The Jared Chronicles | Book 4 | The Devil's Bastion, page 26
part #4 of The Jared Chronicles Series
“Great, easy to defend with the staffing we have. That crazy Buckley dug all those trenches, and then they just bugged out. We can put ’em to use though,” Josh said with a devilish grin.
“Make it happen,” was all Carnegie said.
Chapter 23
The initial plan included Jared, John, and Stephani separating in order to cover more ground. After they’d walked for a bit and thought about the lack of communication coupled with the very real possibility there could be hostiles out in the hills looking for them, the group decided to scrap the splitting-up idea. When the trio reached the entrance to the regional park, John suggested they take a detour and see about fishing gear and a boat with a motor simple enough to have withstood the solar flare.
Jared disagreed, pointing out Cody’s father had been killed, and the kid needed to be found, told of the tragedy, and brought to his mother, for both their sakes. Stephani remained mute on the subject, but John could see in her face, she agreed with Jared. When he relented, her look told John she was more than a little relieved he’d agreed with Jared. John marveled at the complexity his connection with Stephani could foster even though they weren’t in an advanced relationship state. Already Stephani had disagreed with him but, like a faithful partner, did not allow her stance to differ from John’s in a public setting.
John had never before maintained a relationship long enough to analyze it in a way that would prove helpful now with Stephani. In the past, his analysis consisted of animalistic thoughts on whether he would bed whomever the flavor of the month was and how much money it would cost him in dinners to get said flavor to said bed. Other than that, John didn’t give those superficial encounters much consideration. Now, here he was psychoanalyzing his relationship with Stephani even though their connection constituted nearly zero physical contact and not much more than small acts of kindness and maybe a sidelong smile now and then.
What he found in her actions was Stephani was loyal to him—no, to them, their burgeoning thing that had started off rockier than the bottom of a dry creek bed and somehow morphed into more. John guessed their bond at the moment was more like an iceberg. Although small innuendoes were visible, most of what was to come lay beneath the surface, waiting to be discovered. Glancing over, John recognized Stephani’s weapon was off safe. John almost said something, but caught himself. As Jared turned to head up the road, John stepped into Stephani and flicked the safety on while smiling down at her, after which he brushed past her in trail of Jared.
That had been perfect timing, John thought to himself, and he hadn’t messed the whole thing up for once. Jared led the group a short distance to a place where the road leveled off, then changed directions, heading east over a wire fence and down the side of a slope for ten yards before sitting down and pulling out his binoculars and a water bottle. The three friends sat in a row, drinking water and scouting the countryside with the assistance of their individual optics.
All three quickly spotted several black dots on a hillside approximately one mile to the east.
“You see ’em out there?” John asked, not bothering to come out of the binoculars.
“I see ten, maybe twelve cows. Didn’t they take, like, fifty?” Stephani wondered out loud.
“Those may not even be the cows we’re looking for,” Jared interjected.
“They’re the only ones I see out there, and with the terrain the way it is, there could be more cattle down behind one of those hills; no way to keep them all bunched up,” John proffered. “I bet Calvin is sleeping in a hammock under a tree right now, just letting those animals wander around until nighttime. Not sure about how a herd works, but maybe there is a dominant cow, and he’s just kinda keeping an eye on her or him,” John concluded with absolutely zero expertise on the matter. Completed with his unprofessional opinion piece, John got to his feet. “Let’s go down and see if we can find those boys.”
John took the lead, winding his way through the tallish grasses covering the uneven and sometimes steep countryside. Whenever they had the high ground, the group would pause for five minutes, searching in the direction they’d spotted the cattle earlier. Two hours after leaving the road, John caught sight of Calvin sitting on his butt, leaned up against the trunk of a large tree. His shotgun was laid across his lap, and he wore an old ballcap pulled down low over his eyes.
“Father time is catching a nap.” John chortled.
