by Bruno Miller
“We’re going to pack up our stuff and get home as quickly as possible and then plan our next move from there,” Ben said, almost machine-like.
Realizing how he probably sounded to his son he took a couple steps towards him and put his arm around Joel as he pulled him close.
“We’ll figure it out, we’ll be all right. We have enough supplies at home to last a long time and even more down at the store if we need them.” Ben hoped he sounded reassuring to his son, because he wasn’t sure he believed his own words.
“Do me a favor and check your phone to see if it’s working, and I’ll do the same,” Ben asked, hoping to distract Joel for a moment. They both went to their tents and rummaged through the packs until they found their phones.
“Nothing! It’s totally dead!” said Joel.
“Mine too. I had a feeling they wouldn’t work. Let me check the emergency two-way radio,” Ben answered as he pulled the radio from his pack that was now outside his tent. He turned the power on and began clicking through the channels. Every channel either played nothing but static or no noise at all.
“Useless,” Ben muttered.
“But at least it’s not dead like the phones,” Joel said hopefully.
“Well, from what I know, simple electronics may be functional if they were off at the time of the blast, but anything made in the last decade or so with a computer chip in it will most likely be fried.”
Ben looked at Joel and could see a concerned, scared look on his face. “Right now we need to stay focused. Let’s get packed up and get off this mountain.” Ben gave Joel his best attempt at a reassuring look and a pat on the shoulder before he began to break down his tent.
“Okay,” Joel said, clearly still in denial of their situation.
They had their gear sorted out and packed up in about fifteen minutes. During this time, they heard the occasional rumble, although they weren’t sure if it was part of the bomb that they had seen just minutes ago or if it there were other bombs being detonated, only further away this time. Ben was pretty sure they were additional detonations but didn’t say anything to that effect.
“You ready?” Ben asked, ignoring the distant rumbling.
“Yep,” Joel said quietly.
“Let’s try to keep a pretty good pace, just let me know if you get tired.” Ben looked at his watch. “Almost six a.m., we should make the Jeep by seven thirty or so if we hustle.”
“Go as fast as you want, I’ll keep up, old timer.” Joel smiled weakly, trying to make a joke as he hoisted his pack onto his shoulders and clicked the waist belt in place.
Ben flashed a quick smile in Joel’s direction before turning around and marching out of camp. He was glad to see a little enthusiasm in his son and for a brief moment thought maybe they really would be okay after all. That thought was quickly replaced with thoughts of his children who were on the other side of the country in Maryland. Ben had been thinking about them off and on this morning along with a million other things and questions he had about what was really going on all across the country right now. He just hoped Joel wasn’t worried about them as much as he was.
The rumbling sounds had all but stopped a couple minutes down the path and now everything seemed eerily quiet with only the nearby river making any noise. Gunner was leading the hike by his usual twenty yards when he suddenly turned around. Facing Ben and Joel as they closed in on him, he seemed to be looking past them and up toward the sky. Gunner tilted his head as a distant whining sound grew louder. Ben and Joel now heard it too. They looked around but were surrounded by a stand of tall lodge pole pines that obstructed their view past several yards in any direction. They couldn’t tell where it was coming from. As the sound grew louder it seemed to come from everywhere bouncing off the canyon walls. The noise sounded like what a jet would make as it wound down its engines after landing.
“Where is it coming from?” Joel said loudly so his dad could hear him over the noise.
“I can’t tell,” Ben shouted.
Gunner began to bark and whine. Just then, a large passenger plane appeared overhead, no longer blocked by the trees. They could tell it was flying way too low, and Ben knew immediately that something was wrong.
Instinctively they both ducked down, although the plane was still several hundred feet overhead and moving at a high rate of speed. The plane was losing altitude quickly. To see a commercial passenger jet this close up in the mountains was surreal and left them both speechless in the moment. The noise began to fade just as quickly as it had come over them as the jet drifted past them on its descent. The engine noise all but gone, the plane seemed lifeless as it banked right, heading down the valley between the two mountains, the same direction the trail was leading them. They watched in silence until it was blocked by the trees once more.
Ben ignored the urge to somehow protect Joel from all that was happening and spoke his mind. “They’re going down! We need to head to the crash site and check for survivors!”
They quickened their already fast pace. Ben knew there probably wouldn’t be much left of the plane. Landing deadstick at that speed in the mountains would surely rip the plane apart, but he thought it best not to mention that. Ben wondered if all planes were reacting this way mechanically, and for a split second tried to wrap his head around the dismal potential for death and destruction that would be caused by thousands of commercial airplanes losing power and plummeting to the ground. What about the planes that would land in highly populated areas? They wouldn’t all land remotely like this.
He was jolted from his thoughts by the sound of steel screeching against rock followed by three explosions, each one louder than the first. Black smoke rose from the skyline beyond the next bend.
“Do you think anybody made it?” Joel asked.
“I don’t think so, son,” Ben said honestly, realizing at this point there was no sense in trying to sugarcoat anything for Joel’s sake. The sooner they came to terms with what was happening, the better they off they would be.
