by Isa Marks
He walked through the bushes and searched for the place he had visited every so often, usually after a supply run. He squatted down behind some big rocks about half a mile southwest of the Spring Cabin. It had taken him a while to come up with a good place to hide his own supplies. Even though he would have rather buried it along one of the escape routes, he decided not to. There were official emergency supplies buried along that route, in case of an enemy attack, making it too big of a risk to hide anything nearby. So he chose his spot more carefully, in between the rendezvous point and the overlook.
He brushed aside the leaves, branches and moss that he had carefully placed there last time and took out an old military ammunition box. He put some things in that he had found on his last trip to the city. He may not have been able to get to the library, but he did find a small medical center just outside the city that still had some stock. He looked through the contents of the box, most of which were things he had found on his own ‘scavenging trips,’ which usually led to the guards quarters to steal some cigarettes.
What was that? He heard the cracking of branches in the distance. It was coming from the direction of the overlook. The wind carried the sound along. The snapping continued, along with a scraping sound he couldn’t place. He put a cigarette behind his ear and the rest of the supplies in his bag. He tried to stay low to the ground and out of sight. It got louder, now accompanied by groans and heavy breathing. Murphy was curious and peeked through the leaves.
There was a girl, he saw her now, she was covered in blood and dragged something behind her. He sat as still as possible behind the bushes and observed her for a minute. She was struggling with the heavy cargo. He recognized those clothes, he had found a brand new set exactly like it not too long ago and had given them away. That could only mean one thing . . . He lost his balance, cracking the branches next to him, startling the girl.
Cathy dropped the handmade stretcher she was pulling behind her and automatically cowered out of fear of a nearby threat. Were there people out here? It couldn’t be anyone from the Hospital, that would be too soon. They had taken the longer route and would still be waiting for the rendezvous completion before they would initiate phase two, and continue to the Spring Cabin. Many scenario’s flashed through her head, from harmless animals fleeing from the flood, to strangers trying to rob her of her possessions, but this one she hadn’t accounted for. A guy, just a couple years younger than her, rose calmly from the bushes. He had a relieved smile on his face as he walked towards her.
“Murphy, you made it out! You scared the shit out of me, what the heck are you doing here?”
“Cathy, what are you doing here?” he said, “Are you hurt?” He looked at her from top to bottom. Her sleeves were covered in a dark brownish pattern with smudges on her chest. Her hands looked wiped off, but her fingernails revealed the same brownish color rim.
“No, it’s not mine.” She pointed to the stretcher behind her. Only then did he recognize the man lying there unconscious.
“You are up here with Daryl? I mean, I didn’t know the two of you were a thing?” he teased, trying to lift her mood.
“Ha-ha, you’re so funny,” she smiled. But the expression on her face immediately turned serious again. “Help me get him to the Spring Cabin will you.”
Murphy took a look at the guy on the stretcher. He was no doctor, but he knew it didn’t look good. He slapped him in the face, but there was no reaction.
“Well, I guess we’ll have to drag him there, cause he’s not waking up.” He looked at the makeshift stretcher. The branches were tied together with torn strips of fabric. “That’s a pretty neat stretcher sis, I didn’t know you could do that.”
“Neither did I,” she admitted. “But I guess there’s a lot you can do that you are not aware of,” she said.
Murphy took off his shirt and threw it to her. “Here, put it on and give me your shirt.” She looked at him puzzled but did as he asked. He tied her bloody shirt to the branches protruding from the front of the stretcher, creating a band that he could put around his waist to pull the thing forward.
“It’s just a ten minute walk to the Spring Cabin from here,” he said, “or well maybe a bit more . . . cause geez this guy is heavy.”
CHAPTER 5
PHASE 4
“Make room.” Murphy shouted through the cave entrance. His skinny body still dragged the heavy muscular guy behind him on the stretcher. The others got up from their nap on the comfortable mattresses in one of the cave’s sleeping rooms. The temperature was a few degrees cooler here than outside which made it a comfortable place to get some rest. They could at least have bothered to make some light, he thought. He dropped the stretcher carefully to the ground and made his way to the medicine cabinet, while Cathy untied Daryl from the stretcher.
“He passed out right after I started cleaning the wound,” she sighed. Tears started to appear in her eyes. She tried to fight it, while she rubbed a wet cloth over Daryl’s hands and arms. “I couldn’t just leave him out there, even though he asked me to.”
The dark stains of dried blood covered his body and his face, it wouldn’t come off . . . She sniffed, trying to stop her nose from running. Now that the adrenaline had started to wear off, she found herself trembling. Her confidence was replaced by all kinds of emotions, which she wasn’t ready to let in. She sat next to him and waited, hoping for him to wake up.
Heavy rumbles came from outside the Spring Cabin. They could hear the water growling in the distance, splashing against the rocks. The wind was picking up, causing an eerie howling through the branches. Inside the cave, Daryl groaned. He had been in and out of consciousness for the last hour. The look on his face was puzzled when he came to and looked around.
