When The Fault Breaks: Life Will Never Be The Same Page 25

  Fred continued, "The next question is how far should we go and how long should we go for?"

  Ben replied, "I don't think we want to constrain ourselves with time, we have plenty of time and supplies, so we shouldn't limit our trek." Everyone agreed.

  "Well then how far do we want to go?"

  Ted spoke up and said, "I think that needs to be based on what we see as well, when we reach the pass and look down into the valley below. Figure what is in front of us, then adjust our plan based on what we find when we reach the valley floor."

  Fred spoke up, "Yea we may find falls we don't want to try to pass or signs of civilization. If we encounter someone there they will want to know how we got there and where we came from. I am not sure that is a good idea."

  "That has always been a risk we face, including from someone coming up from below again, this time they may not be nice. Ok then let's do this. We need to talk it over with Brandon but I think it might be best if he stays here."

  Over the next couple of days everyone pulled together all their gear and split up the loads evenly. We had plenty of jerky including fish, deer, elk and bear. We figured between the dried goods and hunting we could last as long as it takes, besides by now we were all good at surviving off the land.

  Our ranch was the furthest point up valley so we used it as our starting point. We loaded up our packs and took off early in the day. It was a nice day, not to hot not to cold, so hiking would be easy. We knew we would make it to the falls that first day so Ann and Beth went with us. It was a warm night and we could make out some stars but the rest were obscured by the trees. The eight of us were enjoying a pleasant night by the fire.

  I had found a nice stump to lean against near the fire and Ann was leaning against me. Fred was sitting on a log across from us and the rest closing in a small circle. The fire was crackling and shed this ever so soft glow on us when a piece of cedar in the fire pooped out and sent an ember flying into Fred's lap but he didn't see or feel it.

  Beth was sitting next to him and when she saw it she jumped up and starting smacking Fred's lap. Of course Fred had something to say about that.

  "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!!"

  The rest us that saw the still glowing hot coal but did not have time to react and started laughing while Beth tried to explain what she was doing.

  "That last pop from the cedar threw a coal into your lap while you were looking at the stars. I saw you didn't see it and that was the fastest thing I could do."

  We were all still laughing at the funny scene. Of course Beth was not happy about that and told us all to shut up. When we all stopped laughing Ben decided it was time for a story.

  "Do you guys know how long it's been since we have done this, quite a bit. Hey Peter it's been forever since we heard any of your bullshit sea stories do you have one for us."

  Ann replied, "Do we have too, I have heard them all a thousand times," as she rolled her eyes.

  Jokingly I crossed my arms and blew out my lips like I was pouting.

  Fred added, "Yea come on sailor boy let's hear one."

  I gave Ann a smug look and said okay. She decided she had heard enough of my stories and got up to go get some firewood and water some plant somewhere.

  Beth asked, "Do you have something scary, I would love to hear a nice scary story now."

  Well I don't know if I consider it scary but you might. "I was stationed on the U.S.S. Nimitz working as a safety inspector roving the ship late one night for my duty. We were in home port so the aircrew was not aboard and there were lots of empty berthing space where I was walking. I was going through an area well after midnight one night when I passed a rack and felt this extreme cold hit me. Because the spaces were not in use the ventilation system was off so there was no real air flow, but the cold had hit me like a wave."

  Beth exclaimed, "What was it?"

  I replied, "I had no idea, I took a mental note of it and continued my rounds. When I got back to my office one of my co-workers was in the office and I told him about what had happened. He asked if I knew which space it happened in and I told him yes. When I gave him the compartment number he reached over to a file cabinet and pulled out a file and tossed it to me. He told me a guy had killed himself in that berthing compartment. I looked at the file and it was in that rack where I had felt the cold."

  Fred responded with a fake sneeze that sounded very much like bullshit, but Beth was all over it.

  "Are you saying you saw a ghost?"

  "No I never said anything about a ghost. I just made an observation, besides I never said I saw anything."

  Ted replied, "Then what are you saying?"

  "I'm not saying anything, but as a scientist it makes me go hmm."

  Beth barked at Ted, "What are you saying you don't believe in ghosts?"

  "Well daa… No I don't believe in ghosts."

  I added, "I'm not saying I believe in ghosts. But given we are all made of stardust, yet somehow we are cognitive of our very existence. Why is that? And I not saying I believe in God either, just saying."

  We all debated the meaning of life stuff the rest of the night and all slept under the stars that night by the fire.

  It took us two days to reach the highest point I had gone before and we spent the night there. Now we were all in uncharted terrain and it was getting difficult to climb, and we were a fair bit above our homes.

