Beyond the New Horizon (Book 3): Living on the Edge Read online

  “Whatever. I think Janice is more comfortable keeping the babies in the trailer at least until the nights get a little warmer.”

  “That’s fine. I said the single guys, and because we are married, Mary and I will continue to use our sectioned off room.” John gave Ben and Lucy a pointed look.

  “As soon as Mark has time we’ll rectify our single status,” she told John. “Until then I guess we are living in sin.”

  Mary made the two men a sack lunch the next morning. With it packed in their saddlebags, they were prepared to leave before breakfast.

  Gina stood beside Sam while he got Sham saddled, “Do you think John is checking out the canyon with plans of us all moving there?”

  “The thought has crossed my mind. I’ll pick his brain while we’re gone. It might not be a bad idea, especially after what John brought up about that gang in Haugan. Avoiding trouble at this point would be in our best interest.”

  “I know. That, but do you think it’s wise to go farther into the hills after everything that’s happened?”

  “Do you mean with the quakes?”

  “That’s what I’m asking. What happens if we get trapped back in there?”

  “I don’t know. I guess that’ll be on the table for our next discussion. John isn’t going to do anything that we don’t all agree on, and right now the goal is to get and keep the cattle in a safe place.”

  Putting one foot in the stirrup, Sam swung up on Sham, “We’ll be back once we see if the way is passable. Whatever you do, don’t let the horses loose. Make sure they’re fed hay from the shed and not any that could have gotten contaminated.”

  “Could the fallout poison the hay?”

  “It probably depends on which toxins are released with the smoke and dust, but there is no point, in taking any chances. Use the bales from the inside, just to be safe.”

  “Okay. Sam? Please be careful.”

  “I’ll be fine, just take care of the animals.”

  Gina watched John and Sam ride off. It felt strange not to be going with him, and she wondered about John going. He had been acting so bizarre lately, with one minute acting strong and tough, and ready to take on anything and the next he couldn't make a decision. He had changed since they’d first met him on the hill and Gina didn’t know what to think, and it wasn’t just him. Mary had not been acting herself either. Gina would talk to Journey and see what she thought, but maybe Gina was blowing things out of proportion. She knew she was guilty of over-thinking a situation, thus exaggerating things in her mind.

  With the horses safely tied and uncontaminated hay in front of them, Gina took Ben, Andy, and Lucas up to the hayshed. The ground was gray with fallout and puffs of it wafted up as they walked. The rock mixed in with the volcanic ash was as small as a corn kernel and as large as a marble. It rolled under their feet and made the walk up to the hay shed treacherous. Gina had a plan for the horses, but getting them up there would take time.

  At the back of the shed where the trailers and tractors were usually parked, ash had settled over everything.

  “Lucas, go into your Uncles clothes bag and bring us each one of his bandanas.”

  Lucas nodded and went to the man-cave where their clothes were.

  “I want to pull the trailers and the tractor out. We’ll string a line from one end of the cement to the other. I want to bring hay bales out and stack them up around the perimeter as high as we can stack them.”

  “That will be a big loss of hay,” Andy said nodding his head, “But if we use the outside bales for the wall, just like we did outside the tent…”

  “Exactly. We need to get the horses under some shelter, and this is the only place left to keep them.”

  “Hey, I thought we might need this too,” Lucas said holding the handle of a push broom.

  “Where are we going to put the tractor once we move it? Or does it matter?”

  “We’ll use it to move the trailer out and the other tractor, as well as clear out this equipment. That is probably all of the diesel we have so it won’t matter where it’s parked, just as long as it’s out of our way.”

  Ben and Andy began the process of pulling the equipment out, while Gina and Lucas began to haul bales of hay one at a time around the end of the shed. They laid them away from the concrete until they were ready to use them.

  With the equipment gone and the junk moved out, the cement pallet now measured forty feet by twelve feet of open space. Gina and Lucas took turns sweeping the remaining ash off the slab.