“You’re at the Spring Cabin,” Cathy whispered to him.
He tried to get up, grabbing his leg at the first attempt. He remembered, the climb, the fall, the blood.
“I told you to leave me,” he groaned, keeping his voice low. “You’re wasting valuable time.”
She smiled at him. “Do you think you can stand?”
“I don’t think he has a choice,” Murphy said as he walked into the room. He took a little zip bag of pills out of the military box in his bag. “Here, take these, they’re antibiotics,” he said as he threw the little bag to Daryl. He had hoped to find something pain suppressing in the supply room, but it appeared they were all out, just like in the Hospital. “And you might need one of these,” he said somewhat reluctantly; handing him a single pill of Oxy from the same box. Daryl took them without asking questions.
There was shouting in the distance. The rumbling had died down, but the growling of the water and cracking of branches was louder than before. The cave walls had kept most of the noise out, but outside it was obvious, the water was getting closer, and so was the group from the first rendezvous point. Murphy ran back to the trail, to see what the fuss was about. People came running towards him and behind them in the near distance he saw an ocean of brown swirling water, destroying everything in it’s path.
“The new coastline, it’s still shifting,” he sighed.
Men and women passed him by in a hurry to get to higher ground. Murphy grabbed the arm of one of the guys that had fallen to the ground and helped him up.
“What happened?” he shouted at him.
The guy was hardly able to breathe, he had been running for his life. He bended over to catch his breath before he was able to say anything.
“Tell me.” Murphy pressured him, while dragging him forward by his arm.
“Landslide,” he mumbled. “Landslide . . . water . . . move . . .”
He threw the guy’s arm around his neck and helped him off the trail, up along the route to where the rest of the group had gathered. They lay exhausted on the forest ground in front of the Spring Cabin. Cathy and the rest of the group had come from the cave and stood in the door opening to see what was going on. Daryl stood right next to her, leaning on a stick. His mouth wa
s dry and his head felt hazy, but at least the pain seemed to subside.
“This isn’t all of you, is it?” Cathy said with a worried look on her face. “This can’t be all of you. Where are the elders, the other children?”
“The ground just started to move,” one of the guys said while tears filled his eyes. “We just started to move towards the Spring Cabin, when we saw it behind us. It took the whole farm. She was still inside . . . they all were,” he cried, not being able to bring out another word after that.
“You there,” Murphy yelled at the guard emerging from the trees behind the group. “Full Situation update, now!”
The guard hesitated. Who had put this kid in charge? But he saw the whole group staring and knew what was expected of him in a situation like this. Like a robot he took out his notebook and started reporting the update according to the standard evacuation protocol.
“15.00 Dam broke. Message relayed to the Elders. Evacuation protocol initiated. Hospital 2 evacuated.
15.50 Water reached Hospital 2. Most people evacuated, some still trapped in other buildings in the village.
16.45 Evacuees reach rendezvous 1. One hour window started to assess situation and wait for the rest of the evacuees to reach rendezvous 1 before initiating Phase 2.
17.45 Phase 2 initiated. Evacuees leave for rendezvous 2.
17.55 Landslide occurs at rendezvous 1. Mass casualties.
19.00 Phase 2 complete. Evacuees reach rendezvous 2. Initiate Phase 3. Protocol demands to assess the situation and wait one hour in case more evacuees arrive.”
The only thing missing was the ‘Sir’ at the end of the statement.
Murphy scuffed and scratched his head, “Wait one hour, hey. What good did that do for you last time?”
The guard wasn’t amused in the slightest, being verbally challenged by the skinny kid in front of him. Who the hell did he think he was, giving him orders? He walked towards Murphy and got close to him, very close. His black armored outfit made him look even wider than he already was. The whole time he had lived in this village he had been working as a guard, he obeyed orders and kept the peace. This kid in front of him had no idea how he disrupted that peace right now. And if there was anything he could not stand it was people who did not follow the rules.
“We follow protocol.”
Murphy could feel the guard’s breath on his forehead, as he looked up. He stared the guard in the eyes with a cunning smile.
“So, what does protocol say about Phase four?”
The guard backed up now. What did this kid know? Did he know about Phase 4 or was it just a wild guess?
“You can drop the whole ‘guard’ thing and just tell us man to man where we really stand here.” Murphy spoke louder now, for everyone to hear.
“We wait one hour to assess the situation, and wait for more possible evacuees,” the guard repeated while he started walking towards the Spring Cabin.
“So, what does protocol say about Phase 4?” Murphy shouted after him. “There is no Phase 4, is there?”
The guard turned around and grabbed Murphy by his undershirt, pulling him up.
“You want to know what Phase 4 says, you really want to know?” He threw him on the ground and Murphy crawled back, the same cunning smile still on his face.
“Oh you know, don’t you? Who told you?” the guard snapped. “You have known all along.”
Murphy had an idea, but he hadn’t been sure. He had picked things up over the years, from what he had seen in his dad’s office and what he had overheard in conversations between the elders and guards.
