Reclamation (Best Laid Plans Book 4) (9 page)

A bit of guilt niggled at the back of his mind, telling him he shouldn't be this content after the horror of the Retaliation. He accepted that guilt, and the genuine grief and sympathy he felt for those who had suffered in the last few days, but he also decided to put it all aside for the moment. He'd been in a fog of grim purpose since the raiders arrived, faced with death every day and struggling to his limits to do what needed to be done.

Now, with something as simple as riding a bike beside his wife on a mountain road, that fog had lifted. It would probably come back, when they returned home and the weight of how profoundly the world had changed and everything they'd need to do to survive those changes settled on him again. But for now it was a relief to be free of it.

He looked over at Jane and saw a wide grin on her face as well, and when her light blue eyes met his he had a feeling she felt the same. She'd needed this as much as he had.

Since Jane had started out slightly ahead of him she soon naturally assumed point, as if they were on patrol. Which was a good mindset to have these days. She set the pace and scanned the way ahead for possible dangers, as well as any sign of Pete, while Lewis rode a bit behind and to her left and focused on the landscape to the sides, as well as the occasional glance behind.

There wasn't much to see aside from slopes lined with scrub brush, and the occasional stands of trees growing along meadows blooming into spring growth. But he didn't let the enjoyable view dull his caution as their pursuit of their wayward friend dragged on for fifteen or so minutes with no sight of him.

At that point Lewis saw a 6-point buck partially obscured by trees in the meadow to their right. He gave a low whistle, doing his best not to let the sound carry, and Jane glanced over her shoulder at him while slowing. When she saw what he was looking at she came to a stop entirely and let him catch up.

“That's tempting,” she said.

Lewis nodded. His and Trev's remaining food storage had entirely run out a few days ago, and he and Jane also had everyone else living at the shelter to worry about. That meat would provide a few good meals for all of them.

It would also be a huge hassle to move with them on their bikes, not to mention it would signal the end of their search for Pete, as well as for the elusive herd of sheep. He shook his head regretfully. It was tempting, but not tempting enough. “Maybe it'll still be there on the way back.”

His wife nodded in agreement, and without another word started off again. Lewis caught up and got back to scanning the area to the sides and behind them.

A few minutes later they finally caught up to their friend at the top of a high point along the road, where the young man's bike lay on its side in an awkward place. Pete was sprawled on his back beside it, and Lewis couldn't tell if he'd crashed, had finally gotten winded and decided to take a breather, or had just decided the spot would be a good place to have a look around.

Either way, he was glad they'd caught up to the idiot before he ran them a merry chase around the mountains.

Jane slowed down, glancing back at him, and Lewis took the cue and continued on to his friend while she stopped nearby and got out her binoculars to inspect the area. He dropped his new bike on its kickstand beside the downed one and went over to stand with his shadow covering the young man's face.

“About time,” Pete said, opening his eyes and squinting up at him. “You decide to have a picnic or something?”

Lewis was pretty sure they hadn't been more than a minute or so behind, and he wasn't in the mood for banter. “Go ahead and ditch us without a word if you want, but it'll make me think twice about inviting you along next time.”

“All right, I get it,” his friend snapped, then sighed and sat up, brushing reddish-brown hair out of his eyes. He hadn't had a haircut in a while and was getting pretty shaggy. Lewis wondered if that was because, with the young man's parents gone, there wasn't anyone to give him one and he was too shy or proud to ask.

That simple reminder of what their friend had gone through recently was enough to take the edge off his annoyance, and he resolved to offer Pete a mirror and some scissors when they got back. He'd also try to find a circumspect way to see if April might be willing to give the young man a haircut: Matt's sister had been helping with that when it came to everyone living in the shelter, and she didn't do too bad a job.

While he was at it, it might not hurt to look into other needs his friend had neglected since being left alone. Pete did a good enough job of acting independent that it was easy to forget he was still practically a kid; Alice, about his age, had immediately been taken in by another family in the same situation, but somehow Pete had been overlooked.

