Read Surviving the Fog for Free Online Page B

dumped."
    "What do you mean?" Mike asked.
    "Don't you see? We've been abandoned. We
caused our parents grief, and so they abandoned us."
    "Huh?" asked Mike, very confused by her
words.
    A girl standing nearby asked timidly, "What
about the fog?"
    Jackie shrugged again. "That's just their way
of making sure that we can't get out of the mountains and bother
them again."
    "My parents wouldn't abandon me," the girl
protested. "They love me!"
    Jackie looked at her with pity. "Sure they
do. Then why did they abandon you? Probably, they blame you for
their divorce. And now they're gone."
    The girl was clearly shocked. "My parents
aren't divorced!" she said angrily. Mike looked at her, and he gave
a shake of his head, unnoticed by Jackie.
    "Where do you think our parents have gone?"
he asked the counselor.
    Jackie scrunched up her face and thought for
a moment. "Probably to heaven," she replied.
    Other kids had gathered around. They looked
at one another. Some were shocked, some were bemused, and some were
just sad. Clearly, Jackie had become mentally disturbed. Seeing no
point in staying, Mike left. He felt more alone and more scared
than ever. Secretly, he had always hoped that Jackie would collect
herself and reestablish order. Now he realized that Jackie was
barely able to take care of herself.
    Still, Mike was determined to survive. He
started requiring the kids who wanted to join the Spears to run
several laps around the track before practice. He explained the
danger of the winter situation to the kids at a night meeting, and
he got them to agree to gather rocks to build the wall in front of
the cave so that they could move the cabins. He asked Jacob to try
to make snares to capture birds. Mike thought that they could eat
the birds, and possibly get them to lay eggs. He did a dozen other
things to try to prepare for the winter. And he made the Spears
practice, and practice, and practice.
    One day it came to him that of all the boys,
the girls seemed to trust Ralph the most. He did not understand
this until he realized that it was because Ralph was always trying
to help Jackie to recover. Ralph liked Jackie, the way that John
liked Desi. He would talk to Jackie calmly and gently. He did not
badger her for advice like some of the other kids.
    Mike thought about that, and then he acted.
One morning, as Ralph was leaving the dining hall, he was
surrounded by the Spears.
    "What's up, Chief?" Ralph grunted. He didn't
like Mike, and Mike didn't like him, but they had reached a sort of
truce at least.
    "Come with us, Ralph," Mike commanded.
    "Why should I?" Ralph demanded
truculently.
    "Because if you don't, I'll hurt you,"
answered Mike coldly.
    "You mean that you'll have your gang hurt me,
don't you," Ralph replied angrily. "You're too chicken to do it
yourself."
    "Let's go," Mike said, ignoring his
taunt.
    Ralph was furious, but he knew that he had no
choice except to obey Mike. Most of the kids now accepted Mike as
their boss, and even the ones that didn't follow the younger boy
knew that the Spears would back him. Seething and surrounded by the
Spears, he followed Mike down to the practice field. There, Mike
handed him a spear and then pointed at a target on a hay bale.
    "Throw," Mike said.
    Ralph gave the spear a half hearted toss that
barely reached the bottom of the bale. Mike handed him another
spear.
    "Listen to me, Ralph," he said very
seriously. "You're going to practice with us an hour a day, every
day, until you can beat me in ten throws."
    Ralph was astounded. "You can't make me do
that!" he exclaimed.
    "I can't make you get better," Mike answered
grimly. "But I can make you come down here with us. Better get used
to it. And if you want to stop practicing with us, you better be
able to beat me. Now throw."
    At first, Ralph tried to sabotage the
practice. Then he tried to avoid the Spears. But he found that if
he wanted to eat, he had to come to the dining hall, and when he
did they would find him. Finally, he started