Beyond the New Horizon (Book 2): Desperate Times

by Conaway, Christine

  The ground in the clearing didn’t appear to have been disturbed by the quakes except for the ridge that had risen on the north side. Looking south the way they had come in hadn’t changed that she remembered, but she knew just out of sight was the fissure they hadn’t been able to cross.

  Gus had abandoned the two horses as soon as Gina had begun watering them to nibble at the dried grass. Sailor and Clyde both strained their lead lines trying to reach any they could close their lips on.

  “Oh my god, Virgina, you are dumber than a bucket of rocks.” She hurried to Sam’s saddlebags and began digging through one side. She pulled out the leather hobbles.

  She put them on Clyde and took his halter off. He couldn’t wander far or fast, and he couldn’t get hung up on anything without his halter on. She took Sailors off and hung both on her saddle horn with her bridle and used the latigo to tie them tight. Sailor wouldn’t leave Clyde, and she could whistle him back when she needed them. There was enough of the short dry grass to occupy them until she got the tree cut down or Sam returned.

  She stood watching them for a few minutes and turned to leave. She hadn’t heard Sam nor seen him until he stepped from behind a tree. Gina grabbed for her Taurus until she realized it was Sam.

  “Damn, you could get yourself shot sneaking up like that.”

  Sam chuckled, “Virginia? I wondered what it was short for. Now I know.”

  “Well, you might want to forget you heard that. What did you find? Anyway out from up there?”

  “It’ll be slow going with the horses, but we can do it. How’s Matt? Any chance of moving him yet?”

  Gina looked at the horizon, “Do you want to go now? Maybe we should move the boys here for the night. We’re not hanging on the side of a hill at least.”

  Sam looked at the horses, “You want to tie them back up while we bring the boys here or what?”

  Gina went over and unbuckled the strap holding the saddle bags on Gus. She put them on the ground by the tree. “Let’s just pull the saddles off these guys. I’d sure hate for one of them to get hung up under a tree limb.

  Leaving them to graze, Gina led Sam back the way Gus had brought her. “If we cut this tree out of the way, the gelding will be able to get through here.”

  “Holy shit!”

  Gina froze, afraid to move. “What do you see?” she whispered.

  “That was Gus back there…how did…uh, where did he come from?”

  Gina released her breath in a rush, “Stop doing that, Jesus, you scared me half to death. He showed up not long after you left.

  “I hope John and Andy are alright. Do you think they turned him loose?”

  “More likely that he escaped. They’re probably going nuts not knowing where he is. I just hope they don’t waste time looking for him.”

  She led him back on the trail Gus had made. He agreed to take the hatchet and cut the tree out of the way. They found the boys the same as when Gina had left.

  Lucas stared at Sam as if he was waiting for him to begin chewing him out. He switched his gaze to Gina and visibly relaxed when Gina winked at him.

  “Hey, that looks pretty good,” Sam said, admiring the stretcher she and Lucas had built.

  “Lucas did most of the work, all I did was give him the idea, and he did the rest. Apparently, my knots didn’t pass muster, and he did all of the knot tieing himself.”

  “Has Matt woke up at all?”

  “He did. I gave him some water, and he went back to sleep. He said his leg hurt real bad.”

  “Luke, you’re going to have to help me carry him. Think you can handle it?”

  “Sure can, Uncle Sam. What about Chief?”

  Gina can lead him or ride him in front of us, at least until the tree.”

  “Give me the ax, and I’ll go get started on it while you guys load Matt up.”

  Gina walked to where the horse was tied and saw how sucked up his stomach was and knew he was dehydrated. He, as well as the other animals, needed water.

  “Chief…huh? I guess that works. Come on boy, let's go,” she said and led him on the trail that was quickly becoming a well-worn path with all of the traffic on it.

  Gina tied Chief to a limb and began cutting at the trunk close to the ground. She chopped and hacked at it until her strokes were ineffectual. Her arms and back ached from her awkward position. She was almost through the trunk, but it looked like a beaver had been gnawing on it. She stood up and massaged her back with both hands.

