The Trek: Darwin's World, Book II (The Darwin's World Series 2)

by Jack L Knapp

  Piotr nodded. “I heard a rumor. I won’t have any problem, Matt. I’d just as soon not see them, but if it comes to a fight I know whose side I’m on.”

  “I can’t ask more than that, Piotr. Not easy when someone you’ve been camping with turns on you. But we’ve all been members of the one tribe, and Pavel didn’t let that stop him. Envy; it does funny things to people. Anyway, maybe they took off. If they aren’t a danger to us, it’s good riddance as far as I’m concerned.”

  Chapter 10

  “Woods skills are as important as being able to work with your hands, Piotr. We’ll need builders and craftsmen where we’re going, but first we have to get there.”

  “I understand, Matt. I have learned many other things, I can learn this too.”

  Matt nodded. “Why don’t you take the lead, then. Head east-southeast and we’ll swing north this afternoon. I don’t expect to get back to Riverbend Camp before tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. Just keep in mind that we don’t have any friends back here. Anyone you see is likely an enemy, so travel quiet and keep your eyes peeled.”

  Piotr nodded and led off. Matt watched him critically as he adjusted to leading the way through unknown country.

  Two hours later they paused atop a small hill. The two drank from their water gourds and rested while looking over the country ahead of them.

  “Couple of ideas, Piotr. Let’s take a look at where we’re going. Then you can tell me which route from here is likely to be easiest for us to travel.”

  Piotr finished drinking and carefully fitted the plug into his water gourd before examining the land ahead.

  “There’s a lot of heavy timber a little south of us. It looks like part of a pattern, part of that forest off to the south and east. It might mean there’s a body of water there. I think we should probably stay north of there, swing past the heavy growth and stay near the edge of those smaller trees. They’ll provide concealment, and if we run into lions or wolves the trees are big enough to climb out of their reach.

  “Two or three more hours in this direction and I think we’ll be ready to swing north. You’re more interested in looking over the area northeast of Riverbend Camp, right?”

  “Right. Your idea suits me, so that’s what we’ll do. If Pavel’s still around, he’ll have gone to the northeast. The mine’s in that direction, probably at least a week’s travel even with only three of them. They’ll be able to travel faster than the tribe did, what with dragging the travois and stopping when the women and kids got tired.

  “Still, Pavel’s bunch would need to hunt. They couldn’t just keep moving. That means they might still be hanging around back here, hoping to raid the tribe for food.”

  Piotr nodded, and after a minute spent resting and looking around the countryside he indicated he was ready to continue.

  “See any animals out there, Piotr?”

  “There’s a fairly large herd of bison south and a little west of us, near that forest area. There’s something a lot bigger behind them too. Mammoths, maybe sloths. I didn’t see any predators, but they’ve got to be there too.”

  “They’re there. Lions for sure, probably wolves too. Saber-tooth cats don’t appear to be as numerous as I expected, based on what archaeologists found on my previous timeline. Maybe there were more of them farther west. That’s where the biggest source of fossils was located, sunk in tar pits. Still, there are likely to be a few around because Lee and I killed one. It was some kind of saber-tooth, even if the teeth weren’t as long as I expected.

  “There’ll be bears too, but they won’t follow the herds. They’ll eat whatever they find, and if a lion kills something the bear is perfectly happy to take it away from him. Until then, bears will eat grass and berries. They’re omnivores. That means they could be anywhere, and if we’re going to have problems from animals back here, I suspect they will come from bears.

  “The true predators may not bother us unless we blunder into them. They’re used to hunting the plains game and two humans are not much meat for a pride of lions. We’re certainly not enough to tempt them away from the herds, not enough for a pack of wolves, either. The predators pick off the very young, the old, the injured or sick animals. There are a lot of those around a herd, so they won’t leave the bison to hunt us. Winter’s different. Meat’s in short supply then, so the predators will take what they can get. But there’s plenty of game now. Healthy predators won’t be interested in us.”

