THE COLLAPSE: Seeking Refuge Read Free Page A

were milling about, holding hand saws, waiting for their buddies to knock the tree down so they could get to work on it.  Pine boughs, bark and sawdust covered the entire area and Stephen noticed three other freshly cut stumps in the vicinity.  A small paved driveway to the campsite adjacent to where the boys were cutting was loaded with a disorganized pile of pine rounds.  A middle-aged man and a young girl, presumably his daughter, were picking through the boys’ pile of wood and tossing their favorite pieces aside for themselves.  Stephen hoped that those boys were not indiscriminate with their choice of trees to harvest.  He felt as though someone needed to be in charge of that.
    The weary travelers reached site 62 and parked the truck.  They were all extremely tired because they had stayed awake all night packing up the truck (and securing their soon-to-be deserted home as best they could).  None of them had slept, not even the Kays.  It was almost eleven AM.  The sky was covered in clouds, but they weren’t the dark, stormy kind.  It was just a solid, thin blanket of grayish-white that allowed the outline of the mid-day sun to poke through.
    Tarra let Pharaoh out of the truck and instructed the Kays to lay down in the back seat to get some rest.  Fish strolled over to the pine needle covered picnic table at the site and laid down on the table top with a huge sigh.  He was exhausted, but confident that The Park leaders would let them stay. 
    Stephen was also tired, but took a moment to take in his surroundings.  He had camped there with his family many times before and knew The Park quite well.  Stephen knew that Fish was equally familiar with The Park, if not even more so, since he used to take the Kays on tons of hikes throughout the miles of trails around the Deception Pass area.  Fish would take the girls hiking and exploring so that Tarra and Stephen could have some “alone time” at the campsite….and they had appreciated Fish’s efforts tremendously :) 
    Those were different times.  Different times, indeed.  Now, camping was a means of survival and no longer just for fun.
     
    *****
     
    Hours had passed.  “I have to go potty!” one of the Kays whined from the truck.  Their voices were freakishly indistinguishable.  It could have been either of the two.
    “Me too!” cried the other one.  It was 2:28 PM according to Stephen’s wristwatch.  They still had about a half hour until the meeting with The Park leadership.  Stephen briefly thought about daylight saving time.  What day was it supposed to happen this year?   He had forgotten.  Did it even matter anymore?
    Tarra and Stephen had been sitting on the bench of the picnic table as Fish snored behind them.  Tarra asked, “Do you want to take them to the potty?”
    “Nope,” Stephen replied. “I can’t go into the women’s bathroom, I might get shot or something!”
    “Hmm.  Likely excuse, fool,” Tarra muttered playfully as she stood up and stretched.  She waved an arm and said, “C’mon girls, let’s go.”
    Pharaoh had sensed activity and volunteered to accompany the squad of females to the bathrooms, which weren’t far from site 62.  It was only a short walk across a treeless, grassy parcel of campground.  Stephen called Pharaoh back to the picnic table, for he wasn’t sure what type of rules The Park leadership had established regarding pets walking leashless around the campground.  He just wanted to be on the safe side.
    Tarra and the girls strolled across the short, moist grass.  Upon reaching the other side of the facility where the entrances of the bathrooms were located, Tarra was startled to see a teenage boy sitting in a folding camp chair on the sidewalk between the men’s and women’s doors.  The kid had four randomly colored buckets of water on the ground next to him, two along each side of his chair.  He was reading a paperback novel, but Tarra could not discern which title it was because