On the hard road home…
Mike and Jeanne had crested the first pass and were grateful for the downhill where they could use their skis to move more quickly to the valley below. A stream meandered through that valley and there were two or three ranches widely spread out. Mike wanted to get them to a lower elevation before the dark and cold set in again. It would be a race against the setting sun. Finally, just as the sun was dipping below the next pass ahead, they were almost there, a small stand of aspen where they hoped they could make camp for the night.
Suddenly, a coyote crossed the road in front of Mike and stopped for a moment to observe. That was the coyote's mistake, because Mike pulled his pistol and leveled a shot at him. The coyote let out a yelp and limped toward the ditch of the road, dragging his tail. Jennifer was crying again from the pistol's loud report… to Jeanne's dismay. "What did you do that for!" She cried.
Mike followed the wounded animal off the road. Fortunately, he caught up in deep snow about 25 yards later and put the poor animal out of its misery. Jeanne, hearing the second shot, could only wait, comforting Jennifer to get her to stop crying. When Mike didn't come back right away, she decided to give Jennifer some milk because she hadn't had any all day. Jeanne was fearful of drying up from dehydration and stress. This wasn't helping matters.
Finally, when Mike didn't come right back, she put Jennifer back in the belly pack, took hold of the toboggan and continued on down the hill to the aspens. Finding a fairly good, sheltered spot close to the road, she began gathering firewood and started a fire. Darkness was coming on fast, and along with it, a very cold night.
Mike gutted and skinned the coyote right where it fell, electing not to carry the whole animal back out. When he got to the fire that Jeanne had built, finally, with the carcass slung over his shoulders, it was close to dark. Jeanne was agitated. "What do you expect us to do with that? We don't have much time to make camp now. You don't expect me to eat that, do you?"
Mike could see that she was angry and they were both very tired and getting weak and a bit disoriented, so he didn't say anything. They quickly pitched the tent and gathered more firewood in the dark. Exhausted, they retired to the tent, ate some dry cereal without benefit of milk and sweetener, and fell asleep.
In the morning, using the embers from the fire the night before, Mike got a fire started and they roasted some of the unfortunate coyote. Mike tasted it first, and trying to break the tension between them, remarked, "it tastes just like dog," with a big smile on his face. With that, Jeanne laughed and gave it a try, herself. She was pleasantly surprised that it tasted quite good. After breakfast, they both felt invigorated by the hot protein they had just ingested. They felt much better about moving on than they had in some time. Only three more passes to go. They wanted to clear this next one, today. It looked too far.
The couple started seeing tracks in the road… horse tracks. The first ranch came more clearly into view and they saw a rider riding out the long driveway toward the road as fast as the snow would allow. As the horseman reached the road, he turned and rode toward them at the same high gait. It was a bit disconcerting, to say the least.
When he got to within 200 yards they could hear him yelling, "Halt… Halt!" and he pulled up about 100 yards from them and pulled a rifle from its scabbard, pointing the rifle directly at them. He yelled again. "What in the hell, do you think you're doing! Go back where you came from! Go back or I'll shoot!"
A wave of fear rippled up and down Mike's back. He had no other choice but to answer the man. His pistol was ineffective at that range and he had no desire to confront this landowner. He mustered a response and yelled back. "It's just me and my wife and our baby! We're on our way to her father's house up ahead… Just passing through… Let us go on through." Mike hoped that the quaver in his voice wouldn't be taken as a sign of weakness like he knew it was.
The challenger's demeanor suddenly changed, he put the rifle back in the scabbard and rode on up to them, shaking his head. As he pulled up in front of them, he shook his head again. "I don't know where in the hell you came from, but putting your wife and baby in these conditions must have been a powerful reason for you to be out here in this weather. Where you from?"
Mike looked at Jeanne, and when he saw her nod, he answered. "We're from the Springs. We've been on the road about eight days now, I think. Still have a long way to get to Homer, near her parents' place."