  Piotr nodded. “There are a few deer near the treeline ahead of us. There were more a little while ago, but maybe they’ve started to bed down. Is there anything we need to watch out for when we get close to them?”

  “Keep an eye on the trees. Cougars, maybe a jaguar, they’re around, but they’ll avoid the lions and dire wolves. I doubt they’ll attack us either. Still, I don’t feel like rasslin’ a cat today, so keep a lookout.

  “Maybe stay a little farther away from brush and briars when you’re walking. I could hear the swishing noise as you brushed past. Other than that, you’re doing fine. I’m ready when you are.”

  Piotr settled the small pack he was wearing and led off. Matt followed him down the hillside and the two were soon heading for where the deer had been grazing.

  #

  Lee and Marc found an abandoned village two days travel southwest of Riverbend Camp.

  A dozen huts surrounded a central area with a fire-pit that had been used for several years, judging by the ashes scattered around. Well-worn trails led to the north and southwest.

  Someone had tried to develop farming. A few scrubby plants remained, but weeds choked the small garden. Several of the plants had died, probably from lack of water.

  The inhabitants had decorated their dwellings. A few flowering plants still survived near doorways, but there were no blooms as yet, only buds. The two prowled around the deserted square and finally met after a few minutes.

  “How long, you think?”

  “Nobody’s lived here for a year, maybe longer. The ash dumps have been rained on and I doubt they would survive weathering more than two or three years. I think the people left at least a year ago, but not more than three.”

  “Sounds right to me, Marc. One of those huts belonged to a flint worker. There are chips around the outside and he had a stool, maybe a table to work from. I found marks where the legs sat, but the stool and table are gone. The people packed up and left or they got raided.”

  Marc nodded. “Could be either. But why would they leave? They had shelter and had started planting. They knew something about farming. They put a lot of work into this place just to go off and leave it.”

  “Maybe the game moved on and they started running low on food. It takes time for a garden to begin producing. My mother had one, and she collected most of the harvest from the first two years to use as seed. She finally began getting enough for us to eat, as well as surplus seed for the next year, the third season after she started. I’m guessing that the farming effort here hadn’t been going on for more than a year, two at the most. They’d have needed to keep hunting and foraging until the plants began producing enough to live on.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Take a look at this.”

  Marc led Lee to a hut due east of the firepit. He pointed silently to a bit of shiny stone embedded in the wood framing.

  “Busted spearhead or arrowhead, you think?”

  “Might be a spearhead, Lee. I can’t tell. But it’s the right width. If it was a spear, it broke before the point had penetrated very far.”

  Lee nodded. “Any idea which way they went?”

  “There are a couple of trails, they could have gone north or southwest. Any tracks they left have been washed away. Either there were animals or a lot of plants they could forage in those directions, or they had some other reason to be traveling the trails. Maybe there’s another village where those trails lead?”

  “Maybe. If there were raiders, they took the people captive; there are no bones, and if they killed them, bones or
graves would be left. So they took the people, maybe took whatever this village had in the way of wealth. That stool and table, tools the flint-worker used, farming tools.

  “I think we should follow the southwest trail for a day. If there’s a raiders’ camp near where we plan to go, we want to know about it. But we’ll stay off the trail, maybe a hundred yards farther west. If that broken spear-point or arrow-point means a raid took place, the raiders aren’t anyone we want to be friendly with, especially if there are more of them than us. So we stay off the trail, go slow and be careful.”

  Lee hesitated for a moment. “I don’t want to shoot first and ask questions afterwards. But if they’re raiders, we can’t chance leading them back to the tribe. It’s better to avoid them than start a fight we can’t win, so I won’t shoot if I can avoid it. Could you find your way back to camp from here?”

  “Sure, no problem. Head east from here until I reach that stream…it’s bigger than those two little creeks we crossed…and follow it north to camp. Are you thinking of sending me back?”

