They took the two they had dug by hand and dragged them through the cave and out the front. Leaving them on the ground, they walked around the area looking at the vegetation. They inspected the ground the brush was growing in to see how easy it would be to dig up. Between the four of them, by lunch time they had a plan. Sherry and Matt worked on freeing some bushes while Abby and Maggie used the shovel and began digging a trench across the front of the cave entrance. They had to chip away the pavement where it met the rock, but it hadn’t been much of a delay. They weren’t going to block the entrance completely, just camouflage it to make it harder to see. Nothing would hold up under close inspection, but anything would help from a distance. They all remembered how the dark opening had stood out against the rock and grass.
Matt flopped down in the dirt, he was dirty and tired. “That’s enough don’t you think?”
Abby sat down beside him, and looked where he was looking and grinned, “If you didn’t know it was there.”
“Sherry, Maggie come check it out.” She sat and waited for the other two girls to come out of the bushes. They had gone to find enough cover for Maggie to go pee.
When they showed up, they stood looking at the wall. Abby watched to see their expressions when they saw the finished product. Maggie grinned, but Sherry frowned and turned her head.
“What? It looks pretty good don’t you think?’
“Shh! Listen!” Sherry crouched down beside Abby. “Maggie, come over here and no talking. Someone's coming.”
They sat in silence and listened. Matt frowned, and Abby shut her eyes to block out the distractions. Sherry was right. Abby could hear the sound of men’s voices. She knew it wouldn’t be their men because these ones were talking way too loud, either not caring if someone heard them or not believing someone else was out there.
Matt touched each of them on the shoulder and tipped his head to move further back in the brush. Silently they did and waited.
Matt touched Sherry on the shoulder, “I don’t suppose you…” She shook her head before he finished.
Looking from face to face Matt knew they had violated their number one rule. Not one of them was armed with anything but the shovel. He looked to see where it was and peeked out through the bushes. It was lying right where Sherry had set it when Abby had called them over.
The closer the men got the louder their voices became. They were yelling and laughing as if they had something to celebrate.
Suddenly the thicket of brush they were hiding in seemed inconsequential in terms of good cover. Matt looked at each of them and realized the red shirt that Maggie had on would stand out in contrast to the green and brown of their surroundings. Abby and Sherry both had on the army green tees from Charlies bag of clothes, and he had on a brown tee shirt. “Maggie, slowly come over here. You need to get behind us. You stand out like a sore thumb.”
As soon as Maggie was between the two girls, Abby pulled her down until she was lying in the dirt and she and Sherry covered her with their bodies. Matt stayed in front of them on his stomach looking out from under the brush. Looking over the area in front of him, Matt realized that the brush was as concealing for them as it was for the men. Unless the group coming happened to stumble over them, they would be safe enough.
Something moving where they had planted the trees caught Matt’s attention, and he realized that unless Evelyn heard the men too, she would walk right out in front of them. He saw her pull back and drop to the ground. Her white shirt stood out like a beacon. He saw movement from her as she tried to move back into the entrance, but their barricade of trees must have gotten in her way when she stopped. He watched as she scooped up handfuls of the freshly dug dirt and rubbed it all over herself. Matt hoped that she stood out to him, only because he knew she was there. He hadn’t realized he was holding his breath until he was forced to let it out to draw in another as he watched Evelyn slowly disappear from his sight. As the group of men straggled from the bushes, Matt realized he recognized them. Not the individual men for who they were, but he saw the same type of men that he and Lucas had seen in Haugan and the same type of men that he and Sherry had led on the wild goose chase.
He felt it when Abby tensed up. Her rigid posture spoke volumes, “What?” he whispered in her ear.
