Into The Darkness (6 page)

“Shhhhh…”
Kevin held his index finger to his lips.

Dylan
froze in place. He could hear the voices now, too. His eyes were wide open and
he could feel his heart trying to beat out of his chest. One of the voices
sounded like Richard, very scared. The other was a deep voice, giving commands.
In the dark of the night, Dylan reached for the pistol hidden on the floor of
his raft. His hand coupled with the handle of the pistol like they were old
friends. Positioning the pistol in front of him and away from Kevin, he brushed
his trigger finger across its safety. The pistol was now ready to kill, and
Dylan dreaded what he slowly began sneaking towards, still hidden by the brush.
Stealthily, Dylan and Kevin edged forward, inch by inch, on their bare feet,
toward the voices. Each step felt like an eternity as their toes felt for dry
twigs that might snap and reveal their presence. From a crouched position,
Dylan leaned around a bush and saw Richard cowering in his raft. There was
enough light from the campfire for Dylan to see a tall skinny man with tattoos
on his arms, brandishing a machete at Richard.

“Where
are the others?” said the tattooed man with a threatening voice, while pointing
the machete at Richard.

“I
don’t know! What do you want from me?”

“I
saw you fellas hav’n some trouble with your rafts on the lake. I saw you come
down here, too. I was think’n that since you didn’t know how to use ‘em right,
I’ll just take ‘em off your hands…and those supplies, too. Get your ass up!”

The
stranger never heard Dylan’s panther-like approach. He did notice Richard’s
facial expression change as he glanced past the tattooed man and toward the
dark woods. Richard saw Dylan with the pistol leveled at the intruder’s head.
It was dark, but Dylan had crept so close, a blind man could have got a perfect
headshot. It was doubtful that the intruder had a chance to see Dylan at all.
Most likely, he never even saw the orange muzzle flash from the pistol. He was
dead before he hit the ground.

“Richard,
are you okay?” asked Dylan.

“Yeah…I’m…okay.”
Richard held his hands up and looked at them. They were shaking violently.
Kevin came out from behind the bushes and told Richard he would have to move
back into the thicket and stay concealed. Richard stepped out of the raft and
helped Kevin carry it into the dark wooded area. As he walked away Richard felt
the warm urine that had soaked his pants go cool in the nighttime air. He hoped
the other two men did not notice and was glad to be walking into the darkness.
The three finally drifted to sleep in their rafts, covered by their plastic
tarps.

Dylan
was the first to wake the next morning. He remained under the tarp as his mind
migrated from the world of peaceful dreams to his newfound reality. His body
was motionless as he lay there, listening to nature’s morning chatter by the
river. He closed his eyes and tried to identify all the noises from his new
surroundings. There was an orchestra of songbirds, crickets, frogs, a few
buzzing insects that had found their way under the tarp, and the perpetual
sound of the river. He pulled the tarp aside and felt the cool morning air. He
groped around on the floor of the raft to verify that the pistol remained where
he had hid it, then he stood and stepped out of the raft, saying quietly to
himself, “Time to start the day.”

Dylan
walked out of the thicket and toward the smoldering campfire. He split a few
pieces of driftwood and tossed them on the glowing embers to get the flames
back, hoping there would be fish to cook. Then his attention turned to the
where he left the intruder last night. He glanced at the lifeless body, and
walked toward it. The sound of chopping wood had awakened Kevin from the short
night’s sleep. He joined Dylan and they both stood staring at the man sprawled
on the ground.

“What
do you want to do with the body?” asked Kevin.

“Nothing.
Let the buzzards have it,” Dylan replied.

Pointing
at the body Dylan said, “This is the reason why we need to avoid people. I
can’t imagine what the roads will be like. They’re probably full of desperate
people like this guy.”

“What
roads will be the worst?” asked Kevin.

“The
interstates will be bad. You don’t know how happy I am that we’re not trying to
travel on an interstate. Lots of people were stranded on the interstates and
with every second that passes, they’re going to get more desperate. Then inside
the towns, I know there’s going to be road blocks and traps set for the
unsuspecting.”

