by Lou Cadle
“Back the way we came.”
Hannah joined him. “Where? What do you see?”
“Nothing I can see directly. Just some movement in the grass.”
“Could be anything.”
“Sure. Could be.”
She lowered her voice. “What is it, do you think?”
Claire joined them. “What’s wrong?”
Ted said, “I think we’re being followed.”
“By what?”
“That, I can’t tell you.”
“We should get going,” Claire said.
Hannah wasn’t sure about Bob’s ability to keep up. With his needing to go slowly, they might still be an hour from the cabin. The healthy ones could be there in twenty minutes, tops. She told Claire that, and suggested they break into two groups.
“We need to stick together,” Claire said. “Everyone who is fit needs to be here to protect everyone who isn’t.” She turned to Bob. “Can you move yet, do you think?”
“I can,” he said, and he got to his feet.
“Let’s go, then,” Claire said. In a moment, they all had their packs on and were on their way, Rex pulling Nari. Claire took the lead position and Ted took the rear. Hannah hung back with Ted.
They went more slowly, trying to conserve Bob’s energy. Ted was able to walk backward the whole time without falling behind.
“Ted, there’s a rock in your way,” Hannah said to him.
He glanced back and avoided tripping over it.
“See anything?” she said.
“Movement in the grass. It’s hardly anything. It could be the wind, except it’s only in one spot. I’ve never seen a wind like that.”
“One animal or more?”
“More, I think.”
“Is it the dogs?”
“Could be. But I’m trying to figure out why they didn’t come for us at night, when there was only two of us awake. Or just go for one of the debris huts, where people were sleeping. Why wait until now to stalk us?”
“Maybe they were watching us all along,” Hannah said. “And now they need to follow us to keep an eye on us.”
“What, so they have a master plan?”
“Maybe,” she said.
“You were like this with the saber tooth. Thought it had a thing for us. And remember what that came to.”
The words were like a slap in the face. Hannah thought Ted liked her. But this was…cruel. Intentionally cruel. She managed to control her voice. “You know what they say. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.”
They didn’t exchange another word during the slow trip up to the cabin site.
And maybe whatever was out there was innocuous, some small animal whose head couldn’t clear the top of the grasses. But paranoid or not, she knew that the grass was hiding something, and the feeling that they were being stalked was impossible to shake.
Chapter 23
The rest of the morning, Rex, Zach, Bob, and Nari stayed at the cabin, and the rest of them took another trip. Without the travois, two trips would have been needed to move all their gear.
“How’d we accumulate so much stuff?” Claire said, tying the load onto the travois.
“It’s all useful,” Jodi said. She had refilled all the water bottles. “It’s not like my bedroom at home where I have stuff I never use in the closet. Clothes from junior high. Toys I refused to let my mother take to the Goodwill.”
“When you get back,” Dixie said, hefting a basket filled with bowls, “you can give it all away.”
“I hope I get the chance to.”
Hannah was only half paying attention. She was studying the area of their campfire, looking for any sign the dogs had been here. She finally found it: a pile of dung that was not a grazing animal’s. It was a carnivore’s, and it was fresh.
Briefly, she debated if she should tell the others. Was there any reason to worry them? Other than being able to “I told you so” Ted?
They should know. “Guys, there’s some fresh dung here. Maybe dog.”
Claire said, “Where?”
“Here, close to the fire.”
“Do you know for sure what it is?” Ted asked.
“No,” she admitted. “Except it’s a meat eater, and not a small one.”
All of them gathered around her, and Hannah pointed with the toe of her boot.
“Looks like dog,” Claire said. “Back home dog, I mean.”
“It could be that, or a lot of animals,” Hannah said. She walked down the river, looking for more.
“Looks like dog to me too,” Jodi said.
Hannah said, “And to me.”
Jodi said, “The same ones that attacked us?”
Hannah hesitated before saying, “I’d imagine so.”
Ted said, “You can’t know that.” He turned away.
“I can’t,” she admitted. “It could be any animal, one that has been too shy to let us see it. Any strange extinct animal could have left it. But if it were a dog….” She shrugged.
“What?” Claire said. “If it were a dog, what?”
“If it were our time, and wolves or coyotes, they’d have a hunting territory, and they’d defend it against other packs.”
“We’re not a pack of dogs,” Ted said.
“No. And maybe these dogs have a different way of functioning. Maybe there is no territory.” Then she found the second pile of droppings. “But I think maybe there is.”
“Why?” Ted asked.
“Because here’s a second pile. One pile is about an animal taking a dump. Two could be as if they’re reclaiming territory from us. Coyotes will go as a group to make a statement about territory and do just this. Maybe that’s what this is.”
“You can’t know that,” he said.
“No. I’m guessing.” But what was his problem? “Ted, have I said something to offend you?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?” she said.
“I said no already!” he said.
She’d never seen him get angry at small things. No, she’d never seen him get angry, period.
Claire said, “If there’s a chance you’re right, we have to consider it, Hannah.”
Jodi had a tighter grip on her club and was looking around. “I hadn’t been paying attention.”
“We should start paying attention now,” Claire said. “Let’s finish packing up. Everyone have everything?”
