"We can easily go many days without seeing another person," said Oliver.
They reached Sean's house and introductions were made. Sean and Brittany immediately invited them to join the group for dinner.
"We also have a small guest house," said Sean. "You're welcome to stay there. I built it a few years ago just for times like these, when someone is passing through and needs a place to stay for a few days."
"Much obliged," said Steve. "It'll be nice to have a roof over our heads for a change."
The evening was spent discussing the other communities and getting Steve and Oliver's impressions of how people, in general, were adapting to the new world.
"For the most part, pretty well," Oliver expounded. "Some communities are more successful than others. I can tell already that yours is thriving. It has a good feeling to it. Monett, as well. Their population hovers close to 400, and it's well run. The place is clean and people seem happy. The other town I told you about, Deadwood, is doing well. They are not large—less than 200—but they are happy and the community is succeeding. The most successful ones are those in which the residents work together. Unfortunately, there are a few where egos take center stage and very little ever gets done. Paradise is one of those. I'm told the population has dropped from a high of about 500 a few years ago, to right around 150 now."
Ben was aware of that. Close to a hundred had migrated from Paradise to Yellowstone over the years, and he had heard the stories. Electricity or no electricity, Paradise didn't have the personalities to succeed.
"Why is this the furthest west you are going?" asked Brittany.
"First and foremost," answered Steve, "nobody has told us of any settlements west of here. They might exist, but we're not going to spend the next year wandering around looking for them. Also, south and west of here, it gets pretty mountainous. No thanks. We'll let someone else explore that area. As it is, we have our work cut out for us."
Ben brought up a few names of people they had met along the way, but Steve and Oliver hadn't run across them, the exception being Rob and Jenny, a couple headed for South Carolina with a daughter a little older than Cat. The two families had met when Ben and Lila were on their way to Yellowstone.
"Well, they made it to South Carolina," said Oliver. "They have one of the better settlements—around 250 people and thriving. Next time we're there, we will let them know you were asking about them."
"I'll write them a letter before you leave," said Lila.
"Now that we've visited all twenty-seven towns," said Steve, "we want to fine tune the organizing process. If you know of anyone who would like to be the official Pony Express person here, all they would have to do is visit Paradise and Deadwood once a month or so. Best to travel in pairs, just for safety against accidents."
"I'm sure we can find a couple of people," said Sean. "There is always someone looking for more to do."
A makeshift post office was set up in Sean's store and the lists of names of residents from the other settlements were copied by volunteers. The lists were kept in a binder for anyone to access. In some cases people recognized old acquaintances. But the problem most people had was that so many in the new world had stopped using their last names. So Joe Smith in Monett might have been any one of a half dozen Joes Ben and Lila had met who hadn't given their last names. It was all going to take time. But the enthusiasm for the idea was infectious.
When Steve and Oliver left a few days later, it was with over thirty letters. Many were bound for Paradise—former residents hoping to keep in touch with friends who had stayed—some were going to Monett, and a half dozen to various communities around the country.
*****
Over the next year, the Pony Express fell into place. Monthly runs were made between Yellowstone, Paradise, and Deadwood. From there, the mail was passed on from community to community. Steve and Oliver were right. Letters Lila sent to Jenny in South Carolina were answered and received only a couple of months later. It wasn't only letters that were exchanged, but life stories, as well. Pen pals were established and people made friends with others they would probably never meet in person. Recipes were passed on, as were community ideas that had been found successful. For the first time, people began to believe that there was a country again. It was fragmented, but it existed.
Reports from Paradise were encouraging as well. Because of the mail delivery, people were taking more of an interest in the town and a sense of community was finally being established. The bad apples had been weeded out and people with common sense and vision had taken over the town government.
All the while, the question was being asked in Yellowstone of what lay west of there. Could there, in fact, be other communities? One night, they were discussing it at a cookout Aaron and Emily were hosting.
"How far west have you been in your scavenging?" Ben asked Sean.
"Not far at all. As you know, I don't do much scavenging anymore, but when I did, I tended to go more south, toward Denver. So the furthest west I've been is maybe a hundred miles."
"I'd like to check it out sometime," said Aaron.
"Spoken like a man without children," said Sean. "It's harder for me to just head out like that. We could be gone months."
"Face it, you're a wimp."
"I could still beat the crap out of you."
"Oh God," said Emily. "Here they go again."
Their good-natured fighting had been a central part of their relationship from almost the day they met, so many years earlier in Marine boot camp.
Getting back on subject, Ben said, "We always heard that with the big earthquake they predicted would eventually hit California, half the state would slide into the sea. I think the quake they got after the event was even more massive than anything they could have predicted. I wonder if the coastline is closer to us now?"
Nick, who had been a meteorologist in St. Louis at the time of the event, turned to his partner Jason, who had been living in California. "You saw some of it."
