Earth's Survivors: box set

by Wendell Sweet

  Where was I, she thought as she turned her mind back to the computer screen and the database she was creating.

  ~

  The bedroom was dark as the afternoon sun drew the light away from the valley.

  “You spent the whole day with me, Aim,” Katie said. Once again, Katie lay on her side on the bed. They had both just finished dressing.

  “Because I wanted to,” Amy answered. “And I could say that you spent the whole day with me,” Amy said. She lay next to Katie and held one of her hands.

  “I guess you were right, Aim.” She smiled at her.

  Amy smiled back. “I told you, Kate. I love you.”

  “I love you too,” Aim,” Katie told her.

  ~

  “That's a big lion. They're not usually that big, are they?” Craige asked.

  “I don't really know, but I don't think so,” James agreed.

  “Nowhere near that big,” Josh added. “A hundred, a hundred and a quarter is a big cat. But, that's where I lived. And a hundred pound cat is no joke, this one, well, this one is a serious cat.”

  “Why, do you think, it is so big?” Jessie asked.

  “Well, it's from here. This whole area has been untouched for nearly two centuries. The horses that are here are not horses I have seen before. They have stripes. Faint stripes, but they are there. The bison are different from what I'm used to seeing too. They're bigger: Who knows what else we'll find here. This is exactly what it was intended to be, a preserve, forever wild area, where things are kept as they were. I think that lion is big because lions are big here. They are probably more likely to survive and hunt successfully with the extra size, and so they evolved that way, or they were that way and stayed that way because this was all closed away from human contact,” Josh said.

  “Makes sense to me,” Conner agreed.

  “The dogs won't be a match for anything that big,” Josh said after a few seconds of silence.

  “Not alone, no, but five or six of them would make it think twice. Plus, I think they will learn quickly, these cats. This cat has probably got a mate somewhere close by, that's my concern right now. We'll probably have to kill her too. A few more killed, or even a few more that escape, and they will learn to fear our scent again like they once did. They won't come here.”

  “A cat that big has to eat well. If it has to work too hard to get itself fed here, or it considers it too dangerous it will move on. Makes sense, Josh,” James finished.

  Josh nodded. “But in the meantime we'll have to watch for his mate... If he had one.”

  “Is it any good for anything,” Conner asked.

  “We're going to skin it,” Jake said.

  “The pigs will eat it,” James added. “Pigs will eat anything at all.”

  As they were talking Beth walked up from the pathway through the valley onto the slope that lead up to the cave where they all stood looking down at the cat.

  “There she is now,” James said with a smile.

  Beth flushed red.

  “Good shooting,” Josh said.

  “I'm going to skin it and cure the hide for you, but he's yours, Beth,” Jake told her.

  “Will you show me how,” Beth asked.

  “Of course... You have time now?”

  She nodded.

  “Well,” Jake said. “Best get started right now then.”

  ~

  As the sun began to sink behind the mountains in the north, almost everyone gathered at the stone wall along the ledge that fronted the cave and waited for darkness to fall. One by one the sodium arc lights came on and slowly brightened. By the time it was full dark, there was a small river of light running down through the middle of the valley.

  The mountain top above them shone, the ledge they stood on was well lit too. The small park and cemetery below them. The guard posts were also wired for light, but only small lights within them, not the big sodium arc lights, but there were sodium arc lights near each post to discourage night predators and unwanted visitors. The big lights would come on automatically at dusk from now on and shut off automatically at dawn.

  Conner said his good-nights and walked off down the lighted path to the valley floor and his way home. Katie had a hard time doing anything lately. Steve Choi had even talked about moving her up to the cave to make it easier for her to get around. She was small woman and she was huge. Her legs gave her trouble. She couldn't lay flat on her back without pain, lying on her side was about the only position she could tolerate for long periods of time. Even then, sleep was sporadic. She seemed to spend more time awake than she did asleep. Amy was taking care of her, but Amy was getting big herself. Soon it might be wise to follow Steve's advice, Conner thought. If he could get it past Katie, that was.

  Conner opened the door and stepped inside the little stone house. The lights were on in the living room. It caught him by surprise for a moment. He supposed soon it would all be taken for granted once more. Candace lay on her side on the floor, her head in Amy's lap.

  “Hey, Babe,” Conner said He squatted beside her, leaned forward and kissed her.

  “I got tired of the bed, Honey,” Katie said. She looked up into his eyes and smiled.

  “Aim,” Conner said.

  “Con,” Amy returned.

  Conner laughed. For a while Amy had called him Connie, now it was Con. She poked him in the side and he smiled.

  “No better,” he asked Katie.

  “No worse. Four or five weeks, Honey, and we'll be there,” Katie answered. Her belly arced out into the space in front of her. A life of its own, Katie thought.

  “You ready to take over, boss man,” Amy asked.

  “You betcha,” Conner agreed. He peeled off his jacket and tossed it onto the couch.

  Katie lifted her head and Amy kissed her cheek. “I love you, Kate. I'll be back in the morning.”

  Katie kissed her cheek and hugged her, Conner helped Amy to her feet, hugged her too, and shut the door behind her. He walked back, dropped to the floor and took Katie's head into his lap.

