The Grim Reaper Comes Calling Read online

  Chapter 22

  Tony was just riding along, enjoying his morning, when a passing breeze delivered to him a scent which made his nose turn up.

  He knew instantly what the smell was, even though he couldn’t see its source and wouldn’t for another quarter mile or so.

  It was the smell of a sweaty and unwashed man, to the south of him, brought forth by the southerly breeze.

  And his guard instantly went up.

  The world was less chaotic than it had been in the months immediately following the blackout.

  In the early days bands of marauders ran helter-skelter through the countryside, taking what they wanted and shooting anyone who resisted them.

  Sometimes they didn’t run in packs. A single bad man didn’t have the collective firepower of a band of bad men but was dangerous nonetheless.

  In recent months the risk of being shot for one’s provisions had mostly subsided, as more and more bad men were shot down for their evil deeds, or jailed by the few lawmen left.

  But there were still a few out there, roaming around and taking what they wanted at the end of a gun. They were largely men who were too damned lazy to scavenge food and water for themselves so they stole from others.

  And they still had to be reckoned with.

  Tony had two choices: he could leave the pavement and ride down the right-of-way until he got to the range fence seventy five feet away.

  Then he could ride along the range fence for a mile or two, before returning to the roadway to see if he’d passed by the man and his scent.

  Or, he could continue upon his trek for the time being and see how things played out.

  He closely examined the shoulder of the road beside him.

  He was dismayed to see that this particular stretch of the highway had a steep drop off, perhaps thirty degrees, and the terrain was rocky and loose.

  Flash was a good horse. One of the best he’d ever ridden.

  But any horse would have trouble scampering down such a slope.

  Flash took commands well. He could turn in a flash, which was how he got his name. At the first sign of trouble they’d be headed down the slope.

  But only if it was necessary. In the meantime Tony would move cautiously ahead.

  Almost half a mile ahead of Tony was the Spear family, also headed south, but at a much slower speed.

  Dave was normally a man who took great care in his personal hygiene. When Sarah first met him years before, he was the first man she’d ever known who showered both morning and night. It was still his habit right up until the day the lights went out and the vehicles stopped running.

  After that staying clean was infinitely more difficult.

  Still, Dave tried his best.

  Even on the road, walking for miles each day and with only enough clean water to drink, he made the effort.

  He bathed fully clothed in every fast-running stream he found. Even bathed in still ponds when he had to, though that wasn’t much help at all. It was basically trading the stench of body odor for the stench of pond scum. But at least it offered a temporary respite from the norm.

  Unfortunately it was a family problem, as both Sarah and Lindsey were in the same situation. Only little Beth, at eight years old still shy of puberty and therefore sweeter smelling than the others, seemed immune from what Sarah called the stench monster.

  Perhaps that was the reason the smell of the rest of them bothered little Beth the most, and she wasn’t above pointing out the obvious to all of them.

  “Oh, Dad… you smell really bad today!”

  “I know, honey. I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, I know it’s not your fault. Mom says all men smell like bears when they can’t wash like they should. I still love you anyway.”

  “Well, thank you, honey. Can I have a hug?”

  “Uh… no.”

  Tony was a lot closer to them now, just out of sight over the horizon.

  By now Tony could smell them a lot better and had been able to relax just a bit.

  When he first caught their scents, it was Dave’s smell which overpowered all the others. Now, since he’d closed ground between him and the family, he was catching other, less pungent smells, mixed in with Dave’s.

  Smells which were a weaker version of the same smell, devoid of testosterone. Almost certainly women, or possibly children.

  That made Tony view them as less of a threat.

  For while it wasn’t inconceivable that a bad man might be traveling with his family, it was, in Tony’s mind, far less likely.

  He’d still be on his toes when he caught up with the family traveling ahead of him. But he wouldn’t have his handgun unstrapped and his hand resting upon it.

  Tony slowed Flash to a fast walk, still just off the pavement in the soft dirt.

  His hooves made a fraction of the noise there, and more importantly it was safer for the horse.

  The ground had leveled off over the previous quarter mile, the thirty degree slope replaced with flat land.

  Tony no longer worried about dashing quickly into the brush if he had to.

  That was his way out if things got ugly, but with each of the horse’s steps he was increasingly convinced it wasn’t going to.

  Up ahead was the crest of a long hill.

  If he were to be ambushed this would be a great place to do it. The bushwhacker could hide in the shrubs on either side of the highway and train his rifle on the crest of the hill.

  Once Tony crested the hill and progressed too far down the other side he’d be a sitting duck.

  Of course, that would mean the bushwhacker would know he was coming up behind them.

  But that wasn’t hard in this part of the country. There were a thousand places where a scout could hide, then make his way overland to inform his cronies of his location and strength.

  He was extra wary, therefore, when he crested the hill.

  After he crested it, he was simply amazed by what he saw.

  Chapter 23

  Before Tony lay a tremendous panoramic view of the Texas hill country in the midst of autumn. Some of the prettiest landscape in all of the American west.