"Well, I can't offer you folks much, except maybe some food and water if you need it. You can't stay. Under these conditions, we got a take care of our own. Me and the other ranchers have had trouble from ruffians come over the pass from Philippi and try to rob us. I thought maybe you were coming to try the same from the other direction. We have banded together to protect one another and to keep what little we got so we can make it through this terrible situation. You understand?"
"We sure do. We've seen enough of that already to last a lifetime. We've got fresh coyote meat and some cereal to sustain us. And plenty of water. We're okay to continue without any help." His tension eased, Mike felt much better about telling the man about them and what they had.
"Well, if you got here all the way from Colorado Springs, you are some tough customers. And to say further that you don't need anything, leads me to believe that you can make it all the way to Homer without my help. But I must warn you, that Philippi could be a problem for you. While I consider them my neighbors, since this happened, they turned on us, trying to take what little we have. I'd be very careful going through there, if I were you… Just a warning. For now, let me go with you past these next two places or otherwise they may get all excited like I did when I saw you coming on the road… first people I've seen for several days."
"Much obliged… We sure won't mind the company." Mike heard Jeanne's sigh of relief, and both of them smiled.
As they cross-country skied at a rather comfortable pace on the relatively flat valley, Mike and Jeanne got to know their protector. His name was John Lorentz, the fourth-generation on land that his great-great grandfather homesteaded in the 1880s. There were seven in his household and 23 household members in the three ranches that had banded together in the face of the raids from Philippi that seemed to be intensifying as the days went on. They had already had to kill and bury a couple of the raiders, something that John regretted, but found necessary if they were to survive. "It's a brand-new world," he said, shaking his head again with a worried look on his face.
Some members of the ranch families came out to greet them, even bringing hot food for them to eat at lunch and to take a look at the baby. They all laughed when Jennifer went peepee in the snow. Some of the women expressed their concern about the foolhardy idea of a woman and baby trying to travel past Philippi when there was blood in the air. Their faces, more than their voices, showed their deep concern.
John bid them Godspeed and returned to his ranch, and the last rancher accompanied them to the foot of the pass on the other side of the valley, already in dark shadow with the sun going down very soon. Rather than be caught up on the high, windy stretches of the pass, they elected to make camp at a little ranch shed just before the steep climb upward. The shed made a good shelter even though it was for animals, and the water tank contained fresh water once they broke the ice.
It took them the entire next day to make it over the pass, reaching it about 4:30 pm, just before the sun went down. They could see Philippi off in the distance, a general store with a gas pump, a bar, and a small collection of six or seven houses, spread out a bit at a place where another road crossed the one they were on. Based on what they had heard, the tired couple decided to soldier on, and try to pass through the town after midnight, hopefully not to alert anyone. It was a hard decision, because they were so tired from the climb all day, but they decided that it was better than trying to go through in daylight.
Once again, it was easy going downhill so Mike and Jeanne didn't notice how the long hours of exertion was taking its toll on them. They needed sleep and warm rest because it was bitter cold, but they kept going in the partial moonlight and starlight, knowing they had no other choice. It must've been around 2 am when they crossed the intersection where the general store was. Everything appeared to be dark and quiet–empty.
From behind a stalled car in front of the store someone shouted. "Hey you! Put up your hands so that we can see them! Do it! Do it now! Put up your hands."
That cold chill ran down the back of Mike's spine once again when he heard that yell come out of the darkness. When he saw the glint of a rifle barrel behind the car, he put up his hands, and nodded toward Jeanne to do the same. He saw that she already had her hands up.
Three scruffy looking characters approached them from behind the car, all armed. Mike's apprehension increased… He worried for his baby. The lead guy spoke. "What'cha doin' sneaking up on us like this in the middle of the night! Who in the hell you think you are? Think that you can pull one over on us? Well, you ain't welcome here. There's nothin' here for you, 'cept trouble. And we'll bring that if you want. Show me your weapons and your stuff!"
