“Do you know where Megan went, Vicky? And who she was with? Surely, she didn’t leave here alone, did she?”
“No, she wasn’t alone. She was with Aaron, another friend of ours from the university. She broke up with her boyfriend, Gareth, before we got here, but he was still with us at the time, along with three more of our friends. He wouldn’t leave her alone, and he was jealous of her hanging out with Aaron. Aaron wanted her to leave with him because he said he had an even better place to go. I would have gone with them, but I couldn’t leave my grandma and grandpa here like that. I knew they needed me, but it didn’t matter anyway. Look what happened to them even though I was here!” Vicky began to sob again.
Eric put his hand on hers. “It’s okay, Vicky. You stayed here with them. You did the right thing at the time, and it was smart to hide like you did. They would have killed you too. Now tell me, how did Megan and Aaron leave? Were they walking? Do you know where this place is that Aaron wanted to take her?”
“No, they weren’t walking. They rode out of here. My grandpa gave them a saddle horse and a pack horse each and supplies too. But they left without telling Gareth. He and one of the other guys were off hunting somewhere else on the ranch. When he got back he was really mad. He yelled at my grandpa and me and everybody else. We didn’t know what he was going to do, but two nights later, he and the rest of them stole some of Grandpa’s horses and left. I don’t know if he was going to try and find Megan or not. He wasn’t happy staying out here, but he didn’t want to leave without her either. I think that’s why she went ahead and left with Aaron first, partly to get away from him and partly to get him away from here and my grandma and grandpa, because he wouldn’t leave as long as she was here. He was turning into a real jerk.”
Eric couldn’t believe what he was hearing. After coming all this way, he just found out his daughter was somewhere out there in these mountains on a horse with just one friend, and possibly a jealous ex-boyfriend in pursuit. And there was another raiding party on horseback willing to kill for anything they could take.
“Aaron is Native American,” Vicky said. “He told us that the safest place to go with all that was happening was to his tribal homeland, on the reservation. It’s a sovereign nation, or something like that, he said. The people there aren’t involved in any of the things that are going on all over America and he said no terrorists or the military or anyone else who didn’t belong would bother us there. It sounded good, and Megan believed him. She trusted him.”
“An Indian reservation?” Eric asked. “Which one? Do you know what tribe Aaron was from?”
“Yes, Apache. He didn’t grow up on the reservation, but he has aunts and uncles and cousins there. But the thing that he said was so good about it was that it’s really big, and lots of it is remote, with plenty of places to hide out and people that would take us in because of his family.”
“And this is in Colorado?” Eric was thinking most Apaches were originally farther south and west, like in Arizona and Mexico.”
“No, it’s in New Mexico, but not very far. He said it was just across the state line. I can’t remember the name of it. Aaron told us, but it was hard to pronounce.”
Eric dug into his backpack and pulled out the stack of maps he’d gotten from Kyle. There was one big roadmap that showed the four states of the Southwest: Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. He unfolded it, and sure enough, all the major Indian reservations, as well as national parks and national forests, were outlined on it. “Is this it, do you think? Does that name sound familiar?” Eric pointed as he spoke it: “Jicarilla Apache? Is that Aaron’s tribe?”
“Yes! That’s definitely the one! I remember it now. I knew the name sounded Spanish.”
Eric was relieved that Megan’s destination had been identified, but damn! That was still a long-ass way, and just when he thought he was so close to her! Northern New Mexico? Could she make it that far, alone with just her one friend on horseback? That ride would be challenging enough in normal times, with weather factors and other dangers of horseback travel in the wilderness. Eric knew their chances of success depended greatly on this Apache friend of hers. He hoped the boy knew his way around horses and the mountains, but his tribal heritage meant little if he’d grown up like most kids these days. And even if he was a skilled outdoorsman that could handle such a journey, there were still the other dangers now that required a whole different skill set.
“Your grandfather must have owned a lot of horses,” Eric said, “if he gave four to Megan and Aaron and then there were still more for those men to steal after Gareth and his friends stole some too.”
