by J. R. Tate
The trek up toward the apparent cave Mike had mentioned was hell. The horses were slipping and sliding in the slush, their hooves sliding over the lower layer of ice like it was a thin sheet of glass. Ryan was lucky to know how to ride – a novice rider would’ve easily been tossed off the horse and injured. His horse lifted his front two legs, neighing loud in an attempt to toss Ryan from his back. Holding the reigns and tightening his legs around the midsection of the horse, he stayed on, slipping enough that he almost lost control. Despite his current health condition of almost freezing to death, he fought, unwilling to succumb to the harsh weather surrounding them.
Mike had troubles too, but Ryan was focused on his own. He spotted the cave about one hundred yards ahead of them and pressed on, fighting the horses will to stop. Sliding off the side, he stayed in Mike’s line of sight before the man tried to shoot him. Guiding the horses, he pointed toward an area beside the cave that was blocked by trees and the side of the mountain.
“The snow is still falling but this will be a great wind block to keep the horses out of direct contact,” Ryan said as he tied them to the trunk of the nearest tree. “They’ll stand a fighting chance right here.”
The wind howled and Mike said something, but Ryan didn’t even try to get him to repeat it. Following him inside the cave, he was surprised to see a fire pit ready to go, along with some wood stacked near the entrance. Mike pulled out a lantern and lit it with a match, lighting up the small shelter.
“Gather up some logs and get the fire going,” Mike demanded as he balled his fists and blew into them.
Ryan did as he was told – remembering Mike had a gun and wasn’t hesitant with it, now wasn’t the time to make him even edgier. Piling up a few logs, he poured a few drops of propane on the wood to get it to ignite and tossed a match into it. The flames were large for a few seconds before burning the fuel off, the warmth of the fire the best thing he had felt in a long time.
The roar of the fire along with the howling wind just outside the front of the cave made it feel like the setting of a horror movie. It was a shame this wasn’t fiction and he was living a real life scary story playing out before his very eyes. Holding his hands up to the fire, Ryan literally felt like his flesh was thawing out like a piece of meat left out on the cabinet. He wondered if any wildlife had made a home within the cave – maybe they could hunt something down and have a good meal.
“Good thinking with the horses,” Mike said, unwilling to make eye contact with Ryan.
The flames cast huge shadows on the wall of the cave behind Mike, and Ryan watched them dance around for a few seconds, admiring the show.
“I wouldn’t hold your breath on them being there when we’re able to leave again. They’re protected against the wind but it is still unbearably cold out there.”
“In the midst of all this bullshit, I have to try and be positive about it.” Mike finally looked up from the fire, looking right in Ryan’s eyes.
“I can’t really find a reason to be positive, Mike. You’re holding me hostage, you won’t tell me what the hell is going on, and you’ve made it perfectly clear that once I do find out what you’ve been up to, I’d rather die than try to keep surviving. So you know what? I don’t give a shit if the horses are there. In fact, I don’t give a shit if we ever leave this cave.” Some of Ryan’s statement was false – he wanted to get back to Cecilia and Ty. He wanted to make sure they were okay. But Mike had completely frustrated him, and the man didn’t deserve to know Ryan’s true feelings about anything.
“I know I’ve let you down, Ryan. I never knew it’d get like this.”
“What? What did you not think would get like this?” Ryan raised his voice and it echoed off the back of the cave.
Mike looked away again, poking the fire with a stick. “Now’s not the time. Soon.”
It took everything Ryan had within him to keep his cool. He never was a man of patience and sadly, Mike’s behavior was not helping him develop any. Soon. That word was relative – what was soon for one person felt like an eternity to another. With the blizzard raging on outside the cave, seconds seemed like years. Ryan wasn’t sure how much more of it he could take.
Chapter Twenty
Ryan wished he could sleep. His body was giving out on him, but his mind was running a mile a minute, unwilling to allow him just a few minutes of shut eye. Mike would doze from time to time, his eyes closing, his body relaxing, only for him to jolt awake and make sure Ryan was still there. The fire was dying and Ryan poked it with a stick, turning the small pieces of wood that remained in the pit.
“We need more wood.” Ryan’s tone was stern and though he didn’t yell, it echoed off of the cave walls.
“We don’t have any.” Mike was groggy and opened his eyes for a few seconds before snuggling his coat up around his midsection. Leaning back against the wall, he yawned and closed his eyes. “How about you walk over to the cave entrance and see what the weather is doing? And before you try anything stupid, remember I have a gun pointed right at you.”
Ryan forced his body to move, the normal task proving to be challenging. His muscles were tight, his body ached, and it took a second for the blood to begin flowing to his extremities. It was like learning to walk all over again but once he got to a complete standing position, it felt good to get moving.
“Mike, you’ve been dozing for the past several hours. And I’m not tied up. If I really wanted to escape, don’t you think I would’ve done it by now?” Ryan had to remind himself to stop with the smart ass remarks but he couldn’t help it. His nerves were shot and he was tired of them dragging their feet. He needed to know what was going on soon or he feared worse things would happen.
