The Guardians (19 page)

Later that evening, Evan spoke with Mildred about all of the options as he, Jason, and Griff had discussed.  He assured her that the cattle would always be hers, regardless of their location, and all of her property would be treated as such.  She thanked the men for being so willing to help her and Haley through this ordeal, and told them that whatever they thought was the best course of action was fine by her. 

"Ollie always made these kinds of decisions," she said.  "He was the man of the house and ran the farm, I simply ran the inside of the home all these years.  I'm not in a state of mind to be making any big decisions right now.  Maybe some day, but as of now, I'll defer those types of things to you gentleman, if that's OK with you of course."

"Yes Ma'am of course, not only are you dear friends who we also consider family, but we are all in this mess together, and we will never let you down," Evan said as he tipped his hat to Mildred.

The next morning Evan and Jason began their planned and scheduled barter run.  They stopped first at the Thomas Farm.  They made a quick patrol of the property and found it, at this point, to still be undisturbed from how they had left it the day before.  They also counted the cattle, and came up with forty-four in total.  In addition, Mildred had ten chickens, two goats, and a pig they had bartered for that she was fattening up.

"We can put some stake sides on the flatbed trailer and pull the rest of these critters behind the tractor I guess," said Jason as he calculated what Mildred would need to move right away.  "I think if we disconnect the main part of the chicken coop from its run we should be able to get the entire coop on the trailer, which we will need as Molly's coop is pretty crowded as it is.  Not to mention Mildred may want to keep her birds separate.  We can always come back and take down the fence later to rebuild her chicken run."

"Great idea," Evan replied, "We are gonna need some help with the cattle though.  Daryl Moses is quite the horseman, so we need to get him on board for sure.  Lloyd has a horse or two at his place as well."

"And most importantly, Jimmie Lewis can donate some moonshine to calm our nerves during this evolution," said Jason with a smirk on his face.

"Heck, it may be the cattle that need a swig of shine," replied Evan with a chuckle.  "I doubt any of them have ever stepped a hoof off of this property."

"Isn't Linda Cox an equestrian as well?" asked Jason.

"I believe so.  When I took Molly over there to get some fabric, it seems like there were a bunch of old pictures on the wall from some sort of equestrian competitions from when she was younger.  Maybe she would still be up for the task."

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to ask," said Jason.

"I agree," Evan said as he looked up at the sun.  "Let's get on with our rounds.  The day is burning and we need to get all of this hammered down to get these animals moved as soon as possible.  This place isn't gonna stay unmolested for long.  Not if those guys had any friends that are still out there."

With that, they loaded up what Ollie and Mildred had already promised in barter to other homesteads and continued to the next destination.  Over the course of the day, they retold the horrible story of what had happened at the Thomas Farm to each and every homestead.  They wanted everyone to not only want to chip in and help for the sake of their little community, but they also wanted to express to them the dangers that they all faced if they didn't stand together on this and any other security issue that may arise in the future.

As they told the story to Linda Cox, she looked a bit disturbed and said, "Just the other day, my dogs went nuts and chased something off into the woods from behind the house.  One of them didn't come back.  I thought I heard a gunshot off in the distance, but didn't know if it was someone hunting or something unrelated, but now that you say that, it seems a little more suspicious.  Then the next day, one of the Muncie boys showed up here, I believe it was the middle one, I think he said his name was Joe.  He came by with a man I had never seen around here before.  As Joe, or whatever his name was, talked to me and seemed to try to keep my attention at the door, the other man stood back a little further and kept looking around the property.  It just didn't feel right.  I had the other dogs in the house at the time, and they were getting pretty aggressive.  You could tell they didn't want me to step outside.  They wedged themselves between me and the screen door while I talked to Joe."

"What did they want?" asked Jason.

"Oh yea," she continued.  "Joe said they were just looking for work in the area and asked if I had any odd jobs that needed to be done.  They said they were hungry and would work for food.  I thought that a bit odd as they both seemed well fed.  Most people around here have shed their extra weight over the past year, but these men seemed to be doing just fine.  A little odd for someone who said they were hungry and looking for food I thought."

"Who was the friend?" asked Evan.

"He never introduced us.  He just always said we, but never said who the other man was.  He just stood back about ten feet during the entire conversation.  Either he was afraid of the dogs or afraid of me and the shotgun I had leaning up against the opened door."

"That or he needed to stand back where he could get a better view and take mental notes of the property," added Jason.  "I tell you one thing that is odd; of all of the other homesteads we have talked to, not one of them have had those men come around looking for odd jobs.  If they were truly looking for work, don't you think they would be going around to all of the homesteads to advertise their services?"

"Oh come on guys, now you're making me nervous," Linda said.

"Nervous is good," said Evan.  "It will help you keep your wits about you.  We can't assume the Thomas Farm problem is isolated and will go away.  We have to stick together until we are sure it's over.  If you would like to join us tomorrow moving Mildred's cattle, we would love to have you.  We could use someone with your horse skills.  Jason and I are handy, but we aren't ranchers."

"Who else is going?" she asked.

Evan pulled out his handwritten notes and said, "So far, Robert Brooks, Lloyd Smith, and Daryl Moses will be on horseback.  If you came along, that would give us two on each side.  Charlie Blanchard and Jimmie Lewis are both bringing an ATV.  I'll be driving my old Ford tractor pulling a trailer with some of Mildred's belongings up front, and Jason will be driving Ollie's Massey Ferguson tractor, pulling a livestock trailer in the rear.  We are also going to be using the trailers on the tractors as security platforms.  I'll be armed as will Jason, and Will Bailey and Billy Skidmore have both volunteered to ride shotgun.  We'll put one on each trailer.  They can focus on being the security lookouts, while you folks on the horses and ATV's can focus on keeping the herd moving along and intact."