Jared didn’t respond as he searched for Cody. What was coming would not be pleasant for any of them, but mostly it would be life altering for Cody. Jared planned on being the bearer of bad news since John wasn’t all that touchy-feely, and Stephani shouldn’t be expected to perform these types of tasks for the group.
“I got Cody,” Stephani piped up, her arm extended, finger pointing to the south of Calvin.
Cody was pushing five cattle back to the north in Calvin’s direction, using a long willowy branch to keep the animals moving in the desired direction.
Jared took one last look around, ensuring they were not being maneuvered on by anyone with ill intentions. After satisfying himself of their safety, Jared stood and whistled as he waved a hand over his head. Cody vanished behind a large oak tree the second Jared’s whistle reached his ears. Slowly Cody poked his head around the tree trunk, spotting Jared and his two companions less than a hundred yards from his position.
A little walking and a few minutes later, Cody was joined by Jared and company.
“What’s going on back at the ranch?” Cody asked anxiously. He was surprised to see anyone from the ranch out here so soon, and the concern was evident on his boyish features.
“We had to leave,” Jared answered solemnly. “Let’s go get Calvin.”
Cody nodded and shot past the cattle, heading in the direction of the old tree Calvin was napping under. Over his shoulder, Cody fired off several more questions as he moved ahead. “So, was there a fight? Where is everyone else? Why didn’t my dad come out here? I could use his help with this herd. I mean Calvin is all good, but…” Cody turned, giving Jared a shrug. “I mean it’s really just me out here.”
Jared smiled grimly, nodding his understanding. When they’d been at the ranch over the past few months, life began to seem nearly normal albeit Jared wasn’t working in tech any longer, but had transitioned into a hybrid combination of rancher, farmer, and hunter. Calvin hadn’t been a burden back at the ranch like he was proving to be on the road. The man knew more than Jared could ever absorb about handling livestock, but he was aging and doing it quicker than he would have had the world remained intact.
Although Jared wouldn’t admit it out loud, he knew things were coming to a head for certain members of their group. Things like age and eventually even childbirth were going to claim lives; Jared just didn’t want to think about it at the moment. He’d get Calvin set up in the cabins, and then he and John would go to work figuring out their future and how they planned on dealing with the Carnegie cancer, leaving Calvin in as comfortable a state as they could manage.
As they walked, John shot Jared an inquiring look as he rolled his eyes in Cody’s direction. Jared’s only response was a brusque shake of his head, to which John gave a raised eyebrow, but dropped the subject. Jared needed Cody to get the cattle either closer to the cabins, or to a place they would be secure. He didn’t know a damn thing about handling these animals and didn’t want Cody to flip his lid when he heard about his father’s death and run off looking for his mother.
Jared would assess the situation once they reached Calvin, and if the cattle were staying put, then Jared would tell Cody about his father’s untimely departure. The four reached Calvin, who was fast asleep under his hat, back propped against the tree and legs crossed. The position looked uncomfortable to Jared, but apparently Calvin found it accommodating enough to have fallen asleep in the position.
“Rise and shine, Calvin,” John sang out before any of them spoke of how to wake the aging member of their group.
Calvin did not jolt upright like Jared would have expected him to, but instead drew a deep breath before reaching a boney hand up to tilt the hat back into its operational position on top of his head rather than covering most of his face. Jared guessed there came a time in a man’s life when nothing would rush him, not even being surprised in a post-solar-flare world full of danger. Calvin didn’t speak as he stretched his elbows back before raising his arms over his head and giving a giant yawn.
Finished waking up, Calvin looked straight at Jared. “Good to see you. Where’s everyone else?”
Jared grinned uncomfortably. “Kids and ladies are back at a campground along with Carlos and Raul.”
“And the rest?” Calvin asked, glancing at John’s and Stephani’s solemn faces.
Well, here it was, the time Jared had been dreading. “Ah, we ran into some bad luck a few days back,” Jared started as he stole a look at Cody, who was now very intent on hearing what Jared had to say.
