Emily had been standing in a low spot, which allowed Keith to be tall enough to put his arm around her to comfort her. “Don’t take it so personally,” he said into her hair as he pulled her close. “They said they were only going about thirty miles further downriver. Most of them were supporters of Carter.”
Emily nodded as she held back the majority of the tears and wiped away the tears that had started.
“I say good riddance,” Keith said in an upbeat tone. He had been lobbying the others to make Emily the permanent leader and Carter’s supporters were giving considerable resistance to the idea. Now, it would be easier.
Emily tried to find the scouts. Everyone was regrouping after fording the river and it made it difficult to find them in the chaos. Keith had been following Emily, trying to find a moment to move up beside her.
Emily and Keith had been told, by the scouts, that there was a very large cave under the ridge they had descended a couple of days prior. They said it was located within two miles of the river with plenty of trees close by. They had failed to determine how large it was, as they had no torches. They all had decided to investigate further as it would give everyone immediate shelter. Once Emily found the scouts, she gave the word for everyone else to follow as best they could while the scouts led the way.
For the next few hours, there was a long line of people, who were just following the person in front of them, snaking across the open plain toward the trees and then through the trees. It didn’t take the scouts long to find the cave opening. As Emily and Keith watched the scouts trying to climb up to the entrance, they were also looking at the surroundings. The cave entrance was ten feet above the ground and the trees grew to within two feet of the ridge base.
“That is going to be hard to climb and difficult to get most of the supplies in there,” Emily said as her attention returned to the cave entrance and the scouts scrambling up to it.
“It should be fine, once we get a ramp, or something, built,” Keith replied shading his eyes as he followed the scouts climbing.
As they watched, one of the scouts had reached the entrance to the cave and had lowered a rope to assist the others. Keith, being third up, had walked up and grabbed the rope and started to climb, while the scouts anchored the other end. It didn’t take long for the two scouts and Keith to get to the entrance. Keith tossed down the rope.
“Come on, Emily,” Keith shouted down from the entrance.
Emily walked up and took the rope. She was looking up the face skeptically as she pulled on it to assure herself that it was anchored and would hold her. She felt it give a bit and she imagined three men straining to hold her weight. With apprehension, Emily followed the same path as the smaller men and, in short order, gained the cave entrance.
After she lowered the rope, Emily stood in the entrance looking out. She could see nothing except the trees that were straight across from it. The cave entrance itself was eight feet by four feet and had a one foot ledge outside the entrance and she could see the floor raise a foot one-foot inside, forming a two-foot ledge at the entrance. The men were getting a fire started to create some brands so they could assess the size and shape of the cave.
“Keith, would you go down and tell the rest to wait and ask the woodworkers to come up, please?” Emily asked quietly, after seeing Keith was not doing anything to aid in the fire building. “I would like them to work out an easier way up, especially for the supplies.”
Keith nodded and started down the rope while Emily was anchoring it. As she waited for Keith to return, the men got a fire going and it lit up the inside of the cave. As she stood there waiting, she could see the ceiling at least fifteen feet above them. The room they were standing in seemed to be very large with a flat, semi-level rock floor. It was then that Keith returned and climbed up the rope. Once he was up, he helped anchor as the other two men climbed up.
“See if you can figure an easier way up,” Emily told the two men once they were inside the cave. “If nothing else, this cave will work for storage, but only if we can figure out an easier, safer, more secure way up.”
Small logs were passed around to be used as torches to those that were exploring the cave. As they walked around the walls, they came to dozens of smaller rooms off the main room, on all walls except the entrance wall. Each of the smaller rooms looked to be able to hold three or four people comfortably. At the back of the cave, they came to a wide tunnel that led down in a sweeping spiral curve. As all four walked down the tunnel, the scouts had their machetes out and ready. To Emily, it seemed that the tunnel dropped about eight feet in three hundred sixty degrees of the curve. At the bottom, they had to jump down from about two feet into another huge room, wider and deeper than the one above, with a ten-foot ceiling.
As they investigated the lower room, they found dozens of the smaller rooms off the main room on three of the walls. Opposite the tunnel down, off to the left, as they faced the wall with no rooms, they found another tunnel, a straight one that dropped two feet with another two-foot ledge they had to jump down. The room at the end of the small tunnel had four pools of water going across the room. The main pool was fed by a stream of water, coming from the back of the cave, and was located high up on the wall. Emily could see one of the pools steaming and stuck her hand in each pool. She found that each pool, from the hot one, got cooler the closer they got to the stream that fed them. The stream itself was not as cold as the river, but wasn’t significantly warmer either. As they all looked, they could see the runoff from one pool went into the next pool. The runoff from the hot one disappeared into the floor in a steady stream. The floor of the room was level, smooth, and dry rock. All of the investigators were dumbfounded.
“This can’t be natural,” one of the scouts whispered in disbelief.
“Who cares?” Emily said with relish. “I don’t think we could build anything close to this, not anytime soon, anyway. We’re going to need a couple sets of steps, though,” she said as she climbed back up the small tunnel. They all back tracked all the way to the main room. “Tell everyone that this is it,” Emily said excitedly to Keith and the scouts. As she approached the entrance, she signaled the woodworkers. “What have you come up with?” she asked the taller one.
