Surviving the Fog (19 page)

"What about when we go to the bathroom?"
Gabby wailed.

"I guess you can't close the door," Mike
answered.  "One of you will have to stand outside while the
other uses the bathroom."

"Even number two?" Tyler asked in
disbelief.

"Even number two," Mike answered
mercilessly.

"Do we have to sleep in the same bag?" Gabby
whined.

"Yes," Mike replied.  "Go zip your bags
together, right now.  Get some help and move your mattresses
over by the fire.  Don’t get too close though."

Twenty four hours later the two seemed
sufficiently subdued.  They lasted ten days.  Then, just
before bedtime, a furious Yuie came storming into Mike's room
followed by Desi and a tearful Gabby.

"Tyler pulled Gabby's pajama bottoms down
because two guys dared him," said Yuie angrily.  "She wasn't
wearing panties, because she washed them today, and they were
hanging up to dry."  Gabby stifled a sob.

"Find John," Mike ordered grimly.  "You
stay here, Gabby."  A minute later, John arrived.

Mike gave his instructions.  "Find
Tyler.  Get some Spears, find the two guys that dared Tyler to
pants Gabby, and bring them here.  Tell the other Spears to
grab their spears and come here."

A few more minutes followed, and then John
and the Spears arrived with three boys in tow.  Two were
obviously scared, and one was scared but defiant.

"Did you guys dare Tyler to pants Gabby?"
Mike asked them solemnly.

"Yeah, so what?" sneered the defiant boy.
 "He's the one who did it.  He didn't have to.  We
didn't do nothing."  The other instigator nodded.

Mike looked at Tyler.  "Loyal friends
you have here, Tyler," he said sarcastically.

Tyler did not respond to Mike.  Ashamed,
he looked at Gabby and said, "I'm sorry, Gabby.  I'm really
sorry.  I was stupid."  Gabby choked back a sob.

"You three strip," Mike ordered.  “We’ll
give Gabby a chance to see you three naked.”  Two of the boys
hesitated, and then, red faced, they began to shed their
clothes.

"Hell no, I'm not stripping," said the
defiant boy.  "I didn't do anything."  Mike motioned to
the Spears, who grabbed the alarmed boy and began to remove his
clothes.

"Hey!  Stop!  You can't do
this!"

He swung a fist, and then he yelped as John
smacked him hard on the side of his head.  He stopped fighting
and held his aching head.

"Our food would last longer if we tossed this
one out in the snow," Desi suggested coldly.

The boy lost his defiant attitude.  "Oh,
shit, don't do that.  Please, Chief.  I'm sorry."

"We'll let him stay.  For now," Mike
answered.  He addressed the other boy.  "We're trying to
survive here, dickhead.  Now get your clothes on and get out.
 You, too."  He motioned to the boy on the floor.
 Hastily, the two boys pulled their clothes on and fled.

Mike turned to the last naked boy.
 "Tyler," was all he said.

Tyler turned white.  "Are you kicking me
out of the Lodge, Chief," he whispered.

"Not yet," Mike said  He turned to the
Spears.  "Give him a beating,"

"No, Chief!"  This outburst came from
Gabby.  "Please don't beat Tyler, Chief.  Don't do
it!"

Mike turned to stare at Gabby.

"Why not?" he asked.

Gabby started crying.  "I don't want you
to hurt Tyler," she cried.  "It's partly my fault.  I
pulled his pajamas down last week.  I accidentally got his
underwear, too.  But he never told on me."

"Oh, for heaven’s sake," Desi muttered.

"Is that true?" Mike asked Tyler.

"Yes, Chief, but it's not the same.  She
didn't have any panties on, and beside I'm a guy.  Go ahead
and beat me," Tyler said bravely, as his body shook with fright.
 "I deserve it for listening to those two assholes."

"No, Chief. Don't do it," sobbed Gabby.

"All right," Mike said. “You two have been
causing me a lot of grief, so here's what I'm going to do.
 I'm officially pronouncing you two, boyfriend and
girlfriend.

"Huh?" chorused the startled twosome.
 Gabby stopped crying.

"You heard me," said Mike firmly.  "You
two are going to be boyfriend and girlfriend until April.  By
the end of this week, Gabby, you are going to tell all of your
friends that you like Tyler and that he's your boyfriend.
 Tyler, you are going to tell your friends that you like
Gabby, and that she is your girlfriend."  The baffled kids
were thoroughly blushing by this time.

"I'm not sure that my friends will believe
me," Tyler said.