“I don’t remember you having that mouth on the fire department.” Mike sat up and glared at him, the gun in his hand, ready to go if need be.
Ryan ignored his remark and ambled to the entrance of the cave, peering out. He couldn’t see where the horses were – the angle wasn’t right to be able to check, but the sun had come out and the snow had stopped falling. It was still very frigid out and nothing was melting, but at least they would be able to see where they were going.
“It stopped snowing, Mike.” Ryan moved back inside, sitting beside the burning embers that would soon die off. “I’d say another foot of snow has fallen out there but it’s really hard to tell. We are lucky it didn’t cover the cave up.”
“Why didn’t it?” Mike asked, curiosity in his voice.
“I guess we were positioned just right on the edge of the cliff that anything that fell just didn’t have a place to land and went farther down the mountain.”
“And the horses?”
“Couldn’t tell. I’m a little worried about what kind of traction they’ll be able to get in the new snow. Nothing has been up this way to pack it down and make it hard. And if as much snow has fallen as I think, they’re going to fall right down in it. So are we.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
Ryan let Mike’s last remark linger, hovering like the smoke from the fire. Both men sat in silence for a few minutes, Ryan coming up with millions of questions he’d like answers to.
“How much farther are we going?”
Mike looked up at him, his brow creased, but he still didn’t answer him.
“What is this Atmospheric Frequency Control Project that I read back at your cellar?”
Mike gave him the same look as just moments before, grabbing the stick they had been using to stoke the fire. Sparks flew up and small flames shot out of the charred wood, which was a miracle, because there wasn’t much else to burn.
“Why are you so curious?”
Ryan shook his head and bit his bottom lip, attempting to choose his words wisely. “You’re kidding, right? You hold me hostage, tell me I’d rather die than try to save everyone once I find out what you’re up to, and then you ask why I’m curious?” Ryan patted his chest and clicked his tongue. “How do you expect me not to be curious?”
“We are headed just past the New Mexico border. In the badlands where the foothills are.”
“That’s at least another twenty miles or so,” Ryan replied. “If the horses are even out there, that’ll take several more days under these conditions.” Mike wasn’t giving much of a response to Ryan’s travel concerns, so he focused on another question. It felt like he might be able to pull more information out of Mike if he kept going and didn’t show his frustrations.
“What will we find when we get to the badlands?”
“You ever hear of ways to control the weather?”
“Yes. They broached the subject in the weather spotting classes I took.”
Mike shifted his weight and straightened his posture, making eye contact with Ryan for the first time in about ten minutes. “And what are your thoughts on it?”
“I’m really not sure, Mike. Where are you going with this? Are you telling me that you’ve been controlling the weather?”
“We’re not far off now. You’ll see when you get there.”
Anger coursed through Ryan so fast that he literally saw red. He couldn’t keep a handle on it any longer and though Mike held the gun that had been trained on him for the past day, he wasn’t worried about the pull of the trigger any longer.
“No, Mike! Damn it, do you realize how many people have suffered? How many people are still suffering? Jesus, man! Tell me what the hell is going on before this gets worse than it already is. Hell, I’m not sure if it can. We’re already crippled!”
Mike held his hand up, stopping Ryan. “Don’t ever ask if it can get worse, because believe me, it can.”
“Then why keep this going? What benefit are you getting out of it?”
“It goes farther than what you can comprehend, Ryan.”
Ryan scoffed and paced, unable to sit still any longer. Despite his sleep deprivation, the rush of adrenaline from his anger had given him his second wind.
“Try me, Mike. Maybe if you’d give me more information, I’d understand it a tad bit better. We have to stop dragging our feet! People are dying, Mike! Your family! Is whatever you’re up to worth everything that has happened?”
“It’s too late.” Mike’s voice shook but he quickly masked it. “We can’t reverse anything anymore. You’ll see soon. Let’s get out there and see if the horses are there. Then we gotta get moving.”
Ryan wanted to deck him but instead, did as Mike told him. This was apparently something huge and he was on the brink of finding out exactly what it was. Another twenty miles – hopefully everything would hold out long enough for them to get there.
~~
Steve’s horse was having a hard time fighting through the deep snow. If it wasn’t for the fact that they’d completely exhaust themselves by walking, he’d suggest leaving the animals behind – they weren’t traveling much faster than they were on foot, but at least they weren’t getting tired from the miles they were putting in.
“We’re not going to be able to go as far as usual,” Darryl said, edging his horse up next to Steve’s. “They’ve already been running them ragged and now, with the snow, they are going to need to rest a lot more often than usual.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
Steve’s patience, once strong and steady, was now running completely thin. He tried to remain positive but with hurdle after hurdle jumping in front of them, he was beginning to wonder if this was all a lost cause. He’d never do as Doug had and take his own life, but what exactly were they fighting for now? A planet that had apparently betrayed itself and gone crazy? If that were true, it was all at the hands of human beings and their scientific developments that proved detrimental to the environment.
