Wagons and Cows

Posted on Fri Jun 5th, 2026 @ 1:22pm by New York Survivor Amythyst

1,991 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Winter's hope
Location: Inland from Gull’s Refuge – Abandoned Settlement
Timeline: 3 days after their arrival

Amy stopped so suddenly that Austin nearly walked into her.

The forest had simply ended.

Beyond the trees lay a broad clearing carved out of the wilderness. Fields stretched across the gentle valley floor, surrounded by weathered fences and low stone walls. Several buildings stood beyond them—a farmhouse, a massive barn, sheds, and smaller outbuildings scattered across the property.

For a moment none of them spoke.

Then Patrick pointed. "Wagons."

Five of them sat near the barn. Not broken. Not collapsed. Standing.

Amy moved first. The grass brushed against her legs as she crossed the clearing. The nearest wagon was a covered family wagon. Its canvas was faded but intact. The wheels were still round. The tongue wasn't split. The leather harness hanging nearby was cracked with age but usable.

Austin ran a hand over the sideboards. "This stuff's still good."

Amy nodded. "Better than good." Five wagons. Enough to move supplies. Enough to move people. Enough to move an entire camp if they absolutely had to. Her attention shifted to the barn. The doors stood partially open.

Patrick frowned. "You hear that?"

Amy did. A low rustling. Then another sound. Clucking. The three exchanged looks.

Slowly, Amy approached the doorway. Inside, sunlight filtered through gaps in the roof. Dust drifted through the beams. And chickens exploded into motion. Dozens of wings flapped.

Austin nearly jumped out of his skin. A rooster crowed angrily from a rafter.

Patrick laughed. "Oh, we're definitely keeping those."

Amy's eyes swept the barn. Feed bins. Water troughs. Nesting boxes.

Hay. Actual hay. Stacked almost to the ceiling. Not enough for years. But enough for months. Enough to get them to their end destination. Her heart skipped. Back at Gull's Refuge they already had fifteen chickens, two roosters, ten goats, and the cattle from Safe Harbor. What they didn't have was winter feed. What they didn't have was infrastructure. This place had both.

"Amy." Austin's voice had dropped.

She turned.

He was staring through the far side of the barn. At the pasture beyond.

Amy followed his gaze. Cows. Eight of them.

They grazed among the tall grass, lifting their heads as the children appeared. One flicked an ear. Another continued chewing as though three teenagers wandering into its field was the least interesting thing it had seen all month.

Patrick stared. "We found more cows."

Amy shook her head. "No."

The boys looked at her. She pointed toward the hay loft. Then the wagons. Then the fencing. Then the pasture. "We found a future."

Silence settled between them. Austin finally understood. The eight cattle weren't the discovery. Not really. Back at Gull's Refuge they already had Tilly, Bramble, Pip, Old King and Shadow.

The real treasure sat all around them. Feed. Storage. Tools. Transportation. Everything needed to turn survival into something more permanent. Patrick walked toward one of the cattle. The cow stared at him. Patrick stared back. The cow won. Patrick slowly stepped backwards.

Austin snorted.

Amy couldn't help smiling.

For the first time since leaving Safe Harbour Island, she wasn't thinking about how they would survive the next week.

She was thinking about winter. And for the first time, winter didn't seem impossible.

Amy wandered the farmhouse a short time later. It bothered Amy. Not because it was abandoned. Because it wasn't. The beds were made. The kitchen had been cleaned. A kettle sat neatly on the stove. Someone had swept the floor recently enough that there wasn't a thick layer of dust across the boards. Three months after the world ended, that wasn't normal. That was suspicious. Amy stood in the middle of the kitchen, studying the room.

Austin leaned against the doorway. "What?"

Amy frowned. "Something's wrong."

Patrick looked around."Looks fine to me."

