Ever Onward (37 page)

In the near dark, the light from the
fire and the Coleman lamp showed them a grizzly sight. Three bodies
lay stretched out just beyond the fire. One of them seemed to be
smoldering. Brad, Bobby and Gus stood looking at a man dressed in
black. The man had a rifle slung over his back.

Og bounded up to the fire, eager to be
reunited with his family. Princess, older and wiser, stayed by
Josh.

“Brad?”, Josh called out.

“It’s okay, Josh,” Gus yelled back.
“Come on in.”

“Watch the stranger,” Josh whispered
to Eddy, then moved forward. His eyes met his cousin’s and held.
Brad nodded. Josh turned to the man in black. “Who are
you?

“Cobb,” the stranger said, offering
his hand. Josh found the grip firm and steady.

“He saved our lives, Mr. Williams,”
Bobby put in. “Tex, the leader of these three drew on Brad and
looked like he was gunna kill him! Cobb shot Tex first. Head shot
from way back there!” Bobby nodded towards the shadowy pines well
over fifty yards away, then tuned back and shrugged. “I wacked the
kid with my guitar and Gus took out the fat guy.”

Eddy, who’d been checking the bodies,
turned to Gus. “Christ, old timer, did you ever!”

They all saw the stake still sticking
out of Fat’s right eye. Og was now nosing around the bodies. Josh
called him back, then looked over at Cobb.

“You were riding with
them?”

“I hitched a ride with them late
yesterday.”

“And before that?”

Cobb shrugged. “Just moving around. I
had some family up in Burlington, but...” His voice trailed off,
his gaze going to something over Josh’s shoulder. Turning, Josh saw
Kenneth and Flame moving towards them. Kenneth went to stand beside
his father. Flame stopped beside Josh, her green eyes taking in the
dark stranger. She looked at the three bodies, then back to Cobb.
“And who do we have here?”

Bobby jumped again with all the gory
details. Half way through, Trina and Jessie joined them and Bobby
gladly started from the beginning. Gus tossed the burnt fish away,
pan and all, and began heating several cans of stew. Trina put on
water for coffee. While the food was getting ready, the men hauled
the bodies into the forest. Cobb helped. Fats took some hauling.
When they got back, Flame had poured them all a stiff
drink.

“Staying for dinner, stranger?”, Flame
purred, handing Cobb a cup of straight vodka. Her green eyes
reflected back the fire’s dancing flames.

Cobb turned to Josh. “That depends,
miss.”

“On what?”, she asked.

Cobb continued to look at Josh. “On
what the boss here says.”

Josh held the man’s steady gaze.
“You’re welcome to stay the night. Just don’t wander around in the
dark. The dogs get nervous.”

Og chose that moment to lick the man’s
hand. Cobb smiled for the first time. “Thanks for the
warning.”

Chapter 28
: ‘HOME’

Lake Champlain

New York State

August
13

Cobb joined them on the trip back to
Mount Hawthorn. There was no formal invitation, no meeting, no
vote. Cobb just seemed to ‘fit in’, much the way a long lost pair
of old slippers feel when found.

One reason was that Cobb was so
self-sufficient. When the Change came, he’d been working on the
Denver SWAT team. Before that he’d been in the Special Forces.
Knowledgeable in all forms of survival, he could vanish into the
woods and return an hour later with fresh caught trout, partridge
or rabbits. He could cook all the food he brought in, understood
motors and, something that thrilled the two women to no end, even
fixed the shower in Tex’s Winnebago.

Another reason was that he was an
expert with weapons --- all kinds of weapons. Handguns, rifles,
knives, even a bow. He knew each gun they had and the various loads
and types of cartridges they could use. He could field-strip and
clean them all in a matter of moments. He was also the best shot
among them.

One other quality he had as well. He
was a good listener. Each of the various members found themselves
sharing with him their deepest fears. Through it all he would nod
and listen quietly, ending with a reassuring word or two that
seemed to make their fears vanish in the air.

By the time they reached New York
State, Cobb was an accepted member of the Family.

