Chapter Two Chief

Mikes struggles to get the other campers to accept the danger they are in. The camp is attacked.

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 guy’s crazy?" John groaned in dismay.  "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?" Mike asked, puzzled by 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 Yuie, frustrated that she had not convinced the other girls.
“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 grill 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 called.
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 rules 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.
Desi had her own ideas about how to survive in this new world.  One night, after the meeting had ended, Yuie was about to leave and she called for Desi.
"I’ll come down later," said Desi, and she gave Yuie a significant smile.
Yuie looked troubled, but she nodded and left.  As Yuie left, Mike, John and Desi were standing outside under a cloudy sky.  It was the twentieth of June, and the days were warmer although the nights were still chilly.  Mike and John were used to spending a few minutes each night chatting together, before John went to his bunk and Mike retired to his cabin.  The presence of Desi seemed unusual but not terribly awkward.  Each thought that she would soon head down to the girls’ area.
"Can I see the Admin's cabin, Mike?" Desi asked.
"Uh, all right," replied Mike, who had not anticipated this request but saw no harm in it.
John looked at Desi.  Then he looked at Mike.  He frowned.  "I'm going to bed now, Mike," he said quietly.  "See you in the morning."  He stole one last glance at Desi.
"Night," Mike replied.
John left, and together Mike and Desi walked up to the A-frame.  Mike unlocked the door, and they went inside.
"Wow, this is nice," Desi exclaimed.  "I guess this is your place now, Mike.  Yuie calls it, 'Chief’s Headquarters’."
Mike laughed.  "Yeah, I guess that's a good name for it," he agreed.
Desi sat down on the bed.
"Mmmm..., this is soft."
She lay back on the bed, and then she clasped her hands behind her head, and she smiled up at Mike with her supple brown eyes.  Mike thought that the room suddenly seemed much warmer.
"Would it be okay if I stayed here tonight, Mike?" Desi asked in a voice that was soft and sultry.
Mike gulped.  "Yeah...sure...okay," he replied with a squeak in his voice.
The next morning, Mike left the cabin while Desi was still sleeping.  He felt like he was older and much more experienced, and he felt wonderful.  He found John in the dining hall.
"Morning," he said to John.  John glanced at Mike, and then he looked past Mike for a second as if he were looking for someone else, and finally he looked back down at his cereal and grunted.
"It's a really good morning.  I feel very, very good, if you know what I mean," said Mike happily and a little slyly.
"Well, I'm so happy for you!" John snarled.  He got up and stalked out of the room.  Mike stared after him, mystified.
"You idiot!"
Mike turned to see Yuie staring angrily at him.
"What's your problem?" he asked, annoyed at her.  First John and now Yuie was acting weird this morning.
"You dummy!  He likes Desi.  Didn't you know?" Yuie demanded.
Mike was thunderstruck.  "Oh, s**t," he said.
But now that Yuie had told him this, he realized that he should have known.  John was always mentioning Desi to him.  Mike realized that he was not the swiftest boy when it came to girl-boy relationships.  But he should have seen this.
John avoided Mike the rest of the day, and Mike avoided Desi.  Both John and Desi were at the meeting that night.  After the meeting, before John could leave, Mike asked John to accompany him to his cabin for a private talk.  Desi came with them.  In the cabin, Mike showed John the radio phone, and he told John that the battery was dead.  He asked if John knew any way to recharge it.  John shook his head and grunted impatiently.  Mike tried a few other subjects.  He didn't quite know how to proceed.  John was plainly not interested in conversation or even being in the cabin.
Suddenly Mike blurted, "Why don't you sleep here tonight, John?  I miss my bunk.  I think I'll sleep in my bunk.  Desi won't mind sharing the cabin, will you Desi?"
Mike looked hopefully at Desi.  She and John were clearly startled at Mike’s outburst.  Desi gave Mike a surprised frown, and then she looked at John.  The boys held their breath.
Then she sighed and said calmly with a small rueful smile, "No, I won't mind sharing with John."  Mike quickly left the cabin and escaped to his old bunk bed.