“Yes, there were a lot of them. I’m not sure exactly how many. Grandpa loved his horses.”
“How many other friends were with Gareth?”
“It was him and three more. Jeremy, Colleen and Brett. Colleen and Brett are a couple. They’ve been dating since before the riots.”
“And Megan was dating Gareth before too? You said he was turning into jerk once you got here. What was going on?”
“Gareth only agreed to come out here because Megan and I wanted to get out of Boulder before things got worse. He did it thinking it was only going to be for a little while, but he kept talking about wanting to go back. He wanted to join the resistance and fight, but we saw some of the things those people were doing, and we didn’t want any part of that. It wasn’t like we thought in the beginning. It wasn’t any kind of peaceful protest. People started getting hurt, and then some were even getting killed, on both sides. And it wasn’t easy to tell anymore who was who.”
“What is this resistance you speak of? Resistance against what?”
“Resistance against oppression and the police state. They were taking over everything, hurting people with sticks and Tasers and pepper spray and locking people up.”
“But they weren’t doing this for no reason were they? What started it? Was it the protests that turned into riots? Was it vandalism? Arson?”
“The protests were peaceful until they made it violent. Nobody wanted it to turn out like it did, but it got really bad.”
Eric had heard enough to get the gist of it. He didn’t want to upset Vicky any more than she already was by asking hard questions. The main thing was that she and Megan had enough sense to get away from all that, and Megan had gotten away from this Gareth guy, who sounded like trouble to Eric. “It’s okay,” he said to her. “I know how these things can happen and turn into something nobody wanted. The main thing is that you got out. How did all of you get here?”
“We hiked. It took a long time, like more than two weeks. We didn’t have enough food or anything. Aaron and Gareth tried hunting, but they didn’t get anything.”
“So, they have guns with them? Did Aaron have one when he left with Megan?”
“Yes, he had one. It wasn’t one of those machine guns like yours,” she glanced at the M4 propped nearby. “I think he said it was a thirty-thirty? Does that sound right? My Grandpa taught me how to shoot a long time ago, but I didn’t really like the noise. I always wanted to ride horses instead when I came here to visit. He taught me a lot about riding, and when we all got here, the rest of my friends learned how to ride too.”
Eric was relieved to hear that this Aaron guy Megan had left with at least had a rifle. It would be better if Megan had a pistol too, as she was a pretty good shot the last time he’d worked with her. Vicky said she didn’t think she did though when Eric asked. He knew that Megan and Shauna had learned to ride horses after Daniel came into the picture, as he paid for them to join an exclusive equestrian center out in Jupiter Farms where they spent many weekends when Megan was still in high school. That wasn’t anything like riding out here in the mountains, but if they had pack animals, Eric knew they were likely moving at a walking pace at best, and hopefully sticking to backcountry trails to avoid the roads as much as possible.
“Aaron said they were going to follow the Continental Divide where they could. There’s a route fo
r bicycles too that uses gravel roads and bike trails. He knows to stay away from highways.”
After learning all he could about Megan for now, Eric told Vicky that Megan’s mom and their friend Jonathan were supposed to be coming here too, and that they might arrive riding bicycles.
“I haven’t seen them. No one has come up that road since those men killed my grandma and grandpa. Before that, someone did, but they didn’t know this was a dead-end road. It was a man and woman in a pickup truck. They went by but came back after a couple of hours when they got to the dead end. They stopped and talked to Grandpa. They were just lost.”
Not knowing where Shauna and Jonathan were was a huge problem now for Eric. He was only here because of Shauna’s letter, so he knew this was their destination, but what had taken them so long? They’d had enough time to get here, especially if they had ridden the bicycles most of the way, although Eric knew they could have encountered any number of obstacles or even run into serious trouble, like the kind of trouble that found Vicky’s grandparents. The not knowing was a dilemma for Eric, because now he knew Megan had been here and which way she’d headed, but he didn’t know if Shauna and Jonathan were still on their way here or if they were never coming. If he went back to search for them the way he’d come, they might arrive by way of the road coming in from the west. And then, there was the problem of what to do with Vicky. Eric couldn’t just leave her here, but she was too weak to make a long trek through the mountains on foot with him. She would probably be able to ride, but with the horses gone that wasn’t an option. It was already late afternoon now anyway, so he decided maybe it was best to let her eat and rest while he thought about what to do overnight. There was fear in her eyes when she watched him get up from where he’d been sitting with her in the barn, and he knew she thought he was going to leave her.
