Displaced
Page 13
“Shorty?” he asked as he resumed his position on the travois. “You need to remember that dynamite comes in small packages!”
“Yeah, it does,” Rose responded. “But I’m the explosive one!”
Several hours of hard dragging later, the pair, and the travois, were inside the cave. Murdock and Rose went to the bed of grass, collapsed from exhaustion, and were asleep in minutes.
The two of them slept until after sun-up the next day. Murdock woke first and did so with a start. He hadn’t slept that hard in years. He got up, drank some water, and then checked the firewood status. There’s enough wood to get the fire going, but we’re going to need more before too long, he thought. He walked up to Rose, who still slept, and laid the water skin beside her before walking down the path to get more wood to start a fire and make them something to eat.
The walk down the path was long and tedious, and his leg muscles protested all the way down and back, though Murdock expected the pain after the workout he had. But as he dragged himself into the cave, he came to a quick stop, and his mouth dropped open. Beron sat in his usual spot in the cave, looking at Rose. Rose was awake, unarmed, and looked petrified.
“Umm . . . Kevin, can you help me?” she pleaded quietly, her voice trembling.
“Rose, it’s okay,” Murdock told her calmly but firmly. “This is a friend of mine. His name is Beron.”
“Sorry, Beron, you must have startled her,” Murdock flashed.
“You have a bear for a friend?” Rose asked in disbelief. “And just when were you going to tell me about him?”
“Female very scared,” Beron flashed.
“I was going to as soon as we got up here to the cave. You owe him a debt of gratitude,” Murdock told her. “He’s the reason I got you here as quick as I did the night I found you.”
“We went hunting. Just got back yesterday afternoon,” Murdock flashed to Beron.
“I am grateful, but how do I make a bear understand?” she asked in a terror-filled voice.
“Just talk to him like you would to me. He’ll understand,” Murdock told her.
“We know where you been and what you doing.” Beron flashed to Murdock.
“How is that possible?” she asked incredulously.
“He’s . . . telepathic,” Murdock told her.
“Of course! A telepathic bear! Why not?” Rose responded with even more incredulity.
“Female was much better when sleep. Much fear when awake!” Beron flashed.
“He won’t hurt you, Rose,” Murdock told her as he walked up to Beron and put his hand on him. “Just try to calm down and trust me!”
#
Rose took quite a number of deep breaths trying to calm herself and to get her courage up. “I want to thank you for your part in my rescue, Beron,” she finally said to Beron. “It was much appreciated!”
Beron flashed an image to Rose that she could only interpret as you’re welcome. Her face betrayed her shock even more.
Murdock went up to Rose and put an arm around her shoulder.
“It’s okay!” he told her reassuringly. “He’s a friend. Trust me!”
Rose looked at Murdock, shocked, and then at Beron. Murdock’s presence beside her had a significant calming effect on her.
“So, what does Beron want?” she asked Murdock with tension in her voice.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?” Murdock rubbed her shoulder gently with his hand.
“What can we do for you, Beron?” Rose asked, slowly calming down.
“Share,” Beron flashed to Rose.
“What does he mean by share?” Rose asked Murdock.
Murdock explained to Rose as quickly and concisely as he could what Beron meant and told her about the times he had shared with Beron. Rose nodded understanding as Murdock explained.
“Will you be in my mind with him?” she asked Murdock.
“If you want me to be,” Murdock told her.
Rose breathed deeply again. Between the deep breathing and Murdock’s touching her, she was surprisingly calm, at least under the circumstances.
“Okay. I’m game,” she said after a few more deep breaths, “but only if you’re there, too!”
#
Both Rose and Murdock seemed to go to sleep immediately, entering a dreamlike state. For the next couple of hours, Rose experienced everything that had happened to Murdock from his perspective since the landing. Murdock in turn experienced everything that had happened to Rose from her perspective since the landing. Then they both experienced and saw what Beron wanted to show them about him and his kind.
Murdock already knew some of what he saw from previous sharing sessions with Beron. Some of what he saw from Rose’s perspective differed only slightly from his recollections; some he didn’t know at all. Her attack, and the events leading to it, was a complete blank.
Before breaking the mental connection between the three of them, Beron chose to replay a small portion of things from Murdock’s perspective for Rose. She saw her own face; as she watched, she saw the scar on her face, disappear and the droopy eyelid return to normal. She looked just as she had before Murdock was expelled. After several replays of the same scene, she ventured a question to Beron.
“Is that how he sees me?” she asked Beron in the trance-like state. Beron responded affirmatively. Rose was shocked. “But what about my scars and deformities?” she asked in disbelief. By way of an answer, Beron caused the scene to pull out. At first she saw all the cuts and bruises, but as she watched, they all disappeared. Rose was speechless.
“Gift to you.” Beron flashed to her.
Murdock came around to consciousness not long after the mental connection was broken. During the sharing, Murdock felt Beron’s disappointment at not being asked to go along on the hunt.
“We have too much meat. Would you or your kind want the excess?” he flashed. He was careful to make it clear that the meat was raw so as not to offend Beron.