Dumbfounded, John stared at the door for a moment, and then he turned to look at Desi.  Outwardly, she seemed calm.  Oh, oh, he thought.  She is royally pissed.
“Uh, sorry about this, Desi,” he said sheepishly.  “You know, Mike’s still just a kid.  He…I guess…”
“So you guys didn’t plan this?” she asked stonily.
“No!” John exclaimed.  “I swear I didn’t know that he was going to do this.”
Desi was silent for a moment, and then she said, “Some of the guys say stuff about me.”
“I don’t,” John responded.  “At least, I don’t say that kind of stuff.”
“So you don’t have a line you would like to tell me? Like, maybe, what’s your sign?” she asked sarcastically.
It was John’s turn to be silent for a moment, and then he said thoughtfully, “Yeah, I do have a line.”
“So let’s hear it,” she replied indifferently.
John smiled at her.  “I like you, Desi.  I really like you, and I would like to spend some time with you.  But not like this.  If you want, I’ll walk you to your cabin, or I’ll just leave.”
Desi stared at him for a while, and then she looked down.  She pondered his words.
“Well,” she began slowly.  “I really like this mattress.  It’s a lot more comfortable than mine.  I guess we could share it.”  She looked up at John.  “But just to sleep on,” she warned.
“Okay,” he answered quickly.
The next day, John was much friendlier to Mike.  He and Desi shared Mike's cabin for four days.  By that time they were publicly holding hands and stealing an occasional public kiss.  The fifth night, Mike kicked them out of his cabin.  He thought that he had sacrificed enough.
"You guy's take the counselors’ cabin," he said.  So John and Desi moved into the vacant counselors’ cabin.
Sometime later, Yuie cautiously asked Desi about the incident.
“I thought that Mike needed someone to talk to,” Desi explained.  “And I thought he that he needed a girlfriend to help him relax at night.  I thought that it would be good for all of us.  I didn’t know that his best friend liked me.  At first, I was kind of pissed that Mike wanted me to be with John.  But Mike is too immature for me, right now.  And I like John.”
While John and Desi were sharing Mike's cabin, Jackie finally made an appearance.  Mike found her, one morning, having breakfast in the dining hall.  Mike was very glad to see Jackie.  Even though she was not much of an adult, she was, officially at least, still in charge.  But as he looked around, he realized that the other kids, especially the girls, did not seem so happy to see Jackie up and about.  Cautiously, he sat down across from the young woman.
"Hey, Jackie," he greeted her.  She looked up at him from her breakfast.
"Hey, yourself," she replied, looking back down at her breakfast.  "I hear you've taken over the Admin's cabin."
"Uh, well..," Mike sputtered.
Jackie shrugged.  "It's okay.  It’s just another reason why we have been dumped."
"What do you mean?" Mike asked.
"Don't you see?  We've been abandoned.  We caused our parents grief, and so they abandoned us."
"Huh?" asked Mike, very confused by her words.
A girl standing nearby asked timidly, "What about the fog?"
Jackie shrugged again.  "That's just their way of making sure that we can't get out of the mountains and bother them again."
"My parents wouldn't abandon me," the girl protested.  "They love me!"
Jackie looked at her with pity.  "Sure they do.  Then why did they abandon you?  Probably, they blame you for their divorce.  And now they're gone."
The girl was clearly shocked.  "My parents aren't divorced!" she said angrily.  Mike looked at her, and he gave a shake of his head, unnoticed by Jackie.
"Where do you think our parents have gone?" he asked the counselor.
Jackie scrunched up her face and thought for a moment.  "Probably to heaven," she replied.
Other kids had gathered around.  They looked at one another.   Some were shocked, some were bemused, and some were just sad.  Clearly, Jackie had become mentally disturbed.  Seeing no point in staying, Mike left.  He felt more alone and more scared than ever.  Secretly, he had always hoped that Jackie would collect herself and reestablish order.  Now he realized that Jackie was barely able to take care of herself.
