Down The Path Page 16

  There was dancing in the great pavilion and the feast on that evening had been the biggest he had ever seen. Apparently Tom had been preparing for this for some time. There was fish he had never seen before along with some sharks and something called a ray that Tom had said he had speared that morning. The ray was kind of chewy, but not unpleasant.

  Cooper didn’t sense any sadness in the crowd at all. He had feared that many were worried the mission might fail, but he realized they were only his fears. This community had faith in these men, and in Cooper himself.

  Cooper spent a great deal of the evening talking with Caitlin. Apparently she had lost her parents in a great storm many years ago and was taken under the wings of Aria at a very young age. They spent most of the night awkwardly telling tales of exploits and blushing at each other. Before she left for the night, she gave the redhead a quick peck on the cheek, for luck.

  Near the end of the night, Most of the brewers were all sitting at a table, finishing their mugs of beer while chomping on some sweetbreads and jam for dessert.

  Doc was speaking about the necessity of starting a voyage like this one with the headfeel that comes from drinking too much. Ceannt shouted “It is tradition!” as he was prone to doing in nearly every situation, and then slugged back another shot of fuel.

  The men had already sewn their patches onto their overshirts, proudly strutting around, pointing them out to others as they walked by. FZ had obviously been trying to leverage his new found status with the ladies, but was being shot down, comically so, with nearly every attempt.

  Lakewood, sitting across from Cooper, said, “Looks like our strapping young northern boy found himself a lady” then leaned over and mussed his long red locks. “Hey FZ, maybe on the trip he could teach you a thing or two.” With that, the whole table burst out into a raucous round of laughs while the lanky FZ slowly shook his head.

  Finally, the night found Cooper lying in his bed with Lupe, thinking of the past year and all it had brought him. How often he had come to close to death, how luck had been on his side every time.

  He had not expected anything like this to happen, but did he really know what he expected? He had thought on it for a long while, and he never had found an answer.

  Lupe was swishing her tail at him, hoping for a few more head scratches before bed, Cooper was happy to oblige. What surprised him the most was how excited he was to see John. He knew John would fit in well with this crowd and could already envision him working on the house building crew lifting logs for Ash, or possibly tending the large gardens of wheat and hops if he wanted to stay in gardening.

  The possibilities for his people were endless. Even with the quantity of beer he had consumed he found himself much too eager to sleep.

  The morning sun broke through the forest and spilled light on to Cooper’s bed, signaling it was time to go. Lupe had already exited and was nowhere to be seen. He left his house and strolled past the brewery on his way to the barge.

  As he passed the brewery he saw a fluster of activity inside. He stepped in quickly to find Ceannt already preparing a new vat of beer.

  “A little early to be brewing isn’t it old man?” Cooper asked with a grin.

  “Well Coppertop, way I figure it, you’ll take 8 days or so getting up there. Then maybe another two getting everyone rounded up and settled, then maybe another 8 or so coming back.”

  “Ok, that seems about right, still doesn’t explain why you’re brewing at sunrise”

  “I figure in 20 days or so, we’re going to be having another big party, so’s we’ll need lots more beer!” he said while laughing hard at his own joke again. Cooper laughed as well, and then laughed even harder when he saw him throw potatoes into the boiling kettle. This batch might not be his best, but he liked the enthusiasm.

  He didn’t want to be the last to get down to the barge, so after a goodbye’s were shared between the two, he skipped off down the path to the gulf.

  He found Scoob and most of the others already there. Scoob was tinkering with the motors, mumbling about compression or efficiency, Cooper couldn’t tell what his main gripe was, but knew he was in his element.

  Doc was sprawled out on the front of the barge, puffing on a cigar, groaning about his head hurting; Tim right next to him doing the exact some thing. If it was possible, he thought the two might actually be competing over who could complain the loudest.

  Many from the village were lined up to wish them well, Aria right out in front waving and talking to the rest. FZ was the last to arrive, his tall and wiry frame bounding down the path to the barge and leaping onto it, landing with a solid thud.

  He noticed that the crew had picked up an extra companion. It seemed that Rufus had decided to join Lupe on the excursion. Both of the dogs were stretched out as far as they could in the bright sunshine.

