These raptors were bigger than any that were known to the humans from Wheel 7 and one quick look into the clear waters of the river, Tom knew they were in trouble and nodded at his friends to slowly pick up the poles while he slowly moved toward the twin anchor ropes. A quick glance to the still rising sun he knew the light was in their favor, but as soon as the raptors figured out that what they heard and smelled was not a tree floating in the river that would change. Tom slowly began to pull the first rope as he looked at the raptors that were now wading in the river and slowly approaching the small barge.
“I think we’re in trouble.” he whispered.
“Not as much as the raptors” Harry muttered back as he slowly pointed to the jungle’s fringe and a pair of huge t-rexes standing there. It took all of about five seconds for the rex to see the raptors darting about, stopping, sniffing and then once again moving toward the strange tree thing in the water.
There was a bellow that shook the insides of the crew and Murg motioned for everyone to slowly lay flat on the deck; no one argued as the barge slowly moved down stream as the last anchor dragged the sandy bottom.
Staring in horror as the rexes charged the raptors and the raptors now felt the heavy plodding steps of the beasts that was now stalking them. Squawks and high pitched chirps sent the raptors scurrying in all directions…unfortunately one scurried toward the barge. Barely a couple of yards from the netted barge there was a sickening crunch and the raptor vanished straight up as they peered from in between two railing planks nearest the deck. Tom slid next to the boarded railing and looked up through the net to see the last of the raptor vanishing into the towering maw of the rex. One quick look around to see which was closer and the rex was off after another.
“Ok guys slow and steady, out into the deeper water…now.” Carefully poles slid out of the netting and they began to push out into deeper water until the poles no longer could touch bottom and they drifted down stream nearly a mile. Hans had little room for fuel, but now was as good of time as any to waste a little to get Murg back toward shore. He started the small engine and headed toward the shore now they were clear of the hunting beasts.
“I shall go with you to find your sister my friend.” he protested in his deep mellow voice, but Tom shook his head no.
“I’ll not have Lilra angry with me if something happens to you. Assuming that we ever get back. Murg, you don’t have anything to do with this. For us, it is to do with family and longtime friends. If you’re along then we would be forced to return this way.”
Harry nodded “Remember the wreck is actually west of here, we just have to go the long way around because that’s the way we think Sky would come.”
Tom nodded “Once we find the wreck we might decide it’s safer to find a more direct way home,” he patted his new friend on his back and smiled “and we’d never leave you to find your own way home.”
The barge was as close to shore as they could get with the poles and not ground themselves. Tom nodded to a slight peninsula on the shore as Gina stood on her tip toes and kissed Murg’s cheek.
“Thank you for everything, now get your butt back to your mate.”
Murg put one hand on the chest high railing and bounded over into the waist deep water. He headed back along the shore toward the barely visible tor and the crevasse that was the opening to his base. Much further down there were screams to tell them rexes had found another snack.
“I wonder if he made it ok?” Gina softly said as she leaned her head on Tom’s chest and he put his arm around her waist. He smiled softly and pointed to the top of the tor where the rocky observation lookout was located, to see a flashing light. Gina looked strangely at Tom as Harry leaned in and whispered…
“If you’d taken those survival classes, you’d know the code.” he grinned “Damn boss, those reptiles know Morse better than we do…wish I could read it faster and…”
Tom smiled and gave Gina a gentle hug “It says ‘Safe trip’.”
Chapter 22.
“Ten years, can you believe it?” Sky smiled warmly at her husband Luke “You’re leader of our wheel, we’ve been married and…” she saddened as memories drifted back to their two young children and the fever that took the younger of the two first.
“Tara would have been seven now.” she lamented as a tear rolled down her cheek.
Luke gathered her in his arms and held her close remembering the oldest passing barely a week later “And Little Lukie would have been nine. I know, I miss them every day, just as I know you do Sky.”
She pulled away from his chest and stared at him with an intensity Luke hadn’t seen in years.
“Damn it! If we had the drugs…and the medical supplies that we manufacture back at 7…they’d be alive now.” she buried her head back into her husband’s chest and sobbed “It’s all my fault for not returning…”
Luke held her tightly “Honey, you can’t truthfully say, you might have never made it back, you might have.” he sighed “You know that I couldn’t live without you, especially after mom passed.” he cupped her face in his hands and smiled softly “If I would have lost you…”
“It was before we had children. The loss of your mom was hard on me too baby.”
“I know honey, I know. Mom died happy knowing that she had you for a daughter for almost a year…and saw her first grandchild born.” He looked into Sky’s sea blue eyes and chuckled even as the last tear slipped from her cheek and she had that look, that glint that he hadn’t seen in nearly a decade...that look of determination, that wistful look of home.
“We’re going aren’t we?”
“I must, for your people.”
“Our people…you still can’t call them our people?” Luke asked softly.
Sky looked lovingly at her husband “They are my people too, but not my real family nor my old friends that I still miss after all these years. Our people need to live in something other than this wreckage and the fort. They need something to give them proper safety, medicine, to be allowed to…” again tears formed and Luke held Sky at arm’s length.
