Surviving the Fog (15 page)

Male dominated
society
, thought Jean.
 
Typical of what happens when
civilization reverts to a more primitive state.  But it
doesn't sound too bad.  They seem to have a brute of a man
controlling them, but it sounds like it's not a total dictatorship.
 At least he asks for varying opinions.  Maybe I can live
there until I feel better.  And maybe I can use this
kid.

"You know," Jean drawled slowly.  "I
don't have to tell the Big Chief that you took off my clothes."

"Really?" Howard perked up.  "You're not
mad at me for that?"

"Not really.  It was in a good cause, I
suppose," Jean said magnanimously.

"Oh, thank you," responded Howard gratefully.
 "You know, I was thinking that I could make a fire and dry
out your pan... I mean your underwear.  At least you could
wear them."

Jean blinked.  "At least," she
agreed.

By noon, Howard had delivered a dry pair of
panties and her bra to Jean.

"Uh, they got a little singed," he explained
with a sheepish look.

Jean took the pieces of her scorched
underwear, examined them, and sighed.  "They'll have to do,"
she said sadly.  "Could you?" She pointed to the entrance to
their shelter.

"Oh, sure," said Howard, and he quickly
crawled out of the hollowed space.

Jean pulled on her
underwear, glad they were warm from the fire.  She crawled
over to her other clothes and examined them.
 
Too wet
, she
decided.  
Much, too
wet
.  She thought about it and
shrugged, and then she crawled out of the tree.  Howard was
standing by the fire.  He glanced at her, and then he looked
away.

"It's, okay, Howard," Jean said.  "We're
going to be spending the day together, so it's no use trying to
avoid looking at me.  So take a good look right now, and get
over it.”

Nervously, Howard looked at her, swiftly
moving his eyes up and down.  Then he stared into her eyes and
exclaimed, "Wow, you're beautiful!"

Jean almost laughed, but she kept her
composure and replied politely, "Thank you."

She had no doubt that Howard would think that
any woman under the age of thirty would be beautiful, if she were
dressed only in her panties and bra.

Howard looked away.
 
Well, that was dumb,
he thought.  
She's
probably been told a million times that she's beautiful, and by a
lot cooler guys than me.

Howard gave Jean more food, and Jean quickly
wolfed it down.  She was feeling better than she had felt in a
long time, except for a faint but annoying throbbing in her
head.

It was warmer, but Jean was feeling chilled,
so she crawled into the shelter, and then into the sleeping bag.
 Howard followed her into the shelter.  Jean looked
around.

"Where's your sleeping bag?" she asked.

Howard looked at her, and he blushed.
 Jean's eyes narrowed.  She looked at her bag more
carefully.

"This is a double bag," she stated.
 "Where did you sleep last night, Howard?"

"You were cold!  You were shivering.
 I didn't know what else to do."

"So you thought that it would be a good idea
to share bags, huh?  Share body heat?  With a helpless
naked woman?"

"You're not going to tell the Chief, are
you?" Howard asked, once more feeling doomed.

Jean glared at him. "Were you naked,
too?"

"No! I kept my briefs on."

"Your briefs?" Jean thought about that.
 "All right.  It's our secret then."

"Thanks, Jean," replied Howard with a sigh of
relief, wishing that he wasn’t so tense and nerdy in Jean’s
presence.

Jean and Howard talked some
more, but eventually her aching head made her want to sleep again.
 She closed her eyes, but after a while, she realized that she
was not really warm.  
How can I get
warm
? She knew.  She grimaced as she
realized that she had no other options.

"Howard," she called.  He was just
outside, and he quickly crawled into the shelter.

"Jean, what is it?  Are you okay?"

"Howard, I'm cold."

"Oh.  I’m sorry, but there's no room to
make a fire in here."

"Howard."

"Yeah?"

"Get in the bag."

Howard gaped at her for a long minute, as her
eyes avoided settling on his.  Then he almost smiled.
 For some reason, he didn’t feel quite as dumb now.

"You want me to get in the sleeping bag?” he
asked.

"Got it on the first guess."

"With you?"

"Smart man."

