“You think he even knows about this?”
“Bear would have talked to him on the radio about it by now. The Prescott PD has radio contact with Phoenix, and if they got this far north, they had to come through there. So I’m guessing that Don will know and have a plan.”
“He usually does.”
“Yes, he does,” Cory replied.
“Okay, let’s get back to the camp, break out the map, and see if we can find any way out of this latest clusterfuck.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear before,” Cory said.
“I got a lot of them. Just been storing them up for the right time, and this looks like the right time to me. My wife only let me swear once a month.”
“And then what happened?” Ben just raised an eyebrow and Cory had to laugh.
“I’d be without kids if my wife did that to me.”
“Well, I have two, so something worked.”
“Ben, this really has me worried.” Cory said. “I just don’t like the look of it.”
“Well, there’s not much to like. A foreign army on our soil is not something anyone is going to like.”
“I don’t think we have the strength to fight a foreign invader, if that’s what this is, and it sure looks like an invasion. Those columns looked like they came here to wage war, so I doubt it’s a relief effort.”
“We did take this land from them after the Mexican-American War, and maybe they just want it back. They probably have been waiting for years for something like this to happen so we would be weak enough to defeat. Let’s face it, we can’t fight an army and expect to win. At least not in the state we’re in right now.”
“I am not living under a foreign flag,” Cory said, anger filling his voice. “If we have to fight them, then by God I am willing. They may have tanks, but we have willpower, and we can make them pay dearly for every day they occupy this place.”
“We can’t fight an army with tanks.”
“We can damn well try.”
“Cory, that’s just crazy. Stop and think it over. We wouldn’t last a minute against that kind of firepower.”
“We can fight a guerilla war against them. Hit-and-run tactics and ambushes. That’s worked countless times in the past, including our own Revolutionary War. We just gotta get organized and form a militia to throw them out of here.”
“Cory, you’re getting ahead of yourself. We have no idea why they’re here. Let’s just focus on getting back to the ranch and seeing what Don knows about things before we go off on a tangent.”
“You’re right. Let’s go look at the map and figure out how to get over the latest problem, and we’ll deal with the big picture stuff with Don.” The two men walked back into the camp. Everyone was dressed and the ATVs were loaded, so they gathered at the hood of one ATV as Cory and Ben examined the forest map. Ben traced a finger over a likely route of travel, but looked doubtful of the route.
“We’re going to have to head west for a few miles before we turn north, and there are no forest roads to the west. We’re going to have to go overland there and hope the trail will be wide and clear enough for us to pass. If it’s not, we’re on foot from here, and it’s at least a two-day hike with no food.” Ben said. The map told a tale of uncertainty, and both men began to wonder if they had a plan at all, much less one that would work.
“If we take that route and we have to turn back, it’s going to be a long walk. We’re almost out of gas and I’m not even sure we have enough to get to the ranch without detours.” Both men fell silent and pondered the situation. There really didn’t seem to be any alternative to going overland. Once committed to that route, they really had no choice but to walk the rest of the way if they hit an obstacle they couldn’t navigate through.
“We could send my boys ahead and let them come back and tell us if it’s passable or not,” Ben offered.
“Yeah, we can do that.” Eric said.
“We have no more food or water,” Cory replied.
“We used to run marathons. We could go 30 miles without water if we have to. We just need to drop the packs and weapons and we’re out there and back in an hour,” Justin said. Although he looked supremely confident, Cory had his doubts. They had just gone a few days without food, aside from what they were given by his group. He doubted they were in shape to do the trek, but had little choice.
“You sure you’re okay with that?” Cory asked Ben.
“They’re tough boys. They’ll be fine,” Ben replied. “The only thing I worry about is they might get injured and we have to drag their big asses back up the hill.” Cory saw the expression of concern on Ben’s face but let it pass. He thought on it for a few seconds and concluded there was no real choice.
“Send them down the trail,” Cory said. “But you two be careful. We aren’t in a hurry here. We have more food and water a few miles away, and it’s not worth getting hurt to save us a few hours of travel. You’ll become a burden rather than a help if that happens. Am I getting through to you two?”
“We got this,” Eric said. “Don’t worry about us. We grew up in the forest, and we know how to move and take care of each other. So relax and let us do what we do well. We’ll be back in an hour or so and we can give you a plan of how to get where you want to go.”
“Ben?”
“Go, but be careful.”
“God love them both,” Cory said as the two young men ran into the brush and headed down the mountainside. They were both nimble for their size, and dodged bushes and roots that stuck up from the ground with an amazing agility. Cory shook his head in wonder as they traversed a steep decline in the sloop below them, then ran into a clump of trees that obscured them before popping out below the stand of trees. They stopped, conferring for a moment, then turned to the west and started running again before they disappeared from sight, swallowed by the forest.
“That’s almost scary,” Cory said. “They’re like ghosts or some weird jungle creatures.”
“Naw,” Ben replied, “They’re just tough young guys. We could have done that at their age, too. We just forget that we could.”
“Getting older really sucks, I guess,” Cory said, after considering Ben’s statement.
