Surviving the Fog

by Stan Morris

  There were some murmurs of shock and the man, prodded to the tree by some of the Spears, exclaimed, “Hey!”

  A boy stepped forward. “I know how to make one,” he offered in a very tense voice. Mike handed him the rope, and with trembling hands the teenager managed to make a noose.

  Mike looked at the prisoner. “Bring him,” he said.

  The man began to yell and rant and he threatened the children. He told them in graphic detail what he would do to them if they did not immediately release him. Some of the kids were so frightened of the man, that they begged Mike to let him go if he promised never to bother them again.

  The man struggled, but Ralph, John, and Howard held him firmly, and with some help, they pushed him to the barrel. Mike called for some kids to hold the barrel steady at the ends. Some of the Spears, and some of the other kids rushed to help, and shortly there were three or four kids at each end of the barrel.

  Mike climbed onto the barrel. Carefully he balanced himself, and then he took the rope, and with some difficulty he worked it over the head of the struggling cursing man. Mike had to toss the other end of the rope several times before he managed to get it over the right tree limb. Then he jumped down.

  Other kids had seized the loose end of the rope, and now they drew it taut so that the killer’s head was lifted. The man continued to curse and threaten them. Mike thought about gagging him, but he didn’t just in case the man decided to pray or to repent at the last moment. The stronger boys lifted the man onto the barrel. They helped him steady himself, and then they stepped back. The man wavered, and then he caught his balance. The rope was tightened a final time, and then they tied the rope to the tree.

  “Do you have any last words?” Mike asked the man.

  The man stared down at Mike, perhaps at last realizing that he was dealing with someone different. This kid, this small kid, this implacable kid was going to hang him. Finally, he was frightened.

  “I’m sorry about your friend,” he muttered, hoping that this might save his life.

  Mike stepped behind the man, and he stood next to the barrel. Howard stepped forward. “I’ll help,” he said. “I didn’t go with you when you fought, so I’ll do this.” Mike nodded.

  “Let me do it,” Ralph demanded.

  “No, not you,” Mike said, shaking his head.

  “Why not,” Ralph asked. “I want revenge for Jackie.”

  “That’s why you can’t do it,” said Mike firmly.

  “I’ll do it,” said Desi, coming forward. When she saw Mike about to protest, she said fiercely, “One of us should be a girl.”

  She stepped behind the barrel. Some of the kids hid their faces. Most of them were scared, but they still watched. A few were just curious. Several still did not believe that Mike was going to do this.

  The three teenagers placed a foot against the barrel, so that it was held firm against the tree root. They agreed to go on the count of three. Someone counted. On three, they pushed hard against the barrel. It lifted onto the tree root, and then it fell over and rolled down the slope. The man dropped. It sounded like something happened in his neck. He twitched for many seconds, and then he was still. His neck was bent over at an awkward angle. His body released its waste. Some of the kids turned away and were sick. Others began crying. Others just stared up at the body.

  Slowly, they all made their way back to their camp, some pushing the barrel. Mike was exhausted that night, but he found it hard to sleep. He remembered the terrible sights that he had seen, and once he awakened from a bad dream. Sometimes, he felt tears trickling down his cheeks.

  The next day Mike asked Ralph to make a sign. Ralph agreed, and using a piece of cardboard, he made a sign and he went over the hill and down to the hanging body, and he attached the sign to the stomach of the body. The sign said, “Murderer and Rapist.”

  After a few days, some of the kids wanted to bury the man, just as they buried Jackie and Pete down at the west end of the meadow on the boys’ side of the river. Mike refused to let them take the body down. It hung there until the following spring when Mike was finally moved to bury the bones close by the Hanging Tree, where they had buried the bodies of the other three bikers.

  The following days seem to pass in a haze. The kids moved around in a stupor much of the time, except when someone breathlessly warned that something or someone had been heard. Then they would all cringe and cower for awhile, until it became apparent that it was just another false alarm. The wood on the bridge was removed, but it was placed close by in case it was needed. Howard found the cover for the five gallon bucket so that the gasoline would not evaporate. During this time, Mike posted a guard on the gravel road at the top of the hill.

