Fearless - Swarm Book 8: (An Epic Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller) by J.T. Sloane & Mike Kraus

Author:J.T. Sloane & Mike Kraus [Sloane, J.T. & Kraus, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Muonic Press Inc
Published: 2023-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Anayeli Alfaro. On the Highway to Missoula, Montana.

They found the horses alive and the bear dead, but all that just meant more trouble.

“The bear’s been shot.” Andrew caught her gaze as he straightened from where he’d squatted beside the bear’s body, then he turned slowly, scanning the area, his own gun still in his hand. He’d kept it at the ready the entire time they’d tracked the horses, but she’d pulled her own out after they’d heard the gunshot. They couldn’t afford to be even the slightest bit complacent.

Cricket sniffed at the bear, growling the entire time before moving in a widening arc around the body, still sniffing—searching for something. Anayeli surveyed the forest too, but there was nothing. No telltale movement to snag her eye, no sign of anyone else—no human footprints, no hint anyone had touched the horses—and yet someone had been there. It was highly unlikely that whoever had shot the bear had done it simply to protect the horses and then left them—no one had so much ammunition they could afford to waste it for no reason. “They must be hiding nearby, or else they’re coming back. Maybe with reinforcements to deal with the Manteca situation.” She kept her voice low, in case whoever had shot the bear was still in hearing range.

“We have to figure out something, and fast.” Andrew peered over the edge of ravine. “He’s upright at least.”

Manteca was maybe twenty feet down in the ravine, standing on a ledge with his head low and his legs spread wide. The poor horse was trembling, but she didn’t see any blood and he was bearing weight evenly on each of his legs. It was a miracle he hadn’t broken anything in his fall. The spot where the cliff had given way beneath his hooves was scarred with twin skidding hoof marks, and had it not been for that disturbance and Fortune and Spot lingering nearby, despite the bear’s corpse, they would’ve given Manteca up for lost. As it was, they might have to. She didn’t want to think about it.

Instead, she clamped both Fortune’s and Spot’s lead ropes between her thighs and ran her hands over first the filly’s legs and then the mare’s. Aside from a few superficial gashes they’d likely gotten bolting through the woods, both of them seemed fine, if exhausted and sweat-crusted from their mad dash to flee the bear. The only good thing about the three horses tearing off together was that their tracks had been easy enough to follow, their hoof prints churning through the charred topsoil to the more normal looking earth beneath.

She dug in her pack and found the Betadine and antibiotic ointment she’d snagged way back at the racetrack. She squirted the antiseptic into the wounds, then smoothed the ointment over the horses’ scrapes before putting all the supplies back. When she couldn’t procrastinate any longer, she faced Andrew. “How are we going to get Manteca out?”

She’d reported on a few horse-related accidents over

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