Abby shook her head while keeping her focus on one man, or so Matt thought from watching her. To him, it seemed like she kept her eyes trained on one man. All of the men carried some type of weapon and as near as Matt could see they all needed a good cleaning and on many, the rust was visible even from a distance. Some wore knives strapped to their legs, and two even had rust covered machete’s dangling from their belts. Their clothing all carried rust colored stains, and for a moment, Matt wondered if it wasn’t dried blood, but then realized how much blood it would have taken to be staining all of their clothes.
Matt remembered something that Sam had told Lucas and Lucas had repeated it to him when they were watching the men in Haugan, “You’ll be able to tell good from evil just by keeping your eyes open and your thoughts clear.” Matt knew these men were the evil that Sam had been referring to. He also knew that even if they had their firearms, they couldn’t have attacked a group this large without the aid from the rest of their clan. Even then, they would be hard pressed to defend themselves against a group this big. As the last of the men disappeared to the west, Matt whispered, “We’ll stay here until we can no longer hear them. We’re not taking any chances there aren’t stragglers.”
He looked at Abby, “You ready to tell me what that was all about?”
“I know one of those men. Well, not personally, but I saw him before, or rather I’ve heard him before. He was at the store outside of Mullan when my Dad and I were there. I’m not positive because he has facial hair now, but he was one of those guys who thought speaking loud and quick were signs of knowledge and intelligence. He would always talk over whoever was speaking. I recognized his voice over his appearance.”
Matt nodded, “Sam said that people who are loud and obnoxious are trying to cover their lack of intelligence and shortcomings. I wish we had thought to count them.”
“Twenty-seven, and can you get off me now Sherry,” Maggie groaned.
Sherry rolled away and lay with her face resting on her arms. Matt reached over and touched her, “Hey, are you okay? They’re almost far enough away we can sneak across to the cave.”
Sherry raised her face, and Matt saw tears in her eyes. She had been silent and still like the rest of them, and he couldn’t imagine what the matter was. It couldn’t be fear of discovery because the men were almost out of hearing range and Matt figured they could still hear them because the guys were so loud.
“What is it?”
She dropped her face into her hands, and Matt saw her shoulders shaking slightly, “Come on Sherry, we can’t help you if you don’t say what's wrong.”
She lifted her face and scrubbed at her tears, “I peed my pants.”
Maggie giggled softly and looked down at herself to see if her clothing was wet. When she saw that her pants were dirty but dry, she giggled again while trying not to. “Sorry,” she said, her hand muffling the word.
Sherry turned and glared at her, “It’s not funny. I couldn’t hold it anymore.”
Matt groaned, “Is that all? Geez, I thought maybe you’d gotten bit by a snake or something earth shattering like that. At least you didn’t move and draw their attention to us.”
“There’s snakes around here?” Maggie asked as the color drained from her face.
“Not right here, right now, but they are around. We have a mountain rattler population all over Montana and the panhandle of Idaho. That’s why it’s good to make noise if you’re walking in the woods or fields. You have to let them know you’re coming and they’ll likely leave the area. Otherwise, they rattle and let you know they’re there.”
Maggie gave a shudder, “I really don’t like snakes at all. Can we go now?’
Matt listened and he
ard nothing. “Give it another five minutes to be sure they’re gone. When we move, we’ll stay in the brush as much as we can and go across one at a time.” He looked at Sherry who still wore red humiliation on her face, “It’s okay you know. Shit is going to happen, and at least you didn’t give us away. I would have done the same thing in your place, so it’s not a big deal.”
“He’s right Sherry. Don’t even think about it. Like Matt says it could have been any one of us. The fact remains that you didn’t do something foolish and we are all still safe.”
“Thanks, I feel kind of stupid because I knew I had to go when I took Maggie, but I was too embarrassed to go in front of her. I guess the next time I will because this is the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“If it’ll make you feel any better, I wet the bed last year,” Abby told Sherry. “I had a dream I was swimming, and I guess I was,” she laughed, “so it’s really not a big deal.”
“I know, but I feel kind of stupid. I should have just gone when I took Maggie, but it’s embarrassing.”
