Dark Washington Part Seven

And even more!

Chapter 7:
The Fog of Monroe

Paul was having increasingly strange dreams. The dead innkeeper stood up, blood flowing from his wound. He held up a pocketwatch, showing the time 11:53. There was the click, click, click, of the gears. “How many minutes to midnight,” he asked, “until all who have memories of the culture before the war have died? The dark age will begin when there are none left who remember the past.” Click, click, click. “You have little time,” he said, holding it as it showed the time 11:54, “You cannot delay and wait. Head to the east, and beware the southwesterly wind. Go now, for you can spend little time here.” Click, click, click.
Silvia strode into the room. “What’s that sound? I can’t sleep with it.”
The dead innkeeper held it at her, click, click, click, but she did not respond. “Hey, Paul, get up. Can you find that source of the noise? I think it’s your Geiger Counter. I wish I had one…”
Paul jolted awake. Click, click, click came from the pack. The frequency of the clicks seemed to be increasing. Radiation? Yes, the wind was coming from the Seattle. The southwest. He opened his pack and looked at the Geiger counter. It was the source of the noise. Click, click, click click, click click.
Silvia looked fairly calm, “It’s the Geiger Counter? We should be able to stay here with only that much, right?”
“No,” said Paul, “I don’t think we will. The levels of radiation are rather high. The fallout seems to be blowing into this valley; I suggest we go into the mountains for now. I don’t know when we will get to Monroe. They could have a method of protection against it. Most communities do have at least one shelter. What time is it? I feel well rested, at least there’s that.”
“I think it should be 5 AM,” said Silvia, “If Monroe has shelter, why don’t we go there?”
“One, we will not make it soon enough, and two, there is a chance it may not be there. It looks like there is fog coming it. There’s a good chance it is radioactive. I think we should get to high ground before it gets here.”
Paul packed up the materials and put out the embers of the fire. Little wisps of fogs drifted up. It looked very scenic and calm, yet at the same time ominous. They set out at about 5:30 AM, the sun having just risen. The Cascades could be seen, with snow on the caps, and it was a forested area. Some of the trees looked like they had just grown after the war, but a few where old and hundreds of feet tall. Sunlight shone through the branches, making the dew on the leaves glitter. It was about a 5 degree morning but heating up. The trail they took was not too strenuous, but Paul led the way at a fast pace. They were sweating quite a bit, and Silvia began to get tired and complain, but Paul only needed look at the fog and dust behind them, and the click click, click click of the Counter to silence her. Talk between the two travelers was minimal as they were still tired and too exhausted to talk.
There was a bit of uphill climb, which gladdened Paul. The fog had made it nearly half of the way to them. It was odd that there would be this much radiation, but it was known to happen. A bit of radiation stored in the soil kicked up by high winds, or even a nuclear reactor shutting melting down. This level of radioactivity in the air was already dangerous, and the fog was sure to be extremely dense with radioactive particles. Paul decided to walk faster, seeing the click frequency beginning to increase.
“What?” cried Silvia in disdain, “We’re already practically running! Do we need to walk faster? I don’t see what you’re worried about, that fog is moving so slow.”
“Yes, do you see the elevation the top of the fog is at? We need to be there in about 1 hour. I took us 2 hours to get here. We need to go much faster.”
“Humph. Well, I’m tired.”
“Radiation sickness is much worse than being tired. I’m sure you’ve heard stories of what has happened.”
Silvia looked worried at this. They continued on for another hour, passing streams, meadows, even a few decaying houses. Though it would be nice to loot the supplies, Paul found that it often showed remnants of the tragic tales of those living in the wartime. Paul avoided them, as he sometimes thought he saw eyes staring out the broken windows. Silvia seemed equally cautious.
The clicking began to decrease as they reached the top of the ridge. The fog would clearly go under them at the elevation they were at. Paul smiled for the first time that day and cheered. He saw Silvia pointing down at the bottom of the ridge. There was the black line of Route 2 passing through a cluster of buildings, just about to be swallowed in fog. There were no lights, but smoke was rising from some of the buildings. It didn’t appear to be populated.
The town became completely enshrouded in the fallout fog. The trees Paul and Silvia had been walking through minutes ago where lost in the blank fog. From the ridge they were standing on to a distant rising on the other side of Route 2, the entire valley was covered in what looked like a giant cloud, moving up the valley into the mountains. The wind was strong.
Click…click…click… The Geiger Counter slowed its clicks. Paul sat down, breathing a sigh of relief. They had made it. Now, what of Monroe?
“The town down there looks like it has been abandoned for a while,” said Silvia, “What should we do now? I don’t suppose you have a remarkable back up plan to save our lives, now, do you?”
“Not really,” Paul said, deeply disappointed, “I expected it to be here.”
“I don’t care what you expected, I care what we do now,” she said dryly, “Or am I going to have to beg the bandits to re-hire me?”
Paul cast an angry glare at Silvia. “We have guns. If I kill a large animal we can eat the meat and I can tan the skin to make it into leather and use it as a tent.”
“You know how to do that?”
“Yeah, I’ve lived in the wilderness most of my life. I’m experienced in living without much support.”
“It seems that would get lonely.”
“It can be. It’s peaceful though, and I use the time to think. It’s not as bad as it would seem. Eventually I do go into towns, mostly just to see people.”
“It is nice, the wilderness. Unlike before the war. There were hardly any forests around!”
“That is one of the few good things brought by the war. It isn’t that lonely out here, and very peaceful and scenic. Much like how people before the war took nature walks, only longer. Though length doesn’t matter after a while,” said Paul. “Since the fog is covering Monroe, I suggest we head east along this ridge. I think there are smaller towns farther up Route 2. Do you think we should go?”
“Sure,” Silvia said, “No reason why not to. I would suspect some of them would have lasted a while, if there were enough farms around to keep the people fed.”
Paul and Silvia headed east along the ridge. Hoping to find a few small towns that are still around, they travelled all day. The deadly fog began to fade in the valley below. Silvia was reluctant to go down; she heard that a bandit group that once joined with her on a raid patrolled the road. Paul, hearing this, feared that several of the towns may have been burned down. How powerful are the forces in the east, he wondered. He was very anxious to find out.