Surviving the Fog (29 page)

Mike decided.
 
It’s time to speak.

"I like the idea of making contact with
them," he began.  "But I would like to be cautious.  We
don't know how being trapped here by the Fog has affected them.
 We don't know how it’s changed them.  In the old world,
they would be the Calvary coming to our rescue.  But we don't
know if that's true, now.  I think we should watch them.
 Let's see how they treat people.  If we have a medical
emergency, then we might have to make contact.  We know the
Fog is dropping.  I think that we should wait until next year
to decide if we want them to know about us."

Eric spoke.  "Mike has been a good
Chief.  He’s always thinking of ways to keep us alive.
 To make sure that we survive.  I think we should trust
his judgment on this.  He's right.  Unless it's an
emergency, we don't have to rush into anything.  He's the
Chief.  He told us what he thinks.  We should follow his
lead."

There was a general murmur of approval.
 The meeting came to an end.  The Council gathered around
Mike.

"Good going, Chief," Howard said.

"Yes, we can wait a while," Rasul said.

The next morning, the Brown family left.
 After that, Mike gathered his Council again.

"I've been thinking," he said.

"Uh oh," John muttered.

"Shush," Desi whispered.

"Maybe we can get the Army to rescue those
kids from the bikers," Mike suggested.

Surprised, Hector said, "Now, that is a good
idea."

"I'm going to think about it, Hector" said
Mike. "One thing I'm sure of.  It's going to use a lot of our
fuel.  Is it worth it to get those kids out?"

"Si," Hector said.

"Hell, yes," John said,

"You bet," said Jean and the others
agreed.

The very next day, Mike began to work on a
plan.  First, he spoke to Jacob.

“Tell me about the layout of the Army post,"
Mike said.

"The post is built on a knoll," Jacob told
him. "They have a clear line of sight on all sides, except on the
south edge of the knoll. On that side, there’s bushes and a small
oak tree.  The east side is too steep to climb.  There is
a cliff on that side, about twenty feet high.  The west side
is steep, but not as bad.  I climbed it.  That's how I
got a look at that side of their camp.  The road from the
knoll leads north down to a saddle, but just before that, there is
a short rise, so if you are on the saddle, you can't be seen from
the camp.  After the saddle, it’s forest.  It’s a lot
drier there than here. Won’t be as easy to see tracks.”

Mike questioned Hector.  "Can you muffle
the sound of the motorcycle?" he asked.

“Si, I can put a potato in the exhaust pipe,”
said Hector.  “For a short time.  It is not so good for
the engine.”

Erin was the person who was most interested
in making contact with the Army.  Mike spoke to her next.
 By the beginning of August, he had formulated a plan in his
head.  At Council, one morning, he explained his plan.
 There was a heated debate at first, and then slowly the
Council came to the conclusion that Mike’s plan could be
successful.

"So everyone's agreed?" Mike asked at
last.

"I think it will work," Jacob said.  The
others nodded.

Mike looked at Erin.  "Are you sure you
want to do this?"

"I'm positive," Erin replied.

Mike looked at a Council that was both
supportive and apprehensive.  He made his decision.
 "Then we'll get ready.  Until I get back, Howard will be
in charge."

A day later, Hector gassed up his pickup.
 They laid Hector's motorcycle on a mattress in the back of
the truck and tied it down.  Rasul and Jacob climbed in beside
it.  Mike and Erin squeezed into the cab with Hector.
 Lily and Kathy had a dozen last minute instructions for Jacob
and Hector.  They all boiled down to, "Be careful."

The rest of the Council watched anxiously as
the pickup left.  The truck stopped at the Brown farm to pick
up Nathan and Kevin who were working that month at the farm.
  The group waited until noon, and then they left.
 Hector drove carefully along the firebreak road.  The
day was very windy, and the road was steep in a few spots.
 Several hours after leaving the Brown farm, they passed a
lake on their right.  At the lake and at a few other places,
they stopped to make a food cache.

In the dead of night, they slowly passed by
the bikers' hill with the truck lights off.  When they came to
the road leading to the bikers' camp, they stopped and let off
Jacob and Erin.  It was the night before the full moon, and it
was bright just as Mike had hoped.  There were only a few thin
clouds in the sky.  They wished each other well, and then
Jacob and Erin set off, hiking up the paved road.  The others
in the truck continued onward.