  Mike managed to get the kids to dig two graves. It was not easy to dig graves in the rocky soil with just the simple picks and shovels that they found in the storage room. But doggedly they stayed at it until Jackie and Pete had been buried. Much harder, Mike discovered, was the need to say words over the graves as the sad group of campers stood by. Thankfully, a boy named Luis found the right words. On the third day, they moved the body of the dead motorcyclist from the parking lot down to the Hanging Tree.

  On the fourth night after the hanging, Mike called a meeting. It was difficult to meet in the dining hall, because the boys were still sleeping there. This had caused problems.

  “I want to get back in my bunk,” a boy insisted. “Let the girls sleep in here for a change.”

  “We need more privacy than you guys,” a girl responded.

  “Yeah, that’s another thing,” a boy said. “They keep trying to come in and sneak peeks at us in our underwear.” The girls hooted with laugher when they heard that.

  “Oh, like you have anything we’d like to see!” a girl jeered. “And besides, you guys keep trying to peep into the showers when we’re in there.” A few of the boys blushed at that.

  “That piece of wood fell out accidentally,” a boy protested.

  “All right, all right,” said Mike raising his hands. “We need to decide how to arrange it so that everyone has a decent place to sleep.”

  No one spoke for a moment, and then a girl raised her hand and asked timidly, “Do you think it would be alright if we slept in our cabins again?”

  That was the question on every one’s mind. Was it safe? How safe was it? Were there others around like the bikers?

  Mike took a breath. Like the others, he was wondering about the answers to these questions, too. But unlike the others, he felt that it was his responsibility to ensure the safety of his tribe.

  “You can’t sleep anywhere except on this side of the river. That’s final,” he replied.

  No one challenged him on this, although some girls resented that he could decide for them. All of them knew by now that the Spears would enforce Mike’s orders.

  “Can’t we at least bring the bunks and mattresses over here?” Yuie asked.

  “I guess that would be a good idea,” Mike admitted.

  “Does that mean that we can get our bunks back?” a boy asked eagerly.

  “No it doesn’t,” answered Mike sharply to the crestfallen boy. “We are going to have to share the sleeping spaces.” Everyone was silent.

  “Look,” Mike continued. “There’s a lot of room in the Chief’s Headquarters. And there are futons upstairs. John, take a couple of mattresses and put them in the loft. Four girls should be able to sleep up there. I’ll give up my bed for now. It’s big, so two girls can share it. John, you and Desi will have to give up the counselors’ cabin. Six girls can sleep in that cabin. So, some of you guys can move back into your bunks. I’ll need one though. Um…”

  He stopped. That was about all that he could think of.

  “Mike,” Desi said. “Can John and I move into the cave? I mean into the small part that’s really a cave?”

  “Uh…well if it’s okay with John, I guess so,” he replied.

  “Do you think that we could move one of the cabins over to this side
of the river?” asked Rasul. “Since, we’re going to move them anyway.”

  Not all of the kids had heard about this plan, so Mike had to stop and take the time to explain their plans for the cave. It was plain to see that many of the kids thought the plan was crazy.

  “But that means we would have to dismantle the cabin twice,” Howard objected.

  “True, but it would give us some practice,” argued Eric. “We could find out if we really can move a cabin. If we can’t, then we better make another plan.”

  “That’s a good point, Eric,” said Mike. “Okay. Tomorrow we’ll try to move a cabin. Then the girls from that cabin can sleep in their own bunks.” This brought a murmur of cheers from the girls.

  After the meeting, some of the boys went to help move the two mattresses to the loft in the Chief’s Headquarters. With regret, Desi agreed that she and John would have to wait until morning before they could move into the cave.

  The activity caused the boys and girls to cheer up. Things were moving forward again. It was good to have something to do. There was a lot of joking; boys offering kindly to share a bunk with a girl, girls politely declining. The task of moving more bunks and mattresses into the counselors’ cabin took them until late into the night. The more they worked, it seemed the better they felt. Mike decided that everyone would get a late night snack, so pudding cups were opened and enjoyed.

