by Doug Kelly
The owner shifted his body and leaned on his cane at a different angle. The slight movement of his body to one side revealed a dusty shelf under the counter behind him. Dylan immediately recognized an old mechanical credit card machine, the type that required the card to be placed flat in the device with a sales receipt placed directly on top of the card. Once the card and paper were in place, the top of the device slid across the paper and card, imprinting information from the card onto the receipt.
“There,” Dylan said, pointing to the dusty credit card machine. “Just use that and when the power comes on, run the card.” Dylan placed his driver’s license on the counter. “Here’s my identification.”
The man poked at the old machine with his cane. “Well…I don’t like to use that piece of crap…and haven’t for a while…oh, well…okay, let’s get you outta here.”
A sense of relief erased the tension in Dylan’s body. His pulse slowed and his body relaxed. He glanced out the store’s window, past the silhouette of Richard smoking, and saw the water awaiting them. He was anxious to get home and desperate to see his children. He tapped on the window to get Richard’s attention and motioned for him to get back inside. After each man exchanged his credit card for supplies, they thanked the man for his assistance, then carried their bounty outside, around to the side of the building.
Kevin crouched down on the narrow sidewalk, patted his pile of gear, and said, “We should get started.”
Richard mentioned that he had seen an air compressor behind the store. The three men used it to put air into the rafts and placed the remaining equipment into each raft after it was inflated. Then the three men carried the rafts to the boat dock. They removed their suits and changed into clothes more suitable for the journey ahead. They put the rafts in the water and climbed aboard. Dylan began to paddle first. Kevin was right behind Dylan, and Richard followed in close succession. Dylan did not paddle fast, wanting to accustom his body to this new activity. As he slowly paddled, trying to find an efficient rhythm, he studied his surroundings.
The water was calm, reflecting like a mirror the upward outcroppings of a rocky bluff. No boats were in sight as the ripples from the three rafts erased the mirror-like reflection in the water. Dylan heard the screech of a large bird echo off a nearby cliff. He looked up and saw an eagle. It looked magnificent, and so graceful coasting in the air above the clear lake. The eagle swept its wings back and began to descend toward the water. Its speed increased rapidly as the eagle plunged downward. In a brief moment, the eagle was directing its power upward away from the lake. Its wings pumped furiously. He could see that the eagle had a large fish clasped firmly in its talons. The fish was trying to convulse itself free, to no avail. Dylan watched the large bird disappear with its meal as he felt the talons of his own hunger grasp his stomach.
He knew that hunger was going to be a new companion. Life before today was so easy. If he was hungry, he could just go to the refrigerator or pantry. If he needed more food, he could go to a grocery store that was open twenty-four hours a day. Dylan wondered if he could remember ever being hungrier than he was now. Food had always been easy to come by. He could remember eating for the fun of it, or simply out of boredom. On rare occasions, he would eat junk food, but made up for those transgressions with intense physical exercise. He knew that he was in excellent physical condition before this event, but maintaining health and stamina while scavenging for food would be a challenge. Kevin was also very healthy and in good shape, while also being several years younger. Richard was another story. Dylan knew that Richard was in serious trouble. He was a chain smoker, practically lived on junk food, and never exercised.
Dylan was desperate to get back to his family and fought the urge to break away and go off on his own, at a pace neither of the other men could maintain. Conversely, Dylan surmised that there might be a survival advantage in maintaining the group. As he paddled toward the shore on the opposite side of the lake, he theorized that it might be safer to stay close to land on the wider bodies of water. If something happened, they could get to shore quicker that way. After they had glided across the smooth water for several miles, they noticed a camping area toward the right, near the opposite shoreline. As they floated closer to the shore, tents and a few vehicles were visible at the small campsite.
“Hey, let’s get closer and quietly drift by,” said Dylan, in a hushed tone. “Let’s see if they say anything to us. I want to get a feel for how other people are reacting to what has happened.”
