Surviving the Fog (9 page)

“The Chief brought Maria back alive,” was
their blunt reply.  The boy admitted the truth of that
answer.

All in all, it was a good meeting, Mike
thought.  And afterwards, he was able to escape to his bunk
without having to face Desi.  She would calm down by the
morning, he hoped.

Then the next morning, as they prepared to
move the cabin floor, Jacob came rushing down from the guard post
on the hill

"Motorcycle," was all he said.

Chapter Four Hector

"Get across the bridge! Now!" Mike shouted
unnecessarily, because there was a general rush for the bridge.
 Mike hurried up to the guard post with Jacob.  He
listened carefully for a minute, but he couldn't hear anything.

"Are you sure, Jacob?" he asked.  Jacob
nodded.  If it had been anybody else, Mike might have had
doubts, but he did not doubt Jacob.

Mike thought for a moment.  "The place
where we hanged that guy," he said.  "That's where he
stopped."  Jacob looked down the road, and then he nodded
again.

"Did it sound like more than one?" Mike
asked.

"No.  Just one."

Mike thought again, and then he said, "Go ask
Yuie to bring her bow and arrows, and bring two more girls with
their bows and arrows. Tell Howard to send the boys that have the
pistols.  Tell the Spears to arm themselves.  Tell them
to stay out of sight behind the girls’ cabins.  Tell the guy
with the rifle to stay with the Spears.  Tell everyone else to
hide.  I don't want to be able to see anybody from here."

Jacob rushed down to the camp.  Shortly,
Yuie and two other girls came running up the hill.  Three boys
carrying the hand guns followed them. Mike explained his plan to
them.  They would move off the road and into the trees.
 If only one biker came over the hill, they would wait until
he was down at the camp, and then they would come down behind him.
 Yuie would be in charge.

"Yuie, if you hear more than one motorcycle,
don't come out of the trees," Mike commanded.  "In fact, if
there's more than one, move farther back into the trees."

"Yes, Chief," she said.  Yuie was
frightened, but she was determined to do her part to protect the
tribe.

Mike waited on the hill.  At last, he
heard the engine of the motorcycle.  He sped down the hill to
the cabins.  The Spears were in place, and there was a boy
holding the rifle.  The boy with the rifle was wide eyed.

"I've never fired this, Chief," he explained.
 "I don't even know if it's sighted in.  I don't know if
I can hit anything with this."

"It's just for show," Mike reassured the
nervous boy.  Mike hoped that he would be proved right.

The motorcyclist appeared at the top of the
hill.  He waited while he looked around, and then slowly he
made his way down the hill.  He came close to the cabins, and
then he stopped.

"Hello!" he shouted.  Mike shook his
head at the others.  They waited out of sight, behind the
cabin.

The man started his bike forward again.
 When he was almost to the waiting boys, Mike stepped sideways
into his sight.

"Halt!" he commanded.  He grimaced when
his voice cracked.  "We have you surrounded."

The man froze.  He stared at the young
boy for only a moment, and then quickly scanned the vicinity.
 He was a man of medium height with black hair, light brown
skin and dark intelligent eyes.

"It doesn't look like I'm surrounded, amigo,"
he said mildly.

"I'm going to call for the others to come
out," said Mike.  "Don't move.  Come out, Howard."

The man's eyes narrowed when he saw the boys
who were carrying their spears, and then he saw the boy with the
rifle.  Mike realized that he was about to turn his bike and
flee.

"There are others, behind you," said Mike
hastily, and then he called, "Yuie!"

Yuie and the others came out of hiding.
 The man looked around anxiously at them, and then he said in
surprise, "You're all kids."

Mike didn't really know how to reply to that.
 What the man had said was true. They were all kids.

"We can take care of ourselves," Mike said
bravely.

The man considered him.  "The man
hanging from the tree; did you do that?" he asked.

"Yes.  He was a killer and a rapist.
 He killed two of us, and he raped two girls.  So, we
hanged him."

The man whistled.  "Crap," he said and
went on to say, "Look I don't want any trouble.  I don't hurt
kids or anybody else if I can help it.  And I don't want to
get hurt myself."

