The Survivors Box Set

by Nathan Hystad

  “How about I head up first, then Mary, and we can pull you up if you need the help?” I offered.

  “At this point, I have no shame in help from a friend. Sounds like a plan. How about Carey?” Ray asked.

  The dog looked up at us as if we were crazy, and he was on the strangest walk of his life.

  “I can use my jacket like a sling and he can come with me,” Mary said. I knew she was tough, but this was going to be quite the sight.

  I slung the lightest pack over my shoulders and took the rope. It had been a long time since I’d had to climb a rope, the last time probably being in a bad white t-shirt and school shorts in the gymnasium, while Mr. Pat yelled at us and called us girls. As I started up the wall, I could almost hear him insulting my manhood. I weighed a little more now than my tenth-grade self and felt the burn as I climbed with a combination of my arms and pushing up with my legs. A couple of painful minutes later, I was on the top being helped forward by Vanessa. I’d feel the soreness later.

  I passed the rope back down and then watched as Mary climbed up quickly with a shaking cocker wrapped up in a jacket like a baby swaddled to her belly. It was quite the sight. She hardly looked to be breaking a sweat as she climbed up, much faster than I had. Once Mary was up, Carey squeezed out of the cloth trap and rolled around on the ground, as if he could wipe the fear off his hair by covering it in dirt. The only thing left to do was get the rest of the supplies up, and then Ray. We tossed the rope back to him and he started to tie the bags to it.

  “You guys sure you can lift me up there?” he called from below.

  “Sure, how heavy can you be, Ray? Two-thirty?” Mary called back.

  “Yeah, pretty damn close. Okay, the bags should be good to go.”

  We all grabbed the rope and moved hand over hand, pulling the gear up slowly but firmly. It would have been much easier if we’d had some sort of a pulley, but the rope looked like it was holding up nicely. Leave it to Mary to have brought a rope. It was sure nice to have her along. I watched her arms tense as she stood in front of me, pulling with fluid motions and ease, like she did this type of thing on a daily basis. Vanessa brought up the rear and she smiled slightly when I gazed back at her. Her coughing fit seemed to be a thing of the distant past, and soon the gear was over the edge and accounted for.

  “Okay, Ray. We’re going to toss the rope back down. I’ve tied it in a loop at the bottom. Jump into it like it’s a hula hoop and sit your butt on the bottom of the circle. We’ll pull you up, no problem.” Mary sounded so sure of herself, I didn’t think we would have a problem.

  “Good to go,” he called.

  We started to lift, and it wasn’t much worse than all the gear we had moved. We only had to lift him around thirty yards, so I figured a couple minutes. The pulls were getting a little heavier, and I heard Mary mutter something under her breath. Carey barked a few times and wagged his tail. Then I saw what had Mary reacting like that. The rope was coming to our hands frayed.

  “Mary, are we good still?” I asked.

  “Should be. I grabbed this rope from a hardware store, because I forgot the commercial stuff at the base. Damn it. I should have known it would be cheap. Probably made for tying up a gate or something, not pulling a grown man up a cliff front,” she said through her teeth.

  It was becoming more frayed with each pull, and I was getting worried. Ray hadn’t seemed to have noticed yet, and we kept pulling, trusting it would hold.

  We stopped when Mary did. The rope snapped slightly, and we were forced forward by the pressure change.

  “What the hell was that?” Ray yelled up, alarm in his voice.

  “Don’t panic. The rope is starting to give. We almost have you,” Mary told him.

  “How far down is he?” Vanessa whispered over my shoulder.

  “Only about ten feet, but this thing is almost ready to snap. We have to pull smoothly and quickly. Once he’s close, I’m going to grab his arm,” Mary said.

  We hefted him, then Mary was letting go and diving to grab him, just as the tension on the rope eased as it snapped. Vanessa and I fell back in a heap and I quickly scrambled back to my feet and toward the ledge, where Ray was almost howling. Carey was running back and forth as I made my way over. Mary had him hanging there by his left hand.