Clearing a large rock at the bend in the trail they came around the corner to find a scene that looked like it belonged in a disaster movie laid out before them. The plane had plowed through pine and aspen trees over a foot around, leaving busted and splintered tree ends sticking several feet out of the ground.
It looked like hundreds of broken pencils sticking out of the ground halfway down the valley separated in the middle by a trench of rock and dirt carved out by the plane’s fuselage. It all ended where the river made a sudden turn in the valley. The plane had continued traveling in a somewhat straight line, and what was left of it lay crumpled up like a tin can against the side of the mountain.
The last hundred yards or so were littered with debris of all shapes and sizes. The wings had been ripped off first and had allowed the plane to maintain speed until it was brought to a sudden fatal stop.
“Unbelievable,” Ben remarked.
“Wow, it doesn’t even look real.” Joel coughed.
“Cover your nose and mouth with your shirt, don’t breathe that in.” Ben pulled the neck of his t-shirt over the lower half of his face as he tried not to inhale the toxic mixture of jet fuel and burnt rubber that hung in the air.
The plane had crossed over the river at one point and left a trail of scraped rock and paint in its wake. As they picked their way through the boulders and plane pieces, Ben noticed a pinkish tint to the water as it foamed up in the ripples of the stream.
“Hydraulic fluid.” Ben was disheartened to see the chemicals mix into the river.
“Is that what that is?” Joel asked.
“Yeah. Listen, you wait here and keep Gunner with you. I don’t want you getting any of this crap on you. I’m going to get a little closer and check to see if there are any survivors.” Ben said, disguising his true motive for Joel staying put. Truth was he didn’t want Joel to see the carnage. He anticipated there would be mangled bodies.
“Gunner, come here. Stay.” Joel made a motion with his ha
nd and Gunner reluctantly came to him.
Ben picked his way across a narrow section of river using the rocks as stepping stones where he could. Once on the other side, he noticed several streams of fluid running down the riverbank into the water from the wreck. He was amazed that the main body of the plane had stayed together so well. Walking around the side of the tail section he saw the complete crumpled mass. From a distance he thought maybe it had broken into sections but now he could see that it was all here. The once two-hundred-foot-plus long plane had been reduced to less than thirty feet overall from tail to nose upon impact, surely killing everyone on board instantly.
With parts of the plane still on fire and smoking, the heat was almost too much to bear. Ben knew there was no point in getting any closer and backed away in awe of the destruction. Crossing back over the river, he shook his head at Joel.
“Come on, buddy. Let’s keep moving. There’s nothing we can do for them.”
Chapter Seven
Even though the trail was mostly downhill on the way back, it was still a challenging hike at the pace they were keeping. They had to stop twice and pump water to replenish their water bottles with Joel’s pump, and although it was only a little after eight in the morning the sun seemed hotter than it should be.
The brownish yellow haze that seemed to be floating in the air added to the overall hot, dry feeling. Joel wondered if this was a direct result of the nukes, and how long would it linger.
“How are you holding up back there?” Ben glanced back at Joel.
“I’m good, glad we’re almost to the Jeep though.” Joel sighed.
“Yeah, should be almost there, a couple more minutes.”
Joel recognized this part of the trail and knew his dad was right. They would be at the trailhead parking lot soon. There, they could be free of these heavy packs and have the relative comfort of the Jeep.
Finally, Joel could see the sun glint off the Jeep’s front windshield through the trees as they approached the parking area, and he immediately felt a small sense of relief.
They let their packs slide to the ground near the tailgate.
“Ah, that feels good!” Joel said arching his back and stretching.
Ben was already unlocking the driver’s side door, not wasting any time, he stuck the key in the ignition and turned it. “Nothing, not even a sound, completely dead.” Ben sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.
“You mean we’re going to have to walk? Can you fix it?” Joel exclaimed.
“I’m afraid not, the electronics are shot, just like our phones,” Ben said. “Relax buddy, I’ve been thinking about this possibility, and I have an idea. The road out of here is pretty much all downhill until about midway around the lake. If we push the Jeep to the edge of the parking lot where the road starts we should be able to coast down the last couple miles if we’re careful. Maybe almost to the main road or at least close to it.” Ben sighed.
“I’m game. Let’s try it,” Joel said, willing to try anything if it meant not having to put his pack back on.
After putting their gear in the back and getting Gunner loaded in, they each took a position alongside the Jeep. With the two front doors open, they pushed the Jeep to the entrance of the parking lot and faced it down the road. Ben pushed the clutch in and slid the shifter back into gear as soon as the Jeep started to roll freely with little resistance.
“All right, let’s catch our breath for a minute.” Ben huffed and wiped some sweat away from his eyes. “When I throw this in neutral we’ll give it a couple good pushes to get going and then hop in, okay?”
“Okay, I’m ready when you are,” Joel answered.
“On three then. One, two, three, push!” Ben grunted.
It didn’t take much to get the Jeep moving downhill and after only a few steps they both hopped into their seats and pulled the doors closed. They picked up speed quicker than Joel expected they would and before he knew it they were rolling down the road.
