Stan Morris - Surviving the Fog

As December came in, Mike realized that his birthday had passed a few weeks ago. He was fourteen. He wondered how many other birthdays had passed unnoticed and uncelebrated.

In early December, they received three days of continuous snow, and Mike set a curfew. Everyone had to be in the Lodge by four o’clock. There was a lot of grumbling, and when the skies cleared for the next ten days, a lot of kids thought that Mike’s curfew had been premature.

Then, a week before Christmas, on a clear day when most of the restless kids had abandoned the Lodge to play outside, a sudden storm blew in around noon. The skies darkened, the clouds opened, and an enormous amount of snow began to fall.

At first, the kids ignored the snowfall, thinking only of it as a chance for more fun. Then, as the temperature began to drop precipitously, they began to seek the shelter of the Lodge. Some went to the dining hall, thinking to wait out the snowfall. They soon realized that it might be difficult to wade back to the Lodge through the blinding fury.

Mike had the Spears scurrying to and fro, rounding up the strays, helping the kids in the dining hall make their way to the Lodge, and taking a head count. When all the bathrooms were empty and the head count was complete, they were short four campers. There was a short intense meeting in the Chief’s Room.

“Chief, we have to find them!” Erin wailed. “Maria is one of the missing.”

“I understand how you feel, Erin,” Mike replied, his face grim. “But I can’t allow anyone to go out in that storm.”

“Maybe they are still in the dining hall, Chief,” said Howard. “We could make our way to the old Chief’s Headquarters and then to the dining hall and check.”

“I checked it, man, I checked it,” Ahmad stated. “I made sure that I was the last one out.”

“They might have gone in after you checked it and left,” Howard argued. “They might have been down in the parking lot or something.”

“I was down there, Howard,” John said. “I sure didn’t see them.”

“Maybe they broke into the Chief’s Headquarters,” Desi suggested.

“We can’t let them freeze, Chief,” Yuie pleaded.

“Let me think!” ordered Mike roughly. Then he turned to Jacob. “Can you make one more check around the perimeter of our camp?” he asked. “And then check the Chief’s Headquarters and the dining hall.” Jacob nodded.

“I’ll go with him,” said Jean. “It’ll be safer if two people are together.”

“I’ll go too,” Hector said.

“No!” said Mike while shaking his head emphatically. “I’m only risking two.”

“There are kids out there,” Hector exclaimed. “I’m going.”

Mike looked up at Hector. “I said, no,” he repeated quietly. “And I’m either the Chief or I’m not.” He waited.

Hector breathed out harshly. “You’re the Chief,” he said.

Jean and Jacob left. The others waited minute by agonizing minute. Mike, Hector, and Yuie stood outside the door, straining to see through the blinding snow.

Suddenly Yuie shouted, “That’s them!”

A few seconds later, a person came into view, and then another, and finally it was evident that there were six persons making their way back to the Lodge.

The three watchers went out to meet them. Yuie was crying and hugging Maria and the others. Erin and Ahmad came out of the Lodge to help. Gradually, Mike got them all shepherded into the Lodge. Mike looked in wonder at Jacob and then grabbed him in a bear hug.

“Thanks, man,” Mike said, his voice choked with emotion.

“Found them down at Hector’s bridge,” said Jacob, panting from the cold. “They went into the forest to look for pine cones.”

“Oh, Jeez,” Mike exclaimed.

“They were smart,” Jacob continued. “They were following the river back. They probably would have made it to the dining hall.”

“It’s my fault,” Erin confessed. “I remember telling them I wanted some pine cones for our Christmas decorations. But didn’t think about that when they were missing.”

“Never mind, Erin,” said Mike. “They’re safe. That’s all that counts.”

The close call got everyone’s attention. Mike made a new rule. Until further notice, no one was allowed to go beyond the boundaries of the camp. There was no argument when he announced the new rule. That night, the mood of the tribe was subdued.

Mike found Hector for a talk. “Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure, amigo,” Hector answered. “Good call, Chief.”

“I know that you wanted to go and find them, Hector,” said Mike. “But you, Jacob, and Jean are the people most likely to keep the rest of us alive. I couldn’t risk all three of you. And I couldn’t say that to you in front of the others.”

Hector smiled down at the boy, and then he laughed. “Oh, I think there is one other person much more likely to keep us all alive. But I see what you mean.” Puzzled, Mike watched him walk away.

In the close quarters, Mike often dealt with irritations and eruptions between individuals. Two campers, Tyler and Gabby, seemed to have an ongoing feud. Mike was constantly hearing about Tyler teasing Gabby, or Gabby taunting Tyler. He got a little peace by threatening to tie them together for a day.

Some birds had made their way into the Lodge through the gap over the beams. They were living in crevices high in the rear of the cave. Jean said that they were white throated swifts. Mike wouldn’t have cared, except for the mess that they made on the cave floor.

One day, Mike remembered that if the old world had not disappeared he would be in school. Since Jean was the oldest member of their tribe, he asked her to organize a school. Attendance was mandatory, he told the kids, from nine in the morning until noon. After that, there would be another two hours of school, but attendance was not mandatory. Of course, his announcement was met with a chorus of obligatory boos, but most of the kids welcomed the distraction. Most even went to school in the afternoon. And Jean was surprisingly effective, some even said threatening, as their teacher.

Jean was not that happy to be selected as the teacher. These kids could act an awful lot like, well, kids. Teasing each other seemed to be their favorite pastime.

“You need a haircut. You look like a girl.”

“I do not!”

“Do to!”

“Do not!”

“Hey! I’m trying to teach a class here,” Jean exclaimed. “I need you to concentrate on wild onions, tubers, and berries.”

“I need a haircut.”

Jean borrowed a pair of scissors, and she cut some hair.

They had a tree for Christmas, if not a lot of presents. To Mike’s great surprise and lasting gratitude, Erin and her social committee presented handmade gifts to each person in the tribe. Christmas Day, they had a sing-along which lifted everyone’s spirits. The night before, there had been a lot of silent tears, and some not so silent tears as they lay in their bunks.

Tyler and Gabby celebrated New Years Eve by putting insects in each other’s sleeping bags which brought new threats from Mike. Howard and John flipped a coin to see which couple would get privacy in their room that night. Howard won. Hector agreed to let Kathy zip their sleeping bags together for that one night.

“As long as you wear your pajamas,” he stated his condition firmly.

Kathy searched in vain for a cute nightie, but she had to settle for her heavy cartoon pajamas. Not willing to take a chance, Hector wore his trousers to bed. Still, they enjoyed the moment when the watches turned twelve. Since there were many watches, and as not all of them were synchronized, there was some dispute as to when twelve o’clock actually occurred.

And so January arrived. Mike had given the kids a holiday from school, but a few days after the first of January, some of the kids asked Jean when school would restart, so Jean reluctantly restarted her classes. It was cold, but the solar heating system and the central wood fire kept it bearable in the central area of the Lodge. The small cave was comfortable. A few girls left their bunks and slept in the central area where it was warmer.