"Or mine," added Gabby.

"To prove it you each have one week to make
each other a present," said Mike.  "A very nice present.
 And if you don't...," his voice turned menacing.  "And
if you don't, or if it's not nice enough, then I'll have the Spears
give Tyler a beating and the girls give Gabby a beating."

"Your present better be nice," Desi warned
Gabby.  "Or I'll kick your little ass."  Gabby nodded.
 Like most of the kids, she was very leery of Desi.

"What kind of present?" Tyler asked with a
puzzled expression.

"Think of something," Mike snapped.
 "Ask people.  And I better see you guys holding hands
and stuff.  Now Tyler, put your clothes on and you and Gabby
get out."  The two kids left.

"You handled that brilliantly, Chief," Yuie
said, filled with admiration.

"No, I didn't," grumbled Mike.  "There's
too much of this boyfriend and girlfriend crap going around, and I
just added to it."

"Well, there are more couples since we were
stuck in the boys’ cave," Yuie admitted.

"And this is all your fault," Mike said,
glaring at John and Desi.

Desi smiled at him.  "You are so sweet,"
she murmured.

"I am not," he denied hotly.

At the end of the week, Gabby presented Tyler
with a pair of deerskin moccasins.  "Jean helped me make
them," she said with an anxious look at Tyler, who was examining
the footwear with obvious delight.  "Are they okay?"

"Wow, these are too cool!" Tyler exclaimed.
 "Mine is not that good," he said apologetically, as he
presented Gabby with a pair of clip-on turquoise earrings and a
turquoise pendant.

"Oh, Tyler, these are so pretty," Gabby
gushed.  "How did you make them?" she asked, as she tried them
on in front of her envious friends.

"I pried the turquoise out of my belt
buckle," he answered proudly.  "Eric had a couple of itty
bitty alligator clips that he let me have.  Hector helped me
bend the teeth over, so they wouldn't hurt your ears.  Mike
let me have some tiny screws that he found in his tool chest."

For a moment, Gabby was speechless.
 Then right in front of everybody, she took Tyler's face
between her hands, and she kissed him right on the mouth.  No
tongue, of course.  When she finished, Tyler sucked in a
breath, red faced but pleased.  Mike had no trouble from them
for the rest of the winter.

"I wish someone would make me a present like
that," grumbled Desi to Yuie, as she glanced sideways at her
boyfriend.

"Don't worry, Sweetheart," John assured her.
 "I was already thinking of making you a Mr. Potato Head.
 We still have plenty of potatoes."  Desi sighed.

Yuie giggled, and then she asked Desi, "Do
you think that Mike would have told the Spears to give Tyler a real
beating?"

"What do you think?" Desi replied.

Yuie was troubled.  "I'm just not sure
anymore," she said.

After several months of living in the Lodge,
some of the teenagers began to emit an unpleasant smell.  One
day, Mike got a whiff of a boy walking by.  He stopped him,
and he demanded to know when the boy had last washed himself in the
washroom.

"It's cold in there, Chief," the boy
complained.  "And whenever it gets a little warm, it stinks in
there.”

Mike was unmoved.  He ordered everyone
to wash their body at least once every three days.  He endured
a lot of grumbling about that order.

When March rolled around, Mike and the
Council took stock of their supplies.  There was a general
consensus that they had done better than they had expected.
 They had carefully rationed the meat from their venison,
rabbits, and birds, and had encouraged everyone to eat the
vegetables.  They had made lemonade once a week, so that
everyone could drink a small glass of the juice.  The pickles
and beets had lasted, but the bread and rolls were almost gone.
 Still, by the middle of April they would start running out of
food.

"We'll have to get into the forest by then,
in spite of the snow," said Mike.  "Hector, if you can power
up one of the big machines, you might get through the snow to Mrs.
Brown's house.  She said that she would try to make bread for
us during the winter.  Maybe you can catch some trout, and
maybe we can get some real milk.  Besides that, I would like
to know how our people are doing.  Jean, see if you can find
some of the plants that you have been teaching us about.
 Jacob, what do you think?"

"I'll go look.  Mrs. Brown said that
there were more deer than ever last year.  If they stayed
alive, I'll find them," Jacob replied.

Later Jacob came to Mike privately.
 "Chief?"  Jacob looked around to see if anyone could
hear him.

"Yes, Jacob?" Mike said.

"I've been meaning to tell you something, but
I wasn't sure if I should say anything yet.  You remember the
last time we dumped the Porta Pottys?  Well, the others didn't
say anything, but I think the Fog was lower down than it was the
first time I saw it."

