Civilization

by Stephen Drake

  “I found fish bones,” Murdock explained, “with no meat on them. No animal eats fish that way. I found a few fish intestines away from the shelter with feathers from the scavenger birds, which wouldn’t come around unless someone left the area for a period of time. I saw the mud under the shelter, where he had lain, that showed signs of someone rolling from side to side with some puddles caused by rain dropping inside the shelter. I also found tracks of someone walking along the edge. Two sets going away and one returning, all made by the same person. Add to that,” Murdock bent to pick up a sharpened stick, “I found this pointing this way,” he indicated the direction he was walking.

  Hornsby stood there listening to Murdock’s explanation with his mouth hanging open.

  “Amazing what you can learn by opening your eyes,” Murdock chided.

  “So, where do we go, now?” Declan asked.

  “We go where he went,” Murdock responded.

  “And if he went nowhere?” Emily asked.

  “I don’t know where that is,” Murdock responded with a grin. “Everywhere is somewhere.”

  Murdock continued to follow the sharpened sticks to the cliff edge with the tall tree. Once there, he leaned over the edge some and studied the tree from where he was.

  “Take Hornsby back to the shelter,” Murdock told Declan and Emily. “I’ll be along in a bit.”

  Once Emily, Declan, and Hornsby left by the same path they had followed, Murdock levitated himself over to the tree and inspected the first few branches. He found the one that Palmer had grabbed by the scraped bark. As he looked down, he saw a lot of broken limbs and followed them to the ground. Once on the ground, he kicked a few of the limbs out of the way where Palmer had impacted the ground and the buried rock. He found a few tracks of a large cat of some kind. By his estimation, the cat had dragged Palmer’s body off and Murdock was determined to find it.

  As he tracked the drag marks, Murdock began getting feelings that he could only interpret as “hunger, cubs, food coming”. They were odd and alien to his mind. After all the years of sharing with Beron, he had no idea of any other animals capable of telepathy, but the fact remained that is what was happening. As he rounded a corner of the cliff, he was suddenly levitating about thirty feet from the cliff and thirty feet off the ground. He knew something had startled his subconscious mind and it responded automatically by levitating him out of harm’s way.

  When he looked down, he saw the cougar and it yowled loud and deep. Its ears were back and its tail twitching nervously. He was startled to see such a big cat. He had seen plenty of cougars before coming here, but they were usually 3 feet high at the shoulder and weighed no more than two hundred twenty pounds. This one was the size of a Bengal tiger. He guessed its weight at about four hundred pounds. As he floated there, the huge cat jumped at his feet, presumably to drag him down and it was falling short, but not by a lot.

  As he looked around, he found a cave fifteen feet, or so, off the ground in the ridge. He projected his astral self into the cave and found three cubs gnawing on something. By the cloth that was still attached, he knew it was Palmer. With some effort, he levitated Palmer’s body away from the cats and up to the top of the cliff. As he floated away, he saw the mother cougar jump into the cave easily.

  Once he was back on the terrace where Declan and Emily were, he started his long trek to the shelter with Palmer’s body floating behind. By the time he’d reached the shelter, it was dark and Emily and Declan had a fire going and were cooking some venison.

  “Bring a brand over towards the path we took to the tree,” Murdock flashed to Declan.

  “I think Murdock found Palmer,” Declan said as he picked up a brand from the fire and headed towards the path away from the river. Emily and Hornsby followed.

  They hadn’t gone far when they saw Murdock standing next to a body.

  Hornsby took one look and headed away from the rest. Everyone could hear him retching in the dark.

  “What happened to him?” Emily asked after seeing what was left.

  “The best I can tell,” Murdock started, “he jumped for the tree. He caught a limb, but it was slick from the rain and his hands slipped, fell through the tree limbs and hit the ground hard. Broke lots of bones on the trip through the tree and probably passed out when he hit the ground. A cougar carried him off to feed her cubs, but I think he was alive during their dinner.”

