Perseverance Page 5

  Jeremy followed him as he led the way to where he’d last seen the horses. As they walked, Brett told him what had happened, and how Vicky had walked up to him like everything was cool, and then suddenly pointed a pistol at him and took his rifle. He also told him that she said she wasn’t alone here.

  “Megan’s dad?” Jeremy said in disbelief, when Brett told him Vicky claimed he was nearby, and on his way back. “That sounds pretty unlikely to me, dude. I’ll bet she was just making that shit up to bluff you. She’s by herself, or she wouldn’t still be out here!”

  “I don’t know man. I don’t know where she’d come up with something like that if it was bullshit. And what about those Army rations we found? You know that was military stuff. Gareth said so too. It makes sense that it could be him. You know Megan said her dad was some kind of Special Forces dude. Vicky said so too. She said he was a real badass, and that we’d better not be around here when he shows up.

  “Well, I don’t see him. Do you? Gareth didn’t see him when he spotted her heading up that canyon either, so I don’t think we need to worry about him right now. We just need to catch those horses and get back there to help Gareth find her before dark. It’s gonna suck to only have two horses if she gets away with Tucker. Or maybe only one if the one you shot dies.”

  “He’s not gonna die. I thought she was too far away to actually hit when I shot anyway. I was just hoping I would get lucky, but I sure didn’t mean to hit one of the horses. I can’t even tell you how pissed off I was after she had me at gunpoint like that, making me crawl on my knees like a dog or something.”

  “Yeah, it’s too bad I wasn’t here to get a video of that! That would be funny as hell to post if there was a way to even get online anymore!”

  “Yeah, whatever! It wouldn’t be funny if it happened to you. I guess I was stupid to trust her, but she did come walking up being all friendly and all, like nothing ever happened.”

  “It’s stupid to trust anybody these days, Brett. Gareth keeps saying that over and over. He is right, you know!”

  Brett didn’t answer, and Jeremy knew that he was probably feeling pretty stupid indeed right about now. Not only did he lose the horses because of trusting Vicky; he also lost the .22 Magnum rifle that he’d been carrying. That was a shame, because it had proven useful for hunting smaller game and the ammo for it, which they had plenty of, was much lighter than the ammo for other rifles and the shotgun they still had.

  Jeremy was in fact, carrying the shotgun now, as Gareth had suggested when they went out hunting in case, they jumped a deer and got an opportunity for a running shot at close range. Loaded with double-aught buckshot, the 12-gauge made it easier to hit moving targets, and it was good in thick brush at close range, something that crossed Jeremy’s mind now as they entered the woods where Brett had last seen the horses. Although he wanted to dismiss it as something Vicky probably made up to frighten Brett, what if Megan’s father really was around?

  Someone had to bring those MREs out there to the barn, and the dude was supposed to be some kind of military guy. If he did leave them there, then maybe it wasn’t soldiers who killed the old couple and burned down the house. He asked Brett if Vicky had mentioned it, but Brett said their conversation was much too short to get into that. Whoever had done it hadn’t left much of anything but the barn. All of the remaining horses were gone, as were the vehicles and most of the useful tools around the place. How Vicky managed to escape he didn’t know, but after what she’d pulled today, Jeremy figured she was probably more cunning than he’d thought. And needless to say, he was a little on edge as they spread out through the trees looking for the two horses. Jeremy took the lead since he was the one with the shotgun, and because he was so nervous, he had a round in the chamber and his finger already lightly resting on the trigger as he quietly pushed his way through a thicket.

  A sound unmistakably made by an animal in pain caused him to glance over his shoulder at Brett to confirm he’d heard it too. When Brett nodded, Jeremy turned and pushed on towards the noise. It had to be the wounded horse! When he reached the edge of the brush, he saw that he was right. The palest of the three Appaloosas was down on the ground on its side, and a man dressed like a cowboy was crouching over it, doing something to it. Jeremy’s exit from the bushes wasn’t as stealthy as he’d planned and when he snapped a dry branch, the stranger, whose back had been to him at first, quickly rose to a standing position and spun around, pointing a short rifle in the direction of the unexpected sound.

