by Sally Six
Brian hadn’t had time to say anything back at all when Lysbeth scooted away from him. She was out from behind the tree and yelled. “HELLO IN THE CAMP.”
The boy turned quickly as he was still trying to herd the other children into the camper behind them and shot wildly in Lysbeth’s and Brian’s direction.
Missing all of them in the woods, thank goodness.
“It’s alright. No one’s going to hurt you. We’re friendly.” She yelled.
From the camp the boy yelled. “How do we know that? Someone already said that and then killed my parents and my uncle and aunt. Then they robbed us of what they wanted and took off. They thought it was funny.”
Lysbeth could tell that he was all choked and crying as he was having a hard time talking. From inside the camper, she could hear someone calling. “Henry we’re scared.”
“Is that your name, Henry?”
“Honest Henry, we will help if we can. You see I am new to these people that I am with too. My granddad died on the ride out of McCall. These people found me and made me part of their family. We won’t hurt you or the other children.”
Lysbeth stepped out from behind the pine tree. Brian gasped as he couldn’t believe she would take such a chance with a scared kid.
“See Henry, it’s just me. I’m Lysbeth. Brian, Barb and his mom, Beulah, are riding to Washington.”
“I saw the bikes. That’s why I shot at you. I decided that I would shoot first and ask questions later this time.”
Henry lowered the pistol and Brian let his breath out. He thought Lysbeth was going to get herself shot. Henry then sat down at the picnic table and started to cry. The other children came boiling out of the camper and ran over to Henry. When they saw Lysbeth, they stopped talking as they had been asking Henry if he was okay.
“It’s okay kids, I’m Lysbeth. I am going to call my friends out of the trees now. Don’t be scared.”
Lysbeth called. “You can come out now.” She saw they were already coming out as she called. “Duh,” she thought to herself of course they heard.
The children watched as the strangers came out of the woods and they huddled together.
All four of the adults came over to the picnic table and sat down. The younger one who called herself Lysbeth introduced the other adults. Brian was old enough that he looked like an adult to them.
By this time, Henry had calmed down and had realized these people weren’t going to hurt them. At least, they didn’t seem like it. Heck one of them wasn’t all that older them him.
Beulah asked. “Henry, will you introduce the other children? Are you and the others able to tell us what happened to your parents if you’re up to explaining? How many days ago did this happen?”
Beulah was also thinking and wondering which way the murderers went. She hoped they took a different route after they got past Riggins or someone else gave them what they had coming if they tried this again.
Henry finally looked up. The two youngest children were tight on each side of him. He didn’t have to introduce them. The youngest a black haired green-eyed little girl said. “I’m Karen, I’m five and that’s Gil and he’s eight.” As she pointed at the little boy on Henry’s right.
Henry got his voice again and said pointing at the other boy. “That’s Timothy, he’s ten and that’s Bea, she’s eleven. Bea and Karen are my sister’s. Tim and Gil are our cousins. We’re all Olson’s. My dad and theirs were brothers.”
The talking seemed to be helping him and the other children. They had all loosened up and didn’t appear so scared.
Brian looked over to where they had left their bikes and cart. “Henry would you and the other children mind if we go over and get our bikes? I think we would feel better about having them over here with us.”
The kids all shook their heads yes and the older people got up with Karen and Gil trailing after them as they went over to get their bikes.
All seemed okay with the bikes and cart. Brian had tried to not put his bike down. He had kind of half laid it up against a tree as fast as he could. He didn’t want to chance breaking the connection to the cart. The two children just stood waiting. “They are way to patient for children that age,” Beulah thought.
In a few minutes, they had the bikes and cart over by the first RV on the kick stands and had gathered around the picnic table again. When everyone was settled again and the two youngest were again at Henry’s sides, Beulah asked. “Okay, would you tell us now what happened to your parents?”
None of the children seemed to want to be the first to talk. Karen looked up with her beautiful green eyes.
