by Ellis, Tara
Walsh pointed at the papers that were now in a neat pile. “I highlighted the locations I thought were most central for each state. It’s not much, but we have to start somewhere.”
The general didn’t bother looking at the list. “Right. The locations are good, but the how is what’s more important right now.”
“We’ve got more vehicles than anyone else,” Walsh admitted. “For all the good it does us. It’ll take weeks and more manpower than we have to clear the roads before anything can get through, even locally.”
“Horses.”
“Sir?”
“Going back to basics, Colonel.” The leather seat squeaked as General Montgomery rose and walked over to his map. He waved a hand at it. “Back when our military was first founded, we used horses for everything from transportation to war. I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to suggest we do it again. It’ll be years before we get a working infrastructure back in place, and much longer than that until we have the means to manufacture needed mechanical equipment, or even produce fuel.”
“I’ve had some men using them already to travel back and forth between the base and the mountain.” Walsh frowned. “How do you suggest we implement their use in a broader sense? It’s not like we can go purchase them.”
General Montgomery turned and leveled Colonel Walsh with a stern look.
“You want us to take them.”
“I have the authority to requisition private property.”
Walsh hung his head. “Yes, sir.”
“And Colonel Walsh?”
He looked up reluctantly.
“Let’s not call them camps, but shelters. I wouldn’t want to give the wrong impression.”
Chapter 22
CHLOE
Miller Ranch, Mercy, Montana
Crissy was still in bed even though it was almost noon. Chloe was still worried about her and was going to make sure Trevor came to the ranch a lot since Crissy laughed more with him around.
Chloe’s bare feet slapped against the hardwood floor as she crossed the large main room of the log house. She paused in front of the bookcase that held the photo of Sandy’s son and grandson. Ethan was the kid’s name, and although he looked as old as Chloe in the picture, Sandy said his sixteenth birthday was in a few weeks. She tugged at the Star Wars T-shirt she was wearing. She was over feeling weird about wearing Ethan’s old clothes because there wasn’t much to choose from. Her jeans still had some life left in them, at least.
Ethan’s dad was a big man, and pretty much fit the rugged cowboy cliché perfectly. She hoped for Sandy’s sake that they were on their way home like she repeatedly insisted. Caleb Woods, the mayor’s husband, told her last night after the meeting that he would get her name on a survivors list. He was some sort of radio guru and was talking with a bunch of other people all over the world, including the military in Washington state. He said that when her parents looked for her, they’d be able to learn where she was, and come for her. She appreciated how he’d used the word “when”, instead of “if”.
Her stomach cramped as the invasive, negative thoughts of not knowing where her parents were threatened to take over. Turning from the picture, she decided she needed something to take her mind off her own family.
The notebook Sandy had drawn her sketch in of the lake and cow pasture was still on the kitchen counter. Chloe took it and went out onto the back patio. Squinting, she looked out at the rolling green fields that met the steep mountain slope in the distance. Caleb and Sandy were out doing something with the cows while she’d been hauling water in from the pump for a bath. She’d felt sort of guilty, knowing that there were probably a ton of people out there who didn’t even have any to drink, but it had been almost two weeks since she’d bathed in clean water and it was so needed. She didn’t bother to heat it up. Aside from it taking too long, it was so hot out, that the cool water felt good.
“You sure smell better.”
Chloe jumped at Bishop’s voice and turned to see him standing in the open patio door. “Well, you won’t need to stand upwind of me, now,” she laughed and then waved her hands over her shirt. “And the force is with me.”
Bishop smiled and then pointed at the notebook. “Sandy showed that to me earlier. It’s a good idea, but will take a lot of legwork.”
Chloe shrugged. “I’ve got time.”
“Thomas and Ethan can help when they get back,” Sandy added, from astride a tall black horse. She’d just come around the corner of the house, and the lead rope for another horse was in her other hand. “Do you know how to ride, Chloe?”
Chloe stared up at the massive beast and bit at her bottom lip nervously. “Umm…no, not really. I attempted it once at camp a couple of years ago, and it ended badly.”
“Well, this gal’s name is Lady, and she won’t give you any trouble.” Sandy slid out of the saddle with such a fluid motion that Chloe was surprised when she landed next to her.
“You want me to ride…her?” Lady was mostly white with some black spots and probably considered average-sized, Chloe guessed. She was much shorter than Sandy’s horse and her back had a bigger dip in it. She looked old.
“Here,” Sandy instructed, handing the rope to Chloe. “Let’s start with walking them for a bit. Then, we’ll graduate to sitting in the saddle.”
Chloe wasn’t convinced it was such a good idea, but didn’t want to disappoint Sandy. Taking the rope, she cautiously moved around the horses and fell in beside the rancher as they led them out of the yard.
“Have fun!” Bishop called, chuckling.
“Where are we going?” Chloe asked when they approached the barn.
“The lake,” Sandy answered without preamble. “I want you to see it. Here,” she handed her lead rope to Chloe. “Hold this for a moment.”
Chloe stood awkwardly staring at the horses while Sandy ran into the barn. She was in the exact same position when the older woman returned a few minutes later, carrying fishing poles and a tackle box.