“Get used to it. It don’t get better with time.”
“Well, there’s nothing to do but wait.” Both men leaned against the ATV and commenced waiting. Rachael and Tim walked over and joined them as they all settled in to wait.
An hour later, they both spotted the boys maneuvering up the hill, nimble as mountain goats on the uncertain terrain. The young men ran to where Cory and Ben waited, bent over, and spent a minute regaining their wind before they both stood erect.
“We can get through,” Justin reported. “We have to do some weaving and bobbing, but it’s passable. We can lead off walking and you can follow in the ATV. It won’t be fast because there are too many obstacles we have to maneuver around, but it is possible if we take it slow and don’t bang up the ATVs.”
“Okay,” Ben replied. “Good work. Let’s move.” He waved at Tim and Rachael, who came over and stood with them. “Tim, you’re with me. Rachael can ride with Cory. We’re going to follow the boys through the forest to the next road.” They mounted the ATVs and headed downhill behind the boys. Occasionally, one of them would raise a fist and point the way around an obstacle, jogging to pass the ATVs and take the lead again.
This went on for two hours, with the boys continuing to leap frog the vehicles as they continued the descent. The Ponderosa pine was now gone, replace by small pine trees and scrub cedar, and the air was warmer. As they continued down the slopes, the terrain grew even more challenging and their pace slowed considerably. Cory was growing frustrated with the snail’s pace, but swallowed his anger and grew stoic about the situation.
“Hold up,” Eric said. “This is the tricky part. You might want to have a look before we take off again.” Everyone left the ATVs to follow Eric down a steep incline. They arrived at a field of large
boulders that ran across the entire slope.
“Good Lord,” Ben said. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“It’s passable,” Eric insisted.
“Yeah,” Justin added. “Follow us.” The two young men walked between the boulders and continued down the hill, stopping at a place where they rocks were even more tightly clustered.
“This is the tough part,” Justin said, pointing. “But we can get through it if we let one side of the ATVs climb partially up the side of this rock. It will angle the side of the ATV up to around thirty degrees, but it won’t tip over. The rest is just a matter of weaving our way through the rocks. This is the only area where it gets a little tricky.”
Eric added, “the next forest road is around a mile from here and it’s all an easy ride from there.”
“You boys are sure?” Ben asked. “It looks risky to me. That angle could be enough to tip the ATVs.”
“We’ve done the calculations and there’s no problem here,” Justin answered. “You just have to leave the passenger side empty and let that side of the ATV crawl the incline. Just keep the weight low in the vehicle so it doesn’t push it over from the top.”
“Yeah,” Eric added, “as long as the weight isn’t on the high side of the vehicle, there’s nothing to drag it over into a roll.”
“Well,” Ben shrugged. “What do you think, Cory?”
“They’re probably right. It might get interesting, but I think we can get through here. We might want to unload the ATVs to lighten the load a bit so they’re not top heavy like they were saying. But I think it’s doable.”
“Let’s weave our way here, unload the vehicles, and then see if we can get through the narrows in one piece,” Ben suggested.
The men walked back to where the ATVs were parked and Cory explained the plan to Tim and Rachael. They again got into the ATVs, weaved their way around the boulders in the path, and came to a stop in front of the narrow pathway through the tight rock formation. Both Cory and Ben helped unload the vehicles, then Cory led off, with Ben following.
Cory’s vehicle’s engine whined a bit when the ATV was on the incline and gasoline had difficulty getting to the engine from the tank, but he made it through cleanly on the first attempt. Ben took longer, changing the angle of attack on the rocks until he found a way of passing through without the incline becoming severe. He wore an expression of concern and doubt the entire time.
When Ben heard the rear tire thump to the ground as it came off the incline, he gassed it and pulled next to Cory.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Cory said.
“It was more interesting than I’d like.”
“Okay, let’s get the gear loaded again and get to the cave to see if it’s safe to head to the ranch.”
“Works for me,” Ben replied.
“What’s at the cave?” Tim asked.
“It’s our bug-out location. It’s a few miles into the forest from the ranch and we stocked it with supplies a few months ago,” Ben explained. “The idea was to have a place we could retreat to and survive a few weeks in case we ever had to leave the ranch.”
“We have spare weapons, water, food, and blankets there,” Cory added. “Don insisted on having a plan B.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting this guy,” Tim replied, “From the way you guys talk about him, he seems to be the ringleader of your group.”
“I guess he is,” Cory replied slowly. “But I would call him the default leader of the group. A ringleader sounds more like the head of a gang of thieves.”
“Let’s get moving,” Ben said gruffly. “I hope to sleep in a bed tonight.”
“All right,” Cory replied. The group reloaded the ATVs and continued down the mountainside at a brisker pace. They turned onto another forest road and accelerated up to forty miles an hour for the next hour. They passed the bug-out cave and parked behind a rise. Ben and Cory climbed to the top of the hill and took turns glassing the intersection where the Humvee-like vehicles and machine gun emplacements sat.
