Surviving the Fog (4 page)

"I don't know if small trees would be tall
enough to reach to the top of the cave," Eric replied, thinking
that the idea was dubious at best.

"What if we used a combination of these
things," suggested Howard. "What if we piled up rocks high enough
so that small trees would reach to the top of the cave?"

"Too bad they didn't build the cabins in
front of the cave," John said facetiously. "Then we would already
have a front." The others stopped talking, and they looked at John.
Then they looked at one another.

"We could move the cabins!" Howard
exclaimed.

Chapter Two Chief

"We could move the cabins!" Howard
exclaimed.

"Yeah, maybe even stack them. Put five on the
bottom and five on the top."

"And then use trees to make the roof. Lean
them from the front of the cabins to the top of the cave."

"That should be close enough so that we could
even chop some of the longer trees in half."

"We would probably have to build a rock or
wood floor first," Howard cautioned. "So that we could get the
bottoms of the cabins level with the floor of the cave."

"Are you guys crazy!" groaned John. "How are
we ever going to move those cabins? Man, they are heavy."

"They're bolted together," Howard explained.
"Take off the canvas tops. Unbolt the walls, and move them."

"And maybe we could use the wood on the wall
facing the cave, to cover the rest of the wall on the side away
from the cave."

"We'll call it, The Lodge," Yuie announced.
The boys looked at her.

"Do we have to give it a name?" asked Pete,
grimacing.

"Yes," she replied firmly.

That's how it became The Lodge.

John disconnected the stove by turning off
the gas valve feeding it, and then he removed a piece of pipe
leading from the valve to the stove. They found the barbeque, and
they moved it to the front of the dining hall just outside the
door. Then they trooped up to the cave to take a look.

"This is going to be a lot of work," Pete
said sadly.

"How about moving the cabins onto the ledge?"
Howard asked.

"That would take up too much room in the
cave," John objected.

"But we could set the back ends of the cabins
on the ledge," suggested Mike. "That way we would only have to
build a rock wall for the front side of the cabins."

"The ledge is not wide enough for all five
cabins. We'll need to extend the sides," Yuie observed.

The real problem, they soon realized, was to
convince the rest of the campers, or at least enough of them, to
help them. They decided to hold a meeting that night, to explain
their plan to the rest of the campers.

The meeting did not go well. Except for Yuie
and an older girl who Yuie introduced as Desi, no girls attended
the meeting. Some of the boys stoutly maintained that their parents
would come for them soon. Others understood the plan, and they
could see the need to prepare for the winter, but they declined to
help. Ralph, who only showed up for a few minutes, jeered at their
group.

But a few boys did take them seriously. After
most of the boys wandered off, most of them to their beds, the
group discussed their ideas. There were various opinions on how to
proceed.

Eventually Mike said, "What we have to do
first is to decide what would be the best thing that we could do to
help us survive the winter."

Immediately Yuie responded, "Get into
shape."

"What do you mean," asked Mike, clearly
puzzled at her answer.

"Just that weak people are not likely to
survive, and they won’t be able to help anyone else. Get into
shape. All of you should run with me in the mornings. By the time
winter comes, you will be healthy enough to survive the cold, and
strong enough to build our shelter." She said it defiantly
expecting scorn from the boys. They looked at one another.

"That's not a bad idea," Mike said slowly.
"We could run a few laps around the track, and then we could
practice throwing our spears." The meeting broke up, and John
volunteered to escort Yuie and Desi back to their side of the
river.

Yuie tried to explain the seriousness of
their situation to the other girls, but her arguments fell on deaf
ears. Except for Desi, the other girls refused to believe that the
campers were in trouble. Most of them thought Jacob had concocted
the story of the fog. Others, like Kathy, were allowing their fears
to paralyze them and either spent most of their days praying that
their parents would come for them or just weeping.

“Why won’t they listen?” exclaimed a
frustrated Yuie.

“They’re frightened,” Desi responded.

