The Fall of Night, Page 4

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  The Fall of Night

  Ten Below Zero

  January, 1946, was on its way to becoming the worst winter on record. My name is Lee; I was one of the guards on duty that night at Mountain View Penitentiary in Jackson County, Tennessee. We were in the process of transporting some of the prisoners from Mountain View to Stone Canyon Penitentiary in Benson County, Tennessee due to overcrowding. I had only been working at the penitentiary for about three months.

  Earlier that day we received several inches of snow. As the day passed, the winds picked up and created large snow drifts which caused hazardous road conditions in some areas. The trees were weighed down with snow and ice. All in all, though, the roads were still pretty clear. But, the strong north winds made it brutally cold.

  Most of the inmates were thieves, robbers, dopers and embezzlers. There were no hardcore prisoners incarcerated at the time. Most of the guys, within six months to a year, would be released. Only one of the inmates was under watch. He was being moved for his protection. He was going to turn state’s evidence over to the state attorney against the mob. He was being shipped out before the mobs inside men got to him. Jerry, my partner, and I watched the inmates travel through the tunnel and wire fence with razor wire weaved through the top. After they boarded the bus, they were bickering, shoving and cussing; every one of them wanted to smoke. Junior, the penitentiary bus driver, checked the weather forecast. He had made several successful trips in the past and he was determined this trip would be no different.

  “They’re predicting the temperature will be ten below zero by early morning,” informed Junior.

  “Is that going to be a problem?” I asked.

  “I believe we can make it with no problem,” Junior said boastfully. “Lee, have you done your headcount?”

  “Yes, sir, we have twenty-three inmates on board,” I replied. “Are you sure we can make it?”

  “I believe so,” stated Junior. “If not, we can always turn back.”

  About that time, the inmates started hollering and fussing. They were ready to go; it was cold. It was about twelve-thirty that night when old bus number thirteen crossed the threshold of the gates of Mountain View Penitentiary.

  “We’re on our way,” Junior said. “Let’s hope we have an uneventful trip.”

  We were scheduled to arrive at Stone Canyon around seven o’clock the next morning. Most of the inmates fell asleep and the others talked. As we left, I looked out of the front window. The headlights of the bus highlighted the ice covered trees and the blanket of snow hugging the frozen ground. The further we drove, I was more confident we wouldn’t have much trouble. But, I still worried about crossing the mountain which would be a different story. At the time, the bitter cold was my biggest worry. The temperature had already dropped to two below and was still falling, according to the radio announcer. I was startled from my thoughts by a loud fart. Within minutes, the inmates were fussing and cussing. Several of them got in a heated argument and were throwing punches at each other. And on top of that, the sickening smell of the fart caused two of the inmates to throw up.

  “Okay, men, lets settle down,” instructed Jerry.

  The inmates finally settled back down. I looked over at Junior in the rearview mirror; he had a big grin on his face. Unexpectedly, the bus started sliding and fishtailing. Junior fought to regain control of the bus, but one of the back tires slid off the road and got stuck. Junior tried his best to get the bus back on the road. Unfortunately, the back tires of the bus just spun in place.

  “Okay, men, I want you to get off the bus and push,” I instructed. “I’m warning you; don’t try anything. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir,” they replied as they exited the bus.

  Before they got off the bus good, they were fussing and cussing again.

  “Hey, guys,” I yelled. “You can get back on the bus and freeze or you can get this bus back on the road. You do realize it’s supposed to be ten degrees below zero tonight. It’s your choice.”

  The inmates hushed, went to the back of the bus and started pushing. They rocked the bus back and forth as Junior pressed on the gas. Eventually, the tires spun free and the inmates immediately ran to get back on the bus.

  “Damn, it is cold out here,” complained one of the inmates as they pushed and shoved to get on the bus.

  After the inmates were back on the bus, I did a headcount and everyone was on the bus. Within minutes we were back on our way. The snow chains clanged as Junior maneuvered the bus down the road; it was music to my ears.

  “Hey, man, that’s nasty,” one of the inmates cried out. “This dude is chewing his gum, stretching it out of his mouth, wrapping it around his finger, sticking it on the back of the seat in front of him and then putting it back in his mouth.”

  Jerry spoke up, “Either get rid of the gum or keep it in your mouth.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” replied the inmate.

  Slowly, the bus climbed higher and higher up the mountain. We were barely going twenty miles an hour. I was really beginning to worry because Junior had a worried look on his face.

