Surviving the Fog (24 page)

"Be nice if we had some," Jacob said.
 "We could breed them.  We would have a steady source of
meat."

"But it didn't sound like a very pleasant
situation," said Mike.  "It might be a good idea to scout the
area.  Do you think you could find the place, if Jean gave you
directions?"

"Maybe.  She was in bad shape when they
found her.  I wonder if she remembers the way," Jacob
replied.

"She doesn't," Mike responded.  "She
only knows the general direction.  We know it's to the
northeast and about two weeks away, and we know where she was
found.  Would you like to go take a look?"

"Can't hurt to look," Jacob answered, and he
left that day.

Meanwhile, Mike called for Tyler and
Gabby.

"You two are breaking up," he announced.

"We are?" Tyler said.

"Yes, for April at least, and I’m sending you
to Davis Brown Farm for a month.  If you and Gabby want to get
back together after that, it's up to you," Mike said.

Gabby sighed.  "It was fun while it
lasted," she said to Tyler with a grin.

Some of the kids asked Mike if the solar
panels could be moved back onto the dining hall roof, so that the
showers could be made to work.  Mike was enthusiastic about
the idea, so he consulted Hector.

“I can do that this year,” Hector informed
him.  “But once Kathy and I get the roof fixed and the
shingles installed, we’ll have to permanently set the solar panels
in place.”

Jean was tired of teaching her students to
find edible plants.  She would have like to have gone with
Jacob, but her knee was hurting her.  She wanted a break, and
she felt like getting away into the forest by herself.
  A few days after Jacob left, when her knee was feeling
much better, she told Howard that she was leaving, and that she
would be back in a day or so.

"You're going by yourself?" he asked.

"Yeah, just for a day or so," she repeated,
as she picked up her gear.  She gave him a wink.  "You'll
survive."

"No," Howard said.  She looked at him.
 He seemed tense.

"No, you won't survive?" she asked.

"No, you can't go.  Not by yourself," he
said.

"What?" she asked.  She did not
understand what he was saying.

"I said, no, you can't go overnight into the
forest.  Not by yourself," he replied firmly.

Jean stared at him, and then she sat her gear
down.  She crossed her arms. She was not smiling now.

"Look, Howard, I care about you.  I
don't know, maybe I even love you.  But, I go wherever I want,
whenever I want.  You need to understand that," she said.

"You said that you would obey me," he
replied.

"What?"

"You said that I could have one time when you
would obey me.  Whenever I wanted.  Well, I want it now.
 I'm saying that you can't go deep into the forest overnight
by yourself.  You said you would obey me one time.  This
is that time.  Obey me."

Jean frowned.
 
Did I really say
that
?  She tried to remember.
 She had a sinking feeling he was right.

"I wasn't feeling well then," she
temporized.

"You said that your word is good. Is it?" he
asked.

That made her mad.  "You're damn right,
my word is good," she snapped.  "So I can't go into the forest
by myself, huh?  So what, you are going with me?"

"I can't leave right now," he replied
apologetically.

"I can't believe this," she said, grinding
her teeth.  "A fifteen year old boy can go alone into the
wilderness, but a twenty four year old United States Forest Ranger
can't?"

Howard winced, but he only replied,
"Sorry."

Jean was furious.  "Shit!" she
yelled.

She kicked her gear and stormed out of the
room.  He listened as she slammed the door of the Lodge, and
then Howard went to speak to Mike.  Later, Mike asked Jean in
for a talk.  He was living in Chief’s Headquarters, again.

"I screwed up by sending Jacob out alone," he
said bluntly.  "Howard is right.  We can't afford to lose
either you or Jacob.  When he gets back, I'm going to ask him
to hunt and scout with you.  I don't mean that you always have
to stay together in the forest.  But, you do need to stay
close enough to find one another and to help each other if
something goes wrong."

Jean gave him a curt nod.  "Alright, if
Jacob agrees, I can live with that."

Howard had fled to the relative safety of the
dining hall.  As sunset approached, he gathered his courage
and went back to the Lodge.  He pulled the canvas curtain back
and cautiously looked in.  Jean was lying on the bed, and she
looked over at him as he appeared.  She did not smile.

