by Stan Morris
Jean and Jacob jumped down, and then were immediately surrounded by the mob. Mike had to yell at everyone to let Howard through. Howard got to Jean and lifted her in his arms. He couldn’t speak. He just held her for a long time. She put her arms, around his neck, and she buried her face on his shoulder. Finally, he placed her on the ground, took her face in his hands and kissed her; a long kiss. A cheer went up, and there was some good natured razzing.
When he finished kissing her, he growled, “Eight weeks?”
“Hey, you said it was okay if I went with Jacob,” she replied, laughing.
He was clearly not amused. “Eight weeks?”
“What can I say? The kid held me up.” She shrugged her shoulders and smiled. “Sorry.”
They went up to the dining hall. Mike decided that he would talk to the scouts later. He followed a crowd to the dining hall to have a piece of cake. Eventually, only Jacob and Lily were left, standing together. She wanted to hug him badly, but for some reason she felt too shy. She noticed he was limping.
“How’s your foot?” she asked.
“Sprained it. Had to get back. Need to rest it,” he replied.
“Lean on me,” she said.
“Alright.” He leaned on Lily, and they made their way over the bridge.
“They have cake in the dining hall,” she said.
His eyes lit with pleasure. “Cake?”
“Yes. I missed you,” she dared to say.
“I missed you,” he acknowledged, as he and Lily entered the dining hall where they were allowed to cut the line that had formed to receive a piece of cake.
After the party, Jean was tired and needed to rest. She and Howard walked back to the Lodge in the growing darkness. Suddenly she stopped.
“Holy, smoke,” she exclaimed. “A fireplace.”
In place of the wooden wall on the east end was a stone fireplace. Smoke was curling out of the chimney. “That is so cool. Does it work?”
“Of course it works,” said Kathy, who was following close behind the couple. “Hector built it.”
“I was only asking, because I thought that maybe you built it,” explained Jean.
“You are so funny, old lady,” Kathy replied.
“Just kidding, kid. No, really, it’s great. Too bad, Desi and John got the room next to it.”
Meanwhile in the dining hall, Star went running up to her mother. “Can I sleep in the Lodge with Kylie, and Paige, and Gabby, please? They’re going to have a slumber party by the fireplace.”
Mary was noncommittal. “Uncle Mike is going to let us stay in Chief’s Headquarters tonight. You are still a little young to be sleeping with the big girls,” she responded.
“Please, please?” Star begged.
“Go, ask Ralph,” was Mary’s dithering answer. At that moment Ralph appeared, having coaxed the kitchen staff out of a second piece of cake.
“What’s up?” he asked, as he use his fingers to pick up the dessert.
“Dad, can I go to a slumber party tonight with Kylie, Paige, and Gabby?” Star asked.
“Sure, why not,” replied Ralph.
“Yaaaay! Thanks, Dad,” said Star, and she gave him a hug. Then she ran off to find her friends, so she could tell them the good news.
Mary gave Ralph a critical look. “She always calls you, Dad, when she wants something,” she said. “Sooner or later, you’ll have to put your foot down and say, ‘no’.”
“Yeah, I know,” Ralph admitted.
That night, the four girls lay on mattresses by the fireplace, giggling, chatting, and generally just enjoying a girlish night. The only person close to them was an older girl, who was sitting on one of the bus seats that had been placed in the open area of the Lodge. At one point, some boys with mischief on their minds approached.
Suddenly the older girl stood.
“Can I help you?” she asked in a sweet but goose bump raising tone.
Her face could hardly be seen by the light of the flickering fire behind her. Her yellow eyes seemed to gleam with wicked intent. She appeared to appraise them as if she wondered how long they would take to bake. There was an aura of danger about her.
“N..n..no,” the leader stammered, and they fled to the safety of their small grotto.
Satisfied, the young woman sat down and glanced at the four younger girls, who had not been disturbed.
In the safety of their cave, the boys shuddered.
“Did you ever notice how much Desi looks like a witch?” a young man asked.
“Don’t ever say that to John,” Tyler warned him.
Chapter Eleven
RESCUE
The next morning, Jean and Jacob told their story at the Council meeting.
Jean began. “We hustled our butts, and we made it to the Retreat in thirteen days. It took Jacob one day to find a sheep, kill it, prepare it, and hang it where they would see it from their front door. So we were actually finished with the mission in about two weeks. That got us thinking. Maybe we should scout around for a week, and then head back. “We found the road leading away from the Retreat, and it seemed to be heading southeast, so we took that road. About five hundred feet below the Retreat, we found a sheep barn. I never saw it the first time that I was there. There’s a lot of pasture close by and a lot more sheep. I guess those at the retreat just wandered up there, but it looks like the sheep barn belonged to the owners of the Retreat.”
“I thought that the road down the mountain might lead to another road running east and west,” Jacob added. “I thought it might lead back to our area. I remembered that the firebreak road to Mrs. Brown’s farm turned east beyond the farm. I thought that we might find that road.”
