Ever Onward Read Online Free PDF

pegs.
Pairs of boots sat patiently waiting for their owners to
awake.
    Now they would wait forever. All the
occupied bunks held the same dry, brittle remains that had spilled
out of Robert Fuller’s bag.
    Josh staggered and would have fallen
if Jessie hadn’t caught him. Shaken, Josh looked at his son. The
youth’s expression might have been set in granite.
    “They’re all dead. Just like Uncle
Bob.”
    Josh could only nod, his mind racing.
What was going on? It must be a bloody dream! That’s it! I’m having
a nightmare --- a terrible nightmare. I’ll wake up soon and find
myself back at camp; or better yet, in my own bed with my wife
beside him. Oh, God! Let it be a dream!
    But a part of Josh’s mind knew that
this was no dream. Things were just too damn real. The smells, the
sounds. Even the light seemed real. He squeezed Jessie’s hand.
There were tears in the boy’s eyes. Taking a deep breath, Josh
walked both of them back into the main room.
    “Sit down, Jess. We’ve got to
talk.”
    The boy did as he was told, silent
tears still flowing. Josh hugged him, his own tears mingling with
his son’s. After a while, they faced each other, hands still
touching.
    “I don’t know what has happened, Jess.
I...I’m not even sure what to say. Something has has
---”
    “Murdered Uncle Bob and all these
other people,” Jessie put in.
    The idea struck Josh like a blow.
Until now he had thought of this as some kind of accident; some
crazy, insane mistake. A disease or plague of some kind. The idea
that it might have been man-made turned his stomach. He pushed the
thought aside. That way led to madness. He rushed outside, the
crisp mountain air helping to clear his head.
    Jessie followed, offering his water
bottle. Josh accepted it with a sigh. Part of him wanted to scream;
part of him still wanted to throw-up. He settled for a
grunt.
    “Tough little bugger, aren’t
you?”
    “Can’t help it,” Jessie replied. “I
take after my old man.”
    “Ya?”, Jessie said. “Tell that to your
mother.”
    That one word froze them both.
‘Mother’. What about her? Everyone they’d seen in the mountains was
dead. What about the world outside?
    Both father and son made it back to
their camper in record time.
    On the way back to the parking lot
they’d past several tents. After calling out, Josh had looked
inside. More of the same; brittle gray-brown parchment spilling out
of sleeping bags.
    Whatever it was, it had come in the
night, somehow sparing only himself and his son. Thank God for
small wonders!
    Except for the cars, the parking lot
was empty. No gangs of eager hikers chatted as they checked their
gear. No trail weary trekkers sat resting their aching feet. The
gravel lot looked like a four-wheel graveyard.
    Josh unlocked the Westfalia and tossed
their packs inside. Jessie climbed into the front seat, a worried
expression on his young face.
    “Dad? Do you think Mom’s
O.K.?”
    The Volkswagen engine roared as Josh
swung the camper around. “I hope so, Jess, but...” He stopped
himself from speaking his fears. “We’ll soon see.”
    Ten minutes later they were in the
small town of Keen Valley. Little more than a cluster of stores and
houses perched on the stony banks of the East Ausable River, its
claim to fame was a paper mill, a post office and first rate
camping store. All were empty, all were silent, all held the
remains of what just hours ago had been living beings.
    After that Josh barely slowed down.
Taking the 9N east, he pushed the aging camper up the rolling hills
between Jay Mountain on the left and nearly mile high Giant on the
right.
    Jessie peered out the window as the
slightly larger village of Elizabethtown flashed by. “Nothing
moving here either, Dad. Maybe we should stop and check it
out?”
    Josh’s answer was to slam the
gearshift down into third and floor the gas peddle.
    He did stop as they neared the
overpass to Interstate 87. To almost everyone in the world the
words ‘New York’