Taft Ranch: A Thunder Mountain Novel Read online

  “I’m afraid it’s not,” he said.

  “So how much trouble are we in?” she asked.

  He pointed ahead. “Depends on how far we need to walk and what is there when we reach the end.”

  “You mean depends on how long we can survive without water.”

  “Yeah,” he said softly. “Afraid so.”

  PART TWO

  The Search

  SIX

  August 7th, 2018

  Central, Idaho

  IT TOOK DUSTER about a half hour, pacing himself in the heat and the high altitude, to get to the ranch.

  As Duster broke into the meadow with Lee’s ranch tucked against the back hill, he paused. From the length of a football field, the place looked completely together. And it would be, since Lee had only left a month or so ago. Duster loved this place.

  He stood in the shade of a tree and took a long drink of water. Then headed toward the house.

  One key thing was missing. There was no car parked off to one side where Lee always parked. So the tree down hadn’t trapped him up here.

  As Duster got nearer he could see that even a month with Lee being gone hadn’t worn at all on the ranch. Behind the main building, against the rocks, the old wooden-shingled barn stood tall. And where the house was dug into the hill looked normal. Duster knew that was where Lee kept his secret room. It was almost an apartment back there, actually. And that room would be set to explode if anyone tried to get into it.

  Duster had no intent to try. With what he had heard from Bonnie about the crystal still being hooked up, he doubted he was going to find Lee here. But he still had to hike up here and look.

  Duster took a deep breath and climbed up on the old wooden porch, still solid after over a hundred years. Lee really had put a lot of love and caring into this ranch.

  Duster opened the unlocked door to the main house. The ranch house was so tight that not even a film of dust could be seen. The drapes on the windows were pulled closed and Duster left the front door open to let light in.

  Duster always had loved coming here to talk with Lee. This ranch felt like a home when Lee was here.

  Now, after just sitting empty for a month or so, it was just sad.

  More than likely that was just Duster feeling a loss, because if what he thought had happened really did happen, then there was a good chance Lee was never returning to this ranch.

  Duster stood near the kitchen table and looked around slowly for anything out of place. Lee had left everything neat and put away. No dishes in the sink, no books left off the large bookshelf that covered one wall. The quilts that Lee always made were folded neatly over the back of the chair and the couch.

  Two glasses sat on the coffee table, one in front of Lee’s chair, another in front of the couch where Duster always sat. And a bottle of bourbon, Duster’s favorite kind, sat between the glasses. The two glasses looked clean and ready to use.

  Duster smiled at the fond memory of how many times he and Lee had sat in those same two chairs, sipping bourbon and talking math. Every time Duster had walked through the front door, the two glasses were in their place on the coffee table and a bottle of good bourbon between them.

  Damn, Duster hoped he could figure out a way to save his friend.

  Lee had left here on purpose. He had left the home he loved with respect, clean and in good order, planning on coming back in just a week or so after a number of trips into the past.

  And in another timeline, Lee had left this ranch to head back to the institute to jump to this time. Lee lived in this place in all times. He said it gave him a stability to really focus on the math.

  But something must have gone horribly wrong in 1980 between here and the institute in Boise.

  If Lee had died, he would have returned to 2018. So something happened to keep him both alive and away from the institute.

  And that was the worst scenario any of them could think about.

  Duster took a look in the back two rooms just to be sure and then turned and left, closing the door to the ranch with respect, making sure the door was latched.

  He stood on the porch and took out his satellite phone.

  Bonnie answered instantly.

  “He left the place in good shape as he always does,” Duster said.

  “Something happened to him on the way to the institute,” Bonnie said.

  “My theory is that he lived until his birthday in May of 1986, but we need to find out for sure what happened. Who do we have that was born after 1986? Get them back there and tracing what happened.”

  “I’ll make sure they don’t let him see them or try to rescue him,” Bonnie said.

  “Good,” Duster said. “I’m on my way back to the lodge. See you there for dinner.”

  He clicked off the phone and put it in the pocket of his jacket. Then he stood and took another long drink of water.

  They couldn’t rescue Lee before what happened actually happened. If they did, they would only be rescuing him in some timelines and leaving him to die in all the others.

  If he actually did die.

  If they were going to do a rescue, they had to figure out a way to rescue him completely, in all timelines.

  Or, in other words, they couldn’t do anything to help him that would create other timelines where they didn’t do that exact same task.

  Duster knew that the bottom line was that Lee had to rescue himself.

  Duster shook his head and headed back down the narrow valley to his car. He needed to get up to the lodge and he and Bonnie and Brice and Dixie needed to figure out what they could do to either save Lee or help him.

  Duster had a hunch they would all say they could do nothing.

  At least until it was clear Lee wasn’t going to be able to rescue himself. Then they could save him in a lot of timelines, which would be better than none.

  SEVEN

  Time: Unknown

  Nexus

  JOAN AND LEE kept a steady pace for the next five hours, resting only a few minutes each hour. By Lee’s count, they had gone through twenty caverns, each one getting smaller and smaller.