Mike was in no position to argue. He kept his hands raised as they took his pistol from him and its ammunition. And then, they ransacked through the packed stuff on the toboggan and both their backpacks. In the end, very little was injured after eating here?" left. Some water, but no food, and not even any matches to light fires. They were thorough and ruthless. Laughed when they encountered Jennifer, who began crying from all the commotion. It only took about 15 minutes, but it was devastating.
The one guy that did all the talking then told them, "Okay, you can get on down the road now. We have no need for you here. And don't you come back, now… You hear?" He brandished his gun in a menacing way that indicated that they would be shot if they tried to come back.
Mike and Jeanne both heard, but remained silent. The sting of his words were great and terrible. Without their resources, the road ahead looked very bleak, indeed. Without their skis and snowshoes, they set out to leave that awful town behind walking without their toboggan or their tent.
By morning, they stopped to nurse Jennifer and try to figure out how they were going to make the rest of the trip. When the sun came up warm, they curled up together in a swale of tall grass and slept. When they awoke in midafternoon, they were wet, something that was very dangerous without a fire. They decided to walk on to dry out in what remained of a sunny day. To hydrate, they took mouthfuls of snow at half-hour intervals so as to not lower their temperatures and kept walking. It was all the water they would get until they found a container to melt snow in, difficult at those temperatures.
Before dark, they found a rocky outcropping with shelter from the radiant cold of the night sky and filled it with as much dry grass they could find and a few pine boughs. It wasn't much of a bed, but it would have to do. First it snowed, and then it grew colder, but they were too tired to notice and slept through it all.
In the morning, they discussed their options before leaving the semi-warmth of their bed. Mike spoke first with a hopeful, but worried, look on his face. He spoke to a face covered completely by her hood drawn so that only her eyes peeked out and gave away that she was awake. "I think I can make Homer in two days. You can stay here, or follow if you like. I'll get some help there and come back."
Jeanne's eyes grew narrow as she responded. "I know we know a couple of people in Homer, but there's no guarantee, by now, that they won't be like the people in Philippi, driven crazy by the situation. Besides, to go that way you'd have to go 10 miles out-of-the-way to get to Mom and Dad's place. I don't think you should go there."
"But I don't think we can make it to your dad's, Honey. We don't have the food and water and the snow is deep in some places. It's a big risk trying to go further to get home, anyway. There are many ranches as far as I know, between here and there, until we get close to your folks. They may help us or hurt us… I don't know."
"It's a risk we've got to take, Michael. We can't take the risk of dealing with bad people again."
Mike pondered what she said. "Well, it's a long way to that intersection, so I guess I can make up my mind finally when I get there… If I get there." Apprehension filled his thoughts but he didn't want to show it to her. She saw.
The five or six inches of new snow made walking difficult, but they had to keep walking, sometimes wallowing knee-deep or having to crawl on their hands and knees to continue. By about 3 pm, they reached the climb out of that barren valley with no ranches… nothing. Jeanne felt too exhausted to go further. They found a large culvert under the road that provided fairly good protection. Once again they set out to find grass and made a bed for Jeanne and Jennifer to rest in. The time for tough decisions had come.
Mike decided to act. "Jeanne, you must conserve your energy and strength for Jennifer. At this point, I can't wait. I must go on and find help for us. If you feel better later on, follow my tracks. But if you don't, stay here and wait for me. I know I'll get help somehow and come back for you. But I must go now, as far as I can to get us home. Do you understand?" His eyes were pleading.
"I understand. I need some sleep now and to feed Jennifer. I'll be coming along later when I feel better. I promise you that I will find shelter up ahead so that I don't endanger us when it gets very cold, like now. Go, Michael, and find us help." They kissed one last, cold, dry cracked lipped kiss, and Michael was gone, upon the road again, trudging ever forward.
It was well after dark when he made the top of that range. His steps had slowed considerably and he was finding himself quite disoriented from hunger and dehydration, but something compelled him onward, without sleep, into the next day and the next valley.
Snowmobiles were on their way…
It took only about three hours for the two snowmobilers to reach the limit of their range at about 40 miles, just past the Homer turn off. Doug waived Roger to a halt at that point. They hadn't seen anything but occasional wild animal and horse tracks. There was nobody on the road, and nothing appeared ahead. It was a big disappointment not to have found Mike and Jeanne yet.
