Solar Storm: Homeward Bound

by Vincent Keith

  Jack spotted Miguel and stopped, setting the buckets in the snow. The two of them conversed for a few minutes about their logistical situation and then headed back to the fire. Rachael was filling another pot to heat more water for dinner. Lexi was now wrapped up in Jack’s woobie sipping her hot chocolate. She glanced over at the men and waved.

  “Hey slacker,” said Jack. “How you feeling?”

  “Okay I guess, I’m kind of fuzzy from the painkiller.”

  “Yeah, I know that feeling. It was all the incentive I needed to stop taking them.”

  Lexi nodded, “They make it hard to think.”

  Jack shrugged, “You’ll be good in a few days. And we’ll be home, don’t sweat it.”

  Rachael reached for the first bucket. “Good timing, I’ll get these pots on to boil.”

  “I’ll leave you to it, the guys and I have some business to take care of.”

  Rachael gave him a curious look, but Jack shook his head while glancing toward Lexi. Lexi had returned to staring at the fire and missed the byplay altogether. Miguel mumbled something about Doug and Allan then headed off. Jack finished pouring water into pots and left two empty buckets with Rachael.

  “Back in a bit.”

  Rachael frowned but continued arranging pots to get the water to boil.

  JACK CAUGHT UP WITH MIGUEL, Doug, Allan, and Ross, over by the horses.

  “I think we need to gut the horse and save as much of the meat as we can.” Miguel’s gaze moved from man to man judging reactions.

  Allan went white. Miguel could see him trying to swallow.

  “Allan?”

  “I…oh shit. Really?”

  “I’m sorry Allan, but we’re out of food after tonight. I’m half afraid it’s been too long already. Doug says it’s cold enough we should be okay. We don’t have a lot of choices, do we? We can’t bury her, we might be able to drag her off the road, but the scavengers will get her no matter what we do.”

  “It’s okay Allan,” said Miguel. “Why don’t you finish up here and then try to keep things moving in the camp, we’ll take care of it.”

  “Okay, I was going to finish feeding the horses and get them bedded down, then relieve Sara so she could warm up.”

  “I’ll, head back with you. I want to get more water boiled,” said Jack. “You guys got this?”

  “Sure, Doug will do most of the work, Ross and I are just going to help move the weight around.”

  “Okay, I’ll see if I can’t find something to wrap the meat in. At least we don’t have to worry about it spoiling. Although thawing might be a problem.”

  “If it were easy…” Miguel waived and moved off with Ross and Doug to get started on the messy job.

  JACK, Ross Garrett, and the two Rangers shared a single MRE, shuffling around so the others wouldn’t notice they were only eating one between the four of them. They’d agreed that the four of them could handle the loss in calories better than the rest of the group. It was just easier to avoid pointing that out. They’d made extra coffee and used that to fill in the empty feeling. The rest of the group were down to two meals each, and with Lexi unable to ride, they would not make it home before they ran out of food.

  Once they began cooking the horsemeat, there’d been no way to hide it from the women. But maybe they could keep it from the kids. Jack wanted to put some distance between them and where Gracie had died before that happened. You could never tell how people would react to the death of an animal, let alone the idea of eating one they’d known.

  They collected Allan and headed into the trees to cut some wood to make a travois. Two long thin pines were cut and stripped to bare poles. Another was cut to make cross braces. Allan worked at the rigging that would attach the travois behind one of the horses. Doug cut two more sections from the third tree and shaped them with Jack’s camp axe while Miguel and Jack used paracord to lash the parts together. Once he had the basic structure, Doug attached the makeshift skis to the drag ends of the poles.

  “Hey, that’s a good idea,” said Jack.

  “Thanks. It should help keep the poles from digging into the snow, and if we hit any bare patches, it might help smooth out the bumps.”

  Jack nodded, “I’m sure Lexi will appreciate that.”

