Chapter 3

On the third day after his father had left, Rocky moved onto Seamus' bed and slept there every day waking him earlier than he had been used to by licking his face at sunrise. Another two days passed as Seamus applied himself to asking various questions about how to care for the increasingly more active Rocky and trying to figure out what it was that caused his mother to look so spooked. Just after dawn on the sixth day after his father had hiked out of the area around their cabin Seamus was working his way up to a high point in order to see more of the area around the cabin when he heard a ruckus. Looking further along the ridge Seamus was a bit astonished to see a mixed flock of goats and sheep being moved along by several people. They were too far away for him to recognize anyone yet, but it seemed to him that if they kept coming the direction they were headed they would come to the meadow near the cabin he lived in with his parents.

Suddenly he realized that if the group was unfriendly there would not be a great deal he could do about them if they caught him and his mother unprepared. As quickly as he was able he rushed back to the cabin.

He burst through the door his words a stuttered mess as he tried to make his mother understand what he had seen. When he was able to make himself understood Seamus' mother grabbed a pair of binoculars and a rifle for each of them. "Be sure of who you are looking at, but if they act aggressively shoot the people."

She led the way out the door explaining that she wanted Seamus to stay hidden in the trees while she went out to meet the group. They reached the point where Seamus had spotted the group in a few minutes and Siobhan used the binoculars to look over the slow moving gaggle. It did not take her very long to identify her husband among the people at the rear of the group. As he was moving around and smiling she didn't think he was in any sort of trouble like being forced to deliver hostile people to their doorstep.

Siobhan told Seamus what she was seeing and told him to stay in the woods and watch while she went down to see who his father had brought back to their hideaway. It was not until his mother got down among the animals and near his father that he realized that the people with his father were all small children. The reason he had not done so before was that he had not really seen that they were all riding small donkeys.

The two adults held a short conference from what Seamus could tell, and then his father was trotting toward the place where he was hiding. As soon as he arrived he said, "Seamus, I've brought a lot of trouble with me. I'm going to need you to step up even more than you've been lately."

Seamus nodded dumbly before asking, "What do you mean dad?"

"I left a trail an imbecile could follow among other things,"

"Why? I thought we were trying to hide from everyone."

"I miss judged when things would go bad son. This was supposed to be a week long orientation for you. Instead, about the third day I stopped hearing traffic on the freeway if that wasn't worrisome enough we heard a lot more air traffic than is usual for this area. So we just hunkered down and stayed. The worst part is that your mother and I were hoping that we'd have more help. There were two couples who helped us set this place up, but since I had no idea of a certain date for the collapse that I suspected was being engineered I didn't tell them to come out either. And even that might not have helped as they might not have taken vacation and thus have left any way."

"You mean this wasn't planned?"

"Yes and no; your mother and I had planned on this place being available as a refuge if things got rough. We just didn't know that when we brought you out here that it would be the time that things went off the rails."

"What about those kids?" Seamus indicated the children that were following the mixed herd over the ridge.

"That is another unplanned part of all of this. I don't know what exactly happened to the town I was going to visit but all of the adults have been shot as well as most of the children. How these few escaped I don't know but they did. I found them wandering on the side of town nearest us."

"What about the animals?"

"I started with the goats and a couple of donkeys and was making my way to all the hobby farms that were on the outer edge of town."

"Ok, why did you bring them here and what are we going to do with them?"

"I brought the animals here because I see no reason to let whoever decided to murder a whole town have the goods of that town. I brought the children because rescuing them was the right thing to do."

"I thought you said that people could be lots of trouble..."

"They can be. Let's get down from here and help your mother get those critters under cover."

"What about the kids?"

"We've got a good deal more room available than it looks like from the outside."

Seamus looked closely at his father who continued by saying, "I'm surprised that you haven't found at least some of the improvements we made to make this into a stronghold."

"I guess I really hadn't thought about it."

"Learning means I don't have to tell you everything," Seamus father said as he started down the side of the ridge toward the family's cabin.

Rather than going to the cabin or into the meadow he led Seamus along a rock wall where a grape vine was climbing. He pushed the grapevine aside revealing a mine shaft that was closed by an iron barred gate. He pulled out a key and worked the padlock that secured the gate in order to open it. "Among other things that we put back here is a salt lick," He said as the gate swung open.

"How are you going to get the animals in here?"

"Most of them are nearly pets so all we'll have to do is move a few into here and the rest will follow."

"Why is a salt lick important?"

"It is an important nutrient; therefore the animals will be more than willing to return to it even if they didn't feel entirely safe."

"Why is that important to us?"

"It will make it so that the sheep and other animals want to stay near."

Further conversation was cut off as Seamus' mother began leading sheep through the gate. Seamus moved inside the mine shaft to get out of her way and was surprised when his father threw a switch and a bank of overhead lights came on. "We won't be able to use these much but for the first time or two of you coming here I don't mind," he said.

"How did you get all of this here," Seamus asked gesturing at the various fixtures and improvements that he could see in the mine shaft.

"Pack mules."

"Dad," Seamus said loudly over the bleating of the sheep that his mother had left in one of the pens that extended to the side of the main tunnel that seemed to go back at least 200 feet, "I've watched houses built and they take time. This had to take a lot of time. And a lot of mules to get this stuff here.

"You're right about that Seamus," his father said as he started to leave the tunnel to return where Seamus' mother was, "It's good that you're learning to think. I hope I have time to explain what we've done but now let's get those animals in so that we can get the kids settled."

For the next little while Seamus and his parents worked to get the animals into shelter. When that was done and the last of the children were standing beside the grapevine concealed mine entrance. "If you'll follow me this way," Seamus' mother said tugging on the hand of the smallest of the children whom she had just lifted down from the donkey he had been riding.

"Up?" The child whined.

"We don't have far to go, so you'll have to walk," she said as she began to move slowly toward the cabin. The children trudged after Seamus' mother with their heads down as if they were nearly asleep on their feet.

"Seamus," Seamus' father said as they too headed toward the cabin, "how is your dog doing?"

"My dog, do you really mean that? Didn't mom tell you?"

"Yes your dog. Your mother only told me that she's still alive. I'll let you tell me anything else."

"Oh. Well she's limping around the house and meadow a bit more every day."

"We've got videos and books on training dogs. Part of what I want you to learn is to train that dog to help us watch the animals."

"I guess I can do that."

"Good, 'cause we're going to need all the help we can get."

Seamus nodded as they entered the cabin, then stopped again in amazement. What he had thought was the back wall of the main room of the cabin now proved to have a door that his mother had opened revealing a finished tunnel that had to be as long as the one that they had just left the animals in. "How big is this place?" He asked.