  “Come on Gina, get it finished,” she told herself and groaned. The horse nickered and Gina turned, expecting to see Sam and Lucas. There was no one there. Frowning, she peered into the brush. Gina pulled her gun from the holster and held it at her side. She wasn’t going to aim it into the trees unless she knew what was there. From the corner of her eye, she saw what Chief had seen. A deer bounded silently out of sight. She relaxed and put her gun away.

  With renewed enthusiasm, she tackled the last piece of attached wood. A couple of good whacks and the tree fell off the stump. She hefted it to her shoulder and bullied it off to the side.

  She was proud of the job she’d done when she looked up to find Sam coming around the pile of rock. As soon as Lucas came into sight with his end of the stretcher, Gina saw the problem they were having. Lucas was quite a bit shorter than Sam, and the stretcher was being carried at an uncomfortable angle for all of them. Sam was walking with bent knees, and Lucas held his end high to level the stretcher as much as possible.

  “I can see where this will be slow going. Set Matt down for a minute and I’ll take Lucas’s end.”

  “I’m good. I can do this.”

  “You can Lucas, but it will be easier if I take your end and you lead Chief. It’ll be faster too. Follow the trail and make sure to stay with Gus’s tracks and don’t try to go down the first slope. Go past it, and you can see where we went down.”

  Lucas stood as if undecided, “Get to it boy. Do what Gina says. We’re burning daylight here.”

  “Yes, sir.” Reluctantly, Lucas untied his horse and led him off following the tracks she and Gus had made earlier.

  Gina groaned when she picked up the lighter end of the stretcher, “Lead the way.”

  By the time they carried Matt on the stretcher down the incline, Gina’s back was screaming. She tried to set a slower pace, but Sam had dragged her along.

  In the clearing, Lucas had fashioned a set of hobbles out of a lead line, and Chief was with the other two horses. “Where’s Gus?”

  “Gus? Gus is here?”

  “Well, he was when I came back to you. He wasn’t here when you got down…so no, I guess not.” Gina sighed and set her end down as Sam lowered his end.

  Gina whistled the same one she used to call Sailor thinking Gus had heard it enough times that he would come to her. She listened and heard something breaking branches from a short distance. She whistled again and was rewarded when she heard him bray.

  “Guess he was exploring,” Sam said. “As soon as he gets here, I need to take him back and get the other saddle and pack. I should have put them on Chief, but I didn’t think about it until you were gone.”

  Gus came crashing through the brush and the first thing Gina noticed was that he had water dripping off his chin and his legs were wet again. “Gus, you crazy mule. Where is it, boy? Show me the water.”

  “It’s almost too dark to see. I’ll go with you, just let me get the bucket and the empty bottles.”

  “You can, but let’s see where it is first. Maybe we can lead the horses there.”

  “Oh, right. I’ll lead,” Sam said. “I can still see his trail. Hopefully, it’s not too far away. Lucas, please see about making us a fire ring, would you? We’ll be right back.”

  Gina left Gus behind and followed Sam. She couldn’t see the trail at all but blindly followed behind Sam. She was beginning to think they were lost when he stopped.

  “Well, I’ll be. Check this out.”

  Gina stepped up beside h
im and gasped. “Holy cow! This is the second time Gus has saved my butt. I should have known if there was water anywhere Gus would find it. Think it’s safe for us to drink?”

  A narrow stream of water ran off the rocks into a small pool and then dropped off the hillside. They could see where Gus had left tracks in the mud on both sides of the small pond.

  “Now I wish we had brought the horses. Chief is in a bad way. I’m going to take a bucket back full and fill these bottles. If you want to boil some of this, we can eat. While you’re doing that, Lucas and I will bring the horses.”

  “Oh. You’re going to trust my cooking?”

  Sam laughed, “It’s not considered cooking when all you do is boil water and dump it in the bag.”

  Gina had one of the bottles submerged in the water and felt like throwing it at him. “Asshole,” she breathed.

