“I really hate to leave you guys alone here. It doesn’t feel right,” Sam told them after Andy and Journey had climbed down.
“We’ll be okay. We both have our handguns, and I have this,” Andy said, patting the AR15 slung across his chest. “Ben loaned it to me.”
“You know how to use it? Right?”
“Sam while you were out playing rodeo, I was beating the sand over in Kuwait, so I have a pretty good idea how it works.”
Gina leaned over and touched Journey’s shoulder, “Be careful. You know our motto…shoot first. Don’t take chances with anyone.”
“Oh pooh, you know not everyone out here is a bad guy.”
“The good guys are few and far between. Look after her Andy,” Gina said and nudged Joe into a walk, following Oliva. She looked back to Andy still standing watching after them. Grim-faced he put his hand on the AR and Gina felt he was letting her know that he understood. He nodded once and set off after Journey. Gina saw him take the bucket from her friend and faced forward.
Sam pointed to the south. Gina looked and saw a dozen horses grazing in a field. Andy must have tapped the bucket like they used to do to get their horses attention because every horse lifted their head watching the two people approach. The process began as one making a move, and then all of them were jogging toward the man with the bucket. Gina was sure they would be riding home with halters on the ones they could take.
They stayed at a steady pace until they felt the need to cross over the water when the river took a turn to the south, leaving the interstate route. They were east of Haugan and Gina couldn’t help but notice that the girl turned her head away as they rode by the burnt out hulk of the restaurant. Gina looked but didn’t waste time worrying when she saw no sign of life.
At the river's edge, Sam climbed down and scooped up a handful of the water. It was clear and cold. He smelled it and then took a small sip. Liking what he tasted, “We may as well give them a drink.”
They let the horses drink for a few minutes while they shared a piece of pemmican and sipped from their water bottles.
“How’s the cart driver doing?” Gina asked Olivia.
“Good, except the metal on the front edge hurts my legs.” She turned and showed Gina where the metal edge had rubbed the backs of her legs raw. There was no seat for the driver, and Olivia was hanging her legs off the front of it.
“Put my sleeping bag under you with a cushion under your legs.”
Oliva took the bag, folded it and set it where she would be sitting and climbed back on. She sat there, reins in hand grinning, “That’s better. Can we go now?”
Sam led at the same ground-covering pace he had maintained earlier, and they rolled on through Saltese and Henderson without seeing anyone out in the open. Gina thought she saw a tattered curtain in a window move, but they didn’t take the time to find out when they were going through Saltese. By the time they reached exit thirty-three and left the roadway at St. Regis, the horses and people were showing signs of exhaustion. Gina was pretty sure they had averaged a good eight miles an hour, despite the few short rest breaks they had taken.
They rested the horses off the roadway behind a building that may at one time have been the fire station. Most of the structure was gone or blackened by fire. They could hear a dog barking until it was either let in or silenced. From their position, they could see a barricade of cars blocking the western route into downtown, but downtown was not where they wanted to go. They didn’t want to have to explain where they were from or what they were doing, so when the horses had rested, they headed north up Highway 135. The farm store was less than a mile up the road.
Gina saw the look of trepidation on Olivia’s face, and she wasn’t sure whether to pray that her parents still lay half covered by the dirt Oliva had put on them or if she wished for the bodies to be gone.
When they got to the feed store, it was obvious someone else had been there before them. The front window was broken out, and the door hung open.
“This can’t be good,” Gina whispered.
“You guys both wait here,” Sam told them handing Gina his reins.
Gina noticed that Oliva kept looking past the end of the store to a house that sat nestled in the trees behind it. “Is that where you lived?”
She nodded, “I’m kind of scared to go and look. What if they weren’t dead and I was trying to bury them alive?”
“As soon as Sam gives the all clear, I’ll have Sam go back there. He will need to make sure it’s safe before he lets us go in. I don’t believe you buried them alive. As well as I know you or think I do, you would have been positive before you did anything.”
Sam had gone through the front door, so both girls were surprised when he came walking from the direction of the house.
“Well, the bad news is that there’s nothing left. The good news is that someone finished burying your parents and put a cross to mark their grave.”
Gina saw that Olivia wanted to go see for herself, “Go ahead. Sailor isn't going anywhere.” Olivia dropped the reins and took off at a run. She and Sam watched her until she passed down the side of the house.
“Well, this is a wasted trip. There’s a couple of rolls of chicken wire and a couple of horse fences, a few metal tee-posts and a few bales of nasty looking hay up in the loft, but that’s it. No feed and no medicines of any kind.”
“Wasted regarding the things we need, but not wasted when it will bring so much comfort to Olivia. She had a fear that she had tried to bury her parents while they were still alive. Seeing the grave will give her some closure.”
“I know. I guess I was counting on getting the antibiotics at least.”
“As soon as Olivia gets back, we’ll see about getting her clothing, if there’s anything left and head on back. Maybe we can be there in time to help Andy and Journey.”
“They will be long gone because we need to rest these animals for longer than an hour. Here she comes, and she looks okay.”