Beron’s response was affirmative and came with much appreciation for his generosity.
Murdock went down to the travois and uncovered all the deer meat. He separated the meat he and Rose had eaten from, as well as one other quarter.
“These are for you”, he flashed as he indicated the other two quarters. Beron then pushed Murdock aside, gently but firmly, and they both waited. After a moment, two of Beron’s kind entered the cave, and the deer-quarters that Murdock had indicated as Beron’s disappeared in a flurry of flashed “thank you” and “very generous.” After these others had left, Beron nodded slightly to Murdock and left as well.
Rose, still in shock from Beron’s presence, the sharing, and what she saw in the dream-state, was aware of what Murdock had done and approved. She estimated that Murdock had given only slightly more than their excess. That seemed to make the neighbors happy, so she considered it a good diplomatic move on his part.
“I saw something that disturbed me,” Rose said to Murdock when Beron and his kin had left and they were, once again, alone.
“What bothered you?” Murdock asked as he started the fire for their dinner.
“First, is it possible to lie during the sharing?” she asked.
“I don’t know. You’d have to ask Beron. I think it is, but it would defeat the purpose. Beron uses the sharing to see into your heart as much as your mind. So, to lie to him during a sharing would be lying to yourself. But that’s just my take on it,” Murdock explained.
Rose had moved next to Murdock and turned him around to face her.
“I think I saw what I look like through your eyes,” she said softly. “Did I? And don’t play any of your bullshit word games. I want to know straight up.”
“What did you see?” he asked her in his most serious voice.
“It was like looking into a mirror and seeing all my scars and defects disappear. Did I see what I thought I saw?” she asked.
“Yes, you’re correct,” he answered, blushing.
She threw her arms
around his neck and held him close.
“I don’t know if you’re crazy or delusional, or maybe I’m the one who’s crazy. I don’t know, and I don’t care,” she whispered into his ear.
Murdock held her close, not knowing what else to do or say.
“You sweet, lovely man!” she said into his neck. “Just hold me, you sweet, lovely man!”
#
Whenever Tom Collier thought about this new life, he came to the conclusion that only his location had changed. It had taken no time at all for him to go from being on the inside with Whittier to being on the outside. Before coming here, Collier had been just another big guy. He was nobody special by most definitions. He knew he wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box, but he wasn’t entirely stupid either.
After Murdock had put the fear of God into him and Whittier and Metzger had rescued him, Collier was beaten, mocked, and reviled by Burns and the other two on a regular basis. Most days, he thought he would have been better off if Murdock had killed him. At least he would have gone out on top, or, at the very least, a lot higher than he was used to.
No one else seemed to care what had happened to him that day. Some would say that Murdock had been unduly cruel. He didn’t think so. Collier thought he’d needed it to wake up and see what was going on. The real cruelty came when his friends rescued him.
To escape the ridicule, Collier often walked off to the stream. He was always careful not to cross it, but he did walk upstream and downstream along the bank. He had found a nice area further downstream that no one else cared about. He had all the water he could need, but he wasn’t allowed any weapons or water skins.
He would often disappear from the pod area for days. When he was hungry enough, he would show up and get his ration. No one else noticed when he was there and when he wasn’t. Everyone else was too busy trying to survive Whittier’s reign of terror.
When the confiscatory decree came down, Collier had been walking back to the pod from his hiding place. Seeing that everyone going for water was naked, he had hidden all his clothes before returning. He’d need them; he wasn’t going to just hand them over to Whittier and crew.
I wish I would’ve left with Murdock, instead of hunting him, he thought.
10
After a long time, Murdock disentangled himself from Rose and returned to tending the fire. He was hungry, and Rose must be hungry as well. But Rose hindered his meal preparations somewhat. She took every opportunity to just lay her head on his shoulder and sigh deeply. Even though Murdock was not used to a lot of attention or affection, they were not unwanted. Quite the contrary; he found that he enjoyed it. He didn’t know if it was the attention and affection itself or if it was Rose. He didn’t care, and he refused to analyze it too deeply.
“What’s on the agenda for today?” Rose asked when Murdock handed her a good-sized chunk of cooked meat.
“We have to get the meat stored and figure some way of tanning the hides,” he said as he took his own piece of meat and sat beside her.
“Any ideas on storage?” she asked between bites. She was truly famished after all their work harvesting the deer.
“I explored the cave when I first found it. I found the salt in the lowest part,” he explained. “I need to see what I can come up with for a storage rack. How much of your braided rope can you make?”
“I don’t know,” Rose shrugged. “I was just playing around with it. I’d have to actually sit and try it to see how long I can make it and how much.”
“As far as the tanning goes, I think I can make do with a hole dug down by the stream, if I can find something to dig with,” he said as he continued eating. As they talked, Murdock looked at Rose and caught her smiling at him. Her smile was infectious. More than once he caught himself smiling back at her.
After dinner, Murdock took off his buckskin shirt and draped a wolf hide over his shoulder.
