The men did as he asked, and Ben began his crawl along the ladder toward them.
“I’ve got them covered,” Lila called out.
Ben addressed the men, who were now all in a prone position. “She’s always been a better shot than me, so I really suggest you don’t move.”
I killed my first man—three, to be exact—the day Lila was almost raped on our journey down from Massachusetts. Under the circumstances, it was surprisingly easy to do, as were the ones that followed. But we both reached the point where it began to sicken us. So when we found our cabin by the lake, we thought it was all behind us. Then, when we started on our way to Yellowstone, we were hoping that the chaos that had dominated the country the months after the event would have now been replaced by, well, if not a sense of normalcy, then at least some cooperation or common sense. It was depressing to find that some things hadn’t, in fact, changed at all.
Ben reached the other side and scrambled to his feet. He picked up the men’s holsters and threw them into the crevasse. Meanwhile, Lila had come out from behind the rocks and stood near the edge of the crack with her rifle trained on the group. Katie was by her side, looking a little confused, but not scared. Ralph was right by Katie’s side, instinctively knowing that things weren’t quite right and that his job was to guard Katie.
“So here’s what you are going to do,” Ben informed them. “You will take the little bridge you have on top of the tanker truck and put it over the crevasse.”
“We need all six of us for that.”
“You have four of you. Make it work.”
“It’s heavy.”
“Doesn’t look that heavy.”
“Trust me, it is.”
“Not my problem. I suggest you get started. And I really hope you don’t try anything or there will only be three of you. It’ll be even heavier.”
They got to it. It was clear that with all six, they had it down to a science and could get it down in a matter of minutes. It was a combination of pulleys and sheer strength. Two fewer people threw off the whole routine and it took them almost an hour to move the bridge into position over the crevasse. They were exhausted by the end of it and were happy when Ben told them to sit. Lila, Katie, and Ralph used the bridge and crossed the gorge with ease.
“Here’s how this is going to work,” said Ben. “You will put your vehicles in neutral and push them into the gorge.”
“But then we will have to walk,” said one of them.
A mental genius, thought Ben. “No shit, Sherlock. Just like all the rest of us. And after you push them in the gorge, you will do exactly that, you will start walking … away from us. I don’t care where you go. You’re not going to be able to cross the ravines, so I suggest walking parallel to one of them. Eventually you will find places to cross.” He looked at the leader. “That’s your only choice, and it’s not an invitation.”
One by one, the trucks were pushed into the gorge. The pick-up fell to the bottom with a tremendous crash. A minute later, a cloud of dust surfaced and rose into the air. The other two trucks made it part-way down before getting stuck. It didn’t matter to Ben. They were stuck for good.
“You can go,” announced Ben.
An hour later, Ben, Lila, Katie, and Ralph had crossed four more narrow crevasses using the ladder, and were safely in the forest on the other side.
The four men were dots on the horizon.
Chapter 10
The ladder continued to work well for them over the next couple of days. It wasn’t heavy, but it was awkward, and at times they resented having the cumbersome load. But they couldn’t complain about its effectiveness. They still had to skirt around many of the wider ravines, which was time-consuming, but unavoidable.
On the third day after their encounter with the men in the trucks, Ben made a decision that almost proved catastrophic. They were once again faced with a wide ravine—narrow enough for the ladder to fit across, but wide enough that it made the crossing stressful. The ravine continued as far as they could see in either direction.
“Cross?” asked Ben.
“One scary and potentially dangerous hour versus maybe a day or two of walking to find the end of the ravine or an easier place to cross.”
“If anything,” said Ben, “it looks like it actually gets wider in both directions. I say we should try it.”
“You haven’t steered us wrong yet.”
There was always a first time.
Ben tied a rope to the ladder just in case, then slowly slid it out across the crevasse. When it became too front-heavy, he gave it an extra push to reach the other side. It just barely made it. He pushed it a little further, until there was about a foot and a half of ladder on each side of the seemingly bottomless pit. It was about the same margin he had on the ravine he was crossing when they encountered the men.
“I’m not going to push my backpack across,” he said to Lila. “I think I’ll go across, then throw you the rope. You can tie it to my pack and I’ll pull it over the ladder. I’ll bring the other packs the same way, then Katie, then you. That work?”
“It works for me as long as you tie yourself to the rope when you go over. There’s a good tree to wrap the rope around, and then I’ll hold it, like before.”
The details taken care of, Ben tied the rope to his ankle and started across. Lila wrapped the rope twice around the tree and slowly let out the tension as Ben crawled. Katie and Ralph sat off to the side and watched.
Although the crevasse was no wider than the first one, Ben found himself more nervous.
“Piece of cake,” he told himself, not believing a word of it. By the time he reached the halfway point, he knew it was a mistake. He didn’t want Lila or Katie attempting it. He was also sure that Ralph would balk at it. Was it the depth? He couldn’t see the bottom the last time either, but this felt deeper. He stopped.
“Coming back,” he called out.
“You okay?” called out Lila.
“Doesn’t feel right.”
“Okay. Come back slowly. Be careful.”
