Surviving the Fog

by Stan Morris

  They all chuckled. Pete was popular, especially with the girls, but also with the boys. The handsome, blond, blued eyed boy had a great personality, and he always made the people around him feel better.

  “Could we live in here during the winter?” Eric asked. They looked around, seeing the dining hall for the first time as a possible shelter.

  “It’s pretty small for forty-nine people,” Howard observed, scratching his short red hair.

  “And it’s got a metal roof,” Mike added. “It’s going to get real cold in here, I think.”

  “But we have the oven and stove to keep us warm,” Eric argued. “And we have propane in the tank.”

  “I wonder how much propane is in the tank,” said Howard. “How long will it last?”

  Yuie knew the answer. “I heard the Admin say that she would have to order a refill at the end of next year.”

  “And they weren’t planning to use it during the winter,” Mike pointed out.

  “So they were planning to use it for two years in the summer,” said Howard.

  “How cold will it get here?” Eric asked.

  “Below zero degrees, my father said,” Howard replied.

  “Will our sleeping bags keep us warm enough?” Mike asked.

  “Some of the kids have mummy bags for below zero temperatures,” answered Yuie. “Most of us just have bags for about twenty degrees. If we’re stuck here, we are going to need a lot of wood to make fires.”

  “I think we need to save the propane for as long as possible, and use it to run the frig during the summer,” said Mike. “We probably won’t need it for the frig during the winter. Stuff will stay cold enough if we cover it with snow.”

  “So we stop using the oven and stove?” Yuie asked. “People aren’t going to like that.”

  “Well, we gotta have some rules if we’re going to stay alive,” Howard stated. There was silence.

  “Yeah.” Deep in thought Mike replied slowly. “That’s the hard thing. We’ve got to have some rules. And we’ve got to have some way to enforce the rules.”

  “There’s a barbeque in the back,” said Pete. “We could at least start cooking with wood.”

  “No one is using the stove now, anyway,” said Eric. “I think most everybody is eating out of cans without heating it up.”

  “How much food do we have?” Mike queried Yuie.

  “I don’t know,” she replied.

  “We have a lot of hamburger patties,” said John. “And there are a lot of hot dogs and buns.”

  “We have milk for awhile. Most of it is boxed, but some of it is frozen concentrated so we have to mix it with water. And they were cutting it with powdered milk so we have a lot of that,” Howard said.

  “Yuck, so that’s why the milk tastes so weird,” Pete complained, and then he added, “There are a lot of bags of rice and flour. Most of the other stuff is in cans, like beans, fruit, and corn.”

  “Don’t forget the weenies,” Eric said.

  “We’d never forget you,” joked John as Eric scowled.

  “Let’s disconnect the stove for the time being. And keep this to ourselves,” said Mike. “And let’s get the barbeque out of the storage room and build a fire in it. If we keep it going, maybe people will get use to using it.” They all agreed. John volunteered to disconnect the stove.

  “Too bad the cave only has that one part that’s really a cave,” John mentioned. “That would be way big for us.” There was a chorus of agreement.

  “What if we made it into a real cave?” said Mike thoughtfully.

  “What do you mean?” Eric asked.

  “What if somehow, someway, we put a front on it?” said Mike. “We could all live in it for the winter.”

  “Just get a couple of girls to live with you in the Admin’s cabin,” cracked Pete. “You’ll be warm and happy all winter.”

  Yuie exclaimed, “Shut up!” without any real anger as the boys laughed.

  “Seriously, what about the cave idea?” Mike asked again.

  “What could we use for a front?” Eric asked.

  “What about taking the canvas tops off of the cabins and using them?” Pete suggested.

  “Too cold,” Yuie replied.

  “Could we pile up enough rocks?” Howard asked.

  “Maybe,” John replied.

  “We could use logs,” Mike suggested. “There are hatchets and axes for chopping wood in the store room. What if we cut down a lot of small trees, and leaned them against the top of the cave?”