  “Ray, toss your right hand up and I’ll help,” I yelled. Mary’s grip was lessening as the large man’s weight was taking its toll on her small frame. She was strong, but there were limitations to everyone.

  “I can’t! I’m going to slip!”

  “Mary, we have one chance at this. Try to swing him over. Ray, reach out to me with your right hand!”

  Mary swung him, and I could see his hand slipping away. Everything seemed to slow down, and I could see the sweat beading off Ray’s head. Carey’s barking was slow and low, a background noise I almost didn’t recognize. He came back toward me, his right hand rising up to me. I clasped his hand and arm with mine, and together Mary and I pulled him up and over the ledge. We lay there in a pile of stress and relief.

  Then came the laughter and the tears.

  “I’m alive! Holy mother of God, I’m alive! Thank you, guys.” Ray’s eyes were wet.

  I was still on my back staring up at the clear sky, breathing hard. “Well, we may still need you and I’m not great with computers, so that’s your thing.”

  Vanessa was passing around a water bottle, and for a minute, it just felt good to be alive, and for us all to still be together. Then reality set in and we started to look for a suitable car for the next part of the trip.

  “What do you think about that big SUV? Maybe we should just pile into one vehicle from now on,” I suggested as I walked toward one that looked like it would do the job.

  “Perfect. I used to have one of these bad boys,” Ray said, his voice still shaking a little bit. I didn’t blame him. “Not the best mileage, but it’ll get us where we’re going in comfort and still with plenty of room in the back for our gear.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Vanessa declared, and we put our things inside. I turned the ignition to make sure the thing started fine and was happy to see a three-quarter full tank. Not long after we were cruising down the highway on the way south. We could only hope there weren’t going to be any more road-blocks along the way.

  The I-95S ate up the rest of our light and by the time we were three hundred miles down the road, the sun was creeping down below the horizon, making us decide where to camp for the night.

  “You know, at some point, we’ll need camping gear. Once we land in South America, there aren’t going to be hotels on every corner any longer,” Ray said.

  “Do you think anyone ever camps in Miami? Could you imagine waking up down there in a canvas tent? It would be pure torture, sweat pouring out of every orifice. I just can’t picture it,” I said, laughing at the image of us all camping on the beach.

  “Don’t laugh. I’m sure you’ll have your share of sauna moments coming up. I know it’s getting cool here, but down there, it’ll still be in the high eighties. And that’s if we’re lucky. Until we get to the mountains at least,” Vanessa quipped.

  We decided to keep going, sans headlights, in an effort to gain some miles. It was still early after all and we needed to get as far as we could. We couldn’t risk the ships seeing us, so we traveled by the moonlight, which, lucky for us, was out in full force that night. We passed a few clusters of cars, but for the most part, we managed quite well at a smooth fifty-five miles an hour pace.

  It was almost midnight when Ray pulled over at a roadside motel. Vanessa was sleeping away in shotgun; Mary and I were in the back seat with Carey snoring between us. He was leaving small drool spots on my leg.

  “Let’s stop here and get some shut-eye. We can pound back a granola bar in the morning and get moving. I think we can get to Miami by tomorrow if we leave by six.” Mary was already leaving the vehicle, her knapsack slung over her shoulder. We were standing outside when she came back and tossed us s
ome room keys. “Enjoy,” she said, and headed into the closest room, just beside the SUV.

  “Well, I’m tired. You guys all sleep well. I’ll take Carey out and then it’s off to bed.”

  Dog and man, we walked behind the hotel, and under any other circumstance, I would have been worried for my life in the middle of nowhere, in the dark night of Georgia, but here it was peaceful and actually relaxing. No crazed serial killer was going to jump out and swing a chainsaw at me, but I supposed an alien might try to beam me up or dissolve me to nothing using a large red beam of death. I wasn’t sure which way I’d prefer to go. Carey walked forward, his head low to the ground in smelling mode.

  I heard the crunch of a twig behind me, and I spun to see a shadow coming closer.

  “It’s just me,” Mary said quietly. “I just wanted to talk to you in private about something.”

