by Ike Hamill
“Come on,” Ashley said. She ran ahead.
Ashley ran toward the sound of the barking.
“Ashley!” Lisa called from behind her.
She kept running. Just when she thought she would see the dog, the barking stopped. Ashley froze in position, extending her arm in the direction that she thought she had heard the barking from.
“Ash!”
Lisa’s voice was faint.
“I’m right here. Penny?”
“How are you going to find your way back to the trail?” Lisa called.
Ashley hadn’t thought of that. She glanced around. There was no sign of any marks on the trees around her. There was no way for her to find her way back to the orange blazes. Lisa was her only lifeline back to Tim’s trail.
“Stay there,” Ashley shouted. “When I find Penny I’ll come back to your voice.”
“No!” Lisa yelled. “You stay there.”
“But, Lisa, she’s right around here somewhere. I just know it.”
Ashley looked back over her shoulder, trying to see the trail that she must have left in the leaves. There were bent leaves and branches here and there, and maybe a footprint or two, but she couldn’t convince herself that she could find her way back to the trail.
“Lisa?”
She heard the crash of Lisa coming through the jungle.
“Lisa, I’m over here.”
“I know where you are,” Lisa muttered. “You’re making so much noise, it’s no wonder that Penny stopped barking. She couldn’t compete with you.”
Lisa pushed through the leaves and peered over Ashley’s shoulder, looking around.
“Any sign of her?” Lisa asked.
“So now we’re both lost? What was your plan?”
Lisa reached around, behind her back, and pulled a string. It was kite string and it was attached to a big spool on Lisa’s pack.
“Where did you hear Penny last?”
Ashley gestured. Her arm was still stretched out.
“Go get her. Keep calling out and I’ll follow your voice.”
Ashley nodded. She ran ahead, calling for Penny and darting left and right to try to get a better view. The jungle was so thick that it was impossible to see very far. The shadows made strange shapes. It was easy to think that she had spotted the dog only to realize that it was actually a log or a big leaf that she had fixated on. Behind her, Lisa came slowly. It was difficult to tell where the sounds were coming from. A couple of times, she was sure that she heard the dog in the jungle, but it just turned out to be an echo of Lisa’s footsteps.
Panting, Ashley stopped when she realized that she had heard no legitimate sound from the dog in several minutes.
“Ashley?” Lisa called.
Ashley returned to her.
“I’m not sure if this string is still attached,” Lisa said. “It better be. I don’t think it would have broken. I’ve been careful to… What’s wrong?”
Ashley shook her head. She hadn’t realized that her sadness was showing on her face. In fact, until Lisa asked, she hadn’t realized exactly how upset she was.
“I guess it really bothers me to think of that poor dog out here, alone.”
She turned around again, hoping for any sign.
“I bet she knows exactly where she’s going. Dogs have great senses, and I’m sure she will be able to track Tim down. Don’t worry about it.”
“That’s a good point—why was she over here? We were following his blazes, right? What brought her this direction and why was she barking?”
Lisa gave her a smile.
“When we find Tim, I’m sure Penny will be right there. You can ask her directly.”
They hiked back to the marked trail, following Lisa’s string as she wound it back up. The kite string had been a surprise. Lisa had packed it without saying anything, and it was a good thing that she did. It gave them the ability to temporarily leave Tim’s trail without having to make marks that might confuse them later.
When Ashley got back to the origin of the string, she oriented herself with the blazes and struck off once more. She waited for Lisa at the next blaze.
“I wish he had marked the date when he painted these marks. It’s frustrating to not know if we’re catching up to him.”
“Maybe he didn’t know the date,” Lisa said. “Speaking of which, we should be keeping some sort of diary so we know how many nights we’ve been out here. I would hate to lose track of time, but it would be so easy to do so.”
“We’ll always have a rough estimate based on the moon.”
“That is rough. Ow!”
Ashley turned back and came to Lisa as she squeezed her finger.
“What is it?”
“A thorn or something. I’m fine. Remind me to look at it later to make sure I don’t have an allergic reaction. You know how I break out from raspberry thorns.”
“Which plant?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Maybe it has fruit,” Ashley said. “A lot of plants with thorns produce edible fruit or berries. The thorns are a defense to ward off animals.”
“Oh,” Lisa said.
They backtracked until Lisa guessed which plant had assaulted her. Ashley leaned in close to look at the leaves down the stalk.
“Breathe on it,” Lisa said.
Ashley cocked her head with raised eyebrows and then followed the order.
“Good,” Lisa said. “I just wanted to make sure it didn’t move on its own.”
“The botanists from the Outpost have been checking the plants. There is no sign that there are any of the invasive species from before, Aunt Lisa.”
“I know,” Lisa said. “But we can’t be too careful, can we?”
“Well, regardless, I don’t recognize the species and I don’t see any berries,” she straightened back up, brushing off her hands. “It’s a big patch of those thorny stalks leading that direction. Good thing we don’t have to go that way.”
They started walking again.
“So, why do you think it has thorns?” Lisa asked.