  “What do you think, Junior?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t look too good right now,” he replied. “We may have to turn around and go back.”

  “Do whatever you think is best. Let’s not take any chances,” I said as I looked out the window at the deep cavern below the mountains.

  “We’ll go a little further,” replied Junior. “Keep your fingers crossed.”

  “I will,” I responded.

  Just up the way at Tucker’s Pass the storm hit hard. It was snowing so bad Junior had to stop the bus because he couldn’t see. The devilish wind was driving hard against the bus, rocking it back and forth. We sat in the middle of the road and waited for a break in the storm. But, there was no break.

  “I don’t think I can back up. There is so much snow I can’t judge the road. I believe there is a shortcut up the road. It should save us an hour. But at this point we will be arriving at Stone Canyon late anyway. What do you think, Jerry?” Junior asked.

  “I don’t think we have a choice. What do you think, Lee?”

  “I agree. There’s no way we can spend the night here. We’ll freeze to death if we just sit here. The heater on this bus isn’t much. I can barely feel it. Plus, if we just sit here idling we’ll run out of gas. I think we should go for it, Junior.”

  Junior revved the engine and put the bus in gear. At first, he couldn’t get any traction, but he kept at it and within minutes we were moving again.

  “Thank the Lord,” cried one inmate, “we didn’t have to push again.”

  “Breaker, breaker one-nine does anybody copy?” Junior said over the CB shortwave radio.

  There was no answer. He kept trying, but he couldn’t get anyone to respond.

  “I wonder how cold it is,” I inquired.

  “About ten below,” answered Junior.

  Junior drove on; the bus was eerily quiet. There was a bad feeling in the air. The feeling was so strong it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Suddenly, the bus started sliding from one side of the road to the other. Junior fought with all his might to regain control of the bus. Everyone held on with all their might. Then the bus careened off the side of the mountain and rolled over and over down the mountain causing the doors to swing open. It felt like we were in a pinball machine. When the bus finally came to a halt, it was thirty feet below the main road. The lights inside the bus flickered on and off. I looked around to see if everyone was okay. I tried to get up and look out the window but I couldn’t; I was pinned down. All I could see was the full moon hauntingly lighting up the night. Then the inside lights of the bus flickered off and never came back on. Every now and then the bus would shift and slide a little further. There was nothing we could do until morning except pray.

  At the breaking of dawn, a shadowy ca
st of light broke through the snowy hillside. I quickly looked about to check on the others. I heard a few moans, but there were not many moving. I called for Jerry and Junior but they didn’t answer. I continued to look around and noticed that both the front and back doors were open. Nearly every window in the bus was broken out.

  The inmates who were still alive, Derrill, Danny, Kelvin and Guthrie, were able to free me. My leg was badly injured but the four inmates seemed to be okay except for a few cuts and bruises. There was no one else alive. Sixteen inmates along with Junior and Jerry were dead. Their bodies were strewn inside and outside the bus; blood was everywhere. I was afraid the inmates would run off and leave me. But, they didn’t. They gathered some twigs and took a couple of the dead inmate’s shirts and tied them to my leg to stabilize it. Under the circumstances, we pulled together as a team. I wasn’t much help, but the four inmates and I were able to pile all the dead bodies up against the bus. It was so cold their bodies wouldn’t decompose before help arrived. As we were trying to figure out what to do next, we suddenly heard a loud roaring sound. Huge balls of snow were rolling down the hillside. It looked like a giant wave of snow coming right at us.

  “Avalanche!” Danny yelled.

  We all rushed to get back inside the bus; Derrill and Kelvin helped me. I wouldn’t have made it without them. They pulled me into the bus just in the nick of time. The avalanche hit the bus and pushed it fifteen more feet down the side of the mountain. The bus finally came to a rest in a thicket of trees and was partially buried in the snow.

  “They’ll never find us now,” cried Derrill.

  “They probably already have a search party looking for us,” replied Danny.

  Danny didn’t know how right he was. Officials from Stone Canyon Penitentiary had already notified officials at Mountain View Penitentiary that the bus didn’t arrive. Both penitentiaries and the sheriff’s department had search parties underway.

  We carefully dug our way out, being cautious not to set off another avalanche. What a relief it was when we got out. However, our situation didn’t look good. There was nothing but trees and snow all around and the bitter cold wind was brutal. I knew we wouldn’t last long in those conditions. Unexpectedly, gunshots rang out and bullets ricocheted off the bus. We quickly took cover.

