The Journal: Crimson Skies: (The Journal Book 3) (34 page)

“Yes, it’s part of a small mountain range and
it’s almost two thousand feet higher than right here on the lake,”
I said. “Can you get around the rubble on an ATV?”

“Doubtful, but we can try.”

“Can you walk around it?” I was suddenly
interested in finding a solution to this latest problem. It was
unacceptable that all those supplies were sitting there for the
taking and we couldn’t get to them!

“Sure, we could walk around or over, though
that doesn’t do much good unless …” he sat up straighter, “… unless
we had something on the other side! If we can get to town somehow,
and commandeer a large vehicle, we could bring supplies to the
other side. Then it would only be a matter of hauling everything
from one side of the blockage to the other!”

“What about a motorcycle?” I asked,
remembering one of our original town members was a Harley
enthusiast.

The three of us headed out to Eagle Beach in
Jim’s dusty brown Hummer. I hadn’t had any reason to be here in
months, except for once. At the crossroads I motioned for him to
turn right. Turning left would have taken us to the house where I
met John. I shut the memory down.

We passed several nice and elegant houses,
intermixed with much smaller, and well-kept camps along the
half-mile road until I spotted the place I recalled.

“Still got those bolt cutters?” I asked Jim
with a sly grin as I hefted the padlock on the large gray and white
metal pole-barn. Jim snapped the lock off easily, and slid the
doors open to reveal not one, but six pristine Harley Davidson
motorcycles of various models, some covered with heavy tarps. The
keys were all hanging neatly on a pegboard, labeled with the year
and model.

“Thank you, Dan,” I whispered to myself,
watching Jim run his hand over a black beauty of a roadster.

“An Electra Glide; 1200cc engine, looks to be
maybe a 1970 with a Shovelhead engine and an electric start.” Jim
found the keys on the board and started it up. “Purrs like a happy
kitten! Your friend sure took good care of his bikes,” he said,
straddling the quiet machine. He pushed with his feet and backed
out of the barn.

I found a piece of chain to hold the doors
closed, and slipped the now broken lock back in place.

~~~

“It’s too late in the day to try again,” Jim
said, after he parked the bike in the safety of the big garage at
his new home. “I would like to head out early in the morning
though. You think Eric would mind if I took Rayn with me?”

I was puzzled. “I don’t think he has any say
in it, Jim. You’re still her commanding officer, but why Rayn?”

“She’s a small person and will ride easily on
the back of the bike. Once we get to town and pick up a van or
something large, I know she’ll be fine driving it. She can drive
anything,” Jim grinned. “And there’s no way I’m leaving my new ride
behind! After that, we can take several of the guys.”

“So ultimately you plan on driving up to the
landslide, walking around it, and then taking the new vehicle back
into town?” Tom asked.

“Yep, might even pick up a second car, so we
can double our capacity, making as few trips as possible.”

“That makes sense,” I said.

November 28

“Nahna,” Emi whined as she sat down at my
table, “I’m bored. With school closed and most of you adults off
into town being busy, there’s nothing for me to do. I feel useless.
Is there
anything
I can do to help?”

Oh my, she sounded so grown up. This new life
of ours was making our children mature so fast. I admired that she
wanted to do something helpful and productive.

“You and Jacob have been spending a lot of
time with Joshua and the animals, that’s being helpful.”

“Sure, but there are only so many eggs to
collect and Joshua says I’m too small to milk Bossy,” she
pouted.

Too small? She was almost as tall as I
am!

“I think I have a solution to two problems,
Emilee, yours and mine. I’ve been so busy in town with helping the
new people settle in and working with Mark when needed, that I
haven’t had enough time to bake. If you could take over the baking
duties, I would really appreciate it.”

Her eyes lit up and she sat straighter in the
chair.

“It won’t be easy, though. To satisfy our
family, I’ve been baking two loaves every day. Do you think you can
do that?”

“Oh, yes!” Emi exclaimed. “Do I have to bake
only bread? Can I try other things?”

I could sense her excitement and decided to
capitalize on it.

“Sure. I have lots of cookbooks that can give
you ideas. Any thoughts on what you want to try?”

She looked at me with a grin. “Cookies!” I
laughed.

“Okay, here’s one book on cookies and another
on breads,” I said, handing her two books from the bookshelves.
There were so many books there she would be kept really busy. “The
deal for today is two loaves of bread and a list of what kind of
cookies you want to try. Remember, Emi, we might not have all the
ingredients you need, so pick several recipes, okay? And tomorrow
you and I will go over what you’ve selected and gather
supplies.

“The other thing though, is you and Jacob
still have to stay with Joshua when no one is here, is that
understood? Joshua has a good working stove and oven, so you can do
all your baking there.”

“That’s fine with me, Nahna, I like Joshua.
He’s fun and he lets me talk on the ham radio, and Jacob is happy
almost anywhere as long as he has his letters, books to read, and
can watch cartoons at least once during the day.”

“Great! I’ll get enough baking supplies
together for you to make two loaves of bread every day for a week,
while you get the wagon out of the barn. When you see Joshua, ask
him to check his propane level. You’ll be using more of his supply
with the baking and I don’t want him to run short.”

“The propane truck came by when you were in
town with Colonel Jim and filled all of our tanks. Didn’t you
know?” Emi looked surprised.

No, I didn’t know. More stuff going on behind
my back, this time though, I couldn’t argue.