Roger was undaunted. "Listen, we've got a couple of days' supplies here on the snowmobiles. I can put my snowshoes on and go up ahead to that pass I see, climb it, and with my binoculars, see if I can spot anybody on the other side. It's a chance we've got to take. It's a long way from the Springs to here."
Doug shook his head in agreement. "Okay, you go on ahead. I'll stay here for another day. But I'll leave and go back to Susan after that, because I don't want her stranded out there where she is alone."
Roger nodded in agreement, packed his backpack, waved to Doug, and started walking. Daylight was burning. As night fell, he was still 5 miles or so from the next range and pass. He kept walking since there was no cover to make camp for the night. Finally, a couple of miles from the base of the uphill climb, he curled up under an evergreen and went to sleep. At dawn, the cold woke him, so he got up, ate some of the cold food he had in his back and started walking without making a fire. Going was a lot tougher than he expected. He began to doubt his ability to go very far in his search for Jeanne and Mike. He began to wonder how they could ever have made it this far.
Mike was now close to delirium from exhaustion, cold, and dehydration. The morning sun didn't help as he staggered onward, unable to keep up any kind of pace, staring out at the barren, snow-covered landscape ahead, like so many he'd seen before, only this time near snow blind without his sunglasses. Off the shimmering snow he could make out a figure, very small in the distance, a mirage.
And then, Mike tripped and fell forward into the snow. Lying there, face down for a while, until he realized the cold snow on his face was burning it, and he rolled over to let the sun warm him. It didn't. He struggled to his feet again and tried to walk. The mirage was getting stronger and it scared him, he pitched forward again, face first into the snow. This time, he couldn't get up. He just rolled over on his back, thinking about how he had failed Jeanne and Jennifer in his quest for help. Just too tired and dehydrated to get up and move on.
Mike must've passed out. Because everything went dim for a while, and then he heard what sounded like shouting in the distance. Not sure if it was part of the mirage, he forced himself upward in the snow and saw someone walking toward him yelling. Finally, he made out what it was. "Mike! Mike! It's me, Roger! Hold on, hold on, I'm coming… I'm coming to help!" At first the words didn't make sense. Was he dreaming…? What was Roger doing out here, anyway… It must be part of that nasty mirage, part of dying out here in white nothing, so cold it was beginning to feel warm, like death.
Jeanne suffered through another cold night in the culvert. Her exhaustion was gone and her space had become very cramped, but her hunger and thirst had increased, and she no longer had any milk for Jennifer. She took a mouthful of snow that burned her cracked and bleeding lips, and crawled out of the ditch and up onto the road, following her husband's clear tracks in the snow ahead. She didn't know if she could make it over this range, but she had to, she had no other choice.
Soon, Roger was giving Mike a taste of life-giving water and warming him with a reflective blanket. As soon as Mike could talk, he was adamant. "Leave me, Roger, you must go get Jeanne… Go get Jeanne… Jennifer… Go get her… Please!"
"As soon as I get you warm and hydrated, I will. First, let me set up this little shelter and give you some food and water. I'll be back as soon as I find her and can get her here. Just rest and drink that water very slowly, or you'll get sick."
It only took about 15 minutes for Roger to make Mike comfortable with enough sustenance to keep him going. Mike had told him that Jeanne had been left in a culvert, "just over that pass." Roger knew that if he kept walking he would be able to find her before dark. He had given most of what he had to Mike, so he had to find her quickly or they all might be in danger. Just the thought urged him on as he made the start of the climb toward the high point of the range. It was tough going in the deep snow drifts, even with snowshoes.
The sun was setting behind him as Roger crested the top and looked down into the long shadow of the range, straining his eyes to see if he could see anything. From what Mike had told him, it was still a long way down to that culvert where his sister was. As he stood there looking, he made out a figure in the darkness climbing toward him, about halfway up. He let out a mighty yell that echoed down the mountain… "Jeanne! Jeanne! I'm coming to get you! I'm coming… Hold on!" Soon, he was fairly running down the road toward her in his snowshoes, trying not to trip.