They crossed the Chimney Point Bridge
just before noon on the thirteenth of August. An hour later they
drove through Crown Point, then on another two miles to the little
town of Mount Hawthorn. Passing the sign they’d painted on the food
store, they pulled into Doc Gruber’s a little before
two.

The place was empty.

“Where can they be?”, Jessie asked,
his voice high with worry.

Josh scratched his freshly grown
beard. “Doc mentioned they might move up to Willard Spinner’s farm.
Let’s try there.”

Ten minutes later they pulled into
Willard’s long drive. Green stocks of corn waved in the afternoon
breeze. Cows grazed in the field and four horses trotted around
inside a newly constructed corral. Willard’s old pick-up was parked
outside the rambling farmhouse, but no-one seemed home.

“The Shire?”, Jessie asked.

His father nodded and
climbed back inside the Westfalia. The other three trucks followed
Josh up into the park.

Mount Hawthorn’s Wildlife Park was a
sprawling mixture of rolling forest and lakes, crisscrossed with
streams and a small river. Back in the sixties, the State of New
York had bought it from the Catholic Church. There still was a
monastery on the north side, and the good Brothers, (now long
gone), had been heavily into farming and orchards. The land between
two of the three large lakes was owned by rich families. Old money.
The Shire, Josh called it. He thought that Tolkien would have
agreed. Stone fences lined the road. A rushing stream, complete
with waterfall and mill, joined two of the four lakes. The mill,
still functioning, hearkened back to the Colonial Days. A century
earlier the Brothers had ground their wheat there. Now it was a
working curiosity for hikers and cross-country skiers.

The rest of the park was virtually
virgin forest, a rugged offshoot of the majestic Adirondacks.
Rabbits, raccoons, muskrat, and deer made their homes there.
Countless birds as well. In the fall the lakes were black with
Canadian Geese stopping over for a little R & R on their way
south. Josh had loved it from the first time he had seen it. To
Jessie, it was his own personal playground while growing
up.

Driving up the Park Road, they came to
the gate house. Built of stone with a steeply pitched roof,
fireplace and dormer windows, the little cottage looked like
something out of ‘Snow White & the Seven Dwarves’. Jessie had
simply dubbed it Merlin’s House, after the famed wizard of
old.

Three strangers were stringing wire
from the fence to the wrought-iron gate when they arrived. Everyone
reached for their weapons. As usual, Cobb was the fastest. He was
out the side door of Josh’s van before it had stopped.

“Hold it right there!”, he barked, a
Glock automatic having materialized in his hand. Both men froze.
The young woman with them did not. She continued to reach for the
rifle leaning against the stone wall. As her fingers touched the
stock, a 9mm slug slammed into the wood, spinning the weapon away.
The woman pulled her hand back with a shriek.

“I warned you.” Cobb’s voice had a
slightly mocking tone to it.

The other two gathered around her.
Josh looked the three up and down.

“What are you doing here?”

The grey haired man jerked a thumb
back at the gate. “Stringing up an alarm to the Big House. Who
wants to know?”

“My name is Williams.”

All three strangers gasped. The woman
spoke first.

“Are you Josh Williams? The one Doc
goes on about?”

Josh frowned. “You know
Doc?”

“’
Know’ him?”, the graying,
potbellied man said. “Hell, we live with him!

The other man, somewhere in his
thirties, sandy-haired and dressed only in shorts, stepped forward
and offered his hand. Cobb’s gun followed him, but Josh waved him
off.

“I’m Tom Leeson. This is Fred Perkins
and the young lady is Betty Sinclair. We all live with Doc and the
others up at the Big House.”

“How many others?”, Josh
asked.

“Near a dozen,” Tom smiled. “Then
there’s Willard and Sadat. They stay at Willard’s farm.”

Eddy grinned. “Doc’s been a busy bee
since we’ve been away.”

The woman stepped forward, “Doc’s told
us all about you. You really been all the way to New Hampshire?”
Short and feisty, Betty Sinclair’s tone was still
hostile.

“All the way to the Main coast, little
lady,” Gus put in. “Picking up strays as they go.”

Betty eyed Cobb. “Some of them seem a
bit too ready to bite.”

