The Second Intelligent Species: The Cyclical Earth (20 page)

I was the keeper of the fire until Beth or Marcos woke up, then I might be relieved for a couple of hours. Until then I would have to take cat naps between stoking the fire.

Even with the constant roar of the lower culvert’s cascade, I found my brief naps evolving into lengthy periods of deep sleep. I would wake to see the fire nearly out. After putting more wood on the fire and moving wood around the fire to dry, I would doze off again.

My dreams were different than the dreams I had before the days of darkness began. Now I dreamt of torchlight days and endless nights. Sometimes I would dream of those two girls and their dad. Not often enough about the grandbabies,
but when I did it was too often, because it reminded me that we’d never see them again. Those dreams were my new nightmares.

Over the roar of the water, the screams of both Sarah and Beth woke me from a dream so deep that I felt I was there, but for the life of me I can’t remember what I was dreaming about. It took me a second or two to gain my full senses.

“Where’s Megan? Where’s Megan?” Sarah was running around the fire, which was nearly out again, stopping short of the end of the culvert, nearly falling.

“You were supposed to be watching her. You should never have been allowed to be with children. If she’s hurt in any way I’ll kill you myself!” Beth was furious.

“Beth shut up! How to hell did you lose a baby with a broken leg in a tunnel?” I too was questioning Sarah’s lack of responsibility.

The women looked around frantically at the entrance and around the rocks, while I went back to where Adam was buried. The piece of burning wood I brought with me was useless as a source of light. I had to dig out the last flashlight.

I walked the length of the narrow passageway to the final resting place of Adam. The instant I approached the pile of loosely mounded dirt, I noticed that it had been disturbed. Snow had found its way into the back of the culvert, but it hadn’t
just fallen there, it had been brought in and ground into the dirt. I suspected that Megan might have crawled out the widened opening. Upon further investigation I found Adam’s body was missing. I began to panic. Could some animal have come in and dragged his little body off? Was that the same fate that fell on Megan?

The opening was too small for me to squeeze through, though a smaller person might be able to. I would have to go around from the other side where the girls were looking.

Beth yelled over the noise of the water, “Did you find her? There’s no sign of her down here, there are no tracks at all.”

“Where’s Sarah?”

“She’s looking downstream,” she said as she kept looking amongst the rocks.

“You gather up everyone and get the little ones ready to travel. I’ll be back soon,” I said as I climbed up to where she could hear me. I looked back to make sure she understood what I had said. “Get everyone ready to travel!”

The snow was slippery and I had trouble getting footing. Eventually I reached level ground.

Reaching the other side, it was easy to see tracks coming from the opening near where the water had been diverted. They weren’t the tracks I was expecting to see. These tracks were made by humans.

I followed the tracks for a short distance until I came to a large area covered with blood, more blood than I have ever witnessed from any deer that I had harvested. It could have only come from Megan.

I grew nauseous at the thought that other humans could have done this to a child. From the amount of blood that was on the ground, I was sure that there was no use looking for the two children. I hurried back to the entrance and prepared to tell the others of the children’s fate.

Before I could speak, Sarah yelled out, “Did you find her? I looked all along the river.”

“Marcos,” I said, “you stay here and watch Tara and Eve. Maria, Sarah, and Beth, come with me.”

The four of us went to the far end of the tunnel. I pointed out the hole that the two kids were taken out from, and explained what I had seen.

“We’ve got to try and rescue her.” Sarah tried to push her way by me.

I described the amount of blood that I had found, and told her I thought looking for her would be futile if not dangerous for the rest of us.

“We can’t just leave her,” she pleaded

“These are desperate people, willing to do anything to survive. We need to leave this place if the rest of us are going to survive. We’re going to stick to the country where there are less people
and less competition for food. This place has been picked over, and the survivors are resorting to cannibalism. We need to leave while they’re still feeding, and then our tracks will have time to fill in.” I looked at Beth and said, “Get the others ready to go now!”

We were out of food, and I didn’t have any idea where we were going to get our next meal. We would have to travel in the dark. I knew that whoever snuck in while we were sleeping would be back looking for another easy snack.

Our party left the temporary shelter without another one in mind. We ventured off into the blizzard, blind to our future.

Chapter 28

Confrontation

Days turned into weeks, and weeks melded into months. The weather continued to be colder and fires were needed all the time. Snow was unheard of this far south, but we struggled through it. The kids loved it because they got to ride on a steel roofing toboggan, and throw snowballs at the rest of us. I was usually Marcos’ prime target. The snow had advantages that accompanied the cold. It was a fresh source of water. When banked along the sides of shelters, it held out the wind. Its presence made tracking and scouting easier.

Gathering wood for the fire became the most important job next to trapping meat. This task belonged to Marcos and me. The best picking was at the water’s edge. The wood was surrounded by water during the initial firestorm, and was spared the heat of any tinder lying under it. The only problem was that we had to go out into the water to get it. This was the same place the beavers were cutting down the remaining trees for their food.