“Bad men came yesterday and shot Mommy and Daddy and Aunt Lucy and Uncle Tyler. It was just like on TV, but it wasn’t pretend.”
Gil rolled his eyes. “No dummy, it wasn’t yesterday. Everything is yesterday to you.”
Karen got mad and yelled. “Was to Gil, was not, was too, was not.” They bantered.
“All right kids, all right, don’t worry about it.” Henry said. “Stop fighting.”
Must have been Bea’s turn to talk or she finally felt like it. “They came four days ago. We had been camping here when everything went dead. It was just before Dad heard on the radio that we were going to be bombed. He liked to listen to the 5 o’clock news.” Bea had tears running down causing dirty streaks down her face, but she went on. Anyway, he thought we all just best stay here instead of riding our bikes out or walking after the RVS wouldn’t start. We were too far from Boise he said. We would just wait things out for a couple of weeks or so. Then we would try to get home. He thought maybe they would be looking for stranded people by then.”
Beulah asked. “I wondered why you all weren’t at home anyway with school in and all.”
This time Tim answered. “We’re home schooled. All of us so we always vacation when the others are home. Dad thought it made the campgrounds more private. Now I wish that we camped when everyone else did.”
Tim laid his head on his folded arms on the table and didn’t’ say anything for a while. Henry had his arms around Karen and Gil as the others talked. Bea turned and looked toward the entrance of the campground.
“They came in walking, three of them. Dad said for us kids to go into the woods behind our camper just in case. We had a hard time keeping Karen quiet. She didn’t understand. So we told her we were playing hide and seek and she had to be very quiet behind the bushes. I didn’t really see anything as I was in the bushes with Karen. Henry sneaked up real close to our camper behind the rear where that big pine is.” She pointed at it at the same time. “He hid behind it so that he could see what was going on.”
Henry had his arms around a couple of the little ones. He was trying to be brave as he started telling what he saw and heard.
“The three men looked around awhile then spotted our campers and acted all friendly. They started to introduce themselves and said their car quit a few days ago. They called themselves Butch, Mitch and Stan. Dad told them what he heard on the radio about being nuked and that’s why all our vehicles wouldn’t work anymore. An EMP took everything out electrical. The biggest of them, Butch, got this big smile on his face then like he couldn’t have heard a more wonderful thing had happened. They weren’t a bit sad or scared about it like you would think, like we were. The other two started to laugh and reached behind their backs and pulled out guns. That’s when Dad and Uncle Tyler who was standing by the picnic table not far away realized that we were in real trouble. They got real scared looks on their faces. They both started to back up, but this Butch pulled out his gun too and told them to just stay where they were. Then he had his friends, Mitch and Stan, go into our campers to find what was in them.”
“What they found was our mom and Aunt Lucy in ours first off and hauled them out. They were being real rough and Dad asked them to not hurt anyone. They just kept laughing. Butch had Mitch cut some rope from the tent that us kids were sleeping in and tied up Dad and Uncle Tyler. Then they took Mom and Aunt Lucy behind
Uncle Tyler’s camper. There was lots of screaming and crying and swearing. I never heard that kind of swearing before not even at school. A while later there were two shots. I guess that’s when Mom and Aunt Lucy were killed.”
By this time tears were streaming down everyone’s faces including the new comers.
“Then the men came out from behind the camper. Butch had big scratches down his right cheek and was bleeding real bad. He ordered Stan to go in a camper and find some first aid stuff. Stan couldn’t find any. When he came back out of our camper empty handed, Butch hit him across the face with his pistol. He then asked Dad where a first aid kit was. Dad just sat on the ground and cried. When he didn’t answer, Butch shot him right in the head. He then pointed the gun at Uncle Tyler. Uncle Tyler said it was under the driver’s seat. You could see uncle Tyler was really, really mad. Mitch went and got the first aid kit and fixed up Butch’s face. When they were done, Butch turned and shot Uncle Tyler in the head too. He didn’t say a word about it. He just laughed about it. Butch then yelled at Mitch and Stan to help look around because from the looks of the tent and other things there were brats around. Then they would see what could be found in the way of goodies in the campers.”
