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East of Allensville, Kentucky
Sitting in her camping chair, Sandy sipped her coffee as she kept watch with the topo map on her lap. Sensing Dan move, Sandy turned and saw Dan staring at a rabbit moving around the bases of the trees. Moving the cup to her left hand, Sandy reached over and patted Dan’s back and then stroked his back. “You’re a good dog,” Sandy told him softly and Dan turned to her, panting.
Looking back down at the page showing the map of the area in the topo book, Sandy didn’t need to recite the route. They were on it. She stared at it, afraid to touch the page or to leave a mark. She was trying to find a stream that ran the way they were going. Fields dominated the area they were traveling in, some very large fields. Nothing like Kansas, but she’d never expected fields the size they were crossing in Kentucky.
“At least we have some trees,” Sandy mumbled, memorizing the lay of the land for their route.
Hearing movement, Sandy turned to see Mary sit up yawning. Slowly, Mary stood up and grabbed her cap that fell off her face and put it on, then grabbed her rifle. Moving over to the stove, Mary saw the coffee pot turned upside down on a towel. Letting out a disappointed sigh, Mary looked over at Sandy and noticed Sandy holding up the thermos, and a huge smile filled Mary’s face as she grabbed her folding chair and headed for Sandy.
“I’ve gotten too use to coffee being ready after we set up camp,” Mary said, setting up her chair and then sat down, taking the thermos.
Watching Mary fill her cup, Sandy nodded. “Yeah, but at two, I heard a truck. Well, an engine,” Sandy clarified. “It could’ve only been on State Highway 1041, not even half a mile away. It stopped for ten minutes and then drove north.”
Glancing over at the map in Sandy’s lap, “Surprised you even heard it unless they were moving fast,” Mary said, taking a sip.
“It was a diesel. That’s why I think it was a truck and when I first heard it, the engine was barely moving along. After it stopped it even turned off, I almost woke you up. Just before I moved to wake you up, it cranked up and took off. It left much faster than it arrived. With the base layer of stink over the land, I’ve only worried a few times about the smell of coffee or food, but I didn’t want to risk it, so I poured it in the thermos,” Sandy explained.
Nodding, “Even when stinkers aren’t close, I catch whiffs,” Mary admitted. “Not to mention the stench of rot. Since we crossed into Missouri, I swear we smell rotting flesh at least once every mile.”
“I won’t argue that,” Sandy mumbled. “Oh, I attached that tandem saddle to the one you wanted.”
Rolling her eyes in ecstasy, “I haven’t even ridden in it and I’m already in love with it,” Mary gasped.
Glancing over at the boys sleeping and lowering her voice, Sandy asked, “Have you talked to Chris about their family?”
Nodding with a sad expression, “Yeah, talk about dysfunctional family,” Mary said. “But I think they will be all right. Neither one has ever held a gun, cooked a meal, or had chores. Chris recited what his dad used to make ‘medicine’. His dad was making meth.”
Draining her coffee cup, “Lance and Ian will be excellent role models for them,” Sandy claimed.
Leaning close, “Sandy, I forgot what having a regular boy around was like. Jason was a regular boy. Ian was almost a regular boy, but was still a neat freak, just sucked at school. That was until his “brother” Lance showed up. We were spoiled by those two,” Mary whispered.
“Until I found out about all the pranks they pulled, I thought they were perfect,” Sandy said, refilling her cup.
Holding her chin up proudly, “It can’t be proven and they didn’t get caught, so I’m not going to hold that over them. Besides, I like the fact they unleashed hell when someone pissed off their mommas,” Mary stated with pride.
“Oh, I’m not holding that over them, but it made me realize I didn’t know Lance as well as I thought I did,” Sandy sighed.
Giving a shrug and changing the subject, “You check to see if we have enough batteries for Tyler to keep his NVGs on?” Mary asked.
“With ease,” Sandy answered. “I think we have enough of those CR batteries for him to use the thermals like that, but I’m not sure. The damn thing takes four and they only last like five hours.”
“What if I let him use that monocular? It takes double A.”
“No, you need it. But have Chris stay on it like Tyler does,” Sandy replied. “We could take one of the scopes off the M4s we found, but it doesn’t seem right.”
“How many double As we have?”
