Chapter Seventeen
When Karl and Ely were almost back at the porch, Keri called out and broke the silence of their walk. "So, what did you find?"
"Oh, we found the place where someone had come up from down in the gorge but there's been a small landslip. I don't think anyone or anything can come that way for now." Karl answered quietly.
"There's no way to tell if anyone was there when it slid over." Ely added. "If there was, they'd have fallen straight down onto the rocks at the lower falls."
"I never heard anything like a scream or a yelp this morning, not just after you shot at the dog." Keri offered.
"Everyone inside the cabin was yelling from surprise. We might not have been able to hear over that." Karl answered. "Besides, it's far enough away and there was enough storm noise that it might have been masked anyway. Now, I'm going to stay out here for a bit and just think so everyone can go inside for a while if you want. I'd love a cup of coffee though. Would someone please get me one?"
"Do you want to be alone or do you want company?" Ely asked quietly as Keri passed him the rifle before opening the door to go inside.
"Um, I don't mind if you stick around. I just want to think quietly for a bit."
"I'll bring you both a coffee." Keri offered taking Karl's little shotgun in hand.
Both Karl and Ely found deck chairs and sat in silence for a few moments. It wasn't Keri who brought them their coffee, it was Trudy and she brought a cup for Ely as well. Along with his coffee, Trudy handed Karl a small vial of pills.
"I saw you walking with a limp out there." She frowned at him. "I know you've got to do things today but there's no sense in being in pain. Take two of those. Now! While I can see that you do take them."
"I need to think straight." Karl argued.
"You'll think straighter without pain." Trudy scowled.
"Okay, okay." Karl gave in and swallowed two pills with his first sip of coffee.
Once Trudy had gone back inside, he sighed softly then looked at Ely. "Look, would you mind if I thought out loud? Maybe you'll see something I'm missing."
"No problem." She smiled. "I actually expected that when I offered to stay out here with you."
"Hmph." He grunted, then sat back and took another sip of coffee while gathering his thoughts.
"Okay, what I can make out of this, there's a man, his dog, a cow and a calf. Now the only way you can get all of those here at the same time is by boat and that means you have to come in through the outer gorge. What doesn't make sense is that there's no sign of a boat in the lagoon and there's no sign that anyone was at the wharf or in the shed down there. On top of that, there's no sign that anyone has been up around the houses, well except for the last day or so, since I found the cow and the calf." He paused and looked at Ely.
"Right so far. And I agree it makes no sense." She nodded. "When you come in through the gorge, the first thing you notice after coming out from between the cliffs is the mooring buoy in the middle of the bay and then your eyes seem to be drawn so you see the dock. There's no way you'd miss the 'Skolka'. Not unless whoever it is was here before we came back or else came in at night when the tides are all wrong, well at least for the last while they have been."
"Okay, but we haven't been quiet. Since we came back here we've made lots of noise. Hell, I even ran the chain saw and then last night we used the bloody outboard. Anyone could have seen or heard us. Why not approach us? Why not shout or do something to call attention to themselves? And why not use the regular trails?"
"What if it's someone who is hiding out? Maybe someone with a mental problem or perhaps an escaped felon?"
"Oh great, now we have to try to out-think either a crazy nut or a crook."
"Okay, let's think about that, why would someone not want to be seen?" She frowned. "Maybe because he'd be recognised? I'm afraid that he's leaving us no choice but to find some way to get rid of him."
"Well, if he were afraid of being recognised then he must be awful damn notorious, even if he were in fairly dire straits like this guy seems to be." Karl frowned just as deeply. "If he's that damn infamous, he'd have had to do something horrendous. Are you suggesting that we should just hunt him down, shoot him, and throw him into the ocean?"
"If we knew he was going to harm one of our family, yes!" She said quietly but emphatically. "I'm afraid I'm rather vicious when it comes to protecting my family."
"I can understand that." Karl said quietly. "I think there's a bit of difference in our philosophy, I'd prefer to see a man tried in court before he was hung."
"And if you saw a man about to commit a heinous crime, wouldn't you try to stop him?"
"Yeah, but I'm not sure I could kill him in cold blood. Anyway, this discussion is getting off of the topic that we have to worry about right now. I was trying to decide what we need to do today."
"I'd like to make sure that all of the guns on the island are under our control."
"Good point, and I agree. I think the first thing we need to do is get to the dock and make sure we hide the muzzle loader and the flare gun aboard the boat. While we're there we should try to bring up as much as we can of the stuff you guys brought with you. Whatever happens we need to get all of that stuff out of the boatshed."
"Why do you want to do that first?"
"Because, our prowler seems to have decided to stay in the lower end of the island and down in the gorge. That means he's around the bay, so we need to worry about the guns down there first. Actually you know something, it might be that he hasn't tried to cross the stream. What do you think, could he be afraid of doing that for some reason?"
"Oh come on, if he got here by boat, he sure as hell couldn't be scared of the water, could he?"
"If he's nuts, who knows? Maybe he can't swim and the dog saved him from drowning? Maybe he's never found a way across the stream, and is scared of the current? It is running quite strong right now and there's really no way to go up the canyon if you're stuck on this side of the stream and below the falls. There's a sheer bluff and a deep pool right below them on this side of the stream and below that, the stream is either fairly deep or very soft bottomed all the way down to tidewater."
"You mean he's stuck down there with the pigs or at least on the same side as them?"
"Unh huh, in order for him to have come up that path to the bottom end of the clearing, he had to break through that damn barrier I put up for the pigs. That means it has to be repaired before long or they'll be up here tearing the place up."