“I’m not going anywhere right now. I’m just going to go move some more rocks onto your grandparent’s graves. I know you did the best you could, but it would be best to put on a few more.”
“Thank you. I know you came here looking for Megan and you weren’t expecting to find me. I don’t want to be a burden to you.”
“You’re not a burden, Vicky. If I hadn’t found you here, I would have no idea what to do next. But I’m not going to leave you. You don’t need to worry about that.”
The hard work of gathering heavy stones gave Eric time to think about his options, none of which were ideal. Trying to catch up with Megan on foot seemed virtually impossible. Sure, he could hike south to that reservation eventually, but it would take him weeks to do so even alone, and Vicky would slow him down immensely, if she could keep up at all. The two of them could hike back the other way, to the cutoff where Eric had seen that cabin with the horses out front that was obviously inhabited, and he could try to make a deal for some with the gold he had left, but there was no guarantee the owner would be willing to part with something as valuable as horses in times like these. And if both of them left to go back there, Shauna and Jonathan might arrive in the meantime and finding the burned house and the graves, leave before he ever knew they were here. It seemed the only option he had was to leave Vicky here in case they came while he went to see about those horses alone. But he’d promised her he wouldn’t leave her, and she probably wouldn’t trust him to come back if he did. He decided to think about it overnight. He would make camp in the barn and talk to her some more, and then broach the subject in the morning, when a new day would make the prospect more optimistic than the gloom of the long shadows already creeping in as the sun sank behind the ranges to the west.
Vicky had been sleeping in the barn with hay piled around her every night to keep from freezing when the temperatures dropped. She’d been afraid of building a fire because it might be seen, and Eric skipped it too, giving her his sleeping bag when she was ready to turn in and using the hay for himself, which was good enough with the barn walls blocking most of the wind. Vicky looked better in the morning now that she’d regained some of her strength from eating, and Eric decided to go ahead and tell her his plan so he could get moving early. After thinking about it much of the night, there was little else he could do that made any sense.
“Vicky, I promised you I wouldn’t go off and leave you, and I won’t. But you know I need to find Megan too. I want you to go with me to do that if you’re willing to.”
“I guess so. I don’t know where else I’d go.” She had already told Eric that her parents lived in Oregon now. They’d moved there shortly after she enrolled at the university because her father got a great job offer in Portland. With her grandparents gone, she had no family left in Colorado.
“That’s good. I’m glad you’re willing to do that. But you know we’re going to need horses. I saw a place that had some on my way here, when I was still up on the divide trail. It was about a one-and-a-half-day hike back there, but I can make it in a day if I push it. I need you to be strong for me and wait here in case Megan’s mother and our friend Jonathan show up. Can you do that?”
Eric saw the doubt in her eyes, and he took her hand in his and squeezed it firmly. “I’m not going to leave you, Vicky. I promise. I’m going to leave my backpack with most of my gear and food here with you. You can stay hidden in this barn until I come back. I’ll be back tomorrow night at the latest, even if I don’t get any horses. If I do, it’ll be sooner.”
“I don’t want to be here alone again. I’m so afraid those men will come back.”
“There’s nothing else here for them to take, and they didn’t know you were here. They have no reason to come back, Vicky. But you said you learned how to shoot, right? Have you ever fired a handgun?”
“A little. My grandpa’s forty-five.”
“Good. I’m going to leave you my pistol. It’s even easier to shoot than your grandpa’s. You just pull the trigger and you’ve got seventeen chances to hit what you’re aiming at. I don’t think you’re going to need it, but it’ll make you feel better to have it. Can you do this for me, Vicky? So we can go catch up with Megan?”