Laughing, Sandy set the gear down and rested a hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “You have nothing to fear,” she promised. “Treat them like a friend and they’ll be yours for life. Oh, and giving them treats doesn’t hurt, either.” She took two carrots out of her back pocket and gave one to Chloe.
Taking the carrot, Chloe stared at it and then Lady. “What if she bites my fingers?”
“Oh my goodness.” Sandy shook her head. “Do it like this.” She lay her carrot in the palm of her hand and held it out to the black horse, who daintily accepted the treat.
Encouraged, Chloe copied her, and giggled when the hairs on Lady’s lips tickled her palm. The horse stretched her head out and nudged at Chloe’s chest, clearly wanting attention. Tentatively at first, she stroked the horse’s long, glossy neck. When nothing horrible happened, she moved on to Lady’s cheek and within a few minutes, the horse had won Chloe over her and she didn’t think Lady was going to bite her head off.
“See?” Sandy cooed. “Gentle as a kitten. Do you know how to fish?”
Chloe looked up and then stumbled back when Lady pushed against her for more attention. Laughing, she was glad that she wouldn’t come across as completely helpless. “Yes! I used to go fishing all the time with my dad. Trout, mostly, but we got some salmon a couple times, too.”
“Excellent,” Sandy replied. “Let’s go catch dinner!”
Fifteen minutes later they were partway down a trail through the back field, with Chloe on Lady’s back. She clutched the saddle horn tightly, but she was quickly warming up to the experience. Her legs were so short that Sandy had to adjust the stirrups all the way up, and she understood why cowboys wore boots. After getting over her initial fear, she found being up on the animal’s back exhilarating and didn’t resist when Sandy picked up the pace.
It took almost half an hour to reach the small lake and Chloe realized long before getting there that saying the project required a lot of legwork was a massive understatement. It had to be a good two m
iles, minimum, and although it would be flowing downhill, that didn’t diminish the amount of piping it would take.
The sun was high overhead, heating the day up into the nineties again. An eagle soared among tall evergreens lining the far shore, which was nestled up against the mountain. It was there that the land began a sharper pitch and the last of the open fields disappeared into thick woods.
Chloe had already fallen in love with the land, and the new vista only strengthened her desire to help the ranch succeed. Twisting in the saddle, she looked out over what was becoming an increasingly epic view of the valley. When she turned back, she discovered that Sandy had stopped up ahead and was shielding her eyes as she stared at something on the lake.
The lake itself was around five to eight acres, fed by upper mountain runoff. Since it wasn’t that large, it was easy to see that three men were fishing near the far end of it, and had a tent pitched nearby. Chloe recognized the tent.
Sandy was reaching behind her to untie her rifle when Chloe came alongside her. “I think I know who it is.”
Sandy hesitated and was about to ask a question when one of the men called out to them first. “Hello!”
Chloe studied the figure as he took several steps in their direction. Behind him, another man was sitting on the ground, half-turned from them, while a third was just coming out of the tent. She assumed one of them was Hicks. “Jason?” she yelled back. While she couldn’t stand the guy, she was still relieved to know he was okay. Also, if he was there, then that probably meant Hicks, Ben, and Adam were, too. She didn’t have time to process why they were up at this lake, instead of in town.
Sandy did, though. “This your other group of missing friends?” she asked, while still untying her rifle.
Chloe watched as the rancher she’d come to respect moved with an intensity she didn’t understand.
“How about you stop what you’re doing there?”
Chloe looked back to see that the man who’d come out of the tent was moving quickly past Jason and toward them. It wasn’t Hicks, and he had something in his hand. It took Chloe a moment to realize it was a gun and confusion clouded her mind as she watched the other man stand, also a stranger.
“You’re welcome to the fish,” Sandy called back, having moved her hands away from the rifle and then out in front of her. “This is my property. Sandy Miller,” she said, as if introducing herself at a dinner party. “And you are?”
“In need of a way out of this valley,” the man rebutted, as he continued to close the space between them.
Jason followed, his gaze never leaving Chloe. A torrent of questions raced through her mind, but she knew better than to ask most of them. Instead, she chose the most obvious. “Jason, what are you doing?”
Jason stopped a few feet from Lady and stared up at Chloe with a sneer. “Whatever it takes.”
Before she could come up with a smart retort, there was a whizzing sound and then Jason’s face contorted in pain as the thick end of a fishing pole slapped across the back of his legs.
“Argh!” Jason cried out as he dropped to his knees.
“What—” the man with the gun began to shout as he turned toward Jason, but their rescuer was already stepping over Jason and moving in his direction.
He slammed into the assailant while grabbing at his wrist and wrenching the weapon away at the same time. Leaning back, he followed through with what Chloe could only describe as a total kung fu move, kicking him squarely in the chest.
“Oomph!” Flying backwards, unarmed and gasping for breath, the man landed hard in the dirt.
It all happened so fast, that Chloe hadn’t even moved in her saddle. Mouth hanging open, she watched as the man flipped the gun around in his hand like a baton and pointed it at the third, unarmed assailant. He was staring down the barrel, in shock, with what Chloe figured was the same expression as her.