"Even after that slide?"
"Mm, good point. That should mean it will be okay for a while, at least until the weather calms down and the soil dries up a bit. Look, what I think we should do is have breakfast, then leave Trudy and George here with the kids. We'll leave them the shotgun and the pistol. The rest of us will go get the stuff from the shed down at the dock and collect all the guns. I've even had second thoughts about the muzzle loader. I want that out of the boat too."
"Okay, you know Trudy and I were talking last night? In the old cabin over at Dad's, there's a toilet that won't ever be used. How long would it take to tear it out? If it didn't take long, it would sure help Dad. He's having an awful rough time with the stairs. Since the roof is collapsed on the old cabin anyway, I imagine we'll just have to get rid of the wreckage, so salvaging the toilet won't hurt."
"Well, if I can find some pipe too, it wouldn't take long to rip it out. What I was thinking though was to make a quick trip this morning to get those guns under our control. We can take care of things like the can this afternoon and I could work on it here in the evening. While we're out and on the other side of the gorge, I want to walk along the ridge and over to the point on the other side. Then I can see the area around that slide and at the same time I can get a look at the stream above the falls just to see how fast it is running. If there's way too much water we may have problems at the dam."
"Are you thinking the dam may be leaking?"
"It's possible, after all we've had several minor earthquakes and that sounded like a hell of a lot of water going over the lower falls."
"Oh fuck, that's all we'd need. If we lost the dam we'd be without power and everything."
"Yep, so we'd better get in there and grab some breakfast. We've got a hell of a lot to do today."
"Did someone mention breakfast?" They heard Keri say from behind them. "I thought you two might enjoy a bacon and egg sandwich and a fresh cup of coffee."
"Now that's thinking." Karl smiled at her.
"Yeah, well we were all talking inside and we had a couple of ideas we'd like to run by you."
"And?" Karl managed to mumble around a mouthful of sandwich.
"We were thinking that we should get a lot done in a hurry, so Dad thought he and the two kids could stay here with the little shotgun and one walkie talkie. He thought they could stay in the house and just keep an eye on things. If a prowler comes around, they could call on the walkie talkie and we could all come back."
"Hmm, well, that does give us one more set of hands." Karl admitted.
"As well as that, we figured that you could probably get the little garden tractor running and pull the trailer, It wouldn't take much to clear the trail over to the other house wide enough for it to get through would it?"
"Another good idea." He admitted. "The garden tractor should start fairly easily if the battery isn't dead. It just needs gas and there shouldn't be anything major in the way of getting it to the other house."
"Good, we were thinking you could run over to the other house while we get the stuff up from the shed at the dock."
"No bloody way!" Karl said quietly. "I want to go aboard the 'Skolka' and disconnect the throttle and the burner controls so she can't be stolen. I want to be sure she's okay so I'm going down to the dock."
"But Karl . . ." Keri started to argue.
"No buts!" Karl said firmly. "I have four things I have to do today and there are lots of other things that need doing that will keep everyone else busy."
"All right, just what do you have to do?" Ely asked quietly.
"I have to see down into the gorge from above the lower falls, just in case someone is trapped in that slide. On top of that, I want to see how much water is coming over the falls. If there's way too much, I have to go back up the hill to the dam and see if there's a problem there. I'd like to check it anyway, but it's not an emergency unless it looks like the water coming down from above the falls is either excessive or running really dirty."
"So is that one thing, or two?" Ely asked again.
"I guess it's two." He sighed. "The other two are to mothball the 'Skolka' even better than it is and to salvage the toilet, the tank and the floor mount out of the old house over at your Dad's place."
"Well, I can take a helper and check on both the falls and the dam." Ely said quietly. "Just explain to me why we should be worried if the water is dirty."
"Well, if the water's all murky, the dam might have leaks that are washing mud into the stream. I really should see both of them. It's a judgement call and I know you're good at that kind of thing but it's really a matter of making a comparison with what I'm used to seeing in the rainy season."
"Damn it, I don't think you should be hiking around so much." She said quietly. "I saw you limping this morning and after you lost your breath so badly yesterday, I feel worried about your health."
"Ely, I'm feeling fine right now and if we do get that tractor running, I can do a lot of the travelling on the tractor."
In the long run Karl won out and while the women went inside to get ready, he went out to the back shed behind the goat shed and checked out the garden tractor. Although the battery was dead, it actually started easily on the third pull of the starting rope. Taking Ely along, with her riding in the little trailer, they started out. Karl wasn't carrying a weapon but Ely had the .22 rifle.
They'd agreed that Keri would have the large rifle and Trudy, the pistol, along with Linda, who was unarmed, walking between them. In only moments Karl and Ely were at the bridge and Karl stopped the garden tractor on the far end from the cabin to look down at the amount of water flowing below, down in the gorge.
"Damn, it sure looks like a lot." He said above the sound of the rushing water.
"Yeah, but it seems to be fairly clear water."
"Yeah, and it's not running all that high on the rocks by the generator house. I've actually seen it almost that high before, maybe it's not that bad." Karl felt relieved. "Okay, lets go on to the view point above the lower falls."
He lead the way as they hiked along the edge of the larger trees on the far side of the gorge from the house. They hiked to an outcrop of rock that dropped almost a hundred feet vertically into the small canyon below and from there they could easily see the fresh slide on the other bank.
"Holy cripes." Ely gasped at the sight as they came out of the trees.
Tons and tons of material had dropped downward, in fact it was damming up the water behind it even as it was being washed away by the raging stream pouring over the top of the freshly fallen clay.