Still, Mike was determined to survive.  He started requiring the kids who wanted to join the Spears to run several laps around the track before practice.  He explained the danger of the winter situation to the kids at a night meeting, and he got them to agree to gather rocks to build the wall in front of the cave so that they could move the cabins.  He asked Jacob to try to make snares to capture birds.  Mike thought that they could eat the birds, and possibly get them to lay eggs.  He did a dozen other things to try to prepare for the winter.  And he made the Spears practice, and practice, and practice.
One day it came to him that of all the boys, the girls seemed to trust Ralph the most.  He did not understand this until he realized that it was because Ralph was always trying to help Jackie to recover.  Ralph liked Jackie, the way that John liked Desi.  He would talk to Jackie calmly and gently.  He did not badger her for advice like some of the other kids.
Mike thought about that, and then he acted.  One morning, as Ralph was leaving the dining hall, he was surrounded by the Spears.
"What's up, Chief?" Ralph grunted.  He didn't like Mike, and Mike didn't like him, but they had reached a sort of truce at least.
"Come with us, Ralph," Mike commanded.
"Why should I?" Ralph demanded truculently.
"Because if you don't, I'll hurt you," Mike answered coldly.
"You mean that you'll have your gang hurt me, don't you," Ralph replied angrily.  "You're too chicken to do it yourself."
"Let's go," Mike said, ignoring his taunt.
Ralph was furious, but he knew that he had no choice except to obey Mike.  Most of the kids now accepted Mike as their boss, and even the ones that didn't follow the younger boy knew that the Spears would back him.  Seething and surrounded by the Spears, he followed Mike down to the practice field.  There, Mike handed him a spear and then pointed at a target on a hay bale.
"Throw," Mike said.
Ralph gave the spear a half hearted toss that barely reached the bottom of the bale.  Mike handed him another spear.
"Listen to me, Ralph," he said very seriously.  "You're going to practice with us an hour a day, every day, until you can beat me in ten throws."
Ralph was astounded.  "You can't make me do that!" he exclaimed.
"I can't make you get better," Mike answered grimly.  "But I can make you come down here with us.  Better get used to it.  And if you want to stop practicing with us, you better be able to beat me.  Now throw."
At first, Ralph tried to sabotage the practice.  Then he tried to avoid the Spears.   But he found that if he wanted to eat, he had to come to the dining hall, and when he did they would find him.  Finally, he started practicing for real, determined to best Mike and be left in peace.  He started practicing more than the others, spending long hours throwing the spears.  Mike also practiced more than the others, and sometimes in the afternoon it would be just the two of them, grimly throwing the spears again and again, trying to outdo one another.
One afternoon, two weeks after he began practicing for real, he and Mike were throwing the spears.  The boys were matching each other target for target when Mike missed on the seventh throw.  Ralph could barely contain his elation.  He took aim, and when he threw, his spear hit the bull's eye.  Then Mike hit the eighth target.  Carefully Ralph threw and hit the target.  Then they each hit the ninth target.  Ralph knew that if he hit the last target he would win regardless of what Mike did.  Mike drew back, and then he threw at the tenth target.  It missed.  Ralph could barely contain himself.  He had won.  Confidently, he tossed his last spear.  It was another bull's eye.
"Good enough for you, Chief?" he asked, smirking at Mike.
"Good throw, Ralph," Mike responded.
"So, can I go now and not come back?" Ralph asked sarcastically.
"Yes, but one thing, Ralph," Mike replied.
"What's that?" Ralph asked, eying Mike suspiciously.
"Keep your spear.  Keep it with you always, especially when you're down in the girl’s camp."
Ralph gave a noncommittal shrug and walked away.  Ralph was annoyed that he had to keep the spear with him. But he obeyed Mike's command.  He kept the spear, and sometimes when the other boys were not around, he snuck down to the practice field by himself.  All of the boys became good at throwing spears.  In early July, the teenagers discovered that this skill would save their lives.
It happened one morning.  Later, someone said that it was about half past ten.  The air was crisp, and the sky was slightly overcast.  The faces of the blue bell flowers were wilting in the meadow.  The Spears were down by the practice field.  Some of the girls were in the meadow, some were hanging around their cabins, and some were over on the boys’ side of the river.