Jeanne saw him before he got there. She thought it was Mike coming back for her in her daze. She was climbing, fighting the snow, climbing for all she was worth. She knew she had to make the top of the range and down the other side if she was going to live and her baby was going to live. It was a powerful force of nature that made her continue to lift her legs and fight the snow, the cold, and the altitude. To her surprise, she heard Roger's voice, not Mike's, as he came close.
No amount of hugging could quench Jeanne's joy upon seeing her brother. She knew she had made it, even though she didn't know how far she had come or still had to go. Soon, she was drinking life-giving water from Roger's canteen. He gave her some cold sausage and cheese that felt very good going down her raw throat. He put his snowshoes on her feet and soon she was climbing again, taking water in small sips every few minutes or so, until she felt the strength coming back into her legs. Still, near the summit, Roger found an overhang, lit a fire in front of them, and they huddled together by the fire till morning. By that time, Jennifer was able to have her mother's milk again. She never cried or complained of not nursing. She was a very good girl.
Before dawn, they set out again. By 10 am, Mike and Jeanne were reunited. They both cried and hugged one another, knowing that they were on their way to being saved. Roger wasn't so sure. With only one snowmobile, it might still be a long trek out. He didn't have enough supplies for that. Mike and Roger had to fight the snow with their boots, while Jeanne walked on top with the snow shoes.
By noon, Jeanne was willing to give the snow shoes up to Mike for a while. It was getting very late in the day again when they saw the lone snowmobile ahead. Just as they got there, they heard the sound of another snowmobile coming and saw it's light bobbing up and down.
It was Doug. He had gone back to check on Susan and found that she was just fine, having dug enough snow to get the Wagoneer turned around and ready to go back. He had refueled his snowmobile and the spare gas tanks and returned, not willing to leave Roger out there, alone.
Doug was even willing to sacrifice one snowmobile to go get Roger back. He didn't have to. His family was whole again.
Blood is among the strongest of ties, and many families, similar to Doug Bentley's, sought to get back together in the initial days to face survival in a familiar, but alien world. Most were not so lucky. Time and circumstance intervened. Violence took many. Thirst took some. Starvation took most. Disease was close behind. Friends and neighbors, and even villagers, sometimes came together. Most often they did not. In the end, those that survived the months that followed were either lucky, resourceful, or ruthless. All of those scenarios played out. But that was not the worst of it.
There were 500 operating nuclear reactors on the planet. Regardless of where they were, these reactors were manned by either skilled or highly trained personnel at the time of the initial CME flare and grid meltdown. At every reactor there were multiple backup and failsafe systems, most of them improved after Chernobyl. There were also new technologies and methodology coming on board as a result of Fukushima. No one wanted another meltdown. Every precaution was taken to prevent one. Older reactors were being decommissioned to avoid failure from unforeseen deterioration.
Because transportation failed and most nuclear sites were some distance from habitation, the crews that were on shift at the time of the initial failure, were not relieved in subsequent shifts. And, with repeated CMEs, frantic efforts to maintain control and stability after even backup systems failed, made working in the sites very stressful. All hands had to continually work trying to keep the reactors from failing. In time, these reactor operators eventually gave up trying to work on saving the reactors, and left, trying to save themselves, trying to get as far away as possible from the eventual, meltdown.
Some of the older reactors could be shut down manually, simply by hand cranking absorption rods into the reactor's core or letting gravity take them down, thereby shutting down the reaction. Seventy-five reactors were shut down that way and the crews manning them able to leave safely. The rest failed over a period of two weeks and went into meltdown. The resulting radiation plumes and water contamination was apocalyptic, worldwide.
All around the globe, those that were in the path of the immediate radiation fallout became sick with various levels of radiation poisoning. Many rivers were poisoned to the point of becoming uninhabitable by fish life. Most of the radiation that flowed out from the reactors ended up in the sea, contaminating huge stretches of the oceans. Only the arctic oceans remained somewhat uncontaminated, but ocean currents continued to carry the contamination around the world and the radiation didn't stop flowing from the reactors for years.