~~~

I was going to have a talk with Tom about
filling our tanks while not wanting his own tank refilled, however,
by the time I got into town it was snowing and it was coming down
really hard.

“I think winter has finally caught up with
us,” I said, announcing my presence when I walked into Tom’s
office. “Oh, I didn’t know you had someone here. Do you need
privacy?”

“Not at all, Allexa, please join us. This is
Earl Tyler, a really interesting man,” Tom stated. “We were just
going over the designs he’s come up with for a workable, easy to
build wood burner. Earl, please continue.”

“I was explaining to the mayor that with the
welding equipment across the street, and a few extra hands, I can
mass produce a simple wood stove that can also be cooked on,” Earl
said. This young man, possibly in his middle thirties, blond and
brown-eyed, was very animated as he talked.

I looked at the designs on Tom’s desk. “May I
ask your background, Earl?”

“Basically, I’m an auto mechanic, but I…
fix
things, and build things. Half the time at my shop in
Ishpeming I had to manufacture a part for what I was working on.
I’ve been welding for almost twenty years, Tig, Stick, Mig welding,
as well as soldering, brazing. Give me a torch and I’ll make you
anything,” he grinned.

“I’m impressed! Sounds like you’re a good
addition to the town,” Tom said.

“There is something else I do, as a hobby
more than anything, so I think I can shed some light on what’s been
happening,” he said.

Colonel Jim was now beside me, listening with
interest.

“I thought you were going to try getting into
town,” I said when I noticed him, changing the subject.

“Not in this snow!” he said, sounding
disappointed.

“Now that we are all here, let’s take this to
the conference table where we have more room,” Tom said. “I’m very
interested in what Earl has to say.”

“First of all, I’m not a paleomagnetist,
although I’ve studied under one,” Earl began.

“A
what
?” I asked.

“A paleomagnetist is one who studies the
records of the Earth’s magnetic field in rock and other
archeological findings,” he explained. “It’s really quite
fascinating. The different layers of rock show how and when the
magnetic poles have shifted.”

“I thought you said you were an auto
mechanic. This seems to be a strange hobby for that
profession.”

“I started out wanting to be a geologist, but
turning wrenches pays better,” he confessed with a forlorn smile.
“I’ve kept up with it though, taking classes at the U whenever
possible.”

“Please go on,” Tom said, giving me a look
that said to shut up.

“Anyway, the last study group I was in
revealed that we are, or were, getting close to the next magnetic
pole reversal, which happens every ten thousand years or so. The
magnetic north has been drifting for years, mainly further into
Russia, and I think it’s into the shift now.”

