When The Fault Breaks: Life Will Never Be The Same Read online

  Sarg went over to Sally and took her in his arms and she collapsed in tears.

  "You're right Sally, none of us can blame ourselves for losing Ramon, he is a hero and saved Alex's life. We are all going to miss him."

  Sobbing heavily, "I loved him Fred, we were going to be married when we reached the cave."

  "I understand Sally we're all going to miss him dearly, he was our friend too. There will be a hole in all our lives without him here."

  Still crying even more, "You don't understand, we're going to have a baby, I'm pregnant, and we didn't want to tell anyone yet. We didn't want to worry anyone so we kept it to ourselves. Now what am I going to do without him."

  Sam came over and took over for Fred.

  "Come here Sally, you are not alone, not now, not ever."

  "I know Sam but I LOVE HIM…."

  "I did too Sally we were friends since we were kids. We all loved him, he was a great person and easy to love."

  It was almost impossible to console Sally she cried for the longest time, the only way to get her to sleep that night was to sedate her. The doc assured her it wouldn't hurt the baby to take a pill especially one time, she took it grudgingly. Sam walked off in the woods to be alone, I figured he needed the time but made sure he was safe. That night after dinner at our nightly campfire I had to break the news to anyone that had not already heard about Ramon.

  "I'm sure by now everyone knows about Ramon, he was a great man and he gave his life to save Alex. He knew exactly what he was doing going in the water even after Alex told him to stay out." Now I want everyone to take a moment of silence to remember him. Many of us will miss him, our new home will just not be the same but we all have to move on.

  "How did it happen?"

  "Without going into the sequence of events, I will simply say Alex was trapped in an ATV. Ramon went in to help him and lost his life doing so. Please no more questions."

  "We have reached the last plateau we were trying to reach, so tonight we rest and mourn our friend. But tomorrow when we start again, we need to keep our heads in the game. It should be fairly easy traveling for the next several days, but we will still have a fair distance to go so everyone keep doing what you all have done so well."

  The rest of the way up was uneventful. We had traversed a couple more ranges when we found ourselves in a very large valley. We were lucky that we came into it from the side where the stream was still braided so travel was easy. After a few days we had managed to go two thirds of the way uphill by following the stream. From our vantage point we could see a long way down the west facing valley. I didn't like what I saw that day, the clouds were ominous.

  Chapter 9: The Storm of the Millennium

  I have seen a lot of storms in my life, one beat the shit out of us and made us abandon a one-hundred-mile hike around Glacier Peak in the North Cascades, but this storm was different. It was far darker than any I had seen before, and from as far away as we were I could tell it was massive. You could see it drawing closer every minute and I could both smell it and feel the electricity in the air. As I gazed down valley I got the sense we needed to get ready for this storm.

  "Hey guys can you come over here?"

  Fred was talking to Ben and Brandon so the three of them came over to where I was standing.

  Fred replied, "What's up Peter?"

  Without saying anything I pointed down valley. I was surprised after I saw Fred look at the sky. I had never seen him look like that; it was almost fear. I didn't think anything could scare Fred, he was always stone cold when it came to what he faced. I don't think Brandon had expected it either because he was clearly concerned by Fred's reaction.

  Brandon exclaimed, "What's the big deal Fred, it just looks like a big storm to me?"

  Fred replied, "That is NOT JUST a storm Brandon, that is a monster and it is heading our way. We need to get all the tarps off the trees. Everything that can blow away needs to be stowed away and we all need to find more shelter than just our tents. Ben can you go and start telling everyone to move everything far away from the stream. I don't want anything within fifty feet up from the stream."

  Ben asked, "Why? We have seen storms and never had to take these kinds of precautions?"

  Fred was clearly not in the mood to explain his orders and snapped back at Ben.

  "Ben, we don't have time to go into why I need you to go and do as I ask, I will explain it later if I still need to after this storm."

  Ben could tell that Fred was not mad, he could see the concern in his eyes and replied.

  "I'm sorry Fred, I will get right on that."

  Ben took off running and grabbed a few people on his way.

  Brandon did not need to be told twice he knew that if Fred snapped at someone that this storm scared him. I decided to start to figure out how to keep everyone safe from this monster. We were on a plateau well above the stream so it was easy for his men to move the ATV's to high ground.

  There were lots of trees crisscrossing each other and I figured they would make a good place to take shelter. We tied all the tarps around the outside of the pile and put more logs on top of them to help hold them down. There were a couple of those piles that we were able to make into makeshift shelters, enough for everyone to get inside of.

