So how do you plan to get across?”
That’s easy enough. A long time ago we found a boat. It was damaged, but we were able to repair it. Paddles and the wind will help us cross the divide.”
“Wow, that is pretty clever.”
“Thanks. We should be at the boat in about an hour. Once we are there, we’ll load up and start across. We may need to camp on this side of Tiger Mountain tonight and finish the hike in the morning. It looks like you could use the break. I noticed a while back that you’re limping again.”
“I appreciate that. Thanks.”
“Bo, take the guys up ahead and get the boat ready.”
“Will do. Come on, guys, let’s get to the boat.”
Bo and the rest of the guys headed toward the boat, leaving Thomas with Paulette. Thomas assisted Paulette with walking to ease her limping.
“So why are you being so kind? Paulette asked. I know you and, especially, Bo, don’t like me.”
“In this world you learn to be kind to those that you’ve determined won’t harm you and save your bad side for those less friendly. You seem to be the kind that won’t harm me or my group. As far as liking you, we’ll determine that later, once you’ve lived with us for a while. I must tell you, though, I feel you’re not telling us the whole truth about your situation.”
“Well, it’s good to know I fall in the good group of people. As far as not telling you the whole truth, you’re correct.”
“Why have you withheld information?”
“Because if I disclose the full truth with you or your group, you won’t believe me.”
“It would amaze you what we’d believe. I guess you’ve got your reasons for not telling me everything yet. I hope that you’ll trust me enough at some point to confide in me.”
“It’s possible that I might tell you, but I’m not sure about divulging the information to the whole group though.”
“I can understand that. Let’s see what happens in the next few days.”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
They finally arrived at the boat. Thomas helped Paulette get in the boat, and then two of the other men paddled the boat toward Tiger Mountain. The other two men manned the sail and tiller to steer the boat. The boat was crowded with so many people in it, and everyone was pretty quiet for the hour’s ride over. Once they got close to the other shore, they brought the sail down, and the paddlers brought her into shore carefully. When the boat was close enough, one of the men jumped out and secured the rope to a tree. When it was safe, everyone got off carefully and grouped up nearby.
“This is what we’ll do. We’ll camp here tonight and then start out again in the morning,” Thomas directed.
“Why can’t we hike through the night?” Bo complained.
“Because I said so, for one; and for another, Paulette needs time to rest her ankle, unless you’re willing to carry her and her gear the rest of the way in the dark.”
“Uh, no, I don’t think so.”
“Then I suggest you be quiet and get your campsite set up.”
Everyone in the group found a good spot to sleep for the night, laid their packs down, pulled out their bedding, and laid it on the ground next to their packs. One of the men retrieved firewood for a small fire to keep them warm and to cook dinner. Bo got the fire started and the water boiling while a few of the other guys got the food out and brought it over so Bo could cook dinner. He took the food and heated it up. Dinner would be jerky, some re-hydrated potatoes, and some kind of vegetable Paulette had not seen before. Soon, Bo called everyone over to eat. Paulette tried the vegetable first and found it to be tasty. She thought it sort of tasted like sweet corn, but it didn’t look like corn at all. She liked the meat and potatoes too.
After everyone ate their dinner, they cleaned up and sat around the fire for a while. Paulette had a lot of questions to ask the group, and she figured they had just as many to ask her. However, she thought it best to remain silent for now, especially since she wasn’t ready to answer whatever questions they might have. Thomas and Bo where sitting across from her quietly arguing about something. She couldn’t make out what they were saying but was sure it had to do with her. Bo kept glancing over at her with a stare that could have killed, enforcing her notion that he didn’t like her at all and was very suspicious of her. She stared into the crackling fire and wondered what her friends back in 2030 were doing. Were they working on a solution to bring her back? Could they figure it out? Did they even know what went wrong? If they couldn’t fix it, could I figure out how to get back? All those thoughts kept racing through her brain, and it was giving her headache. “Excuse me, Thomas.”
“Yes.”
“I think I’ll head to bed. I should get as much rest as possible, so I don’t hold you guys up tomorrow.”
“Okay, that sounds good. I don’t think you’ll hold us up much. Once we get on the other side, it won’t take long to get there.”
“That’s good news. Thanks.” Paulette stood up and headed toward her sleeping bag. She sat down, took off her boots, unzipped the sleeping bag, crawled in, and zipped it back up. She rolled over, so she was facing away from the fire, and fell asleep quickly.
The rest of the group followed suit about an hour later. Soon, the entire campsite fell quiet except for the occasional snoring.
Chapter 30
Future, Week 3 Continued
The group awakened early again and packed their stuff and cleaned up the campsite. Thomas and his group were eager to get home, so they wanted to push forward. Paulette, being a little slower at getting up, was gathering her things when Thomas approached her. “Morning. I hope you slept okay. How is the ankle?”
