Surviving the Fog (44 page)

Erin stopped there and looked down at the
teenager with the pained expression on his face.

In a softer voice, she finished.  “His
name is Mike, and he’s not perfect, but I am proud to tell you that
he is, and he always will be, the Chief of our Tribe."

Erin stopped talking.   Many of the
curious soldiers and civilians crowded around, eager to be
introduced to a very embarrassed Mike.  Mike glanced at Annie.
 She stared back at him with a blank expression, and then she
turned away.  Mike wondered what she was thinking.

For a few days, Mike just relaxed.  He
had no responsibilities, and he had no duties.  He slept late.
 He tended to find himself out on the edge of the knoll.
 He checked for the small nylon line that he and Kevin had
used to leave the post.  To his surprise, it was still there.
 He was eager to explore the new barracks building.  It
was circular and made of timbers, including the roof.  There
were no windows.

“It’s not the usual Army configuration,”
Major Collins confided.  “But it retains heat better than a
rectangular building would.  The central fireplace makes for a
more even distribution of the available heat.  I wish we had
glass that would retain the heat.  I miss having windows.”

“How about using windshields from abandoned
cars?” Mike suggested.  “Would those retain the heat?”

The Major looked interested.  “That
might work, Mike,” he replied.

After a few more days, Mike
realized that he was bored.  Everybody was busy, except him.
 Erin and the Major were working and didn't have time to
entertain him.  And the post was much more regimented than
Petersburg.  The mess hall closed at a certain time.
 
Late to breakfast?
 
Sorry, we don't
reopen, even for the Chief of Petersburg.

Then the Major called him to the main office
one morning.  "I have a chore for you, if you are willing,"
the Major told him.

"Sure.  Anything," Mike replied, eager
to be of some use.

"I'm sending Sergeant Jenkins, north, on a
scouting mission.  I’d like you to go with her.  Three
weeks out, three weeks back.  That should put you back here by
the middle of November."

Mike's heart sank.  He was definitely
not one of Sergeant Annie Jenkins' favorite people.  She had
made that clear by ignoring him ever since the incident in the mess
hall the first day.  He wondered if he should say something to
the Major, but in the end he decided to remain silent.  He
figured that the Sergeant would probably find a reason to ease him
out of the mission.

"Can I take my spear?" he asked, just in case
she didn’t.

"Of course."

Sergeant Annie Jenkins did try to talk Major
Collins out of sending Mike with her, but her attempts were
unsuccessful.

"Sir, he's not only a civilian, he's a kid,"
argued Jenkins. "I can't do my job and nursemaid a boy, too."

"He's no ordinary boy, Sergeant, and you well
know it," the Major answered sternly. "Now get your ass out there,
and do your duty."  Steaming, Annie made her preparations.

The post had visitors before the expedition
left.  Don rode into the post, sitting in the Brown wagon.
 It was carrying a load of vegetables and other food.
 Nathan, Kevin, and Ahmad were with him.

Ahmad was riding a bicycle.  Mike was
delighted to see them.

“Whew,” Ahmad said as he dismounted.
 “Getting this wagon here was no piece of cake.
 Sometimes, we had to unload it and push the wagon up a steep
spot.  Then we had to carry the cargo up and repack the wagon.
 I hope these horses are grateful.”

Mike was eager for news of Petersburg.

“I performed three more weddings,” said Don.
“Ralph and Mary are married now.  The Mayor issued a
provisional death certificate for Davis Brown.  The little
girl seems reconciled to their marriage.  And the Mayor and
Jean are married, although I’m surprised we didn’t have to drag
her, kicking and screaming, to the podium.  She kept muttering
about some kind of obedience card, whatever that is.  And
Rasul and Imee are married.”

“Makayla is going to stay at the Brown Farm
with us this winter,” said Kevin.  “She and Paige are sharing
the attic.  Kylie is staying in Star’s room.”

“Rasul and Imee are moving into the solar
apartments,” Nathan added. “The Mayor thought we needed one of the
nurses at the farm.  Kevin and I are moving in there, too.
 Poor Comet will be all alone with those four girls.”

The villagers stayed almost a week, and Mike
enjoyed every minute of their visit but then, except for Don, they
climbed back onto the empty wagon and headed back to Petersburg.
 The next day, Sergeant Jenkins and Mike left the post and
headed north.

