It was evening and they had only stopped shortly to drink and to eat. Miranda was not being as lenient as she had been. She was not doing everything she could to make sure they were safe, that was changing now.
She stared forward, picking up her feet and navigating the trail through thick forest. She didn't have anywhere in particular in mind. She just wanted to get deeper into the wilderness. The sun was beginning to set through the trees. She knew they'd have to stop and set up camp soon.
The pain she felt in her legs and the breath she struggled to draw in the altitude reminded her of her training when she was a young woman. She hadn't exerted herself this much since she was in her twenties.
After Her first few meetings with Jillian DeArbor, the British business woman who brought her into the council, she hardly ever broke a sweat again. Her life became about money, fashion and the council. There was hardly time for Pilates, let alone rigorous mountain treks.
Far ahead of them on the trail on top of a hill, Miranda could see movement. She stopped immediately and crouched down behind a bush. She looked back at her girls to make sure they had done the same.
"What is it?" Andrea whispered, not understanding what Miranda had seen. Miranda slowly slid off her pack and took her gun from it. She stuffed it into the pocket of her pants and looked at Andrea.
"This morning I saw some hikers pass close by the camp. I think thats them right up here. I want to go check them out. I want you to stay here with the girls" she whispered to her. Nodding her encouragement before she stealthily made her way through the trees up to the top of the hill where she had seen the hikers disappear.
She slowly crept her way through the woods, her feet made hardly any noise. She saw the hikers only about a hundred yards up the trail. They had stopped for a snack break. She could hear them speaking.
"Man, how much longer do we have to go?" One of them asked in a whiny voice. He sounded young, probably mid to late twenties. She still couldn't see their faces. "I have no idea. They said the camp was somewhere off of Ute Pass. We probably haven't even gotten a quarter of the way" she heard the other answer.
They both sounded very young and perhaps not particularly intelligent. From the looks of their clothing they had money before all of this. They had nice gear and their backpacks looked stuffed with supplies.
She hid behind some brush just few feet away from them. "Those fuckers, man. I cant believe they killed Mack and John" she heard one of them rustling around in their packs. When she peeked through the brush neither of them were facing her.
She stood and pointed her weapon at the larger of the two. "Turn around slowly with your hands up" she told them. They both stiffened and one of them dropped his granola bar to the ground. They did as instructed and faced her.
One of them was blonde with a thick dark beard, the other had long dark hair and only a smattering of hair on his cheeks. They both looked terrified, like they had probably never been in a situation like this before. "Who are you?" One of them asked her.
"You aren't one of them are you?" He asked again. "One of who?" Miranda replied evenly. "The military or the police" it was so cool up here that she could see their breath. They were both on the verge of hyperventilating. "No, I'm not" she told them.
They both seemed to relax a bit but not much. "Look, lady. We don't have alot. Please don't take our shit" the man with longer hair told her.
"I don't want your shit. Where are you guys heading?" She lowered her gun but the two of them didn't feel quite comfortable lowering their hands yet. "Whose asking?" One of them said with some mustered confidence. They still weren't sure if they could trust Miranda and Miranda wasn't sure if she could trust them either. Though they certainly seemed harmless enough.
"My name is Miranda. I've been out here for a couple days" She admitted, though leaving out that she had her family with her on purpose. They didn't need to know that yet. "I'm Jason" The blonde said pointing to himself and then to his friend. "That's Paul". They all seemed to relax a bit.
Miranda felt confident enough now to put her weapon back in her coat pocket. She still eyed them cautiously though. "We heard about a refugee camp in the mountains somewhere. We heard it was some kind of resistance or something but all we know is that it's somewhere around Ute Pass. It could be anywhere on either side of the road. We don't really know what else to do other than to find it" He tried to explain.
"Do you know anything else about the camp? Who might be running it?" She looked back at the trail to make sure that her girls had not tried to follow her or that they were not in view. The two men had sat down on a down tree.
