Chapter Four Hector

A young man joins the tribe. Jacob meets a young woman who is now a widow because of the fog.

Chapter Four

 

Hector

 

"Get across the bridge! Now!" Mike shouted unnecessarily, because there was a general rush for the bridge.  Mike hurried up to the guard post with Jacob.  He listened carefully for a minute, but he couldn't hear anything.

"Are you sure, Jacob?" he asked.  Jacob nodded.  If it had been anybody else, Mike might have had doubts, but he did not doubt Jacob.

Mike thought for a moment.  "The place where we hanged that guy," he said.  "That's where he stopped."  Jacob looked down the road, and then he nodded again.

"Did it sound like more than one?" Mike asked.

"No.  Just one."

Mike thought again, and then he said, "Go ask Yuie to bring her bow and arrows, and bring two more girls with their bows and arrows.  Tell Howard to send the boys that have the pistols.  Tell the Spears to arm themselves.  Tell them to stay out of sight behind the girls’ cabins.  Tell the guy with the rifle to stay with the Spears.  Tell everyone else to hide.  I don't want to be able to see anybody from here."

Jacob rushed down to the camp.  Shortly, Yuie and two other girls came running up the hill.  Three boys carrying the hand guns followed them.  Mike explained his plan to them.  They would move off the road and into the trees.  If only one biker came over the hill, they would wait until he was down at the camp, and then they would come down behind him.  Yuie would be in charge.

"Yuie, if you hear more than one motorcycle, don't come out of the trees," Mike commanded.  "In fact, if there's more than one, move farther back into the trees."

"Yes, Chief," she said.  Yuie was frightened, but she was determined to do her part to protect the tribe.

Mike waited on the hill.  At last, he heard the engine of the motorcycle.  He sped down the hill to the cabins.  The Spears were in place, and there was a boy holding the rifle.  The boy with the rifle was wide eyed.

"I've never fired this, Chief," he explained.  "I don't even know if it's sighted in.  I don't know if I can hit anything with this."

"It's just for show," Mike reassured the nervous boy.  Mike hoped that he would be proved right.

The motorcyclist appeared at the top of the hill.  He waited while he looked around, and then slowly he made his way down the hill.  He came close to the cabins, and then he stopped.

"Hello!" he shouted.  Mike shook his head at the others.  They waited out of sight, behind the cabin.

The man started his bike forward again.  When he was almost to the waiting boys, Mike stepped sideways into his sight.

"Halt!" he commanded.  He grimaced when his voice cracked.  "We have you surrounded."

The man froze.  He stared at the young boy for only a moment, and then quickly scanned the vicinity.  He was a man of medium height with black hair, light brown skin and dark intelligent eyes.

"It doesn't look like I'm surrounded, amigo," he said mildly.

"I'm going to call for the others to come out," said Mike.  "Don't move.  Come out, Howard."

The man's eyes narrowed when he saw the boys who were carrying their spears, and then he saw the boy with the rifle.  Mike realized that he was about to turn his bike and flee.

"There are others, behind you," said Mike hastily, and then he called, "Yuie!"

Yuie and the others came out of hiding.  The man looked around anxiously at them, and then he said in surprise, "You're all kids."

Mike didn't really know how to reply to that.  What the man had said was true. They were all kids.

"We can take care of ourselves," Mike said bravely.

The man considered him.  "The man hanging from the tree; did you do that?" he asked.

"Yes.  He was a killer and a rapist.  He killed two of us, and he raped two girls.  So, we hanged him."

The man whistled.  "Crap," he said and went on to say, "Look I don't want any trouble.  I don't hurt kids or anybody else if I can help it.  And I don't want to get hurt myself."

Mike was undecided as to how to continue.  This man could be a threat.  Still, the man seemed a lot different than the other bikers.

"Please, get off your bike," Mike instructed him.

The man hesitated, and then he nodded.  He shut down the motor, and then he swung himself off the bike.

"Now, please, undress," Mike said.

"Pardon?" responded the startled man.

"You heard me," Mike insisted.  "Take off your clothes."

"Why the hell should I?" demanded the man, who was becoming irritated.

