The Road to Round Mountain II - The Alliance: By C.G Roberts

by C. G. Roberts

  heard numerous loud cracks as some of the trees behind the restroom started

  falling. One of the huge pine trees came down on the roof of the restroom, crashing through the roof and bringing down three of the four walls. The cloud of cinderblock dust was slightly inhibited due to the water spraying in all directions.

  As we got to the car, the Captain’s eye’s looked like they were going to pop out

  of his head.

  The Sheriff hollered at us to get in the car and just as Vargas closed his door, an enormous rumble erupted through the ground causing the car to shake. We heard a loud explosi on as our attention was turned to the remains of the

  restroom. The ground started to separate and opened a huge gap in the ground

  as the rest of the building and the fallen trees close by were swallowed up as if

  the earth was in need of a snack.

  I wasn’t sure that traveling by car was such a good idea, but I didn’t want to find us in the bowels of the earth’s crust either. As we pulled out of the parking lot, more trees were falling. A power line across the highway came down, along with the blue spa rks of the transformer that just missed us as we pulled out on the highway.

  The patrol car continued to shake as if it were going to fall apart. The Sheriff was in full white knuckle mode while trying to avoid large rocks that were rolling

  down the surrounding hills; some of the rocks were as big as the car. The Sheriff made a hard left as the right side of the road no longer existed, disappearing into another hole that seemed to be following us.

  I was now sure that this was not a good idea, but since I had no idea of my own, I kept my opinions to myself. Looking at the speedometer, the Sheriff was rolling at a good sixty five miles per hour. I’m sure we all wanted him to slow down but at the same time we wanted out of this mini Armageddon as fast as possible.

  We had gone around a few turns on the highway and noticed the car was no longer shaking as much. A few chunks of the road were missing, but not as bad as before. Some trees were still making their way to the ground, but it seemed like the worst was now behind us. A few minutes had gone by and the Sheriff was

  starting to relax some. The Captain survived the events by keeping his pants dry.

  We were just making our way over the top of a sizable hill when we noticed

  that down the hill, there appeared to be a river that wasn’t supposed to be there. As we got closer we could see a huge separation of highway 97 with a powerful moving river cutting through the middle of it. My eye’s widened as I recognized the old Winnebago teetering on the edge the uplifted road and almost dangling there as we could now see the unforgiving power that this newly born river

  possessed.

  I didn’t have time to think as the ground to the right of the Winnebago gave way to the oncoming rush of water. Focus, focus, focus, quickly, focus; as the jetted edge of the highway started to tumble, the Winnebago lifted up in the air and floated over the almost Niagara Falls. I could see nothing except the Winnebago as I tried to hold it until it seemed safe for landing. I could hear the

  little boy screaming for help as the road ahead looked safe. I slowly lowered my focus level and the old Winnebago came to screeching halt about one hundred yards past the crumbling highway.

  It didn’t register at first how I was able to navigate a safe area for that family

  to land. I looked down at the roaring water that continued to chew away anything in its path and realized that we were flying as well. I turned to Vargas, but he was busy navigating us to safety as well. The Sheriff’s patrol car landed

  almost perfect. A much softer landing than I was able to do; I was impressed and

  thankful as well.

  “Sheriff, can you pull up to the Winnebago, I want to see if they’re okay”? The

  Sheriff must have still been trying to figure out what just happened and merely

  nodded. “Walt, did we actually fly”? Walt turned to Bill and replied, “I’ll let you

  know once my heart jumps back into my chest”.

  The little boy was still screaming as we pulled up next to them. I got out

  followed by the Sheriff and the Captain.

  The door opened and a hysterical dark haired man came out hollering, “My wife; she hit her head when the road buckled and I think I felt a pulse, but could you please help me”. The Sheriff lumbered up the stairs to the Winnebago while

  the Captain tried to calm the husband down. “I don’t know what happened, one minute we were driving and the next the ‘Bago’ started shaking, then we were stuck watching the water eat away at the road”. His eyes were still red as he looked us over and continued, “I thought for a minute that I had died. Before I could grasp what was going on, the ‘Bago’ rose up and floated across the road, like I was being taken to heaven”.

  The Husband put his hands up to his face and sobbed, but he heard his son and ran to the Winnebago. “Jimmy, Jimmy, come out here son, everything going to be okay”. The little red haired boy came out the door and his father ran up and

  grabbed him and hugged him tight. I’m elated that they’re alright, and somewhat

  envious. It had been some time since I had hugged my parents and right now wishing that I could. It has been over two weeks since my parents were killed when the giant pine tree caught on fire from the same lightning strike that hit me, and caused the tree to crash into our house crushing them and sending our house up in flames.

  I could always be thankful I guess for my new powers. If I wasn’t hit by lightning, then I wouldn’t have been able to help that family. That little red hair boy deserves to have his parents around for a long time, and hopefully he will.

