The human settlement was dependent on Werewolves to survive. When they perched on that outcropping years ago, she would have never thought that they, like Char, would become integral members of the town called New Boulder.
“Humans are beneath us, aren’t they, Clyde?” she asked as she stood and decided to continue following the trail. She jogged slowly, dropping to her hands and knees every hundred yards to make sure she still had the scent. Clyde started braying and took off.
Sue looked at the trees, marked her spot, and ran after Clyde.
She hated to admit it, but the dog’s nose was better than hers when she was in human form.
***
They rode north out of Sheridan until they crossed a substantial river. Terry checked a sign that had fallen a long time before. “Tongue River.”
He took the remains of a road that seemed to follow the river to the northeast. “Next stop, the Mighty Mo,” Terry called over his shoulder as he led the group forward.
The water flowed quickly. It was clear and clean, cool even, like the stream where they’d fished the day before.
“Damn!” Terry exclaimed. “I should have kept my fishing spear. I think fish is on the menu for the foreseeable future if that stream is a sample of what may lie ahead.”
Timmons whistled to catch Terry’s attention, then waved his stump. Tied to the man’s saddle were the three willow saplings, the one carved into a fish spear and the other two that were ready to take its place should the first one break. Terry gave him the thumbs up.
The grass grew well because the water was plentiful and countered the effect of the heat. They had good grazing and turned the horses loose at regular intervals. The wolf pack did their best to clear the numerous rabbits that lived along the river. Ted laughed as he watched the wolves in constant hunting mode as they moved in a line abreast, flushing game before them and killing it with reckless abandon.
That was the day’s entertainment, as the trip had smoothed greatly due to the presence of unlimited fresh water, edible plants, and game. Terry hadn’t realized how much stress he carried when those three things were not a given.
It was as Char had said. He thought of himself as the world’s savior, the protector of all mankind.
When he relieved himself of that burden, he was free to think at a completely different level.
“Where do you hide something that looks like a lot of other things?” Terry asked Char out of the blue.
“In plain sight,” she replied.
“Bensenville.” She shrugged and shook her head. She had no idea what he was talking about. “The Mini Coopers. The portable nuclear generators. There is a huge classification yard for rolling stock, for rail cars, in Bensenville. The mini modular nuclear generators, I call them the Mini Cooper, they will be hidden there among a bunch of tankers. They look a little like a tanker, but they’ll be a lot bigger. Your average joe won’t know what they are and they don’t have anything worth taking on the outside and no one can get into them without codes and stuff.”
“Where is Bensenville?” Char asked.
“Sorry. Just south of O’Hare airport. We won’t have any jet traffic so we’ll be able to hear ourselves think.” Terry looked smug.
“How did you come up with Bensenville?” she asked.
“Stuff I read, finally I was able to fit it all together. They were traveling through Chicago during the fall. No one is going to leave a nuke sitting out in the open.” He looked around, “They have no time and resources are failing. What do you do?” He nodded towards the East. “North Chicago, Waukegan, and O’Hare. I wonder if anyone survived out there. Even if ninety-nine point nine percent of everyone died, in a town Chicago’s size, that leaves something like twenty-five thousand people. That’s a lot of people.”
“How would they survive?” Char was surprised, but the math made sense. There had to be big numbers of survivors out there, but where were they? Cancun had people, but it was isolated. With the heat, she wondered if a place like Florida had become a vast wasteland of fetid mostly dried out swamps.
Maybe someday they’d find out. It would be easy if they could hop aboard Akio’s pod and fly around, checking things out.
“What would it take to get a ride in the Pod?” Char asked.
“A shit sandwich from which we are unable to extricate ourselves.” Terry looked at her shifting in the saddle and trying to get comfortable.
“Ain’t that a pisser,” she replied.
“I’m with you. We want a ride in the pod, but we don’t want to be in the situation to rate one.” Terry sighed. “We’ll ride our horses and be happy about it. When we bring the townspeople, we’ll all be walking, and that will be a whole new level of suck.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
Mark was lost. Not completely, because he could still see one of the higher peaks, but he had no idea where the outcropping was. He’d lost Sue and Clyde hours before and had given up hope of finding them.
He didn’t want to return empty-handed, but he was afraid that he would have to do exactly that. “Spread out. We’re going home, and on the way, we need to find the rally point and find the others.”
None of his people were sure which way to go. They were in a valley between hills, trees surrounding them. Mark noted the nearest peak, thought about where it was when looking at it from the town, and then chose an angle to take them back.
They headed uphill, then down then uphill again. After an hour of hiking, they climbed a rock-strewn rise to get a look over top of the trees. From there, Mark turned slowly in a circle.
“Not a fucking thing,” he said. “We’re lost.”
Most of the others were transplants to New Boulder. Mark had lived there his entire life, but he hadn’t spent much time in the mountains. He was embarrassed.
“We backtrack. Jazzy, take point and get us back to where we were,” Mark ordered. The young man called Jazzy was black, average size, but with a fire in his eyes and determination in his soul.
The colonel had personally selected the young man, just like he’d personally approved each of the others.
