October skies

‘I’m doing this for Emily,’ Sam replied. ‘For me, for Johanna.. and all your other bastard children.’

Preston squirmed and gurgled.

‘I’m doing this for Momma. She was going to tell them all about you, but you had Saul kill her. I hate you!’

Take his eyes.

Sam raised his clawed hand and smiled. ‘So, now you’ve seen.’

With a sudden thrust, the sharpened point of the bone claw strapped to his index finger penetrated Preston’s left eye. It burst with a soft, wet pop. He pushed the claw in all the way to the knuckle, feeling cartilage and bone crack and surrender.

Preston thrashed convulsively for a moment, and then was still.

CHAPTER 75

Saturday

Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

‘And this, ladies and gents, is it,’ said Grace, stepping down over the moss-covered hump of a fallen tree into the clearing.

Shepherd followed her over and then stopped, surveying the open expanse of grooves and bumps covered with an undulating blanket of smooth, green moss.

‘Oh, I assumed there would be more to see,’ he said with a look of disappointment.

‘Don’t worry, it’s all there… buried,’ said Julian quickly, ‘and surprisingly well preserved because of that.’

‘And this place is where you found that journal?’

Julian nodded and pointed across the clearing. ‘Over on the other side; you’ll see where the moss has been disturbed.’

Grace looked up at the sinking sun. ‘We’re not goin’ to have time for playing around in the muck today, people. We should get the tents out whilst we’ve got some light to work with.’ She looked across at Shepherd. ‘If that’s okay with you, Mr Shepherd?’

‘Sure.’ He smiled genially. ‘You’re the boss out here, Grace.’

Grace smiled. She liked that he said that.

As they stepped cautiously across the uneven clearing, Rose sidled up to Julian. ‘Shepherd’s doing a good job of winning over Grace, isn’t he?’

Julian shrugged. ‘Of course he is. He might end up being her next President.’ He turned to her. ‘Do I detect a whiff of jealousy?’

Rose wrinkled her nose. ‘No… it’s, it’s just that, I dunno..’

‘She didn’t bow and scrape quite so much for us?’

She smiled. ‘Yeah, I suppose.’

Julian looked up at the man ahead of them, and his body-guard walking along warily to one side. ‘Power does that. The smell of it stimulates our inner serf.’

Grace led them to the same relatively flat area they’d camped on last time. It was surrounded by a subtle, roughly circular hump. The blackened soot from their last campfire a week ago remained undisturbed.

‘We’ve got about an hour of light to pitch our tents. Let’s do that, then I’ll get a campfire going for some coffee.’ She turned to Shepherd. ‘You okay putting up your tent, Mr Shepherd?’

‘I’m okay, my dear,’ he laughed. ‘I’ve done my fair share of hiking in my time.’

‘Mr Barns? You okay with that?’

The Fed nodded. ‘I’m good, ma’am.’

Grace put together a surprisingly tasty stew from the contents of several tins and a perforated bag of spices that she threw into the bubbling pot a few minutes before serving.

‘My word, this is delicious,’ said Shepherd, blowing onto a steaming spoon.

‘Nothing like a stew when you’ve been walkin’ out in the fresh,’ Grace replied.

The fire crackled warmly between them. Julian felt it was noticeably cooler this time around than a week ago. But then, it was into November and, according to the local weather man this morning, snow several weeks overdue would be covering these hills soon. Julian shuffled slightly closer to the fire and blew a cloud of steam out of his bowl. ‘You said you’ve done a bit of hiking before?’

‘Yes. My father and I… a long time ago now, I’m afraid. We took quite a few trips to the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas. I don’t seem to have much time these days to spend it like this, away from the end of a phone network. It’s hard to truly get away from that.’

Julian smiled. ‘I can imagine. Not that long ago it wasn’t so hard to find somewhere off the grid, but-’ He pulled out his BlackBerry and checked for a signal. ‘Nope, nothing. Well, there you go. I guess you can still find places off the grid.’

‘So, you were sayin’, you’ve come along because you’re interested in this story of Rose and Julian’s?’ said Grace.

‘Yes. I’ve an interest in history from this time, particularly early Mormon history. Fascinating thing, the birth of a brand new faith, so recently — historically speaking.’

Rose blew on her spoon. ‘Isn’t it awkward timing for you to duck out from campaigning, just to join our field trip?’

Shepherd chuckled. ‘I guess there’s no such thing as a good time. But I felt like I needed time to recharge my batteries, have some quiet.’ He looked across at Julian. ‘And your colleague’s email arrived at just the right moment. It gave me an excuse to get away from things for a short while.’

They ate in silence for a few moments, listening to the hiss of a breeze through the swaying branches around them.

‘So,’ said Julian, ‘you’re a Mormon yourself. That’s right isn’t it, Mr Shepherd?’

He nodded. ‘I was born and raised one.’

‘How does that factor into your voter appeal?’