Chapter Seven Winter in the Lodge

Winter sets in and the kids wait it out. A cold snap brings danger, and bickering between kids causes problems.

Chapter Seven

 

Winter in the Lodge

 

The kids were allowed to come and go as they pleased.  Mike sent out a few more hunting parties, although they were receiving more snow than rain now.  Mike cautioned the leaders, Jacob and Luis, not to go too far.  Now that everything was in place, he was anxious that there should be no injuries.  So far, they had been lucky.  Except for Howard's adventure, the only medical problems had been scrapes and bruises.  Everyone who had been invited to the camp had been instructed to bring a tube of Neosporin, so they had plenty of that medicine.

Mike asked Erin to dream up some ways to entertain the tribe during the long months ahead.  Erin formed a social committee made up exclusively of girls.  The committee began by asking each of the campers what kinds of talents they had.  By the time it became too cold to play outside, the committee was prepared with a variety of activities.

When it got cold enough outside, they would move their large chest freezers to a level place just outside the door, and pack snow on top of the food.  The freezers held the dismembered carcasses of three deer along with other items.  Bags of potatoes, rice, dry cereal, powdered milk, and flour were stashed under the floors of the bottom rooms along with the canned goods from the logging camp.  Mike hoped they had enough.  He wondered if Jacob might be able to get one more deer.  He wondered how long the road would be open to Mary Brown's house, so they could restock their butter.  At the first meeting in Mike’s new quarters, the Council discussed their food supply.

"Are we going to make it to spring, Yuie?" Mike asked.

"Well, our original supplies are just about gone except for some rice, cereal, flour, and powdered milk.  Switching to water in July helped a lot.  We used up the food that we found in the bikers’ shack and in the RV.  We used up the first deer that Jacob killed, but we have three more in the freezers.  We have twenty bags of potatoes and ten bags of beets that Mrs. Brown sent, plus those jars of pickles.  And we have lots and lots of her winter squash.

“And we have the stuff from the logging camp.  They had supplies for twenty people for six months.  Most of it is canned stuff, like beef stew, vegetables, and beans.  There are some apples and pears left, but we ate all the oranges.  We have a lot of lemons, but they are all wrinkled.  We plan to use them to make lemonade.  That should provide some vitamin C.  We have to watch out for scurvy.

“We’re rationing food, and we eat less than big men, so I think the stuff from the logging camp will last about four months.  With that, the deer and the veggies from Mrs. Brown, I think we can make our food last for about five months.  We could go a little longer if we rationed a little more."

"It's almost November," Mike said.  "So, we can make it until the end of March.  We might be getting hungry after that."

"Mrs. Brown will try to grow lettuce and chard in her solar room this winter," said Hector.  “And she's going to try to grow cucumbers and tomatoes in five gallon buckets.  But she said that she didn't expect a lot of production from the tomatoes and cucumbers until after the twenty first of March.  That's when the plants will get twelve hours of sunlight.  She will make bread from her wheat crop and freeze it.  The road will be passable some of the time by early March.  I think she will replant her wheat and oats in April."

"I should be able to get into the forest and hunt in March," Jacob added.  "And I can still get into the forest for a few weeks more.  What I bring back, we need to eat first, and save the canned supplies for later.”

"You mentioned the trout pond at the Brown farm, Jacob" said Jean.  "Fish should be a good source of protein.  And I'll start classes on edible plants that grow around here."

"You think that you know which plants we can eat?" Kathy asked, giving the woman a dubious look.

"Hey! United States Forest Ranger here," Jean responded, giving Kathy an annoyed look in return.

"When that calf grows up, it will give milk," Eric said.  The rest of them looked at him.

"No bull, s**t," John said.  The guys looked disgusted, and the girls giggled.

"That wasn't nice," Desi admonished her lover.

"Sorry, Eric," John said with a grin.

"Is there anything else we are going to run out of by the end of winter?" Mike asked.

"Toilet paper," said Yuie.  "Sooner or later we will have to use worn out cloth.  Which we will have to wash and reuse."  She shuddered.

"Holey crap," John exclaimed.

"Knock it off, John," said Mike.  "Some of you haven't heard Jean's story, so I going to have her tell it now."  He looked at Jean.

"All right, but first, I want to thank you girls for offering me Jackie's clothing.  I know that can't have been easy for you,” Jean said.

