Lost and Found (6 page)

"Riley, she just flattened you out. That didn't hurt enough?"

With a sigh, I glanced over my shoulder and smiled faintly at him. "Haven't you been
around horses at all? You're from Ireland!"

"Not everyone from bloody Ireland rides horses!" he hissed back. His expression changed
from irritation to concern as he looked beyond me and I turned around to find the
bay's face inches from my own.

She smelled of dirt, grass, and old manure. Tentatively, I reached up again, placed
my palm on the blaze between her eyes, and cautiously rubbed the coarse hair until
she shifted.

"Riley…don't," Connor said quietly behind me.

I stepped along the side of the horse, running my hand under her tangled mane, across
her shoulders and along her back. I patted her gently, returning my hand to her neck,
scratching beneath her hair. The palomino was still inspecting Connor's hair and I
smiled at him while he patted at the creature's neck.

"See?" I said, as the bay flicked her ears and turned into my scratching hand, "I
told you, she just needs time to get to know us, is all."

When the bay turned around to stare at me, I could see the pain and fear that was
imprinted in all our gazes. She was scared and just as lost as the rest of us.

"Don't worry girl, we'll take care of you." She sighed and snorted in response, bending
down to finish her grazing while I alternated between pats and rubs up and down her
side. An idea blurted from my mouth before I had the chance to properly consider it.

"Connor?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you ride?"

"You're crazy! I mean, certifiable, Riley. You can't be serious!" Connor stood with
his feet firmly planted in the weedy grass, staring at me in disbelief. The shoulders
of his shirt were covered in damps spots where the palomino had nibbled and nuzzled
him. He was lucky the friendly horse hadn't grazed across his head, and trimmed his
hair to the roots in the process.

"Think about it, Connor. The horses are pretty much all-terrain. We wouldn't need
to worry about fuel or traffic; it makes sense, you know it does!" I stood as tall
as my narrow frame would allow with my arms crossed at my chest, willing my face to
look determined.

"I think you're nuts, Riley. Damn crazy," he mumbled into his hands as he dragged
them down his face.

"Not to interject, but maybe she has a point," Winchester said. He stood next to the
golden mare, his palm resting on her side. "I mean, at least Riley won't be crashing
any bikes, right?" I was the only one that laughed.

The horses had eagerly followed us back to the lodge along the remnants of what used
to be a trail leading to the main building. There was no stable on the property, but
along the recreation building, was a wooden railing with posts that ran deep into
the ground. It was the only place we could think of to keep the horses, but there
was no way to contain them.

The bay mare was pretending to ignore us as she nibbled at the plants and grasses
that bordered the trail and the main lawn, but I caught her peering up at me every
time I glanced in her direction. Her large, brown eyes seemed hesitant, but willing
to trust us. When we made eye contact, she would swish her tail and look back down
at the ground to continue her grazing.

"Wait. Just wait," said Jacks, "Look, I've seen Riley ride, I know she can do it.
But Riley," he turned to look at me, "Are you saying you want to ride a horse from
the mountains of San Diego all the way to the city streets of Los Angeles? I mean,
Connor's right…that's just crazy, babe." He put his hands up in the air and looked
uncomfortable about picking sides. I tried hard not to glare at him.

"What the heck do you think people did before cars were invented? The bikes will only
get us so far and plus, horses are quieter. People would hear us coming from miles
away if we took bikes." I propped a fist on my hip and pointed at Connor. "Besides,
you said you could ride! Why does this idea bother you so much?"

"I said I
could
ride! Not that I particularly enjoyed doing it for days at a time! This would be
a lot of work, Riley, a
lot
of work."

"I get that. But what else do we have to do? Is there something better on your schedule
for this month?"

Connor and I glared at each other, neither of us willing to be the first to break.
It was Skip that jumped in between us and put a hand on each of our shoulders. "Look
kids, we don't need to figure this all out today, do we? We don't even know how to
keep these beasts from wandering off. Let's just take this one day at a time. Let's
go have a drink and relax for a bit. And for God's sake, someone's got to bathe them…I
can't handle the stench for much longer." He crinkled his nose up to prove his point
before walking past us, with an anxious Winchester in tow. Jacks shrugged at me and
turned to follow the other two men as they made their way down the trail and back
to the cabins.

