The Pioneer: A Journey to the Pacific

by Schwartz, Richard Alan

  * * *

  Jonah awakened to the sound of a knife being sharpened against a stone. He nodded to his traveling companion.

  She returned a nod and said, “That’s a nice pistol you’ve got. Colt, isn’t it?”

  “It is.” Jonah removed the pistol from its holster.

  “What a huge barrel,” the woman said. With an impish grin she added, “You’re better off shooting somebody so they have a chance to survive. Hit them over the head with that barrel and you’ll kill them for sure.”

  Jonah laughed. “This is the Cavalry model. Seven-and-a-half-inch barrel, if I remember.”

  “Is the hammer on an empty chamber?”

  He opened the cylinder. “No. Good thing you asked.” After removing one round, Jonah carefully closed it and verified the hammer was over the empty chamber.

  “Where you headed?” he asked. “Name’s Jonah, by the way.”

  “I’m Beth. Headed to Seattle. Heard the winters are warmer.”

  “They are.”

  She pushed her hood back. “You live there?”

  He nodded.

  Beth’s gaze examined him from top to bottom. “You’re wearing nice clothes. What’re you doing riding like a bum?”

  “Did a little card playing last night. I used my train ticket as my last bet and lost…held three kings…lost to four jacks.”

  She laughed. “How do you normally make a living?”

  “Work for my grandfather. He sent me out here to secure lumber contracts for one of his businesses.”

  “Why didn’t he send a new ticket?”

  “He’s careful with money. I received enough to get out here, stay three days and return. If I ask for more, he’d tell me it was my problem.”

  “Wise man.”

  “You have, I believe, a Scottish accent.”

  She smiled. “Born in Glasgow. Came to Philadelphia when I was nine. My mom died from the flu a year later. Moved in with a mean-as-hell aunt. I worked from twelve to fourteen-hours seven-days-a-week in her bread shop. At twelve I ran away and been living on my own. Met some kids who taught me how to live on the streets.”

  “How’d you end up in Missoula?”

  Beth stared at him for a while as if she was deciding how much to tell him. She took a deep breath and continued. “The cops in Philly got to know my pickpocket habits. Spent a week in a filthy jail with a bunch of street walkers. Rode a train to Chicago. Got picked up for picking a couple coins from a rich woman’s purse and this cop beat and kicked the hell out of me.” She shook her head at the memory. “Limped for days afterward. I tried to hop a train back to Philly but it was dark and ended up in Minneapolis. I learned what real cold is.” The recollection caused an involuntary shiver. “Heard Seattle was warmer so hopped a train heading there. Hunger overwhelmed me on the ride to Seattle, so I stopped in Missoula to find something to eat.”

  “Sounds like you need a new profession.”

  “Don’t know what I’m gonna do. Don’t have much book learning, but I managed a library card in Minneapolis.”

  “What do you like to read?”

  “I like learning about animals.”

  He shivered. “The air’s getting colder. You mind if I slide the door closed.”

  She shook her head.

  The door closed with a loud thunk. The girl pulled her hood forward. Jonah removed a quilt out of his bag and threw it to her.

  “Thanks. You won’t need it?”

  “Without the wind blowing through here, I’ll be fine. Was up nearly all night so I’m going to get some shut eye.” He closed his eyes and slept with his head on his bag.

  Beth wondered if his help would lead to his requesting she do something unpleasant. She cast a wary eye on Jonah. “Nobody does something for nothing,” the thin woman whispered.

