Lost Sentinel: Post-Apocalyptic Time Travel Adventure (Earth Survives Series Book 1)

by R. R. Roberts

  The men nodded their heads, their faces becoming happier all the time as she toured them around. “I run everything electric with solar. I had this place insulated to the max. Once the cabin is warmed up with the wood stove, you’ll see it stays warm, with just a few logs added, throughout the day. We can cook on the wood stove too, though I do have the electric stove and fridge. In the winter, we have the whole outdoors for a freezer. I have a ton of pantry space here as well. We can clear out all my painting supplies and put all the food we’ve collected here.”

  They moved back out to the main room, which was warming up already. Catherine was smiling, her eyes practically glowing in anticipation of what she could do here in Wren’s cabin for her family.

  Wren said, “For tonight, we can all crash in the cabin if it’s still raining. There’s tons of room in the loft for sleeping, with three rooms down here. Mine, a guest room and a workroom, which we can convert into a bedroom easily enough. All I have up in the loft now is bedding, which I have stored in two trunks, tons of books and shelves for–I don’t know, storing something someday. I’d thought my paintings, but … Things are different now.”

  “You paint?” Catherine breathed in disbelieve, moving to stroke a nearby painting of two sand pipers by the river, hung on the wall by the door. “You painted all these?”

  Wren glanced at the wall, noting the four images she’d worked on out here in the woods while millions died. “I used to.”

  She turned away. “Should we unload now? Get the animals settled?”

  Mattea asked, “Know anywhere we can get some feed? We brought some along from the Biczek farm, but that’ll only last a few days.”

  “I do. My friends up the road have all that stuff, and a tractor to bring it down here. I was thinking let the animals graze in the little meadow between the cabins, tethered of course, so they won’t stray into the alfalfa field. Did you notice the water tank by the garden?”

  Mattea nodded, Coru and Bill’s full attention still with her. Annie, Nicola and Sandy were checking out the sleeping area in the loft and talking among themselves, and the kids had run back outside, leaving both the door to the closed-in porch and the outside door gaping in their excitement.

  Wren closed both doors, continuing to bring the men up to speed as she did. “I have a submersible pump hidden in the trees by the river. If we bring it down to the river and drop it in, we can fill the tank. It’s supposed to be for watering the garden, but we can think up some sort of watering place for the animals down there as well, right?” She looked at the men, hoping they’d pick up on her idea and run with it.

  “Would your farmer neighbor have barrels by any chance?”

  “I-I don’t know. They were typical farmers, with all the spare parts a person could want. Maybe they have watering barrels. Should we go up there today?” She realized suddenly she was afraid to go to the Thacker farm. “Like, right now?”

  Mattea nodded his head. “Yes. We’ll need more bedding than you have.”

  She nodded, knowing he was right, but was reluctant to go inside the farmhouse of the people who had befriended her when she’d first arrived. She’d loved Mona the moment they’d met. You never passed through Mona’s kitchen without being served up a bowl of whatever homemade soup she had bubbling softly on her stove, always with a fresh biscuit and a cup of tea. Delicious every time. Her husband Dan was a charmer as well, full of fun, always working on a ‘project’ out in his shop, with a sweet-tooth a mile-wide which Mona indulged completely.

  Slow on the pick-up, she saw she’d been silent too long, and was surrounded by faces expectantly waiting for her decision. “Okay,” she agreed, a sheen of sweat popping out on her face at once. She’d have to do it someday; why not today?

  Because you’re not ready!

  “We’ll pop up there in the Beastette—it’s not loaded, get the stuff we need for the next few days and bring it down in one of their vehicles. The farm is basically at the end of my road. There’s a gate onto their property and it’s well hidden. Dan has a truck and trailer we…Had. Dan had …” She gasped painfully, her voice failing her. Mona and Dan….

  Mattea stepped in. “This place—it’s easy to find?”

  She nodded, covering her quivering lips with her hands, her eyes swimming.

  “We’ll go up without you this time, check things out, bring back what we can. You stay here and direct the troops. It’s the best use of your time in any case.”