  The Sheriff came back down the stairs from the Winnebago smiling, “She’s coming around; caught a bit too much of the window, but she’ll be fine”. The ground began to rumble again and the Sheriff turned to the husband, “Does this thing still run”, He inquired, referring to their Winnebago? “I think so why”, the husband replied?

  The rumbling continued as did the Sheriff, “We’re not that far from where the ground gave away and I believe we should put some more distance between us, especially since the ground is acting up again”. The husband gave a thumb up, took his son and hopped into the Winnebago, quickly checking on his wife to where we could hear her, “I’m fine Chuck, just move this thing. I don’t want to go through that again”. “Where too Sheriff”, Chuck asked? “About a mile up ahead, it’s higher elevation there”, Walt countered.

  The wife popped her head out the window, “Can anyone explain what happened and how we ended up here”? “Once we get up the hill, we’ll try to sort it out for you”, the Sheriff answered, “And maybe someone could explain it all to me”, he muttered to himself.

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  At the top of the hill, we pulled off to the side of the road. The Winnebago chuffed and sputtered, but made it; he pulled over first. We pulled in behind him and as I opened the door to get out all I noticed was that I was looking straight

  down about one hundred feet. “Sheriff, we might want to pull up even with them; we seem to be missing solid ground to the right”. “Aw, shit”, as the Sheriff quickly backed up towards the middle of the road and pulled up even with the

  Winn ebago.

  The Sheriff and Captain got out and went around to the trunk to get the first

  aid kit for Chuck’s wife. I was feeling a bit woozy, and thought a smoke would help; I was wrong as the light headed feeling increased. Vargas joined me leaning up against the car when he tapped me on the shoulder, “Look, across the road where the sign is”. I obliged his request and located a beat up old wooden sign painted green but with a new sign attached, ‘Camp Wakinneha Welcomes Boy Scouts for their annual Campout’. Vargas whispered as not to alarm the others, “That Earthquake was quite large I’m guessing, and all that water could have only come from one place”. “Where’s that”, I replied?

  “Crater Lake, the earthqua
ke must have been big enough to, I don’t know, maybe split the side of the mountain and all that water is heading towards”……, as he pointed to the campground .

  The Sheriff and The Captain were attending to a redheaded lady seated on one of the steps to the Winnebago. She was bleeding from the right side of her head, but according to the look of the Sheriff and Captain that she would be just fine, as all four of them plus the young boy smiled.

  I turned to Vargas, “You drive”. Vargas nodded and got in the driver side of

  the patrol car.

  I ran around to the passenger side and hollered, “Emergency Sheriff, we’ll be right back”, as I got their attention and pointed at the sign across the highway. The Sheriff started to wave, but jumped up and went for the car as it finally sunk in that they were taking the patrol car. Vargas wasted no time in spinning the tires as we charged up to the sign.

  The Captain ran over to the Sheriff, “What the hell Walt, they just took the

  car”. Walt caught his breath and pointed to the sign. Bill quickly caught on and added, “You think all that water is headed for that campground, and where did all that water come from”? They could still hear the roar of the water just down the

  road . “If I had to guess, I would say Crater Lake, it’s only about twelve miles due

  west and that was one hell of an earthquake”. The Captain nodded as they went

  back over to finish getting the bandages on Chuck’s wife.

  Chuck was getting his wife a bottle water from the cooler inside and hopped

  around where she was sitting and asked the Sheriff, “Is anyone going to tell me what happened back there, and I’m not talking about the Earthquake, I’m referring to”, as he pointed to the Winnebago and made a flying motion with his hands. “Might as well Walt, looks like we got time, I don’t think we would’ve been much help down there anyway”, as Bill pointed towards the sign.

  “Okay folks, this may be hard to believe but”………………… and the ground gave a

  slight rumble.

  Vargas hauled ass as we made a hard left on the part dirt part gravel roadleaving that beat up sign well behind us. Around a half a dozen sharp turns, we finally made it into the clearing showing the campground. The screams had started before we could get out of the car. We ran down the small hill and saw what I feared the most; a giant wall of water heading directly at them.

  Frantically searching for a solution found me nudging Vargas and pointing to an archery area up on the side of the hill to our right. Vargas started without me

  saying a word as he was pulling kids one at a time from the valley to the huge

  archery set up which had huge piles of hay to catch errant arrow shots. He was

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  using both hands as kids were flying through the air screaming, and then landing

  on the hay.

  All I could find was a group of trees which I started knocking down and attempting to set up a make shift dam. My focus was intense as the water was getting closer. The trees were falling like dominos as I lined the m up in the path of the oncoming destruction. Trees were ling up hard and fast but the first push of water knocked some of the trees away. Panicked, I looked to my left and made a motion with both of my arms across my left and quickly brought my hands across my body.

  There was a rumble if the ground, but this time it was caused by me as the entire hillside emptied itself of dirt, rocks and trees directly in front of the inland tsunami. All of the debris from the hillside pushed all of the downed trees in front of the water. It made a small noise on impact, but held well enough for Vargas to pluck the rest of the Boy Scout troop to safety.