“Well, Ma’am,” the tall one started, “would you mind a series of ramps?”
“What?” Emily asked confused.
“We can’t build a single ramp from the ground up to the entrance,” he started to explain. “It would have to be very long to get to this height at a comfortable incline. The only way to use a ramp would be to do so in several smaller ones ending in a small bridge from the entrance straight across to those trees. That would take a long time to accomplish, even with all the manpower we have, but would be easier to defend and use.”
“What can you do quickly to get people up here and all the supplies?” she asked.
“I suppose we could make a long ladder and drag the supplies up,” he said after giving it some thought. “We have the manpower and it will be difficult to pull things up.”
“Do so, because, gentlemen, we’re going to make this our home,” Emily told them smiling as she clapped the closest one on the shoulder nearly buckling his knees.
#
It had taken Declan quite some time to realize that he was all alone. He had been too busy pouting to hear Murdock leave, not that he heard Murdock when he moved anyway. “The man is a damned ghost,” Declan said quietly to himself. “How is it possible for anyone to move that quietly?” He wasn’t happy with Reyes or Annie Cooper. He had wanted desperately to see Doctor Harris and took it as a personal affront when he was denied. He didn’t like the guards that didn’t grant him access after he had been on the council. “When I was on the council, Reyes was nothing. Who does she think she is?” he said aloud to himself.
He sat thinking for quite some time. He had ceased talking to himself out loud as he fumed. While he sat there, he heard a strange noise coming toward him from the river. As he sat, hopi
ng that whatever it was would make a quick ending to him, he saw a doe come haltingly toward him. He sat mesmerized by the animal and was not thinking anything, lest the animal sense his thoughts and run off. As he watched, he saw it graze cautiously, constantly watching him. More than once, Declan found that he had stopped breathing and gasped for air. On one of those gasps, the doe heard him and bounded off. As he sat watching, Declan found that his anger and frustration had left him, as if the doe had taken it from him.
As he sat there, he had no idea how he was going to survive, but that didn’t seem to matter much. He felt calmer than he had been in a very long time and figured something would come up. He was trying to figure out where he could go. The transport pod is out. Everyone there had assaulted and raped Doctor Harris or allowed it and had beaten him nearly to death. I could try for Murdock’s cabin. I do have a general idea of where it is, but doubt my apologies would be accepted. He thought of returning to the camp where Annie and Doctor Harris were, but they had kicked him out and he was unsure what would await him, should he return. He had no idea where the rest of the newcomers had gone. He thought he had over-heard Murdock and Mei Lee discussing it and seemed to remember something about going downriver.
He jumped when he heard someone talking and coming in his direction. It was then that he noticed it was close to sunset and he hadn’t eaten anything for many hours. Not having a weapon, Declan had decided to hide until they, whoever they were, had gone past. While he was hidden, he watched to see who was coming. He heard them pass downriver a few yards. He recognized their voices as those from the box canyon. He figured they were on their way to catch some fish. He followed the three men with as much stealth as he could manage. All three were competing with each other to see who could catch the most. As they caught them, they threw then onto the grass, quite some distance from the water to prevent them from escaping. One was thrown within arm’s length of Declan, where he was hiding in the high grass. He stealthily took the fish and crept back to the relative safety of the trees. Once there, he got to his feet and quickly moved upriver a few hundred yards.
Looking around, he found a rock that appeared to be sharp and about the size of his fist. He tried to pick it up, but couldn’t budge it. He found another, smoother rock and managed to pick it up. Then he slammed it onto the sharp rock and managed to chip off a good sized piece. He used the sharp rock to gut the fish and used his fingers to dig out the meat. He thought he was going to vomit, if he had something in his stomach to spew, thinking about eating it raw. Since he had no knowledge of building a fire, he had little choice. As he was choking down the raw fish, he heard the men leave the river and head for the canyon. It was sundown by the time he finished eating as much of the fish as he could.
He left the remains of his meal and headed toward the river. He found that he was in need of water. He made it to the river and started drinking. As darkness fell, and being re-invigorated, he realized he had no cover and no way to make a fire. He decided to head downriver, immediately. The other newcomers, the ones that may be in that direction, were his only chance to survive, if he could beg a place with them, but first he had to find them.
#
When everyone woke up, they went about their regular routine. Palmer and Osterlund had taken to wearing a twelve-inch machete, just in case they ran across Murdock. Preston Freeman, being testy at his defeat at the hands of Murdock for a second time, spent most of his time pushing people out of his way or yelling at someone. This morning, as he knelt down to get some water on his face, he felt the point of a machete in his back.
“It would seem that things have been reversed,” Palmer whispered in his ear from behind.
“You’re making a big mistake,” Freeman fumed quietly. “My men will eat you alive!”
“Really?” Palmer asked as he backed away.
Feeling the machete withdraw, Freeman stood and faced Palmer. He saw that Alvin Jones, Ted Wagner, Jackson Hornsby, and Nels Osterlund were standing behind Palmer. All of them were armed.