“What kind of bad luck, Jared?” Calvin asked, pushing himself up to his feet.
Jared turned to face Cody. “Cody, your dad was killed by the soldiers a couple of days ago. He died defending your family’s home—and Rip was also killed in the same fight.”
Cody’s initial and only reaction was a disbelieving shake of his head and two steps back from Jared as if distancing himself from the bearer of bad news would somehow make this terrible revelation untrue.
Jared held his hands out to the boy. “We came out here to get you and take you back to your mom. She’s pretty upset and hasn’t really had time to think about what happened. We all left the ranch right after they were killed. I think you should go to her.”
Cody shook his head hard this time. “No, you’re lying, Jared. It’s not true.”
John stepped forward and clapped a hand on Cody’s shoulder. “Son, it is true, and you need to figure out how you’re going to handle being the man of your family now. Your mother will need you to be strong, not the other way around. Times are different now.”
Cody’s eyes dropped to the ground, his eyes searching, darting and flitting around as if he were seeking a lost piece of jewelry at his feet. He wasn’t; his mind was exploring this most dreadful burden he was now posed with carrying forward. His body unintentionally mimicked his mind’s activities of searching for a solution.
Slowly, Cody’s eyes slowed, and his chin turned upward to face Jared. “How’d it happen?” He breathed.
Now it was Jared’s turn to involuntarily shake his head although he didn’t step back from Cody. “It doesn’t matter how, Cody, only that it happened, and we all have to keep moving forward for each other.”
“It matters to me,” Cody snapped, causing Jared to start inwardly.
Again, John intervened. “We set up an ambush, got probably ten of their guys, but on the way out, they shot Rip in the arm first, then they chewed him up pretty good. We were all under heavy fire at that point and just ran to your dad’s position. When we got there, he’d been shot one time and was already, ah…” John searched for a word that didn’t ring harsh, but realized there was no positive word he could use. “Your father was shot one time and died on the spot,” John finished.
“Where is he now?” Cody asked softly.
Jared relieved John. “He’s in the same spot unless the soldiers moved him. Like John said, the soldiers got a big machine gun into the fight right away. If we’d stayed and tried getting Rip’s and your father’s bodies off that field, we’d all be dead and so would your mother, Shannon, and the kids.”
Cody’s lips were drawn so tightly across his teeth, they appeared to be turning white. “So, what are we going to do about it?” he asked, his voice low and as menacing as a seventeen-year-old boy’s voice could get.
John shifted his weight, his rifle scuffing his gear as he pivoted in the direction of the campground. “We aren’t doing a thing about it right now except getting you to your mother so you can make sure she’s alright. After that, we will decide on what our next move will be,” John answered, trying to place Cody in a familial leadership position in the absence of his father.
“We will do something, Cody,” Jared interjected. “We can’t stay in this area with the colonel and his little army constantly hounding us, but first you need to tend to your mother.”
Cody straightened his shoulders, swallowed hard, and nodded his head; he was ready to go.
“What about the cattle?” Jared asked.
Calvin waved a hand in the air. “We can leave ’em for now. This entire area is fenced in, probably close to a thousand acres, not too hard for a couple of young bucks to come back up here and find them.”
“What about other people?” John questioned, worried someone might take the cattle or slaughter half the herd if given the chance.
“Could happen, but we ain’t seen a soul up here in the last week, so let’s get over to that camp of yours.”
Without further conversation, the group moved off through the grassy hill country, heading west.
The group reached the entrance to the reservoir and stopped. Jared and John wanted to explore the fishing situation along with whether they could get a boat running. Jared fetched a map from the guardhouse and showed Calvin where the campground was situated on the far side of the bridge.
“Just be sure to whistle or wave or whatever. Don’t go sneaking over there, or one of those guys on the hill might end up shooting you,” Jared warned.