"Damn!" Was the only word Karl spoke for a moment.
The cliff opposite them had been bright green with small shrubs the last time he'd seen it from this angle, that was only two or three months before. Now it was stripped to bare glistening rock for the majority of its height. You could see a sheer slab of shale now exposed to the falling rain and when he looked at it, Karl couldn't understand how the clay could have held on its steep slopes before.
"Why didn't that slide before now?" He whispered. "What was holding it up there?"
"There is some rock mixed in with the clay down at the bottom." Ely answered almost as quietly. "Maybe those last little quakes and then the weight of the water from the rain or . . . "
"Do you think it was triggered by the tiny bit of weight of a fucking dog?" Karl said in sheer astonishment. "All those tons of mud and rock, sliding because of one man and a dog?"
"I'd say more likely it was yesterday's earth tremors, then it just took a while to fall. I imagine what happened was the clay shifted slightly on the grade, then what rock was holding it back at the bottom finally let loose this morning. There's no sign of either a man or a dog, not that I can see."
"No, but look at that crap, it's just oozing into the stream, the whole pile is being washed away as we watch. It's all moving, just like a thick soup."
"I remember reading something about that somewhere, when the soil just turns to muck in an earthquake. I think they called it liquefaction or something."
"I don't think this is the same." Karl sighed. "But all this doesn't help me a bit. Where the fuck is that guy and his dog?"
"I don't know Karl, but I don't see any sign of anything out of the normal other than the slide, do you?"
"No, and that's what makes no sense either." Karl sighed. "But then not much of this makes sense to me. I suppose in a way I was hoping we'd see the guy pinned under there or something. We're still left with the same mystery as before."
"Yeah, by the way, look at the top of the slide area." Ely said quietly.
"Hmm?" Karl said quietly. "Oh, yeah, where we were standing doesn't look too stable, does it?"
"Actually, it doesn't look bad at all, look at where it changes colour. There where the slide came down, isn't that rock?"
"I guess, but seeing what happened before, I'd rather not have too many people dancing around above it or anything." Karl smiled wryly. "That bit of rock at the top looks damn steep and very slippery. I think we're safe from having visitors coming up that way again."
"Yeah but we can't afford to stand here and make guesses, can we? We still need to get a lot done today, just in case that guy is still around, so maybe we should go help the others?"
"Okay." Karl agreed quietly, still deep in thought.
They walked back to the trail in silence but took a moment to stand on the end of the bridge and just look down at the rushing stream again. Neither of them spoke and it wasn't long before they moved to the tractor and trailer then Karl started the engine and they headed off down the trail. At the wye in the trail, Karl pulled the tractor and trailer off to the side near the shed. The other three women were resting inside it, having passed Karl and Ely as they were checking out the view of the lower falls.
"Well?" Keri demanded. "What did you see?"
"Not much, the slide was bigger than we expected though. A huge section of the hillside let go and wiped everything away clear down to rock." Karl said quietly. "Nothing is climbing that for a while."
"So, no sign of man or dog?" Linda asked.
"Nope." Karl volunteered. "For now, we have to assume they're still around." He looked down at the sloping trail down to the dock and shook his head.
"There's no way this garden tractor will climb that hill when it's this wet." He pronounced. "I guess we walk down and carry stuff back up."
"We will carry things, for a few days you are taking it easy." Ely said vehemently. "I don't want to see a repeat of yesterday."
"Oh, whatever!" Karl said exasperatedly, then not waiting for any other response, he set off down the path.
The others followed quietly. It seemed that no one was in the mood to talk since no one said much during the hike downhill and in a few minutes they were nearing the end of the trail and approaching the dock area. The wind that they had heard and felt above was negligible down near the water's edge but the rain still fell steadily and Karl paused at the edge of the tree line looking out at the scene before him.
The dock, the boat, and the shed all looked like no one had visited them in weeks. Karl's eye's were drawn to the boat. A fairly large limb had been snapped from one of the trees onshore and was lying across the stern deck of the 'Skolka' then draped down into the water. The rest of the boat's deck was strewn with fallen leaves and small branches while her windows had that misty look of long disuse. When he looked at the water, it had a strange murky tone but since he knew about the water pouring over the clay of the slide, he wasn't really surprised.
"Cripes, she looks like no one has been on her in months." Keri said quietly at his elbow.
"Well, that was the idea of mooring her under the cedar. I actually hate the idea of leaving her there for long. She'd get all covered in that tree scum crap you get from cedars but a week or two won't matter and I think she'll be safe there."
"It's too bad that we have to leave her like that. It bothers me." Linda said sadly.
"Yeah, me too." Karl snorted. "Look, I need one helper on board for a bit and someone should stay outside to keep an eye out for danger, just in case. Keri, do you want to do that? The other two can make up packs of the stuff in the shed."
"What, stand guard? Like hell, I want to get my shotgun." Keri said vehemently. "Why not have Ely or Linda take the rifle and stand on the foredeck of the boat. Trudy has the .22 pistol. She can come inside the shed with me and I can get my shotgun out and loaded. Once I've got it in my hands I'll feel a lot safer, then we can pack everything else up to go."
"I'd like to go below deck on the boat for a bit." Linda said quietly. "I think I left something there but other than that, maybe I'd be best outside keeping an eye on things because everyone else knows their way around so much better."
"All of you make up your minds. I really don't care." Karl sighed resolutely and then headed out onto the dock.
"Jeeze, watch your footing, out here," he said almost instantly. "The decking here is like glass with all this crap on it."