“Could be to protect against browsers. Maybe the leaves are tasty for herbivores, you know? Some cacti have thorns not only as a defense, but also because it helps transpiration in arid climates.”
“Huh.”
“My guess is that those plants do have berries, but we’re in the wrong time of the year.”
“How would you know if they’re edible?”
“I brought along a field guide. If we see berries, I can try to look them up.”
“I would prefer to not take a chance.”
Ashley paused and Lisa stopped talking. Together, they crept forward slowly as Ashley figured out what she was looking at. There was the stump of a tree next to an area of flattened foliage. Ashley circled one way and Lisa the other. They converged on the spot.
“Someone cut this down,” Ashley said, running a finger along the bark.
“Tim.”
“I guess.”
“How long ago, would you guess?”
Ashley could only shrug. There were drips of sap running down the tree and the scar looked browned. She didn’t have any idea how long ago it had been cut. The matted down leaves seemed like they must have been disturbed fairly recently, but she couldn’t guess if it had been a day or a week or more.
“We’re making good time if he bedded down here,” Lisa said.
Ashley nodded.
“What time do you think it is?” Lisa asked.
Ashley looked up. There was no telling from what she could see above. The sky was completely obscured by the canopy of trees. Above, the foliage was so dense that they couldn’t even get a sense of which direction the light was coming from.
Ashley shook her head and shrugged.
“Let’s keep moving.”
They walked fast and quiet. Whenever a branch crossed their path, Ashley held it aside for Lisa. It gave her a natural way to make sure that Lisa was keeping up. This was a thick jungle, but Ashley
had spent her whole life picking her way through forests, trying to move silently. In contrast, Lisa spent her outdoor time kneeling in gardens or turning over compost. They were the two extremes of gatherer and farmer. With all that in mind, Ashley was still impressed with Lisa’s endurance and dexterity in the woods. Romie would have been complaining about her hip or her knee the whole time. Brad would have been filling the silence with chatter.
All things considered, Ashley was glad to have Lisa along.
“Let’s take a minute,” Ashley said. She slipped off her pack.
“I don’t need to,” Lisa said.
“No, I know. I just want to do some experiments while we still have plenty of light.”
Lisa nodded. She had put on a good show of not being tired, but as soon as she saw that Ashley was going to take a minute, Lisa didn’t hesitate to settle down on a rock and stretch her legs out with a little groan.
Ashley smiled to herself.
She dug out a magnetic compass from the pack. She had checked it at the perimeter of the jungle. It was just as useless now as it was back then. Instead of wheeling around until it found north, the compass needle just buried itself against the glass case and stuck there. No matter which way she turned it, the needle refused to give her any indication of a magnetic field.
Next, she pulled an emergency radio.
Lisa raised her eyebrows skeptically.
It wasn’t the radio part that Ashley wanted to experiment with. The thing had a hand crank on the side for charging. It also had a flashlight and siren. Ashley was concerned with the hand crank. She flipped out the handle and began to spin it clockwise. The sound revved up as she spun it faster.
“What are you trying to prove? We know that electricity doesn’t work,” Lisa said.
“Yeah, but you hear that? There is resistance to this spinning. If there’s resistance, then there has to be something operating against the electricity trying to flow, you know?”
While she spun the motor, Ashley put the flashlight part right up to her eye, trying to see if there was any flicker of light coming from the tiny bulb. She didn’t see anything, so she spun it faster.
When she finally gave up, Lisa was frowning.
“You should have talked to the people working at the Outpost. I’m sure they’ve tried all that before.”
“They haven’t been this deep, Aunt Lisa. Maybe things don’t work the same way here.”
Lisa only shrugged.
To satisfy her father’s concern, Ashley turned her attention to a box of matches. The first match struck immediately, so Ashley shook it out as she nodded. From a plastic bag, Ashley pulled out a balloon. She blew it up and twisted the end shut before securing it with a clip. She rubbed the balloon on her head while Lisa watched.
“Ha!” Ashley said. The balloon stuck to her hand from static electricity as she turned her hand over.
“Interesting,” Lisa said. “What does it mean?”
“I have no idea,” Ashley said. She removed the clip and let the air out of the balloon. She stuffed everything back in her pack. “Jerky?”
Lisa nodded. They shared some dehydrated meat and then sipped some water.
“You think the Outpost knows about the balloon thing?” Lisa asked as she got back to her feet.
“I don’t know. You’re right—I should have talked to more people at the Outpost. I guess I was annoyed that nobody was taking the celestial stuff seriously, so I didn’t really want to get involved with their research either. I bet that Dad looked into static electricity though. He and Jim really got into experimenting with it that one winter, you remember?”
Lisa nodded.
They started moving again. The blazes were farther apart now. It seemed like Tim was taking some liberties with his spacing. Maybe he had gotten a little more confident that he could keep going in a consistent direction, or maybe he was trying to conserve paint.
Ashley froze. Lisa nearly ran into her back.
“What?” Lisa asked. When she was annoyed, she sounded exactly like Romie.