The sound of a motorcycle was heard and then the sound of more than one.  There were four of them, all large black bikes, and they came roaring over the rise on the gravel road leading to the camp.  The men on the bikes seemed huge after all of the time that the kids had spent together without adults around.  The man on the lead bike was bearded, but he was not wearing a helmet, so they could see his face which they would remember, later.
Just over the hill he paused, looking around, and then he motored down toward the girls' cabins.  Jackie, hearing the noise, was struck by a sudden surge of hope, and she came rushing out of her cabin.  She ran toward the cyclist hailing him loudly.  He rode over to her.  She was trying to hug him, when he took a pistol from his right pocket and slammed it against her head.  Blood spurted from the side of her head, and she slumped to the ground.  There was a moment of stunned silence, and then the girls closest to the violence began screaming.  Ignoring them, the man reached down and hefted Jackie's barely conscious form onto the cycle.  He maneuvered her leg over the barrel of his ride, so that she was slumped in front of him.
At that moment Pete, who had not been down at the practice field with the other Spears, came running towards them screaming at the man to let Jackie go.  The man raised his pistol, and he shot Pete in the face, killing the boy instantly.  Then he turned his cycle, gunned it, and quickly disappeared over the hill.
While this was happening, another of the cyclists had slowly cruised though the frightened crowd of girls who had gathered.  He picked out a girl named Maria, and he gunned his bike toward her.  She fled.  When the man caught her, he grabbed her around the neck, and then he punched Maria in the face.  He maneuvered the stunned and crying girl onto his bike, and he too quickly left the scene.
The third and fourth bikers were also scanning the crowd of terrified girls.  The third biker picked out a girl, and then he began to chase her; but not to catch her so much as to tease and to taunt her.  And that was when Mike finally arrived on the stage.
He had heard the screams, and he had shouted for the others to follow.  There was a moment when they stood and gawked before hurrying after Mike.  And so it happened that the other boys were a few seconds behind Mike when he arrived at the cabins and saw the third biker chasing the terrified girl.  Mike stopped, planted his feet, and threw his spear.
It was at that moment that the legend of 'Mike’s Throw' began.  In later times, people on either side of the river that day claimed to have seen him make the throw.  But the truth is that there were only a few kids who actually saw the man on the moving bike, the spear flying through the air, and the way it sliced perfectly through the biker’s neck and severed his jugular vein.
For his part, Mike always claimed that it was a lucky throw.
The man gasped once, and then he grabbed his neck with both hands.  His motorcycle traveled on for several yards until it hit a large rock and flipped over, causing the man to hit the ground hard and break his neck.  But by the time the man hit the ground, he was already dead.
The fourth biker, seeing his fellow fall, cursed loudly, and he raised his own pistol.  But Ralph, who had come running down from the boy’s camp, threw his spear wildly, and it struck the man in his aiming arm.  The man cried out and the gun flew away.  Without trying to retrieve his weapon, the brutal coward turned his motorcycle, and fled over the hill.
"They took Jackie, Ralph," a girl sobbed.  "They took her."
"What do you mean?  Where's Jackie?" Ralph demanded.
"They took her," another girl cried.
In a shaky voice, through her tears, she told Ralph what had happened.  Ralph let out an anguished yell.  He turned to Mike.
"They got Jackie, Chief!  They got Jackie!" cried Ralph wide eyed.  "Please, Chief, please help me go and get her back!"
"I will, Ralph, I will," Mike replied, shaken by the violence.  He turned to the other Spears.  "We're going to chase those guys.  We're going to get the girls back.  Get some water and some granola bars.  All of the granola bars."
He turned to Howard.  "You're staying here.  That's final," he ordered roughly as Howard was about to protest.  "Get everyone across the river.  Do whatever you have to do to make them go.  Then get a lot of wood, and put it on the bridge.  Get ready with the camp fuel, but don't put it on the wood unless they come back.  If they do, then put all the camp fuel on the wood and light it.  Try to burn the bridge down."
