Chapter One - Crossing the Rubicon

Day 1

It was spring break, and the seven of us were heading to the mountains for an overnight trip of caving and spelunking. We were best friends, going back five, seven, and in some cases ten years. Our green 4x4 Suburban worked its way along the Forestry Trunk Road to the base of Mount Wapiabi Valley. At the summit of this mountain was the entrance to Chungo Cave. The sun that morning was amazing. It broke over the horizon and filled the rear-view mirror. As we drove up the dirt road, the dust hung in the air behind us as the bright morning light shone through it. The mood was surreal, almost resembling that of an alien landscape. That year, spring had come early, and the snow from the winter before was all but gone. A week earlier there had been a lot of discussion on line about solar storms coming to Earth. This was the worst since 2012, which was all the talk, because the world had been supposedly going to end in December of 2012.

My friend, eighteen-year-old Jacob Kennedy, drove the SUV that morning. He wore his favourite British military sweater, which he had purchased at an Army surplus store. Jacob was five-ten, had a slim build, and wore rimless glasses. He was well liked by everyone. He wasn’t too outspoken and generally respected other people’s opinions. Overall, he did very well in school, especially in math and physics. English, however, was not his forte. His father was in the oil business, and his mother was a fashion model. Jacob had a strong interest in anything that had to do with the military, and we even voted for him in the graduation yearbook as the person most likely to invade a small country by the time he was thirty. This being said, he was one of those people who would risk his own life to help someone in need. Jacob and I had a very special bond. I always knew he had feelings for me, but he never had the courage to tell me. Nor did I have the guts to let him know that I felt the same way. Deep down we secretly hoped that one day our friendship might lead to something more.

Along for the trip was my best friend, Keara Bennett. Keara was British, and had moved to Calgary in 2000. She resembled the actress with the same name. This caused some issues at school, because students would make fun of her constantly.

Keara was the girl every boy had a crush on, but never built up the courage to ask out. She had long, light brown hair and hazel eyes. She had a slender build and a beautiful smile. When she walked into a room, everyone noticed. She was my height, and enjoyed the outdoors and spending time with friends.

Sitting next to Keara that morning was Kim Wong. Kim was eighteen, a volleyball champ, and gymnast. She was planning to try out for the university team, and her goal was to one day make it to the Olympics. In university she was going to study medicine and hoped to be a doctor. She was five-four, and had beautiful raven-black hair cut in a trendy bob. She had been born in Hong Kong, and when she was two years old, her father and mother immigrated to Canada. Her father was a doctor and her mother a lawyer. Kim had one older brother named Jason. Kim was a remarkable person, full of life, caring and we all loved her.

Crowded into the backseat was Robert Osment, also eighteen. Robert loved the whole camping thing and was quick to educate all of those less experienced, such as myself. He played on the school football team and always had a strong following of females. Regardless of his popularity, he was a very nice guy to all. He had light blond hair and was around six feet tall. Robert planned to study engineering once he graduated. His dad was a car salesman and his mother a stay-at-home mom. He also had a younger sister named Mackenzie.

Then there was Tom Wilde. Tom was a great guy. He was five-eleven and had curly brown hair. This year his goal was to excel in school so he would have a good chance of getting into an Ivy League university. He was quite handsome, and characterized by his strong Roman nose. Tom aspired to someday be a lawyer. His dad managed a tree farm business, and his mom worked for an accounting firm. He had a fifteen-year-old sister named Jennifer.

And then there was Andy Taylor. He was five-six, with thick strawberry-blond hair, and covered in freckles. He had to carry sunscreen all the time. Andy always made us laugh. I think his sense of humour is the one thing that I will always remember.

Unlike most of us, Andy was a little lost. He didn’t have a clue what he wanted from life. He just needed some time to figure it out. Andy was the son of a Mormon minister. A rebel who was constantly breaking the rules. This behaviour extended to his family life, which quickly turned him into the black sheep. He had three brothers, and five sisters. Sorry, but I can’t remember their names. There were just too many of them, and I saw them only once or twice over the years.

The seven of us were best of friends, all from very diverse backgrounds. I think what connected us to one another was that we all loved adventure. We did what every teenager enjoyed doing. We would go to parties, watch the latest movies, go hiking, and even attempted skydiving. We were on a mission to enjoy ourselves as much as possible before reality pushed us to grow up and become productive adults.