  He left the rig with Allan and Ross, who would attach it to a horse. An hour later they were ready to depart. Jack was getting ready to lead Ross’s horse up to their lookout point when he saw Ross coming back down the road.

  “Good timing, we were just about ready to move.”

  “We’ve got company.”

  Jack froze for a second then turned find Doug and Miguel heading toward him. They’d seen Ross returning which was not SOP and wondered what was up. The four of them conversed for a few minutes, then Jack followed Doug back to the lookout spot. Ross, now armed with a rifle, followed Miguel across the road and up into the trees.

  Allan hurried back to help Rachael lift Lexi onto the travois, then left to gather the horses. He sent the Garrets ahead with most of the horses then returned to hook up the travois behind Star. Once they were sure Lexi’s leg was well protected, Allan led the horse off into a thick stand of trees just upstream of the road.

  As Doug and Jack neared the fallen tree, Jack pulled out his binoculars to check the road ahead. It took a moment to make sense of what he was seeing. Two mounted horses and a man driving a horse-drawn wagon. Then he realized it was running on skis instead of wheels. Behind the sleigh were an additional six horses on leads, all with saddles. Hoover had followed Jack from the camp, curious as usual. He watched intently as Jack scanned the group ahead. Doug pulled out his more powerful spotting scope and rested it on the fallen tree to steady it.

  “They’re all armed. Mixed gear. Two AR’s, I think one is a .308 and one hunting rifle. They haven’t seen us yet.”

  “Let them come ahead?”

  “Not much choice. We’re not going to shoot them for riding down the road. Unless they shoot first, we’ll have to talk with them.” Doug adjusted the zoom on the scope.

  “Is that—Well, I’ll be damned.” He stood up and stuffed the scope back in his bag, which he slung over one shoulder. “Come on, I’m pretty sure you know all those folks.”

  Jack brought the binoculars back up and scanned the group again. They’d stopped, spotting the movement on the hillside. They spread out and dismounted, but they weren’t moving.

  “Is that…”

  “Yeah unless you know someone else who’s that big and has a mustache like that.”

  Jack put the binoculars back in his chest pack, slung his rifle and scooted down the hill after Doug. They stepped out of the shade into the sunlit snow, and Jack took off his hat and waved it at the other group. Hoover bound through the snow toward the now dismounted men.

  “I’ll go get them, let Miguel know.”

  “He knows. They’re heading this way.”

  Jack had already started forward at a brisk pace trying to catch up to Hoover. He was moving as fast as he could through the deep snow. When he got within speaking distance, he stopped with a huge grin on his face.

  One of the men had bent down to greet Hoover and had been plowed over by the excited dog. Jack moved forward to see Steve tussling with Hoover, the two of them rolling in the snow.

  Jack turned to look at Marty, who’d been driving the sleigh and pointed at the odd looking horse-drawn vehicle.

  “What?” asked Marty. “You don’t like my ride?”

  Jack shook his head and laughed. “It’s not that I’m not glad to see you guys, but what the hell are you doing here?”

  “Henry figured you’d be short of saddles when you told him you might bring the Garretts with you. He also thought you’d be running low on food. We loaded up and came out to meet you. We left before dawn the next morning.”

  “It couldn’t have worked out better for us,” said Jack.

  He hugged each man, tears stinging his eyes, the voices drowned out by hands slapping him on the b
ack. He pulled Steve from the snow and gave him a hug.

  Hoover, not wanting to miss out on the action tackled Marty and licked his face.

  “Hoover, get the hell off me!” Marty yelled.

  Jack turned his head to see Marty lying in the snow with 165 pounds of dog in his face.

  He turned to Steve. “See, this is what comes from encouraging him.”

  “I’m good with that,” said Steve, grinning.

  “Hoover, you dope, get off him.” Jack reached down and pulled Marty to his feet.

  “Right. Boys, let’s get our shit together. People are waiting. Probably wondering what the hell is going on,” said Denny.

  “Just one question before we head back… Did you bring beer?”

