Stan Morris - Surviving the Fog

“Too bad the cave only has that one part that’s really a cave,” John mentioned. “That would be way big for us.” There was a chorus of agreement.

“What if we made it into a real cave?” said Mike thoughtfully.

“What do you mean?” Eric asked.

“What if somehow, someway, we put a front on it?” said Mike. “We could all live in it for the winter.”

“Just get a couple of girls to live with you in the Admin’s cabin,” cracked Pete. “You’ll be warm and happy all winter.”

Yuie exclaimed, “Shut up!” without any real anger as the boys laughed.

“Seriously, what about the cave idea?” Mike asked again.

“What could we use for a front?” Eric asked.

“What about taking the canvas tops off of the cabins and using them?” Pete suggested.

“Too cold,” Yuie replied.

“Could we pile up enough rocks?” Howard asked.

“Maybe,” John replied.

“We could use logs,” Mike suggested. “There are hatchets and axes for chopping wood in the store room. What if we cut down a lot of small trees, and leaned them against the top of the cave?”

“I don’t know if small trees would be tall enough to reach to the top of the cave,” Eric replied, thinking that the idea was dubious at best.

“What if we used a combination of these things,” suggested Howard. “What if we piled up rocks high enough so that small trees would reach to the top of the cave?”

“Too bad they didn’t build the cabins in front of the cave,” John said facetiously. “Then we would already have a front.” The others stopped talking, and they looked at John. Then they looked at one another.

“We could move the cabins!” Howard exclaimed.

“We could move the cabins!” Howard exclaimed.

“Yeah, maybe even stack them. Put five on the bottom and five on the top.”

“And then use trees to make the roof. Lean them from the front of the cabins to the top of the cave.”

“That should be close enough so that we could even chop some of the longer trees in half.”

“We would probably have to build a rock or wood floor first,” Howard cautioned. “So that we could get the bottoms of the cabins level with the floor of the cave.”

“Are you guys crazy!” groaned John. “How are we ever going to move those cabins? Man, they are heavy.”

“They’re bolted together,” Howard explained. “Take off the canvas tops. Unbolt the walls, and move them.”

“And maybe we could use the wood on the wall facing the cave, to cover the rest of the wall on the side away from the cave.”

“We’ll call it, The Lodge,” Yuie announced. The boys looked at her.

“Do we have to give it a name?” asked Pete, grimacing.

“Yes,” she replied firmly.

That’s how it became The Lodge.

John disconnected the stove by turning off the gas valve feeding it, and then he removed a piece of pipe leading from the valve to the stove. They found the barbeque, and they moved it to the front of the dining hall just outside the door. Then they trooped up to the cave to take a look.

“This is going to be a lot of work,” Pete said sadly.

“How about moving the cabins onto the ledge?” Howard asked.

“That would take up too much room in the cave,” John objected.

“But we could set the back ends of the cabins on the ledge,” suggested Mike. “That way we would only have to build a rock wall for the front side of the cabins.”

“The ledge is not wide enough for all five cabins. We’ll need to extend the sides,” Yuie observed.

The real problem, they soon realized, was to convince the rest of the campers, or at least enough of them, to help them. They decided to hold a meeting that night, to explain their plan to the rest of the campers.

The meeting did not go well. Except for Yuie and an older girl who Yuie introduced as Desi, no girls attended the meeting. Some of the boys stoutly maintained that their parents would come for them soon. Others understood the plan, and they could see the need to prepare for the winter, but they declined to help. Ralph, who only showed up for a few minutes, jeered at their group.

But a few boys did take them seriously. After most of the boys wandered off, most of them to their beds, the group discussed their ideas. There were various opinions on how to proceed.

Eventually Mike said, “What we have to do first is to decide what would be the best thing that we could do to help us survive the winter.”

Immediately Yuie responded, “Get into shape.”

“What do you mean,” asked Mike, clearly puzzled at her answer.

“Just that weak people are not likely to survive, and they won’t be able to help anyone else. Get into shape. All of you should run with me in the mornings. By the time winter comes, you will be healthy enough to survive the cold, and strong enough to build our shelter.” She said it defiantly expecting scorn from the boys. They looked at one another.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Mike said slowly. “We could run a few laps around the track, and then we could practice throwing our spears.” The meeting broke up, and John volunteered to escort Yuie and Desi back to their side of the river.

Yuie tried to explain the seriousness of their situation to the other girls, but her arguments fell on deaf ears. Except for Desi, the other girls refused to believe that the campers were in trouble. Most of them thought Jacob had concocted the story of the fog. Others, like Kathy, were allowing their fears to paralyze them and either spent most of their days praying that their parents would come for them or just weeping.

“Why won’t they listen?” exclaimed a frustrated Yuie.

“They’re frightened,” Desi responded.

Yuie looked at Desi. Up to now, she and most of the girls had the impression that Desi was somewhat of a bimbo. She always seemed to be flirting with one of the boys. She didn’t have the nicest body and she wasn’t the prettiest girl in the camp, but for some reason the boys loved to be around her. Usually with their tongues hanging out , Yuie thought.

“You think things are bad for us, don’t you Desi?” Yuie asked.

Desi’s face was bleak as she answered. “I think we are going to die if someone doesn’t take charge, or if we don’t get some help.”

Yuie went to bed hoping that Desi was exaggerating.

In the following days, the boys started running with Yuie. Instead of sleeping late like most of the campers, they forced themselves to get out of their bunk beds early in the morning. They had breakfast, and then they ran around the track. At first they huffed and puffed, and they had to drag themselves around the huge meadow. Mike refused to let the stronger boys greatly outpace the weaker boys. He said that it would be more fun to run as a group. By mid June, they could all run several laps before they became too tired.

After running, they spent an hour or so practicing with their spears. Some of the other boys joined them, but other boys just laughed at them. Privately some of the group thought that Mike was just playing warrior, but they had to admit that it was a lot of fun. Mike established three levels, white, red, and black depending on individual skills. He asked the girls for ribbons and cloth that the boys could use as pennants for their spears. Some of the girls began to watch their practices and cheer for the best throwers, especially if the thrower was Pete.

The boys began to carry their spears everywhere they went. Mike spent hours practicing, and he became especially proficient at throwing and at hitting a target. Yuie decided not to be a part of the Spears, saying that she didn’t have the arm strength for it, and besides if she was around, they couldn’t make naughty jokes about girls. Publicly they were disappointed, but privately they were relieved. Yuie was already proficient with her bow and arrows.