"I want to see if you are carrying any weapons," Mike explained.

"Crap," said the man.  He thought it over.  "That's sensible,” he growled."

Slowly, deliberately, the man doffed his baseball cap, and then he unbuttoned his brown flannel shirt and removed it.  He sat down and removed his black work boots and his woolen socks.  Next he unbuckled his leather belt and pushed down his jeans.  Finally, he took off his undershirt.  This left him standing in only his white briefs.  At a gesture from Mike, he moved away from his clothes.

"Jacob, check his clothes," ordered Mike.

"Take it easy with my cap," the man exclaimed.  "My papa gave it to me."

Jacob went forward, and he carefully pawed through the man's belongings.  "No weapons except for this," he said.  He held up a black case containing a sturdy folding knife.

"Can I put my clothes back on?" the man asked politely.

"Um...sure," Mike replied.

As he was putting on his clothes, the man said, "My name is Hector.  I'm a logger most of the time, but right now I am the caretaker at a logging camp.  It's back down the road and up a side road.  Do you know about the mist covering the ground lower down?"

Mike realized that he had to make a decision.  "He's okay," he said to the Spears, and then he gestured at Yuie to come to him.

"Yeah, we know about it.  We call it the Fog.  Do you know that it's dangerous?" Mike asked.

"Si, I know that it's dangerous.  I've been waiting weeks for the crew to show up for the spring job.  When no one contacted me on my cell, I rode down and found it.  I didn't want to ride into it.  I saw a rabbit by the road.  It was standing in just a few inches of the junk.  Then I saw the rabbit get dragged into the junk.  The Fog.  It tried to escape.  Then it went under.  I couldn't see what took it."

Hector finished dressing and then he asked, “Who are you kids and what are you doing here?  And where are the grownups?"

They all started talking at once, until Howard shushed them so that Mike could tell their story.  Hector listened with interest, and then with astonishment, and then with anger.

"Those b******s!" he exclaimed at last.  "So that's what that smell was along the road.  I thought it was a deer or a bear."  He looked at the kids in wonder.  "This sucks, but you kids are alive at least.  Me, too.  I hope we can all stay alive."

"Yeah, that's what we hope, too," Mike replied.

"Do you kids got enough food?" Hector asked.  "I got a lot up at my camp.  The supplies for the summer and for the fall logging crews were dropped off the first of May.  I know I can spare some food and maybe other stuff.  There were four women expected on the crew, so I found a lot of...uh...girl’s stuff for when they have their periods."  There was a loud cheer from the girls.

"We have some food, too," said Mike.  "But we don't think that it's going to be enough for the winter.  Can you take a look?  Can you see what else we need?"

The cabin floor that they were moving was abandoned for the moment.  Mike gave Hector a tour of the camp.  They were followed by many of the kids who were glad to see a helpful adult at last.  Hector saw that they would need more food.  He approved of many of the measures that they were taking, but when he saw the cave and heard their plan to build a lodge, he shook his head.

"This won't work," he stated.

"Why not?" Mike asked.

"A wall of rocks without using concrete will be unstable.  There's too much danger that it would collapse and bring the whole thing down," explained Hector.

"Well, that sucks," said Howard, and the others agreed.

"So we can't use the cave at all?" Mike asked.

"Maybe there is a way," Hector slowly answered, as he considered the problem.  "If I could get some logs down here, I think I could build a wall with them.  I could use heavy duty metal straps to tie the logs together and then brace them.  That should work."

"How are you going to get big logs down here?" asked Mike, his tone dubious.  "I don't think we can carry them.  And how are we going to put one big log on top of another?"

"We have a machine that does that," replied Hector absently, while studying the area.  "It's got a grapple that grabs the logs and lifts them.  We use it to put the logs on the truck.  That's the problem.  No one brought the truck yet.  We need a truck to move the logs down here.  Unless..."  He looked back at the parking lot.

"Does that bus run?" he asked.

"The school bus?" said Mike.  "Yeah, I guess it does.  But how would you put logs in it?  The seats are in the way."

