“I’m cold now.” Ben shivered from a chill as he worked on sitting up.
“Why’d you take your coat off?”
“The spray hit that too. I need a different one.”
“I see.”
It took some time before Ben was ready to go. Nate was so consumed with guilt, he took care of everything but in silence this time.
As Ben was about to climb into the Ranger, the bear returned charging right for him. He climbed in, shouting, “Go, Go, Go!!”
The UTV wasn’t even running. Nate scrambled in his seat and turned the thing on. It roared when it started as he hit the gas but it wasn’t in drive.
Ben found his gun sitting on the dash. He shot it in the air. The bear stumbled and paused from the sound.
“If you don’t want to kill it, here.” Nate tossed the bear spray in his lap.
Ben fumbled with it to get a good grip before he could spray it at the bear’s face as it stood on its hind legs. It was going to charge again when Ben sprayed it. Nate finally got the Ranger in drive and slammed on the gas. The bear tumbled and rolled right into the trailer, giving them a good jolt. The trailer tilted but stayed upright as Nate kept going.
Ben clutched at his chest as he looked behind them to see where the bear went. It was rubbing its face in the dirt and turning in circles. He bit his lip as he looked over to the north, hoping he didn’t alert the border patrol when he shot his gun. He was struggling to see anything clearly at a distance. Once he found his glasses, they didn’t help either.
“I guess I won’t be much help navigating now.” Ben had to squint to see anything other than blurry blobs.
“I know where to go. I got a good look at the maps before that bear showed up. I’m so sorry. I feel so bad.”
“This situation just makes it so you have to take on the brunt of the work right now and I feel bad about that.” He still couldn’t keep his throbbing head from jostling.
“I guess.”
Before long they were finally out of the trees and crossing some flat land to the main road. That’s when their journey finally eased up once they were on a paved road again. Unfortunately, the Ranger was a loud vibrating beast the faster it went. That didn’t help ease Ben’s pain but at least they weren’t bouncing around through the forest and they could see what was in front of them.
The road had no trees close to it at all. Open space for at least a hundred feet away from the road on both sides and then the forest and brush started from there.
They were climbing a hill and when they reached the top, they could see what lay before them for miles. Hills covered in dense forest as far as the eye could see rolled away in waves all the way to the mountains miles and miles away in the distance. It took Ben’s breath away, to know they were specks all alone in the desolate wilderness of the Yukon. The road cut a meandering path far to the southeast. He felt a little pang of despair in the center of his chest. They both sighed at the same time.
“At least I’m not taking this journey alone,” Nate said.
“You aren’t joking.” Ben rubbed his eyes when they hurt from trying to focus.
Once their pace was steady and they hadn’t seen any vehicles at all on the road for a few miles, Ben closed his burning eyes and found it wasn’t all that hard to sleep after all.
24
Ben
The droning monotonous sound of the engine and the motion kept Ben asleep for quite some time. When he did wake, his head still ached and his eyes were still puffy, but he didn’t feel quite as awful as he had when he fell asleep. The sun was shining in his eyes, though.
Nate pulled the Ranger off the road and into the woods to park.
“What are you doing?” Ben rubbed his eyes.
“There’s another border crossing up ahead. The sign says its customs? I thought we were in the clear.”
“Where are we?”
“The first signs I saw said we were heading to Beaver Creek. I was expecting that. We didn’t have any indication of this Port of Entry on our satellite print out maps. I don’t see it on the fold-out map we got either. Do we cross and use the numbers we were given? I have no idea if we can navigate off-road with no map of the terrain.”
Ben pulled out the storage box under his seat and went through the file folder that had the paperwork Robert gave them. Stuck in the printouts were a few maps of the only towns they would encounter in the Yukon heading down the Alcan. He managed to find the one for Beaver Creek with his blurry vision.
“You didn’t look through this other stack with our official fake paperwork. We do have a satellite printout. Look, there’s a road off to the left. Did you pass that yet?”
“I think so.”
“We backtrack to that. There’s another road connected to it that heads straight south. We might have to cross this river. Or does it look like a road? Maybe it’s an off-road trail. If it’s not an actual road and the river isn’t too deep, we can follow along the river’s edge and still bypass the town. Hmm… But I’m afraid that we would come back on to the road too close to town where there might be patrol cars. That is if they have any. This place looks small. There hasn’t been anyone that has passed us since we crossed the border, has there?”
“No, not one car. I bet customs is stopping everyone from heading north.” Nate wrung his hands on the steering wheel as he turned around to head back to the road that would bypass the town.
“Yeah, so that means there could be drones or motion cameras again.” Ben rubbed the top of his head.
“It’s not so desolate here so I doubt it. The lack of traffic heading south could mean they focus on other things like stopping anyone heading for relief in Alaska.”
“They could be watching for us, though. Remember, what happened when we crossed back there? We are exactly what they’d be watching for.” Ben leaned back in his chair and looked at Nate. “No matter what, we have to keep going. Are you up to it?”
