Steven Konkoly - The Perseid Collapse

“Hold up,” he said and jogged back to Charlie.

“I’m-I’m good,” Charlie barely managed.

“Charlie, look at me,” said Alex.

Charlie raised his head, tears streaming down his deep-red face, building momentum with each bead of sweat they absorbed.

“I d-didn’t want to let you guys d-down,” he stammered.

“You didn’t let anyone down, Charlie. Let’s get this off you,” he said, removing Charlie’s backpack. “Come on, let’s grab a seat. There’s a tree trunk with your name on it right over here.”

Alex helped Charlie to a decayed tree at the edge of the trail. He dropped Charlie’s pack and opened one of the top Velcro compartments, pulling a spare water bladder from the pouch. He removed Charlie’s drenched ball cap and opened the CamelBak spigot, holding the bladder above his head and showering Charlie’s sweat-matted hair with water.

“God, that feels like heaven. I’d jump in the reservoir back there if I didn’t have to take all of this shit off and put it on again,” said Charlie.

“I thought about it too,” said Ed.

“You guys aren’t the only ones,” Alex admitted. “I want you to drink the rest of this water. I think you’re a few steps away from heat stroke.” Alex paused a moment. It was now or never.

Sorry, Charlie .

“We need to get you rehydrated, rested up—and send you back to the Jeep,” said Alex.

Charlie looked down. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

“We wouldn’t have gotten this far without you, Charlie. There’s no doubt about that, but you have to sit this one out. We need you one hundred percent combat effective for the ride back to Maine, and we need the Jeep to be here when we get back. We might need you to bust out of here and pick us up further south. Most importantly, I need to make sure you return to your family.”

Alex kneeled in front of Charlie and grabbed both of his shoulders. “Look at me, Charlie.”

Charlie slowly looked up, eyes filled with tears.

“I couldn’t ask for a better friend, Charlie, which makes this a tough call. I know how much being here means to you.”

“I’ll still be here,” said Charlie, straightening up a little.

“And you’re still the team’s sniper,” added Alex.

Charlie wiped his eyes. “You guys should get going. I can find my way back to the Jeep. The kids are waiting for you.”

“We can spare fifteen minutes to make sure you’re back in business,” said Alex.

“Thanks, man. I’m really sorry about this. I really thought I could make it. I’m glad we figured this out now. Not later.”

“Me too, and quit apologizing,” said Alex, patting him on the shoulder. “You sure you can get back all right?”

“I’ll take it super easy. East Dam Road all the way to the southern tip of the reservoir. We marked off the only confusing point with one of the IR chemlights. I’ll be able to find that. It’s a no-brainer from there. Follow the reservoir until Middle Reservoir Road—another chemlight—and turn left. The island thingy is right there.”

“Sounds like your noggin is working fine,” said Alex.

“As good as before,” added Ed.

“Nice.” Charlie winked.

“We’ve gone over the radios, but let’s do it one more time,” said Alex, taking his handheld out of a pouch on his vest. “I have eight channels preprogrammed. One through eight. We’ll start out with the first preset. Hit the privacy button and select code 129. If there’s too much interference from other users on that channel, go to the next preset channel and do the same.”

“Code 129?” asked Ed.

“Yes. Keep shifting channels until we can talk on a quiet frequency. The bad news is that we’ll probably be out of range by nightfall. These transmit at three watts, which kicks up the range a bit, but with the urban environment, we’ll be lucky to get three to four miles. Each radio has an out-of-range icon here,” he said, holding it up and pointing. “They periodically check in with each other to see if they can communicate. The signal ID is unique to the radio set we’ll be using, including the spare in the Jeep.”

“That’s pretty sweet,” said Charlie.

“It is pretty sweet. It’ll come in handy on the return trip. You’ll know when we’ve wandered back into range,” said Alex. “If at any time you feel like you’ve gotten lost with the frequency shifts, hit the home button, here. It’ll send a burst transmission through every frequency, looking for our radio set’s signal ID. It’ll automatically tune you to the nearest radio’s frequency channel.”

“Couldn’t we just use this function to pick a clear frequency, instead of the presets? One of us serves as the base station and finds a clear frequency, then the others migrate over?” Ed asked.

“The only problem is that it has to search over three thousand channels. It can take time,” said Alex.

“How long does it take?”

Alex paused to consider Ed’s question. “You know—you’re right. It doesn’t take that long. Twenty, maybe thirty seconds for a full sweep. Let’s start out with the presets, and if that doesn’t work out, we’ll switch to Ed’s method. Ed’s radio will serve as the base station. Charlie, you’ll need to keep the radio on, with one of the earpieces in at all times—even if you have to sleep.”

“I won’t be sleeping,” said Charlie.

“When’s the last time you slept?”

“I think I got an hour last night, or maybe—”

“You’re gonna fall asleep. You can snort the MRE instant coffee all night like a junkie, and guess what? You’ll still crash at some point. You’re better off doing it on your terms. Give yourself three to four hours, and make sure you set up camp away from the Jeep,” said Alex.

“No way I’ll be able to sleep out there.”

“Charlie, if I started singing ‘rock a bye baby’ right now, you’d be out before I finished. We’d all be out. It’s been a long two days. Set up some kind of trip wire on the path leading to the Jeep. There’s a spool of yellow wire in the duffel bag. About four hundred feet. Came with the invisible dog fence we never installed. Run it tight around some trees, and tie it to something you keep wedged under your head. Nothing that makes noise. You good?”

“I’m good,” said Charlie.

“Spare radio is in the glove box, along with a car charger. You shouldn’t need either, but do what you have to do to keep the radio up. I’ll leave the satphone with you,” he said, digging into his backpack.

He pressed the “on” button and watched the screen, shaking his head. “I don’t get it. The phone says it’s tracking two satellites, but it won’t place a call. Iridium has over fifty satellites in orbit. Even if a few of them got fried, there should be coverage like the GPS—unless they rely on ground stations to function,” said Alex, handing Charlie the phone.

“Or the military commandeered them,” said Charlie.

“Or that. Give it a try every few hours.”

Alex paused, trying to think of something useful to say. He took a long sip of water to kill a few more seconds.

“You two don’t plan on babysitting me for the full fifteen minutes do you?” asked Charlie.

“We don’t want to run off and—”

“Go get your kids,” Charlie interrupted. “I got it from here.”

“You sure?”

“Better than waiting around with two nervous Nellies,” Charlie snorted. “I’ll be back at the Jeep in no time.”

“You’ll drink plenty of water now and when you get there?”

“No, I thought I’d do jumping jacks until it was dark. Then start a campfire and blare music across the reservoir. Maybe go skinny dipping!”

Alex raised an eyebrow at Ed.