"Exactly." The house was too tidy. Not perfect. Just... maintained. Like someone still lived here. Or had recently. Amy moved toward the pantry.
Several shelves stood half-empty. Not looted. Used. A difference most people wouldn't notice. She opened a cupboard. A few cans remained.
Someone had taken the easiest food first. Again. Used. Not abandoned. Her stomach tightened. "Check the house."

Austin immediately straightened."You think someone's here?"

"I think someone was."

Patrick groaned. "Great."

The three spread out. Amy searched upstairs. Two bedrooms. One larger. One smaller. The larger room looked like a parent's. The smaller room stopped her cold. A wheelchair sat beside the bed. Not dusty. Not forgotten. Used. The blanket was folded. A pair of forearm crutches leaned neatly against the wall. Books sat stacked on a nightstand. A notebook lay open beside them. Amy stepped closer. The last page was covered in dates.
Tallies. Food counts. Rainfall measurements. Someone had been keeping records. Recently. Very recently.

"Austin!" Footsteps thundered up the stairs.

"What?"

Amy pointed. His eyes widened. "Oh."

"Yeah."

Neither of them spoke for a moment. Then— A crash sounded downstairs. All three froze.

Patrick left the room. A second later came his voice. "Uh..."

Amy was already moving. She flew down the stairs. Austin right behind her.

Patrick stood in the kitchen. Hands raised. Staring toward the back door. Amy followed his gaze. Nothing. Then she saw movement.

Small movement. Outside. Near the garden. Someone running. No. Not running. Moving with crutches. Fast. Desperate. Amy bolted out the door.

"Wait!" The figure didn't stop.

A girl. Twelve or thirteen maybe. Dark hair tied back roughly. One crutch slipped in the grass. She nearly fell. Caught herself. Kept moving. Amy slowed immediately. She wasn't trying to escape. She was terrified.

"Hey!"

The girl reached the fence. Turned. Raised a garden hoe like a spear. Her hands were shaking.

Amy stopped several yards away. Austin and Patrick halted behind her. Nobody moved. The girl glared at them. Thin. Tired. Fierce.

Like a cornered fox. "You took my food."

The accusation hit so suddenly that Amy blinked. "What?"

"The pantry." The girl tightened her grip on the hoe. "You took my food."

Amy stared. Then glanced toward the farmhouse. The tally marks. The wheelchair. The swept floors. The garden. Understanding hit all at once.

"You live here."

The girl looked offended. "Obviously."

Patrick made a choking sound.

Amy ignored him. "What's your name?"

The hoe didn't lower. "Leah."

Silence. The wind moved through the grass between them. Finally Amy nodded toward the house. "We thought everyone was gone."

Leah's expression hardened. "They are." The answer carried far more weight than the words themselves. Nobody spoke for a moment.

Then Amy slowly crouched down. Making herself smaller. Less threatening. "We're not here to take your home."

Leah studied her carefully. The way survivors did. The way adults did. The way children shouldn't have to. Finally her gaze shifted past Amy.
Toward the wagons. Toward the barn. Toward the distant pasture where cattle grazed. Then back again. "You're the kids from the coast."

Amy blinked. "You know about us?"

Leah rolled her eyes. "I've been watching you for three days."

Patrick nearly dropped his backpack.

Amy couldn't help it. For the first time all afternoon, she smiled. Maybe they hadn't discovered the toughest thing on this farm after all.

==

Leah sat quietly on the porch steps, her crutches resting against the railing beside her.

Across the yard, the late afternoon sun painted the pasture gold. One of the cows lifted its head from the grass and watched them before returning to graze.

For a while nobody spoke.

Amy leaned against one of the porch posts, arms folded.

Austin sat on the railing.

Patrick occupied the top step, tossing pebbles at a fence post and missing more often than he hit.

Eventually Leah broke the silence. "So how many of you are there?"

Amy thought about it. "Twenty-one."

Leah frowned. "Twenty-one?"

"Twenty kids." A pause. "And Elena."

"Who's Elena?"

"The only adult we've got."

Austin snorted. "She's not exactly the world's most helpful adult."