Turning to Mary with a flat expression, “About three hundred,” Sandy answered. “Johnathan took all of them from the camp. The radios use them, but he told me we would run across NVGs if nothing else on soldiers-turned-stinker.”
“How many CR 123?”
“Forty-two,” Sandy answered, and Ann got up from the bed roll. She looked around and then trotted over to Mary. “I’m scared to just let Tyler use them. If we have to start alternate routes that push our timetable back, I don’t want to do it without the thermal binoculars.”
Hearing that Mary smiled, closing her eyes. “If we don’t have too many problems, just think, we will be home in ten days.”
“I know, and I’m almost tempted to push the horses further than thirty miles.”
“Sandy, we can’t lose focus,” Mary told her sternly. “I do, too, but we’ve run into problems we never dreamed of. We could almost make it on foot now, but would have to leave so much behind. The danger would be astronomical just in ammo alone.”
“That’s why I didn’t mention it,” Sandy smiled. “And you’re forgetting, we could make it on foot, but the boys would slow us down and we aren’t leaving them.”
“Yeah, they are good boys,” Mary grinned.
Standing up, “Let’s wake them and check their wounds, then start packing up,” Sandy stated and Mary nodded, getting up.
The boys woke up much easier. Neither woke up ready to run. Checking the wounds, Sandy was shocked at how much they had improved with just the basic care they had done. Even the nasty wound from the splinter on Chris’s buttock looked a hundred times better.
When they cleaned the wounds this time, the boys barely grimaced. Applying more ointment and bandaging the wounds, Sandy leaned back. “Put the socks on and roll up the bedrolls while we start some food and load up the horses.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Chris said, grabbing his socks. Looking over at his brother trying to pull his sock over the bandages on his foot without pulling the bandages off, Chris moved over and helped.
“I can do it,” Tyler whined as Chris took the sock away and pulled it on.
Grabbing the other sock, “I know, but we need to move fast like I always tell you,” Chris said, putting the other sock on. “Now, start rolling up the bedroll.”
Rolling his eyes, Tyler stood up and folded the bedroll over and then moved to the end. After he rolled it up, Tyler stared at the bedroll. “It’s fatter,” he noted out loud.
“You have to roll it tight,” Chris told him, rolling up Mary’s bedroll.
Bending back down and unrolling the bedroll Tyler tried again, and it still didn’t look like it did when strapped on the back of the saddle. He glanced over at Chris’s work and his didn’t look right either. “Let me show you,” Mary said, coming up behind Tyler.
Getting on her knees, Mary unrolled it and then spread it back out. Smoothing it out, Mary folded it over and then rolled it up slow and tight. When she was finished the bedroll was tightly rolled up. “Like that,” Mary said, and unrolled it and spread it out. “Now you,” she told Tyler, getting up and left to help Sandy with the saddles.
Watching Mary walk over and lift a packsaddle up, Tyler mumbled. “But you already had it done.” Giving a sigh, he dropped down and copied what Mary did and saw Chris was also, but Chris was already rolling the bedroll up. Not to be outdone, Tyler concentrated hard going to work on the bedroll.
“Wait till you load your saddle,” Sandy grinned as they buckled the packsaddle on. “You can tell its missing thirty pounds.”
Pulling her hat off and wiping the sweat off her brow, “That’s good with the boys riding with us,” Mary said.
The first hint she got was loading the saddle they’d replaced with Johnathan’s. “Wow,” Mary gasped. “I know the horses will like that.”
When they were done, they turned as Chris and Tyler came over carrying the bedrolls. “All right, those look good,” Sandy told them, taking hers from Tyler.
“I’m riding in my own saddle?” Tyler beamed, looking at the smaller saddle behind Sandy’s.
“Yep, but you still have to keep an eye out,” Sandy told him, strapping the bedroll down.
Watching how Sandy tied the bedroll down, “I will,” Tyler promised. “When will you teach me how to shoot a gun?”
“I’ll let you shoot when we get home,” Sandy answered, turning and looking down at him. “We really can’t practice out here. Mary and I have only showed you how to work the guns in an emergency, so no touching them unless we are around.”
“Okay,” Tyler replied happily, just ecstatic he was going to learn how to shoot a gun.