  Eventually, Mike went to his cabin. There, he found a flurry of activity as girls prepared to sleep. He sat down at his desk. He had taken to writing down notes each night, so he could remember what had happened that day, what had been discussed, and what had been decided. Around him girls were chatting and preparing for bed. When it got quiet, Mike glanced around to see what was happening.

  The four girls upstairs were hanging their heads over the edge of the loft. The two girls downstairs were watching him.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked.

  “Uh, Chief, we’re ready to go to bed now,” Makayla replied.

  “Oh, okay, go ahead. I’m just going to work for a bit.”

  The girl blushed. “Uh, Chief, the thing is, it’s kind of warm right now so…,” she looked at the others for help.

  “So we sleep in our underwear,” explained a girl from the loft.

  “Oh,” Mike said looking at them. “Oh!” Hastily, clumsily knocking over a cup of pens and pencils, he got up.

  “Then, I’ll see you in the morning,” he called as he practically ran out the door. He made his way to his old cabin and to his own bunk.

  The next morning, they began the task of moving one of the cabins. It was slow going. First, they discovered that they would have to unbolt the wood braces connecting the corners. Fortunately, the campground was new, and the nuts and bolts had not yet corroded. Then they realized that it was difficult to remove the canvas cover without damaging it. Then they found that several kids were needed to brace the walls while they were lowering them from vertical to horizontal.

  Finally, they were ready to move the floor. But even with kids surrounding and lifting, the wooden floor wouldn’t budge. Depressed, they stood around arguing until Ahmad discovered that the concrete piers beneath the floor had metal straps that were bolted onto four by four wooden posts which were then bolted onto the floor frame. Ahmad crawled under the floor, and he unbolted the posts from the frame. Then, with kids working shoulder to shoulder, they lifted the heavy floor and moved it to one side, away from the concrete piers. By this time it was late afternoon, and Mike called a halt to the work.

  The next day, they discovered how heavy the concrete piers were. Mike almost despaired at this point, until one of the boys remembered that there was a steel dolly in the shed. Using the dolly, and with two people pulling and one person pushing, they were able to move the concrete piers over the bridge to the boys’ side. Accomplishing this cheered them considerably, and in the afternoon they moved the walls over to the boy’s side of the river. Once again, Mike called a halt to the work. He wanted to wait until morning to begin the difficult task of moving the heavy floor over the bridge.

  Just after they called it quits for the day, Mike had to deal with a new problem. A girl approached him as he was talking with John. Her name was Erin, and she was a beautiful blond and blue eyed girl who was very popular with both the girls and the boys. She was followed by three other girls.

  “Mike, we want to talk to you,” she began. Mike discovered that he was a little irritated that she had not called him, “Chief.”

  “Yeah, what is it?” he asked brusquely.

  “We’ve noticed that you’re only asking certain people’s advice when you have a decision to make. Why is that? Why don’t we vote on these things at Meeting?”

  “Because these certain people are people I trust,” Mike responded. “That’s why I ask them.”

  “But that’s not fair, Mike,” Erin argued. “You have to let everyone vote.”

  “No, I don’t. That’s why I’m the Chief. See, there is a vote taken. Only, I decide who gets to vote. People who have been helping out a lot get to vote. Not you.”

  “So how do we get to vote? How long before we’ve helped out enough that we get a vote? Do only the boys get to vote?” the girl angrily asked.

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Mike replied curtly. He was tired of this conversation.

  “Does Desi get to vote?” another girl asked.

  “Yeah, so?” Mike replied.

  “She gets to vote because she’s John’s girlfriend, doesn’t she?” a third girl charged.

  “Yeah, so?” Mike repeated.

  “So is that what we have to do?” said Erin, really angry now. “We get to vote if we have sex with one of the Spears?”

  “Yeah, that’s right!” Mike snapped. “Now get lost!”

