“Add to all that, Whittier is a coward,” Mei Lee said. “He’s only brave with plenty of people backing him up. A lot of people have died because of him, and I doubt he has the support he thinks he has. You face anyone, and they will either fight or run. Knowing Whittier, he’ll run.”
“And if he fights?” Murdock asked.
“Then we fight,” Rose and Mei Lee said simultaneously, their anger evident in their tone.
“Why are you so hesitant?” Rose asked Murdock. “I would’ve thought you would be chomping at the bit to get to Whittier.”
“I’m not hesitant,” Murdock said. “I’m just making sure we all know what we’re talking about, as well as the consequences of our choices.”
After making their decision, all three prepared to return to the enclosure. Murdock and Rose filled the cart with tanned hides, shovels, and extra food while Mei Lee watched over the babies. Then Mei Lee and Rose loaded the children and cradles and readied for traveling while Murdock secured the cabin. Finally, they headed downstream without crossing the river, Murdock pulling the cart, Rose leading, and Mei Lee following.
When they reached the river crossing that would take them to the transport pod, they continued downstream. Rose was a little taken aback by the unknown territory. Finally, they stopped across the river from Mark Hunt’s body.
“Do we bury Hunt here?” Murdock asked as he paused to eat.
“I’d prefer to bury him at the pod,” Mei Lee said
“How do we get him there?” Rose asked. “There isn’t room on the cart for him.”
“I’ll levitate him,” Mei Lee said.
“That’s a long way to levitate something,” Murdock warned her.
“If we can stop when I need to, I can do it,” Mei Lee promised in a quiet voice.
After a rest, Murdock levitated the cart over the river, and the women followed suit.
“Rose,” Murdock said, “you help Mei Lee with Hunt’s body and watch for anyone coming from downriver. I doubt anything will come up from here to the transport pod.” Rose nodded, and they all headed toward the transport pod.
After several rest stops, they arrived at the transport pod. Evening was coming, so they agreed to wait until morning to bury the bodies.
After they had made camp, Mei Lee took little Chun Hua to Collier’s grave and was talking aloud.
“I hope she’ll get over his death soon,” Murdock flashed to Rose.
“She never will get over it totally,” Rose flashed back. “Chun Hua will always be a reminder.”
Mei Lee finally joined them at the fire, but Murdock said nothing about her conversation with Collier.
“Are we digging three graves or one?” Murdock asked after Mei Lee had finished feeding Chun Hua and they had reclined to relax.
“Three,” Mei Lee answered.
“Any particular reason why?” Murdock asked.
“It’ll take time to dig three graves,” Mei Lee answered. Rose laughed.
“So?” Murdock asked.
“It would mean that we buried them and were in no hurry to do so and be gone,” Rose explained. “Unless I missed Mei Lee’s meaning.”
“Whittier needs to get the message, in a big way, that we’re not intimidated by him or anyone else,” Mei Lee said. “If we act as if Whittier is of no consequence to us, maybe he’ll start to get the message.”
Murdock started digging the three graves by Collier’s grave the next morning.
The stench coming from under the transport pod caused Rose and Mei Lee to lose their appetites. They found a few more bones under the pod, all picked clean, but they could not determine who they belonged to. The two female bodies they had found were far from complete, even with all the unattached parts, so Murdock tried to even the remains out.
When Murdock finished digging the three graves, he put all the bodies into their individual resting places and covered them. The work had taken him the better part of the day. Covered with sweat, he collapsed near the fire and drank deeply from the water skin.
“We all need a bath,” Rose said. “Searching under the pod was much worse than searching inside it, but it’s all very unpleasant!”
“I agree heartily,” Mei Lee said as she joined them.
“Did you find anything?” Murdock asked.
“Nothing inside the pod,” Rose said.
“This place is picked clean,” Mei Lee said. “They left nothing, so that means they took it with them.” Mei Lee’s face became serious.
“What’s wrong?” Rose asked.
“Nothing, really,” Mei Lee said. “It just makes me sad having to bury people I know.”