  He was about as thirsty and hungry as he had ever remembered getting, and at times he felt himself stagger a little. Joan didn’t complain, but he knew she had to be as thirsty and hungry as he was.

  During the walk he had been surprised at the calmness and clear questions Joan had asked. He couldn’t imagine what condition he would be in if suddenly tossed into this situation. He doubted he would be as calm as she was being.

  About two caverns back, after walking for about fifteen minutes without talking, she had asked a simple question. “This isn’t a dream, is it?”

  He had smiled at her. He could see the fear in her beautiful blue eyes and the strain and dust streaking her wonderful face. He couldn’t believe how beautiful she was. And normally with women like her, he seldom talked, but they were in this together. It was his fault she was even here. So he was talking with her and finding as each hour went on he enjoyed it more and more.

  She still had on her doctor’s smock but it was open showing that she had jeans and tennis shoes and a thin blouse under it. She looked to be in as good a physical shape as he was.

  “It’s not a dream I’m afraid,” he had said. “Would you like to rest?”

  “No,” she had said.

  After six hours of steady walking through cavern after cavern, they finally made it into a cavern that had no exit on the other side.

  “Looks like we have reached the end of the road,” he said, pointing ahead.

  He knew that there was a very high chance they weren’t even in the same branch of caverns where Duster’s entrance was. If they weren’t, they were dead.

  This really would be the end of the road for them.

  Walking to this cavern had been the only hope he could think of.

  “So what are we looking for?” she asked.

  “I honestly don’t know,” he said. “I’m hoping for a door.”
r />   They kept walking at a steady pace toward the center of the cavern which felt small compared to some of the massive caverns they had passed through. This one seemed more like a small football stadium instead of a cavern that might cover a city.

  About halfway across, he spotted what he had been hoping to find.

  “There,” he said. He wanted to do a dance with relief, but didn’t.

  A dark metal door seemed to mar the perfect surface of the crystals. It looked tiny down at ground level, which gave him an idea of just how far away they still were.

  Somehow, even though he wanted to run, they kept the same pace until they reached the area of the door.

  “This isn’t a good sign,” he said, pointing to a pile covered in the cavern fine dirt about twenty steps from the door. It was the first mound of anything they had seen in all the flat-floored caverns.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  Duster once told me that when they first jumped into other timelines, they left from this cavern. They had a wooden table here.”

  He pointed to the pile of dirt.

  “What happened to it?” she asked.

  “It crumbled with age I would bet,” Lee said.

  “How long would that take?” Joan asked, turning those wonderful and very panicked brown eyes on him.

  “Three hundred to five hundred years or more, maybe,” Lee said. “No real weather in here to help it along.”

  Joan just looked puzzled.

  “Duster and I both theorized that time is not the same in these caverns as in the real world,” he said. “We are, more than likely, hundreds and hundreds of years past our normal time.”

  “Oh, this nightmare just gets worse and worse,” she said, shaking her head.

  “I’m afraid I have to agree with you there,” Lee said, turning and heading toward the metal door. He just hoped it was unlocked or at least deteriorated enough that they could get through it.

  “Remember,” he said, “Don’t touch the crystals.”

  “Not thinking about it,” she said.

  The handle to the rusted metal door was built into the sheet of metal and when he pulled on it, it didn’t seem to want to open.

  Near the entrance the crystals had been cleared back a few feet, so he braced one dirt-covered foot against the stone and then pulled.

  The door complained with a screeching sound that echoed through the cavern, then opened enough for them to get through.

  He tried to open it more, but that was all it would go.

  He slid through first and into what looked like an old mining tunnel. The only light was from the crystals in the cavern behind them.

  “You need to let me go first,” Joan said. “I have shoes on and the last thing we need is you stepping on some rusty metal.”

  He was about to object but realized she was right and let her move past him and into the pitch black of whatever was beyond.

  “Hang on a minute,” he said.

  He braced his back against the side of the tunnel and then with one foot against the metal door, pushed as hard as he could.

  Again the door complained but opened wider, letting in even more light.

  He moved to follow close behind her as they went down the tunnel not more than ten steps before it opened into a large cave.

  The moment Joan stepped into the cave, lights came up.

  “Oh, thank god,” she said, her breathing hard and heavy. “I hate dark, closed-in places.”

  “That makes two of us,” he said.

  Other than the dim lights on the ceiling, many of which had clearly burnt out, the big cavern was empty.

  “I remember Duster telling me there used to be a kitchen and bathrooms to the back of this room to the right.”

  They both started in that direction and it became clear that the counter outline on the floor was still there. But everything had been removed a long, long time ago.

  They split up and moved around the empty cavern, slowly trying to find anything that might help them. It was Joan who found the clock.

  “Lee, over here,” she said.

  She was staring at a clock embedded in one stone wall.

  “It’s an atomic clock,” he said as he moved up beside her.