  “I don’t know if small trees would be tall enough to reach to the top of the cave,” Eric replied, thinking that the idea was dubious at best.

  “What if we used a combination of these things,” suggested Howard. “What if we piled up rocks high enough so that small trees would reach to the top of the cave?”

  “Too bad they didn’t build the cabins in front of the cave,” John said facetiously. “Then we would already have a front.” The others stopped talking, and they looked at John. Then they looked at one another.

  “We could move the cabins!” Howard exclaimed.

  Chapter Two

  CHIEF

  “We could move the cabins!” Howard exclaimed.

  “Yeah, maybe even stack them. Put five on the bottom and five on the top.”

  “And then use trees to make the roof. Lean them from the front of the cabins to the top of the cave.”

  “That should be close enough so that we could even chop some of the longer trees in half.”

  “We would probably have to build a rock or wood floor first,” Howard cautioned. “So that we could get the bottoms of the cabins level with the floor of the cave.”

  “Are you guys crazy!” groaned John. “How are we ever going to move those cabins? Man, they are heavy.”

  “They’re bolted together,” Howard explained. “Take off the canvas tops. Unbolt the walls, and move them.”

  “And maybe we could use the wood on the wall facing the cave, to cover the rest of the wall on the side away from the cave.”

  “We’ll call it, The Lodge,” Yuie announced. The boys looked at her.

  “Do we have to give it a name?” asked Pete, grimacing.

  “Yes,” she replied firmly.

  That’s how it became The Lodge.

  John disconnected the stove by turning off the gas valve feeding it, and then he removed a piece of pipe leading from the valve to the stove. They found the barbeque, and they moved it to the front of the dining hall just outside the door. Then they trooped up to the cave to take a look.

  “This is going to be a lot of work,” Pete said sadly.

  “How about moving the cabins onto the ledge?” Howard asked.

  “That would take up too much room in the cave,” John objected.

  “But we could set the back ends of the cabins on the ledge,” suggested Mike. “That way we would only have to build a rock wall for the front side of the cabins.”

  “The ledge is not wide enough for all five cabins. We’ll need to extend the sides,” Yuie observed.

  The real problem, they soon realized, was to convince the rest of the campers, or at least enough of them, to help them. They decided to hold a meeting that night, to explain their plan to the rest of the campers.

  The meeting did not go well. Except for Yuie and an older girl who Yuie introduced as Desi, no girls attended the meeting. Some of the boys stoutly maintained that their parents would come for them soon. Others understood the plan, and they could see the need to prepare for the winter, but they declined to help. Ralph, who only showed up for a few minutes, jeered at their group.

  But a few boys did take them seriously. After most of the boys wandered off, most of them to their beds, the group discussed their ideas. There were various opinions on how to proceed.

  Eventually Mike said, “What we have to do first is to decide what would be the best thing that we could do to help us survive the winter.”

  Immediately Yuie responded, “Get
into shape.”

  “What do you mean,” asked Mike, clearly puzzled at her answer.

  “Just that weak people are not likely to survive, and they won’t be able to help anyone else. Get into shape. All of you should run with me in the mornings. By the time winter comes, you will be healthy enough to survive the cold, and strong enough to build our shelter.” She said it defiantly expecting scorn from the boys. They looked at one another.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Mike said slowly. “We could run a few laps around the track, and then we could practice throwing our spears.” The meeting broke up, and John volunteered to escort Yuie and Desi back to their side of the river.

  Yuie tried to explain the seriousness of their situation to the other girls, but her arguments fell on deaf ears. Except for Desi, the other girls refused to believe that the campers were in trouble. Most of them thought Jacob had concocted the story of the fog. Others, like Kathy, were allowing their fears to paralyze them and either spent most of their days praying that their parents would come for them or just weeping.

  “Why won’t they listen?” exclaimed a frustrated Yuie.

  “They’re frightened,” Desi responded.