“We all have to go, but I agree. Some things should remain private, but I guess those days are gone,” Matt grinned when he said it and then added, “At least us guys don’t have to drop our drawers to pee.”
They waited another five minutes and could no longer hear the men. They moved silently through the brush until they reached the edge of the clearing and one at a time they hurried across the open ground and behind the row of brush and trees they had planted to disguise the opening.
Matt was the last to cross and was surprised to see the others lined up in front of Evelyn. Her arms were crossed across her ample bosom, and her mouth was set. A frown displayed wrinkles on her forehead. When Matt tried to defend their actions, Evelyn unfolded her arms and held one hand up.
“I guess you guys already know that today could have ended much differently than it did. Matt, what were you thinking?” Evelyn squeezed her eyes tight, shook her head and sighed, “Sorry, that’s not fair. You’re all old enough to know better. You guys are never to go out unarmed again. This isn’t just on you guys but on me too. We all let our guard down today and almost paid the price for it. The men are just beginning to trust that we can get by when they’re gone and I don’t want to feel like we’ve let them down. I shudder to think what those men would have done to you kids had they caught you out in the open. So, from this second on, not a word about what just happened out there.”
“Yes ma’am. Of all of us, I should have remembered, but I didn’t. It almost seemed like an ordinary day until we heard those guys coming. It won’t happen again, I promise.”
“Well, we’ll all have to be watchdogs from now on, we’ll check and re-check each other if we have to. We can’t put ourselves in a position like that ever again. Now, the reason I came out in the first place was to tell you I have some food fixed. Go and eat. Matt as soon as you finish, you can come and relieve me.”
Maggie and Sherry ran on ahead through the dark cavern, Maggie to eat and Sherry to change her clothes, while Abby and Matt walked slower. “Dang, I can’t believe we were out there all day without thinking about having a gun. Evelyn is right. It should be second nature to us by now.”
“Just the idea that it should be second nature for us is so scary. When my dad taught me to shoot and fish and hunt, I always treated it like a game because it gave me time to spend with my Dad. I never took it seriously until we actually had to leave our house. We thought we would be safe if we found a group of like-minded people, but we were wrong. Sometimes what seems right at the time is the worst possible scenario. I had to pretend to be a boy. Did you know that? I was never so glad as when my Dad told me to get ready to go, and then we ran into Gina. As soon as we got there, it did feel right to both of us, but I sometimes wonder if Dad hadn’t met Lucy if we would have stayed. I’m happy we did and still scared most of the time, but I wonder how we can tell John and Mark about those guys and not tell the whole truth. I am positive I’ve seen one of them before, and the only place it could have been was at the store in Mullan. That makes me think that this trail runs where the road used to be between St. Regis and Mullan. If that’s true, I bet we see those guys more often. As far as the guns go, I’m sure we’ll screw up again and probably more than once, but as long as we check on each other every time we go somewhere we should be okay. Surely we won’t all forget at the same time.”
Matt chuckled, “Like we all did today?” He walked in silence for a few seconds, “The thing is, it feels wrong to have to contemplate killing people. I know everyone says we’ll have to defend ourselves, but how do we tell the good guys from the bad? Lucas says that we have to if we want to survive, but it still doesn’t feel right.”
“I guess if they’re shooting at us, they must be the bad guys, and I can live with that. I just wish they wore black hats to make it easier.”
Matt stopped walking, shook his head as if he’d gotten her reasoning. He tipped his imaginary hat, “Mine’s white. I better hurry and eat so I can relieve Evelyn.”
Abby watched Matt hurry to find his food. She stood just outside of the opening to their valley and wondered how such a place had come to be and why no one had discovered it before them. Abby thought about the group of men who passed by and realized they hadn’t looked twice at the rock formation or for that matter, looked around at all. They had their sights set on getting somewhere, and she wondered if it was to Mullan. They weren’t disciplined or organized, but nothing more than a group of men headed somewhere unknown. She remembered overhearing two of the men at the store talking about someone starting their own army, but if these were an example of the same army, she didn’t think they would have anything to worry about.
