Midnight by Anna Dove (books for new readers .TXT) 📕

light in the spaces that the trees could not reach. Gracefully drooping violets had pushed up from the soil below in an expansive sunlit patch, where the decomposing leaves of the previous fall created rich nutrients for the flowers to root. Haley plucked handfuls of the stems and flowers to eat. They tasted slightly bitter but wonderfully fresh after two days of canned and preserved food.

“I propose that we ride for a few more hours, and then tonight let’s actually set up a place to sleep and try to make hot food. We should be rationing our dry food anyway.”

“Hot food? You mean hunt?” asked Carlos.

“Yes.”

“I’ve never done that before.”

“Then you watch the horses and materials and Elizabeth and I will do it.”

“Fine with me.”

In the past two days, they had not encountered a single human being. Birds, foxes, rabbits abounded, and they passed a few empty cars if their path took them across a highway, or a dark-windowed house if they neared a residential area; but there had been no human interaction the further they ventured from the city. This actually made them feel much safer, and as they began to relax, they were able to think more clearly and focus on the tasks at hand, such as navigating. They had slept on the ground with their horses tied to nearby trees, one person taking watch every three hours, which afforded the others six full hours of sleep, plenty for their adrenaline--racked bodies.

They mounted presently, after finishing their break for lunch, and rode eastwards. All of them had settled into riding very well, their weight distributed evenly in the dip of the horses’ backs. They did not converse much, preferring to use their ears for any potential danger. Haley kept her eyes on the tail of Elizabeth’s horse in front of her, as they plodded on eastwards towards the Bay.

Towards early evening, they came to the Patuxent River, a mild flowing river that empties into the Chesapeake. They stopped at its banks, pondering what to do next.

“We can go north until we find a bridge,” suggested Elizabeth, watching the gentle current.

“I think that’s too dangerous,” replied Carlos, shaking his head. “Bridges are for highways, highways have higher congestion of cars and are near people.”

“So what do we do?”

“Swim it,” said Haley.

“Are you crazy?” responded Elizabeth. “What about the horses, and our supplies and firearms?”

“Firearms can get wet, you know that,” responded Haley. “And we will put the supplies on the horses and swim them across. Look, it can’t be more than thirty feet deep in the middle, and we can wade out a good portion of it. It’s our safest option.”

They all watched the river, its current drifting by, and tried to mentally estimate this task.

“I think I agree,” said Carlos. “I think it will be fine.”

Haley dismounted, and the others followed suit. She took the pack from her waist and strapped it around the horse’s neck with the supplies facing upwards. While the horse did not seem particularly enthralled with the arrangements, it did not rear or buck and after a few minutes of nervous movement, capitulated calmly. Haley took its lead rope and stepped into the river, and after a bit of persuasion, the animal followed her.

Out they waded, and about one third of the way across, Haley began to swim, as did her horse. She stayed by its head, speaking soft words to it, holding the lead rope in her left hand. The animal swam as all horses do, its neck thrusting against the water, its body and feet churning underneath. Haley kept an even breaststroke, and only realized that they had reached the shallows when the horse suddenly appeared to be in contact with ground, and then upon testing the depth, Haley found that it was no more that four feet deep. She continued on with the horse, and they waded side by side out of the river and onto the opposite bank. Looking back, Haley saw that Carlos and Elizabeth and their horses had also reached the shallows and were now coming up towards the bank.

They let the horses graze for a moment, untying the packs, and the three humans sat down dripping on the grassy bank leading up to Lothian Woods, breathing a little heavily.

“It can’t be much longer now until we reach the Chesapeake,” said Haley. “What if we set up a camp here, sleep for a bit, and continue on in the dark? I’m very hungry and tired and I don’t know how much longer I will be able to go.”

The others agreed, and while Carlos built a fire and a little shelter for sleeping, Haley and Elizabeth went to look for food to add to their packaged supplies, climbing the bank into the woods and breaking twigs as they passed to mark their trail back. They stepped quietly, their guns loaded, looking for game.

Birds twittered above them in the treetops and they heard the scurrying of squirrels, but no small animals came into sight. The evening sunlight filtered through the leaves, and they knew that they would have to go back before long.

Coming upon a pond, they both froze in their tracks. There, swimming peacefully on the water, were a flock of Canadian geese.

“Let’s see if we can get them to come to us,” said Haley, an idea springing to her head, and Elizabeth glanced at her in skepticism.

“What do you mean?”

Haley pulled a pack of crackers from her pocket and slowly approached the lake. The geese did not seem to mind very much, although they moved casually a few feet further from the bank, paddling around each other gracefully. Haley crouched down at the edge of the water, and breaking off a piece of cracker, tossed it fifteen feet away from her.

This caught the birds’ attention, and they flocked to it,