"While you're wearing nothing but your
underwear?"

"What?  Do you want me to get naked
again?" she exclaimed.  "Get in the bag, Howard!"

Howard started to get into the bag.

"Take your clothes off, first," Jean said
wearily.

Howard paused, glanced at her, and then he
removed all his clothes except for his briefs.  He got in the
bag.  They lay stiffly, side by side.

"I'm not warm yet," Jean muttered.

"Lift up," Howard said.

Jean lifted her upper body, and then Howard
slid his right arm under her shoulders.  He grasped her
shoulder and pulled her onto him, so that her face was lying in the
crook of his arm against his chest.  He realized that she was
a little shorter than him.  For some reason, he didn't feel
doomed any longer.  In fact, he felt good.  He felt damn
good.

"Are you warmer?" he asked, after some time
had passed.

"Uh huh," she replied drowsily.  She
fell asleep.  After a little while, he did too.

Slowly, Jean realized that she was awake. She
had trouble remembering where she was until, after lifting her
head, she looked into the face of the young man sleeping next to
her.  She felt hot, and groggy.  It seemed as if she was
in some kind of dreamlike state.  For a moment, she wondered
if she was dead, if she had died after she had fallen, tired, worn
out from two months of living in the forest, and terribly hungry.
 She remembered feeling the rain beating down on her back.
 She remembered trying vainly to rise and then slumping for
the last time.  After that, she accepted that she would die
there beneath the trees.  She went into her head, into a
peaceful place.  Her only regret was that she would never know
what had happened to the world.

But no
, she thought.  
I’m not dead.
 
This kid, Howard, had found her, and
had brought her back to life.  Had fed her, and had given her
water.  Had sheltered her, and had warmed her.  A warm
feeling of gratitude flowed through her.  She smiled at the
sleeping boy.
 What the hell? So, what
if he saw me naked?

"You deserved it, Babe," she whispered.
 "You saved my life."

The whisper woke Howard.  He opened his
sleepy eyes to see the woman smiling at him.  Then, to his
surprise, she pulled his face close, and she kissed him.  She
slid her tongue into his mouth, explored him, and then
withdrew.

"Hi," she said cheerfully.

"Uh, hi," he responded.

"That's for saving my life," she
explained.

"Oh.  You're welcome," he said.  He
was suddenly aware of her semi-nudity, and his body responded.
  He blushed, as he tried to turn slightly. She laughed
softly, once.

"Don't worry about it, Babe," she said
dreamily.  Howard looked at her closely.  He put a hand
to her forehead.

"You're burning up!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, it is hot," she murmured, and then she
complained, "My head hurts."

A chill went through the boy.  She was
sick.  She was sick, and there was nothing that he could do
about it.  He got out of the sleeping bag and retrieved his
wet shirt.  He pressed the shirt to her forehead.  He
opened the bag, even though she complained, and he let in some air,
trying to cool her down.

Slowly, through the day, Jean’s condition
worsened.  The only thing Howard could do was to bathe her hot
body with his wet shirt. That night was the darkest time for
Howard, since he had realized that he would never again see the
grandparents who had raised him.  Jean was not quite
delirious, but she was in some kind of dream state, where she
alternated between thanking him for saving her life and then
complaining that he had.  She began to weep at one point, and
he found himself begging her to live.

When morning came, Howard decided that they
could not stay in the tree another night.  He had to get Jean
to the others.  He hoped if they walked back towards the camp,
they might meet the rescue party before sundown.

When Jean woke, he told her his plan.
 She thought the success of his plan was doubtful, but she
told him that she felt better.  He rolled up the sleeping bags
and tied them to his backpack, but when he examined their clothing
he discovered that although his clothes had dried, her clothes were
still wet.  He debated having her wear them anyway, but then
he made her put on his pants and shirt.  He had to roll up the
shirt sleeves and the cuffs of his pants, but he made it work.

She complained about having to wear his
clothes, insisting on wearing her own, but he used rough language
with her, telling her that like it or not, she was going to wear
his clothes and to shut up.  She did, and he was surprised at
her passiveness, until he realized that it was a reflection of how
sick she was.  Walking slowly, he wearing only his briefs and
boots, they left the shelter of the redwood tree.