“That’s when I took off from behind the tree as quietly as I could. It didn’t seem to make much difference. The creeps make a lot of noise as they tried to look for us. I went to the other kids and told them to be very quiet as bad guys were after us. But that was a mistake because it made Karen start to cry so they found us in a few minutes. They just laughed at us and told us to stay in the woods or they would kill us. So we did stay all night. It was really cold, but we were afraid to go back to the campers.”
“It was a good thing that we didn’t try to go back because they stayed the night in our campers. Tim and I snuck up close enough in the morning to see them stuffing some of our stuff in some of our backpacks. They each took a sleeping bag too. They tied them on and then walked out the way they had come. Tim and I went back and got the other kids and found Mom, Dad, Uncle Tyler and Aunt Lucy. At first, we didn’t know what to do. Maybe cops or rangers heard the shots. But no one did so we dragged the bodies into the woods and covered them with rocks, wood and leaves the best we could.”
Henry was exhausted by the time he was finished and sat there taking deep breaths.
All was quiet for a few minutes until Beulah started talking. She was wiping her eyes with her coat sleeves.
“Children that was an awful thing to have happen to you and your parents. I’m afraid things like that are happening all over the country right now, but we will take care of you the best we can. We will take you to the farm with us, my parent’s farm.”
The younger children perked up a bit after hearing that and that they wouldn’t be left all alone out here in the woods.
Brian said, “I have a question. Henry, where did you get your pistol?”
“Dad had it in a drawer by his bed. He always said we needed it just in case. You know for wild animals and such. He never thought men could be wild animals too. I see you all have guns. Do you know how to use them? I’m going to from now on.”
“Yes,” said Brian. “I know how to use mine. My grandfather taught me how and how to hunt. I don’t know how well the ladies know how to shoot, but don’t worry Granddad and my uncles will teach you all you need to know.”
It was getting towards dusk now and none of them had eaten.
Lysbeth asked the kids if they were getting hungry because she sure was. They all said yes that they were hungry.
“Okay where’s what’s left of your food. We have some to share if we need too also, but your family has what you like to eat.”
Bea was still sniffling, but managed to get out. “The men took some of the food, but with the cans and things they couldn’t take it all. Dad always brought lots of extra and so did Uncle Tyler. So even though we had to stay here a lot longer, we had plenty of food. Mom always gripped about all that stuff that she had to pack and cram everywhere, but she was glad this time. The bad guys didn’t even look in the storage spaces under the camper. There was lots of food under there.”
“Take my hand Bea and show me, you too Karen. You take Barb’s hand and we’ll all go look while Brian and Beulah see what else we need like pots and dishes.”
Henry said. “We have a Coleman three burner stove. It’s over there under the tree. Dad had moved it so the picnic table would be clear during the day. I don’t know how to work it. I wish that I had paid more attention. So we have been eating cold food. I was afraid to start a campfire as I thought maybe they would see it and come back. I was always too busy playing to learn to start that stove, never again. I want to learn to do things. This has shown me a lot of things that I need to know.”
“You and me both Henry.” Then Brian and Henry went off to get the stove.
Beulah smiled as the boys walked off. Looks like Brian has someone to look up to him now. At least there was something to smile about after all that had gone on. She was surprised at herself and then thought. “Ump, oh well, now for pots, pans and dishes.” She headed for a camper.
Barb and Lysbeth with the girls found all kinds of canned meats, vegetables, fruits and canned juices in Bea’s parent’s camper. Lysbeth turned as she saw movement out of the corner of her right eye. It was just Beulah going into the camper. Whew, her heart kind of jumped. “We need to set up a guard for the night if I’m going to get any sleep at all. I will gladly take my turn.”
