Free Home: A Stranded Novel by Theresa Shaver Page B

lunch. She understood where Alex was coming from. If it was her father who was hurt, she would do whatever it took to help him, but she liked to think that she would ask her friends for help. It was just like Alex to not want to put her friends in jeopardy. Emily finished her sandwich and took a long drink from her water bottle before changing the subject.
    “So where do you think the best place to cross the field is?”
    Alex packed her water bottle away before answering. “I’ve been thinking about that. Do you remember last year when we played paint ball wars? We used that shallow gully along the fence in the north pasture to get to the tree line. We will still have to crouch down and the bottom will probably still be wet but I think that’s the best bet to get across unseen. After that, it gets tricky. It’s all open pasture on your land except for that one copse of trees on the northwest side. We will have no cover at all as we cross the fields. What do you think?”
    Emily looked in the direction of her land and thought about it. “We won’t get a very good look from those trees. They are too far away. If we go south at your property line , we can come up behind the cattle shelter and use that for cover. It’s not much but with the glasses, we can get a good look at the yard and outbuildings. We’re just going to have to play it by ear. We don’t know where they are working and we will have to watch our backs in case anyone is on the east side of your place. Let’s just see what’s what when we get closer.”
    Alex stood up and slung her pack over her back before adjusting the sling on her rifle so that it wouldn’t get in the way while she was moving. They set off through the trees heading back towards the distant fields. Alex thought about the farms that they knew were being used. If she had to guess she would say that Josh’s family farm was the fourth one being occupied. Quinn’s and her farms were mainly crop farms with small amounts of livestock. Emily’s farm had some crops but they had a lot of poultry and horses. It made sense that Josh’s family farm would be the fourth because they had the most cattle in the area. They also had a sizable herd of pigs. If the bad guys hadn’t moved in and taken over, those four farms with the other smaller spreads wouldn’t have had a problem supporting the local population. There was no shortage of food in this area and it made Alex furious that the workers were half-starved.
    It didn’t take the girls long to see the break in the trees ahead of them and Alex shimmied up a tree to look ahead and get their bearings. They had moved far enough away from her barnyard that there was no one in sight. Searching the fields ahead of her, she finally saw that they had to backtrack a bit to get to the area they wanted to cross over. She made her way back down the tree and landed lightly on her feet. Her muscles felt good and limber from all the walking they had done and it was a nice feeling after spending so long without exercise.
    “We over shot it so let’s move up to the tree line and head back a bit,” she explained to Emily.
    They stayed just inside the trees and moved more cautiously until they saw the fence and gully ahead of them. Alex passed the binoculars to Emily and she scanned the area around where they would be leaving the trees. She passed them back to Alex with a nod and after they were put away , they stepped out into the field. The girls ran in a low crouch until they reached the gully and scrambled down into it. Alex’s boots landed in a few inches of water that was left from the melt-off. Keeping their heads down, the girls headed east. They traveled silently with their ears alert for any other human sounds for fifteen minutes. Their backs started to ache from their hunched over postures so when they came to a fairly dry area, they stopped to rest.
    Emily leaned against the steep side of the gully and carefully used the glasses to scan back