"This is what happened to me.  I was sent by the Forest Service in the middle of May to visit an old lookout station, Baker's Point Lookout.  The idea was to see if the Service needed to destroy it to prevent possible injuries, or to restore it as a National Historical Monument.

"It coincided with my plans to take some vacation time, so I spent a few days up there, kicking back and relaxing.  When I left, I ran into the gunk you call, the ‘Fog.’  I didn't want to drive through it, so I thought that I would take a roundabout way and bypass it.  Only I couldn't.  Everywhere I went, I ran into it again.  And before I realized, I stupidly ran out of gas.  I left my jeep and tried to make my way down to civilization.  I spent a month going this way and that backtracking again and again.  I had my sidearm with me, so I managed to kill and eat game at first, and sometimes I managed to catch fish from a stream.  But then I ran out of bullets.  Later, I found myself northeast of here.  That’s where I ran across a lodge called, ‘Eagle’s Retreat.’

"Now, at first I thought I was saved.  But as I made my way down the hill toward the lodge, I saw two men beating the hell out of another man.  So, I got a lot more cautious.  I went down closer to see what I could find out, but I stayed out of sight.  By the time I got close to the place, the three men were gone.  I waited until the next day, when I spotted a woman pinning clothes on a clothesline.  I got close enough to call quietly to her, and when she sidled over to me, I had a very revealing talk with her.  She told me she was a nurse.

"It seems that there were two different groups at the Retreat.  There was a group of student nurses and their instructors, and there was a group of artists doing their art thing.  And there were some other people staying at the lodge, besides the owner and his wife.  Two of these other people were elderly ladies.

"The woman I talked to said that after people realized they were trapped, things started turning ugly.  A group of men stole some firearms from the owner, took over, and started ordering everybody around.  They threatened the owner when he protested.

"At first, they said that they were organizing things so they could survive.  But then one day, the owner and his wife disappeared.  They haven't been heard from since.  The men said that the owner had decided to leave.  The other borders didn't believe them.  Then the two older women disappeared.  The men didn't even bother to explain that.  They just said that it wasn't their problem.  The woman I was talking to said that one of the male nurses had disappeared the day before.  Also, one of the female artists had been forced into a sexual relationship by the men.  They withheld food until she agreed to sleep with them.

"Anyway, I hung around for two weeks.  The nurse snuck some food to me every couple of days.  Then, one day, as she was coming to give me some food, I saw a man following her.  I don't know if she told them about me, which I doubt, or if they thought that she was stealing and stashing food.  I got out of there, right then.  I spent two more weeks stumbling around in the forest before your hunting party found me.  I had lost all my gear.  I’m sure that I would have died there at that spot, if Nathan hadn't found me."

"More people," Eric murmured.

"More bad people," Desi added.

"Sounds like some of them are good.  But right now they're trapped," Howard said.

"There's nothing we can do for them now," said Mike.  "But, when spring comes, who knows?"

"One more thing," said Jean.  "They had goats and sheep.  I saw some of both, mostly sheep, wandering around."

Erin wanted to do something for Halloween, but no one had any good ideas, except for telling ghost stories.  That didn't seem like such a good idea given their predicament.  In the end, they asked a few people to sing songs to mark the night.  So October turned into November.  The days grew colder.  Jacob brought in a few more rabbits, and to the surprise of everyone, a pig.

"A boar actually," Jacob said.

"It's pig out time," Yuie yelled.

"I was going to say that," John complained.

The next morning they sliced the boars belly in the deserted dining hall and ate bacon with the eggs that Mary Brown had sent.

Snow began to fall more and more.  Hector made a last trip to the Brown farm.  He reported that things seemed to be fine at the farm.  The two little kids were happily forcing their new older companions to play with them.  He had helped Mary winterize her machinery.

The campers broke apart some of the cardboard boxes in which the kitchen equipment had been delivered, and they used the cardboard as sleds.  Some of the kids wanted to use the emergency bathroom, but Mike declared it off limits.  They had to use the outside toilets as long as possible, he said firmly.

At the beginning of November, they experienced some days when the temperature rose into the seventies, although most of the time the high was in the fifties.  By the end of November, they were glad to see an occasional day when the temperature reached sixty.  It became a game to see how low the temperature would drop.  One night at the end of November, many of them stayed up after midnight, and at four am they watched the temperature gage drop to five degrees.

