By the time Chris and I reached the fairgrounds, I couldn't hear the sirens anymore.

When I opened the door to the stables, the horses started whinnying and prancing. Now that they'd been watered and fed, they were full of energy and wanted to get out of the stalls they'd been stuck standing in for almost two weeks.

I found Kaypay, my sister's horse, near the end of one of the stable rows. I rubbed my hand along her nose.

"Ready to go for a ride?" I whispered.

The horse stamped her hooves.

"I don't know how to ride a horse," Chris said.

"You don't have to know how. You just have to hang on."

I lead Kaypay and seven other horses out of their stalls and tethered them all together with a long rope. I could only find five dusty saddles in the tack room, but I brushed them off and put them on the five lead horses. I secured the bags of antibiotics to one, and helped Chris climb atop another.

I climbed onto Kaypay in the front of the line and tapped her sides with my bare heels.

"Don't fall off," I called back to Chris.

Kaypay wanted to trot, but I kept her from going too fast. With all of the horses tethered together, we'd have to take it slow.

I lead the procession through the fairgrounds and toward the fields in the back. There was a dirt road that lead all the way through the fields to the foothills of the Rockies. By following it, I was pretty sure I'd be able to find Ed Hernandez's house while still avoiding all the main roads where the Home Guard would be looking for us. . .

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