Jeremiah received the news of the incoming sled and team and immediately went out to begin getting a stable set up for the horses. Thankfully there was an old stable still in good shape near the edge of town. He also got people started on gathering food scraps of vegetables, fruit and bread for the horses. The main hall was opened and warmed to receive their visitors.
By the time they were ready to receive the rescuee's, the sound of sleigh bells could be heard coming up the lane. It was such a cheerful sound that most of the town seemed to turn out to see the oncoming sled. When the team of four dark brown draft horses came into view, pulling a sled blocked up with hay for barriers and people standing up on the back of the sled around the hay, waving happily to those in the town, there was a feeling of celebration to the air.
People were off loaded, the horses fed and rubbed down then watered. The Indian driving the team never left them but took the offered hot tea and box of food along with extra blankets and a first aid kit. Once the horses were rested, warmed and fed, he took off at an even trot much to the childrens delight at the sound of the bells on the harnesses. Jeremiah watched as they road out of sight, hoping they would be successful in finding anyone else out in this weather.
The town had gathered twice a day during the snow to work on clearing paths, roads and making trails. It had helped and they even came up with some makeshift snow fences for the areas that showed a persistence of blowing snow causing large drifts. The snow continued to fall and when Jeremiah had checked in with Marcus, he was passed the message of warning about the winter becoming harsher and not just in terms of weather. The next morning, he called together a small council of town representatives and they began to make plans for the oncoming bad weather and possible issues with Daniel's troops or raiders.
*****
The sound of jingling bells made the guard at Thunder Mountain call up Marcus and the others, explaining that it sounded as if the sled team was coming back. Within twenty minutes, the sled pulled into sight, sixteen hours past when they had previously left. The horses looked tired finally and so did the driver, though there was another load of people on the back of the sled, standing and watching over the hay bales.
The snow had finally stopped but the skies hung heavy as if it could start any time again. The crews had come out and had been taking turns spending two hours out shoveling and moving snow before the next team would relieve them and take over. They had gotten quite far and the sled had a clear path all the way into the door of the mountain.
The sled was pulled into the long tunnel and off to the side where Mal simply jumped down out of the drivers seat and began to unhook the team from the sled. Kurdy came over and offered to help but she shook her head, pointing to the hay bales behind her. "I need two moved to wherever they will be stabled. The blankets too. I'll walk them into the mountain myself. No one else would be able to control them if they got spooked."
Kurdy nodded and with the help of a solider, gathered up the blankets and hay bales and headed down the tunnel, followed by twenty three more people. Once she got the team unhooked, she grabbed up her leather pack and went to the front of the team and took a lead rope for both of the head horses and began to direct them down the tunnel. They seemed hesitant at first but after half way down the tunnel they began to pick up speed. By the time the team burst from the end of the tunnel, they were at a decent trot, causing Mal to have to run a bit to keep ahead of them.
It was quite a site for anyone standing in the repair bay to see four large draft horses come out of the tunnel, the sound of bells chiming and echoing through the halls and a slender woman running to keep in front of them. She finally hollered out a command and the four horses pulled up, slowing and coming to a halt though they seemed still eager to go somewhere. Kurdy was there to direct them to an area where they had created makeshift stables for the horses. The hay was already in mangers in each and buckets filled with refuse from the dining hall waited them. She had to work hard to control the four horses so she could get them unstrapped.
Within a few minutes, each was directed into a stall and the next was released from its harness before being shoved inside and the doors closed behind them. Finally all four were in their stalls, munching happily at what was in the pails and drinking water. People marveled at the sight of these four huge horses before looking at the woman that had kept them under some semblance of control, marveling again at her obvious skill with the animals.
Finally, Mal turned to find Marcus standing there, watching her. She hefted her pack after putting the harness up and out of the way. "So Chief." She said in greeting, "Got some place to put up a tired heathen?" she joked lightly.
Marcus smiled a little and nodded, "Come on." He motioned for her to join him in the elevator.
She followed behind him quietly, hardly saying anything. He could tell she was utterly drained. He knew she needed a quiet place to sleep but the mountain was still crowded especially with over fifty new people to add to the rosters, even if temporarily. When the elevator reached the floor he'd chosen, he motioned her to follow him. On the way to a place she could sleep, he pointed out where the bathroom and showers were located. Finally he came to the door to a room and opened it for her. "Here we are. Some place quiet you can get some sleep."
She looked around the room before really entering. "This is someone else's place of rest, Chief. I do not wish to deprive someone of their room." She said, looking at Marcus.
Marcus shrugged, "It's my room and I've gotten sleep the last few days. You haven't. By the time you're rested, I'll be ready to crash again."
Mal raised an eyebrow, "People might talk." She said, a slight smirk showing on the very corner of her lips, letting him know she was teasing.
Marcus shrugged, "Nothing to talk about. The woman who just saved over fifty people has the privlage of having a quiet bed to sleep in. If anyone 'talks', they can find themselves out shoveling snow for a few hours." He said with a bit of a smile himself.