At the first opportunity, she said to Mike,
"Listen up, kid.  I didn't want you with me, but that's not my
decision.  So, you and I are going to accomplish this mission,
and we are going to do it successfully.  My role is to do
everything.  Your role is to keep your mouth shut, and follow
me.  Got it?"

"Yes," Mike responded meekly.

Annie, who had been expecting an argument,
glared at him suspiciously and glanced contemptuously at his
homemade spear.

They trekked north for a week, skirting the
edge of the Sierras.  It was a much drier clime than
Petersburg.  From time to time, they came right to the edge of
a long slope dropping steeply down into the extreme eastern plain
of California which was hidden by the brown soup.  After a
week, they moved farther into the mountains.

For the most part, they got along.
 Annie led the way, and Mike followed.  Mike did as he
was told.  He set up camp, made the meals, and cleaned up
afterwards, and he struck camp the next day.  Annie was
polite, if not overly friendly.  She was annoyed that he
managed to spear several grouse and to catch others with his
snares.  But his successes saved their packed food for
later.

Her problem was that she was curious.
 She couldn't help herself from digging further into the
details of the incidents that Erin had described.  It wasn't
easy.  She began to appreciate that he was reluctant to
overemphasize his importance, and she began to gain an appreciation
of what the kids had gone through.

"So you doubled up in your little cave," she
mentioned one night as they sat by their campfire.  "Wasn't
that taking quite a chance, allowing some of the boys to double up
with the girls?  What about your rules?"

“There wasn't a lot of room between one pair
and the next," Mike explained.  "And it was so cold that we
had to put on all of our clothes.  I managed to wear two pairs
of pants, three shirts, and three pairs of socks.  Besides, I
think we were all too scared of freezing.  Other than the
cold, the biggest problem we had was that a couple of kids peed in
their bags.  That was a mess."

His comment reminded Annie of just how young
those kids had been two years ago.

"You were thirteen, then," she stated.

''No, by that time, I was fourteen," he
replied.

"Have you improved your Lodge since then?”
Annie asked.

"Oh, yeah, it's a lot better.  Hector
built a loft, so we have a lot more sleeping room.  He covered
the walkway to the Porta Pottys.  The fireplace is so cool.
 But the best thing is hot showers.  Everyone loves
that."

Annie stared at him.  "Bullshit.
 There's no way you could take a hot shower in a cave."

Mike shrugged.  "Ask the Major," Mike
said.  "He took one."

Annie did not reply, but she
resolved that she would definitely ask the Major to confirm or deny
Mike's claim.  
A hot shower,
she thought with a shiver.  She felt weak
with pleasure at the very idea.

When they had traveled for three weeks, they
stopped.  They had not seen any sign of human life.  They
struck gold however, but not the metal kind.  They found them
in a small green valley.  Snow runoff from the surrounding
mountains had collected in a small rill, and they were
drinking.

"Horses," Mike said with delight.

It was a small herd of five
mares, three yearlings, and a stallion.  Annie and Mike
watched them for a long time, and Mike thought that Annie was truly
comfortable with him for the first time.  Annie couldn’t help
smiling to herself as she observed Mike’s excitement.
 
He’s not that bad
, she decided.

“They’re so wild.  So free.”

"Yes.”  She was pensive as she watched
the horses and the boy.  He was still disturbing, but in a
different way.

They found a place to camp, and they did so
quietly, so as not to disturb the herd.  Mike and Annie had
mummy bags made of synthetic down, so they did not need a tent.
 Mike made a small fire, and they roasted a large bird and
some of the potatoes that Ahmad had brought to the Post.
 Earlier that day, Mike had found some wild onions, and some
tubers, and some kind of green leaves that he used to make a salad.
 Annie was constantly surprised at the amount of food that
Mike could supply from their surroundings.

"Our Forest Ranger taught me," he explained,
when she mentioned his ability.  "I think she was in a bad
mood one day, because some of the kids were complaining about how
she cut their hair.  She insisted that I should come to the
classes she was teaching.  Actually, I enjoyed her classes.
 I always liked school."

"Not me," Annie replied.  "I couldn't
wait to get out of school.  When I turned eighteen, I dropped
out and joined the Army.  They took me, but they told me that
I had to get my GED, so I did.  Then, when I got out of AIT, I
volunteered to join the Rangers.  I got in, but they made me
take more classes."