"Chief, how will you find them?" Howard protested.
"There's fog all around us," Mike replied.  "They can't be far."
At that time, Mike did not realize just how large an area was above the fog, but in any case he was determine to follow the kidnappers.
He looked around, and then he spied the fallen pistol.  He ran to it, grabbed the pistol, and shouted, "Anyone know how to use one of these?"
A few kids did.  Mike gave it to one of the older boys, and he said to the boy, "Stay by the bridge.  If they come back, try to keep them away until the bridge is burning good."
Yuie was there.  "I'm coming too, Chief," she informed him, and when he would have demurred she whispered softly, "When you get Jackie and Maria back, I think that they might need a girl to help them, not a guy."
Within minutes, the supplies were gathered and stuffed into their backpacks.  All the spears that they could carry in a hurry were lashed together.  Yuie held her bow and arrows.  Desi and John grabbed a last frantic tearful kiss as she begged him to be careful.  And then they began jogging up the road, and soon they were lost to sight over the low hill.
Meanwhile, Howard turned to the others.  "All right, you heard Mike.  Everybody go over the bridge to the other side.  Right now!"
A few moved halfheartedly, but one girl shook her head.  "I'm not leaving the girls’ camp," she stated defiantly.
Howard looked at her helplessly.  Then out of the corner of his eye he saw Pete's body.  He had to take care of Pete as soon as possible.  But first, he had to protect the other kids.  He raised the wood shaft of his spear.
"All of you," he said grimly. "Get over the bridge."
The girl looked alarmed, and she backed up a step, and then she stopped.  "You're not the boss of us!" she shouted.
"You idiot!  He's trying to protect you," Desi exclaimed.
Without another word, Howard stepped forward and swung his spear, striking the girl a light blow on her shoulder.
"Ow…" she cried, and she stared at Howard in shock.
Howard raised his spear again.  Breaking into sobs, the girl turned and fled towards the bridge.  Another girl balked, and she was given the same treatment on her buttocks by another boy.  She, too, fled towards the bridge, and then the whole flock of girls turned and ran, crying and squealing over the bridge, closely followed by the boys who were not a part of the Spears.
Howard went into Jackie's cabin, and he took one of her green blankets.  He laid it on the ground next to Pete.  Gently, with help from others, he lifted Pete's body onto the blanket.  They wrapped the blanket around the boy’s body, and they carried it to the other side of the river.  Already boys and girls were gathering brush and wood to pile on the bridge.  Pete's body was laid on the north side of the dining hall, out of the sun.  Before the pile on the bridge was too bulky, Howard sent some boys to drag the damaged motorcycle over to their side of the river.
"Maybe we should let the girls get their stuff, too," Kevin suggested, but with a look of doubt on his face.
Howard thought about the twin's suggestion.  It might make the girls feel better, the freckled boy thought.
"We'll pile the wood on the bridge first, but we'll leave a space for one person to get by.  Then, one by one, we'll let them go back and get their stuff."  

So that's what they did, although it took them two hours for all of the girls’ equipment to be hauled over to the boys’ side.  With the help of several boys and girls, the motorcycle was turned upside down, and the gasoline was drained into a five gallon bucket.  They placed the bucket next to the bridge, ready to be poured onto the pile of wood.  Howard thought that the gasoline would catch fire much faster than the camp fuel.
"What about that guy?" one of the boys asked, as he pointed to the dead body of the motorcyclist.
"Leave him for now," Howard answered.
Then they waited.  It was a long fear filled day, as they waited to see what would happen.  Sometimes, someone imagined they heard the faint sound of a motorcycle and many of the panicked kids ran to the trees, before returning.  Noon passed, and still nothing happened.  Then the afternoon passed.  No one felt like eating, but Howard insisted, and he ordered some kids to make and to pass around tuna sandwiches.  Night came.  Howard ordered the boys to stack the tables and the chairs in the dining hall, so the boys could sleep in the cleared area.  He sent the girls to bed in the boys’ cabins.  No one got much sleep that night.  Everyone was nervous and frightened.  

Where were Mike and the Spears?