Jean continued. “We went southeast along the road for another two days, and then the road forked. We debated about which fork to take, and since we hadn’t seen evidence that either one was a road leading back to our neck of the woods, we decided we would take the east fork. We thought we would hike along that road for a day or two and then backtrack. You did say that you wouldn’t be worried until six weeks had passed, right, Chief,” she said, looking hopefully at Mike.
“True,” said Mike. “Although I don’t remember telling you that you could take off by yourselves. Howard, do you remember me saying that Jean and Jacob could go hiking off by themselves into the wilderness, if they completed their mission faster than we expected them to?”
“Don’t get me started, Chief,” Howard growled.
Hastily, Jean continued. “Yeah, well, we hiked two more days, and then things got interesting.”
“At the end of the second day, we found the remains of two bodies,” said Jacob. “They had been shot. There were two motorcycles nearby. They were the same kind of bikes that we have. We found a jacket next to one of the bodies. It had a patch on it. Remember those guys we killed? Remember their jackets? The jackets from these bodies had the same patch.”
“Oh, shit,” Yuie said “Our bad guys and these dead guys were from the same group?”
“You sure about that, Jacob?” Mike asked grimly.
“I’m not a hundred percent sure,” Jacob answered. “But it’s a good bet.”
Jean continued the tale. “Anyway, the next day, we found a dirt track leading up a hill. It was rough, but we could tell that motorcycles had been on it, and we thought we could see car tire marks, so we followed the track. It went up the hill, then it turned east and went around the hill and veered to the north. At the end of that track we found them. We found the bikers’ camp.”
“I don’t believe this,” Mike said. “What the hell were you thinking, Jacob?”
“I asked myself, ‘where were they taking Jackie and Maria’?” Jacob replied.
“What?” Mike said.
“Where were they taking Jackie and Maria? That guy killed Jackie, and he said that he was going to kill Maria, but what if he hadn’t? They couldn’t have been living at the place where we killed them. There weren’t enough supplies. So, where was their real plac
e? Who else did they have? I know now. They have a bunch of kids at their camp.”
“Dammit,” John exclaimed angrily.
“No, oh, no,” moaned Desi.
“I snuck up close,” said Jacob. “First I came across a gully. I found about twelve bodies. Three little ones.”
“Son of a bitch,” said Howard vehemently.
Yuie sniffed, and then a sob escaped her lips. Mike felt sick to his stomach.
“I got closer to their camp. They were living in a big dugout, and they have it covered with all kinds of stuff. At night, they keep the kids in an RV with the door chained. I saw three cars, two pickups with camper shells, and two RV’s. They hunt. I saw a lot of deer bones.
“I circled their camp. From the south side, I could see a road down below. I think that’s the road I was looking for. It runs northeast and southwest. On the east side of their camp, there’s a paved road leading down to the other road. I think after the fog came, after those guys realized what happened, they were watching the road for traffic. When they spotted someone, they went down and attacked.”
“Bandits,” Mike murmured.
“Yes,” said Jacob.
“We saw ten kids,” Jean added. “They ranged in age from about six to sixteen. Seven girls and three boys. We saw six bikers. They were all wearing the same jackets.”
“I didn’t know what to do.” Jacob shook his head. “I thought about making contact with the kids. They let them run around free during the day. They put them in the RV at night. We didn’t have enough food for them. I couldn’t bring them with us. I decided to come back and report.”
“So we hiked to the paved road, and we made our way down,” said Jean. “We came to the road running northeast and southwest. And that’s when we found a campsite. It was not fresh, but it wasn’t old either. We found some empty food cans. The markings on the cans said, ‘Property of the United States Army’.”
She stopped. There was astonishment on the faces of the Council.
“Wait, no. Are you telling us that the US Army is up here with us?” John asked.
“Yes,” said Jacob. He looked at Mike. “Chief, I honestly didn’t know what you would do. I knew I needed to get back and report. But, I didn’t know how badly we needed information about the Army. Jean thought we should turn back. But I decided to try and find them. It’s was my decision, so you should blame me. It took us a week of hiking, but we found their post. To the northeast. They built an old fashioned fort, and they surrounded it with a palisade.”
“A what?” Yuie asked.
“A palisade,” John explained. “A wall of timbers. You know. Like you see in the old west movies.”
“There was a sign,” said Jean. “It’s a unit of the United States Army Corp of Engineers. But we could tell that there are regular soldiers with them. We don’t know why, and we didn’t try to find out. And there’s civilians there, too. We saw a guy with some kids playing outside the walls. When it got dark, the guards yelled at the guy to get his ass into the fort.”
“We didn’t make contact,” Jacob said. “The morning after we found them, we turned around and high-tailed our butts back here. It took us almost four weeks, but that’s only because I twisted my ankle. We could have made it in three weeks or less, otherwise.”
“Man, were we glad to find out we were on the right road,” Jean said, as she finished their report. “We saw the farm. Jacob knew right away that it was the Davis Brown Farm. He knew we were okay. That Ralph is a good guy. He and his lady took care of us.”
The Council was silent. “We need to think about what this means to us,” said Mike. “Jacob and Jean will tell their story tonight at Meeting. Everyone will be invited to express their opinion.”
There were a few more items to discuss not related to Jacob and Jean’s trip. Hector waited when the others left.