“What makes you think so?” Jim asked, “And
what would that mean to us?”

“The Earth is held together by its magnetic
forces, like this,” he started drawing on the chalkboard behind
him. “When the pole shifts this direction, it pulls on the tectonic
plates,” he drew more lines, “and that causes the plates to move
and create earthquakes, mainly along the Ring of Fire. The last
theory is the shift is moving the opposite direction and will now
pull on the northern and eastern plates; like this.” He tossed some
finish nails on the table and produced a large magnet, moving it in
different directions while the nails realigned.

“From the study group’s previous findings, it
might also explain the storms. It’s really hard to determine if the
pole shift triggered the tectonic plate shift that erupted
Yellowstone, or if Yellowstone sling-slotted the shift. We may
never know. Either way, both circumstances would create magnetic
storms, and those would produce the kind of weather we’ve been
seeing for the past several months, especially massive amounts of
lightning. It would also produce some awesome Northern Lights,
though we can’t see them because of the ash clouds. I also believe
we will continue to see some very erratic weather for months to
come.”

“Why didn’t you bring this information
forward before?” I asked.

“I tried to,” Earl shrugged, “but I’m just a
grease monkey…”

“Is there more?” Jim asked.

“Only that the tremors we felt recently seem
to support the theory. My guess, and it’s just that— a guess—is it
isn’t over. There could be another larger quake or even two, as the
pole continues and finishes its shift. When it’s over, we could be
much closer to the magnetic equator than we were before.”

“Earl, I have to ask why we are even feeling
these tremors. I didn’t think there were any fault lines under the
U.P.” I said, looking back at his crude drawing on the board.

He chuckled. “Ma’am, there are tectonic
plates literally everywhere on the planet and where there are
plates, there are faults.”

“So are you saying we could become the next
tropical paradise?” Tom asked.

“Oh, no, sir. A magnetic pole shift is
different than a geographic pole shift, although some of the side
effects are similar, like the earthquakes and the weather changes,
and there is speculation that at times they
have
occurred
together. Magnetic poles change every ten thousand years or so,
however geographic pole flips are millions of years apart. And
let’s all pray a geographic movement is
not
what’s
underway.”

“What would happen?” Tom queried.

“Ever hear of an ELE? That’s an Extinction
Level Event,” Earl said solemnly.

~~~

“So you’re putting off your trip into town?”
I asked Jim after Earl left and Tom went back to his office.

“The traveling will be done mostly by
motorcycle, and that’s not gonna happen in all this snow,” he
answered, gazing out the window as the wind picked up and turned
the parking lot into a mini tornado of powdery snowflakes.

“Well, I think Eric will be relieved. He
wasn’t happy about Rayn going.” I smiled. “Ah, young love.”

“Young love? Mark doesn’t like it when you go
off on one of these excursions either,” Jim reminded me.

“He has a difficult time remembering how
independent I am. He
is
making progress in that direction
though.” I glanced out the window. “I’m trying to be understanding
in return, considering I don’t like the way he exposes himself to
all the sickness going around.”

“How many have we lost so far?” he asked
quietly.

“Out of the four hundred fifty-seven people
who arrived here back on October twenty-fourth, there are now two
hundred forty-three left.” I shut my eyes momentarily. “That’s two
hundred fourteen lost, fifteen of those were children.”

“Are there any still sick and at Camp
Tamarack?” he asked.

“About a dozen, however the Sisters think
those may recover. The percentages are scary, Jim. Two-thirds of
everyone here caught the virus, and eighty percent of those died.
Are you and Tom taking those supplements I dropped off?”

“Yes, although I think staying away from sick
people does the most good; can’t catch it if I’m not exposed,” Jim
tried to reassure me.

“I wish I could convince my husband of
that!”

JOURNAL ENTRY: November 29

The heavy snow from yesterday melted quickly in the
fifty degree sunlight, though there isn’t much light to the sun
these days.

*

“Jim, I’ve been meaning to ask you
something,” I said when I found him at the Inn. “Did any of the
evacuees bring any guns with them?”