Further: Read online

  3

  The crew of the barge had easily cruised past the bend in the river. Cooper had hoped to commemorate it somehow, but it came and went without any fanfare. He had spent so much time in that crook of the river building his raft; it had a special place in his heart.

  Now he had a much more important job. He had to be on the lookout for the spot where he had arrived at the river, and also met Lupe. They didn’t want to miss this spot by too much because Cooper remembered the easy ditches he had found to walk in and couldn’t guarantee that that they existed anywhere else but along that route.

  He didn’t expect it to be too hard to find. The large outcropping he had camped on for the week when he was sick was very hard to miss. Most of the features of that rocky area were burned into his head. Brushing that close to death will do that to a person’s mind. Unlike the bend in the river, he had no special feelings for that spot. He loved his beautiful straw-colored dog dearly, but even that memory couldn’t overcome the dread he felt when he thought about what had nearly happened.

  The rest of the crew knew that they would be getting off the boat soon and had been preparing things. By mid-afternoon, Lakewood had notified everyone that they were all set to go. He had modified the backpacks everyone had in order to carry more items and weight, but as he described it, the extra weight would be entirely up on the shoulders so no one would even notice it. Not a single person, Lakewood included, believed that line of rubbish but everyone pretended to.

  They were about to begin the strenuous part of the journey and had most of the important supplies with them. Back in the village, Aria had told Cooper that anyone who didn’t want to come should be given all the supplies that the barge crew wouldn’t need for the return trip home. Several were not the happiest with that order.

  “So, explain to me why I am carrying all this extra food if these people live by a lake full of fish?” asked FZ. His face was already bright red and sweaty, even though he had just put on his pack.

  “Because a diverse diet is a healthy diet you lanky bastard. You would know this if you would eat vegetables from time to time,” Seabee shouted from the other side of the barge while everyone laughed.

  “Yeah, maybe if you ate some of those veggies you wouldn’t be so winded having just put on your pack.” Said Cooper, and everyone laughed harder, everyone except FZ anyway.

  Lakewood stood in the front of everyone carrying his own pack and said, “Ok, this is just a test. I want everyone to walk around the barge a little bit, see if you are comfortable. It’s much easier for me to modify these here rather than out there in the brush.

  Scoob, who was driving the boat and refused to leave it behind, was staying on the barge with the remaining supplies. He didn’t want to take any chances with his favorite new floating toy. “How do we look, Scoob?” yelled Lakewood.

  “Like a bunch of out of shape brewers about to get in over their heads. The carrottop seems comfortable with it though, I’m sure he’ll protect you ladies and see you don’t get lost!” Everyone broke into laughter again as they took off their heavy packs.

  +++

  It wasn’t long before Cooper spied a large rock he recognized. “There it is fellas. That’s where we start walking!”

  Scoob motored the boat right up to the shore this time. It was deeper here and he didn’t want to try to beach it anyway. He said the river would pile up dirt around the barge in the days he was parked there and he didn’t want to end up stuck when they needed to leave.

  All the crew members jumped off the barge and directly onto shore. With the deeper water they were able to pull right next to it. Everyone tied up the barge again as tight as they could and they began to prepare for their hike.

  Cooper reminded everyone of the plentiful bloodsucking ticks inside the honeysuckle wasteland and the whole crew, including Scoob, decided to take a quick bath with the soap from the village in order to keep the ticks away. Cooper was so happy to have the soap this time as he didn’t want anyone getting sick, but it was also just really annoying having those disgusting critters crawling all over your body.

  With almost a half day of sunshine remaining, the men headed off into the honeysuckle wasteland with Cooper leading the way. Even though it had been a year, the ditches he had used were very easy to find and just as easy to walk in as they had been when Cooper first traveled down them.

  They had to stop every now and again when people needed a quick rest. Granted, no one admitted that the reason they were stopping was to catch their breath. Lakewood stopped to ‘adjust his pack’ several times. Seabee had to take invisible rocks out of his shoes. FZ had to use the bathroom with a frequency that would have indicated a problem if anyone thought the was the real reason he was asking to stop.

  Even with all the stops, in that half day they had been able to cover a great deal of land. As the sun set, the band set up camp, started a fire and passed around a jar of the ‘fuel’ that they used to power the motors. Cooper had tried it many times, just as he did that night. Just like every other time, he thought it was vile and wondered how anyone enjoyed the stuff. The other men all seemed to enjoy it even though the face they made when they swallowed it told a different story. Still, Cooper felt the familiar burn build down his throat until his stomach was warm and uncomfortable. He also thought it might not have been all too safe to have a jar of that stuff so close the fire, but he had other things to think about.

  Cooper thought that if they continued at the pace they were going today, they would easily make it to the city tomorrow. He wasn’t trying to push anyone though and he realized that today had only been a half day of hiking. Tomorrow would be a full day and was bound to be a little slower.

  After some bawdy campfire humor, mostly involving how Doc was the best at finding ‘wood’, everyone fell asleep around the fire. Cooper stayed awake for a little longer, gently petting Lupe and Rufus as they snoozed against his legs. He was amazed how much different this journey was with friends along. Those pleasant thoughts eventually tugged at him and pulled him under the cloak of sleep as he felt the dogs nuzzle deeper into his sides.

