Dark Times by Christine Conaway

Author:Christine Conaway [Conaway, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | Dystopian
Published: 2017-10-30T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

With the non-essential items placed inside what was left of the box and covered with limbs and brush and the rest divided between the remaining horse and improvised packs, they started down the trail. Occasionally they came across hoof prints in the dirt and John was sure that it had to be Charlie because of the size of the tracks. The Percheron’s hooves were twice the size of an ordinary horse, and they felt sure there couldn’t be two sets of draught horses in the mountains right then.

Just before they reached the bottom of the hill, they heard distant gunshots. Mark thought they came from the west, but it was hard to tell. They weren’t close, and for them, that was an important fact. John hoped to catch up to the other three before the day was out.

“They were here!” Mary said excitedly. “This is where they had their fire.” She was standing pointing at a couple of rocks of the same size and shape that were strewn around as if someone had chosen to disguise where they’d stopped. The only problem was the rocks all had a black side to them from the campfire smoke.

When they heard brush breaking and the sound of something big coming through it, as one, they ducked behind whatever cover was nearest to them. Mary pulled Maggie down beside her with her finger to her lips. Sherry hid behind her father waiting.

When Clyde crashed through the brush and stopped in front of them, John let out a sigh of relief. “Dammit Clyde, I should have put a bell on you.” He walked over, happy to see the horse had made it down the hill. Before John could get to him, the horse threw his head in the air and let out a loud whinny. His ears were pointed forward, and the rock wall in front of them held his attention. He whinnied again before John could put his hand over his nose to stop him.

Within seconds of the second whiny, they heard an answering one, that seemed to be cut off mid-whiny as if someone had stifled it.

John nodded. “Okay then. It seems we’ve found the rest of our family.”

“How do you know it’s them? It could be anyone with a horse.”

“Nope! That’s Jinx. He’s the best friend that Clyde has outside of Sham. In the pasture, those three were inseparable and were very vocal when they were. Let’s go people.”

John shouldered his sleeping bag full of the possessions he carried and set off toward the wall of rock. He didn’t know where exactly the others were, but he felt sure they were about to find out. He felt sure that Lucas would have recognized Clyde answering Jinx and meet them somewhere. He would walk until they did. The brush was barely head high, and John didn’t have far to walk before he found where someone had cleared a patch of dirt.

“What do you suppose that is? Some kind of a sign?” Mark asked and walked over to where John stood looking down.

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