The EMP Lodge Series: Books One to Three

by Grace Hamilton

  Once the women were gone, Wyatt and Megan sat alone in the cabin, neither speaking. Unable to take the silence, Megan spoke up.

  “We're staying the night here?” She couldn’t keep the nervousness out of her voice. It wasn’t as though she’d been nice to them.

  “I think it will be okay. I don't think anyone is going to be murdering us in our sleep,” Wyatt assured her. “We will be in a tent, though.”

  Megan crinkled her nose, “That'll be fun.”

  He shrugged, “Well, better than sleeping under a tree. It's already late and with the overcast sky, it’s going to be dark much sooner than normal.”

  “So, what do you think?”

  She knew Wyatt would understand what she was referring to. “I think they are basically just like us. Evan is nothing like Kyle and Bryan is actually a decent guy. I'm not sure of the dynamics of this group, but I did meet a couple of other guys. There is a woman with two kids around as well. I guess they picked her up on their travels north.”

  Megan thought about what he said. If they were willing to take in survivors, they couldn't be all bad.

  “After Kyle was killed, quite a few of the guys left. Evan and Bryan said they were not the kind of people they wanted to live with and they were glad when they decided to move on.”

  “Well, if they were anything like Kyle, I can understand that.” Reaching her hand out for him, she grasped it, holding it tight. “Wyatt, where could she be? I was so sure that she was here and now…I’m lost without her.”

  Wyatt dipped his head down to kiss her on the forehead, “I don't know, but we won’t stop looking. They mentioned that they trade with others, so I’ll find out who else is on this mountain and if they’ve seen any little girls around in the other groups. I have to say, it's kind of weird no one has come to the lodge to trade.”

  Megan laughed, “Well, we did kill one of their people, even if he did deserve it so, it isn’t as though we rolled out the welcome wagon for them. Maybe they warned others away.”

  Wyatt agreed. “That’s true and it’s probably for the best. If we want to start bartering, we will go to them. That way, we can avoid having people stop by for a visit. It's too risky.”

  “Definitely. Will you help me go to wherever it is everyone else is? I don't want to be in here alone. It feels weird and I want to be with you when you talk with the others.”

  Wyatt stood and helped her to a standing position. He waited while she took a few deep breaths. The rush of blood to her ankle took her breath away.

  “They have a gazebo-type thing where they all gather behind that new cabin so we didn't see it when we came in. I'll help you over there.”

  He half carried her to the gazebo, which had been haphazardly covered with wood to serve as a windbreak. The cabin that was being built blocked the wind on the other side. It wasn't exactly a cozy spot and she couldn't imagine trying to eat a meal out there when it was snowing.

  Megan was impressed by the large outdoor wood-fired oven that had been built under the gazebo. It was a really good idea and she was going to talk to Wyatt about building one back at the lodge. An oven to cook in would be amazing.

  She studied the construction to see how it was made. They had used cinder blocks to create a box on the bottom. From her perch on the bench, she could see red bricks lined along the inside of the box. She knew from friends who’d had an outdoor pizza oven that the red bricks were called firebricks. The cinder blocks would crack in the heat but the firebricks would keep them from overheating and the oven from collapsing.

  A small fire was burning in the cinder box below. On top of the box, more bricks were used to create the oven. There was a crude door on the front that looked to be some sort of metal. It wasn't the prettiest outdoor oven but she imagined it made cooking casseroles, breads, and even cakes a lot easier.

  The warmth from the fire and the heated bricks helped take the chill off. It was a lot like having a patio heater. Now she understood how they managed to eat meals in the gazebo.

  The woman she had seen earlier came over and introduced herself as Tara. Her two children were Amy and Donavan. They chatted for a few minutes before the young woman left to go take care of chores.

  Megan sat at the picnic table by herself with her bad leg stretched out across the bench. She watched as Wyatt and Jack spoke with Bryan. She could tell they were talking about the roof on the new cabin by the hand gestures. Jack had become an excellent builder over the past few months and Willow had told her that he enjoyed the challenge.

