Last Legacy

Chapter 3

Luckily, the guy selling gas accepted cash, although the price was a bit high, even for Alaskan standards. I'm guessing he gave us the 'tourist' rate.

We ended up buying more fuel in order to cover the delivery fee because it would've taken longer to deliver the wood ourselves, and we had no time to waste.

By the time we rolled over the two huge drums of gasoline, our lumberjack friend already had a full cord of wood loaded onto his flatbed trailer. He shook our hand in thanks, and invited us to hop into the cab of his truck.

He knew exactly who to bring it to once we gave him a description of the guy. This town was so small that it wasn't even a surprise that everybody knew everybody.

The old man came out and watched us unload all the wood silently. The three of us had it done in about ten minutes. I shook the lumberjack's hand, and he was off, leaving us to complete our next bargain.

"I didn't expect this till tomorrow." He said gruffly. Granted, that was when our deal ended, but somehow we were able to get everything done by that afternoon.

"We're in a bit of a hurry." Steve said bluntly.

"Hm, I can see that. I guess y'all wanna get on the road then." The old man said.

"As soon as we get a name and place." I said in response.

We locked eyes, and he stared me down for a moment, probably giving me one final test before revealing his secrets.

"Go to the town of Wales. It's a crab port. Those are the only ships that dare cross the Bering Strait."

"Wales. Got it. And who do we look for?"

"The name's Adrian. He captains a ship called The Warbonnet. Find him, and he'll get you across the Bering."

I stuck out my hand to thank him, and he grasped it. Despite his obvious years, his handshake was firm. Steve did the same thing, and without another word, we spun on our heels, and marched back to the motel where our car was. Koda trotted right behind us.

We got back to the car a few minutes later. I opened the back door so Koda could climb in. Once steve and I actually got situated, our comfortable silence was broken.

"Where's Wales?" He asked.

I pulled out the Alaskan road map that we bought in Fairbanks and unfolded it. It was so big that it was hard to even look at in the car. "It's the westernmost point of Alaska." I pointed to it with my finger. "We're down here." I moved my finger to the general area that we were in. "It's probably at least another day's worth of driving. More if the roads get worse. How much gas do we have?"

"About half a tank."

"Okay. We should go fill up our tank and buy some extra jerry cans." I said. "If we run out of gas in the middle of nowhere we'll be in a bad way."

He nodded, still squinting his eyes to read the tiny map print. "Okay. Let's go." I folded the map back up and Steve shifted the car into drive. We bought more gas from the local gas station and headed north.

We drove for three hours before Steve started getting tired. It was only about eight o'clock in the evening, but I assumed he hadn't gotten much rest since he faced Bucky in DC.

The sun was still up, as it seemed to always be during the summer, and the trees were growing thinner. It seemed our geology was changing from the rich forest to the baren winter tundra. A herd of mule deer dashed into the sparse trees as we cruised passed.

"Hey, do you want me to drive some? You seem tired." I offered.

He raised his eyebrows. "You know how to drive?"