Once on the boat and inside the wheelhouse, his first action was to take the can of black powder from the cupboard where it had been stored and set it and the muzzle loader near the door to be taken away. Meanwhile Ely was on the foredeck with the bigger of the rifles and Linda had scurried below decks. He was digging out the box of flares and the flare gun when she popped up from below again.
"That was fast." He said quietly.
"Unh huh." She held up a band-aid container. "I decided I need this. It was one of the things I made sure I had with me before."
"What the hell is that?" He asked. "Bandages?"
"Well, yeah, but it's also got the little case that holds my diaphragm inside the container." She giggled. "I think since Keri is pregnant, one woman at a time is enough. I've got an idea that you and I may still get together once in a while and I just want to have an option."
"Woman, if we weren't in such a hurry right now I think I'd kiss you." Karl grinned. "One of my worries was about having sex with you before, especially after Keri said she was having my baby. I've had my fingers crossed that you didn't catch. But if you had that thing why weren't you using it then?"
"Well at first because I didn't even think of it. Then later I didn't worry about it because you told me that for all practical purposes you were sterile." She laughed. "Now can I get a hug and take a rain check on that kiss? In fact maybe we could include a cuddle another time?"
Karl swept her into his arms for a few seconds then she pulled away and ran outside to talk animatedly with Ely as she took over guard duty. Karl went back to rounding up the things he wanted to take below and Ely came inside soon. The two of them moved the flare gun and the boxes of flares below decks, actually putting them down in the galley. That meant they were still quite close to the wheelhouse if they were needed but more out of sight than before.
"Now what?" Ely asked as Karl lead the way to the boiler room.
"Well, if anyone were to come here and try to run off with the boat, I'd like to make it hard for them." Karl answered thoughtfully. "I was thinking of actually pulling the burner jet out of the fire tube and then removing a section of the fuel supply pipe and perhaps hiding it in a drawer. Perhaps we could disconnect the priming pressure pump and pull out the fuel filter unit too? What do you think?" Karl asked quietly.
"They all go back easily, right?" Ely asked.
"Unh huh, ten or fifteen minutes will put them back if we need to use the boat." Karl grinned. "That is if you know how, if you don't know the tricks to installing them, they're a bitch. Keri decided to help me by changing the filters out once and she struggled for four hours without telling me what she was trying to do. I showed her how to do it then and she had them all back and working in minutes. That means I'm not the only one who can put them back, she knows the drill too."
"Okay, you can show me the tricks of reinstalling them as they come out." Ely smiled. "Why not lay them out over there on the work shelf like you were trying to fix everything? That way we could have a good excuse for the boat not being able to move if the military does drop in on us."
"Good thought." Karl grinned at her. "Actually, I've got a worn impeller from the primer pump in the drawer, If I open up the pump and have it laying there with the old impeller beside it, it will look like I was trying to fix it and still needed a part."
"Yeah, and if the military does come and they aren't here at high tide they can see the slide down in the cut blocking our exit."
"Oh, if they come here, I intend to ask for help to remove that even if it is high tide." Karl grinned at her. "They have diving and demolition experts and surely they'd like a friendly local who could help them out in emergencies."
"Wouldn't they want to confiscate the boat?"
"Maybe, but I doubt it. I've been thinking about that The Navy has probably got their hands full right now and if they see this thing looking like hell and not even working as well as behind that damn slide in the gorge, I don't think they will be overly interested. The investment of time and labour to get the boat into service would be too much trouble. On top of that, it's not exactly the sort of thing they'd need."
"Maybe, but let's discourage anyone for now and make this thing hard to get going."
So they worked on that for a while, stripping the actual steam making capabilities from the boat. Then just to be certain no one could possibly steal it, Karl even disconnected a link in the drive shaft. After that they went back topsides and out on deck. Before leaving the boat, Karl wanted to clean the fallen needles that covered the sun-cells mounted on the roof of the cabin. Ely climbed up and insisting she wanted to look around from that extra height while she was there.
Suddenly she gave a strange cry and pointed out into the bay. Far out, near the opening into the cut, there was a black dot on the water and as they watched they could see it moving.
"Shit, it's that damn dog." Karl said loudly. "And with the tide sweeping out, he's caught in the current. Can you tell if he's swimming?"
"His head's up, so I think so." Ely answered. "Do we have a pair of binoculars handy?"
"I'll grab them." Karl said going into the cabin of the boat.
By the time he had the binoculars in his hands and was back on deck, he knew it was too late to do anything. As he lifted the glasses to his eyes, he saw the dog's head clearly, then it disappeared as the dog was swept into the first of the tidal swirls at the entrance of the cut. There was obviously an undertow and the dog had apparently swum right into it.
"He's gone." Ely stated quietly. "Do you think he'll come back up?"
"Who fucking cares?" Linda said loudly from her guard position on the foredeck. "The damn thing was a pain in the ass and a thief."
"That's not the point." Ely snapped back. "It wasn't the dog's fault. Obviously he was starving. Karl, is there anything we can do?"
"Not a damn thing." Karl sighed. "Except I'd like you two to stop arguing, we can discuss this later."
He was scanning the water surface with the binoculars, vainly hoping to see the dog's head reappear. When a mass of greenery that had been floating in the water near the dog finally disappeared into the gorge's maw and was whipped rapidly out of sight he finally pulled the glasses down and sighed deeply.
He glanced up at Ely who looked extremely sad, then turned slowly to Linda and shook his head.
