Sam, Ben, Andy and all three of the McGrubbers were standing in the middle of a clearing. A person could see where places were clear of brush and debris as if it had been gotten ready for the next campers. It was obviously a favored camp spot. Someone had taken the time to pack in a heavy wooden picnic table and not only did the campsite have a fire ring, but someone had built an elaborate rock fireplace as well, complete with a metal grill for cooking. Gina walked around inspecting the site and realized it was almost the perfect set up. If she stopped and listened she could hear running water and there were plenty of trees for shelter, and to the east side of the clearing she could see a sparse field of green. It wasn’t as lush as the field they had left that morning, but it would do for a short time.
She met up with Journey and Lucy who were standing and watching the guys talk. “How’s Tammy doing?” Gina had addressed her question to Lucy, whom she thought had spent the trip riding with the girl, but with a nod at Journey, she deferred the question.
“Not good. I spent the last hour with her and she isn’t making much sense. It’s like the altercation with Gina knocked her ability to think properly. If you try to talk to her, she shuts her eyes like that would prevent her from hearing. The only person she does talk to is herself, and it’s nothing more than jibberish. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.”
“Please tell me that when I hit her, I didn’t knock something loose.”
“No, you didn’t. I almost feel like Tammy was holding on by a thread long before we met her. She’s paranoid, hears people talking to her and is afraid of everything.”
“When I was riding with her, I could see in her eyes she was fighting a war. It seemed like she was trying to put things together and she almost looked normal and then, bam! She’d lose it, and her face would lose all expression. I tell you it was like someone flipped the switch off.”
“I noticed it too Lucy. I’m not a psych nurse and never had any intentions of delving into people's minds. They’re too fragile, but if I were guessing, I would say with the meds she was on, and I’m only guessing, but I would say paranoid schizophrenia accompanied by delusional tendencies. One thing I do know is that she could be dangerous, so I’m going to go against Sam and say that we need to keep her hands tied at least.”
Lucy held her hand's palm out, “Hey, you won’t get any complaints here. She scares the hell out of me.”
“Speaking of the men, does anyone know what’s going on yet?”
“Probably you aren’t going to like this, but they way it sounds, the guys are going to continue and find John. Andy and Sam found where their tracks continued out the other side of the slide, so Sam is sure they are probably down by the river. He thinks they could get there by dark and be back here in the morning.”
“So, why am I not going to like this?”
“Because you must have missed it when I said the guys are going. He never said anything about us going. So I am assuming they intend on us women staying here.”
“Well, this might just surprise you, but I am willing to stay behind. I don’t want to go anywhere without you and Lucy. Call it a premonition or just a creepy feeling, but something is not right, and for the first time, I can say that I am afraid of what we can’t see.”
“Do you think it’s the volcano? Are we far enough away that if it does erupt, we’ll be safe?”
Gina shook her head, “I don’t think so. Whatever it is, feels bigger. As far as the volcano goes Journey, we’re either far enough away, or we aren’t. I think that is out of our hands. I’m beginning to think that Mark is right. We all have a destiny, and if it’s our time to go, it’s our time. Whether we fall off a horse or get killed by falling rocks, it’s all the same. We have a ticket for the ride no matter how long or short it may be, but something tells me that we’re in this for the long run.”
Journey scrunched her face up pondering what Gina had just said. She never thought she’d ever hear Gina say that she would be content to stay behind. Gina had always been the adventurous one of the three of them and for her to feel spooked about leaving did not make Journey feel any better. Gina had always had a way of knowing things before they happened and Lucy used to call Gina their resident psychic and had jokingly said she was going to put a sign out by the road and charge for Gina to tell people their future. Journey had warned Lucy against doing it and told Lucy not to make jokes about Gina’s ability.
Journey, Lucy, and Gina had lined up down one side of the picnic table bench when Andy, Ben, and Sam came over to them. The three women met the eyes of the three men, and much was said without an uttered word. Finally, Sam broke the silence, “I know that you are going to want to argue about what I’m going to say, but I want you to listen to me first before you start.”