“I will.” He felt the ladder move and he looked to the other side. The ledge wasn’t stable and the edge was crumbling. “Hold the ro…” he started to call out. The ladder broke free. The last thing he heard as he descended into the abyss was Lila’s scream. He fell about twenty feet until the rope stopped him suddenly and painfully. He hit the side wall of the crevasse hard and everything went black.
*****
“Oh no … oh no … oh no,” Lila cried out in a panicked voice. She heard Katie scream. The tension on the rope was tight, so she knew Ben was still there. That part was good, but she could feel the rope slipping. Even though she had wrapped it twice around the tree, it wasn’t enough. Ben’s weight was more than it could bear.
“Katie, honey. Call out to daddy. See if he’s okay. Don’t go too near the side.”
“Okay.” Katie assumed a half-scared/half-serious expression and stopped ten feet from the pitch. “Daddy!” she cried out. No answer. She tried it again. Ralph got into the act and started barking. “Quiet, Ralph. I can’t hear if daddy is calling.” Ralph went silent. Katie called out again, but heard nothing in response.
“Mommy, I can’t hear daddy.” There was a quaver in her voice.
“Keep trying honey. And keep listening.”
Lila was losing her battle with the rope. If she could somehow loop her end around the rope leading from Ben to the tree, she could buy herself some time and maybe get a strong knot in it, but she had to hurry. She had about five feet to play with, but in another minute she’d only have a fraction of that and her window of opportunity would be gone. Katie! Katie could help.
“Honey, I need you … quickly.” Katie abandoned her vigil at the crevasse and ran over. Already Lila had lost another foot. “Take this end of the rope and loop it over that other part of the rope.”
“The straight one?”
“Yes, honey, the straight one.”
Katie took the end f
rom Lila and dropped it over the top of the rope that led from the tree to Ben.
“Okay, now pull it through and bring it back to me.”
When Katie handed it to her, she pulled and the slipping stopped. Not done yet, she tied a knot and slowly let go of the rope, hoping the knot would hold. It did. She sank to the ground to catch her breath, but only for a moment. When she stopped shaking, she quickly got up and said to Katie, “I need you to stay here and keep an eye on the rope. See that knot?” Katie nodded. “If you see it move at all, you let me know, okay?”
“Okay, mommy. Is daddy going to be okay?”
“I’m sure he will. I have to go try to help him up. You’ve been an awesome help.”
She ran to the side and peered down. Once her eye got used to the gloom, she could make out the bottom of Ben’s boot. He was still upside down. “Ben, can you hear me?”
Nothing.
“Ben, you’ve got to wake up.” Her voice echoed back to her.
She tried pulling on the rope, but Ben’s dead weight made it impossible to lift him. She sat down with tears in her eyes. She needed him to wake up. There was no way to bring him to the surface otherwise. Suddenly, she had an idea. After checking again with Katie that the knot was secure, she ran to her backpack and grabbed her flashlight, her canteen, and a second bottle of water and went back to the ledge. She shone the light. He definitely wasn’t moving. Even with the flashlight, it was difficult to see his head, but she thought she saw a blood patch. If that was the case, he might be losing blood quickly, and time was of the essence. She opened the bottle of water and very slowly poured it down the hole, hoping to catch Ben’s head. It was hard to line it up at first, but finally she could see it hit it’s mark.
If this didn’t wake him, she wasn’t sure anything would.
*****
It was raining. It was nighttime and Ben was caught without shelter. But where were Lila and Katie? The rain was only a trickle at the moment running down his face and dripping off his head, but he knew how quickly the storms could intensify. Wait. Dripping down off the top of his head? That didn’t make sense. And his head was killing him. What happened? Slowly it began to dawn on him. He seemed to be hanging in midair. Panic set in. He thrashed about, trying to grab hold of something solid. He could feel the rope around his ankle. It was painful. He touched something cold and smooth. Rock. A rock wall.
And then it all came back. The ladder falling and him hitting something hard. The rain stopped and he heard a voice calling his name. It was Lila!
“Ben, wake up.”
He groaned in response. He felt his head and realized he’d been bleeding. A lot. A scary amount.
“Are you okay?”
He found his voice. “The ladder fell. I hit something.”
“I can’t lift you. Can you climb out?”
“The rock wall is smooth. I’ll feel around.” He was beginning to get his wits back.
“Hurry! I knotted the other end around the tree, but I just don’t trust it.”
“And I think the knot around my ankle is beginning to slip.” That was an understatement. He was trying not to worry Lila. In fact, the rope had slipped a lot. He changed the angle of his foot to keep the rope from sliding off, but that was only going to be a very temporary measure. He had to take the pressure off the rope somehow. He felt around. There was nothing to grab on to.
Where are the trees and roots like the ones growing out of all the other crevasses? He thought. He felt along the wall for something … anything … to grab. It wasn’t working, and now the rope was dangerously close to slipping off his foot. He abandoned his search for a foothold and focused his attention on the rope.
He was weak from the fall and dizzy from the loss of blood. He needed to grab hold of the rope, but it meant doing a sit-up from his upside down, dead-weight position and reaching the rope around his ankle—not easy in the best of circumstances. If he could hold onto something on the wall, it would help.
