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    Communion
    Communion
    Communion
    Ebook61 pages56 minutes

    Communion

    By Richard Freeland

    ()

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    About this ebook

    At the urging of Robert Teal, half-Cherokee John Nye, his pregnant wife Anna, and her father Ben Teal sell all their belongings to migrate to California. Along the way, they join with a wagon train heading the same way - the Donner Party.

    After taking an unproven "short-cut" that leaves them a month behind, the emigrants are caught in the mountains by the freezing snows of an early winter.

    Snowed in, unable to cross the divide, their food running out, and no relief in sight, the exhausted men, women and children of the Donner party settle in to survive.

    But something else is out there. Something unseen. Something evil. And it's stalking them.

    John can deal with the elements. But can he save his family from starvation? Can he stop the demon of the frigid wastelands from taking his wife and child?

    As food - and time - run out for the Donner party, John and Anna must make a decision. To stay, and starve with the others? Or attempt a harrowing trek out of the mountains - with a creature of myth on their trail?

    There are some decisions you should never have to make.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRichard Freeland
    Release dateFeb 22, 2012
    ISBN9781466069121
    Communion
    Author

    Richard Freeland

    I write horror and thriller fiction as well as non-fiction about gardens and landscapes. I'm a fair singer/songwriter, and a family man. I love to travel and hike with my wife Martha, play a little tennis when my bum knees let me, make and sip a great margarita, play on the water with boats, and go on adventures with my two boys. I also love Jekyll Island, Georgia, our home-away-from-home, and have another website devoted just to our adventures on this wonderful island (www.jekyll-island-family-adventures.com). Hope you enjoy my writing, and keep a weather eye out for "Seed", my upcoming novel.

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      Book preview

      Communion - Richard Freeland

      Communion

      Richard Freeland

      Smashwords v. 3 Edition

      Copyright 2012

      Cover by Visions of Domino, Flickr

      Discover Other Titles by Richard Freeland at Smashwords.com

      Smashwords Edition v. 3 License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Communion

      A Word From the Author

      About the Author

      More Fiction by Richard Freeland

      Communion

      The snow came early that year.

      It took us by surprise. We’d been told the winter storms never commenced before mid-November, and that as long as we were over Fremont Pass by then we’d be safe.

      Now here it was, the end of October, and the air had turned cold as pig iron, and the wind was sending snow skirmishers to probe the approaches to the Sierra Nevada range with icy, skeletal fingers. Before long a raging blizzard had obscured the pass in a shroud of snow, and we were in trouble.

      Oh, we tried. We beat our remaining oxen bloody as they labored to haul the wagons up the long, steep grades. We urged them on with curses and hoarse shouts tinged with a rising fear. The animals lurched through the piling drifts, fighting for purchase, slipping back, falling to their knees and making little headway. And then, at the end, us lending our own waning strength, clawing at their harness or shoving at the wagons while screaming obscenities at the beasts and prayers to the heavens…all to no avail.

      We reached a point were we could go no further, where the wind howled around us, where the snow had drifted to three feet and more, and where with each foot gained we slipped back two. Snow mired wheels and axles and was fetlock-deep on the oxen. The animals slipped and fell and tangled in their traces, while the relentless snow accumulated, the drifts reaching four to five feet just below the summit.

      Charles Stanton, Luis and I managed to fight our way to the top. We leaned into the teeth of the storm and gazed down with aching longing to where the promised-land of California spread out before us, veiled by the whiteout.

      You go on, I told them. I have Anna and Reverend Teal to look after, so I’ll be staying. But you have no family here. If you leave now you might make it.

      With what? Stanton said. The little food we have left is back with the wagons. His smile was weary and lacked warmth. We’re all neck deep in the same rut. I guess we’ll stick.

      The storm worsened, the snow now mixed with sleet. Defeated, we turned and plodded back down the mountain.

      Seldom in a lifetime are people presented with such a stark line of demarcation. Make it over the divide, you live. Don’t make it, your chances decrease significantly.

      We didn’t make it. The snows had come early, and sealed our fates.

      It snowed for eight days without letup.

      We pulled back to Truckee Lake, and took stock. There was a cabin near the lake, or what passed for one. More of a shanty, a thrown-together affair. One corner of the roof had fallen in. It had no windows, and the door was a rough hole chopped through the wall. But it was shelter, and Patrick Breen claimed the cabin for his family. No one argued. Breen had a slew of kids with him, and needed the space.

      Louis Keseberg built a lean-to against one side of Breen’s cabin, for himself, his wife and two young ones. About a hundred yards away was a group of boulders, and William Eddy and William Foster put up another rough cabin against them for their families, along with the Murphys and Pikes.

      Everyone was frantic to get settled in, and we helped one another where we could, but not much was said. We men went about our work in a quiet daze, shamed that we’d put our families in such a predicament. It was hard to look our women and children in the eye, knowing what was in store for them – and us.

      My two

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