Yuie looked at Desi. Up to now, she and most
of the girls had the impression that Desi was somewhat of a bimbo.
She always seemed to be flirting with one of the boys. She didn’t
have the nicest body and she wasn’t the prettiest girl in the camp,
but for some reason the boys loved to be around her.
Usually
with their tongues hanging out
, Yuie thought.

“You think things are bad for us, don’t you
Desi?” Yuie asked.

Desi’s face was bleak as she answered. “I
think we are going to die if someone doesn’t take charge, or if we
don’t get some help.”

Yuie went to bed hoping that Desi was
exaggerating.

In the following days, the boys started
running with Yuie. Instead of sleeping late like most of the
campers, they forced themselves to get out of their bunk beds early
in the morning. They had breakfast, and then they ran around the
track. At first they huffed and puffed, and they had to drag
themselves around the huge meadow. Mike refused to let the stronger
boys greatly outpace the weaker boys. He said that it would be more
fun to run as a group. By mid June, they could all run several laps
before they became too tired.

After running, they spent an hour or so
practicing with their spears. Some of the other boys joined them,
but other boys just laughed at them. Privately some of the group
thought that Mike was just playing warrior, but they had to admit
that it was a lot of fun. Mike established three levels, white,
red, and black depending on individual skills. He asked the girls
for ribbons and cloth that the boys could use as pennants for their
spears. Some of the girls began to watch their practices and cheer
for the best throwers, especially if the thrower was Pete.

The boys began to carry their spears
everywhere they went. Mike spent hours practicing, and he became
especially proficient at throwing and at hitting a target. Yuie
decided not to be a part of the Spears, saying that she didn't have
the arm strength for it, and besides if she was around, they
couldn't make naughty jokes about girls. Publicly they were
disappointed, but privately they were relieved. Yuie was already
proficient with her bow and arrows.

Yuie convinced some of the girls to help her
use the barbeque to heat up the canned food, now that the stove had
mysteriously quit working. Other girls got exasperated at the mess
in the kitchen, and it was swept and mopped. The dishes were done
and everyone had clean plates and glasses again.

The group held a meeting every night. Mike
always seemed to lead the meetings, and the others seemed content
to let him. Gradually, most of the boys started attending their
meetings, but except for Yuie and Desi, the few girls who attended
did so sporadically. Ralph would usually show up for a few minutes
at the beginning to make fun of them. He called them, the Tribe,
and he called Mike, the Chief. Ralph’s attitude had gotten worse
since Jacob’s return. Mike was sure that, sooner or later, Ralph
would cause him real trouble.

It happened one morning while they were
throwing their spears at the bales. Mike noticed Ralph coming
towards them in a rage. Mike felt a pang of fear. He really did not
want to be punched by the older boy, and whenever he was around
Ralph, he thought that was a possibility. To Mike, Ralph seemed to
exude an aura of violence.

"Hey, Chief Shithead, where's the part that
you took off the stove?"

"I didn't do it," Mike protested, and then he
immediately felt ashamed. It was his idea. He should have taken
responsibility. "But I'm the one who told someone to do it. We have
to save the propane," he offered bravely, although his heart was
thumping.

Ralph grabbed Mike by the front of his shirt.
"Who did it?" he demanded.

John quickly shoved Ralph away from Mike. "I
did it, dickhead," he yelled.

Ralph pushed John backwards and then, as John
tittered off balance, he slugged John in the face. John reeled
backwards. Suddenly Mike’s fear exploded into rage. Using the shaft
of his spear, he savagely struck the backs of Ralph's legs. The
taller boy cried out in pain, and he fell to his knees. Mike raised
his spear, but before he could strike again, Jacob slammed his own
spear against the back of Ralph’s head. A thin line of blood
appeared. As if it were a signal, the other boys began striking the
kneeling boy again and again with their spears.

Ralph screamed in surprise and pain, and then
he struggled to his feet while trying to fend off the painful
blows. He stumbled away, and then he began to run. For an instant,
Mike started after him, and then a premonition caused him to
halt.