  Or anywhere else, for that matter.

  It wasn’t just the thousands of hues and colors in the dozens of types of trees and shrubbery which caught his eye, though.

  It was quite possibly the oddest contraption he’d ever seen.

  Two hundred yards ahead of him, where the slope leveled out and became more or less flat ground, a man was pushing a bright red shopping cart.

  Now, that wasn’t the strange part. He’d seen dozens of men pushing similar carts along this section of highway before.

  This was something quite different. Sort of a… double shopping cart. For directly in front of the cart the man was pushing, separated by several feet of… something… connecting them together, was a second identical cart.

  It reminded Tony of an old-fashioned tandem bicycle, with two riders riding down the street on the same bike.

  Except that this one was pushed by only one man.

  “Well, I’ll be darned. What do you think of that?”

  Of course, there was no one else around to hear Tony’s words, or to answer Tony’s question.

  Except Flash, and he didn’t answer.

  Tony had no way of knowing, therefore, exactly what Flash thought of the spectacle two hundred yards in front of them.

  Oh… and that wasn’t all.

  Keeping pace with the man pushing the double shopping cart… thingy… was someone in a wheelchair being pushed by someone else who seemed barely able to see over the top of it.

  Tony spoke to Flash again, though it was unclear whether he hoped for an answer this time.

  “You reckon these people might need some help, boy?”

  So, Tony now knew the source of the smell.

  It appeared to be a family, and they appeared to be in some type of distress.

  Tony kept the same pace.

  When he drew within
a hundred yards or so he’d move over to the shoulder, where the “clop, clop, clop” of Flash’s hooves would be a bit louder.

  Not long after they’d be heard, and the family would stop and look behind them.

  Only then would he approach them.

  In all likelihood they’d be more afraid of Tony than he was of them.

  If they’d been traveling for any amount of time, they surely would have encountered hostile men who were bent on doing them harm or taking their things.

  He might even he held at gunpoint and ordered to state his business before passing them by. Such a request, though certainly not pleasant, would not be unreasonable. Especially if this family had been robbed or brutalized in some other manner before.

  Tony’s game plan, should that happen, was just to be himself.

  Smile broadly, proclaim he was friendly and meant no harm, and even remove his gun belt and drop it into the dirt if asked to do so.

  As it turned out, Dave’s sense of hearing was almost as impressive as Tony’s sense of smell.

  He heard Flash’s hooves striking the ground even before Tony pulled the big horse onto the asphalt.

  He brought his contraption to a screeching halt and turned to look behind him.

  Now, a lot of men who were fearful of others would have grabbed a rifle and found an abandoned car or something to crouch behind. They’d have raised the rifle in the general direction of the cowboy and challenged him before allowing him to pass.

  Dave Spear feared no man.

  At least until he was given a reason to.

  Instead of crouching down and preparing to kill the stranger he took a different, more prudent approach.

  He turned the long monstrosity he was pushing so that Lindsey, riding on the stretcher between the two carts, was hidden behind a 1975 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.

  At the same time, he instructed Beth to roll her mother’s wheelchair behind the same truck.

  “Make sure you can’t see him,” he instructed his daughter. If you can see him, it means he can see you too.”

  Once his family had cover he walked directly toward the cowboy.

  His pistol was already locked and loaded. It was already untied from his holster, as he always carried it that way unless climbing onto the back of an abandoned trailer.

  He left his AR-15 behind, for his family to use if things went south.

  Some might view that as a mistake.

  But Dave was confident of his ability to talk or fight himself out of any situation. In his mind, grabbing the rifle would have marked him immediately as an aggressor. It might elevate a situation which did not need to be elevated.

  If the cowboy were the skittish type, it might start a gunfight where mere words were needed.

  Dave was tired of fighting and killing, and seeing people get killed. If there was a way to deal with this situation without bloodshed he was all in.

  He hoped the lone cowboy was too.

  He’d made the right decision.

  Tony Davis, like Dave, was a fierce fighter.

  But only when fighting couldn’t be avoided.

  And he, like Dave, believed that most conflicts could be reasoned out.

  Lastly he too believed the world had been too violent for too long. That if things were going to get back to normal again, there was no better time than the present.

  Dave stopped forty yards in front of the old Chevy truck and folded his arms in front of him.

  It wasn’t the stance of a man getting ready to draw.

  It was the stance of a man who wanted to talk.

  Chapter 24

  Talking was just fine with Tony.

  That was his preferred way of dealing with things as well.

  As he rode the last forty yards he looped the reins around the saddle horn so they wouldn’t drop and raised his hands high in the air.

  Somebody watching from a distance might have thought Dave had him at gunpoint, but that wasn’t the case at all.

  Just as Dave crossed his arms to show he was no threat, Tony raised his arms to show he wasn’t either.

  “Howdy,” Dave said when Tony was in earshot.

  Yes, men in Texas still greet one another the way Texans have for generations: with a smile, a nod and a “howdy.”