The solar heating system was working well.  On days when the sun shone for several hours, it became so warm in the small cave, that the boys who preferred cooler air would take their sleeping bags into the central area of the Lodge to sleep.  Some boys, who had been assigned bunks in the boys’ room, traded beds with some of the boys who were sleeping in the small cave.  Mike knew that eventually it would be cooler in the girls’ rooms than in the cave.  He was worried that a girl would request that she be allowed to sleep in the cave.  What would he say, he wondered?  What should he do?

As December came in, Mike realized that his birthday had passed a few weeks ago.  He was fourteen.  He wondered how many other birthdays had passed unnoticed and uncelebrated.

In early December, they received three days of continuous snow, and Mike set a curfew.  Everyone had to be in the Lodge by four o'clock.  There was a lot of grumbling, and when the skies cleared for the next ten days, a lot of kids thought that Mike’s curfew had been premature.

Then, a week before Christmas, on a clear day when most of the restless kids had abandoned the Lodge to play outside, a sudden storm blew in around noon.  The skies darkened, the clouds opened, and an enormous amount of snow began to fall.

At first, the kids ignored the snowfall, thinking only of it as a chance for more fun.  Then, as the temperature began to drop precipitously, they began to seek the shelter of the Lodge.  Some went to the dining hall, thinking to wait out the snowfall.  They soon realized that it might be difficult to wade back to the Lodge through the blinding fury.

Mike had the Spears scurrying to and fro, rounding up the strays, helping the kids in the dining hall make their way to the Lodge, and taking a head count.  When all the bathrooms were empty and the head count was complete, they were short four campers.  There was a short intense meeting in the Chief’s Room.

"Chief, we have to find them!" Erin wailed.  "Maria is one of the missing."

"I understand how you feel, Erin," Mike replied, his face grim.  "But I can't allow anyone to go out in that storm."

"Maybe they are still in the dining hall, Chief," said Howard.  "We could make our way to the old Chief’s Headquarters and then to the dining hall and check."

"I checked it, man, I checked it," Ahmad stated “I made sure that I was the last one out."

"They might have gone in after you checked it and left," Howard argued.  "They might have been down in the parking lot or something."

"I was down there, Howard," John said.  "I sure didn't see them."

"Maybe they broke into the Chief’s Headquarters," Desi suggested.

"We can't let them freeze, Chief," Yuie pleaded.

"Let me think!" ordered Mike roughly.  Then he turned to Jacob.  "Can you make one more check around the perimeter of our camp?" he asked.  "And then check the Chief’s Headquarters and the dining hall."  Jacob nodded.

"I'll go with him," said Jean.  "It'll be safer if two people are together."

"I'll go too," Hector said.

"No!" said Mike while shaking his head emphatically.  "I'm only risking two."

"There are kids out there," Hector exclaimed.  "I'm going."

Mike looked up at Hector.  "I said, no," he repeated quietly.  "And I'm either the Chief or I'm not."  He waited.

Hector breathed out harshly.  "You're the Chief," he said.

Jean and Jacob left.  The others waited minute by agonizing minute.  Mike, Hector, and Yuie stood outside the door, straining to see through the blinding snow.

Suddenly Yuie shouted, "That's them!"

A few seconds later, a person came into view, and then another, and finally it was evident that there were six persons making their way back to the Lodge.

The three watchers went out to meet them.  Yuie was crying and hugging Maria and the others.  Erin and Ahmad came out of the Lodge to help.  Gradually, Mike got them all shepherded into the Lodge.  Mike looked in wonder at Jacob and then grabbed him in a bear hug.

"Thanks, man," Mike said, his voice choked with emotion.

"Found them down at Hector’s bridge," said Jacob, panting from the cold.  "They went into the forest to look for pine cones."

"Oh, Jeez," Mike exclaimed.

"They were smart," Jacob continued.  "They were following the river back.  They probably would have made it to the dining hall."

"It's my fault," Erin confessed.  "I remember telling them I wanted some pine cones for our Christmas decorations.  But didn't think about that when they were missing."

"Never mind, Erin," said Mike.  "They're safe.  That's all that counts."

The close call got everyone's attention.  Mike made a new rule.  Until further notice, no one was allowed to go beyond the boundaries of the camp.  There was no argument when he announced the new rule.  That night, the mood of the tribe was subdued.

Mike found Hector for a talk.  "Everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure, amigo," Hector answered.  "Good call, Chief."

