The Storm Before the Storm

by Joe Russell

  Dave didn’t respond immediately, but thought about how to answer. He recognized that it probably wasn’t easy for Mike to admit that and although Mike wasn’t his favorite person in the world, Dave appreciated what he was saying. “Hey, man,” he finally said, “we’re just glad you’re out here.”

  “I don’t know if Sandi will say the same thing,” he replied. “I tried my phone today, and it was completely dead. I hope hers is in better shape than mine.”

  “Eh, she’ll get over it,” Dave said dismissively, trying to keep it light. “That’s what insurance is for.”

  “Does she have insurance on it?” Mike asked, sounding hopeful.

  Dave snorted. “Dude, she’d literally lose sleep over something. I mean, like buying an expensive phone and not insuring it.” He thought for a moment, a smile dawning on his face. “Ha, if there was such thing as a financial prepper, she’d be it.” Dave was unsure if Mike was both aware of the prepping culture and how Sandra was with that kind of stuff enough to appreciate his joke, but he thought it was funny at least.

  Dave stuck his finger in the water and pulled it out quickly. It was ready, alright. Mike got up to find the plastic camping cups they had brought and used last night. Dave opened his mess kit and removed a small Ziploc bag of instant coffee and added some to the canteen cup with a plastic spork. He stirred it for a moment, then brought it to his nose and inhaled, his eyes closing in pleasure as he took in the aroma. He held the canteen cup out in Mike’s direction to signal him to hold his cup out and filled his cup when he did. Dave then blew gently on the surface of the coffee and began sipping out of the canteen cup. He’d make more for the girls if they wanted some, he thought.

  Dave didn’t love coffee like some people love coffee, but he enjoyed it, especially on the weekends. This instant coffee wasn’t exactly the bold brew that he normally preferred, but like all food, always tasted amazing when on the trail. He figured that Mike felt similarly, based on how quickly he was drinking the hot liquid from his cup.

  “So, how did you and Jen meet?” Dave asked. He had heard the story from Sandra, but Mike didn’t know that and Dave wanted to hear it from him.

  “Well,” Mike began, “it’s definitely not the most romantic story. Last month, our dorm had one hell of a party one night and the next morning, I could barely get up. My roommate and I decided to walk up to the Walgreen's near campus to get some air and a little something for the headache and she was working there. I know I must have looked like shit, but she certainly didn’t.” He grinned to himself. “Nothing really happened then. But I decided to go back a couple of times the following week and I finally decided to talk to her. We hung out the next weekend, and here we are.”

  Dave nodded slightly and gave the gotcha face. That’s college, he thought. “That’s cool,” he said. He didn’t really know what to say. He still didn’t really trust Mike. It was nothing personal, it was just that Jen was basically a little sister to him now, and he hadn’t gotten to know Mike well enough yet.

  An awkward silence followed as the two sat and sipped their coffee, staring at the fire as if to avoid having to continue the conversation. Mike wondered if he had said something wrong and Dave just didn’t know what to say next, and didn’t care to continue the conversation badly enough to force it along. A few long minutes since they had last spoken, the silence was broken by the sound of a tent unzipping and Jen appearing from the darkness inside.

  She walked up to them and said, “Good to see you boys spending a little quality time together.”

  Dave couldn’t tell how much of her tone was genuine and how much was joking, but he didn’t appreciate it. Although Dave was by no means an extroverted person, he typically had no problem talking to people, especially in one-on-one settings. However, these social interactions with Mike were not easy for him because he just didn’t know how to talk to him and knew that Mike felt the same way. Dave was more than ten years older, which if they were fifty and sixty might not be a big deal, but Mike was a freshman in college. Dave saw that as usually being the place in a person’s life with the largest gap between their amount of responsibilities and the wisdom to handle them. Not that all college kids were that way and of course, kids in high school had even less of an understanding of how the real world worked. But college kids, especially freshmen, were in Dave’s experience, the worst when it came to thinking they knew how the world worked and because they were in college, the world would work for them the rest of their lives. This, of course, was a fairly common opinion of today’s younger generation for many, especially among the older generation and those in more rural areas. But Dave himself was a college graduate, having completed his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech; in this way, he was a little bit of an anomaly, appearing on the surface to belong to one group and in reality, being much more a part of the other.

  College was where he and Sandra had met. He was a little older than her and she had been studying sports medicine. While in college, he wasn’t big on organized social clubs and activities, being more focused on his seemingly endless pile of course work, his job, and when there was time, hanging out with his good friends, and getting home or out to the mountains. However, he had let his roommate talk him into going on an overnight backpacking trip with a campus outdoor group that Sandra was a part of. After that, they’d gone on several outdoor excursions with their more intimate groups of friends and eventually, just the two of them. It didn’t take them long to find themselves in a serious relationship and they were married on Sandra’s family’s farm shortly after her graduation. He had dated plenty of other girls in the past, but had never felt anything close to the connection he had with Sandra.

