Erin sighed. “I told you who I am, and that is the truth. My friends are back at our Lodge. We planned this, so that you could rescue those kids. That was our only goal. I stayed to see what kind of people you are, because I’m comfortable around military personnel.”
“Where is this Lodge?”
“It’s somewhere to the west. I don’t know for sure. Remember it was night when we did this.”
“Who is in charge there?”
“You met him. Mike. We call him, ‘Chief’.”
“The person in charge is a boy?” asked Major Collins skeptically.
“I know it sounds crazy, but yes,” Erin insisted. “Mike is in charge. He’s the Chief. You had to be there to understand. All of us were kids. He kept us alive. And the plan to rescue the children from those bastards was his plan.”
“Leaving that aside, how many are there at this Lodge?”
“Um…fifty three counting the people at Davis Brown Farm. No, I’m here, so there are fifty two there.”
“Fifty two people?” This was a surprise to the Major. “That’s sixteen more people than we have here. Are there any adults at all?”
“If you count Mrs. Brown, there are four adults. Well, more than that, because some of the kids are eighteen, now.”
“All right, you can go,” Collins said.
After she left, he considered what she had told him. He needed to find those kids, but it was too late in the season to send the Rangers to search for them. There was nothing that he could do to help them now. They would have to wait until spring. He shuddered when he thought of all those kids trying to survive with a minimum of adult help. He vowed that he would find them, and that he would take them into the protective embrace of the United States Army, as soon as he possibly could do so.
Chapter Twelve
PETERSBURG
It took the boys three weeks to hike from the Army post to the Lodge. Mike was in no hurry. For the first time in over a year, he had no responsibilities. The leader of their foursome was Jacob. It was Jacob’s plan that had extricated them from the fort. If the Rangers had looked closely at the knoll, they would have found a smaller line on the other side, tied to a heavy bush. It had hand holds, and it fell over the steep cliff. Reaching the bottom, the boys entered the woods, and within a few hours they made their way to the road leading away from the post. By the time the Rangers traced the false trail that Jacob had created, the boys were miles away.
There was plenty of food in their caches, and they didn’t try to travel fast. Jacob and Mike even waited below while Nathan and Kevin climbed the road to the bikers’ camp, so the twins could see where all the excitement had happened. But the teens were sobered when they viewed the remains of the camp and the graves at that evil place. They hiked down the hill, and the four boys resumed their journey home. They stopped at a lake for a day to rest among the red fireweed and the green lady ferns. They fished and caught golden trout from the lake and seared the fish over an open fire.
“This fish is good,” Kevin said with a sigh, after finishing his portion. “But I wish I could have a Big Mac.”
“I’d like a double cheeseburger, myself,” Mike replied.
“Fast food would be nice,” Nathan agreed. “But what I really would like is the internet.”
“Yeah!” the boys chorused.
“I miss WOW,” said Kevin. “Did you play that, Chief?”
“Nah,” Mike replied. “I was more into single player games. I had some Wii games I really liked.”
“Everquest is the best game ever,” Nathan stated.
“You mean Evercrack,” Kevin said as he snickered. “Once, a girl called him, and he wouldn’t take the call, because he was too busy playing.”
“Oh, shut up, Kevin,” Nathan said, scowling at his brother. The other boys laughed.
“I wonder how long it will take us to get to the Brown farm,” said Jacob. “I’m tired of water. I want some milk.”
By the time they arrived at Davis Brown Farm, they were footsore. In Mary’s kitchen, Mike noticed a calendar that had been hand drawn by Lily. It was two weeks past Labor Day in the old world. Mike hoped that Howard had given the tribe a day off. Mary wanted them to stay for a few days, but by now they were eager to get home, so the next day the four travelers climbed into the wagon bed with Comet, and Ralph drove them home. As they left, they passed the frame of a new barn.
It was a happy homecoming for the travelers. The children had been rescued, so their mission was accomplished, and they were welcomed as heroes. There had been changes at the Lodge and in the valley. The grain had been harvested and stowed. There would be a lot more food available this winter than last. The chicken coop was finished, and the chicks would soon become egg bearing hens, and Mary Brown had given them two roosters. Some of the kids had suggested naming their community. There were a lot of suggestions. One of the most popular suggestions was, ‘Michaelsville.’ In the end, however, Yuie’s suggestion carried the day, and their small village was named ‘Petersburg.’
“I thought that’s what you would want,” Yuie said to Mike, as she waited anxiously for his reaction.
Mike smiled and hugged her. “It’s perfect,” he said.
A ceremony was held after Meeting one night, where Mike proclaimed that henceforth, their tiny community would be known as the Village of Petersburg.
Kathy and Hector had been busy. The ladder to the second floor had been replaced by a staircase. They had added a large loft over the central area of the Lodge and had connected it to the upper room walkway. In addition to having a new sleeping area, the rear of the loft caught the droppings from their resident birds. The area under the loft was now a bird safe zone. They had built a covered walkway with handrails over the ledge leading from the door of the Lodge to the Porta Pottys. It would still be a cold walk, but they could use the toilets in a blizzard. But the best improvement was the sight of a shower head in the washroom.
“But won’t we use up the hot water that’s supposed to heat the Lodge?” Mike asked.
“There’s no way that all of us can take a shower every day,” Hector conceded. “But I borrowed the thousand feet of five-eighths black tubing that Mary’s not using, and I ran it up the hill, and set it in the river. The point of intake is higher than the roof of the Lodge. Now we can mix cold water with hot water to take our showers, and we can add water to the heating system as we use up hot water. It takes about four hours to completely heat the water in our system, so on days when we get six good hours of sun…,” He stopped and waited.
“Two hours of hot water for showers,” Kathy finished.
“If we allow ten minutes for a shower…,” Mike did the calculations in his head. “Twelve people can take a shower that day. Wow. That’s over a quarter of the tribe.”
“Girls first, of course,” Kathy said.
“Oh, of course,” Mike replied, giving Kathy an insincere smile.
At Meeting, Mike reported on what he had learned at the Army Post. Most of the kids were glad to hear that Major Collins seemed to be a decent person. To Mike’s surprise, they were still reluctant to make contact with the unit. The kids seemed to feel that they were doing fine, and that they didn’t need the added uncertainty and possible complications that might arise from interacting with the Army.
“Yuie’s really been dissing the idea,” Desi said.
“Yuie? Yeah, she didn’t like the idea of linking up with the Army from the beginning,” Mike responded, remembering the discussion.
“Erin’s friends are kind of sad.”