The Trip to Raptor Bluff (12 page)

Rick just shrugged.

“How is your mom doing now?” asked Leanna.

“She has learned to live with the guilt, although it will never leave her.  Mom accepts that Mutti was a truly evil human being.  At least she was able to reject Mutti, instead of feeling rejected by her.”

Leanna peppered Rick with questions about his mother but Abby dropped behind.  The Mutti story deeply unsettled her and she wondered again why he chose to reveal a family secret of such magnitude.  She was trying to work through the possible reasons when Caleb suddenly flopped down on the damp bank of the nearby creek with his tongue lolling.  Rick looked at the sun’s position.  “It’s probably a good time to break for lunch.  We’ve made good time.”

**********

Five hours later, when everyone but Caleb was having difficulty placing one foot in front of the other, Leanna asked, “Think we can take a short break?”

“I’m looking for places to camp for the night right now,” replied Rick.  “It makes sense to behave like every other living thing out here and keep the sun’s schedule.  By the time we set up camp and eat, the sun will be going down.  I don’t know about you guys, but sleep sounds pretty good to me right now.”

Firewood was plentiful but stones for the fire pit were not, and the sun had dropped below the western horizon before they had scavenged enough for Rick to build a fire.  Leanna and Abby were breaking down wood into smaller pieces when Leanna’s hesitant voice interrupted the stillness.  “Um, Rick?”

“What’s up, Leanna?”  Rick stood up and placed his hands on his lower back while he stretched.

“Um, today when you were telling us your Mutti story…,” Leanna hesitated.

“Go on.”

“Well, you mentioned that your mother was raised in the Mormon Church.  Does that mean that you were brought up as a Mormon?”

“Leanna,” hissed Abby, trying to catch her eye.  She knew exactly where the conversation was heading. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Think about what?” asked Rick.  “Leanna, to answer your question – yes, I was raised as a Mormon.”

Leanna thought for a moment before she said, “It’s just that the Bible says, um, you know, that Mormons are a cult and can’t get into heaven.”

Rick laughed but Abby’s temper erupted. “Where do you come up with the
bullshit
that comes out of your mouth?  Do you have any idea how ignorant and just plain stupid you sound?  You make ridiculous statements like, ‘
tsunamis are a thousand feet tall’, ‘Pepper is a lesbian’, ‘homosexuality is a sin’,
and ‘
Mormons are going to hell’
!  The Bible was written over a thousand years
before
Joseph Smith was even born, so how could the Bible even
mention
Mormons?”

“Hey, take it easy, Abby,” said Rick, giving her a warning look.

“No!  I am so sick of Leanna spouting such crap, like she’s an authority on the world and everything in it!”  She turned to Leanna, who was staring at her with her mouth open.  “Do you
ever
think before you speak?  I don’t think so.  If you had a brain in your head, you wouldn’t tell Rick, who is taking such good care of us, and who was starving himself so
we
could have
his
food, that he is going to hell because he doesn’t share your religious beliefs.  You make me sick, Leanna, and it is people
just like you
who make Christianity sound so offensive.  You are an idiotic, self-righteous moron!”

“Enough!” shot Rick.  He chased after Leanna, who burst into tears and ran towards the woods.

Abby was still brooding by the fire pit when he returned a few minutes later and sat down beside her.  “That was brutal, Abby.  You really hurt her feelings.”

“Good! She makes me so freaking mad that I want to kill her.”

“Well, you almost did.  You just gave her one of the worst memories she will ever have.  You attacked and shredded her…”

“I…”

“Let me finish, Abby.  What you said to her was true, but it came across to her as total rejection.  That is what hurt her.”

“So?  I
do
reject her bullshit!”

“She took it as you rejecting
her
.  Her whole purpose in life is to stop feeling rejected.  That’s why she tries so hard to come across as an authority on everything.  She needs a spotlight on her to prove she’s not as worthless as she feels.  The confident, know-it-all Leanna is a persona.  The Leanna she tries so hard to hide feels like an unlovable, worthless reject.”

Leanna sighed and reluctantly began to rise, “Maybe I should go talk to her.”

Rick took her arm and pulled her back to a sitting position.  “Leave her.  Give her some time to cry it out and think through what you said.  She’ll either come out of those woods swinging, or she will take your words to heart.  My gut tells me she will take your words to heart.  In either case, it will be a while before she’s ready to have a real talk.”

