It took the better part of an hour for the two to reach a point where Heather could see who it was. Once it was determined, she reported to Phylicia their identity.
“You’ll be pleased to know,” Phylicia addressed the guards, “that Palmer and Freeman are alive. They’ll be here shortly. Apparently, Freeman was injured.” She resumed her pacing.
It took quite some time for Palmer and Freeman to reach the community building and report to Phylicia, as they were directed by Heather.
“What happened?” Phylicia asked as she continued her pacing.
“We attacked, initially, with four of the guards, but they were stopped by Murdock,” Freeman reported while he cradled his dislocated arm. He saw Phylicia make a rolling motion with her hand and arm that he took as a command to continue. “Both Palmer and I tried to talk to Murdock, to get him to drop his guard, and when I thought it appropriate, I attacked and was defeated. Palmer attacked, when he thought it was appropriate, and it also failed.”
Phylicia said nothing for some time and everyone could feel her anger. “What happened with the guards?” she finally asked.
“They ran instead of attacking,” Freeman responded matter-of-factly.
That statement caused her to stop pacing, but she didn’t face them. “Are the ones who ran here?” she asked roughly.
“One is, yes,” Freeman responded.
“Where are the rest of the guards?” Phylicia asked as if she just noticed that there was some missing.
“I have no idea,” Freeman told her. “I don’t think it would have mattered, though. Murdock is half the size of Palmer and neither Palmer nor I stood a chance.”
“Where is Murdock now?” Phylicia asked mockingly. No one answered and all was silent for quite some time.
“I think he might be over there!” one of the guards said as he stood and pointed back the way all of them had come.
Phylicia turned to look and noticed that the sun had gone down and it was starting to get dark. In the distance, she could see a fire. It wasn’t a large fire, but it was clearly visible. She gave orders that Doctor Harris should attend Freeman’s arm and the guards should stay and keep a close watch. She made sure they understood that she didn’t want Murdock in the camp.
As it got darker, more of the people went off to find a place to sleep. It wasn’t long before everyone was asleep.
#
Murdock looked over at Annie and saw that she was asleep. “Can Bridget get Declan to walk out of the camp?” he asked Beron who had made himself visible.
“She will do best,” Beron responded telepathically.
“Is everyone asleep?” Murdock asked.
“All. Dreams of plots and plannings are progressing,” Beron responded.
#
Declan thought he was dreaming when he looked across the room and thought he saw Rose standing there. “You must get up and walk out of the camp, Declan,” Declan heard her say. “No one will stop you. They’re all sleeping.” As he watched, he saw her walk across the room and out the door. Declan got to his feet, after some effort, and followed Rose. In the passageway, he saw the guards sleeping. He could see by their twitching that they must be dreaming and he had no desire to know what those dreams entailed. He could see Rose at the end of the passageway beckoning him to follow. He was doing the best he could to keep up, but the vision of his sister seemed to move faster, not to lose him, but to direct him. It wasn’t long before he was down the ramp and was walking across the underside of the transport pod. He looked around as he walked and noticed that everyone was sleeping and dreaming. To Declan, it all seemed surreal. He felt like he was walking in a dream.
#
Murdock noticed Beron disappear as Declan started to approach the fire where he was waiting. He had already prepared the cart for transport and Annie was also asleep close to the fire. When Declan was only thirty yards from the fire, he seemed to fall asleep and Murdock levitated him before he could fall to the ground. Once Declan was lying on the cart and was covered with deer hides, Annie was awakened.
“We’re ready to leave,” Murdock told her. He could see that she was disoriented.
“We have to get Declan,” Annie protested.
“Look on the cart,” Murdock said as he dowsed the fire with the water in their water skins.
“I should check him before we move him,” Annie again protested sleepily.
“We need to get him somewhere safe,” Murdock insisted. “Besides, it’s too dark to see much of anything.”
Once Murdock had lifted the front of the cart, Annie obediently got on to ride. It was far too dark for her to see where she was walking and she was too tired to try to keep up with Murdock. Before they had gone very far, Annie was asleep once more and Murdock decided to utilize his special skills. Dawn would be in a couple of hours and he wanted to be on the ridge and at the river by then.
When dawn came and Annie was starting to stir, they were at the river and atop the ridge. Murdock had started a fire, caught a couple of fish and had them cleaned and half cooked before she awoke. Once she was awake, she went to the river to fill the water skins. By the time she returned, it was light enough for her to see Declan’s injuries.
When she uncovered the still unconscious Declan, she furrowed her brow at the sight of the bruises on the side of his face. They had turned a deep purple and were still very swollen. She touched his arm gently and Declan started to wake.
“Where am I?” he asked weakly and drowsily.
“You’re safe, now,” Annie said reassuringly.
