“Cabin is about a mile northwest of here. When we get there, I’m gonna take you up on giving me some answers, Mac. Don’t disappoint me.”
Mac gave the rancher a thin smile.
“Fine, now let’s get moving.”
As Bear attempted to sit up he let out a cry of pain, his right hand resting on his left shoulder.
“Need someone to pop this thing back into place. It’s dislocated.”
Mac returned to Bear’s side and leaned over him.
“Your shoulder? It’s dislocated?”
Bear nodded.
“Yeah, had it happen a few times when I played football. After I lay down I just need you to grab my wrist and pull.”
Bear lay down again and slowly extended his left arm toward Mac, who in turn looked up at Reese and Dublin.
“Bear – I don’t know. I haven’t done that kind of thing in a long time. Don’t want to mess you up more than you already are…”
Bear cut off Mac’s hesitation.
“For God’s sake, Mac, just grab my wrist and pull out. It’ll pop right back into place.”
Mac hesitated again, and found himself being pushed to the side by Dublin. The granddaughter of the billionaire founder of Dominatus grabbed Bear’s large wrist with both hands and did as he asked and pulled - hard.
Bear gave no indication of pain. He simply took a deep breath and then smiled.
“Thank you Dublin. That feels so much better.”
Bear then rose to his feet and moved his left arm in short circular motions.
“Not a hundred percent, but good enough for now. I’m ready.”
Reese, as he looked toward Cooper Wyse who was holding onto the four surviving horses, posed a question that had just come to him.
“Cooper, you bring that laser gun? The one you said could shoot down a drone?”
Cooper looked back at Reese and nodded.
“Yeah, got it strapped to the side of my horse.”
The other three Dominatus survivors were looking at Cooper Wyse with the same intensity as Reese was. Reese followed up with the question the four of them were all thinking.
“So…why didn’t you use it to shoot that thing down, Cooper?”
Cooper Wyse simply shrugged.
“Didn’t have time. I would have had to jump down from the horse, unstrapped the weapon, taken aim…we all could have been blown to bits by then.”
Mac stepped toward Cooper.
“You mean to tell me you couldn’t have shot that thing from your horse? As good a rider as you are, I find that hard to believe Coop. Real hard to believe.”
Cooper Wyse’s eyes glowered back at Mac from under the brim of his cowboy hat as his right hand lowered itself slowly until it rested just above the holstered gun that hung from his right hip.
“Don’t care for the accusation, Mac.”
Mac took another step toward Cooper.
“Why didn’t you fire that weapon at those drones, Coop? You didn’t even try.”
The rancher’s right hand twitched slightly. He was prepared to shoot.
“It happened too fast, Mac. Suppose you can say I panicked a bit. Hell, you didn’t think of using it either until Reese just mentioned it. You’re the soldier here, not me. If you want to keep talking like this, implicating me in something, then go on and do it and we’ll have that discussion right here and now. Otherwise, you can shut the hell up about it. I’m the one who lost a horse. I’m the one who left my ranch to help you all out.”
Mac continued to stare into Cooper’s eyes, trying to determine if the man was being truthful or not. After several seconds passed, he relaxed his posture and held up both of his hands.
“You are right on that, Coop, I should have been more ready. Guess I’ve grown rusty since we left Dominatus. Too much city life. That said, let’s make sure that laser gun of yours is ready to go in case we get visited by another one of those drones.”
Cooper Wyse nodded his head in agreement.
“Absolutely.”
The rancher then proceeded to lead the four horses deeper into the trees, calling back to the other four as he did so.
“Let’s go, then. The trees get real thick for a while, but we don’t have much further to the cabin.”
Mac kept himself between Cooper and the other three. Reese noted the former Navy SEAL had quietly removed his handgun from its shoulder holster and was carrying it in his right hand.
After twenty minutes of walking through the dense trees, the five came upon a clearing where a small cabin was situated at the opposite side a little more than a hundred yards away.
Cooper held up a hand to signal the other four to stop. He stood just inside the tree line staring across at the cabin as the others gathered behind him.
“Something’s not right. Brando should be here. He should be waiting for me right in front of the cabin like he always does.”
Dark clouds gathered above the trees as the temperature had become noticeably cooler than it was just an hour earlier. Rain was coming.
Mac, who had holstered his weapon, took out a set of binoculars and stood next to Cooper as he looked toward the cabin.
“Can’t see anyone in there but the windows are too dark to tell for certain. No movement though.”
The sound of Brando’s bark echoed off of the trees behind them. The bark then turned to a growling yelp.
Cooper’s eyes widened in alarm and he ran back into the woods, his gun already removed from its holster. The other four struggled to catch up to the rancher as the intensity of Brando’s agitated growls increased. There was something in those woods the dog felt very threatened by.
