Will of Man - Part One (6 page)

Then the outside exploded and chaos was unleashed around us. It sounded like a jet landing in our backyard. Tanner and I could hear trees breaking and being uprooted. Debris was hitting the side of the house and we knew we were experiencing a tornado. Hale began pelting the roof.

We couldn’t see outside, (other than when lightning struck) because it was dark, but we knew what was happening. I grabbed Tanner and we hid under the stairs in the basement. We made sure Molly was with us and then we just huddled there holding each other preparing for the worse.

Tanner was screaming and crying. I did my best to comfort him, but I was so scared myself. I kept thinking of Dad. I was scared he may have tried to get home to us. I was worried the tornado got him and that he was seriously hurt. I wouldn’t allow myself to think he was dead. I was very worried though. I thought of Mom and wondered if she was safe. I thought of Hailey and all my friends and wondered if the school was hit. Who was hurt if any?

It seemed to last forever, but was actually only a few minutes. Tanner and I stayed under the stairs until we could hear no more wind. We each lit a candle and walked the house looking for damage.

Amazingly, there was no damage to the interior of the house. I wasn’t sure of the outside. Dad was on my mind and Mom too. Even if Dad didn’t try to make it home, he still may have been caught in the tornado since his school is only about fourteen miles away. Who knows, maybe Mom got caught too.

With us having no communication, I really felt alone.  However, within minutes our neighbors were knocking on the door asking us if we were ok. I told them we were fine and everything was good. They offered to let us stay with them till our parents returned. I said thanks, but no thanks. I wanted to make sure we were home when Mom or Dad got home.

Morning came and we went outside to check for damage. The house was in good shape, but the yard was littered with debris. Our house has a stone exterior, so it held up well. None of the windows broke and the worst was all the junk in the yard.

We started cleaning the yard when we saw a man stumbling through the corn field behind our house. He was covered in dirt and looked like he had blood coming from his brow. I told Tanner to go inside and lock the doors.

I was worried for the person, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I grabbed a baseball bat, but didn’t hold it in a threatening way. I didn’t want to scare the man away if he needed help. I was raised to help people if I could. But I also wasn’t going to take a chance of letting him fool me and possible hurt me or Tanner.

Dad warned us that people may turn bad when things got tough. Did today qualify as “tough” for this guy? I didn’t know and I wasn’t letting my guard down. But I also wasn’t going to not help him if he needed it.

However, as the man got closer I could see something in his walk that looked oddly familiar. The better you know people, the more you recognize their movements. I knew this man and this man was Dad.

My heart sank and my eyes began to tear. I dropped the bat and yelled at Tanner to get a first aid kit. I ran to Dad as fast I could. As I ran I could see Dad hold up his hand as he fell to his knees. He had a faint smile on his face, but I could tell he was really hurt. I knelt down and picked him up and helped him walk back to the house.

Dad said he was released in the middle of the night from his school and he decided to come home to us. On his way home, he found himself caught in the tornado. He said the only reason he survived was because he hid in a drain pipe of a culvert. But before he could reach the culvert he was pummeled with flying debris.

Dad was hurting, but wouldn’t let it show. He asked if we’d seen Mom. I said no. He looked discouraged and I could tell he wanted to go looking for her. He said she should be ok, since she is nearly forty miles away from where the tornado hit.

We took him in the basement and had him lay down on the couch. Tanner got him food and water while I cleaned his wounds. He had a big gash on his head and several pieces of wood stuck in his skin around the right side of his body.

Dad had me get a pair of needle nose pliers so he could pull them out. I offered to pull them out but he chose to do it himself. I never really saw my Dad as a tough guy (more like a goofy third grade teacher like he is), but that morning he was Rambo. I watched him pull slivers two inches long from his skin without even a yelp.

I bandaged Dad’s head the best I could and asked him if he wanted me to go get help. He said not to worry and that he would be ok after he rested. Dad gave me orders to get one of his bikes and make sure it was in good shape. I think he has plans to go find Mom. I don’t think he has the strength to make it. I won’t bug him about it now. But if he plans on going, I’m going to offer to go in his place.

I know I can make it. I want to prove this to him. He fought his way through a tornado to get to us. I can push myself forty miles to find Mom.

Tyler’s Journal Entry: 138

Date: May 29

Day: Saturday

Weather: Moderate and Cloudy

Training: 5K (155 Average Heart Rate)

Good news! The electricity came back on and Mom is safe at home. It came on mid-day. Dad was about to get on his bike to go check on Mom when it finally came on. I was relieved. I told Dad I wanted to go in his place, but he insisted he go since he knows the where and way. He’s in pretty bad shape and it’s good he didn’t go.

Mom called him on her phone and quickly came home. He brushed off any idea of him going to the hospital. Dad said he was fine and didn’t want to leave us alone unless he had too. He’s worried the electricity may go out again soon. He still plans to go to work on Monday to finish the last couple days of school.

We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning the yard and making minor fixes around the house. Dad tried to help, but wasn’t strong enough. So he spent his time searching the web and printing off stuff. He printed things like blue prints for a chicken shed, medical information, proper gardening, how to make different animal traps, etc.

He has a pretty good library started. Mom’s usually the organized one, but Dad’s impressing everyone with his filing system.

He has it all organized with color coded folders; red for emergency medical and long term medical, green for planting and gardening, blue for water purification and irrigation, brown for self defense and home defense, purple for maps and atlases, gray for food preservation (canning, how to build a smoke house, etc.), black for calendars and planting seasons, and a few more.