"I know that you wanted to go and find them, Hector," said Mike.  "But you, Jacob, and Jean are the people most likely to keep the rest of us alive.  I couldn't risk all three of you.  And I couldn't say that to you in front of the others."

Hector smiled down at the boy, and then he laughed.  "Oh, I think there is one other person much more likely to keep us all alive.  But I see what you mean."  Puzzled, Mike watched him walk away.

In the close quarters, Mike often dealt with irritations and eruptions between individuals.  Two campers, Tyler and Gabby, seemed to have an ongoing feud.  Mike was constantly hearing about Tyler teasing Gabby, or Gabby taunting Tyler.  He got a little peace by threatening to tie them together for a day.

Some birds had made their way into the Lodge through the gap over the beams.  They were living in crevices high in the rear of the cave.  Jean said that they were white throated swifts.  Mike wouldn’t have cared, except for the mess that they made on the cave floor.

One day, Mike remembered that if the old world had not disappeared he would be in school.  Since Jean was the oldest member of their tribe, he asked her to organize a school.  Attendance was mandatory, he told the kids, from nine in the morning until noon.  After that, there would be another two hours of school, but attendance was not mandatory.  Of course, his announcement was met with a chorus of obligatory boos, but most of the kids welcomed the distraction.  Most even went to school in the afternoon.  And Jean was surprisingly effective, some even said threatening, as their teacher.

Jean was not that happy to be selected as the teacher.  These kids could act an awful lot like, well, kids.  Teasing each other seemed to be their favorite pastime.

“You need a haircut.  You look like a girl.”

“I do not!”

“Do to!”

“Do not!”

“Hey!  I’m trying to teach a class here,” Jean exclaimed.  “I need you to concentrate on wild onions, tubers, and berries.”

“I need a haircut.”

Jean borrowed a pair of scissors, and she cut some hair.

They had a tree for Christmas, if not a lot of presents.  To Mike's great surprise and lasting gratitude, Erin and her social committee presented handmade gifts to each person in the tribe.  Christmas Day, they had a sing-along which lifted everyone's spirits.  The night before, there had been a lot of silent tears, and some not so silent tears as they lay in their bunks.

Tyler and Gabby celebrated New Years Eve by putting insects in each other’s sleeping bags which brought new threats from Mike.  Howard and John flipped a coin to see which couple would get privacy in their room that night.  Howard won.  Hector agreed to let Kathy zip their sleeping bags together for that one night.

"As long as you wear your pajamas," he stated his condition firmly.

Kathy searched in vain for a cute nightie, but she had to settle for her heavy cartoon pajamas.  Not willing to take a chance, Hector wore his trousers to bed.  Still, they enjoyed the moment when the watches turned twelve.  Since there were many watches, and as not all of them were synchronized, there was some dispute as to when twelve o'clock actually occurred.

And so January arrived.  Mike had given the kids a holiday from school, but a few days after the first of January, some of the kids asked Jean when school would restart, so Jean reluctantly restarted her classes.  It was cold, but the solar heating system and the central wood fire kept it bearable in the central area of the Lodge.  The small cave was comfortable.  A few girls left their bunks and slept in the central area where it was warmer.

Mike hesitated to let people use the emergency bathroom during the day, and this precipitated a crisis.  One day, as the Council was gathering in Chief’s Room for a meeting, John and Desi entered obviously upset with each other.

"Chief, John and I are breaking up.  You need to assign us bunks," Desi announced.

"Ignore her, Chief," said John.  "She's just mad.  She'll get over it."

She whirled on him.  "I will not get over it," she said angrily.  "You hit me!"

"I smacked you a few times on your a*s.  And you deserved every smack," John countered.

"I don't care what you call it.  You hit me.  And for no good reason."

"Um...I need to use the bathroom," Mike said, and he left the room.

"See?  He didn't ask anyone's permission," Desi barked.

"He's the Chief.  Besides we all know where he's going," John responded, trying to sound reasonable.

"Wait a second," Erin interjected, giving John an incredulous look.  "John, you hit Desi because she used the bathroom without your permission?"

"Yes!" Desi shouted.

"Of course not," John scoffed.  "I smacked her butt because she didn't let me know she was going outside."

"Ah," said Hector.  "She went outside to use the bathroom, and she didn't tell you that she was going.  So you spanked her for that?"

"Why should Desi have to tell you that she was using the bathroom?" Jean asked.  "Are you kinky or something?"