  Amy breathed deep of the night air as she stepped outside. It smelled like snow, she told herself. She was none too small herself at this stage, so she was careful as she walked down to the next house in line where she and Aaron lived.

  ~

  The big cat paced the ridge for well over two hours. Her mate had not returned and she had traced his scent to this valley, but he was not here. She could smell his blood though, something had happened to him. She nosed the air once again, stopped her pacing and headed down into the valley.

  Jake watched from his post. He had been watching the big cat for well over an hour now. He had no idea how long it had been there before that. He was downwind, in a closed shelter, and he had been very careful to make no noise, most likely the cat had not smelled him or sensed that he was there.

  He was positive that this was the mate to the cat that Beth had killed earlier in the day. She was nearly as big, seemed to be searching, and she was agitated: Sniffing the ground, sniffing the air, staring down into the valley at the place where the other cat had been shot. Jake didn't know how much scent could tell the cat, but it was clear it was enough so that the cat could follow the other cats trail. The cat stopped suddenly, nosed the air, and then started down into the valley. Jake slowly rolled the window down on the modified cab, staying as silent as he could. He laid the barrel against the door-sill top and then aimed through the scope. The cat stopped part way down the slope, lifted its head to sniff the air, and then looked directly to where Jake sat in the cab of the old truck. Jake pulled the trigger just as the cat tried to leap away. The huge cat did a back flip into the air and then crashed down onto the gravel strewn slope: She slid a few hundred feet toward the bottom before she stopped.

  Jake pulled the phone from his belt, pulled the list from his pocket and punched in the number six. The phone trilled into his ear.

  “Hello,” James said.

  “Got the mate,” Jake told him.


  “Ah, heard it, hoped that was it,” Bob said. “Down by the post?”

  “Nearly outside,” Jake agreed.

  “Be right down with the little pickup,” James told him. He hung up.

  Jake looked at the phone for a second and then replaced it. He opened the door, closed it behind him, stretched his legs, stiff from sitting so long, he told himself. He started down the slope to where the body of the cat lay.

  ~

  Two hours before dawn, just as Arlene Best was getting ready to end her own post, the snow began falling in earnest. Twenty minutes later when she was relived by Bonnie and started on her way to home, she was walking through a blizzard: Six inches of snow had already fallen. She made her way home following the glow of the Sodium arc lights.

  ELEVEN

  November 12th

  Alabama Island

  Mike and Candace

  The tide was on the way in when they reached the shore and rolled out onto the long flat beach. The trip was faster now, knowing for a certainty that the land was there, but it was still a close run between the tides.

  As the days passed and the trips became more regular, they planned on leaving on the low tide, collecting all the materials they needed, and coming back on the next nearest low tide. That usually meant a layover, as it took time to collect what they needed, and as the areas around Fort Deposit were nearly stripped clean of any and all building materials or supplies: They found themselves venturing farther out. Some were back on the island while another group was out. Today two groups had met up and come back together.

  The old road had been cleared of sand in most areas simply by driving over it, in others with shovels and hard work. The highest area had been officially named Mount Alabama, and a rough camp was set up there. It was the highest point on the island, therefore worthy of the name, they had decided. Piles of materials had been trucked in across the water and stored there under the trees, but they had not yet begun to build.

  Mike lead the way down the road and into a forested area that was part of Mount Alabama, but a quarter mile from the actual summit. Here the trees were very old growth. Massive trunks, and heights that went well beyond a hundred feet with large spreading limbs. They had all been taken under the spell of the place since they had first stumbled across it on the third day. Unlike some areas they had discovered, where submersion under salt water had killed the trees, these trees had either never been submerged, or had not been submerged for long. There were thriving and imparted their beauty over the entire area.

  As Mike stopped the truck there was nothing there to denote the fact that they had chosen this place to build: It looked like nothing more than a scattered tent community under the huge trees. The six survivors had become twenty during their supply runs, and Mike had no doubt the twenty would become fifty before they ceased their runs to the mainland. Others were there, he could feel it. He, Candace and Ronnie often talked about it. It was easy to understand their reluctance to come out of hiding and join them. It had taken those with them some time, it would take those remaining some time too.

  Mike jumped down from the truck and watched the others pull in. Two of the new trucks were stake-rake trucks: One driven by Ronnie one driven by Kyle, one of the newcomers. Kyle had been a farmer in the old days. All of his own animals that had survived were here now, including a half dozen cows, fifty chickens, and a nearly blind dog named Bam-Bam. Kyle helped Bam-Bam down from the truck and then walked over to Mike where he stood with Candace, Alice and Ronnie.

  “Six cows and four pigs. Ronnie's got a bull and John has twelve pigs that are about as wild as I have ever seen. Like to have eaten us as we were trying to load them... No horses yet.” He pulled his hat from his head, wiped away the sweat from his face and then put the hat on backwards. Mike smiled.

  “That bull?” Ronnie said.

  Candace smiled. “Pissed off?”

  “Very,” Ronnie agreed. “I think take it out in the field before I release it. Make sure it calms down and doesn't just charge us.”

