by Kip Nelson
Surviving The Tides
Survival Series Book 4
Kip Nelson
Copyright © 2019 by Kip Nelson
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter One
Darren was standing with his gun trained on the mountain lion cubs. His own children had intended to leave the cave, but before they could the mother lion had returned and blocked their exit. Instead, the children had retreated behind Darren. Just a few seconds earlier and they would have been able to leave, but now they were trapped. If Darren failed now his entire family would be harmed.
Tara and Michelle wouldn’t have understood what was happening. Betsy and Brent weren’t much better, but at least they knew they couldn’t continue sharing their home with these mountain lions. The cubs and their mother had taken over the cave, and although the family and the animals seemed to have come to some modicum of understanding, it was becoming too much. Darren and his family had to squat together in uncomfortable circumstances. The cave wasn’t big enough for them anyway, especially not now that they had to keep their distance from the animals.
A shadow snaked across the cave wall, looking like a black cloak rippling in the darkness. It loomed over them and was far bigger than the mother lion actually was, but it only served to scare them. Darren knew well how deadly these mountain lions could be, and it only was a stroke of mercy that they hadn’t decided the Dawkins family was going to be their dinner.
It seemed strange to think that man and beast could come to some sort of agreement, but he supposed it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility. He’d heard stories of people living in the wilderness coming to an understanding with the animals. There was that woman who lived among monkeys for a while and seemed to build a living, thriving community. Then, of course, there was Tarzan, although that was only fiction.
But there had been moments when he looked in the eyes of the mother mountain lion and felt a kinship with her. They were both alone, trying to look after their families, and both had sought shelter in this cave. They perhaps had more in common than Darren had with a lot of men. So, as he trained his gun on her cubs he felt as though he had betrayed the silent pact they had made.
The mountain lion’s eyes gleamed gold in the dim light of the fire. Her body was sleek with tawny fur that was tattered and rough after a day of hunting. She looked thin as well, much as Darren did, he supposed. The beast and man were reflections of each other, although he wondered if she saw herself in him as much as he saw himself in her. His throat ran dry as they looked at each other, locking gazes across the small expanse of the cave, and his hands began trembling. In her eyes he saw shame and imagined he would feel the same if he awoke and saw that she had mauled his children.
The truth is he hadn’t indented to harm them directly, and certainly wouldn’t have shot them in cold blood right in front of the children. He’d only wanted to scare them into moving, to flee the cave so he and his children could enjoy the home they had made for themselves.
“Dad? Are you okay?” Brent asked.
“Fine, Son, just fine,” Darren said.
This was the moment of truth. He was faced with the mountain lion and her cubs. He easily could shoot them all and be done with it. The animals’ threat would be ended, and they’d also provide him with a good supply of meat. Maybe he wouldn’t feel so gaunt and exhausted after feasting on the mother, but something just didn’t sit well with him.
He told himself it was just a fragile reminder of humans’ morality. Animals were instinctual creatures and didn’t give any thought about what was right or wrong. He’d been told over and over again by many different sources that to make it in this world, he must surrender that idea of humanity and give in to his animal instinct. To obey the law of the jungle, as though that was the only one that mattered anymore.
But it wasn’t the only one that mattered. It couldn’t be. There had to be more to life than just mere instinct. Humanity had reached the top of the food chain for a reason, and part of that had to be their morality. If he was on his own, he may have decided differently, but he was with his children. He knew that anything he did would reflect upon them. He was the example they would look to when they grew older. He wanted them to treat the world with compassion, no matter how desperate they were. It was easy to be a saint in paradise, what mattered was how you behaved when your back was against the wall, when everything was against you. That was how heroes were born, that was how men were forged in fire.
Darren stared at the mountain lion and lowered his gun. He wouldn’t kill them nor drive them out today, not into the wild world where they were at the mercy of man or starvation. He had no ownership of this cave.
“I thought you wanted to kill them?” Brent said.
“I did… but look at it from their point of view. We have no hold over this cave, no claim other than we came here first. This is the natural world. This cave should be free for anyone to use. We have to trust them, because they’re trusting us. We don’t own this world, not anymore, we’re sharing it. So, we share it with them. They’re a family, just like us, and I can’t bring myself to send them away, not yet,” he said, hoping he wouldn’t regret his decision.
The mother mountain lion let out a low, rumbling growl, and swished her tail as she turned away from Darren and tended to her cubs. She had brought back a couple of birds. It didn’t seem like much, considering she had been out all day. It must have been slim pickings out there.