“It would seem that your men are now my men,” Palmer gloated absentmindedly tapping his left hand with the machete.
“I’ll kill you for this,” Freeman fumed through clenched teeth.
“I don’t think that will happen anytime soon,” Palmer said as he walked up to Freeman and grabbed his right elbow. Freeman dropped to his knees. “Still sore, I see,” Palmer gloated with a smile. “As I see it, you can take orders from me, or I can take you out there, somewhere, and slit your throat!”
“How do you expect to get away with this?” Freeman asked trying to buy some time.
“It seems,” Palmer started as he paced back and forth, “the men respect anyone who can provide an opportunity to better their situation. They are mine, bought and paid for. They’ll see what I want them to see, not that it really matters.” Palmer was grinning at Freeman.
Freeman was frantically trying to figure a way out. “Will you allow me a weapon to defend myself?” he asked finally.
Palmer started laughing openly. “Why in the world would I do something so colossally stupid?” he chuckled.
“Because it would be honorable to face me, like a man,” Freeman said with venom.
“I’m facing you now,” Palmer said with a grin. “What have I done that would give you the impression that I’m honorable?”
Phylicia, who had just awakened and accompanied by Heather and Kimberly, had just walked out of the pod and saw the congregation. “What goes on here!” she shouted.
“Oh, nothing much,” Palmer said grinning, “just a coop!”
“He means ‘a coup’,” Wagner corrected.
Phylicia gasped when the meaning of the words sunk in.
“Let’s take him for a walk,” Palmer suggested.
Ted Wagner and Alvin Jones grasped Freeman’s upper arms and led him off toward the ridge. The rest of the men followed. Once Freeman was two hundred yards from the pod, they all stopped.
“Are you going to turn me loose?” Freeman asked skeptically.
“Why would I do that?” Palmer asked. “I turn you loose and then I have to worry about you . . . forever. I prefer to not worry,” Palmer said with a wry grin. He had been spinning the twelve-inch machete on its handle in his hand while he paced. With one smooth movement, he stopped the machete from spinning and thrust it upwards, just under Freeman’s sternum and all the way to the hilt. Those present thought the movement had fluidity, a gracefulness, which was surprising, given Palmer’s size.
#
Freeman, felt it initially as just a sharp blow to the solar plexus, then he felt the blade as it entered and pierced through his lung and nicked the right ventricle, with his spine stopping the blade. His expression changed to one of fearful, shocked amazement. He slowly dropped to his knees on the hard ground, but didn’t feel it. Within seconds of him hitting the ground with his knees, Freeman was dead, having bled into his thoracic cavity and the ground.
#
Once Freeman was gone, Palmer gave orders for his clothes to be removed, cleaned, and stored for later use. The men complied. As Palmer was walking back toward the transport pod, he stopped by the creek to clean off his hands and his machete. Once he was finished, he replaced the machete to its scabbard at his hip and then washed the blood from his hands.
“What did you do to Freeman?” Phylicia asked in a shrill voice, her entourage not far behind.
“First of all, I only answer your question because it suits me to do so,” Palmer said smugly. “Second, you better get used to no one jumping when you snap your fingers. You’re no longer in charge. So, I would suggest all you bitches get used to the way things are, because they’re unlikely to change. Lastly, trying to leave will result in you being hunted down and, if you do it too many times, killed!”
“How dare you—” Phylicia started, incensed. She was cut off by Palmer back-handing her across the mouth.
Heather and Kimberly launched an attack on Palmer, who deftly back-handed t
hem as well.
“Did you think I was joking?” Palmer yelled at the now sobbing females. “You should have a clue by now, so go fill the water skins!”
None of the females moved to comply. They all just stared at Palmer, in disbelief.
“Mister Jones,” Palmer said finally staring at the women with a grin. “If my order isn’t carried out in the next thirty seconds, kill Kimberly! Thirty seconds after that, kill Heather!”
Alvin Jones came forward with his machete drawn, his face expressionless.
Suspecting that Palmer was serious, Phylicia gave a signal to Heather that she should go fill the water skins.
“Where are you going?” Palmer boomed. “I told Phylicia to go and she is running out of time!” He stood there looking at Phylicia with a grin.
Phylicia finally got to her feet and started collecting the water skins and took them to the creek to fill them. She had been beaten, for now, and knew she had no choice but to bide her time and wait for an opportunity to present itself.
#
Declan walked all night. He was unaccustomed to being out in the dark and was frightened. He realized that he was at the mercy of any animal that happened to come along and he had no weapon to defend himself. He did stumble and fall a few times before he figured out where to put his feet. His fear helped him to walk as quietly as he could and had helped him to stop talking out loud to himself.
It was close to sunup when he reached the top of the ridge that over-looked the river below. He had seen signs across the river that someone had camped close to it. As soon as it was light enough, Declan climbed down the ridge face. It did take him some time to pick a way down, but he finally made it without any major incidents. As he reached the base of the ridge, he drank deeply from the river and then rested from his exertions. He had no idea how much further downriver the others had gone or how much further he had yet to go. As he rested, he fell asleep under a tree.
Civilization (Displaced Book 2) Page 23