Gina and the other two nodded, “Go ahead,” Gina told him.
Sam blinked and pulled his chin in; he had not been prepared for Gina to acquiesce quite so quickly. He, Ben and Andy had been trying to figure out how to tell the women that they were staying behind without them putting up a fuss. Andy and Ben had agreed that Gina would be the hardest one to convince and here she was not saying anything. Sam wondered if he knew her as well as he thought he did.
“You seem at a loss for words, so how about I tell you what I think you want to say?” Gina waited for Sam or one of the others to protest. When they stood and stared at her, she continued. “You want us to stay behind while you go find John and we all agree to wait.”
Sam reached out and grabbed Gina’s hands and pulled them from behind her back. “What the hell?”
Sam laughed nervously, “I wanted to see if you had your fingers crossed. It’s not like you to give in so easily.”
“Well, as you can see they aren’t. But if you’re going you need to take the rifles and another handgun with you and plenty of ammunition. You have no idea what you’re going to run into down there. We’ll put you together a bag with some pemmican and jerky, while you get armed up.”
Gina turned and followed Journey to the boot of the buggy, leaving Sam standing in front of Lucy with his mouth hanging open. From the wagon, Gina pulled out her saddle bags where she had put the binoculars after the last time they used them. She knew that Sam didn’t carry a knife and pulled her Buck Vanguard from the bag. Lucy had given it to her for Christmas the year before while Journey had provided the sheath to carry it in. Gina had never used the knife but knew it was as sharp as the day she’d gotten it. The stainless blade would cut through anything he would need it for. She didn’t see anything else that could be an asset for Sam and closed the bag up. With her back to the men, she closed her eyes and said a quick prayer for their safety. With a sigh, she turned around and walked back to the table. She was surprised to see the three brothers there as well.
“Are all of you going?”
Journey laughed, “I was just coming to ask the same thing, so I know how much food to pack.”
Sam looked at the two men and then glanced at the McGrubbers and nodded. “All of us but Willy. He’s going to stay here.”
Gina nodded, and Journey went to finish putting together a package of food for the six men. “I’d like to suggest that you change mounts then. Sham would be better suited, and you know what you can expect from him. The same goes for Andy and Ben. Joe and Bess will have more stamina if you need it and the boys can use the horses you were riding, and one of them can take my Appy.”
Sam nodded, “Okay. That means you guys are here without any horses. But I guess that means you have to stay put.”
“That’s not what it means. It means we want to see you come back. Besides, we’ll still have Sailor and Willy’s gelding, and if we had to, we could figure something else out. We’ll still have the bays and the mares. So you guys need to make the switch and get going before I change my mind. The six men were mounted and ready to leave within a half hour. Kenny, Jesse, and Joe rode bareback with just a saddle blanket to sit on, but the three boys had bragged about never having saddles growin
g up. The way they handled the horses, it was easy to see where the three were excellent horsemen.
Sam and Ben had Ar-15’s slung over their shoulders and Andy had the Saiga MK107 that had been in the gun safe in the feed store. The Mcgrubber boys had their rifles of which Kenny use the same 5.56 as the AR’s and the Saiga. Joe had his .06 while Jesse carried a 30/30 similar to Gina’s.
Before they left, Sam had thrust the Barret M92 at Willy. “I know you know how to use this, so keep our families safe.” He looked at Gina, “Please stay here. I don’t want to think of you following us or doing anything that would get you in trouble or hurt.”
They said their goodbyes and watched the six men ride off up the road.
Willy, Sierra, Olivia and the three friends sat in silence until the men were out of sight.
“Now, I know you ladies have something up your sleeves because even though I don’t know you all that well, I’m pretty sure that none of you would have agreed to stay behind without some kind of a plan.” He looked at Gina with his eyes half closed, “Especially you.”
Gina jumped to her feet and began to pace, “Are you kidding me? I said that I wouldn’t follow them and I meant it.”
“That’s true, but for how long did you mean it?”
