Chapter 3
Exhausted I climbed up the trail to my cave. It had been a grueling day. Knowing that a major storm was approaching I had rushed to take down my traps and snares, and to make it worse all I had to show for a 2 hour walk each way was one rabbit. The weather had been going downhill all day and now the clouds were so thick that I could hardly see the other valley wall.
I was discouraged and tired and I debated not taking the time to check the valley before going inside. Cussing under my breath I decided that it needed to be done. So I broke out my binoculars and started scanning the valley.
Just as I was about to go inside and get warmed up I spotted some movement on the far side of the valley. I slid down so no one could spot me and I continued to watch. It was about 10 minutes later that I saw two people stumble out into the open area about ½ a mile from my cave. With the cloud cover from the approaching storm it was so dark that I could barely make them out from the cave. Swearing under my breath I waited till they were facing away and slid out of the cave to get a closer look at them. I did not think it could be OpEd after this long. But they were waiting exactly where I had instructed him to wait if he made it to the valley. Moving as quietly as I could I headed to a spot just inside the group of fir trees that masked the trail to my cave. I could not help casting a worried glance up at the sky. I knew how bad it could get up here. In minutes we could be in total whiteout conditions.
The first thing I noticed was that they were not dressed for being at this altitude in the winter. Both of them were in very worn clothing and just light jackets. The bigger one was helping the smaller one to walk. While it was possible to walk on the trails without snowshoes it was an exhausting thing to do. When you combined the high altitude with waist deep snow it was almost impossible. I marveled that these two had made it this far. They were wearing worn out boots, jeans and light jackets. They would be incredibly lucky if they already did not have frostbite. The day had started out unseasonable warm but the temperature had plunged. Now it was well below freezing. I did not think that they would make it out of here alive. Not with these temperatures and a major storm about to hit.
Then I thought what if it’s not OpEd then what? In my head I had run this kind of scenario and had made the decision that it was too risky to provide help in such situations. If I did help them then they would know where I lived. I could not take that risk. But in all those scenarios I had not been dealing with a kid. I might be able to let the other guy who was my age die but I did not think I could just let a kid die that way. Shit! How the hell did I always get myself into these situations? First there had been the report on abuses against gays and non-Christians and now I was about to stick my neck out for 2 guys I knew nothing about. But I knew that I could not just let them die. If I did I would not be any better than the bastards that would running the camps.
I was about to call out to them when the older one yelled out. “Joseph are you out there? It’s me OpEd and I have my brother with me. Please answer if you’re here. We don’t have anywhere else to go.”
I was so shocked that he was still alive that it took me a minute to answer. I could not make out their expression but their body language showed complete exhaustion and hopelessness.
Softly I called out. “OpEd over here.” They were facing away from me and they both turned to face where I was. Getting to my feet I stepped out of the trees and said, “Both of you get in here quick. I cant take the risk that someone might be following you.”
OpEd said, “Don’t worry those bastards did not follow us they think we are dead.”
“How long have you two been hiking in the snow dressed like this?”
“Since yesterday.”
“How the hell did you make it through the night.”
He started to answer when I realized that I was being an ass. They were close to collapsing and here I was asking a bunch of questions that could wait till we were inside where it was warm.
“Never mind you can tell me all about it after we get inside. Follow me and be careful, the trail is slick. It was obvious that the younger kid was close to collapsing so I told OpEd to take one side and I took the other and together we managed to get him up to the outside cave. I told them to sit for a second and I moved to the back of the cave and pushed the rock out of the way. Then I motioned them inside. The younger kid did not seem like he trusted me. OpEd motioned him towards me and reluctantly he moved towards the entrance.
I had a flashlight and Coleman lantern hidden just inside the entrance for occasions like this. I had been gone all day and the fire had died down so there was very little light. I used the flashlight just long enough to light the lantern. Quickly I built the fire back up and moved the bench closer to the fire, motioning them to sit. Then I put on some water to boil for coffee and to fix dinner.
When I took a closer look I could see that they were in even worse shape than I had thought. Both were so gaunt that they looked anorexic. They were sitting as close to the fire as they could, trying to warm up.
“OpEd you both need to get out of these wet shoes and socks. I will leave them by the fire overnight so they can dry. Just be careful to keep your feet a safe distance from the fire. They are numb right now. But when they start to warm up they are going to hurt like hell.”
The younger kid kept coughing and it was a deep rattling cough like you get with bronchitis or pneumonia. That worried me a lot. I only had basic medical supplies that you could get over the counter. So there were no antibiotics. But I did have a good supply of Aleve and Aspirin as well as cough syrup, Sudafed and Claritin.
