Endure Series (Book 2): Enduring The Journey:

by Kinney, K. D.

  When Jim pulled up in front of his house, Ben clenched his jaw but kept quiet.

  There was a field covered in overgrown fireweed and other tall grasses. The weeds were so tall and dense in places that you could hardly identify what piles of junk were and there was a lot of rusty junk. His mind raced as he tried to spot the handlebars of their prospective transportation. When he spotted one or two rusty sets, he wondered how long it was actually going to take them to get out of there and hoped the answer wasn’t days.

  “Come on over here, fellas.” Jim was by no means small and his Carhart coveralls accentuated not only his girth but his height. He had the thickest beard, looking exactly like someone who lived on a log cabin homestead in Alaska.

  “How long has your cabin been here?” Nate was more interested in the weathered log home than their potential transportation to start their next leg of their journey on dry land. And that was the part of the trip Nate said he was looking forward to.

  “I was told it’s been here since the early nineteen-hundreds. It’s getting up there, about a hundred years old now? I dunno. It’s old and I wouldn’t want to live in anything they build nowadays. It’s all shoddy as hell.” Jim led them out to the field where his piles of junk were strewn about. “Same with anything else they build these days. When you get stuff built thirty or so years ago, it would last forever and if it breaks, it’s usually cheap and easy to fix. That is if you can find the parts. You buy anything brand new today, it doesn’t last five years. Computer parts in everything are just a bunch of pricey hype to make the sale, everyone wants bells and whistles.” He pulled at some of the weeds around some of the piles. “Now my plan was to get two of these ATVs running but I got a steal of a deal on a bigger UTV and I had to get it. I have more faith in what those basic machines can do but the UTV has proved to be more useful when it comes to hauling heavy loads of firewood and all that so I haven’t made fixing those old four-wheelers a priority.” He led them to the side of one of his outbuildings. “These two are in the best shape. Those ones over there that we passed, they got some parts in them, that is if they aren’t rusted to the body by now and I have a few new parts in the shop that I bought some time ago. They should still be good but I didn’t even know if that’s what those things needed. I got ‘em at auction.”

  Jim showed them where his tools were before he paused and looked off in the distance and took off his hat to push back the stringy tendrils of hair that had escaped from his greasy hair helmet. “Now, I don’t know what else I can offer you besides a hot meal and a place to stay. If you can’t get any of these to work, there might be someone with room in their rig that can haul you to Anchorage but I wouldn’t count on it.”

  “Remind me, how far of a drive is it on a good day?” Ben asked as his hope at having any transportation started to fade.

  “On a good day? Four hours but we haven’t been having those lately.” Jim was suddenly restless. “I have something I need to go check on. I’ll let you fellas have at it unless you have any questions before I go.”

  “Naw, I think we got this for the time being. Where can we find you though if we need you?” Nate asked. He looked ready to tackle their little project.

  “I’ll be inside.” Jim gave them a wave as he headed for the house. “Dinner won’t be too long from now.”

  Nate waited until Jim was out of earshot before he spoke. “I’m sure he was just trying to get out of actually helping us.”

  “I would wholeheartedly agree with that assumption.” Ben wanted to get in Jim’s truck and leave while their stuff was still in it but he wasn’t going to do that. Judging by the condition of Jim’s yard, outbuildings, and log cabin, he had a lot of grand ideas but not a lot of follow-through. It wouldn’t have surprised Ben that the reason Jim wouldn’t evacuate was because the idea of leaving would be too much work.

  Ben’s mind was whirling with what they were going to do if the ATVs didn’t work out. First, he needed to find his flannel work jacket before he got busy troubleshooting the four-wheeler. He wasn’t going to give up on them yet. He had an ATV at home but he never had to do much to it so he never had a chance to get familiar with how the thing was put together. He knew he could figure it out. It would just take more time, though. He checked his phone. It was already late in the day, almost five o’clock. Hopefully, they had plenty of daylight to make progress but there weren’t enough hours left in the day to get on the road if they got the thing running. That was only if they were lucky enough to get one to start. He sighed, rolled up his sleeves and got busy.