A few miles from the Army post, just before
they left the cover of the trees, they stopped.  Hector found
a spot off the road to hide the truck, and they took the motorcycle
out of the truck bed.  Then amid the blue sky pilots and the
gray sage, they threw their sleeping bags on the ground, and they
slept.  By this time, Jacob and Erin were safely hidden, not
too far from the bikers’ camp.

In the afternoon of the following day, Mike
and Nathan started walking toward the Army post.  Mike timed
their arrival, so the guard on the palisade parapet spotted them
just as the sun was setting.  The Ranger standing guard was
astonished to see two young teenage boys walking toward his post.
 Quickly, he called for the gates to be opened, and the boys
were allowed into the camp.

Inside the wooden wall, they were met by a
man in uniform with a single silver bar on each of his shoulders.
 The man, who identified himself as Lieutenant Kennedy, was
African-American.  He had a thin cut of hair on the top of his
head, and the sides of his head were shaven.  He promptly
escorted them into a small log building, where they were taken to
see another man who was sitting behind a desk.  He was a sandy
haired man with a sprinkling of freckles across his face, and who
also had his hair closely cropped.

"Here they are, Major Collins," the
Lieutenant said.

The Major stood and walked
around his desk, so that he could get a good look at the two boys.
 Their clothes were filthy and torn, and their faces were
streaked with grime.  
Their shoes have
seen better days,
he noted.  One of
the boys acted as if he were half asleep.  He kept rubbing his
eyes.  The Major pointed to an old sofa and told the sleepy
boy to sit down.   Soon after the boy sat down, he curled
up on the sofa and fell asleep.

"I'm Major Collins.  This is Lieutenant
Kennedy.  Who are you, and where have you come from?"

"I'm, Mike," said the boy.  "His name is
Nathan.  We came from the bad men’s place."

The Lieutenant sucked in an audible breath,
as Major Collins examined Mike intently.

"The bad men's place?" Collins asked.
 “Do you mean that you’ve been living at a place with bad men?
 What makes them bad?”

"They have motorcycles and guns.  They
kill people, and they treat kids real bad," the boy said sadly.

Major Collins tensed, and his eyes narrowed.
 “Mike, tell me about these bad men.”

Carefully, Mike told the story that he had
rehearsed at the Lodge.  When he was asked questions he could
not answer with reasonable accuracy, he pleaded ignorance.

"It's them!" the Lieutenant exclaimed at
last.  His excitement had increased as he had listened to
Mike’s tale.

"Sounds like them," the Major agreed.
 "How many kids are living at that place?" he asked the
boy.

“Eleven," Mike answered. "Those bad guys
killed some of the kids."

The Lieutenant blanched, and the Major’s jaw
worked as he clinched his teeth.

"Mike, do you know how many men are there?"
he asked in a clipped voice.

"Six," was the reply.  "They sleep in
their dugout at night.  They make us sleep in an RV.
 They have a chain on our door.  But sometimes we sneak
out at night and walk around.  We always go back, or else they
won’t feed us."

"Are you hungry?" the Major asked.

The boy’s eyes shifted nervously, and Collins
had the momentary feeling that the boy looked guilty, but then he
answered, "Yes, because they didn’t feed us today.  They got
mad, because one of the kids stole some food.  They said that
all of us were going to get beat up tomorrow, so they could teach
us a lesson.  That’s why Nathan and I ran away.”

Major Collins looked at the Lieutenant.
 "Let's get something to eat in here," he ordered.

The Lieutenant left the
room, and the Major paused his questioning until the officer
returned with a plate of sandwiches and a glass of water.
 Mike took a sandwich and bit into it.
 
Peanut butter and
jelly
, he noted.

"Mike, this is very important,” the Major
said after Mike had finished the sandwich. “Do you think you could
find your way back there tonight?"

"Sure," the boy answered.  He yawned
widely. "Could I take a nap first?"

"Of course.”

Collins woke Nathan, and had a soldier lead
the two boys to beds, and then he turned to the Lieutenant.

