by Jack L Knapp
Lee didn’t seem disposed to argue, although clearly he had no idea what genes were and how they were contributed. Matt sighed. That would be one more thing to add to the educational curriculum. But that could come later; they had their hands full for now.
"My mother has only been with you, Matt. At least since she found you and brought you back."
"I think you're right, Lee. I hadn't thought of it, but the other women have stayed away. Maybe she said something to them. I've been too busy to notice. Or care, really. I'm so tired by the end of the day that all I want to do is sleep!"
#
An hour later the meeting went off roughly as expected. Matt was confirmed as tribal leader, Colin his principal deputy, and Lee was acknowledged third in seniority as head of security.
Matt thanked the tribe for their confidence and sent them off to bed. Lee left the meeting to post a new shift of guards.
Laz and Piotr had become Lee’s de-facto deputies. Tonight, Piotr would be on duty and see that the guards were awake and that shifts changed periodically.
Matt had delegated some of his duties; others were doing the same.
#
Matt spoke to Lilia before bedding down.
“We’re going to have to camp somewhere near the middle from now on, Lilia. The tribe leader can’t camp apart from his people.”
“I understand, Matt. I’ll move our camp tomorrow. Marja may not like the idea, there’s someone in the other group she doesn’t like. If she prefers to keep her distance from them, that's OK. I'm sure Piotr will stay with her. Perhaps only you and I should move, set up our spot between the rest and the cabin group.
"Let’s do it that way, Lilia. I’ll have a talk with Marja. She’s just going to have to ignore personal feelings for the good of the tribe. I'll find out which one she's avoiding and have a chat with her too. Maybe I can defuse the issue before it becomes serious.
“I don’t know about you, Matt, but I’m tired. What say we call it a day? I’ve got our sleeping pads set up over here, behind that screen of brush.
Matt nodded and the two headed off to bed.
Chapter 17
Five days later the tribe crested a long ridge and found a steep slope with a wide river at the bottom.
The ridge ran roughly north to south, paralleling the river's course. The terrain across the river looked much like what they'd experienced recently, rolling hills and grassy open areas broken by thickets of oak and patches of berry brambles and scrubby bushes.
Matt conferred with Lee and Colin.
"It looks like there are bigger trees down there, along that river bottom. We could make replacement wheels if the wood is dense enough. Cottonwoods are big and we’ve found them before along rivers, but the wood's too soft to last.
"I think we should camp here on the bluff tonight. It will be a dry camp, but we've got jugs and gourds of water, enough for drinking and cooking. We can refill the containers tomorrow when we get to the river.
"We need more dried meat. We're going to have to hunt soon, and the carts are all in need of repair or replacement. Sal thinks we can reshape some of the axles by extending the taper back and cutting off the worn ends. That will allow us to keep using the wheels a little longer, even though the center hole is pretty worn. They're showing signs of wear in other places too, so it’s only a short-term fix. Let's hope those trees can be used to make new wheels.
"Lee, pick out a good campsite by the river. We'll move there tomorrow, and we’re going to stay here for at least a week, maybe two, so pick a spot that people will be happy with. Send scouts out to look for game and to watch our back trail as soon as people are available.
“We haven't seen anything of the slave raiders but that doesn't mean they're not there, so use two-person teams for scouting. I’m pretty sure the raiders won’t follow us after we cross the river, but that’s going to take time so we’ll just have to keep on guarding for now.
"Colin, it's going to take most of tomorrow just getting the carts down the bluff. We want a slanting route across the slope, and that gully off to the left might work. It appears to go south, then it turns back, both should make for an easier descent.
“It's a lot easier taking loads down on a slant, even if it takes longer. It’s also safer than going straight downhill. We’ll just need to make sure there’s room where the gully bends for the carts to change direction.
"We'll use as many people as necessary to get the carts to the river, taking them down one at a time. It will take most of the day, but that can't be helped. We'll need guards down there and also up here until everyone is moved.
"Take the kitchen cart down tomorrow morning after breakfast, as soon as Margrette's ready. Her cooks can set up the kitchen at the new campsite and have hot food waiting when people get the rest of the carts down.
