Jackie asked, “Shouldn’t we head to them?
Tom had already started walking toward the rest of their party. “No, there might be more of them around. We need to get away from here but be careful not to get run down by our people if they come running this way.”
They took off at a fast pace, taking a slightly different course back to their group. They had to fight their way through the brush when they heard horse hoofs in the distance coming toward them on the old logging road. Tom veered over to the road and saw Rick in the lead. Tom stepped out and flagged them down.
“Whoa! We’re safe. The rustlers had a difference of opinion about where to piss and had a circular firing squad,” Tom said.
Rick volunteered Jackie and himself to go back and tell Granny B what had happened and then to stay with her for protection. At the same time, Tom and Kate stayed to see if any more rustlers showed up.
***
Granny B heard the sound of the cattle breaking through the trees and brushes a short while before she’d seen them. She took the horse’s reins and pulled them behind a thick stand of pine trees, in hopes the cattle would go around them. The sound of the advancing cattle spooked the horses, but Granny B had tied them to the middle tree and tried her best to keep them calm. The cattle burst through the thick brush and thundered by her and the frightened mares.
It took Granny B a few minutes to get the horses calmed down, and by that time, Jackie and Rick arrived. Jackie jumped down and helped soothe the beasts. “Everything’s okay. Apparently, the rustlers had an internal fight and killed each other as we watched. Tom and Kate are okay. They’ll will stay and watch to see if anyone heard the gunfire and shows up.”
Granny B asked, “Where did you find them?”
“At the cabin in the valley. They were living in a camper behind the cabin.”
She went on to tell her how the fight started and ended so abruptly with devastating consequences. Granny B asked, “Did Tom say when they would return?”
“He told us about two hours because he wanted to get to the other cabin and cave before dark.”
Tom watched the cabin from the woods so Kate could take a short nap. Tom knew they had to be on their toes for the next few days and wanted everyone rested if they had to fight or flee. On the other hand, Kate couldn’t sleep but kept her eyes closed. Tom caught her peeking and admonished her. “You’re like a kid on Christmas night.”
Kate responded. “Only this time, I’m eager to see if anyone is going to care if these three dingleberries are dead. Is it time to leave yet?”
“No, it’s only been thirty minutes. Dingleberries?”
“Scum of the Earth.”
Just about the time Kate fell asleep after asking ‘is it time yet’ five times, Tom woke her to leave.
“Darn, that was a short nap.”
“Babe, you only fell asleep a few minutes ago.”
They shouldered their backpacks, and Kate adjusted her crossbow, which was attached to her bag, and left to join the others.
“Hon, how far can you hear a pistol shot in these woods?”
Tom thought for a minute. “I would think a half-mile clearly and maybe a mile for being able to barely hear it if you’re listening for it.”
“So, that’s a guess?”
“Yep. Maybe we’ll do some research one day, but I have more research to perform on your body first,” Tom snickered.
Granny B stepped out of the brush behind them. “I think I need to conduct a course on how to move silently through the woods while not talking about using the braille method.”
Kate laughed. “Granny, you might be able to shame Tom, but I can’t be shamed for talking about how much we love each other.”
Granny B snorted. “Well, at least y’all weren’t putting your clothes back on when we arrived.”
Tom ignored both of them. “Saddle up! Let’s move on to the cave. I want to explore it while we stay alert for the scumbags.”
Granny B tightened her saddle and mounted. “It’s about a mile and a half, but we’ll travel about twice that making sure we avoid these criminals. We’ll head north further up in the hills, then go west and slightly down the hillside to the cabin. The cave opening is in a stand of trees on a steep hillside on the southeast side of a draw running down the hillside northeast to southwest. We’ll come down the draw from above the cave.”
The path up the hillside was rough, but once they arrived on top of the hillside, there were clear areas. Tom worried that while the clear areas made travel more manageable, they also made it easier for them to be spotted. Granny led them to a shallow valley at the top of the hill that spilled over to a draw that ran down the hillside. She pointed and said, “The cave is about a quarter-mile down there on the left wall. The home is another hundred yards down and close to the bottom of the draw. Let’s work our way down a bit closer to check out the cave first.”
The way down was a bit tricky because it was steep and rocky. Tom secretly thought, maybe if there were any bad guys,