They stopped frequently, but by noon she was
exhausted.  They crawled into the sleeping bags for two hours,
and then he asked her if she could continue.  Gamely she
stood, and they continued their difficult journey.  That
afternoon, they had to stop sooner and rest longer.  At the
end, with two hours to go until sundown, Jean fell down.  She
could not go any farther.

"Go on, Babe," she mumbled.  "You can
come back for me."

Howard was frantic.  He got down on his
knees, and he forced her to get onto his back.  Stumbling
occasionally, he made his way down the trail, her arms wrapped
around his neck, his hands under her legs.

"You don't give up, do you, Babe," she
whispered in his ear.

"My grandparents taught me to be stubborn, I
mean determined," he replied.  He heard a weak laugh.

"How old are you?" she asked sleepily.

"Eighteen.  I had a birthday in August.
 How old are you?"

"Twenty four.  I've been a Forest Ranger
for two years.  Do you think that this Big Chief of yours will
let me stay at your camp?  I’ll be another mouth to feed."

"I think so.  Of course, he will.
 What should I tell him about you?"

"Tell Big Chief that I'm your long lost
girlfriend.  Girlfriends get to vote, huh?" murmured Jean.

Howard was glad to hear her bantering.
 He took it as a hopeful sign that she wasn’t as sick as he
had feared.

"Yes.  All right, I'll tell him you're
my girlfriend,” he retorted.  “But I have to warn you.  I
was raised to be a very traditional man.  I'll expect to be
obeyed."

She let out a soft snort.  "Dream on.
 Tell you what.  I'll obey you one time.  Only once,
but whatever you tell me, I'll do it."

"Yeah, right," Howard scoffed.

"No, I'm serious.  My word is good, and
I'm giving you my word.  One time.  Whenever.
 Better use it wisely."  Jean slumped on his back, her
strength expended.

They made their way down the trail until
dark, and then they stopped.  Howard was exhausted and
defeated.  He strained to listen for the sound of voices, but
he heard nothing.  They found shelter of a sort under an
overhanging cliff.  As they were unrolling their bags, a light
snow began to fall.  They zipped their bags together, and then
they snuggled close together.  Jean had improved during the
first part of the day, but as the night continued, she seemed to
worsen again.  Howard held Jean close and prayed, and then he
fell asleep.  Slowly, a sprinkle of snow covered the tops of
their heads.

They were found by Jacob early the next
morning.  Urgently, afraid that they were dead, Jacob shook
them.  They stirred, and the smaller red head opened her
bleary eyes and blinked.

"Hi, I'm Howard's girlfriend," she said.

Relieved, Jacob paused to consider her words.
 "You just met him," he replied.

"Never judge the depth of a relationship by
the length of its existence," she lectured.

She yawned and went back to sleep.
 Jacob saw that Howard was waking.  Howard looked at
Jacob and gave a start.

"Jean!" he exclaimed.

"Your girlfriend is okay, I think," Jacob
assured him.  “She woke up, but then she went back to sleep.
 Found them!"  This was called out to the rest of the
rescue party hurrying up the path.

Howard climbed wearily to his feet, as Ralph,
Rasul, Ahmad, and Yuie arrived.  Quickly, Ahmad handed a
thermos of warmed water to Howard, and he woke Jean and forced her
to drink a small amount.  Then they placed Jean on a stretcher
that Hector had made from tree limbs and a blanket.  Howard
leaned against Yuie, as the other four boys carried the young
forestry officer down the mountain.  The sky had cleared
during the night.  It was still cold, but Mike had thought to
send a fresh set of clothes, including two pairs of socks, for
Howard.

"Who is she," Ralph asked, as they plodded
along the river.

"Howard's girlfriend," Jacob answered.

“Wow, that was quick,” Ralph muttered.

Jean woke the next day in a comfortable bed.
 By the light streaming in through the high window, she could
tell that it was well into the morning.  She was bone tired,
and her muscles ached as she sat up and saw a short, sandy haired
young boy and a slightly taller, black haired Asian girl staring at
her.