by Sally Six
All the canteens were filled and she was ready to go. Barb looked around her home for the last time. She didn’t know if she would ever make it back. Even a week ago, she had never dreamed any of this would be happening. She walked out the back door not even bothering to lock it and over to the shed and went in. There was the scum ball lying on the floor asleep. She knew that he had been and was in pain and she didn’t give a hoot. She turned around and walked back out the door, got on her bike and flipped the switch for her headlight that was peddle powered. She slung the rifle back to her shoulder and the strap over her head then headed down the road. Her bikes headlight wasn’t as needed as she thought it would be tonight as the moon was bright and helped to light her way down the road.
Chapter 16
Miles to Go
Around midnight, Brian decided they best bed down for the night. His mom hadn’t said anything, but he could tell she was pretty well done in. She was changing slowly, but she was changing for the better with less complaining, acting spoiled and brainless. The moon had been bright tonight. That helped them go much further than they had the night before. A few wispy clouds had gone across the moon’s face as he called a halt.
“I thought you were never going to have us rest for the night,” she said with a sigh as she climbed off the bike and pushed it behind his as they headed into the brush.
When they were about 70 feet back behind some trees and bushes on only slightly slanted ground, he called that good. He began taking off his backpack with his mom parking her bike by his and chucking her pack also.
They unfolded the tarps and spread their bags on top of them. It didn’t take long. They were both sound asleep with no thought of anyone staying up to stand guard. They were in the middle of nowhere with not a home to be had for miles. Sometimes believing that can get you caught but not tonight.
Morning came way too quickly to suit Brian, but at first light he was up, took care of his business and was warming some water for tea on his small camp stove. He broke out two breakfast MRE’s that he had packed on the wagon and warmed up the main dish in his scout pan.
“Mom, time to get up. I have breakfast ready.” He shook his mom until she was awake enough to know that she shouldn’t go back to sleep.
Beulah opened her eyes to the face of her son and groaned, but she acknowledged Brian enough for him to know she was awake. She slowly got out of her sleeping bag and headed for the woods. She was a bit more awake and moving better when she got back to camp.
They took 30 minutes to eat, clean up the area and repack their camping gear to be on their way again. Each day seemed to get colder, but being up in the mountains didn’t help that either. The higher they went the colder it got. It would be that way until they headed down into Riggins, Idaho. Right now they were real close to the very small town of Smiths Ferry.
As they headed into Smiths Ferry, Brian talked to his mom. “Now be very alert Mom. There aren’t many homes, mostly vacation homes. There is only one store/sleeping room type place, but a few of those houses have people in them all year. We need to be very quick through there.”
Beulah looked at her son and said. “I’ll try Brian. I’ll try.”
Their only real problem was the wagon. Brain sure wished they could find something better. That way they could go faster than this wagon would let them. The road was curvy and they were one mile from another tiny town. A few houses could be seen dotting the woods here and there. Some were beautiful log homes and even a dome home over across the river on the right. It was a beautiful valley, still green with the Salmon River going right through the middle. Mountains now rose on both sides of them and incased the valley. They were on the long curve left to right. They spotted the store as they were coming out of the curve. Brian was very nervous, but not as bad as he would be when they had to go through some of the bigger towns on this road. He prayed they would make it through each of them with no trouble.
“Mom, we need to pick it up a bit. Get more speed if possible. That ride downhill sure helped me. I hope it did you too.” They started to pick up a little speed. He now knew just about what he could do before the little wagon would start to weave back and forth. They were even with the store now and could see the last big curve that would take them up out of the valley. There were still a few more homes to pass that were sitting on the mountainside on the left on that long curve. The lone home on the right close to the road never seemed to have anyone there all the times that he had been past it before. The wagon started to weave and he had to slow down which was good because Beulah was having a hard time keeping up. They were passing that lone home on the right when out the corner of his eye he saw the door open. A man stepped out of the door with what looked like a rifle in his hands. “Gads,” he thought. “The one house I didn’t think we would have a problem with.” What he didn’t see is the other man step out of a home on the right further up in the trees. They were past in a flash, but he kept trying to look back quickly to see what the guy was doing. As he looked back, he could see the guy taking aim at them.
“Mom,” Brian yelled. “Go as fast as you can to get ahead of me. Don’t quibble about it. Someone is aiming a gun at us. Go Mom go.”
Beulah got very frightened and started to gain and pass Brian. She didn’t think that she had the energy left in her but fear pumped adrenalin into her system. They had rounded the curve and they heard a shot. Brian looked back to see the guy with the rifle in the middle of the road falling forward. He didn’t know who their savoir was, but he was so very grateful.