  “That’s pretty harsh, even for him,” Declan said in a low voice.

  “After what I’ve seen of your treatment by him, I’d say it was appropriate,” Emily replied harshly.

  “Maybe, but that’s still one hell of a way to go,” Murdock added as he slowly shook his head.

  Hornsby had finished emptying the contents of his stomach and had rejoined the rest.

  “Palmer, you mean sumbitch. You went and got yourself kill’d,” he said softly.

  Murdock clapped him on the shoulder and whispered, “You get to bury him tomorrow.”

  #

  A few days after they’d found Palmer, Murdock, Declan, and Emily had returned home. After a few hours rest and a good soak in the tub for all three, they were mentally ready to give the report to the rest of the group.

  “Palmer is dead and buried,” Murdock started his report to the others who were gathered inside his cabin, “and the rest have told us to bugger off.”

  “How did he die?” Irene Harris asked eyes closed and speaking softly.

  “Best I can figure,” Murdock said, “he was dinner for a family of cougars. It appeared that they didn’t kill him right away.”

  “Cougars?” Mei Lee asked quietly, her head snapping in his direction. Her expression was that of grave concern.

  Murdock flashed the images of the cougars he’d seen. All those present nodded as they received the images.

  “How big?” Declan asked quietly.

  “Bigger than a Bengal tiger,” Murdock explained. “On Earth, cougars are all over and are the largest cat in North America, three feet tall at the shoulder and two hundred twenty pounds for males. The one I saw was female, four hundred pounds at least and I’d say was five feet tall at the shoulder. Other than its size, it looked just like any cougar you’d likely see back on Earth.”

  “How big of a threat are they?” Mei Lee asked.

  “Big enough that I’m concerned,” Murdock responded. “They’re larger and can jump higher than one would expect. A lot depends on how far they’ve come this way and why haven’t we seen them before? We did stop and tell the leaders of the groups that they could be a threat. Speaking of the other leaders, Emily?”

  Emily stood and cleared her throat a little. “The leaders of the other groups have basically decided to go it alone. Yes, they all knew winter was coming and we shouldn’t worry about them was the nicest response we got.”

  “Any potential allies?” Annie asked.

  “As the groups go, no, there may be some individuals, though,” Emily responded.

  “Anything else you feel the need to report?” Mei Lee asked. She paused long enough to allow someone, who had anything to add, to speak. “Thoughts?” she asked to open the informal discussion.

  “I, for one,” Irene Harris started, “would like to see a more centralized medical facility.”

  “We all would,” Murdock responded with a chuckle to himself, “but that would mean an agreement, of some sort, to see to it that the medical personnel would be safe and secure.”

  “Right now,” Emily said, “none of the leaders trust anyone else enough to make that a possibility.”

  “With winter coming on, how safe are we going to be here?” Annie asked.

  “Winter here,” Mei Lee offered, “is lots of snow and bitter cold. High winds tend to drive the snow, making visibility close to zero and close to impossible to travel. Kevin and I can, but with great difficulty.”

  “From what I was able to see,” Murdock said, “the rest haven’t gathered enough hides to make the clothing needed to venture far
in the snow and cold. I think they’re going to try to hunker down and wait it out.”

  “What are we going to do?” Declan asked.

  “We will hunker down as well,” Murdock responded. “It won’t be easy, but we have the advantage of more than a single cabin and we can venture out some.”

  “We have all sorts of things to help pass the time,” Mei Lee added. “We can all do our part by keeping busy. We have plenty of hides to work into clothing and materials for making weapons.”

  “Not to mention training,” Murdock interjected with a smile, “lots of training. But before we get snowed in, we need to get the longhouse completed.”

  #

  For the next few weeks, Murdock and Declan worked on the longhouse, while the rest worked on finishing the hides. It hadn’t taken the men long to get the building ready for the chimney and hearth. Murdock had decided on slabs of granite, from the nearby mountains, for the chimney and firebox.