"In my rearview mirror. I was driving that ancient pickup I'd found. How I made it to St. Louis is beyond me. It was a mess. I can almost guarantee that California fell into the ocean, but how far east of there is a question. Driving through parts of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and whatever other states I hit, was murder. Fissures had cropped up everywhere. Sometimes I had to go hundreds of miles out of my way. I know it seems to be that way all over, but trust me, I'm talking whole sections of land—miles wide—just dropped away. What I'm getting at here is this: It's quite possible that some of these craters are linked, and if they are at all connected to the ocean and the ocean filled them up, it could seem as if the ocean had traveled that far eastward. That was the extreme southwest. And I will say that even with all that destruction, there were certain other areas in the southwest that didn’t seem to be affected. So it’s really impossible to predict. Who knows, this far north? We might be able to travel as far as Oregon, or we might encounter the ocean a couple hundred miles west of here. When Nick and I were doing all of our traveling, this was as far west as we got."
Upon further discussion, they all realized that no one living in Yellowstone, except Jason, had come from anywhere farther west.
"I think it's time somebody explored it," said Aaron.
Ben had to agree with him. He just wasn't sure he wanted to be one of the explorers. He had done enough traveling and he was happy with his life. Why upset things?
A week later, the choice was taken out of his hands altogether.
Chapter 7
"She's gone." Ben and Lila's neighbor, Frank, had a look of panic on his face as he got off his horse.
"Who's gone?" asked Ben.
"Sophie. She took off with that asshole, Clete. It had to be his idea. He's bad news."
"Okay, try to calm yourself down. Tell me what happened."
Frank climbed down from his horse and took a breath.
"You know she's been hanging out with Clete, right?"
Ben nodded. He'd
known this was coming. Sophie, once Cat's childhood friend, had become wild and uncontrollable in recent months. Only thirteen, she had "developed" earlier than most of the girls her age, and had no problem flaunting it. Despite having good parents, Sophie had been a problem for about a year. Two months earlier, she had started hanging around with Clete, a troubled boy three years older than herself. The Yellowstone board had actually had some serious discussions about Clete in recent months. He had been caught bullying younger boys and inappropriately spying on some of the girls.
Clete lived with an older couple who had found the toddler a week after the event happened. He was dirty, hungry, and thirsty, so they took him with them as they wandered. They weren't particularly nice people, and they never struck Ben as the kind who would take on a young child. But he knew that some of the most hardened people had made allowances after the world collapsed.
They had shown up in Yellowstone a couple of years before Ben and Lila and pretty much kept to themselves. Clete had been given free reign from the moment they arrived, and had slowly built a reputation as someone the Yellowstone parents advised their kids to stay away from. That was enough incentive for Sophie to seek him out. To her, he was exciting. To him, Sophie was easy pickings. Rumor had it that their relationship had turned physical almost immediately, and there were many nights when Sophie didn't come home at all.
Lila had tried talking to Cat about it, but Cat, being a late bloomer, had trouble understanding the decisions Sophie had made—and understanding the relationship at all. She hadn't liked Sophie for quite a long time, and she instinctively stayed far away from Clete.
So, while Ben knew it was coming, it didn't relieve him of any responsibility. He knew he was going to have to help retrieve Sophie.
"She didn't come home again last night, so this morning I rode over to Clete's house and talked to the two clowns who call themselves his parents. I swear, I was about to punch them both out. They're fucking idiots who never should have been allowed to live here."
"Just tell me what happened."
"They left is what happened. The kids up and left. Yesterday morning. They said they wanted to see the Pacific Ocean, so they packed a few things, stocked up on food and water, and took off. We've gotta get her back. She's given us some trouble, but she's still our daughter. Him, I'm going to kill."
"Frank, let's not get ahead of ourselves. One thing at a time. First, we find Sophie. I'll get the word out for volunteers. I'm sure she'll be fine. But I agree with you that we have to bring her back. She's too young to be traveling alone with someone like him. We can leave tomorrow morning."
"But we'll lose a whole day."
"You want me to snap my fingers and make a search party magically appear? People don't exactly live around the corner. It'll take all day to get the word out, then people have to pack and make arrangements. This could be a long trip. Go home and pack. We'll meet back here first thing in the morning."
Frank grudgingly left. He knew Ben was right, but he was understandably anxious to find his daughter. Ben felt for him. Frank had had so much trouble with Sophie, and at times had probably wished her gone. But now that she was gone, he'd give anything to get her back.
Word spread quickly. Although most felt the same reluctance as Ben to make the journey, considering the subjects involved, they also knew that a community sticks together, no matter what.
It was decided that the search party would consist of Ben, Aaron, Sean, Nick, and Jason, in addition to Frank. The five men had worked together many times and knew what to do. If they could, they would have preferred to have Frank stay home, but he would never allow that. As for the women, no one was being chauvinistic. Emily had a school to run, Lila had a town to run—not to mention watching over Cat—and Brittany had three children. Many more had volunteered, but Ben and the others felt that six would be enough.
They gathered at Ben and Lila's house early the next morning. They were pretty sure they'd be able to pick up the trail quickly. Despite growing up in Yellowstone, neither Clete nor Sophie was particularly savvy in the wilderness. They knew enough to get by, but that was all.
