“Hey, where are you going?” called out Drake.
“To save the children!”
* * * * * * *
Chapter Thirty-six
Saddle Ranch
Loveland, Colorado
Whitney walked around to the side of the house, under the windows.
She gathered most of the children and led them 50 yards into the woods where they could talk. She told them they would have to leave this house but not to worry. She had another house in mind.
“What’s she doing?” Cory asked aloud.
“She said she was going to save the children,” replied Drake.
“This is getting more complicated by the minute,” added Mac. We have twenty minutes left before noon, Drake. I need to get her attention and convince her to come back with us so we can talk. We can’t have everyone doing something different here.”
“Yes, sir. I’m on it.”
Drake snuck around the opposite side of the house where she could see him without alerting the parents and children.
It didn’t take much to convince her to come down the mountain, after promising a reunion with her grandparents.
At 12:03, according to Mac’s watch, the front and back doors of the house were opened wide, and so were the shades covering each window.
“Time to go, everyone,” Mac called out quietly.
* * * *
Drake walked ahead with an excited Whitney, and when Mac and Cory returned, she was already telling the MacDonalds her story.
“We just knew you would come out here,” said her grandmother. “I’m sorry you couldn’t find us, but we didn’t have time to leave a note. We will be back home soon, we hear.”
“About that,” said Whitney. “There are children up there, a lot of them. If they are driven blindly into the mountains, they won’t last a week.”
“That’s not our concern,” said her grandfather sternly.
“Yes, it is!” both his wife and granddaughter agreed.
“There is the camp,” Whitney offered, with a nod from her grandmother.
“No, no, not a chance. I knew one of you would bring that up,” argued Willy. “I need that place; it’s the best hunting in the state,” he added.
“You haven’t been up there in four years,” his wife reminded him. “It could give them a new start over the mountain, and we would be doing something good for the children as well.”
“What if someone is already there?” he protested.
“Then whoever is up on our property will have to share it,” she continued.
“Well, I’m not agreeing,” he said, “but...”
“Oh, there’s more,” his wife told him. “We will also give them enough supplies to get started.”
“Now wait a minute,” he protested. “Just so I hear you right. You want me to give them not only my property but also my food?”
“I think you mean our property and our food,” his wife replied, sternly crossing her arms like a mother catching her child doing something bad.
“Well, yes, of course, that’s what I mean.”
“She may have a point,” said Cory. Mac nodded in agreement.
“Not so fast, gentlemen,” Mrs. MacDonald said, with her arms still crossed in front of her. “You also will have skin in this game, unless of course you want Willie to stay here long-term complaining about this, that, and the other.”
Mac smiled, knowing she was right, but he didn’t say anything. “All right, ma’am, you’ve got my ear,” he replied. “What do you propose?”
“I propose, as you say, relocation of the lot of them over the mountain to our other property with enough provisions donated by us, this Ranch and the group down the road to properly get started. There are enough animals up there still, I’m sure, to sustain them if they are willing to work for it.”
“What’s to keep them from coming back to your place here?” asked Cory.
“Any adult returning to our property will be shot on sight without warning,” she suggested. “And if they miss the 8:30 a.m. deadline tomorrow, we need to give them a taste of what’s to come. You all drove the Ralph guy, their apparent leader, off three times already, just to have him return again, looking for something else. Am I right?”
“Yes, ma’am, that is correct,” replied Mac.
“So, you’re talking about a show of force with an olive branch at the end, right?” asked Cory.
“Yes, that’s right,” Mrs. MacDonald replied.
“All right, everyone, we have a big afternoon ahead of us with serious decisions to be made,” said Mac. “Cory and I will get with those in charge here on the Ranch, along with Samuel, from down the road, and see if we can all get on the same page with this business. I will hopefully have an answer by later this afternoon, or tomorrow morning at the latest.”
Mac and Cory called for a meeting with everyone’s presence requested.
With the smoke bomb proposal already approved, with tear gas only as a last resort, there was only the voting on giving away some provisions from each group and making sure they made it over the mountain.
Most agreed it was a sound plan, with the few outliers not able to come up with a better one on the spot.
It was agreed that they would be given an assortment of canned goods, beef jerky, vegetables, pasta, and planting seeds to feed the group for eight weeks, enough time to grow plants and establish hunting and fishing spots in their new territory.
Beyond that, there would be no more supplies or donations of any kind, assuming they were agreeable in the first place.
* * * *
Mac and Cory headed back to the machine shop for what Mac hoped would be the last meeting of the day.
“I’m not used to all this stuff,” he told Cory as they headed back on foot.
“What stuff?”
“All the meetings and having everyone’s agreement on things I would not have
