by C. A. Henry
The theme music from Star Wars made her jump. She grabbed her phone out of her pocket and grinning, answered. “Hi, Jen! I’m here, I’m safe, and I can’t wait to show you the lodge!”
Jennifer Martin, an old high school pal, was coming down for a visit in a few days. The petite blonde sold cars at a large dealership in Tulsa, and had been Erin’s closest friend for years, ever since they sat together at a pep rally in ninth grade.
“Great. I’m glad you had a good trip. Hey, Valerie is taking a day off on Friday, and there’s no school, so she and Sarah are both coming, too. Do you have room for all of us? It’ll be like the sleepovers we used to have.”
“Sure, there’s plenty of room. I can’t wait!”
The two friends chatted for a while, making plans for Erin to meet them in town. “This place is hard to find if you’ve never been here before. I’ll have to guide you in. It’s impossible to give good directions with so few landmarks, so I’ll meet you, then you can follow me to the lodge. Just call me when you see the Kanichi Springs exit off the turnpike. You’ll turn left at the stop sign, then stay on that road for about 25 miles. There’s a grocery store on the highway, just as you come into town. We’ll meet there in the parking lot.”
“We’re going to be in Sarah’s SUV. From your description of the lodge, we’ll need a vehicle that has a higher clearance than my car for the dirt roads out there.” Jen chuckled. “When you decide to rough it, you go all out!”
***
Erin spent the next few days getting settled in. She swept the floors and dusted, then put fresh sheets on three of the bunks, making certain that her new home was ready for guests, and each evening, she worked on her uncle’s book.
The four friends met at the grocery store as planned, and as they climbed out of their vehicle at the lodge, the three newcomers stared open-mouthed at the view. They turned, looking around, astounded by the lodge and the green forest that surrounded them.
Sarah Logan, a tall, slender, red-haired science teacher, was enthralled by the landscape, which looked like a lime-colored quilt draped over the mountains. “Oh, I wish I could bring my botany class here for a nature study,” she sighed. “But we just found out that due to budget cuts, we can’t do any more field trips at all this year.”
“It’s a pretty place, I guess, but what about snakes and mosquitos? The outdoors just has too many things that bite.” Valerie Davis dusted imaginary dirt off her designer jeans, and sniffed. “I can already tell that this is not good on my allergies.”
Jennifer twirled around, arms outspread, and grinned. “I love this! It’s such a relief to get away from the dealership and the pressure to sell more cars. Valerie, you can just keep your little bubble butt inside if you want. I’m going to enjoy all of this that I can. It’s so beautiful, it almost hurts.”
“And the lodge!” Sarah stepped back to take it all in. “It’s way bigger than I imagined. It looks like it almost grew out of the mountain, nestled here on this flat ledge.”
Grabbing their luggage, they followed Erin inside and upstairs. She gave them a quick tour of the house, then they sat around the kitchen table with sodas and some brownies that Erin had made, and planned their activities for the next few days.
“In the morning, I want to take you on a hike. There’s a spring not far from here that feeds a stream, and there’s a little pool where we can take a dip when you come back in the summer. It’s still a little cool for that now,” Erin explained. “I hope you all remembered to bring hiking boots. The terrain can be challenging in places.”
“I saw a couple of shops that looked interesting as we came through town. Will we have time to visit Kanichi Springs? You know how I love to snoop around in antique shops and thrift stores,” Sarah shrugged. “But if not this trip, we’ll do another time.”
“We can certainly do that. I already planned to show you around town. We don’t have to punch a time clock, so we’ll do whatever strikes our fancy,” Erin assured her.
The next morning they ate a hearty breakfast of eggs, biscuits, and bacon, then packed sandwiches for their hike. All of them wore long sleeves, jeans, and boots. Sarah and Jen carried backpacks for the lunches.
Sarah sprayed herself all over, then offered her spray bottle to the others. “This is citronella essential oil mixed with water. It’ll help keep the bugs off. Shake it before you use it. Everyone should tuck her pant legs into her socks. It looks funny, but it will keep ticks from crawling up your legs.”