"Linda, I know, a couple of hours ago I was trying to shoot that dog and I am relieved that he won't be attacking us, but drowning in that maelstrom is a bloody rotten way for anything to die." Having said that, he took the binoculars back into the boat's cabin, picked up the muzzle loader and the black power, then carefully closed and locked the cabin. "Let's go huh?" He said quietly.
Ely explained to Keri and Trudy why they appeared a bit sombre when they all moved to the shed and everyone except Karl went inside to finish packing up what they wanted to move so it was easy to carry. In only moments, they were donning improvised back packs and grasping parcels for the climb up the hill. It turned out that there wasn't as much to carry as they had thought, so no one was overloaded.
The short trek up the steep path was made in silence. Even though he was only carrying about twenty pounds up the hill, Karl was glad to get to the top and the shed so he could sit and rest. He had been limping for the last couple of hundred yards and Trudy made him sit down to relax for a bit while everyone else packed the trailer and drew a small tarp over the load. Karl hadn't noticed it before, but Trudy and the others had brought along a large thermos and had left it at the shed when they went down to the boat. She poured out several small cups of coffee, handing Karl one cup and a vial of pills that she'd had in her pocket.
"Take two pills." She ordered. "I saw you limping again. After that, we decided that you need to take Linda, the .22 rifle and the pistol back to the cabin. You guys can unload the trailer and then you can come over to the other house with the tractor and trailer and one of the guns. Linda can stay there with George and shuffle this load inside while they're waiting for all of us to come back."
Karl grinned up at her. "Gimme the pistol then."
"You aren't going to argue?" Keri asked quietly.
"Nope. It makes sense, besides I want to go back to the cabin anyway, I forgot to bring the bloody chain saw and tools to get that damn toilet out of the old house. I think these pills Trudy is feeding me make me forgetful."
"Hmph, I think you just have too much on your mind and you expect yourself to be perfect." Trudy grunted.
In only a few minutes Karl insisted on leaving. With Linda perched on the top of the loaded trailer they puttered back to the cabin pulled by the slow-moving tractor. When they got there George and David came out on the porch to meet them.
"Well, back with the first load?" George said loudly as they pulled to a stop just below him.
"Yep, any changes?" Karl said quietly, starting to help Linda unload and finding David helping as well.
"One surprising detail, the military is calling us on the short wave so I imagine they heard me on the air yesterday." George sighed in guilt. "They've been using both your call sign and mine, so they have checked our records. We aren't the only ones being called however. They seem to be calling several outlying areas, all of them are areas that are generally isolated in some way."
Karl just stared at him for a second, his mind going a thousand miles an hour as he ran over possibilities.
"Have you heard anyone respond?" He asked after a moment.
"Yes, I happened to catch a rancher from up near Kelowna returning their call. It seemed that they were passing on information to him about available assistance and asking him for a report of things going on in his area as well. I think he was slightly reluctant but somewhat cooperative, at least that was the impression I was left with from his response. Perhaps what they are trying to do is to set up an alternate method of local communication that is independent of land based telephone lines."
"Maybe, but I think we need discuss this with everyone before we do anything." Karl said quietly.
"One of the items that I found of particular interest as they were speaking was their reference to the possible problem of violent invasions by what they referred to as the unlawful element. In particular, I was relating that in my mind to our trespasser and his dog."
"Well, I think we can all quit worrying about the dog." Karl said, glancing around and assuring himself that David had gone inside with a load. "We saw him get sucked into the vortex at the head of the lower gorge. I doubt if he could survive that."
"The tide would be running outward but it would still be fairly high right now, wouldn't it?" George asked.
"It's flowing out like mad." Karl answered. "Now, Linda is going to stay here with you and start to clean up the mess we've made with all this junk we brought back. She's keeping the .22 rifle here, so you all should be slightly safer, but I still wouldn't go anywhere far from the house until we get back."
"In other words even with the dog gone, you still feel that we might have a trespasser?"
"That's right George, I do. Now the trailer is unloaded and I have three women waiting for me over at your house. I'm going to grab the chainsaw and some tools, then I'm heading over there. We should be back in no more than a couple of hours but if you need us sooner, call on the walkie talkie."
With that, Karl restarted the little tractor and pulled over to the old cabin where he stored some of his tools. Grabbing the chainsaw and a few other things, he was soon on his way along the path toward the other house.
He paused once more as he crossed the bridge unable to pass without looking down at the racing torrent of water that was draining the whole upper end of the island. The comparison of the clear water rushing below him there as compared to the murky water he had seen flowing below the slide area did much to reassure him about the state of the dam upstream. This water was obviously coming down the rock and concrete of the overflow and not through any cracks or weakened areas of the dam itself.
Being honest with himself he knew his legs were bad enough that he really shouldn't tackle the hike upstream to the dam today. Instead he resolved to go tomorrow if it were still raining this hard. With that decision firmly in his mind, he set off to George and Trudy's house again.
Riding that little garden tractor along the trail in the woods was annoying in some ways. There was no way he could keep the falling rain from making him uncomfortable and he was getting slightly chilled from sitting still. He knew if it weren't for the heat of the little engine flowing back toward him he would have been quite cold so it was a relief to him to realise he was approaching the other house. He actually felt surprised at the extent of his relief and realised that he had been tensely checking his surroundings as he drove, almost as if he was expecting an ambush.
He pulled up close to the old house and looked at it closely. A tree had fallen right onto the roof and although the walls still looked quite solid, the roof was caved in and the door stood open.
"This could be more trouble than it's worth." He growled to himself as he approached the front porch.