  “What’s that?” Sama asked as he leaned out and dipped the canvas bucket. “Don’t even think about it!”

  “Excuse me?” She had thought if times were different and it was warmer, a little push would go a long way to making him eat his words about cooking.

  He stood with the dripping bucket. Gina placed the last full bottle in her pocket, and with one in each hand, she followed him back. The trip back, for some reason, seemed much shorter. The moon had come out, lighting the area enough to see clearly.

  They found Lucas had done more than just build a fire ring. He had a small fire going with a flat rock sitting in the middle of it already heating up.”

  Gina saw Matt sitting up leaning against a tree trunk away from where Lucas had started the fire. His face was pinched, but at least he was awake.

  “How do you feel Matt? I have some Aleve, but it’s all we have, and there’s only a couple of them. If you think you can handle it, let’s save them for tomorrow when I’m sure you’ll be needing them more.”

  Matt nodded, “I’ll wait,” he croaked.

  Gina got the pan out of her saddle bag and filled it with the water from the bottles. “I’ll use the bottled water to fix our food, and you can bring that back with you, full.”

  “Lucas bring your horse and come on. We found water and these animals need some badly.”

  Gina watched them leave and looked through the saddle bags until she found a couple of the mylar pouches. Cheesy Macaroni and Savory Stroganoff, they were from her camping food. She continued to look through both hers and Sam’s bags. All she found were the two and a bag of pemmican. She’d forgot all about it and opened the bag and sniffed. It didn’t smell bad, and Carlos had said it would last for months. She took a piece out and bit off a small corner, prepared to spit it out if it tasted bad.

  “Mmm, not bad. In fact, it’s darn good.” She looked at Matt. “Do you want to try it?”

  He shook his head.

  “You’ll have to eat something. You need to keep your strength up, and it’s a long way home.”

  “No…not yet.”

  “I am going to insist that you eat something. Maybe some of the macaroni, but you have to eat.”

  “I will,” he said and closed his eyes.

  Gina sat and studied the boy and knew he wasn’t asleep. She thought she knew what was going through his mind. With a sigh, she got up and went to him. He opened his eyes when she sat down. The firelight reflected the unshed tears he was holding back. Gina took his closest hand in hers. She rubbed her thumb across the top of his hand, maybe to comfort him and show him that she was there for him.

  Drawing in a deep breath, “Do you want to talk?”

  A tear ran from the corner of his eye. He sniffed and looked away. “This is all my fault.”

  “Matt look at me, please. I can’t hear you when you speak that low, especially when you aren’t facing me.”

  Matt turned his head toward her, “This. This whole thing was my idea. I could have gotten Lucas killed and look what I did to my horse. And Bessie…” He broke down with his own memories of the jenny.

  Gina let him cry for several minutes and began to talk. “This isn’t your fault. Well, maybe in a way it is, but it is as much my fault as yours.”

  He stopped crying and wiping his eyes and looked at her. “Yours? You didn’t have anything to do with me leaving. I wanted to find my Dad. It is my fault I let Lucas come with me, but he said he was going to follow behind if I didn’t let him go. I thought we would be safer if we were together.”

  “Let me finish, and then you can tell me.”

  Matt went to wipe his nose on his sleeve for lack of anything else, and Gina pulled out her last square of paper towel. “Don’t. Use this, but don’t waste it. You might need it for your butt, and it’s my last one.”

  He gave her a watery laugh and wiped his nose.

  “If I had been honest from the start, you wouldn’t have had to leave at all.”

  “But…” she squeezed his hand to shut him up.

  “Your Dad made it back to the ranch. Sam and I found him.” She thought about telling him he’d had a heart attack or something, but realized she would be piling on another lie. “We buried your Dad and Amanda by the fruit trees.”

  Matt looked at her and frowned. “You did? Why didn’t you tell me?” His corners of his lips pulled down, and his chin quivered.

  “Matt, we couldn’t. It wasn’t a good story to tell. Not the way he died, but we said a prayer and marked his grave so we could find it again.”

