by Billy Dering
Kid squirmed over and let Sara’s head rest on the seat. While he searched behind and under the seats in the cab for tools, Maria jumped behind the steering wheel.
“Got one hammer back here,” Jess called out.
Stepping out of the cab, Kid held up a crow bar.
Jess nodded and then turned to Maria. “We’ll meet you at the cabin later. Don’t light any fires, they might spot the smoke. And above all, be on guard.”
“Got it. You guys be careful too.” Maria blew a kiss to the guys and drove away.
“So what’s your plan?” Kid asked.
“For them to not only get stuck, but to sink in the puddle.” Jess pointed. “We know that the puddle is deepest left and right of center. So take that side and weaken the surface of the ice by chipping out the outline of a large square. I’ll get this side.”
They both began hammering away, Jess with the hammer and Kid with the crow bar. After they made their respective squares on each side, he held Jess’s ankles while his friend hammered some of the ice inside the large shapes. As they were working on the second square, the surface started to collapse. As he was being dragged back, Jess huffed, “There’s no way they’ll make it without the ice giving way.”
Throwing snow over the seventh lake, they smoothed it out as best they could. Then starting where the tire tracks led up to the puddle, Jess took a long, dead tree branch and continued the tracks by reaching out and carving wide grooves in the snow going over one of the pre-weakened squares. He carefully connected the two grooves to the real tracks that picked up on the other side of the puddle.
“Nice work. The fake tracks almost look real,” Kid commented, marveling at Jess’s ingenuity. The transition between the real and fake tracks was not perfect, but he hoped the soldiers wouldn’t be looking that close. At that moment, an idea hit him. They had more tracks to erase.
They walked backward into the woods, kicking snow over their footprints. When they reached the denser brush, where the uneven landscape made their footprints nearly inconspicuous, Jess stopped. He looked up to the sky for a full minute. “Follow me, we’ll take a straight line to the cabin.”
Although five miles by trail, Kid knew they could get to the cabin quicker by running in a straight path through the woods. He just didn’t know where he was going. Fortunately, Jess did. “I don’t know how you can do that without a map and a compass.” Kid was always impressed by his friend’s ability to navigate so effortlessly through the woods.
“The map is up here.” Jess pointed to his head. “I just needed to find some points in the sky for reference, which is harder when it is overcast. I’m tracking some darker clouds, but had to figure out which direction they were moving and how fast. Come on,” Jess responded and then started sprinting. Kid followed as they ran through the forest. The branches were pecking at his body and the cuts on his forehead and right arm were being torn open even more. Jess, being smaller and much more agile, did not seem to be having the same problem.
“Hold… up,” Kid sputtered after having sprinted for about 15 minutes. At the point of utter exhaustion, he felt weak as he bent over. His legs were rubbery. “Where are we now?” he asked, panting.
“We’ll come out at one of the side trails going toward Ironside,” Jess replied, also gasping for air.
Kid paused and took deeper breaths. “Once we get to the trail, we need to cut our tire tracks, or even on foot they can just follow us right to the cabin. We need to erase more of our tracks and divert them, but it has to be at one of the turns.”
Jess pondered for a few seconds. “I know a good place to do that- the fork in the trail that has that evil looking dead tree in the middle. If they stay to the left, they’ll be going the wrong way. They’ll eventually hit that intersection where five trails meet. They won’t have any idea which trail to take.”
“How far past the fork is that five-trail intersection?” Kid asked.
“I don’t know exactly, but I’d guess around six or seven miles? The best part is that none of those five trails lead to the cabin, except the one they took to get there, but they would have to completely double back,” Jess explained. “Ready to go?”
“Not really, but… after you.”
“We don’t need to sprint anymore. We can jog. As long as they get stuck at the seventh lake, we’ll have enough time to do what we need to do,” Jess said. “If they don’t get stuck, we’re screwed anyway.”
As he jogged through the woods with fatigued legs, Kid added, “For all the times it got us back when, that seventh lake owes us one.”
Elder-1 drove the pickup truck through the winding forest trails, following the conspicuous tire tracks. There were four soldiers in the cab of the truck, and another 14 crammed into the truck’s bed.
He crossed over several frozen puddles with ease, but as he approached the next one, he became suspicious. Ahead, he could see the snow was uneven and choppy in places.
Sensing a trap, he opted to drive across the left side rather than going to the right and following the tracks. About halfway across, the ice gave way.
Elder-1 tried to gun the engine and speed across, but the tires spun freely with no traction. The vehicle slid down into a gaping hole until it was half submerged, and then continued to slowly sink.
“Everybody out!” he ordered as he leapt toward the woods along the edge of the puddle. Landing on the ice and sliding on his chest, he turned and watched as the vehicle sank further into the water. About half of the men were able to take very athletic leaps far enough away to escape the cold water. The other half were unable to get out before getting drenched, and they had to climb out of the hole in the ice.
Elder-1 watched helplessly as the vehicle sank all the way to the top of the roof. He stood up, brushed the white snow off of his uniform and shouted, “Let’s march! From here, we search on foot. Every inch of these woods if necessary!”