Grabbing the empty water bottles from the front saddle bag, Sandy moved over to Mary’s horse and grabbed her empty water bottles. “You can help me fill them,” Sandy said, walking over to the stream.
Tyler held the bottle as Sandy used the filter pump to fill them up. “Tomorrow, we will boil water and wash the bottles out,” Sandy told him and Tyler just nodded, watching her use the hand pump.
When they were done, Sandy let Tyler carry some back and they refilled the saddle bags. Mary called them over and passed out bowls of food. The boys still ate fast, but nothing like that first day. “I miss soda,” Chris announced and then drained his bottle of water.
“Well, I’m sorry there isn’t any at the cabin,” Mary told him, and both boys looked at her in shock. “We drink tea, juice, coffee and water.”
Scared to ask why, Chris just nodded as Tyler spoke up. “As long as there’s food, I don’t care.”
“Then you’ll be fine,” Sandy grinned, reaching over and ruffling his hair. Showing the boys how to wash the dishes, they packed up what was left.
“Why do we walk around before leaving?” Tyler asked.
“To make sure we packed everything,” Sandy answered and Tyler nodded, walking around and looking at the ground.
“Because if we forget something, we aren’t coming back for it,” Tyler offered.
“That’s right,” Sandy chuckled, then led Tyler over to her horse. She helped Tyler up into his saddle then adjusted the small stirrups until he could put his feet in them.
Looking down at the stiff loop instead of a saddle horn, “I won’t be able to see in front,” Tyler told her.
“But I’ll be able to shoot stinkers much easier. Which do you prefer?”
Nodding and answering quickly, “You shooting stinkers,” Tyler assured her.
Glancing over and seeing Mary adjusting the stirrups for Chris, Sandy climbed on her horse. “Ms. Sandy,” Tyler said timidly. “Um, it’s still light out. Are we leaving now?”
“The sun is setting, so it won’t be light much longer, but yes, we are leaving. We want to make sure you two don’t have issues with your saddles and we still have light to work with.”
“Golly, you guys are smart and think of everything,” Tyler gasped in awe.
“Wait till you meet Lance and Ian,” Sandy told him, turning her cap around and fitting the head harness on. Flipping up the monocular, “You have your night vision goggles?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Tyler answered holding them up, but Sandy didn’t glance back.
“Is my backpack pushing you off?”
“No, ma’am,” Tyler told her. “It’s not even touching my saddle.”
Steering her horse over as Mary mounted up, Sandy thought her horse was moving better. Patting the horse’s neck, “Yeah, you like the new saddle also, don’t ya, Asshole?” Sandy grinned.
When Mary nodded, Sandy moved through the small patch of trees that covered the oxbow and glanced over her shoulder at Tyler. He was looking around with a smile, holding onto the loop. “Tyler, don’t turn on your goggles till I tell you because too much light can break them,” Sandy told him.
“I remember,” he replied as Sandy turned around, thinking Tyler was riding very well.
“Tyler, have you and Chris ever ridden a horse?”
“We’ve only seen horses on TV and driving down the road,” Tyler informed her. “I didn’t know you had to check their feet.”
Pausing at the tree line, Sandy pulled out the thermal binoculars. “You have to take care of your animals,” Sandy told him, then lifted the thermals up. A house was half a mile away and Sandy could see three stinkers in the yard just standing there.
“The door is open,” Mary said beside her, looking through regular binoculars. “It wasn’t open this morning when we got here.”
“Yeah, I see three stinkers in the yard.”
“I only see two,” Mary stated, leaning forward and scanning the yard.
“Two are on the right and one is next to the porch,” Sandy told her.
“Oh, I see it now. It was standing in a shadow,” Mary said, lowering her binoculars.
“Like I said, I love having thermals,” Sandy restated, turning the thermals off. “To be honest, I like seeing the cooler shapes of stinkers rather than the hot shapes of humans.”
Putting her binoculars away, “I would be just as happy not to see another human till we get home,” Mary admitted.
“Ready?” Sandy asked, and Mary nodded. Kicking her horse, Sandy led it out into the field but turned east, following the trees that ran along with the stream. Barely going three hundred yards, Sandy was climbing off and handing the reins to Tyler, then grabbing the bolt cutters for the first fence of the night.