“Dylan,
I looked at Richard’s map. I hate to tell you, but the interstate stays by this
river for miles. We’ll be right beside that interstate for…I don’t know how
long. I saw a small town on the map named Cascade, downstream from here. We
might be able to get there by the end of the day. Then next is Great Falls, and
we’ll have five dams to get around in about ten miles.”

“Shit!”
Dylan exclaimed. “There are five dams outside of Great Falls?”

“Yeah.
I didn’t think you wanted to hear that. One more thing, Great Falls has a
military base. There’ll be plenty of soldiers with guns that we need to avoid.”

Dylan
shook his head and said, “Well, there’s nothing we can do about that. We’d
better get busy. See if we got any fish last night and I’ll get more wood on
the fire.”

Kevin
went to the trotlines that he had set the previous day. Each line was tied
around a large stick and the end of the stick was hammered securely into the
ground. He pulled on the first line and it felt heavy. Kevin hauled the line in
and revealed a large catfish. He pulled the fish up to dry ground where it flailed
convulsively. Kevin grabbed a large stick and hit the fish squarely on the head
to kill it. He was able to retrieve two more catfish of similar size from the
remaining lines, and the other fish met the same fate when he hauled them in.
Kevin, now in possession of the switchblade that Dylan had acquired, used it to
cut a long flexible branch from a small tree. He used this little branch to
thread through their gills so he could carry the fish after he cleaned them on
the riverbank. He carefully looped each fishing line, then wrapped them in an
old shirt and placed the bundle in the raft. Kevin was afraid that the fishhooks,
if left uncovered, could puncture the raft. He walked back toward the campfire
with the cleaned fish hanging on the green stick. Midway to the fire, he stopped
and focused on the ground in front of him. He noticed a camouflage backpack in the
weeds and picked it up to take back to camp.

Richard
was at the campfire, prodding the coals with a long stick. Dylan was cutting
newly picked cattails to length and then peeling the shoots for breakfast.
Kevin approached Dylan and dropped the backpack at his feet.

Looking
at the intruder’s dead body, and then looking at the backpack, Dylan asked,
“What did Santa Claus bring us?”

Kevin
passed the fish to Richard, then dumped the contents of the backpack on the
ground. There were clothes, a knife, some paracord, binoculars, and cookware.
He tossed the knife and cookware to Richard and told him to cook the fish in
one of the pans. He also placed the machete back in its sheath and gave it to
Richard.

“Let’s
keep all of it. You never know when we might need it,” Dylan suggested.

They
ate boiled catfish and cattails, then boarded the rafts and resumed their
journey.

Heading
downstream, they kept cautious eyes on the interstate. There were people still
stranded on the road. Some saw the three men in their rafts and waved, while
others were oblivious. Most of the stranded travelers would be dehydrated and
beginning to get desperately hungry by now.

At
a point where the road came close to the river, they saw a woman by the water’s
edge. She appeared to be drinking the river water. The woman was carrying a
bundle of something in her arms, but the men were too far away to see what it
was. Kevin put his paddle down and motioned for the others to do the same. He
retrieved the binoculars from the backpack and brought the woman into focus. He
could see she was carrying something close to her body as she positioned
herself to drink the river’s water.

“It’s
a baby. She has a baby in her arms,” said Kevin.

The
woman looked up and saw the men floating down the river. Standing up, she
lethargically began to wave with one arm. Her weakness overcame her and she
went to her knees. She raised her weary arm to signal them again. The men could
barely hear her attempt at a scream for help.

“Look
around. If it’s clear, we should try to help her,” said Dylan.

Fearing
an ambush, Kevin looked around with the binoculars, but saw no threats. The
riverbank gradually met the water with a barely existent slope. The men beached
their rafts nearby and approached the woman. Dylan immediately thought of the
family he was desperately trying to get to. This increased the urgency he felt
to help the woman and her baby.

