Part 1 - May 27 - Round them up

The next morning Carl woke everyone up early to get started. They raided the kitchen for whatever food was available for breakfast and lunch.

The group didn’t spend time with idle small talk. They quickly finished eating, then gathered up tack and belongings and headed outside to prepare the horses and new riders for the final leg of the trip back to the Colony.

Dennis had been woken up by a radio message sent exactly at sunrise. He groaned as he rolled off the couch he had slept on to answer the radio.

Dennis plodded into the kitchen where Carl and Sam were already on their second cup of coffee. Carl smiled at the younger man’s distress at having been awakened so early. As Dennis handed Carl the radio, Carl indicated that pancakes were in the oven.

Carl spoke to Max, who was getting ready to bring the bus and horse trailer to pick them up.

“Never mind the horse trailer,” Carl replied. “It will only hold four horses anyway. Plus, I’d rather not waste the fuel.” Carl watched as a few more of the travelers stumbled into the kitchen. “I’d rather save the fuel for picking up children, and this will give us a chance to survey what supplies are available between here and the campus that we can collect for winter.”

“Well, if you’re sure. How long do you think it will take for you to get to the campus?” Max inquired.

Carl sketched out his plan for Max. “I don’t want to push the horses that we took to Stone Ridge too much. I plan to plod along at a nice, easy pace. If we don’t take too much time checking places for livestock, I guess we could be back a little after noon.”

“Alright, if I don’t hear from you regularly or you don’t show up on time, I’m coming to look for you. Understood?” Max’s voice carried just how adamant he was about his decision.

Carl laughed. “You sound like that schoolteacher I’ve been hanging around with. I won’t argue, I’d rather be safe than sorry. But I’ll have the radio team give you hourly checks about what is going on. Will that ease your worry?”

“Agreed, that will ease my worry. I’ll have someone on this end ready for any message you need to send. Just keep me posted. Carl, we need you here. I don’t know anyone else that can do what you do around here. You’ve got to pass on to us what it takes to keep this place running.”

Max paused. “Those three boys you have hacking into cars had us move a couple of the semi tractors up to the service bays, and they’ve been pulling apart the instrument panels trying to figure out how to bypass the automatic controls. I’d place money that we’ll have some solar tractors in service by the end of the day.” He laughed. “Those three boys are quite the team. That little one, Jayden, he’s the real brains of the operation, you know. How he ended up with those two clowns is beside me, but those two hang on every word Jayden tells them when it comes to hacking into any of the vehicles.”

There was a long pause, then Max almost shouted. “Holy shit, they got the semi running! I gotta go, they’re driving down the main drive now. You keep in touch. Max out.”

Carl laughed. “Roger that!” and he continued to laugh.

Sam looked up. “What’s so funny?”

Carl was laughing. “The Three Musketeers got one of the tractors for a trailer running, and Max is now chasing them down the main drive of the campus. I don’t miss babysitting those three for a while. They’re funny, but it can get tiresome watching them.”

Sam smiled and finished her coffee. “I’m out to check on the horses.” She stood and left the kitchen.

Once everyone had woken up and eaten breakfast, the group headed out to the animals.

They spent some time getting Lando and Amy mounted onto two of the horses, neither of whom had ever ridden in their lives. After some basic instructions, each of the experienced riders buddied up with one of the greenhorns, and the group headed slowly down the road.

Carl kept the group at an easy walk, allowing Lando and Amy time to become accustomed to their mounts, but also not pushing the three horses that had been worked hard the day before. They continued to check on livestock, cataloging what animals were where for future collection, and making sure the animals were able to reach food and water until they could come back for them.

Several miles along the way they came upon a large farm and could hear the bawling of cows in distress behind the house. Sam took the lead, moving Jack into an easy trot toward the barn to check on the animals. A herd of nearly 60 dairy cows were crowded around the entrance of the barn.

As Sam reached the herd, the reason for the loud bellowing became apparent. As she had feared, the herd had not been milked for days. Sam could see milk dribbling from the swollen teats of their overly bloated udders. A few of the cows had calves, and these new mothers were the least distressed of the herd. But many of the cows had developed mastitis or worse and were too far gone with the infection to be saved. Only a very few had dried up without complications.

Carl shouted over the bedlam for someone to radio in that they were going to be delayed. Then he and Sam went to work frantically checking the animals, trying to save as many as they could. The first cow they checked was so far along they were unable to do anything but put the poor girl down. Carl directed Jean and Lando to walk each of these poor animals to a fenced area far to the back of the small farm.

“What do you plan to do?” Lando asked.

Carl looked up sadly at the man. “The only thing we can do in this situation—put the poor things out of their misery.” The two men looked at Carl in horror at this death sentence.

Carl and Sam checked each animal, directing the others to take this one there or that one over there.

Sam examined one cow. Her udder was sore to the touch and hot with milk fever, but the milk was dribbling. Calling loudly to Amy, she directed the younger woman, “I want you to gently massage her udder and teats. If we can get her milked out, we may be able to save her.”

Amy pointed at the growing group being led to the far end of the field. “Isn’t there anything we can do for them?” she yelled over the bawling of the suffering animals.

Sam shook her head. “If we were at an animal hospital, I might be able to save more, but they’ve been standing around too long without being milked. It’s just too late.”

Amy looked at her, shock written all over her face. “I didn’t know that a cow would die if it wasn’t milked. This is horrible!” she cried.

Sam just nodded. “If we could find some hot water, we could apply hot compresses, which might help to get the milk to flow a little better. Then if we can get them back to the Colony, I’ll give them all a dose of amoxicillin for the infection. We may be able to save a few more.”