They could smell the wood smoke from a campfire close to the edge of the water. There were also some cooking utensils near the fire. Dylan gently paddled closer. He warned the others to stay back away from the shore. If the lakeshore was free of hazardous obstacles, he would wave them in closer. Dylan’s raft met the edge of the lake and rubbed bottom. Taking his shoes off, he stepped into the cold water and pulled the raft onto the shore. He motioned for his two companions to come in closer and sat on the edge of his raft. A man with short hair and thick razor stubble came out of a camper and, looking down at a rectangular pan in his hands, stepped toward the campfire and Dylan sitting on his raft. When the man glanced up, he was surprised by Dylan’s presence.
Startled, the man looked around and said, “Oh, buddy, you scared me to death. I didn’t see you there.” Then he asked, “Are you camping around here? I didn’t hear a car pull in.”
“No, we’re just floating by and thought we might stretch our legs for a second.”
Kevin and Richard were almost to the shore. The man stopped in front of the tent closest to him, put a large pan of cleaned and filleted raw fish down, and then whispered something into the tent’s opening. A woman whispered back from inside the tent, “Just ask them.”
“Can we borrow your cell phone? I can’t get my truck started and it seems like the batteries went dead in all of our stuff. I need to call a tow truck to get a jump start.” The man looked back toward the fish. “We ran out of ice and I’m going to have to cook all this fish now or it’ll spoil. It’s really more than we can eat. You’re welcome to have some. There are paper plates on the table.” The man looked toward Dylan and asked pleadingly, “Do you care if I make a call?”
“I’m sorry, we’re just roughing it. We don’t have a cell phone with us,” Dylan said, with remorse.
“Damn. I’ll keep waiting for someone else.” The man picked up the pan of fish. “I better get this fish cooked up. Tell your friends to come ashore. It’ll be ready pretty quick.”
Dylan felt sorry for the man and wanted to tell him everything he knew about the EMP and the collapse of the electric grid, but was afraid of what his reaction might be. Right now, even though most electronics were not working, he still might sound crazy to the stranger. He wanted to avoid all confrontation, and with firm resolve, reminded himself that his only objective was to get back to his family. He could not save the world.
The man placed the pan of filleted fish over the fire and in moments, the cooking fish smelled delicious. As the aroma wafted his way, Dylan felt his mouth fill with saliva. He had an impulse to devour the half-cooked fish. Sharing food with a stranger was an unexpected bonus; it could help to stretch their supply of food for the journey. He knew they had some food in the rafts, but it would be good to conserve as much as they could.
Kevin approached their cook and handed him a bottle of water. “You look thirsty,” Kevin said, smiling at the sight of a hot meal.
“Yeah, my truck won’t start, so I can’t drive anywhere to get drinking water. We’ve had to boil that stuff. It’s a real hassle,” the man said, as he pointed to the lake.
“Grab your water jugs. I have a filter. It’s the least I can do for some of that fish,” said Kevin.
“Deal,” the man said quickly, just before turning the fish and dashing over to get the water jugs so he could be back in time to keep the fish from burning.
Kevin retrieved the filter from the raft and proceeded to wade into the shallow water.
The man had brought every container he had that could hold water. Kevin lined up the man’s containers near the water’s edge and began to fill them with filtered water. Once they were all full, Kevin sat them next to the picnic table. The man was very pleased.
Dylan held out a paper plate on the palms of his hands. The man placed the cooked fish on the plate and Dylan could feel the warmth of the fish through the thin paper. After sprinkling a little salt on the fish, he devoured it, eating with his fingers. He noticed that the others doing the same, and suspected that this style of eating would be the new normal. After they consumed all the fish, Dylan apologized again for not having a phone, then they pushed away from the lakeshore. With a quick wave goodbye and shouting their thanks, the three men continued their journey. Dylan felt sorry for the man at the little campground, but he knew there was absolutely nothing he could do for him. He suspected that, on their way home, they would meet many others who were stuck. He expected other strangers, as time passed, to be increasingly desperate, and with that comes danger.