"Lee, you'll have to use women for security duty. We'll need the men to handle the carts. Assign Millie or Cindy to take care of the little ones and Bella can help too, but let the parents get the kids down the hill first. Whichever one you assign, she can take care of the kids while the parents come back up and help the rest of us.
"If a cart breaks loose and heads downhill, it's dangerous, and some of our tools might end up in the river. We can't spare anything. We'll just have to plan so it doesn't happen.
"We'll take the carts down wheels-first. Use people holding onto the shafts to guide from above, use ropes tied to the axles to control the descent. Two ropes with one or two men hauling back on each should be enough.
"No cart starts down until the one below is clear. If we use two teams of four, one team can take a cart down and then climb back up the hill while the other takes the next cart down. The carts will be in the gully, so have the teams climb straight back up the slope when their cart is parked by the river. We can get everything done in half the time, doing it that way, and no one will be looking uphill at a runaway cart.
"Be ready for mishaps, but it’s better to see they don't happen. If people are always above the carts, they can't be underneath if a rope breaks. Losing tools is bad, losing people is worse. Suggestions?"
"Matt, I think you covered it all. We might find a few changes need to be made after we get started, maybe in the numbers of people needed to hold a cart back, but if it happens, we'll cope," Colin said. Lee simply nodded.
"I want to establish a camp like what we had at River Bend. We can take a few days by the river for people to rest and repair the carts, send out the hunting crews too. What do you think?"
"Sounds good, Matt. I'll get my security people out. I'll see you in camp when I get back."
"And I'll see to setting up the camp, Matt."
"Thanks, guys. I'm going to take a walk along this hilltop, see if I spot anything. Fresh venison would taste pretty good for tonight's supper."
Matt unslung his bow and nocked an arrow before heading south, following the top of the long ridge. He walked slowly and swept his eyes from side to side.
In this way, he found the abandoned campsite.
#
Matt guessed the site had not been used in the past week. He worked out as much information as possible while walking around the campsite.
One person had stayed here, probably for several days. Possibly he or she had hunted during the day and returned to the fire-pit in the evening. A large tree with low-hanging limbs stood near the pit, some sort of oak Matt thought. The occupant had slept beneath the tree, judging by the crushed grasses that had been the bed, and the fire-pit was no more than five paces away. A cautious person, then; the tree was available if danger threatened, the limbs would make the tree easy to climb, and the fire would keep most animals away.
The person had also climbed the tree at some point, possibly to use it as a lookout. There were no tracks indicating that cats or a bear had come by. As for wolves, there had been no evidence of such since leaving Riverbend Camp. Most probably they were following the bison herds, remaining close by to pick off young or sick anim
als. No, the tree hadn’t been a refuge; it had been a place where the unknown person could look over the countryside.
Scouting near the tree, Matt found a clear track. The occupant had been a man, or possibly a woman with a large foot. Woods-wise, whoever it was; Matt found an area that had been disturbed by digging. This had been a latrine or perhaps a midden where bones and scraps had been buried. Wise people didn't toss food remains out for scavengers to find. The pit would have served to dispose of waste and scraps before the camper covered it with the excavated dirt.
Matt wasn't curious enough to find out what had been buried; it was sufficient to know that something had. More significantly, the man, as Matt now thought of the person, had remained in this camp for several days and left little evidence of his presence other than the firepit and the crushed grasses where he'd slept. The bedding would soon be gone and the fire-pit would be covered by windblown dust. Anyone passing in the future would likely never realize that a man had lived here for several days.
When there was nothing left to find, Matt went on his way, now wary of human eyes as he searched for game.
He soon found a ravine leading down the slope at an angle. Apparently a rock outcropping had diverted the course that rain or snowmelt followed on its way to the river, and over the years the depression had deepened and widened. This might possibly be a better route the tribe could follow when they left camp tomorrow, but first he needed to look for obstructions that could block a cart’s descent.
The ravine opened up as Matt got closer to the river and eventually it joined the low land near the water.
The riverbanks were lined with large growths of reed and occasional patches of native cane, a bamboo-like species that had a number of useful properties.
The water wasn't flowing fast, but the river was broad and looked deep. The tribe would be unable to ford here; they'd have to find another way to cross. Until then, the reeds would be useful for making shelters and the grasses growing in the open were tall. They would be a good source of fibers for ropes. Perhaps Colin or Sal knew methods for crossing rivers. Matt would ask after the tribe got down the slope.