  “Well, I guess that’s what these little outings are for,” Dave said, and he meant it. The cynical side of him might not have agreed, but he meant it. He figured that the only way to get to know someone was to really spend time with them, and not just at work or in class. Real time, like out in the woods on some adventure. No group of people have stronger connections than those who have been through something extraordinary together, and although falling into a creek and making awkward conversation around an early morning campfire with cups of instant coffee might not have been one of Dave’s most extraordinary life experiences, he did have a strange, subtle feeling that this trip, this weekend, would be significant in the end.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  It was a relaxing morning. Sandra was awake and out of the tent soon after Jen and the girls had their own cups of coffee. They made a few Mountain House breakfast dishes using more boiled water and the general consensus was the same as it had been toward the last meal - that whether it was really good food or just that they had been outside for a while, it hit the spot and no one had any complaints. After they had finished eating and had cleaned up from the meal, Jen said to the boys, “I think Sandi and I are going to walk down the creek a little bit and find a place to clean up.”

  “What, don’t like campfire perfume?” Dave teased. He knew the grimy feeling after a day of hiking and sitting in front of a fire. Everyone had taken a turn, at least washing their faces in the creek last night before supper, but he supposed the girls wanted to do a little more and wanted their privacy.

  “As lovely as it is…” Sandra began, then just smiled. “I know I could use a bath.”

  “All right, I’ll keep watch,” Mike said playfully. Jen gave him a playful glare back, but Sandra didn’t look as amused.

  “All right,” Dave said, a little more seriously. “We’ll start taking the camp down. Just don’t go too far. We’ll wait for you back here.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The girls gathered up a few things; a camp towel, a change of clothes, and stuffed them into a small bag, then headed down the path back to the main trail and the creek. When they got to the main trail a couple of minutes later, they turned right to continue down to the creek in the same direction they had begun the day before, looking for a good swimming
hole. Sandra knew that it wasn’t anywhere on Jen’s radar, but didn’t want to go too far. This wasn’t a popular destination hiking trail in a highly-visited national park, and there was no telling who - or what - they would run into. Still, after twenty-four hours of sweaty physical activity, she knew she needed a little more than a splash on her face and they needed privacy to do that.

  Although she hadn’t intended it, they ended up walking almost half of a mile and stumbled upon a gravel forest road. “Wow,” Jen said. “I didn’t know we were so close to a road.”

  “Yeah,” Sandra replied, knowing that neither she nor Dave would have wanted to camp here as much, had they known. “Well, no harm done. There’s no one around and I haven’t heard any cars since we hit the trail yesterday. Let’s just go back up the creek a little way and find a spot. I know we didn’t see the perfect swimming hole, but we’ll make it work. I don’t want to go any further away from camp, especially now that we know there’s a road here.”

  “Whatever,” Jen replied, a little annoyed. “I think you and Dave are a little paranoid about that stuff. But, whatever.”

  Sandra rolled her eyes. She knew that she, to some degree, had the same opinion toward Dave and his often times pessimistic views of the world and the people in it, but she also knew that Jen was naive about the same things, and never too shy to share her opinion. Part of it was her age, but part of it as Dave would say, was her silly belief that if she put more trust in the world, it would magically become more trustworthy. Of course, there was nothing wrong with trying to make the world a better place and that usually meant taking chances with people or situations, but there’s a difference between doing that discerningly and intentionally treating your life like a gravy-covered baby lamb at the entrance to a lions’ den. Either way, Sandra was for the most part, a non-confrontational person and knew that she wasn’t going to change her stubborn little sister, even if she wanted to. The best thing she could do was to try to be the voice of reason and hope that over time, she would rub off on Jen.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  About fifty yards up the gravel road, two men sat crouched in the brush. They had been walking down the road toward the creek when they’d heard something coming through the woods and then voices. Female voices. They watched as two young women emerged from the trees near the small bridge that crossed the creek. The women looked around, up the road, across the bridge to the creek on the other side, and then at each other. They were discussing something and the men could catch a few words, but not the whole conversation. Then, after less than a minute, the women turned and began back the way they had come. The men watched like crocodiles beholding a small antelope drinking obliviously on a river bank. When the women were out of sight, the two men turned their gazes to each other silently, grinning deviously at one another.

  They emerged from behind their hiding spot, and quickly but quietly moved down the road to where the women had come and gone. They could still hear them moving down the trail and began to follow like a cat stalking its prey. They didn’t know who these women were or what they were doing out here, but they knew it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up. This was their game, and this would be an easy one. They slowed to a stop when they heard splashing. The men couldn’t see them, but from the noise, they could tell that the women were close, probably right behind a large boulder that separated the men from the creek.

  Carefully peering over the side of the boulder, the first man had to practically catch his jaw to keep it from dropping too far. The women had stripped and were wading into the water, facing away from them. Between them, the women had left their clothes and a few other items on the sandy bank of the creek. The second man took a peep around the shoulder of the first and had a similar reaction. They looked at each other again with the same grins that would have turned the women's blood cold, had they turned around in time to see.