  We were staying on the edge of a small plateau, from this vantage point we could still see our homes by the day and flashlights moving around at night. I was sitting on the edge dangling my feet while looking at the little lights moving around below. I was bored so I started to flash morose code at everyone below to see if anyone noticed it. I figured if they could someone would respond back. I was right, someone did.

  I called out, "Hey guys bring your flashlights! Check it out, I was flashing my light to everyone below and someone responded."

  "Not just someone, look there is a couple more."

  "Everyone line up, lets flash ours in a pattern."

  Fred said, "Hey let's do a pattern like from that alien movie with the lights."

  "Fred these hand crank flashlights are so cool; we never have to worry about batteries."

  "They are nice aren't they?"

  We all loved the idea and wondered if they would respond in the same way, which they did. We spent hours like that trying all kinds of patterns and seeing if they could or would match them, again they did. The best part of it was that no one had planned it, it just happened on its own. Before I finished I sent a Morse code to Ann that I loved her. She responded back with she loved me more, I smiled and headed off to sleep.

  In the morning we continued up valley, we made good distance that day so the next night we could no longer see the fires below, so no lights after that. We wondered if we would see them when we reached the pass and if the fires could be seen from there as well.

  It took us several more days to make our way to the pass. It was hard going and required roping up several times to get past some steep rapids and a huge fall. When we reached the pass it was late in the day, we looked back and to our disappointment we were able to see smoke from the fires of our village. This meant that anyone that came up from the other side would be able to see them as well.

  Fred spoke up, "This means it's now even more important that we go as far down the valley as we can to see if there is anyone down there we need to worry about."

  Ben called out, "Guys come quickly."

  We all ran over and looked down the other side of the pass and saw the most incredible valley below us. It was a long way down and went well beyond what we could see. There was a sharp bend way down the valley so we could not see beyond it. It was a nice clear night and there was a great place to set up camp so we stayed there.

  That next morning, after planning our next moves we started down the valley but the going was slow, it was clear that no modern human had ever passed this way before. That was a neat feeling, trailblazing vir
gin land. Floyd took the lead and did most of the bushwhacking while I stayed in the back.

  We followed the stream from the headwaters all the way down until the valley opened up into a large open braided stream. About a week in we saw smoke rising from the forest canopy. There was only one plume so we figured it was an isolated cabin and decided we would approach it very carefully.

  Chapter 33: The Others

  We were at an overlook checking out where we saw the smoke. From our vantage point we could see a cabin, a barn, and a modern metal building with large double doors. It was clearly an old cabin, but it was in good shape. It looked like it had been there for many, many years. The metal building was new and looked like a large shop or garage.

  "Would you look at that, they have pigs, goats and cows in that pasture. Can you say steak and eggs with a side of bacon for breakfast?"

  I replied, "Funny Fred, what are you going to do shoot one and carry it back on your back?"

  "I know, but a man can wish."

  "I know I would kill for a pork chop or some ham too."

  "Now that's what I am talking about Peter, killing one and cutting it up right where it lays."

  "Obviously someone lives there, maybe we should just ask."

  We had not been watching long before a woman came out of the cabin and rang an old fashioned triangle on the deck for lunch, we were amazed that we were able to hear it as far away as we were. A couple of kids came running into the open field, we were pretty sure it was a family, but we had not seen the dad yet. A few minutes later a guy came out of the metal building wiping his hands on a rag.

  We decided that only two of us would approach the house, so Fred and I decided to go while everyone else watched from above. Floyd is a hell of a shot so he would be watching us through the sight of the sniper rifle to make sure we were safe.

  The next morning Fred and I went to visit the house before the dad left. We decided to approach the house unarmed and to announce our presence early on. As we got close Fred called out, "Hello" he paused, again he called out only this time a bit louder.

  "HELLO in there, we have no weapons and do not need any supplies. In fact, we have some we can share if you need it."

  We could hear voices inside but could not make out what was being said. Then a window opened slightly and a gun barrel came sticking out. We raised our hands, turned around and raised our shirts to show we had no weapons. This time I spoke up.

  "As you can see we have no guns on us and we have no desire to take anything you have. We have all the supplies we need, so we do not need any of yours. We saw the smoke from your fire from up the valley a ways and came to investigate who was here."

  We heard the lock on the door open and a man stepped out with that unmistakable look of an AK-47 trained on us.

  "My name is Peter and my friend here is Fred, what's your name?"

  He replied, "Hooowwwdy ma name's Alex."

  Alex was a stocky type of guy with a big full beard, he was wearing a plaid flannel shirt and overalls. He spoke with a really deep voice and a strong southern accent.

  "Hi Alex, we came down from the pass above scouting out the valley. We're trying to find out what, if any threats to our home, could come from this direction."