The conversation was interrupted when Caleb bolted to his feet. A low growl thrummed in his throat and his body tensed as he stared at the woods behind them.

“He hears something!” whispered Abby as she scrambled to her feet.

Rick had also risen.  He shushed her and stared into the woods in the direction Caleb was looking.  “Wait here and don’t move.  I’m going to check it out.”  He had just taken his first step when Caleb’s growl exploded into frenzied barking.  The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up.  Abby jumped backwards when a very large man walked through the brush and froze.  His hand dropped to the weapon belted to his waist. 

The man looked to be in his mid to late thirties and was very fit.  Dark stubble covered his face and his eyes drooped with fatigue.  His short hair was matted and coated with dust, and the t-shirt and cargo shorts he wore were sweat stained and filthy.  Dark socks showing above his hiking boots were covered in burrs.  He wore a heavy pack on his back.

“Whoa,” said Rick, raising his hands.  “We aren’t looking for any trouble here.  We are just trying to find our way inland.”

The man’s startled face relaxed and his hand fell away from his holster.  “Some park ranger I make, huh?  I was practically on your heels and I didn’t even suspect there were others out here.  I thought I was all alone.”  He bent forward to pat Caleb, who had approached him cautiously when the tension eased.

“You are a park ranger?”  Rick’s eyes dropped to the man’s attire.

“I left the uniform buried in rubble back at the ranger station,” he said, shrugging out of his heavy pack and extending his hand.  “I’m Ryder Cash.”

“Rick Wright,” said Rick, stepping forward.  “And this is Abby and Caleb.  Leanna is in the woods having some private time.  We were on the 101 heading north when the quake started.  Now we are trying to find any place that has food and shelter.”

Ryder’s face fell.  “You don’t have food either?  Ouch.  Well, at least we have water.  That is something, at least.”

“How long has it been since you’ve eaten?” asked Abby, reaching in her duffel bag and tossing Ryder a power bar. 

“Since I ate a bowl of cereal on the morning of the quake,” Ryder said.  He finished the bar in three bites and licked his fingers.

Rick handed him a candy bar.  When Ryder looked at it with longing but put it in his shorts pocket, Rick said, “We have more so you don’t need to stash that for later.  Hopefully, we will run in to some houses before too long and can find food.  Where were you when the quake happened?”

Ryder devoured the candy bar as he talked.  “I was at my ranger station at Hammer Mountain Park when it hit.  We rangers take turns living at the station during the summer months: two weeks on, two weeks off.  My shift started yesterday but I went up a couple of days early to do some repair work around the place.  I would normally bring enough food to stock the station but since I went up early, I just figured I would do my shopping in Port Fortand after I finished the repairs.  Needless to say, plans changed.” 

“What brings you this way?” asked Rick. 

“I was instructed to head inland along a water source and to stay off the main roads.”  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small sheet of yellow lined paper.  “According to Headquarters, if we head east for another ten miles or so, we should run into a dirt road leading north towards a small farming community.  I am supposed to call in my position when I get there.”

“Call in your position?” cried Rick.  “How?  Is there cell coverage where you are going?” 

“I have a satellite phone.”

Rick’s hand shot out.  “Please, can I use it?  There were fourteen people on our trip and we have been out of touch with our families since the day of the earthquake!” 

“Sure!”  Ryder was unzipping a side pocket on his backpack before Rick could complete his sentence.  “I have a solar charger so take your time.”

Rick snatched the phone and began punching in numbers.  He put the phone to his ear and walked quickly into the woods.  Ryder’s worried eyes followed him.  “You guys don’t yet know how your families are, do you?  And they are probably frantic about you. I guess I just take my satellite phone for granted.  We rangers carry them because there is no cell coverage in most of the park.  Right now, satellite phones and radios appear to be the only working forms of communication in these parts.” 

“Is your family OK?”  whispered Abby.

“I was lucky.  My girlfriend was on a business trip to Chicago, and my family lives in Blacksburg, Virginia.”  He tossed a stick on the fire.  “Rick mentioned that there were fourteen of you.  Where are the others?”

“We split up into teams and took off in different directions.”  Abby kept glancing at the woods where Rick had disappeared.  When he still had not returned after fifteen minutes, she busied herself rearranging the tarp and filling water bottles, trying to hold herself back from crashing into the woods after him.  The sky had darkened with rain clouds and she and Ryder shared worried looks.  “I think I better go after him.”

