The Long Road Home: Homecoming

22

As the sky started to light, the three were exhausted and she and Kidd were almost out of ammo. Ty shook his head as he slapped another clip into place.

'How many more are their Page?' He asked sounding as tired as she was.

'To many.' She told him. 'I think the whole city is here. I can't even see down the streets anymore.

'At least they are killing each other now too.' Kidd said motioning to another ripper fight near the edge of the park.

An earth shaking roar ripped thought the whole city. The rippers froze for half a second, before breaking into a run to the west. They were tripping over each other to get away. A second roar came for the north east which caused more panic. The horses danced nervously but did not leave the wagon.

'They are here.' Page sighed relieved. The behemoth roars echoed through the city and within moments, the streets were clear. Ten minutes later, two female behemoths entered the park. Both looking worried. 'Herbert, open the sides.' The horses moved aside as the two came forward and looked into the wagon cooing. 'Theo and Dana have cleaned out their wounds and patched them up.' Page told the two. 'They should be alright if we can keep the rippers off of them.'

The biggest of the two cooed up to Page and Page nodded. 'Thank you. We are going to move our camp back to the east so we can get away from the corpses. We will probably stay there until they are strong enough to travel.' The female nodded and looked back into the wagon cooing.

'What's going on Page?' Ty asked sitting down. She sat beside him.

'They are going to stay with us until we can get safely away from the city.' She told them. 'Grand Island is safe, but we are going to have to avoid Goat.' She told him what Mouth told her. Ty nodded frowning.

'Stay and rest love.' He said standing. 'We will go get your arrows and load the wagon.' Page shook her head.

'We have a dozen each left.' She said standing. 'That should be enough until we can find a place to resupply.'

'If there are bad guys on Goat Island,' Kidd said frowning. 'I want more.'

'We will stop at the Marksmen.' Page assured him. 'It's an archery store and firing range we will hit before the island. I had a completion there once.'

'It's a risk love.' Ty said 'We can gather a handful just in case.' She nodded and let them go too it. Page looked down into the wagon to see Arturo was cuddling close to Youngblood. Both were awake and watching her.

'Okay?' she asked worried. The two nodded. 'Good. If you two ever do anything that foolish again, I will ground you until your too old to remember what outside looks like.' Both their eyes widened in surprise. 'That's right. You scared the crap out of all of us and nearly got yourselves killed.' The biggest of the two females chuffed in agreement backing her up. 'Herbert, Dana, these two need names. Have at it.' She pulled back and went to the side of the wagon climbing down. Buck nudged her and she could tell just how tired the horses were.

She felt bad hooking them up to the wagon, but they would not have to go far. Once they were back on the highway, they could set up camp and have a safe place to recuperate. The two females followed close bellowing at any ripper that dared to peek out at them.

'Why aren't they singing?' Kidd asked confused.

'If they sing, it's to claim and hold a territory.' Page explained. 'They won't sing until they find a male.'

'Like Carla with Ulysses?' He asked and Page nodded. 'Youngblood sings.'

'He is a baby.' Page explained. 'He is too young to claim a territory so he can sing as much as he wants.'