“At least now my AR doesn’t crack my knee,” Sandy mumbled, moving to the fence.
Putting the cutters away, Sandy climbed back on and steered through the opening. Moving through a field, Sandy guided her horse near the trees on the fence row. “Can I turn them on now?” Tyler asked in a whisper when the sun was down.
“Go ahead,” Sandy replied, and turned on her monocular. It wasn’t long until Sandy felt Tyler shifting in the saddle, scanning around.
To the east, dogs started barking, a lot of dogs, and everyone turned. Even the horses lifted their heads higher. “I don’t see them,” Tyler whispered.
“Tyler, they are at least a mile away,” Sandy told him, but still stared in the direction of the barking.
“Ms. Sandy, dogs are mean now,” Tyler informed her. “We had some chase us up in a tree. They stayed there for an hour till some stinkers came along and tried to eat them.”
“Did the stinkers stay for you and Chris?” Sandy asked, lifting the thermals.
“No, Chris told me to be quiet and the stinkers never looked up in the tree before they took off after the dogs.”
Not seeing any heat signatures, Sandy turned the thermals off. “Chris is very smart,” Sandy nodded.
Riding through the field, Sandy grinned to see the next field had a fence row without a fence. Passing through the tall grass and few trees Sandy barely paused, only spotting two houses and both were dark.
Crossing the blacktop road, Sandy felt Tyler tense up when the horse’s hooves clattered on the road until they reached the other side. “We need some tennis shoes for the horses,” Tyler informed her.
Sandy just chuckled, not even correcting him and then the barking to the east stopped as suddenly as it had started. Again, everyone turned, expecting to see dogs charging over the land. “Stinker,” Tyler called out softly and Sandy turned looking around and found it to the west, walking through a field over a hundred yards away.
“Good boy,” Sandy whispered, proud Tyler hadn’t locked in staring to the east after the barking like she had. The stinker never turned back as they rode on to the northeast. They were near Oakdale when Sandy had to climb off for a fence.
When she put the cutters back in the saddle and climbed on, “I don’t like fences,” Tyler informed her.
“Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t,” Sandy replied, moving through the fence and lifting the thermal binoculars.
Seeing hot spots of cows, a few deer, and half a dozen stinkers stumbling after a cow but nothing closer than half a mile, Sandy turned the thermals off as they neared another blacktop. Reaching the other side, Sandy guided her horse to a dirt road heading east and then out into a field. The field was very large, she knew because she could barely make out the fence rows to the north, east and south. That alone told her each direction was over three hundred yards.
“Sandy,” Mary called out softly, riding up beside her. “Look to the southeast.” When Sandy turned to look, “No, with your thermals,” Mary told her.
After the thermals warmed up, Sandy flipped her monocular up and lifted them to her eyes and immediately sucked in a breath. “Holy shit,” she gasped. “They are just over six hundred yards,” Sandy said, staring at a huge pack of dogs.
“All I could tell was it was a bunch of them, but they looked about the size of dogs,” Mary told her.
“I can’t see them,” Tyler whispered in a trembling voice.
“Tyler, your goggles can’t see that far, so keep looking around for stuff close,” Sandy told him, still staring at the pack. Even from this far away, Sandy could tell the dogs saw them. She passed the binoculars over to Mary.
With the thermal binoculars, Mary saw further out and in much better detail. “That’s over a hundred fucking dogs.”
“Were those the ones barking?” Chris asked.
“I don’t know, but that sounded like a hundred dogs barking,” Mary admitted, then handed the thermals back to Sandy. “What do you think?”
“We need to move on,” Sandy answered, and turned the thermals off. “If the puppies get closer, we shoot a few.”
Nodding as she flipped her monocular down, “For once, I’m glad there aren’t a lot of trees around,” Mary admitted, gripping her AR.
Sandy kicked her horse and it moved back into a walk but was acting skittish and turning to look southeast. Reaching forward, Sandy popped his neck. “You look ahead, Asshole, we’ll worry about those,” she informed the horse.
Crossing the fields at a steady pace, Sandy kept scanning around, but couldn’t help but glance more toward the south. “Stinker,” Tyler said, but Sandy saw it stumbling on the road they were about to cross.