#
About the time that Murdock, with Declan and Annie asleep on the cart, had reached the river on top of the ridge, the others were starting to awaken. As they did, they all had a nasty scowl on their face. No one had slept well. They all had fallen asleep wherever they happened to be and had slept in whatever position they landed. Quite a few had slept outside the transport pod.
When Phylicia awoke, she found that she was in the doorway to her quarters. When she got to her feet and looked around, none of her guards could be seen and neither Kimberly nor Heather were anywhere in sight either. She was not in a good mood and it was just the start of the day. As she proceeded to exit the transport pod, she saw no one else inside, which was highly unusual. When she got to the top of the ramp and was about to exit the pod, she could hear some very loud discussions.
“Why should we bow down to the likes of Palmer and Phylicia!” a man was saying with considerable passion. “They’ll sell us out the first chance they get! They’ve lied to us continually!”
Phylicia had heard it all as she made her way toward the unfinished common building, where the ruckus was originating. She was confused and tried to push her way past a person on the outskirts of the crowd. As she did, the woman turned to say something surly and noticed who it was that had tried to push past her.
“Here! She’s here!” the woman screamed at the top of her lungs. “Grab her!” someone else yelled.
A couple of burley men laid hands on her and Phylicia was wishing for her guards. The men roughly escorted her to the center of the unfinished common building. In the center with her were Palmer, Heather Stevens, Preston Freeman, Kimberly Grey, and Doctor Harris.
“Hang them,” someone yelled from the middle of the crowd. “Banish them,” someone else yelled from the other side of the crowd.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Phylicia yelled back angrily at the surly crowd. “I demand you release us!”
“You have no standing to demand anything,” someone yelled back at her and there were several agreeing yells throughout the crowd.
“Since you can’t decide what to do with us,” Phylicia yelled, without anger and just to be heard, with a smile, “maybe you should confine us to the transport pod until you decide.” She could see several in the crowd agreeing with her. She was sorely lacking in information. She had no idea why everyone was so angry with her and the rest of her troop. She needed to confer with the ot
hers.
After some discussion, it was agreed that Phylicia, Palmer, et al, would be confined in the transport pod until more discussion and some consensus could be arrived at on their fate. Once inside the pod, Phylicia called everyone into her room. Freeman was stationed at her door to warn them of others coming.
“What the hell happened?” Phylicia asked angrily. “Why is everyone so angry? What set them all off?”
“Did you sleep well last night?” Doctor Harris asked her.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Phylicia responded heatedly.
“No one got any restful sleep,” Freeman said testily from his position at the door.
“Apparently,” Doctor Harris continued, “Murdock had something to do with it. Declan is gone and everyone has turned against us. From what I understand, everyone had information about any conversations you’ve had since you arrived here.”
“That’s impossible,” Phylicia responded after she got over her initial shock. “There are no recording devices on this planet!” In her mind, she was running through all conversations that she could recall, to try to figure out what was said and how damning it could be.
“I know,” Doctor Harris continued, “I have no theories as to how it was accomplished, but the fact is it was. We now have a full-blown insurgency on our hands!”
“Did someone tell you all that?” Phylicia asked Doctor Harris.
“It’s what I managed to piece together from all the bits and pieces of conversations that I over-heard while I was waiting in the center of the common building,” Doctor Harris said.
Phylicia paced the room without looking, or talking, to anyone. The precipitation of recent events left her without a plan and that was disturbing to her. She had been spending an inordinate amount of time planning everything and now all of it was of no use. If she wasn’t so tired, she would have been irate.
#
Freeman, from his position at the door, could hear nothing from outside the pod. He thought about moving toward the ramp, to see if he could hear anything, but decided that he wanted to be included in the planning of their futures. The side of his face still hurt from the position he had come to rest in last night. The log had been very rough and, once he was aware of it, was uncomfortable enough to wake him. His dislocated elbow was giving him some distress even though Doctor Harris had reset it.
#
Doctor Harris was used to not sleeping well. It was part of her profession and had become a part of her. She didn’t like what she was seeing in her confined companions. There was a lot of anger in all of them, but Phylicia and Freeman had the worst of it. She didn’t like being incarcerated with this group and found it insulting to be included in their ranks, but she didn’t have a choice. Those that incarcerated them were not in the mood to listen to her complaints about being associated with these people. Now, she kept to herself and was hoping Declan would be well taken care of.
#
Murdock had spent part of the morning in telepathic communication with Beron and had been informed that he should wait a day before heading home. When he asked Beron why he should wait, he didn’t get an answer, but he would have sworn that Beron had chuckled, if such a thing was possible telepathically. While the fish he caught were cooking, he was watching Annie as she spent the morning tending to Declan, making sure he had plenty of water. Once the fish were cooked, she made sure Declan had enough to eat. While Murdock ate, he was looking toward the large transport pod. It was large enough to see from his vantage point by anyone with normal vision.
“We’re going to have company,” Murdock said aloud to Annie and Declan.
