Resting his bow sideways across his saddle, Johnathan continued on moving up the first small hill on the other side of the valley. Reaching the top, the smell hit him and Johnathan held the bow up as he scanned around. Not seeing anything, Johnathan glanced down at Dan who was looking ahead and his growling was getting louder.
“Good boy, Dan. Quiet,” Johnathan whispered and Dan’s growls lowered to a rumble in his chest.
Looking ahead, “Where the hell is it?” Johnathan mumbled, seeing nothing but a few trees under the star-filled sky. “It’s close because I smell the damn thing.”
Noticing his horse was steering right, Johnathan looked straight ahead at a tree in front of him. Pulling the horse to a stop, Johnathan stared at the tree and saw a small bump of a shadow appear five feet off the ground on the trunk. Then the shadowy bump disappeared. “You have got to be fucking shitting me,” Johnathan gasped, staring at the tree.
“What, honey?” Sandy asked, looking around but not seeing anything.
“There is a stinker hiding behind the tree thirty yards to my front,” Johnathan claimed, feeling numb.
“What?” Sandy, Mary, and Bill gasped behind him, moving up beside him. Before they asked for clarification, ahead on the trunk, they could only see as a dark cylinder erupting from the ground, a small shadow grew out from the side and then slowly shrunk.
“Okay, did I just see a stinker playing peek-a-boo?” Sandy mumbled.
“Yeah,” Johnathan grumbled, climbing off his horse. Grabbing a leash he’d braided from paracord with a carabiner on one end, Johnathan clipped it to Dan’s new collar that he had also braided from paracord. Handing the leash to Sandy, “I want to see what it does,” he said, lifting his bow.
As Johnathan moved toward the tree, Bill got down and put a leash he’d made on Ann and passed the end to Mary. “Just in case the stinker has surprises,” Bill said, pulling his .22 pistol moving behind Johnathan.
Ten yards away, Johnathan pulled the bow back and Bill moved to his left, aiming the pistol at the trunk. As they started swinging around the tree, they saw the bump appear again and ease back. Continuing to circle the tree, the bump would pull back until they were behind the tree.
On the horses, Mary and Sandy sat open-mouthed and looked at the back of the stinker, having watched it hide from Johnathan and Bill. They watched the stinker keep the trunk between itself and Johnathan and Bill. Even now, Johnathan and Bill couldn’t see it, but Mary and Sandy could.
Raising her arm, Sandy pointed at the tree. Seeing Sandy pointing, Johnathan glanced over at Bill. “You go wide left, I’m going right. Let’s see who it goes after. Mind the crossfire,” Johnathan cautioned.
As they circled the tree from both sides, the stinker leaned its head from one side to the other, peeking at them. When both could see the stinker, the stinker trotted out and raised its arms, heading for Johnathan.
With the background of his target clear, Johnathan released the arrow. The stinker’s head jerked as the arrow hit with a hollow thunk and it dropped to the ground. Glancing around at the widely spaced trees, Johnathan saw most were just big shrubs and only a few were real trees. “Hope they don’t start that shit,” he mumbled, walking over.
Putting his foot on the stinker’s face, Johnathan yanked the arrow out and wiped it on what was left of the stinker’s pants. “Did it go after you because I had a gun?” Bill asked in a troubled voice.
“Don’t know, but I was closer than you were by at least six yards,” Johnathan answered, walking back to the horses.
Taking the leash off Dan, Johnathan stuffed it back in his saddlebag. “That stinker was playing hide-and-seek,” Sandy snapped, still staring at the body.
Climbing on his horse, “Well, we won,” Johnathan chuckled.
“Johnathan, it was hiding!” Sandy gasped as Johnathan gave a nonchalant shrug, kicking his horse and steering past the body.
“No, it was lying in ambush,” Johnathan corrected as everyone followed.
Looking at the side of Johnathan’s face, “You were surprised when you first saw it, why so calm now?” Sandy asked.
“After thinking about it, it’s the same as those we’ve seen play dead. They are lying in ambush,” Johnathan told her.
Glancing around and holding her reins tight in her right hand, Sandy gripped her bow in her left a little tighter. “If they lose the smell, we are screwed,” she said.