“Yes, sir,” Jazzy replied, climbing down the rocks first to orient himself. Six men walking through pine needles and bushes left a distinct trail. Jazzy was confident that he could get them back. “Let me take point, about fifty feet up. It’s easier to see the trail looking back, so I’ll need to double check and I can’t have you herd of buffalo messing it up!”
“I resemble that remark!” Blackbeard answered. He was the smallest of the group, but with Hank plowing through everything, they left a robust trail, though Hank didn’t walk in a straight line. He ambled all over the place, like a puppy running outside for the first time. “Come on, Hank, we’re not supposed to leave a buffalo trail. You can do that, can’t you, buddy?”
The cub was almost twice what Blackie weighed. He dashed to the side and Blackie started to run after him, but Mark stopped him.
“If anyone can get back on his own, it’s the bear. Now stay together. Lead on, Private!” Mark called.
***
Sue looked at the late afternoon sun. Clyde lapped from a mountain stream trickling through the rocks. She sniffed the area, but no longer needed to follow the scent. She sensed a single human not far away.
“Billy!” she yelled. The dog’s ears perked up. “Come on, Clyde. I’ve had about enough of this.”
“Billy, I see where you are. I’m coming up there to drag your dumb ass back home!” Sue bellowed, storming up the hill as she made a frontal assault on the rocky facing of a hill where nature had carved a small cave.
“Go away,” Billy shouted back, his voice muffled by the inside. Sue didn’t hesitate. She walked in as Clyde ran past and up to the small man, greeting him and ignoring the fact that Billy didn’t like him. “I’m not going back.”
“Like fuck!” Sue screamed, odd for her as she didn’t usually swear. “You walk, or I carry your dead carcass over my shoulder. Either way, you’re going
home, you selfish little shit.”
Billy thought her yellow eyes were glowing in the semi-darkness of his shelter.
“Are you going to turn into a Werewolf and eat me?” he asked. Sue had wondered if he had known.
“Werewolves don’t eat people,” she said coldly. “Well, most of the time. Marcus was a bastard. No. I’m not going to eat you, and I’m not even going to kill you. I’m going to drag you back and let Felicity take care of that.”
Billy was sitting on a low rock. He brought his knees to his chest and hugged them, rocking in the semi-darkness. He didn’t reply.
“You are such a dumbass,” Sue said, throwing her hands down in disgust. “Well?”
“Well what?” Billy replied, continuing to rock.
“The people of that town need you, every bit as much as they need Terry Henry Walton, as much as they need the engineer, the farmers, and yes, even us, a bunch of Werewolves just trying to get by. And you need them, too, Billy. Do you really want Marcie to grow up without a dad? Maybe Merrit or Adams will horn in on some of that action. Felicity is a right fine piece of ass!”
“Hey!” Billy yelled, standing up and sticking his chest out. Sue pushed him back down. Anger flared behind his eyes.
“So you do care? Come on, now. Everyone’s waiting,” Sue said, taking two steps. When Billy didn’t follow, she stormed back, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him out of the small cave. When they reached the entrance, she launched him down the hill. He landed face first in the rocks and gravel, sliding and rolling to the bottom of the incline. She slid down the hill after him, while Clyde ran out and fell down the hill, scrabbling for purchase as he rolled and bounced, finally crashing into Billy at the bottom.
Sue laughed as the two untangled themselves. Clyde shook, no worse the wear. Billy clutched one arm that carried an ugly scrape. He looked to be in pain.
“I don’t care,” she told him. “Go!” She pointed. He clutched his arm and started walking, slowly.
“Faster!” she encouraged. Looking around, she found a stick that she hoped to use as a combination walking stick and Billy-beater. It failed on the first blow across the backs of his legs. He stopped and glared at her.
“I’m not dicking around, Billy. You are going home and tonight. The last thing I want is to sleep out here, so I’m not, which means you’re not, because I’m not returning without you. I’m afraid you are out of choices, since I’ve made all the decisions for you. Ahh, here we are!”
Sue snapped a lower branch using her Werewolf strength, cleaning the small twigs from it by running her hand down its length. A normal human’s hand would have been torn up, but not Sue’s. She tested it with a baseball swing against the trunk. It bounced off nicely.
“I think I said to get walking. The question isn’t whether you get home or not, it is how many welts you will have when you get there.” Sue’s eyes lit up as she hefted her motivation tool and shook it at Billy.
***
“Where in the hell did they go?” Jim asked Ivan. He shrugged in response. They’d been waiting on the outcropping for hours, wondering if the others would show up. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Ivan answered. He looked at the town far below. It seemed peaceful from here. It was peaceful. Before long, they’d be stuck out there. His eyes looked to the burnt orange of the Wastelands.
“We leave a message and return to the barracks. Then we bring the rest of the platoon out here tomorrow, search for the searchers, and continue searching for Billy,” Ivan said.
Jim took one last look around. “Let’s spread out, a hundred feet apart and listen, maybe even shout for them, give them something to key on.”
Ivan nodded and that was what they did. The six men formed a long arc around the rally point and stood still, carefully listening for sounds of the other Force members.
After fifteen minutes, they gave up.
