The Guardians, page 26
Rachel had been dragged underneath the water by the swift current and had become even more entangled in the submerged branches. The straps and buckles of her pack were hopelessly tangled in the web of limbs and branches that were hidden underneath the water. Her pack, now soaked with water, was also weighing her down. She struggled to release the buckles, but in her panic could not get them off. She was more terrified than she had ever been in her entire life. This is it, she thought as her last gasp of breath she took before going under was beginning to fail her.
Just then, she felt a hand grab her and tug her towards the surface. Unfortunately, her pack was too entangled in the branches to bring her up. Luke struggled to free her. He quickly grabbed his knife and began cutting her straps. Once free of the pack, he pulled her up to the surface where she desperately gasped for air.
Luke and Rachel were now both desperately perched in a tangled mess of dead tree branches in the swift current. There was no way to get to shore as the trunk of the tree leading to the river's edge was submerged and covered with slick algae and mud, and with the current, there was no way they could hang on to the tree while traversing it to the shore.
During Luke's struggle to rescue Rachel, Nate had frantically paddled the boat in the direction of the shore until he was able to beach it in a muddy area about one hundred feet downstream from where they were stranded. He dragged the boat up onto the muddy bank and untied the mooring line that they had used to lash the canoes and bicycles together. He tied the pieces of rope together creating one long section and ran up the bank, slipping and falling on the muddy and slippery side hill every few feet as he went. It was the first time he had dealt with mud with his new leg and had not quite gotten the hang of it.
When he got to a point upstream of where Luke and Rachel were stranded, he tied one end of the rope to a branch and threw it in the water. He yelled, "The rope is on a branch drifting to you, try and grab it."
"OK," Luke yelled in reply. When Luke felt the branch wash into him from behind he felt around and grabbed the rope. "OK, I've got it!" he then yelled.
Nate ran the rope around a tree and held on tight and yelled downstream to them, "The rope is secure, use it to work your way over to the bank."
Luke held Rachel tight as he tried to work is way down the slippery trunk of the tree while holding on to the rope and branch. He slipped and fell, almost losing his grip on Rachel and was now a few feet downstream of the tree. She held on tight and the current and the angle of the rope washed Rachel and Luke over to the bank. As soon as Luke could feel the mud and rocks beneath him, he began to struggle to pull her ashore. Nate ran back downstream to them and helped him pull Rachel, coughing with water in her lungs, out of the cold and muddy river.
For the next few minutes, she just laid there crying in Luke's arms as he tried his best to comfort her. After she calmed down and had somewhat regained her composure, Luke and Nate led her up the hill into a wooded area where they could rest and recover. He then got the two canoes, where were no longer lashed together, and dragged them up the hill, giving one to Luke and Rachel to use for shelter from the rain, and one for himself. They flipped the canoes over and took shelter underneath. What have I gotten them in to? Nate thought to himself as he settled in for the night beneath the canoe. What have I done?
Early the next morning, the sunrise revealed a whole new day. The rain clouds and high winds had given way to a beautiful sunrise with a thin fog lifting off the river in the perfectly calm air. The birds were chirping again, and the sound of natural life was all around them. They combined their MRE's to inventory what was left after the entire loss of Rachel's pack. They had a total of four, which for three people, gave them a good day's worth of food, two max if they traveled hungry.
Nate studied his map and scouted the area to determine their exact location. Once he had it all figured out, he returned to Luke and Rachel and said, "That bridge up ahead is Highway 231, just on the other side is Hobbs Island Road, which will take us towards New Hope. It's a rural area, so it should be our best bet for bike travel. The way I see it, if we go that way and ride for at least twelve hours per day, we will be in Del Rio in two days."
Rachel was still a bit shaken up from the night before, and was still wet and cold. Just as Luke began to suggest that perhaps Rachel needed more rest before they continued, she stood up and said, "Well, let's get going then. I want to get the hell away from this God forsaken river, and maybe the wind from the ride will dry us out."
****
Chapter 38: The Reunion
It had been several days since Jason's mountain lion attack at the Homefront, and the increased security efforts had now fallen into the new routine. It was just after breakfast and everyone was lending a hand cleaning up, when Sarah, who was standing watch from the upstairs window, reported on the hand held radio that a man was approaching the front gate on horseback. Jason and Griff ran upstairs to see, while even grabbed his VZ58 and went outside to investigate.
"Looks like Daryl Moses from here," Griff said to Evan over the hand held radio.
"Roger that, I'll go meet him and let him in," replied Evan.
Even walked down the long driveway to the gate, and there stood Daryl Moses in his typical frontiersman attire, holding the reigns of his horse in one hand and waving hello with the other.
"Howdy," Evan said with a smile. "I hope you're not bearing bad news."
"No sir, I just thought I would swing by and chat about a few things," Daryl replied.
"Well, come on in," Evan said as he opened the gate. "We've got fresh coffee on, come on up to the house and we'll sit out back and have a cup and catch up on things. Griff is going out on patrol around the perimeter in a few minutes, but Jason can join us."
"I'd love a cup. Hell, I would ride all the way over here for that reason alone. Coffee is getting dang hard to come by these days," Daryl said.