  “Sure. What about?” I asked.

  “You did a great job today. You were quick to act with Ray, and you have great ideas. I may be trained by the US Air Force, but I think an outside mind may be just what we need. I don’t know how to say this without it sounding strange, as if all of this isn’t strange enough.” Her voice was firm, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear what she was going to say.

  “Go on,” I prompted, our bodies only a foot apart now.

  “You weren’t the one. Whoever chose us didn’t choose you. Janine did, in her own way. I overheard Bob talking about it on the phone back then, just after the wedding. He was so upset about it. I think each of them had to find a pre-selected mate to do this task once it happened. You weren’t the guy. I think he was supposed to be military.”

  My heart sank for some reason. Of course they hadn’t wanted me. I was an accountant. They’d desired a military guy. In order to increase their odds of success, they would have wanted competent, trained people to do this job. That night at the Boathouse in Central Park flashed into my mind, and there I was, walking in front of Janine as she was about to go on a blind date with the muscles covered in military tattoos.

  That was him. “I don’t know if I can really feel bad. I guess I made more of an impression that night than I’d thought. I’ve always been proud that I took the chance on her. I remember that night quite well.”

  Mary took my hands; hers were slightly chilled in mine. “From that moment, I had an idea about all of this, and ever since, I questioned Bob’s actual love for me. He could be so cold at times, but so warm at others. I don’t know what to believe, but I think they were sent here to choose us for this, and that’s it. From what I gather, your wife chose love over what they were told.”

  “I don’t know if I should be happy or not at this point, but I’m here,” I said, meaning the words.

  “I just wanted you to know.” Her hands lingered a second, then she let go and went back to the motel, leaving me and a sniffing dog alone in the night.

  TWELVE

  We left as the sun came up and were determined to make it all the way down the five hundred or so miles by nightfall. I took the driver’s seat, with Vanessa up front with me. She was coughing sporadically, claiming Carey must be affecting her lung condition, which was sounding a little worse this morning.

  I was still a little flummoxed by my late-night conversation with Mary; the look in her eyes, the touch of her hand. It all made me feel bad to find out that Janine chose me, and more than likely did truly love me through whatever she was or had to do.

  The roads in Georgia were fairly clear, and I decided to stick to the highway here rather than the side roads, at least for the time being. I kept expecting to find the road torn up like yesterday, but nothing showed up on the first part of the journey. By the time we entered Florida, it was getting warm, and the sun was high in the sky. We stopped to fuel up and freshen up, and then we were back on the road. I’d been worried because we had no generator to attempt to power the tanks, but we still did have our siphoning gear. Turned out this part of the US had backup power on all their gas stations because of the hurricane threats. They still wanted to be able to function with power outages, for emergency vehicles and transport. I would classify this as an emergency, so we were happy to have the power in the tanks. It made the arduous task of filling up a lot faster. We filled multiple jerry cans from inside the station and we were set.

  The day was quiet for all of us; the enormity of the task at hand was sitting heavy on our shoulders and minds. The conversation was light, and we all spoke about our childhoods a bit, mainly where we grew up, number of siblings. I was glad we hadn’t got into religion or politics, because in all honesty, with aliens looming over our planet and everyone but us gone, I wasn’t comfortable having a talk about God.

  Ray volunteered to drive the last two hundred miles, and I took him up on the offer. The afternoon wore on uneventfully as we weaved through piles of cars leading up to Orlando.

  “Why don’t we just go to Tampa? We could probably be on a boat and cruising tonight,” Ray asked from the driver’s seat.

  Vanessa replied first. “I know the path from Miami to Cuba has a lane, and I just wanted us to go unnoticed by the ships. If you think it’s worth the risk, we can do it. I’m sure we can find a sloop with a large enough berth that we can weather a storm if it hits. My family was well off, and we all learned how to sail from a young age. I haven’t sailed myself for a few years, but we should be good.”

  “Okay, I think we should be safe heading from Tampa. Let’s do it and cut a couple hours off our trip. I’m sure congestion by Miami will be bad, and at Tampa we can cut around the city and head for a marina.” Mary said.

