Nodding, “Very good point,” Bill said as they pulled the vest off. “NVGs are gone,” Bill noted, looking at an empty pouch.
“Six full mags,” Johnathan said and started unclipping the hard-plastic magazine holders from the front of the vest.
“I got a bandoleer in the pack,” Bill said, emptying the pack and heard Johnathan let out a low whistle.
Looking over at Johnathan, who was holding up two hand grenades, Bill grinned. “These might come in handy,” Johnathan chuckled, then started to pat down the soldier.
“I haven’t thrown a hand grenade since I was eighteen in boot camp,” Bill said, tossing a knife in the pile.
“Just remember, when you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is not your friend anymore,” Johnathan advised, emptying the pockets and adding to the pile.
With all the stuff that they could use in a heap, they grabbed the body and carried it out to the pile. Coming back, they had started grabbing gear when Dan gave a growl. Dropping the gear and pulling out arrows, they looked down the draw.
“I only see one. Looks like a kid,” Bill whispered and Johnathan nodded. When it was thirty yards away, Bill pulled his bow back and released the arrow quickly. The stinker never spotted them as the arrow slammed into its skull. “I’ll get it. You light the pile near the road and I’ll light this one,” Bill said, nocking another arrow and moving down the draw.
Stopping beside the body, Bill closed his eyes and grabbed the body of the little girl stinker, no bigger than his daughter, Allie. Dragging the body by the arm, Bill tossed it up onto the pile as Johnathan moved over, tossing a flaming chunk of gauze on the pile.
Not watching the flames take hold, Bill moved over and grabbed the stuff they’d taken off the soldier. Moving back to camp, he set the gear down and moved over to the stream to wash his gloves. When they were clean, Bill took the gloves, his cap, and sunglasses off as Johnathan knelt down beside him.
“Yeah, the kids suck,” Johnathan mumbled, washing his gloved hands.
Splashing water over his face, Bill wrung his beard out, “How can anyone stand a beard?” he huffed.
Pulling off his gloves and taking his cap and sunglasses off, “After I hug the kids and shower, my beard is gone,” Johnathan promised, then splashed water on his face. “I have Mary breaking down the M4 and cleaning it. Now, each of us has a rifle. We can work on a suppressor when we take a break in two days.”
“I say, take one of the suppressors off a Ruger 10/22. We have three,” Bill replied, getting up.
Shaking his head rapidly, Johnathan slung water off his beard and hair. Stopping, Johnathan grabbed the ground. “How can dogs do that?” he groaned as the world spun in his vision.
Watching Johnathan wobble, Bill chuckled. “You realize how much we learned with both boys in the scouts? For one, I love the cotton Vaseline balls as fire starters.” With the dizziness gone, Johnathan nodded with a grin, getting up.
As Bill and Johnathan moved back to the wives, they saw a bowl of food waiting. “We’ve eaten,” Sandy said, sitting with Mary and helping her clean the M4 they had found.
Each grabbed a spoon to eat out of the same bowl. “How long did it take to get the horses saddled?” Johnathan asked, taking his cap off and wiping his hair back.
“Ten minutes and we were ready to leave,” Sandy said, looking down the draw to see the fire over the bodies giving off a greenish flame.
“Everyone think on how we can speed up saddling the horses,” Johnathan blurted out, looking down and picking rice out of his beard.
Carrying the bowl over to the stream, Bill washed it out. “I’m thinking we have two hours till sundown. You want to check some houses down below?” Bill asked over his shoulder.
“Yeah, we need to show the wives how to clear a house,” Johnathan answered, giving up on getting the food out of his beard. Moving over, he saw the wives using the stiff brushes to clean the bolt of the M4. “Wipe them off and you can finish it when we stop.”
Mary put the M4 back together as everyone walked around the camp area to see if they had missed anything. Hearing the dogs growl, everyone turned to look down the draw. “Mount up. If they come out at us on the road, I’ll take them,” Johnathan said, leading his horse over to Bill’s and wrapping the reins around the saddle horn.
“We could just go,” Sandy said as they followed Johnathan out to the dirt road and headed down into the valley.
