Stan Morris - Surviving the Fog

“Why am I staying?” John asked. “Is it because of…” he stopped.

“You’re staying because you’ll be in charge of village security, John,” Kennedy replied impatiently. “There’s no guarantee that one of these guys won’t evade us and get here. If one of them does, I doubt he’ll be friendly. I need you to take him out.”

“Oh,” said John with a look of relief. “I thought that it must be something like that.”

Kennedy smiled. “You’re the Chief’s best friend, John,” he said. “And he put you in charge of the Spears, so I know that I can trust your competence.” John blushed.

Four Rangers, two scouts, two archers, four Spears, and Diana set out the next morning. They traveled up the river for five days, and on the evening of the fifth day, Jacob reported that the people of the Retreat were ahead, and they were coming towards the troop. Kennedy, after checking his position, decided that his troop’s present location was a good place to confront them. They were in a small glen that was wooded at the upper end but clear of trees at the lower end. The slopes on either side were somewhat steep, but they were still climbable. He placed an archer in the trees on either side of the glen, and with each archer was a Ranger carrying a rifle. Corporal Carson stayed with Kennedy. Kennedy assembled the scouts and the Spears for his final instructions.

“Jacob, I want you to lead your people around and behind their group. I suspect that the men will stay together out front. I seriously doubt that these kind of guys will leave someone to protect their women and their children. But they might, so be careful. And watch out for the older boys. They may have weapons, and we don’t know what they’ll do if it comes to a fight. Diana, you stay with me, but stay back in the trees.”

“I need to be close enough to help if someone is injured,” Diana insisted.

“You will be, but you won’t be any help if you’re the one injured. Jacob, wait until you hear a shout that it’s all clear, or until you hear shots. If you hear an ‘all clear’ shout, and if there are no weapons present on your side, then secure the women and children. If they have weapons, then use your best judgment. There’s no use taking chances on an accident, if the men surrender.”

“Okay.”

“If you hear a shot and you can secure the women and children, then do so and prepare for one or more of the men to come back to you. If you can’t secure the women and children for any reason, stay back in the trees and wait for us. Clear?” Jacob nodded.

“One more thing,” Kennedy said. “If those men are together, I don’t intend to let them get back to you. But I can’t promise that they won’t. Stay focused. Okay, go.”

Jacob nodded and led his group into the trees.

Kennedy looked up at the side of the hill where Yuie was hidden. He hadn’t had time to say anything to her, and besides it would have been inappropriate given the circumstances. Or so he told himself. Keep your head down, Yuie. Stay safe.

He and Corporal Carson waited at the lower end of the glen, where grass, tall but thin and sparse, had taken root. Carson knelt on one knee next to Kennedy, who stood. Soon, they heard the sounds of people moving through the trees as they made their way down the glen. A man carrying a rifle came into view. At first, he didn’t see them. He moved farther into the open glen. He said something over his shoulder. Two more men moved into the view of the officers. They were also armed with rifles which were leveled and swinging from side to side. They stopped when they were several paces behind the first man. The men wore ragged clothing; one had a boot on one foot and a shoe on the other. Their hair was long. The nearer man was heavily bearded, while the beards of the other two were scraggly. They moved several more paces down the glen and then froze when they saw the officers.

The man in the front remained calm, the Lieutenant noted, but the other two men became agitated. They began looking around, as if they suspected that the two men they faced were not the only men around. The man in front motioned to the others to stay in place, and then he walked toward the Rangers and stopped just within a loud talking distance.

“Hello,” he called.

“I am Lieutenant Lincoln Kennedy, Ranger, United States Army,” Kennedy stated. “Please, lower your weapons.”

The man considered the officer’s request for minutes before speaking again.

“You are Army? Do you know what happened to the world?”

“Not really. Some kind of Fog. It’s going down. It’s down to six thousand feet now. It’s dropping about three hundred feet a year,” the Lieutenant replied.

The man stiffened as thought over those words.

“So. One day it’s back to normal, maybe.”

“Maybe.”

“Hard to say what will happen then.”

“Hard to say.”

“People doing whatever they can to survive. Got to look out for themselves first. They make mistakes sometimes,” the man opined.

The Lieutenant did not answer. But in that moment, he understood what the people of Petersburg meant when they said, “He’s the Chief,” and he understood why they said it. It was not about his power. It was about his intentions. Some people will do whatever is expedient to survive. Some people won’t.

The man was looking around the glen. “Where’s the rest of your men?” he asked.

“In the trees,” Kennedy replied. “Waiting to see what you do.”

“They’re real quiet.”

“They’re supposed to be.”

“Maybe there’s no one there.”

“They’re there. Now, by my authority as an officer in the Army of the United States of America, I order you to lay down your weapons,” Kennedy commanded.

“I’ll tell my friends,” the man said as he pointed his rifle at the ground. He began moving backwards.

“Get ready, Corporal,” Kennedy said quietly.

The man reached his friends. They began to speak, and after some moments they seemed to be arguing, even as they cast occasional surreptitious glances in the direction of the officers. Then the men lifted their rifles over their heads. They moved toward the Rangers.

“Looks like they’re surrendering, LT,” Carson said.

With sudden blazing speed, the leading man brought his rifle down to his side and fired a stream of bullets at the soldiers. Anticipating this, Kennedy flung himself to the ground at the first movement and aimed his rifle, but a bullet intended for his chest nicked his torso, causing him to groan as a sharp pain exploded in his side. Carson fired back.

Carson’s bullet travel much faster than Yuie’s arrow, but they arrived at the same time. The arrow pierced the man’s ear, and the bullet lodged in his chest. The other men were firing wildly, one toward the officers, and the other into the trees from where the arrow had been shot. The two Rangers hiding in the trees were firing, too. One of the men from the Retreat took several rounds in his body and toppled over. The other man followed him to the ground a few seconds later, just missed by a following arrow. The men emitted loud cries, and then fainter moans, and then they lay still.

“Yuie!” groaned the Lieutenant, as he struggled to his feet before dropping back to a knee.

From behind the gasping Lieutenant, Diana came running from the trees. From one side, Yuie was slipping and sliding down the slope, still carrying her bow and quiver. Corporal Carson knelt by Kennedy’s side, holding the Lieutenant up. Diana slid to her knees beside Kennedy and yanked his shirt up to examine the side of his body.

“He has a small wound,” she said to Yuie who arrived, white faced. “He’ll be all right, but I’ll need to stitch him up.”