"Where are you from, Annie?" Mike asked.

"That's Sergeant Jenkins to you, kid," Annie
replied, giving him a frown that he ignored. "I was born and raised
in Carlsbad, New Mexico."

"Oh, they have some caves there," Mike
stated.  "Did you ever see them?"

"Sure, lots of times," Annie said.  "You
have to walk down this long series of switchbacks, at first.
 It gets colder, the farther you walk down.  When you get
to the bottom, there are lots of different rooms to walk
though."

"Is it really mysterious and spooky?" Mike
asked eagerly.  "Are there, like, bats and things flying
around?  Did you think you ever saw, like, ghosts and other
weird stuff?"

Annie laughed.  "Yeah, there's weird
stuff down there.  Tourists, I mean.  Lots and lots of
tourists.  Really weird tourists.  The place is full of
them.  All running around and bumping into people.  And
yapping.  Always yapping."

"Oh," Mike said, disappointed.

"But it is interesting, Mike," Annie
continued. "There are bats at the entrance, but they don't fly
during the day.  They come out at sunset.  Probably too
hot for them during the day."

"Is it really hot in Carlsbad?" Mike
asked.

"Hell, yes, it's hot," said Annie
emphatically. "One time it was one hundred fourteen degrees in the
shade.  My boyfriend and I went to the caves that day to get
out of the heat.   Afterwards, we rode the elevator up to
ground level, but we weren't allowed to go outside the visitor’s
center until we had adjusted to the change in the temperature.
 It was sixty degrees in the caves, and it was eighty degrees
in the visitor’s center."

"Wow," Mike exclaimed.  "I don't think
I've ever been anyplace that was over one hundred degrees.
 San Francisco usually doesn't get to ninety degrees."

That perked up Annie’s interest.  "Are
you from San Francisco, Mike?" she asked.

"Yes," Mike replied.  "My family lived
on a small road just off Geary Boulevard.  It's not far from
Golden Gate Park.  My Dad was a teller at a bank on Market
Street.  Every work morning, he would take the bus to Powell
Street, and then he would ride the cable car down to Market Street.
 That is, if it had room.  In the mornings, it usually
did, but in the afternoon he usually had to walk back up to Geary
Street and catch the bus home, because there were too many tourists
on the cable car by then.  There’s a turnaround close to the
bank, but in the afternoon there’s a line of tourists waiting to
ride the cable car."

Mike was silent.  Memories came flooding
into his mind.  He remembered walking up to steep Coit Tower,
and eating shrimp cocktails at Fisherman's Wharf, and the times he
had stood in line to share a chocolate sundae with his brother at
Ghirardelli Square.  Tears gathered in his eyes.

Annie was watching him.  She knew that
he was remembering.  For a moment, her own thoughts drifted
back to her lost home.  She remembered sitting on the bluffs
over the caves.  From there, she would imagine that she could
see down into Texas.  She remembered passing through oil
stinky Artesia, the day her boyfriend stole his father’s car and
drove them to Roswell to visit the silly alien museum and the more
interesting Goddard Museum.

There were, Annie realized,
things that she and this boy had in common.
 
Enough melancholy
.  She searched for a subject guaranteed to take Mike's
mind off the past.

"Since you’re from San Francisco, does that
mean you’re gay?" she asked nonchalantly.

Mike broke away from his thoughts.
 "What?" he asked.

"Are you gay?" Annie repeated.  "Do you
like boys?"

Mike laughed.  "Believe it or not,
almost all guys from San Francisco like girls."  He gazed at
her, and then suddenly she saw the gleam in his eyes.

"Oh, yes, Annie," he said softly.  "I
like girls."

For some reason, Annie blushed.
 Ignoring the gleam in his eyes, she muttered, "That's
Sergeant Jenkins to you, kid."

Shortly after that, they crawled into their
sleeping bags.  In a little while, Annie heard Mike's slow
breathing.  Annie was restless.  She tried to think about
how she would write her report.  She tried to focus on the day
ahead.  But her mind kept coming back to that gleam in Mike's
eyes.  She had no doubt that Mike liked girls.  And for
some reason, her body had chosen that night to remind her that she
liked boys.