  Seeing the weapon in the man’s hand, Jeremy reacted without thinking. He pulled the trigger of the shotgun, sending the load of buckshot at the man from a distance of less than 25 yards. As the stranger dropped to his knees, his rifle and cowboy hat falling to the ground as he bent over, clutching his abdomen, Jeremy was surprised to see that he was much older than he’d expected. The man’s longish hair and beard were completely silver. There was confusion in his eyes as he tried to focus them on Jeremy, who was standing there not knowing what to do next when Brett stepped out of the brush beside him. His hands were shaking as he clung to the shotgun, already regretting what he’d done as he watched the growing stain of dark blood that was seeping through the man’s shirt just above the beltline. Jeremy glanced at Brett, who was just standing there open-mouthed as he took in the scene.

  “He had a gun!” Jeremy said. “I thought he was gonna shoot me first! I had to do it!”

  “What was he doing to the horse? Did you see the other one?”

  Jeremy said he didn’t know, but then it occurred to him that maybe the old man wasn’t alone. He mentioned this to Brett, telling him to keep the revolver ready, just in case. Then the two of them moved closer to the wounded man, who made no attempt to reach for the fallen lever-action rifle he’d been carrying. A low whinny from farther back in the trees startled Jeremy again, and that’s when he saw that there were two more horses tethered there, one saddled and the other heavily laden with packs. Neither of them was the other Appaloosa they were looking for, though. The old man was still clutching his belly and coughing and sputtering as he tried to say something. Jeremy turned his attention back to him, feeling sick when he saw how much blood now soaked the man’s clothes and the ground around him. Brett was as pale as a ghost too. Neither of them had ever shot anyone before today.

  “I wasn’t gonna shoot,” the old man finally mumbled. “Just trying to see to that horse, until you surprised me. Are you the one that shot him too?”

  Jeremy glanced at the bullet wound in the horse’s left flank. It looked a lot worse than what Brett had described. The animal had lost a lot of blood and had finally fallen, unable to get back up. Jeremy didn’t know how the old man came to find him, but he could see that he’d been using a rag to try and stop the animal’s bleeding. And now he was going to bleed out himself if he didn’t get help.

  “Look man, I’m sorry. I thought you were about to shoot, and I just reacted. How bad is it? We will help you.”

  “Bad enough I ain’t gonna make it, son. If that horse is yours, you’d best put him out of his misery and don’t worry about me.”

  It had taken all the strength he had for the man to utter those words. Now he slumped from his knees and fell over onto his side to the ground. Jeremy could see more blood from the exit wounds where the buckshot had torn through his back.

  “We’ve got to help him, Brett! Maybe if we put pressure on these wounds, we can stop the bleeding!”

  “With what?”

  “Anything! That rag, whatever you can find. Just grab something!”

  Jeremy’s hands were soon sticky with blood as he knelt over the old man’s body, trying desperately to stop the steady flow of blood pumping between his fingers. It seemed hopeless, even when Brett joined him. The old man seemed oblivious to their efforts now anyway, and Jeremy was pretty sure that he was about to lose consciousness. Brett was talking to him now, telling him to hang in there, and that it was going to be all right, but Jeremy knew it wa
sn’t. He had shot a man in cold blood, and there was no way to undo it now. Jeremy looked up at Brett again and was surprised to see a sudden look of terror written on his face. It had nothing to do with the horror of watching a man die though, because this time Brett was looking over Jeremy’s shoulder towards the trees behind him. Jeremy turned around to see why and found himself staring into the muzzle of an assault rifle pointed directly at his face by a dark-bearded and very serious-looking man dressed in green camo clothing. Then, he heard a woman scream “BOB!” just before the bearded guy’s boot slammed into his chest, sending him cartwheeling into Brett and causing both of them to sprawl onto the ground in a heap. The shotgun was completely out of reach now and Brett’s revolver had gone flying too. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Before he could process what was happening, a woman had appeared on the scene too and was standing over him with a similar rifle of her own pointed at his face. Out of the corner of his eye, Jeremy could see that the bearded man was now crouching over the body of the man he’d shot. He saw him turn and looked back at his female companion, shaking his head. “He’s gone, Shauna!”