Erin checked her rifle and clipped a sling on it so she could have her hands free. Her Glock 21 was in a holster on her right side. Jennifer, the only other one who was armed, put her Springfield XD-M in her holster.
“It’s probably too early for snakes to be out, but there are bobcats and mountain lions in the area. The bear population isn’t big, but it’s growing. I read somewhere that bears are migrating from Arkansas. With four of us, we’ll make enough noise that they won’t bother us,” Erin explained. “I hope.”
Valerie saw Jen’s gun and asked, “Why do you have that, Jen?”
“I work in a business that requires me to go on test drives, alone with strangers. I also leave the lot after dark sometimes, and I refuse to be without my trusty 9mm. I have never needed to even show it to discourage trouble, much less use it, but as they say, I’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.”
Valerie shrugged. “I guess if you live in fear, a gun might make you feel better. I prefer not to think about all the bad stuff that probably won’t happen, anyway. Worrying like that is not helpful.”
Jen grinned at her, one eyebrow raised. “Trust me on this,” she replied as she patted her gun. “I’m not worried about a thing.”
***
The four women hiked around to the spring, enjoying the gurgling sound it make as the water danced over the rocks in the streambed. The water in the pool was sparkling clear, but when Jen stuck her hand in, she discovered that it was still very cold.
They hiked north to the back of the acreage, where they found a clearing and sat down to eat their lunch. After they ate, they headed east, then turned south when they reached the stake that marked the property line. They watched squirrels playing tag in the trees and saw a bobcat, but the only sign of bears was some old scat that Sarah noticed and pointed out. A light breeze rustled through the leaves, and an eagle glided, wings outspread, seeming to float effortlessly through the air.
Returning to the lodge, they approached it from the opposite side, not the way they had left that morning. Sarah stopped suddenly, and stared quizzically at the back of the lodge where it butted right up against the mountain. “Why did they build this that way? There’s plenty of room in the front to have built it out from that rock wall ten or even fifteen feet. It almost looks like they started it in the wrong spot and ran out of room in the back.”
“I wondered about that myself, but who knows? The back of the lodge actually touches the rocks. It isn’t like that on the other side, where the mountain curves away from the lodge. There’s a patio on that end, with a deck above it, off the second floor. The part that touches the mountain is the pantry. My guess is that whoever build it didn’t measure it correctly.” Erin scratched her jaw, then led them all around to the patio. “I want to get a new table and some chairs out here so I can sit outside to work when the weather is pretty. That old table might last a little longer, but the chairs need to be replaced. The cushions are torn and moldy.”
Entering through the mudroom, they hung their jackets on the hall tree, then went through to the living room and practically collapsed on the sofa and chairs.
“I wonder how far we walked today. My leg muscles hurt,” Valerie moaned.
Sarah laughed. “If you didn’t sit at a desk all day, crunching numbers, you wouldn’t be so sore now.”
“What’s for dinner?” Jen’s tummy growled as if on cue. “I’m getting hungry.”
Erin snorted. “You’re always hungry. I planned to
make my world-famous rigatoni tonight, but I’m beat. The little deli in the grocery store has great pizza. How’s that sound?”
Sarah raised her hand. “I volunteer to go get it, if someone will go with me. Pizza sounds great.”
“I’ll go with you.” Valerie stood up and poked Sarah playfully. “You might get lost without my unerring sense of direction.”
“While you’re gone, we’ll throw a salad together. Come on, Jen. You can cut up the tomatoes and mushrooms.”
While the others were gone, Erin and Jen chatted about mutual acquaintances and made a big bowl of greens, tomatoes, mushrooms, radishes, carrot slices, red cabbage, boiled eggs, and croutons. Jen caught Erin up on the latest antics of the “Martin Menaces,” Jen’s younger brothers David and Price. They were only a year apart in age, and were infamous for their pranks. They were students at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, and would be returning home for the summer in a few weeks.