I turned to OpEd and said, “What’s wrong with him?”
“He caught a cold two weeks ago and it has been getting worse all week. They deliberately keep the prisoners undernourished to make them easier to handle. When he got sick they did nothing to do anything to help him. But that was what they wanted. They have no intention of giving medical care. Their attitude was that if you were in one of these camps you deserved what you got.”
“So releasing that information did not help at all?”
“It did for a while then the public lost interest and gradually they went back to being closer to death camps than work camps. Right now hardly anyone dares to speak out. They have gotten the message, if you cause too many waves you disappear. Over seas there are ongoing protests and a lot of anti American sentiment. But that is only helping to harden most of the country opinions. Americans are not used to being told they are wrong. It does not sit well with them and you know the government is playing the us against the world card for all its worth.”
“So you are saying what we did was all for nothing?”
“No! I am not. If we had not spoken out the world would not know how bad things are. There is mounting international pressure on the government to disband the work camps and free the political prisoners. Because of the pressure some in Congress were beginning to speak out. It seems that’s what we are called, political prisoners. That way they don’t have to go into the whole gay, non-Christian thing. It’s easier to lump us all together under one banner.” He half snorted half laughed and said, “Of course a lot of the other religious groups who have fallen out of favor don’t want to be grouped with us but they want to get out. It’s kind of sad but they still don’t get it. You can’t take away the rights of a minority without endangering the rights of all groups.”
“How long were you in the work camp?”
“We were picked up and taken to a interrogation center at the end of April. I did not think we would get out of there alive but evidently I was famous enough that they did not feel safe just making me disappear. So they put Kevin and I before one of their rubber stamp secret terrorist courts and charged us with releasing classified documents. Never mind Kevin had nothing to do with my site. They wanted us to disappear for a while to give the public a chance to forget about us. We were both sentenced to 5 years hard labor in a work camp. Then they proceeded to tell the world that we could have been executed for treason, but that they had taken into account our ages and decided to be lenient.
When we were convicted of treason a lot of our support in the U.S. evaporated. I still can’t believe that most people in this country are that naive. But it worked for a while. Then last month a major international human rights group took up our case and the whole issue of the work camps for political prisoners in general. They filed lawsuits in the federal courts and have put a lot of pressure on the government to have the camps disbanded.”
He hesitated for a moment then he said, “The government is really pissed at me right now.” He gave a half smile half grimace and said, “Of course they are even more pissed with you. They took my computer and found out that you sent the information to me. When I was being interrogated they spent a great deal of time trying to see if I knew where you were. Fortunately for both of us there was no evidence that I knew where you were. So all they were doing was fishing.
What they did not count on so many people in Europe still pushing for my release. It does not hurt when Members of the British, French, German governments all make inquires about me. In the end they decided that they could not execute my brother or me. But if we were to die in a tragic accident they would be able to have one of their typical phony investigations. A couple of lower ranking guards could be disciplined and eventually it would all blow over.
Yesterday they had us on a work party. We were clearing some of the park trails of downed trees so they could use snowmobiles to patrol the park. When they picked Kevin and I to go with the work party I was very suspicious. It did not make any sense to me. We had never been allowed out of the camp before. They did not want to risk us getting away, and on top of that the guards were acting funny.
But the day did turn out to be unseasonable warm and it was not to bad out there. Kevin and I were removing a downed tree from the trail. I guess we were about a quarter mile away from the rest of the group when we heard the guards call out to load up. But when we started back towards the group one of the guards walked up to us with his gun drawn and said, "You two are staying here." At least he had the decency to look embarrassed about it.
I really thought that he was going to shoot us and leave our bodies to be found in the spring. So I begged him to at least take Kevin back with him, but he shook his head and said, "Look I don't want to do this. But I have my orders."
Then he motioned us further down the trail with his gun. When we were out of sight of the rest of the party he pointed his gun at us. I pulled Kevin to me so he would not have to watch. When the gun went off I flinched but did not feel anything. I looked down at Kevin but he looked as confused as I did. Then I looked up at the guard as he fired off to the side again.
Before I could question him he said, "I can't just shoot him like that, shit I have a kid his age. I don't know if I am doing you any favors or not by letting you live. But at least you have a chance. If you get out of here alive that’s great." Then he reached in his pocket and handed me a couple of energy bars and said, "Here take these. You are going to need them. What I want you to do is lay down on the ground like I shot you. When you hear the snowmobiles pull out then you can get up and head out, after you are sure we have left. Hike over that ridge into the next valley. At the far western end is a abandoned logging cabin. There is a major storm headed this way. It will arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon. You should be able to wait out the storm there. But as soon as it is safe you need to get the hell out of here. If you stay up here you will die."