"With a representative from most of the homesteads present, we'll also be talking about a way to come up with a joint security strategy," added Jason.  "We need to get some sort of area wide patrol going, so that we can figure out if the Thomas Farm thieves are still in the area."

"Well count me in then!" she said with excitement.  "I could use a day away, and I definitely want to be involved with whatever you guys discuss about patrolling the area.  I'm starting to not feel so good about living alone out here."

"We'll get a handle on this if we all pull together.  Just do us a favor and call us on the CB anytime something suspicious happens, and don't go outside unarmed," Evan said.  He then proceeded to explain to her the meet up point and the time for the group to get together the next morning.  He and Jason then loaded up some of the clothing items that Linda had made or repaired for barter, so that they could deliver them to the other homesteads on their next pass through.  Once they had her things all loaded up they got on their way.  Tomorrow was going to be a long day, and they wanted to make sure to get back to the Homefront in time to get everything ready before nightfall. 

****

Nate had now been on his new prosthesis for several weeks and had continued with his physical fitness and rehabilitation plan.  He was feeling strong, and was getting anxious to go.  He could tell that his brother was still torn, wanting and needing to help him try to reunite their family, while not wanting to leave Rachel behind in Texas during such uncertain times. 

He had acquired nearly everything he personally needed for the journey, and would question Luke about his own readiness almost every time they met.  Luke was staying in a barracks type facility across town with several other TSG soldiers and medical personnel.  Luke had reassured him that his location was secure and well-guarded, but Nate still worried about Luke's safety while traveling from his quarters to the medical facility, especially after what had happened to him and his band of TSG escorts.

Nate had just ate his breakfast and was starting to go a little stir crazy.  His room was in the center of the facility and had no windows to look outside.  The TSG medical and security personnel who ran the facility, insisted that he not leave the grounds without an escort, as he did not have the security credentials to return.  He was after all still an outsider, even though the TSG's hospitality made him feel as if he was one of their own.

He decided to unpack and repack his backpack, and inventory his supplies as he had done many times before.  This exercise in readiness was mostly a time killer for him, but it also helped add reality to his plan of continuing his journey, that sometimes just seemed like a faraway dream.  As he began to unpack his bag, his brother came into the room more excited than Nate can remember seeing him throughout this entire ordeal.

"Nate! You're not going to believe this!" he said frantically.

"What? Believe what?" Nate said as he sprang to his feet with confidence on his new leg.

"It's Mom!  Remember when I said Rachel put out an information request over the radio?" Luke asked with excitement.

"Yea, yea, now what is it?" insisted Nate.

"Well, there is a group called the Survivor's Locator Network, ran by volunteer HAM radio operators," Luke said. "You can call in the name of a person or persons you are looking for, while leaving your own name to help be found by them as well.  They add to and subtract from the list daily based on new reports.  Sometimes they are able to put together a match of people seeking each other.  That's what Rachel did!  She gave them Mom and Dad's info with ours as the seekers.  She just got word from them that they got a match!  Mom is out there somewhere looking for us!" Luke exclaimed as he put his arms around Nate and began to cry.  "All this time I've tried to act tough and block everything out that's not standing right in front of me.  I didn't want to face the pain of having lost you or our parents so I just focused on the here and now.  I'm sorry for being a jerk.  You were right all along Nate.  You always are," Luke said as he just held his brother and cried.

Nate did not know what to say.  He was speechless.  Was this really happening, or was this just another of the myriad dreams he has where he quickly awakens to his sad reality?  After a moment of letting it all sink in, the brothers relaxed their emotional embrace and Nate asked, "So where is she?  What about Dad?"

"There wasn't much info to start.  All they had was that Judith Hoskins of Norfolk, Viginia, was seeking sons Nathan and Lucas Hoskins.  Her current location was simply Tennessee.  There wasn't anything specific.  There was nothing about Dad," Luke replied.

"Tennessee?  What are they doing in Tennessee?" replied Nate.

"Who knows?" answered Luke as he shrugged his shoulders.  "I'm just glad they aren't out at sea on the Little Angel.  That would have made them damn near impossible to find.  Not to mention the fact that we should consider it a blessing, as Tennessee is one state closer.  It's also a fairly stable area, which of course is probably why they went there."

"So what now?" asked Nate.  "Do they know about us?

"Our info was on there," said Luke.  "I'm assuming they will radio their point of contact with our info.  I asked Rachel to have them update our status and to request their specific location, as well as to let them know that we would be on the move to them as soon as we have it."

"Luke," Nate said in a serious tone.

"Yea, what?" he replied.

"Before we get too excited about finding them, we need to realize something and prepare ourselves," Nate said in a serious tone.

"Prepare ourselves for what?" Luke again replied.

Nate looked him in the eyes and said, "There was no mention of Dad.  Don't you think she would have put Bill and Judith Hoskins if they were both looking for us?  Dad had a heart condition.  It has been an exceedingly stressful year, and you know as well as anyone our current medical supply situation.  You can barely get the drugs you need for your patients, and that's with the support of the entire state of Texas.  Dad may not have had those kinds of resources, and he can't be far from his pills."

Luke just stood there quietly for a moment, realizing the legitimacy of Nate's concerns and said, "Well brother, for once I hope you're not the one who is always right."

****