  “DON’T SHOOT!” Jeremy pleaded. “It was an accident! I swear it was!”

  Five

  ERIC BRANSON WAS NO horse wrangler and certainly not a horse whisperer. He was doing well enough just to ride at all. It had been years since he’d climbed into a saddle, and the times before that few and far between. Trail riding at a walking pace was one thing but galloping through heavy timber wasn’t something he was interested in, so he let Shauna do that. She was much better at this equestrian stuff by far, and he watched with interest as she spurred her own mount to run down the second of the two horses they’d spotted out by the road. Whatever she said to it as she nudged her own horse to its side seemed to work, and the frightened animal appeared to calm down and trust her. In a moment she had taken control of its reins and was leading it back to where Eric waited astride his own mount.

  “Is that one injured too?” he asked, as she drew near enough to speak to her in a low voice.

  “Not that I can tell. He’s just scared I think, and it’s understandable, considering that the other one was shot.”

  Eric nodded. Coming upon the two horses this close to the ranch had been a surprise. One of them had a bullet wound in its hindquarters and had been limping along near the ditch at the edge of the road trying to keep up with its companion when the three of them rode up. Bob immediately spotted the wound and said the injured horse looked like it was hit pretty bad. When both of the frightened animals took off at the sight of them, the wounded one made it only a few hundred feet off the road before collapsing and going down. The other one continued running until Shauna caught up and managed to coax it to a stop.

  If the horses hadn’t been wearing bridles and bits, Eric would have thought little of it, but that was clear evidence someone had been riding them, and they’d arrived here recently too. Other than Vicky, there wasn’t supposed to be anyone around the property, and there hadn’t been when he’d left her in the barn earlier that very morning. Eric had cautioned both Bob and Shauna to keep quiet and keep their eyes open as they spotted them. Once they secured the second horse, Eric planned to circle around through the woods and approach the barn and burned-out house site to investigate while Bob was checking to see if he could do anything for the wounded one.

  Though he’d only known him for a few hours, Eric could tell that Bob Barham probably knew more about horses than anyone he knew, and horses were exactly what Eric had been looking for when he’d unexpectedly met the man on the trail. Even more unexpected though, was that his ex-wife, Shauna, was riding with the old man and that they were on their way to the same ranch he’d just left. Eric had known Shauna planned to go there, of course, because it was her note that pointed him to it in the first place, but he’d expected to find her and Jonathan already there, hopefully with their daughter, Megan. Instead, he’d found a burned-down home, two graves and the frightened girl that had been Megan’s roommate before their college life was ripped apart. But finding Vicky meant at least Eric had an idea where Megan went, and now, thanks to running into Shauna and Bob Barham on the trail, he had the means to follow. All they had to do was get back to the barn and get Vicky, and then return to Bob’s cabin where Jonathan was laid up with a broken leg. There they would make their preparations. Riding all the way to northern New Mexico through the backcountry of the divide was going to be an expedition, but that was the route Megan had taken and nothing would stop Eric from tracking her down. According to Vicky, she’d left with just one companion, another college kid about her age named Aaron. Vicky said Aaron knew his way around in the outdoors, but still, it was just the two of them on their own, facing unknown threats, and Eric and Shauna had already seen enough on the way here to know what that could mean.

  Shauna was understandably crushed when Eric told her she wasn’t going to have her anticipated reunion with Megan at Vicky’s grandparents’ ranch.