What about search parties? Won’t they look for our bodies?”
“Not till after the storm. That way they have a excuse for not finding us. It will be late spring before anyone would find your bodies by accident. By then most people will have forgotten about you and it will be called a tragic accident.”
Just then we heard one of the other guards call out, "Jim are you ready to go? I want to get the fuck out of here."
Whispering he said, "Quick, get down on the ground. I will walk towards him. He is too lazy to walk all the way down here so if you stay still till we leave you will be ok."
I nodded and said, "Thanks. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”
“Don't worry about it. Like I said I have a kid his age. Now lay down quick. Good luck."
Kevin and I fell down on the ground and closed our eyes and we heard the guard head back up the trail. All the while I was praying that Kevin would be able to keep from coughing till they were gone. He had been sick for over a month.
I could hear the guards talking. The one who had just walked up said, "Are they dead?"
"Yeah. Lets get out of here we don't want to be spotted. If we are linked to this they will be pissed at us and I don’t want to end up on the wrong end of one of these accidents."
"You got that right."
“Gradually the sound of their footsteps faded and I heard the snowmobiles fire up and head off. As soon as they did I helped Kevin up and we got away from there as quick as we could.”
I interrupted him and asked, “So you stayed at the logging cabin?”
“Yeah. Then at first light I decided to get out of there and try to find you. A while back I memorized the park layout and trial names. So I could find you if need to. I recognized the trail name that we were on and was able to figure out that you were located about five miles west of us. Of course that was as the crow flies. You were closer to 10 miles actual walking distance. But I figured that if we waited till after the storm we might not make it out. The snow would be too deep to get through without snowshoes. It was a hell of a lot harder to get here than I thought. You saw how close we cut it. Both of us were so exhausted I don’t think we could have gone another mile not to mention we got here about an hour ahead of the storm.”
I shook my head they had been damned lucky. If it had been anyone else I would have been sure they were part of a trap. However there was still the chance that they were unwittingly being used to find me. So I decided to make sure that we laid low for the next week. The storm would wipe out any evidence of their tracks. So unless they had been tracking them by infrared they would not be able to locate them and I would have heard a chopper or plane. So it looked like the guard had been telling the truth.
Turning to OpEd I said, “You two were really lucky to make it here alive.”
He nodded and said, “Yeah I know.” I could see the tears in his eyes. It was obvious that they had been through hell.
His brother coughed again and I said, “Is he running a fever?”
“Yeah he has been burning up for the last couple of days.”
“Ok I will get him something for his fever and for the cough.”
“Thanks man. I appreciate it.”
When I came back with the medication I grabbed a cup and offered them to him. But he shook his head. Puzzled I turned to OpEd saying. “What’s the matter with him.”
He did not meet my eyes when he said; “He has had a real rough time at the camp.”
I was scared to ask what he meant. Shaking my head I handed it to OpEd and he gave him the medication.
While I was waiting I fixed them both some coffee. I had to look around for my camping kit to find the extra cups. When I did I poured thee coffee and said, “I made some coffee for you. It will help warm you up. Do you want any sugar?”
They both nodded and I fixed the cups and handed them to OpEd. I did not want to push his brother. It was obvious that he was terrified enough as it was. As they were drinking the coffee I got out some extra blankets and sat them by OpEd and said, “You can wrap up in them till you get warmed up.” Then I started fixing supper. It was a welcome diversion from what was happing. I had been totally on my own for over a year. Suddenly there were two other people for me to worry about and take care of. I know that sounds selfish but it was true. Now I would have to plan how to stretch out the supplies. I was not worried about this winter. We could use my dehydrated food stores if necessary. But once they were gone they could not be replaced. So I would have to hunt more all through the year to supplement our diet. This would increase the chance of our being captured.
One thing was sure I needed to get them some decent meals. They were malnourished and weak. So they would need to eat balanced meals and I would supplement their diet with vitamins.
So I decided to splurge for their first meal. I fixed green beans, corn, and deer meat. Both of them wolfed it down. When they had finished I handed OpEd two packets of vitamins and said, “These are vitamin supplements. I want you take them every day till you both are stronger.”
He nodded and took one of the packets opened it and said, “Kevin take this.” He was a little reluctant but he did take them. After OpEd was sure that his brother had taken them he did the same.
