Summer 2006

A dark blue 90's Chevy Blazer drives sedately along a deserted gravel country road, outside Stephens state forest, the mid afternoon sun shining in patches through the limbs of trees overhanging the road. The driver, a young man in his early twenties wearing a black T-shirt, olive drab surplus BDU pants and a blue-gray pork pie hat, looks at a laminated folding map at each interchange.

"Damn, I bet that was it, " he says to the empty cab as he pulls over to the shoulder after passing a narrow one lane dirt path. Turning around in his seat he looks back at the small mud splattered sign post, grabbing the map to compare the sign to the area roads, "okay it's not on the map so hopefully it's the driveway I'm looking for," after turning around in his seat he pulls away from the shoulder making a U turn. "Stupid phone, I wish I had service out here, " he glares at the phone laying in the passenger seat." "I guess those couple of years in scouts weren't a total waste, at least I learned to read a map. Of course if that last gas station hadn't still had paper maps for sale I'd never have found the place."

Driving up the narrow winding dirt road for another ten minutes his destination finally appears ahead.

Not quite small enough to be called a cabin the house sat back in small clearing with the rear of the house almost butting up to the woods. A covered wrap around porch made the house seem larger at first glance. If it had ever been painted the color had long since worn away. Homemade wind chimes and dreamcatchers made of sticks and bone are the only decorations. A trio of sheep lazily graze in a pen that takes up a good chunk of the clearing.

Pulling up next to the cabin and parking the man climbs out of the blazer and looks around.

“I’m not sure you can call staying in a cabin in the middle of nowhere ‘camping’ but I’ll take this over a tent any day.” Walking around to the back of the blazer and opening the rear hatch he pulls out an olive drab duffle bag and slings the strap over his shoulder. Closing the blazers hatch he walks over to the cabin’s front porch.

“Seems I’m the first one here, good thing I brought a book.” Climbing up the one step to the porch he walks over to the porch swing, sits down pulling the duffle bag around in front of him and rummages through it searching for his book by feel. Finally finding it he pulls out a paperback copy of select poems of Rudyard Kipling and begins to read. After about fifteen minutes the sound of another vehicle coming towards the cabin. He closes the book as a dark blue hybrid and newer crossover pull up the drive and park next to his blazer.

“Yo! Ed, Wes how’re you doin’?” he asks as two more men in their early twenties open their car doors and hop out.

“Hey, Sam, doing good, how about you, you find the place ok?” the man in the crossover says closing his door and walking over to the cabin’s porch.

“Things are going pretty well, Wes, didn’t take me as long to get out here as I’d expected.” Sam says standing up and slinging his bag back around after stashing the book back in it. “I figured you two would ride together.”

“That was the plan but I have to head out early.” Ed says as he walks up. “I drew the short straw and have to get the exhibition up and open first thing Tuesday. Global Wind day isn’t well known yet but we’re trying to grow it until it’s as big as Earth Day for the conservation center.”

“You’re partnering with the zoo this year right?” Wes asks.

“Yeah, we’re hoping to get kids and their parents interested in preservation and conservation.” Ed replies piling his bags on the porch.

"So who takes care of the sheep?" Sam asks Wes gesturing towards the pen.

"I'm not sure they weren't here the last time I was, " Wes says walking over to the pen with Sam and Ed following along behind.

"Looks like they've got food and enough water for the next week or so," Ed says pointing out the water trough and small bail of hay. "We shouldn't have to do anything for them."

"Good because while I grew up in a small town in a rural area I wasn't a 4H or farm kid," Sam says walking back towards the cabin. "Any bets on when the girls, and Cameron will get here?"

"Mystique, Meg, and Iz were going to ride out together but they were coming down from Waterloo or Cedar Rapids. I can't remember which instead of Des Moines so it'll take them a bit longer. Cameron, Cassy, Avery, and Rachel should be here anytime. They left about the same time I did," Ed says, walking up and leaning against the porch railing. "They were following along behind me most of the way but they didn't turn off when I did so they must have taken a different exit. Cameron was driving so who knows what kind of adventure they found to take along the way."