“So, what’s next on our agenda?” Murdock interrupted, trying to change the mood.
“I suppose we hunt down the others to check on them,” Rose said, shrugging.
#
As Whittier and the rest walked downriver, they stopped periodically for a rest and to drink water, as well as to fish.
“What’s wrong with you?” Whittier screamed at one of the men, who had failed after the party’s third stop to spear a fish. “Murdock is an idiot and a total incompetent, and he managed it right away. How hard can it be? Keep it up, and I’ll have the women do it!”
Each man in turn tried to spear a fish for the rest to eat. All were getting very hungry. Finally, well after midday, Sam Thomas landed a fish. He immediately tried to repeat the accomplishment and succeeded. Although two fish lay on the shore, no one was helping by cleaning them, so he bent to the task without saying anything. When both were cleaned, he started a fire and cooked the fish as Murdock had. That was when everyone came to claim their shares.
“Nice job,” Whittier, who was the first to take a share, told Thomas. “Next time, let me know when the meat is cooked. Better yet, get someone to serve me,” he said, talking around a bite of fish.
Thomas said nothing. Everyone else came around to claim their share, and no one said anything to him. Soon the cooked fish were gone.
“Is everyone ready to press on?” Whittier asked. He didn’t wait for answers. “Then let’s press on. Everyone keep up. We won’t wait for you if you lag behind!”
Thomas decided to stay long enough to catch a fish for himself. Soon he speared another fish, cleaned, and cooked it. He had plenty of time to think while it was cooking.
Whenever Whittier spoke, Thomas immediately thought of his tyrannical father. “Do as you’re told! Keep your mouth shut!” his father would always say, usually after backhanding him. “Don’t even think of laughing at me! You will give me respect!”
He had often thought of getting even with his father, but the invasion had taken care of it for him. His father had been killed by the mobs that had risen shortly after the takeover, and Thomas didn’t shed a tear at the old man’s passing. To Thomas, the takeover was just a change of who was in charge. Upon the colony’s arrival here, no one in the group had asked him his name. He didn’t care much. He was so sick of people calling him “Sammy” that after he was revived, he had decided that he would only give his last name, if asked. The leadership changeovers meant nothing to him. No one knew him or showed that they wanted to know him. He was not one to speak first when meeting people, so he always came off as impersonal and cold. He did, however, prefer Mei Lee’s leadership to Whittier’s. Under Mei Lee, everyone had a job to do and knew what it was. Her term was far more organized and far less autocratically directed.
When the fish was cooked, Thomas put out the fire and ate while he walked after the others. The fish was bland, but it was better than nothing, and it did quell his severe hunger. He wrapped what he didn’t eat in a large leaf and put in his shirt pocket. Though he could have trotted and caught up to the rest more quickly, he assumed that he would catch up to them soon enough to suit him. He enjoyed walking by himself, observing the topography and flora.
Shortly after sunset, he caught up to the rest, who had stopped on the edge of what appeared to be a thirty-foot drop. As he looked out ove
r the edge in the dwindling light, he saw several of these same drops. If he had been asked, he would have said that this was not natural. And when he looked at the river, he noticed that the river bed dropped in stages, while the one he stood on was a sheer drop.
He felt invisible. No one asked what happened to him when he turned in the spear he was carrying. No one looked at him when he found a tree a short distance away from the rest to sleep under. When complete darkness fell, he ate some of the leftover fish he had saved, thinking that he should keep some for breakfast. I hope the animals leave me alone, he thought as he drifted off to sleep. Whittier had previously confiscated all the weapons, decreeing that no one needed a weapon; he hoped that Whittier knew what he was talking about. Otherwise, no one would survive an animal attack.
After a very fitful night, Thomas woke to find no one around. He wasn’t rested and hadn’t heard the others leave. He was upset that no one thought to wake him or leave him a weapon. He got to his feet, worked out a few of the kinks, and ate the remainder of the previous day’s fish. Then, cupping his hands, he drank deeply from the river and splashed some of the cold water onto his face. Braced, he looked at the drop-off. He saw the others walking across the lower valley, and he looked along their trail back to his location. He saw a steep path that zigzagged across the cliff as it headed down to the valley floor.