  It was a good thing I had seen it when I did because we did not have much time before the wind picked up and the air grew very heavy. As we watched the lightning approach I even became worried. Not only could we smell the rain we could smell the plasma from the lightning. The hairs on our arms started to stand up, you could almost taste the storm as it approached.

  The clouds were so black that they lost definition; it just looked like one massive wall of clouds with lightning going between them, with many more striking the ground. The rain hit us with such a force that it hurt to be smacked by the raindrops. As the storm progressed we would see a flash and then hear the deafening explosion as the lighting ripped through the air.

  If the rain had not been such a heavy rain I would have worried about fire, but there was no way fire was going to catch with that much water being dumped on us. The wind was blowing so hard I was sure all the tarps would be ripped off. The sound of the tarps flapping was almost unbearable.

  The only good thing about the storm was that it was fast moving, it didn't take very long for it to pass over us. I was amazed at how quickly the clouds were gone, but not the water. The stream was ripping by us so fast it even made me stand back. Boulders were being carried downstream like they were pebbles.

  Ben had brought his weather station with us and did not have time to look at it before we took shelter but we checked it after it passed. The barometric pressure dropped below 25.50", which was far below the world's record low of25.66" recorded during cyclone Tip in 1979. The anemometer was gone, but the meter recorded wind up to 125 mph before it broke.

  Those kinds of lows never happened on land before. This storm was something different. It ripped past us in minuets and left trees down everywhere. When it all calmed down and the stream subsided we were amazed that we didn't lose a thing, better still we did not lose another of our friends.

  I was looking out over the destruction the storm caused in the valley below us. We could see the result of the flood in the valley that just a few days before sheltered us. It was easy to see that the floodwaters went from one side of the valley to the other. If we had been down there when that storm barreled through we would all have died. As I stood there shaking my head in disbelief Fred came up to me.

  "Well Peter what do you think of that storm?"

  I replied, "I think that the changes we have been warning everyone about have happened. This storm was not like anything anyone has ever seen before and I don't think it will be the last nor do I think it will be the worst. I bet those sheep that believed that climate change was not real may be singing a different tune."

  Fred laughed and he replied, "Well they can't blame that storm on the Democrats!"

  We both go
t a laugh on that one too. But I had to reply anyway.

  "Maybe not but I'm sure they will try."

  With the storm from hell behind us we continued, after over a month on the move we reached the crest of the second to the last ridge that we needed to climb. Everyone looked in despair when we saw what was ahead. It looked like the hardest climb of all. We could see that the other side of the valley went a couple hundred feet higher than where we stood. At the same time, we were elated because we knew that the end was close. The next morning, we started down; it took most the day to reach the bottom.

  "I can't believe it, we made it to the bottom of the valley."

  "I'm with you Ben it was a hard trek, but not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be."

  "WHAT are you nuts? It was brutal. I thought we were going to die coming down that last face."

  "Stop over reacting Ben, it was not that bad."

  "That's easy for you to say Fred, you live for this stuff."

  Rubbing his face like he was clearing away tears Fred teased, "BOO HOO would you like your diaper changed Ben?"

  We all could not stop laughing.

  "Kiss my ass Fred, and I don't need your sarcasm Daniel Boone."

  "Ouch… was that the best you have?"

  Even more laughter.

  "You two children knock it off."

  "What! We are just having some fun Peter."

  Ben replied, "No you were Fred, I was the butt of your fun."

  "But you make such a good…"

  "I said enough you two. We have way too much to do for you two to poke fun at each other. Besides if that is all you two have you need to go back to school, that is if there is still one to be found."

  Ben pursed his lips and shook his head slightly and replied, "Party pooper."

  Just then Fred called out, "Hey Brandon can you come over?"

  "Sure Fred what can I do for you?"

  "Are you up to some hunting? We are going to spend at least a few days here to rest and give everyone time to just chill after nearly a month of hard travel. Besides we have to climb this side of the valley and down the other to reach the cave so I want everyone rested."

  "Okay I'll grab a couple others and see what we can find."

  Fred called out, "Wait for me Brandon, I have to get my bow."

  "All right Fred meet us at the creek over there," Brandon said as he pointed toward the creek.

  Brandon looked around and saw just who he was looking for and called out.

  "Henry, Doug, front and center."

  Doug is a young cocky Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran from Prescott AZ. Fred selected him because he was one hell of a hunter both four and two legged. The two came trotting over.

  "What do you need Brandon?"

  "Hey do you guys want to join Sarg and I hunting? We need to find some game because we're going to be here for some time."