"I hope their GPS works better than mine did. I lost service pretty much right after I got off the major roads and had to stop for directions and luckily a map or I never would've found the place and even then I missed the tiny little sign for the 'driveway', " Sam says gesturing down the dirt road.

"Yeah it certainly is out of the way but it's free and really close to the hiking trails through the forest and there are a couple of small rivers and a pond within walking distance too for fishing. And since it's private land we can have a bonfire without camp rangers giving us problems, " Wes points to a large fire pit in the middle of the clearing. "Not to mention the amenities of running water, an actual bathroom, and a kitchen."

"Speaking of the kitchen you said there would be a fridge-freezer we could store food in right? I brought some food. It should be fine in the coolers for a while longer but I don't want it to spoil." Sam says.

"Yeah, my uncle said he'd leave the generator on for us so we should have electricity for the fridge and a couple of lights," walking up the couple of steps to the front door Wes pulls his keys from his front pocket and slides the key into the old deadbolt lock. Jiggling the key as he turns it the deadbolt bar slides back and with a turn of the knob Wes opens the door. "Light switch, light switch where, oh right no overhead light got to turn the lamp on," Wes mumbles walking into the house. The interior is dimly lit by sunlight filtering in around the curtains covering the room's two small windows. To the left of the door a small unshaded lamp sits on an end table. Wes pulls the short pull chain and the light pops on. "Okay electricity is on." Wes smiles and waves for the others to follow.

The house has an open floor plan; the living room and the kitchen are combined into one large room with three doorways at the rear of the room leading to the house's other rooms. The main room and the kitchen are both sparsely decorated. An old 70's style couch in pale blue crushed velvet, two rustic log end tables with simple unshaded iron tube lamps sitting on them, an antique rocking chair with a brown seat cushion and a card table with three folding chairs are the only pieces of furniture in the room. A couple of stuffed deer heads and a large bass mounted on a piece of driftwood hanging on the walls are the only other decoration.

"Your uncle isn't one for decorating is he?" Ed says as he follows Wes into the house.

"Whew!" Sam whistles following behind. "You can say that again, but at least we won't have to move a lot of furniture around to make room for sleeping bags, cots and such."

"I'm still going to set my tent up, it just doesn't feel like camping if I'm not sleeping in a tent." Ed says walking over to the kitchen and opening up the cupboards. "Does your Uncle spend much time out here Wes?"

"He's out here most weekends once the road dries out and is passable after the spring rains stop. But it's really just a place to sleep since he's out in the woods as much as possible when he's here. Time for the five cent tour, you've seen the living room and kitchen. The bathroom is the door here next to the kitchen, the other two are the bedrooms," Wes says pointing to each door in turn. "The weather report says we shouldn't need it but just in case there's also a tornado cellar we can get down to either through a small trapdoor in the middle bedroom or if you're outside around the back of the house."

"Sounds good I'm going to grab the food be back in a second." Walking out of the house and over to his Blazer Sam opens the rear passenger side door and unloads two coolers from his back seat. As he picks them up and turns to go back inside he hears a car approach and then as the green Ford Taurus comes into view the driver begins honking the horn excitedly. "Cameron, and some of the girls are here!" Sam shouts to the house.

The car pulls up and almost before it's stopped moving the driver flings the door open and jumps out.

Waving his arms excitedly, Cameron calls out to Sam and the others as they step out of the house onto the porch. "Hey there everybody!" He shouts. Dressed in cargo pants and a fluorescent orange t-shirt with a stylized picture of Bob Ross on the front and the phrase "let's get crazy" Bob Ross memorial kickball tournament stenciled on the back. "You all ready for another adventure? This weekend is going to be awesome! Ooo sheep!" Cameron exclaims jogging over to the sheep pen.

"That's our Cameron, the human version of an ADHD ferret hopped up on a pound of sugar." Sam says with a laugh.

"You have no idea, he's been like that since he picked us up this morning." Cassy says leaning against the frame of the passenger side door. Holding her charcoal colored felt fedora in her left hand and pulling her chin length black hair with dark red tips back behind her ears with her right. The sleeves of her button down long sleeved cream colored shirt tucked into black jeans billow in the slight wind.

"And he decided it had to be an adventure getting here too. So we couldn't just follow Ed we had to 'strike out on our own and find the less traveled path'. Which sent us off down class b roads and over a bridge that shouldn't have been walked across let alone driven over." Avery said in exasperation. He picked a bit of brown grass from the shoulder of his powder blue smoking jacket and then slapped imagined dust from his storm cloud gray corduroy pants and sighed.

"You know we're camping right, Avery." Sam says making air quotes around camping.

"Whether camping, clubbing or anywhere in between I dress to impress. I just can't hide the style and flare that is me." He said doing a slight turn and pose to show off his ensemble. "Military surplus may work for you, at least for values of work, but I need to look good." He smiles, and turns to give the last two people climbing out of the car a wink.

About an hour later the group hears another car coming up the road. A red Ford probe drives up and parks next to the other cars.

Iz in the driver's seat with Meg riding shotgun and Mystique in the back. As the girls climb out Sam shouts to the driver, "you made it and in the probe too, I figured we'd get a call to come carry it up the driveway," Sam says jokingly as he walks over to help carry bags.

"It was close. I feared for our lives several times," Mystique laughs walking around the car. Dressed in a burnt Orange and gray tunic shirt and jeans covered in oil paint splatters and her hip length white blonde hair blowing in the wind Mystique looks to be the quintessential modern happy hippie chick artist. "But I shouldn't talk since I don't have a car and wouldn't trust myself to drive one even if I did."

"Hey, I'm a great driver!" Iz says with feigned anger her hands on her hips. She is dressed in blue jeans a gray t-shirt with her light brown hair pulled through the back of a purple and black UNI ball cap and a pair of hiking boots. "And Anthony here is more than capable of getting me anywhere I want to go," she says turning around and patting the car's fender. "So, there." She laughs and then sticks her young out at Sam.

"Oh then it wasn't you screaming obscenities as we were fishtailing down that gravel road a few miles back." Meg says her voice dripping with playful snark. Meg has her long dark brown hair is pulled up on top of her head and held in place by a pair of chopsticks, dressed in black jeans and a thin red shirt with sleeves down to her elbows, and her ever present long sleeve Horde zip up hoodie tied around her waist despite the day's warmth.

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"Base allegations, I tell you!" Iz laughs walking around to the back of the probe unlocking and opening the hatchback. "Though maybe just maybe Anthony wasn't the optimal vehicle choice but since we didn't have a lot of options we made the best of it." She said, pulling her bag from the car.

Once the other two women had grabbed their bags with Sam carrying the couple of bags of food and drinks they'd brought, the four of them walked up to the house.

With everyone settled in, the group gathered in the living room and kitchen. "So what do we do first?" Cameron asks the group. "Hiking, fishing, swimming, or exploring?"

"Swimming!" Sam and Mystique say at almost the same time.

"It's too hot for hiking or exploring in my opinion," Sam continues after Mystique waives for him to continue.

"Yeah, what he said and I don't like fishing," Mystique says after Sam finishes.

“To Adventure and exploration!” Cameron shouts.

Wes, and Ed looked at each other and said “hiking.”

The group splintered off each going off o enjoy the day.

***

As dusk approaches the friends gather together back at the house.

"Fire," Sam asks, with one eyebrow raised.

"Fire," Wes responds sagely. "Ed and I gathered some wood while you were swimming. With what my uncle had around and what we gathered and piled up around back we should be good."

"Nice then let's get it fired up." Sam says heading to the back of the house.

After only a couple of minutes a roaring fire lights up the clearing and fills the area with the smell of woodsmoke. The whole group has gathered setting up camp chairs around the fire or on the porch. Sam wanders around the fire ring with a long piece of metal he found poking at the burning logs repositioning them or raking up the coals.

"He's quite the little firebug isn't he," Cassy says quietly to Rachel nodding towards Sam.

"You have no idea," Rachel replies "You should have heard him and Wes talking about accelerants and incendiaries back in school. It got more than a little scary." Rachel looks over at the fire.

"But isn't Wes a volunteer firefighter?" Cassy asks.

"He is over the summers but before he got accepted Sam would quiz him on how to put out various types of fires, but where Wes was learning to put them out Sam was dreaming up how to start them. Not that Sam is some out of control arsonist, he just seems to be infatuated by fire." Rachel looks back at Cassy and gives her a half smile. "Between the two of them we're about as safe as can be."

"Hey Sam, do you think the fire’s hot enough to do kettle corn?" Mystique asks from her place sitting on the porch steps.

"Should be if we've got the right kind of pan or something we can improvise one with." Sam says leaning on his fire poker.

"I saw a cast iron Dutch oven in one of the cupboards, that would work, right?" Ed chimes in.

****

Walking away from the fire and the rest of the group Cassy looks up at the clear night sky.

"I still can't believe how many stars you can see out here and how bright they are! Cassy says to herself, marveling at the sky. "I've never seen so many!"

"Must be a big change from what you've been used to in Boston," Avery says as he walks up beside her.

"It is, there's a lot I miss from back home but this is amazing. I've heard Ed talk about light pollution in Des Moines but really it's just normal for me so I didn't pay attention but wow I really wish we had this view back home."

"Grab your chair and a couple of blankets, we'll have an even better view if we get a little further from the fire." Avery says, turning back towards the group. "It looks like Sam and Wes are letting the fire go down as some of the others head to bed. It's warm enough that we don't need the fire to keep us warm so it's a perfect night for stargazing."

"Stargazing?"

"I'm a man of surprising depths," Avery laughs as Cassy gives him a cynical look. "Ok so depths might be too strong, it's something to do while I'm outside having a smoke."

"You smoke?" Cassy asks.

"Haha yeah, people are getting a little aggressively anti-smoking for my taste these days and I get tired of the whole 'you know those things will kill you' speech so I don't make a thing of it but..." He shrugs.

"Wish I'd known," she reaches into a pocket inside the vest she's wearing and pulls out an old fashioned metal cigarette case.

"A woman after my own heart." Avery laughs, one sec I'll grab the chairs and be right back.

Avery walks back to the fire, grabs the folding chairs he and Cassy had been using and picks up a blanket one of the girls had left behind when they went inside. Then heads back to Cassy who has wandered further down the driveway.

Setting up the chairs with their backs to the house and with a good view of the sky Avery says, "smoke'm if you've got'm," then takes his own advice and pulls a lighter and a crumpled mostly empty pack from his pocket and lights up.

Cassy sits down in the chair Avery brought for her, crosses her legs and opens up the case and pulls out a cigarillos and deftly lights it. The air around them begins to smell faintly of vanilla. "Ahhh I've needed this all day." Cassy says after a couple of puffs. "Now if I could just get a Martini I could die happy." She says with a laugh.

"Ask and you shall receive, well sort of," Avery pulls a flask from his pocket and hands it over.

"Whiskey?" She asks unscrewing the top and taking a sniff.

"Nope absinth, want to chase the green fairy?"

"Straight? Never mind, doesn't matter bottoms up," she takes a long pull and passes the flask back.

"It's a party now! Cheers!" He takes his pull and passes it back. The two sit in chatting and watching the stars. Smoking and passing the flask back and forth until both are gone. Hours pass and the woods grow quiet.

The coals from the fire still give off some warmth but no longer glow, low hanging clouds obscure the stars and the early morning is still and quiet. The light snores and shifting of the sleeping group are swallowed by the house's walls. Outside Ed's tent rustles as Ed stirs awake. Despite the late night his body's long habit of early rising wakes him before the sun.

"4:30am, this is going to be a long day," Ed says looking at his watch and yawns. "I doubt anyone else will be up but I'm going to need coffee to face today," crawling over to his bag he pulls out a blue and white speckled stovetop coffee pot, a jar of instant coffee, and a folding wire rack. Grabbing the jug of water he filled before going to bed he unzips his tent and crawls out into the predawn air.

Unseen in the darkness a lone figure knelt a few feet back under the concealing branches and brush. Stray starlight briefly illuminates the figure as it finds its way through a small break in the clouds and shows the figure to be a woman with long unwashed matted hair and dirt smeared olive skin. She is dressed in a tattered threadbare black hoodie, torn and soiled dark blue leggings and tennis shoes smeared in dirt and mud. "I and I do believe this be good test, good test indeed," she mutters under her breath. Moving slowly she creeps around the outside of the clearing, making her way to the parked cars. Reaching the parked cars she pulls a matte black fixed blade knife with a serrated blade from its sheath on her belt and begins working the tip of the blade into the sidewall of the nearest car. Working slowly and methodically the woman punctures the tires on each vehicle giving each a slow nearly silent leak. Once the last tire is punctured she creeps back into the woods and climbs up into a tree nearly disappearing in its tangle of leaves and branches. "Watching and waiting, waiting and watching I and l will see all," she mumbles in the dark.

By the light of a small pocket flashlight Ed unfolds the wire rack placing it inside the fire pit up next to the stone ring surrounding the pit. Grabbing the fire stick Sam had been using a few hours before he pokes the coals. "Good, the coals are still pretty warm, should be easy to get a fire going again." Ed says talking quietly to himself as he goes about his tasks. "I know there were a couple of logs left from last night where did they get piled," he mutters swinging the flashlight back and forth near the fire pit. "There they are," he says with satisfaction as the light illuminates the small pile of split logs. Ed walks over to the wood then crouches down and picks up three of the logs along with a few sticks for kindling and carries it all back over to the fire pit. He arranges the three split logs into a small tripod in the middle of the pit leaving the center under the logs open. After putting the flashlight in his mouth he carefully slides the kindling in the space with one hand while stoking the coals with the fire stick held in the other. After only a few seconds the kindling catches fire. Taking the flashlight from his mouth he wipes it off with his shirt, turns it off and puts it in his pocket, the small fire giving off more than enough light to illuminate the area. "Alright, fire started, time to get the water boiling." Ed used the fire stick to knock down and rearrange the now burning logs.

"They say talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity." Avery says after sneaking up behind Ed.

"Whaaa..."Ed yells swinging around the fire poker in hand; he nearly clubs Avery in the head but Avery dodges at the last second.

"Jesus, watch where you're swinging that thing Ed, you nearly took my head off." Avery exclaims jumping back two steps.

"Son of a bitch, dammit Avery, don't sneak up on me like that." Ed says poking the fire stick in Avery's direction. "What are you doing up?"

"Haven't been to bed yet," he laughs. "Been talking with Cassy and watching the stars, among other things." He winks, "you know she's never really seen stars before."

"That's more info than I need this early." Ed replies, shaking his head.

"Somebody's got a dirty mind this morning," Avery says with a chuckle, "not those stars, those stars," he says pointing at the sky. "She's from Boston and hasn't spent any real time outside the city."

"Makes sense, light pollution is much worse out along the coasts than anywhere around here. Chicago, KC, and Saint Louis are about the only places in the Midwest that are even close. That's why we need to protect areas like this and should be working to reduce..."

"Wo, wo, wo too early need coffee before I can think about environmental activism, and saving the planet." Avery interrupts.

"Well I was working on that before somebody decided to sneak up on me," Ed pokes the fire stick in Avery's direction again.

"Well then, I won't keep you from it, holler when you're done," Avery turns around and walks back down the driveway. "Sunrise in the forest, not usually my cup of tea but hey gotta try new things once in a while." He raises his arm and waives at Ed without turning around.

"Ass," Ed says towards Avery as he picks up the wire rack and sets it over the small fire. He places the coffee pot on the rack after filling it three quarters full of water from his jug. "This is the life; a little crackling fire, a camp chair and the early morning quiet," Ed says, sitting down in a camp chair and propping his feet up on the stones of the fire pit. After a few minutes of staring into the fire Ed's eyes close and he begins to snore softly as he dozes off.

"Not a coffee shop in miles but still can't escape the barista with attitude," Avery says to Cassy pointing up the driveway. Unless Ed fell asleep, water should be on the boil, so we'll soon have coffee."

"Good, I need it to sober up. The green fairy is a mean bitch." Cassy stands up slowly. "Okay, coffee and a walk," she says, standing unsteadily.

Tossing and turning on her half deflated air mattress lying on the floor of the cabin's spare room, Mystique wakes up, yawns and stretches. "No sun, too early, " she says drowsily "need to pee, too early," she pulls the covers back over her head and tries to fall back asleep. "Dammit, have to pee," throwing the covers off she climbs up off the floor and carefully picks her way across the room trying to avoid stepping on any of the other girls asleep on the floor. After navigating the room and opening the door as quietly as she could she paused in the main room. "Bathroom next to kitchen,"she mumbles to herself, her half asleep brain finally remembering the layout. She walks over to the bathroom, turns the knob and pushes it open. The door's hinges squeal harshly as she pushes. "Crap," Mystique curses. Slipping through the half open door she tries to close it behind her softly but the hinges squeal even louder so she pushes the door closed quickly with a slight bang.

The squeaking hinges and the door banging closed jolt Sam awake. "Wha..," Sam yawns, sitting up in his cot looking around the room. Light filtering in from the small fire and from the intermittent starlight illuminates the room. "Shit, I thought I put the fire out," Sam says, swinging his legs out from under his blanket and then slides his feet into his boots. "I really hope it didn't flare up and set anything outside the pit on fire." His loose untied boots clomp as he walks quickly across the room. He jerks the door open and has just enough time to recognize Ed in a camp chair with a small fire in the pit with the coffee pot sitting above it when a screen shatters the early morning silence.

"What the!" Sam exclaimed, turning around to find the source of the screen. As he looks back the bathroom door swings open banging loudly as it slams into the bathroom wall and Mystique comes running out.

"There's something out there!" Mystique yells seeing Sam up and awake. Pointing back into the bathroom.

"What, it's probably just an animal moving around out in the woo..," Sam says to Mystique as he starts to close the door when he hears Ed yell.

"Oh shit, who are you!" Ed had started awake at the sound of Mystique's scream, to see a large group of people shuffling straight towards him from the woods.

By the light of the fire and the pre-morning glow Ed can see that the people shuffling towards him are covered in dirt, mud, as well as various leaves, branches and other plants. Most are dressed in tattered clothes though some are nearly naked. The visible skin is blue-gray and has a brittle parchment like appearance.

"Hey, now I know zombie walks have become a thing in Iowa but wandering around in the woods and seeking up on people is not cool." Ed says, jumping to his feet. "You all can just back off, this is private..." Ed's mouth clicks shut as he watches one of the people shuffle bare footed directly into the fire before him with no reaction even as the leg of his torn and shredded pants catch fire. "I holy shit," Ed grabs his camp chair and swings it at the man who despite being on fire has lifted his hands and is grasping for Ed with wizened and dirt stained fingers. The chair bends and cracks as it connects, knocking the man over into the fire pit. Ed takes a backward look at Sam in the doorway to the house and a sideways look towards his car. Patting his pants vigorously he feels his keys and just as the burning man reaches out from the fire pit Ed dashes towards his car reaching into his pocket and frantically pressing the unlock button on his key fob. "Open, open, dammit open!" Yells as he's running to his car. "Yes!" He exclaims as he hears the click of the door as it unlocks. Grabbing the door handle he pulls it up and swings the door open in one motion and then jumps into the driver's seat. Pulling on the door frantically pressing and hitting the lock button.