As he progressed down the path, he noticed that a lot of the rocks were quite sharp and jagged. He pocketed one of the sharper ones on his way down. Then, when he reached the valley floor, Thomas drank from the river and rested on the grass. He took out the piece of rock, feeling its sharpness with his thumb. Turning it over, he saw that it was about five inches long and roughly triangular, with the thick side about an inch thick and rounded. The shape reminded him of a prism or an elongated tear-drop. This may come in handy, he thought as he returned it to his pocket after he regained his feet and proceeded on.
Continuing downriver, Thomas took in his surroundings, unconcerned with the rest of the group. I’ve always lived on the edges of society, he thought. I guess it’s better than being alone. At one point, he found a somewhat straight stick and stripped off the limbs as he walked. Then he took out the rock and tested it on the thick end of the stick. Soon he had a makeshift spear that he could harvest more fish with, but would not do for much else.
Shortly after making the crude spear, Thomas decided to test it and quickly harvested another fish. He used the piece of rock to clean the fish and cooked it soon after.
He hadn’t paid enough attention to the surroundings to notice just when the trees had thinned, but looking around as the fish cooked, he saw that he was on a huge plain with few trees on his side of the river.
After eating the cooked fish, he wrapped the extra fish in the same leaf he had used before and put it inside his shirt. Then he drank his fill, extinguished the fire, and proceeded on.
Dark was falling when he reached the rest of the survivors. They had set up a small camp close to the next ledge, and Whittier was complaining, as usual, about not having enough to eat. No one else was doing anything about the food situation.
“Hand it over,” Brian Scott said, indicating Thomas’ crude spear.
“Why should I?” Thomas said. “It’s mine. I made it for my use.” He wasn’t smiling and spoke quietly.
“The Boss, as you well know, has said no weapons in camp. Now, hand it over,” Scott insisted.
“No weapons in camp? This isn’t a weapon. It’s just a sharp stick.” Thomas argued. “It’s only a weapon if you’re a fish!”
“You could poke someone’s eye out with it. That makes it a dangerous weapon. Give it!”
“Okay,” Thomas said after thinking for a moment, “I’ll camp over there, away from everyone else.”
“I don’t care where you camp. You aren’t going to have that dangerous weapon!”
Thomas could see Scott starting to shake a little. The other man wasn’t used to the power he had been given and wasn’t used to anyone standing up to him. Looking Scott over quickly, Thomas saw that the other man wasn’t armed, at least not so it showed. Arguing wasn’t going to do any good, so Thomas shrugged and turned back the way he had come.
He didn’t get far before Scott tackled him from behind. After a brief tussle, Thomas lay on the ground, on his back, with Scott sitting on him, pinning him. Scott had thrown the makeshift spear out of reach and was patting Thomas down. Soon Scott found the stone and the remains of the fish.
Thomas tried to struggle and get an arm free, but Scott kept his foot on Thomas’ wrist. Scott then punched Thomas in the face several times, hard enough to cause his mouth to bleed a little. Scott was helping himself to the fish when Whittier approached from behind and struck Scott in the back of his head with the handle of a hatchet. Though the blow didn’t knock Scott off Thomas, it was enough to let Scott know he was in trouble.
“What are you doing, Scott?” Whittier asked in a quiet and menacing voice.
“He was trying to get into camp armed!” Scott whined defensively.
“He had no weapons. All of the weapons are accounted for. What weapons are you talking about?” Whittier demanded.
Scott got off of Thomas to retrieve the makeshift spear and the sharp stone. Thomas tried to get up after Scott released him, but Whittier’s foot on his chest shoved him back down. Scott then placed the weapons in Whittier’s hand.
Whittier looked at each object and then handed them to Corwin Smith, who turned each over and inspected them. Whittier held out his hand to Scott and snapped his fingers. Scott sheepishly handed over the fish he had been eating.