"Karl, don't go in there!" Ely shouted from the door of the other house. "I just walked on the front porch when we came over and it damn near caved into the cellar. It's ready to collapse. Walk around the back and you can see what I mean."
"I'll take you word for it." Karl grinned at her, turning back to the tractor and trailer to drive them over near the other house. Once he was there, he stopped and grinned up at her. "Salvaging the can out of there was your idea, remember?"
"Well I changed my mind." She grinned back. "I'd rather you weren't crushed inside a collapsing log cabin."
"Okay, so what are we going to do for a can for your dad?" He asked as he walked up the steps onto the front porch.
"We decided to ask if you could take one from this house? Hey, you're wet and cold. You're shivering!"
"Yeah, I am a bit cold. Riding that damn tractor doesn't give you any exercise and you get chilly. Besides, you sure as hell can't get out of the rain."
"Good thing we got a fire going in the fireplace and coffee on the stove."
She led him inside and he was astounded, they must have spent a while just cleaning up. It hardly looked like the same place that they had seen a few days before. The old oriental rug had obviously been vacuumed and there was a neat pile of objects on the floor near the door. All of them wrapped in plastic and ready to be loaded onto the trailer. On the top of the pile sat George's old .45 Colt revolver and Karl had to grin. There was no way Ely was going to let anyone forget that.
"Keri and Trudy are up in the attic. They decided that they could hang a plastic sheet from the rafters and under the hole in the roof, That way they can funnel all the rain to a hole they punched in the ceiling over the bathtub in my old bathroom. The buckets we put there to catch the rain the other day were overflowing and the two bedrooms are a hell of a mess. At least it doesn't appear to have come down through the floor to this level."
"Oh shit. I should have thought of that." Karl sighed.
"We've had a few other things to worry about." Ely said quietly, steering him to a seat near the fire. "Now, sit there for a bit so you can get warm and have a coffee. I was just trying to make up a box of Dad's essential reference books and wondering if there was any way we could take him his main computer."
"I wouldn't chance it in this weather and these conditions, your dad would kill us if we screwed it up."
"Yeah, he would, wouldn't he?" She said with a wry grin.
In the end, Trudy explained to Ely how to take a copy of George's working files off of his hard drive and record them to a portable hard drive that he could access from his laptop. Meanwhile Keri and Karl went upstairs to pull the toilet from Ely's old bathroom. Inside of an hour of Karl's coming there, they were all ready to head back to the cabin with a fairly large load on the trailer. Since Karl wanted someone to ride on the trailer to prevent the porcelain toilet and tank from getting broken and since Keri and Trudy wanted to walk, Ely offered to do the job.
When Karl and Ely rode away on the tractor and trailer, Keri and Trudy were making sure the house was again fully closed up and Trudy was checking that the two outside doors were locked and latched. Keri paused on the front porch while waiting for Trudy and smiled somewhat sadly, feeling nostalgic about leaving this place again. She didn't know why but whenever she walked away from this house, if she knew she was going to be away from it for a while, she felt this way.
Trudy walked up and saw the sad sweet smile and noticed the tears in Keri's eyes.
"Feeling like a robin fluttering out of the nest for the first time?" She asked, resting a gentle hand on Keri's arm.
"I guess! I don't know what it is but every time I walk away from this house . . . " Keri paused. "I suppose it's just that I feel like I'm leaving home. It's weird this time though, somehow it feels more permanent. Why should I feel this way when I'm going to live within walking distance."
"For one thing, you're pregnant." Trudy smiled at her. "You've got another six months of emotional turmoil coming and you might as well accept it. Your body is producing hormones that will affect you and it's going to be asking for special things of you because it's making a new life. There are going to be irreversible changes made to your body chemistry and some of those are going to affect your emotions. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll get annoyed and angry, you'll probably crave things, all that wonderful stuff."
"And I'm going to get fat." Keri grinned at her. "I hope I'm like Ely and get most of my figure back again afterward."
"If we're careful and we don't let you gain too much, maybe." Trudy grinned back. "That depends on you and on your genes. It also depends on whether you're willing to work at it like she did. In actual fact she put on weight and has never lost it all. Doing exercises just let her redistribute the weight so it looks good"
For the next while as they walked along, they talked quietly about pregnancy in general and about what they thought life was going to be like on the island in the next while. Since they were walking fairly fast they had almost caught up to the tractor by the time they came to the shed at the wye and they decided to sit there out of the rain to let Karl and Ely get ahead of them.
Their guard was down and as they moved inside the open fronted shed, they were both faced inward. Keri had the shotgun by the barrel, so she could stand it up beside the bench where she planned to sit and Trudy was watching her. Since they had been discussing Keri's pregnancy, Trudy had automatically fallen into a 'nursing' state of mind and she was assessing Keri's actions, watching her for any signs of abnormality in her pregnancy. Over her shoulder, Trudy noticed movement but before she could say anything, let alone move, she was struck on the side of the head and flung aside. She was struck so hard that later she couldn't even remember striking the wall of the shed or falling to the floor.