“Don’t you hear that?”
Chapter 17: Corinna
Corinna thought something was wrong with her motorcycle. She slowed and then heard the noise more clearly. The sound wasn’t coming from her bike. When she killed the engine, she realized that the other vehicles were just about to crest the hill. Before they appeared, she walked her motorcycle to the side of the road.
The first couple of vehicles didn’t slow when they saw her.
Only the one in the rear pulled over.
Carrie leaned out of the driver’s window.
“What’s up?” Corinna asked over the sound of the engine.
“We’re headed back. It’s not safe. I don’t have time to explain because we could overheat. Follow us south.”
“Where’s Jackson?” Corinna asked.
Carrie hooked a thumb back over her shoulder, indicating the way they had come. She waved again for Corinna to follow and then she started rolling again. Corinna could only stare after them as the vehicles retreated south.
She turned north again. If Jackson was still there, how unsafe could it be? Corinna started her motorcycle again.
It didn’t take long to find him. He was at the end of a long string of arrows, painted every mile on the roadsigns. Jackson was standing next to his own motorcycle, looking over a river. At his feet, the bridge had crumbled. The only sign of the bridge was a couple of concrete piers sticking out from the water below.
Jackson glanced back at her approach and then resumed looking out across the river.
Corinna shut off her motorcycle.
“I wouldn’t stick around,” Jackson said. “We don’t know if it affects people. They say it must.”
“What?” Corinna asked. “What are you talking about?”
“They didn’t explain?”
She shook her head.
Jackson lowered himself to the edge of the pavement, dangling his legs over the crumbling edge of asphalt and concrete. It wasn’t much of a fall down to the muddy bank. Still, it didn’t look safe. Jackson didn’t seem to notice.
“The river isn’t safe?” she asked.
Jackson turned up his hands and shrugged.
“I’m in the dark here, Jax. Can you please tell me what’s going on?”
“It started with the boats,” he said. He glanced at her and then pointed.
“They argued a lot about whether we should clear the way up to the ferry, or just cross and try to haul all our gear to the other side and then find new vehicles. There was a lot of math being thrown around about what would take more time, you know? Meanwhile, we probably could have been done if we had just picked one thing, you know?”
Corinna nodded. Jackson was impulsive and reckless, but he got things done.
“So they go and find a boat to scout where they can land on either side and get close enough to haul stuff. I don’t know all the discussions. Tons more math was tossed around. Anyway, the boats kept breaking down.”
Corinna nodded. It was a pretty common complaint. All these years of sitting around, engines were tough to get going. A lot of people had pretty much become experts in cleaning out gummed up carburetors and replacing fuel lines, but with each passing year it became more and more difficult to maintain the engines. It had to be nearly impossible to find a working boat engine on a river that hadn’t been explored.
“It wasn’t the fuel,” Jackson said, contradicting Corinna’s assumption. “The blocks were cracking.”
“Huh?”
“First, they would smoke. Then, they would start to bog down. Finally, either the connecting rod would shatter or the whole block would just crack in two. Nobody could make any sense of it until that kid Alison started dumping water on one of the engines.”
Corinna shifted from one foot to the other. She didn’t know why she was starting to feel uneasy.
“Alison poured out her bottle of water on one of the engines that was starting to sound fun
ny. It nearly exploded.”
“What? Why?”
“That was the subject of a lot more talking and a bunch more math,” Jackson said with a sneer. “I couldn’t stand it. I took one of the small engines, attached it to a board, and ran it until it was hot. Then, I did just what Alison had done, but I did it a little more carefully. Every part of that thing steamed.”
“So they’re running hot,” Corinna said.
“Exactly, which is kinda weird when you consider that they’re supposed to be water cooled. The engines have an intake to pull in the river water, cool the engine, and then they spit it out the back. I started another motor and put my hand under the outlet. You know what happened?”
Corinna shook her head.
“Nothing. It was cold. That’s about when they started to order everyone back from the river.”
“There’s something wrong with the water?” Corinna asked.
Jackson sighed. “More talking. More math. They pulled a bunch of samples and hit the road.”
“So there’s something wrong with the water,” Corinna said.
Jackson threw up his hands.
Corinna paced. She tried to connect what he was saying to what she had experienced the night before. The water never boiled and she had given up. In the end, she thought there was something wrong with the wood or maybe her pan. It seemed like there wasn’t enough heat getting to the water. But the water had felt hot. In fact, the tip of her finger was still red from when she had dipped it to test the temperature. It was a minor burn, sure, but it meant that there was heat getting to the water.
“Not just the water,” Jackson said. “That’s why they all took off.”
“Why? What else?”
“Well, they were running one of the trucks for power and it started to overheat. That spoiled the idea that it was just the river. Suddenly, their antifreeze in the vehicle wasn’t acting the way it should. My bike is air cooled, of course, so I don’t have to worry.”
Corinna nodded. The hasty retreat was starting to make sense. If something had affected the coolant in the vehicle, it could be affecting any of them.
“We should go, Jackson,” she said.