  +++

  When the sun began slinging its reds and oranges against the canvas of the morning sky, Cooper was already awake and drinking a cup of tea. He had looked forward to this the whole trip. The sunrises in this area were amazing. He still did not know why it was so much more colorful, but he knew the terrain being flat as a board helped him see a much larger area.

  Lakewood slinked up, careful not to wake the others and sat beside the younger man on the rock. “It really is nice isn’t it?” he asked in a slight whisper.

  Cooper took another sip of his tea and replied, “It’s about the only good thing I know of from this area.”

  “Ha. Yeah, that seems about right. You should see the sunrises and sunsets way out west. They look every bit as colorful if not even more so.” Lake paused as he listened to the birds singing all around him. “I don’t remember having all the beautiful music provided though, so this spot might win.”

  Both men spent the rest of the sunrise in silence, just staring out at all the colors, listening to the birds and sipping their tea. Cooper felt that words had the ability to ruin times like this; one should just sit and enjoy, not speak over it.

  Before long, the sky was a bright blue and Cooper and Lakewood could hear the other men beginning to stir. “You ready for another fun filled day, Coppertop?” asked Lakewood, not bothering to speak as quietly now.

  “Of course. I’m all set, just need to put my pack on my shoulders and then kick one foot in front of the other,” Cooper joked. Yesterday while hiking, to pass the time, they had all questioned why it seemed so difficult to simply put one foot in front of the other. Since, really, that was all they were doing. It was a fairly ridiculous conversation, as most are with the brewers, but it made the hike more enjoyable.

  Tim was already wearing his pack and ready to go. He was not generally known as a morning person, but Cooper
could tell he was excited to get moving. So were the two dogs. They were bouncing all over the place, chasing each other in huge circles through the honeysuckle and sending dozens of birds flying out.

  Everyone put on their packs while Tim passed out some dried fish to munch on while walking and just like that they were stomping along in the ditches. The plan was to try to make good time in the morning when everyone was fresh, and then relax the pace a little more in the afternoon. Everyone agreed that this was the best way to go and that they had made such great time going up the river, they really had no huge rush.

  This day of hiking seemed easier than the first. They took much less frequent breaks in the morning and everyone’s spirits were high. As Cooper had spoken with them, he learned they were all just as excited as he was. Many hadn’t really left the village once they had found it and that had been more than a decade for all these men. With the exception of Seabee and Cooper, this was an entirely new area for all of them.

  The weather was pleasant for the hike. The temperature was still weeks away from the real heat of summer and it rarely rained except in the fall. Cooper had always heard that spring used to be the rainy season but that had changed long before anyone he knew was born. It was just another one of those stories that he could choose to believe or not believe; it really had no bearing in the here and now.

  The small team of adventurers took a break for lunch and ate some crawdads as well as some dried deer meat that Tim made last winter back in the village. The dried deer had quickly become one of Cooper’s favorite things to eat and he would routinely search out the driest pieces. He would take the leather-like chunks and stuff them back into his cheek to very slowly re-hydrate and fill his mouth with the wonderful flavors of the salt and spices that the meat was coated in.

  After lunch they continued at a brisk pace. Everyone’s excitement about arriving at the city seemed to be blocking out their own fatigue from the heavy packs. The men strolled along the path listening to Seabee describe his home city when suddenly Tim stopped. He was in the lead and no one was paying very much attention, so everyone ran into him and fell into a big pile. Once the center of gravity shifted on those packs, you were just along for the ride!

  Everyone was laughing as they lay on the ground but Tim. He stood up, nose in the air. “Do you smell that?” he asked.

  They could all smell something bad, like rotten meat. They had come across dead animals from time to time in the village though, so no one thought much of it. Doc spoke up, “Yeah, smells terrible. What’s the big deal?”

  “The big deal is that’s not a normal rotting animal smell. That’s something big, like really big. Deer or larger,” Tim said ominously.

  Doc still didn’t seem to understand and said, “What’s larger than deer? Oh…damn.”

  Lakewood unshouldered his pack and everyone did the same. Then he said, “Okay, lets see if we can find what it is, but no one wander too far. My guess is that the dogs are already there.”

  Cooper realized then that the dogs weren’t near them, but that wasn’t all that was strange. They tended to wander all over when they were hiking, but they always came trotting back, sometimes much dirtier and smellier. Cooper yelled out for them but didn’t hear anything. It was very hard to see through the thick layers of honeysuckle that closed this land in.

  The men all spread out, trying to use their own noses to guide them to the source of the terrible smell. It didn’t take them long before they heard the dogs jumping around and crashing through the shrubs.

  When Tim first burst through the bushes and into a small opening, no one else could see around him. Cooper heard the sound of him retching and knew it was bad. Tim regained his composure and turned around, yelling for the dogs to follow.