Nate stopped once he turned onto the dirt road and sighed. He looked weary. “It’s been a long day and I’ve spent a lot of it worrying about you. I wasn’t sure if you should sleep at all with the head trauma. I don’t exactly trust you driving through the woods with what happened last time we were running from something. Maybe I just need to rest for a few minutes before we head through the wilderness again. We might need to cover this with the camo net again when we do it, you think?”
“Probably. But having the front windshield covered up was part of what caused the disaster last time. I’ll help put it back on but we need to take our time so we can navigate better.” Ben handed Nate his balaclava but couldn’t find his.
“Yeah, I agree. If you’re looking for your ski mask, it’s bloody.” He pulled over in the grass.
“I’ll use something else to cover my head.” Ben got out of the Ranger. “I’ll work on covering this beast and you can take a cat nap or just rest for a few minutes.”
Ben was thankful that his ability to function was coming back. At the same time, he was tense and turned to look at every creak from the trees and every little stirring in the brush. He didn’t see anything alarming. He was on high alert after the moose and black bear encounter. They were the biggest of their species he had ever seen in his life. He didn’t want to try his luck again with the crazy Yukon wildlife. So far, the animals were winning. He shivered when he paused. The wind was picking up and it was much colder than it had been all day. The clouds blotted out the sun and they were coming in dense and dark.
He took a minute to watch the clouds and the cold started to bite through his flannel jacket. Winter wasn’t just coming, it had arrived. Hopefully, it would hold off snowing. He could feel the changing weather in his achy knees. If they were going to be able to navigate off-road safely, they needed not only daylight but no snow at all. He hustled as he worked on covering the Ranger with the camo netting. He pulled out his heavy coat, coveralls, and gloves. Once he had his winter gear on, he tied his knit scarf over his face and pulled his stoc
king cap down over his eyebrows.
“They’re patrolling the road. Listen.” Nate walked back to the UTV after he ventured out to get a look at the road.
Ben could hear a truck and the buzzing of a drone coming overhead. He quickly climbed into the Ranger and motioned for Nate to do the same.
“What do you want me to do?” Nate whispered from the driver’s seat.
“Just sit and wait. I think the camo net will do its job if we stay put. We’ll look like something that belongs here.”
“Except there are fresh tracks.”
“Okay, you’re not helping the positive vibe thing I’m trying to give off here.” He couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from with his hat on. Having some hearing loss from running equipment for so many years didn’t help. He knew Nate was worse off being older and in the same profession longer than him.
“There.” Nate pointed to the north. “It missed us.”
“Let’s keep an eye on things for a few more minutes. You want your winter clothes? The cold front that just came in is a good one. We might get snow.”
“Yeah, I thought it felt colder.” Nate turned around in his seat to dig through his suitcase. Once he had his winter clothes on, they watched the patrol truck with the drone flying over the trees on the other side of the road head back to the Immigration and Customs buildings. They waited a few more minutes before they started their journey on the backroads to bypass Customs and the town of Beaver Creek.
They were both paranoid as they passed a couple of driveways to cabins not far from the road. The gravel road went for quite a distance before the gravel ended and turned into grass. They kept going where they could see tracks under the overgrown grasses. And the somewhat cleared path they saw on the map was wide with no power poles.
“I wonder if this was cleared for an underground pipeline or something. It’s weirdly straight.” Nate kept driving.
The trail led to a river.
“Or maybe this is just a great fishing spot,” Ben said when Nate stopped.
“That water is milky looking. Is it glacier runoff? I can’t tell how deep it is.”
“There’s a steep gravel bank here but look over there. It’s a narrower section with a nice big gravel bank that leads out of the water over on that side.”
“Do you see any bears? Or moose? How about more drones?” Nate asked before he decided to step out of the Ranger.
“I see nothing. But my eyes are still messed up.” Ben got out too and looked for any kind of heavy stick he could use to test the depth of the water.
They walked up to all the narrow sections and tested the depth until they were both satisfied the Ranger and the trailer could cross safely.
“I think we should gas up here. When we get on the main road I don’t really want to have to stop for a while if we don’t have to. I’m definitely feeling better.” Ben pulled out one of the gas cans and filled up the tank keeping a close eye on everything around them.
“I think the water is low because it’s heading into winter. I bet this river rages during the spring runoff.” Nate rubbed his legs. “Man, I wish we could fish right now.”
“Yeah, this would be a great place to gold pan too.”
A shadow from something flying overhead caught Ben’s attention. He crouched in time to see an eagle swoop down to the river to pluck a fish from the water.
“Ha! Nate! Did you see that?”
“What? I was just looking at these bear tracks wondering how fresh they are.” Nate walked along the river bank studying the footprints.
Ben got a look at them and inhaled sharply. “That last bear encounter was enough to last me a lifetime. These paw prints are huge.”
“Yeah, grizzly I bet. Why is everything so big here?” Nate scratched his head while he scanned up and down the river. “Look there.” He pointed downstream.