"I think I can take out the seats," Hector replied.  "The real problem will be using the machine to get the logs in the rear emergency door and doing it safely.  But if I can load that bus, I should be able to bring a load of logs down here."

"How will you get the bus over the river?" Howard asked.  "Will we have to carry the logs across?"

"I think I can bring the machines down here," Hector answered.  "Usually we move them by flatbed truck, but some have tracks like a tank and the others have tires, so I can drive them down here.  It will take a long time, because they are very slow.  Then I can lie some of the logs across the river, and roll the bus across on them."

"The river's not running as fast as when we first got here," said Eric.  "Why is that?"

"There is not as much water because a lot of the snowpack has melted," Hector explained.  "How do you plan to use the bathroom during winter?"  The teenagers exchanged grimaces.

"We have Porta Potties," said Mike.  "But they are full of crap.  We made a place in the forest where we piss."  Someone sounded the speaker calling the kids to brunch.

"We only eat two meals at day, brunch and supper," Mike informed the logger, as they walked back to the dining hall.  "We've been trying to conserve our food.  Jacob, here, has managed to catch a few birds.  Some are okay to eat, but most don't have any meat.  We're thinking of using the rifle to try to get a deer.  Jacob says that he knows how to skin it and cut it."

Hector was thinking that this camp would be a better place to live during the winter than the logging camp, so he decided to sound the boys out about it.

"Do you think you have room for one more person?" he asked.  The boys looked at one another.

"You don't have to let me know right now," added Hector hastily.

"Mike's the Chief," said Eric.  "He decides."

Hector looked at Mike who blushed.  Now that there was an adult around, he felt somewhat self conscious.

"If you're going to share your food with us, I guess it’s only fair that we share our space,” Mike acknowledged.  “But there ‘s a couple of things you should know.”

Mike told him the rules they had made.  He emphasized the one about not forcing the girls to have sex.

Hector stiffened.  "I don't mess with kids," he said angrily.

His voice and body language caused the kids to become nervous.  They didn't want trouble with another adult.

Mike didn't back down.  "Good," he said bravely.  "I just wanted you to know.  I mean, after what happened."

Hector calmed down and nodded.  "That's a good rule any time, amigo," he admitted.  "Looks like you guys got yourselves a good leader," he said to the others, and the teenagers relaxed.

Hector agreed to eat brunch with them, and then they showed him how they were trying to bring a cabin across the river.  Once again, they tackled the wood floor.  They managed to get it to the bridge, but the bridge was too small for more than two or three to stand abreast.

Hector solved the problem by angling the dolly under the side of the floor closest to the bridge, and then carefully balancing and pulling the dolly until the floor was covering the bridge with each side of the floor frame barely touching a different side of the river bank.  Then the kids on his side of the river lifted the floor until he could get the dolly out from under the floor.  Carrying the dolly, he stepped on to the floor and walked across to the other side.  Once there, he forced the dolly under the floor again.  The kids on the boys’ side lifted and pulled, and Hector balanced the floor until it was over the river.

"Whoa," Mike said.  "That was harder than I thought.  I don't know if we could have done it without you, Hector.  Thanks a lot."

"Yeah, that was a lot of work," Hector agreed.  "But we did it.  That proves we can get the cabins across the bridge.  If we can build a wall, I'm sure that we can get the bottom cabins on the wall and ledge.  The problem will be to get the floors from the other cabins on top of the first layer.  They will have to be lifted a lot higher."

Hector decided that it was time to ride back to his camp.  He wanted to take an inventory of all the items that he could bring back to the lower camp.  To Hector’s surprise, Jacob asked if he could catch a ride.

"I'm going to explore a little," he told Mike.

That worried Mike but he just asked Jacob to be careful.  Mike had learned by now that Jacob was the kind of guy that would always want to explore his surroundings.

Jacob climbed behind Hector, and the motorcycle roared to life.  They rode back over the hill, down past the Hanging Tree, and then onward to the junction of the road that led up to Hector's camp.  Hector paused when they came to the path on their right leading to the clearing where the dead bodies still lay.

"We need to bury those men," Hector said.

