An hour later they drove through the site of their initial camp. The only things that still stood were the outhouses spaced around the site. They had been very intentional about leaving the environment as untouched as possible. Nobody wanted it to end up like Earth where folks had ignored the balance for so long it would take centuries for the balance to be recovered.
Their excitement mounted as they left the old campsite behind. They were soon moving into unexplored and unfamiliar territory. In many ways, this was why they were here. There was an inherent excitement and a sense of adventure in being the first human to walk on a new planet, to discover a new species, a new ecology.
By the end of the fourth day, they had forded the river and left the bog behind. The land they now drove through was like a Savannah grassland with interspersed groves of trees and some small ponds in low lying areas.
They began to see herds of caribou, prairie dogs, and once in the distance, Gaston thought he saw horses. Amazing! It was amazing to have come so far and yet see the same animals here that were also on earth. They even saw a number of birds, one of which was obviously a carrion eater like a vulture, and another that looked like a red-tailed hawk.
They drove on day after day driving only when it was light out so that Nick could keep track of the landmarks as the kilometers rolled by. On the eighth day out, they began to head up into the foothills to the southeast. It soon became clear that these mountains were even taller than they had thought after looking at the aerial shots. They camped that night on a ridge that led up to the main mountain range. After some discussion around the campfire, they decided they had better begin to head west. If they did not, they would have to backtrack too much.
The next morning, Nicole snapped some pictures of the valley that stretched out to the North. “Captain, look at the fog,” she said as Gaston climbed out of his tent and stretched.
“What about it? There’s always fog in valleys early in the morning.”
“Look closer though. The fog is only over the bog. The rest of the valley is clear. Doesn’t that seem a little strange to you?”
“Well, there would be higher moisture content and cooler temperatures there. So, no, it really doesn’t seem strange, at least that fact by itself doesn’t. What does seem strange is the height to which the fog extends. Now that is strange.”
“I knew there was something weird going on but couldn’t place what it was. I think you’re right. It’s like a pure white cumulonimbus right on the ground. That just gives us another mystery to try to figure out.”
“We’ll just add it to our list.”
An hour later, they were bouncing their way west along the foothills with the mountains rising steeply to the south. Driving had become quite difficult even for the A.T.R. and they found themselves zigzagging north and south in their attempt to stay as far to the south as they could. It did not take long for them to become frustrated at their lack of progress, but Caleb was the first to speak up.
“I have always considered myself a team player and have stuck by my group’s decisions as if they were my own many a time. However, it is also important to periodically revise your goals and headway to see how things are progressing. It is taking us way too long to get anywhere. These ridges are much too steep for safe driving and we keep having to do too much backtracking.”
“I’m sure we are all feeling that way,” Gaston said but revised that when he saw Nick open his mouth. “Well, everyone, but Nick anyways. What do you propose?”
“Let’s keep far enough to the north so that we can drive in a relatively straight-line westward. Let’s pick a couple of likely spots from the aerial shots where we may be able to find a crossing instead of driving up every ridge as we come to it.”
“All in favor,” said Gaston.
Everyone but Nick raised his hand, but even he could see the sense in that.
“I’ll go along with that, but I want some say in which potential passes we check out,” he said.
“That’s no different from what we have already been doing,” Nicole countered.
Gaston stopped the conversation before it could get out of control. “It is settled then. We’ll break for lunch and decide together where we will attempt the passes.”
Two days later, the afternoon of the eleventh day out, they made their way slowly up yet another ridge. Caleb followed it to where it intersected the main mountain itself. This was the third pass they had tried to reach in as many days.
“This is looking more promising than the last two,” Caleb said as he twisted the wheel hard to the left to maneuver around a boulder. No one said a word in response. They were all exhausted. They weren’t sleeping well at night, and the constant jostling around as they struggled past obstacles was wearing on them all. Caleb slowed down as he wended his way around a fallen tree and watched Nicole pinch her eyes shut as he came perilously close to the edge of a steep ravine.
Gaston spoke up as he braced himself. His legs were totally straight, and his backside didn’t even touch the seat as he tensed. “This may be better than last time, but I’m not feeling any safer. I’m almost thinking that it would be nice to park and hike up the hill. I think we need it. What do the rest of you think? This time Caleb was the only one that didn’t vote along with the rest.
“That’s just because you’re driving,” Nick said. “If Nicole or I were driving, what would you vote?”
Caleb gave in. “O.K. Let’s walk. But I think we should camp here tonight and start up early tomorrow.”
“O.K., it is settled then,” Gaston said. “We’ll set up camp and prepare for a long hike. I think I want to try my hand at fishing in one of these streams down at the bottom bowl.”
“That’s fine with me,” Nicole said, “but don’t expect me to follow you down there. I don’t want to do anything but lay down once camp is set up.”
“I’ll try to find a good spot for us,” Caleb said. “Maybe I can find somewhere at least a little flat.” Thirty ticks later they reached what had from a distance just appeared to be a depression in the ridge but turned out to be an oddly formed bowl set right in line with the ridge they had been following. The southeast side of it was broken out, but there was enough of it left that it held a small pond that overflowed in that same gap. Caleb stayed close to the northwestern side of the ridge and made it about half-way around the bowl before he decided to go no further.