We had even been talking about going backpacking to Chile that summer. I had family there, since my mom was from Santiago. She met my dad when she came to visit Canada in1995. In a short time, they fell in love, and she never returned home. Our family had visited Chile several times in the last decade, so I had many relatives who had offered my friends and I a place to stay.

We pulled into the empty parking lot at the base of the mountain around nine that morning. Everyone grabbed their backpacks, and we walked a short distance toward the river to set up camp. The hike to the cave would take us about two hours, and after lunch, we headed out with maps and daypacks in hand. The trail to the cave was poorly marked, but Jacob had made the trip last summer and more or less knew the way.

After a gruelling two hours, we arrived at the entrance of the cave. The climb almost killed us. We just assumed we were in great shape because we were young, but we were obviously wrong. I probably slowed down the group, but we did manage to make it around 3:00 p.m.

What had started out as a bright, sunny day suddenly turned into a strange mix of clouds and fog. The temperature dropped, and it felt as though, at any minute, it would begin to snow or rain, yet something was preventing this from happening.

The Chungo Cave was a four-by-six-foot gap in the rock that ran down in a forty-five-degree angle into the heart of the mountain. If you didn’t know where the entrance was, you could very easily miss it.

We were well equipped, or so we thought at the time: lights, helmets, three hundred feet of rope, warm clothing, a first aid kit, and gloves, all the things you could possibly need, on this sort of trip, and more.

I still remember the view from the top of the mountain. I could see the river valley as it stretched for miles. The seven of us just stood there in awe. We managed to find a tree with a low-lying branch, which we used as a makeshift tripod, and took a group photo standing by the entrance of the cave. There wasn’t a sound. All we could hear was the wind.

We tied the first of our ropes to the same tree, which was about ten feet from the entrance. Cave maps in hand, we started the descent into the caves.

“Who wants to lead?” Tom asked.

“Jacob knows the way,” I said

Jacob smiled and started his way down the two hundred feet of rope. “It’s not too bad. Watch your footing.”

One by one we started heading down. Very quickly day turned to night. If it hadn’t been for the lights on the headlamps, we couldn’t have seen anything.

Soon we were in the first cavern, named the Cathedral. Millions of years of water and ice had carved this grand space. It was very cold, and we could all see our breath against the bright light of the headlamps. Water gradually turned to ice, and we really had to pay attention to our footing. The walls of the cave glistened as our lights hit them, like out of some sci-fi movie. We took some photos with our iPhones, which unfortunately didn’t turn out that great. The cave was just too big, and we didn’t have the light needed to get good shots.

A number of offshoots, or side tunnels, led deeper into the mountain. I can’t remember which one we chose, but I don’t think it would’ve changed the course of any of the day’s events.

As the seven of us started down a very small tube, a feeling of claustrophobia came over me. The thought of being stuck there was overwhelming, and I silently began to panic.

After seventy-five or so feet, we came to a small chamber with a large hole, right in the middle. It went straight down. About fifteen feet below was another chamber. Jacob tied a rope off in a carabiner left by some other people. He dropped the lines down.

“Who wants to go first?” Jacob asked.

I decided to take the lead and go first. Having learned to rappel at the YMCA, I headed down. Behind came Kim, Keara, Tom, Andy, Robert, and lastly Jacob. The thought of all seven of us down in this hole was quite frightening. What if the rope broke on the way up?

The time was around 4:00 p.m. We all decided to turn off our lights for a minute. We sat there in total darkness. All we could hear was the sound of our own hearts beating.

“Okay, this is weird!” Andy yelled out.

“You think?” replied Tom sarcastically.

“Okay, I think it’s getting late and we should start heading out,” Keara said. The darkness was starting to get to her.

“She’s right. It could be raining up top as far as we know,” said Jacob.

We started our way back up. Kim went first, while Jacob and Tom acted as the anchor line. Keara followed, then me. We joked that we should drop the rope down the hole and leave the guys there.

It was then that it happened, and the course of our lives would change forever. When I think back, we all had a somewhat different description of the exact events, but the first thing I remember was a soft static sound that caused an uncomfortable ringing in my ears. The sound became more intense, and I could actually taste it. It was like when you were a kid and put a nine-volt battery on your tongue.

“Quiet! What’s that sound?” Robert called out.

Then a sequence of lights, similar to an aurora borealis, swept from one side of the cave to the other. It felt as though it were trying to embrace us. Our headlamps immediately went out, but the light was still there, more intense now.

As quickly as the sound and light came, they were gone. We all stood there speechless and in total darkness. I didn’t know if I should feel scared or relieved, but I was glad it was over.