Valerie and Sarah made it back with the pizzas, and the aroma made them all eager to dig in. They laughed and talked until after midnight, then went to bed exhausted, but happy.
The next two days flew by. Erin and her friends visited a few of the antique shops in the tiny town, drove around the area a bit to admire the scenery, and talked almost non-stop. Then on Sunday afternoon, Erin stood on the front porch, waving goodbye as her guests drove away, headed back to Tulsa.
So what do I do now? Erin wondered. I’m almost finished with Uncle Ernie’s book and the lodge is clean. Wandering around in the forest alone might not be a good idea, with spring starting. I don’t want to become dinner for a bear or a big cat. I know something I can do. I’ll find out more about the local fauna and their habits. Not knowing could be dangerous.
Erin filled her days with research about the area. Everything she found led her to something else, so she wound up learning about how black bears were migrating into Oklahoma from the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, increasing the bear population in the Kiamichis. She discovered that the Kiamichis were part of the Ouachita Range and were believed to be older than the Rockies. She read about the settlement of the Kiamichis by the Choctaw people, and also found out that the Choctaw nation had been the first of the Five Civilized Tribes to be forced onto a Trail of Tears, and that the tribe had provided code-talkers for the European Theater in World War II.
She measured the windows and ordered some colorful curtains for the lodge, then rearranged the furniture downstairs. She cleaned out a small flowerbed in front of the house. She also spent some time in town, getting to know a few of the locals, but she finally realized that she was experiencing a strange restlessness. Something was nagging at her mind, some little hint of a memory that she just could not quite pin down, causing a feeling of disquiet.
Waking up early one morning, Erin decided to sweep the patio and clean up the old glass-topped table behind the house. The leaves that had fallen months ago were damp and smelled moldy as she swept them up with an old broom that she found in the mudroom.
When she stopped to survey her work, the puzzle of why the house abutted the mountain came back into her consciousness. She had forgotten about it, but suddenly, the question that had hidden deep in her mind came rushing back: why in the world would they build right up against the rock wall of the mountain?
Hurrying into the lodge, Erin examined the back wall of the mudroom. The washer and dryer were against that wall, and nothing appeared to be at all unusual about the room. Going through the kitchen, she opened the door to the walk-in pantry. Wooden shelving lined the walls.
“Well,” Erin muttered to herself, “There’s not much in here, other than what I just bought. It’s funny. Uncle Ernie was supposed to be a prepper, but this pantry sure doesn’t prove it. Let’s see. There’s a canner, a dehydrator, some Mason jars, a pressure cooker, a Crockpot. A few cans of veggies, a bag of macaroni.” Erin made a mental inventory of the various items as she searched the room. Leaning down and reaching toward the rear of a low shelf on the back wall, she pulled out an old box of cereal, but something else caught her attention. Just under the shelf was a metal latch. Erin slid the handle to the left, and the whole shelving unit moved a few inches toward her.
“What have we here?” she mumbled as a cool draft of dusty air wafted through the opening. Erin pulled the shelf further out, and saw a tall, narrow tunnel. Glancing down at the wooden shelving, she realized that the unit had hidden casters that allowed the shelves to move easily. The left side was on hinges that were firmly bolted to a steel bar, which in turn was bolted to the rock of the tunnel. The right side of the shelves swung out like a door. Stepping through the opening, Erin could see two large latches on the back of the shelves, which, she supposed, would allow someone to hide in the tunnel by locking the opening from the inside. Lower down, she could see that the smaller latch could also be opened from the inside, so a person could not be locked in. Clever, she thought.
Erin peered into the depths of the tunnel. It grew darker further in, where the light from the pantry could not reach. I’ll need a flashlight for that.
Studying the walls and floor of the tunnel, Erin noticed a difference between the lower section of the walls and the upper part, from about four feet up. The lower area seemed more natural, while the higher section showed marks from some type of tool. Supports reinforced the walls and the ceiling, which also looked manmade.