“Morning to you, too. I slept fine, for sleeping out in the woods; and my ankle feels much better today, even after all the walking we did yesterday.”
“That’s good. We’ve got a moderate distance today. Our village is on the other side of Tiger Mountain. It should only take us a few hours to get there.”
“Nice. I know I’ll be glad to be off my feet again.”
“I need to warn you that our group is very suspicious of new people. The only reason you’re getting to come into the group is because I vouched for you. Besides, I’m the leader and what I say goes, usually anyway,” he said and smiled.
“I understand and thank you once again for taking me to your village. So, Thomas was their leader. This was good to know, she thought. I need to know what’s going on and how I can get back to where I came from.”
“You sure you want to go back into space? Even if you came from Mars, I doubt they are doing so well after all this time,” Thomas said sarcastically. “Can you tell I don’t believe your story? You just have too many inconsistencies.”
“Sorry about that. When I feel a little more comfortable, I’ll share with you what really happened, though I doubt you’ll believe me, even then.”
“Ah, I see. Well, I probably would believe just about anything after all that has happened around here.”
“That’s reassuring. Thanks.”
“All right, let’s grab a quick bite to eat and then get going.” Thomas walked off to join the rest of his group, and Paulette followed.
They each ate jerky and drank water before putting their packs on and heading out. Paulette wondered how she’d go about telling Thomas the truth and what the truth might do to her once he knew. She was afraid that the group would throw her out or refuse to help her anymore. Doubts kept playing in her head as she walked along the path that the group had set out on.
For a change, the walking was a lot easier. Apparently, they had cleared this area so they could come and go more easily. She again thought about her friends in the present and wondered what they were doing. Obviously, they hadn’t figured anything out yet; otherwise, her watch-like device would have showed that the time pod was operational. She had been in the future for three weeks now and was not enjoying it very much. She had no idea how much longer she’d be there an
d hoped that it was not until she died. She really wanted to get back home. Her dreams of traveling though time had soured greatly since this mishap, and she vowed she’d shut the project down as soon as she got back. She thought if it was not reliable enough to return to the present, it would be too dangerous to keep it operational. She was so deep in thought she did not hear Thomas.
“Paulette are you listening? Wake up from your daydream there, girl. I need to talk to you. Hey!” he yelled.
Finally, she blinked and turned to see what he wanted. “Sorry, you were speaking?”
“Yes, I was. What the heck got you so distracted that you didn’t hear me?”
“Just thinking about my situation; that’s all.”
“Okay. Just wanted to let you know we’ve got about an hour to go and we’ll be there.”
“Oh, okay.”
Thomas just shook his head and walked back to the front of the group.
Bo still was not happy with her coming back to the village. “Thomas, I really don’t think this is a good idea. What if she is a spy for another group, or worse?”
“Bo, you worry too much. I don’t think she’s a spy, although I think there is much more to her story than what she is saying. However, that doesn’t mean she’s dangerous.”
“So you say. You get the say in everything. Sometimes I get real tired of having to do what you tell us.”
“Discontent, are we? You know I saved your butt a long time ago and practically raised you. Therefore, I think I earned the right to tell you what to do. If you don’t think so or you feel you could do better, then by all means leave the group and go live somewhere else.”
“I don’t want to live on my own. I’m just tired of all the rules being made by you. Would it not be fair to allow everyone to vote on the rules?”
“Maybe it would, but I’ve found that too much arguing takes place and nothing gets accomplished. I talk to a select group of people for advice before I make my decisions.”
“Great, and I’m not one of those people.”
“You might be if you could keep your temper in check. Like I said, I don’t need a bunch of arguing when things need to get done.”
“Fine!” Bo said as he stomped off mumbling to himself.
The path began to twist and turn and work itself up the hill. The hiking was getting a little more laborious as the group made its way up and around Tiger Mountain. Paulette depended more on her walking stick now that there was a steep incline to the path. Why are we going so far up the mountain? she wondered. It doesn’t make any sense. However, she kept silent and continued to make her way along the path. Abruptly, there was a change in the path. It widened and became more like a road.
Thomas, who was in the front, slid back to where she was. “Around this next corner, we’ll enter the village.”
“Wow. So, why this far up the mountain?”
“We tried having the village lower down in the beginning, but when the rains came, it ended up flooding terribly and we lost a few people. We had to move higher up to avoid the flooding.”
“That makes sense. Can you grow stuff this high up?”
“Yes, there are few crops we can grow at the higher altitude. We grow the remaining crops in the valley and hope they don’t get destroyed by flooding. Usually, we are lucky enough to get the crops harvested before the rains come.”
“It sounds like the rain is not the normal amount you would get here.”
“You’re right. We get normal rain, but, occasionally, we get a downpour that can last for days.”
“Dang! That’s a lot of rain.”
“Yes, it is. We’ve been able to adjust, over time, to this new earth; but it’s always a struggle to survive.”
“I bet it is. You don’t have the conveniences of the past that your ancestors had before the upheaval.”
“No, we don’t, and we prefer to keep it that way. Maybe the earth can heal, and we can co-exist with her again.”
“That’s a good way to approach it. I hope other survivors are thinking along the same lines.”
“Who knows? I can only control what my group does. Speaking of which, we are here.”
Paulette looked forward and saw a large sprawling community ahead of her. There were wooden homes along the path, and each one had its own outdoor fireplace, and basic wooden chairs. There were lines strung between the homes where clothes had been hung out to dry. It impressed her. They had used nature to build their homes and other materials they needed to survive.
Thomas stopped everyone just as a large group of people was gathering.
“Welcome back,” said Julia. Julia Knox, due to a disorder in her metabolism, was a short, plump, young woman, who slouched slightly when she walked. Her hair was golden in color and matched her hazel eyes. She wore a simple white shirt that hung over a tanned leather skirt. She wore leather moccasins and always had a warm smile on her face.
“It’s good to be back,” Thomas replied. “I want to introduce to you all a new friend of ours. Her name is Paulette Brown. She ran into Bo and me while we were out hunting, and we agreed to bring her here to visit with us.”
“Wonderful,” Julia replied skeptically.
The group tried hard to look friendly, but Paulette realized that Thomas was right. It would take time before his people would accept her. She looked around and wondered if there was anyone who would try to hurt her while she was there. She decided that even though they weren’t particularly happy that she was there, they wouldn’t do anything to harm her, as long as Thomas was vouching for her. Thomas walked over to her and said, “Please follow me and I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.” They began walking away from the main row of homes and toward some other smaller buildings further out. These homes were scattered about behind the main road, and Thomas led her to an unoccupied one.
“This is where you’ll be staying. We usually have at least one or two homes left open for visitors and traders.”
“That’s great thinking of you to have this available for people passing through.”
“We decided that people and groups we traded with may have hiked a long way, so to be kind, we made a place for them to stay while they traded their goods. For now, you’ll stay here. Please make yourself at home. More than likely, you’ll be here for a while.”
“So, why do you say I’ll be here for a while?”
“I think we need to get to know you better, and I want to hear the truth about how you came to be in Squak Mountain. You’ve got unusual things that no one has seen in hundreds of years, and so I want to hear your whole story — the true story.”
“I’ve already told you my original story isn’t true, except for the part about me traveling through space. I just didn’t give the details.”
“When do you plan to give me the details?”
“I guess when I get to know you and your group better.”
“That sounds fair. I need to get back to the main hall. I’ll come back in about an hour to give you a tour of the place.”
Paulette opened the door to the wooden home and stepped inside. There was an oil lamp burning in the corner, and it gave a soft glow to the one-room home. She walked over to, what appeared to be, a wooden bed with hay laid on it for the bedding. She unslung the rifle and placed it in the corner next to the bed. Then she pulled the straps of her backpack off her shoulders and set the bag on the bed. She untied her sleeping bag and temporarily slung the backpack on her right shoulder, while she unrolled her sleeping bag over the hay. Placing the pack back down on the bed, she began unpacking her supplies. She placed her ammo for her rifle and the pistol in a hidden location under the bed and then placed her first-aid kit in front of the ammo boxes to help hide them. She laid out what few clothes she had on a shelf nearby. After getting everything put away, she sat down on the bed to take the weight off her ankle. Thomas had said he would be back in an hour, so she lay down to take a short nap.
Chapter 31
Early Summer 2280
The main task that Thomas gave her was to teach his team of hunters and trappers a better way to hunt. She began the lessons by having each person learn what upwind and downwind were so they could mask their scent as much as possible. She also helped them build deer stands in areas that had a good supply of game that came through. Then she taught them how to detect deer and elk. The basics were easy; it was just getting them used to sighting and identifying the signs — the same signs she had already gone over with Thomas and Bo earlier. She went out with each group of hunters to watch them use their training skills, and to reinforce or show them what they missed so they didn’t miss it the next time. The classes went well, and most of the hunters picked up on it quickly. This impressed her a lot, considering what they had all been through. Hopefully, with the new training and the upgrades she had made to the village, things would go better for them.
She had gotten to know her new friends well. She figured if she had to get stuck in the apocalyptic future that this was the place for her. However, she needed to remember that finding a way back home was her priority.
Beginnings (Book 1): Future Apocalypse Page 18