Stan Morris: Surviving the Fog

“She’s been like that all day,” said a black eyed girl named Makayla. “She just keeps saying that the Admin and the other counselors will be back soon. I’m really getting scared.”

“Me, too,” a girl named Kathy said, with a quiver in her voice.

“Do you think she’s right?” a third girl asked.

The boys looked at one another.

“Not really,” Mike admitted.

“When do you think our parents will come looking for us?” Makayla asked.

“I don’t know,” Mike answered. Kathy choked back a sob.

There was nothing more to say. The boys crossed the bridge to their side of the river. Eric went back to the dining hall, while Mike and John walked west along the river. Trying to distract themselves, they discussed which of the three girls that they had just left, they liked best. They avoided the subject of the missing adults.

At one point, they sat down and watched some girls who were practicing archery on the other side of the river. The girls were using hay bales. The boys were supposed to practice as a group also, but there were no male counselors to lead them. These girls had obviously decided to practice on their own. Another girl was running around the huge crude track that had been plowed around the meadow and flattened by truck tires.

“Who’s the girl running?” Mike asked.

“I’m not sure what her name is,” John answered.

“She’s cute.”

“Yeah, but she’s no Desi.”

“How old is she?” Mike asked hopefully.

“I think she’s fifteen,” John replied.

Mike grimaced. He had discovered that fifteen year old girls generally showed very little interest in thirteen year old boys. As it grew dark, the boys walked back up the river to their cabins.

Since there were no adults around, the boys were starting to stay up later and later at night. That night, after the other boys had retired to their bunks, Mike went back to the Admin’s cabin and retrieved the key. He let himself into the cabin, and he checked the radio phone again, only to find that they had neglected to turn it off. The battery was dead.

Disgusted, he laid it back on the desk. Turning around, he saw the bed. He took a step and stood by the bed for a minute. It looked comfortable. Slowly, almost cautiously, he lay down on top of the covers. He could see out the high window on the front of the cabin. The stars were bright, and he watched them for a time.

After a while, he got up and removed his shoes, socks, pants, and flannel shirt. Wearing only his t-shirt and briefs, he got back into the bed and crawled under the covers. He felt like he was doing something that he shouldn’t, but in a strange way he felt like he was at least doing something other than just waiting for something to happen. He quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, Mike awoke late. He put on his clothes, and he went outside. He locked the door, but as he was about to place the key under the mat he hesitated. After a moment, he put the key in his pocket.

Mike went to the dining hall looking for John. The kids in the dining hall were installing a new box of milk in the milk dispenser. AAP had purchased large bags of dry cereal, cases of canned food and a lot of boxed milk that they usually mixed with powdered milk, and they offered the most common canned vegetables and fruits. Mike found John wolfing down his second bowl of cereal. A boy he didn’t know well, but whose name he knew was Jacob, sat on the other side of the table.

Mike looked at John for a moment, and then he asked, “What are we going to do when our food runs out?”

John paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth. He looked unpleasantly surprised at Mike’s question. He stared at Mike, and then he slowly finished eating the spoonful.

Carefully, he sat his spoon down, and then he asked, “All right, dude, I give. What will we do when the food runs out?”

“Whatever we do, we better think of it now. How will we keep warm this winter?”

John looked even unhappier at that question. “Maybe some other adults will show up to help us. Not the Admin and the counselors, but some other adults.”

“What if the adults who show up don’t help us? What if they just take our food? What if they’re the kind of adults who hurt kids?”

John scowled. “Man, you are really pulling me down this morning. Let me finish eating before we discuss the end of the world, okay?”

Mike went outside and walked down to the river. He walked downstream until he was opposite the bales of hay that were used for archery practice. He stared thoughtfully at the bales for some time, and then he went back to the dining hall. He walked around the building until he came to the storage room on the east end, and then he entered the room.

In the storage room, mounted on a rack of two by fours, was the overhead tank for the hot water that was produced by the solar panels covering the roof of the dining hall. Under the rack were several barrels holding empty aluminum cans that had contained fruit juice and diet soda. The only soda that was served to the children was diet soda. The boys seldom drank it, but some of the girls did. The boys and most of the girls preferred the cans of sweetened fruit juice.

Mike took several empty cans from a bin, and then he went back to the Admin’s cabin. Once inside, he looked through the tool chest until he found a pair of metal snips. Carefully, he cut apart an empty can and flattened the aluminum. Then he cut out a piece of metal in the shape of a spear tip.

Mike left his work on the desk, and he went outside after making sure to lock the door. He walked east until he was deep within the forest. He searched for and found an old fallen tree with straight branches. When he was satisfied, he broke off a branch that was about as long as he was tall, and went back to the cabin. Inside he found a box cutter in the tool chest, and he used it to split the end of the branch. He forced the blunt end of the aluminum spear tip into the split.

Mike left the cabin again and crossed over the bridge. He walked down to the hay bales. Standing a ways from a bale, he grasped his newly made spear, and he threw it at the bale. When it hit the hay bale, the spear tip and wood broke apart and the aluminum tip bent.

It would take Mike several days and many trials to get an aluminum spear head which would not bend, and to discover how to fasten it to a branch so that it would not come apart. Eventually, after folding a layer of aluminum around two other pieces of aluminum, he made a spear that would penetrate the heavy bale. By using a file, he was able to get a very sharp edge on the side of the spear tip. He weighted the spear by attaching fishing lead to fish line and wrapping it around the shaft, just under the spear head.

On his way back to the Admin’s cabin, he met Jacob at the bridge. He was about to pass by, when the other boy called his name. Mike looked at Jacob and saw that Jacob was wearing his backpack, and that it looked full. Mike did not know much about Jacob, except that the other boy always seemed to be going off by himself. Mike thought that Jacob was a year older than he. Jacob had black curly hair like Eric, but Jacob’s eyes were hazel instead of black.

“I’m hiking down the road,” Jacob announced.

Mike looked at him blankly.

“Where to?” he asked.

“As far as I can go,” Jacob answered.

Mike was alarmed. “Hey, that might not be such a good idea,” he responded.

“Well, I’m going,” Jacob replied.

“Are you going to be back before night?”

“If I find someone.”

“What are you going to do if you have to stay out overnight?”

“I’ve got my sleeping bag. It’s down filled. I’ll be warm.”

“You got food?”

“Enough for three days.”