Luke smiled at his wife “I’ve seen this coming for a few years now, every time you look east to where the main river could be...or south where the river by the old scalie village used to be.” again he smiled “I have been working with the electorate to run things while we’re gone.”
Sky’s eyes opened in horror “YOU CAN’T…leave…your…our people here.”
“I can and many of us are planning to go. I mean, Christ, Sky look at your other kids, Lady is the smallest and stands at least eighty feet high…and Dash, Jesus, does he ever live up to his name.” he chuckled “There’s no one here at Wheel 3 that has wanted for food, hell he takes good care of us…sometimes I think that he thinks, that we are his pets the way he brings us game. With mom dying so quickly and Clark gone after that stupid accident, I realize how much I miss them now that they are dead. I have to get you back to your family, I have to....they still could be alive.” he gently touched her cheek with his fingers “No more arguing, it’s final!”
Sky nodded slowly knowing that Luke was as determined as she was and the fact that he knew that she was trying to protect him from whatever fate might await them.
There had been small probing missions down the tributary south of the now booming fort south of Wheel 3. Tucked away among the ironwood forest the fort had become the main base for Luke’s people, or at least those that wanted to move from their home at the wheel.
Towering walls five stories tall, double reinforced, and completely secure even if Sky took her ‘kids’ with her. Almost to one thousand, they had log houses up to three stories high. Sewers and three well systems provided a healthy environment. Yet within them all was the fear of another plague that hung over their heads. With no medicine to speak of, it was just a matter of time before another tragic event occurred. Sky knew that she had to go and she knew in her heart that she could not stop her husband from accompanying her.
Sk
y had thought to sneak out early one morning, but knew in her heart that Luke would follow on those damned mid-sized raptors that her kids brought home one day nearly two years ago. They were half the size of a small rex, but large enough to ride now that a few generations of them had been trained and now were used to humans…he’d follow without a doubt. So Sky finally decided that when it was time and Luke insisted, she’d only gently protest.
The damnedest thing was Lady and Dash could communicate with the various smarter breeds of dinosaurs they had brought back to either the fort or wheel and likewise the ‘smart breeds’ as they were called, seemed to be able to communicate among themselves. The kids had even brought home some four legged creatures as well. They were neither stegosaurus, nor ankylosaurus, but some sort of advanced breed and with patience and training could pull massive loads or carry up to eight fully equipped people on their backs.
Sky was amazed that this area that Wheel 3 had crash landed in was thriving with the smarter dinosaurs…and the variation of species were staggering. Elders had told her that from what they had read in their old ‘Earth’ studies, that some of their scientists thought that Earth dinosaurs had been far more varied than humans knew, if this planet was any indicator, they had to be. Others called them crackpots and because of the Earth collisions with asteroids variety had been limited. Sky argued because of the time Terra had to develop and just plain differences in the two worlds, it was unfair to compare the two and explained all the variations that she had seen in her younger days…and both sides smiled politely and walked away. The one thing everyone couldn’t deny was the fact that the kids kept finding evolved breeds and brought them home. This became a boon to 3 and the fort, not just for transportation, but security as well. And strangely the meat-eaters never attacked the herbivores, nor the omnivores. It was as if peace had been arranged and the beasts that needed flesh to live, simply went out and hunted the non-carnivores.
Now finally it was time to leave those that she had grown to love, those that she loved to argue and debate with, and mostly the fort that she had helped to retake and rebuild, all would soon be behind her. It was due to her rage that they were safe from the scalies as they had fled and never returned to the river…and as eventually the scouts discovered, had left the entire area between the river and the great ocean farther south.
Sky had nightmares for years following the blind rage that she had felt destroying that scalie village and the only saving grace was the fact that they had time to develop a safe and secure settlement at the fort should they ever return. With the fort and the old wheel wreckage secured and the thriving community that still lived there, she felt she had done all she could...here. Her eyes now turned toward her first home. She had decided and her husband agreed, it was time to go.
She waved from the mounting platform to uproarious applause as Luke lowered his hand to help her up and chuckled.
“You know I can remember when we built this so you could mount Lady, so she didn’t have to lower herself. Geez has she grown.” he muttered as he pointed out how many that times they had raised the platform and all the extra stairs they had added over the years.” he laughed again and gave Sky that smile that she so loved “Even now she has to stoop slightly so we can mount.”
Sky settled in and waved one last time. She nodded at Dash and the two men on board him. Instantly Dash was off to scout ahead and Lady moved off with her usually long, but steady gait. To either side were mounted raptors numbering a half dozen, and between the two giant rexes, was a Darasaur, named in loving memory of her old friend Dar. On its back, their supplies that were protected by long ironwood spikes sharp enough to skewer any attacker; regular sized rexes and spinosaurs were not intelligent yet still deadly enough to be a threat to both dinosaurs and humans alike.