“No,” said Ryder, quietly.  “Probably not a good idea.  Here, help me lay this tarp over some branches to protect us from the rain.  We are about to get a good soaking.”

Rick stepped out of the woods after another fifteen minutes had passed.  His shocked face was stark white and his eyes stared forward; he would not make eye contact with Abby when he said, “Abby, Joshua Zeem checked on your family.  They survived and are at the high school waiting for evacuation.  Joshua is on his way to tell your parents where you are, and he’s bringing his satellite phone with him.  I gave him the number for this phone so you should be hearing from them soon.  I also told him where to look for the others who were on our trip to Raptor Bluff.”  The words were spoken in a low monotone and his face was expressionless. 

Leanna had come out of the woods behind Rick and was staring at him through puffy eyes.  She laid a hand on his arm and he jerked away, then crumpled by the fire and covered his face with his hands.  Caleb crept up behind him and began to lick his neck.  “Searchers found my house still standing but there was no one at home.  My car was located about a mile northwest of the house.  They think Lauren and my three girls were in the car when the tsunami came in because one of my earthquake emergency packs was wedged under the back seat.  The car windows were broken, and the belief is that my family was washed out to sea.”  The quiet moan that escaped his lips held a desolation so profound that the others felt its creeping tentacles reach into their own souls.  Abby quaked in its presence, understanding that for the rest of her life, the moment she was in would forever be her most haunting.  Whatever sorrows inevitably visited her future would pale in comparison to the memory of this night: the memory of this good man struggling in the firelight to shoulder the weight of his new and loveless world.

Rain began to tap on the tarp.  Ryder glanced once at Leanna and Abby, then closed his eyes and let his own tears fall freely. 

Leanna sat down beside Abby and leaned into her body.  Abby laid her head on Leanna’s shoulder.  “I’m sorry,” they both whispered at the same time.

Dakota arrived at the summit of Hammer Mountain three hours after she sneaked out of camp.  She found it hard to believe that it had taken her team six hours to descend the same distance the previous day.  Her speed was due to near panic and a good dose of fury.  Kate was slow but had resigned herself to the difficult task of hiking to Port Fortand; she plodded along like an old mule but at least she wasn’t complaining.  Her mother’s belief that if they prayed hard enough the problem would solve itself was just stupid.  Most of Dakota’s anger was directed at Sarah, who she believed was purposely holding up the group in the hope that Lucy would give up, quit moving, and agree to wait for help to find them.  Lucy, Kate, and Sarah were letting their sense of helplessness dictate their actions and in Dakota’s opinion, they were seriously endangering themselves.

At twelve years old, Dakota was the only person on the team who understood that the snail’s pace they were keeping would never get them to Port Fortand before their water ran out.  She knew her decision to sneak away was dangerous, but she also knew that her mother’s attitude and focus would shift the moment she discovered that her daughter was missing.  She was right.  Lucy was indeed pounding back up the northern side of Hammer Mountain, fueled by a mother’s fear for her child’s safety.

Dakota jogged down the eastern side of the mountain and had to zig-zag to avoid the rocky cliffs.  She knew she had no chance of finding Rick’s team, and that she had to make it to the bridge before dark.  She had no matches for a fire and no tarp to place between her body and the damp ground, so sleeping in the open would be a misery she desperately wanted to avoid.  Her shoulders ached from the weight of her pack and her quadriceps burned, but she would not slow down.  It wasn’t until she stumbled on a rock, causing her ankle to twist painfully, that she decided to pace herself and take more care to avoid injury. 

She had lost sight of Port Fortand as she descended Hammer Mountain, and hoped her sense of direction remained true.  The hike wasn’t as easy as it looked from above – she had to change course often to avoid dangerous outcroppings of rock – but she was making good time and was hopeful that she could make it to the bridge before darkness fell.  She watched the sky carefully, noticing the bank of ominous looking rain clouds rising from the west.  By the time the first raindrops began to splatter on her poncho, she knew she had to be close.  The ground was level and the trees were thinning.

The smell of Port Fortand hit her long before she saw it, and her first glimpse of the devastation made her lurch to a dead stop.  She could only stare, sickened and more frightened than she had ever been.  The man-made hill that supported the bridge’s eastern end stood about a half a mile in front of her.  The rest of the area for as far as the eye could see was covered with filthy debris, some in piles two stories high. 