“Tyler, I need you to look all around us not just the direction the dogs are,” Sandy told him, since the stinker was to the south.
“I am,” he answered in a small voice and Sandy turned the thermals on and flipped up her monocular.
Saying a silent prayer, Sandy lifted the thermal binoculars up and shivered seeing the massive pack paralleling them to the south. Getting her bearings, Sandy put the pack at four to five hundred yards away, just out of range of the night vision devices. When the pack took off running, Sandy almost dropped the thermals to yank up her gun, but saw the dogs running parallel. Watching, Sandy saw they were angling more toward their route. Starting to get worried, Sandy’s mouth fell open as the pack started barking for a few seconds, then engulfed the stinker walking on the road.
“Ms. Sandy,” Tyler called out. “The dogs just attacked that stinker.”
“I see, baby,” Sandy told him and swiveled around, scanning the area around them. To the southeast she could see a few stinkers at the edge of the binoculars range of a mile. Turning back to the pack, Sandy shivered seeing the pack standing on the road and could see most looking at them.
Lowering the binoculars, Sandy didn’t turn them off and flipped down her monocular. “Tyler, keep your eyes on the dogs now,” Sandy told him, since she was able to see the dogs rather easy with the monocular.
“Yes, ma’am,” Tyler answered as the clack of hooves sounded on the road, startling him.
“Sandy, I’m going to shoot at them,” Mary said after they crossed the road and the dogs again started to parallel them.
“Hold on, I’ll shoot also,” Sandy said, stopping her horse and turning it toward the pack. “On three,” Sandy mumbled, lifting her AR as the dogs stopped. When her monocular hit the scope, Sandy flipped them up and could make out the shadowy outline of the pack. “How far do you think they are?”
“Two hundred yards,” Mary answered, flipping her safety off.
Having not shot anything that far, Sandy flipped the safety off and held high on the shadowy pack, then counted, “One, two, three,” Sandy said, squeezing the trigger and then gave up on being a sniper. Sandy squeezed the trigger rapidly, just bracketing the area as did Mary.
The pack bolted away heading south and they both heard three yelps. Sandy lowered her rifle panting hard and looked down at her open bolt. Yanking the empty magazine out, Sandy slapped in a new one after dropping the empty in her dump bag. Lifting the thermal up, Sandy’s heart sank to see the pack was stopped six hundred yards away.
“They just moved south,” Sandy groaned as Mary moved over and Sandy passed the thermals.
“I’ll take that,” Mary said, noticing two hot spots where the dogs were and four limping figures heading for the pack. “Looks like we got two and hit four.”
“I used a whole magazine,” Sandy gasped, expecting more than that.
“So did I,” Mary responded, handing the thermals back. “At least now, they know getting close to us is bad.”
“Mary, if that was the case, they would’ve run off,” Sandy pointed out and then turned her horse and continued on. Even though there were strips of trees in the massive fields, Sandy kept them in wide open areas.
Moving for a mile, Sandy turned to the south with the thermals and again saw the pack keeping pace with them. Turning in the saddle, Sandy scanned around and spotted a few houses she could see, but nothing else. To the south, the pack started barking and Sandy spun and saw the pack engulf a group of stinkers. The pack took them down so fast, Sandy couldn’t even get a count.
“What?” Mary asked, moving up as the barking stopped.
“They took down a group of stinkers,” Sandy answered. “The group of stinkers was too bunched up for me to count before the dogs took them down.”
Turning to the south, Mary nodded. “Okay, they aren’t all bad.”
“Then they need to stop keeping pace with us,” Sandy grunted, passing the binoculars over and Mary scanned to the south and found the pack already moving with them.
Handing the thermals back, “We can’t outrun them,” Mary sighed.
Putting the lanyard for the thermals over her head, Sandy was about to respond when gunfire erupted in front of them. Both turned east and could tell it was several dozen guns shooting. “That’s close,” Sandy said, looking around and wishing she had stayed near the strips of trees.
“That’s over a mile, but I don’t see anything,” Mary said, and Sandy wanted to slap herself as she lifted up the thermals.
Looking over Highway 100, “There are trees between us and the shooting,” Sandy told her. Then Sandy turned to the south and panic hit her not seeing the pack, and she spun around and then saw the pack running southeast toward the gunfire. “Mary, the dogs are running toward the gunfire.”