Mike was undecided as to how to continue.
 This man could be a threat.  Still, the man seemed a lot
different than the other bikers.

"Please, get off your bike," Mike instructed
him.

The man hesitated, and then he nodded.
 He shut down the motor, and then he swung himself off the
bike.

"Now, please, undress," Mike said.

"Pardon?" responded the startled man.

"You heard me," Mike insisted.  "Take
off your clothes."

"Why the hell should I?" demanded the man,
who was becoming irritated.

"I want to see if you are carrying any
weapons," Mike explained.

"Crap," said the man.  He thought it
over.  "That's sensible,” he growled."

Slowly, deliberately, the man doffed his
baseball cap, and then he unbuttoned his brown flannel shirt and
removed it.  He sat down and removed his black work boots and
his woolen socks.  Next he unbuckled his leather belt and
pushed down his jeans.  Finally, he took off his undershirt.
 This left him standing in only his white briefs.  At a
gesture from Mike, he moved away from his clothes.

"Jacob, check his clothes," ordered Mike.

"Take it easy with my cap," the man
exclaimed.  "My papa gave it to me."

Jacob went forward, and he carefully pawed
through the man's belongings.  "No weapons except for this,"
he said.  He held up a black case containing a sturdy folding
knife.

"Can I put my clothes back on?" the man asked
politely.

"Um...sure," Mike replied.

As he was putting on his clothes, the man
said, "My name is Hector.  I'm a logger most of the time, but
right now I am the caretaker at a logging camp.  It's back
down the road and up a side road.  Do you know about the mist
covering the ground lower down?"

Mike realized that he had to make a decision.
 "He's okay," he said to the Spears, and then he gestured at
Yuie to come to him.

"Yeah, we know about it.  We call it the
Fog.  Do you know that it's dangerous?" Mike asked.

"Si, I know that it's dangerous.  I've
been waiting weeks for the crew to show up for the spring job.
 When no one contacted me on my cell, I rode down and found
it.  I didn't want to ride into it.  I saw a rabbit by
the road.  It was standing in just a few inches of the junk.
 Then I saw the rabbit get dragged into the junk.  The
Fog.  It tried to escape.  Then it went under.  I
couldn't see what took it."

Hector finished dressing and then he asked,
“Who are you kids and what are you doing here?  And where are
the grownups?"

They all started talking at once, until
Howard shushed them so that Mike could tell their story.
 Hector listened with interest, and then with astonishment,
and then with anger.

"Those bastards!" he exclaimed at last.
 "So that's what that smell was along the road.  I
thought it was a deer or a bear."  He looked at the kids in
wonder.  "This sucks, but you kids are alive at least.
 Me, too.  I hope we can all stay alive."

"Yeah, that's what we hope, too," Mike
replied.

"Do you kids got enough food?" Hector asked.
 "I got a lot up at my camp.  The supplies for the summer
and for the fall logging crews were dropped off the first of May.
 I know I can spare some food and maybe other stuff.
 There were four women expected on the crew, so I found a lot
of...uh...girl’s stuff for when they have their periods."
 There was a loud cheer from the girls.

"We have some food, too," said Mike.
 "But we don't think that it's going to be enough for the
winter.  Can you take a look?  Can you see what else we
need?"

The cabin floor that they were moving was
abandoned for the moment.  Mike gave Hector a tour of the
camp.  They were followed by many of the kids who were glad to
see a helpful adult at last.  Hector saw that they would need
more food.  He approved of many of the measures that they were
taking, but when he saw the cave and heard their plan to build a
lodge, he shook his head.

"This won't work," he stated.

"Why not?" Mike asked.

"A wall of rocks without using concrete will
be unstable.  There's too much danger that it would collapse
and bring the whole thing down," explained Hector.

"Well, that sucks," said Howard, and the
others agreed.

"So we can't use the cave at all?" Mike
asked.

"Maybe there is a way," Hector slowly
answered, as he considered the problem.  "If I could get some
logs down here, I think I could build a wall with them.  I
could use heavy duty metal straps to tie the logs together and then
brace them.  That should work."

