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Back The Last Mile Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. Also by
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Epigraph
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. EPILOGUE
  49. Teaser chapter

“I’m okay.” She eased back out of his arms. “But one of the mules is gone.”

“Drowned?”

She shook her head. “Kyle thinks he broke loose and headed back to the ranch.”

“Which mule?”

Kyle answered as he walked up, leading the second mule. “Snickers, the one we were using to carry your equipment and some of the maps. I left the panniers under a staked down tarp so everything is there, just no way to carry it.”

“We’ll pare everything down to basics, pack Mort with the heavy stuff, and divide the rest of the load among us.”

“Whatever we leave behind,” Kyle said, “my dad and I can pack out later.”

“That sounds good. Let’s get going.” Gage dug through everything in both mules’ panniers, extracting the most important items. “We’ll only need enough pellets to feed one animal. We’re boiling and treating our water. With the rain, the water basins should be full, but it’s imperative to have at least enough on hand for emergencies.”

Like the weather changing and the basin drying up, or the water holes not being where they were shown on the map.

“I hate to leave my digital camera,” Abby said. “But my little Elph 190 is a lot smaller and takes great video and stills.”

Gage nodded. They sorted through everything, bringing the food, pellets for the mule, emergency water, the maps, and as much of their tarps and prospecting gear as they could manage. Gage always carried the sat phone and charger in his pack, so that wasn’t a problem.

It took over an hour to get organized, then the rest of the morning to navigate around the washout, using game trails to move through the hostile landscape. The rain had thrown them off schedule yesterday. After the flash flood, today’s slow traveling threw them even further behind.

Mateo scouted ahead, returning to guide them along the safest route back to the trail marked on King’s map. It was after noon, the sun burning down on them, hotter today than yesterday, the air steamy after all the rain.

“Let’s take a break,” Gage said. “We need to hydrate and power down some calories, and I need to check the GPS, see how close we are to reaching our original route.”

“I need a pit stop,” Abby said, heading for a granite outcropping just up the trail.

“Don’t go far,” Gage warned, thinking of her brush with the rattlesnake.

She waved him off and disappeared around the boulders out of sight.

A few feet below, the flash-flood washout trailed off to the right, while the game trail that Mateo had them following rounded the mountain to the left.

Gage was just finishing a power bar, chasing it with a bottle of boiled water, when he heard Abby scream. Fear hit him as the sound of his name echoed through the mountains. Gage started running.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN