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Chapter 6: The Trek
Ike started his preparations for the journey across the snow before dawn broke. He tried to be very quiet, but as if he sensed his awareness Taylor rose from the pallet. Ike removed his own boots and wrapped his feet and legs in plastic bags they had found in the galley supplies. Then he put on several pairs of pants and shoved his feet down into a larger pair of boots salvaged from one of the deceased men. He put on several layers of shirts and pulled a sweater over his head using it as a hood and pulled on a coat. Taylor handed him a pair of woman’s gloves. They were too tight but better than the socks he had been planning on using as mittens.
"I’ll be back as soon as I can," he promised his brother.
"I’m going to keep watching you, and if you stop, I’m coming after you," Taylor warned.
Ike nodded and handed Taylor a piece of paper. "This will keep you busy while I’m gone."
Taylor looked down at the words and smiled. The words were lyrics to a song.
"Write the music while I’m gone," Ike suggested and stepped out into the cold.
Taylor settled back into under the blankets and read the lyrics and started working on melodies silently.
Ike was stepping through the deep snow slowly so he didn’t lose his balance. It was laboriously hard but he kept going. He kept his eyes on his target, almost continuously praying that he would find a cave suitable for their use. Alternately he prayed for a rescue plane but he’d already given up on that hope.
When the kids woke up Taylor took care of the necessities and fed them a cold breakfast. He checked on Ike’s progress, and could see he was still moving, but he had a long way to go. The length of ground that they could have covered in an easy half hour would take him four times as long in the snow.
Taylor showed his younger brother the lyrics Ike had written and peaked his interest in developing melody and music and then put it away and used it as a bribe to made him do his studies first. So, although he complained and whined Zac did complete his lessons.
Then cheerfully they sat down together to work on the song. They argued, and hummed and sang the lyrics and ran the vocal scales for several hours before coming up with a suitable tune.
For the first time, Antonio showed a reaction to what they were doing. Each time they sang a part of the song, working on the harmonics, he clapped and shouted, "Bueno md sico!"
"He likes us!" Zac crowed.
"That doesn’t say much considering he doesn’t understand a good portion of what we’re saying," Taylor said bemused.
"He likes the music, the language doesn’t matter." Zac exclaimed.
"Well, that’s true, MMMBop wouldn’t have been nearly as big a hit if everyone needed to know the words." Tay admitted.
Taylor got to check on Ike progress. He could barely see him in the distance, but he looked like he was very close to his goal.
* * * *
Over a mile away Ike was so cold and so tired he was beginning to doubt his reasons for trying to get to the cave. But, he kept trudging forward. After nearly three hours, he reached his destination only to find the cave was only a small opening of less than a foot wide. The opening was warm though giving him some hope. Either he had to widen the hole or find another entry. He kept walking, searching the face of the mountain and finally he found it. Five feet off the ground was a opening about four feet high, large enough for him to crawl through. And, it looked like there was another opening above that one.
He climbed up the face of the mountain with frozen and stiff hands and feet and crawled inside the cave. He had to shut his eyes tightly for several minutes because he was blinded coming out of the bright snow into the darkness. He just laid back and used the time to rest. He could feel warmer air on his face and he crawled forward further into the cave. As his eyes adjusted to the dimness Ike kept crawling. The cave began to get wider and instead of getting darker it got lighter and finally, twenty feet into it, the tunnel opened into a full sized cavern. The hole he had spotted on the ridge above was about ten or twelve above his head and about twelve feet long and acted as a skylight to the cavern. There were several other holes in the cavern walls allowing the room to be quite well lit. Ike heard water and followed the sound and then smiled the biggest smile since he’d had since the accident. There was a water spurting out out of the wall, splashing into a narrow stream that seemed to be running through the floor of the cavern. He walked over the waters edge and took of his glove, and stuck his finger in the water. It wasn’t stagnant, there was a slight current. Most of the cavern walls seemed to be wet but the cavern itself was warm compared to outside. Then he spotted the clincher. A man made fire ring and skeletal remains of fish backbones. Someone had been in this cave before and had used it as shelter, just as he and his brothers were going to do. Ike let out a triumph yell and laughed as an echo bounced back. The acoustics in here weren’t bad either! He circled around the cavern and felt a blast of warm air coming out of a crack in the wall. It was like a heater vent. He stood in front of the vent and turned and rotated his body until he was finally warm.
It took Ike longer for the return trip back to the plane. He tried to follow his own steps but he was already tired. Several times he saw his brothers in the doorway of the plane waving at him. He returned the waves and kept going. He was only about two hundred feet from the plane when his knees buckled and he couldn’t get up again. He tried and tried and his legs simply wouldn’t hold him. Ike almost cried when his body failed him, but looked up and saw Taylor in the doorway and tried to shout at him. Taylor disappeared and then reappeared a few minutes later and started wading through the snow toward him. It took Taylor twenty minutes to get to him, and once he was back on his feet he leaned heavily on him for the rest of the trip back.