Claire took the first haul of the travois. The rest of them took positions around her, and without discussing it, they all took responsibility for looking out in their direction.
Halfway to the camp site, Claire asked for someone to relieve her in hauling the travois. Hannah offered.
Jodi said, “Maybe the cabin is out of their territory and they’ll leave us alone.”
Claire was readjusting her backpack. “We can’t stay holed up in the cabin all the time. We have to come for water twice a day. We have to hunt and fish.”
“We have food for a few days more,” Dixie said.
“I don’t mind hunting,” Ted said.
“We’ll fish every day,” Claire said. “We have to get water anyway. But I think we’ll try downstream a ways. Hannah?”
“What?” Hannah said. She was still trying to think if she might have said something or done something to anger Ted. He had been snippy and avoiding eye contact with her.
“Do you think it’ll help to set up for fishing at a different spot? If the dogs have their eyes on us.”
“Can’t hurt,” Hannah said. “And we might get more fish. If we could feed ourselves with fish alone, that would be safer, right?”
“Right,” Claire said. “Anyway, today and tomorrow we’ll eat what’s on hand and work hard on finishing the cabin. I want a roof started by the time we bed down tomorrow night.”
They walked the rest of the way to the cabin site in silence.
That night, before the sun set, Hannah checked Nari’s injuries again.
&nbs
p; “I feel so useless not being able to work,” Nari said.
“Another couple days, and you can go back to sewing.”
“But not help with working on the cabin.”
“It’ll be done tomorrow anyway,” Hannah said. “Except for maybe the roof. And you definitely can’t climb or stretch for a while.”
She was worried about the shoulder wound. It looked ugly, but she couldn’t decide if that was because it was ugly, a serious swatch of destruction of muscle, and the swelling a part of a normal healing process…or if it was becoming infected. Tomorrow she’d ask to go to the river to collect water and take the time to boil water, sterilize a couple of the bottles with it, and boil more to fill the bottles. She rewrapped the shoulder.
“You gave up your shirt for me,” Nari said, pointing to the hide tunic Hannah wore.
“You made the tunic, so I guess we’re even.”
“Hannah?”
“Mmm-hmm?” She tied the last knot and checked the bandage to make sure it would stay put all night.
“Why did the dogs go for me?”
“We talked about this. You’re the smallest. You’d fallen a bit behind. That was our fault. We should have waited until you caught up.”
“I don’t blame you guys. It’s the dogs. I don’t get it.”
“Don’t get what?”
“I mean.” Her voice broke. “I’m a vegetarian!” She started to cry.
Hannah said, “I don’t understand, hon.”
“I mean, you guys are the ones who like meat. Ted likes hunting and killing. So why didn’t they go for you?”
Hannah knew how illogical this was, but she also saw the thought process that Nari had used. “That’s not how it works.”
“Maybe they knew I’ve been eating meat lately.”
“They don’t care what you eat. Just that you’re edible yourself.” That had come out harsher than she intended. “I’m sorry. But it’s true.”
Nari sounded very young when she said, “It’s not fair.”
“No, I guess it’s not,” she said gently. “Most carnivores eat grazers. It’s the way of nature. Humans do, dogs do, tigers, and all these animals that were nothing but fossils in our time followed the same basic pattern. Back to the dinosaurs too. Carnivore dinosaurs ate leaf-eating ones.”
Nari had quit crying. She said, “I’m not a grazer now. And they would have eaten me, you said.”
“That’s true. To them, meat is meat. It keeps them alive. That’s all they care about. We think we’re special, being human, like you said. But animals don’t think we’re special at all. We’re just another item on the menu.”
At that moment, Jodi and Zach started laughing. She glanced over at them. They were holding hands. Another basic animal drive, to mate. Eat, mate, seek shelter. Everything else people did was embellishment.
Before night fell, they brought all their gear inside except for pots and stone tools and the new oreodont hides that were still soaking in urine. For now, they were sleeping on bare ground. Pallets of dry grass would be made after the cabin was secure. Hannah had Nari lie on one of the Mylar blankets, to keep any more dirt from getting into her wounds.
Not having to set a night watch was a luxury. Exhausted from the days of hard work, they all fell asleep quickly.
The cabin was mostly completed by the following nightfall. It might have gone faster, but Claire had insisted a group of four, not two, go down to the river to get water. “Just in case,” she had said. “And watch each other’s backs.” Claire stayed. The four other healthiest people went—Dixie, Ted, Hannah, and Jodi.
At the river, there was no new sign of the dogs, and they only saw a few other animals in the distance. They walked downstream of their former camp site.
They found another chestnut tree and took twenty minutes to harvest that. Ted climbed the tree and shook branches while the others gathered what had fallen and loaded packs and baskets with nuts. They saw no sign of the dogs that day.
Over the next few days, they found a new routine. Everyone but Nari and Bob took one trip to the river every day. Ted took two, going with both the morning and afternoon group. Whoever went fished for two hours, and whoever went was able to drink their fill. They brought back water for the others, fish, and nuts, if they found any. One group found berries.