  Yuie looked at Desi. Up to now, she and most of the girls had the impression that Desi was somewhat of a bimbo. She always seemed to be flirting with one of the boys. She didn’t have the nicest body and she wasn’t the prettiest girl in the camp, but for some reason the boys loved to be around her. Usually with their tongues hanging out, Yuie thought.

  “You think things are bad for us, don’t you Desi?” Yuie asked.

  Desi’s face was bleak as she answered. “I think we are going to die if someone doesn’t take charge, or if we don’t get some help.”

  Yuie went to bed hoping that Desi was exaggerating.

  In the following days, the boys started running with Yuie. Instead of sleeping late like most of the campers, they forced themselves to get out of their bunk beds early in the morning. They had breakfast, and then they ran around the track. At first they huffed and puffed, and they had to drag themselves around the huge meadow. Mike refused to let the stronger boys greatly outpace the weaker boys. He said that it would be more fun to run as a group. By mid June, they could all run several laps before they became too tired.

  After running, they spent an hour or so practicing with their spears. Some of the other boys joined them, but other boys just laughed at them. Privately some of the group thought that Mike was just playing warrior, but they had to admit that it was a lot of fun. Mike established three levels, white, red, and black depending on individual skills. He asked the girls for ribbons and cloth that the boys could use as pennants for their spears. Some of the girls began to watch their practices and cheer for the best throwers, especially if the thrower was Pete.

  The boys began to carry their spears everywhere they went. Mike spent hours practicing, and he became especially proficient at throwing and at hitting a target. Yuie decided not to be a part of the Spears, saying that she didn’t have the arm strength for it, and besides if she was around, they couldn’t make naughty jokes about girls. Publicly they were disappointed, but privately they were relieved. Yuie was already proficient with her bow and arrows.

  Yuie convinced some of the girls to help her use the barbeque to heat up the canned food, now that the stove had mysteriously quit working. Other girls got exasperated at the mess in the kitchen, and it was swept and mopped. The dishes were done and everyone had clean plates and glasses again.

  The group held a meeting every night. Mike always seemed to lead the meetings, and the others seemed content to let him. Gradually, most of the boys started attending their meetings, but except for Yuie and Desi, the few girls who attended did so sporadically. Ralph would usually show up for a few minutes at the beginning to make fun of them. He called them, the Tribe, and he called Mike, the Chief. Ralph’s attitude had gotten worse since Jacob’s return. Mike was sure that, sooner or later, Ralph would cause him real trouble.

  It happened one morning while they were throwing their spears at the bales. Mike noticed Ralph coming towards them in a rage. Mike felt a pang of fear. He really did not want to be punched by the older boy, and whenever he was around Ralph, he thought that was a possibility. To Mike, Ralph seemed to exude an aura of violence.

  “Hey, Chief Shithead, where’s the part that you took off the stove?”

  “I didn’t do it,” Mike protested, and then he immediately felt ashamed. It was his idea. He should have taken responsibility. “But I’m the one who told someone to do it. We have to save the propane,” he offered bravely, although his heart was thumping.

  Ralph grabbed Mike by the front of his shirt. “Who did it?” he demanded.

  John quickly shoved Ralph away from Mike. “I did it, dickhead,” he yelled.

  Ralph pushed John backwards and then, as John tittered off balance, he slugged John in the face. John reeled backwards. Suddenly Mike’s fear exploded into rage. Using the shaft of his spear, he savagely struck the backs of Ralph’s legs. The taller boy cried out in pain, and he fell to his knees. Mike raised his spear, but before he could strike again, Jacob slammed his own spear against the back of Ralph’s head. A thin line of blood appeared. As if it were a signal, the other boys began striking the kneeling boy again and again with their spears.

  Ralph screamed in surprise and pain, and then he struggled to his feet while trying to fend off the painful blows. He stumbled away, and then he began to run. For an instant, Mike started after him, and then a premonition caused him to halt.

  He turned around, held out his arms, and commanded, “Stop!”

