the ranch for winter. Carrie took over a fence repair job for Jim so that he could focus on hardening the ranches defenses ahead of any trouble that might come their way.
That night Carrie didn’t sleep much. The shootout at Crested Butte was close to home and troubling indeed, but the prospect of the larger conflict rising up in the east threatened everything they had managed to hold on to. And somewhere out there McLean was moving into the thick of it alone, with no way of knowing what he would face.
By morning she had decided to go. If they were to set themselves up to succeed in the battles that were surely to come, it was critical that someone make contact with the resistance fighters in Pueblo and learn the truth about the military threat.
She advised the others of her intentions at breakfast. “I’m sorry I keep running out like this instead of holding down a job here, but I feel like this is the way I can be most useful. I’ll leave the horse here in case you need to get a message somewhere fast.”
“ Are you gonna be okay on your own out there, and on foot?” Jim asked.
“ I can go faster alone,” Carrie replied. “I’ve done this before. I’ll make it. I have to. If I lie low, take backcountry routes, and camp without fires, I think I’m just sneaky enough to avoid running into anything undesirable.”
“ God speed,” Maria told her. “But use caution and don’t let up for a moment. McLean would be completely undone if something happened to you out there. He’s very much in love with you; you know that, right?”
Carrie blushed. “I… don’t think he’s said that.”
“ He wants to. And I think you do too. So don’t let him down by getting yourself lost or hurt. Who knows, maybe you’ll run into him at some point.” Maria was echoing what Carrie had laid awake thinking the night before. It was a chance in a thousand, but she would definitely be keeping an eye out for him.
DJ gave Carrie a list of trustworthy radio contacts that would give her a friendly welcome and let her use their gear to contact the ranch with any news. There weren’t many in the region she was headed toward, but several lay along her route coming and going. Her plan was to stay farther south than any of them had been in the past.
With an extra box of ammunition for her Beretta, which she had been practicing with, and a full pack on her back, she took off into the hills and headed east.
The next few days passed very slowly at the ranch. It was quiet with JD and most of the other men gone. DJ occupied his time on the radio, passing information back and forth and trying to learn more about what people were doing to the south and east. Jim and his daughter kept the ranch running with the help of Maria, Mrs. Bailey, and her children, but it was all maintenance-level chores. They were no longer strengthening the ranch or its ability to produce food for wintertime.
The only good news to come in was from Crested Butte. DJ received reports of success with the security situation there. The attackers did indeed return for another try at the little town, but with help from the ranch and from several other men in the area that flocked to their aid, Crested Butte fought them to a standstill. The band of marauders that had been thirty-strong was whittled down to ten overnight, and in the morning a posse pursued the survivors into the hills.
JD and Gordo returned with war stories and boosted confidence in their ability to hold the territory against all threats.
“ When that many of us band together to defend our area,” Gordo explained, “you’d have to have an entire army to get past us. I’m no general, but we learned first-hand that there is real strength in numbers. I think the key to pushing back danger and maybe even re-taking Denver will be in simply getting together enough people to make it happen.”
A week later Ron and Brad returned from Denver on horseback. After splitting up with Rory they had left to