“What the hell was that? Now what do we do?” I asked, startled.

We tried our lights, but none of them worked anymore. It couldn’t have been the lights—they were LED—so the only other explanation was that the batteries had died.

Jacob called out to us, “Are you all right up there?”

I called back, telling him we were fine. Were we? I was scared. I couldn’t see Kim or Keara. “Don’t move! You could fall down the hole!” I yelled out.

Then from below, there was a green glow. Jacob had broken a green glow stick he’d been carrying in his backpack.

“I’ll say it again. What the hell was that!” cried Andy.

“I don’t know,” said Jacob, “but let’s get out of here.”

Kim pulled her iPhone from her pocket, hoping to use it as a flashlight, but like everything else, it was dead.

Tom, Andy, and finally Jacob made their way up to us. Once we were all together, Jacob pulled a small windup flashlight survival unit from his pack. He wound it, and we all watched anxiously as it glowed to life.

“It works, so whatever happened sucked the batteries dry,” Jacob said.

We had one light and one glow stick. We were desperate to get out now. We worked our way to the Cathedral. Once we arrived, we got ready to head up to the surface.

“That sucks,” Tom said. “Does anybody’s watch still work? Mine stopped.”

We all looked at our watches. The only one who still had a working watch was Jacob. It was an Eco self-powering solar watch, which started to come back to life when we shone a light on it.

Jacob said he would take the lead and be the first to climb back to the surface. As he pulled on the rope, it gave way. “What the hell?”

I remember him pulling the loose line down toward him. It just ended. Using the light, we looked at the end. It wasn’t cut, or it didn’t look cut, at least. It just looked like it ended. There was no carabiner or knot. Nothing.

“This isn’t good.” Jacob gave out a deep sigh. “Tie the rope off on me, and I will try and climb my way up and out. Once I make it, I will call down to you and pull on the line.”

Jacob started up the long tunnel to the surface. We quickly lost sight of him, as the light from the outside world, shone down on us regardless of it being one hundred and fifty feet away, it blinded us.

We waited. It seemed like forever until we felt a pull on the rope and heard the faint sound of Jacob’s voice calling down to us. One by one we started up. I pulled myself toward the light as I quietly prayed to get out of this hell. Within a short while, I was lying on a hard rock, trying to catch my breath and crying simultaneously. We were all out and very lucky to be alive.

The sun felt warm and comforting on our skin as we sat there, speechless and in shock, just taking in the fresh oxygen that we had been deprived of in the cave. It was then that Jacob pointed out to us that the small lone tree we had used to tie our line was no longer there.

“Where is it?” asked Keara.

Tom and Andy insisted that Jacob had pulled it into the cave and it had slid down when the line was cut. Jacob pointed out there was no tree to be seen when he made his way to the surface. We agreed to disagree, and pulled the last of the rope in and started down the trail.

Unlike our trip up the mountain, Jacob couldn’t find his way down with the same speed. He was having a hard time locating the trail, and we struggled to work our way down, tripping several times on the loose stones and rocks.

We had no way of knowing the exact time. It could have been two or three hours since we had entered the cave. We finally came across the stream that would lead us to base camp. In forty-five minutes, we would be there.

We walked, but no camp was visible. We turned and doubled back. Finally we came to a point in the stream that we all agreed was the place we had made camp. By now, the sun was setting behind the mountains, and darkness was fast approaching. Jacob, Robert, and Tom headed out looking for the SUV. They returned just as the last of the daylight faded away.

No luck. Like everything else, the SUV was also missing.

The boys built a fire to keep us warm. We were exhausted, but I don’t think anyone slept for more than a few hours that night. I clearly recall the distressed looks on all of our faces.

I lay down, using my pack as a pillow. The campfire burned about five feet away from me. The heat on my face from the dancing flames put me in enough of a trance to finally fall asleep.

Day 2

I woke up hungry and to the sound of worrying. Jacob was winding up the small orange LED flashlight he had had in the cave the day before. It turned out this handy device also had a small solar panel, AM/FM radio, and a USB charger port. He was working at charging his iPhone from it. Jacob had one of those SLXtreme solar power cases for his iPhone, which made it indestructible. Given time, it would have charged itself with the solar cell, but Jacob was not going to wait the needed hours.

“Good morning,” Jacob said. “How did you sleep?”

“I don’t know. I guess okay. What are you doing?”

“Charging my phone.”

“How is it going?” I asked.