  * * *

  Mid-morning the following day, a light snow fell as the train approached a three-hundred-foot trestle located seventy-five-feet over a canyon. A rail, which had been improperly secured to a rotten tie some months previous, moved up and down as each train passed causing it’s spikes to loosen. Its motion eventually loosened the spikes in the adjacent ties. With a light covering of snow, the engineer and fireman didn’t have an opportunity to notice the rail was out of place before the train came off the tracks just prior to the trestle. It plowed down the sloped canyon wall, slowly rotating on its side. The boiler’s steam lines ruptured and the locomotive exploded with the sound and force of a nearby lightning strike. A cloud of white steam and black smoke rose high into the air. The forces sent burning embers aloft. Many landed on the wooden freight cars which followed the engine into the drop-off.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight: Finding Shelter

  Their car plunged into the canyon; they felt a momentary weightless sensation and were lifted into the air. Beth cried out and Jonah swore. When they slammed into the floor they slid forward and into the large crates. Separated from the car in front of it, the steel chassis came to an abrupt halt as it slammed into the rocks and boulders which lined the bottom of the canyon. The large crates continued forward, easily rupturing the thin, wood sheathed, front wall. Wood planks from the sides and rear of the car, plus lumber from the ruptured car behind theirs, piled on top of the two human occupants.

  * * *

  Jonah heard the engine’s remaining steam hissing into the atmosphere.

  He wedged his body against the pile of sheathing covering him. Nothing moved. Rotating his head, he could see the sky between a few boards. Jonah pushed his arm into the small opening. He pushed on one of the top boards with his fingertips, moving it a few inches to the side, which let more sky in. With great effort, Jonah slowly moved one board at a time. Beth moaned.

  “Beth, can you hear me?”

  There was no response. He tried to take a deep breath but could only manage a shallow one as an iron bar pressed on his chest. He smelled burning wood. His pulse increased until it hammered in his head.

  Jonah relived nightmarish sights and sounds; screams of agony accompanied by the acrid smell of burned flesh. A firefighter writhed in pain in his father’s medical office. The doctor slowly shook his head in the direction of the waiting firemen and the fireman’s wife. During the following two hours, the fireman’s screams diminished. Ultimately, his burned lungs responded to their trauma in deadly fashion. They filled with fluid and no longer conveyed oxygen. “Burns are the most painful injury,” Dr. Kaplan said on their walk home. “His fate was sealed before he arrived at my office.”

  Jonah pushed hard and shoved his hand further into the opening, grasping about, trying to find more loose boards to push aside as the sound of the fire increased.

  A small hand grabbed his, let go and Beth shoved and lifted debris off him. Smoke wafted across his face. He began coughing.

  “Hang on,” Beth called out. She strained to push more of the wood and tangled metal aside. The crackling of the burning wood increased. The thin girl picked up a board and used it as a lever to create a larger opening.

  “Can you move?”

  “My legs are trapped,” he said, in between coughing.

  He heard Beth climbing off the debris pile and running away. Jonah, in terror, tried to yell, “Please don’t leave me,” but with the bar pressing against his chest a weak voice was all he could manage.

  Jonah felt the heat from the burning sheathing intensifying. He tried wedging against his tomb with all his might; to no avail.

  The sound of an ax on wood startled him. Beth grunted with each swing of a full size axe. She coughed as a cloud of smoke briefly enveloped her but continued chopping away at Jonah’s prison. The thin girl pushed debris aside. His legs were free.

  “My chest is pinned,” he said.

  She attempted to use the ax handle as a lever to lift the bar which pinned his chest. The end of the axe handle was at mid-belly level. Her arms ached as she strained to lift the bar. It didn’t move. Repositioning herself, she bent her knees and put the end of the ax han
dle on top of her shoulder. Screaming and using the power of her legs to lift the handle it slowly moved the bar.

  Jonah squirmed free of the restraint. He gathered his legs under him and forced his way up and out of the debris pile. The twosome ran from the burning car.

  Sitting on rocks in clear air, they both puffed hard. He coughed and spit out saliva filled with black specks.

  “That was some shit,” he said.

  Breathing hard, Beth just nodded.

  “I owe you,” Jonah said.

  She waved a hand and shook her head.

  A gust of chilled air blew across them.

  Jonah glanced at the sky. “Black clouds are headed this way. Likely more snow,” he said. “We need to find some shelter.”

  “Shouldn’t we wait here for a rescue train?”