"We don't know anything other than its a safe place for people when they leave the towns. The military and police are crawling all over the place now. We heard its like that all over the country" Paul took off his ski hat and smoothed his hair back. He had a big bruise on his forehead.
"How did you guys make it out of Frisco?" She asked them, she noticed now that they both had bruises and cuts on their hands. They looked at each other and a look of fear and sadness passed through them.
"We barely made it. We had planned a camping trip with some friends around Lily Pad and we all met at the trailhead. We worked our way up the first hill and we look back and see all these military vehicles rolling up" He reached into his bag and Miranda instinctively reached for her weapon again. He raised his hands "Just getting another energy bar" He told her, she watched him carefully as he pulled a couple out. He handed one to her "You want one? I'm sure you could use it" he offered.
She nodded "Sorry" she let go of her pistol and accepted the food. "Please, continue" she insisted. "The military roll up along with some other cops and start telling people the trail is closed. They had rifles and shot guns, full riot gear... it was really weird. Usually its the forest rangers who close the trails. Some old man started asking them questions and they threaten to arrest anyone who doesn't comply. The old man starts getting an attitude, resisting and stuff and they fucking shoot him. Right there, in front of like ten people" He takes a bite of his energy bar and then a swig of his drink.
His eyes are wide and staring, Miranda knew his story was real. These two young men were nothing but kids. "We ran for it, we kept running up the trail. Paul and I were ahead. Our friends Mackenzie and John were behind us. Once they had shot that old man, everyone panicked and started running. So they soldiers just started shooting at everyone. They killed a couple of women and then they shot our friends. We kept running until we got to the forest and we didn't stop. We knew the area well enough we managed to hideout for awhile...we got lucky" He finished. He looked over at Miranda and she could see the trauma in his eyes, she looked over at his friend Paul and saw that tears had begun to fall from his. "He hasn't handled it well... I still don't know how to process this whole thing" He sighed.
"What's your story, Miranda? How'd you end up out here?" He asked her, stuffing his hands into his pocket, getting cold sitting still. Miranda didn't answer, she contemplated making up a story of her own but she didn't want to lie. She decided a half truth would have to do for now. "My family and I are from New York. We were staying at a cabin nearby. We heard the news about the bombs and saw the military down in the towns. I knew it wasn't good" she told them, she didn't say anything else and they didn't seem that suspicious of her lack of explanation.
"We heard New York is completely gone" Paul told her, his face concerned and red from his distress. "Yeah, we heard that too" she told him. "Where is the rest of your family" they asked her. "They're hanging back. I wanted to make sure I could trust you two" She looked at both of them seriously . "I can trust you cant I?" She asked them.
They both nodded and smiled gently. "You can. Can we trust you, Miranda?" Jason asked her in return. She nodded and smiled too. She had met alot of bad people in her life. She was around the worst of the worst on a daily basis. She knew she could trust them..
She told them to stay put while she went back and got Andrea and the twins. When she got back to them they were relieved. "Oh thank God,, I thought something had happened to you" Andrea said, hugging Miranda closely. She hugged her back and then her girls, who for the first time in awhile didn't look at her with utter disdain. "They're just locals but I think they can help us". She told them.
She guided them all back to where the hikers were and she introduced her girls to them first. "...and this is my wife, Andrea". She told them Jason looked surprised, Andrea was probably the same age as him, Miranda was clearly much older. "Wow... very cool. Its nice to meet you guys". "So, Miranda, you're the boss. What should we do now?" Jason asked her.
They looked at her expectantly. She remembered the helicopter she had heard this morning and she knew that the smart thing to do would be to set up camp in a covered area keep moving north in the morning. "We head for Ute pass at dawn" she told them. She was still unsure about having strangers so closely to her family but from what it sounded like, they knew the area better than she did. They would be able to get them to where they needed to be alot sooner than she could on her own.