***
The older man up in the tree line had been trying to get a bead on this man that had taken over the Cooper house for four days now. The dirt bag had shot Ralph’s favorite dog. He had been taking pot shots at him when he Ralph had stepped out of his door.
“Good riddance to bad trash. Now where’s my shovel?” Ralph said to himself and headed back to his shed. It was so nice to walk around outside without being afraid that someone was going to shoot you.
***
Brian was so amazed when he saw the guy go down. He thought that he had been a goner for sure when he heard that shot. All of a sudden he felt very tired. His mom had slowed as they headed up hill on the left curve around the mountain and out of the valley. Brian caught up to her in no time.
“Mom, lets rest for 10 minutes or so. Ok? I think we both need it.”
“That’s fine with me Brian. I am pooped, but aren’t you afraid that man will come after us.”
“No Mom, that guy isn’t going anywhere. After that shot that we heard, I looked back and saw him falling in the road. I couldn’t hardly believe it.”
“Oh Brian, that’s such a relief. I am glad that’s behind us.”
Brain just frowned. He knew this may be nothing compared to the bigger towns that they still had to go through. He thought, “We will just have to cope with that when we come to it.”
He watched the rushing river going over the boulders in the river. It was a 12-foot drop to the river on a very narrow road with only about two feet of shoulder here. Brian could see the 18-wheeler tracks at the very edge of the shoulder nearly into thin air. He wondered if the tractor-trailer drivers knew how close they were to the edge when they turned this corner. They had passed a few stalled truck rigs, but there hadn’t been anyone around them. Brian wondered how long it would be before people started to break into them to see what was in them. There would be needed items in lots of them. He was sure that would help people survive. He started when he heard a noise. He looked up to see a rock rolling across the road which had fallen off the mountain. There wouldn’t be anyone to clear these off the road any more. He wondered how long before the road was covered. He felt better and looked over at his mom. She looked beat.
“How about we go ahead and eat something Mom? I’m sure that will make both of us feel better. A longer break will be good for us.”
So instead of a 10-minute break, they ended up here at the river’s edge for 45 mi
nutes. Brian figured that wouldn’t hurt his mom a bit and help to revive her. They had been pushing awfully hard. He just knew the more days that went without stores to run to. There would be less food and with no electricity and gas, people were going to get meaner and meaner. It was 18 miles from here to Cascade. Once they were a few miles up the road, they started down again for a while. Then it wasn’t such a hard ride into Cascade Idaho.
Three and a half hours later, they were on the mostly flat road that went into Cascade, Idaho which was in a very wide valley. They went on past the summer flea market area and past the small airport that were both on their left. So far all they had seen was a few people at a distance working around their homes and with cattle. At least, a few people still had horses to herd their cattle with. One or two had even waved at them when they rode past on their bicycles. Brian was glad to see a few friendly people were still left in the world, but he wondered how long that would last.
They went over the bridge where the park was. Brian saw the Totem Poles were still at the entrance past the gas/minimart place they always stopped at on the left with the two food places on the right. One was a restaurant and the other a small mom and pop hamburger joint. Then up a slight hill that took them into the main part of town. Just before you hit the main drag there was a small park on the righht that anyone could use. So he and his mom stopped to use the bathrooms. They were lucky that the outhouse bathrooms were open. They usually were locked at certain times of the year. Maybe with all that was going on someone forgot. It was next door to a Moose Club or something like that. Luckily they weren’t the flush types.
A few minutes later, they were on their way again, but they were both quite nervous because they had to ride straight through the downtown main road. There was no other way to get to the other side of Cascade. The town seemed deathly quiet. Not one person was on the street. They rode through town quickly. Brian was amazed that no one tried to stop them. As they rode past the grocery store, they saw it had been looted. The windows had been smashed and the door was off its tracks. Down one of the side streets they heard a shot as they passed and sped up a bit more on their bikes. So all here wasn’t all sweet and kind.
Soon they were pedaling by the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saint Church on the right. It looked like it usually did as they passed it. Brian saw someone going in one of the side doors. He assumed some of the LDS had taken up living there to help each other. Hopefully more and more people would help each other out. Even he knew that there was safety in numbers. His granddad had taught him if the world went to heck and gone, people would have to band together just to help feed and protect each other. Too many he said just plain didn’t even know how to do that without foods that didn’t come from a can or box.
He started to feel better as they crossed the bridge out of town by the campgrounds where the Payette River flowed past the Waters Edge RV Park and the Leisure Time Park. Brian glanced over at the campground. “Mom, look at that.”
Beulah looked over and gasped. Sitting in the campground were several burned out RV’s. They couldn’t see around the bend of the river so there could have been more.
