Chapter 11: Together at Last

They spent two days in Madras getting things ready for the long haul south. Sam, Pip, Taegan and several of the Cayuse managed to hitch some horses to an old rolling scythe and cut some wild grass that would make decent bedding for the horses. The grass was alright as fodder, but not the best. Sam used his previous expertise at the local feed and grain store, managing to salvage several hundred pounds of barley from the dry and mold free storage bins he found it in. When they left Madras, he was breathing a little easier about the horses. There were a lot of young Porters dying to tend them, and Greta put Jenna in charge of the young crew.

The train was crowded, but it made the distances remaining shrink to manageable ones. They passed through Redmond barely a half hour after leaving Madras. In even less time the train covered the distance between Redmond and Bend and they passed within the city's artificial canyons. Ghost towns in general aren't attractive places, except perhaps in a haunting, unsettling way. They did not linger, or even slow down, passing through quickly, headed for La Pine. When they didn't stop at La Pine, Greta began to worry.

"Sam, how are we going to transport all these people once we have to leave the railroad tracks? We only have the horses your group rode in with, and none extra, let alone enough for the hundred and fifty people we have."

He was vague in his answer, which was no answer really. The true answer met them in Chemult, where the old Union Pacific line from Eugene met the Burlington Northern tracks they had been on.

Brian Nileson and his three sons met the train with their families and ten buses and four moving vans. This harvest of plenty had been delivered via that Union Pacific line on flatbed rail cars, and included a van full of fodder for the horses as well as a vat of freshly brewed bio-diesel from the Agricultural station in Eugene. Mat and Mor Steiner went a little giddy on seeing it, being more familiar than most with what it took to spring that much from the station. Sam got a good hug from Brian. The two men had not had many chances to meet over the years since the Reaping.

"Time to hit another one out of the park Sam?" he asked.

"I'm hoping so," Sam answered. "We're still being pursued, but almost beyond danger now."

The way Sam said it left Brian blinking in confusion. The way Sam's eyes seemed to lose focus, and the way he spoke, almost as if he was seeing the pursuers in his head, was disturbing. It was Sam Kendall though, and he quickly shook the feeling off.

"Well, lets get everyone and everything loaded for the road. Where we headed?"

"Crater Lake," Sam said, out loud for the first time. "We're meeting someone at Crater Lake."

While the buses were prepped and loaded, Greta got everyone eating. It had been hard keeping everyone fed in the close quarters of the train cars. It would be even harder in the buses. It was only marginally easier outside of either. With the level of chaos generated by so many people trying to stretch their legs, making sure no one was missed was difficult. Making sure everyone got some water in them was important as well. The need, especially for the children, to have a chance to go to the bathroom took time as well. Everything was loaded and ready long before the people were, but soon enough they were loaded and on their way.

The caravan of buses and trucks left Chemult headed for Diamond Lake Junction. They didn't travel any faster than the train had, and the chances for finding problems was greater on the highway than it had been on the tracks. The passed through a tiny ghost town with the name Beaver Marsh painted on the train station and a half hour later they were at the Junction which gave the city its name. They left Highway 97, which had served them so well and headed west on Highway 138. It was a little slower going here, only because they were getting into the early evening and they were using their headlights and threading their way through increasingly deteriorating road conditions. By the time they reached the turn south on Highway 232, it was fully dark. They pitched camp in the middle of the intersection, and while parents tended their children, a communal pot of stew was set to cooking and sleeping arrangements were made.

It takes quite a bit to get almost two hundred people fed and in bed. A half dozen of the Cayuse set watches, but it was more to watch out for four-legged predators than the two-legged kind.

Sam sat up with Greta, Carlos, Brian Nileson and a handful of others to discuss tomorrow's activities.

"We'll want to get to the lodge near the south rim," Sam told them. "But the rim road may be in very poor condition. I'm not sure what kind of shape the lodge will be in either. There was a history of neglect here in the life I lived before. We have to assume it is the same now, and it has gone all these years since the Reaping with no upkeep at all. We could find there is nothing usable left. There's no rush. We'll have to wait at least another day for those chasing us to catch up."

"You want them to catch up to us here?" Cooper Wilson asked.

"We are here as much for their sake as we are our own," he answered.

This cryptic answer soon had everyone lost in their own thoughts, and Sam used the cover it provided to retire for the night, eager once again for the comfort of his wife's arms.

All of the following day was used in moving the group to the rim road and then west and south towards the Crater Lake Lodge. The rim road was in bad shape, having been beaten hard by time and weather since the Reaping. The stretch around Hillman Peak was particularly bad, and there had been a landslide near the Watchman that required a dozen men with shovels two hours to clear. Everyone else took the time to stop and have lunch while the shoveling proceeded.

"Taegan appears to be taking some of his grief out on that pile of mud and rocks," his mother said to Jenna.

"Better he strike out against that dirt than against his enemies," Jenna answered.

"He'll do fine. He has you and he has his family. He'll do fine."

"I think he's on his way already. This is just a way to release the energy he's held in check, its not a venting of anger so much as a cleansing of the residue left over from the anger that's already faded."

What awaited them at the lodge was not much better than the road had been. It had indeed deteriorated badly in the thirty some years since the reaping. There were sections that were quickly determined to be unsafe, and others which were far too exposed to the elements to be usable if it rained. The main fireplace was in decent shape, but the roof of the main room had leaks. The kitchen was unusable as were half the rooms.

"Not the paradise many people had expected me to take them to, is it?" Sam asked no one in particular.

The people began shoring up and cleaning out the usable sections of the building. The children were put in charge of sweeping and garbage collection, but an adult was with them whenever they left the lodge proper. They were too close to the rim to risk loosing a child over it.

Carlos and Ghost Cantor organized hunting parties, and soon the group's larder began to fill with deer, antelope, rabbit, ducks and pheasant.

"Really a local sage grouse," Carlos explained, "but biologically, they're about the same, so we might as well put on airs and call it pheasant."