  “Not yet. But I want you to stay at least a hundred yards behind me. If I run into something, I’ll try to get away first, shoot my way out of trouble second. But either way, if there are people up there and they’re a danger, Robert and Matt have to know. You run for it and warn them.”

  “What about you?”

  “You won’t be able to help me, so don’t even try. I’m pretty careful anyway. I doubt anyone is setting an ambush, they’ve no way of knowing we’re here, and I won’t be on the trail. No, I don’t expect to run into anything I can’t handle, but just in case I’m wrong, you hang back and watch what happens to me. Okay?”

  Marc nodded.

  The two moved west together, then Lee headed southwest along a route roughly paralleling the trail from the deserted village. After he was a hundred yards ahead, Marc followed.

  #

  Robert made the rounds of Riverbend Camp after waking.

  He looked with disapproval at a number of sites where the tribespeople had decided the dug latrines were too far away and had simply picked a convenient spot to go. Something would have to be done, although he wasn’t sure what. Perhaps some sort of guide rope so people could find the latrines in the dark? Maybe a fallen tree for a seat, something more comfortable than simply squatting? He would talk to Colin and Sal, see if they had suggestions.

  Neither was in camp at the moment, so he stopped at the kitchen fire and accepted a slab of meat served on a layer of dandelion leaves. There would be no more bread until the grasses and trees began producing seeds. Stoically he ate his breakfast and drank the gourd of hot tea.

  At least they now had honey and wax again. One of the workers had followed flying bees back to the tree where the hive was located. Pots that had once held grain, used up along the trek, now held honey.

  The honey had been squeezed from the comb and the wax combs melted down. After cooling, the wax had been broken apart into manageable sections and wrapped in deerskin.

  After eating, Robert returning the gourd that had held his tea. He walked away, down to the primitive manufactory that produced axles and wheels. A hundred yards past that point was the glue works, where unused skin and hair from the bison they’d killed had been boiled down to make hide glue. Robert decided he didn’t need to go that far; even from here, the smell was rank.

  The wheelwrights were surrounded by slabs of wood. A firepit was in the center of their work space and a small fire burned there. Coals had been raked aside and a glue pot warmed in the edge of the fire, wooden paddle sticking up from the liquid ready for use.

  The slabs were glued together first, then the laminated wheel was carefully shaped using hatchets and knives. The wheelwrights pierced the laminated slabs through with a chisel made from a piece of scrap steel. As a final step, a tire made of rawhide would be stretched around the outer circumference, overlapping where the wet hide began. It would be laced into place while wet. The rawhide shrank as it dried and, with the glue, held the wheels together.

  A stack of finished wheels, carefully sorted by size, waited to be fitted to axles.

  “Anyone seen Sal?”

  “I think he’s down by the stream. The fish weir broke, either the stream flooded a little or something went after the fish during the night. He’s working on repairs. I think Colin’s with him.”

  “Okay, thank you. You guys are doing good work. Those wheels are going to make a big difference when we start moving again.”

  “Thanks. We’ll have enough to convert every travois to a cart and have a few spares after that. It depends on how much trouble we have finding good, dry wood for the axles.”

  Robert nodded his understanding and went on his way.

  Sal was knee-deep in the shallow stream.

  “What happened?”

  Colin answered, “Something busted into the fish trap; some kind of cat, based on the tracks. Guess he couldn’t resist an easy meal. We had several catfish in there, big ones, some other kinds too. At least one was a buffalo-fish. We found bones and the two mineral deposits that form above a buffalo’s eyes.”

  “Any idea of what to do, other than empty the trap every night? And make sure that people who come down for the fish are armed and bring a torch along, something big enough to scare off a cat?”

  “I don’t want to post another guard. We’re stretched thin as it is. I’ll abandon the fish trap after this afternoon. We’ll take whatever we’ve caught and then break it apart. I don’t like the idea of attracting a cat this close to the camp anyway.”