“Sandy, compared to when this started, they have,” Johnathan said. “In Hawaii, when those reached the house, I almost passed out beating one in the head with that bat and wasn’t close to him more than a few seconds. Now, they can get close without making you pass out.”
Moving up closer, “Do you think they will lose the smell entirely?” Bill asked.
“Just my opinion, but no. The parasite has just become more efficient somehow. That is, until the brain is destroyed and it’s not mobile anymore. Then it reverts back to converting material around it to sulfur, i.e.; the body it’s in. Like I said, my opinion is just from what I heard those researchers talking about and discoveries they made. But that was in April when we crossed the ocean. Who knows what they’ve found out by now?” Johnathan admitted as they crossed the small field and started up the next hill.
“My guess,” Bill said, looking around. “There aren’t that many researchers alive to continue the studies.” Everyone pondered that as Bill pulled back to the rear and the others filed in behind Johnathan.
Keeping a good pace over the rolling hills, Johnathan pulled to a stop and looked off a high tree-covered hilltop. To the east was a large, vast expanse with the interstate just a mile away. Sitting on the hilltop a thousand feet above the expanse, Johnathan could see small groups and lone stumbling shadows on the interstate.
Then it hit him, they were all traveling north. “Must be something in Pueblo,” Johnathan mumbled, then glanced at his watch. “Guys, we have about an hour or two before daybreak. I’m thinking we should bed down here. Looking for a spot to hole up in that plain could prove to be a challenge.”
“That sounds very smart,” Sandy agreed. “I’m happy we’ve made it ten miles past our planned stopping point.”
With a grin, Johnathan looked over at Sandy. “You are getting good,” he said.
“I just keep landmarks on our route in my mind. I’ve given up keeping track of miles by my horse moving,” Sandy chuckled.
“There’s a draw behind us with a small creek at the base. We could set up there,” Bill offered, pointing behind them.
Patting her horse’s neck, “They could use the extra rest because we can make some time tomorrow night,” Mary said.
“Bill, Mary, how about you two hit the sack and let’s try for seven hour shifts today,” Johnathan insisted, following Bill in the draw.
“Damn, seven hours of sleep?” Bill gasped in shock. “Haven’t slept that long since we were on the boat.”
“I’ll ride a bike before I get on another boat,” Sandy muttered.
Chapter Twenty-One
May 30
“Don’t try to drive between those trees,” Lance said and Jennifer turned the steering wheel, driving the buggy Ian had made around the trees. The new buggy was a little wider and longer than the hybrid UTV they’d driven on patrol before, but it had power to spare. Still getting used to the power and larger size, Jennifer loved it.
Driving along a ridge, four miles northeast of the cabin is what Jennifer didn’t like. They were outside their patrol area near where they had met Lilly. “Here,” Lance said in a low voice and Jennifer had no problem hearing him over the buggy. The sound of the tires rolling through the leaves and underbrush made more noise than the buggy itself.
When the buggy stopped, Lance climbed out the front and adjusted the gain on his NVGs, since there was very little starlight coming through the heavy clouds overhead. “Guard the ride,” Lance said, moving down the slope while Ian got out of the seat behind Jennifer and rounded the buggy, following Lance.
“Judy,” Jennifer said, getting out and watching the dog move over beside her. Glancing over her shoulder, Jennifer smiled at seeing Carrie walk around and stop at the front of the buggy. The four tube NVG made her head look very tiny. The battery packs they had on the backs of their helmets, to offset the weight of the large quad tube, made Carrie’s head seem alien, bordering on comical.
Like Carrie, everyone was wearing a quad tube NVG. Cradling her AR, Jennifer’s head swiveled back and forth watching, listening, and smelling for anything. “Is this where you found Lilly?” Carrie asked in a very low voice. Even with the hunter’s ear, Jennifer barely heard it.
“Half a mile further north,” Jennifer answered, nodding her head toward the bottom of the slope. “But that was the road she was heading south on.”