Cobb bowed theatrically. When he
straightened up, his hands were empty.

After the noisy reunion and the feast
that followed, Doc Gruber led Josh out to the flagstone patio
overlooking the lake. The night was clear and bright, and while the
moon had yet to rise, the sky was studded with stars. A loon called
from far out over the still waters.

“Good to have you back, Josh. Glad you
found your family too. Have much trouble?”

Josh lit his pipe as the old man drew
on a cigar. “Enough. Things have gotten pretty bad out
there.”

Doc nodded, his knowing eyes speaking
volumes.

Both men smoked in silence for some
time, then Doc spoke. “You heard about our trouble with that bunch
that came up to the house?”

“Tom and that tall fella told
me.”

“Jim Shell,” Doc said. “Jim and Marcy
joined us soon after you left.”

Josh nodded.

“What about the Willard and Sadat’s
run-in with the boat?”

Josh frowned. “I heard that one
several times already. Sounds like they were damned lucky! Why? You
think the boat will be back?”

Doc attempted to blow a smoke-ring.
“Maybe. Maybe not. But if not them, then others like them.” The old
man flicked ash from his cigar.

“That the reason for the alarm system
at the gate?”

Doc nodded, then suddenly leaned
forward, his gaze intense. “Maybe it’s just an old man’s fancies
running away with him, but I got a bad feeling crawling up my
spine. At first I thought that we’d all be able to start afresh.
Build something better than before. Learn from the past. But
now...”

Josh sighed. “There are good people
out there, Doc. You’ve heard about them at dinner. There’s bound to
be plenty more.”

“And there’s bound to be a hell of a
lot worse too!” Doc’s voice had lost its accustomed
softness.

From inside the sounds of laughter
could be heard. Bobby was working his way through a John Denver
tune and several voices were letting a ‘country road take them
home’.

Josh and Doc sat in silence, each one
lost in his own dark thoughts. From far off in the darkness came
again the plaintive cry of a loon. Suddenly it became the loneliest
sound either man had ever heard.

Chapter 29
: ‘ONCE MORE UNTO THE
BREACH’

The Adirondacks

New York State

Mid
August

Things at the Big House were running
smoothly. Several more people had turned up and Doc had set them up
in one of the other large houses located around the central lake.
Teams were bringing up cases of canned goods and other food from
Hawthorn and Crown Point. Willard had a crew harvesting the wheat
he’d planted. After that they intended to move on to the corn. The
Shire’s park land made excellent grazing for the cows and sheep
Willard and the little Turk, Sadat, had rounded up. One of the
newcomers, Giuseppe Coleroni, was a butcher from upstate. Bobby and
Cobb were busy hooking up heavy-duty gasoline generators to large
freezers for the freshly killed meat Giuseppe was more than willing
to produce. Another newcomer, Gustoph Muller, had worked as a child
in his grandfather’s grist-mill. The gruff German was pleased to
revive his ancient trade. Soon Willard had a ready market for his
wheat and corn. The barns were being repaired, cleaned and stocked.
Another team was busy cutting firewood for the winter.

After a month on the road, Josh soon
found all the hustle and bustle a little confining and when Flame
asked him about the High Peaks Region, he had offered to take her
on a guided tour. Flame, still burning with a newly awakened desire
to tread the high country, had eagerly taken him up on his
invitation.

When Eddy heard of the intended
expedition, he had shyly asked if Josh minded if he and Trina could
tag along. The two of them had been spending quite a bit of time
together, and the whole Family now considered them a
‘couple’.

When informed about the
trip, Jessie had mysteriously decided to stay behind. Doc took Josh
aside and hinted that the reason might be Mai-Ling, Mrs. Wong’s
mute granddaughter. Surprised and feeling suddenly old, Josh had
frowned, then reluctantly agreed to leave the boy behind. After
all, he reasoned, the boy was nearly seventeen. Hormones would win
out, regardless of what over-protective fathers thought about it.
Brad was busy organizing the daily operations of the Big House and
Bobby had suddenly become fascinated with seventeen year old Gloria
Ambrose. Since neither Jessie nor his father was going, Kenneth
stayed behind as well.