  “Some nut is firing at us. But, why?” I asked.

  The gunshots continued; we came close to being shot several times. I told everyone to stay down and out of sight. I tried to see if I could see who was firing the shots, but I couldn’t.

  I yelled out, “Don’t shoot!”

  It didn’t help. Another shot rang out.

  “Hey, man what’s your problem?” I cried.

  Then I saw a man in the thicket of trees. I took my gun and carefully aimed it.

  “It must be a hunter,” Guthrie stated.

  “More like a lunatic,” replied Derrill.

  I took a shot at him and missed. He shot again and the bullet grazed Kelvin’s arm.

  “This guy means business,” cried out Danny. “What are we going to do?”

  I shot again and missed. I couldn’t get a good enough look to make an accurate shot. Derrill waved a white towel from the side of the bus.

  “I’m coming out, don’t shoot,” I yelled.

  The sniper stood still with his gun pointed at me. I raised my gun over my head and then pitched it down into the snow. I tried talking with him as I slowly limped toward him. My sweat was cold and freezing to my face. He told me not to come any closer or he would shoot. He cocked his gun and aimed it right at me. About that time, I heard a shot. I just knew I had been shot. Instead the sniper lay before; he was dead. Guthrie had found Jerry’s gun and shot him. My knees buckled under me and I fell. I came so close to being killed. I thanked my God and Guthrie for saving my life. But, I had no idea who he was or what on earth he wanted. I searched his pockets; the only thing I found was a picture of Kelvin, the inmate who was going to testify against the mob. The sniper was a hit man. He must have followed the bus and then made the trek down the mountain to see if Kelvin survived the bus crash.

  I didn’t know how long we would be stranded before help arrived. The mountain was so steep; it was a massive wall of rock. The best thing for us to do was settle down and pray help arrived soon. We salvaged all we could from the dead bodies to keep warm, shirts, coats and pants. We used the hood of the bus as a sled to transport the wood we collected to try to make a fire. It was a long shot; the wood was wet and probably wouldn’t burn. We tried to trap and hunt any wildlife we could. It didn’t matter what; we needed food. We ate snow to help keep us hydrated.

  The search party was well underway. Unfortunately, they had a hard time finding their way since power lines were down and trees weighed down with the heavy snow had fallen and blocked the roadway. They tried to reach us on the CB shortwave radio but it had been damaged in the crash. The temperature was holding at ten below zero. The search team didn’t know how long we would survive out in the elements. They had no way of knowing our predicament. They put the chopper in the air as soon as the storm let up and they were able to deice it. Time, something we didn’t have much of, was essential.

  Our injuries were piling up. Kelvin’s arm had been grazed by the sniper’s bullet. Guthrie’s hands were badly frostbitten. Derrill was having trouble with his eyes. Danny’s mental state wasn’t very stable. And of course, one of my legs was badly injured.

  The bus was stable and didn’t shift again. It was on its side with the roof of the bus facing the hillside and the bottom of the bus rested against the thicket of trees. We sheltered ourselves between the bus and trees. Two days had passed and there was no sign of the search parties. We were holding our own, but we knew we wouldn’t last much longer. We were hungry; eating the snow was keeping us hydrated but it did nothing for the hunger pains. We were all huddled together when we heard a terrifying roar. Startled, we looked up and saw a big black bear standing on its hind legs. I had never seen a bear that big before in my life. We all held each other tightly and tried not to move. The bear fell on all fours and charged toward us. There was nothing we could do; we were defenseless. Out of nowhere, a shot was fired. It was Guthrie; he shot over the bears head and scared him away. I didn’t even realize he wasn’t huddled together with us.

  “Thank the Lord,” I cried out. “I thought we were a goner.”

  Guthrie turned to me and said, “We are out of bullets. That was the last one.”

  “But, the last one saved our lives; thank God it scared the bear off.”

  The temperature had gone up some. How much, I couldn’t tell. As we all sat there huddled together, we started to talk about our lives and how we ended up where we were. Strangely enough, we all had a lot of things in common; we each just chose a different route in life.

  “Shhh,” hushed Guthrie.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Listen,” he said, “I believe it’s a chopper!”

  We all stood up, went out into the clearing and looked up anxiously toward the sky. We waved our arms frantically when the chopper passed over. But, it went on by.

  “I don’t think they can see us,” I cried out.