After running through the woods for 15 more minutes, Kid and Jess found the fork in the trail with the unmistakable marker. A dead tree’s gray, naked limbs stretched above the other trees, resembling a skeleton with outstretched arms. They could see the truck tire tracks where Maria had turned right at the fork, but Kid noticed that the details of the tire tread were smoothed over by the light snow that was falling. “How many miles back do you think those soldiers are?” he asked.
“They must be stuck back at the seventh lake,” Jess checked his watch. “If not, they would’ve driven past this point by now, and I don’t see any fresh tracks.” Both peered back up the trail. “If they are following, it would now be on foot.”
“Then we should have time to get rid of our tire tracks. Let’s get some branches,” Kid instructed.
He and Jess grabbed large limbs with dead leaves still attached, and used them as brushes to smooth over the tire tracks. They dragged the branches to make the snow appear untouched. The lightly falling snow was helping their efforts by hiding the imperfections of their work. They started at the main trail and erased the tracks Maria made when turning right at the fork. After going around a sharp bend in the trail, Kid jumped into the woods. “Far enough. Follow me.”
Moving parallel to the trail, they ran back to a point just before the fork.
“See the outside tire track? Walk out and put your feet side by side within it.”
Jess looked askance at him, but obliged.
Kid used his branch to cover their footprints and then threw it in the woods. He put his feet side by side within the closest tire track and reached out toward Jess. “Put your arm straight out, lock it, and grab my arm.” Both locked their hands tightly onto each other’s forearm. “Now, keep your feet together and shuffle while walking forward,” he instructed. They both began to move their feet with short, choppy strides. “Keep your arm locked and stand up straight or the fake tracks won’t have a consistent distance between them.”
He turned his head and made sure the soldiers were nowhere in sight. Also examining the fake trac
ks that they were making, there was no obvious break in the continuity with the real ones. The bottom of the groove was a little choppy from the shuffling of their shoes, but Kid hoped the light snow would disguise such imperfections before the soldiers got that far.
“You really think this will work?” Jess asked.
“That depends on us. We need to be pretty precise, so stay with me and don’t get sloppy.”
Jess continued to use step-count estimates to measure the distances they were covering. After they shuffled for nearly five miles, they stopped and put their arms down to relieve the overwhelming fatigue. They continued on until finally, they reached the five-trail intersection. They made a left turn and went forward for nearly a tenth of a mile before stopping. Both were exhausted. As they stepped into the woods, Jess picked up another branch and covered their footsteps.
Kid sat and had to rest a moment. His shoulder was so sore he could barely move his arm, and he groaned as he grabbed a handful of snow and shoved it into his mouth.
Jess walked over and stood with his hands on his hips. Kid motioned for him to sit, but his friend waved him off and said, “If I sit, I’ll never get back up.”
A moment later Kid struggled to get to his feet. “I see what you mean.” Stretching his arms and legs, he mumbled, “Here we go again,” and started a slow jog through the woods parallel to the trails. Given his state of physical exhaustion, he had no idea how he was able to press on. The power of the mind amazed him. He feared that at any moment, he would just collapse. His mind could only keep him going for so long. There must come a point when the body simply shuts down.
They were back near the fork in the trail when suddenly Kid dropped on his stomach and snapped, “Get down!”
Chapter 24
December 30, 2044
Friday, Midday
Pine Barrens of New Jersey
Four days after the event
Jess reacted in an instant to Kid’s urgent words, and dove to the ground.
Kid’s breath was shallow as he lifted his head up. One hundred feet away marching on the trail was the pack of soldiers, led by Elder-1. The group marched briskly, and did not seem affected by fatigue or the cold and snow. The pack was going around a bend and actually coming closer to where they were hiding. Kid put his hand over his face to keep the thick steam from rising out of his mouth. The soldiers were now only about 50 feet away, so close that a twig breaking could catch their attention.
After they passed and were out of sight, Jess crawled over. “That was close, but the good news is that they’re following the fake tracks and they are past the turnoff to the cabin,” he whispered. “Come on.”
Kid winced as he stood up and the bruise on his leg bumped into a stump. The muscles of his legs were burning like a gas-fed inferno, yet his face was ice-cold from his sweat being slapped by the frigid breeze. With every deep intake of cold air, he felt like pins were being stuck into the walls of his lungs.
“We have to keep moving or our muscles will cramp up on us,” Jess noted.
“Mine cramped up an hour ago.”
Still a couple of miles away from the cabin, walking through the woods parallel to the trails, they passed a fire tower. “There she blows,” Kid said.
Standing way above the treetops was one of several fire towers out in the Pine Barrens. Kid recalled that Jess had found this 100-foot tower the same day he found Ironside cabin. Since that day, he couldn’t count how many times they had climbed to the top of the tower to marvel at the view. They didn’t usually stay up there long since the tower swayed noticeably in even the slightest wind, and made them feel uneasy. And only once, during an extended drought, did they find it occupied by a forest ranger.
“We’re lucky you can’t see the cabin from up there.” Jess gazed up at the tower. “In case they happen to stumble upon this.”