Glancing back, “We are making stops and I don’t like having known threats coming,” Johnathan told her as he held his bow down with an arrow ready.
Moving down the road, two stinkers shambled out of the trees with arms extended while giving off low moans. When they had cleared the brush, both picked up speed and Johnathan pulled the bow back, releasing the arrow. The arrow hit the one in the front below the nose and the stinker collapsed back. Grabbing another arrow, Johnathan kept his eyes on the last stinker when an arrow hit it in the left eye and almost passed through the skull. He turned back to see Sandy holding her bow up as she sat in the saddle.
“I need to learn how to shoot them from the saddle like you and Bill, so don’t start,” she said, lowering her bow.
Giving Sandy a grin, Johnathan headed over to the bodies. “Nice shot, honey,” he commented, retrieving the arrows.
Handing Sandy her arrow back, Johnathan climbed on his horse and led the group down into the valley. Getting closer to the valley, everyone smelled the stench of rot. They passed what looked like some type of business in a metal building to their left when Bill called out, “Hold up for a second.”
Kicking his horse, Bill guided the horse to the large parking lot of the metal building. Stopping near a truck in the parking lot, Bill climbed off his horse as the others looked around. To the south, they could see the houses of the small town of Marysvale. “Look,” Sandy said and Mary and Johnathan turned to see where Sandy was pointing.
Turning to follow Sandy’s finger, they saw a large pasture with rotting cow carcasses. “That’s over a hundred cows,” Johnathan gasped, then turned to the north and saw a few shapes on the road. Lifting his binoculars, “Stinkers on Hwy 89 heading north,” he said and then scanned around. “See a few more, but they are under trees near the houses to our south.”
Spinning in his saddle, Johnathan saw Bill was at a work truck with panel boxes along the bed. Bill was opening the panels as Johnathan looked at the door. ‘Sun Construction’ was on the side in bold letters. Then, he saw Bill pull out a tool belt and sling it over his shoulder before moving around the truck.
Adjusting her cap, “What is my husband doing?” Mary asked, looking around.
“Getting stuff out of that truck,” Johnathan answered, lowering the binoculars.
“I see a barn to our east before we cross the river,” Sandy said, scanning around with the binoculars. “Are we going into town?”
“Nope, I see too many stinkers under trees,” Johnathan told her while watching Bill come back. When Bill rejoined them, Johnathan saw two tool belts hanging off the pack saddle. “We changing jobs?”
Jerking his thumb over his shoulder to his pack horse, “We can use the tool belts as harnesses for our gear, but I wanted to see if there were sheetrock hammers and found two,” Bill answered with a grin.
Moving over on his horse, Johnathan saw a nice sheetrock hammer on the tool belt slung on the side. “Modern tomahawk,” Johnathan nodded.
“I want something more than a knife if they are going to play dead,” Bill confessed as Johnathan spun his horse around.
Giving a curt laugh, “I hear that,” Johnathan said, guiding his horse down the dirt road crossing the highway. Guiding his horse across a field, Johnathan headed to a barn. As he got closer, Johnathan could see the carcasses of several horses in a corral beside the barn. “Wish people would’ve let their animals go.”
“Sweetheart, I’m sure their first thought was saving their families,” Sandy said behind him.
Climbing off his horse, “Mary, San
dy, come with me and clear the barn,” Johnathan said, slinging his AR and grabbing his bow. “Sandy, use the pistol and Mary, use your 10/22.”
Pulling out the Mk3, Sandy checked the safety as she got down and Mary moved beside her. As they moved toward the barn, Johnathan explained how to clear and then told Dan to heel. Easing up to the wall, Johnathan pulled out the 22/45 and lifted the pistol as he moved into the door.
Sandy and Mary moved after him as Johnathan holstered his pistol and grabbed an arrow. “I got it,” he said as Mary and Sandy scanned around the barn with their weapons. They both saw a stinker step from a stall, moving toward them. Lifting his bow, Johnathan let the arrow fly and grabbed another arrow as the stinker dropped.
“Sorry, but I didn’t want to shoot unless we had to,” Johnathan explained, looking down at Dan who was just staring at the body. Checking the rest of the barn, they didn’t find any more stinkers and motioned to Bill who led their horses in.