  4

  Ben

  Ben and Nate worked on the ATVs for hours. Nate surprised Ben with his knowledge of their engines. He was checking hoses, changed the spark plug and made sure the wiring was intact, replaced the oil and fuel. Ben was happy to get him whatever he needed and work on removing parts from the other machines.

  “He knew what he was doing getting a bunch of old Hondas. These things are great and go forever. It’s too bad that there are only enough decent parts to put one together. Having two would be better.” Nate tried starting it. It didn’t do much the first few tries and then it sputtered for a second.

  Ben paced through the grass. It was so late in the day. He looked at his phone and sighed. He wanted to call his family so desperately and knew it was futile. He sat on one of the old garbage four-wheelers and scrolled through a few of his old texts to his wife and kids. He wished he’d talked to them more. Always work. Always too busy and in such a hurry counting down the days until he would be home. He was so mad at himself. They had always been preparing for something big to happen. All he could do was wallow in his regret. That was Murphy’s law, wasn’t it? The timing for him to be working far away from home was the worst. He couldn’t even bring his best preps with him on the plane when he left. He rubbed his face.

  He’d still been resourceful, though. He’d gotten to Homer and that was no small feat. Crossed the ocean, survived being attacked more than once, and he was on dry land with only a few thousand more miles to go. It was still a daunting task they had ahead of them, that was if they could even get on the road. It would likely take days to walk to Anchorage but he’d do it if Jim’s relic quads were all duds. If they got close enough, maybe someone from the office could pick them up.

  If they could make it to Anchorage and if his boss managed to follow through with transportation for them to continue on, the next leg of their journey likely wouldn’t be any easier than the one they had out on the ocean. His wife had been on the Alcan highway before as a teen when she moved to Alaska and again when they moved back to the lower forty-eight a few years later. But he hadn’t. All he knew were her stories that had happened years earlier and things probably changed a lot. She’d said the Idaho mountains were pretty similar to Alaska and the Canadian mountains but nothing could compare to how vast and isolated the Yukon was. So that would mean people were scarce and wild animals plentiful. The people would probably be far more dangerous than the wild animals once they reached the blackout areas in the southern more populated parts of Canada.

  The four-wheeler sputtered, pulling Ben out of his thoughts. When Nate tried again, the thing roared to life. It sounded rough like it would die at any moment.

  “Success!” Nate shouted over the engine. “Now we need to get some decent tires aired up on this thing, that is if they haven’t all dry rotted. Then we can see how well it runs.”

  Jim came outside and was drying his hands on a kitchen towel. “Ah, success! I have some dinner ready if you want it. Moose stew.”

  Nate made a face at Ben. “I thought we were done with that,” he said so only Ben could hear.

  “We’re getting a free ride. I think we can handle a moose meat concoction one more time. Perhaps it’s better than all the varieties we had in the village.”

  “Lots of veggies would be nice. And hopefully they left out the tongue” Nate shuddered when he turned the engine off. They made their way inside.

>   Jim introduced them to his wife and ten-year-old daughter. The stew was much better than most of the food Ben had in the village. It was still gamey tasting, though. Surprisingly, he was actually used to that.

  Ben tried to focus on the conversation but Jim’s daughter wouldn’t stop staring at him. And he tried to keep his attention on what Jim and Nate were talking about but the little girl with long dark blonde hair and blue eyes reminded him of Mae and the homesickness was hard to shake. Once he was done eating, he excused himself and went to work on the tires.

  It was dark before he had four of them repaired and on the ATV. He also managed to get a spare ready. He started it up, made sure it wasn’t going to die before he took it for a test run. It ran like a champ. Maybe not a champ. More like a rickety old man but it would go and that’s all that mattered.