One day while gathering wood I waded out knee deep to retrieve a large limb. I was being careful
not to step into a hole and become submersed. We were too far away from the fire, and it was too cold to be soaking wet. I was paying more attention to where I was stepping, than I was about my surroundings.

“Hey, Nick, look. Here comes somebody,” Marcos whispered.

I quickly looked up and saw a light flash on and off, and it was coming our way. Immediately I thrust the torch down into the water to extinguish the flame and told Marcos to hide behind a tree stump.

The light came back on and headed our way. My torch must have alerted them to us.

The hatchet that I kept for cutting wood was our only weapon.

“Marcos, go hide that way and don’t go back to the others until you know it’s safe. Make sure they don’t follow you. Stay close enough to see if it’s okay.” I kept as quiet as I could, but I needed to make sure that he didn’t inadvertently lead these strangers to the others should they be the type that took Adam and Megan. “Just like you did with Mick and the others.”

He scurried off into the darkness, while I waited to see if these strangers were a threat. I could tell that there were only two, both men.

I was torn between hiding, and confronting them. They had about a couple of hundred yards to go before they reached me.

“Hello, hello! Is anybody there?” shouted one of the men as they approached.

I kept quiet and held my position.

“Show yourself. We saw your light,” said the other one.

I hadn’t been successful taking on two adversaries before. Now I was even weaker, but I didn’t have diarrhea anymore. I didn’t feel threatened from these two.

As they drew closer, I could tell that the light was coming from the top of a helmet, worn by one of the two.

“Hello,” I said as I stepped out into the beam of his headlamp.

“Freeze!” the other one said, as he pointed a shotgun at me.

I hadn’t noticed the gun upon their approach. The beam of his light temporarily blinded me.

“Hey, hey! You don’t need to do that, I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, hiding the hatchet behind my back.

Calculating my odds, I confessed, “I’ve got a small ax, but I’m not going to use it as a weapon, I just use it to cut wood.” I was nearly up to them, but I wasn’t ready to drop it.

“Is there anybody else with you?” One of them asked.

“No. I’m all there is left. Everyone else is dead.” I wanted to protect the others just in case these guys were a threat. “I would appreciate it if you would put the gun down. I’m not going to attack you.” I figured that I could talk to them now. For one thing, talking is all I have facing a shotgun, and second, if they hadn’t shot me by then they weren’t going to.

“Where are you from?” asked the one holding me at gunpoint.

“New York State,” I responded.

“Where in New York?” he asked as he slowly lowered the weapon.

Until he put down the gun, I wasn’t fully cooperating. “It doesn’t even exist anymore, it doesn’t matter, and I’m trying to forget it. You?”

“We’re from Kentucky. You sure have walked a long distance all alone,” said the one with the headlamp.

“Got to keep moving to find enough food. Decided to head south to get away from the cold,” I said. I was having a difficult time concentrating on their questions due to the fact that I could hear Marcos behind me. I was sure that they had heard him too. There were no leaves to rustle around in, but he had stepped on a stone wall and two rocks had clacked together.

“Is somebody there?” Up came the gun again. “You told me you were alone.”

“Put down the gun, he’s just a kid.” I yelled, “Marcos, come over here and stand by me.”

Marcos appeared from the once lush forest, now just a sporadic few stumps of only the biggest trees, charred and void of branches, not much to hide behind. He walked up to me and grabbed my hand in reassurance, much like my grandchildren once did.

I was no longer the threat that they thought I was at the beginning. I had been traveling with a child, and hadn’t eaten him. I couldn’t be too menacing. The gun was once again lowered.

“This is Marcos. We’re gathering wood to keep the rest of our party warm.” I wasn’t sure that I could trust them, but then on the other hand, it would be nice to have more help gathering wood and food.

“How many more are in your group?” asked the one with the light, as he shined it directly in my face.

I wasn’t entirely ready to tell them that we had women in the group; I needed to feel them out a little more.

“Help Marcos and me get a bunch of wood and I’ll introduce you to all of them. My name’s Nick, again this is Marcos.” I reached out my hand to shake theirs.

The one with the light held out his hand. “My name’s Pete, and this is George.” The big guy turned to his buddy, “I mean Jorge.”

I shook Pete’s hand and noticed he had a powerful grip. He was a big man.

I reached to shake the hand of the other man. Even though the light was away from his face I could see a smile develop into a full-blown toothy grin.

I no longer distrusted these two. The handshake made me feel this man was trustworthy. The smile was sincere; I could trust the other one too.

Chapter 29

Getting to Know
One Another

The makeshift sleigh we had used to haul the children now carried wood. More effort was needed to drag it, since the wood weighed more than a couple of toddlers. Both men cooperated and gathered wood without speaking. It seemed good to fill up the sled in half the time.

I had no choice but to head back to camp. They had done their part, now I would have to make good on my word. My first impressions told me that I could trust them, but I had to be sure. “How do I know that when we get back to the others that you won’t kill us all and bring us back to your group?” I hated to be so blunt, but it was only about a quarter mile to the shed, and I didn’t have much time to get to know them socially. I knew once we broke over the hill they would see the glow of the fire.