  “Good thinking, Colin. Well, you’re busy, but I need to talk to you later. When you’re finished, find me. I’ll probably be near the kitchen fire someplace. How’s your wife doing?”

  “Margrette’s a lot better. The rest is just what she needed. She’s been eating well since we got here, put on some of the weight she’d lost, and she’s supervising most of the food preparation now. We’ve been here a week and you’re not ready to leave yet, right?”

  Robert nodded. “I figure another week at least. By then, Lee and Matt will be back. Actually, I expected Matt yesterday. He’s been gone for four days now.”

  “He’ll get back when he’s done what needed doing. Anyway, Margrette taking over the kitchen has been a big help. It frees me up for working with other people, the ones gathering plants and a couple I’ve trained to recognize edible mushrooms. Do you like the taste?”

  “I do. Mushrooms cooked over the fire add to the flavor of the meat. Still, I’ll be glad when we can start grinding grains and seeds. Nuts too; animals got what was produced last fall. We’ll probably be somewhere by late summer that we can begin gathering nuts again. They add to the flavor of the bread.”

  The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Laz.

  “Matt and Piotr are back, Robert. They’re at the kitchen. They brought three people with them, and Matt asks if you can come over there.”

  Robert nodded a farewell to Colin and followed Laz back to the kitchen.

  Matt and Piotr were drinking gourds of the tea and three other men were eating slabs of the fresh-roasted meat. They appeared hungry; they were devouring the meat and looked skinny to Robert’s experienced eyes. Each of the three strangers wore two of the short-swords that the mine operators had given to their guard force.

  “What’s this, Matt? You bring home some strays?”

  “They want to join us, Robert. I figured you should talk to them first, so I brought them in. They were with the mine guards before, but they left as soon as possible. Brought us news, too. Pavel showed up there and he’s settled in as one of their leaders.

  “One of their people didn’t like the idea and Pavel killed him. Maybe there was more to him than I thought. Anyway, they’ve had a fight with some new people at the mine, some kind of security force of down-timers. The mine operators brought in their own labor and security force, and the new security people have rifles.

  “These three picked up
spare swords from some of the dead guards before they took off. Bad news…Pavel got a rifle during the fight. They killed at least one of the new down-timer security people and took his rifle, but it appears they only got one magazine of ammo. It probably isn’t full, since the downtime guy was killed toward the end of the fight.

  “Even so, a rifle puts Pavel in charge whether the others like it or not. And he’s been trying to get the ones left from the mine’s original guard force to follow us. He’s planning a raid.”

  “You think these three are telling the truth, Matt?”

  “I do. Doesn’t mean I’m going to trust them, at least for a while. We can put them to work around camp doing something, see how they fit in. They didn’t have to tell us about Pavel or that he had a rifle, so that’s a mark in their favor.”

  Robert nodded. “We can feed them. Looks like they’ve not been eating well.”

  “Next thing to starving, Robert. All of the former guards are hungry. They don’t have bush skills or hunting weapons. A few have begun making spears, but according to what these three said the spears are crude. Pavel and his two people, Gregor and Vlad, have the best spears. The rest are still trying to learn how to fashion stone points, so they’re using fire-hardened sharpened wood tips. They work, though. That’s what killed that down-timer, a spear.”

  “I guess Pavel remembered what you taught him, Matt.”

  The two shared a grim smile. Their conversation was interrupted as Marc trotted into camp.

  “Marc, where’s Lee?”

  “He’s behind me, Matt. He ran into two men and I left. That’s what he told me to do, leave and tell you. If they killed Lee, they’ll be following my trail. We should put people out for security so they’ll be waiting if anyone followed me.”

  Matt nodded. “Take time to catch your breath. You look pretty winded. Laz, you and Philippe follow me. Piotr, you able to go a little longer?”

  Piotr nodded. “What about these three, Matt?”