It still was the middle of winter and, although they were mountain lions, they weren’t necessarily made for winter. Most of the wildlife in the woods either would be hibernating or migrating, and the animals left wouldn’t be enough to sustain them. Darren could adapt to nuts and berries, but this mountain lion couldn’t. They needed meat, and it seemed inevitable that at least one of them would die before winter was over.
Darren found the thought sobering. So far, he and the kids had been lucky. Hell, instead of losing each other they’d actually found two new additions in Betsy and Tara. But the threats of the post-apocalyptic world meant it was easy to imagine a hundred ways they could die every day. Darren hoped his fate and that of the mountain lions didn’t mirror each other too closely.
In some ways he thought he should have engaged in a mercy killing, to end their suffering before it became too great, but he couldn’t make himself do that either. Not yet, not while they all still lived. But the cubs were mewing from hunger and their mother was looking tired and gaunt.
Darren knew all she had sacrificed to get them this far, and she wasn’t going to give up yet. It wasn’t right for him to take that from her. It wasn’t right for him to take away her opportunity to keep her babies safe, just as it wouldn’t have been right for anyone to take his children away from him.
But the cold wind blew outside, and despite the ever-burning fire there still was a chill that crept i
nto the cave. Perhaps the mountain lions’ presence was a blessing in disguise. It meant the Dawkins were forced to share their body heat.
Winter was cruel. It always had been Darren’s worst season, but now he hated it with a vengeance. He long since had lost track of the days. He had hoped every new day would bring with it a sign of spring, but he always was disappointed. There was no sign of flowers blooming or birds chirping, only more clouds on the horizon, an endless gray sky that offered nothing but bleakness, and a feeling that they were living on borrowed time.
As much as Darren wanted to believe they could make it through to spring and build up a foundation for survival, it was impossible to ignore the doubts that nagged at the back of his mind. He knew their chances of surviving for more than a year were slim. Even if they managed to harvest some crops, the next winter would be just as hard. The other option was finding another shelter, leaving this place and finding more people. There was safety in numbers, at least that’s what Darren always had believed. Although he wasn’t sure how true that was anymore given all the terrible things he’d seen.
Darren wanted some time by himself. So, he sidled away and went to sit by the fire. Brent soon came with him. He really had come into his own recently. Aside from the brief trouble with the flood, Brent had acquitted himself well, and hadn’t been in any danger. The younger girls had wandered off a couple of times, and Darren knew he must keep a close eye on them during the next couple of years. Because the world was big, and if either of them got lost they would be difficult to find. He hated the thought of any of his kids having to face the world alone. He knew that kids were often more resilient than the world gave them credit for. But he couldn’t help thinking of them like the mountain lion cubs, alone and vulnerable, with only their parent to take care of them.
But, one day, if they all survived these trying times, the cubs would grow into fierce animals, and his children would grow into capable survivors. Someday he would be gone, and his children would be alone. He hoped that day was a long way away in the future.
Darren smiled at Brent as the teenager sat down beside him. Brent looked uneasily at the mountain lions before turning his focus to his father.
“Are you sure you don’t want just to drive them out?”
“For the moment, yes. Maybe I’m just a big softie, but I can’t bring myself to kill them or make them leave. Besides, even if I fire my gun and frighten them into leaving, there’s no guarantee they’ll stay away. I might just anger them, and if they attack, there’s a chance we could get hurt, or worse. I think it’s safest at the moment to let them stay here.”
“If you say so,” Brent said, remaining unconvinced.
“Hey, they have just as much right to this cave as we do. If we send them out there, they might not survive.”
“But they’re mountain lions, Dad. Do you think they’d honestly think twice about eating us if there was no food left? What happens when their mom can’t find anything outside? Do you really think they’re not going to eat us?”
“I don’t know, but I guess that’s why we have these guns. Look, Brent, I know this is hard for you. It’s hard for me too. I’d love to be rid of these mountain lions and have this cave to ourselves, but the world isn’t that simple anymore. Humans have been thinking for too long that we have a right to everything in this world, and boy have we been brought to our knees. It’s a big wake-up call for us. We have to take stock of how we’re going to act in the future, so we avoid the same mistakes.
“For a long time now, humanity has bent nature to its will, used it as a tool, and treated it with a lack of respect. I think that has to stop. It’s time for us to see that we’re not separate from nature, we’re a part of nature. It’s been a long time since we’ve had to face that truth. But stripped of our homes and our technology, what else are we but animals? Just because we can speak and think on a higher level than these mountain lions doesn’t necessarily mean we’re better than them.”
“What does it mean? Surely it has to mean something?” Brent said.