  “How are you milling the granite?” Declan asked. “It all looks smooth and cut precisely.”

  “I utilize my telekinetic abilities to remove the microscopic grains along a line. It effectively cuts the granite leaving a sharp, square edge,” Murdock explained. “Square edges and flat surfaces make building something a lot easier. The roofing timbers and the weight of the slabs will hold the chimney in place.”

  With everyone working on the hides and finishing the longhouse, no one saw Heather Stevens watching them from across the river. She had been watching for some time as she had taken it upon herself to walk upriver from the pod. She had been thinking about the long winter and wishing she had more people around than Phylicia and Kimberly.

  “Anything I can do for you?” Murdock’s voice sounded from behind her. She had been too focused on the flurry of activity to notice she, too, was being observed. She turned, startled, to see Murdock scowling at her.

  “No, I was just watching,” she replied as steadily as she could manage. Her voice still had a quivering quality to it.

  “Why were you watching?” Murdock glared. “See anything of a particular interest? What did you see?”

  “I was just watching,” she responded shyly. “It’s nice to see so many people co-operating and getting along.” Heather’s voice seemed to trail off as her thoughts went on of their own accord. “They all look like they belong,” she said pensively.

  “They appear to belong because they do belong,” Murdock scolded. “Did Phylicia send you?” he asked roughly.

  “No, no one sent me,” she dropped her gaze to the ground in front of Murdock. A tear had started and she closed her eyes to get it to stop.

  “We have an intruder,” she heard Murdock’s voice.

  “Were did she come from?” Emily asked.

  Hearing Emily’s voice startled Heather a little and she snapped her eyes open to find that she was across the river and standing in the middle of the group. She became panicked and started to look for a means of escape.

  “Running will do you no good,” Murdock’s voice boomed.

  “Would you quit terrorizing her?” Mei Lee scolded her husband as she walked over to Heather. “Look at me,” she commanded sweetly of the frightened intruder. “What are you doing here?” Mei Lee asked softly after Heather had calmed down somewhat and was focusing on her.

  “I…I don’t know,” Heather started. “I just wanted to get away from Phylicia and Kimberly,” she said as she shrugged her shoulders. “Honestly, I couldn’t tell you why I came upriver. I had no idea what I would find.”

  “You do know you could’ve been killed?” Mei Lee asked in her quiet manner.

  “I know,” Heather responded quietly. “Is there something I can do to help?” she blurted.

  Everyone was dumbfounded. “Why,” Mei Lee asked finally, “would you do that? We aren’t doing anything to help Phylicia directly, so I’m puzzled.”

  Heather swallowed hard and breathed deeply to try to calm herself. “Frankly, Phylicia’s constant haranguing on Murdock and the rest of you, has become . . . tiresome,” she said finally. “I’m sick to death of the sound of her voice.”

  “Why should we trust you?” Mei Lee asked. “None of us know you well enough to vouch for you, as you have spent most of your time here in close proximity to Phylicia. We have too much to lose to trust blindly.”

  “I can understand that,” Heather said quietly. “I don’t know what else to do. I can’t survive alone and the rest of the people aren’t likely to last long. How did the rest of you come to be in a position of trust?”

  “Everyone here is trusted and has earned their way into that position,” Mei Lee stated coldly.

  “What are you willing to do to earn our trust?” Declan asked.

  “I’ll do whatever I can to remain here,” Heather responded.

  “That is a broad statement,” Murdock observed.

  “I mean it,” Heather said emphatically.

  “What is Phylicia planning?” Emily asked suspiciously.

  “Currently, she is planning on being a burden to you,” Heather responded. “As much a burden as is possible so she can play the victim. Her long-term goals are the same as they were since day one. Take control of everyone and kill Murdock and his family. It has something to do with avenging her cousin, not that I know what that’s all about.”

  “The last time I was inside the pod,” Emily asked, “I saw you three whispering and you stopped when I got too close. What was that all about?”

  “Has it been bothering you?” Heather asked with a slight chuckle.