  “Hopefully they did,” Danny said.

  “I don’t know,” replied Guthrie. “It’s going to be hard for them to see the bus since it is covered up with snow and surrounded by this thicket of trees.”

  “Let’s try to dig the bus out so they can see it,” I suggested.

  “It’s no way we can do that because we are too weak. Plus, my hands are frostbitten,” stated Guthrie.

  “Do you think they will come back?” asked Kelvin.

  “Surely they will,” replied Derrill. “Hopefully they won’t give up that easily.”

  For the rest of the day, we waited for the chopper to return. By nightfall we had given up hope that we would be rescued alive. We were hungry and
exhausted. Night fell and we drifted off to sleep. We were startled awake by some sort of creatures stirring in the woods. They seemed to be getting closer and closer to us. Carefully, we peeped out from around the bus and saw a pack of coyotes. They were sniffing around the roof of the bus. We sat quietly and hoped they would go away. However, they didn’t. We had two guns and no bullets. We didn’t know what to do. We grabbed some of the tree limbs that had fallen under the weight of the snow to use as weapons. It seemed as if about forty-five minutes had passed. Everything was quiet. We sat and waited. Even though it was quiet, we weren’t sure if they were gone or not. About that time, one of the coyotes approached us growling and snarling. I took the butt of my gun and started beating him against his head while the others swung at him with the tree limbs. Finally, the coyote backed off and disappeared into the thicket of trees. The rest of the night, we took turns keeping watch just in case the coyotes returned.

  Morning soon came. When we awoke, we noticed the coyotes wandering across the way. We figured they were probably going to attack again but we didn’t know when. We kept our guard up. There was no sign of the chopper. Out chance of survival was now slim to none. Everyone had been put to the ultimate test of survival. We were tired, hungry and injured. I knew if we weren’t found soon we would die. I told the men that I was going to check out the area to see if we had any other options. I asked Kelvin to go with me. We traveled about a mile or two, but couldn’t find anything; it seemed hopeless. We approached a giant bluff; it was probably about a fifty foot drop. I eased over to take a look. I couldn’t see the ground below. I encouraged Kelvin to take a look. He was a little afraid at first. But, I told him I wouldn’t let him fall. When he leaned forward his feet slipped and he fell over the bluff. I reached for him but there was nothing I could do. It happened too fast. I leaned over to see if I could see him. He was nowhere to be found. I hurried back to the camp as quick as I could. When I got there, I was out of breath and my leg was hurting something fierce. They asked me where Kelvin was and I told them what had happened. They were all devastated. Then out of the blue, we heard a chopper. We started waving our arms and looked up to see if we could see it. It was right above us.

  “Chopper one to base; we have found them. I’m going to circle back over and see if there’s a place to drop the search team.”

  “Roger, over and out,” radioed the base.

  “They saw us,” cried out Danny. “We’re saved.”

  From the time we saw the chopper until the search team found us was the longest time of our lives. Our joy was short lived when the pack of hungry coyotes returned. Slowly, they circled around us. We kept them back with the fallen limbs. We were fighting a losing battle. One of the coyotes jumped at us but he was shot out of the air; he landed right at our feet. It was the search team. They fired several shots into the air and scared the other coyotes away.

  “We would have been here sooner but the only place we could land was about a quarter of a mile from here,” said Sheriff Webb. “We’re going to get you guys out of here and to the hospital.”

  Then one of the men in the search team removed his ski mask. It was Kelvin. Everyone immediately turned and looked at me. The sheriff instructed his deputies, Larry and Chad, to cuff me. I never said a word.

  “Not far from where we landed, we heard Kelvin yelling for help. Luckily, some trees broke his fall. He was stranded on a rock ledge. We threw a rope down to him and pulled him up. Kelvin told me what happened. Lee pushed him over the bluff,” explained the sheriff.

  “Why, sheriff?” questioned Guthrie.

  “That’s not important right now. Let’s get you guys to safety first.”

  As we were led to the chopper, I thought about how excited I was when I got my job at the penitentiary. At first, I was the perfect employee. However, I was able to make a lot of extra money as a hit man inside the penitentiary. I had no idea they were going to move Kelvin to Stone Canyon Penitentiary in Benton County. Despite his transfer, the bus wreck and being stranded, I thought when I pushed Kelvin over the bluff my job was done. I figured everyone would believe he slipped and fell to his death. Oh, well, at least it warmed up. The sun sure felt good.