Weekend Hurricane

         A steady crunching of leaves is heard deep in a heavily wooded area, but no one is seen. Several rain frogs sing their chorus from the treetops with a sky overcast with in an array of white thick clouds.
         The sound of the leaves crunching grows nearer.
         “Hey Tice, look!”
         A raccoon halfway up a tree turns around and looks down at two boys standing knee deep in oak leaves. They both look up with interest as the raccoon retreats higher up the trunk. The two boys grab their faces as bits of bark fall down into their eyes.
         “Keep going guys, we’ve still got a long ways to go.” A tall man says while trudging up behind them. A shorter man is walking behind the tall one and he looks over at the kids.
         “Codd, did you lose your contact? Your mom’s going to kill me!” The shorter man says with worry. The taller man continues walking as the other man inspects his son’s eyes.
         “I remember this place, back when our dad took us here.” The tall man takes in a deep breath and lets it out creating mist in the cool air. “It won’t be much longer.”
         The group begins walking down an old worn trail, the two boys groan with the weight of their backpacks as they go. As they disappear into the thick woods a gentle gust of wind blows, stirring up the displaced leaves they left behind.

         Heavy huffing is heard. The shorter man’s face is bright red and covered in sweat. He walks labouredly way behind the rest. “Brake, can we slow down a little!” The man squeaks between short breaths.
         “It’s been three hours!” One of the boys complains as the tall man stops.
         Orvan slowly catches up with them and collapses in the leaves.
         “Tice, you and Codd run up ahead; there should be a small stream somewhere.” Brake says as Orvan comes to rest on a rotten stump which starts to crumble under his weight. Codd and Tice run onward quickly disappearing behind some trees.
         “How’s it going, bro?”
         “Oh man, this would be much better without all this stuff on my back.” Orvan wipes the build up of cold sweat on his forehead.
         “I know this is tough on you, but you know why I wanted to do this.”
         Orvan pauses as he notices his brother looking up at the sky. “Don’t worry about me, Brake. Dad is up there watching us right now, smiling at us.” Orvan’s temporary chair finally decays putting him on the ground. He sits up and dusts his pants off. A soft whimpering sound comes from Brake’s direction and Orvan pauses. “Brake?”
         Brake turns around with tears jetting down his faces, “I’m so happy we’re doing this!” Brake’s expression turns into a smile causing Orvan to laugh.

         Tice and Codd cautiously walk forward as their feet sink in mud. Before them is a wide stream of fast moving water. They both exchange strange looks as they creep forward.
         “Think it’s deep?” Codd asks while stopping.
         Tice reaches down, picks up a clump of dirt and tosses it in the water; its splash is quickly dispersed.
         “Does that tell you how deep it is?”
         “I don’t know!”
         “Then why’d you do it?”
         “Shut up!”
         The sound of Orvan and Brake talking distracts the two. The two men walk up beside the kids. Brake gives the water a puzzled look, picks up a rock and throws it in the water creating a small splash.
         “See, my idea wasn’t stupid.” Tice says while hitting Codd in the shoulder.
         “Okay, let’s cross.” Brake says as he starts wading into the water. He looks back at the others with a strange expression as he disappears under the water. The three look at each other slightly shocked. A moment later Brake appears further down steam, crawling out covered in mud and dripping wet. “Be careful, it’s a bit deep in the middle.” He says with a laugh. Orvan and Brake both walk part way in and help the two boys across.
         “I don’t remember this stream being so big.” Orvan comments as Brake pulls him across the water.
         “Yeah, it does seem kind of different.” Brake pauses, looking at the muddy light-brown water