A crack! Not big, but enough to fit his fingers into. He wedged them in and tried to pull himself up. Nothing. He was weaker than he thought.
“Lila,” he called. “I have a bad situation here. The rope is coming off my foot, but I can’t reach it. I need help. You don’t have to pull me all the way up, but just give me something to help me bend at the waist so I can reach the rope. Do we have anything? Anything at all?”
“Let me look.”
“Look fast! Please.”
*****
Lila jumped up and ran to the backpacks. She tore through them, finding nothing. She looked around. There had to be something that could help. She looked at Katie, who was still monitoring the knot.
“It’s still on the tree, mommy.”
“That’s good, honey,” she said distractedly. And then it hit her. The tree! There was a low branch right above Katie’s head. It wasn’t too thick—she thought she might be able to break it off.
“Katie, move out of the way, please.”
As Katie moved, Lila jumped at the branch and pulled it down. It bent but it didn’t break. She pulled again and again. Finally, she could feel it begin to splinter. A minute later it snapped off. She dragged it to the edge of the ravine. She didn’t even know if it was long enough.
“Ben?”
“Still here … for the moment, anyway.”
“I have a branch. I hope it can reach you. I can’t pull you up though.”
“Don’t need you to. I just need something to give me a little support.” Ben had his foot turned at an unnatural angle to keep the knot on. “Let’s try it.”
Lila leaned over the side of the crevasse and dangled the branch as far as she could. Ben could see the thin end—would it break off if he grabbed it?—but he couldn’t quite reach it.
“So close. Can you get it any closer?”
“No. It’s as far as I can go and still keep my grip.” There was panic in her voice.
“Okay then. Hold on to it tight. It might jerk when I grab it.” If I can grab it, he thought.
Lila had a knob at the end that she wrapped her fingers around for support.
“Okay. I’m ready.”
Ben knew he’d have one chance, and one chance only. He had to summon the strength to bend up even just a few inches. But if he couldn’t, it would be all over. He would never have the strength to try it twice.
“Here goes.” He screamed at the top of his lungs to release as much energy as possible and bent at the waist and jerked himself up. It wasn’t much. Only a few inches. But it was enough to grab the branch.
Lila felt the jerk—even stronger than she was prepared for—and almost lost the branch, but she managed to keep her grip. If she hadn’t had the knob for support, the whole branch would have slipped from her hands.
Now that he had a little leverage, Ben lifted himself up until he touched the rope. With one last push, he grabbed the rope with both hands. His foot slipped from the knot, and all of a sudden he was hanging from the rope by his hands. The situation wasn’t much better, as his strength was fading. He brought up his leg and tried to find the loop the knot made. He put his foot in the loop and used it as a step, standing himself upright. He wasn’t worried about the loop and the knot. The knot was secure. It had just been tied too loosely on his ankle.
“Are you okay?” Lila called out.
“I am. Just resting.” He had a clear view of Lila now. He felt he could almost touch her, but she was still about ten feet above him. He could also see the sides of the crevasse clearly now. Nearer the top the sides were not as smooth, and the roots were plentiful. He rested a minute longer, then very carefully, while still maintaining a good grip on the rope, he began to make the climb.
The roots were sturdy and in a matter of minutes he was within arm’s reach of Lila. She grabbed his hand and pulled. A minute later he was lying on the grass at the top of the crevasse taking in great gasps of air. Lila was cleaning his head wound. As with many cuts to the head, he had lost a fair amount
of blood, but the wound wasn’t serious. Katie ran over and, as a family, they hugged, with Ben and Lila telling Katie how brave she had been.
They camped that night under the tree, any thought of finding a replacement ladder totally dismissed. The irony of the situation was that the next morning they found a crossing point less than a mile from the spot of Ben’s fall.
Even in our old world, life was fragile. The simplest mistake could end in serious injury or death. In the new world, those chances were increased exponentially. On one hand we were more aware, but on the other hand, danger lurked almost everywhere. I was lucky … this time. I wondered though, was it going to be some fluke event like that one that would eventually kill me?
Chapter 11
They walked for two weeks without seeing another person. Once they saw smoke coming from a chimney a couple miles away, but decided not to make contact. They were making good time, but Ben always made sure they took numerous breaks and quit for the day by mid-afternoon. While Katie was used to playing in the woods and had boundless energy and endurance, she was still only six and couldn’t go on forever. In Lila’s case, Ben called it quits when she would start to limp noticeably. Lila never complained about the early end to their day and seemed willing to let Ben call the shots. And of course, he was fine about stopping early in deference to his own condition. His injuries weren’t serious, but were painful and became more so after hours of walking.
They stayed away from the remains of towns as much as possible, but avoiding them altogether was out of the question. Like the earlier towns they had encountered, most were overgrown and many had also been ravaged by fire. Between the fires immediately after the event caused mostly from people dying with lit cigarettes, fires caused by the earthquakes, and those started by lightning, it was hard to find a town that had remained fairly intact. It was even rarer to find one untouched, not overgrown, and populated. Which was why when they finally walked into one, it was a complete surprise.
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