by E. C. Marsh
The two men stared at each other. Finally Tom handed him the old coffee can they had used to boil water. Ralph held it out in front of him, looking startled.
“Don't look at me, man,” said Tom. “I'm not gonna hold it for you. I know you're hurt, but this you're gonna have to do for yourself.” Then he went into the woods to take care of his own business.
Before he returned, he heard Sandy and Ralph arguing with each other.
“Just remember, I did not want to go on this fucking trip. Just remember that. It's the last time I ever do anything with you. Never again, never, never, never.”
Sandy was loud and mean-sounding.
“I'm the one who got shot, not you. I'm the one in pain, not you. Why does everything have to go your way all the time? Besides, you wanted to come too. Yeah, you did, admit it! You wanted to see Sam's butt in a swimsuit. Just admit it. This one time in my life I'm counting on you to do something for us and what do you do, you bitch about it. Well, I've had it with you.”
“You? You've had it? I'm always the one who does everything for the family. I haul the kids around. I remember the birthdays in your stupid family. Who do you think sends your Mom flowers for Mother's Day? Me, did I get flowers? No. Okay, you got shot. Was that my fault? Did I shoot you? Did I tell those fucking idiots to shoot you? No, I did not. I may have thought it and it may have seemed like a pretty neat thought, but no, I didn't. So don't go accusing me of something. That's the way you are, accusing me of something I had absolutely nothing to do with. Then when I get all upset you change the subject and try to get me to feel sorry for you. Well, bud, it ain't working. I'm done with that silly mind game. Fuck you.”
“My fault I got shot? If you, stupid bitch, hadn't flipped those dickheads off, they wouldn't have gotten pissed and shot at us and I wouldn't have gotten shot. So, yeah it's your fault. Just once in your life I'd like to see you think about someone other than yourself, think about what repercussions your actions could have, engage your brain before you act. That would be a nice change. But you wouldn't, you couldn't! You are just 'damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead' all the time. No thinking involved. How you managed to stay alive as long as you have amazes me!”
“ Oh, I forgot you are brain in the family. I'm sorry. Should I ask you which hand to wipe with next time I have to go?”
“Awh, shut up you two,” Tom said as he stepped out of the woods. “Isn't there ever a time when you don't fight?”
There was no response, so he motioned for Sandy to get back in the canoe and get going. Ralph had turned slightly to his side. He had closed his eyes and looked half-asleep. Tom took one quick look at the map and his watch.
“How much longer do you think?” Sandy's voice was almost soft. Almost.
“Well, it's hard guessing.” Tom shrugged and passed the last water jug.
“I think about two or three hours, tops. Now don't hold me to that. I've never been this way before and I'm only guessing!”
“You're probably pretty close,” said Ralph, not opening his eyes. “We left at daybreak, around five. Now its noon and we had estimated about six to eight hours on the river. We've hit some real bad spots, when you had to get out and pull, and that really slowed us down. So I guess about two or three more hours is a pretty close estimate.”
“Ahh, he speaks to us mere mortals.”
“Knock it off, both of you.” Tom was losing his patience with both of them. He shoved off, following Sandy. In no time at all, had they once again found their rhythm.
Chapter 28
The little calf was on a large, metal table. It had been cut wide open. Ginny had a big rubber apron on, and long heavy rubber gloves. Nobody said a word when I approached, so I assumed that whatever they had been doing was done.
“Sam, I brought you some water.”
He took a big gulp. “Ohh thanks, I was so dry.”
“We about ready to leave now?” I asked.
The three of them just looked at me kinda funny.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“No, no,” Sam said. “The Doc here was just explaining things to us.”
“I don't really have an explanation,” Ginny shrugged. “You are telling me you watched this calf die less then twelve hours ago. With what I can see so far, I'm telling you this calf died several days ago. Actually, when I look at this carcass, I'd think it's some old cow. See here,” she pointed at something Sam could see but I didn't care to. “This animal has started to decay at an accelerated rate. You say it died within the past twelve hours, and I say it's been dead a lot longer than that.”
Ben Stubblefield took off his cap and ran a hand over his white hair. “Now Ginny, I was right there with that calf. When I got there, it was still up and moving around, looking for his momma. Within the hour, it was laying down in the grass, and then it was dead -- graveyard dead.”
“I don't doubt you Ben, but what I'm looking at here just doesn't fit.”
“Well, what about the rest of my herd? I've got about thirty-three dead cows up there. What killed them? I can see us having one little one die and we can't determine how come, but thirty-three of mine and God knows how many of Joe's? Ginny, something isn't right here.”
“Didn't you tell her about the soldiers?” I asked Sam.
“What about soldiers?” Ginny looked at me.
Sam just nodded to me, looking very tried and worn out.
“We were on the float trip, you know. It was just supposed to be a fun little outing. But then everything went wrong. Marty died, Ralph got shot, and Sam and I had to walk out and leave Tom, Ralph and Sandy behind. They're bringing Marty's body, and we need to go to meet them at the takeout point.”
I knew from the look in her eyes that my story made no sense at all. I inhaled deeply.