  Doug jumped up and said in his strong southern accent, "HELL YEAH…, let's go dooo… some huning."

  Henry laughed and replied, "A little excited are you?" More laughter.

  Brandon replied, "Yeah he does like his hunting."

  Henry laughed and said, "No you mean he likes his huning not hunting."

  Doug flipped Henry off and said, "Goda hell ya asshole."

  Just then Fred got back with his bow and Brandon filled him in on who he picked.

  "Okay Henry you and Brandon head up stream and Doug, you and I will head down."

  With a sarcastic tone Fred turned to Doug and said, "Alright rookie let's get going."

  "Rookie!? I'm not a rookie."

  "Okay sorry then Rambo."

  Fred challenged Doug, "So if you think you're so good, let's see who can bag the first one, but just don't shoot me."

  Doug replied, "Alright old man let's get some fresh meat. Hey the first one to bag some game, call out for the rest of us."

  "Sounds like a plan Brandon."

  Fred turned to Doug and said, "Come on let's see if you can keep up with me young un."

  "Do you want to put some money where your mouth is Old Man?"

  "Sure what do you have in mind?"

  "The first one to bag something sizeable, I don't mean a rabbit or something, gets his meal brought to him by the other for a week."

  "You're on Little One; I'm looking forward to you serving me some venison for dinner tonight."

  "Okay Fossil I'll take the left side of the stream you take the right and we'll see who is serving who."

  Fred hollered across the stream, "See you later, may the best man or boy as the case may be win."

  They all left in four directions. Meanwhile down by the stream Tony came over to me and asked, "Peter, how long do you think we will be staying here?"

  "We will be here at least three days I think. Why do you ask?"

  "Well if we have that much time I'm going to set up the fish trap and see if we can catch some fish."

  "That would be great, how long will it take to set it up?"

  "Not long at all, we built it some time ago and made it so we can set it in the stream and catch fish right away. If there are fish in this stream, we will be having fish tonight as well. Even if we don't have it tonight we will need to smoke some for the rest of the trip."

  Tony asked, "Speaking of the rest of the trip, how much farther is it?"

  "We are getting close; I'll be going over that tonight around the campfire after we eat."

  "Alright I will see you then."

  It didn't take long before everyone heard Brandon yell, we all knew Brandon got something. Everyone in the hunting party headed in his direction. Brandon got a nice twelve-point buck, all four cut up the deer and they each carried it back to camp to a very happy crowd.

  "Hale hale the mighty hunters have returned, and they bring us fresh meat."

  "Well Doug I guess neither of us has to worry about the bet."

  "You're lucky Sarg, I would have beaten you if Brandon hadn't gotten it first."

  "We will have to take this bet up again the next time we go hunting."

  "You're on."

  Everyone else went about setting up camp. Christine and George made an incredible meal with both the fish and venison as well as greens others had gathered. Later that night we all met up around the fire like always.

  "Now that we're all here I want to start by saying we are very close to our destination. The cave is over that ridge, above us then down to the bottom of the valley."

  "Why don't we just stay here? It looks like a nice place to me, it has plenty of food and water, lots of trees what's the problem?"

  "That is a very fair question George, at first take it does look like an ideal location. It has all those things going for it and then some. But what it doesn't have trumps all of them. First what it doesn't have is a ready-made shelter. One large enough for most of us in the event of a severe storm, or an assault from outsiders, but more importantly it doesn't have enough flat open fields."

  "The place we are going has lots of them, enough for everyone to build their own farm and have the fields we need to grow enough food for our needs. The stream is larger than this one and will provide a variety of options for its use; bottom line is it is worth making it over this last ridge."

  "Is the pass up this stream?"

  "It starts out that way then we turn to go up the side of the valley. We will go up the side just like we came down this last one. The climb up will be much harder and it may take us even longer to go up than it did to get down."

  After some needed rest and resupply of food we headed up, finally after several days of hard climbing we were able to look down into the valley that would become our new home. Ben was the first to see the valley, when he looked down he could not believe his eyes.

  "Everyone come quick you have got to see this, it's incredible! Is that going to be our new home Peter?"

  "Yes, Ben that is the valley we are going to call home for some time to come."

  "Everyone come on up here, we can see ou
r new home from here."

  Rick asked, "Can you see the cave?"

  "No and we wouldn't want that anyway, the cave is several miles down that valley around a few bends, but it sure is a sight to behold in any right."

  "It looks like we have our work cut out for us on this one Peter."

  "Why is that Fred?"

  "Look down there three quarters of the way down, that is going to be very difficult to get past with these," patting the ATV.