“I see them,” Mary said, looking through the thermal monocular.
They crossed the highway and soon lost sight of the dogs behind some trees. “We are heading further north since the dogs are heading southeast,” Sandy announced as they crossed the highway and guided her horse just a little southeast and the gunfire picked up in intensity.
Then it seemed half the gunfire stopped when they entered a large field, and the gunfire rotated around them to the south. The trees to the south ended and half a mile away near a large house, they could see the flashes of gunshots, but didn’t hear that many reports. “Some of them have suppressors,” Mary noticed, then turned and saw Sandy looking at the scene with the thermals.
“It’s a group attacking a house,” Sandy reported. “I saw one shooting from inside the-,” Sandy stopped with her mouth hanging open.
Waiting for several seconds, “What?” Mary cried out, watching Sandy shiver and the gunfire die down slowly.
“The dogs are attacking those outside and the people inside are shooting any that try to get to the trucks in the yard,” Sandy mumbled, passing the binoculars over.
Grabbing the thermals, Mary lifted them up to see a cluster of dogs take a person that was running down to the ground. The gunfire went from a few single reports to nothing. Moving the thermals, Mary could see clusters of dogs around the house and started counting. “I think the pack took down sixteen people and it looks like they are eating them,” Mary admitted with a shiver and handed the thermals back.
Hanging them around her neck, “I think the horses need to jog for a little while, just to loosen their muscles up,” Sandy suggested, flipping down her monocular.
“Excellent idea,” Mary agreed, flipping her monocular down and both kicked their horses into a trot, but the horses it seemed, wanted to sprint. They both pulled back on the reins to keep the horses in a trot. It took a few minutes, but the horses finally settled into a nice trot.
“Tyler, hold the saddle loop and stand up in your stirrups like me,” Sandy said over her shoulder because this was the only way she found she could ride a horse in a trot. Using her legs as shock absorbers, Sandy glanced back and saw Tyler copying her and doing well.
Ten minutes into the trot, Sandy saw a dirt road heading east as they crossed another highway, and guided the horse to it. She didn’t like roads, but hated moving fast through fields because she couldn’t spot dangers the horse could hit or step in.
Ahead, she saw the dirt road intersected another dirt road at a T. She barely slowed, steering her horse right to the north road and glanced back to see Mary standing in her saddle like her. Turning ahead, “Shit,” Sandy grumbled, seeing three stinkers ahead.
Lifting her AR, Sandy quickly realized that was an exercise in futility and reached up to turn the IR laser on. When the laser neared the head, Sandy squeezed the trigger and the first muffled pop startled her horse, but he stayed in the trot. It took three shots before she hit the first and the distance was closing fast. Sandy saw another laser bouncing around and aimed at the stinker the other laser wasn’t aiming at.
Soft pops sounded off and both stinkers fell when the horses were only yards away. Not knowing how many times she’d shot, Sandy changed magazines and dropped the used one in the dump bag as the road turned northeast.
The few houses they passed all sat dark, but they saw stinkers move away from several as they approached. None of the stinkers were near the road when they passed riding side by side. Sandy glanced down and saw Dan in a loping run with his tongue hanging out.
Turning ahead, Sandy lifted the thermals and tried to make sense of the shaking view. “Slow down,” Sandy called out, slowing her horse. When the horse didn’t slow, Sandy yanked hard on the reins to give the horse the message she wanted to slow down. Ready to yank again, Sandy scanned ahead as the horse settled into a walk. “Asshole, you’re pissing me off,” Sandy grumbled at the horse.
“That’s Highway 73 ahead,” Sandy announced, scanning around and then looked back to see several dozen stinkers strung out behind them.
Glancing down at her watch, “We made eight miles that fast?” Mary gasped.
“Shit, Asshole wanted to set a land speed record,” Sandy huffed, still scanning ahead where the dirt road met the highway. “Will you shoot these two stinkers coming out on the road ahead?”
Letting her AR hang, Mary lifted up her bow as two stinkers stumbled up on the road from a dark house. Both stinkers moved toward them moaning as Mary let the first arrow fly and grabbed another arrow as the stinker jerked when the arrow hit the head. The other stinker tripped, and Mary held her shot while keeping her aim on the stinker as her horse started moving wide.