"All right, you had a good idea.  I'm
still pissed at you," she said.

"Can I come in?" he asked hopefully.

She debated with herself.  "Come," she
replied.

Cautiously he entered the room.  "Mike
said that we could have his room, if we want," he told her.

Interested, Jean asked, "Really?  That
would be nice.  I'd like us to have our own room.  I bet
Desi and John would like it, too."

"I can move our beds now, if you like,"
Howard offered.

Jean got up.  "Why not?" she said.
 They moved their stuff into Mike's old room.
 Afterwards, Jean was noticeably more cheerful.

Later that night, Jean purred and said, "Oh,
Baby, that was nice.  I like what you do to me."

"So, you're not mad at me anymore?" Howard
asked, as he rolled over and lay on his back.

"No.  Hell, I'm the one who gave you a
one-time obedience card," she mumbled, as sleep began to claim her.
 "Can't blame you for playing it."  She yawned, closed
her eyes and snuggled up to him.

After a moment of silence, she faintly heard
him ask, "Can I have another obedience card?"

"Sure," she mumbled as she drifted off.

Jean woke the next morning.  She felt
great, but something was nagging at her.  In her mind, she
replayed her last conversation with Howard.  Her eyes widened.
 Abruptly she turned to him, but he had already risen and was
gone.

"Howard!" She yelled her outrage.

Outside the Lodge, Howard heard her yell.
 Smiling, he continued down to the dining hall.  He hoped
that Jacob was going to be okay with his plan.

Jacob was moving across a ridge of land that
lay between two mountains.  He expected to walk for another
week, before he found the mountain retreat.  The light snow
last night had turned into a light drizzle this morning.
 There were only a few trees here, but the brush was heavy on
this ridge.  At times, Jacob was forced to backtrack and take
another path.  Jacob thought that he recognized currents,
gooseberry, and plum shrubs from what he had learned in Jean’s
class.  The shrubs were sending out new leaves.  There
were only a few stunted juniper trees among the shrubs.

Ahead, Jacob noticed another
thicket.  As he passed, his senses suddenly heightened, and he
became fully alert.  There was something in the thicket.
 
What is it?
 Jacob stopped and made a point of drinking from his
canteen.  Turning slightly, he could see from the corner of
his eye a hint of cloth in the bush.  
Not an animal then
.
I
t’s a person trying to
hide
.

Deciding, he turned suddenly and strode
towards the thicket.  His body language made it quite clear
what he was about.  As he drew near, a person sprang out of
the brush holding a short thick club of wood.  It was a young
woman, not that much older than Jacob.

"Get back!" she cried.  "Get back."
 She shook her club at him.

Her eyes were wild, and there was almost a
palpable smell of fear emanating from her.  She was panting,
panicked, barely able to contain herself.  Jacob thought that,
at any moment, she might turn and run blindly away from him.
 Her long brown hair was dirty, and her face was streaked with
grime.  She appeared to be wearing two pairs of pants under a
skirt, and her upper body was layered in several garments.
 Her worn out tennis shoes had holes in the toes.  She
was carrying some blankets in a large purple bag slung over her
shoulder.

"Get back!" she repeated.

Jacob stopped.  They stood there facing
each other.  Then Jacob sat down on the ground and crossed his
legs, as the woman regarded him warily.  She stepped back, but
Jacob remained motionless.  She took another step back.
 Jacob did not move.  She turned around, and she began
walking away from him.  She was going in the direction that he
had come from.

When she was almost out of sight, Jacob stood
up.  He looked down the path to where she had disappeared.
 He turned, and he looked the other way, to where he had been
headed.  He wondered what Mike would do if Mike were here.
 He thought that he knew what the Chief would do.  Giving
the path to his task one last look of regret, he turned to follow
the woman.

Lily was frightened.
 She thought that she had hidden well, but the man had noticed
her.  At least he had not attacked her immediately.
 
Will he leave me alone?
 That was doubtful.  She hurried along
the path.  If she could get far enough ahead, perhaps she
could find another hiding place.  She looked at the sky.
 It was still early in the day.