"Any time she goes outside, I want to be informed, so that if she doesn't come back in a few minutes, I can go check on her," John explained through clenched teeth.

"Oh," a chorus of voices drawled, and then there was a moment of silence as the others considered John’s reasoning.

"That does sound reasonable, Desi," Erin admitted.

"I don't care if it is reasonable.  He had no right to hit me.  I'm not a child," Desi responded.

"A woman's never too old to spank," said Howard with a laugh.  He glanced at Jean who was glaring at him, and he suddenly realized what he had said.

"Not that I believe that," he stammered hastily.  "That's just something I heard somewhere."

"At least he had a good reason," Kathy groused.  "It’s not like you were just accidentally, innocently rubbing your boyfriend, and you ended up getting a smack on the butt."  Hector winced as the others snickered.

Mike returned to the room.

"We need a new rule for everybody, Chief," Jean said.  "Nobody can go outside without finding someone to keep track of how long they have been gone."  The rest nodded.

"All right," said Mike.  "We'll announce it tonight."  The meeting went on to other items on the agenda.

Afterwards, John said to Desi, "I'm sorry.  I was worried.  I love you."

"All right.  I forgive you.  That was the third time I forgot to tell you, I admit.  You know," she continued.  "Mike conveniently missed that whole discussion."

"I guess that's why he's the Chief," John said.

In the middle of January, the temperature plunged.  The skies were overcast and dark.  Hector disconnected the pump, so that the hot water in the barrels was not circulated outside.  Gradually, it grew colder and colder in the Lodge.  The girls abandoned the upstairs rooms.  Then the boys in the downstairs room escaped to the relative warmth of the small cave.  Finally, the two couples and Mike admitted defeat, and they moved into the central area close to the fire.

"I'm worried about the amount of wood we are using," Hector said on the fourth day of the deep freeze.

"What else can we do?" Mike asked.

"Jean says that we should all move into the boys’ cave.  I agree with her.  Whatever heat is left in the barrels might last until this cold passes.  And we will be huddled together.  That will keep us a little warmer."

"All right, let's do it.  And until further notice, we'll only use the emergency bathroom.  But keep a small fire going," Mike ordered.

Quickly the entire tribe moved into the boys’ cave.  The boys dismantled the girls’ bunks, so that they could be moved.  Soon the small cave was crammed with bunks and people.  There was not enough room for all the bunks.

"Double up," Mike said.

"I want to bunk with Erin," called a voice from a group of boys.

"In your dreams," Erin retorted with a sniff.

"Every night," came the rejoinder.

Gabby yelped as Tyler pretended to pull her pajamas down, and there were a hundred other human interactions as the kids dressed in all their clothes and then got into their bunks.  They found that pushing their bunks together and laying their mattresses crosswise allowed them to double up their sleeping bags.  Some of the boys doubled with boys, some girls doubled with girls, and some of the doubles were mixed.

There were twenty two doubles, once they had paired off.  Mike found himself sharing his bag and Yuie's bag.  This made it warm enough to be comfortable.  There was a lot of joking, a lot of teenage sexual innuendo, and a lot of snide comments.  Someone told a story.  Someone sang a song.  Then, during a pause, came the sound of real music.

"What's that?" several people asked.

"It's Hector playing his harmonica," Kathy explained.

There was silence for awhile as Hector played.  Night came and passed.  Dawn was a drear light.  Jacob got up, and he checked outside.

"Still cloudy," he said when he came back.  "And it's snowing again."

There were too many in immediate need of the bathroom to use only the emergency bathroom, so precious heat was wasted each time a group went outside.

Mike gathered his Council together.  "What are we going to do," he asked.  There was no answer.

The tribe went back into the cave, and they got into their sleeping bags.  As the day wore on, it got colder and colder in the cave.  To avoid the danger of carbon dioxide, Mike made everyone leave the cave every four hours and go into the central area, while some of the kids flapped blankets to circulate the air.  Mike and Yuie clung together that night and shivered.

The next morning after everyone had used the bathroom, Mike gathered his Council again.  "We'll freeze if this goes on," he said.  "So we are going to have to build the fire real high, even if it uses a lot of wood."

"I have an idea, Mike," said Eric.  "What if we build a fire, and use it to heat up the barrels?  When they are boiling hot, we can use blankets to roll them back to the cave."

Mike looked at Hector.  "What do you think?"