Only yards away Mary released, pinning the stinker’s head to the road and looked ahead. “Any more near?”
“No,” Sandy said, still scanning around. “Let’s get across the road into the field.”
Mary glanced back, lifting up the thermal monocular and could see the string of stinkers on the road behind them. When she heard the clatter of hooves on the roadway, Mary turned back around and guided her horse into the field across the road.
Out in the field, Mary turned and saw Sandy still scanning, but was concentrating to the north. “What?” Mary asked.
“You don’t hear it?” Sandy asked, not lowering the thermals.
Ignoring the sounds of the horses, Mary concentrated. “It’s a car,” Chris said behind her, and Mary glanced back to see Chris with his eyes closed, pointing north.
Like a blanket was pulled, Mary heard the hum of an engine and it was closing. “How far away did you hear that?” Mary gasped, very impressed.
“That’s the third one I heard,” Sandy told her. “The first I heard when we were shooting those stinkers, but it was behind us. The next one was when the road turned northeast. This one, when I wanted to slow down because it sounded like it was on Highway 73, which I think it is.”
Able to tell the hum was louder, Mary nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it’s getting closer, but it’s not going that fast.”
“I know. It’s a truck,” Sandy said, and Mary turned and saw Sandy was looking northwest, but slowly turning west. Sandy lowered the thermals and passed them to Mary.
Taking the thermals, Mary lifted them and saw a truck slowly moving down the road they had crossed half a mile back. The truck slowed to a stop when it reached the road where they’d come out on the highway and crossed into the field. Mary could see a person in the back, looking around. “I think they are looking for us,” Mary admitted.
“Yep, they stopped where you shot those stinkers,” Sandy said, reaching over and grabbing the reins of Mary’s horse to guide it through a row of trees. Before the trees blocked her view, Mary saw the truck turn onto the road where they’d shot the stinkers, moving away from them.
When Mary passed the thermals back, Sandy let Mary’s horse go. As Mary took the reins, “That was stupid as shit getting on a road,” Sandy snapped at herself.
“Sandy, one of my pack horses stumbled hard in that field and almost pulled all of my horses down,” Mary cried out. “You getting on that road was the only way we could continue to move that fast.”
Guiding them near another string of trees, Sandy just nodded, still feeling guilty. “You think your horse is okay?”
“She’s not limping,” Mary admitted. “I’ll check her when we make camp. We can eat in the saddle tonight.”
“We aren’t going to see why they chased us, are we?” Chris asked in a trembling voice. “I don’t want to talk to them.”
“Neither do we,” Mary said, reaching back and patting his leg. “Sandy,” Mary sighed. “Get Tyler to sit in front of you and give him the thermals. We need out of here and he’s already proven he can watch.”
Nodding, Sandy let the thermals hang and reached back. “Tyler, stand up holding onto me and climb around,” Sandy told him and helped him move from behind her to sit in front of her. Then she passed him the thermal binoculars. “Keep the lanyard on, so you don’t drop them. They are a lot heavier than the others.”
Holding up the NVG binoculars, “Can you hold these, so I don’t lose them?” Tyler asked.
Taking the NVGs from Tyler, Sandy turned them off and shoved them in a rear saddle bag. “Whoa,” Tyler gasped, looking at the world in thermal. “I see stinkers,” Tyler announced, pointing south and then pointed west, “and they are going that way.”
“I feel better,” Mary admitted, riding beside Sandy. “Chris?” Mary said.
“Nothing’s behind us,” Chris told her, and Sandy turned and saw Chris looking behind them with the thermal monocular. As they rode on, the boys continued scanning around and Sandy was able to steer them around stinkers to their front.
Southeast of Woodburn, “Ms. Sandy, I see people,” Tyler announced, and Sandy yanked her horse to a stop and turned south where Tyler was looking.
“Let me have them,” Sandy told him, reaching down. Taking the thermals, Sandy lifted them and saw a group of people emerging from trees heading west. “About half a mile,” Sandy mumbled, “on foot. Looks around twenty people heading west.”
Mary could see shapes and handed the thermal monocular back to Chris. “We still have to cross I65, we need to go,” Mary said as Sandy passed the thermals over.