Lucy and Journey burst into laughter. It was apparent to them that Willy knew Gina as well as they did. She hadn’t been hard to read when she agreed to stay behind if you knew her as well as they did.
“Shut up!” she glared at them and then rolled her eyes, and confessed. “I knew Sam would check my fingers, but he didn’t look down at my feet. Two days! If they aren’t back in two days, we go after them.”
Willy nodded, “That seems about what I thought too. Not counting today, I ain’t too sure what day it is, so we’ll call it Friday. If they aren’t back here by the night of the Sabbath, we set out first thing Monday morning and not one second earlier.”
“I was thinking by tomorrow night.”
Willy shook his head, “Nope. You don’t know what they’ll encounter on their journey, so we have to give them enough time to get there and back. That old Forestry sign up the road says it’s seven miles to Avery if Sam’s brother was going to Adair that would be another seven or eight miles to the east. We don’t know what the terrain is like so we’ll give them the extra day.”
“That’s what worries me. What are they going to encounter along the way? You know as well as we do that they could run into Steve and Silas anywhere on that road.”
“Uncle Silas…you know my Uncle Silas? Take me there!”
They turned as one and stared at the wagon. Tammy had sat up, and her purple hair was visible over the sideboards. She was struggling to turn and face them. “You have to take me to him now. He can help me. I know he can. His nephew Butch and I have the same illness, and he’ll have some meds.”
“Is that normal?” Gina asked Journey. “Can she be crazy one minute and then completely coherent the next?”
Journey shrugged, “I don’t know. Probably so, because unless she’s been stringing us along, she just did.”
Gina went to the back of the wagon, Tammy had slumped back over, and if Gina hadn’t heard the girl, she wouldn’t have believed her to be capable of speech. Her eyes were closed, and she was mumbling to herself. When Gina bumped the tailgate, Tammy opened her eyes, and Gina could see the insanity shining out. Tammy spat at her and scrambled back away from Gina. Gina stepped away. She saw there was no point in her trying to have a conversation with the girl.
She walked back to the picnic table and sank to the bench. It was time to tell the women about St. Regis. They had withheld the part about their encounter with Steve and Butch. Sam had left a trail of deceit, but Gina wondered if Silas or any of them would fall for it. Would Silas carry a grudge strong enough to send them to Whitefish just to get revenge for Butch? Gina had no idea, but she hoped the family ties were compelling enough and Silas was vindictive enough to head north.
Between Willy and Gina, they got the story told. Gina filled Willy in on their first encounter with Steve. Lucy, pale-faced, listened to Willy and Gina. It was apparent that she hadn’t gotten completely over her ordeal. She rubbed her arm as if hearing the words brought back the pain of her broken arm and her terror surrounding her kidnapping.
“You should have killed him. Those men are evil.”
“Yes, ma’am. In retrospect, I can see where we should have. But, it’s not as easy as you might think. Killing Butch was a reaction, but to just kill someone who is standing if front of you, someone you can look into their eyes, is a whole new ball of wax. I sure wish he had done something in front of me to justify killing. Yes, ma’am, I sure do.”
Willy was shaking his head as he spoke and it was easy to see that he meant every word. His appearance and what the women knew of him from his music and the care he had shown the old people from the home was in direct conflict with his words. Never would any of them have guessed he was the man that Sam knew of as Carver; until he finished speaking.
Sam had never clarified if he had asked Willy about the stories they’d told back then, but Sam had been sure without confirmation. He said there was something about Willy that not only spoke of gentleness and kindness, but the capability he had shown in St. Regis to do the unthinkable.
“Does it really matter?” Gina stood up and looked around.
“Were you talking to yourself or us?”
“Sorry, I was just…never mind. How are we fixed for food? That was a big bag that you sent with them.”
“I sent enough for a week which took all of the pemmican and most of the jerky. I saved us enough jerky to flavor the rice and beans, but that’s it. Our diet just got changed, but I thought the guys would need the calories, and I didn’t think that we would. Of course, had I known we were going off on some wild goose chase, I may have planned differently.”