Darren was pleased with his questions. Brent was at the age now where he was having to ask difficult questions of himself and his place in the world. Darren remembered what it had been like when he was a teenager. The veil of childhood suddenly had been lifted, and he had been thrust into a world that made no sense. Everything he thought he knew had been wrong, and he had to figure out what type of man he was going to be.
The world had changed, but the nature of man hadn’t. Brent was leaving childhood behind and taking steps to becoming the man he was going to become the rest of his life. It was Darren’s job to usher him along this journey and nurture his progression, to make him aware of the possibilities and give him a strong foundation upon which to build his life.
“Of course it does. It means we have the responsibility to care for nature, that we have to try finding a way to live symbiotically with the world around us so that everyone, man and beast alike, can benefit. We have to stop thinking about ourselves. We’re just one piece of a very large puzzle, and we have to ensure we leave the world a better place than we found it. We can’t just simply use up everything and expect there to be more, because there won’t be. If we keep treating nature as our personal playpen, we’re not going to get anywhere. A healthy natural world means a healthy us as well,” he said.
Brent nodded in understanding. Darren wasn’t sure if Brent fully understood what he was saying, but he appreciated that Brent was listening.
“You might think me crazy for saying this,” Darren said, “but in some ways I’m glad this apocalypse happened.”
“You’re right, I do think you’re crazy. Did you really want us living in a cave?”
“No, I don’t mean because of that. I just mean, well, you know how it’s been during the last year or so. It feels as though the two of us lost something, lost our connection. I’ve been working and you’ve been taking care of Michelle as well as your schoolwork. I never wanted to miss out on these years, Brent. I never wanted to make you feel like you were being neglected.”
“I didn’t, Dad. I know you didn’t choose this. It’s Mom’s fault, really…I just wish that she realized what she was doing, what it meant for us. I never blamed you, though. You were working two jobs, putting food on the table. I just wished there was more I could do.”
“You’re a good kid, Brent. I just mean, well, I never wanted to be an absent father. And I feel like during the last year we have drifted apart. But this has given us the opportunity to be together again, as a team. I feel like I’ve been getting to know you more these past few months than I did during the entire year before.”
“Me too, Dad, although I hope someday soon we can find something a bit more stable than this little world.”
“You and me both, Son,” Darren said.
Both of them were smiling. Darren put his hand on his son’s shoulder and then kissed him on the head. He tried promising himself he would be more physically affectionate with his son. It was important to show feelings, not just to speak them. Sometimes it was difficult to look at Brent, though. The boy had inherited more from his mother than from his father. There were moments when he scrunched up his nose that he looked exactly like his mother. Then Darren was plunged into the past, where Stacie still reigned.
But then Brent would do something else and remind Darren that he was his own person, with his own dreams and desires. Darren remembered how small Brent had been in his arms when just a baby, so vulnerable and fragile. Never would Darren have been able to predict what kind of young man Brent would have grown into, but he was a young man Darren was proud to have as his son.
“I’m proud of you,” he said, wanting to make sure he said it out loud.
It was so easy to keep things to himself, but he wanted to tell Brent how much he meant to him. Because they never knew how much time they had left on this planet.
“Thanks, Dad, and if you’re that proud of me, then maybe you’ll let me take the bike ou
t,” Brent said hopefully. Darren rolled his eyes.
“Again, with the bike,” he muttered under his breath.
“The storm’s finished now! There’s no good reason why I shouldn’t be allowed out on it,” Brent said.
“Come on, Dad, you know that it could be good for us. I can go foraging for extra food or go canvassing the area for anything we can use, or other people to join us. I won’t get caught, I promise. At the first sign of trouble, I’ll turn around and come back here. I’m sure I’ll be able to outpace anyone on the bike. It really would mean a lot to me, honest,” he said.
Darren listened to his pleas again, ready to dismiss them as he had done before. However, as he looked at his son, he saw something else, some flicker in Brent’s eyes. Darren started thinking about why he might want to use this bike so badly. It was practically all he had been able to talk about since Darren had returned with it. Darren hated the idea of loaning it to Brent because of the dangers that lurked in the world. Darren only just had managed to escape with his life when faced with deadly cannibals. He hated the idea of Brent being put into that situation.
But that was thinking from his own perspective, with the priority being to keep his son safe. Brent had an entirely different idea, and as Darren analyzed that thought process he started to understand why.
Brent was reaching the age where he was searching to find his own place in the world, trying to reach out and discover new lands that lay beyond his family. In the old world, he probably would have taken a part-time job somewhere and enjoyed having a little bit of independence with his friends. But in this world, he was with his family all the time. Such a thing only ever was going to be stifling. Darren realized Brent wanted the bike so he could spread his wings and prove that he could live by himself.