         Several hours later the four have traveled yet deeper into the forest and are standing in a small clearing.
         “Well, this looks like the spot,” Brake says as he takes his backpack off and turns around to the others. “You guys go get some firewood and we’ll set up the tents.” The two boys run off looking around for sticks.
         “I don’t know if I’m going to be up for this next year. Maybe we could do it somewhere closer to where we parked?”
         “Come on Orvan, we did this trip nine times with dad.”
         “Yeah, but we weren’t almost fifty years old then.” Orvan leans against a tree as he starts to take things from his pack. As he unfolds something several drops of water start landing on it. “Was it supposed to rain this weekend?” Orvan looks over at a shrugging Brake.
         “Let’s hurry up. The kids are going to be soaked by the time they get back.”
         The two quickly began setting up the tents and while they’re doing so the rain begins to get heavier. By the time they have the tents up the rain is nearly drowning them on their feet. They quickly retreat into the largest tent.
         “I don’t remember this happening those other nine times.”
         Brake sticks his head outside the tent, “Tice! Codd! Come back!” The two boys come running through the rain carrying a few handfuls of tree limbs each which they drop just as they burst into the tent. The two kids let out a few chuckles as they try to catch their breath and then fall to the ground. Orvan collapses near the back of the tent, pulls out a bottle of water and drinks it with loud gulps. Brake looks out the front of the tent at the relentless rain, trying to hide a nervous expression. A small crackle of thunder echoes in the distance. Brake glances up out of the tent catching glimpses of large dark clouds blowing around violently in one direction.
         “Looks like it’s going to be a rough storm,” Brake says as he turns around, finding the others have taken food from their backpacks. “Not a bad idea!” Brake sits down and pulls out a small bag containing peanuts and eats a few. “Everyone sure is quiet.”
         Orvan sits up while crumpling a bag of chips and tossing it aside. “It’s the first time we’ve had to relax since this morning.”
         “We won’t be roasting any marshmallows tonight.” Tice says with a hint of disappointment.
         “And none of your grandpa’s classic scary stories by the fire.” Orvan adds in a deep tone.
         Codd lets out a sad sigh.
         “Can’t we just tell them in here?” Tice goads.
         “We could, but it wouldn’t have the same affect.”
         “Just one, dad!”
         “Well, since we don’t have much else to do, I guess I could tell the story about what happened in these woods when your granddad was about your age.”
         “That’s a good one!” Orvan adds with a laugh.
         “This happened nearly 100 years ago in this very campsite. My dad, your grandpa, was told by his dad to go off and pickup some extra wood for the fire and he did, without hesitation.” Brake moves in closer to the boys as does Orvan. They look at their two parents nervously as if wondering why. “It was dark, very dark, but he wandered around looking for wood anyway. After finding a few limbs he turns around to head back to camp when suddenly something blocks his view of the distant fire. And then he walks into something. Something big! And warm! He looks up into this pair of huge glowing eyes just in time to see a giant bear mouth open wide; showing long bloody teeth! It was snarling and waving its huge paws around, that’s when he noticed it had an extra arm growing from its neck with giant mutated claws coming out of it everywhere!” Suddenly the inside of the tent lights up brightly and thunder fills the area like a giant explosion. As it fades into multiple rumbles Orvan and Brake find themselves screaming and standing in the middle of the tent. They soon stop, trailing their screams off as they realize what happened.
         “Whoa, I’m glad I brought my heart medication.” Orvan says then releases a heavy breath.
         “Where’d the kids go?” They look around but see no sign. Brake catches a glimpse of the other tent zipping up quickly. The two brothers burst out laughing and fall over on the ground with their faces red; guffawing and snorting.
         “We never did that when dad told us that story.”
         “Yeah, you just messed your pants up.”
         “Heh heh, yeah, good thing I’m still wet from the rain right now.”
         Brake stops laughing and looks at Orvan seriously.
         “Hey, I’m just kidding!” Orvan says while grinning. He pauses as Brake resumes laughing. “At least I hope so” He adds under his breath.

         Many more hours pass and the rain is still pounding down on the forest. Codd and Tice managed to fall dead asleep in their tent, along with Orvan in their parent’s tent. Brake was seated in the center of the tent looking around nervously. The sides of his tent begin to sway back and forth as a few gusts of wind hit. Brake turns around to where Orvan is sleeping and begins tapping him.
         “Cut it out, what is it?”
         “There’s something I need to tell you.”
         Orvan rolls over with his eyes half closed.
         “You know how this was like the only time we both could go on this trip? Well, I may have jumped the gun a little bit…”
         “What are you talking about?”
         “Remember a few days ago when we were under that hurricane watch and the hurricane missed us and made land fall in Virginia?”
         “Yeah, we almost canceled our plans because of it, why?” Orvan and Brake look each other in the eye as the wind picks up again, howling. The tent shakes violently. “No… no… don’t tell me this…”
         “Before we left they said it was turning, but they thought it was going to go deeper inland. It must be coming south now.”
         “What do we do?”
         “We should wait it out, there’s nothing else we can really do now.”
         “Oh man, we should’ve waited… why didn’t you tell us it turned?”
         “I didn’t think it would do this, how could I guess?”
         “This is exactly why your first wife left you…”
         “Hey, now’s not the time to bring that up-” Brake pauses as a loud thump is heard outside.
         “What was that?”
         Leaves rustle; many cracks and whines come from seemingly everywhere. Brake and Orvan look at each other nervously. Another impact is heard, louder this time.
         “Trees are falling…”
         They both stand motionlessly listening to the gusting wind and watching the sides of the tent moving violently.
         “Do you remember any rather large trees nearby?” Brake asks with a stutter.
         “The kids!”
         “Let’s get them over here, quick!” Brake starts unzipping the tent and steps out into harsh wind and rain. He turns around as he hears Orvan yell. The tents sides expand as a gust of wind blasts inside, the tent collapses. Brake grabs onto the edge of the tent as another blast of wind hits, making him sway then fall over. Brake forces himself to stand up against the fierce wind and he looks in the direction of the other tent; only its not there. Brake turns against the wind and peers into the wind animated darkness. “Codd! Tice!” His voice is carried away and muffled in the wind and any reply would be impossible to hear. Brake turns around back into the wind and looks back where the other tent was originally, still seeing no trace of anything or anyone. His face is suddenly plastered by a small cluster of leaves and he turns back against the wind. As he’s wiping his face he makes out the form of his brother moving around in the collapsed tent. He bends down and starts searching for the mouth of the tent, but as soon as he does a loud crack sounds nearby. Brake looks up into the tree filled sky line just as another sharp gust of wind hits him. The dark grey sky suddenly becomes even darker and the moaning of wood being stressed fills the air. Brake makes out the details of the dark object filling his view too late as limbs and leaves bare down on him. Orvan lets out a surprised yell somewhere out of view as the entire area is occupied with a fallen tree.