“Something bad happened in this town Mom. We best put as much room between us and Cascade as we can before night fall.”
On the left right past the bridge was the Saint Katherine Catholic Church also blackened by fire.
With that they went on their way with a glance behind them once in a while. It was 29 miles between Cascade and McCall, Idaho. The day went quickly and the afternoon waned into twilight. They were in Long Valley with no close trees or even bushes, just wide open pastures. They would just have to hope for the best in finding a spot to camp where they weren’t just right out in the open. Brian spied a gully. Well at least it was a couple of dips deeper than the rest of the ground. They were only about quarter of the way into Long Valley. He knew there were homes and ranches off quite far from the road. So maybe they would be safe here for the night.
“Time to stop for the night Mom.”
“No argument from me son. I feel like Benjamin Franklyn these days.”
Brian looked at her strangely. “Why do you say that Mom?”
“The old saying of his keeps popping into my mind. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” She laughed. “But the only thing that’s true about it for us is the healthy part.”
Brian chuckled as he and his mom walked their bikes into the rough field and down into the bit of gully. It would be a cold camp again tonight. He was still afraid of a fire attracting the wrong people and in this open area it seemed even worse. They ate another cold MRE meal and stowed the trash back into their packs. They laid out their tarps and sleeping bags for the night. They had started to fold half the tarp over them to keep off the dew. Beulah laid down, but Brian stayed up for a while keeping an eye on things. All that he could hear were the hoots of owls and the buzz and chirping of a few insects. Soon enough he was falling asleep sitting up. He lay down and snuggled deep into his sleeping bag.
Morning went the same as it had for the last few mornings except for the fact there were no trees or bushes to hide behind to do your duty. They each turned their backs when the other went a few feet off down the gully. Being so early in the morning at least, it wasn’t quite light and that helped. They ate and packed up. They were both getting good at this. It was taking his mom less and less time each morning to get her things all packed back up and ready to go for the day. After they were all ready to go, they pushed their bikes back to the road. Brian made sure the wagon was alright. They had just gotten on their bikes and started down the road when they heard a yell from behind them.
The first thing that Brian thought was to get on their bikes and get down the road as fast as they could. The second time that he heard the yell. He heard his name and his mom’s name being called.
Beulah got off her bike after Brian did. They saw someone on a bike coming their way.
Brian said. “I hope this is a smart thing to do, but I suppose whoever is on that bike has to know us.”
As the bike rider got closer, they both saw that it was Barb Yoder from Horseshoe Bend. Brain and Beulah looked at each other because they knew there was only one way that she would be here following them. That definitely wasn’t good news for Barb.
They waited for her to catch up to them. As she slowed, they got on their bikes and all three headed down the road together with Barb explaining to them just how she happened to be here instead of at home. Brian and Beulah were shocked to find out they had been followed from Boise. She finished with, “I tied the guy up good right before I left.”
“It had to be those two we saw behind us.” Said Brian. “We should have known something was up, but how could we tell. What if they had just been people trying to get home? We’re sorry Barb for leading them to you, but there was just no way to tell who they were.”
Barb looked at Brian with tears still in her eyes from telling them what had gone on after they had left.
“If you hadn’t been followed by that scum, I would have never known about my Will. I would have continued to wait until maybe they or some other bunch or a neighbor decided to take anything I may have had. So you really did me a favor.”
They fell into silence as they rode. Each were in their own process of thought as they rode toward McCall.
* * *
Barb hadn’t had to leave as quickly as she did but she wanted to catch up with Beulah and her son. Anyway how she to know it would be another day before the gang showed up in Horseshoe Bend. Around 4:00 in the afternoon the day after Barb left her home, two dozen motorcycles roared down the Grade into Horseshoe Bend. Big Jim was in the lead. He was happy with himself and his gang. Since he was going to be a king in this area, he was trying to pick a good name for his gang, something that would go down in history. He had already picked a slave to be his historian. Fred went wherever Big Jim went so that he could document Big Jim’s climb to glory.
Big Jim turned and looked at Weasel who was riding behind with Whitey just a little behind and to the left of him. Big Jim pointed down the road. Whitey took off down the hill and Weasel pointed to the house. Whitey and Weasel came to a stop at the old pickup that Weasel and Scat had hid behind.
One big fact was there was no hiding the sound of the motorcycles. They could be heard from miles away. This was no surprise attack, but Big Jim didn’t care. He figured that they could run anyone down that they needed to with their motorcycles. He had a few of his guys riding dirt bikes just in case that they had to do that very thing. All the rest of the gang with him came to a stop behind Big Jim. Weasel pointed out the house to him again. Big Jim took off and rode right up into the yard and stopped his cycle. He got off and went right up on the porch.