After an hour of walking, she came across a
patch of thorn bushes.  Carefully, trying to avoid the thorns,
she crept into the bush.  She waited, trying to control her
loud breathing.  Less than ten minutes later, she saw him
coming along the trail, not hurrying.  When he was a few paces
from the thicket, he stopped.  Lily held her breath, and she
kept perfectly still.  The man turned, and he walked ten paces
back.  Then he sat down.  He took a drink from his
canteen, and then he settled himself.  He waited.

Lily drew a breath.
 
He knows I'm here
. She needed the rest, so she waited five minutes more, and
then she crept out of the thicket.  She stood, brandishing her
club in front of her.

"Go away!" she said adamantly.  "Go
away."

"Are you hungry?" the man asked.

"It doesn't matter if I am," she replied.
 "I'm not trading my body for food."

She backed away, and then she turned and
loped swiftly away from him.  Jacob waited a few minutes, and
then he followed her.

Lily tried to pace herself.
 
Don't exhaust yourself,
Lily
.  Another part of her said that
she was already tired.  She was very tired.  She found
another hiding place.  She waited.  Once again, the man
noticed her and sat down and waited.

Why?  What is he
waiting for
?  She left the shelter of
the thicket.  The man remained seated.  She wondered if
she could attack him suddenly with her club.  She rejected the
idea, because that would place her too close to the man.
 Except that he was not a man.  Now that she had her fear
under control, she could see that he was younger than she had
thought, at first.  He was a teenager about seventeen or
eighteen years old.  Still, he was dangerous.  She had
learned that truth during the last year.

"Are you thirsty?" he asked.

"I told you.  I'm not trading my body.
 Not for food.  Not for water.  Go away.
 You're wasting your time."

When he stood, she turned and fled down the
path.  Her panic had returned.  She wept as she ran.
 She stumbled, kept her feet, and hurried on.  She was
tired.  She was so very tired.

Presently, she had to stop.  She bent at
the waist, trying to catch her breath.  There was a pain in
her side.  Listening, she could hear him coming.  She hid
behind a tree.  He arrived at where she was hiding, and he sat
down.  He opened his backpack, and he took something out of
it.  He put something in his mouth, and he began to chew.
 Lily's mouth began to water.  It had been a full day
since she had eaten the last of the food that she had hidden from
the men.

The teenager looked at the tree that she was
hiding behind.  She watched as he took something out of his
pack.  It was a plastic bag.  Her eyes widened as he
cocked his arm back and threw it at her.  It missed the tree
by a foot, so that it landed behind and a little to the side of
her.  Her heart was beating, but gradually she realized that
it was not an attack.

She looked at the plastic bag.  It
looked as if it had been repeatedly used.  There was something
in the bag.  Cautiously, she picked up the bag and looked
inside.  She found a roasted potato still in the skin, and a
piece of brown bread.

Is he trying to drug
me
?  She sniffed at the potato and the
bread.  She didn't smell anything wrong, but that meant
nothing.  It could be drugged.  Her mouth was watering,
and a part of her body was demanding that she eat the food.
 She convinced herself that he was trying to bribe her, and
she wolfed down the food.  
Let him try
a bribe
.
He won't
succeed
.  She was not giving in as had
some of the other women.  When she was finished eating, she
regretted not saving some of the food for later.

She felt better.  She took her water
bottle out of her inner jacket, and she allowed herself two full
mouthfuls.  She knew that she was becoming dehydrated.
 There was some snow around the bottom of the tree.
 Carefully, she wiped off the top layer.  She took some
of the clean snow underneath, and she worked it into the bottle.
 With a start, she realized that she had not looked at the man
for a few minutes.  Anxiously, she glanced around the tree.
 He had finished eating and was just sitting there.

She left and found another
hiding place.  He found her.  They played cat and mouse
for the rest of the day.  As the sun settled beyond the
mountains, they moved into a more wooded area.  Lily found
three small fir trees growing tightly together, forming a shallow
arc.  She sat down in the middle with her back to the center
tree and waited.  Presently, he found her and sat down.
 He sat there for five minutes, and then he rose and left.
 Lily was startled.  She wondered what he was doing.
 
Is he trying to work his way around
behind me
?  
Perhaps he’s given up.
 She
tightened her grip on her club.  
Where
is he
?