Jim started shouting and the others picked up the call. For ten minutes they yelled and whistled, beat rocks on rocks and sticks on trunks. Then they waited another ten minutes before Jim called everyone together. He didn’t want to go, but at least he could report to Felicity that they were making as much of an effort as could be made.
The return trip didn’t take anywhere near as long as the hike uphill. It was still light out when five men walked the street of New Boulder on their way to the barracks. Jim went by himself to see Felicity.
As the sun set, he could see her outlined in her upstairs window. She saw him approach and hung her head.
When he arrived, she met him at the door. “Mark has one squad still on the mountain looking for Billy, and Sue is up there, too. Clyde had the scent when I last saw them.”
Felicity broke down and started crying again. Jim hugged her, not knowing what else to do. Her hand found its way inside his shirt, and she caressed his back as she melted into his arms.
He carefully backed away, looking at her in shock, and then ran as if being chased by a rabid mountain lion.
***
Sue could see in the darkness, but Billy could not. She didn’t care. She had a warm bed waiting and Billy was keeping her from it. He stumbled and fell repeatedly before she gave in.
“Here, dipshit. Grab the end of the stick. I’ll lead the way. If you try to run, well, that would be stupid. Do you think you can outrun a Werewolf? Especially an angry one?”
Billy shook his head. “No,” he whispered meekly.
“Good.” Sue took off, almost dragging the Mayor of New Boulder as she set a blistering pace down the hill.
Billy stumbled, but didn’t fall as she broke the trail and tried to keep from slapping him in the head with branches, until she realized how much fun that was. She hit him with one that caught him mid-chest and flipped him over backward. He landed hard on the ground.
He moaned, but Sue didn’t think anything was broken. He probably hadn’t eaten for a couple of days and was simply exhausted, as well as beat up. She lifted him up, surprised at how light he was, and tossed him over a shoulder. Leaving her stick behind, she started to run and finally was comfortable that they would get back at a decent hour.
She slid and jumped, reveling in her own strength. They had eaten well since moving into the town. Sue was happy to be doing something physical. She agreed that she could lounge by the pool with the best of them, but she liked to look good while doing it.
Sue hadn’t grown as soft as she suspected, but after the run from Cancun, she conceded that she deserved time to recover.
She jogged down the path and reached the pavement of New Boulder, wondering if the others had arrived. Clyde slid in behind her, head hanging and tongue lolling. She put Billy down. He stood unsteadily. “Walk!” she ordered as she picked Clyde up like a baby and cradled him in her arms. “If my dog is hurt, there will be hell to pay, Billy Spires!”
***
“Is that a light from the city?” Jazzy asked as he stood on the top of a cliff looking east. They were on the face of a mountain, but to the south of the city. “Got turned around up there, just a bit, huh?”
Mark slapped him on the back. “Find us a way down, Blackie. We’ll be sleeping in our own beds tonight.”
“Come on, Hank, find us a way down!” Blackie encouraged the young grizzly. The bear retreated into the brush and crashed through a few trees as Blackie set out after him.
“Be careful!’ Mark yelled, unsure if anyone was ever careful after being told that.
“This way!” Blackie called from the darkness.
“Great,” Mark mumbled as he stumbled through the brush and over rocks, heading downward in a long half-circle. When he broke out of the trees, the cliff face was to the side, stars were in the sky, and a gradual slope descended toward the plains below.
“Come on!” Blackie yelled as Hank ran ahead.
***
As Sue and Billy approached the mayor’s house, the upstairs lights were on and Felicity was in the window. The street lights showed her that her
husband had returned.
She disappeared, quickly reemerging from the door and running into the street. Billy braced himself, but it didn’t matter, she never slowed down.
She jumped into his arms, bowling him over and they rolled to the pavement.
“Oh, Billy, I’m so sorry, I love you!” she drawled, kissing him repeatedly. She held his head and looked at him, “What happened to your face?”
The whipping he’d taken from the tree branches hadn’t been kind.
“All’s well that ends well,” Sue called over her shoulder as she hurried away, still carrying Clyde in her arms.
***
Mark led the parade into the barracks. It was the middle of the night, maybe even later than that.
Blackie and Hank were already in the enclosure and probably sound asleep.
Jim had been sleeping on a couch and roused when the other men entered. “I’m glad you’re back. Our six are present and accounted for,” he reported sleepily.
“Us, too. The only one we’re missing now is Billy. I mean Billy and Sue. We lost her as she ran up the hill,” Mark replied.
“We’ll head back out after getting some shut-eye. We’ll find him,” Jim said confidently and returned to his place on the couch. The others staggered to their beds, happy to be back but unhappy that they spent all their time lost and not searching for the mayor. Mark decided he’d get a few hours’ sleep, then go see Felicity to tell her that they didn’t find him, then return to the mountains and start searching again.
Mark worried, but when morning came, he’d find the conversation with Felicity would be no problem at all.
And then he could return to the real issues that troubled the entire community.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
The days stretched. They ate well and had a constant supply of clean water. The trail along the river was easy to follow. They settled in to a routine that put the miles behind them. They traveled fifty, then seventy-five miles in a day.
Nomad Omnibus 01_A Kurtherian Gambit Series Page 55