“When we walked out last night, we stumbled onto some soldiers from Camp Crowder. They were talking about some top-secret government testing right in the area we had floated through.”
I waited to see if there was a reaction, then I continued. “The test is something about a satellite that sends beams of some sort to earth. They're supposed to speed up the maturation of crops and allow the farmers to bring in more crops in a regular growing season.”
Sam was nodding all along, but Ginny just stared at me and made me feel like one of those alien abductees.
“When Marty first got sick, there were suddenly no more animals. Small stuff, like squirrels, birds, bugs, turtles, that sort of thing. But that's not the only spooky thing. There weren't really any dead animals laying around either, at least not for long. One day I saw animal corpses when we stopped for lunch, then later the corpses were all gone.”
I took a deep breath. I would have to bring up the subject of Marty, and I didn't want to hurt Sam doing it.
I turned to him and he just nodded at me as if to say 'go ahead'.
“And about Marty. She started to get sick Saturday, the first day of our trip. By afternoon, she was pretty sick, and she was hurting, all over. She had been out in the sun a lot, really more so then the rest of us. Anyway, I thought at first that it's a bad sunburn or something. But it was different. She got much sicker. Oh it was just horrible! She was just shriveling up, right before our eyes. At first her skin was all puffy, and then it got wrinkled. She just got real old looking.”
Sam had turned and walked away from us. I continued. I thought the vet should know.
“She became delirious and then she became comatose. At one point, she almost drowned when our canoes capsized. And then she died, just died.”
I paused and drank another glass. Nobody said a word. Sam returned and looked at us.
“There is more,” he said. “Rigor mortis set in very fast and only lasted a few minutes, then her body started to dry up. I don't know how to explain what I saw. So weird. Her body just dried up. I'm not even going to guess what shape it's in now after a full day in the heat.” He paused. “I hope to bring enough of a body back for the authorities to autopsy, maybe find out what
really killed her.”
After a long and uncomfortable pause Ginny looked at us.
“Let me see if I got you right,” she said. “You guys were on the river, on a float trip. One of you gets sick, she dies. You see weird looking trees and bushes and all the little animals and insects are dead. You think that her death and all those changes in nature, had to be caused by some secret government testing done at Camp Crowder?” We nodded.
“You may think it sounds like an outrageous story, but I happen to believe you. A couple of years ago we had something similar going on when I was in Vet School. I had already bought this little farm and was cleaning it up in my spare time. One day I was in town, picking up my mail, and I overheard some people talking about having tainted wells. Ben, you ought to remember that! Well, when I got home, I read in the paper that there had been some kind of training exercise on that base. Involved some petroleum-based products, I believe.
“Well, whatever it was, the stuff somehow got into the wells of two farms and ruined them. Sure the government paid to have new wells drilled, but a lot of folks around here still are leery, and boil all their drinking water. And strangely, the government is paying for these two families' medical care, all three generations living on the farms! You figure it out. So, you see your story is not all that strange to me.”
I wanted to hug her. I wanted to cry. I wanted to be with Tom, and I couldn't say anything. Everything got stuck in my throat. So I took Sam's hand and squeezed it instead, letting the tears run down my face.
Chapter 29
They were progressing nicely. Although it was hard for her, Sandy maintained her pace. The river was moving swiftly, and there was always plenty of depth. Initially, Tom had ignored the surroundings and had focused fully on staying behind Sandy and urging her on. Finally, even he couldn't deny it any longer. It was getting very hard to keep those arms moving. He focused on his rhythm instead, counting along, breathing with it, trying to think of Chris and Allen.
But there was Ralph in front of him, moaning, and he couldn't help but think of the wound he saw earlier. It was nasty, and there wasn't any doubt in his mind that Ralph's leg was infected. He hadn't said anything about it to Sandy, and they hadn't stopped anywhere long enough for Sandy to notice the swelling and the nasty looking, foul smelling drainage.
Tom continued to paddle, his motions mechanical. He heard the noise, but his brain didn't register it at first. Then he recognized it: rotor noise; helicopter.
Oh, no, he thought, gotta get out of the open. Frantically he looked around searching for fast and effective cover. The only thing close was the tree lined bank. Fortunately, the trees were huge, old ones with giant branches that extended well over the water. Not perfect, but it was better than out here in the open.
“Sandy! Saannndeee!” he yelled. She slowly turned and he frantically pointed to the sky and waved toward the tree lined bank. To his relief, Sandy nodded and immediately started paddling toward the bank. In a moment, both canoes were under the overhanging trees, and Sandy and Tom were holding on to branches to steady themselves.
“Why are we hiding from helicopters?” Sandy asked.
“I'm not sure,” said Tom, peeking out, watching the two small, dark green helicopters approach from around the bend in the river just behind them.
“I just know that I have a very bad feeling about this, and I'd like it a lot better if they do not know where we are.”
The two helicopters were skimming the water, slowly moving downriver. Holding their breath Tom and Sandy watched in silence until they went by.
Sandy looked at her watch.