Jacob gave out a non-committal grunt.  Hector gunned his cycle again.  Before they came to Hector's camp, they passed the entrance to another dirt road on the left.

"Where does that road lead to?" Jacob asked loudly over the roar of the engine.

"The firebreak road?  I don't really know," answered Hector.  "I saw a man in a four by four pull out from it once.  And once, I saw a woman on the road who was riding a horse.  I think it must lead to another cabin or maybe a house."

"How far is your camp, if I walked to it from here?" Jacob asked.

"Walking?  Maybe an hour. The road goes up and down.  It's muddy in places."  They continued on until they came to the logging camp.  There were several buildings and several pieces of heavy machinery.  The equipment impressed Jacob.

"What do these machines do?" he asked.

"That one can take a downed tree and strip off the branches.  The other one is a John Deere harvester.  It can pick up a stripped tree, cut the end off, shoot a certain amount of it out one end, and then slice it off, turning it into a log.  That one over there can pick up the logs and load them on a truck.  We were supposed to get a machine this year that could cut the trees down safely, but the company said it would cost too much.  So we still have big chainsaws to cut down the trees.  It takes a lot more people to cut the trees with chainsaws.  Luckily for us, because that's why they delivered so much supplies this spring."

"Do you have gas for all this stuff?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah, we have a big fuel truck back there.  Thank heaven, it arrived before the Fog.  The supplies came at the same time; food, water and plenty of toilet paper, plus the stuff for the mujeres."

“Huh?”

“Women.”

"What kind of stuff for women?"

"Sanitary napkins I guess, Jacob.  Pads and all that stuff they need for their periods.  I don't know.  Hey." He stopped talking and looked at the heavy equipment.  "Maybe, we can use that to lift those cabin floors up to the second level."  He pointed to a forklift.

Jacob saw that most of the buildings at the logging camp were made of sheet metal.  Hector led the way into the only cinder block building.  It looked like a combination office and storeroom.  There was a bunkhouse in the rear.  After a few minutes, Jacob realized that Hector was searching for something.

"Ah, here it is,” Hector said with a satisfied smile.  He brought out a long box.  Inside was a large roll of black plastic.

"What's that for," Jacob asked.

Hector stopped smiling.  "I'm going to use it to wrap those dead guys before we bury them."

"Why bother," said Jacob.  "They were murderers."

"Because I'm not like them," Hector answered.  "I may not be the best guy in the world that's left, but I'm not like them."

"Pete and Jackie didn't have any plastic to be wrapped in," said Jacob resentfully. “We just had sheets.”

"I'm sorry about that, amigo.  I truly am.  But I got to do this."

Hector went outside, and he placed the box in a small pickup truck.  Then he and Jacob got in the truck, and they drove back down the road.  When they got to the side road, Jacob asked to be dropped off.

"Where are you going?" asked Hector startled at the request.

"I'm going to explore that road some," Jacob replied.  "Can I stay at your camp, if I get back there tonight?"

"Sure. I'll be back later.  Hell, kid, I don't like the idea of leaving you here."

"I'll be okay," Jacob replied and without another word, he lifted his backpack and walked away.

Hector shook his head, and then he started down the road again.  When he came to the path leading to the clearing, he stopped.  He took the box out of the truck and carried it to the clearing.  The bodies were emitting a rank smell.  Hector rolled out the plastic, and he cut two pieces.  He placed one piece next to the body still stuck to the tree.  Gingerly, he worked the spear out of the tree and through the man's mouth.  It was unpleasant work, but he finally got the two bodies wrapped in the plastic.  Now he had to put the bodies in the truck.

Undecided, he stared at the wrapped bodies, and then he made a decision.  He got back in the truck, and he drove to the kids' camp. When he found Mike, he explained what he had done.

"Jackie and Pete didn't have any plastic," Mike said grimly.

"That's what Jacob said," replied Hector.  "I'll tell you what I told him.  I'm not like those men.  And I don't think that you are either.  I want you to help me move them.  I'm going to take them to the tree where you hung that guy and bury them."

"The one we hanged stays there," said Mike flatly.