“Protocol states and I quote: In case of a negative assessment of a Phase 3 situation . . .” Was he really going to say this out loud? Hell there was no escaping it anymore, he had already made the assessment. “. . . there is no Phase 4. We have to conclude the situation is FUBAR.”
“Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition,” Murphy exclaimed while clapping his hands. “I can’t believe they actually put it in the protocol,” he laughed. He recognized the word his dad had frequently used. His dad must have had even more influence over the village elders than he had realized.
The group standing around them had been silent until then, listening to the two guys arguing. They did not want to be any part of the heated discussion, in case it got out of hand. But now people started whispering to each other. Before they knew it there was panic and fear among the group in front of the Spring Cabin. They stood up waving their arms, shouting at each other.
“What do we do next, is there really no way out?” Their fear turned to anger. “Has nobody been able to think of a way out of this situation in advance?” they shouted. “Why the hell is there no Phase 4?” The growing rumbling and roaring of the water in the near distance didn’t help.
“Well so much for keeping the peace,” the guard concluded, throwing his helmet to the ground. “Have you got what you want now?” he growled at Murphy and walked off.
◆◆◆
Daryl whispered something in Cathy’s ear. She had watched the whole show unfold in front of her. Yes, that was her brother alright, always the tactical genius . . . not. But then again, he got things done. She was jealous of him sometimes. Not for his people skills, obviously, but he had this curiosity by nature and always seemed to figure things out. His mind worked in mysterious ways. He was able to connect the dots, even before the rest could see that there were any dots. But it did get him into trouble a lot.
She remembered how he used to sneak into dad’s office at night, sitting in his chair, messing up his papers. The next morning he would blame the mice for moving everything. His lying had gotten better over the years, that much she had to admit.
And there was that time at the dam. Where they had sat on the dike watching the water come from the wall’s surface. After mom and dad warned them not to damage the dike, Murphy had disappeared. She had thought he was upset, but instead she found him in one of the control rooms. He was trying to figure out how to reinforce the dikes with the limited recourses available. He flipped through all the books, hoping to find the answer. They had been so young, not much older than eight or nine. She had seen how proud he was when he gave dad his stick-man drawing that would save the world. But all dad had done was crumple the paper and throw it away. “Do not disappear on me again,” he had said. And the whole way back home no one had dared to speak.
Then there were those times where he would hide behind the house smoking weed. Sometimes he got caught by one of the elders who was visiting their house unexpectedly. Which usually resulted in putting him on water duty for weeks or worse.
Why was she always such a model citizen? She had never rebelled like him. She was always the one to smooth out a situation, it came natural to her. And she knew it was her duty now to bring these people back together.
She stepped forward and raised her hand.
“Listen up people.”
CHAPTER 6
THE HOLE
It had been at the beginning of the summer, a perfect time for another quest for an escape route for a worst-case scenario. The giant mountain wall behind the small shed was a massive obstacle that stood between them and the rest of the land behind it. The Elders had sent their best watchers out to the Spring Cabin area.
Daryl was with one of the teams exploring the east side of the rock formation. Others had gone north and were lead back west to the coast, unable to conquer the mountain. There was no way through or over it. The sea streams made it impossible to go around, it would be suicide to even try. The east side led inland, but there were only steep precipices below them, from the level they were on right now. In case of a dam break this whole area would be flooded and there was no way to cross the mountain further inland.
It could be worth exploring the area further though, Daryl had suggested, but no one had listened to him. He had to do it himself then, he reckoned, and the next morning he set out to explore the east path. He went through the valley below, following the edge of the hig
h mountain. He searched every nook and cranny for caves and tunnels, looking for ways to get through or over this gigantic rock formation. He had walked half a day without finding any evidence that a way over, around or through existed.
He sat down on a high spot and took out his binoculars. He scanned the horizon, like he had done many times on his watch duties, when something caught his attention. It was just a bunch of birds flying out of a cave high up the mountain, ravens he thought . . . but something was off, and he couldn’t put his finger on it.
That day had been in his memory for months now. And as he listened to the guys arguing in front of him, it struck him. He wondered what made those birds fly out in such a hurry. That was not natural behavior. Something had been off about that cave entrance, it had been too balanced, too symmetrical . . . too man made. What if someone had startled those birds? There could have been people up there.
He leaned over to Cathy, and whispered in her ear.
“I need to check something and I could use your brother’s help. Can you ask him to meet me at the spring?”
She nodded and watched him as he limped inside. It was a miracle he was even able to stand, let alone walk. He didn’t even seem in too much pain. Those pills her brother had given him must have been strong and seemed to work quickly.
“Listen up people,” she said, waving for attention. “This is not the time to panic. I need all of you to calm down and gather your belongings. Take only what you really need. Food, water, medicine, supplies for a couple of days. We will find a way out and when we do we all need to be ready to go.” This would buy them some time to come up with a plan, with their own version of Phase 4.
She grabbed Murphy’s hand and pulled him up. “I need you inside,” she said.
He followed her into the cave, surprised how she hadn’t seemed angry with him for stirring things up out there.