“Go get a good-sized piece of wood from the fire to use as a torch,” he told Rose, who complied immediately. “Take another wolf hide and go on down the tunnel and stop at the first room you come to. I’ll be right behind you,” he said as he picked up one of the deer quarters and put it on his shoulder.
Rose did as she was asked and they both started down the dark tunnel, Rose in the lead and Murdock, carrying one of the heavy deer quarters, right behind her. When she reached the next room, she moved to the center.
“Put your hide on the floor in that little tunnel over there.” He indicated the tunnel. “Fur side down.”
Rose had just finished laying the hide down and moving out of the way when Murdock put the deer quarter on the hide.
“That was heavy,” he said, breathing a little easier.
“This is nice,” Rose exclaimed as she held the torch high and looked around the room. “It’s warmer in here and cozy!”
“I thought about moving down here when winter comes. It’s just a longer walk to get wood and water and haul it here,” he said as he followed her lead and looked around the room, though more closely than he had on his first trip here.
As Murdock looked for a way to attach or wedge small logs to the walls to hang the meat from, Rose piped up from behind him.
“Where does this go?” she asked.
“It goes down to the salt chamber,” he answered without looking at her.
“No, that has to be over there. That one seems to go downward,” she retorted.
Murdock turned around to see what she was talking about. He saw her run her hand over the wall surface and then go inward. “I didn’t see that here before,” he exclaimed. He moved to the center of the room and looked around. He did not see the tunnel that Rose had indicated. He then moved to an angle acute to the spot she looked at. Now he could see the tunnel plainly. “I’ll be damned,” he chuckled.
“What?” Rose asked.
“That tunnel entrance is placed in a way to make it invisible without close scrutiny,” he explained. “I didn’t see it the first time I was down here. I must have been at the wrong angle to see it.”
“So, where does it go?” Rose asked again.
“Who knows,” he said, “but we can find out quick enough.” Murdock took the flaming brand from Rose and ventured slowly into the tunnel. The tunnel was just big enough to pass through easily without bending down, and it turned a sharp corner to the right just inside the entrance. The tunnel went on to make several sharp turns, both left and right, in alternating succession. Soon, after another right turn, they entered a huge room.
As they emerged from the tunnel, Murdock held the torch high. They both gasped. They stood in a huge cave with a floor several feet below the ledge on which they stood. Murdock estimated the room could hold half a dozen of the transport pods. As they followed the ledge down to the floor, looking around in awe, they heard water falling somewhere toward the back of the room.
Murdock saw veins of various ores close to the floor of the chamber. Rose, however, just saw the pure natural beauty of the place. After they reached the floor, Murdock turned back to see the tunnel they had just exited. It reached a little over head-high on him, about seven feet. The ledge continued past the tunnel entrance for several yards and then ended in the wall.
As they walked around the chamber, they saw smaller chambers around the main room. Nearer to the water, the floor became sand, with some larger rocks spread intermittently throughout. Murdock thought he spotted some veins of clay in the walls and some flint in the mostly sand floor. But when they reached the water, they were both awestruck. The water emerged from a hole in the wall about eight feet off the floor and spilled at a fair rate into a large pool. The first pool overflowed into a slightly smaller pool and so on across the width of the chamber. The floor around the pools was mostly sand, with the pools set in rock.
“The sand feels really warm,” Rose said, startling Murdock.
Murdock, concentrating hard on the possibilities of what he saw, jumped a little when Rose spoke. Then he walked over to the edge of the fi
rst pool and immersed his hand. The water was cold, colder than the stream they used for drinking water. At each of the pools, he immersed his hand, and each time, he found that the water became progressively warmer as it proceeded across the room. The next-to-last pool, roughly a six-foot-diameter circle, was the hottest.
After checking the water temperature, he asked, “Did you want a hot bath, Rose?”
“I’ve wanted one since we got to this planet. Why?” she asked.
“Here’s your bath tub,” he told her.
When he inspected the last pool, he saw it was a lot smaller, with a fast-moving swirl in the flowing water.
“There must be a volcanic flow running somewhere beneath the bottom of the pools. Each one is hotter than the one preceding, and this last one is acting like a drain!” he explained, excited.
“Wonderful!” Rose giggled. “We have our own modern bathroom with hot and cold running water!”
They both giggled.
“Do you think we can move down here?” she asked excitedly.
“I don’t see why not,” Murdock said. “It’s big enough to suit all of our present, and most of our future, needs. It will require some work, but I think we couldn’t do better even if we built our own house!”
“No offense, but this sand would feel wonderful to sleep on,” Rose remarked. “Far more comfortable than stone. And I love the sound of running water. It just seems so peaceful here.” Then she said, “I saw you looking around the walls. What were you looking at?”
“There appear to be veins of iron ore and clay in the walls. More toward the center appear to be flint stones. This is a treasure trove!” he exclaimed.
“Um, I don’t get it,” Rose said, confused.
“Flint is great for arrowheads, spearheads, and making fires. Clay makes pottery, after you form it and fire it. Iron is used for pots and pans, weapons, and lots of other things,” he explained.
“I like the idea of being able to take a hot bath,” Rose said with much excitement in her voice.