Surrounding her on three sides were miles of piled up cars, building materials from destroyed homes and businesses, and even whole buildings themselves.  Some of the smaller structures were upside-down with their foundations pointing at the sky.  Boats of every size littered this area that Dakota knew had to be far inland.  Only the boats appeared intact and mostly unharmed.  Her brain tried to make sense of a large trawler perched atop a mountain of cars.  A small, two-passenger plane rested beside a medium-sized yacht.  The few standing buildings were completely without doors and windows where the ocean water had forced its way through.  Splashes of color in the form of buoys and large metal barrels were dotted throughout the dunes of scrap.  There was no clear area through which she could walk, but she wasn’t sure she could even breathe in enough oxygen to sustain movement.  The air was wet and dense with the odor of decaying sea life, and the smell grew stronger as the rain began to dampen the wreckage.  Everything but the boats, even the interiors of the ruined automobiles, was coated in a thick coat of gray dirt and slimy seaweed.  Fires still belched black smoke in areas where leaked gasoline and petroleum were ignited by sparks from debris collisions.

She stumbled towards the remains of the distant bridge.  A small portion of concrete extended from its southern edge and would at least protect her from the rain.  The only noise was the plinking of raindrops as they splashed into the ghoulish world; there wasn’t a single sound of life.

Walking towards the bridge amidst the heaps of dangerously unstable rubble was excruciatingly slow, and panic began to grip her thoughts.  She would never make it to the bridge before dark and there was nowhere to lie or even sit in the lethal debris field.  When she spotted a small yacht, its bottom wedged between two cars, she felt her first glimmer of hope.  She hoisted her backpack and duffel bag onto the front of a supporting car, removed her poncho, and climbed her way from the car to the yacht’s narrow deck.  The yacht was incongruously clean, having ridden atop the tsunami instead of tumbling through it as the ground rubble and automobiles had.  The door leading to the cabin was miraculously open and Dakota collapsed on a swiveling chair and cried with relief.  Then she went back to retrieve her bags and her poncho from the hood of the demolished car.

She was shivering with cold but went in search of food and water before allowing herself the luxury of changing into dry clothes.  Dismay began to build as she opened cabinet after cabinet, only to find them filled with cutlery, dishes, and condiments.  The tiny refrigerator was empty.  Then she noticed the small bar at the far end of the polished wood sitting area.  Opening the first cabinet, she found a fully stocked bar.  In the second cabinet, she found a six-pack of beer, a six-pack of ginger ale, two large bottles of tonic water, a large bottle of club soda, and a quart jug of Bloody Mary mix.  Behind the bottles were plastic containers of mixed nuts and peanuts.  Both were unopened.  She immediately opened her backpack and drank two bottles of water, and then she rummaged in the kitchen until she found two saucepans and six plastic bowls suitable for catching rainwater.  She placed them on deck, praying it would rain long enough to replenish her depleted water stock.  Only then did she allow herself to change into dry clothes.  She hung her wet items over the horseshoe shaped wire holding the plastic shower curtain, and was delighted to find two rolls of toilet paper among the bathroom supplies. 

The yacht had one small bedroom with a desk, a built in set of drawers, and a pulldown double bed.  The mattress was bare except for a white fitted pad, but inside the drawers she found clean sheets, two pillow cases, and two blankets.  Two pillows were stuffed in an overhead cabinet.  Dakota made the bed and collapsed on top.  She was unable to finish her desperate prayers for her mother’s safety before she drifted into an exhausted sleep.

She dreamed of blistering sun, endless sand dunes, and miles of shimmering hot pavement before she woke up to the shaking of an aftershock.  Fear and thirst left her so dry that her tongue felt thick and too big for her mouth.  When the movement finally stopped, she jumped from bed to check on the water in the containers she had left on deck.  Much of it had sloshed out during the aftershock but there was enough left to fill four empty water bottles.  The rain had stopped and Dakota took a moment to search the stinking landscape for signs of life.  The only light in her universe came from the brilliant spray of stars overhead. 

Once inside again, she sat in a swivel chair and drank the entire two-liter bottle of club soda.  She dozed off and didn’t awaken until an urgent need to urinate drove her outside a few hours before dawn.  Back inside, she felt her way to the bedroom, fell into bed, and buried her face in the smell of clean linen to escape the permeating odor of rot.