As Jennifer and Carrie kept a lookout, Ian and Lance crept down the slope, stopping at the tree line. Ian pulled his bow out, nocking an arrow. “You sure you want to put a camera on a road this big?” Ian asked, looking up and down the road.
“Yeah, we’ve been in the woods too long,” Lance grinned. “That road may be paved, but it’s so small it doesn’t even have a center stripe.”
“It is paved,” Ian said. “But yeah, I’ve seen deer trails wider. All the other cameras have been on dirt roads and trails was all I meant.”
Setting down a bag, Lance pulled a trail camera out and looked around for the best spot. “This is the best avenue for the Nazis to come,” Lance said and moved out from the trees. With Ian behind him, Lance crossed the road and attached the camera to a tree. Then, Lance made a half-hearted attempt to conceal it. Opening the cover, Lance turned it on and checked to make sure it was working, then closed the cover and crossed the road.
Pulling another camera from the bag, Lance hid that one sixty feet away from the other, but aimed it at the same area. This camera, Lance hid very well. Before turning it on, he flipped up the right side of his NVG and turned on his thermal scope. Backing up, Lance looked where he had put the camera and could tell the foliage and leaves had been moved, but that would change. The lens was barely noticeable.
Hearing Ian release an arrow, Lance turned around while switching off his thermal and flipping the quad tube NVG down. He saw Ian pulling an arrow out of a stinker’s head. “Ready,” Lance called out and Ian nodded.
Ian tossed a flaming cotton ball on the body just to advertise that there were others around as Lance moved back to the camera he had hidden very well. Grabbing the spool of cable connected to the camera, Lance uncoiled it while walking up the slope as Ian covered the small cable with leaves and brush. Reaching the end of the eighty-foot-long cable, Lance made sure the plastic bag over the end was secure and then placed the end near a tree trunk before covering it up.
Ian came over with two dead limbs and placed them near the tree, forming an X. Brushing the debris off his gloves, Ian looked down at the road and saw the stinker starting to burn. “Ready,” Ian said and Lance led them back to the buggy.
Carrie saw Dino first and tapped Jennifer who turned and saw Lance and Ian coming back. “Good girl,” Jennifer said, glancing at her watch. “How can they maintain an itinerary?” she sighed, seeing they had several hours left on patrol, just what Ian and Lance had predicted after setting up the last camera.
When Lance showed them how the cameras worked, Jennifer thought it was genius. The camera not hidden well was only used to trigger and flash with IR; it didn’t even have a memory card to take pictures. The hidden camera was the one that took the actual pictures. Lance had put in radio switches, so the hidden camera would take a picture when the decoy was tripped.
The cable was so they could check the cameras without getting near them. Last night with Lilly and Allie, they had put up nine. Tonight, they’d put up the last six and Jennifer didn’t understand why most were to the east and north. None of the cameras were in the patrol area and the one they had just placed was the closest.
“Head to the next stop,” Ian said, climbing in.
Nodding, Jennifer climbed behind the steering wheel and glanced back, making sure everyone was ready. Satisfied, Jennifer pressed the accelerator as she turned around. “I’m tired of asking why they do shit. When they tell me, I feel like an idiot,” she mumbled, following the ridge back.
There was no marker but Jennifer knew when they had crossed back into the patrol area that stretched out three miles with the cabin at the center. Over the months on patrol with the boys, Jennifer could almost head to the cabin blindfolded.
Steering down the slope and looking through the trees, Jennifer saw a pasture ahead; their goal. The cows that used to be in the pasture, Ian and Lance had let loose during their first patrols. The pasture was shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss surrounded by three strands of barbed wire. That barbed wire was the prize. The boys were refilling the empty spools from the diversion fence.
Pulling to a stop at the top of the pasture in the trees, Jennifer climbed out as the others did. Moving to the back, Lance put a harness on that had a platform at his waist. Taking his gloves off, Lance put on heavy leather gloves as Ian headed down to the fence with heavy duty wire cutters.
Grabbing an empty spool, Lance slipped it over a spindle with a crank on the right side. Jennifer grabbed another empty spool and saw Lance moving to the fence. With Jennifer, Carrie, and the dogs moving with Lance to the fence, they stopped as Ian cut the top strand off from a corner post. Ian attached the end to the spool as Lance stepped over the two strands still hanging.