  Vanessa and Mary discussed distances, and Ray and I listened idly while they talked.

  It all sounded so perfect to us at that moment. We had a plan, did the math, and all we needed was time and luck to get there.

  Ray veered on an exit, sending us westward on the way to Tampa. We moved slower as we neared the city, and a map directed us to circle south and around the main part of the rural area.

  “The main Tampa harbor is pretty deep into town along the coast. Odds are we can head south along the coast and find a mansion with a beautiful sailboat for us to borrow,” Vanessa suggested.

  An hour later and we hit the coastline; the water was a beautiful sight down here. I hadn’t been to the area before and appreciated the sights right away. Vanessa was one hundred percent accurate. There were a bunch of huge homes on the waterfront here, and it didn’t take us long to spot one with a boat she knew how to handle. It was moored out a way from the shore.

  “This is a single-masted sloop. I’ve seen these on the racing circuit. It’ll go like the wind, but the underdeck will be tight. We’ll have to take turns sleeping anyway, so it’ll work.” Vanessa sounded so confident in her lingo that it made me feel at ease about the four of us heading into open waters.

  We pulled down the driveway and over their grass toward the dock. I saw their infinity pool and huge house and wondered what the owners were doing now. Even though they had all of this on Earth, it wasn’t going to help them wherever they were right now.

  “From here it looks like a beaut. It’ll do just fine. If you guys want, I’ll go to that Walmart we passed a mile back to get supplies. Maybe two of you can load our stuff onto the boat? That little boat there is the tender. We have to use that to get out to the sailboat. Often these shores don’t go down deep enough to dock a sailboat this close, so they have a dinghy-type small engine boat to transport. If we’re lucky, the keys will just be under the seat or something,” Vanessa said.

  “I’ll go with you, ‘Nessa,” Ray said. The two helped us load the bags out and onto the ground. We had a list of things we needed. A gas pump kit was high on the list, because we were sure that once we were in South America, we’d be siphoning on occasion. A new, better rope was needed, as well as socks and other essentials. Food was going to be key, and we planned on the easiest, most nourishing stuff we could get.

  “Ray, would you mind grabbing a c
ouple bottles of wine, and some beer? I think we might need an evening to take our minds off things. Oh, and maybe a nice fat cigar. I want to feel like the Cubans as we pass by them,” I added with a wink.

  “Maybe see if they have a good portable GPS too. It’ll be more accurate than the cell phone’s mapping. See you guys in a bit.” Vanessa got into the SUV, leaving the two of us behind with an exploring Carey. I had no idea how he was going to take being on the water for two days; hell, I didn’t know how I was going to react. I hadn’t spent much time on the water either, short of the odd fishing trip to a lake. The ocean was a whole different can of worms, so to speak.

  “Well, this is all happening, isn’t it? We should be well through Colombia in two days. I’ve heard it’s just beautiful down there. You know, if you don’t mind fighting drug dealers.” I was glad to see her smile at my joke.

  “Machu Picchu is on my bucket list. Oddly enough, so is saving the world, so you know, two birds, one stone,” she quipped back. Mary seemed like a hardened soldier at times, then funny and sweet at others.

  “It does look really nice. I wonder what made them put the device there? I guess a few hundred years ago, there really weren’t tourists around, so they probably thought it wouldn’t be uncovered by man. As good a spot as any. With the exception of us having to take days to get down,” I said.

  We talked as we moved our few bags and foodstuffs we had left. Turned out the key to the little dinghy was in the ignition. I guessed they didn’t have much in the way of trespassers way out here. “I hope they get back soon. We only have about an hour until the sun’s down, even though Vanessa isn’t worried about night sailing. She sure is quite the character. Rock climber and sailor? Very nice, though,” Mary said.

  “Yeah, she’s quite the woman. Who knows what other hidden skills we’ll get from her? Maybe she’s also a world-renowned juggler, or a master chef,” I said as I loaded the last bag onto the boat.