  “No. Those clouds are in the western sky. There’s a storm coming. If it’s heavy, it could be days before another train arrives.”

  “Nothing left of this train.” Beth scanned their surroundings. “Up there. Fifty-yards below the crest of that ridge. There’s a cabin.”

  “At least a six-hour hike.”

  “We’d be out of the weather.”

  “The crew members?”

  She pointed. “That pile of rubble is all that’s left of the caboose. All dead in there. The locomotive exploded. No trace of the occupants.”

  Jonah shook his head looking in the locomotive’s direction. “Let’s dig around. See if we can find anything useful to help get us out of here.”

  Beth gazed at their surroundings. “I’ll see if I can find our bags.”

  An hour’s digging in the rubble and Beth yelled, “Got ‘em.”

  Jonah said. “We need to cross the trestle to get to that cabin.”

  “Why don’t we cross the river down there? It’s ice covered.”

  “We don’t know how thick the ice is. We fall through and the still flowing water will push us beneath the ice and we’ll drown.”

  Beth shivered. “Don’t like the sound of that.”

  Jonah walked one-third of the way onto the trestle.

  “See? It’s solid.” He jumped up and down to demonstrate. The tie he jumped on split.

  Her eyes went wide and she gasped as he dropped.

  He twisted his body as it descended. Jonah used both hands to reach for a rail. His right hand solidly gripped it but his left slipped off. His body swayed like a pendulum over the chasm. With his heart in his throat, Jonah tried to remain calm and waited for his motion to bring his free hand close to the rail to attempt grabbing it. With a yell he pulled up with his right arm and securely gripped the rail with his left hand. He steadied his body then did a pull up; with a slight sway left then right, he rotated his right arm over the rail, followed by his left. Straightening his arms, he threw his leg over the iron beam. He took a moment to catch his breath and let his heart rate subside then slid forward on the rail. He carefully stood, keeping his feet on the tie but close to the rail. Jonah walked to Beth’s side.

  “Thought I lost you,” she said.

  “Two close-calls in one day.”

  “You need to be more careful before you run out of luck.”

  Despite the cold air, he wiped sweat from his brow. He glanced up the mountain. “We need to get to that cabin.”

  As if in reply, snow fell and the wind picked up.

  “We can use some of the siding and place them on the ties next to the rail,” Beth said. “It’ll spread our weight out and be closer to the trestle’s support. We’ll move them as we proceed.”

  Jonah smiled briefly. “Let’s do it.”

  Carrying a board each, they returned to the beginning of the trestle.

  “How will we carry our bags?”

  Jonah pulled out the belt and suspenders he’d secured from the deceased trainman. “I’ll cut this into strips and build us backboards. There’s probably an axe at the cabin but I’ll carry the one you found just in case.”

  After securing their bags to the backboards, he slid the first board out on the trestle and cautiously walked to the end.

  Beth walked out with slow precise steps; a board under one arm, the other arm straight out from her shoulder to help maintain balance. She carefully transferred the board to Jonah. He placed it and walked to its end.

  This was repeated numerous times. They’re journey across the bridge was made more dangerous as wind gusts assaulted them. At two-thirds distance, a strong gust forced Beth off balance.

  “Bend your knees and get low,” Jonah bellowed, as she flailed her arms to regain her balance.

  She lowered her body and steadied herself by grabbing the rail. After the wind died down, her breathing and pulse slowed. Beth took a deep breath, straightened her legs and continued.

  Once both were across the trestle, they smiled at each other. Beth breathed a sigh of relief. Jonah placed his hand next to his face to block the blowing snow and stared toward the ridge. “It’s a steep climb and the snow is blowing nearly sideways. I can barely see the cabin. We need to get moving.”

  After three-hours of trekking up steep snow-covered-terrain, plus stopping occasionally to make sure they were still moving in the cabin’s direction, Jonah looked back at Beth. The drifted snow was half way up her thighs. Her face grimaced with each step. She appeared exhausted. He strained to see, then moved to her side.