  “Well, what is it?” asked FZ

  With solemn eyes, and tears streaking his cheeks from the painful heaving, he said, “It’s people” and sighed. “It’s about eight people, loosely scattered about in the opening. They haven’t been dead for very long.”

  Cooper made a motion to walk around Tim and see, but Tim placed a hand on his chest and said, “No, Coop. No reason to see that.”

  The redhead was starting to get agitated now, his confusion and grief turning into anger. “Those are people from MY city, I may know them, I need to see who they are!”

  Tim’s hand never wavered, he just stared straight into his watery eyes and said, “Listen buddy, you can’t tell who they are, they are too rotted. I can still see the spotty rash around their hands; that’s all the info we need. Let’s leave them in peace.”

  Cooper didn’t know what to do. That may be John or Walter or one of the young ladies that had wished him luck on his journey. He tried to argue further, but knew Tim wouldn’t yield. He was dumbstruck and allowed the other men to push him back along to the trail they had been walking on. He knew Tim was right, but he couldn’t wrap his head around it. They weren’t supposed to leave the city, because of things like this! Why had they left?

  When they got back to where they had deposited their packs, Cooper lost it. He began to shake and it wasn’t long before tears began streaming down his cheeks. He could have very easily ended up just like them, but that wasn’t what was bothering him the most.

  Once he had gotten to the village nearly a year ago, his entire life had changed for the better. It almost didn’t seem real. Then with this voyage to save his people…he had pushed aside how terrible life in his city was. Knowing those people had left only to perish out here made him feel like he had let them down. He should have come back sooner. He had been playing house, making new friends, drinking beer. This was his fault, he thought to himself.

  The men all gathered around him. No one said anything for some time. Seabee told the others to walk on ahead, they would catch up. The two dogs, sensing Cooper was upset, had not left his side but instead stood right near him providing whatever assistance might be needed. Seabee squeezed between them and put an arm around the young man.

  “Coop, I know what you’re thinking. I had all the same thoughts. When I watched the people of my city die, I wondered if I could have helped them. When I finally left with my family I was convinced we were doing the right thing to survive.” Seabee’s voice faltered as he spoke, the words just tumbled out. “Then I had to watch all my loved ones get sick and eventually lose the fight. I blamed myself. I was certain I could have done things differently, I could have saved them. When I eventually got sick, I welcomed it. I wanted to die too. I knew that I deserved to die.”

  Cooper looked up at him to see that he was staring at the ground, his own tears making little plopping sounds as they fell off his cheeks and splatted in the dirt at his feet. He had known that Seabee had lost everyone, but it was something he never heard the other man speak of.

  The older traveler resumed his tale, “But then I recovered from the illness. I still don’t know how, or why. Luck, I guess. Truly, it made me even more angry. I’m nobody special; I should have died like the rest of them, let the younger ones live instead of me. I still thought it was my fault and death should have been my penance.” Seabee stood up and then crouched in front of Cooper, putting both his hands on his knees so he could hold the crouch while looking him in the eyes. “You need to understand that it isn’t your fault, none of it. Nothing you do now can change what has happened. Ever. It’s done. Second guessing won’t accomplish anything. Mourn the loss of these people and others if we find them, but then move on. You have to.” Seabee had regained a confidence and wisdom to his tone. “You still have lots more life to live.”

  Having said his piece, Seabee stood up and slipped his pack on. Cooper found himself doing the same thing and it surprised him. He was still very sad, and he continued to blame himself, but Seabee was right. He had to see if people were left in the city and if they were, he needed to help them. It was his goal all along.

  4

  Aria was sitting on a chair on her porch, staring off into the woods. Her long, wavy bro
wn and white streaked hair flowed down her back and over her shoulders. Tom was sitting beside her in another chair, staring out at nothing as well.

  The pair had spent every day together since the crew left to rescue the members of the city. It was a rough time for both of them. The last time that a rescue like this had been attempted, it ended with the death of Aria’s husband while Tom almost died trying to save him. This expedition had forced the pair to re-live the first disastrous attempt all those years ago. They never spoke about it, the silent comfort of a trusted friend providing more support than words ever could.

  Tom was the fisherman for the village, but was taking a few days off to spend time with Aria. He had stocked up on fish for everyone before the team left upriver, so he had no real need to be out on the water. It was more of an escape anyway. He was so good at catching fish it rarely took him long to catch all the village needed from the amply stocked blue-green gulf water.

  The block-headed hound dog, Fry, was asleep on the porch. It was his normal routine for daytime. At night he would typically do something totally different, like sleep inside. He was a very busy hound dog. In recent days he had seemed more agitated than normal. He had been awake for nearly five whole hours each day for the last several days. Aria wrote this off as his own special sense about the situation, or maybe he just missed Rufus and Lupe.

  Suddenly, Fry sat up and began a very deep, slow, almost guttural growl while peering off into the woods to the north. Aria reached out and placed a hand on his black, furry head, but it did nothing to calm the beast.

  “What’s got him all riled up do you think?” asked Tom.

  “I don’t know. He did this twice yesterday too. Each time he stares off to the north and growls like that,” she replied, still stroking his head in an attempt to calm him.