  “She killed him, didn’t she? I should have known. I never liked her from the start, and she never acted like a mother to me. My Dad told me that I had to accept her and I tried. I really did. I almost ran off last year, but Andy talked me out of it. If not for him, I would have gone.”

  “Well, I’m glad you didn’t. She got her just rewards if that makes you feel any better. Now, I need to get our dinner soaking or no one will eat tonight.”

  Gina helped him, and with the aid of his good leg, they scooted him to a tree closer to the fire ring.

  “Thanks, Gina. For what you did for my Dad and for telling me. I would have always wondered if he was out there somewhere, maybe hurt or something.”

  “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. Now, I wonder why we didn’t.”

  By the time that Sam and Lucas returned, Gina had added the boiling water and set the bags aside to soak.

  They heard the horses coming, and Gus, who had been munching on grass gave out a muffled snort. They heard one of the horses nicker back.

  Sam put his hobbles back on Clyde, while Lucas tied his makeshift ones back on Chief. They turned Sailor loose to forage.

  Gina, shared her cheesy macaroni with Matt sharing her only spoon, while Sam and Lucas shared the stroganoff. They drank warm water that Gina was purifying from her pot.

  The boys were sitting beside each other talking in low voices that Sam nor Gina could hear when Sam looked at her and nodded. Gina held one finger up to silence him and leaned close to speak quietly to him.

  “I told him we found his father and buried him, but not about the circumstances surrounding his death. I thought it would be too horrific for him to hear. He thinks Amanda did something to him and I left it at that. I did tell him she got everything she had coming to her.”

  Sam nodded and sat up and focused on both boys, “Okay guys. I’m not sure what I want to say to you right yet about your behavior. I’m pretty sure you realize what you did was wrong and the way you went about it kind of sucked. I’m not trying to lay a guilt trip on you, but your actions pulled four of us away from the ranch to look for you. I’m not going to go into the time we’ve had to put into finding you.”

  “But Uncle Sam, we were on our way home.”

  “And you don’t think we haven’t been over a week looking for you?”

  “A week?” Lucas’s shoulders dropped, and he knew he was in big trouble when he saw his father.

  “A week? We thought we were right behind you up until the last quake. You might say we got hung up and your Dad was injured. He and Andy had to turn arou
nd.” Sam tapped his chest to punctuate his words, “I don’t even know if they made it home safely.”

  Gina could see that Sam was getting himself worked up and knew it wouldn’t do any of them any good. “We don’t know if we can make it home safely either. If these hills are anything to go by, it won’t be easy. But why don’t one of you tell us what happened?”

  Matt and Lucas exchanged glances, as if silently asking, “Do you want to?”

  Sam pointed at Matt, “This is your deal so why don’t you start.”

  “I was going to find my Dad,” Matt started off.

  “We suspected that…”

  “Sam, will you just let him tell it?”

  Matt threw Gina a grateful look and stared into the fire. “We didn’t have any problems until we got to the weigh station or I guess I should say where the truck scales used to be. Lucas thought we should tie the horses and jenny up in the trees when we camped. Some guys snuck up on us the night before last and tried to rob us. Lucas shot one of them, and then we ran. We had to leave some of our food behind. We were just going to hide until they left, but a big earthquake hit.”

  “We got to the horses and hid until it was over. When we came out of the trees, everything was gone. Matt and I went back to find our stuff when it stopped shaking, but it was all gone. The scale house, our stuff, and even the fire we’d built. Uncle Sam, even the men were gone. It looked like someone just turned the ground upside down.”

  Lucas stopped talking, and he and Matt sat staring into the fire. Neither one looked like they wanted to continue.

  “So then you guys got your horses and left?” Gina wanted to encourage them to continue and finish their story. She thought if they talked it out, it might not haunt their dreams.

  Matt shook his head. “We should have, but we didn’t. We walked down what was left of the road to the exit. You know where that big log restaurant used to be…It was awful. There was an explosion. People were screaming and crying. We thought we could help.”