“We could probably make it,” he said as they all clambered out the uphill side of the vehicle, “but since we already decided to stop anyways, it’s not worth the risk.”
Nicole just glared fiery darts at him until her feet were on the ground safely. “If I can help it I will never ride with you again! Next time let me get out and walk. This is ridiculous.”
The last 20 meters he had driven had been with the vehicle sliding and spinning out. He had basically driven sideways.”
“Au contraire,” he responded. “Who else could have gotten you this far safely?”
“Ugh,” she exclaimed and made her way to the back of the vehicle. “This is no place to park. We can’t walk down to the pond without sliding the whole way and probably falling in. There’s no way for us to get our supplies safely out of the vehicle. There’s no good place to camp.”
Gaston stood by the front of the vehicle and looked down the long steep hill. “You know Caleb, she may be worked up about it, but she’s right. We can’t stop here. Why don’t we walk around the bowl and you do your slide and drive thing and we’ll set up camp over there.”
Caleb didn’t argue. It was plain enough to see that they couldn’t leave the vehicle there. “O.K., you go ahead of me and when you are across, I’ll follow. I was enjoying myself anyways.”
They helped each other up to the rim only two meters above the vehicle and walked easily around the edge until they reached the southern side. They sat on a large rock outcropping that overhung the bowl while they watched Caleb churn his way to where they sat.
He was a go
od driver, Nicole had to admit to herself, but he could do that in his own time as recreation or something, not when she was in the back helpless to do anything.
It wasn’t exactly flat where they decided to set up camp, but it wasn’t too steep of a slope either and would work just fine. Nicole hadn’t planned on going down to the pond with Gaston, but the walk had felt good and this side of the bowl was not near as steep as the other side had been. Also, her curiosity was up on what kind of life she might find in the pool of green below. It obviously didn’t get much movement because there was a lot of algae and other growth clouding its surface. There was a steady stream of water cascading over the edge, so it must be fed from an internal spring.
Gaston and Nicole slipped and slid their way down the rocky slope grasping tufts of grass and bushes to keep from losing control. Nicole allowed the grass to slide through her hands as she found herself on a section of solid rock. Gaston was ahead of her by a few steps and turned quickly when she gave a piercing yelp.
“You O.K.?” he asked.
She held up the palm of her left hand. Blood was oozing from a long thin line that had been sliced neatly across it.
“How did you do that?”
“The grass is sharp!” she exclaimed. “I let it slide through my hand a bit and it cut me quite deeply. It hurts like a big paper cut.”
“I guess that’s another “don’t” to add to our list of stuff to watch out for. You’d better wrap it with something to staunch the blood flow. We don’t want to draw any unwanted attention.”
She didn’t have anything to staunch it, so she just kept sucking on it as they descended. She now avoided totally the meter-long clumps of paper-sharp grass. They were almost to the bottom anyways. They set themselves up on a rock ledge that sat only a half a meter above the water. Gaston unwound his fishing line and hook from the sandal where he had tied it.
“I saved a few scraps from lunch to use as bait,” he said as he mashed the hardtack onto the hook.
Nicole followed the pond around to where it poured slowly over the edge of the hill. The stream fell down the hill in a series of four or five waterfalls before it joined up with another small stream at the bottom of the ravine. The creek formed by them ran down the ravine back the way they had come.
Much to her surprise as she turned around, Gaston hauled a small fish out of the pond. It was smaller than her hand and slightly resembled a bluegill. Before she could say anything, Gaston gave a quick gesture and slapped the fish against the rock effectively knocking it senseless. He set it down on the rock behind him and tossed in the line again.
“What do you think you’re doing!” Nicole exclaimed. “You’ve gone and killed it.”
“What did you think I was fishing for?” Gaston asked, and then answered his own rhetorical question, “I’m fishing for fish to eat. You know, ‘protein to keep us healthy.’ You’re not a vegetarian, are you?” He got another bite on the line and yanked out an even larger fish, even bigger than her hand this time. She quickly turned around as he repeated the process of killing the fish. “A couple more of these and we’ll have us a party.”
Nicole stormed her way up the hill, scrambling and grabbing at whatever she could to get herself up the hill faster. “Tell the guys to get a fire started,” Gaston yelled at her retreating back. All he got was a grunt in return.
That night they feasted well on the fish that Gaston had caught. Even Nicole enjoyed them though she acted sullen the whole evening. They called an early night and crawled into their tents not long after dark. Nicole slept in the back of the A.T.R. on top of the luggage and supplies. This would be her last night sleeping in something other than a tent for quite some time and she was bound and determined to make the most of it.
Caleb woke Nick half-way through the night to the sounds of scratching and sniffing around their tent, but neither of them thought it was worth the risk to open the tent up to find out what the animal was. They both lay there as still as they could until the noise eased away. Caleb had a hard time getting to sleep after that, not just from a case of the nerves, but from the loud snores emanating from Nick’s side of the tent that indicated that Nick wasn’t having as hard of a time going to sleep as Caleb.