"Why?" Hector asked, puzzled by the intensity of the boy’s words.  "He's long dead."

"He's a warning to anyone else who thinks he can hurt us."

Hector nodded.  "All right.  But let's bury the others."

So Mike and John went with Hector.  They retrieved the bodies, and they buried them close by the Hanging Tree.  Then Hector took Mike and John back to the camp.  On the way, he told them where Jacob had gone.

When they got to the camp, Hector discovered that they were having difficulty leveling the concrete piers for the cabin that they had moved.  There was a laser level in the truck, and he soon had the blocks leveled.  Mike decided to give everyone a break for the rest of the day.  Tomorrow would be soon enough to rebuild the cabin.  He walked with Hector over the bridge and up to the pickup.

"Thanks for helping us, Hector," he said.

Hector held out his hand.  "Thanks for helping me, Chief," he replied.  Mike shook his hand and laughed.

"I guess it's kind of goofy, the way they call me, ‘Chief’."

"No, it's not goofy at all.  You've done a good job here, amigo."

"I've been really scared," Mike blurted, his voice suddenly full of emotion.  Then to his embarrassment, Mike choked up.  He couldn't speak, and his tears began falling.  He stuffed his hand in his mouth to keep himself quiet as he sobbed.

Hector looked around.  He and Mike were behind the truck, and there was no one else around.  He reached out, and he pulled Mike into his arms.  The boy cried silently on Hector’s chest.  Hector just stood there a short while until Mike was finished.  Then Mike pulled away and wiped his eyes.

Hector got into the pickup.  Through the window he said, "See you tomorrow, Chief."  He started the pickup.  Mike waved silently, and Hector drove away.

When Hector was passing by the place where they had retrieved the bodies, he decided to stop and search the area.  He found many items that they could use, but the only thing he took at that time was the ammunition that he found hidden in the shack.  He drove back to the logging camp.  There was no sign of Jacob.

After Jacob left Hector at the junction of the roads, he hiked along the road he had chosen.  Mushrooms were growing in abundance along the winding path.  He followed the rutted road up and around the side of the mountain for a ways, and then the narrow road began to drop.  Presently, he came to a small stream that fell from his right, went under the road by way of a galvanized steel culvert, and then turned and followed the road.  The snow fed stream skipped merrily over the stones in its bed, and Jacob was content to walk and listen to its music.  The wind was blowing lightly through the tall green trees, and the scent of the aromatic pine was heavy in the air.  Jacob and the stream followed the road until he grew hungry, and then he stopped, and he ate a tuna sandwich, an apple, and a chocolate pudding cup that he had been saving.

After eating, he rested with his back to a tall red fir tree and watched a couple of brown squirrels quarrel.  An owl flew by.  He resumed his walk.  He loved strolling through the woods, and he enjoyed his solitude.  After a bit, he paused respectfully as a tan colored snake crossed his path and disappeared into a patch of blue gentians and yellow eyed daisies that were growing along the side of the road.

The road would rise occasionally, and then it would dip a little deeper as it made its way around the mountain.  He knew by the light that the sun was only a few hours from dropping below the horizon, but he did not worry that he would be caught out after dark.  He didn't mind staying in the woods at night.  He always seemed to find a sheltered spot where the blanket in his backpack could serve to keep him warm enough.  He had waterproof matches, although he tried hard not to use them.  He thought that they might be needed later in the year.

As the sun was just reaching the horizon, he came to a small grassy valley on his right.  It probably measured no more than twenty acres, and it was surrounded by steep slopes.  The road continued on past the little dale, but the stream came to an end in a small pond.  Jacob could see that the pond was manmade.  Someone had filled in part of a gully creating the pond behind it.  It was almost filled to its banks from the spring runoff.  Large multicolored corn lilies and blue-eyed-marys grew by the water.  As Jacob watched, a golden trout leaped out of the water trying to catch a large dragonfly, and then it fell back into the blue water with a plop.