  Lee stared at the clock for a moment, then just slowly whistled.

  It was seven in the morning of September 6th, 2728.

  “We are so screwed,” Joan said softly.

  Lee couldn’t argue with that.

  EIGHT

  September 6th, 2728

  Near the Nexus

  THEY STOOD THERE for a moment, staring at the clock, neither one of them speaking. Lee was used to traveling in time, but seven hundred years ahead of when he left was something even he was having trouble grasping. He couldn’t imagine how Joan was feeling.

  Finally, he turned from the clock and looked around the empty room. “We need to get out of here, find food and water.”

  Joan nodded and turned to face him. “Any idea how?”

  Lee nodded and turned for the far side of the large cave. “Duster said his distant relatives dug a mine that broke into the cavern. We need to find the mine tunnel.”

  “Can’t imagine a mine tunnel after seven hundred years still being open,” Joan said.

  “I can’t imagine that Duster didn’t make sure it couldn’t collapse,” Lee said. “And they would have had to come back here at times to get more crystals and return the ones used at the institute.”

  “I didn’t see any piles of crystals out there,” Joan said.

  Lee just nodded to that. He hadn’t either and that had bothered him. But he didn’t tell her that.

  The old mine tunnel was easy to spot on the other side of the cavern and it looked secure, even though the big timbers were made of wood.

  It was wide enough for two of them to walk side-by-side and tall enough that Lee felt he didn’t have to duck under any of the timbers. It smelled damp and cold and moldy.

  As Lee eased into the tunnel, lights came up showing him the way ahead. He had no idea what kind of power was running the lights, but most of the bulbs were out, clearly showing no one had done any upkeep on this place in a very, very long time.

  “Have I told you how much I hate closed-in places,” Joan said, moving along slowly beside him.

  “Yeah, can’t imagine how anyone worked in a place like this,” Lee said.

  They finally reached what was clearly the end of the tunnel. A large metal door was on the right side and ahead of them it looked like rocks had caved in the tunnel.

  “Duster said there was an airlock and hidden entrance to the mine,” Lee said. “To make sure no light got out when they went in and out at night.”

  Lee pushed a large red button and with a groan the metal door slid into the wall, showing a small chamber.

  “We go in there and the door closes and then doesn’t open,” Joan said, “we’re dead.”

  “We’re going to die if we don’t get out of here and find water and food,” Lee said. “Running out of oxygen in there would be quicker.”

  “I don’t even like my walk-in closet at home,” Joan said. Then she took a deep breath and said, “Let’s do it.”

  Lee nodded.

  She took his hand and they stepped into the small space on the other side of the metal door.

  Lee liked the feel of her hand in his and surprisingly, it calmed him.

  As they stood inside, nothing happened. The door behind them didn’t close.

  Then Lee saw the other button on the wall. He hit it.

  “Oh, shit,” Joan said as the door behind them slid closed with a thud.

  Total blackness.

  “This is not fun,” Lee said.

  Joan’s hand squeezed his as a moaning sound of machinery trying to work reached them and finally the large wall in front of them slid sideways.

  The cold bite of morning air hit them in the face. The sun was just coloring some high clouds in the sky. It was going to be a beautiful da
y from the looks of it.

  The air smelled dry and had a tint of dry pine to it.

  In front of them was a small ledge about five feet wide and not much else. They were a pretty good distance up on the side of a very large mountain. It wasn’t a cliff, but the hill going down wasn’t something Lee wanted to try to get down.

  With Joan’s hand in his, they eased out onto the dirt ledge that now looked to be part of something that had been bigger, more than likely mine tailings. Behind them the mountain rumbled and a large rock slid closed over the entrance, hiding it completely.

  Joan took a deep breath and then said simply, “Thank heavens.”

  Lee wasn’t happy that they were now cut off from the crystals. But there really hadn’t been anything back there for them anyway. Food and water were becoming critical. Survival was first, then trying to figure out how to get back to 2018 would be second.

  To the left of where they stood there was a wider area and Lee squeezed Joan’s hand and led the way in that direction.

  She didn’t seem to want to let go of his hand yet and honestly, he didn’t want her to.

  But once they reached the wider, brush-covered area, she did finally let go, looking around at the tree-covered mountains and the deep valley below them, taking deep breaths and working to calm down.

  “Any idea where we are?”

  “Owyhee Mountains,” Lee said. “Ever heard of an old ghost town by the name of Silver City?”

  She nodded.

  He pointed down to the dark valley below them. “It used to be down there. Can’t imagine anything being left now after seven hundred years.”

  “Think there might be water down there?” Joan said.

  Lee nodded. “I think there might be some we could wash up in, but I don’t think we should drink any of it. We would be safer getting over that ridge there and down onto the Snake River to find clean water.”

  He pointed at the ridge across the deep valley. It actually wasn’t a ridge. That was War Eagle Mountain. But even if the roads were gone in here, they could get past the mountain and down on the Snake River.