Amy shot him a look. "She's sick." The humor immediately vanished. "Really sick."

Leah's expression softened slightly. "Oh."

"Some days she's okay," Amy continued. "Some days she can teach, help organize things, keep people calm."

"And some days she barely leaves her bed."

Leah glanced between the three of them. "So she's not in charge?"

Patrick immediately burst out laughing. Austin joined him.

Amy groaned. "Oh no."

Leah looked confused. "Then who is?"

The boys immediately pointed at Amy.

She buried her face in her hands.

Leah stared. "Seriously?"

Amy shrugged. "Apparently."

"You wanted to?"

"No."

The answer came so fast it made Leah laugh.

"No. Not even a little."

Silence settled again. The breeze moved through the grass. Somewhere in the barn a rooster crowed.

Amy stared out across the farm. "When everything started, we were in New York."

Leah looked surprised. "New York?"

Amy nodded. "We ended up on an island."

"We called it Safe Harbor." Austin smiled faintly. "For a while it actually was."

"We fished." Patrick said.

"We planted gardens. Such as they were." Austin said

"We built shelters." Patrick again.

"We learned how to fix things." Austin said more, as if it was a competition between the two boys.

Patrick raised a finger. "We learned how to stop goats from eating everything."

Amy ignored him. "Mostly."

Leah smiled despite herself.

"We found animals." Amy pointed toward the pasture. "We first found the three cows."

"Tilly. Bramble. Pip." Austin quipped.

"Ten goats."

"Fifteen hens."

"Two roosters."

Austin added, "And enough cats to start their own government."

Patrick nodded seriously. "They already have."

Leah laughed. The sound surprised even her.

Amy continued. "We also found dogs."

"Kira."

"Brutus."

"Their pups."

Leah blinked. "You have puppies?"

"We have puppies." Patrick smiled proudly. "They're terrible."

"They're adorable." Austin shot back at Patrick.

"They're terrible." Patrick responded though he was smiling.

Amy ignored both of them. "And then we started finding people."
Her expression grew more serious. "We found Rowan and Briar on the Hudson. Before the Island."

"We found Hannah."

"Mateo."

"Liza."

"Elliot."

"Jordana."

"We brought them back."

Leah looked down. "You just... took them in?"

Amy nodded. "We don't leave kids behind." The words hung heavily between them. Because everyone sitting on that porch knew exactly what being left behind felt like.

For a moment nobody spoke. Then Amy gestured toward the property around them. The wagons. The barn. The cattle. The fencing. The hay loft. The fields stretching beyond the farmhouse. "This place..." She paused. "...is the first place since Safe Harbor that feels bigger than surviving."

Leah followed her gaze. Her family's farm. The place she'd protected for nearly three months. The place she'd waited. And waited. And waited.
For someone who never came back.

Amy's voice softened. "We're moving inland."

Leah looked at her. "Why?"

"The coast isn't enough." Amy pointed toward the cattle."Not for them."
Then toward the wagons. "Not for us." Then toward the fields. "We found a place."

"Pine Hollow." Austin stated.

Leah listened carefully.

"Lots of pasture."

"Fresh water."

"Room to build."

"Room for all of us."

For a long moment the only sound was the wind moving through the grass.

Then Leah quietly asked, "And if I came with you?"

Nobody answered immediately. Amy looked at the barn. The fields.
The records Leah had kept. The farm she'd protected by herself.
Then she looked back at her. A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "If you came with us..." She glanced toward the cattle. "...we'd finally have somebody who actually knows what they're doing."

Leah laughed.

Austin nodded.

Patrick pointed toward the pasture. "Seriously."

"Those cows have been running this place for three months." Leah stated.

Amy smiled. Then she looked directly at Leah. "If you came with us..." Her voice softened. "...you wouldn't be alone anymore."

For the first time since they'd met her, Leah didn't have an answer. And somehow, that felt a lot like a yes.

10 minutes later, Amy sent Patrick and Austin back to the beach. They needed to tell Dodger and George.

 

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