There was a dirt driveway leading away from the main road to a large beige house set a little ways off the road.  The house had a steeply pitched roof.  In front of the covered porch, there were some chickens pecking at the dirt.  Next to the house was a large red barn.  On the south side of the barn was an attached room, built with glass panels.  Jacob could see a rough corral behind the barn, where two roan geldings were feeding from a trough.  There were smaller buildings closer to the house.  Jacob supposed they were storage sheds.  Farther back, Jacob could see a wind turbine spinning in the breeze.  He recognized it as the same type that provided electricity for the kids’ camp.  Far in the rear, he saw fields with some kind of grass or grain growing in them, and he noticed a brown hare nibbling at a stalk.  By the tree line was a structure that looked to be a raised water catchment tank.

Jacob hesitated.  It was a little late for company, especially when that company was in the form of a stranger.  Making up his mind, he strode towards the house until he was a ways from it, and then he shouted, “Hello! Hello!"  Then he waited.

Presently the door opened slightly, and a young woman peered out.  "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Hello.  I'm Jacob.  I'm exploring,” the boy responded.

The door opened wider, and the young woman stepped out.  She had a slight build and her shoulder length hair was black.  She was carrying a shotgun.

"Well, hello yourself, Jacob," she said.  "Where have you come exploring from?"

Pointing back towards the main road, he said, "Back down that road, then down the other road, then up to a summer camp."

"You're a long way from home," the young woman offered.

Jacob thought for a moment, and then he asked, "Do you know about the Fog?"

"What fog?" she replied.  At that moment, a small head peeked around her skirts.

Jacob found that he didn't want to distress her, but he said, "We're surrounded by a fog down about the six thousand seven hundred foot level.  It's all around us.  We can't get through it.  There are some bad things in it.  I think...something bad happens to anything that goes into it."

The young woman paled.

"When is Daddy coming home?" a small voice asked.

The young woman bent down to the child.  "Go back inside, Star," she said.  "I'll be right outside. I need to speak to this boy for a minute."  Gently, she pushed the girl inside and closed the door.

"All right, what's going on?" she asked the boy sternly.  "Who sent you here?  Is this some kind of practical joke?"

Jacob shuffled his feet uncomfortably.  "I'm sorry.  I'll leave now," he said.  He turned around.

"Wait!" the young woman called.  There was a sense of desperation and urgency about her, Jacob sensed.  "Who are you?"

"My name is Jacob," the boy said again.

"And how do you know about this so-called fog?" she asked.

"The adults at our camp left to find out what was happening.  They didn't come back.  I got worried, so I tried to walk out of the mountains.  That's when I found the fog.  I saw a deer get taken into it.  So I went back to the camp."

"When was this?"

"The end of May," Jacob replied.

The young woman’s face turned ashen.  She groaned softly, and then she sat down on the wood floor of the covered porch.  She dropped her head into her hands.  Jacob thought that she might be crying.

"I'm sorry," he said.

She raised her head and stared at him.  Her eyes were misty.  "Are you all alone?" she asked.

Jacob shook his head.  "There are more kids.  About fifty I guess.  And we just met a man named Hector.  He's from a logging camp.  It's back down this road and then up the mountain."

"Yes, I know about the logging camp.  Did you say that there aren't any adults at your camp?"

"I think Hector might stay with us.  There was a woman named Jackie, but she was killed by some bad men."

Mary was experiencing shock after shock.  She stared at the boy.  She tried to collect herself, tried to tell herself that this story was too fantastic, tried to tell herself that her long overdue husband would be driving down the road any time now.  But there was a young boy here with a strange tale that she needed to hear, and the sky was beginning to darken.

"Come in," she said.  "Let's talk.  My name is Mary Brown."  Jacob went up on the porch and entered the house behind Mary.  Inside, he saw two small children staring anxiously at him.

"Mama, who's him?" the little boy demanded.

"He's a visitor, Comet," Mary answered.  "Now you and Star get your teeth brushed, and then you can play with your toys."

"When are we gonna get the TV fixed?" the little girl grumbled, as she and her brother exited the living room through a hallway.