“Twelve percent and I have been at it for about twenty minutes. My hand is going to fall off. But it’s working.”

By now, the rest of the group was getting up, and they made their way around the fire and Jacob.

“Does it work?” Robert asked

It did work, but there was no signal. No network. The phone just kept searching.

When we had arrived the day before, there was a very weak signal, but nothing today. To make sure that the problem wasn’t Jacob’s phone, he charged mine, and then Robert’s, for a few minutes to get them working. Same thing. No signal.

The smartphones worked as they should. They still took photos and played music. Anything stored on their memory was still there. There was just no network or signal. We also tried the radio that was built into the charger unit. All we got was static. We took turns that morning charging our gadgets. We ate what little food we had from the day before, which we had carried to the mountain and back. If one could believe the time on the phones, it was now noon. The sun was high in the sky, so we believed the time to be somewhat correct.

Robert, Andy, and Jacob went out on one more scout to see if they could find the SUV or anything familiar. They returned around one.

“Nothing,” Andy said.

“What’s happening? What are we going to do?” I asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” replied Jacob.

All we had were the facts: We entered a cave on March 24. Around three PM something—a light and a static sound—passed through the cave, through us. When we left, things were not the same, no tree, no trail, no campsite, tents, or SUV, and no way home.

“What do we have?” I asked. “I mean, what do we have that we can use to survive and get home?”

We dumped all the items from our backpacks on the ground and took an inventory. Other than the clothes on our backs, we had:

7 daypacks

3 groundsheets

7 phones (5 iPhones, and 2 BlackBerry phones)

2 MP3 players

270 feet of rope left

7 useless flashlights

7 wallets, some cash, debit cards, IDs

4 pairs of sunglasses

2 sets of eyeglasses for Jacob, 1 spare set

1 light / radio / USB charger unit

1 pair of binoculars

7 water canteens

1 day of food each

3 boxes of matches

1 lighter

1 flint fire starter

1 pack of smokes

7 knives of different sizes

7 watches, 1 of which still worked, Jacob’s Eco

1 wire saw

3 Leatherman multi-tools

1 small hand ax

1 first aid kit

7 pairs of spare socks

1 map of the area

1 poor road map of Alberta

2 notepads

2 pens

4 pencils

1 camera

Assorted female hygiene products

1 three-pack of condoms

3 toothbrushes

2 small tubes of toothpaste

1 nail file

1 nail clipper

9 plastic Ziploc bags

3 rolls of toilet paper

2 paperback books

1 bar of soap

1 can of bug spray

1 useless GPS unit

2 boxes of dead AA and AAA batteries

7 raincoats

7 helmets

1 small flask of Grand Marnier

1 handheld compass

1 Smith &Wesson .357 handgun (Jacob’s, for bears, he told us)

24 rounds of .357 ammo

1 small black four-by-eight-inch leather case, which contained five days of insulin for Robert, who was type 1 diabetic

This was what we had, and no way of getting out of there. I remember we sat next to the river, talking about what to do next, trying to understand what had happened.

It was then that Jacob told us his theory.

“Here is what I think happened. As hard as this may be for some of you to believe or understand, I think we somehow travelled in time.”

“What! Oh, come on,” Keara said. “Get real. That’s just stupid!”

“Well, I open the floor to any other answers,” said Jacob. “Nothing is the way it was when we went into the cave. Look around! There is no cell coverage, and all of our stuff is gone.”

“But how?” I asked.

Jacob knelt down and picked up some rope from the pile we had. He held it up and out.

“Think of this rope as time, or a time line. If I pull the rope tight, this is time as we know it. We are here.” Jacob gestured toward his right hand. “My right hand is us yesterday in the cave. Physics tells us it is possible to fold time and space. What if this point here was folded across to this point here?” Jacob closed the two points of the rope together and touched his left and right fingers, pinching the rope in between. “For an instant, these two points in time occupied the same space. What if this can only happen inside a planet like Earth? Who knows? Maybe it can happen anywhere. But for us it happened inside the mountain.”

We sat there like confused first-year school kids, not knowing what to say. We looked at each other. At the time, we all thought he was insane, clearly out of his mind.

“As the space in the mountain shared the same moment in time with the past or future, we crossed over. That’s why the rope leading to the surface just ended. That’s why nothing is the way we left it.”

“Okay, if this is even possible, which I doubt, where are we on your time line?” I asked.

“I don’t know. We could be ahead or back. Wherever it is, it’s long enough for there to be no more trails or roads around this area. No cell towers or anything that we would remember.”