“Mister Smith, what is the law pertaining to food?” Whittier asked without taking his eyes off Scott.
“All food is to be presented to you without fail and immediately.” Corwin Smith said.
“Did you not understand the law, Scott?” Whittier asked in the same quiet, menacing tone, leaning a little harder on Thomas’ chest.
“Yes, sir, I just tasted it to make sure it wasn’t poisoned,” Scott said in a weak voice.
“Really! And was it?” Whittier asked in a stern voice.
“No, sir!” Scott said, starting to shake.
“Are you used to lying, Scott?” Whittier asked.
“N-N-No, sir!”
“I thought not, you do it so poorly. Who is this?” Whittier asked, finally turning his attention to Thomas.
“He’s the one who caught the fish yesterday,” Scott said, trying to redeem himself.
“You have a name, boy?” Whittier asked him, letting up the pressure on Thomas’ chest a little.
“Thomas,” Thomas said with difficulty.
“Well, Tommy boy, you knew the law before coming into the camp. I seem to recognize you a little from our winter ordeal, so you should be well-versed in the law. Can you give me a good reason not to skin you for dinner?” Whittier let off the pressure a little.
“I’m the only one who could catch fish,” Thomas said.
“That’s true,” Whittier agreed, nodding a little with his eyes closed. “The law is the law, though. You don’t give me much of a choice.” Whittier finally removed his foot from Thomas’ chest and meandered away somewhat. “I’ll have to think about it. I’ll sleep on it and pass judgment tomorrow. Smith, tie him to a tree for the night. I don’t want him escaping!” Whittier walked off, eating the confiscated fish.
Scott and Smith dragged Thomas to a tree and tied him in a sitting position. “To make sure he doesn’t escape, I’ll watch him first,” Scott said to Smith after securing Thomas.
“Suit yourself,” Smith said, going to his campsite with one of the women.
“You’re in big trouble, Tommy boy!” Scott sneered down at Thomas.
“My name is Sam. Sam Thomas!” Thomas corrected in an angry voice.
The next morning, after a long, uncomfortable night, Sam Thomas was awakened by Whittier kicking his foot. After Thomas became lucid, he felt the pain in his back and couldn�
�t feel his legs.
“I’ve decided to be magnanimous and let the severity of your punishment be dependent on your skill,” Whittier said as he walked a crescent path in front of Thomas. “Untie him,” Whittier told Smith. Smith complied. “For trying to smuggle in food, and because you’re so good at catching fish, you’re to catch enough for the rest of us to eat for the next couple of days.” Whittier paused. “Say, two fish per person. You, however, will not be eating any. Each night, you will be tied and guarded.”
Thomas got to his feet and tried to restore the circulation in his legs. “Won’t a lack of food slow my reflexes?” he asked finally.
“You better hope not. You have to supply the rest of us for two consecutive days. Miss a day and you start over,” Whittier said looking down his nose at Thomas. “For Scott’s failure to turn in the food he found, he’ll be cleaning and cooking for one day.” Whittier held up a hand when Scott started to protest. Then, extending just his index finger and pausing, he went on, “One more word from you, and I’ll have you cleaning fish for as long as he catches them.” Whittier turned to Thomas again. “I haven’t decided what to do about the weapons charges. By rights, I should have you stripped, drawn and quartered, and then hung!”
Thomas bowed his head, accepting the inevitability of his punishment. He sincerely hoped he could last the two days and meet each day’s quota.
23
The morning after the search of the pod, Murdock, Mei Lee, and Rose ate and drank sumptuously. After all the physical and emotional stress, they needed to recover their strength. Then the trio began pursuing the winter survivors. Murdock had estimated that Whittier and crew had a three- or four-day head start, but Whittier’s group was much larger and wouldn’t know how to move quickly. As Murdock and the women trekked to the river, all three projected their astral selves ahead to cover the widest possible area. Murdock didn’t think Whittier capable of doubling back, but he wasn’t about to put Rose, Mei Lee, or the babies at risk by underestimating him.
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