  Denny O’Neal leaned back and let out a deep reverberating laugh. Jack smiled at the look on Steve’s face. It left little doubt it was the first time he’d heard Denny really cut loose.

  “Well,” said Denny, “I see you’ve got your priorities in order at least.” Denny patted him on the shoulder. “As a matter of fact, I did. It’s been a while I take it?”

  “Oh, about three months I guess.”

  50

  HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN

  The sun was full in the sky, and the air sparkled with frozen moisture. The snow muffled the sound of the horses and the various conversations. Lexi rode in the back of the wagon with both dogs and her mom. Jack had tied his new horse, Twig, to the back of the wagon. He was riding up front with Marty Bickerstaff. Doug rode point as usual, with Denny on his big bay to keep him company. Miguel was taking up the rear with Ross, and everyone else was strung out in-between. Steve was goofing off, trying to get the kids to laugh and succeeding more often than not.

  Jack watched, happy to see his friends again, to see the kids laughing, to be so close to home. Another couple of hours and the Inn would be in sight. After three months of rushing to be somewhere else, it would be nice just to stop for a while. To catch up with Ash and Annie, to see Judy, to have a beer with Henry, Denny, and Ray Chambers, to see all the changes he’d heard about over the radio. Time passed in quiet conversations. Jack hadn’t been this relaxed or this happy since that October day that seemed years ago.

  “I DON’T REMEMBER BEING able to see the Inn from the road.”

  Marty glanced over at Jack. “Denny had us really thin out the trees. We needed the wood, and he wanted to open up the lines of sight and cut down on cover and concealment for anyone trying to sneak up on us.”

  “Sounds sensible enough, but I’ll miss all those trees. So he’s in charge of security then?”

  “Yeah, we sure have no one else who’s even close to qualified.”

  “I don’t know what the hell I’ll do when we get there.”

  “Take a shower—please!”

  Jack smacked him on the shoulder. “Asshat, not what I meant.”

  Marty laughed. “Yeah, but still. Look there’s a ton of stuff we need to get done, and Annie and Ash have been champing at the bit to put all these new faces to work.”

  “Wait, Annie and Ash? I thought they were doing logistics.”

  “Think of it as Mayor and Assistant Mayor. They’ve got everyone jumping, even Henry. It was Henry’s idea to put them in charge. He’s a shrewd one, he is.”

  “Hmm, I can see that… God knows they’re organized enough for any dozen people.”

  “You mean obsessive-compulsive, but yeah. I think the girls have found their calling in life. They don’t much care about strategy. They leave that up to Henry, Denny, and Judy.”

  “So do I still have a house?”

  “Oh, ah, well…no. We moved you.”

  “Are you kidding me? Why?”

  “Might be a temporary change. We’ve borrowed your place for the scouts. I can move them back out, but we’ll have time to get something set up. We’ve moved a lot of folks around trying to fit everyone in, keep families together. Besides, you’ll have more room with us at the Inn.”

  “The…” Jack turned to see Rachael looking in his direction. The expression was clear enough. “Oh, right. I guess I need to get used to thinking about more than just me.”

  “Bullshit,” said Rachael.

  “Huh?”

  “She said Bullshit,” Lexi said from under the blankets.

  “Lexi…”

  “Mom—You said it first.”

  Rachael shrugged in exasperation. Then turned to face Jack again. “When have you ever only thought about you?”

  “Hmm, for about ten consecutive years before we met?”

  “Nope,” Marty shook his head. “Not then either. You were busy helping Annie and me, and Steve and Ash, and Ray, and Henry. Oh sure, you spent a fair amount of time squirreled away in your shop, but that was work. Do you think any of us would be here if you’d only been worrying about yourself? Do you think Denny and his team would be here if you’d only been worrying about yourself?”

  “I think you’re all a pain in my ass, is what I think.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s the bench you’re sitting on.”

  Jack smiled. “Possibly, although not being in the saddle is a relief. I can remember when I found normal boring, but now I think about it, I haven’t seen normal in over ten years. Do you remember when I came down on the bike that first time?”