He was keeping one eye on the tracks in the snow, and one eye looking forward, making sure they weren’t being trailed. They were going through uncharted waters and there was no way to know what to expect. Was it Mike that really had Ryan? Was Ryan really kidnapped or had he just not been able to make it back to Harper Springs yet? Were they completely overreacting to whatever may be occurring? There were too many what-if’s and unknowns and it was bad enough to drive a sober man to drink, a sane man to an asylum, and a once optimistic man to the depths of negativity.
“Looks like the tracks are pretty consistent with heading northwest. And there are more than one set of them. Looks like they are on horseback.” Steve observed the ground below, hoping he’d be able to find any sign that it was definitely Ryan that they were tracking. Had he dropped something, it would’ve easily been buried by the heavy snowfall that pushed through the area through the nighttime hours. It was a miracle they could still see the tracks – they were faint but the snow had left a good enough outline for them to be able to tell someone had been through. If any more snow had fallen, they’d be completely covered up, giving them an even bigger challenge.
“You know, we’ve been without technology for all of these months since the tornadoes and I still find myself reaching into my pocket for my cell phone to call him. That’s a hard habit to break but I wish I could get him on the line to check on him.”
Steve clenched his jaw, remembering how just a few hours ago Darryl was hesitant to even go look for his son. He didn’t have a back story on his and Ryan’s relationship, nor was it his business, but just by the way Darryl had acted, it seemed to be rocky.
“Yeah, times like this make us all think about the things we took for granted. Electricity, running water, cell phones, internet...” Steve trailed off, gazing down at the sparkling snow. “What’s your gut feeling telling you? Do you think Mike has him?” Maybe Steve was opening up a can of worms in asking him but it beat the silence between them and the rhythmic clomp of the horse’s hooves sloshing through the snow and ice.
“If Mike has him, I want to know why. Mike was the chief of the fire department here. Ryan was a firefighter on that department. I can’t bring myself to believe that he took Ryan maliciously. There is a lot more to this than we know, if it is even Mike who took him.”
“I haven’t seen him around town lately. If it ain’t him, where has he been?”
Darryl shrugged. “Hell if I know. I’ve been confused since all of this bullshit started. Still no help coming our way. It’s never snowed this much here. And now it’s like we’re in some crazy survival movie where it’s turning into every man for himself. A part me me hopes I eventually wake up in my bed and this was either one long nightmare, or I was in a coma from something else and my mind conjured up the whole damn thing.”
“So that would make me a figment of your imagination.” Steve laughed and focused back on the tracks. “Unfortunately, I’m not just something your dreams made up. I’m here, in the flesh, and we are really riding through several feet of snow, looking for your son.”
“I know. But sometimes I have to pretend it’s the other or I’m going to end up doing what Doug did and blow my brains out. If it wasn’t for Ryan, Cecilia, and Ty, I probably would’ve done it already. I’m an old timer. I’ve lived a good life. I don’t want to go out like this.”
“You won’t. Better days are bound to be in front of us.”
Both men fell silent again, the horses steps crackling through layers of snow and ice, struggling to gain traction as they sunk down into the cold. Steve tried to keep track of how long they had been riding. By the position of the sun, or what little they could see of it, they had been going for a couple of hours, and by the pace of the horses, they were losing energy.
Coming up to the edge of the foothills, he slid off the saddle and led the horse to a tree, tying him up. Darryl followed suit, not asking any questions – he was probably aware of the stamina and health conditions of their only means of transportation.
Steve stretched his legs out, feeling the snow seep through his jeans. His boots held good protection and were waterproof, protecting his feet and keeping them warm. Trudging through, he continued to follow the tracks left behind. Spotting a small cove in the hills, he tried to hurry as best as
he could, his legs burning as he fought the depth of the snow.
There was a small pit set up for a fire and what looked like a campsite. Due to it’s position against the hills, very little snow had fallen around it, just enough to dust the ground. He heard Darryl’s footsteps behind him and waited, glancing over his shoulder at the older man.
“Looks like someone has been camping here. And by the looks of the fire pit, it’s been recent,” Steve said, circling around it.
“Could it be Ryan or possibly a looter who has been watching us?”
Steve shrugged and knelt beside the pit, running his finger over a piece of charred wood that was now covered in ice. “By the number of tracks, it was probably more than one person, but past that, I wouldn’t be able to tell who it was.” Leaning back against the hill, he slid down to the ground, the icy cold soaking through the fabric of his pants. “What if we’re not chasing the right tracks? What if this was just some drifter or someone who is part of the looters? Or even worse! They are leading us in the wrong direction!” Steve tried not to feel discouraged but there was just no way to know for sure.
“That man you talked to said they went this way, right?” Darryl remained standing, walking back and forth as he observed the campsite.
“Yeah but I don’t know him. What if he was part of the plan to get us on a wild goose chase?”
Darryl pondered Steve’s question for a second, looking up at the sky and back down. “We have to try. It’s better to get out here and try than it is to just sit around Harper Springs, twiddling our thumbs and hoping for the best.”
“But the horses… and our clothes. Not to mention our food.” Steve closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. “I need something to prove we are going in the right direction. That we should even be out here looking for him!” He raised his voice and it echoed, making some birds fly off of nearby trees, their wings flapping loudly.