“Yes?” Mike asked politely.
“I know what you are thinking, amigo,” Hector said with a serious look at Mike.
“Um…”
“You are thinking that we have to rescue those children,” Hector stated. Mike was silent.
“I understand how you feel. I do. We have guns. We can try to rescue them. But remember. Some of our people might get shot. If they get shot, they will die. There are no hospitals here. Please, remember that, Chief.” Hector was finished speaking. He left the cabin, as Mike pondered his words.
It was a silent tribe that faced Mike that evening. By then, everyone had heard the news of the two diverse camps. The information about the bikers was worrisome, but the news of a United States Army unit above the Fog was the talk of the tribe.
“All right, you have all heard about the army guys,” said Mike. “So here is what we are going to do. Everyone is going to have a chance to speak. We’ll talk for two hours tonight. Then we’ll stop. I want you to think about what you hear tonight. Talk to other people about it. Then, tomorrow night, we’ll all get a chance to speak again. See if any minds are changed.”
The discussion quickly turned into arguments.
“We should contact them immediately. They’re the US Army. They’re supposed to help us.”
“We shouldn’t have anything to do with them. They’re the Army. They might be responsible for the Fog.”
“They are too far away to help us, anyway. We have to depend on ourselves.”
“How do we know they really are the Army? What if they just stole the uniforms?”
“How will they treat us?”
Mike let them go on and on. He did not try to stop anyone from speaking of their hopes or their fears, no matter how silly the conversation became, sometimes. When the arguments tapered off, he closed the meeting. The tribe went to their beds. But once they were in their bunks, many spoke with their bunkmates far into the night.
The next day, the arguments continued. Mike asked Ralph and Mary to stay an extra day, so their voices could be heard. Ralph and Mary agreed to stay, for they were just as concerned. The only ones not concerned were Star and Comet. Star was enjoying being with the older girls. Comet coaxed his dad into letting him go hiking with Nathan and Kevin.
The feelings of the Council were mixed. Yuie furiously argued against making contact with the Army. Erin thought they should. Kathy worried that Hector would be taken into custody as an illegal alien. Ahmad worried that his religion would be held against him. Jean pointed out that the Army might have a doctor with them, and they might need the services of a doctor. They discussed the kids at the bikers’ camp, but they were similarly divided. Night came. Once again, everyone had their say. Mike asked Ralph and Mary for their opinion. There was no consensus.
And then, at some point, John asked Mike what he thought. That’s when the tribe realized that Mike had not given them a hint as to what he thought. People began to demand that Mike make his feelings known.
Mike decided. It’s time to speak.
“I like the idea of making contact with them,” he began. “But I would like to be cautious. We don’t know how being trapped here by the Fog has affected them. We don’t know how it’s changed them. In the old world, they would be the Calvary coming to our rescue. But we don’t know if that’s true, now. I think we should watch them. Let’s see how they treat people. If we have a medical emergency, then we might have to make contact. We know the Fog is dropping. I think that we should wait until next year to decide if we want them to know about us.”
Eric spoke. “Mike has been a good Chief. He’s always thinking of ways to keep us alive. To make sure that we survive. I think we should trust his judgment on this. He’s right. Unless it’s an emergency, we don’t have to rush into anything. He’s the Chief. He told us what he thinks. We should follow his lead.”
There was a general murmur of approval. The meeting came to an end. The Council gathered around Mike.
“Good going, Chief,” Howard said.
“Yes, we can wait a while,” Rasul said.
The next morning, the Brown family left. After
that, Mike gathered his Council again.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said.
“Uh oh,” John muttered.
“Shush,” Desi whispered.
“Maybe we can get the Army to rescue those kids from the bikers,” Mike suggested.
Surprised, Hector said, “Now, that is a good idea.”
“I’m going to think about it, Hector” said Mike. “One thing I’m sure of. It’s going to use a lot of our fuel. Is it worth it to get those kids out?”
“Si,” Hector said.
“Hell, yes,” John said,
“You bet,” said Jean and the others agreed.
The very next day, Mike began to work on a plan. First, he spoke to Jacob.
“Tell me about the layout of the Army post,” Mike said.
“The post is built on a knoll,” Jacob told him. “They have a clear line of sight on all sides, except on the south edge of the knoll. On that side, there’s bushes and a small oak tree. The east side is too steep to climb. There is a cliff on that side, about twenty feet high. The west side is steep, but not as bad. I climbed it. That’s how I got a look at that side of their camp. The road from the knoll leads north down to a saddle, but just before that, there is a short rise, so if you are on the saddle, you can’t be seen from the camp. After the saddle, it’s forest. It’s a lot drier there than here. Won’t be as easy to see tracks.”
Mike questioned Hector. “Can you muffle the sound of the motorcycle?” he asked.
“Si, I can put a potato in the exhaust pipe,” said Hector. “For a short time. It is not so good for the engine.”
Erin was the person who was most interested in making contact with the Army. Mike spoke to her next. By the beginning of August, he had formulated a plan in his head. At Council, one morning, he explained his plan. There was a heated debate at first, and then slowly the Council came to the conclusion that Mike’s plan could be successful.