  She was content to watch everyone for the next hour. Every once in a while, someone would come over and introduce themselves. They were actually very nice people who’d been hit just as hard or possibly harder, than her group had. At least with Wyatt’s group, they’d been prepping in anticipation of something bad happening. These guys had been forced to make do without any sort of advantage.

  The smell of baking bread made her stomach growl. She was thrilled to know there was real, yeast bread in that oven. She hoped they planned on sharing.

  Megan was a little sad they lived so far away from the lodge. She could imagine becoming good friends with Tara and Amy was a year younger than Caitlin. They could have sleepovers and have some sort of a normal life.

  Rosie and Sharon were chatting near the other large fire pit in the center of camp. There was a large pot sitting on a grate over the fire and every so often, a whiff of herbs and spices floated over. Megan was really hungry now.

  Rosie carried the large pot of bean soup to the table while Sharon opened the oven and pulled out two loaves of bread that had been baking. They were big and fluffy. Megan was going to make a point to ask if they could trade some of what they had for a little bit of yeast.

  Before the meal started, Evan stood up.

  “I want to thank you for helping us out with the roof situation,” he started looking at Jack and Wyatt. “And thank you, Rosie, for helping prepare this meal. We haven't had a lot of variety and any new dish is always welcome. I know you didn't come here with the intention of breaking bread and you have every right to hate us but I'm glad you’re here.”

  Everyone in Evan's group looked a little embarrassed. Even guilty.

  Evan started to speak again, “On behalf of everyone here, I want to say I'm sorry. Kyle was my brother, but he was always, well, for lack of a better word, a bad egg. He distanced himself from my family years ago. My parents hated that he became the man he was.”

  Megan believed him. She could tell Wyatt did as well.

  “I was a little out of my head that day,” Evan started again. “I have no desire to exact revenge. Quite frankly, you did us all a favor. We probably would be dead by now if my brother had lived. He didn't have our best interests in mind. He manipulated us and we were so desperate, we blindly followed.”

  Evan sat down. Tara reached out and rubbed his back. It was then Megan realized they were a couple. Subtle, but she could see the emotion in Tara's eyes.

  Wyatt stood, “Thank you and I am truly sorry the way that all went down. Thank you for your hospitality and the food we are about to eat. I hope we can continue to trade and lean on each other in the future.”

  He sat down. There was silence for a few seconds before Bryan let out a loud whoop.

  “Let's toast to new beginnings and a new roof!”

  Sharon poured small bits of the moonshine they’d brought into everyone's cups. Once the toast was over, they all dug into the bean soup Rosie and Sharon had put together. Conversation began to pick up and once again, everyone was laughing as if they were old friends. Megan smiled as she was drawn into the conversations. She definitely could get used to this.

  18

  The conversation was easy and they all shared stories about how they were getting by. An older man, John, who appeared to be of Native American descent, held up an arrow tip. He explained they were prepared to use bows and arrows to hunt this winter in order to conserve their ammunition.

  The man
knew the art of flint knapping.

  “You should see the stuff he’s made,” Evan said excitedly. “He has taken rocks and made them into ax heads, spearheads and arrowheads. We have been trying to depend on the old ways for hunting. So far, we’ve managed to catch some fish and other small game like grouse and rabbits by spearing them”

  Wyatt was intrigued. He knew they had to think about archery as their main hunting method. They had a lot of ammunition but what if this was how they had to live for decades? They weren’t set up to reload their own ammunition. He wanted to make sure Ryland and Caitlin had what they needed when they grew up.

  As they sat, eating, talking and having small sips of Albert's moonshine, a gust of wind tore through the gazebo. The tablecloth that had been spread out was caught in the wind and the bread went flying. Duke barked and ran for the bread.

  “Oh my!” Sharon grabbed a rock and put it on the tablecloth. “I guess we're in for another storm.”