Keri was aware of Trudy being struck down but had no time to react before she was attacked as well. She was struck from behind and hurled forward into the corner of the shed, the shotgun struck from her hand. With her face crammed into the corner, she was slightly dazed as she felt a rough hands grasp the neck and shoulders of her coat and blouse, yanking downward. Since she'd grown warm while they had been walking, the top fastenings on the light coat were undone. Her attacker slid it downward, pinning her arms to her sides. She gasped, then before she even thought to cry out, a meaty hand was slapped over her mouth. Her nose was pinched between a thumb and fingers and she couldn't breathe. Her feet seemed to be pinned in place by the stance of the person behind her and the pressure on her back increased as a hard body shoved her forward. Now her body was being arched the wrong way, her knees striking the bench while the pressure in the middle of her back increased to the point of pain. Her forehead was pressed against the rough surface of the wall of the shed. Panic rose when she felt the pressure of the brute's other hand as it explored her body through her clothes. She tried to twist away, tried to fight, but she still couldn't get air into her burning lungs. Then to make matters worse, she felt his hand ram inside her jeans and felt his fingers search downward over her bare skin toward her crotch.
Her struggles increased, yet were totally ineffectual. Her mind was clouded with panic, she knew it yet she couldn't seem to calm herself. His hand had been unable to reach where he wanted. Now it was back at her waist, undoing the fastenings of her jeans. She wanted to scream, wanted to run, wanted to grab her shotgun and shoot the son of a bitch who was forcing her. At the same time, she knew her struggles were growing weaker. She simply couldn't get enough air into her lungs to function and panic was burning any oxygen in her body in her mindless struggles. She tried to bite the hand over her mouth, but it was arched away from her teeth and suddenly held her tighter than ever. The heel of the massive hand was actually forcing her jaws closed. The hand at her waist roughly pressed inward and upward against her belly, pressing her internal organs up against her diaphragm, forcing what air had remained in her lungs up and out her throat. Her greatest fear became the fact that she would pass out and be at the mercy of the savage beast that held her. Yet nothing she seemed to be able to do had any effect on his hold.
She felt her vision dim, realised that her sight was shrinking to a tunnel, then a pinpoint, a last glimmer of light. Then mercifully, she remembered nothing.
Trudy wakened with a terrible headache, barely realising that she lay crumpled on the dirt floor of the shed. Her first wakening thought was that she could taste blood in her mouth. She felt pain in her head and raised her hand to feel the growing lump above her left eye. She moaned softly as she felt her fingers aggravate an open wound that felt damp but not wet. Her medically trained mind realizing that it was a bruise and a swelling as well as an abrasion. She was disoriented and it took a moment for her to realise where she was, even then she didn't fully understand why she was there or what had happened.
She slowly sat up and stared around, actually sensing the pounding of blood in her head, disliking the salty metallic taste of blood in her mouth and the tender wound inside her cheek where she must have bitten herself. Rain was falling steadily on the sloping roof over her head. She felt chilled, almost cold, and she wondered how long she had lain on the damp floor. Then her mind slowly began to function again. Where was Keri? What had happened?
Disregarding her own discomfort she lurched to her feet and stared around. The only sign of Keri was her shotgun leaning against the wall plus her boots and her jeans laying on the ground. Stumbling outside, she stared down each of the three paths meeting here at the shed but saw no sight of Keri or anyone else. Realising that she wasn't thinking clearly, she paused and concentrated. The little radio The walkie talkie. Where was it? She reached in her inner pocket, pulled it out and stared at it. How did you make it work? Oh, she remembered; turn it on, press the button and talk.
"George, 're you there?" She muttered, staggering back into the shed and out of the rain.
"Trudy? Is that you? You sound strange? Over." The radio answered her after a few seconds.
Dizzily, she sat back on the bench, staring at the radio in her hand.
"George? Izzat you?" She waited and then realised she wasn't holding down the little button.
"Dammit Trudy, you have to press the button when you talk. Now, what's wrong. Over."
"Sorry George." She answered. "Somebody hit me, I think."
She remembered to release the button, then hit it again.
"Keri's gone, but her shotgun's here." Then she remembered, pressed the button again and added "Over"
"Please repeat what you said. Over" George sounded annoyed and worried.
"I said somebody's hit me and Keri's gone, but her gun's layin' here . . . Oh, an' over."
"All right Trudy, I'll send Karl and Ely to help." George's voice answered. "Are you injured? Over."
She thought about it for a few seconds, then answered like she was in a hospital, talking to a doctor. "Patient has bruised left temple with minor abrasions, somewhat disoriented, no other apparent injuries at this time. Over."
"Trudy, Ely says don't go to sleep! Stay awake! Okay? Now where are you? Over"
"Okay love. I'll stay 'wake. 'm at the shed and sittin' on th' bench and I'm too scared to go far. Over."
"Talk to me Trudy. Tell me what happened. Ely and Karl are on the way. Over."
Just then Trudy heard something. It sounded like a muffled scream and she knew she had to do something.
"Jus' a minute George, I think I hear Keri."
Not really clear about what she was doing or where she was going, Trudy shut off the little radio, carefully put it back into her inside pocket and stood, weaving out of the shelter and into the rain.
Keri groggily came to her senses but was feeling extremely distressed. Her head ached, her jaw ached, her nose hurt and there was something dry stuffed in her mouth. Breathing was difficult. She knew she probably had a nose bleed because her nose felt stuffed and she couldn't get much air through whatever gagged her mouth either. Her eyes couldn't seem to focus then she realised that her head was rammed down into leaves and twigs while her belly was achingly pressed over a terribly rough object that tore at her bare skin. Her hands and arms were held roughly behind her back by someone whose other hand was jabbing at her flesh, forcing the cheeks of her ass apart.
She felt the person behind her shift her body, heaving it up and forward, further over whatever object lay under her belly as he tried to get her into a different position. She was pinned down, her legs spread. Although she tried to struggle there was little she could do. At least now that her body had been shifted she could breathe better than before. She remembered her previous panic and resolved that she would get revenge on this bastard. Using her tongue she worked at forcing whatever was in her mouth outward, all the while shifting and squirming, doing her best to make the would-be rapist behind her have to fight to get at her. There was no way the son of a bitch was going to have his way easily.