  She nodded again, staring at the buttons of Bill’s shirt. Then the buttons were gone. They were all gone. She stumbled into her bedroom on wobbly legs and shut the door. Her bed lay before her, still unmade from when she’d left, the outline of where she’d lain so apparent. When was that? How many days of horror had she endured since she’d last burrowed into those cozy blue flannel sheets, and the colorful Dresden Plate quilt Mona had made, gifting it to Wren as her first, and only, house-warming gift? How many days since her biggest problem was what tea to make, what painting to work on? Falling onto her bed, she pressed her face into her pillow and sobbed.

  16

  SCAVENGING

  Approaching the hidden gate in one of Wren’s ATVs, Coru could appreciate the fact it was completely hidden, as she’d described. The more he took in of D.O.A., the better he liked it. Did Wren have some precognitive abilities as well as telepathy? Had she on some level known what was coming and prepared for it?

  It had even crossed his mind that the circumstances of their meeting were almost as if it were meant to be. She’d stopped, come to him because she’d heard his thoughts? Spooky. If not for that, would they have ever met? She was hours away from her hideout, and a good one at that, and he was hours away from driving right on by, missing her altogether, their paths unlikely to ever cross again. Was it fate or just dumb luck? And then there was that new faint whisper in his ear—was he meant to come to WEN 2046?

  He sighed away his latest Wren wondering. He’d done little else since meeting the famous, to him at least, Wren Wood. The woman was a goldmine of information, resources and surprises, and if he were honest, was stunningly beautiful under her grimy clothes. Another surprise. He’d come looking for a fifteen-year-old and her famous father. Instead he’d found a full-grown woman with a tumble of lustrous blonde hair, intelligent, flashing blue eyes, a quick wit, a backbone of steel, a tender heart and an entourage of her own to protect.

  These things all gave him hope. Hope she would be open to hearing him out when it came time to reveal himself to her. He had to be careful, he knew. His story was a lot to swallow. He’d witnessed her final unraveling inside the cabin, recognizing if he should approach her now, he might be the one to push her off the cliff she was clinging to. He had to back off, give her time to settle, to be strong enough to help him.

  While he waited her out, he would make sure when he left these people to return to his own time, he would be leaving them in the best circumstance he could manage.

  Mattea opened the gate, Coru drove through, and Mattea closed it behind them, jumping back into Beastette. They made their way toward the farmhouse cautiously, but saw no movement, no evidence of human activity or interest beyond some chickens scratching in the dirt. Coru pulled up to the house and they all got out. The house looked remarkably normal—even the surrounding lawn was neat—cropped no doubt by the hungry chickens. Just another day out in the country. You’d half expect someone to poke his head out the door and ask if you were lost.

  They were lost alright. But not as lost as they had been twenty-four hours ago.

  Bill asked, “House first?”

  Coru and Mattea nodded. Bill led the way, opening the unlocked door and scanning the first room, which was a huge country kitchen, with a cozy living room beyond, all tidy and clean. There was no smell of decay.

  Coru blew out the air from his chest, realizing he’d been prepared for the worst. He did not want to bring Wren bad news. He said, “Whatever we find, we keep it good for Wren. No horror stories—no
matter what.”

  The other two men nodded their agreement and spread out, searching the rooms. Everything looked normal. There were no bodies.

  Back in the main room, Bill found a note taped to the inside of the kitchen door. It read: Gone to help the neighbors. They’ve got the sickness, and need tending. If we get the virus, we won’t come back. If that happens, please contact our daughter, Laura Collins. There were three phone numbers to try. It was signed, Mona and Dan Thacker. Bill said, “At least we won’t be lying to her. They aren’t here.”

  Mattea said, “There are three bedrooms, with three beds. Lots of bedding. We take those. We can get them up into the loft.”

  Coru added, “There’s a freezer full of Elk.”