I guess we hoped it was just a bad joke someone was playing on us, but how could it be? Nothing could explain what was happening to us. I looked over at Robert. I knew what he was thinking. If someone didn’t help us soon, or we didn’t find our own help, he would die.

We discussed all the possible options. Early on, we knew we couldn’t stay where we were. We needed to move and find help and try to figure out our exact location, if Jacob’s theory was, in fact, correct.

Jacob suggested that we move due west toward the coast, a six-hundred-mile walk. Staying where we were was not an option. It was March when we entered the cave. At the time we had no way of knowing if it was still March, or later on in the year? In whatever year it was, winter would be coming at some point, four or maybe six months, and there was no way we would survive the cold. Not seven teens from the city with only a handful of somewhat useless items. No food, no shelter, no tent, nothing. A six-hundred-mile trek sounded mad at any time. Adding the mountains to it made the journey seem insane. And what about Robert? He had about five days of insulin with him. Jacob’s plan was not going to work. It was not going to save our friend.

By late afternoon, we decided to head east, toward the town of Nordegg, or where we hoped the town would be. We had good maps of this area and felt, with luck; we could make the town site in two or three days.

In the last years of school, in history class, we were taught about Julius Caesar, who in 49 BC crossed the Rubicon River in Northern Italy. He built boats to cross the river with his army. Once they had crossed, he ordered the boats burned so that he and his men could no longer retreat back across the river if they should fail taking Rome. It was for Caesar and his men a point of no return.

That afternoon we said good-bye to our campsite. We all knew we had crossed the Rubicon, and there was no turning back. Our boats were burned. Whatever happened in the mountain had changed the course of our lives. This day and all the days ahead would test who we were. It would tear us down and build us up, and make us stronger.

It was at that point that I started to take the first notes of our journey, so that someday our story could be told. I pulled out my iPhone and took the first photos. Before I put it away, I looked back on the photos stored in the memory. There were some of my family, my school, and my friends. Would I ever see them again?

Day 3

We walked all day along the stream, which turned into a river. By night we were out of food, tired, and most of us had the start of blisters.

It would be one more day before we made the town site. We built a fire, tried to stay warm, and went to sleep hungry. At some time in the night, it started to rain hard, so hard it killed our fire, and we were left sitting in the rain with our raincoats.

Day 4

We awoke to clear skies and sunshine. We were hungry and weak. We got underway, and by late afternoon, we arrived at what should have been the town of Nordegg.

There was no town in sight, no road and no trail, not a single remnant or sign of human life ever coming in contact with this area.

“Well that sucks,” Andy said.

“Are you sure this is the right spot,” Kim asked.

“I’m sure and yes, it does suck,” replied Jacob as he dropped his pack on the rocky ground.

“So now what?” I asked

“Now we eat,” said Jacob as he opened his pack and pulled the .357 magnum from it. “Tom, are you coming with me?”

Tom nodded in agreement, dropped his pack, and the two of them headed into the woods.

The rest of us stayed together. Robert rested for a while and decided to pull out his insulin kit. He gave himself a shot in the arm and waited. The rest of us scattered nearby and gathered wood for the fire that would cook our food and keep us warm through the night.

Sometime later we heard what we thought were gunshots.

An hour or so later, Jacob and Tom showed up carrying a small animal that looked like a deer. They dropped the carcass at our feet. Both of them were covered in blood.

“There you go. Dinner,” said Jacob.

I remember Keara asking, “What do you want us to do with it?”

“Clean it while we start the fire.”

“You have to be kidding!” was the short, to-the-point response from Keara.

We all stood around looking at the small deer not knowing where to start. I had never cleaned an animal. Jacob had never hunted or killed anything other than insects. But that night, for the first time in days, we lay down to sleep with full stomachs. Not the best meal I ever had, but the hunger was gone. I had actually experienced what it was like to go to sleep hungry. It’s funny how we all complained to our parents when we believed to be hungry, but that day, I actually understood what it really meant.

That night most of us slept very well. The only one who had a difficult time was Robert. I still see him there, staring at us while the fire lit his frightened face. He knew, as all of us did, that his chances of survival were diminishing with every day that passed. He had the look of someone who was going to die. This was the first time I think I ever saw this look, and it wouldn’t be the last time.

Day 5

We decided that we needed to form a plan to give us some direction. The boys were no longer looking like boys. They needed to shave. We were dirty and smelled awful. It was that time of the month, and I felt drained and weak. Kim and Keara weren’t looking any better.