He turned around, held out his arms, and
commanded, "Stop!"

He was just in time. Jacob had his spear
cocked back by his ear, and he was about to send it into the
fleeing boy's body. His hazel eyes were angry. Shocked, Mike stared
at Jacob, and then he walked back to Jacob and clapped him on the
shoulder.

"We’re cool," he said quietly.

Mike looked at the other boys. Some were
still angry; some seemed troubled and startled at the sudden surge
of violence. Mike turned his attention to John who was using his
sleeve to stanch the blood trickling from his mouth.

"You okay?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. He got lucky." There were
chuckles from the others, more from relief than from humor.

"Right," answered Mike. "All right, back to
practice. Who's up next?" The boys returned to their task.

Ralph did not bother them again. A few days
later, he unexpectedly crossed paths with Mike when the younger boy
was alone. They stared at one another for a moment. Mike looked him
right in the eyes, not backing down. After a moment, Ralph turned
away.

To the younger boys, Ralph had always been
somewhat of a bully, and word of what happened quickly spread. One
result, that Mike found rather annoying, became apparent the day
following the incident with Ralph. Nathan and Kevin, who were brown
haired twins, and who were also a couple of the youngest boys, came
running up behind him.

"Hey, Chief!" Nathan said.

When Mike glanced back at them, Kevin said,
"Chief, we want to go up the river to look for spear shafts."

"So go," he answered, puzzled as to why they
were telling him.

They looked at one another, and then Mike
realized that they were embarrassed.

"Well, we don't know what kinds of things
might be in the woods," one began.

"Can you send some of the Spears with us?"
pleaded the other.

So Mike asked Pete and Eric to accompany the
two smaller boys. After that, he noticed that most of the boys and
some of the girls took to calling him, ‘Chief.’ When he complained
good naturedly to John, the other boy took the situation much more
seriously.

"Mike, it's good that they're calling you,
‘Chief’," John said.

"Why?" Mike asked, surprised to hear
this.

"Because we need someone to be in charge,”
John answered. "We have to get ready, so that we can survive this
winter. To get ready, to have rules that get enforced, we have to
have a leader. You're the leader, Mike. I know it’s kind of crazy.
You’re one of the youngest kids here. But so far, you are the only
one that’s shown any kind of leadership. You think about these
things more than the rest of us."

"But, Jackie..."

John cut him off. "Jackie's sick, Mike. You
know that. You're the leader, Mike. It's good that the kids are
calling you, ‘Chief.’ Accept it, and use it so we can get on with
more important things."

Mike felt that this was dubious logic, but he
didn't argue. There were definitely more important things to
consider, particularly their food situation. The Spears began
guarding the food, and they rationed the amount that people could
eat. There was some grumbling, especially from the girls, but most
of them recognized that they had to conserve, even if it was just
until someone came for them.

Every night Mike held a meeting to discuss
the day’s progress. Some of the boys wanted to join the Spears.
Mike told them that they could practice with the Spears, and if
they got good enough, they could join. Most of them just wanted to
carry a spear. Few of them actually practiced enough to be allowed
to become one of the Spears.

Mike's core group was John, Howard, Eric,
Jacob, Pete, and two other boys that quickly became proficient with
their spears, Ahmed and Rasul. Every night, two of the Spears would
guard the food supply. One person would guard from midnight until
four in the morning, and the other would guard from four until
eight. Soon, Mike realized that there were not enough people to
keep up this schedule. So he recruited others, who were not
officially part of the Spears, to help. In this way, he was able to
ensure that the guards would have this duty only one night a week.
Yuie was the only girl who was willing to be a guard.

Yuie always came to the nightly meetings.
Sometimes Desi came with her. At first, John had escorted them back
to their side of the river after the meetings, but Yuie put a stop
to that. She and Desi liked to discuss what they had heard in the
meetings privately without a boy around.