  Lucas and Gina began stacking their bales along the short edge. Gina saw that it was going to take them days to pack enough of them around. They were sitting and resting when they heard the sound of the tractor coming. The snowmobile trailer now had a load of hay on it.

  It didn’t take long with the two men helping to erect a wall across the short edge and down the front. Gina stepped off an area for the goats to be housed.

  “Wait a minute, why are we bringing the goats up here? I thought that was the whole point of Lucy and me staying down below to watch over them and the cows.”

  “There won’t be any cows to watch over if John and Sam are right and having the goats up here will save us having to pack hay down there.” Gina looked around, “Where did Andy go?”

  “Oh, I had him go ask Mary if she had anything we could cut up for face masks. He is going to bring up something for us to drink when he comes back too.”

  “That’s a good idea, glad you thought of it. This hanky,” Gina pulled it off her face, “Is stiff with ash.”

  “Hello, the barn!”

  Ben looked around in a panic, through gritted teeth he muttered, “When am I going to learn?”

  “I admit that it isn’t like you to forget, maybe being a family man has softened you up,” Gina said with a grin. She reached under the back of her jacket and produced her 357. “I don’t think we’ll need it, but just in case.”

  “Is that Mark?” Lucas asked from behind her. Gina peeked around the end of their row of hay. She saw Mark sitting on his bay horse with his shotgun resting across his lap.

  Once Gina saw that Mark was alone and didn’t seem under duress, she stepped into the open. “Hey, Mark. We didn’t expect to see you over here.”

  “Truthfully, I didn’t expect to be here myself. Are John and Sam around?”

  Ben and Lucas stepped out and stood on each side of Gina. She slid her pistol back into the holster.

  “They went to check out the box canyon. We’re hoping the ash didn’t go that far.”

  “That was quite a display that mountain put on today. Scared Evelyn and Matt half to death.”

  Behind Mark, Gina saw Andy and Journey coming up the trail and waved at them. She wanted to let Mark know there was someone there before he heard them. He turned in his saddle and waved.

  As soon as they were close enough to hear him, “I had some disturbing news after you left this morning. I was hoping to share it with all of you. Any idea on when you expect them back? I don’t want to leave Evie and Matt alone too long.”

  “They didn't take any camping gear, so I hope it’s before dark. Do you want to wait for them?”

  Mark looked off in the direction that John and Sam had ridden, “Been to that canyon a time or two, but I’m sure the way won’t be as easy as it used to be. I guess I’ll tell you and one of you can pass it on.”

  “Hello, Mark. Do you want something to drink? These guys have been working so hard, that they need to take a break. We brought enough for everyone.”

  Andy was carrying a basket of something, and he set it on a hay bale. Mary and Lucy made some biscuits and jam for us. There’s plenty to go around.”

  “Nope. I’m good, thank you.” He tapped his round stomach, “We just had lunch before I left. Through a friend of a friend, we got some very disturbing news out of Australia. It would seem that we took quite a hit between the bombs and volcanoes. There’s a guy down there whose brother is a Geophysicist at Curtain University i
n Perth. It seems he’d been doing a study on the effects of volcanoes and how they affect the earth’s rotation. It was a lot of mumbo-jumbo to me, but it’s his conclusion is that the earth has been knocked off its axis. He blames it on the after-effects of the simultaneous eruptions and the nuclear bombs going off. He couldn’t say how much or what the long-term consequences would be, but you know they have reverse seasons to us and right now they are experiencing one of the worst winters in their history. It started about the same time we began warming up.”

  “They don’t have any active volcanoes in Australia, do they? I thought I read somewhere they hadn’t had an eruption since…in thousands of years.”