“So what now?” asked Andy.

We all just sat there. It was funny. Normally we always knew what to do. If someone would ask, “What do you think we should do?” someone would always speak up and say this or that. As friends, we bounced our thoughts off each other and normally reached a consensus. This shouldn’t have been any different, but unfortunately, we were in such a strange scenario, that we could no longer agree with one another.

“We’ll make our way southeast, toward the Calgary Trail, and once we are in open country, we can try and make our way to where Calgary should be,” Jacob said.

Robert was quick with a rebuttal. “It won’t make any difference. If this is the future, then mankind is gone; and if this is the past, even if there is a town site, the cure to what I have doesn’t exist.”

“We don’t know that,” Kim said.

“Yes, we do,” responded Robert. “You’re better off heading west before the winter comes. Each day that goes by, we are heading further and further in the wrong direction.”

“Well, you know, I say we try.” With that, Jacob stood up and grabbed his pack. “Well, are we going?” He opened his hand and called us forward, then started walking away from us. We did what friends do. We grabbed our packs and followed him. Kim walked over to Robert and helped him to his feet.

“Thank you,” Robert said.

“Hang in there, things always work out.” Kim said.

Deep down in my heart, I knew how this would end. The trip to Calgary, or what we hoped would be Calgary, would take five to six days. In two more days, Robert Osment, age eighteen, would use the last of his insulin. Regardless of all of Kim’s good beliefs, her words wouldn’t save him.

Day 7

Like the previous day, we walked. I constantly wondered how in God’s world anyone could have survived on this land, what with the bugs, the swamps. I never hated anything in life, but this I hated with every fibre of my being. No words could convey the sheer hell we were living. Our detailed map of the caves and the Nordegg area had run out. Jacob was now using a road map. There were no landmarks. Every hill, every creek, they all looked the same. Jacob estimated we were making eight to ten miles a day. As the bird flies, we would make the Bow River in six days.

We were starting to convince ourselves that this wasn’t real, that we had simply died and this was hell. This made more sense than reality.

It was decided that Robert would try to take the insulin every two days in order to stretch out what remained. He seemed to be in a decent mood considering the circumstances, and his stride was steady. It was us girls who found it the most difficult. Robert was fit, and I believe this is what drove him on.

Each night we ate the same thing, deer meat. There was no salt, and it was starting to make me ill, but it kept us nurtured and alive to endure what remained of our journey. We stayed together, testing our friendship as never before.

Day 9

We came to a river. I don’t know what river, since the map was useless at this point. It was very wide, and it took us most of the day to find a spot to cross. We packed our electronics in Ziploc bags, just in case we fell. Our photos and music were all that connected us to reality. Losing them at this point would have been a hard blow.

The water was freezing. We put our packs over our heads as we crossed. The water worked at our bodies, trying to wash us away.

When we finally made it across, we were cold, wet, and close to running out of food. Today would be a short day as we dried off around the campfire. Jacob guessed we were at the halfway point. Tomorrow would be the last day of insulin for Robert.

I lay there next to the fire thinking, for the first time, that I was alone in this world. My friends were around me, yet I felt as though I had been abandoned. Then, for whatever reason, I got up from where I was lying, made my way over to Jacob, and lay down next to him. I needed to hold someone. I needed his warmth next to my body.

Jacob was about to say something to me, but I quickly put my hand over his mouth. “Please don’t say anything,” I whispered.

That was the first time I had ever been so close to him. Lying there that night took away the loneliness. I felt warm, safe, and loved.

I looked up at the sky. It was so clear I could see every single star. Living in the city, this was something I had never experienced. I would never know how many stars filled the sky each night. As I lay there, I spotted a falling star. That night I made a special wish for Robert.

Day 13

It had now been three days since Robert had taken insulin. He was noticeably weaker, and we had to stop to rest more often. We were so close now. With luck, we would make the Bow River in one or two days. We were now on grasslands, which were easier to travel on, and Jacob figured we were easily making eighteen to twenty miles a day.

As night came, it was clear that Robert could not go any farther. He seemed very weak, his breathing was shallow, and we could see he was having a very difficult time keeping up. The colour of his skin had changed during the course of the day. He could no longer think straight.