"Yea, thankfully those big wholesale clubs made it easy to stock up before the collapse," Evan replied. "I wish they were still in business today. Our supplies won't last forever with all the mouths around here to feed."
They walked back to the house and Evan, Jason, and Daryl sat around the fire pit in the back yard to enjoy a sip of coffee on the beautiful fall morning. Jason stuck a log on the fire for a gnat smoke and asked, "So, how have things been out your way since the raid?"
"Pretty quiet," Daryl replied. "I went by the Muncie place this morning and took a peek through my spotting scope. It looked just like the night we left it, except not a soul was there."
"Well, that's because those scumbags don't have souls," Jason joked as he took a sip of coffee.
"Yea, very true," Daryl said with a laugh. "Let's just say there were no living bodies there then," he replied. "So what do you guys think? Do you think they moved on? Or did we get them all?"
Evan took a sip of coffee and replied, "Well, I guess it is possible that our barrage on the house killed more on the inside than we know. However, when Griff and I ran out there to check the place out, there was a fresh burn pile in the backyard that we could only assume was to dispose of the dead bodies. That indicates that there were survivors. Has anyone else see hide or hair of them?" Evan asked.
"Not a thing," Daryl replied. "I stopped by Lloyd's yesterday morning, and then Jimmy's place in the evening and they were asking when we were gonna start the barter runs up again. I guess the talk is a few of the folks are getting low on some of the things we had come to depend on, and are anxious to get our trade going. Everyone is wondering how long we need to stay hunkered down before getting back to business as usual. My guess is that they ran off after that butt whoopin' we gave'em."
"That's a good question," Evan replied. "I guess we need to somehow get a consensus from the group."
"Do we want to get a meeting together in person, or just start using the CB's again?" asked Jason.
"I think the CB's would be a good way to start, instead of getting people out on the road," Evan said. "Let's get Judith back on the radio with her daily updates for a few days and get the chatter going again. After everyone is comfortable, we'll get back down to business. We can't, and shouldn't, hide from those bastards forever."
"Amen to that!" Daryl replied. "Well, Gentlemen, I've got to get going, My chores have been slacking and I've got to get some firewood cut before the winter gets here."
With that, the men said their goodbyes as Jason and Evan escorted Daryl back to the front gate and saw him on his way. They went back inside the house and gave the women an update on the status of the other homesteads, and asked Judith to return to her daily CB radio updates from what she learns on the HAM. She was excited to do so, as she had missed the sense of community that had been building prior to the attacks. Molly asked Linda to stay with them for just a little while longer, until they were sure everything had blown over, and Linda agreed under the condition that they would put her to work sewing and mending clothes to earn her keep.
By the next day, everyone was chatting on the radio again and the community was starting to feel as if it had returned to normal. People had begun making deals over the radio for Evan and Jason's next barter run. The list was getting quite long, as people had gone without their routine deliveries. With that in mind, Evan and Jason agreed to resume their deliveries the following day.
Amidst the chatter on the radio, Charlie Blanchard chimed in and called for Judith. Judith replied, "Yes, Charlie, I'm ready to copy," assuming he was merely placing an order for supplies from one of the other homesteads.
"No Judith, I'm not in need of anything, I'm just relaying some news for you. Pastor Wallace from the Del Rio Baptist Church just informed me that you have a few visitors waiting for you there."
Judith nearly passed out in disbelief. She was speechless. She didn't even reply to Charlie she just got up and ran through the house screaming "They are here! They are here! My boy's have found me! Oh thank you lord my boys are here!"
All of the other women rushed to see what all of the commotion was about. She was nearly hyperventilating with excitement as she told them the wonderful news. Molly went over to the radio, called Charlie back, and got the details. She told him she would talk to Evan and get right back to him to relay to Pastor Wallace when to expect an escort to arrive to get them.
The joy at the Homefront was overwhelming. Molly found Evan and explained everything to him. "We should have enough daylight to get there and back today," he said.
"I think this is a good occasion to burn some gas," added Jason.
"That's a damn good idea," replied Evan. "We've not used a highway vehicle in so long I've almost forgot we even had them as an option. Del Rio is too far for a tractor run, and my guess is our new guests are going to be pretty darn exhausted from their travels."
"Mine or yours?" asked Jason.
"Let's take Molly's Suburban," said Evan. "We will need the third row since Judith will surely want to go with us."
"That'll work," Jason replied.
Evan and Jason went out behind the workshop where the Suburban was parked. It had been connected to a solar battery tender; they were pleased to find it charged adequately to start right up. All of their vehicles had been stored with full fuel tanks to help avoid condensation in the fuel. They had also treated the fuel with a commercially available fuel stabilizer to keep the gasoline from varnishing. They started it up and the truck ran as smooth as when they parked it. They topped off the tires, which had lost some air since it had been parked, but otherwise they were ready to go.
Evan drove the Suburban down to the house where they found Judith anxiously waiting. Peggy was standing along beside her and asked, "Is it OK if I come along? Judith wants me there for emotional support on the way," Peggy asked.
