Breakout (Final Dawn) (15 page)

     Tony had walked up on the two and had listened in on the last part of the conversation. He had his own questions.

     “How do you get the cattle on and off the ramp if they don’t want to cooperate?”

     “John said not to worry about that. He said they’d show us how when we got there, and they’d put them
on for us. All we’ll have to do is get them back off again.”

     “So, what can I do to help?”

     “Well, if you oversaw everything else, the corn and wheat crops, the security, the Symco supply runs… if you could handle all of that, it would allow Jesse and I to devote most of our time to this project.”

     “You got it, Frank Furter.”

     He said it with a big smile, but Frank wondered if maybe he should have kept that part of the plan to himself.

Chapter 2
8

     As it turned out, the hay grew a lot faster than Frank had expected. Several good rainstorms and moderate temperatures helped. In just over a month, the hay was well over his knees and growing like wildfire.

     The other projects were finished as well. Frank had spoken to John several times on the radio
. John’s last transmission was, “Ready when you are. Approach slowly.”

     Eva and Jesse were still a little
apprehensive.

     Eva said, “What if it’s a trap, Frank? What if these people are just trying to lure you there, to do you harm?”

     “Don’t be silly, dear. If they wanted to do me harm, all they had to do was shoot me when they had a chance. Instead, they befriended me. They gave us food, and chickens. Now we have eggs for breakfast every few days. They don’t sound to me like the dangerous sort. And besides, you know I’ve always had a knack for reading people. And I get the feeling these are good people.”

     “But how can you be sure?”

     Frank kissed her.

     “How can I be sure they’re good people? Because I know good people when I see them. I married you, after all.”

     Jesse said, “I wish I could be as confident as you are, my friend. But I’m not. Why don’t you let me come along, just in case?”

     “No, Jesse. We’ve been over this. I don’t want to betray their trust by letting others know where their place is. I promised them I wouldn’t. If I show up with anyone else, I’ll have broken their trust. And they’ll have no reason to follow through with their part of the deal.”

     And so it was that Frank set out by himself that Thursday morning, in a full-sized U-Haul truck, headed for Salt Mountain. It took considerably longer than in his pickup, because he had to maneuver the large truck around several cars abandoned in the middle of Highway 10. Cars that had run out of gas while on their way to sanctuary in Mexico, Frank supposed, although he’d never know for sure.

     He hoped that whoever had been in those cars seven years before made it to safety and were still among the living. But he’d never know that for sure either.

     As Frank approached the compound, he slowed his speed to a crawl. He wanted them to know it was him, even if they couldn’t see his face clearly. Then he chuckled as he realized the stupidity of it all. As though they were expecting anyone else to show up in a U-Haul truck.

     John didn’t ask him to do it, but as he neared the wall he turned sharply to the left and executed a huge u-turn.

     Then, with the back of the truck facing the security camera, he hopped out of the cab and opened the overhead door to the cargo bay.

     So whoever was watching him could see that there was no one in the back of the truck.

     He waited outside the truck in full view of the camera, unarmed and very vulnerable. But he was also confident that he’d meet no harm.

     It took John about five minutes to get Brad and
Bryan posted on the rooftop with rifles ready in case Frank was followed.

     John and Sami went to the drive through gate on the side of the compound, but didn’t open the gate until they were given the all clear by Sarah. Sarah took one last look at all the monitors, didn’t see anything amiss, and told them they were free to open the gate.

     John walked through and Sami quickly relocked the gate behind him.

     John walked up the road that ran along the side of the compound until he rounded the corner and came out at the front.

     Frank greeted him with a warm smile and a handshake.

     “Hello, my friend. How are you?”

     “Doing well, Frank. How about yourself? And how was your trip?”

     “Uneventful. As I’d hoped it would be. There aren’t a lot of drivers out there on the road anymore. A lot of obstacles, but few actual drivers.”

     “Yes, we’ve been seeing the same thing. I hope that just means people are too timid to get out. I’d hate to think that so few people have survived.”

     Frank shook his head. He knew that
his part of San Antonio was hit hard. He hoped it wasn’t that way everywhere.

     “Come on, Frank. Let’s get this thing into the yard.”

     John climbed into the passenger seat and Frank restarted the truck.

     “Just follow that road along the side of the compound. They’ll open up
the drive-through gate for us.”

     As they slowly approached the gate, Sarah called out from the control desk, “Okay, Sami, it’s all clear. Go ahead and open it.”

     On the rooftop, Brad held his position, aiming his weapon on the roadway outside the compound.

    
Bryan shifted his position, keeping Frank Woodard in his sights as the truck drove slowly by the building and over to the barnyard.

     He kept Frank in his sights until both men departed from the truck.

     “I hate to ask this of you, Frank. But we can’t be too careful under the circumstances…”

     “Say no more, John. I would do the same if our roles were reversed.”

     Frank spread his feet shoulder width apart and leaned over to place his hands on the side of the truck.

     John patted him down for weapons, and then went to
the driver’s side of the truck to make sure there were no firearms stashed under or behind the seat or under the dash.