Day 14

That morning we built a stretcher out of two poles Jacob cut down using his wire saw. We lashed the poles together using some rope and lined it with the ground tarps. We placed Robert on the stretcher and took turns carrying him. My hands burned with pain from the weight of the stretcher, and my legs were slowly feeling heavier. They hurt so badly. Even with all the pain, I still recall what a beautiful day it was. I could feel the warm heat of the sun on my face, the tall grass blowing in the wind like the waves in the ocean. It was endless, as far as the eyes could see.

That afternoon we came across a sight that no person had seen in over 150 years. There, stretching out in front of us, was an ocean of brown. We stood awestruck on a hill overlooking a herd of at least a thousand buffalo.

“Well, I guess that answers which direction in time we went,” Tom said.

Tom and Kim picked up the stretcher with Robert and headed down the hill to the valley below. The rest of us stood there and looked on. I can’t put into words what it was like to see something we had studied about in school. If anything, it made me think how we humans have a way of screwing things up. Being there was magical, and I will never forget what I saw.

We finally made camp at dusk. Robert wasn’t doing very well. He was now officially in a coma. We broke into our groups, doing what was expected of each of us, and got ready for the night. Kim and I stayed with Robert and took turns holding his hand. It was difficult seeing how much he had deteriorated. He was such a strong person, but without his medication, he was completely frail. It was amazing to me how we took things like medication for granted, never really imagining how it might have been for people in the past. Now we didn’t have a choice. We were living it.

As I sat there I looked across over to Kim, she was crying. I recall trying to find the right words, words to make it all better, but they just weren’t there. I ran my fingers through Robert’s hair, thinking back on our friendship. The first day I met him was at soccer tryouts. He was eleven years old, and I had a crush on him. And now here we were, seven years later, and I was watching him die. Up to now, I had been very sheltered, never having experienced the death of anyone in my immediate family or group of friends. I kept thinking how lucky I had been. When I left, my family was healthy, and I thanked God for that. I looked at Robert, leaned forward, and softly kissed him on the lips. Good-bye, my dear friend. Kim, broke down and tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, she stood and slowly walked way.

Day 15

As the day came to an end we laid Robert to rest. We dug a shallow grave in the grasslands. The ground was so hard that Jacob had to use his knife to cut the roots and peel away the grass. We were all so tired and weak that it was all we could manage to do. Our hands were bleeding and blistered from carrying the stretcher. We laid his body down, covered it with the little soil we had, and then piled fieldstones on top of it. The setting sun cast long shadows across the ground. Kim wept, while the rest of us just stood there, her words alone could not save him. Here was someone we had known for years, a classmate and good friend. Yet no one had any words to say. Was it because we felt sorry for Robert, or was it because we felt sorry for ourselves and what lay ahead? No one would ever know what became of him. In time, the grasslands would reclaim this spot, and he, like many in this era, would be lost to time.

I think that is when it really set in—not so much the thought of death, but of not being able to say good-bye to our families, our moms, dads, brothers, and sisters. I held my iPhone and gazed at it. In this gadget was my entire life, or at least what was left of it. As humans we have this need to say good-bye and make peace. There was no peace, not for us, not knowing what had become of our loved ones wherever in time they were, and not for our families on the other side, not knowing what had become of us.

I remember turning and walking away. It was then that I finally broke down and cried; I fell to my knees. Being somewhat of a tomboy, I rarely cried. I would laugh at my girlfriends when they cried over what I considered silly things. But here I was, beaten, feeling so guilty that I had betrayed everyone and let my friend down.

Jacob walked up behind me. “Get up,” he said.

“Why?” I yelled back.

“Because there’s no point for any of us to feel sorry for him. We tried as hard as we could to keep him alive. Robert is gone, and we need to move on.”

The others made their way over to us.

“He’s gone,” repeated Jacob. “Unless we start heading west, we, too, will be gone by winter.”

“You’re an asshole, you know that, Jacob,” said Tom.

“Why, because, you don’t think I have any feelings!”

“I can’t do this anymore!” cried Keara.

“So that’s it? Sorry, no. No. I pray, I hope, he is in a better place. But, I am not going to just give up. Not me. We did our part as friends. We stayed. We didn’t leave him. We followed him, hoping that, yes, over the next fucking hill; there would be something, anything that could make this nightmare less real. I’m sorry it didn’t happen.” With that, Jacob walked away.

That night, we built a fire by the river and tried to stay warm. I had to admire the human race. Two, three hundred years ago, people lived off the land, and they survived. Here we were attempting to do the same.