The house seemed very cozy.  It had the ordinary clutter of small kids without being messy.  Mary led Jacob through the living room and into the kitchen.  She motioned towards the yellow Formica covered table, so he sat down.  She opened a cupboard, and she took out a bag of corn chips which she put on the table in front of Jacob.  Then she opened the refrigerator, and she took out a can of juice.  She put the can by the chips and said, "Help your self."

Jacob stared greedily at the bag of chips.  He wondered for a moment whether it was the last bag of chips in the world.  He looked over at the two children peeking around the corner.  A feeling of guilt came over him.

"I'm not hungry," he lied.

Mary gave him a disbelieving glance.  "If you're not, then you must be the only teen aged boy in the world who isn't.  Eat."

"Uh...maybe just a few," he mumbled as he dug into the bag.

Mary sat down across from him.  "All right, tell me what you know.  And you two get into the bathroom and brush your teeth."  The two young children scampered away.

Jacob began talking.  He spoke about the kids' camp.  He related the incident with the motorcyclists.  He talked about Hector.  He repeated what he had seen when he encountered the Fog.

Mary had many questions, and it took a long time for the story to be told.  At times, they were interrupted by the two children who seemed to realize that something was wrong.  Jacob had to stop while Mary attended to her kids.  At last, Jacob finished his tale.  Mary sat silent.  Jacob realized that he had eaten half of the corn chips in the bag.

Finally, Mary spoke.  "I knew something was wrong that day.  First the television picture went dark.  None of the channels worked.  At first, I thought it was the TV.  We have satellite TV and internet, and the internet went dead at the same time.  So I thought, maybe it's the satellite.  Then the man from the gas station didn't come by to deliver the mail and messages from my husband, Davis.  Davis went to Bakersfield in early May to visit his parents and to buy supplies.  After the winter we stock up again.

"No one ever came from the gas station.  And there were so many deer around.  Herds of them started moving past the house in early May.  It's like they had been spooked.  They should still be grazing lower down the mountains at this time of the year.  I've been getting more and more worried.  I'll have to hitch the horses to the buckboard and go see for myself, of course."

"Are you an Indian?" asked Jacob abruptly.

Mary smiled.  "I prefer to be known as Native American, Jacob," she responded.  "But yes, I am."

"Were you born here?  Is there a reservation nearby?" the boy asked.

Mary laughed.  "No, I'm a valley girl,” she said.  “I was born in Los Angeles.  I met Davis at college.  We were at USC.  He's a geologist who fell in love with the mountains and the land.  He always wanted to live in the Sierra's.  We moved here about six years ago.  At first, people thought that we were survivalists, but we just wanted a farm in the high country."

The woman and the boy talked for some time, and then the woman said, "It's getting late.  You better stay here tonight.  Do you mind sleeping in the barn?  No offense intended, but I just met you, and I have small children to look after."

Jacob took no offense, and he spent the night in the loft of the barn.  He found it to be quite comfortable, except for the smell of the two cows down below.

The next morning, Jacob was awakened by the sound of Mary calling him.  It was still dark when she hitched the horses to the wagon.  The two children were asleep in the back of the wagon.  Mary had wrapped them in blankets, and she had laid them on old soft hay.  Jacob rubbed the sleep from his eyes, as he climbed up to sit alongside Mary.

They traveled all day, stopping only to rest the horses.  It was almost dusk when they arrived at the place where the mist covered the road.  Mary stared at it for some time, and then she insisted on climbing the same hill that Jacob had climbed.  In the darkening gloom it did, indeed, seem as if they were on an island.  Finally Mary was satisfied, and she turned the wagon around.  By moonlight, they made their way back.  At midnight, they stopped to sleep.  Mary slept in the bed of the wagon with her kids, and Jacob curled up on the ground, beneath.

The following morning, Mary let everyone sleep late.  She made a fire, and she cooked eggs and hash browns using a portable iron grill and a frying pan.  After months of existing on the camp’s meager fare, Jacob eagerly devoured this delicious breakfast.  Afterwards, they took their time going back.

It was after dark when they came to the turnoff to the logging road.  Jacob asked to be let off.  Mary protested that she could take him to his camp, but Jacob reminded her of the grisly sight that the children might see.  Reluctantly she accepted his reasoning and so, with a last wave, she turned up the logging road, and the lumbering wagon was soon lost in the shadows.