Ben said his goodbyes to his family, and they started on their way, hoping that they'd run across Clete and Sophie returning home, having realized that their journey was stupid. But they all knew they couldn't be so lucky. They just had to hope the two teens weren't already dead, having fallen into a hole or tripped down a cliff.
What to do with Clete and Sophie when they caught up with them was certainly the question of the day. Sophie would be dealt with by Frank, but Clete was another story. At sixteen, he was an adult in this new society. Going off with Sophie—no matter how wild she was herself—was tantamount to kidnapping. In the old world he would have been charged with rape, as well. The most they could do would be to banish him from the community, which they would certainly do. There was no place for him in Yellowstone.
As expected, picking up the teens' trail was simple. They had made no attempt to cover their tracks and were, in fact, quite sloppy. Broken branches and bits of food gave them a trail a child could follow.
They were on the western edge of Yellowstone now. It was an area that Ben had explored a couple of times before, but not enough to be familiar with it. Nick, Jason, and Sean, however, had all been that way many times. At three o'clock they ran across the remains of a campfire. They stopped for a quick rest.
"We're going faster than they are," said Aaron. "They wouldn't have stopped so early their first day. Means they're moving slowly. We still have three or four more hours of riding ahead of us. I predict we will find their second camp by noon tomorrow."
"We'll catch up to them the next day," said Frank, who had said relatively little the whole day. "And then I want Clete alone. You can all leave."
Ben turned to him. "I already made it clear about that. We're bringing them both back. If you can't live with that, turn around now."
"But he took my girl!"
"Your girl," said Nick, "went willingly. She's not innocent in all this. Clete will get what's coming to him. Your job will be to deal with Sophie. We'll take care of Clete."
Frank grudgingly nodded.
They found the next camp at two the following day, slightly later than Aaron's prediction, and the day after that they found the kids' campsite even later.
"They're speeding up," said Jason. "I wonder why."
"They've gotta know we're behind them," said Sean. "It started out as a lark, but now they realize that if they don't want to be caught, they'd better pick up the pace."
"Clete, in particular, must know that if they are caught, he's cooked," said Ben. "He's going to push Sophie along."
They stopped for the night on a high ridge, and Nick got out his map to try to determine where they were. It was now unfamiliar territory for them all. The terrain was beginning to change from mountainous to flat. More mountains were in the distance, but in between was prairie.
"So where are we?" asked Ben.
"Idaho," Nick answered, his finger on the map. He looked up to get his bearings, then down at the map again. He raised his head and pointed to the distant mountains. "That would be the home of some former national forests, like Sawtooth. If they've kept to the base of the mountain range, it should be easy going for them … and for us."
"And if not?" asked Frank.
"Then they're stupid." He looked at Frank. "Sorry."
"You're just telling it like it is. The fact is, they are stupid."
Changing the subject, Nick said to them all, "What do you see? Or rather, what don't you see?"
Aaron won the prize. "Crevasses. Only a few of them."
"This is the west coast," said Jason. "Earthquake country. I know because I was running for my life down in California. We've all seen most of the country and how broken up it is. So why not here?"
"The crevasses are here," said Nick. "Just not as wide or as long. I don't have a definitive answer for you, but a guess would be that it has someth
ing to do with the rock formation underground. I think it's the reason we don't see a lot of it in Yellowstone. The underground rock might just be too solid here. Or it can shift as large plates, without breaking. That said, just because we don't see a lot of crevasses, it doesn't mean they aren't there. The prairie grass could have grown over some of the narrower ones, hiding them. So be careful."
The next few days were boring. The plains lacked the beauty of the mountains, and all were wishing they were back home. But they had no trouble sticking to the kids' trail. It was obvious that they were getting tired and slowing down.
"What are they eating?" asked Sean. "They're obviously not hunting and we haven't passed too many places to fish."
"I had a lot of jerky," said Frank. "They cleaned me out."
"I'm sure that got old fast," said Ben. "At least there is plenty of water, so they're not going thirsty."
The trail took them into a town called Butte City. It was a tiny town of dilapidated houses, a bar, and a gas station.
"It says 'Population 68'," said Ben.
"Not anymore," replied Nick.
"They're getting desperate," said Aaron after they had looked around. "They tried breaking into some of these places. They're not going to find any food now."
"They also broke into the bar," said Jason. "I see a broken whiskey bottle. Recent."
"Great," said Frank. "Two stupid kids with alcohol. There's a good combination."
Ben had noticed that Frank was becoming more cynical as time went on. He was beginning to wonder if Frank even wanted to find Sophie. But of course he did. He was a father. But a father of what? A daughter who was just going to continue to disappoint him and his wife, Brenda? A daughter who was going to continue to make their life hell?
"Hey, they've changed direction," yelled Sean from the other side of town, not much more than fifty yards away. "They're heading into the hills."
Eden's Legacy (Eden Rising Trilogy Book 3) Page 5