Connor hadn't budged and Kris hadn't left her place next to the palomino, who seemed
beyond pleased to have so much attention. The bay was still grazing, seemingly uninterested
in the men that had left the group.

"Kris," I said over my shoulder, still looking at Connor's pissed expression, "Wanna
go for a drive with me; pick up some horse supplies?"

"Yeah! But what about them, do we leave them here?"

"There's rope in the utility closet inside the rec room. I'll get it," I said, finally
tearing my eyes from Connor and his flushed cheeks to stomp up the nearby steps.

He was still standing in the same place when I came back with the rope. "This should
work, if they'll let me tie them to the post, that is," I said, half under my breath.
It was the first time I had ever tied a horse to anything, so I did my best at making
the knot secure, without making the loop around their necks too loose. The palomino
was completely pliant, allowing me to lead her to the railing and secure her rope
to it without as much as a whinny. She resumed grazing at the base of one of the posts,
as if she belonged there.

The bay was a different story. She allowed me to loop the rope around her head, but
she didn't budge when I tried to lead her to the post. After five minutes of gentle
tugging and murmured reassurances, she slowly made her way toward the fencing, loudly
protesting with snorts, whinnies, and shakes of her head. Once I was close enough
to tie her off, I wasted no time securing her rope to the log-style railing for fear
that she might realize what I was doing and bolt - with me still holding onto the
rope. An image flashed through my mind of me being dragged down the lodge road, gravel
filling my mouth and nose and tearing the flesh from my face.

"Now what?" Connor asked, not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice.

"Now…we find a ranch that has stables and pick up some supplies." I turned from him,
beckoning Kris to follow and marched down the trail to the cabins, not bothering to
glance behind me to see if Connor was following or not.

After grabbing up the keys to the Jeep, Kris and I returned to the front of the lodge
and climbed into the dusty vehicle. We left Connor brooding inside the cabin, alone.
Even the dog seemed hesitant to stay with him, so she sat on Kris's lap as we drove
down the long and gravelly driveway, turning South on the highway. Plenty of people
had owned horses in the area; it was just a matter of finding what we needed and bringing
it back.

We struck gold with the first ranch-style property we pulled into. The smell of decay
had peaked in June; the heat of summer seemed to dry out the corpses that were in
town. The stink there was mostly trapped inside houses, so the smell wasn't as pungent.
But the countryside was different on account of all the dead livestock.

Regardless of the rot, the shadows never went away, not completely. It seemed that
most of us were plagued by our dreams regardless of where we were, not by the ghosts
left behind. Then again, none of us ventured out into previously populated areas of
town unless we had to.

As Kris and I stood outside of a barn fit to house at least twenty horses, the only
scent in the air was stale hay and dried flowers. And dirt. One of the barn doors
was open and as we walked inside, a flutter of wings above us made me jump. A barn
owl flew out of the rafters and out the door with a loud screech.

"Ouch," I said under my breath, grimacing at the bruises Kris was leaving in my arm.

"I'm sorry!" she said, releasing me. She gently rubbed at the spot where she had clamped
on to me when the bird burst out of its nest.

"It's okay," I laughed, "It got me too."

The inside of the barn was poorly lit but after we stood still for a moment and let
our eyes adjust, we could see well enough to look around the place. It took almost
half an hour to find what I thought we needed. A few side pulls, extra rope, two shedding
tools and an almost full gallon of horse shampoo. Kris found saddle blankets and carried
them out to the Jeep.

"What about hay? Don't horses eat hay?" she asked as I dumped the supplies into the
back seat. Zoey rushed in and out of the barn, nosing around the stable doors. I refused
to look inside them. The smell of death lingered inside the stalls and I had no desire
to see decaying horses.

"Uh, yeah. But, obviously these two were eating what they could find. Hey, look at
that." I pointed to the side of the barn, at the truck that was parked in the weeds,
a horse trailer fixed to the fifth wheel.

"The trailer?" Kris asked as I walked away from her.

"If it works, we could fill the back with hay. Maybe the horses will sleep in here
till we figure out what to do with them."

"Can you drive that?"

