Rise From the Ashes: Lena's Story Read Online Free Page B

switch to … nothing. Great. No power. So he really would be walking now.
     
    Score one for the dreams, he laughed to himself as he packed up all his radios and equipment. It was a perfect late summer morning, cool with a light breeze, but not cold. Yet since he had about 60 pounds of equipment on him, he was breaking a sweat within minutes. He stopped early for lunch and a break. He laughed at himself again, knowing how tired he was and it wasn’t noon yet, he wished he had run into those horses an hour into his trek like his dream-self had done. With lunch over and his muscles rested, he slung his pack back on and started north again.
     
    Nearly an hour later he stumbled and slumped against a tree. He was dizzy and it had hit him so suddenly his vision was left spinning and blurry. The image of the fence and two horses blasted through his brain and then disappeared. Mick looked around. Nothing but light forest and the small side road he was humping along curving off to the right in the distance. He took a deep breath and started off again. Just as he made it half way through that right curve, Mick stopped cold. The exact fence. The exact two horses, in the exact same position as they had been when they flashed in his brain 30 seconds ago. The grey one had been drinking, the brown one was looking straight at him.
     
    “Son of a bitch.”
     
    Mick strolled toward the fence. The brown horse walked toward him, the grey just stared at him with water dripping from its mouth.
     
    “Where you headed, son?”
     
    Mick ripped his gaze from the horses to an old man standing in front of a little house.
     
    “Just heading north.”
     
    “Look like you’re military.”
     
    “Army.”
     
    “Any more of you left out there?”
     
    “Yes, I’m heading north to meet up with them. Then we are going to start south again and secure everything as we go.”
     
    “Yup. I suppose all the punks are running wild now, eh?”
     
    “Yup.” Mick mimicked how the old man said that and it brought a grin to the grey face.
     
    “Saw you eyeing Lady. I suppose you fancy a little help getting up north?”
     
    “Mister, I’ve never ridden a horse before. I’d give you all I have if you have a motorcycle in that barn.”
     
    That brought on a fit of laughing and coughing by the old man.
     
    “That I don’t have. But I can give you some pointers and Lady will do her best.”
     
    “I can’t really pay you.”
     
    “I figured that. Pretty much my duty to help soldiers out right now I reckon.”
     
    His face had been old and grey yet happy up until now. Now he looked like his heart was breaking. “Lady’s the best girl I’ve ever had. She’s a Morgan, not that you know what that is. She is good girl and deserved to live here in peace. But I guess that is not what fate has in store for her.” He was nearly sobbing now. He knew being a soldier’s horse was a very dangerous business.
     
    Mick was not sure what to do. He wanted to use the horse, but he could clearly see the old man loved his horse. “I’ll take the other horse, what’s its name?”
     
    “Naw, you won’t be staying on Lightning. That grey horse is crazy, good one minute and running wild the next.”
     
    “So, Lady is the brown horse?”
     
    “That’s right. Her coloring is called Bay, which just means brown with black mane and tail.”
     
    Mick decided that he was not going to be a pawn of whatever had caused his dreams and the strong déjà vu feeling he had just had. “I’ll be fine. I want to take the grey one anyway. Tell me what to do.”
     
    “You can give ‘er a try.”
     
    The old man shuffled into the barn and brought out a handful of tack. He set about showing Mick how to use it all and how to put it on the horse. It all went well until Mick tried to get on Lightning. With one foot in the stirrup and one flapping on the horse’s rump, he was spun in a tight circle and then tossed to the ground. After three tries Mick decided to