Then it hit her: what she had been thinking of as a tunnel was actually a cave, one that had been enlarged to allow for easier access. Someone had wanted to be able to walk upright through this, so there must be a reason.
“I have a flashlight, but no spare batteries, and I’m talking to myself again. I guess further exploration will have to wait until I can go to town. There is no way am I going into that black hole without a good light and a backup light. Nope. Not going to happen. Being stuck in total darkness is not my idea of a fun time.”
***
As the sun’s rays shot golden yellow across the sky the next morning, Erin rinsed her breakfast dishes and dried her hands. She grabbed a light jacket and her keys, and went to town. She bought three new flashlights and several packages of rechargeable batteries at a small hardware store. At the grocery store, she found candles, and bought a dozen, along with a box of matches.
Chapter Two
Early April
Armed with her old flashlight, plus a new flashlight and spare batteries, Erin took a deep breath and stepped through the opening to the cave. As Uncle Ernie used to say, one is none, two is one, she thought. She almost took a candle and matches, too, but chided herself for being ridiculous.
The air in the tunnel smelled fresher, perhaps from having the entrance open the day before. The quiet in the tunnel was broken only by the faintly echoing sounds that Erin made as she switched on her light and edged forward.
Curving gradually to the right, the cave went back about fifty feet, before it widened suddenly and sloped downward. Erin pointed her light down the slope, and saw a faint reflection ahead. A few more steps, and she found herself in a large cavern.
It was difficult to judge the size accurately by flashlight, but the strong beam barely illuminated the far wall. Incredibly, the cavern was far from empty. Shelves, made from stout 4x4s and thick plywood, lined the left side and were loaded with large plastic tubs. Dozens of five-gallon buckets were stacked to the right. More buckets, plus small metal boxes and long, cylindrical containers filled the middle.
Erin’s eyes grew large as she took in the enormity of what was undeniably her uncle’s survival cache. Well, one of them, anyway, she mentally corrected.
As her beam skimmed around the room, she noticed a large white envelope taped prominently to a big red bucket. On the envelope, written in blue marker, were large block letters that spelled out “ERIN”.
Ripping the envelope from the bucket, she opened it and pulled out papers covered in her beloved uncle’s handwriting.
Dear Erin,
Well, yo
u found it. I figured it might take you a few weeks, but you would eventually figure out that there was something odd about the pantry.
I always thought that you were humoring me whenever we talked about prepping, but I was always quite serious. That’s the real reason I bought the lodge. I knew that if I was not around to help you, you would need supplies and a safe place to take refuge when the brown stuff hits the fan.
Notice that I said, “when”, not “if.” Few people live an entire lifetime without some type of disaster taking place, and I saw too many signs of serious trouble brewing to believe that the future would be smooth sailing.
I don’t know if it will be war, or a pandemic, or an economic collapse. I guess it could be an alien invasion or a zombie outbreak, although those are unlikely. It could be a natural disaster or some type of social upheaval.
But if I had to bet on it, I would say that the problems that are coming will be manmade, courtesy of the government, either ours or someone else’s. Probably some combination of stupid decisions by bureaucrats, but trouble is coming, and that’s a fact.
Enclosed you will find a map of the cave, at least the part that I was able to explore. Even a rat is smart enough to have an alternate escape route, so yes, there is another entrance. You need to familiarize yourself with the way in and out, and learn as much as you can about the area, just in case. There is a portion of the cave, toward the west, which I didn’t get a chance to explore. You should do that, and add the additional caves to the map. Hopefully, there is a third entrance somewhere.
There is also a list of all the hidey-holes where weapons are stashed in the lodge. If you ever need one, you will need it in a hurry, so learn where each one is. There are phony books, hollow lamp bases, and decorative shelves with hidden compartments in every room, all containing a gun or two. The headboards of the downstairs bedrooms have guns in them, too. Just press on the bottom of the headboard and it will pop open and drop a rifle into your hands. All of the guns are loaded, because an unloaded gun is no better than a rock as a weapon.