“Mary, I know I was to your back, but you were the last man in the stack. You need to check behind you,” Bill said, climbing off.
Thinking for a second, Mary nodded. “That was my fault,” she sighed.
“No, it was mine,” Johnathan said, retrieving his arrow.
“All right!” Bill said, finding bags of horse feed. “We can replace what we’ve used.”
“How much extra can we take?” Johnathan asked.
“Not much,” Bill sighed, grabbing a bag.
Holstering her pistol, “Why do we need more? The horses have been grazing very well,” Sandy asked.
“We are crossing a hundred and fifty miles of desert,” Johnathan said, walking around the barn.
Sandy moved to her horse with Mary following and pulled out the topo book to go over the route. “I remember that when we came out here last year heading to the Grand Canyon,” Sandy said, looking at the map. “It seemed like forever in a car. I don’t want to know what this will feel like on horseback.”
“Better than on a bike,” Bill advised, grabbing another bag.
“No shit,” Mary chuckled, moving over to help Bill. “I love these horses.”
“I’m going to check the house with Dan. Keep an eye out,” Johnathan said, moving to the door.
Putting the topo book back in her saddlebag, “Wait, I’m coming,” Sandy said, yanking her pistol out.
They found the house unlocked and cleared it fast. With the exception of a busted front window, the house looked undisturbed. Moving to a bedroom, Johnathan grabbed the pillows and yanked the cases off. Handing two to Sandy they moved around, searching for anything useful. They found an empty gun cabinet, but did find several bricks of .22 ammo.
In the closet of the master bedroom, they found a metal ammo can of 5.56. Picking up the can, “This will give us almost four thousand rounds,” Johnathan grinned as they moved to the hall. Moving to the living room, Sandy saw a bookshelf and ran over to it.
“Look,” she cried out with joy, pulling a large topo book down with ‘Colorado’ on the front.
Standing in the middle of the living room, Johnathan was looking at all the mounted animals hanging on the walls. “That’s awesome,” he said, moving to the dining room.
Turning back to the bookshelf, Sandy saw more topo books and started pulling them down. She found one for every western state and put them on the coffee table. “Sweetheart, I found one for Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Do we want them?”
Coming back into the living room, Johnathan looked at the stack. “Kansas and Oklahoma,” he answered, picking one up. “Man, whoever this family is, they hunted everywhere!”
“Johnathan, every house we’ve searched, the people were hunters,” Sandy told him, putting the books in a pillow case.
Moving into the kitchen, they didn’t find much canned food but they found lots of dry goods. “Why didn’t they take the rice, beans and pasta?” Sandy asked, filling another pillow case.
“Beats me, I would’ve left the canned goods for them,” Johnathan rationalized, grabbing a bottle of salt.
With each carrying three stuffed pillow cases, they headed back to the barn and found the horses eating from a trough. “Figured while we were waiting we could fill the horses up,” Bill told them, standing at the front door and keeping an eye out.
Loading up the gear, Johnathan saw blue tarps rolled up and tied on each of their horses like a sleeping roll. “Tarps?” he asked, turning to Bill.
“Not much shade in the desert, partner,” Bill answered over his shoulder. “Mary found some poles that we can use to make tents for us and the horses.”
After packing, the four sat in the barn letting the horses fill up on feed. When the sun started setting, they mounted up. Moving across a small stream, they continued east. Glancing back at the few trees, Johnathan sighed. “I miss trees,” he said to himself and then looked ahead, guiding his horse along a trail.
Chapter Thirteen
May 23
Walking out of the gym, Jennifer wiped the sweat off her face with a towel. Draping the towel over her shoulder, she watched Allie and Carrie run to the chicken house, giggling. “What the hell are they doing?” Lilly asked beside her.
Already knowing what Lilly was talking about, Jennifer turned to the shop. Lance and Ian were beside the small children’s swimming pool they had pulled in with a machine they’d made. In the swimming pool was a large boulder. “Okay, I’ve had enough,” Jennifer snapped, storming off. “They said we are going out to start, but they are telling us what the hell they are doing.”
Running to catch up, Lilly slowed to a walk beside Jennifer. “If you don’t mind, I’m letting you do the talking,” Lilly said softly.