"I think that's a good idea," Hector replied.  "I'll take some of the canvas, and use it to cover the opening.  We'll lose less heat that way once the barrels are in here, and we can huddle around the fire while we are heating the barrels."

"Might as well build two fires," Jean suggested.  "Heat up two barrels at a time, and more of us can get closer to the heat."

"All right, do it, Hector," Mike said.

They set to work, and the activity helped to warm them until the fires were roaring.  Hector disconnected the barrels, and two at a time, they were rolled on to the fire.  It took some time to get the water in the barrels sufficiently hot for Hector to be satisfied.  They banked the fires, then using blankets; they rolled the barrels just inside the cave.  Hector used long pieces of timber to prop canvas against the wall just outside of the alcove.  He hoped that this would keep the heat inside the small cave.

It worked.  Within the hour, it became too warm to stay in their sleeping bags.  They sat on their bunks, much happier now.  They entertained one another and discussed many different subjects including their favorite, the differences between boys and girls.

"Jean, why do you think guys like caves better than girls?" Erin asked.

"It might have to do with safety," answered Jean.  "Thousands of years ago, when people lived in caves, the men had to leave and hunt animals for food.  That was dangerous work.  The men were much safer while they were in the caves.  But women stayed in the caves much of the day doing traditional woman's work.  I suspect that they were much more likely to catch a disease from staying longer in cramped confined quarters.  So for them, being out of the cave in fresh air was probably healthier."

The hero of the hour was Eric.

"Good idea, Eric," Mike said, as he praised Eric for the tenth time.

"Yeah, the Geek saved the day, all right," John agreed.

"Thank you, Eric," said Desi.  “You are the brains in this tribe.  The next time John gives you a hard time, tell me and you can take his place."

"Hey!" John complained.

"Just kidding, Darling," Desi responded.

The bitter cold and the dark skies continued that day and the next, but the tribe was warm in the cave.  Then the skies cleared, and the sun came out.  Hector reattached the barrels, and the crisis was over for the moment.

January turned into February.  The kids settled into a routine.  There were the usual squabbles, but nothing too bad.  Mike finally lost his temper with Tyler and Gabby, so he took a ten foot length of cord and tied them together for twenty four hours.  They were stunned.

"What about when we go to the bathroom?" Gabby wailed.

"I guess you can't close the door," Mike answered.  "One of you will have to stand outside while the other uses the bathroom."

"Even number two?" Tyler asked in disbelief.

"Even number two," Mike answered mercilessly.

"Do we have to sleep in the same bag?" Gabby whined.

"Yes," Mike replied.  "Go zip your bags together, right now.  Get some help and move your mattresses over by the fire.  Don’t get too close though."

Twenty four hours later the two seemed sufficiently subdued.  They lasted ten days.  Then, just before bedtime, a furious Yuie came storming into Mike's room followed by Desi and a tearful Gabby.

"Tyler pulled Gabby's pajama bottoms down because two guys dared him," said Yuie angrily.  "She wasn't wearing panties, because she washed them today, and they were hanging up to dry."  Gabby stifled a sob.

"Find John," Mike ordered grimly.  "You stay here, Gabby."  A minute later, John arrived.

Mike gave his instructions.  "Find Tyler.  Get some Spears, find the two guys that dared Tyler to pants Gabby, and bring them here.  Tell the other Spears to grab their spears and come here."

A few more minutes followed, and then John and the Spears arrived with three boys in tow.  Two were obviously scared, and one was scared but defiant.

"Did you guys dare Tyler to pants Gabby?" Mike asked them solemnly.

"Yeah, so what?" sneered the defiant boy.  "He's the one who did it.  He didn't have to.  We didn't do nothing."  The other instigator nodded.

Mike looked at Tyler.  "Loyal friends you have here, Tyler," he said sarcastically.

Tyler did not respond to Mike.  Ashamed, he looked at Gabby and said, "I'm sorry, Gabby.  I'm really sorry.  I was stupid."  Gabby choked back a sob.

"You three strip," Mike ordered.  “We’ll give Gabby a chance to see you three naked.”  Two of the boys hesitated, and then, red faced, they began to shed their clothes.

"Hell no, I'm not stripping," said the defiant boy.  "I didn't do anything."  Mike motioned to the Spears, who grabbed the alarmed boy and began to remove his clothes.

"Hey!  Stop!  You can't do this!"

He swung a fist, and then he yelped as John smacked him hard on the side of his head.  He stopped fighting and held his aching head.