  All the motors of the barge fired up, growling and rattling as they burned up the fuel. Everyone on shore helped push the massive flat craft out into the gulf and it began motoring its way up to the mud flats, skimming across them gracefully.

  Cooper stood at the very front of the barge, watching the shore go by at a decent pace. After all he had gone through in the past year, he was finally going home and it wasn’t just with information and experience. He was headed home to save them all. Maybe that prophecy had something to it after all.

  A sample of Further: Down The Path 2 (now available)

  Prologue:

  As Handro crouched down amid the undergrowth, the thin layer of mud paste spread over his body cracked and splintered around his joints. He remembered when his parents first made him cover himself in this fashion and how itchy it seemed once dried. Many years had passed since that time; the man Handro had grown into didn’t even notice the itchiness anymore.

  Instead, he focused on the sound he could hear coming up the river. It was unlike any sound he had ever heard before. It was a rumbling noise, almost a coughing, and it seemed to drive all the other animals away. Handro was nervous. He had learned it was best to trust the cues given to him by the animals, and right now they all ran away.

  Still, he was curious by nature and more wily than the birds and rodents. He was confident he was well hidden and allowed his curiosity to override his fear. As he sat there, still as the rocks themselves, the noise grew louder. He dared not peer out into the river channel and expose his hiding spot; he had to remain motionless and allow the noise to come to him. This was a trick he had learned while hunting, and it had honed his patience like a weapon.

  Finally, the edges of a craft appeared in his view. It was a large box-shaped boat being pushed up the river. Men were on it as well! It had been years since Handro had come across other living people.

  The craft had grown close enough now for him to be able to hear their conversation but he couldn’t understand what they were talking about. He could clearly see and hear two men on the front arguing with each other. One was yelling ‘Malt’ while the other yelled ‘Hops’. Handro was unfamiliar with either of those words, so he just stared at the craft in wonder.

  The noise seemed to be coming from the machine mounted on the back. It must be what was pushing the craft upriver. He could not see any oars or anything else that might be able to thwart this river’s current. Never in his life had Handro seen anything like that powering a vessel of any kind. He didn’t have much time to try to visually identify how it worked.

  As they passed him by, Handro had a decision to make. Should he follow them? The boat was not moving very fast, but he spied two dogs on board. They would certainly alert the men to his presence eventually. He had known several dogs in his time and knew them to be one of the few animals he could never seem to outsmart with his stealthy abilities.

  He also saw one of the men staring onto the shore, near where he was hiding. He appeared to be keeping a lookout. The strangest thing was, this man appeared to have bright orange hair. Handro had never seen anything like that. This boat seemed to be full of new things, but he
knew it was very risky to start following them right now.

  He decided against tracking them up river. Instead, he would travel in the direction they came from. His journeys had never brought him this far to the east, so he was unfamiliar with this particular river, but he knew the coast wasn’t too distant to the south. He could always follow them later; a craft that size could not be removed from the water and rivers would be the easiest paths to follow.

  Once he could no longer hear the rumble of their machine and the birds had begun signaling that everything was clear, Handro silently stood up and began walking south.

  If you enjoyed this story, please leave a review on Amazon. I give the pooches a treat for every review any of my books get. Let’s fatten up these hounds!

  A huge thank you to my beautiful wife for never ending support towards every new and unexpected hobby I jump into. I could not do any of this without her. I would also like to thank all my friends and family that I bounced ideas off of and just generally listened to me rant about what was going on in this book I was writing without ever discouraging me. Finally, big thanks to the fellas at Homebrewforums.net for providing me with endless fodder and ideas for character sketches. I would also like to thank all of you for reading my book, please let me know what you think!

  The sequel to this book, Further: Down The Path 2, is now available. The prequel, Finding Their Path, in which the fall of civilization is explained is available as well.

  Also, check out Singular Points, a totally new story in a very different world.

  Travis lives in rural Missouri and would love to hear from you! Feel free to email him at Travismohrman@gmail.com if you have questions, want more info, or just have a comment to make. You can find him on Facebook and discuss things there as well. He’s also happy to talk about the fine art of brewing or meat curing! He will email you back usually within the day.