"If there are keys…probably."

She stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the weathered wood wall of the barn
as I inspected the vehicle. The horse-trailer was unlocked, and relatively clean on
the inside. The truck was unlocked as well, but the keys weren't in plain sight.

"No keys," I said with a sigh, as I climbed back out of the driver seat.

"Now what? You going in the house?"

Kris didn't enter houses. She would climb fruit trees or scale fences to pick through
over-grown gardens, but any time we needed supplies that we could only find indoors,
she always waited in the car. She swore the ghost of a dead man had kissed her cheek
once as she pilfered through a downstairs bathroom. She had run from the house screaming
and crying, and vowed to leave the indoor gathering to the rest of us from that point
on. I didn't blame her. I didn't much enjoy wandering through the houses of dead people
either, stealing their canned foods, toilet paper and batteries.

"I'm not sure. Wasn't there a little office inside the barn?"

"Yeah, but it's like the size of a closet. I didn't see any keys in there either,"
she answered.

"We weren't looking for keys earlier, come on." The dry wind pushed against us as
we rounded the corner of the building, causing dust to fly up in our faces.

"Yuck!" Kris spat as we rushed back inside the barn.

I swiped at my face with my shirtsleeve, rubbing the dirt off my lips. The wind had
been picking up and the temperature was high during the day.

"Damn Santa Ana weather," I mumbled.

We trudged to the far side of the barn where a small room was tucked in the corner
next to several large barrels. A few tools that I didn't know the names of hung from
the walls, as well as a few framed pictures of prize-winning horses. Other than a
small office chair and wobbly wooden desk, a four-drawer metal cabinet was the only
other furniture in the room.

I sifted through the small wicker basket that sat atop the cabinet, finding loose
keys, bolts and thumbtacks. No truck keys. Papers were strewn about the desk in lumps,
as if someone had sifted through them. I pushed them aside into a pile, finding nothing
but a bottle opener beneath the mess.

"Check the drawer," Kris said from behind me.

One thin drawer ran the length of the table and inside I found not only one set, but
also two sets of keys, including a dusty
Playboy
magazine from the nineties. The cover had been flipped open enough times that the
spine was completely pliant, bending freely. Soft wrinkles and bends covered every
inch of the magazine, but it was otherwise in great condition.

"Someone must have liked this edition," I said with a laugh, raising it up for Kris
to see the blonde model on the front, expertly hiding her private areas with her long
hair and hands. The disgusted look on Kris's face made me laugh harder and I tossed
the magazine back into the desk, pushing the drawer shut. The
Playboy
would be sealed in there, forever. However long forever ended up being.

We were covered in dust and smelled like old hay and horse and not in a good way.
Instead of getting used to the smell of the dead animals, my nose seemed to have a
harder time processing the sickly-sweet odor of the barn the longer we stayed inside
it.

As we walked toward the exit, the morbid side of my curiosity won and I went up on
my toes to look over one of the stall gates. I flinched back in horror, covering my
mouth with the back of my hand and nearly stumbled over a felled pitchfork.

"What? What is it?" Kris asked.

I shook my head from side to side, not sure of what I saw, but certain I didn't want
to see it again. "I-I don't know."

Before I could reach out and stop her, Kris stepped forward and gripped the stall
door, going up on her toes, just as I had, to peer over the side. "No, Kris - wait!"
It was too late. She recoiled from the gate, covering her face with her hands.

"I want to go - I don't want to be in here anymore!" she said, taking no time to wait
for me as she stumbled away from the stalls and back outside, into the fresh air.

Zoey stood from her resting spot beside one of the Jeep tires, watching us with a
worried expression. She had also stopped going inside houses and structures she didn't
know. Her canine senses couldn't take the rancid stimuli.

We leaned against the Jeep, staring at the barn with the single open door that almost
resembled a mouth. So much death. Everything had died. Well, not
everything
.

"What do you think did that?" Kris whispered, wiping clear snot from her leaking nose.

I glanced at her before returning my attention back at the barn. "I don't know…some
sort of large animal, I guess."

"Think it might still be around here, watching us or something?" Her eyes darted over
the empty grass fields that surrounded the barn and up the hill that led to the main
house.