  Some men still greet ladies by tipping their hats. But those men are dying off by the day.

  Tony responded with a nod and said, “Good morning, stranger.”

  He followed up with, “I couldn’t help noticing the funny-looking vehicle you were pushing. I didn’t even know that Target offered their shoppers piggy-back rigs.”

  Dave was a good judge of character. He got the sense Tony’s comment wasn’t meant as a slam or an insult, but rather made in admiration of Dave’s ingenuity.

  He also knew immediately the two would get along fine.

  “I’ve got a wife and daughter who are in pretty bad shape,” he said by way of explanation. “I can carry one but not both. I had to come up with a way of moving them safely.”

  “I’m not a doctor or anything, but I’m willing to do anything I can to help.

  “Oh, heck, I’m sorry. My name’s Tony,” he said as he reached down from his horse. “Tony Davis. I’m a ranch hand from the Rocking F.”

  Dave took the hand and shook it.

  “Dave Spear. I’ve heard of the Rocking F. Isn’t that the biggest ranch in Texas?”

  “Close. Number two. For years old man McDermott tried to buy up land so he could take over the number one spot, but none of his neighbors is willing to sell anymore. So he’s resigned himself to thinking number two is good enough.”

  “Mind if I step down and stretch my legs a bit?”

  “Feel free. I’ll introduce you to my family.”

  Tony stepped down and dropped Flash’s reins. He was a good horse. He might wander over to the grass in the median, but he wouldn’t go far.

  A short whistle would bring him right back.

  They walked to the front of the Chevy truck, where Sarah and the girls were waiting.

  They’d seen the pair walking side by side and talking as they approached.

  None of them were surprised that Dave had diffused the situation so quickly. He was an expert as doing such things, and made friends very easily.

  When they walked up Dave was explaining how he’d made what he called his “rolling stretcher.”

  “It was easy,” he said. I just took a sleeping bag, zipped up the side and cut two holes in the corners where your feet would go.

  “The two pieces of pipe went through the holes and up each side of the bag.

  “Where your shoulders would be on each side of the bag I just bunched up each corner and duct-taped the bunches to each pipe.

  “Then I had the stretcher.

  “After that it was just a matter of duct-taping the pipe to the rack beneath each shopping cart, front and back, and I had two shopping carts with six feet of stretcher between them. Plenty enough to accommodate a seventeen year old girl with a broken leg. And to shield her from the sun I just drape a thin white bed sheet across the gap and down the sides.”

  “Pretty impressive,” Tony said. “I’m guessing the hardest part is steering the darned thing. It must be, what… fifteen feet long, with fixed wheels in the back.”

  “Good guess. And yes, steering it is kind of a pain.

  “It doesn’t take tight turns well at all. I have to swing wide. But it’s good on gas and requires very little maintenance.”

  Tony laughed.

  Lindsey noticed he had an easy laugh. She also noticed he was quite handsome, though a little too old for her.

  She brushed her tangled hair out of her face and wished she’d had make-up on.

  Beth looked at her mom and both smiled.

  Lindsey had always gotten crushes easily, dating back to junior high school.

  Far too easily for her mom’s liking.

  But she’d been suffering since she broke her leg three days before.
And she was bored out of mind by lying on her back all day long watching the clouds in the sky.

  So maybe a distraction… any distraction… wouldn’t be a bad thing for her. If spending a few minutes chatting with a handsome young cowboy broke the monotony it would brighten her whole day.

  Tony looked down at her and asked, “How’s the ride down there? Pretty bumpy, I’ll bet.”

  “Oh, it’s not too bad. Pretty boring.”

  “I’ll bet. A pretty girl like you should be on her feet, dancing all night with the cowboys and making them fight over you.”

  The words “pretty girl” made her blush.

  But she’d never forget this chance encounter, even if she never saw this cowboy again.

  Tony turned his attention back to Dave and Sarah.

  “I was serious about wanting to help, if there’s anything I can do.”

  Dave said, “What we need more than anything is to get to Blanco. I haven’t seen any signs for it and don’t know if it’s over the next hill or a thousand more miles. Do you have any idea?”

  Tony looked around to get his bearings.

  “It’s another four, maybe five miles. Keep going in the same direction. I’ll ride ahead and get the Doc to send his medical wagon to meet you halfway. It ain’t quite as pretty as your Target-mobile, but it’s comfortable and it’ll move a lot faster.”

  Dave asked, “Do you know a woman there named Red?”

  “Red Poston? The police chief?”

  “Yes. But I didn’t know she was the chief of police.”

  “Yep. For the last six or eight months. If I can find her I’ll bring her back with me.”

  Chapter 25

  Tony took off at a fast gallop toward Blanco.

  Dave and his family took a break, since they were stopped anyway, and set off again.

  Dave wondered how his new friend knew Red.

  But it was just curiosity which drove the question. He felt absolutely no jealousy, no animosity, no ill feelings of any kind toward Tony.

  Dave was a man who was devoted to his wife. He had no more room in his heart for Red or for any other woman.