"How are you going to get big logs down
here?" asked Mike, his tone dubious.  "I don't think we can
carry them.  And how are we going to put one big log on top of
another?"

"We have a machine that does that," replied
Hector absently, while studying the area.  "It's got a grapple
that grabs the logs and lifts them.  We use it to put the logs
on the truck.  That's the problem.  No one brought the
truck yet.  We need a truck to move the logs down here.
 Unless..."  He looked back at the parking lot.

"Does that bus run?" he asked.

"The school bus?" said Mike.  "Yeah, I
guess it does.  But how would you put logs in it?  The
seats are in the way."

"I think I can take out the seats," Hector
replied.  "The real problem will be using the machine to get
the logs in the rear emergency door and doing it safely.  But
if I can load that bus, I should be able to bring a load of logs
down here."

"How will you get the bus over the river?"
Howard asked.  "Will we have to carry the logs across?"

"I think I can bring the machines down here,"
Hector answered.  "Usually we move them by flatbed truck, but
some have tracks like a tank and the others have tires, so I can
drive them down here.  It will take a long time, because they
are very slow.  Then I can lie some of the logs across the
river, and roll the bus across on them."

"The river's not running as fast as when we
first got here," said Eric.  "Why is that?"

"There is not as much water because a lot of
the snowpack has melted," Hector explained.  "How do you plan
to use the bathroom during winter?"  The teenagers exchanged
grimaces.

"We have Porta Pottys," said Mike.  "But
they are full of crap.  We made a place in the forest where we
piss."  Someone sounded the speaker calling the kids to
brunch.

"We only eat two meals at day, brunch and
supper," Mike informed the logger, as they walked back to the
dining hall.  "We've been trying to conserve our food.
 Jacob, here, has managed to catch a few birds.  Some are
okay to eat, but most don't have any meat.  We're thinking of
using the rifle to try to get a deer.  Jacob says that he
knows how to skin it and cut it."

Hector was thinking that this camp would be a
better place to live during the winter than the logging camp, so he
decided to sound the boys out about it.

"Do you think you have room for one more
person?" he asked.  The boys looked at one another.

"You don't have to let me know right now,"
added Hector hastily.

"Mike's the Chief," said Eric.  "He
decides."

Hector looked at Mike who blushed.  Now
that there was an adult around, he felt somewhat self
conscious.

"If you're going to share your food with us,
I guess it’s only fair that we share our space,” Mike acknowledged.
“But there ‘s a couple of things you should know.”

Mike told him the rules they had made.
 He emphasized the one about not forcing the girls to have
sex.

Hector stiffened.  "I don't mess with
kids," he said angrily.

His voice and body language caused the kids
to become nervous.  They didn't want trouble with another
adult.

Mike didn't back down.  "Good," he said
bravely.  "I just wanted you to know.  I mean, after what
happened."

Hector calmed down and nodded.  "That's
a good rule any time, amigo," he admitted.  "Looks like you
guys got yourselves a good leader," he said to the others, and the
teenagers relaxed.

Hector agreed to eat brunch with them, and
then they showed him how they were trying to bring a cabin across
the river.  Once again, they tackled the wood floor.
 They managed to get it to the bridge, but the bridge was too
small for more than two or three to stand abreast.

Hector solved the problem by angling the
dolly under the side of the floor closest to the bridge, and then
carefully balancing and pulling the dolly until the floor was
covering the bridge with each side of the floor frame barely
touching a different side of the river bank.  Then the kids on
his side of the river lifted the floor until he could get the dolly
out from under the floor.  Carrying the dolly, he stepped on
to the floor and walked across to the other side.  Once there,
he forced the dolly under the floor again.  The kids on the
boys’ side lifted and pulled, and Hector balanced the floor until
it was over the river.

"Whoa," Mike said.  "That was harder
than I thought.  I don't know if we could have done it without
you, Hector.  Thanks a lot."

"Yeah, that was a lot of work," Hector
agreed.  "But we did it.  That proves we can get the
cabins across the bridge.  If we can build a wall, I'm sure
that we can get the bottom cabins on the wall and ledge.  The
problem will be to get the floors from the other cabins on top of
the first layer.  They will have to be lifted a lot
higher."