Brian found two Coleman lanterns sitting by the stove. He had Henry bring those as he carried the stove over to the picnic table. He had Henry go back for the Coleman fuel by the tree as the stove was almost empty when he shook the tank. He taught Henry just like his grandfather had taught him to fill, pump up and light the stove.
Dinner done and things cleared away to keep bears from coming into camp, Brian showed Henry, Bea and Tim the right way to build a campfire. The reason Gil wasn’t with them was that he and Karen had both fallen asleep with their heads on the table before they were even done eating and were being put to bed.
Tim looked at Brian with scared eyes. “Won’t the bad guys come back if they see this or even different ones?”
Brian knew Henry had told the children that he was afraid that might happen.
“No, I don’t think they will come back Tim. Not the same ones and we’re going to set up night guards to watch things. No one will get the drop on us if we can help it. Most people are all holed up for the night by now anyway. It’s cold enough for people to want to be around a fire themselves or inside. So as soon as we’re done here, I think it’s time you all head off to bed. We need to get an early start in the morning for home.”
Brian let them all make their own small campfire from scratch and called it a night after they had the fires all put out.
Brian and Lysbeth took first watch for four hours. They both took up holding up a pine tree on each side of the camp and stayed in the shadows as the moon was quite full. Brian kept time by where the moon was. Gramps would be happy that he had remembered his lessons.
All was still quiet as Barb and Beulah took over watch. Brian reminded them to stay in the shadows and told them to wake him when the moon disappeared.
After Brian and Lysbeth were back up, he let his mom and Barb take a one hour nap. Then they woke the children and began to look over the children’s bikes to see if they needed any work before heading out unto the road. The bikes had been brought along on their vacation so the kids could explore the camp better and had been tied to the back of the campers.
Most of the bikes were mountain bikes. One had a child seat attached behind the rider’s seat. Brian thought that he was the strongest rider so maybe he would be the one to have Karen sitting behind him. Barb would take his bike with the cart and have Henry ride her bike. Lysbeth’s grandfather’s bike went to Bea. They put the seat as low as they could. That way Tim who was a bit shorter could ride hers which was a 15 speed. Gil was given T
im’s 10 speed so everyone had traded up. Gil’s bike was just a plain old pedal power speed. Brian didn’t see any other way to do things. They began to discuss this and pack clothes, shoes and any meds that they could find into other backpacks. There were plenty as the scum had only taken three.
Lysbeth had taken the girls to hunt in the other storage space on their uncle’s camper. They had found freeze-dried foods, two whole cases along with boxed and bagged juices for the kids in both storage spaces.
Since there was still quite a bit of room in the cart for things, Brian unlatched the bike from it. He had the kids help fill water bottles, get silver ware, pots, pans, sharp knives and other things from the kitchen or anything else that they may need that they could take for the future. Brian tied the tarp back on when they were finished loading it and re- attached to the bike. Now it was really packed.
The children were all dressed warm and standing by the bikes. They were ready to head out. Brian saw them look back at the campers. He knew that their way of life had been changed forever without their parents. Well he said to himself. “I guess that we all can say that our lives will be different from now on. Now can’t we?”
Barb took the lead as they headed down and out of the campground. They had to go slower so Gil could keep up. It took a few miles for Brian to get used to the child seat and extra weight with Karen on the back of the bike. It wasn’t any harder than it had been when he was getting used to riding with his backpack. Now he hardly noticed it at all. The only thing that bothered him was the smell of smoke that was still hanging in the air. It seemed to be getting more noticeable the further they went down the mountain.
Beulah turned her head. “Does anyone else smell smoke?”
Lysbeth said. “I do and have for a while. I just thought it was camp fires or something.”
“Same here.” Said Barb and the children.
“I smelled it yesterday too when we came into the campground. I thought it was campfires too, but I’m beginning to think it’s more than that.” Replied Brian.