He makes sure to explain everything he does to us just in case something ever happens to him. He also makes sure Tanner and I are involved in everything he does like cutting wood, organizing supplies in the pole barn, filing his papers in the folders, etc.

Tanner complains a lot because he’s young, but I know Dad is doing it so we understand and can be independent if ever we are left alone.

I used to think Dad was going overboard, but after this last TB (total blackout), I’m happy to see him doing it. I feel more secure if anything does happen. I just hope nothing does.

I called Hailey as soon as I could. She had to stay at school since she lives so far away and has no backup plan. She had to stay there overnight. Hailey said the Tornado never reached the school. I was happy she was alright.

Later after I helped clean the yard, Hailey and I met and went for a run together. It was nice seeing her and I hugged her for a long time before letting go.

She playfully punched me in the arm and told me to stop being such a wuss. She doesn’t realize what Tanner and I went through. I didn’t let her know how scared I was.

Tyler’s Journal Entry: 146

Date: May 30

Day: Sunday

Weather: Rainy

Training: Rest Day

I had another weird dream last night. This dream was in the future. I was a few years older. I was near the edge of a river staring at a pack of wolves. The wolves were staring back at me. It was as if we were studying each other. We were not studying each other out of curiosity, but more to gain an advantage over the other.

I had a sense these wolves were very dangerous to me, even though we were separated by a river. However, I had a sense that I was contemplating doing them harm as well.

In the dream I had an overwhelming sense I had to get somewhere and these wolves were in my way. It was very vivid. I wasn’t scared, just very motivated.

I also had a feeling of being all alone. I felt as if my family and any friends were a great distance from me. It was a very lonely feeling. I felt tired, desperate, hungry, and determined to get somewhere. The somewhere is a mystery, but I felt that if I could just get there, all my problems would be solved.

There was an ominous feeling of something bigger going on also. Something important was happening in the world that would determine the future of the world and everyone in it. I could sense other people’s suffering, anger, desperation, etc.

I was alone in the forest, but not alone in my struggle. And when I say struggle, I don’t mean my problem with the wolves. I mean a common struggle shared throughout the world. The wolves were just one of my problems. The world was battling over something. A line had been drawn, sides had been chosen, and I was on one of them.

Tyler’s Journal Entry: 147

Date: May 31

Day: Monday

Weather: Rainy

Training: 7 mile run at Rose Lake Trails (156 average heart rate)

I went for a run today at Rose Lake Trails. Hailey was feeling under the weather, so I was able to run alone. It’s not that I don’t like running with her, but running with Hailey is more for fun than training.

I haven’t had a good training day in a while because I keep asking her to go with me. I love being with her, but I have to admit, I’ve been having to run twice sometimes in one day.

Lately, when I say good bye to Hailey after running together, I ride my bike around the block, then return to run again. So my runs with Hailey are more like a warm up.

And then after she leaves, I train hard like I should. I don’t think she knows I do this and I don’t plan on telling her. I like running with her and I don’t want to stop.

So anyways, I saw the guy that scared those high schoolers a while back. I was running on the trail, going up a hill, looking at my feet, and not paying attention to what was ahead of me. I looked up to see him walking towards me. The trail was skinny and the vegetation was thick on each side. So there was no avoiding him.

I politely said hi as we got closer. He just stared at me with this weird grin on his face. I noticed he had a burlap bag with something inside. He didn’t say a word, but his posture was strange - like he was drunk or high.

He was dirty and his hair was wild. He reminded me of the homeless people I see in Lansing, near the Capital building.

As we passed, he didn’t make any effort to move to one side. I had to go half into the weeds to avoid crashing into him. It was raining, and although I never let a little rain stop me from running, I’ve never had the urge to just go for a walk in the woods while it’s raining (like him).

So I asked myself, why he would be out here in the middle of the woods, walking in the rain, holding a burlap bag.

As he passed over the hill, I stopped for a moment and thought about it. I should have kept going, but I’m young and stupid and curiosity got the best of me. I slowly walked back up the hill till I could just barely see over it.

He was walking pretty fast and seemed to be talking to the burlap bag. Whatever was in the bag was no bigger than a softball. He seemed to be talking in a comforting way - like he was reassuring whatever was in the bag.

The rain was coming down pretty hard, so I couldn’t hear what he was saying. He took a quick glimpse behind him and I nearly was caught. I ducked my head down and between some vegetation.

Not noticing me, he quickly jumped off the trail and booked it in the woods. He seemed to know where he was going. It was like he’d done it before.

I watched him run into the woods and then disappear into the thickets. I was curious and was mesmerized by what he was doing. I needed to know what was in that bag and what his intentions were for it. So I followed him.

As I walked through the woods I kept telling myself that I was stupid and should turn around. But for some idiotic reason I kept tailing him. I would catch glimpses of him as he shuffled around trees and up and down hills.

When I lost track, I could easily track his footsteps in the mud.

He went really far back, and I was about to abort, when he finally arrived to his destination. I found him kneeling in front of a large stone cross perched on the cress of a hill. It looked like it had been there for a hundred years. The stone cross was about six feet high and three feet wide. It had a wide base with some unreadable writing carved into it. It looked like a huge tombstone to me. But why out in the middle of the woods?

The strangest part was that he had been making his own crosses out of small sticks. Each cross was made to honor a small grave. There were dozens of the small graves and they were no bigger than a couple feet long. The graves, with their tiny crosses, covered the hill.