Several armed men surrounded the vehicles and manned the machine guns. After a few minutes, an old jeep stopped at the checkpoint. Two soldiers approached the vehicle with weapons at the ready. One held the rifle to the driver’s head while the other searched the back of the vehicle. He emerged carrying a rifle that obviously belonged to the driver. He shouldered both rifles, drew a pistol, and motioned the man out of the car.
When the driver got out, the soldier with the pistol patted him down after removing a pistol from his holster. He then deposited the weapons in the back of one of the vehicles and returned to where the man stood, hands in the air. With a vicious butt stroke, he dropped the man where he stood, rolled him over, and flex-tied his hands behind his back.
“Did you see that?” Cory asked, still peering through the binoculars.
“Yes.”
“I guess we can conclude they’re not here to help.”
“Guess so.”
“And they don’t seem to be in any hurry to go anywhere, so I guess we better go to the cave and get comfortable for now,” Cory said grimly.
“I guess,” Ben replied tersely. “We’ll be spotted in the ATVs, so we can walk in after dark, I suppose.”
“I’m not sure I want to approach the ranch unannounced after dark.”
“I hear you, but I don’t have a better idea.”
“Let’s head back and get some food and water. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry and thirsty.”
“Let’s go,” Cory led the way down the small hill and made his way back to the ATVs, where he took a moment to describe what he and Ben had seen. He also explained they couldn’t ride the ATVs in so long as the patrol was there. They climbed into the ATVs and idled back to the bushes at the foot of the hill under the cave.
“Leave everything but the weapons,” Cory said as he got out of his vehicle. The others each grabbed their rifle and followed Cory up the winding path that lead to the mouth of the cavern. Cory stood next to the entrance and waved for them to enter the cave. They gathered at the back, where the supplies lay in organized piles. Each grabbed an MRE and a bottle of water, and they sat on blankets in a rough circle. After heating the pouches they devoured their food. Tim emitted a satisfied groan of appreciation as he licked the last bit off his spoon. The others finished shortly after Tim and they all leaned back and drank their water.
“Why do you think the Mexicans are here?” Justin asked his father.
“Taking back what we took from them is my guess.”
“You think we’ll have to fight them?”
“Sooner or later, but not now. We aren’t equipped to fight an army.”
“What should we do?” Eric asked.
“Right now we should digest our food, and later Cory and I are gonna walk to the ranch and let the group know we’re still alive.”
“You know what I meant,” Eric chided.
“I do. But I don’t have an answer for you.” Eric sat further back, looking bewildered. Justin got up and sat next to him.
“When are we going to the ranch?” Justin asked.
“You guys stay here until we know more about the situation. Then we’ll come back for you. There’s no sense in all of us going if the plan is to come here to live for a while. Besides, a larger group is easier to see, and we want to stay on the down low.”
“I should go too,” Tim said. “In case we run into trouble.”
“We’re probably going to end up back here with the whole group. It won’t take the Mexicans long to figure out where the ranch is, and this is the place we all agreed to hunker down when the time came. Looks to me like the time’s come,” Ben replied. “So there’s no point in going back and forth, and this place might need to be defended.”
“I still think I should go.” Tim’s face took on a stubborn cast.
“Cory and I know the way, and more than two is just that much easier for them to spot. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re as big as a house.”
“I’m not that much bigger than you.”
“Are you kidding me?” Ben answered with a look of incredulity. “If you were in the woods during bear season, you’d probably get shot.”
“Okay, that’s enough guys,” Cory interrupted, motioning with his head for Tim to step outside the cave with him. When they were out of earshot Cory said, “look, the whole group can’t go, and the more of us that go is fewer here to defend Rachael. Please don’t argue about this. We went through hell to get her to safety, so please just keep her safe.”
“I’m not sure that being surrounded by the Mexican Army is what I would call ‘safe.’”
“Me either. But it’s safer here. What we need to do is get to the ranch and find out what’s going on. Bud has HAM radio set up and he can figure out where the Mexican Army controls things and where they don’t. Once we know that, we can try to plan something. But until we do, we all need to lay low.”
“You know that if they’re here, everything south of us is already in their hands. I don’t get how it happened so quickly, but there’s no other route they could take to get here. There’s no way the Phoenix PD and the National Guard could hold them off.”
“I know—it’s unbelievable,” Cory sighed. “Look, we’re doing the best we can with the information we have.” They fell into a short silence.
“If you want, I’ll stay here. But don’t leave us hanging. Get back here fast and tell us what’s going on.”
“Deal.”
“I’ll go back to the hill. I can keep an eye on that patrol and keep an eye on you and Ben as well.”
“Okay, but don’t let them spot you.” Tim nodded, then turned and entered the cave. Cory followed, picked up his AR, and nodded to Ben, who nodded back and picked up his rifle. The rest of the group stood deeper in the cave watching them.
“Here’s the plan,” Cory started. “Ben and I are going down to the ranch. If we can get there before dark, we’ll go in. If not, we’ll lay low until morning and then go in. Either way, we should be back by tomorrow and then we’ll figure out what to do.”
Prepper's Crucible: Volume Five: A Post Apocalyptic Tale Page 10