  Vargas was exhausted as he sat on the ground with his face cupped with his

  hands. An older man wearing the Boy Scout uniform was running up to me in a

  panicked daze. “What happened, to us, I mean, how did we get up here”?

  His was terrified but I had to ask, “How many total in your group”? He kept looking around and asked, “What, how many what, okay there’s 16 boys and three scout leaders, and me”. Twenty is the magic number, “Can you give me a

  count to see if eve ryone is here”, and he nodded as I followed him to the huge

  area of hay.

  I was counting with him as he was severely shaken, and I needed to find out

  because I didn’t know how long my little dam was going to hold up. He turned to

  me with his tanned face and grey hair and responded, “Nineteen, I count

  nineteen”. That’s what I came up with as well. I heard a muffled scream coming from the area where brought down the hillside. I saw an arm waving along with the top of a young boys head. I ran down to the campground which now is nothing more than a memory and saw that the young boy was stuck between a couple of the trees I sent flying down the hill. Please don’t be hurt.

  I arrived at the pile of logs I created and the young boy’s hand was waving frantically. I hopped up on the first downed tree and looking down I could see

  that his foot was stuck between two of the trees. I hopped back down on the

  ground and concentrated on the tree next to me. I was able to slide it out of the

  way without causing more damage to the boy.

  The sound of the water was fierce with energy as when a new wave hit the trees you could feel everything move slightly. I needed to hurry. I hollered at the boy to keep his arms down by his side for a quick second. His reply was too weak to hear over the crashing sound of the water. With the first tree out of the way I had a clear view of the dark haired scout except for his foot which was being held captive by two other trees. I had to gauge what was going to move once I moved

  the other tree. Satisfied with a pocket full of guesses, I focused on the tree in

  front of me. It slowly moved away from the scout and he immediately hopped to

  where I was.

  I had him in my arms as we started to head back to the others on the hill when a thunderous snap of wood told me my dam had just gave out. The brave scout tried to run but could only manage short steps with his hurt foot. The

  ground was rumbling behind me as the water was plowing through the trees and

  debris from the hillside. I hadn’t tried it before but I had no choice. I picked up

  the young scout and focused on the pile of hay on the hill. I threw up my free arm

  into the air and we suddenly had taken flight; though it may have been only a few feet in the air, the speed that we were traveling was going to keep us from being swallowed by Mother Nature.

  Maybe ten feet from the pile of hay I lessened my focus and we came back down softly in the pile of hay. Trying to claw my way out of the hay I could hear the roar of approval from the other scouts. Everyone seemed to be okay except

  the last scout with the sore foot. All bodies were making their way up the hill

  towards the patrol car as the water level continued to rise as my makeshift dam

  couldn’t contain the power of the oncoming rush of liquid damage.

  Most everyone was by the patrol car at this point. Vargas was slow to get to his feet and staggered up to the car. I was somewhat lightheaded but not too bad; until I felt a warm sensation coming from my nose. A quick wipe from my finger confirmed that my nose was bleeding. Tired and a bit dizzy, but my adrenaline was still pumping hard with the satisfaction of being able to rescue these scouts and the four scout leaders and keep them out of harm’s way.

  Speaking of scout leaders, we seem to be missing one as I panned across our

  group. I looked back at the car where Vargas was now hunkered down by the

  fro nt bumper; he did not look well. His eyes were bloodshot, and sweat was pouring off of him like someone was pouring water on his head. It was about two seconds later when
I felt water on my head.

  This water came courtesy of the missing scout leader as he had his religious font filled with what I was guessing as holy water and casting it on me and spouting some Latin phrases in my direction. Somehow having an exorcism being performed on me seemed a bit extreme. A simple thank you would have sufficed.

  The other three scout leaders attempted to rescue me from Father Merrin; sorry, all I could think of was the movie “The Exorcist”. I guess the power of Christ compelled him. The other leaders were backing him away from me, but all I could hear was demon, devil and some words that even Regan never said to her mother in the movie.

  The water was continuing to rise as I walked my now, demon free body over

  to Vargas. “You up to ma king a few trips to get these kids out of here”, I asked hoping for a coherent response? A quick general gaze in my direction told me that he was not as he appeared to be having trouble catching his breath.

  I hollered over at the other leaders as they had been able to quiet Father Merrin down a bit. “I need one of you to start loading up the car with as many kids as you can cram in there and drive up to the highway. You’ll see a big motorhome with The Sheriff and Captain Ackers helping a family there. If we’re lucky we can do this in three trips”.

  One of the leaders came up to me, “Son I don’t know what you and your friend did a bit ago, but I’ll start taking them up there as long as we get an explanation when we’re all out of here”. “Fair enough”, I replied. The man looked down at

  the growing body of water took off his scout cap and ran his fingers through his salt and pepper hair, “All of our gear and food got washed away, but that’s a small price to pay for all the lives you two saved”, and he held out his hand and I shook it and replied, “We better be quick, the waters getting closer”. The man nodded and gathered as many of the scouts as he could fit and took off up the hill.