“It’s a motley collection,” Sandy told her, and Mary gave the group a casual scan before handing the thermals back.
“They aren’t a threat,” Mary said, and Sandy gave the thermals to Tyler and he went back to scanning around.
Reaching over and patting Mary’s leg, “I know, but we are out of the area they are searching,” Sandy said. “We haven’t heard vehicles and they have a pack of dogs from hell to deal with.”
“Hope they eat all their asses,” Mary huffed, and Sandy gave her horse a kick. Leading them into the trees, Sandy felt the tension ease from the entire group, including the horses.
“Are we following this river?” Tyler asked, looking around and then lowered the thermals, blinking his eyes.
“Yes, it’s a creek,” Sandy said, patting his belly and Tyler lifted the thermals back up. “We are going to try and follow it under the interstate.”
Tyler let out a sigh of relief. “Good, because I don’t like goin’ over them.”
“We don’t either, Tyler, that’s why we are going under, or will try.”
Keeping near the creek, Sandy hoped the trees stayed with them as they neared the interstate. Still over a mile away, the smell hit them like a wall when a breeze blew in from the east. “Damn,” Sandy mumbled, able to taste the stinker in the air.
She leaned down to Tyler’s ear. “Stay quiet, we are close,” Sandy whispered and felt Tyler’s body turn to stone, but his head still scanned around, just much slower.
The trees further out from the creek fell away exposing a small grass-covered field, and Sandy saw the raised interstate two hundred yards away. Thankfully, she couldn’t see the roadway, and could only see the heads of stinkers heading north. Keeping in the trees at the bank, Sandy led them in a wide arc to follow the creek and sighed seeing there were trees right up to the bridge and a small dirt road for tractors under the bridge.
Lifting her bow, Sandy readied an arrow because she would only use a gun as a last resort. The closer to the bridge they got, Sandy could hear the footsteps dragging along and it unnerved her, realizing how many bodies it would take to be that loud.
Moving under the bridge, they could hear the mass of bodies shuffling above them through the yards of concrete and earth. Sandy felt her pulse skip a beat and her mouth go dry as her mind provided details to the numbers she didn’t want. Exiting the other side, they wouldn’t have trees for fifteen yards. Biting her bottom lip, Sandy just let her horse walk out and cover the gap before easing back into the trees. Turning around, Sandy sighed when she realized the interstate was too high, over thirty feet above them, for stinkers to see them unless they had leaned over.
Keeping to the trees, Sandy stayed with the creek as it turned south with a field on the other side. Sandy looked through the trees to the interstate and almost fell off her horse. All six lanes of the interstate heading to Bowling Green were tightly packed with stinkers.
She could feel Tyler hyperventilating and felt her bottom get wet. Almost certain she hadn’t peed; Sandy steered her horse away from the creek, praying it wouldn’t snap a large limb. Coming out on a dirt road Sandy had no intention of following, she led her horse over it and back into the trees. Leaning down to Tyler’s ear, “We are away. Keep looking around so we don’t stumble up on some and have to make noise,” Sandy whispered, and Tyler immediately went back into scan mode.
When they were two miles away and crossing a field staying near the fence row, Mary eased up beside Sandy. “You realize our camp spot is only four miles from the interstate right?” Mary asked.
Glancing at her watch, “The alternate was nine. You want to try for that?” Sandy asked, and Mary grinned.
“I want to try the third one fourteen miles away, but unless we are spotted by stinkers, we aren’t moving during daylight hours,” Mary told her and Sandy nodded, not even thinking about arguing that.
Hearing a sniffling, Sandy patted Tyler’s chest, steering them back into trees. “What’s wrong?” Sandy asked.
“I’m sorry,” Tyler whimpered.
Leaning down, Sandy kissed the top of his head. “Tyler, we spilled water in the saddle,” Sandy whispered, then kissed his head again.
Wiping his face, Tyler looked up at her giving a smile, then went back to scanning. Crossing creeks and roads, Sandy would steer away from the few stinkers Tyler spotted. Since most were on roads, that wasn’t hard.
It was an hour before dawn when they reached the second campsite at an oxbow, and everyone had to use the bathroom before unloading the horses.