  He was just in time. Jacob had his spear cocked back by his ear, and he was about to send it into the fleeing boy’s body. His hazel eyes were angry. Shocked, Mike stared at Jacob, and then he walked back to Jacob and clapped him on the shoulder.

  “We’re cool,” he said quietly.

  Mike looked at the other boys. Some were still angry; some seemed troubled and startled at the sudden surge of violence. Mike turned his attention to John who was using his sleeve to stanch the blood trickling from his mouth.

  “You okay?” Mike asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. He got lucky.” There were chuckles from the others, more from relief than from humor.

  “Right,” answered Mike. “All right, back to practice. Who’s up next?” The boys returned to their task.

  Ralph did not bother them again. A few days later, he unexpectedly crossed paths with Mike when the younger boy was alone. They stared at one another for a moment. Mike looked him right in the eyes, not backing down. After a moment, Ralph turned away.

  To the younger boys, Ralph had always been somewhat of a bully, and word of what happened quickly spread. One result, that Mike found rather annoying, became apparent the day following the incident with Ralph. Nathan and Kevin, who were brown haired twins, and who were also a couple of the youngest boys, came running up behind him.

  “Hey, Chief!” Nathan said.

  When Mike glanced back at them, Kevin said, “Chief, we want to go up the river to look for spear shafts.”

  “So go,” he answered, puzzled as to why they were telling him.

  They looked at one another, and then Mike realized that they were embarrassed.

  “Well, we don’t know what kinds of things might be in the woods,” one began.

  “Can you send some of the Spears with us?” pleaded the other.

  So Mike asked Pete and Eric to accompany the two smaller boys. After that, he noticed that most of the boys and some of the girls took to calling him, ‘Chief.’ When he complained good naturedly to John, the other boy took the situation much more seriously.

  “Mike, it’s good that they’re calling you, ‘Chief’,” John said.

  “Why?” Mike asked, surprised to hear this.

  “Because we need someone to be in charge,” John answered. “We have to get ready, so that we can survive this winter. To get ready, to have rule
s that get enforced, we have to have a leader. You’re the leader, Mike. I know it’s kind of crazy. You’re one of the youngest kids here. But so far, you are the only one that’s shown any kind of leadership. You think about these things more than the rest of us.”

  “But, Jackie…”

  John cut him off. “Jackie’s sick, Mike. You know that. You’re the leader, Mike. It’s good that the kids are calling you, ‘Chief.’ Accept it, and use it so we can get on with more important things.”

  Mike felt that this was dubious logic, but he didn’t argue. There were definitely more important things to consider, particularly their food situation. The Spears began guarding the food, and they rationed the amount that people could eat. There was some grumbling, especially from the girls, but most of them recognized that they had to conserve, even if it was just until someone came for them.

  Every night Mike held a meeting to discuss the day’s progress. Some of the boys wanted to join the Spears. Mike told them that they could practice with the Spears, and if they got good enough, they could join. Most of them just wanted to carry a spear. Few of them actually practiced enough to be allowed to become one of the Spears.

  Mike’s core group was John, Howard, Eric, Jacob, Pete, and two other boys that quickly became proficient with their spears, Ahmed and Rasul. Every night, two of the Spears would guard the food supply. One person would guard from midnight until four in the morning, and the other would guard from four until eight. Soon, Mike realized that there were not enough people to keep up this schedule. So he recruited others, who were not officially part of the Spears, to help. In this way, he was able to ensure that the guards would have this duty only one night a week. Yuie was the only girl who was willing to be a guard.

  Yuie always came to the nightly meetings. Sometimes Desi came with her. At first, John had escorted them back to their side of the river after the meetings, but Yuie put a stop to that. She and Desi liked to discuss what they had heard in the meetings privately without a boy around.

  Yuie was not surprised that Desi took such an interest in the meetings, and she no longer thought of Desi as a bimbo. When she talked with Desi, she realized that the girl had a clear idea about one thing, and that was the need for someone to take charge. Desi realized that they were in a lot more danger than anyone else understood, except for Mike.