  Mike laughed. “I know it's not funny. I never really thought about how to get it out of the truck once we got here.” He sighed. “Well, we've got five acres fenced for it... Should have built one of those chutes you see on rodeo shows.”

  “Are you a secret cowboy,” Alice asked Mike as Jayne walked up.

  “If I am, I'm one of those McMurtry cowboys. The real ones not the cleaned up versions.” Mike laughed.

  “So... We could back it up to the gate, close in the sides before we let that door open, maybe it will shoot right out the back and kick rocks,” Ronnie said.

  “Kick rocks?” Mike asked.

  “Hit the road,” Candace supplied.

  “Hmm, well, if that's our best option let's do it.” Mike agreed.

  The bull turned out to be easy, it was the pigs that were trouble. They dropped the latch on the back of Ronnie's truck and the bull took off. They dropped the door latch on John's truck for the pigs, and instead of taking off into the woods to become wild pigs they could hunt on occasion, they stayed right in camp. Raiding garbage, knocking down tents, and chasing kids around. They had to shoot two of them before it was over and the other ten had finally run off: As night closed in they had all eventually found a reason to laugh about it.

  ~

  “Okay, there are more pigs we can get. What we'll do next time is release them a little further away. The thing is they're going to be dependent on us until this island springs back and starts supporting all the life it should be. We've released rabbits, and a few dozen nutria. It won't take long for them to breed and become a food source for the pigs, but until they do they will search us out and look for food. And a pig will eat anything at all. A cat, puppy, garbage, which is what we can feed them. They're omnivores so they'll search out vegetation and eat that too,” Kyle finished.

  “You mean feed them cats and puppies,” Jayne asked.

  “I didn't say that,” Kyle said. He frowned “Okay, maybe it sounded that way. I meant garbage. We can feed them garbage so they aren't trying to eat our cats and puppies.” His face was red.

  “So long as you are not trying to feed them cats and puppies,” Jayne said. She seemed to enjoy getting Kyle wound up. It was an easy process. He was somewhere south of infatuated with her and immediately got both defensive and tongue tied when she spoke to him.

  The fire in the center of the tent city was burning brightly. Both pigs were spitted and cooking over the flames. Food for a few days only with twenty adults. There were six children here too. None had come through with their parents, all had been on their own and taken in by the people that had come to join with them. Some were past the trauma on those first days back in March, some were not.

  “Deer,” Jayne said after a pause. “Equally important as cows.”

  “I agree,” Mike said, “but getting them here alive is the trick. We need a way to get animals here in larger quantities to release them.”

  “What about, probably stupid,” Jayne said, “But what about by sea? Hear me out.” She raised her hands when the comments about how shallow the water was had started. “Wait.”

  “Let her finish,” Mike said.

  Jayne smiled. “Thanks. Okay, so water. Yes, we've just a few inches here and inbound from here. I think that is getting deeper almost daily, but I realize it will be a long time before it's deep enough to take a boat with any real cargo on it. Not enough draught. But the Gulf side of the island is plenty deep. We can leave a port in Georgia, Mississippi, even Louisiana and get here from the Gulf.” She finished with a twisting of her mouth and a shrug of her shoulders. “Should work, right?”

  Mike was nodding.

  “Will work,” Candace said. “That's a great idea.”

  “I have to agree,” Ronnie said. “That will work. Kyle? Do they make something to haul animals over water?”

  “Oh yeah. And if we can't find something ready built we can get a barge and outfit it ourselves. Anybody plumbed that
channel between this island and the little one?”

  “Looks deep,” Mike said.

  “Probably is plenty deep, but let's find out exactly how deep,” Kyle said. “In fact, I want to go tomorrow and bring back a seaworthy boat... Something fifty, sixty feet long. A fisherman... Better yet a tug. We'll need a tug if we're bringing back a barge... Might need two tugs in fact,” He laughed and waved his hands at everyone. “Sorry, got carried away... Here's the thing. That channel would be perfect to build a dock on... Some place to unload. This side of the island is far too shallow. The Gulf side is too deep with nothing but cliffs. That channel is perfect: If it's deep enough. So, I can get a boat. A tug would be good because it's already going to be set up with depth finders, fenders, a good powerful motor. And as I said if we end up with a barge we'll need a tug boat... We'll have it.”

  Mike looked around to nothing but nodding heads. “Looks like the ayes have it,” He said and laughed.

  Everyone laughed and then the laughter died away. “Well, that's another thing right there,” John said. “I know of no better time to bring this up, but we probably should make something official before things get bigger here.”

  “For instance, I've been following you since before we came here, and there is no doubt you are the guy who runs things here, but it isn't official. Now suppose some guy comes along and decides he should be in charge? I'm not for that. That's like some of these other settlements we hear about. We've all listened in to The nation and their broadcasts. They have it together there. They're growing because they have established rules and leadership, and we could have it together here just as easily, but we need our leadership established. We need to have it decided. That place, a few others I have heard of or talked to have leaders. It's right up front, no dancing around it...” He shrugged. “Maybe I'm overstating the obvious. We should elect you the main guy here..., However that goes.”

  “You and Candace together,” Jayne said solemnly.