As far as Lewis knew he was still officially sleeping in the storehouse, with the few remaining defenders who'd been left homeless after Turner's missile barrage and the families the town had temporarily moved there. Although more often he slept out in the wilds in his search for the missing sheep.

Lewis reached into his pack and pulled out a couple strips of dried meat, offering one to the young man while he began gnawing on the other. Pete was almost too quick to accept it, and immediately began gnawing on his as well. “Have you searched this area before?” he asked.

Pete nodded. “Although it took way longer without a bike. That's why I'm in such a hurry to get past where I've already been while I have one.”

“Let's get going, then.” Lewis started for his bicycle.

He'd just hopped on and Pete was in the middle of getting on his own when Jane abruptly made a warning sound. “Shh! Listen.”

Lewis froze, straining to hear past the soft susurration of wind in his ears and the rustling of the grass and trees around him to catch the elusive sound. Almost before his brain recognized it as a truck engine he found himself riding hard across the bumpy meadow towards the nearest source of cover, a small thicket of scrub oak. Pete was almost as quick to react, while Jane had a head start of ten feet on them.

Weeks of being terrorized by raiders in vehicles had left them all with an instinctual caution bordering on paranoia when it came to that noise.

Within 30 seconds they'd got themselves concealed, weapons prepared as they listened to decide whether they should stay hidden or if they could risk making a break for it without being noticed. During that time Lewis whispered into the radio to let Matt and the others know what was going on, and alert them to the possible danger they might be in if they were anywhere in the area or there was more than one vehicle out there.

After a brief pause Matt replied. “We don't hear anything from where we are.”

Lewis nodded, although his friend couldn't see. “Not surprising. It sounds like it's coming from farther ahead, well away from the road you guys took.”

“Do you think they're Gold Bloc?”

“I really doubt it. From what we've heard, even with the ground they've taken since the Retaliation the invading forces are still at least a state away from us in either direction, and anyway this sounds like only one vehicle. I don't think they'd overextend that far just to explore backroads in the mountains of central Utah.” Lewis fell silent, straining his ears. He could still hear the engine noise, but was the vehicle still getting closer? There was a nearby road that came close to this one but went off a different way.

“Whoever it is, we should assume they're unfriendly,” Matt stated. “You guys are a bit closer to town than us, can you radio in a warning?”

“From this distance?” Lewis turned to look doubtfully down at the valley far below. “Maybe if we had a direct line of sight.”

“Try to get it, then. If there are trucks driving around the area then Aspen Hill needs to be warned.”

“The noise is getting farther away,” Jane reported. She had a look of intense concentration mingled with slight annoyance, as she did her best to listen to the vehicle over the racket of his radio conversation. Lewis doubted his wife would appreciate him telling her the expression was really cute, but darn it, it was.

He listened to verify her statement for himself, then nodded in agreement and relayed the information to Matt, finishing with, “We're going to backtrack, and maybe do some trailblazing to find a good radio spot. If we have to we'll send someone down the canyon, but I doubt we'll need to go that far.”

“All right. We'll keep going along this road until we have some solid reason to turn back. Maybe once you guys finish warning the town you can head after us so we're all together in case there's a threat.”

Lewis wanted to suggest his friends just abandon their search and head back, but if the vehicle was on the road he thought it was on then it wouldn't come anywhere near them or the town in either direction it went. Not unless it drove twenty or so miles out of the way to reach a connecting road. “Be careful.”

They waited until the noise of the engine had faded entirely, then pushed their bikes back to the dirt road and hopped on. The slight uphill slope he'd had no complaints about on the way there was even better as a slight downhill, and they coasted a good deal of the way, keeping their eyes out for any sign of a solid line of sight to the town below.

After ten minutes or so they found one, a spar of rock thrusting out of the hillside in the middle of another scrub oak thicket above a steep slope. Pete volunteered to brave the dense brush, which had a tendency to catch on clothes and skin with branches and roots that barely bent and were nearly impossible to break without serious effort or tools.