As soon as Matt passed by her, on his way back out to replace Evelyn, Abby went to find her share of the food. She hadn’t been guarding the cave exit, but more keeping an eye on Evelyn in case she needed help. She had decided they couldn’t trust those men to be gone and she thought they or some just like them would be coming through again. The camouflage they’d buried in the dirt wasn’t impenetrable by any means, merely a disguise, and with any luck, when Mark and John got back, they would build something different, or more permanent.
Sitting around the campfire with Sherry, Maggie, and Evelyn, Abby wondered how her Dad and the others were supposed to find them. With the changes in the landscape, she worried they wouldn’t find their way. Unless someone was posted and watching for them, they could pass right on by like the gang of men had.
“I thought my mom and Lucas would have been back by now. Do you think they got lost?”
“I think it probably took longer for them to get up that hill than it did for us to get down it. The trail we left coming down should have been easy enough to follow. Your mom and Lucas are smart enough to stop and wait until daylight if they can’t get back before dark.”
******
Lucas and Mary had watched the gang of men from the relative safety of the trail and waited until they were sure they had all passed before continuing down the trail.
At first sighting, both Lucas and Mary had not seen the cave entrance, and if not for their own tracks they were following back, they would have thought they had made a mistake. “I’m positive those are the same rocks walls. There’s no way we got off course.”
“Then where’s the opening? We should have been able to see it from up here.”
Lucas studied the terrain across from them until he saw what the difference was, “They planted bushes and trees in front of it. Look there,” he said and pointed it out to his mother. “See how that whole line of bushes is all wilted? I’ll bet that’s right in front of the opening. It’s exactly what we should have done if we’re going to stay here. I bet they didn’t realize how much water they are going to have to carry until they get established.”
“So, you do remember some of what you learned last spring when we transplanted the vegetables. You’re right, they do need lots of wate
r.” They sat for a few minutes to let Jinx recover from their climb down and just as they were ready to continue, Lucas grabbed her arm, “Someone is coming.”
“I don’t hear…Where?”
Lucas pointed to the east. They couldn’t see anyone for a few minutes, but they could hear multiple voices coming closer. To Lucas, it sounded like a small army of men who were not doing anything to hide their approach. Lucas looked to make sure that Jinx didn’t stand out against the greenery but turned back when he saw the horse was tucked in behind a tree and some bushes eating the leaves. Lucas turned his attention back down below and waited for the men to emerge from the trees. He wondered why there were so many small clearings that had no grass or bushes and wondered if it was actually an old trail that just hadn’t filled in with brush from lack of use.
“Oh my God. Look there,” Mary pointed to the base of the hill they were on. “Why are they out here?”
From their higher vantage point, they saw when Matt, herded the others into the brush. Maggie's shirt stood out easily visible until she disappeared from their sight. It was hard for Mary and Lucas to see what they’d done, but they now blended in with the ground and bushes.
As the men emerged from the cover of foliage, it was easy to see the people hadn’t even considered that anyone could be watching them. They hadn’t changed pace or deviated from their course. They made no attempt to be quiet, and Lucas wondered about their level of competence. They were a scruffy and undisciplined bunch of men. He thought the guy in front had to be the leader and Lucas, kept his rifle trained on him until he was out of sight and moved his rifle barrel back as each man passed. He let out his breath when the last man disappeared.
“Mom? You don’t think Dad and the guys could be coming back from that direction do you?”
“Not this quickly they won’t. They didn’t know where the wagons were from here, so I expect it will take them a day or two to find them. We won’t start worrying until it’s been a week and I promised them that we wouldn’t go looking for them for ten days from today.”
Beyond the New Horizon (Book 4): Dark Times Page 14