Jacob turned toward his camp.  It was a chilly moonlit night, but he was young and hardy and his fleece lined jacket was warm.  He hiked in the moonlight wondering what would happen to Mary and to her kids.  He hoped that she had enough supplies to last them for a while.  He remembered that her husband had gone down to Bakersfield to restock.  Eventually he stopped to sleep.  He rose early, and he made it to the camp in time for brunch.

Mike was glad to see Jacob, and he listened with interest to Jacob's report of the farm and its inhabitants.  He was especially interested in the solar room attached to the barn.  He promised Jacob that he would send someone to see if Mary needed help in any way.

Meanwhile, he told Jacob, Hector had shown up with a load of supplies the day before, and he had taken two boys back with him to help load and deliver the rest.  That had taken all day, and they had made several trips.  They had also scavenged the bikers’ shack and the RV for more supplies, and they had brought the other motorcycles to the camp.  Then Hector and Rasul had gone back to the logging camp for the night.  Hector was going to drive the forklift down today, and Rasul was bringing his motorcycle.

"Yeah, that lucky dog," exclaimed John.  He had wanted to ride the motorcycle, but Rasul had some experience.

By the end of July, Hector had managed to bring most of the machinery down from the logging camp.  He removed the seats from the bus, filled it with logs, and delivered them to the job site.  With the help of the Spears, he built a log bridge that was stable enough to allow some of the lighter machinery to cross the river.  In the first week of August, they began building the log wall in front of the cave.

To his surprise, timid Kathy spoke to Mike and insisted that they use ropes to secure the forklift whenever Hector used it to raise a log up to a high position.

"The slope makes it dangerous," she explained.  "What if it fell backwards?  The forklift might break and worse, Hector might be killed."

After mulling it over, Mike decided that Kathy was right, so they used safety ropes when they started building the wall.  Mike allowed Hector to stay in one of the three cabins still on the girls’ side of the river.  They had moved another cabin to the boys’ side.  It was still tight quarters with extra bunk beds jammed into each of the available cabins.  Mike was still in his old bunk, but at least everyone had been moved out of the dining hall.

The mood of the camp had greatly improved.  Privately and in groups, the kids had come to accept the reality of this new world.  Privately and in groups, they had mourned the loss of the people they had loved and lost.  Now their spirits had lifted, and they were looking forward.

These children were resilient, and though they sometimes felt depressed, they also had a need to play.  At first Mike was so focused on surviving, that he resented the time spent on fun, but John and Desi reminded him that they were still kids, and that they needed to run, jump, skip, play, and let off steam.

One day John became so annoyed with Mike’s solemn attitude that he grabbed the smaller boy in a headlock, and then he marched Mike down to the meadow to throw a Frisbee for an hour.  Soon Mike was laughing, running, and screaming, and at the end of the hour he realized that not once had he worried about food, shelter, or the dangers of winter.

After that, Mike asked Yuie to organized archery contests, baseball games, and dodge ball challenges.  He made sure that everyone had some private time to just kick back and take it easy.  He asked Erin to explore developing natural substances for creating makeup, and to hold classes to teach the younger girls how to apply that makeup.  All of the books in the camp were confiscated, and a library was created.  Eric was the camp librarian.  The kids were glad to have a more relaxed atmosphere, and they griped less about the tasks to which they were assigned.

There were plenty of tasks.  Beside the effort, led by Hector to construct the Lodge, and the effort, led by Jacob, to supplement their food supplies by hunting, there was the hated kitchen duty, dreaded clothes washing, and never ending fire wood gathering.  Mike charged the Spears with patrolling the perimeter of the camp.  He established guard posts on the slopes overlooking the camp.  He spent a lot of time thinking of ways to improve their situation and their chances of survival.

Sometimes, his ideas were eagerly adopted.  Sometimes, they were not.  One night at Meeting, he proposed a new idea.

"I think we should strip down to our underwear for three hours a day," he said confidently.  There was a stunned silence, and then the uproar began.