“Hopefully they are back before we have to make that decision. Until then, maybe I’ll go set up over by the creek. I don’t think we’ll have fish, but maybe a rabbit or something will come along.” He looked at Gina, “I don’t suppose you have a .22 in those guns you have?”
Olivia jumped up, “We do. It was mine and we have boxes of bullets for it too.”
“She would know,” Gina said. “You’re welcome to use anything in our arsenal. Speaking of that, what is that rifle that Sam gave you?”
“The Barret? Primarily it’s a sniper rifle, but I have used it for different things. We only have a small amount of ammunition for it so that I will have to use it selectively. There’s a gun for every battle and a battle for every gun, we just need to pick wisely where to use it.”
Olivia followed Willy off to the creek while Gina built them a fire. Journey filled a pot and put a few strips of jerky into the water to let it simmer. When the water boiled, she would add rice. In another pot, she set some beans to soak. They would have the rice for dinner and throw the leftovers into the beanpot for the next day.
That night sitting around the fire, they were trying to decide what to do with Tammy. As far as they knew she hadn’t eaten or drank anything since she’d eaten the pemmican.
“I feel bad about tying her up, but what else can we do? She already proved we couldn't trust her. I never did understand why she tried to shoot you.”
“I think she would have taken the same approach no matter who was the first one at the wagon. Maybe she saw me as some kind of a threat. Hell, I don’t know. I do think we need to take turns and stand guard tonight.”
“POP!” Gina jumped and grabbed for her 30/30 leaning against the end of the table. She hadn’t heard the direction the shot had come from and turned in circles looking for anything moving.
“That was just us,” Olivia hollered. “Willy got a rabbit.”
Gina relaxed and set the rifle back down. “I guess I should build a fire in the fireplace, or can we cook it there?” She pointed to the pot sitting on the grill that Journey had taken from the rock fireplace and plac
ed on the fire ring.
We can cook it on the grill and then I’ll strip the meat from the bones and add it to the rice. Trust me; there won’t be much meat on one rabbit.”
Olivia and Willy came back a few minutes later with their rabbit already cleaned and skinned. Journey was right, there wasn’t much to it, but Willy proudly laid it out on the grill, and they sat and watched it sizzle over the flames. Journey turned it over when she thought it was ready and continued to turn it until the meat shrank away from the bones. She had to lift it from the fire in pieces and set it on a plate where she carefully peeled the meat away.
When Journey looked up from her task, she found every eye watching her, “Wow. You guys make me feel like a famous chef, and I feel like I should be explaining every step to you.”
They laughed and watched her pour it on top of the now fully cooked rice. Journey held up the plate of bones, “There’s still meat on these, but I think they’re too small to add to the beans so if anyone wanted to,” she set the plate on the table, “pick them clean, have at it. The bone marrow is high in vitamins,” she laughed and held up a tiny leg bone… “Okay, so maybe that’s asking too much.”
After mixing the rice and the meat from the rabbit together, she measured out one cup for each of them. “This is all we can have for tonight. We’re going to have to ration everything we do have. Lucy, will you take this to Tammy, please. Grab a spoon for her.”
“Sure,” Lucy said and carried the bowl and spoon to the wagon. When Gina looked up from her dish, she stared at Lucy who was standing there with Tammy’s bowl in her hands.
“That was fast.” Gina looked at her dish and shivered. There was no way that Tammy could have eaten hers already.
“She’s gone.” Lucy stood with the bowl in one hand and the twine she had been tied with, in the other. “She must have chewed this off and left.”
Chapter Seventeen; The disappearance
Gina set her bowl down and ran to the back of the wagon, “How did we not see or at least hear her?” She ran to the buggy which was closer to them and breathed a sigh of relief. The lid was still on the container. She lifted the lid, and everything appeared to be as they had left it after removing the box of .22 bullets.
Beyond the New Horizon (Book 3): Living on the Edge Page 26