Stunned Mike stared at Jacob.  "Are you
sure?"

"Well, not really," Jacob said.  "But I
noticed a strip of brown grass running along the edge of the Fog.
 At first, it looked like the rest of the grass that had died
from the frost, but then I noticed this strip had, like, a reddish
goo on it.  I didn't say anything to the others, because I
didn't want to get everyone's hopes up.  But as soon as
possible, we should check it out."

"All right.  Let's just keep it between
us for now," Mike said.

There was plenty of snow on the ground, but
the skies had cleared again, and there was a lot of sunshine in
March.  The solar heating system was working well, so the
temperature in the Lodge was quite comfortable.  One day, the
temperature outside got up to seventy degrees.  Everyone was
allowed to go outside again without permission, but they were
required to stay within the boundaries of the camp.  Jacob
chafed at this, but Mike was firm.

"A little while longer, please," he said.

"You're the Chief," Jacob grumbled.

The next day it snowed, and the temperature
plunged once again.  It dropped down to five degrees that
night.  They endured three more days of intense cold outside,
but, inside, the barrels and the fire kept it bearable.  They
had used only three quarters of their wood, so Mike allowed the
fire to be built higher.

Then the skies lightened, and it turned
warmer again.  At first light on the fifteenth of March, Mike
let Jacob go into the forest, after making Jacob swear that he
would return at the first sign of a cloud and not later than
sunset.  Jacob was back by noon.

"I slipped and fell into a gulch," he
explained.  "It was packed with snow.  I fell through
powder snow up to my armpits.  Something stopped me.  I
think I was standing on a body.  I think it was an
animal."

Mike sent Jean and Howard with ropes to help
Jacob.  By sunset, they had brought the body of a deer back to
the Lodge.

"It's a doe," said Jacob with regret.
 Probably died in that big freeze we had.

"Do you think the meat is safe to eat?" Mike
asked.

"I think so," said Jean.  "It must have
frozen quickly and the stomach and intestines were not open.
 It will be gamey though.  I'll eat a very small portion
to start.  If I don't get sick or have diarrhea then it should
be okay."

The next day, they butchered the deer.
 They moved all of the remaining food into one freezer, and
they packed the deer meat in snow until they were sure that it was
safe to eat.

"Not bad, Jacob, for your first day out,"
Mike said cheerfully.

"Blind luck," Jacob muttered.

"I hope everyone at the Brown farm is also
having some luck," said Mike with a worried frown.

Chapter Eight Davis Brown Farm

At the Brown farm no one was hungry, or sick.
 There had been problems, but most of them were of a personal
nature. Ralph and the other kids said goodbye to Hector with mixed
emotions.  The younger kids were excited to be at the farm.
 The girls, especially, had missed the comfort of an older
woman.  They had never met Mary Brown, but everyone who had
met her, claimed that she was a very nice person.  The twins
were excited to see the horses and the cows, but they were leery of
being under the direction of Ralph.  In the past, he had been
known to bully some of the younger boys.

Mary and her kids began by taking them on a
tour of the farm.  As they walked, Mary kept up a running
commentary.

"We planted ten acres of wheat, four acres of
feed and one acre of potatoes.  And I always grow plenty of
winter squash."

Ralph looked at the fields that had been cut
low to the ground.  "You harvested the wheat and alfalfa by
yourself?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, the combine did most of the work,"
Mary said with a laugh.  "I cut it after that rain
luckily."

"Where's the wheat now?" Nathan asked.

"After fanning it, we put it in big plastic
tubs with tight lids,” Mary replied.  “Then we stored it in
the sheds.  If it has bugs in it, the cold will hold them
down.  The alfalfa is in the loft of the barn."

"Can we make French fries with the potatoes?"
Paige asked.

"You bet," Mary answered.  "I grow the
Green Mountain potato variety.  They don't look as pretty as
Russets but they taste sweeter.  There are still a lot in the
ground, and one of our biggest tasks will be to harvest the rest.
 Before this happened, I sold only my best produce at the
stores down in the foothills, but now we need to harvest as much as
we can for spring planting and to make bread and soup.  Your
friends at your camp will run out of food sometime in the spring.
 Our task will be to feed them as well as we can.  I plan
to make potato bread and potato soup for them.  We'll freeze
some of that, put it in containers, and pack it in snow.  But
we’ll have plenty for French fries.  I've got lard for that.
 I like to save the butter for my cookies."