  “Yes, it has,” Emily responded hotly.

  “Phylicia had noticed that you were being too curious as to what we were doing. It was one of her games to make you wonder what was being said. I don’t agree with it, but it is, obviously, effective.”

  “To be frank, Heather,” Declan began, “you never struck me as being overly intelligent. Now, however, you seem to be a lot smarter than I originally thought. Why is that?”

  “Look at me,” Heather stated. “All my life people see my blonde hair, blue eyes, and my figure and think I’m a dumb blonde. Men think that and so do a lot of women. Sometimes, it’s easier to find out what I want to know by letting those types of people think they know me, when they don’t.” Heather shrugged a little. “I let people think what they want and don’t waste a lot of time trying to convince them otherwise. Similar to what Murdock does.”

  “What does that mean?” Murdock asked, shocked that his name had come up.

  “Please! You’re shorter than any man on the pod and were probably in that category on your own pod. I’m not foolish enough to underestimate you again, but I think you welcome others to. Am I wrong?” Heather was looking straight at Murdock. Murdock shrugged and gave a slight grin.

  “Are you willing to stay with Phylicia and Kimberly to keep us apprised of their plans?” Mei Lee asked.

  “I would as long as there is a time limit on it,” Heather stated. “I came here to get away from all the bickering and complaining. If I must stay where I am, then so be it, but there is a limit to my patience.”

  “I’d say stay where you are for the time being,” Murdock inserted. “It would allow us to know of any impending attack and it would give us a chance to think about your request.”

  “Fair enough,” Heather added, “as long as you remember that my nerves are frayed because of Phylicia and Kimberly.”

  “We’ll keep that in mind,” Murdock said as he motioned to Emily. “Emily will escort you back, with some venison. It will give the impression that you were intercepted by Emily before getting too far or seeing too much. Just keep your eyes and ears open.”

  Emily turned Heather around as she stopped long enough to grab a front-quarter of venison from the longhouse.

  “Don’t mistake Murdock’s forbearance for weakness,” Emily warned as they strolled toward the pod. “He is most capable!”

  22

  Seven days after Heather was escorted back to the p
od, it started to snow. Phylicia, Kimberly, and Heather were sitting outside the pod cooking some venison when the air became frigid and the rain that had been falling, turned to huge, blue-white flakes.

  “Well, that’s just great,” Phylicia raged. “How are we supposed to get fish now?”

  “We?” Heather questioned with a sideways glance. “Do you have a mouse in your pocket?”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Phylicia asked glaring at Heather.

  “It means,” she started hotly, “that you don’t get fish or water or wood. Kimberly and I do it. You do nothing but complain!”

  Kimberly intruded: “I don’t think this is the time to be having this conversation.”

  “Sure it is, Kimberly,” Phylicia responded hotly, “I want to hear whatever Heather has to say. So, you’re saying I do nothing?”

  “Oh, you do something,” Heather piped up, her anger becoming apparent. “You bitch, you moan and groan, and you complain! That is the extent of what you do, and, frankly, I’m tired of it! You need to get off your ass and help!”

  “I’ve carried wood!” Phylicia defended.

  “You carry wood when Emily, or one of the others, are around. The rest of the time, you leave it for me and Kimberly. Would it kill you to carry the water skins to the river and fill them once in a while?”

  “I’m not going to listen to this anymore,” Phylicia said as she tried to get to her feet. She suddenly inhaled sharply and grabbed for her hip. She started for the ramp, limping and dragging her foot a little. Kimberly ran to her to help her into the pod.

  “Let her do it herself, Kimber,” Heather scolded. “Her hip wasn’t bothering her a minute ago!”

  “What are you doing?” Kimberly asked when she returned from escorting Phylicia into the pod.

  “I’m tired of Phylicia and her games,” Heather said angrily. “You and I may be pregnant. Who is going to take care of us when we can’t walk anymore? If we count on Phylicia, we’ll be without wood, water, and food long before we deliver.”