“Okay, people,” John said, “we need to come up with a plan B. Thank you for your effort.”
The following morning John came over to me. “Nancy found a small oxygen bottle in the medical room,” he said. “We also scrounged up a pair of goggles. Problem is, we have enough for only one person.”
“Okay,” I replied, “I assume I’m elected?”
“We may need to redo the antenna connections. You have the highest level of electrical skills in the group.”
“How do I find the antennas?” I asked.
“Straight up from the cave entrance, two hundred yards,” John replied.
“Okay,” I said, “let me think about what else I’m going to need.”
John slapped me on the shoulder. “Great,” he said. “See you at the cave entrance at three.”
I gathered all of the tools I thought I would need, including an extra flashlight, and put them into a small backpack. Nancy stuck the two prongs of the oxygen cannula into my nostrils and looped the plastic tube around my ears. She adjusted the oxygen flow and tucked the oxygen tank into a small carrying case. I put the dust mask on and then the goggles. Tia wrapped several scarfs around my head to protect my face and help filter the smoke out of the air. I put on a pair of leather gloves and was ready to go. John handed me a long thin Aluminum pole.
“Amateur band antenna,” John explained.
I tied a rope around my waist and showed Tia what kind of knot to use to attach additional sections of rope together. With the rope, I could find the cave entrance again. John opened the rock door and I walked out with Tia feeding me rope from inside the cave.
I walked over sixty feet to the side before I could start to climb up the side of the mountain. I worked my way gradually back until I thought I was over the cave entrance again. Then I climbed straight up the side of the sloping rock. The rope was getting more difficult to drag behind me because of its length. Everywhere I looked pieces of fallen trees were smoldering. The smoke was so thick I could barely see more than ten feet most of the time.
The downed trees gave way to more rocks, and some of the smoke began to clear as I climbed higher. I began a zigzag path to locate the antennas. I was convinced that I had passed them a long way back when I discovered the three pole antenna tower lying on the ground. It was warped from the heat, but it still looked usable. I followed the tower back to its base. The mounting was still intact and looked functional to me. I followed the guy wires back to their mounting pads. The two downhill pads were fine, but the uphill pad was lying three feet from the tower. I worked my way up the hill to where I thought the third cement pad should have been. In its place was a meteorite impact crater about ten feet across. That’s what brought the tower down.
The antenna on the top of the tower was mangled beyond use, so I disconnected it and threw it off to the side. I connected the new antenna on the top of the tower and attached the transmission cable to it. I walked down the hill a ways until I found a wood pole I could use. I dragged it back up to the antenna tower. I picked the upper end of the antenna tower up and braced it with the wooden pole. Step by step I raised the tower and braced it. When the tower was almost vertical, I started dragging the cement pad with the upper guy wire attached to it up the hill. The concrete block was heavy, probably in the range of a hundred pounds. I jerked on it as I sat down on the side of the mountain slope. I managed to get an inch of movement from each effort I made to move it up the slope. I had to stop and rest several times to catch my breath. As I pulled it into position the tower stood straight up into the air. The cement pad rested on the inner side of the meteorite crater but it was holding the tower in place. I gathered more rocks and made a pile of them to stabilize the guy wire pad.
I traced the transmission cable from the tower to where it went into the drilled hole in the rock that led down into the cave. The heat from the forest fire had melted the insulating cover to the cable, but the rest of it looked to be in good shape. I wound some electrical tape around the cable and hoped for the best.
I started down the hill following the rope back to the cave. After a hundred feet I came to the end of the rope. It had caught on a smoldering piece of a tree and burned in half. The rest of the rope was nowhere to be seen. I was still five hundred feet from the cave entrance, and without the rope I had little chance of finding it. I continued down the hill hoping to find the rope but nothing was there. With all of the smoke in the air everything was hidden. There were no landmarks to recognize, nothing to guide me back to the cave. I worked my way further down the side of the mountain and finally just sat down to think.
As I sat there my hand naturally went to the medallion. I held it in my hand and thought about Tia. She was going to be heartbroken if I died out here in the smoke and the darkness. As I was thinking about her, I thought I heard her voice. I believed it was probably just wishful thinking until I heard it again.
“Tia!” I called out. “Tia!”
I heard her voice again, calling my name. I moved slowly down the side of the mountain toward the sound of her voice. It got louder as I went. I came to where the rock dropped off and I could go no further. I realized I was above the cave entrance, but had to go to the left to finish finding my way back to the entrance. I shouted back to her to keep her encouraged. Her voice got weaker as I moved to the side. Finally I found my way back down to the small ledge where the cave entrance was located. I rushed along the ledge until I saw her standing in the smoke, yelling through a dust mask. Tears were running down her face. I embraced her, and she led me back into the cave entrance, while John closed the rock door.
I pulled the goggles and the dust mask off. Nancy disconnected the oxygen cannula and took the tank from me. I held on to Tia with every bit of strength I had.
“I missed you so much,” she said. “I was so worried.”
“I thought I was never going to see you again,” I said. “I couldn’t have found the cave without you calling my name. Whatever possessed you to do that?”
“The rope came loose,” she said. “It just fell down from up above. I knew you were in trouble and I didn’t know what to do. Then in my mind, I saw you sitting there, not knowing which way to go. I couldn’t bear losing you, so I called out your name and finally you answered.”
We hugged each other tightly, neither of us wanting to let go. I realized how close we came to losing each other. I never wanted to feel that way again.
“I hate to break this up,” John said gently, “but how much did you get done?”
“The tower is back up with the new antenna attached,” I replied. “You should activate it and see what we have.”
We walked back to the new communications room. John turned the radio on and set the frequency to the amateur band. The signal was clear and strong. John transmitted his call sign and got an answer back immediately.
“We’re back in business,” John said. “Thank you.”
Later Tia and I held each other in our personal enclosure. She began to cry again. I held her tight against me. In my mind I heard her voice saying, “I love you more than you will ever know.”
“I know you do.” I said to her softly.
She pulled back from me. “What did you say?” she asked.
“I heard your heart cry out,” I said. “It said I love you more than you will ever know.”
“But I didn’t say anything,” she replied. “How did you know?”
“All I can tell you is I heard your heart speak to me,” I said. “Just as clearly as if you spoke to me out loud.”
“Oh my God,” she said. She looked down at the medallion hanging under my shirt. “The extra bumps on the medallion. They’re activating this ability in you.”