  Bill held up his hands. “Whoa. First, let’s go out and see what kind of transportation we can borrow before we get ahead of ourselves. We still have to get it all back and the Beastette won’t be doing the job.” They exchanged grins, relieved at what they hadn’t found—bodies—piled on top of Wren’s sassy name for her ATVs. Bill chuckled, “The Beast and Beastette. I see names for all the others in our future.”

  They went outdoors, scanned the yard, then each headed for a different outbuilding: Bill to the machine shed, Coru to the workshop and Mattea to the barn. They met back up in the barn.

  Mattea asked, “So what did you find?”

  Coru reported, “There seems to be lots of tools, and scraps for repairs. I’m no mechanic, but we may find them useful on D.O.A. There’ll be no more calling up a repair shop now. Someone has to take over that task. There’s a welder, some hand tools. A half barrel you could use for watering the animals. There’s some lumber up in the rafters along with some bundles of insulation. That could help with the old cabin. Oh, and it looks like Thacker had a restaurant at one time. He has all sorts of restaurant equipment stashed around the place.” When the two men looked at him blankly, he shrugged. “Just telling you what I found.”

  Bill said, “Wren was right. There’s a truck and trailer we can use to transport stuff. The good news is there’s also farm equipment, all lined up and in good repair, including an old square bailing machine.” This time it was Coru and Mattea who had the blank stare. “For the alfalfa growing on the fourteen acres? We need to take it off somehow, store it somehow. This way we can cut it, and bail it, and handle it ourselves. If we get the right weather, we’ll have enough feed for the animals for the winter, all safely stacked in Wren’s barn. It will also insulate the barn for the animals, to some degree. It gets nasty in the winter. Those animals can’t come into the cabins with us.”

  “As much as Deklin would like it,” Coru added with a smile.

  Bill nodded. “Again—all new to us, so I expect there’ll be a definite learning curve.”

  It was now Mattea’s turn to report. He lifted his arm and turned toward the back of the barn. “There’s hay and straw here—”

  Coru interrupted. “Hay and Straw? Aren’t they the same thing?”

  Bill and Mattea exchanged indulgent looks. “No.” They said in unison, chuckling.

  Mattea explained, “Straw is the dried result of grasses that have given up their seeds – like wheat, and rye for instance. Hay is dried grasses with the seeds still intact. Straw is good bedding, hay is good food. Big difference, and we’ve got both. It seems the Thackers sold it.”

  Coru said, “Oh.”

  “They kept no animals beyond the chickens and …” he led them to an empty stall. “These little guys.” In a bed of straw—Coru knew this because Mattea had just explained straw was for bedding—lay a gray tabby mother cat with four colorful kittens: a black with white paws, a ginger, a tabby and a snow white one with black-tipped tail and ears.

  Coru chuckled. “I know some kids who are going to love us when we get back.”

  Bill added, “I know some women who will love us when we get back. This is a barn cat. Look how sleek she is? She’s a mouser, and she’ll raise mousers. And we, coincidentally, are in need of mousers.”

  Mattea nodded in agreement. “Very nice bonus. We’ll need them for our barn and for the cabins. The fields will be alive with mice all summer, and they’ll all be looking to the cabins and outbuildings for a cozy winter set up for themselves, in the fall. It takes only a few mice in our pantry to be devastating.”

  Coru looked at him admiringly. The things you learn were important in a post-apocalyptic world. “Any oats for the horses?” he asked hopefully, this being their last, most pressing need.

  Mattea’s grin was the answer he was looking for. “Here’s the good part. Thacker has four silos. They’re small, just our size. Two are empty—therefore are moveable with everyone on board to make it happen. The others are filled, one with wheat, the other with oats. We’re golden.”

  Coru threw his fist into the air and whooped.

  Mattea raised his hands in caution. “We should start the move right away, like yesterday. It’s a big job, but if we can manage it, we’ll be golden for a very long time. In fact, if we were smart, we’d plant oats in the smaller field next year, that six-acre parcel we past first, on our way in, and divide the fourteen acres on the homestead in two. Wheat in half, alfalfa in half.”