Sam turned and walked toward Oliva, Gina followed him after tying Joe to the side of the cart.
Sam must have said something to Olivia because she looked excited and was nodding her head. Sam flashed Gina a smile and waved her forward. “Olivia thinks she has a surprise for us.”
They went in through the front door and on through to the warehouse area, Gina could see that there wasn’t anything left but the few rolls of wire and some odds and ends of things she didn’t recognize. Olivia stopped in front of a wooden ladder fixed to the side of the office area. All Gina could see was hay and Sam had been right. It may have served for cow hay, but she would never feed it to horses. She could smell the mold from down below. The hay was stacked almost to the roof. In front of the first row, several bales had been flung down, maybe as if someone was trying to find some good hay bales.
Gina doubted there would be many because the mold tickled her nose from down below. She watched as Olivia pulled on a bale and they seemed to slide out of the way as a group, leaving a narrow passage between them. She ducked her head and went forward out of sight. Sam had to bend his whole body forward and followed her.
Whatever was in there caused Sam to stick his face out the opening, and wave her up. She walked to the ladder prepared to climb when a panicked whinny grabbed her attention. She turned and hurried out to the horses. Three men were trying to get their hands on Joe, and he was tied to the cart, pulling the cart and Sailor backward as he reared up out of reach. As she ran, Gina pulled her 357 from her holster, hiding it close to her body as she ran. As near as she could tell, the men had no visible weapons. Their attention was on getting their hands on the horses and hadn’t heard her.
“Stop that! What do you think you’re doing?”
The men froze. Gina kept her gun plastered to her side until she knew what was going on. “Turn around, and if you have a gun, please leave it holstered.” The men obediently turned, raising their arms above their heads as they did so. It was not the reaction Gina was expecti
ng. She was prepared to shoot if was forced into it, but for them to obey her order so willingly, surprised her.
Now that she had their attention, Gina had no idea how to proceed. With the thoughts of her previous encounter with the lady in red, she wasn’t going to trust them.
“Who wants to do the talking?”
The three men were obviously not expecting to have the chance to talk, looked at each other in alarm. It was plain to see that none of them wanted to speak first, in fact, they all looked scared. Except, Gina saw the humor in the black man’s face. His eyes sparkled as if he had a joke but wasn’t sharing. Other than maybe him, none of them could be under the age of sixty. Gina looked at the dark skinned man and wondered why he looked familiar. It wasn’t anything she could put her finger on and briefly wondered if he was a vet that she had seen at the V.A. and with him smiling and the other older man offering comfort to another, Gina wondered what kind of a gang acts as they were.
“Sit down on the ground and keep your hands where I can see them.” To watch the relief that crossed the three faces was almost comical. Watching the men shuffle around to try and obey her, made her want to laugh. “Come on Sam. Get your butt out here,” Gina mumbled. She needed Sam to come and take over the situation. They didn’t look anything like a band of marauding thugs, for one thing; they all looked too clean, and they apparently weren’t starving. While they were thin to the point that their clothing hung off of their frames as if their bodies had shrunk and belts and suspenders were all that held them up they were not in danger of starving. “At least not yet.”
When it was apparent that the one old man was having a problem getting to the ground, Gina told the dark-skinned man, “Give him a hand.”
He showed her his approval, by nodding at her and smiling. Letting the oldest man use his arm for balance he helped the old man to the ground.
The horses had settled down as soon as Gina had appeared and they’d heard her voice. The men kept glancing behind themselves as if the horses behind them made them nervous.
Gina squatted down in front of them, her elbows resting on her knees. She had the advantage of not being seated and could obviously move faster than any of them. Gina glanced behind her to see if Sam was coming to her aid, but he was not. She wasn’t sure where to start. As soon as the men began trying to sit on the ground, Gina knew they were no threat to her unless one of them happened to fall on her. She didn’t see that happening.
She pointed at the last one to sit, “You. You tell me what you thought you were doing.” His faded blue eyes looked up at her and Gina saw a plethora of emotions in them. He had been heavier set at one time, and folds of skin hung loosely down making him look like he had jowls. He raised a shaking hand to his head and patted his hair. It was too long but parted neatly on the side and combed over. When he finally began to talk, Gina saw that he was missing at least one of his front teeth.
“We weren’t going to steal them,” was all that he offered.
Gina did laugh, “I could see that. Why were you not trying to take them then, because that’s the only reason I can see for you taking hold of them.”
“We weren’t,” the youngest of the trio offered. Being nudged from the man seated beside him he continued. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen anyone with horses.”
Gina smirked, “So what, you were going to ride them?”
“No. I’m not sure what our intentions were exactly. We saw you ride in and you didn’t look like you belonged with that other group, so I guess maybe we were going to ask for your help.”
Gina frowned, she wondered what other guys and how she could help them. “So, you were going to hold our horse's hostage to force us to help you?”