  “But at least we know where she’s headed and with who,” Eric said. “We just need to get there as soon as we can and hope they made it. At least we know now that she made it this far, and that she was fine when she left. They left with horses, supplies and weapons for defense and hunting. If everything Vicky told me about Aaron is true, I’d say their odds of finding their way through the mountains were good.

  “It’s not just finding their way and having enough to eat though,” Shauna had said. “I learned that with what happened to Jonathan. One minute he was fine, looking for a path, and the next he was down with a broken leg, all because of a single misstep. He would have died then and there if he’d been alone, or if we hadn’t been so lucky that it happened close to Bob’s cabin.”

  Eric couldn’t argue with that. After hearing the story, he knew Jonathan owed his life to Bob. It was fortunate that they had stumbled upon one of the good guys who was willing to help. And now Bob wanted to continue helping them. In fact, he’d insisted:

  “If you’re planning to ride all the way to New Mexico, you’re going to need me along, I’ll tell you that. Your lady here has told me about your background and I respect your military training and combat experience, but if you’ve never done it, wrangling horses through these mountains ain’t as easy as it looks, especially this time of year with the weather that’s coming. Besides that, these animals are worth more to me than anything you could offer to pay me for them. So, it’s a package deal or nothing. I’m not doing it for what I can get out of it though, or because I’ve heard your wife’s story and know how much you two want to find your daughter. The fact is, I was already getting a bad case of cabin fever before she and Jonathan showed up. I know it’s safer to stay put with everything that’s going on and all, but I’ve always wanted to make a trip like that and now I’ve got a good excuse. I’m an old man anyway, and I ain’t gonna live forever whether I hide out in my cabin or not. So, I may as well see some of the country while I still can.”

  Eric understood the man’s reluctance to part with his horses, but he hadn’t expected him to volunteer for hardships such as they would face with nothing in it for him but the adventure. It was immediately obvious upon meeting him though that Bob not only knew how to handle horses, but he was completely at home in the outdoors. That didn’t tell Eric anything about how he would handle himself in a hostile encounter when the bullets started flying, but no one knew that until they were there. He and Shauna had already survived many firefights and there would likely be more to come along the way. He didn’t really like the idea of bringing aboard a total stranger, but then, he’d done the same with Jonathan and that had worked out far better than expected. He went along with the idea for the moment, knowing he could make a final decision later after they got Vicky and returned to Bob’s cabin for Jonathan. He could see that the poor girl was terrified when he left and afraid that he wouldn’t return at all, and he could understand why. She’d been traumatized by what had happened to her grandparents,
not to mention all she’d been through since she’d left the university with Megan. Eric had learned some of the details from her already, but he was sure too that she’d left out a lot that she could tell him later about both their ordeal and Megan. Seeing Shauna would likely help put her mind at ease, and there would be plenty of time to talk once they made it to Bob’s and began their preparations. Taking her on as another responsibility to look out for wasn’t ideal, but Eric couldn’t just leave her on her own. She was a close friend of Megan’s, and unless she wanted to stay at Bob’s cabin, or go elsewhere, the decision was made for him. They would take her south with them, whatever risk it might entail.

  “Well, all of you are welcome to stay as long as you like,” Bob said, when Eric mentioned it “but if you’re planning on riding through these mountains before all the passes are snowed in, you don’t need to wait too long. If you do, you’ll be in for a spell of cabin fever up at my place!”

  “We won’t waste any time getting going,” Eric said. “I hope Jonathan will be healed up enough to ride.”

  “Yeah, it won’t be comfortable, but I’m sure he can do it. He’s young and tough and can deal with the pain. It’ll be a while though before that break heals up enough for him to do much walking, so riding is his only choice unless he wants to stay behind.”

  “He won’t. Even though Shauna says your place is really something, Jonathan will want to go with us and I’m sure he’ll deal with the pain. He’ll ride one of those horses if it kills him. That kid’s as stubborn as my ex-wife! If nearly getting her hand shot off didn’t stop her, a broken leg won’t stop Jonathan!”