The way he held her, the way he fought to position her, she knew he wasn't interested in regular sex. He wanted to sodomize her. He wanted to cause her pain. Well, the bastard was going to have to fight for it. As her body twisted and heaved, her tongue worked at her gag, gradually forcing what she now realised were her own panties out of her mouth. The son of a bitch had pulled them over her head and used the leg opening around her head to hold the rest crammed into her mouth in a wad. Twisting her head she managed to hook them on something and using her tongue to press from the inside, she got enough clearance to draw a gasping breath of air.
At that instant his cock found her anus and he heaved against her tight sphincter. The short breath she had managed to get into her lungs escaped in a muffled scream as she felt the raw pain of his wantonly barbaric thrust. His second slamming surge against her caused even greater pain and another muffled scream but even more than that it brought about an incandescent rage. Taking a deep breath as he withdrew slightly for another inward heave, she drove her head and shoulders upward and backward using every ounce of strength she had. She arched her head and her back, using his pinning weight against her hips as an anchor, and disregarding the pain she felt in twisting against her hands and arms, she heaved against his strength.
She felt the back of her head strike his face, felt his teeth tear at her scalp, but she also heard the satisfying crunch of the bone in his nose and heard his growling squawk of pain. Another twist and heave rolled her to the side and off of the log he had been holding her body draped over. Unfortunately that movement also rolled her onto her back. She saw him then for the first time, a wild haired mountain of flesh moving forward to reach for her with clawed hands, his face a grimace of pain and anger. With her hands still bound behind her by her coat, the only way she could fight him off was with were her feet and she heaved her right foot up and inward, aiming at his lower belly and using every ounce of strength she possessed. To her astonishment his face changed before her eyes. The slit eyes opened wide and his mouth dropped open in pain. Then he simply collapsed like a fallen tree, partly on her and partly on the log he had used to hold her for his attack. As he fell, he knocked the breath from her body again and even struggling as hard as she could she couldn't seem to get free.
Trudy followed the strange sounds she had heard, struggling to stay on her feet as she wove her way outside. There, behind the shed and not fifty feet from where Trudy had looked before, she saw Keri now partially crushed under the body of a huge man. Staggering forward, she could see that he had stripped Keri. Her jacket and blouse were pinning her arms behind her while her bra was roughly shoved upward around her neck to expose her breasts. On top of that she was totally bare from the waist down. Keri's face looked bruised, her nose was bleeding, and somehow her panties were around her chin. Trudy fell forward herself, losing her balance from dizziness and she had to grab a stick and used it to manage to get back to her feet. Keri was mumbling something but Trudy couldn't understand. She moved closer, trying to hear more clearly.
The huge man seemed to be waking, then his hand reached out and it looked like he was choking Keri who began to struggle wildly. Even as disoriented as she was, Trudy knew she had to do something. Staggering forward, she raised the stick she held in both hands and lifting it high over her head, she brought it down across the man's head and shoulders, falling to one side herself as she hit him. Struggling back to her feet, she moved over to the two prone bodies. Now she could hear Keri's muffled pleas for help. Reaching down, she tried to pull Keri's body free but the man's body was so heavy that there seemed nothing she could do. She felt too weak but she refused to give up. She pushed at the man as Keri struggled and although it seemed to her to take forever, first pushing at the man and then pulling on Keri, finally she managed. Keri was free but it felt like it had taken eons.
Helping Keri to her feet and getting the torn jacket and blouse pulled up to free Keri's arms took time. So did removing the soggy panties from around her head. All that time Keri seemed dazed, even more disoriented than Trudy felt herself. All Keri seemed able to do was curse the man at their feet, quietly struggling to get at him, seeking to extract revenge for what he had done to her. Trudy almost had to fight with her, trying to get her to go back to the shed. Finally in exasperation she pulled out the radio.
"George, tell your daughter we have to get back to the shed. Over." She screamed into the radio.
"What did you say? Please repeat, over" George's voice said in disbelief.
"George, she's been raped. She won't walk away. Tell her to mind me." Trudy pleaded. "She needs to get warm and lay down. Help us please. I can't carry her and she won't help."
"Keri, do what Trudy wants, do you hear me? Keri, this is your father. Do what Trudy wants, please."
"Okay Daddy . . . but he's a bad man. I'm gonna shoot him when I get my gun." Keri mumbled, but Trudy had already shut off the radio and was trying to help Keri walk to the shed.
They stumbled and fell several times, taking what Trudy thought was an extremely long time to go a short distance but they eventually made it to the shed. Trudy pushed Keri back onto the long bench, shoving her into a sitting position. While Trudy was trying to get Keri's jeans back on, Keri was struggling to stand and grab her gun, unwittingly fighting against Trudy's efforts until Trudy lost her patience.
"Keri, get your damn pants on." She finally screamed in exasperation, grabbing the shotgun to move it away from Keri's easy reach.
She had the gun in her hands when she saw movement outside the shed and heard Keri whimper in fear. Turning and lifting the shotgun to her shoulder almost automatically, she'd hardly touched the trigger when the gun blasted the ground at the huge brute's feet and he screamed in fear and pain. She must have hit him or come so close that he thought she had. To her surprise he backed away and she fought with the gun, trying to pump another shell into the chamber. Then as the lumbering ogre shuffled away down the hill in sudden terror, she saw a figure appear on the trail, gun raised and firing.