The two parties parted ways, leaving Jared, John and Stephani to finish the second portion of their two-part mission for the day. Entering the park, the group stayed to the east side of the road, not wanting to be trapped in an ambush with the reservoir’s shoreline as their only avenue of escape. Jared was becoming a man who demanded options when moving through an area unknown and therefore deemed as unsafe.
Jared’s mind had evolved into a ball of gray matter that never stopped seeking ways to leverage the environment in his favor. Their movement was slow even though there had been no signs of other humans in the area. Each member of the trio had been in more than a few scrapes since the solar flare, so a little careful slow moving didn’t bother any of them.
An hour later, they reached the far end of the park’s paved parking lot area, where they found a small store and close to thirty boats moored off a dock stretching out into the reservoir. On the north side of the dock was a boat launch ramp, where people had been able to launch their own private boats when things like bass boats worked. Jared saw all the boats secured to the dock were either small outboard aluminum skiffs or larger pontoon-type boats, and assumed they’d all been owned by the marina and used as rentals.
Near the launch ramp were seven bass fishing boats tied off in various ways to rocks and tree limbs. The boats had most likely been stranded on the reservoir the day of the solar flare, and their owners had somehow managed to get the chunks of useless fiberglass back to the ramp, only to find their vehicles were just as inoperable as their boats had suddenly become. Staring at the seven bass boats, Jared wondered how long it took the owners of these craft to realize their predicament. Jared surmised all seven owners were probably dead by this time; hell, he’d bet at least a couple never even made it home.
Jared counted himself lucky to have lived in an area with stores he was able to pilfer in order to procure the supplies he’d needed to survive those first couple of weeks as the world tore itself apart all around him. With no stores and no way to hunt game, Jared wouldn’t give anyone out this far from civilization much of a chance. Further eroding the boaters’ chances, in Jared’s view, was the fact that even if any of the boat owners had made it to civilization, they would have found it very uncivilized.
“Let’s check the store for fishing gear,” John whispered, breaking Jared’s train of thought.
“You think any of these boats run?” Stephani pondered out loud as she stared in the direction of the dock.
“We shall see,” John answered, heading down toward the small store.
The sound of water lapping at the shore or a boat hull thudding against the side of the dock were the only sounds as the three approached the small building marked with a sign reading Boat Rental, Bait, Tackle, Food. Surprisingly the door to the small bait and tackle store was locked as if the cashier had finished his or her shift, locked up, and tried walking home after the solar flare struck. Jared glanced back at the parking lot and saw there were a dozen or so trucks and cars parked in various spots, marooned by the solar flare, destined to slowly dissolve into the earth over the next several hundred years.
John was about to kick the door off its hinges when he stopped himself and pulled out his lock-picking tools. Thankfully the lock was a cheap setup, and John made short work of it. Inside the little shop there wasn’t much room; the three of them pretty much placed the structure at full capacity. Again, Jared was amazed by the fact the bait and tackle shop hadn’t been looted. Everything in the shop remained perfectly preserved as if nothing had ever happened.
The three didn’t spend long in the small store before heading down to the dock, where they found a shed with all the keys to the pontoon boats. John tried three of the boats, none of which would turn over. Next, John worked on starting one of the smaller outboard motorboats. All the outboard motorboats were pull start, and after a dozen pulls, some cursing, and a little tinkering with the choke, John actually got one of the motors to sputter to life for a second before dropping off in a cloud of white exhaust smoke.
John looked up at Jared, his eyes wide. “Holy shit, bro, it’s gonna start.” John hooted.
Both Jared and Stephani wanted to rush over for a closer inspection, but opted to spin and scan the area for anyone who might have overheard the sputtering engine, which was as out of the ordinary in this new world as a naked man standing in Times Square would have been a year earlier. John hunched over the engine cowling, working the fuel bulb, trying to feed some gas into the carburetor without flooding and possibly fouling the spark plug. Several pulls later, the engine caught, spat smoke from the tiny exhaust port, sputtered some more, and then evened out as John feathered the throttle while holding the choke lever in the perfect position to keep the motor alive.