  The first man took a step out from behind the boulder, nervous and excited. He knew what they were about to do was wrong, but life is short and given the opportunity and the circumstances surrounding it, he just couldn’t turn this down. He had done these things before, but nothing quite like this. This was new territory. Well, first time for everything, he thought hungrily, watching the splashing water run down the women’s smooth bare skin, glinting like gold in the stray beams of sunlight as they flickered through the forest canopy above. Oh, this was gold all right, and he had hit the jackpot.

  “Hello, ladies,” he said out loud in his best faux-charming voice.

  Indeed, Jen and Sandra’s blood did run cold and they froze in an instant when they turned around to see that crocodile-like grin.

  Chapter 8

  Spruce Knob, West Virginia. Present Day.

  “D

  id you hear something?” Dave asked abruptly, stopping what he was doing and turning to Mike.

  “No, don’t think so.” Mike replied, clearly without the concern that Dave had.

  “Okay,” Dave said, unconvinced. “Just seems like they should be back by now and I could have sworn, I just heard something like a scream.”

  “Hmm.” Mike still didn’t sound concerned. This bothered Dave. Dave knew that compared to the next person, he tended to be either more in tune with potential danger or paranoid, depending on who was asked, and maybe he couldn’t really fault Mike for being a little more normal. Still, this was his wife and Mike’s girlfriend, and if something was wrong…

  “I think we should go see if they’re okay.” Dave said, resolving his own thoughtful struggle.

  Mike looked at him a little funny. “Dude, I don’t think they’d want us barging in on them like that.”

  “Maybe not, but my gut says something isn’t right.”

  “Oh, your gut. Should have said that earlier.”

  Dave scowled. He didn’t like where this was going. He couldn’t expect Mike to feel his feelings or think his thoughts, or for that matter, know that his gut had indeed helped him out a lot in the past and he had learned to generally trust it. However, now Mike was being a little punk, mocking him for being legitimately concerned about something important.

  “Whatever, man.” Dave fought back the urge to say something a little more colorful, but knew this was not the time. “I’m going to look for them. Hopefully, they’re fine, but I’m going to make sure.”

  Dave walked past Mike without another look, starting down the path that would take him out to the creek and the main trail. He wished Mike would grow up and grow something else, but he wasn’t going to wait around for that to happen. The prejudiced part of Dave saw Mike as a little punk, and the rest of Dave had to admit, that he was at least acting like it now. He didn’t have time for that.

  “All right, all right,” Mike said, running to catch up with Dave. “I’ll go, but don’t blame me when they bitch at us for not giving them their privacy.”

  Dave didn’t respond, other than a grunt of agreement. He felt his hip half consciously, feeling the Ruger in its holster. His Ka-bar was on his left hip with the handle tilted forward in a cross-draw position where he always kept it while in the wilderness. As he headed down the path with intent and purpose, he thought about what could lie ahead and what he might have to do if something was wrong. He thought about his experience at his grandparents’ house a few years before, and the ugly series of events that’d followed. He knew this might sound like a paradox to others that hadn’t had a similar experience, but he had learned two things about himself. One was that he hoped he never had to be in a situation that forced him to use lethal force again, but the other was that if he was, especially if it came down to protecting someone like Sandra, he would, and he wouldn’t think twice about it beforehand or lose sleep about it later.

  The two continued down the path until they came to the main trail. Dave looked up and down the trail, trying to gauge which way the girls would have gone. He thought that maybe they would have gone back up the creek because it was familiar, but at the same time, he couldn't remember
noticing what would have been a notable place to swim or bathe, so maybe they would have gone down the creek in hopes of finding one. He studied the ground where the trails intersected in search of footprints that might shed some light on the matter. It hadn’t rained in several days, but the dark dirt trail was slightly lower than the ground on either side, and was still damp enough to show subtle but definable boot prints. Leaning down to get a better look, Dave studied the prints, trying to find which ones were the most recent. Mike noticed what he was doing and looked as well.

  “Looks like they continued down the creek,” Dave said after a moment of looking.

  “Yeah, I see that.” Mike pointed to a particular print. “Those look like Jen’s new boots.”

  “Yeah, and they’re definitely over top of the others.”

  Dave straightened, took a deep breath, and began following the trail down the creek. The whole time, he had tried to not make much noise so he could try to hear anything that could help them locate the girls, but hadn’t heard a thing. Then, he froze when he heard the sound of an engine in the distance, further down the trail. Sounds like that piece of shit truck from yesterday, he thought to himself. Great.

  Dave took off at a fast jog without saying anything to Mike. “Dude,” Mike called from behind him. “Wait up!” Mike began running to catch up.

  Dave didn’t waste his breath responding, nor did he wait up. He didn’t want to take the time to explain his little run-in with the locals the previous day, and how he was afraid of what they might do if they came across the girls alone. Plus, he didn’t think that Mike would even recognize the danger until they saw something concrete anyway. Maybe Dave was paranoid, but he knew if the girls were indeed in trouble, he would need to be that way to help them, and Mike would be worse than useless, only slowing him down, until Mike recognized that.