"That's fine with us," replied Evan. "Is Zack squared away?" he asked knowing that little Zack usually had a hard time whenever Peggy wasn't around.
"Yes, all of the other women offered to help watch him. He's playing with Haley now. He's quite fond of her. She's like his big sister now."
"Well, that sounds like a plan. Let's get moving," he said. "Oh, and Molly, go get Jake, he can be our trunk monkey."
Peggy and Judith climbed in the middle row, Evan took the driver's seat, Jason rode shotgun up front and Jake sat in the cargo area with a VZ58 to cover them from the rear. They had to take their time, driving around a few downed trees, and wash outs as the roads hadn't had any maintenance since the beginning of the collapse. The drive to Del Rio only took about twenty five minutes in the Suburban. They had almost forgotten how easily one could get around in a regular vehicle. They just didn't have the fuel reserves to do it any time other than a special occasion such as this.
As they pulled into the church, Peggy nearly had to hold Judith inside the vehicle until it came to a complete stop due to her excitement. As Evan put the truck into park, Judith jumped out and began running for the door. The door to the church opened and out walked Pastor Wallace, accompanied by two grizzled men in their mid to late twenties and an attractive young woman.
Judith nearly jumped into the men's open arms. The all began crying tears of joy as the young woman stood and watched the reunion with tears in her eyes.
"Oh thank you Lord, thank you for bringing my boys back to me!" she said over and over. As they gained their composure, Luke wiped the tears from his eyes and introduced Rachel to his mother.
Nate looked at his mother, wiping the tears from his own eyes and asked, "Mom, what about Dad?"
"Oh boys I'm sorry," she said. "Your father died over a year ago when it all began." Nate and Luke both hugged their mother again and shed a few more tears together. "I'll explain everything during the drive home," she said.
Evan and Jason had walked over to Pastor Wallace during the emotional reunion. "God truly does work miracles, doesn't he?" said the Pastor.
"He certainly does," replied Evan. "San Diego to East Tennessee in the midst of all the chaos. That's an amazing journey."
"She rasied some damn fine men, that's for sure," said Jason. "Oh, sorry for the D word Pastor," Jason said sheepishly.
"Oh that's OK, it was a heck of a journey," the Pastor replied.
Evan then walked over to the group and said, "We had better get going, the sun will be going down soon and it will be safer traveling in the daylight."
Peggy had been watching from the back seat of the Suburban. She could not help but notice how handsome both of Judith's sons were, especially the older one she thought, as she could not help but stare at Nate.
Peggy and Nate climbed into the third row with Peggy, while Luke and Rachel took the middle row. As they settled in, Judith brushed up against Nate's prosthesis and was startled.
Nate said, "Oh, yea, it wasn't an uneventful trip to say the least." He then went on to detail his journey, and how he had found Luke and met Rachel. Judith then shared with them how she and their father escaped Norfolk in the Little Angel, and how that led to meeting their group. Nate looked at Peggy and smiled as Judith explained how important she had been to her over the past year. Peggy blushed and returned the smile. Judith could not help but already think of how wonderful a match the two would be.
Once they reached the Homefront, while Griff and Greg handled the security duties, Molly and the other ladies had been preparing a wonderful feast to celebrate their arrival. Molly even broke out some wine that she had squirreled away for such an occasion. Judith would have loved to spend all night sitting up with her boys catching up, as well as getting to know Rachel; however, she could see that they were extremely fatigued.
The women set up some temporary accommodations for them for the night for their much-needed rest, with plans to figure something more permanent out the next day. Everyone was in such a festive and glowing mood they had nearly forgotten the troubles they have had as of late.
As Evan was preparing to relieve Griff as the roving patrol, Mildred approached him. "Evan," she said.
"Yes Ma'am," he answered.
"I've got an idea, she said. "You and Molly have been extremely gracious offering shelter to anyone who has needed it, and now there is even more. Now that Judith's boys and the one's lady friend have arrived, perhaps we should consider, after all of this Muncie gang stuff blows over of course, having Judith and her family move into my home with Haley and me over on the farm. I can teach her sons to work the place, and we, as in everyone here included, would have double the food production. I include the young lady Rachel in that of course."
"Ma'am, that is wonderful idea and is very gracious of you," Evan replied with a smile. "As soon as we get past our security concers, we should definitely discuss that with Judith and her boys. I'm sure you are anxious to get back home too."
"Yes I am, actually. Ollie and I spent a majority of our lives there, and I want to be back there with him," she said. Evan just gave her a hug, and then went on to relieve Griff and assume his duties.
****
Chapter 39: The Resolution
It had been a week since Judith's family had been reunited at the Homefront. They quickly acclimated to the homesteading life, and had immediately become welcome additions to the group. Nate and Luke had been trained in the security procedures at the Homefront, and had been thoroughly briefed on the security concerns of the community, as well as the recent events involving the Muncie gang. Evan, Griff, and Jason were pleased to have two more well trained and experienced men onboard, in the event of future hostilities.
In addition, the entire community was overjoyed to have Rachel and Nate around for their medical expertise. In the short time they had been there, several people from the other homesteads had already been asking for medical advice from their new community doctor.