"Our food would last longer if we tossed this one out in the snow," Desi suggested coldly.

The boy lost his defiant attitude.  "Oh, s**t, don't do that.  Please, Chief.  I'm sorry."

"We'll let him stay.  For now," Mike answered.  He addressed the other boy.  "We're trying to survive here, dickhead.  Now get your clothes on and get out.  You, too."  He motioned to the boy on the floor.  Hastily, the two boys pulled their clothes on and fled.

Mike turned to the last naked boy.  "Tyler," was all he said.

Tyler turned white.  "Are you kicking me out of the Lodge, Chief," he whispered.

"Not yet," Mike said  He turned to the Spears.  "Give him a beating,"

"No, Chief!"  This outburst came from Gabby.  "Please don't beat Tyler, Chief.  Don't do it!"

Mike turned to stare at Gabby.

"Why not?" he asked.

Gabby started crying.  "I don't want you to hurt Tyler," she cried.  "It's partly my fault.  I pulled his pajamas down last week.  I accidentally got his underwear, too.  But he never told on me."

"Oh, for heaven’s sake," Desi muttered.

"Is that true?" Mike asked Tyler.

"Yes, Chief, but it's not the same.  She didn't have any panties on, and beside I'm a guy.  Go ahead and beat me," Tyler said bravely, as his body shook with fright.  "I deserve it for listening to those two a******s."

"No, Chief. Don't do it," sobbed Gabby.

"All right," Mike said. “You two have been causing me a lot of grief, so here's what I'm going to do.  I'm officially pronouncing you two, boyfriend and girlfriend.

"Huh?" chorused the startled twosome.  Gabby stopped crying.

"You heard me," said Mike firmly.  "You two are going to be boyfriend and girlfriend until April.  By the end of this week, Gabby, you are going to tell all of your friends that you like Tyler and that he's your boyfriend.  Tyler, you are going to tell your friends that you like Gabby, and that she is your girlfriend."  The baffled kids were thoroughly blushing by this time.

"I'm not sure that my friends will believe me," Tyler said.

"Or mine," added Gabby.

"To prove it you each have one week to make each other a present," said Mike.  "A very nice present.  And if you don't...," his voice turned menacing.  "And if you don't, or if it's not nice enough, then I'll have the Spears give Tyler a beating and the girls give Gabby a beating."

"Your present better be nice," Desi warned Gabby.  "Or I'll kick your little a*s."  Gabby nodded.  Like most of the kids, she was very leery of Desi.

"What kind of present?" Tyler asked with a puzzled expression.

"Think of something," Mike snapped.  "Ask people.  And I better see you guys holding hands and stuff.  Now Tyler, put your clothes on and you and Gabby get out."  The two kids left.

"You handled that brilliantly, Chief," Yuie said, filled with admiration.

"No, I didn't," grumbled Mike.  "There's too much of this boyfriend and girlfriend crap going around, and I just added to it."

"Well, there are more couples since we were stuck in the boys’ cave," Yuie admitted.

"And this is all your fault," Mike said, glaring at John and Desi.

Desi smiled at him.  "You are so sweet," she murmured.

"I am not," he denied hotly.

At the end of the week, Gabby presented Tyler with a pair of deerskin moccasins.  "Jean helped me make them," she said with an anxious look at Tyler, who was examining the footwear with obvious delight.  "Are they okay?"

"Wow, these are too cool!" Tyler exclaimed.  "Mine is not that good," he said apologetically, as he presented Gabby with a pair of clip-on turquoise earrings and a turquoise pendant.

"Oh, Tyler, these are so pretty," Gabby gushed.  "How did you make them?" she asked, as she tried them on in front of her envious friends.

"I pried the turquoise out of my belt buckle," he answered proudly.  "Eric had a couple of itty bitty alligator clips that he let me have.  Hector helped me bend the teeth over, so they wouldn't hurt your ears.  Mike let me have some tiny screws that he found in his tool chest."

For a moment, Gabby was speechless.  Then right in front of everybody, she took Tyler's face between her hands, and she kissed him right on the mouth.  No tongue, of course.  When she finished, Tyler sucked in a breath, red faced but pleased.  Mike had no trouble from them for the rest of the winter.

"I wish someone would make me a present like that," grumbled Desi to Yuie, as she glanced sideways at her boyfriend.