  Bill said, “That’ll be a decision we mull over in the winter, when we have planning time on our hands. A lot of this depends on how long it will take to bring law and order back in place and people onto farms, starting up again. It will have to be neighbor helping neighbor if we’re to succeed.”

  Coru’s light went out. He wouldn’t be here for the planning, or the planting, the restoration, or the restart. Not if his mission was a success, and he wanted to succeed, did he not? For the first time, looking around inside this barn, with his new friends, talking about working together, building something good together, he came out and admitted to himself, straight on—he wanted to stay here in wild WEN 2046, stay and build a new world, with all these natural resources still available.

  Trees! They still had beautiful trees all around them, trees they took for granted. Sometimes he got chills just drinking in the sight of the forest as they passed through its protective paths. Majestic. Mysterious. Nurturing.

  If he could stay here in WEN 2046, could he somehow steer people away from their destructive ways and avoid the travesty the surface dwellers in his own time now suffered? But that would mean sacrificing the millions who now lived in the clouds. It would mean breaking his word.

  One thing he’d learned during his time on Surface, all a man had that was truly his own was his word. All other things could be stolen.

  “Don’t look so beat up, already, Coru,” Mattea cajoled, clapping him across the shoulders and walking them all from the barn. “Working together, we can have it done long before the weather gets us.”

  Bill rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “And we start with the truck and trailer. Let’s make sure they’re in running order, then load ‘em up. I’m thinking beds, cats and chickens this trip. We’ll come back tomorrow for more, and every day after that. As long as it’s safe to come out and we can use it, we’ll bring it down to D.O.A.”

  Coru smiled at his companions, infusing his expression with enthusiasm he didn’t have about the project. For the first time, he felt like the pretender he was.

  The truck started with a turn of the key. They had the trailer hitched up and the outfit parked in front of the house, ready for loading within half an hour. Loading the beds was an easy task. Mona Thacker’s had lots of bedding. She was an enthusiastic quilter, and had over a dozen completed projects stashed in various cupboards around her tidy little house. The chickens weren’t easy to catch – they’d been loose for too long, it seemed, and now valued their freedom. Mattea’s idea to toss some oats their way finally did the trick in the end, an offer they couldn’t refuse. They were transported in an odd collection of containers: boxes, clean empty garbage cans with lids, some animal crates, and an old crib they found in the back bedroom, with a piece of plywood lashed onto i
t as a roof. There were sixteen of them in total, two of which were roosters. The men didn’t gather up the eggs that had been laid helter-skelter around the yard as they had no idea how old they were. As for the cat, she came easily, following her kittens, which they laid carefully into a box lined with a couple of flannel shirts from Dan Thacker’s closet. It wasn’t fancy packing, but it worked.

  Mattea drove the truck with Bill as his passenger and Coru drove Beastette, loaded to the gills with crates of canning jars Mattea assured him the women would go ga-ga over. Ga-ga? Coru didn’t get it, but pretended he did. He guessed the women here liked jars?

  Seeing his blank expression, Mattea had said, “Think mice.”

  “Mice?”

  “Food in jars won’t attract mice. All food has to be stored in tin or glass if we want to keep it.”

  “Okay. I’m getting the message. Our real enemy is the dreaded field mouse. The super heroes in our continuing saga — that cat and her kittens.”

  Mattea flashed him a grin. “You’re a fast learner.”

  They were greeted back at the D.O.A. homestead like conquering heroes. Everyone descended upon the treasures the men had brought and within the hour had beds set up for everyone inside the cabin, doubling up of course, with sleeping set up for the three men out in the barn loft, which was warm and dry, and a respite from the children.

  The cat, who was christened Miss Mew on the spot by Deklin, and her kittens never made it to the barn. They were immediately ushered into the cabin, their bed placed by the warm fire right beside the injured German Shepherd named Hero, “the dog who fought wolves and lived to tell the tale”. The children gathered round, petting the kittens, and suggesting names for them, petting Hero, praising his bravery while the adults, perched on various boxes, crates and the odd chair, enjoyed cups of tea Annie had made and talked over their next steps.