  “Oh sure. Are you saying that was normal?”

  “No, that resulted from the end of normal. Normal was those years when I struggled to make a living just to pay for all the crap we were supposed to need… You know what? Normal is still boring. I’d rather be doing this.”

  “I could do without being shot,” said Lexi, who had finally popped her head out from under the blankets and was resting on her mom’s shoulder.

  “I can’t say I enjoyed that much either. Mine still aches in the mornings, and when I get too tired or too cold.”

  “Which is all the time,” said Rachael frowning.

  “No, no it’s not. I mean it’s not bothering me now. It did for about twenty minutes after I got up and started moving around, but it’s been fine since then. I mean when I get exhausted, like that night before we hit Coulee in the freezing rain and we were up most of the night. Or, that night we caught those three kids…”

  “I sure hope they’re okay,” said Rachael.

  “Me too. If the kids are as sharp as they seemed, they’ll figure out that Coulee is their best option. We can’t take care of everyone.”

  “I don’t want Sara to leave,” said Lexi.

  “Yeah I know Lexi, and I think Ross and Nicole will be real assets to the community, but we only have so much in the way of food and other supplies.”

  “I’m not sure that’s going to be much of a problem, once we get through winter,” said Marty.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, Henry has been working out trades and trade-routes pretty much since you made contact with folks on your trip. We’ll be bringing seafood in from Bremerton. We’re trading them horses, assuming we can make enough ice to keep the fish frozen during transport. We’ve got cattle coming in from several places, and we’ve got a half dozen elk on ice at home.”

  “Nice,” said Jack. “We can take the wagon down to Adin as soon as the weather gets more reliable. They’ve had more than a few people move in with their herds looking for help, so they now have too many cattle to support.”

  “Oh, we’ve got two wagons now, and we’re working on three more.”

  “Excellent! That’ll make a huge difference. We’ll be able to move supplies around to where they’re needed without depending on the Army. I wonder how many more people we can support if we have a couple of trading caravans out at a time?”

  “Come spring, we’ll probably have enough free hands for one. Two might be pushing it. I suspect we can entice people away from Grand Coulee, or any of the local towns. As long as we can make enough profit to cover the cost of labor. It seems strange to be thinking about possibly needing more people right now. The General’s Intel gu
ys estimate that the die off in the cities was near sixty percent or more. A lot of accidents, more from starvation and turf wars.”

  “There was nothing the General could do with all those troops?” asked Rachael.

  “Might be better to ask Denny,” said Marty. “He understands all that stuff better than I do, but the short answer is no. He had to release most of them so they could get home to their families while they still had food. He’s struggled to feed all the teams that stayed. They’ve got the refinery working again. He’s connected with the Navy at Bremerton, and they’re linked up with a small fishing fleet. He’s got teams out guarding distribution centers, and a bunch of working farms, including a couple of dairy farms. He’s spread way too thin to make any kind of push against the gangs that have taken over what’s left of the cities.”

  “I just can’t believe that we could let so many people die,” said Rachael.

  “I suppose I could argue that we didn’t let them die, they chose to. They ignored the warnings of those they called ‘tin foil hat lunatics.’ And that would be true, but it’s also true that the Government knew this was a possibility. The majority of our elected officials were far more interested in retaining power and prestige than in helping the people who elected them.”

  “Yeah, that’s been an issue for a long time,” said Marty. “They only talk about problems they can blame on someone, create division and cash in on the outrage.”

  “Cynical, but I can’t really argue otherwise.”

  “Mom?”

  “They’re right honey. I remember my dad talking about the cold war days. We used to have public fallout shelters, and people built private ones, and the government put out public information broadcasts on how to be ready for a nuclear attack. We haven’t done anything like that since. I suppose a lot of people thought it was a waste of money. The medical field has the same problem. We spend less on prevention than treatment. I’m not sure if prevention is cheaper or not, but it would be nice to know.”