     “You know, it’s funny,” Frank said as John returned to his side. “As many times as I’ve patted down
suspects over the course of my career, that’s the very first time it’s ever been done to me.”

     John laughed.

     “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

     “No, not really. It’s much more fun being on the other side.”

     John waved at Bryan, in a hunting blind on the corner of the roof, and Bryan eased up. He never put his rifle up, though, just in case.

     Mark came out of the building and shook Frank’s hand.

     “Hey, it’s good to see you again. How are things in San Antonio?”

     “Not too bad. Most of the violence has gone away. Right after the thaw, when people started coming out of their homes, we were hearing gunshots almost every day. But we haven’t heard any for the last couple of weeks. I’d like to think that the marauders were on the losing end, but we just don’t know. All we know is that it’s peaceful in our neighborhood, and we like it that way.”

     “Well, it’s just about lunch time, and the kitchen staff has just sounded the bell. Come on inside and get a good meal. We refuse to send you away hungry.”

     Frank went inside and met most of the group, and answered a million questions about how he and his neighbors managed to survive the freeze. For his part, he asked no questions at all about the compound or what was in it. He didn’t want to send a message that he was overly curious.

     John and Mark, meanwhile, were purposely vague about the group’s numbers and possessions, and even a little bit misleading. Mark said, “The dining room is only big enough for a certain amount of people, so we eat in shifts.”

     It wasn’t true, of course. But he wanted Frank to leave the compound with the impression that they had a lot more people than they really did.

     Karen came by the table and dropped off a basket of fresh vegetables from the greenhouses, and asked how Frank’s seed supply was back in the city.

     “Well, we got a lot of seeds from Walmart. Some of them came up, some didn’t.
Then we got some more from Home Depot. Again, some came up and some didn’t. I think the only things we haven’t been able to grow are cucumbers and watermelons. Everything else seems to be coming up fine.”

     Karen excused herself and returned as Frank was finishing his dessert. She handed him two small zip lock bags full of seeds.

     “I should have marked them, but the black ones are the watermelons. You said your wife’s a gardener. She’ll know the difference.”

      Frank thanked her.

     “From all of us, I say God bless you for everything you’re doing for us. And I promise, we will spread the goodwill to others as soon as we’re able.”

     Karen said, “Perhaps you can help us too, Frank. I’ve been looking for the bees to return to help pollinate our crops. I’ve only seen a few. I’d like to think that they’re slow to return because we’re at a higher elevation than
San Antonio and a little bit cooler, and that the bees are just tired of cool weather. And it’s not a major crisis. We can self pollinate our crops on a small scale. But when we start raising crops on a large scale we could use the bees to help us out.

     “Would you check with your wife, and the others who have been helping her? Would you find out if the bees are out in force down there?”

     “Sure. And I’ll do you one better. I’ve been out and about in our neighborhood and the neighborhoods surrounding it for the past few months. I met a woman not far away who seemed to know a lot about horticulture and agriculture and all that kind of stuff. I’ll find out from her if there’s any advice she has for you.”

     “Oh, that would be great, Frank. Thank you so much.”

     “Hey, no need to thank me. After everything you good people are doing to help us, it’s the least I can do.”

Chapter
29

     “Okay, here’s how we’re gonna do this, and hopefully it’s gonna work. They know their feed bucket by sight. They tend to follow us around the corral any time we’re carrying it. And we purposely didn’t feed these four head this morning so they’re extra hungry. We did put harnesses on them, though.

     “We’ll lower the truck ramp
and put sheets of plywood on each side to make walls. That way they won’t look down and see that they’re above ground and freak out. Then we’ll walk up the ramp dangling their feed bucket and see if they follow us.”

     Mark held up a cattle prod.

     “If they won’t, we’ll slap them on the ass. If that doesn’t work, we’ll use this as a last resort.”

     “Have any of them ever ridden in a truck before?”

     “Not in a truck, no. But they have ridden in a livestock trailer. And this is how we loaded them. In theory it’s the same principal. They have more room in the truck to get jostled around, but they’ll be okay if you drive carefully and don’t take any fast turns or anything.”

     “Okay, then. I’m ready when you are.”

     They started with Belle, the milk cow. She was the most sweet tempered of the four. Their hope was that she’d be the easiest to get aboard, and that the other cattle might see her and go to her.

     Belle saw her feed bucket and practically ran up the ramp.

     Mark led her to the front of the truck and tied her to the tie-down rail, but gave her lots of slack so she could stick her head in the bucket.

     Next came Sally and Mable, two and three years old. They’d be around for awhile, and
each would produce a calf every year or so.

     And last came the bull,
Seymour. Seymour loved the ladies, and as soon as he saw the three cows on the truck, he was game to join them. He was halfway up the ramp before he even saw the feed bucket .

     Frank remarked, “Well, that was easy.”

     John countered, “It might be a bit more difficult when you get them to San Antonio. They might get riled up along the trip. My advice is that when you get them to where you’re going, open the door on the truck for an hour and hang out in there with them. Mingle with them and give them each a bucket of water.