Dylan assumed the lead in the flotilla again. He changed his position in the raft to face the rear, and from this position, placed each paddle into an oarlock. The oarlocks, acting as fulcrums, allowed Dylan to use the strength of his arms and back to row more forcefully. He estimated that by turning paddles into oars, his speed doubled on the water. He easily accelerated away from the other men, then slowed down for them to catch up. When Kevin and then Richard got near Dylan’s raft, he suggested that they also switch from paddling the rafts to rowing them. At this faster pace, they could make it to the first dam before sundown, then use the remaining light of day to find portage around the dam, and still have time to find a place to camp for the night. In agreement with the plan, they continued, but with Richard struggling to keep pace with the other men.
Dylan’s enthusiastic rowing put him well ahead of the others and he was the first to hear the muffled roar of water pouring over the dam. Looking in that direction, he noticed another campground to the right of the dam. He removed the oars from the oarlocks, and turning around, began to paddle. He moved slowly forward, but angled his approach toward the side of the dam opposite the campground. Kevin and Richard gradually caught up.
Looking toward the dam, Dylan said, “I think we should stay away from the campground. Let’s set up our camp away from other people. To the left of the dam it looks like there’s a gradual slope upwards. I’ll jump out and look for a good path around and down the other side. Once we get around this dam, let’s stop at a flat clearing and pull the rafts out. It would be a good time to split up some of this food and get some sleep.”
“Do you care if I tag along?” asked Kevin.
“Be my guest,” Dylan said, then asked Richard, “Do you mind watching our rafts?”
“No problem, I need a smoke break.”
“Not in the raft,” Dylan said emphatically. “Keep your lit cigarettes away from the rafts. I don’t want any accidents. These rafts are our ticket home.”
At a safe distance away from the dam, the men found a gradual slope from the shoreline upwards. Dylan and Kevin jumped out of their rafts at this point and placed them on either side of Richard’s. They tethered the rafts together to keep them from floating away, and then stepped out of the water and up the gentle slope. Dylan told Richard that they needed to find a clear path on this side of the dam. Nodding, Richard took a long drag from his cigarette and waved them away. To their good fortune, Kevin noticed a small road near the dam, and therefore this route seemed like the logical choice.
Dylan and Kevin climbed upward to the small road. From here, they could look down and see Richard in the center raft, and in the other direction, they could see that the road went down to the bottom of the dam. There was a parking lot in the distance and what looked like a small boat ramp. Kevin wanted to walk by the stalled vehicles in the parking lot to assess any hidden threats. He did not want to carry their equipment past anyone who might cause a confrontation. They glanced back down at Richard once more. He was floating in the center raft and not paying attention to their ascent up the hill. Richard was slightly slumped over in the raft looking downward, not paying attention to anything.
The narrow road around the dam was steep. At the bottom, they stood in the parking lot and looked back up at the enormity of the dam. Water crashing over the top created a foggy mist at the base. They saw nobody around the dam and all the cars in the parking lot were empty.
Kevin turned to Dylan and spoke. “I don’t have a good feeling about Richard. He looks like he is really struggling with the raft.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” said Dylan. “He’s going to be a problem, and unfortunately he’s a problem we’re stuck with. As time goes on our situation is going to get worse and Richard isn’t going to be able to adapt very well. With what we’re heading into, Richard might do himself in.”
“Or us with him?” Kevin asked, raising an eyebrow.
Dylan’s only response was to nod his head wearily.
The two men paced themselves going back up the steep slope of the road. On reaching the top, they looked down to where they had left Richard with the rafts. The rafts were gone. Richard had pushed a paddle into the muddy bank and had been holding the paddle to maintain position. He had drifted off to sleep and let go of the paddle. The paddle was still in the mud, but the rafts were floating toward the strong current that plunged over the dam. Both men screamed at Richard as they ran down the slope to the water’s edge. Richard remained oblivious. At the water’s edge, Dylan and Kevin plunged into the lake and swam frantically to the drifting rafts, which were getting dangerously close to the swift current near the center of the dam. Kevin got to the drifting rafts first.