  Nate was standing in the driveway when Ben brought the ATV back.

  “Any issues?” Nate asked.

  “Not a one I can tell.”

  “Let me give it a look over to make sure everything is good, that nothing is leaking.”

  Ben could hardly contain his excitement as he approached Jim.

  The big guy was shaking his head in disbelief. “I didn’t think you fellas could get one of them running. Not this fast. They’ve been there a long time.”

  “Well, determination and the love of family is driving us for sure.” Ben noticed Jim’s daughter was hovering near the back door. But every time he saw her in the shadows his mind played tricks on him when he kept thinking it was Mae.

  “My wife is getting some bedding together for you. We don’t have overnight visitors often.”

  “Oh, I was hoping we’d be able to head out tonight.” Ben looked wistfully at the road.

  “I dunno. Yeah, maybe traffic out of here will be lighter but you really shouldn’t be driving on the main road if you can help it if it’s still busy and you might come across moose or coyotes. The bears are hopefully hunkering down for winter by now.”

  “I feel like we lost so much time already. No offense, we appreciate the offer of your ATV and a place to stay. But we really need to be on the road.” Ben pulled off his cap and rubbed his head trying not to show just how antsy he was.

  Jim pulled on the bib of his coveralls as he watched Nate examine the ATV. “I just don’t think it’s smart.”

  “Hey, we’ve done a lot of not so smart things on the way here. I’m feeling pretty secure in our ability to get to Anchorage. Being on land and not on water has made me quite happy right now and the journey is doable. If the thing breaks down and we have to walk, at least we will be that much closer. Besides, we still have a long way to go after we get to Anchorage.” Ben leaned to the side to smile at Jim’s daughter. “My youngest is about her age. Can you imagine what it must be like down there? What kind of danger my wife and daughters are facing on their own?” Ben locked eyes with Jim and waited for his reply.

  Jim looked away. “Samantha, get back inside and help your mama.” He mussed up his hair as he watched Nate for a second. “I hear ya.” He nodded as he met Ben’s gaze again. “I hear ya. Let me know if you change your mind. We got plenty of room for you in there.”

  Jim gave him a small wave as he went back inside. Ben relaxed his shoulders some as he smiled, relieved that he wasn’t going to have to try so hard to force the next leg of their trip happen. As he approached Nate, he realized he hadn’t consulted with his friend beforehand and Nate was a tough-sell a lot of the time.

  “Hey, you think it’s fixed up enough to get us on the road tonight?” Ben took off his hat and scratched his head as he looked the ATV over.

  “Seriously?” Nate looked at the horizon. “The sun is already down and we don’t even have anything ready to go.”

  “It’s fall in Alaska. The sun goes down pretty early up here, remember? It will go down even earlier tomorrow.”

  “Are you being sensible? We can’t see much with this oxidized headlight and hardly anyone is going to be able to see us if we have to drive on the road all night long.”

  “This is nothing compared to the ocean voyages we just had.” Ben tried to plead with his eyes and his expression before he resorted to verbal persuasion to prod Nate into continuing on.

  “You had to bring that up.” Nate sat down on the seat and sighed. “I feel like I haven’t slept in days. I was hoping to get to rest somewhere safe and warm tonight before we go on.”

  “It’s been like five days already. Do you think everyone in the lower forty-eight is sleeping somewhere safe and warm right now?”

  “Come on now. One more night of rest isn’t going to matter much in the big scheme of things. The most critical days have passed, don’t you think?”

  “Your home isn’t in the city and I know for a fact that Tammy is going to struggle to get it together and figure out that she needs to get out of there.”

  “Leaving tonight does not get you home any sooner. No matter what it will still be days before we even get close.”

  Rage started to build up in his chest. He wanted to explode, to tell Nate to quit wasting precious time, to quit being so fearful. He drew in a long slow breath before he allowed himself to speak and he spoke softly and steadily, “There’s a road, Nate. Clearly marked. It was full of cars earlier today. It might still be. We can make lots of steady progress alongside the road if we have to. Getting around any traffic jams will be easy. That also means we won’t be alone out in the middle of nowhere if the thing quits on us. We might just find a ride.”