Explosions and radioactive gases released to the air also traveled around the world on the jet streams and were deposited everywhere by rain and snow. There was no place on earth that was free from some form of radioactive contamination except aquifers and caves, and underground facilities with no exchange of outside air. Weather Mountain, the United States' governmental retreat, was not safe because it took in outside air. In the situation, it served only a few people, because the only way to get there was by walking. Electrical backup systems did not work. Place became an artifact… A museum of what didn't work.
June at the Bentley place…
With the emergency measures that Doug took, the Bentleys made it through the winter and into spring. By that time, they had banded together with local ranchers and neighbors in a combined effort to protect what they had worked so hard to attain. They knew that with the melting of the snow on the roads that there would be people coming. People not necessarily so generous and sharing as their community. Doug became invaluable restoring vehicles and equipment for the community. In turn, the ranchers provided seeds for planting and good old-fashioned horse power for farm work that lay ahead to put in enough for the next winter, sure to come. A semblance of frontier order was restored.
Roger led a posse of 10 into the town of Homer at 4 am one April morning. Half the population of 25 was dead and the rest were starving. They were easily subdued, having been such a problem to nearby ranchers shortly after the initial flaring. Force was necessary but turned out not to be. After feeding the starving residents, they were disarmed and made to agree to allowing the community to draw gasoline from the two service station tanks in exchange for food.
Unfortunately, it was some of the worst in the town that survived, having killed the others. It would take some time before they could be trusted again. These murderers were warned that they would be shot if they ventured out of Homer. All weapons were confiscated and they were left to fend for themselves. They were given a walkie-talkie that Roger had rigged up, to warn the larger community of any approaching danger. For being saved, they agreed to do that.
Fortunately, the surrounding that formed had 3 shortwave radio setups from the old days. Because of the CMEs, none of them were working, and two had not been used in years and were in disrepair. Doug started working on the one that was in the best shape, and, the community was, once again, in touch with the rest of the world by mid April. Encouragement and advice flowed freely as everyone that was left alive struggled to put things back together. After a few months, it seemed that, even with 6 billion of the earth's population gone, the remainder would be able to arrive at a 21st century lifestyle within a couple of generations. It wouldn't be easy, when life never was. There was only one problem…
Low-level radiation was everywhere. The coming generations would face numerous diseases and cancers associated with this radiation that couldn't be fully removed from the environment. There were many dead zones near reactors that melted down that would take several thousand years to become livable again. Wild creatures, ever on the move, would come in contact with these areas and many would die each year. Of those that lived nearby, many mutations and diseases would make their "survival of the fittest" lifestyle much different from what it had been for millions of years before. In effect, evolution was accelerated by the ambient radiation everywhere. And much greater in the dead zones.
Humans were no exception. Abortion became the rule in order to avoid terrible deformities found in the unborn. Death came early and sometimes, painfully for those afflicted with radiation poisoning or diseases triggered by radiation. Everyone wore radiation detection badges and tried to avoid too much exposure, but that was unavoidable and would be a living nightmare for thousands of years.
One hundred years later, the earth's human population remained about 1 billion, mostly living in areas with relatively low levels of radiation. The rest of the planet had turned into an amazing wilderness with exotic plants, insects, birds, and animals never seen before, but quickly evolved to tolerate the radiation, and even thrive.
A remarkable thing had happened to the human population as well. During the ensuing years, every childbearing woman had had at least 10 pregnancies. Of these, seven were terminated by abortion or miscarriage. Of the three that survived, one would die before childbearing age, and the other two had an average lifespan of 50. Of those, there were a remarkable number of geniuses who transformed life like it was never even imagined before. A percentage of these, less than 10%, seemed rather immune to the background radiation.
Thus dawned, Homo sapiens II.
Copyright 2014 © Ronald W. Hull
12/1/14