Kevin grabbed the rope on the side of a raft and screamed, “Wake up, asshole! Wake your fat ass up! Paddle! Paddle! PADDLE!”
Richard jerked up, startled, and grabbed for a paddle that was no longer there. It was still stuck in the mud on the riverbank. He fumbled for his remaining paddle and clumsily tried to paddle from the front of his raft. Kevin pulled himself onto a raft tethered to Richard’s and paddled with desperate effort. Dylan reached the raft opposite Kevin, with Richard in the middle, and quickly pulled himself up. The rafts were drifting closer to the dam.
Dylan yelled to Kevin, “Put the paddles in the oarlocks and row hard!”
Dylan and Kevin rowed in unison and slowly began to pull away from the dam. After what seemed like an eternity, they broke free of the current and headed back to the area on the shore marked by Richard’s paddle, which stood protruding from the mud. Finally back to shore, Richard stretched forward and grabbed his paddle from the muddy bank. Dylan and Kevin were too out of breath to speak, and simply stared, fuming with rage, at Richard.
“I know I screwed up. You don’t have to say anything,” said Richard.
Kevin stood up in the raft, grasping a paddle firmly in his hands. “You screwed up? No, asshole, you almost got us killed!” As he was yelling at Richard, Kevin raised his paddle like a baseball bat, ready to swing, and angled his stance toward Richard’s head. Kevin’s eyes were narrowed and filled with fury.
Dylan held up his hand and motioned for Kevin to lower the paddle. Speaking in a low, menacing tone through clenched teeth, Dylan snarled at Richard, “Don’t do anything stupid like that again, anything that jeopardizes me getting safely back to my family. If you do, I won’t bash your head in with a paddle. We will leave you behind, by yourself, and that’ll be a death sentence for you.”
“I get the message,” mumbled Richard, sheepishly. He looked away, terrified to make eye contact.
Kevin jumped out of the raft and pulled all three, still tethered together, half out of the water. “It is going to take at least two men to carry each raft up the hill and down the road on the other side. Richard, you will never again be left alone with my raft or equipment. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
Chapter Four
The men moved their equipment from the road and stood at the bottom of the downstream side of the dam, with their rafts and equipment at their feet. A small sign indicated that they were on Holter Dam Road, and the narrow pavement traveled parallel to the river for a short distance. Their waterway, once past the dam, had changed into a small river and their first lake was behind them now. According to the map, there would be more dams. They discussed the dams and decided the awaiting lakes would become evident to them when the river began to widen and the current slowed down. At that point, it would be prudent to switch from paddling to rowing again. They agreed that it would make good sense, when the current was swift enough, to conserve their energy by minimizing paddling to only what was necessary to maintain navigation. Dylan was hesitant about staying close to the dam, the parking lot, and this road. They agreed to float downstream to get further from the spillway and find a place that was more secluded.
About a mile downstream, they came upon a small island in the river. This little island was a few hundred yards long, and at its widest point, half the width of the river. The island’s flora varied from dry grass at the near end to dense tree growth at the far end. This would be a suitable location for their camp. It was not directly connected to the road, and the trees would provide camouflage during both day and night. Before pulling the rafts completely ashore on the little island, Kevin took a quick look around for any surface dangers that could puncture the rafts. None were found. He did notice a sufficient supply of dry driftwood that they could use for a campfire and hopefully to cook something before they left again. Dylan and Kevin lifted each of the equipment-filled rafts toward the dense trees. Richard ignored the threat of nighttime hazards and only went a minimal distance from the riverbank. Dylan handed Richard his hatchet and told him to gather plenty of wood and start a fire. Dylan and Kevin were going to explore the perimeter of the little island and be back to help as soon as they were done. The two men walked to the far end, through the dense trees. In the thick of the wooded area, Dylan stopped at an oak tree sapling. He circled the tree looking it up and down. The tree was about fifteen feet tall with a trunk slightly bigger than he could get one hand around.