  The girls’ mouths dropped open as they stared at him in shocked silence. Abruptly they turned and stormed away. Mike was just realizing what he had said. He turned to John who was shaking his head sadly. He blushed red, and then yelped when John bopped him on the top of his head with a fist.

  “Not cool, dude. Not cool at all,” John said.

  “She started it,” Mike whined. John rolled his eyes.

  “Yeah, I know. That was stupid,” Mike sighed while rubbing his head.

  “Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of pissed off girls at Meeting tonight. Yuie will be pissed too, and when Desi finds out that she can vote only because she’s doing me…” John shook his head in pity.

  Mike paled. “Oh, shit,” he muttered. He looked at John anxiously. “Do you think that you could explain to Desi?” he asked.

  “Man, I’ll be too busy trying to explain why I was standing next to you,” John replied.

  “I guess I should apologize at Meeting,” said Mike gloomily.

  “Good idea,” John responded.

  During the day, word spread about what Mike had said. As he stepped up to the podium that night, the room was obviously tense. Some of the boys had taken the girls’ anger as an excuse to taunt them. This had made the girls even angrier, and they blamed it all on Mike. The room was abuzz with low angry voices. Desi stood at the back of the assembly glaring balefully at Mike.

  “I apologize,” he said immediately. This quieted down the room. Everyone wanted to know just what Mike was apologizing for.

  “I apologize to Erin and to the girls who were with her today, and I apologize to all the rest of you. What I said was wrong. I shouldn’t have said it.”

  He paused and waited to see what the effect of his apology would have on the tribe. Erin stood up, and she raised her hand. Mike pointed to her.

  “All right, Chief, I accept your apology. We know you guys are in charge. We understand why. But it’s worrying us. We believe you’ll try to protect us from outsiders. But… well, it’s some of you guys that we are worried about.” She sat down.

  “I glad you brought that up, Erin,” Mike said. “As of tonight, I’m making a new rule about sex.” Everyone got real quiet and r
eal interested. This was one subject guaranteed to get them to listen.

  Mike continued. “From now on, no one can have sex unless they’re at least sixteen.”

  Some laughter broke out and some chuckles, and some scornful comments were heard, but many of the kids, both girls and boys, were relieved to hear Mike make this rule. This would take some strain off the younger kids who made up over half of the campers. Now they could point to Mike’s rule if they felt pressured.

  “How are you going to enforce that,” challenged one of the boys who stood amid laughter.

  Mike stared at him. “I’ll enforce any rule I make,” he replied coldly. “Don’t test me.” The boy shrank down. The laughter died. Many of the younger girls smiled.

  “I have another new rule,” said Mike to the crowd. They calmed down and waited. “This is it. If any guy forces a girl to have sex, I’ll hang him.” This was met with stunned silence. “Do you understand?” Mike looked intently at a few boys, and each one nodded hastily.

  After Meeting concluded, Erin made her way to the front and waited until Mike noticed her. When he did she shyly said, “Thanks, Chief. Thanks for making those rules.”

  Mike shook his head. “Erin, I should have made those rules a long time ago. Um… Erin,” Mike continued. “The thing is, I really do try to listen to everyone. But sometimes I, like, poll people when I have to make a decision. And the truth is, if a guy has a girlfriend I usually let her have a vote, even if I know that she hasn’t helped as much as the other girls. That’s just the way it is.”

  Erin was not happy to hear this, but she replied, “Chief, I know that the boys helped you more than we did, at first. But now most of the girls are really trying to help, too. We’re doing almost all of the kitchen work now. Don’t you think that sooner or later we’ll get to vote? When you get to know us, I mean?”

  “Yes,” answered Mike firmly. “And from now on, I’m going to ask your opinion on all kinds of stuff. I promise.” Erin’s face lit up with a bright smile. Shortly after, she left with her friends. They all seemed contented.

  In the weeks ahead, Mike’s authority would be questioned sometimes, especially when he was not around. Once a boy was complaining about Mike, and he asked a couple of the girls why they should listen to a kid who was younger than them.