The tower rose above the treetops, but they knew from experience, a dense wall of tall pine trees to the east kept the cabin out of sight from even the very top of the fire tower. They continued walking for a few miles, making two necessary turns on the way. They crossed another little bridge going over a fresh water stream. Kid looked down to see the steady flow of the water. The snow lining the banks of the stream had a soft, inviting glow. It was surreal to him, given the nightmare they were trapped in.
As they walked up the hill, they could see the silhouette of the cabin against the sky. The large rectangle building was made of cinder blocks and had a sheet metal roof. Except for a section of grass closer to the building, the cabin was surrounded by a moat of deep, fine sand. Now, that moat was filled with snow. From a distance, the structure appeared to be on an island. A faded and worn sign for ‘Ironside Gun Club’ was still affixed to the door.
Logan’s Queen Anne was parked out in front. Maria was standing with her arms folded tapping her foot, waiting for them in the doorway.
When Kid approached the cabin, he stopped for a second as he recalled the first time he brought Sara to Ironside. It was the same weekend during the spring break of 2044 when he finally connected with her after groveling on the phone, meeting her at Lakehurst Diner and then starting to fall in love in a gazebo on the Toms River. It was a weekend he would never forget, and it culminated with, ‘the day at the cabin.’
April 10, 2044
Sunday, Midday
Pine Barrens of New Jersey
More than eight months before the event
The midday sun made the forest seem particularly alive as Kid drove for miles through the woods toward Ironside Cabin. He was going there to get his disposable camera, but that hardly mattered to him anymore. What mattered was that Sara was alone with him. After they left the gazebo on the Toms River Friday night, he could not wait to see her again. The Saturday in between seemed to be the longest day in history.
“You weren’t kidding about this place being isolated,” Sara commented.
Slowing down, Kid inched across an unstable wood bridge over a creek.
“That’s what we like about it,” he replied as he parked in front of the cabin. “When we found it, it had been abandoned for more than 50 years.”
“How do you know that?”
“The old hunting club left a log book inside and the last entry was from more than 50 years before. I guess they left it to die with the club,” he remarked.
Stepping out of the vehicle, Sara remarked, “Wow, it’s pretty warm out for April.”
Walking inside, Kid went over to the corner of the cabin and knelt over a trapdoor in the floor. Lifting up the wood board and peering underneath, it appeared that all of their cans of coffee, soup, and various other items were untouched. He first grabbed the tiny laser pointer Jess kept in there, and put it in his pocket. He then noticed his small disposable camera resting on top of a can of coffee, just as he had left it months ago. Taking it out and inspecting it, he remarked, “Hey, I still have three pictures left. I wonder if this survived the winter out here.”
She looked puzzled. “I didn’t even know they still made disposable cameras. Why would you not just use your phone camera?”
“Jess worried that the government could access our pictures. In most of them someone has booze in their hand, which is not legal on county property and he didn’t want to get fired from his job.”
Sara pushed aside a curtain and walked into the adjoining room. After gazing upon a heavy wood framed double bed, she turned toward some newspaper articles pinned to a rectangle piece of corkboard on the wall. “Did you ever read these?” she called out.
“Yes. Which one are you looking at?” he answered from the other room.
“This article is well over 50 years old, late 1980s. They had an original cabin that burned down, and this one was rebuilt on its foundation.”
As she was speaking, Kid snuck in the middle room. He came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. For a moment, she continued to speak, “The original one had…” She stopped as she closed her eyes and
tilted her head to expose more of her skin.
When he stopped, he asked, “You were saying?”
“I forget.”
As she glanced around the room, she pointed. “So what is in there?”
He opened the door to the third room, and they both peeked in to see a large, galvanized steel tub filled with tools. Kid was used to seeing that tub filled with ice and beer cans.
“What the heck do you need that for out here?” She pointed at a pickaxe.
He was going to make a joke about using it to kill people, but fearing he would creep her out, he just said, “Whatever you need to punch through.”
They stood there for a few moments, and then he closed the door. “Come outside. I want to show you something.”
Lacing his fingers with hers, he walked her around the back of the cabin. There a metal ladder led to a makeshift wooden deck on the roof with enough room to seat two people. He climbed up and with his prompting, she followed. “Is this thing stable?” she asked.
“Sure, just don’t breathe on it and it should be fine.” He reached down to help her up.
“Great,” she muttered as she took his hand and climbed on the roof.
“This deck was our own addition. We built it last summer.”
“What is that stack out that way?” She was looking over his shoulder.
Turning, he pulled the tiny laser pointer from his pocket. With a bright red dot shining on the stack, he asked, “That?”
“Yes. What are you pointing with?”
“My friend Jess’s laser pointer. It helps us point things out, especially things far away. Anyway, that is the off-gas stack for the old Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant.”
“Is it still operational?”
“No, the plant was decommissioned years ago. They’ve been saying for years that the off-gas stack is going to be torn down, but obviously that hasn’t happened. Here, have a seat with a nicer view than a nuclear power plant.”
A rolling sea of green pine trees lay before her as she turned and peered east. “Is that the ocean way out there?”