  Duke found a quiet spot to enjoy the bread he had scavenged off the ground. He positioned himself in a way he could still watch the group, but wouldn't be disturbed.

  Everyone sat back down and finished eating their meal. The wind gusted but the conversation was rolling along. Evan mentioned a group of guys that Wyatt and his family wanted to avoid at all costs.

  “They call themselves The Raiders and they’re a destructive bunch; preferring to terrorize people and steal supplies than scavenge like the rest of us,” Evan told them.

  “They have working ATVs and they come out of nowhere,” Bryan added.

  “Has anyone gotten hurt?” Jack asked. He flexed his hand as he sat there and Wyatt knew he was thinking about his wife and son.

  “Not us, no,” Bryan answered. “But as you can see, we don’t have much to offer and that’s intentional. If we get too big, we’ll attract their attention and we have so little as it is.”

  Megan looked around the area again. He was right. If she were raiding, this place didn't look like much at all and she wouldn't expect to gain anything.

  “Are they armed?” Wyatt asked.

  “To the teeth,” Evan answered.

  A shiver ran down Megan's spine. Knowing there was a group of men roaming around the mountain, armed and dangerous made her very nervous. What if they had Caitlin?

  “How have you managed to avoid them?” Jack asked next.

  Evan shook his head, “Oh, we haven't avoided them, but we’ve done a very good job at looking destitute. When we see them coming, we hide the weapons. We have some secret caches. You'll forgive me if I don't tell you where they’re hidden.”

  “Not a problem. I don't blame you at all,” Wyatt answered. “So, has anyone tried to track them down? Do they have a camp on the mountain?”

  Bryan shrugged, “We honestly don't know. There is a group in town who are excellent trackers, but they’ve never been able to find The Raiders. Once they raid, they vanish. There are a lot of people who would really like them to disappear if you know what I mean. The Raiders don't have any friends around here.”

  Megan was uneasy. How did you fight off an enemy you couldn't see and didn't know anything about?

  Wyatt asked the question that Megan had been too afraid to ask. “Would they take a little girl?”

  No one answered for several long moments.

  “I honestly don't know,” Bryan finally said. “I can't imagine them taking care of a kid. They look like a bunch of militants. They wear camo and carry enough guns and ammunition to take on a small army. I can't see them wanting to deal with a kid. It would slow them down.”

  Although the description of the marauders was only slightly terrifying, it did give Megan some comfort. They would hopefully ignore Caitlin.

  “What about the Green Woman?” Evan asked no one in particular.

  “The Green Woman?” Megan asked. “What is that? Like an actual person?”

  Her mind instantly went to some comic book character.

  Sharon quickly explained. “We call her the Green Woman because she is always dressed in army green. She never says a word, but she draws her gun quicker than any person I have ever met. She has never actually said she was going to hurt one of us, but she makes it clear she doesn't want you near her.”

  “We’ve seen her a few times, but we keep our distance. I'm pretty sure she has a home around that big meadow, which is where we usually run into her,” Evan explained. “She seems harmless, just a little on the odd side. Always alone.”

  Megan reached into the leg pocket of her cargo pants and pulled out the map she had used to find Evan's camp.

  “Where? Can you show me where you’ve seen her most often?”

  The meadow was huge and considering it was a giant square, the Green Woman could live anywhere.

  Evan walked around the table and stood over Megan, he pointed to a section.

  “That's the area where we fell!”

  Wyatt jumped up to study the map as well.

  “Are you sure? We covered that area during our initial search for Caitlin.”

  Wyatt couldn't believe he could have walked right past this Green Woman.

  “We'll check there on our way back tomorrow,” he told Megan.

  “Even if she isn't there, she may know what happened. She can stay out of sight. You wouldn't even know she was there if she didn't come out and make herself known,” Bryan explained.

  “Thanks for the tip,” Wyatt said.

  There was a pause in the conversation as another gust blew through. Wyatt looked around at the tents.