When they finally got inside the galley, Zac and Antonio started stripping them out of their clothes. Ike was shaking so bad he couldn’t talk. He was shoved inside the pallet blankets and Taylor and Zac began rubbing him down. Taylor searched through the duffel bags and dug out a flannel shirt and pair of men’s sweats and helped Ike into them. Zac had to do up the buttons because neither of them could get their fingers to work. Then he found some clothing for himself and he jumped into the pallet with Ike and continued to rub his brother down.
Zac went outside and he must have started a fire because he returned with bottles of warm water. Ike drank one of the bottles of water and in a few minutes stopped shaking considerably. Then Zac came in and handed both of them warm cans of V-8. Ike and Taylor drank them and actually liked it. It was sort of like tomato soup.
Watching his brothers closely, Zac took care of the evening details with the children. He fed them, and took them outside to the bathroom and even changed Katie’s clothing because she had an accident. He made sure the fire was out, by dousing it with snow and shut the door hatch carefully and then joined them in the pallet.
"Ike are you going to be okay?" he ask with trepidation.
His older brother turned over and smiled. "We are all going to be okay." he said firmly and then his head dropped over as he fell into a sound sleep.
* * * *
Ike slept sounder than either of his brothers had witnessed before. Dawn came and he slept on, both Taylor and Zac woke up and started moving around and he still slept. Zac was worried and wanted to take him up, but Taylor just motioned for his little brother to him alone. He knew how hard it had been just walking two hundred feet in the snow, he knew Ike was totally exhausted.
In mid-morning, Ike woke up to find his brothers studying.
"Finally," Zac exclaimed. "I thought you were sick or something."
Ike got up quickly, looked at his watch and started putting his boots on. "Why didn’t you wake me up?" he demanded.
"Told you so," Zac smirked at his bother.
"You were exhausted. You needed the rest." Taylor explained. "What did you find?"
"A cave, a cavern really." Ike exclaimed excited. "It has a running stream, possibly feed by sulfur springs because its not frozen, possibly fish in it, and hot air vents coming out of the walls. Its damp, but warm, and its well lit or at least it will be as long as there is daylight."
"A lot of possiblities," Zac said.
"Shut up, Zac," Taylor said ignoring his little brother. "So, you think it will be safe for us there?" he said focusing on Ike.
"Safer than here. And, there evidence that someone has been there before," Ike said.
"Indians?" Zac questioned his interest rekindled.
"More likely trappers or hunters," Ike answered.
Taylor ignored the exchange. He wanted to stay on track. "But, Ike we have to get there through over three feet of snow in sub-zero temperature. You almost didn’t make it yesterday." Taylor warned.
"But, I had to make the trip twice," Ike said. "We only have to make it once. It won’t be easy. We’ll have to carry Katie all the time, and we may have to carry Antonio part of the way. Plus we’re going to have to take everything with us, we can’t leave any food behind. Zac how is your head?"
Zac looked over at his big brother. "I’m still having headaches, but I’m okay."
"Do you think you can walk to the cave by yourself?" Ike ask seriously.
‘If you guys can do it, so can I." Zac proclaimed with a youthfull bravado.
Ike nodded and began to put his plan into action. "Go through the clothes and put on four or five layers. Whatever, we wear, is what we have to live with. Everyone has to have their feet wrapped in plastic. I’m going to wear these boots, Tay, you’ll wear mine, and Zac you’ll wear Tay’s and Antonio will wear yours. We’ll pack Antonios sneakers. That way we can swap back when we get over there, thank god we were all wearing Doc Martins. The biggest problem will be packing up the food and carrying it. Everyone will have to carry something, and maybe even drag something."
The boys set about getting prepared for the trip, all of them taking the task very seriously. Taylor finished dressing himself and started dressing Katie in layers.
"Ike I can probably carry Katie the best, because this coat I’m wearing is huge. It will fit over both of us." Taylor suggested.
"You can stick her in my back pack." Zac suggested with a devilish grin. "I’ll dump the books out."
"Nice try," Ike said candidly. "We’ll find room for them somehow. But the backpack idea isn’t bad. If you wore it backwards, and we cut holes for her legs, it would be kind of like that baby carrier Mom wears."
"And, if I wear a backpack or you strap a duffel bag on my back, I’ll be more balanced and can carry more." Taylor said liking the idea.
It took them over an hour to figure out what they needed and what
they would leave behind. Food was a necessity, but the majority of the
weight came from the bottled liquids. But, they were also a vital source
of vitamins and calories. The bulk of their packs were from the blankets
and pillows they were taking with them. So, they tried to balance the weight
in the packs between juice bottles and clothing. When the packing was complete,
each of them was carrying a back pack of sorts. Taylor’s pack wasn’t large
or as heavy as Ikes but he was balancing a child inside his coat. Zac was
carrying a small duffel bag on his back and backpack on his chest. Antonio
was carrying a smaller duffel bag. Ike was supporting a good sized pack
on his back, and one on his chest. He was also dragging a garment bag stuffed
with leftover bedding, the knife set and the bow and arrow set he had removed
from the case. He left the gun behind because the weapon was worthless
without bullets. Actually, when they completed packing, they had left almost
nothing behind. He figured if they had to discard anything, along the way
he would retrieve it later.