“Help
me…help me, please…I need water…I’m hungry…my baby—,” the woman said before she
glazed over with a fading consciousness. Regaining focus she began to speak
again, “I need your cell phone…my…car—”

“What’s
your name?” Dylan asked, interrupting the woman’s lethargic speech.

“Beth,”
she said softly.

“Beth,
I want you to sip this water,” said Dylan. “Give some to your baby. You look
dehydrated. Sip it slowly; I don’t want you to vomit. Keep the water down and
we can give you something to eat.”

They
moved to the cover of a small shade tree. After the woman finished the bottle
of water, Kevin handed her another one, reminding her to drink slowly. The
woman appeared to gain focus in her pattern of speech, so Dylan continued
questioning her.

“Where
are you going?” asked Dylan.

“I
was going to Helena to pick up my husband from the airport. He was on an early
morning flight.” The woman looked down at her child. “This is our first child.
He hasn’t even seen her yet. He’s been deployed overseas.” She leaned her head
back against the trunk of the tree and closed her eyes. “My car died and my
cell phone doesn’t work, either. There’s no way to call a tow truck and no one
has driven by to help. I tried to walk to get help, but saw all the other
stalled vehicles on both sides of the road.” Beth opened her eyes and shook her
head. “I need to get my husband and get back to Great Falls.”

“Beth,
when your car stalled, did you see the massive display of northern lights?”
asked Dylan.

“How
did you know that is when my car stalled?”

“We
think there was a large solar storm responsible for causing that display of
northern lights. It was so massive everything with a computer chip is dead and
the power grid has been taken down, too. We’re lucky to have these rafts to
take us home.”

The
woman appeared stunned and tearfully said, “My husband…he was on a jet…what
about my husband?”

“I’m
sorry,” Dylan said, in a hushed tone.

The
woman broke down and sobbed uncontrollably. Kevin and Richard walked a short
distance away from the woman, but Dylan stayed with her. He kept thinking of
his family. He thought how easy it would be to collapse emotionally right now,
but that would not help him get home. He knew they should help this woman and
he wanted to make sure they did all they could. He gently touched her shoulder
and spoke.

“Beth,
we’re going through Great Falls to get home. You can go with us. We can get you
home. Grab your stuff. Don’t you have a stroller?” asked Dylan.

“They
took it. Those men took the stroller and my purse,” she replied, as she pointed
to the road.

Dylan
immediately stood up and quickly looked around. Kevin and Richard, noticing
Dylan’s sudden alertness, became concerned and hurried back over.

“She
said she got mugged on the road.”

“I
don’t want any trouble. Let’s get out of here,” Richard said, as he inched backwards
toward the raft, while continuing to scan the highway with his nervous eyes.

“Get
in my raft,” Dylan told Beth. “I have some boxed cereal there. You can crush it
and feed some to the baby.”

The
woman obeyed, and they pushed away from the shallow riverbank and began to
float downstream again. The woman swallowed more water, ravished the dry
cereal, and fed the baby what she could. After she and her baby ate and drank,
they fell fast asleep in Dylan’s raft.

As
the sun climbed higher in the sky, they travelled several more miles
downstream. Richard motioned to the riverbank where there was some trees for
shade. That is where they all stopped and pulled the rafts from the water.
Richard headed to the bushes to relieve himself and smoke one of his precious cigarettes.
Kevin had been studying the map and concluded that they could make it to the
next town by sundown. Dylan suggested they go just to the other side of the
town and stop for the night. They needed to get food. Everyone ate a bagel and
drank some newly filtered water. The shadow of the shade trees barely moved
before they continued downstream again.

Just
outside of the small town, the woman and baby awoke. Dylan could feel his body
becoming fatigued from constantly paddling and steering the raft. It would be a
good time to stop. As they gently floated past the quiet town, Kevin noticed a
small park and that there was no one around. Dylan only agreed to stop at this
location because it offered trees and shrubbery to conceal the rafts and supplies.
He was extremely hesitant about staying this close to the town.