  “So, I have to ask, what’s your plan for winter? I mean, tents don't seem like a real good option. The two cabins aren’t going to cut it either. Are you moving into town?

  Bryan answered, “We will stay here. Town is too dangerous right now and food is scarce. We thought about it but we’re hoping we’re better off up here. We had to weigh the two options; live in houses with limited access to food and water or live in small cabins with plenty of resources around us.”

  Wyatt nodded. It made sense. In town, they would have to walk a lot farther to hunt for food. In the mountains, meat was plentiful if you knew how to hunt. The snow could be used for water. He understood their reasoning but was still concerned about their shelter situation.

  “What about that barn?” Jack asked. “Why don't you stay in it?”

  It was Sharon's turn to explain, “The roof is not in good shape. We can't risk a heavy snowfall causing it to collapse. Thanks to the plans you helped draw up, next spring we will fix the roof but we didn't have the time or materials to do it before winter this year.”

  “So, you will all stay in these two cabins?” Megan asked. She had counted fifteen people in the group. There may have been more in town, scavenging for supplies. Evan's tiny little cabin would certainly be cozy and the woodstove would keep it warm, but they would be sitting on top of each other.

  Wyatt looked at Megan. She could see the doubt in his eyes. She silently agreed with him. They had to have another shelter somewhere. Their reason for secrecy was understandable. They weren’t going to press the issue.

  The silence held some tension. The other group had secrets they wanted to hold onto. Wyatt quickly tried to change the subject. “Tara, I saw you carrying some snowshoes earlier. Did you make them?”

  “Yep and I really hope they work!”

  “Can you show us how you did it? We have a couple pairs, but it would be nice to have a pair for each of us. We have no idea how much snow we will get up here but I imagine it will be more than we want to try to walk through.”

  “I don't have any more willow branches here but I can tell you how I did it. I’m sure there are other ways and you can certainly fine tune this set up but this is something I read about years ago and just did my best to copy,” Tara explained.

  “Willow branches, about two inches around, are the best choice. They are nice and flexible. You could use other branches, but you would need to slowly steam the wood to get it to b
e nice and bendy.”

  She sent her daughter to grab the snowshoes she had finished earlier.

  “Basically, each shoe should kind of look like a tennis racket with a rounded toe and a pointed heel. The width needs to be a few inches wider than the boot you will fasten to the shoe. I like to make mine about thirty-to-forty inches long. They are easier to manage and provide the support you need to walk on the snow.”

  Her daughter returned with the snowshoes. Tara held one up. “I stripped similarly sized branches to make the frame and used smaller branches to create crossbars where the ball of the foot will go. You’ll definitely want the toe hole so you can drag your feet across the ground. Without it, you’ll have to pick your feet up each time you take a step and that gets exhausting. Since we don’t have a lot of paracord or leather to spare, I mixed both strips of bark with the paracord in a weave pattern across the shoe frame. I used leather straps to tie them on, but you could use anything, even duct tape if you had to. Now, technically, you could use them at this point. The key is making sure you tie your boot to the shoe really well.”

  Tara handed Wyatt the snowshoes, “And well, that's it! I don't know how durable these will be, but I figure they will last through this winter at least. Bit of trial and error, so we will see where we went wrong and go from there.”

  “This is really impressive, Tara,” Wyatt said carefully examining the shoes. “Thank you.”

  The wind and rain really started to pick up. Megan involuntarily yawned and quickly covered her mouth. Wyatt knew she had to be exhausted. He stood, indicating they were ready to turn in for the night.

  Sharon, Bryan and Evan all exchanged a look that confirmed Wyatt's suspicions that something was up. He began to feel uneasy. Whatever it was they were hiding, couldn't be good. He second-guessed his decision to stay at the camp overnight.

  He wasn't about to put his family in danger and figured if someone's feelings got hurt, too bad. You couldn't trust anyone and while these guys appeared to be all nice and hospitable, maybe that was their plan. Maybe they were lulling them into a false sense of comfort and would attack when they were asleep.