"Get your Rangers ready, LT.  I‘m not
going to let those children be abused for another single day.
 We'll do it tonight, but we'll give that kid a few hours to
rest first.  Hopefully, we can catch them when they’re sound
asleep."

"I’ll get Jenkins to muffle the truck with
rags," Kennedy said.  "One muffled truck might be quieter than
two jeeps."

"Do it," the Major replied.

Mike and Nathan were taken to beds in a
roughly made barracks.  Nathan fell into bed and slept, but
Mike stayed awake.  From time to time, he took his watch out
of his pocket and checked it.  When it was time, he rose and
made his way to Major Collins’ office.  It was about ten
o’clock, and already the moon was bright.

“Do you want me to show you how to find the
bad men’s place?” he asked in a sleepy voice.

“We certainly do, young man,” replied the
Major.  “Are you sure you can find it in the dark?”

“Yes,” replied Mike.  “I know where it’s
at. But they’re on a hill.  They might hear you coming.
 If you want to sneak up on them, then you should park your
truck at the bottom of the hill, and then you should walk up.”

“That’s a good idea,” said the Lieutenant.
 “Lucky for us it’s a full moon tonight.”

It’s not
luck
, thought Mike.
But it’s lucky that there’s no clouds.

About eleven o’clock the gates opened, and a
single canvas covered truck left the compound and motored down the
road.  Watching from the rise above the saddle, Hector used
Star's walkie-talkie to alert Rasul who was standing by the
motorcycle with Comet's walkie-talkie.

Rasul started the bike and gunned it away.
 When he got to the road under the bikers camp, he flashed the
lights.  Moments later, he saw the quick blink of Jacob's
flashlight coming from a place on the hill below the dugout.
 Rasul pulled the bike off the road, hid it in the trees, and
waited.  Shortly after that the truck arrived, the driver
coasting the last quarter mile.

On the hill, Jacob waited and watched.
 In the moonlight, he saw the gray shape of the truck come to
a halt at the junction of the bikers' road. When he saw the vague
shapes emerge, he knew that Mike had convinced the soldiers to
approach the bikers' camp on foot.  Jacob silently crept up to
the RV and unhooked the chain.  He entered quietly, trying not
to awaken the children all at once.  He shook the smallest
boy.  The boy woke and when he saw Jacob, he emitted a small
cry of distress.  Jacob held a finger to his lips.

“I’m a friend,” Jacob whispered. “I’m taking
you away from this place.  You’re safe.”

Silently, the boy shrank away from the
strange teenager, an unhappy look on his face.

“Be quiet, and wake the others,” Jacob
whispered. “The United States Army is coming for you.  You
know who they are, don’t you?”

The boy nodded.

“They’re taking you to a safe place.
 There’s lots of food there, and no one gets hurt.”

The apprehension on the little boy’s face was
changing to one of hope.

Jacob glanced around the
recreational vehicle and counted ten kids.
 
They’re all here
.  He had the young boy wake the oldest girl and explain
what was happening.  At first, she was afraid of Jacob, even
as Jacob tried to assure her that he had come to help them.
 In a low whisper, he told her that he was taking the kids
away from the bad men.  She bit her lower lip as she tried to
decide whether or not to trust him, and then she nodded.
 Together, they woke the rest of the kids.  Not all of
them were happy to see Jacob.

"You're not going to hurt us, are you?" a
little boy asked, fear in his face.

"No, I'm not going to hurt you," Jacob said.
“If you stay quiet until we get to the road, I promise that you
will get a nice surprise."

He led the children out of the RV and quietly
down the dirt track.  Part of the way down, Erin silently
joined them from the shadows, the sleepy kids barely noticing her.
 Jacob faded into the night, while Erin led the children to
the paved road.  There they waited, as Erin explained to the
oldest girls what was happening.  Shortly, they heard the
grunting of marching men coming up the road.  Some of the
frightened children began to weep.

“We’re over here,” Erin called to the
soldiers.

“Halt,” she heard, and then a soldier came
forward.

"Listen to me.  I am an American
soldier," a man with silver bars on his shoulders told the children
in a quiet voice.  "I’m here to rescue you."  The weeping
children calmed down at this announcement.