FBR, Chapter 2, scene 2

Note - Dec 6th - Alan is back in Q - see the main site for my first pictures of the season.

Good evening chickies from those of us drowning in water in Oregon. I was scheduled to leave today, noonish, but the passes are chains required for truck and trailer, and I'm not willing to beat up my new tires with chains. Tomorrow is warmer so I will watch the passes and slip over into California going south when the chain requirement is lifted.
Meanwhile, it is Monday tomorrow morning and thus I offer you a tidbit - a small scene 2 of chapter two. Remember chapter one is available to the right now as a pdf. Enjoying the storm in Oregon, longing for sun. -mcnalan

Foreign Body Reaction
by Alan McNeill
© December 2007

Foreign Body Reaction, Alan McNeill Chap 2, scene 2

Ben was moving fast now, the hillside had given way to a gentle slope. He drew east down the hill, stumbling less now as the ground evened out. The more he scrambled through the clear cut, almost in a crouched run, the warmer he got, even with his bare chest.

He stopped for a minute and looked for the glow that would indicate the direction to what was left of his trailer. He listened for any sound of pursuit. There was no sound, and no flashlights, but they might have night vision goggles. Still, Ben needed to move fast before they completed their search of the opposite side of the mountain. Ben reached into the back pocket of his cargo jeans and pulled out a small Altoids tin that contained the smallest survival kit he could put together. He opened it and felt for the small half watt LED flashlight. He closed it carefully and replaced the two rubber bands that secured the cover.

The LED was startlingly bright to his dark adjusted eyes. Ben cupped the flashlight in his palm allowing only a crack of light to escape to light the ground.

With the light he could increase the speed, and maintain his body temperature.

Ben kept the hint of the road above him to his right and in a few minutes arrived back at his smoldering trailer. He curved east and came up near the brush thicket by the privy. He shut the LED off and replaced it in his Altoid's can, and put the can back in his rear pocket.

There were no other vehicles at the ruins of his trailer. Both of the SUVs that Ben had seen before must still be up on the ridge looking for him. Ben would have liked to watch for a few more minutes, but as soon as he had stopped, the cold had begun seeping through his bare skin. The warmth of the collapsed trailer, still glowing in spots drew him forward. He did take a moment as he crept forward to check the propane bottles mounted on the tongue of the trailer frame. They were gone completely, just the charred remains of the feed lines hung of the steel frame.

Ben crawled up close on his belly. The warmth of the fire, despite the loss it implied, was about the best thing Ben had felt all night. He luxuriated in it, rolling on the warmed ground, allowing the radiant heat to warm all of his body. As wonderful as he felt, he knew that he must hurry. They would not look for him forever, and they might think to send someone back to seal off the road below him. He needed to get off this mountain before they found him.

Ben stayed low and circled the trailer, looking at the trash and debris that had been almost all of his possessions. The explosion and fire had left little that was recognizable. Ben searched for any clothing that was not burned beyond recognition, but he found little. A sock that hung off a branch a few feet away, and a melted blob that had been a nylon windbreaker. He did find a box of garbage bags that was only charred. He unstuck the mess and was able to unroll the melted portion leaving 3 good twenty gallon bags at the center of the roll.

He quickly tore a small 8” hole in the center of the bottom, and two holes, each about 4” long at the sides near the bottom. He pulled the bag over his head forcing his head through the rip, and then pulled his arms through the side tears. Immediately he felt warmer, and almost as important, his white skin was now sheathed in black plastic. Ben grabbed a handful of grey ash mud from the edge of the fire and smeared it over the garbage bag and tucked the loose end of the bag into his pants. He rolled the two remaining bags and put them in the back pocket with the survival kit, and resumed his search.

Because Ben had been injured in the financial crash of 2007, like almost everyone with a mortgage, he had become adamant that he would remain independent of society's control of him. That meant that most people thought Ben was a survival nut when really Ben just liked not to be part of a system that treated people like both the product and the production at the same time. It was like being part of a flock of sheep that built it's own fences and went willingly to be sheared. So let them think what they like, he thought.

Tonight that meant that Ben was searching quickly for the area near the privy where he had buried a small cache. He always placed these when he dropped his trailer and worked.

Ben had to chuckle at that thought. Pretty obvious that he couldn't protect his trailer. He found the rusted logging cable coiled where he had found it last week. When any area is logged a lot of broken and frayed steel cable is left everywhere throughout the forest. This section was heavy and rusted and coated with slippery mud. Ben pulled the coil just a foot to the side and dug down just a few inches with his hands through soft fir needles and forest floor debris, His fingers hit a smooth hard cylinder. It lay a few inches beneath the forest floor, and had been covered by the old steel cable.

Ben levered the cylinder up. It was 4 inches in diameter and about forty inches long. Made of white PVC plastic tubing, one end was capped with a permanent glued end. The end that had been slanted upward, the end that Ben had first uncovered was a cap that simply slipped over the tube. He slowly pulled the cap. It resisted and then released with a slow sucking sound. Ben put the cap aside, careful to keep the thick wheel bearing grease from touching the soil.

Inside the tube he pulled gently on the edge of a white bag. In moments the bag was unrolled and opened. For the first time since his trailer blew up Ben took a deep relaxed breath. Now he had something to work with, now he had a chance to get off this mountain alive.