On the third day, Jodi found another pile of scat, maybe dog, maybe not. But none of them caught sight of the dogs.
Zach’s wrist grew stronger and he was able to fish without pain. Bob slowly regained his energy after the stress of the trip up to the cabin, and he wove grass mats and blankets. Nari healed more slowly, though she insisted on sewing every day for as long as she could bear it. She repaired Ted’s shirt and she made a second hide tunic, this one a patchwork for herself.
Not quite a week after the cabin was done, they woke to a dismal, foggy morning. Claire, Ted, Hannah, and Jodi hiked down to the river together.
“The fog might make for good fishing,” Claire said.
“I’m getting wet just walking through it,” Jodi said.
“It’s getting thicker,” Hannah said. As they approached the river, the fog was denser, harder to see through. It was gathering in the valley, perhaps, or just not burning off around the water. Either way, the fog made for slow walking.
“Stick together,” Claire said, as they passed into a particularly thick patch. Her voice was tense.
Jodi had been right about getting wet. Within seconds, Hannah’s hair was plastered down with water. The hide tunic kept her torso dry.
Jodi was visible, but the others were nothing more than dark smudges of gray in the fog. Hannah was craning her head, looking for Claire and Ted, when she ran smack into Jodi.
“Hey,” Jodi said. “I’m standing still.”
“Sorry,” Hannah said.
“Not your fault. I can’t even see my feet,” Jodi said.
Hannah called, “Claire?”
“Hannah?” the voice came back. In the fog, it was impossible to tell from where.
“Can’t see you,” Hannah said. “Jodi, can you?”
“I can’t see my own hands, much less anyone else,” Jodi said. “I think they’re ahead and slightly to the left.”
“Stand still,” Hannah called to Claire. “Keep talking and we’ll catch up to you.”
“I’ve never seen a fog like this,” Jodi said.
Claire was saying, “Testing, testing,” as if into a microphone. As good as any words, Hannah figured, taking small steps in the direction Jodi had suggested.
The ground seemed to be falling off beneath her feet. They might be getting close to the river. Claire’s voice wasn’t helping guide her all that much. “Claire, you’re standing still?” she said.
“Yeah. We’re waiting.”
“Can you see us?”
“No. Can you see us?”
“No,” Hannah said.
Jodi shrieked.
Hannah spun around but now she couldn’t see Jodi either. “Jodi! You okay?”
“Fine. Just wet.”
That time Hannah could tell the direction of the voice. Jodi wasn’t far away. “Hang on, I’m coming.”
“No, watch it.”
“Why?”
“I fell into the river.”
“Oh. I guess we’re there.” They must have come through one of the spots where there was a break in the trees that lined much of the riverbank.
“I’m there, definitely, up to my waist. Don’t fall. The grass is slippery.”
“Okay, you come back here.”
“One second. There are slippery rocks underfoot.” A splash followed her words.
Hannah was about to call to Claire again when she heard a growl.
The hair on her neck rose, and a cold wind of fear swept through her body. She wanted to call out a warning, but she couldn’t force words past her tight throat. She clutched her spear and turned in a circle, staring into the fog and willing it to part.
It didn’t. S
he knew the others were within a couple dozen yards of her, Jodi probably closer, but it didn’t seem that was so. She felt alone. Alone, and blinded, and helpless.
A soft snarl sounded. From what direction, she couldn’t tell.
Backpack on? Backpack off? She decided its protection wasn’t worth it restricting her movement, so she shrugged it off and the heavy tunic too, letting them drop by her feet. In bra and ranger uniform pants, she stood, holding her breath, turning slowly and quietly, straining to see the source of the noise
A splash ahead. Jodi. She made her way toward the sound, as stealthily as she could manage.
“I can’t crawl out,” Jodi said. “I keep slipping, and I can’t see what I’m doing.”
“Shush,” Hannah said. “I think there are dogs around.”
“What? Where?”
Hannah kept her voice down. “I don’t know where.” Her boot caught on a tussock of grass and she nearly fell, but she managed to regain her balance. She turned again in a circle, checking every direction, unable to see through the mist. Another step, and another, and her boot hit water. “Jodi?”
“Right here. I can see you.” She splashed her hand in the water.
Hannah spotted a dark patch in the fog. Hoping it wasn’t a wild dog, she took careful steps toward it.
The dark patch resolved into Jodi. “Here, take my hand,” Hannah said. She waded into the water and managed to pull her upright.
“You’re undressed.”
“Felt right. Like I could move better and defend myself against the dogs.” Hannah was barely speaking above a whisper.
Jodi matched her tone. “There are dogs?”
“Or something that growls.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. We need to find the others. Four together is better than two.”
“We can’t do it whispering,” Jodi whispered.
“I guess not.”
Another scream sounded in the fog. Claire. She said, “Ted, look out!”
Hannah said, “Let’s go,” and started to sprint along the riverbank to her left. Immediately, her boot slipped in the fog-damp grass, and her feet skidded out from under her.
She was up again in a second.
“You okay?” Jodi said.
“Claire!” she yelled. If it drew the dogs to her, so be it. With the river to one side, that might provide the defensive advantage they needed.