  “I can’t locate the cabin.” He needed to scream to make himself heard over the whistling sound of the wind driven storm. “Hell, I can barely see ten-feet. Don’t know if we’re going the right direction.”

  Fright etched her red cheeks as she used the edge of her hood to try and keep the snow out of her face. “We can’t stay here,” she yelled.

  Jonah surveyed their immediate surroundings. “Follow me,” he shouted as the bitter cold wind and blowing snow whipped around them. He hiked a short distance to where a huge drift lay against the side of the mountain. Using his gloved hands, he dug a tunnel into the snow. Beth moved close and kneeled next to him, trying to use Jonah’s body to shield herself from the wind whipped snow crystals which felt like razor burn on her cheeks. After many minutes of furious digging, only Jonah’s feet were showing. He slithered out of the opening.

  “I’m going to open it up to make a cave but we need pine boughs to cover the floor.”

  “I’ll cut them.”

  “Don’t go far or you won’t find your way back.”

  * * *

  With constant pain in her thighs plus sore abdominal and hip muscles, Beth sawed off branches. Each time she accumulated a good sized bundle, she leaned into the fierce wind and trudged back up to the cave. Kneeling in the snow she pushed her load through it’s opening.

  Her heart pounded, her head felt like it was being crushed by a vice, plus her feet and hands hurt with each movement. She’d walked ten paces from the tree when Beth realized she wasn’t sure if she’d come this way. She retraced her rapidly disappearing footsteps to the base of the last tree. Beth strained to see through the blowing snow. Her entire body trembled as she realized she’d lost any sense of where the cave was. Forcing her mind to quell the increasing sense of panic, Beth decided to walk twelve paces from the tree’s base. If she didn’t see the cave she’d return and try another radial. Each time she began her return to the tree, her heart rate increased and she had to quell another wave of panic. On the seventh try, she was about to return to the tree when she saw snow thrown down the mountain. She peered intently in the direction it came from and saw Jonah pulling another arm load of snow out of the cave’s opening and tossing it away from the entrance. Beth hurried to his side, dropped her bundle and threw her arms around him.

  “Your last trip took a while,” he yelled, briefly embracing her.

  “I was lost. Scared the hell out of me.”

  He tried to smile but his cold face muscles were too stiff. Instead, Jonah yelled, “You’re home now. Hand me the branches and come inside.”

  She crawled through the ope
ning. The interior was just tall enough for the two of them to sit upright and slightly longer than needed to lie down. The two back boards were placed against either side of the entrance.

  “Not much light,” Beth said. “But you can barely hear the sound of the storm. Glad to be out of that vicious wind. Hope it gets warmer.”

  “It will.”

  “You’ve done this before?”

  “My grandmother took us camping in the winter. She’s an outdoorsman of the first rank. Always found a way to work with nature instead of against it. A kind and gentle woman who taught my brothers, sister and me how to make one of these plus tons of other outdoor survival skills.”

  “Speaking of which…”

  “I hollowed a corner and dug a hole over there. Squat over the hole and cover what you’ve left with a good handful of snow. Whatever you leave will freeze and not smell.”

  “I can go outside.”

  “Hell no. Exposed flesh will freeze in seconds.”

  “Please turn away.”

  He did and she relieved herself.

  “Any idea what time it is?”

  Jonah pulled out his watch. “Six.”

  “The sun was short of straight up when the wreck happened,” she said. This has been a grueling seven hours.” Beth rubbed her thighs. “My legs and hips are killing me and I’m still freezing.”

  “How are your hands and feet?”

  “My hands hurt like hell and I don’t have much feeling in my feet.”

  Jonah pulled the quilt out of his bag and wrapped it around her.

  “You’re not shivering like me.” Beth said.

  “This leather coat has a shearling lining as do my pants plus I’m wearing lots of wool underneath. We should lie down and try to get some rest.”

  She stretched out.