Annie, being surprised by Murdock breaking his silence, had come over and tried to see what Murdock had seen by shading her eyes. “Do you know who they are or what they want?” she asked after failing to see anything of interest.
“It looks like the six guards that had accompanied us to the pod last night, but I’ll know more when they get closer,” Murdock responded. “How is Declan?”
“He’ll survive,” Annie said with concern. “They really beat him badly. I’m surprised he lived this long!”
“Only Palmer beat him,” Murdock corrected. “His survival is a testament to the treatment he received from Doctor Harris. Has he said anything about his treatment?”
“Yes,” Annie replied. “He said that Doctor Harris did what she could to insure that no one would beat him and bought him a couple of days when Phylicia wanted him thrown out of the pod.”
“Her basic human decency finally showed itself,” Murdock responded with a chuckle. “It took her long enough.”
#
When they were getting hungry and thirsty, Phylicia sent Preston Freeman to scout the ramp. They hadn’t heard anyone or seen anyone since they were incarcerated.
“Everyone is gone,” he reported shortly after leaving.
“Where did they all go?” Phylicia asked in disbelief.
“I have no idea,” Preston responded. “We can leave the pod now, though, and I would suggest we take turns guarding the ramp.”
“Is there anything to eat?” Heather asked.
It didn’t take them long to exit the transport pod and start to scour for food and water and anything else they thought they might need. Palmer, who had spent hours watching the hunters harvest a fish or two from the nearby stream, decided he’d try his hand at it.
“Where are all the supplies?” Phylicia asked as she looked around the underside of the pod. “They took everything and left us nothing!”
Preston had been looking through the rubble that was left behind and managed to find a few things. “They left us some things,” he corrected. “It isn’t what we had before, but they did leave us a few things.”
“They took all the important stuff,” Phylicia argued. “Did they leave us any weapons or water skins?”
“They left a few twelve-inch machetes and a couple water skins,” Doctor Harris said as she came over to Phylicia. “They did, however, take all of the medical supplies.”
Phylicia walked over to the ramp and sat on it heavily. “We’re doomed,” she said hanging her head. “We might as well kill each other off and shorten the suffering!”
“If that’s what you really think,” Preston said angrily, “then go for a walk! That way!” he indicated the direction downstream. “If you’re going to give up, then we don’t need you!”
Heather and Kimberly had come over to console Phylicia as best they could. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Heather asked angrily. “I’m sure you can find something else to do and quit picking on poor Phylicia.” She patted Phylicia’s hand to comfort her. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered to Phylicia. “We’ll all stick together and get through this.”
Preston walked off in a huff knowing he couldn’t count on those three women for anything. He could see that they were going to consume resources without contributing to the gathering of those resources. As he walked over to the stream, he saw Palmer splashing water and getting himself soaking wet. He was obviously trying to catch a fish and only had a rudimentary idea of how to accomplish it. He knows more than me, he thought with a chuckle to himself.
#
Murdock had gone down to the river below the ridge. He left Declan and Annie above so they would be safe until he judged if the six ex-guards, that were approaching, were a threat to them. He had left enough fish for Annie and Declan before coming off the ridge and Annie knew enough to gather wood and get more water. He wanted Declan to rest and get plenty to eat and drink to build up his strength.
While he waited, he got a small fire going and found a place that might be a good place to ford the river. As he looked out across the river, he saw that both banks were low. The river was wide and slow moving, at this point. He guessed the river was only about four feet deep in the middle.
The ex-guards, seeing the fire, headed toward it. It wasn’t long before they saw Murdock waiting for them.
“N
ice to see you here!” the ex-guard said with a smile. “I take it that you being here means you’re willing teach us?”
Murdock had been watching them approach and stood ready to retaliate at the first sign of aggression. “That is what it means,” he said as they walked up. “I’ll teach you as long as you want to learn. If I get the idea that you don’t want to learn, I’m done. Understand?”
“Yes, sir, we do,” the ex-guard responded seriously, but seemed excited. “I, for one, am ready to get started. I’m Bass Heartly, by the way,” the man said as he held out his hand to shake with Murdock.
Murdock just looked at the offered hand and decided against shaking it. “I don’t shake hands, as a general rule,” he informed the man. “Last time I did, I ended up dislocating the other person’s elbow. Hope you understand.” He saw Bass withdraw the offered hand. “Before we get started, I would like to know what happened at the transport pod.”
Bass proceeded to tell Murdock about the rebellion against Phylicia, Palmer, and their supporters. He told him about them being seized and put inside the pod while everyone grabbed something and they all left.
“So, where are the rest?” Murdock asked finally.
“Half-way here, there was a big discussion,” Bass explained. “Most didn’t want to have anything to do with you, so they split off and went downriver. Those that want to learn from you are on their way here.”
“How many?” Murdock asked reticently.
Civilization Page 15