A gunshot rang out, and Amy gasped, looking toward the far field. The young woman looked at the cows and back at the house. She grabbed two buckets sitting in a corner and took off at a run. Tim stepped in to take Amy’s place and began to gently massage the cow’s udder, watching her stamping feet as the pressure of his hands increased her discomfort.

Sam checked Carl as he was working with another cow. He shook his head. “I’m not sure she’ll make it. I’ll try to get the milk to flow, but it may be too late.”

Miraculously, Amy came back with the buckets full of hot water and towels. Carl and Sam showed the group how to apply the hot compresses and how to work with the cows that had a chance to live. They led another cow into a milking stall and applied the hot towels. She bawled and stomped her feet, trying to prevent Carl from touching her sore teats as he gently worked to get her milk to flow. He was about to give up when he finally got two of the teats to produce a dribble of milk. Sam kept holding the warm compresses on the cow’s udder, and after several more minutes Carl had some milk flowing from all five teats.

They repeated this process over and over, finding one cow in seven that might be saved. Even if they got the milk to flow, they could still lose all of these animals.

The whole group had been at it for hours until Sam finally announced that they had treated the last cow. The volume of the bawling cows had been reduced in the barn as the few that might be saved quieted down with their pain eased.

They jumped as more gunshots resounded from the far field. Jeremy, Dennis, and Lando quietly walked back with the rifles, their grisly job of ending the doomed cows’ misery finished.

“What do we do now?” Sam asked.

“Find halters. They’ll have to come with us,” Carl said.

“They’ll slow us down. We can’t make them trot with their udders like that. Plus, we’ll have the calves.”

“Do you have another solution?” Carl looked exhausted.

“I could stay here and take care of them,” Sam offered.

“No.” He drawled. “We’ll have to move them to the campus one way or the other. We may as well just get them home now. We’ll need the milk more than ever, now that our numbers have increased again.” He paused to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “We’ll need to stop and keep working them to keep their milk flowing. It’ll take all of us working together to milk them as we go.” He looked at Tim. “You up to milking cows on the way home?”

Tim frowned. “We’ll have to take buckets, and where do we put all that milk?”

“We don’t have room for buckets, and I wouldn’t use this milk anyway, so we’ll just have to milk them onto the ground. I just want to keep their milk flowing.” Carl looked at the other members of the team. “Guess what all of you get to learn today?”

“Great, just what I always wanted to do—feel up a cow.” Geoff grimaced.

Amy looked at Carl. “Will they kick me? There’s no stall to make them hold still.”

“They might,” Carl laughed. “Sam and I will work each one first. If they’re gentle—and they probably are—then we’ll show each of you how to milk that cow. If each of us can all work one or two of the animals, we’ll save at least that much time getting them back. We’re going to need every drop of milk these girls can produce once they’re back in good health.”

Carl looked up at the sun, gauging it had to be near noon. “Better give Max an update. We may make it back by supper time.”

Sam and Tim found halters in the milking parlor and put one on as many animals as they could. They attached lead ropes on three of the cows and tied the leads to their saddle horns, then started to tow the cows down the long driveway. The rest of the herd followed the three being led on horseback.

It made for a strange-looking parade: three mounted riders leading three dairy cows, followed by the rest of the herd. The cattle drive proceeded slowly down the road, followed by three more riders and the two solar cars bringing up the rear.

The caravan plodded along at a crawl, and every couple of hours Carl called a halt to milk the cows. Tim handed out more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during the midday stop, and they let the horses and cows take a break to graze and rest while everyone milked again.

They continued their slow progress for the rest of the afternoon, making their way slowly back to the campus Dairy Barn. The cow with the worst case of mastitis was doing a little better, but Carl wanted to put more warm compresses on her udder and get some amoxicillin in her for the infection as soon as possible. The other eleven cows were doing surprisingly well; their milk was flowing, and with a short respite these animals could add their precious product to the food supplies.

Finally! Sam thought as she looked wearily up the road to a sign that read: University Exit, One Mile. Everyone was exhausted from the long, tedious ride back.

While the group made their way back to the University, Carl and Sam took turns riding into each farm to check on animals or supplies available at each location. The rest of the group kept the cattle moving slowly down the road.

“I never want to ride another horse as long as I live,” Amy moaned.

Geoff agreed, adding, “I think all the nerves in my butt are dead.”

Carl, Sam, and Tim smiled knowingly. Sam looked at Carl and Tim. “Should we warn them what they’re in for tomorrow?”

Tim swung around in the saddle, looking back at the three greenhorns. “Naw, they’re so miserable it would just make the last couple of miles worse if they knew the real pain was still ahead of them.”

“Jeremy hasn’t said a word for hours,” Sam commented. “Is he alive back there?”

Carl glanced back. “He’s actually doing rather well. The last time we stopped, he said the two kids were driving him crazy trying to reason through the question of why they didn’t crash when the WWN shut down. They actually have some solid theories. You might want to hear their ideas, Sam. It could give us some insight into how to deal with those teens.”

“I hope so. That Taylor asshole just wants to shoot them all, which is all I’ve done so far. I didn’t even try to talk to any of them,” Sam lamented. “There has to be some way to save them. If having been on a DCIR saved Aimee and Geoff, then maybe those teens could be disconnected from that game link and saved.”

“Well, we won’t be able to find out for a while. We’ll all have to rest tomorrow before we plan any more trips. One thing’s for sure: none of us can go out to the next town without armed guards. If that game was nationwide, there won’t be a town or city that’s safe from those teens.” Carl sighed and pointed. “Almost there. I can see the main gate, and I’m ready for a well-earned rest—and anything to eat besides peanut butter and jelly.” He looked pointedly at Tim.