Lewis was only too happy to let his friend make the climb, and Jane made no objections either. They watched from the road as Pete slowly and laboriously wove his way through the thicket, at one point cursing and holding up his forearm to display a long scratch. After what seemed like forever he finally reached the spar and clambered out to the point, where he stood holding out his radio for long enough that Lewis was afraid the effort had been wasted.

More to feel like he was in the loop than anything Lewis swapped to the town frequency. He could hear his friend's voice loud and clear, but there were no replies.

At least as far as he could hear. To his relief, from the way Pete was talking he was either playing a prank on them or he'd managed to contact someone down below. Their friend gave the pertinent details, then repeated them a bit impatiently as if the reception was bad, and finally said a few farewells and signed off. Once that was done the young man lowered his radio and turned to give them a thumbs up, then picked his way back down the spar and through the thicket to rejoin them.

“You reach Chauncey?” Lewis asked as their friend crouch to grab his bike.

“Nope. Ben was on patrol west of town, up on a hilltop taking a breather. He passed the news on to the Mayor.”

“Well that's taken care of, then,” Jane said. “Unless the Mayor wanted us to do something.”

“Nah.” Pete grinned. “Just to be careful. And find the sheep.”

They set off, making their way the remainder of the distance to the fork in the road and heading up the branch Matt and the Hardings had taken. They rode hard, and even with the head start their friends had on them Lewis was confident they could catch up. Tom would slow the other group down a bit, and Matt was good about conserving strength with a realistic pace. It might take a while, though, and until then they kept their own eye out for anything worth noticing as they rode along.

A half hour passed, then an hour. With the noon sun hovering overhead Lewis was just about to suggest they stop for lunch and a rest when his radio crackled with Matt's voice, distorted by distance or interference from the hills between them.

“. . . news! We . . . signs of sheep!”

Lewis glanced at his companions and grinned as he replied. “Nice! How old?”

“Hard . . . say, but maybe . . . days. We can . . . faster than . . . though. Catch them . . . end of the day.”

“All right, see you soon.” Lewis paused to get a drink from his water bottle, glad to see that the other two did the same, and then they set off again at the same pace.

Pete, unable to contain himself, let out a few exultant whoops as they rode.

* * * * *

It turned out Lewis underestimated Tom's endurance.

Sure, the other group had a huge lead on them. Even so, it took the better part of the afternoon of steady riding at a strong pace to catch up, following the landmarks Matt described and closing the gap foot by foot. They got to the point where Lewis found himself looking at the lowering sun and, even accounting for a better pace on the downhill return trip, concluding it would be after dark by the time they got home if they turned back now.

That wasn't the worst thing in the world. They'd all brought their camping gear just in case, well aware that they might have to roam far to find the Norman family's missing herd. In a way Lewis looked forward to the prospect of camping in the mountains, even with the temperature already starting to drop and bound to get pretty chilly by morning. There was a peace and contentment up here that reminded him of good days in the past.

In fact, he was a little tempted to suggest that their third wheel continue on alone and catch up to the rest of the group, so he and Jane could set up their own camp and enjoy an evening together out in nature. But since they had no concrete idea of how far ahead Matt and the others were he kept the idea to himself.

Besides, they needed to find the sheep and get them back to Aspen Hill. Now wasn't the time for a relaxed camping trip.

They encountered the signs their friend had mentioned around midafternoon: swaths of trampled, short cropped grass where the sheep had grazed, scattered dung, and broken branches in thickets they'd passed through. From that point Matt's landmarks weren't really necessary, although he kept calling them in so they could measure their progress catching up.

The sun was only a few lengths above a higher peak to the west, an early sunset that would lead to a long twilight, when Matt finally called in that he'd found the herd. Lewis put on a burst of speed, ignoring his exhaustion, and Jane and Pete didn't complain as they kept pace.