  “Aw…I see someone watches National Geographics. You’re right, but according to this man, Mt. Gambier has let off some steam, as well as the other three shield volcanoes. There are numerous volcanic island’s north and east of Australia including North Island, New Zealand, the islands of Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, so there have been eruptions at one time. He says it’s all very puzzling, but without his electronics, he has no way of further investigation. Now, with their weather going topsy-turvy, he believes that somehow we have changed places.”

  “And he attributes this to the earthquakes and eruptions? What’s to stop the earth from just blowing apart?”

  “Gravity!” Lucas exclaimed. “Even if you blew a chunk of it up, gravity would suck it back in. We learned in school that you would have to push the pieces apart with enough force they could escape the gravitational field, and we have no way of doing that.”

  Gina had no idea, but the look of amazement on Mark’s face said that Lucas had gotten it right.

  “That’s close enough Lucas. I don’t know the process myself, but that sounds about right. He said all of the nuclear bombs wouldn’t have enough force to break the planet up, not even with all of the volcanoes erupting at the same time. It may change shape and be an unpleasant place to live, but we would survive unless we all died off from some disease.”

  “How likely do you think that is? Journey, you were just talking about the CDC in Atlanta. What are the chances that someone could compromise the facility?”

  “We have one closer than Atlanta if we were going to worry about one. There is also a subsidiary lab in Fort Collins. There was some concern about…”

  Mark waved his hand in the air to stop Journey from answering, “We have enough right here to worry about without looking for something else. Now, I need to return, and I trust that you will fill John and Sam in on my visit.”

  “Marks right. We can’t worry about something we have no control over. Having all of these quakes to think about is enough of a concern.”

  “Mark, what are you and Evelyn planning on doing?”

  “Doing? What are we doing about what?”

  Gina waved her arm around indicating the ash and volcanic rock covering the ground. “This? Are you guys planning on staying?”

  Mark chuckled, “We’re not going anywhere. This is nothing compared to the damage that St. Helens caused. If we were going to die from the toxins in the ash, we would already be dead. Just be thankful the wind current took the majority of it north and east of here. John and Sam had a good idea to move the cows up to the canyon. The grass there should be fine, in fact with the coating we have here, the plant life may flourish. We could use a good rainfall to wash it into the soil and off of the trees, but we’re lucky the eruption came when it did. There is no new growth on the trees to be covered by the ash, and after some rain, the grass should start growing healthy as ever, if not better.”

  “You got all of that off a single radio conversation? I’m pretty amazed.”

  “That and my Britannica. I knew I kept that encyclopedia set for something. Now, I really must be going. Tell John to stop by when he gets the chance.” Mark turned his horse and settled in his saddle, prepared to leave.

  “What about Matt? How’s he doing?” Lucas called.

  “He will be just fine. He and Evelyn have been teaching me to play canasta. Never did like card games, but it passes the time. You can come over anytime you want to see him.” He clucked to his horse and left going back over the same trail he had used to arrive.

  “It’ll be a wonder if Matt ever wants to come back here, the way that woman cooks,” Gina said and drank the last sip of her water. “Thanks, Journey. We never thought about bringing anything up to eat or drink.”

  “You can thank Mary. It was her idea. Andy and I were just the packhorses to carry it up here.”

  “What do you think about what he just said? About the grass and trees surviving the fallout?””

  “I guess he’s probably right. Remember how they said nothing would grow on that mountain of ash from St. Helens? It didn’t take long for it to turn green, and I think he’s right about us already being dead if the ash and gasses were toxic. We just won’t let the horses eat any grass for a while and pray for rain.”

  “How about I leave the praying to someone else. I’ve never had much luck with getting what I ask for.”

  Just loud enough for Gina to hear her, Journey began to sing, “Sometimes God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”

  “Unanswered my butt, how about ignored?”

  Journey laughed, “Stop being selfish and try asking for something to benefit all of us then.”

  Gina shoved Journey out of her way, “Don’t you have something better to do than to bug me?”

  “I came up to help but if you don’t need me…” Journey made to walk off.