The plan was to go south past the fort to the feeder tributary of the river and then east to the main river. If all went well it would be north to the lands that Sky could barely remember anymore…and home.
Slightly after noon and even with the quickened pacing of the dinosaurs, they had only reached the farthest point that the scouts had managed to get to before larger meat-eaters turned them back. An hour after that came the first attack as two rather large spinosaurs charged the Darasaur in the middle. They came charging out of the dense jungle fringe by the narrow river bank and headed straight for their slower moving supply carrier. Lady who was a good twenty feet higher than the tallest spinosaurus, let out a roar and it nearly tripped over itself trying to stop once it turned its head and saw her. Its mate did not stop and stumbled over the first and before it could managed to get up, Dash had its neck and blood gushed in torrents and spurted everywhere as he slung it about.
The mate turned and screamed in anguish at Dash, but in a flash Lady closed in and ripped out its throat. As she triumphantly shook the large chuck of flesh, Luke and Sky were drenched in blood.
The attack took but seconds, the deadly defense less than that. All the defense tactics had been planned and once they caught up to the panicked Darasaur followed by the raptors, they continued heading easterly toward the big river.
Dash made long, low, rumbling sounds and seemed to soothe the Darasaur and it settled down. Luke had argued his theory that to him it appeared that some of the smart dinosaurs the kids communicated with seemed to be at different levels of intelligence among the species and now Sky agreed. It seemed that the Darasaur was being sort of told what to do by the giant rexes, and it didn’t seem to mind, sort of a détente. It was smart or at least smart enough to know as long as it went along with the other reptiles and humans, it was not considered food…a wise choice that seemed to work as it was now being protected by its companions.
The evening was uneasy as sounds that no one had heard before sang out in the night, but with the huge dinosaurs at hand, and a half dozen fifteen foot raptors patrolling, a fitful sleep fell upon the camp.
Another week passed…
Sky stood in her seat as she looked out upon the wide south flowing river that she knew had to be the one that flowed by Wheel 7 to the north. She almost wept with joy as Dash looked at her and seemed to coo in a deep rumbling as if he understood the hope that she held in her heart. Sky pointed north and Dash began leading once again and the other dinosaurs fell into their positions once again.
Granted the men on Dash’s back were just along for the ride, but he seemed to respect them. If they motioned or signaled to move closer to the river, he did. Here the bank was much wider, the water deeper and being close to the ocean, Sky feared that perhaps some unknown ocean beast might swim up the river. Half the lookouts kept an eye on the jungle and the others, on the clear waters for any signs of danger. They all knew this was going to be a long and dangerous journey.
Chapter 23.
Moving at the pace they had been and with nearly two months gone by, and Luke ordered the caravan to halt for a day. With the river’s wide bank to the east and high cliffs to the west, they had a relative safe area nearly a quarter mile wide to set up camp. They could see all the way south until it vanished into the steamy jungle heat powered mirages. To the north was a slow bend in the shore line a mile ahead and the steep cliffs to the west rose out of the jungle. The sheer rocky cliffs assured them that nothing from land could surprise them…unless danger came from along the north, south river banks or the river itself.
The spikes from the Darasaur were removed and pressed into the mud pointing toward the river lest some creature crawl out of the depths and surprise them, and large fires for the night were built.
“Wow,” Luke muttered as he plopped down among the group not on watch. He put his arm around Sky as she snuggled into his chest. He smiled sort of a frustrated grin “thirteen days into this month, not a sign of your wheel baby.”
Sky returned his smile and sighed “Nothing familiar either. Sure, I know I had only been about a mile downstream, but the plants are more jungle-like, not forest, or plains-like near my home.” She was about
to say something when one of the men shouted and pointed skyward.
“What the fuck?” Sky muttered as everyone slowly got to their feet “Sorry my love, I know I said I’d stop cussing…but…”
“Fuck me!” Luke sputtered abruptly as he sat upright, which made Sky laugh, she hadn’t heard Luke swear in nearly ten years…and nothing like this! Her eyes quickly went back to the glowing white object in the sky “Too short to be a comet or meteor; should have burnt up by now.”
Sky nodded “Not getting bigger, or smaller…” before she could say something else, the strange object vanished behind the tall trees on the far side of the river.
“Damn, it’s gone.” One of the men added.
“Gone east, maybe it got trapped in Terra’s orbit?” another asked to several shrugs.
Luke cradled Sky back in his arms and chuckled “Well whatever it was, it didn’t crash down upon us and that’s a good sign.” His comment lightened the mood and everyone seemed to settle down, at least this night, they’d have something to talk about.
As they proceeded northward, the next two nights were the same. Each night the glowing object moved across the night sky but at different lattitudes. It was Sky that had an inkling of what was going on as she huddled her expedition around her and pointed to the glowing object.
“It’s been pulled into Terra’s orbit.”
“What has baby?” Luke asked “Hell, our data bases on crap like this had been damaged. I mean we know about comets and things, but…” his mouth fell open as he pointed back upward to the object “is that supposed to be doing that?”
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