“I’d suggest you don’t move,” the man advised, gesturing with the gun for him to move away from Sandy’s horse.
Chloe let out her pent-up breath, gasping in astonishment. “Bishop!”
Chapter 23
ETHAN
North of Virginia, Idaho
Ethan peddled the bike with less enthusiasm as they got farther north of the small town called Virginia. He knew it was a huge longshot that his dad found the note he’d left tucked into the dead farmer’s pocket, but it was all he had. Aside from thinking he’d find his dad’s corpse rotting back at the rest stop where they were attacked, Ethan chose to believe he was out there looking for him.
He glanced back at Sam, who was riding the other bike, with Grace trailing diligently behind him. Ethan had gladly offered to let Danny ride Tango. It was obvious, even to him, that she wasn’t a hundred percent. The night before, after they’d made camp a reasonable distance from where they’d dumped Decker, she’d told him some of their story. He understood why she didn’t go into too much detail…he didn’t, either. It was too hard to dredge up the memories, when they deserved to stay buried.
Ethan told them, twice, that he wanted to wait for his dad near the town. That he didn’t want to get too far away, but neither Sam or Danny had committed to stopping. His stomach twisted. The thought of watching them ride away and leaving him behind was almost enough to compel him to keep moving. Almost.
“Hey, Danny?” he finally built up the nerve to call out. “Do you think maybe we could stop soon?”
She reined Tango in, and Ethan pulled up beside the horse on the mountain bike. Danny looked like a natural in the saddle, although she’d claimed not to have very much experience with riding. It was probably more about having a natural connection with animals. They could sense when you were afraid of them, especially horses. That’s why Billy never got the hang of it.
Danny looked up at the sun, gauging what time of the day it was. Ethan guessed it was around two in the afternoon. Still tons of daylight left. “My dad,” Ethan urged. “I just want to camp out on this road for the next day or two. I promise, if he doesn’t come, then I’ll keep riding with you and we can all use the horses. You won’t need the bikes anymore.”
“We don’t want to take your horses, Ethan,” Sam said, stopping alongside him. “And we definitely don’t want you out here by yourself.” The older man looked up at Danny then, and raised his eyebrows questioningly at her.
“Oh, right!” she gasped, realizing Sam was looking at her to back him up. “Of course not. It’s just that I have to get home to my dad, too. He’s going to need some medication for his heart soon.”
Ethan kicked at a rock on the road. “Do you have the medicine for him?”
Danny shifted in the saddle, the leather creaking. Tango’s tail swished, swatting at a battalion of flies. “No. I’m hoping I might be able to find some along the way.”
“I’m really good at scavenging for things!” Ethan offered enthusiastically. “I swear. Decker and Billy had me sneaking into all sorts of places. I got really good at it.”
Danny looked crestfallen and then glanced guiltily at Sam. “Ethan, you don’t have to do that for us. You don’t have do anything to stay with us. Of course, we can wait here for a day or so for your dad. I just want to make sure you understand why we can’t stay here any longer than that.”
Ethan nodded, filled with an immense relief at not being alone anymore. “Oh, I know. I want to get to Mercy, too. Grandma Miller is all by herself at the ranch. She’s got to be so worried about us! And she’ll need our help. Dad and me, I mean. There’s no way she can do all the work by herself.”
Danny smiled at him, and gestured to the other two horses, one of them laden with supplies. “You’re bringing a lot more to this arrangement than we are.”
“Are you serious?” Ethan protested. “You have a flashlight! I’d give almost everything on that mare just to have it!”
Sam chuckled and patted Ethan on the back. “I’ll explain how it works later. I’m sure we can find some more if we get creative about where we look. But we do need
to decide what we’re going to do about the whole horses versus bikes dilemma.”
Ethan scratched at his head. Sam was right. There were three horses and three of them. If they left the bikes behind, but ran into his dad, then they’d be short a horse, and without any bikes. “We could always ride double if we needed to,” he finally suggested.
“What about all of our gear?” Danny asked, while climbing down from Tango’s back. “Maybe we could divide it up and stuff it in our backpacks and just wear them?”
Ethan scrunched up his nose. “Nah, we don’t need to do that. We can figure out a way to tie some of it on to each horse. And I can ride the one bare back.”
Sam mulled it over while Danny went and began to get the bags in question off of the pack horse. “I don’t know,” he said. “I think I’d like to at least keep my bike for a few more days, even if your dad doesn’t show up here. I can keep up.”
Ethan shrugged at Sam, not really caring either way. So long as he didn’t have to keep riding one, the guy could peddle all the way to Mercy and it wouldn’t be any skin off his back. Anyway, his dad would show up.
He helped lift down the last backpack before gathering up the lead ropes of the three horses. One good thing about the farming region was that there were plenty of small streams and irrigation ditches crisscrossing the land along that section of Interstate 15.
He walked the horses over to the largest cluster of trees that were close by, which were growing along a stream. It was a perfect spot to tie the animals up. While he busied himself with that chore, Sam began to unfold their two tents about thirty feet away. Danny picked another grouping of trees to construct a fire pit for cooking dinner later, and then spread out their sleeping bags in the shade.