  Alex replied, "We're the only ones in this here valley far as I know, we got here jist after the quake. This here cabin has been in ma family for generations, when the quake hit we came here to get away from what was coming."

  As we spoke, his wife and kids came out on the porch. I was pleasantly surprised at how welcoming she was.

  "This here is ma wife Elaine and ma two kids George and Sue. Please come in y'all an make yourself at home."

  Elaine was a pretty woman, she stood maybe five foot if she was wearing heels. With long blond hair and a pretty sundress, she was very soft spoken and seemed shy at first.

  Alex continued, "I'm sorry where'd y-all say you came from?"

  "We have a community several miles down valley on the other side of the pass."

  "What brings y-all here?"

  "We had some people come up into our community from the valley below, which made us consider that we needed to check out if we needed to worry about someone coming in from above."

  "Shoot, where's ma manners? Can we get ya something ta eat or drink maybe some coffee?"

  My eyes widen, my mouth immediately started watering and I was clearly excited, Fred started to visibly drool.

  "COFFEE!!? Really, you have coffee!? I can't remember when the last time was that I had a fix of caffeine."

  "Well I can't promise it'll be a good cup, but it is coffee."

  "I don't care if it's as bad as that rut gut I had in the Navy, that we used to use to remove rust from the decks. If it's coffee, I would love some."

  With that Alex turned to Elaine and asked her to get us all a cup. As we walked in I could smell the coffee brewing and I started to drool. As the smell drifted through the air it brought back so many memories. Several minutes later Elaine brought out a tray with cups on it and a fresh pot of coffee.

  As she poured our cups she handed them to us. It was funny, both Fred and I put the cups under our noses and with our eyes half closed and heads waving, we both took a long deep lingering breath.

  "I can't believe how good that smells after months of not having it."

  I raised my cup and toasted.

  "Hopefully, here's to a long and beneficial friendship."

  Alex raised his as well and added, "Here, here, and to new friends."

  I took my first sip of coffee after what felt like forever and added.

  "Hell and it tastes great as well."

  Alex asked, "How'd ya get here? I have been way over that pass and didn't see any sign of people, but it's been more than a year. I know the terrain is unforgiving."

  "It was hard, we had to rope up a few times, but we were able to make it Okay."

  "Are you two alone?"

  "No we're not, there are four others up the valley a spell waiting for us to give them the okay to come down."

  "Well I think of myself as a good judge of people and you guys seem to be upfront, feel free to invite them down."

  We all stepped out on the porch and I waved my arms to signal them to come down.

  Alex asked, "Can your friends see us from where they are?"

  "Yes they can, we could see your whole farm from that overlook up there. Look up there on that bluff, you can see them waving back."

  We all looked up at the overlook and we could see Floyd standing there signaling OKAY with the semaphore flags. I replied OKAY back, so they headed down.

  Alex asked, "Whatcha signaling?"

  "It's a semaphore just like they used on the ships long ago, I learned it as a Boy Scout."

  "Would y-all join us for dinner? We can get to know each other. I would love to hear more about where y-all came from. We have plenty of food. I bet it has been a long time since you've had some smoked ham."

  "You have no idea, are you sure you have enough?"

  "We're very well stocked and I have more."

  "We saw your stock in the field. Are you sure you can spare it?"

  Alex laughed and replied, "We have plenty, I smoked a couple hams about a month ago out in the smoke house."

  "I'm sure I speak for everyone that is not here yet, we would love some smoked ham."

  Fred chimed in, "Well I can guarantee you he is speaking for me this time."

  It took about a half hour for everyone else to make it down. As they approached I introduced everyone.

  "Alex this is Floyd, Ben, Bill and Ed. Guys this is Alex and his wife Elaine and their kids George and Sue."

  "Nice to meet y-all, please come on in."

  Floyd asked, "So Alex, I noticed as we were coming down the valley that we did not see any roads leading up here. How did you guys get here?" Alex laughed, "We flew here, I have a helicopter."

  "You had a helicopter to get you here!?"

  "No I have a heli
copter, it's inside ma hanger out back. We used it to fly in because there are no roads coming up the valley. The closest forest service road is at least a hundred miles away, and the closest paved road more than a hundred fifty miles from there."

  Floyd asked, "Are there any other homes down valley?"

  "No I have flown over the entire valley and searched for signs of any and we're the only ones for at least one hundred miles in every direction."

  Ben exclaimed, "You mean you have this entire valley to yourself?"

  "Yep that's exactly what I mean. I started telling Peter and Fred here this cabin was built by my great, great grandfather and has been passed down ever since. It's deep in the Rocky Mountain National Wilderness and I don't think anyone else including any government office even knows it exists."