I was still upset when that night when as I lay there under my covers. I had managed to distance myself from the plight of others. It had been easy to do till I was forced to deal with its aftermath. There was nothing I could do about the outside world but I could help OpEd and his brother.
I had loaned my sleeping bag to Kevin and given my deerskin blanket to OpEd. I was going to have to get used to calling him by his real name. For me it had been easer use his screen name when talking with him. That way I could not slip and use his real name. It was going to be weird at first calling him Scott. But I kind of liked it. It seemed to fit him.
They had moved to the other side of the cave from me and I could hear the occasional murmur but could not make out what they were saying. To be honest it hurt that they did not trust me enough to even sleep on the same side of the cave as me. But knowing what they had been through I figured that Kevin needed the space to feel safe. But knowing there was a valid reason for it did not make me feel any less lonely. It was kind of funny. When I was here by myself I did not feel as lonely as I did with them in the same cave with me. It seemed to reinforce the isolation rather than help.
I fell asleep as I was planning out how to stretch out supplies. The next thing I knew it was morning and I woke up to Kevin shaking me. It startled me and for a moment I was not sure where I was. Then I remembered that I had someone in the cave with me. I was still groggy and it took me a moment to focus in on him.
When he realized that I was waking up he gave me a moment then said with an embarrassed look on his face. “Where can I go to the bathroom?”
“There’s a bucket in the corner.” He blushed when he realized that there was no privacy in the cave.
“I did not plan on visitors Kevin.”
He got a sad look on his face and said, “Well it won’t be any worse than at the camp.”
I told him “The bucket has a lid on it. When you finish be sure to put it back on. When it gets full we take it out and empty it away from the cave. We might have a problem with this storm and having both of you here. I will try to get it dumped as quick as possible.”
He nodded saying, “I would have gone outside but the storm is really bad. You can’t see anything out there.”
I smiled and said, “That’s great news.”
“Why?”
“Because the snow will cover your tracks and make it virtually impossible to track you. I had been worried that someone might stumble on your tracks and follow them to the cave. Now we don’t have to worry.”
“Oh ok.”
“Look it if will make you more comfortable I will turn my back and you can call to me when you are finished.”
Blushing he said. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
I turned my back towards the cave wall and waited. When he finished he called out and I turned around.
After pulling my clothes back on I got out from under the blanket and said, “After I go and check on the weather I will fix us something to eat.”
That earned me a shy thanks from Kevin.
I got up and pulled my boots and coat on and headed to the outside cave. As soon as I got near to the door I could tell it was still bitterly cold. Shivering I moved toward the edge of the cave mouth. There was windblown snow and ice along the edge and I stopped a couple of feet back to avoid any chance of slipping. The wind was gusting so hard that I had a hard time standing. Kevin was right we were in the middle of a strong blizzard. I could not see more than 10 or 12 feet out. I knew that any tracks that they had made would already be gone I relaxed and headed back inside to fix some soup. I was going to have to gradually increase their food intake till their stomachs stretched again. If I tried to force too much food into them they would actually get sick.
As I brought the water to a boil I turned to Kevin and Joseph and said, “Guys we are going to have to watch our supplies. I had not planned on having two extra mouths to feed. Don’t get me wrong I am glad you are here but we are going to have to ration the supplies. That is especially true of the dehydrated items and the canned goods. They are what I use to make sure that our diet is healthy enough to sustain us.”
Kevin looked puzzled so I said; “The dehydrated ones have supplemental vitamins in them.”
He nodded and I continued. “When the weather clears we will have to try and go hunting. If we could kill a deer and butcher it we would have enough meat to offset your being here.”
Kevin looked upset when I brought up killing the deer. I understood how he felt but it was necessary if we were going to make it. So I said, “Kevin I know how you feel and believe me if we did not need it I wouldn’t do it. I never hunted till I came up here. But I believe there is nothing wrong with hunting to survive and that is what we are doing.”
Reluctantly he nodded his understanding.
His bother ruffled his hair and said, “Kev I know you don’t like to hurt anything but it is necessary. Hey remember the “Lion King” and the whole circle of life thing.” Then he laughed as his brother stuck out his tongue out and shot him the bird. But I could tell that he was trying not to laugh. Chuckling I started adding some deer meat that I had cut into thin strips and dried earlier in the year. Then I added the dehydrated vegetables to the boiling water. It did not take long till you could smell the stew cooking. By the time it was ready we were all starving. It did not take us long to finish it.
© 2006, Joseph Men