“We should be getting pretty close to where our cars are. Do you think they will spot the cars? Do you really believe they were looking for us? What on earth for?”
Tom slowly and carefully let go of the branch he had been holding, allowing himself to drift toward her.
“Which one do you want me to answer first?” he asked. Before she could answer, he continued. “Yes, I think we are close to the takeout, no I don't think they'll see the cars, yes I think they were looking for us. No, I don't know why. Sandy, you were with us the whole time, what do you think?”
“I'll tell you what I think. I think we are in the middle of a giant alien experience. The government knows all about it, but is trying to keep it from the public. But we somehow stumbled into this mess, and now they are trying to catch us and kill, us or vaporize us, or something like that. So far, we have avoided them, but they won't let us off the river. We know too much, bud! You just mark my words! They will find the cars and they will find us, even if they don't catch us on the river. No matter what we do, we are toast. Alien toast. There you have it, just remember you asked.”
Tom just sat and stared at her. He didn't know what to say. “You really believe that?” he finally asked.
Sandy stared at him for a moment. “Tom,” she said patiently. “Yes, I believe that. I believe it, because that way I can explain everything that happened with Marty and the trees and all that stuff. Neither my head nor my heart can believe that the federal government just conducts a test of this magnitude and does not alert the public. So, that leaves aliens as the only acceptable option.”
“Come on, Sandy! Aliens! I can just see it on the next daytime TV talk show. Or on the news: Innocent campers harassed by crazed aliens, details at ten! Let's just get out of here, okay? The heat is frying your brain. There are no aliens dropping by to harass us, and I'm not even sure that all the weird things we think we saw really did happen. So just come on and move it. The faster we're out of this area, the faster Ralph will get medical help, and the better I will sleep. I don't know about you, but I am tired and sore and I really want to get this over with.”
But Sandy wasn't easily stifled. “Do you think you are the only one tired?” She glared at him. “Shit, I passed tired a couple of miles back. I'm not tired, I'm dead.” She stopped and looked at the plastic wrapped body of Marty in front of her.
“No offense, Marty,” she mumbled. “But I hate this whole fucking mess we are in. We couldn't just go to some amusement park, could we? Six Flags, maybe, or even Silver Dollar City. No, we have to rough it, and now look at what's happened. I hate this river, I hate this trip and if I ever see another green uniform it will be too soon.” She stopped to take a breath .
Tom dipped his paddle and doused her with water.
“Shut up, Sandy!” he said, but this time not really meaning it.
“I'm not happy either, and bitching won't get us anywhere soon. Put your energy to the paddle and we will be home the sooner.”
The movement of splashing Sandy woke up Ralph. His eyes had a feverish glaze and his face was flushed looking. He moaned, shifting his body weight in an attempt to get more comfortable. Oh shit, thought Tom, that's how Marty got started. Now Ralph? He didn't have the guts to say anything. If he talked to Ralph and asked him how he felt, he would get a horror story which Sandy would hear. She would panic and then he would have to take care of all of them. He sighed loudly and began to paddle even harder. Sandy was getting ahead of him. Can't let her out of my sight, he thought.
Every stroke of the paddle brought them closer to the end of the journey, but every stroke of the paddle also felt like someone stuck a hot knife in his shoulder. Yet he continued on, there was no choice. Block out the pain, he told himself, focus on the goal, focus on what matters, focus on Chris and Allen. And he continued to lower the paddle and pull it through the crystal-clear water, again and again.
Up ahead, he could see Sandy occasionally sitting up straighter and stretching her back, wiping sweat off her forehead, rubbing her neck. He caught himself constantly evaluating his surroundings for potential hiding places. They were surrounded by the most beautiful scenery he had ever seen. He conceded that much, and he did enjoy the steep pale bluffs with their dark green dots where cedars were growing. Sprouting on sheer rock walls framed by the bright blue sky and the multiple shades of green of the surrounding for
ests. I would like to come back here some day, he told himself. Maybe, if everything works out well. Maybe it's all just a bad dream, maybe Marty isn't really dead, maybe Chris is just up ahead. But he looked at Ralph's pale, sweat-covered face, and knew this was reality. If life were ever to become normal again, he would have to get them off the river first. Suddenly a change in Sandy's movements caught his attention. She had stopped paddling, had cocked her head to one side and seemed to be listening. Suddenly, she frantically paddled toward the bank, to the cover of the trees.
Must be the choppers coming back, he thought, and put every ounce of energy he could muster into each stroke.
He had barely grabbed hold of an overhanging branch when one small green helicopter came into view. This time it was flying even slower than before, just above the water. He could make out two figures, and he watched as they scanned the bank with what looked like binoculars.
Oh God, he thought, I hope Sandy found a good hiding place. Please, please, Sandy, keep your cool. If he hadn't been holding on to the branch, he would have crossed his fingers. He stared at the side of the chopper, willing it to lift up and speed away. But it didn't. Instead he watched the figures scanning yard after yard of shoreline. Don't move, Sandy, he thought. Don't move. After what seemed like an eternity, the chopper slowly moved on upriver.