The oldest looking of the trio, shook his head sadly, “I’m not sure, I guess we were going to do that, maybe. We haven’t talked it over, but we don’t really need any help, just a little assistance. When we saw you go by on the road, we followed you here. I thought at first that I knew one of you, but maybe I was wrong.” He held his hand out, “My names Glen and that’s Willy,” he pointed to the coffee colored man, and this is Jeffery,” he said and touched Jeffery on his shoulder. The man nodded politely but didn’t say anything. “Jeffery has had some problems and doesn’t speak much. It’s like he comes and goes most of the time.” He touched his forehead giving Gina a clue.
Gina nodded and wondered what to do. The men obviously weren’t a threat to her and other than Willy she could easily incapacitate either one of the other two. From Willy’s attitude and the compassion she saw on his face toward the other men, she didn’t think he would be a problem either.
“You said another group came through? How could you tell we weren’t a part of them? Seems to me that without knowing, sneaking up on us could have been kind of risky.”
“For one thing, you didn’t come in shooting up the town as they did, and you were riding horses and not motorcycles and four-wheelers.”
“We ran into some guys with the four-wheelers right in the beginning, but I would have thought they’d moved on by now.”
“Not when they have aspirations of running a kingdom. They were laying claim to this town, and we were going to be their subjects,” Willy said and laughed.
Glen waved his hand to shush Willy, “As I was saying, we were low on food then, but we were getting by. Those that stayed after the power went off, all moved into the fire station. We thought we could survive better by combining what we had.” He pointed down the road, “They burned it down. They told us, they were offering security in exchange for us providing them with food and if we had guns or ammunition, we had to give it up.”
“Like I was going to let that happen,” Willy mumbled.
“But Willy already had their number. He asked if they were going to protect us, why would they want our guns. Then he pointed to the burning building and told them everything we have was inside it. When bullets began going off, they got on their vehicles, and after buzzing up and down the main street, they all left. We never saw them again after that, but that’s when we began scrounging through the vacant houses looking for anything.”
“Up until then, we hadn’t taken anything that one of us didn’t already own. Losing what little we had in the fire, changed everything,” Willy told her.
Gina sighed, realizing she was still holding a loaded gun on the men and relaxed her arm. She dropped down to the ground and folded her legs under herself sitting cross-legged, her gun resting in her lap.
Glen looked up, and she saw the fear that crossed his face. His shoulders sank as if he thought it was the end. When Sailor raised his head and nickered, she knew it had to be Oliva or Sam. She heard running footsteps and knew it was Olivia.
“Granpa, how did you get here and Mr. Carver, oh my God.” Olivia threw herself down beside the oldest man and wrapped her arms around him. “We’re’s Grandma? How did you get here?” Olivia looked up at Gina, she had tears in her eyes, “This is my grandfather, and that man owns the restaurant.” She pointed down the row of men to the one named Willy. She frowned, “I don’t know the other one.”
“What have we here?” Sam asked, walking up behind them.
Willy who, like Gina was watching the interchange between Olivia and her grandfather looked up, and his face froze. His mouth turned into a thin line, and his dark green eyes narrowed. Gina watched his body tense, and his hands close into fists.
“He’s with us,” Gina told the man and looked up at Sam. Gina realized how their appearance alone should have scared the men. Sam had a red bandana wrapped around his forehead and under his cap. She felt her head and realized her bandage was wet and probably dirty. Her hair, unlike Olivia’s grandfather’s, had not been combed in days. Oliva had some of Matt’s clothing on that was too large and held up with twine. None of them were very clean, and she supposed they must smell like it too.
Sam must have judged the three men safe and lowered himself to the ground to sit beside Gina, “Is this a town meet
ing or what?”
“What’s left of it, I guess. As you can tell, that’s Olivia’s grandfather Glen, and this is Willy and Jeffery.” When Jeffery heard his name, he looked up, and Gina realized he had nothing on his face. It was devoid of any expression. His blue eyes were open, but not focused. His hair was neatly parted and combed; the extra length tucked behind his ears. He hadn’t offered anything to their conversation and didn’t seem to be listening. He smiled as if at his own thoughts. His feet stuck out in front of him, and Gina thought that he hadn’t bathed in a while because she smelt an odor that seemed out of place.
As soon as Sam had been introduced to Willy, the two men held each other’s gaze for longer than Gina thought was necessary and then Willy nodded. To her, it was like watching two women sizing each other up finding the other lacking in something or two dogs facing each other not wanting to be the one to make the first move. She would ask Sam what that was all about when they were alone.
Without preamble, Sam jumped right in, “What happened to this town? Where is everyone?”
“Glen has just been telling me what happened. Why don’t you go on,” she nodded to him, but it was Willy who spoke.
“We don’t have no Wal-Mart or big shopping center here, all we got was Reds. He was pretty well stocked up for the winter, but those people came in, and when they couldn’t use their credit cards they got real mad. He told them they would have to pay for their supplies with cash. Before the day was out, they resorted to stealing. We had a full-blown riot before the night was over. They beat poor Red within an inch of his life. It took him two days to die from his injuries. We couldn’t even give him anything for the pain. People turned into animals.”
Beyond the New Horizon (Book 3): Living on the Edge Page 10