  “And we might just get jumped for passing everyone up. And there are wild animals out here. I overheard Jim’s wife say there were moose in the yard earlier today.”

  Ben threw up his hands. “So what. We’re in Alaska. I don’t know why I’m talking to you. You’ll find a way to complicate every leg of this journey. If we had two of these running, I’d just go without you.” He stormed off.

  Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he walked to the beginning of the treeline of the forest that surrounded Jim’s property. He leaned against a tree and felt so helpless. Nate was right, though. It didn’t matter if they left at night or in the morning, they were still so far away. It was going to take a long time to get home.

  Ben was reluctant to give in but he resigned himself to stay put for the night. He approached Nate slowly. The poor guy seemed frantic as he was inspecting the ATV.

  “You win, we’ll stay.”

  Nate exhaled in relief as he sat down on the seat. He rubbed his face. “Thank you. Thank you for letting us rest.”

  5

  Tammy

  Dale was gone for the rest of the day. Tammy couldn’t do much physically so she played card games with the girls while they waited. She sort of played card games. Even though Amanda was eighteen and Charlie was sixteen, they were both sparring over who was in charge of the game and picked on each other when they’d enforce their own interpretation of the rules. Sometimes they were the rules according to Charlie and then other times Amanda would want to enforce something totally different because it served her better. That didn’t stop Zoe from teaming up with Holly to further aggravate their older sisters when they acted like the rules didn’t apply to them. Because the older girls were making a mess of things, Tammy covered up the smile on her face when ten-year-old Mae started cheating and none of them caught on until after she won.

  When the banter continued to escalate beyond reason, Tammy decided she had enough strife. “You girls are driving me nuts. Find something else to play.”

  They reorganized and started playing a different game. Finally, they were far more civil to each other.

  Tammy spread out her map to study the route she was going to take out of town. She got out a highlighter and made sure it would be easy for the girls to help her navigate once they were officially up in the hills away from civilization.

  Fortunately, none of the troops had come to the door. At least not yet. They were busy elsewhere after their first welfare check when t
hey rolled into the neighborhood way early that morning. The only thing that disturbed the girls was the huge old military vehicles rolling up and down the streets that shook the house when they went by. It didn’t rumble the basement much except for the battery lights on the ceiling and they cast weird vibrating shadows on the walls.

  “Mom, I don’t know that I feel any safer with all those armored trucks roaming the streets. It feels like we’re in a war zone now.” Holly had a tendency to fixate on certain details and every time a truck went by, she would voice her concerns all over again.

  “I know.” Tammy needed a break from the girls’ constant concerns over their situation and them wanting more details about when they were leaving. The information was still the same: She didn’t know. All she had was a map and a plan but no set time. “Come on, Buddy. Let’s go outside so you can do your business.” She patted her leg for the yellow Lab to follow her upstairs.

  She was cautious before opening the back door. It was already dark. She’d forgotten how early the sun was going down. She debated on picking up a handgun before letting him out. The stun gun was nearest to the door, though. Dale’s words from earlier were chastising her but she was going to use it anyway. Buddy was prancing, eager for her to let him loose until something caught his attention and he froze. He started to growl.

  Tammy turned off the battery light in the kitchen so she could see out the door better. She saw movement too. She patted Buddy’s head to reassure him when she realized it was Dale.

  She let the dog out. However, Buddy was still in protection mode when he started barking and all the hair down the center of his back raised up as he lunged at Dale.

  “Hey, now. You know him.” Tammy had to hold Buddy back by the collar. “Say something, Dale”

  “Hey, boy. I’m a friend. Remember?” Dale held out his hand for Buddy to sniff. He sounded apprehensive or maybe he was overly tense.