“I don’t care,” Jennifer growled, almost stomping as she walked across the yard.
Looking up, Lance sighed, “Your wife is mad.”
Spinning around, Ian saw Jennifer storming over with a scowl. “What the hell did we do?” Ian cried out, running through recent memories.
Spreading his arms out, Lance held up his hands. “Beats me, but she looks mad enough to eat nails and shit thumb tacks.”
“You talk,” Ian conceded quietly as Jennifer stopped in front of them.
“What are you two doing?” Jennifer snapped, putting her hands on her hips.
Lance turned to Ian who just shrugged. Turning back to Jennifer, “Ah, nothing,” Lance offered.
“What the hell is that?” Jennifer asked, pointing at the swimming pool.
“Rock cutter we made,” Lance answered, stepping to the side. Jennifer and Lilly moved over and saw an electric motor turning a wheel with a steel cable that ran around pulleys, forming a rectangle. A pump was raining down water where the cable ran over the stone and they noticed the cable had cut a trench in the rock.
“Okay, what the hell for?” Jennifer snapped.
“So, we can shape it and cut uniform sections off,” Lance answered.
Closing her eyes, Jennifer took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “We’ve talked about this. I can’t read your minds. Why would you need to shape stone?” Jennifer asked very slowly.
“So, we can work with metal,” Lance mocked and answered very slowly.
“You two have been working with metal for the last week!” Jennifer shouted, stomping her foot. “We want to help, but you two don’t talk!”
Glancing over to Ian, Lance saw him looking down at the ground. “Yes, we do,” Lance said, turning back to Jennifer.
Waving her hand around and pointing at the neat stacks of stuff the boys had hauled in, “What is all this?” Jennifer asked.
“Stuff we need to make traps and other projects to help fight stinkers,” Lance replied.
Pointing at the buggy Ian was working on, “Why did Ian make another buggy? When I ask him, all he says is, ‘it’s better’,” Jennifer asked, calming down.
“Whoa,” Lance said, holding up his hands. “First, you can’t ask Ian shit, if you’re about to or have already kissed him. His brain stops workin
g for an hour or so.”
Feeling her cheeks turn bright red, Jennifer felt her frustration evaporate and glanced over at Ian with his head bowed and his face bright red. “He’s right on that, Jennifer,” Lilly grinned beside her.
Looking over at Lance, “So, the buggy?” Lilly asked.
“Ian made it because the hybrid we use isn’t that fast. That one is a hybrid as well, but should go like sixty miles on just battery. That’s why Ian was ransacking Prii and other hybrid battery packs. Each wheel has its own electric motor. Ian built a 15,000-watt generator to power the system and charge the batteries. From his calculations, the buggy should do sixty,” Lance explained.
Pointing at the rock saw, “Working with metal?” Lilly asked.
“Yeah, we need to forge. We aren’t in the mood to find what we need when we can just make it,” Lance told her. “Yes, we have the small two kilogram and bigger twenty kilogram induction furnace, but we need bigger, like a hundred kilogram induction furnace.”
Finally fighting her blush down, “Lance, why do you have like six five-gallon buckets of coins?” Jennifer asked.
“Zinc,” Lance answered. Lilly and Jennifer just blinked at him. “Guys, we have been working on ways to kill stinkers remotely on a large scale. This shooting the sissy shitters one at a time is bullshit!”
“With zinc?” they both asked.
Groaning, “No, we need zinc for some of the applications,” Lance said.
“What’s one?” Lilly asked.
“Saltwater battery,” Lance answered immediately.
Stepping away from Jennifer, Lilly moved in front of Lance. Reaching out, Lilly grabbed Lance’s hands from his side and held them tenderly. “Lance, we just want to help. Jennifer’s only mad at you, because we think we are more of a burden to you and Ian than helpful. Can you two just give us the overview of your ideas and plans at breakfast? Please?” Lilly asked with a small smile.
A goofy grin split Lance’s face. “I promise, you two are never a burden. We just want everyone safe,” Lance said, feeling his cheeks get hot. “We can go over it at breakfast.”
Forsaken World (Book 3): Rite of Passage Page 16