Gaston roused the sleepy and tired crew at the break of day 12 with a rousing “whoop!” “It’s time for breakfast.” His coffee was scorched and the eggs scalded. It was all they could do to choke it down, but they had limited supplies and had to make use of everything. Needless to say, breakfast didn’t last long, and they were soon donning their backpacks and adjusting their water bottles in anticipation of the long hike ahead of them.
Gaston adjusted his straps to move the bulk of the weight off his neck and cinched the buckles tight. “Are you slowpokes ready yet?” he asked as he walked up the ridge and stood on a flat boulder.
“Cool your jets, Captain,” Caleb laughed. “I’m just locking the A.T.R. all up so that it’s still here when we get back.”
“Oh, are the local natives going to hotwire it?” Gaston joked.
Caleb just shook his head. Nicole and Nick laughed and began trudging up the hill.
Nick took the lead and Caleb soon caught up with them. The sun was still low on the eastern horizon, but the day was already warming up. In the center of the valley behind them, the fog still hung suspended over the bog forming a column high into the morning sky.
Nick checked his pedometer and adjusted it to account for the incline.
“Too bad you don’t have an altimeter too,” Gaston said.
“Actually, I do,” said Nick, pausing for a moment. “I have one built into my watch.”
“Really?” Nicole asked. “How high are we?”
“We are at 1,743 meters if the atmosphere is similar enough to earth’s atmosphere to not make a noticeable difference in its readings.”
“I’m sure it’s close enough,” said Gaston. “I wouldn’t want to fly in the fog with nothing but your watch to keep me over the hills, but we’re not flying are we.”
“I’ll bet these mountains are at least three to four thousand meters high,” said Caleb. We’ll be getting short of breath before we are over.”
Nick took another sip of water from the hose coming over his shoulder and started walking again. The rest of them soon followed. Gaston was the first to begin lagging behind. He had been directly behind Nick but was soon passed by Caleb and then Nicole.
“Sorry, I’m a little slower, guys. I think that I’ll be fine if you don’t mind just slowing down a bit.”
“Gaston, are your ribs hurting?” Nicole asked.
“No, not really, I just think that since I was laid up for so long I got a little out of shape.” The rest of the day for him quickly turned into a never-ending chore just to keep up with the others. He watched Nicole’s ankles and the ground. Everything else faded into the background.
Nicole found herself getting upset at the situation and felt caught in the middle. Gaston was continually falling behind, and Nick and Caleb were acting like it was a marathon. Several times they were almost out of sight before they paused to let her and Gaston catch up. As they finished up lunch, she had an idea.
“Since you guys are having such a hard time waiting for us, why don’t I lead and keep us at a more manageable speed?”
“I suppose you could take a turn out front,” Nick said. “I was really hoping we would make it to the pass by this evening.”
“Gaston can only go so fast regardless of who is out ahead. It may take us a little longer to get to the pass than you had planned. I really don’t think that will be a problem though. If we can keep finding fish or some other creature to supplement our food supply, we will have no problem making it to the Outpost.”
Gaston had been standing quietly next to Nicole. “You guys are talking like I’m not even here. I will do my best to keep up. And what’s this about finding fish or other creatures to eat Nicole? Yesterday you practically exploded on me because I was killing the fish. N
ow you’re saying let’s not only eat fish but kill other wildlife too?”
Nicole turned saucily to him. “I’m a woman. I’m allowed to change my mind. Besides, I’m not against eating meat. You just took me off guard with the way you were smacking it on the rock. I was also thinking that up to now I have just been studying the living habits of the local wildlife. I think it is time to do some dissecting and learn what is edible, what is not, and what the various creatures consume and such.”
“O.K.,” Caleb laughed. “We’ll catch the food and you can dissect it into nice edible chunks.”
“Oh, I see where this is going,” she countered with her hands on her hips and her face red, neatly matching her hair. “You guys…”
Nick interrupted. “It’s not going anywhere, Nicole, and neither are we. If you two want to fight, you can do it while we are making our way up the pass. Come on let’s go.”
“Hear, hear,” Gaston added and began to push past Nicole. “I’m going. I’m going.” Nicole snapped, jumping in front of Gaston. She darted on up the hill before she remembered Gaston and why she had decided to lead. She kept walking, but slowly.
Gaston chuckled softly as he followed slowly after her. She was now mumbling to herself unintelligibly. “Boy, she can be fiery, can’t she,” he said softly to Caleb and Nick.
“I heard that!” Nicole shouted back without looking back. “Don’t push your luck. You’re not Captain anymore. I can get you booted out of office if I wanted to. The female voting contingent won’t take too kindly to having a chauvinistic pig in office.”
Gaston shook his head as he walked up the hill. “That had nothing to do with your sex and everything to do with you. No harm intended.” Gaston turned and rolled his eyes at Caleb and Nick. Ever since the 1900’s when women justly were given the right to vote, the battle of the sexes had never simmered down. The tides of discrimination ebbed and flowed. Anti-discrimination soon became reverse discrimination with the minority calling all the shots and holding all the power. Then the whole process reversed as the majority fights against their perceived role as the minority.
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