was hard to tell just how recently the house had burned. But when he walked past the rock graves on the way to the barn, he could see that scavengers had gotten to them through the gaps between the stones, partially uncovering them. From the ripe smell of decomposition that was still present, Eric knew they’d probably died around the same time the house had burned, making it unlikely that the fire was an accident, or that the deaths were by natural causes. Someone had survived it though and had taken the time to move the bodies side-by-side, and then gather all those rocks to cover them. But whether that person had been here all along or had arrived afterwards was a mystery.
Eric didn’t inspect the graves any closer but instead focused his attention on the barn. He didn’t expect to find it occupied after everything else he’d seen here, but perhaps there would be some clue to tell him more about the place. He wasn’t convinced now that he was even at the right ranch. It was quite possible that Shauna’s directions were inaccurate. After all, the girl who’d given them to her was locked up in that detainment center and had probably never been out here in her life, since it belonged to the grandparents of a friend. He would keep searching the valley until he found someone who could tell him whether or not this was the right place, but he had to assume at the moment that it was not, especially since there was no indication Shauna and Jonathan had been here either.
He reached the front of the barn and pressed close to the rough planking, scanning the dim interior through a large knothole. From there he could see that all of the other stalls were open too, and no animals were present. Other than a pile of loose hay in the back corner, there was nothing else on the ground floor. A built-in wooden ladder leading up to the hayloft over the back half of the barn made it easy to go up there and have a look, so slipping off his backpack, he decided he might as well. A startled rat scurried away behind the bales when his head suddenly appeared at the top of the ladder, but as he poked around up there, Eric was convinced there was nothing else in the old barn, at least until he heard a sudden sound down below, like something big knocking over a leaning board or some other object. Then he heard the sound of footsteps running away on the hard ground outside. It was only seven or so feet from the loft to the ground, so Eric skipped the ladder and leapt down, absorbing the landing in a deep squat and then spinning in the direction of the back gate with his M4 ready to engage.
What he saw nearly caused his heart to stop. A girl in ragged and torn clothing was running for the woods, her long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail bouncing behind her as she went. Eric sprinted out of the barn after her, and as soon as he emerged into the sunlight, shouted at her to stop.
“MEGAN! MEGAN STOP!”
At first, he didn’t think she heard him, so he shouted again. This time the girl faltered in her stride and hesitated.
“MEGAN! IT’S ALL RIGHT! IT’S YOUR DAD!”
She stopped completely then, and slowly turned around, her eyes wide with fear. That’s when Eric saw his mistake. This girl wasn’t his daughter, despite the color and length of her hair that was nearly identical to Megan’s the last time he saw her. He realized then that he’d wanted it to be her so bad that his mind had made it so, but seeing this stranger’s face, he now had no idea who she was. Or he didn’t until she spoke:
“You’re Megan’s dad?”
Sixteen
ERIC LEANED HIS RIFLE against the back of the barn so that he didn’t frighten her further and answered the girl’s question.
“Yes, I am her dad. I’m Eric Branson. Do you know Megan? Is she here?”
The girl hesitated, still unsure if she could trust him, and Eric didn’t blame her. She looked traumatized, and he immediately guessed she’d been the one who moved all those rocks. “Megan was supposed to be going to a ranch out here. A ranch that belonged to her roommate’s grandparents. Her roommate’s name is Vicky.” Eric said.
“I’m Vicky,” the girl said in a still hesitant voice. “Are you really Megan’s father?”
She looked like a frightened deer, caught in the headlights and ready to bolt at the first sign of danger. Eric knew he must have looked scary to her. She’d probably been watching him from the barn as he walked onto the property with his rifle in hand. Now that he studied her closely, he could see bits of hay in her hair and on her clothes, indicating that she had been hiding under the pile of loose hay inside that he’d given little thought to.
“I assure you that I am,” he answered. “I came all this way from Europe to find her. I went to the university in Boulder first.”
“She told me her dad was some kind of soldier.”
“I was,” Eric said. “I’m not anymore though.” He took a couple of steps in her direction, speaking softly. “Do you know if she is okay? Is she here or somewhere nearby?”
She didn’t answer, but she was beginning to relax a bit, so Eric eased closer still talking softly. “Are you okay? Are you hurt, Vicky?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m just hungry. Really hungry! I haven’t eaten in over a week, I think.”
“It’s okay. I have food with me. In my backpack.”
“Megan’s not here. She was, but everyone else left before this happened.”
“She left? How long ago?”
“About three weeks, I think.”
This wasn’t what Eric wanted to hear, but at least he knew Megan had indeed been here at some point, and now maybe Vicky could tell him where she went. It wouldn’t do to pressure her though. She was frightened, hungry and had been through no telling what, somehow surviving whatever happened when the ranch house was burned and the two who were buried under those rocks were killed. Eric now figured they were her grandparents. He slowly walked closer until he was halfway to her, and then waited for her to do the rest, which she did. When he took her hand, she suddenly threw her arms around him and buried her face into his shoulder, sobbing, her embrace surprisingly strong for one so famished.
“My grandma and grandpa are dead!” She cried. “They were both so sweet. They would never hurt anyone. They didn’t deserve this!”
“This was their place, right? Their house was up there?”
“Yes. Some men burned it. And they shot Grandma and Grandpa. I didn’t see it happen, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I hid in the woods up there on the slope and they never knew I was here. When they left it was too late. Both Grandpa and Grandma were already dead. I couldn’t even bury them by myself because the ground here is too hard to dig. I rolled them close together and covered them up with rocks. It was all I could do,” Vicky sobbed.
“You survived,” Eric said. “That is what they would want for you.” He wanted more than anything to ask her to tell him everything she knew about Megan, but Eric knew to wait. The poor girl had been hiding in that barn in terror for days, maybe longer, and he didn’t know when she’d last eaten. He held her until she calmed down and relaxed a bit, and then he led her by the hand back where he’d left his backpack in the barn. “Let me get you something to eat. You don’t have to be afraid now. You are safe here with me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
When Eric had prepared her an MRE entrée of chili with beans, he sat with Vicky as she ate and waited until she was ready to talk some more. “They came and took all the food and my grandpa’s guns and everything else they wanted from the house, and then after they shot him and my grandma, they set the house on fire. Then they rounded up
all the horses and took them with them too.”
“Who were these men, Vicky? Do you know? How did they come here? On the road or on horses of their own?”
“They were on horses. There were a lot of them. I don’t know, maybe eight or ten. I have no idea where they came from or why.”
Eric wasn’t surprised really, after all he’d seen. There were bands of outlaws and raiders everywhere now, and no reason to believe things would be much different here in the mountains. He just hoped like hell that wherever Megan was, she hadn’t run into men like that. Vicky was almost finished with her meal, and he couldn’t wait any longer to get some more answers.
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