"Don't worry, Sweetheart," John assured her.  "I was already thinking of making you a Mr. Potato Head.  We still have plenty of potatoes."  Desi sighed.

Yuie giggled, and then she asked Desi, "Do you think that Mike would have told the Spears to give Tyler a real beating?"

"What do you think?" Desi replied.

Yuie was troubled.  "I'm just not sure anymore," she said.

After several months of living in the Lodge, some of the teenagers began to emit an unpleasant smell.  One day, Mike got a whiff of a boy walking by.  He stopped him, and he demanded to know when the boy had last washed himself in the washroom.

"It's cold in there, Chief," the boy complained.  "And whenever it gets a little warm, it stinks in there.”

Mike was unmoved.  He ordered everyone to wash their body at least once every three days.  He endured a lot of grumbling about that order.

When March rolled around, Mike and the Council took stock of their supplies.  There was a general consensus that they had done better than they had expected.  They had carefully rationed the meat from their venison, rabbits, and birds, and had encouraged everyone to eat the vegetables.  They had made lemonade once a week, so that everyone could drink a small glass of the juice.  The pickles and beets had lasted, but the bread and rolls were almost gone.  Still, by the middle of April they would start running out of food.

"We'll have to get into the forest by then, in spite of the snow," said Mike.  "Hector, if you can power up one of the big machines, you might get through the snow to Mrs. Brown's house.  She said that she would try to make bread for us during the winter.  Maybe you can catch some trout, and maybe we can get some real milk.  Besides that, I would like to know how our people are doing.  Jean, see if you can find some of the plants that you have been teaching us about.  Jacob, what do you think?"

"I'll go look.  Mrs. Brown said that there were more deer than ever last year.  If they stayed alive, I'll find them," Jacob replied.

Later Jacob came to Mike privately.  "Chief?"  Jacob looked around to see if anyone could hear him.

"Yes, Jacob?" Mike said.

"I've been meaning to tell you something, but I wasn't sure if I should say anything yet.  You remember the last time we dumped the Porta Pottys?  Well, the others didn't say anything, but I think the Fog was lower down than it was the first time I saw it."

Stunned Mike stared at Jacob.  "Are you sure?"

"Well, not really," Jacob said.  "But I noticed a strip of brown grass running along the edge of the Fog.  At first, it looked like the rest of the grass that had died from the frost, but then I noticed this strip had, like, a reddish goo on it.  I didn't say anything to the others, because I didn't want to get everyone's hopes up.  But as soon as possible, we should check it out."

"All right.  Let's just keep it between us for now," Mike said.

There was plenty of snow on the ground, but the skies had cleared again, and there was a lot of sunshine in March.  The solar heating system was working well, so the temperature in the Lodge was quite comfortable.  One day, the temperature outside got up to seventy degrees.  Everyone was allowed to go outside again without permission, but they were required to stay within the boundaries of the camp.  Jacob chafed at this, but Mike was firm.

"A little while longer, please," he said.

"You're the Chief," Jacob grumbled.

The next day it snowed, and the temperature plunged once again.  It dropped down to five degrees that night.  They endured three more days of intense cold outside, but, inside, the barrels and the fire kept it bearable.  They had used only three quarters of their wood, so Mike allowed the fire to be built higher.

Then the skies lightened, and it turned warmer again.  At first light on the fifteenth of March, Mike let Jacob go into the forest, after making Jacob swear that he would return at the first sign of a cloud and not later than sunset.  Jacob was back by noon.

"I slipped and fell into a gulch," he explained.  "It was packed with snow.  I fell through powder snow up to my armpits.  Something stopped me.  I think I was standing on a body.  I think it was an animal."

Mike sent Jean and Howard with ropes to help Jacob.  By sunset, they had brought the body of a deer back to the Lodge.

"It's a doe," said Jacob with regret.  Probably died in that big freeze we had.

"Do you think the meat is safe to eat?" Mike asked.

"I think so," said Jean.  "It must have frozen quickly and the stomach and intestines were not open.  It will be gamey though.  I'll eat a very small portion to start.  If I don't get sick or have diarrhea then it should be okay."

The next day, they butchered the deer.  They moved all of the remaining food into one freezer, and they packed the deer meat in snow until they were sure that it was safe to eat.

"Not bad, Jacob, for your first day out," Mike said cheerfully.

"Blind luck," Jacob muttered.

"I hope everyone at the Brown farm is also having some luck," said Mike with a worried frown.