“I guess so, but please hurry. I don’t want to be here alone for long.”
Eric gave her another reassuring hug and then quickly sorted out what he could carry, stuffing his trouser and jacket pockets with food, water and a couple of spare mags for the M4. He was traveling as light as he possibly could, counting on reaching that cabin before dark and negotiating with the owner upon arrival. If that failed, he would spend an uncomfortable night somewhere in the wilderness and then return here tomorrow to initiate a Plan B, whatever that may turn out to be.
He struck out up the road at a steady jog, eating up the miles while he could before he reached the steeper terrain of the trail that would slow him down. An hour and a half later, he came to the trail crossing and left the road heading north, stopping briefly at an expansive overlook to catch his breath and replenish his energy with food and drink. When he set out again, he had only been hiking fifteen minutes or so before he heard the unmistakable clop of steel horseshoes on loose rock and the low murmur of human voices. Eric slipped sideways off the trail, ducking behind a pile of large boulders before the riders rounded the bend ahead. He had the M4 in hand and ready, but unless they stopped here for some reason, he didn’t expect to be seen from where he watched and waited.
The first rider to come into view wore a cowboy hat and a long duster jacket that made him look as if he would be right at home here in the mid-1800s. The lever-action rifle he carried in a leather scabbard strapped to the saddle completed the picture, as did the loaded packhorse he was leading, burdened by canvas pack bags. There was a second rider following several yards behind, but the first one was nearly adjacent his position before Eric got a look at his companion. This one was leading another horse as well, although it was saddled to ride, rather than laden with packs. Eric stared until the second rider’s head finally turned his way, and then he got a good look at the face beneath the green parka hood she was wearing. He had to blink to make sure he
wasn’t seeing things, but however improbable, he was certain it was her when he called out her name: “SHAUNA!
Seventeen
AS SOON AS SHAUNA and Jonathan had retrieved their weapons they had hidden in the park near the former university campus, they promptly headed west to put the city of Boulder behind them as quickly as possible. The first leg of the journey to the ranch where they hoped to find Megan required riding west on Highway 119, as it was the most direct route into the mountains and to the Continental Divide. After the encounter they’d already had on the bike path, Shauna and Jonathan knew they might run into most anything out there on the road, but it seemed even more dangerous to hang around the deserted streets of the city any longer, as the new refugee center that had been set up at the university seemed to be the only place that was truly secured by the authorities.
“We need to get far enough out of town to find a place to hide, and then wait for dark,” Shauna said. Eric had been planning to travel at night when they were all talking about riding the entire way here, and it made sense to do that now too. “It’ll probably be really cold riding at night, but I’d rather be cold than be seen.”
“Of course,” Jonathan said, “The cold’s gonna suck, but I’ll deal with it. There’s no traffic even now, so there’s probably nobody driving this highway at night. We’ll have it all to ourselves.”
“Let’s hope so.”
The landscape quickly changed as the road began climbing, winding into the smaller hills in the transition zone between the valley and the spine of the Rockies. Shauna had spent a lot of time on a bike over the years, training and competing in triathlons, but riding a loaded bike on seemingly endless uphill grades in the thin mountain air was a different experience altogether. Jonathan was lean and in shape too, but he was struggling at least as much. The only way they could keep the bikes moving on the steeper grades was to shift down and ride at a pace barely faster than walking. Still, it was better than walking, because the bikes were carrying the load of all their gear and supplies, and there would be downhill sections later where they would make up for lost time, at least they hoped. They pulled off on a gravel road to rest and wait once they were well out of town, and though they hadn’t yet passed a sign indicating they were in the national forest, the wooded slopes here seemed like wilderness already. Shauna felt better about their prospects of avoiding trouble now that they were in this environment. Someone on a motorcycle had passed them going the opposite direction before they pulled off the highway, but the rider neither slowed nor waved and clearly didn’t want any interaction with them. After dark, when they got moving again, she suggested they try to get off the road and hide whenever they heard a vehicle coming.
Feral Nation Series Box Set 2 [Books 4-6] Page 16