  “No! We need your help if we’re ever going to get done.”

  By late afternoon, they led the last horse in and tied him up. Journey and Andy set hay and water in front of each of the animals while Gina surveyed their handiwork. With the hay bales stacked as high as they could get them, there was still a one-foot gap at the top, but she thought it would provide ventilation. Ben had set a two-by-four between the top two bales above the goat area for the chicken’s to roost.

  “Well, as long as they don’t run into the wall and knock it down it should work. I wish we had gone and gotten the rest of that chicken wire when we had the chance.”

  “We don’t know if it’s still there. Maybe it got swallowed up like everything else did.”

  “Come on Ben; I said I wished we had gotten it while we knew it was still there.”

  “Hey, I just realized that I hadn't seen Mike or Janice today. What are they doing?”

  Journey looked at Gina and frowned, “They didn’t go down for breakfast either. That’s strange, because Janice always brings the babies out for everyone to see. Andy, have you seen Mike?”

  “Not since he got the roll of duct tape from me last night?”

  “Why did he need duct tape?”

  “He said the windows didn’t seal well and from you guys breaking the lock off the door to the trailer it was too draughty inside.”

  “And no one has seen them at all today?” Journey looked at each face, hoping to see someone nod yes. No one did.

  Gina saw the color drain from Journey’s face and turned to run. She had understood Journey’s thought process exactly. At the door to the travel trailer, Gina pulled on the latch. It didn’t open, and she pounded on the door. “Mike! Janice! Open the door.”

  Gina pounded again as hard as she could and pulled on the door. There was no answer from inside, and the door was locked. She ran around to the backside of the trailer and listened. She could hear the sound of the gas furnace running.

  “Ben! Andy! Someone turn the propane tank off. Hurry!”

  Gina ran down to the end the bed was at and began banging on the side of the trailer. She ran and grabbed a hay bale and dragged it to the trailer. Journey continued to pound on the wall. Standing on the bale, Gina could see into the room, and there were forms on the bed. They didn’t move even though the racket should have woken them. The trailer was old and had the louvered slats of glass, and even if they could break them out, she wouldn’t fit through
the opening.

  She ran back to the door where Ben had a piece of wood wedged in the door slot, and he and Andy were trying to pry the door open.

  Journey had her face buried in her hands and while Gina was close to joining her, she couldn’t.

  “We need something stronger. This wood just breaks. Gina looked for something to pry with.”

  Frantic, Gina ran to where they piled the things they’d removed from the concrete slab. Gina dug, but there was nothing. Her fingers grew bloody as she frantically sifted throught the snowmobile parts and chains and a jack. She pulled the handle free from the body and ran back to the door. They had the one-by-four wedged in holding the door open. Gina was able to shove the handle into the space. Both she and Ben were able to put enough force to break the door itself, the lower half of the door popped open.

  Before Gina could do it, Journey squeezed through the bottom of the doorway.

  As much as Gina wanted to go in, she already knew the verdict. The heat rolled out the open door. When she ducked down to look, she saw where Mike had used the duct tape to seal the edges of the small windows. He had even put tape on the ceiling vent.

  Gina stuck her head in and realized the door had been tied closed as if Mike was afraid someone would come in during the night. Gina crawled in and untied the rope. The top half of the door swung open. She saw the back of Journey standing in the narrow hallway. Her head was bowed, and her shoulders shook. Gina went to her and put her arms around her friend. Over Journey’s shoulder, Gina could see into the bedroom. It was hardly bigger than the double bed. Gina was looking at it from the foot. The basket the babies slept in was wedged in between the side of the bed and the wall.

  “The babies…Oh my God,” and Gina broke down. Through her tears, she had to ask, “Junior and Maggie?”

  Journey stopped crying, and she pulled away from Gina, she walked back to the front room. The dinette had been lowered, turning the table into another bed. Gina could see a form of someone there, but the bump didn’t look big enough for the two kids.