She nodded and dropped her hat and bag into the chair next to the bed. "Then I'll take your offer. It will be good to be warm for a time." She said as she kicked off her boots and pulled off her coat. She sat on the bed, her back to him. When he realized she'd grown very still, he walked around to find her sleeping, still sitting up.
With a sigh, he pulled the edge of the covers back and got her pushed back onto the pillows and covered up before leaving the room and turning the lights all off but one. It spoke greatly of her exhaustion to let herself fall asleep with her back towards an unknown person in a strange place.
*****
Millhaven and Crete checked in within a few hours of Mal's second arrival that their teams had returned with a few more people each and that everyone had been taken care of, including the teams and drivers. Little else was reported except that the snow had stopped and teams of snow movers were out in rounds to work through the main roads in and out of each town.
Mal continued to sleep through that night and into the next day, waking only twice to groggily make her way to the bathroom and then to return and flop back into bed. By the second full day since her arrival, she awoke to find Marcus trying to find something in the half dark in his room. He seemed oblivious that she was watching him and when she spoke up, he nearly jumped over the chair he was standing by.
"You're like a pack rat desperately trying to find the shiny piece of paper it stole away to impress a potential mate. Ever so quiet and yet, not." She teased.
He had let out a slight startled noise and stood straight up, smacking his head on the underside of a shelf before he whirled to look at her. His heart was beating quickly from the fright she'd given him. The only thing he could say in return was "I'm not a pack rat." In a rather defensive tone, wincing at the headache he was about to get.
She let out a slight chuckle and finally stood up out of the bed. "If you say so Chief." She said in a teasing tone. "I will now relinquish your bed back to you and go clean up and be on my way. You got anything you need hauled somewhere?" she asked.
Marcus had gone over and turned a desk lamp on, looking concerned at her. "You already looking to leave?" he asked.
She shrugged a little, "Ya, that I am. There's no wind, no sky in here. The silence is deafening and the scents are too strange for my calmness to stay in tact. The boys are probably ready to be out and gone as well."
Marcus watched her for a moment, then nodded. "All right. Feel free to stay as long as you like. At least get a warm meal in you before you go. We have a load of things already set aside that are needed in Millhaven. We were going to get a truck out on the road soon since most of the roads have been cleared or packed down."
Mal shrugged a little, "I can take them as I go check on the other teams. Besides, horse power is cheaper to maintain than motor power. Don't need gas, just hay, water and vegetable scraps. That'll keep the boys going for days without complaining too much." She smiled and he saw the smile lines around her mouth and crows feet at her eyes crinkle in merriment.
Marcus couldn't help himself and he smiled back. "All right. We'll get your sled loaded up and get you some supplies for yourself and your team before you head out."
She grinned and gathered up her pack and headed to the showers. He soon found himself simply day dreaming for a moment about the black haired Indian woman that had brought a little hope to Thunder Mountain when the weather was dragging everyone down.
A few hours later, she was showered, fed and had the team harnessed up and ready to go. She laughed with Mister Smith in the fact that there was very little for her to clean up in regards to the horses since the horse manure was apparently a treasured item that was immediately taken to be composted to add new nutrients for the gardens. She told him they only had to ask and she'd bring them a whole load of horse shit.
Smith found it terribly funny and asked for a ride to Millhaven. There were two others that wanted to travel to Millhaven and with the equipment and supplies to be taken there, the sled was fully loaded. Most of the hay had been offloaded, leaving several bundles for the team if they had to stop for some reason.
Once everyone and everything was loaded along with the team being hitched up, the doors were opened and the team, sensing the outside, took off like a shot with a simple flick of the reigns. The skies were clear and the sun was blocked some by the trees along the road. Smith sat up in the drivers seat with Mal and the two became quite animated in their discussions of things as the horses plodded along, happy just to be outside again.
They reached Millhaven late that night and the sled was offloaded and the team secured in the stables with the other team that was there still. Jeremiah put Smith and Mal up at his house along with the driver of the other team. Super was quite an affair as stories went back and forth between the two Indians about living on the plains. Plans were made for the teams to take half the supplies brought from Thunder Mountain and items from Millhaven to be taken to Crete. From there, the other two teams would forage out farther to other towns selected to patrol the roads, help those that might still be stranded and take word further on about preparing for the worst.
That next morning, Hank came rushing over to Jeremiah's with another printing of the 'Free Spirit Press'. It was full of information from the Allied States and how things were progressing. It also had articles about how to prepare for freezing weather, what to do in times of hard snow and also to prepare for raiding parties. Another article talked about the hardships the pioneers of this country had gone through to settle the land as well as the election of the first President, George Washington.
Hank came back several hours later with a large enough stack of papers to send off with those teams heading to Crete for them to be delivered. Several of the children and adults approached the two teams when they saw them preparing to leave. The children asked them if they could send letters to the other children in Crete and the adults had a few letters to send to relatives or friends in other towns.
Mal smiled to her cohort and the two nodded, taking the small flour sack bags that were handed to them filled with a handful of letters. With a flick of the reigns, they were both off, the teams of horses pulling the half loaded sleds across the snow pack, the bells jingling merrily away.