It felt good to be sitting down and moving with a slight breeze cooling them down. They actually had to apply the brakes several times during their descent around some of the sharper corners where the road made switchback turns. It didn’t take long before they could see the lake coming into view along with the rest of the valley. As they came down out of the high mountains onto the plateau, they could see a much wider view of the horizon.
There were plumes of dark smoke in varying sizes rising up from too many places to count. A few of the plumes were nearby, and some farther off in the distance.
“Look at that! What do you think they are?” Joel asked.
“Could be downed planes, or car wrecks. Hard to say, really. If the nukes wiped out computers and mechanical systems that control the nation’s infrastructure, there’s no telling what chaos would result from a total breakdown. I’m sure that emergency services are limited at best, maybe even nonexistent.” Ben muscled the Jeep around the last slight curve onto the main road around the lake, trying to maintain as much momentum as he could.
Once the Jeep was on the flat dirt road, it slowed quickly and Ben steered it off onto the shoulder where it came to a halt.
“Well, it looks like we’re walking from here, better than nothing.” Ben climbed out of the Jeep.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Joel mumbled.
“Hey! That probably saved us an hour of time. Not to mention it gave us a nice little break,” Ben said.
“I know, you’re right,” Joel said, still sitting in his seat, one hand reaching back to scratch Gunner’s ear.
“Look, I know all this is a lot to take in, and it’s overwhelming, but just try to take it in a little at a time,” Ben pleaded. “Just focus on getting home and try not to worry about anything else right now. I love you, Joel. We’re in this together, and we’ll get through it together.”
“I love you too, Dad. I’m sorry. Let’s keep moving,” Joel said. With that, he proceeded to get out of the Jeep with Gunner spilling out behind him.
Joel knew they were going to have to walk again, but now it was real as he hoisted the pack back up onto his shoulders. But his backpack wasn’t the only thing weighing him down. He felt burdened by heavy thoughts about his friends, his school, Allie, Brian, and most troubling his brother and sister. What did this all mean and how would it affect all these people and things he cared about? It was overwhelming and sad and depressing. He would just have to deal with it as it came and take it one step at a time like his dad told him. He was fortunate to have his dad in all this and he knew it. He knew his dad was tough and had been trained to deal with a lot of things. Joel had always been proud of his dad and his military service with the Army Rangers. But now he was grateful, and in this moment he vowed to be strong for his dad and carry his own weight, without complaint.
After about an hour of steady walking, they reached the paved road at the bottom of the dam. They hadn’t seen any traffic on the road around the lake, not that they were expecting to, but they’d hoped that once they reached the main road, they would see some signs of life.
The landscape was eerily quiet, with no cars on the road and no airplanes in the sky. It was all so still. The haze that floated in the air seemed to filter out some of the sunlight but none of the heat. That combined with the plumes of black smoke scattered across the horizon lent a strange otherworldly feel to it.
Ben stopped and unclipped his waist belt letting his pack slide off his shoulders with a sigh of relief.
“Let’s take a minute and top off our water while we’re close to the river.”
“Sounds good to me.” Joel immediately shed the unruly pack.
Glad to take a break, Joel grabbed his water filter and both of their bottles and climbed over the guardrail on the side of the road. Gunner squeezed under the rail and followed Joel down the grassy embankment to the river. Joel quickly filled both water bottles and headed back to the road where his dad had stayed sitting on the guardrail and going through his pack. As Joel climbed back up on
to the shoulder of the road, he noticed his dad pulling his Glock out from the pack along with its concealed carry holster. Ben tucked it behind the waistband of his pants just off to one side where it could be easily retrieved while wearing the backpack.
“Thanks for refilling the water bottles,” Ben said, noticing Joel was watching him stash the pistol.
“Sure, no problem.” Joel paused. “How come you got the gun out of the pack?”
“Just a little peace of mind is all. We’re heading into populated areas now, and I just want to be safe. No worries, just a precaution.”
Chapter Eight
The trio had walked less than a mile before they came to their first driveway. It was a gravel road with a patch of grass running up the middle. The red mailbox out front said Johnson in black letters and almost seemed inviting. Having not seen any cars yet, Ben decided they should stop at the house and see if there was anyone home that would be willing to share some information with them. Or possibly they had a working vehicle and could give them a ride. Ben wasn’t fond of knocking on a stranger’s door in light of all that had happened, but the alternative would be a very long walk home.
“Let’s try this house and see if anyone is around,” Ben said.
“Maybe they can give us a ride,” Joel said.
“Even if they can’t, I would be happy to get some information,” Ben said, not wanting to get Joel’s hopes up about a ride.
As they headed up the driveway, the house came into view. It was a small log and stone cottage set back in a little clearing. If there was anyone home, they would be able to see them coming up the road toward the house. This made Ben a little anxious, but they continued to the house anyway.
There were no vehicles at the house, at least not that he could see.
So much for that ride, he thought.
The closer they got, the more apparent it became that the house was empty. Disappointed, Ben was just about to suggest that they head back to the road when he saw movement in one of the upstairs windows.