         Rain gently taps against the boy’s tattered tent. The two are both lying on their chests with their feet floating around in water behind them. The wind has died down to a gentle non-stop breeze. Tice lifts his head up and looks around the inside of the flat tent, noticing that it’s now light outside. “Wake up, the sun’s up. Let’s try to find our dads.” Codd peels his blood crusted face off the tent’s matted surface.
         “What happened to your face?”
         “I hit my nose on something and it bled for awhile. Don’t worry about it.”
         Tice pushes against the side of the tent on land, Codd does the same and they slowly roll the tent onto solid ground. Tice quickly unzips the opening, steps out and begins yelling his father’s name. Codd crawls out, squinting in the dim morning twilight. Trees are down all around them and nothing looks familiar. Tice turns around and is shocked to find a river of water behind him. Water stretched to the horizon, filled with trees and limbs. Codd walks away from the water and steps up on the trunk of a fallen tree. He looks around the surrounding area for signs of anything or anyone but sees nothing but trees. Below him he sees three deer lying in a small clearing; all three were shaking. His presence didn’t seem to alarm them at all. Tice looks up at the widely swirling clouds around them.
         “I think this is a hurricane.”
         “I don’t care about that, where are our parents?” Codd says while jumping down from the tree trunk.
         “Let’s go back that way; I’m sure we didn’t come from that way” Tice makes a gesture towards the large body of water behind them. The two start walking away from the water while yelling out their parent’s names. As they disappear over debris the sky grows noticeably darker.

         A coughing is heard from the top of a large fallen tree. The limbs move a little as someone makes straining sounds. Brake’s head appears by a long broken limb. “Still doing okay over there, Orvan?”
         “Yeah, but it’s getting a bit hot in here.” Orvan replies with a slight muffle.
         “Don’t worry; it’s hot out here too.”
         Brake’s head disappears into the mass of limbs again and movement is seen throughout the tree. The sound of cloth moving can be heard followed by gasps.
         “Whew! I’m glad to be out of that thing.” Orvan quickly stumbles out of the tree limbs; his face is bright red and dripping wet. Brake slowly walks out behind him.
         “Any sign of the kids, yet?” Orvan asks.
         “No, but I believe their tent was blown that way.” Brake points the direction the wind was blowing, a path of fallen trees points the same way. The two take a moment to drink some water and as they do a welcomingly cool wind begins to blow. Dark clouds move around the sky, randomly casting shadows on the trees and ground. Brake crumples up his bottle of water and pushes it back into his backpack. “I think we’re in the eye of the hurricane.”
         “We better hurry then.”
         The two start helping each other over a huge tree limb and start following the path of fallen trees. After a few minutes Orvan stops moving and grabs Brake’s shirt slowing him down. Brake looks around and feels a few drops of cold rain landing on his body.
         “It’s just rain, let’s keep going.”
         Orvan points a bit to his left at a large dark brown object moving ahead of them walking with a limp. Brake’s entire body tenses up.
         “Let’s go around it.” Orvan says while pulling Brake’s shirt again; Brake reacts stiffly and doesn’t take his eyes off the bear. As they slowly move over a trunk Orvan steps on a limb which snaps loudly. A strange growling comes from beside them; they turn around and see the bear is now hobbling in their direction. Brake lets out a squeal of fear as Orvan drags him across the tree.
         “I thought I was the one scared of bears?”
         “Bears with a third arm growing out of their neck maybe, but this thing is real!”