Reese, Dublin, Mac, and Bear reached Cooper Wyse who was kneeling over Brando to make certain the Doberman was not harmed. Brando in turn stood motionless, his eyes fixated somewhere inside the forest. The Doberman’s lip curled back in a menacing snarl, his teeth snapping down hard as the dog continued to warn off whatever it thought was in the woods.
Mac stood with his gun drawn next to both Cooper and Brando as he peered into the trees trying to see what was bothering the dog so much.
“You see anything, Coop?”
Cooper shook his head.
Large droplets of rain began to fall above them, though few actually made it past the branches and to the ground, which remained almost completely dry.
Finally Brando’s snarling barks began to lessen, and within a few more minutes, the dog was happily licking the side of Cooper’s face.
Mac remained concerned over what had spooked the dog so much.
“He normally get that upset over something?”
Cooper stood up and looked into the woods again.
“No – he doesn’t. Maybe he came across a bear. That would do it.”
Dublin’s voice called out from behind the two men.
“Do you smell that, Mac? Like…like something is rotten. Or dead.”
Mac, Cooper, Reese and Bear sniffed the air around them. Only Bear confirmed what Dublin was smelling.
“Yeah, like there’s something dead. Like that but…kind of different too.”
Cooper shrugged.
“Whatever it was seems to be gone now. Let’s get to the cabin.”
The give made their way back to the clearing and looked out toward the small cabin. Brando sat to Cooper’s right staring as intently across the clearing as everyone else. Cooper Wyse issued a short low whistle as he gave an abbreviated chopping motion with his right hand in the direction of the cabin.
“Go!”
Brando took off across the clearing and within seconds was circling and sniffing along the cabin’s perimeter. After doing so twice the dog stopped in front of the cabin door and lay down, waiting for Cooper and the others to join him.
Grabbing the four remaining horses, Cooper was the first to begin crossing the clearing. Reese and Dublin followed close behind the rancher, while Bear and Mac trailed slowly behind. Both Mac and Bear had drawn their weapons and were looking behind them and then into the sky above. The rain had lessened some, though the clouds indicated there was more to come.
“There was something not right in those woods, Mac. I smelled it. Just like Dublin did. Had the dog freaking out whatever it was.”
Mac’s eyes continued to scan upward as he responded to Bear.
“Could have been an animal of some sort, but I know what you mean. Coming off that hill I was feeling nervous. Then the drone attack and whatever was in those woods with us. Now we’re stuck out here in the middle of wherever the hell this is, I don’t much like not being in control of the situation.”
Bear looked ahead toward Cooper Wyse who was almost to the cabin.
“Yeah, wish we were all back in Dominatus.”
Mac gave a small smile as he looked over at Bear.
“Me too. I miss it every damn day. The tavern, the Old Man - all of it.”
All five now stood just outside the entrance to the cabin. Like Bear and Mac, the other three had unholstered their guns as Cooper removed a single key from a pocket and inserted it into the large padlock that sealed the front door shut. He returned the key to its pocket inside his vest and slowly pushed the door inward. Mac scanned the door and noted it looked to be far more heavy than it appeared from the outside.
“That thing steel?”
Cooper nodded.
“Half inch steel on the interior of the door. Not just the door – the whole cabin. Runs right in between the log framing, including the roof. The windows have a security laminate over them. Makes them bullet resistant. Come on in.”
As soon as the rancher stepped into the cabin’s interior, two overhead lights came on. Cooper quickly turned behind the door to input a code into a small box attached to the wall.
“We have motion sensor lights, and a full on security system for not only the cabin, but once we are inside here, I can activate the perimeter sensors. Anything crosses the clearing and we’ll know about it.”
Mac pointed upward.
“How about if that drone comes back and drops a missile on top of us?”
Cooper glanced briefly at the other four.
“Nothing much we can do about that, Mac. Drones aren’t allowed inside the Canadian territories – at least that’s my understanding. We’re far enough from the border now we should be ok.”
Mac scoffed at Cooper’s words.
“We’re talking about the New United Nations. They’ll do whatever the hell they want. If that means blowing us up inside this cabin, then that’s what they’ll do. We’ll spend the night here, but first thing tomorrow we need to be on our way, wherever that is. I’ll assume you had some idea of where we were going to go from here?”
Cooper Wyse looked out one of the windows of the cabin and then back to Mac.
“Expecting a visitor soon, the guy I’ve been working with for the last ten years or so. He brings in the goods, leaves them here at the cabin for me, and I take them across into Alaska. If anyone would know the best way for us to get all the way over to Manitoba it would be him.”