Keara and Kim sat together, holding each other. I don’t know what thoughts passed within their minds. I lay down, trying to get comfortable. I could hear the sound of the crackling fire, and the flowing river water in the background. If it had been some other time, and under different circumstances, I would’ve been very happy. But now, I was just scared. One of us was gone. How long would it be before the next person would follow his steps?

As I lay there, I thought back to when I was sixteen and had surgery on my appendix. The thought of going to sleep scared the hell out of me. I remember lying there, looking at the bright lights in the operating room, and hearing the anaesthesiologist talking to me, telling me what was going to happen. It wasn’t like in the movies, where the actor counts backward from one hundred and then falls asleep.

He said to me, “We are going to give you oxygen, and then the sedative will be in the IV.” He told me to take deep breaths.

One second, I was there, and then gone. You don’t drift off to sleep; you are gone. There is nothing. No dreams, no sounds, nothing. I wondered if that’s what death was like. Are you just gone? Many believe we go to heaven. I have thought about that. I believe that we go there for a short time, maybe just to get some rest after everything we’ve endured during our life on Earth. When God thinks we are ready, he comes to us and asks if we are ready to go back. I think we need to go back. After all, there wouldn’t be enough room in heaven for all those souls. And in time, bliss would become boring. We would long to return home, to feel the grass on our feet, the wind on our face, and the warmth of the sun. Life is all of these things and much more. I prayed to God that night to take care of our friend, and that someday we would see him again. Even if it was just to say hello.

Secretly I now hoped that I would not wake up the next morning.

Day 16

Morning came, as it had for the last two weeks for us. It was cold, damp, and calm. I remember feeling depressed and lethargic, not knowing how I would survive one more day. Tom piled some more wood onto the fire, to build it up. The smoke was heavy, as it took time for the wood to dry out.

“Good morning,” Jacob said. He used to always say “Good morning, campers” with a smart-ass tone in his voice. But now, it was replaced with just a “good morning.”

“Good morning,” I said.

“How is everyone doing?”

“I guess okay.”

“Do you want something to eat? There’s a little meat left over from last night.”

“A small piece, please.”

He handed me a small portion of deer meat. It tasted awful. I used to enjoy the taste of food. Now it was only a means of survival.

That day, there was no push to make the next hill, or the next river. We took it easy. In the afternoon, I lay there in the lush green grass next to the river, catching the rays. It felt good to finally rest. We all desperately needed to restore our energy.

The days were getting hotter. We guessed it was around a hundred degrees. They were also longer. Night was only a few hours. Jacob put the time of year to be around the beginning of July.

That afternoon, I borrowed Jacob’s solar power charging case and put my phone into it so I could listen to music. Music was the one escape I had. I lay there. I was always fond of epic music, not to say I didn’t like mainstream music, but when I listened to this music, I could imagine I was somewhere else. This day I kept listening to the same piece of music. It was called “Our Final Hope.” The sun was on my face, the grass to my back, and my eyes were closed. The music carried me away for a short time. This was the first time in sixteen days that I was at peace. Thank God that I was still able to experience this. It was the only thing that brought joy into my life now. It was the first time I had been happy since coming here.

Jacob was stretched out nearby. He asked how I was doing.

“Shh,” I said. “Not now, Jacob. Enjoy the sun on your face, and let me be free and at peace for a while. Can I please have that?”

He did, and for the next hour or so, I had my wish. I could imagine I was at home or flying above the world, without any cares. It felt good while it lasted.

Later that day, while the boys were off fishing, Kim, Keara, and I made our way downstream, where we found a shallow, slow-moving area to bathe. The water was warmer. Being this far from the mountains, it had warmed in the hot sun as it moved east. The small side pond was ideal to wash all those days of dirt away. We laughed and played, throwing skipping stones like little girls. Then we stood there, looked at each other, and held hands. We finally hugged and sobbed uncontrollably. I think out of the three of us, Kim needed the love the most, I knew she felt alone.

That night we ate the catch of the day. I was never a big fan of fish, but compared to deer, it was a welcome change. We all sat around the campfire. I caught myself once again staring into Jacob’s eyes. There was a tenderness there that I hadn’t noticed before. He smiled back. I think I made him blush, but in the light, I couldn’t tell.

Later, he came and sat down next to me. We didn’t say much to one another. We just gazed at each other. Words weren’t necessary. I then laid my head down in his lap. He gazed down at me, and I felt safe. As long as Jacob was there with me, I knew I could go on. He gently began to run his fingers through my hair. It felt so soothing and comforting. I closed my eyes as he leaned down and kissed me for the first time.