Ben’s eyes were still blurry with his glasses on. He expected to see something massive but it wasn’t so big. A red fox bounded along the riverbank before disappearing into the trees.
“I expected to see that grizzly bear.” Ben checked the tracks and they were dry as if they’d been there awhile. “I’m going to say that this bear is long gone. Don’t you agree?”
“From this spot, yes.” Nate stared at the trees on the other side of the river. “This is their home, you know.”
Ben stuffed his hands in his pockets. “If we didn’t know we were in their territory when we started this journey, the wildlife has done a great job of making us very aware.”
“I’m ready to go. Are you?” Nate turned his head to the side waiting for Ben’s answer.
“Let’s go. Hopefully, I can squeeze in another catnap. I want to keep driving all night.” Ben blinked several times hoping that the fluttering white spots were related to his pepper spray incident. That was not the case. They were still there. “Snow.”
“Let’s move it. I don’t want to be driving in the woods while dealing with a snowstorm.”
“Me either.” Ben didn’t waste time strapping the gas can back in the trailer. They both got in the Ranger and Nate navigated it skillfully through the narrowest and shallowest section of the river.
“Okay, that was easy.” Nate let out a sigh as he drove up the embankment and back to the path that was grown over with young trees and tall grasses.
Ben followed the printout map and told Nate that it was going to veer to the south for a stretch and they would have to cross another small river that fed into what was the actual Beaver Creek, not the town.
“If the river we crossed earlier is considered a creek, what do you think they call this? A stream or perhaps a spring?” Nate didn’t have any issue crossing the river. However, little ground squirrels and rabbits were scattering as they ran over the overgrown vegetation in the clearing they were crossing to the main road.
“I thought I saw a motion-triggered camera back by the river,” Ben said as he scanned the sky for incoming drones.
“We have our disguises on and we can take the camo cover off before we get on the main road.
“It’s easy to tell what exactly made the tracks through here, though.”
“Can we stop talking about all the things that might go wrong? You were the one getting after me earlier.” Nate had to turn sharp to head south again when the path took a ninety. “How come this trail is so straight and yet the paved road isn’t straight at all. How hard would it have been to make a straight paved road?”
“It would be less interesting?” Ben said. “If this trail wasn’t straight, it would be impossible to follow. It’s getting consumed by the brush and trees.
“The pine trees out here sure are different. They look like they’ve been through some harsh winters with how stubby the branches are.”
“They are pretty messed up. Like they’d get frostbite if the branches stuck out any farther.” Ben studied the map and tried to block his worry about the snow falling from the sky. It was coming down even harder and it was starting to stick. “There’s a right coming up ahead. I hope we don’t miss it. It will take us to the road and we should finally be far outside of town.”
“Ben, the trees aren’t as dense here. They might be able to see us from the road.” Nate slowed down and pointed west.
They could see campers and a few semis that were parked along what had to be the road.
“We are pretty far from town right here, I think.” Ben looked at the map and sure enough, they were. “I don’t like the look of that. That’s a lot of parked vehicles.”
“I think we’re going to stop in a low spot to take care of that camo cover before we get near the road. I hope there aren’t any patrols out looking for us.” Nate stopped when he found a low spot behind a hill.
The snowflakes kept getting larger as Ben and Nate pulled the camo netting off the Ranger.
“Do you think the EMP hit this far north?” Nate asked while they were folding the netting.
“I doubt it.” Ben paused and was lost
in thought for a minute. “You think all those cars would have turned around to head south if they weren’t allowed to cross the border, right?”
“I wonder how many people are wanting to get into Alaska. You think we will start seeing lines of cars as we head south? You think that’s why they’re all parked here right now?”
“I bet there isn’t any gas.” Ben looked over at the trailer. “We need to cover up the gas cans.”
“We can use this.” Nate held up the netting. “Help me fold it so it’s not dragging behind us.
They got to work covering everything in the trailer before they headed south again.
The trail meandered a fair distance and every now and then they could see the road and there were still campers, pickups, a few semis, and cars parked on the side in sections. As they kept heading south on the skinny trail that was even more overgrown than the section closer to town, they saw more clear sections of road but they were hearing gunshots that were far too close.
“We need to head to the road now. You know, I bet there’s a food shortage with so many people stuck there. There could be some hunting going on.” Ben motioned for him to take the trail that cut through the brush to the road.
“We’re more of a target on the road, don’t you think?” Nate asked.
“The snow is accumulating and the temperature keeps dropping. Until the road gets icy, it will be easier for us to pick up the pace away from town and also avoid hunters in the woods.”
“What about looters?” Nate looked at his friend.
“You have your gun on you?”
“Of course.”
“We know that bear spray is nasty stuff too if we get in a pinch.”
“Well, we also know it’s easy to fall victim to friendly fire with that potent stuff.”
“Yeah, but it’s still worth having on hand if we need it.” Ben placed the can in between the seats where they could both grab it if they needed it. “The visibility is about to get worse.”
Endure Series (Book 2): Enduring The Journey: Page 16