When he was done, Ian moved to the next pole and cut the wire band holding the barbed wire to the metal pole. These were the only places they collected barbed wire from, fields with metal poles. They only tried once to remove barbed wire that had been nailed up, that fence was still there.
Using his left hand, Lance guided the wire onto the spool and he cranked the handle, winding it up as he walked down the field. Using the tension of the wire, Lance was able to keep it fairly tight, but not as tight as a roll from a factory.
“The shit they think of,” Jennifer grinned, scanning around and walking with them. When the spool was filled Jennifer knew there would be over a thousand feet of barbed wire, almost what a roll from a factory held.
Ian moved over to take the full spool off and Jennifer handed Lance the empty one she’d been carrying. Setting the full one down, Ian waited until Lance was ready and then cut the second strand of wire. Then they walked back, taking the second strand.
Stopping where they’d started, Ian removed the full spool as Jennifer grabbed two more. As Lance reloaded an empty spool, Ian cut the bottom wire but didn’t connect it. He just made a gap, wrapping the wire around the next pole. Jennifer thought this was just a way the boys were being smartasses.
All of the fields or pastures they had taken barbed wire from, the grass was over knee high and hiding the bottom strand. Ian and Lance were just leaving obstacles for stinkers and others to trip over.
Moving the opposite way, they repeated the process. Reaching the starting point, Jennifer pulled the buggy into the field as Lance reloaded his spindle and Ian loaded the full rolls.
After filling up six more rolls they packed up, never reaching the base of the field near the road. Another thing they looked for, fields large enough that they could work away from roads.
When everyone climbed in Jennifer glanced at her watch, not surprised when she saw they had thirty minutes to get back to the cabin. The boys were keeping to their eight-hour blocks. First shift was at the cabin, second was patrol, and third was sleep.
Pulling his drinking tube off, Lance sucked down water and glanced over at Jennifer who was staring intently as she drove. Jennifer could now navigate most of the maze of booby traps without them telling her where to go. Turning around as they approached the ridge that would take them home, Lance saw Dino move in front of the buggy.
“I got it,” he said, clipping his drinking tube back to his vest. Grabbing his bow and quiver of arrows, Lance stepp
ed out and clipped the quiver to his belt. Pulling out an arrow, Lance eased ahead. When he got near Dino, Dino moved with him but stayed in front. When Lance and Dino were ten yards ahead, Jennifer crept along behind them.
After walking sixty yards, Lance finally smelled the stinker. Seeing the beginning of the diversion fence that came up from the valley below, Lance stopped and looked down toward the valley and grinned. Just over thirty yards away, two stinkers were following the fence up and one would bounce against it every few steps.
‘Love that fence’ Lance thought, watching the stinkers. Wanting to test something, Lance put a hand on Dino’s butt, pushing him down. Knowing what Lance wanted, Dino sat and watched the stinkers move up the slope. Back in the buggy, everyone else could see the stinkers fine and was wondering why Lance hadn’t shot them yet.
When the first one was only six yards away, Lance pulled back his bow and released the arrow. The release and impact were almost simultaneous. The other stinker heard the impact and stopped as the first one fell down.
Slowly Lance pulled another arrow out, watching the second stinker ten yards from him. In his NVG, the stinker’s glowing eyes swept over him twice as Lance nocked his arrow. Still not moving, the stinker continued looking around and lifting its head back with small jerks. “I can smell you, but you can’t smell me,” Lance said, pulling the arrow back and the stinker’s head snapped toward Lance’s voice.
Before the stinker raised its arms, Lance released the arrow instinctively. Watching the stinker drop, Lance glanced around and down the slope. He could see the dirt road below gleaming, but no other stinkers. Retrieving his arrows, Lance pulled out the medicine bottle of soaked cotton balls.
Making sure there were no low, overhanging branches, Lance lit the ball and tossed it before pulling out another. Tossing the second ball, he headed back to the buggy while putting his arrows back in the quiver.
Forsaken World (Book 3): Rite of Passage Page 28