         The two boys have covered a great distance over a small period of time. Tice shoos flies from a cut on his arm while Codd runs further ahead and stops with a surprised look on his face.
         “There’s no way we were turned around!”
         Tice looks up and sees a large river of water over the next tree trunk. “This isn’t the same place; you can see land on the other side.”
         “Where do we go now?”
         A distant crackle of thunder rumbles deeply and the wind blows hard. The two turn around and duck below the trunk of a fallen tree.
         “I don’t know, but I think the storm’s coming back.”
         “I think we should go back to our tent.”
         “Think that’s where they’ll be looking for us?”
         “Maybe, but we also left all our food and water there.” Tice jumps up from behind the trunk and steps into sideways rain. “Plus, we can use the tent as shelter.”
         Codd walks behind him and the two head off back the direction they came.

         Brake screams loudly as he comes to a halt just inches into a fast moving river of water. He turns around just as Orvan bumps into him. They both stop and they can make out the figure of the bear hobbling slowly behind them through the rain.
         “We can’t cross this!” Orvan yells while walking back on land a few feet away. He picks up a long stick and starts swinging it in the direction of the bear. “Come on Limpy! You want to maul me?!” The bear sits down and makes some low growling sounds. The wind blows through his fur revealing a large bloody wound on its side. Orvan drops the stick as bear begins to lie on its side. “Brake… I think we can get by. Let’s find the kids.” The two men walk by the moaning bear and continue on their original path. The sky continues to grow darker and the wind and rain becomes slightly harder, blowing in the opposite direction from the previous night. Tree limbs start to fly up from the ground with each gusting wind. Brake holds his backpack in front of him as a shield while Orvan stands directly behind him.
         Brake turns his head back to Orvan, “This is just getting worse. I don’t think I can keep going!” He yells.
         “Remember, this is getting worse for our kids too!”
         Brake pauses looking at Orvan, then his face becomes serious and he forces forward against the incoming wind, rain, limbs, dirt and leaves. After a few minutes of him slowly trudging forward he steps into a large puddle of water. He ignores it and walks further, landing in more water.
         “Stop!”
         Brake looks back alarmed and sees Orvan stepping out of the water. Brake moves his backpack so he can see in front of him and finds a huge lake of water as far as he can see. They both look back and can barely make out a swelling of water where they just were.
         “We’re in a flood!” Brake yells.
         “Can Tice swim?”
         “Yeah, can Codd?”
         “Yes, very well. He knows CPR too.”
         “Let’s move to the highest ground.”
         They turn around and start heading back, climbing over a huge tree trunk finding temporary shelter behind it.
         “This is bad…” Orvan comments under his breath.
         Brake crawls up on the tree trunk and peers over at the nearby water. A small group of deer run by in panicky blur. They soon return as if they had no where else to run and huddle at the base of the trunk on the other side of Brake and Orvan. Brake leans over to Orvan “I think we’re on an island… I’m going to keep a look out for the kids. If they made it they would be here.”
         Orvan looks up with his eyes wide. “Don’t say ‘if’.”
         Brake returns to looking over the tree trunk. An object starts moving off to his right, but it’s hard to make out in the sideways rain. Brake jumps out and runs in its direction. Orvan sits up and peers over the trunk as Brake disappears into the rain. Brake quickly runs back and dives over the trunk landing next to Orvan.
         “What was it?”
         “The bear…” Brake spits out with labored breaths.
         Orvan resumes Brake’s watch over the trunk. He spots the location of the bear but it seems stationary. He leans up and looks over at the water, spying something large blowing in the wind. It flies past the trunk and lands against the bear’s side. Orvan looks at this curiously. Two figures suddenly stumble into view from the direction the object blew in from. The two figures fall over constantly in the wind.
         “I see them!” Orvan yells excitedly.
         Orvan jumps over the trunk without caution and lands on the huddled deer causing them to run away. Brake jumps over too, helps him up and they both run over to the two boys who are grabbing at their tent stuck against the bear.
         “Tice! Codd!” Brake yells as he grabs them from behind. Orvan comes running up and takes Codd. The kids yell something at their parents while hugging them, but they can’t be understood in the wind. Brake and Orvan start to pull them away, but Tice grabs the tent and pulls. The bear’s head turns around from behind the tent plastered to his body. Tice screams and Brake starts pulling him away. “The bear needs that more than us right now!” Brake yells. They all retreat to the other side of the large tree trunk and check to make sure everyone’s alright.

         Several hours pass and the hurricane has moved on. The four are awoken as a group of helicopters start circling around the flooded area. They all stand up and start waving hoping to catch ones attention.
         “Next year let’s be sure to bring a boat.” Brake says jokingly.
         “A boat, a cell phone, life preservers, walky-talkies...” Tice adds.
         “Industrial strength Umbrellas” Codd adds with a laugh.
         A helicopter circles over their heads noting that they’re seen.
         Orvan sits down on the ground wiping sweat off his brow. “Heck, let’s just remember to watch the Weather Channel before we leave.”