He surprised a group of pig-like animals, a little smaller than the domestic pigs of downtime but larger than peccaries. He put arrows into three of them before the group escaped.
Matt opened the body cavities and removed the entrails before dragging the carcasses together. This task took him less than an hour. He used willow branches to prop the body cavities open, then trotted up the ravine and was soon back at the camp.
Colin and Sal accompanied Matt to collect the pig carcasses. Piotr attached himself to the group too, bringing Carlo, Willie, and Karel, the former mine guardsmen.
Matt showed them where he'd left the carcasses and Colin decided it didn't make sense to haul extra weight. Using Matt's axe, he removed the heads from the pigs and dumped them into the river. When Matt looked at him, Colin explained, "We don't yet know where we'll set up camp, but wherever it is, I'd rather not have pig heads drawing scavengers. Let them float away."
The others took turns hauling the pigs. Two men grasped a foreleg each and headed up the ravine, letting the lower body drag. The task was physically tiring but not otherwise difficult. Matt and Colin remained on guard during the trip; the smell of fresh blood would attract predators.
Two hours later found them back at the camp. Margrette and Colin took over then, butchering the pig carcasses and passing the cuts to assistants. The pork was soon trimmed and ready for cooking.
"Just having fresh meat is good, Matt, but we'll have to spit the meat and cook it over the coals. I'd have made a pork roast, but there's no clay up here. I coated the meat with clay at Riverbend and buried it in coals. It was a good substitute for an oven. Maybe later we can dig a pit and roast an entire pig. Lay hot rocks in the bottom, cover them with leaves and lay the pig on the leaves. Add another layer of leaves and pile more hot rocks on top. Cover it with dirt for a few hours while the pig cooks. Are there more of them?"
"A lot more, I think. They'd been rooting all along the low areas near the river. The group I surprised had at least a dozen animals.
"We've been eating well during the past month, Margrette. I think we can afford to trim the fat from these. If you'll save as much as you can, I'll appreciate it."
"Sure, Matt. We can do that. What are you using it for?"
"I'm going to boil it first and skim the impurities off before letting it cool. This makes it into lard, and that should work better than beeswax for lubricating cart axles. As soon as we trim the old axles down and refit the wheels, I'll slather on the grease. Thick leather gaskets around the axle spindles will hold the goo in place. Maybe a squealing pig can stop the squealing of wooden wheels on wooden axles?"
Matt grinned and after a moment Margrette grinned back.
"We'll save as much as we can, Matt. Have you thought of mixing some of the beeswax with the grease while you're boiling it down? The mix might be a better lubricant than either one by itself."
"I'll give it a try, Margrette. Any other ideas you come up with, just let me know.
"Sure, Matt. I'll tell the cooks too. Those three pigs will feed all of us, but only just. Don't expect a lot of leftovers."
"As long as people are well fed tonight, I don't care. We can get more meat day after tomorrow. Were you able to collect any vegetables?"
"I've got some greens. That river; does it have cattails or reeds?"
"It's got reeds, I don't know about cattails. I didn't see any. But I'd be surprised if there weren't some, maybe a little farther upstream or down. The tender shoots coming up from the roots are edible.
"Another thing, as soon as we're set up in camp tomorrow, put out some hooks. There are likely to be fish in the river. It'll be nice if we can have fish as well as pork to break the monotony of having bison every meal."
"I'll see to it, Matt. Thanks for the pork."
Matt circulated through camp as people settled into evening routine. Some headed for the cookfire after they finished arranging their beds, others looked for Elizabeth. A couple of people had blistered feet, and she'd become adept at lancing the blisters. There were no bandages, of course, but draining the fluid kept the blister from spreading.
Matt found Lee while he waited for supper to cook.
"Lee, I found a campfire and a track. The track was from a fairly-large foot, probably a man and a careful one too. He bedded down under a tree he could climb in a hurry. His camp looked well set up and he'd built his fire in a pit he'd dug a few inches below ground level. I guess he stayed there three or four days, maybe a week, judging by the ash level in the fire-pit. And he may not have moved very far after leaving that camp on the ridge. We don't know if he's friendly. He's not one of the slavers. He'd have had no time to get here ahead of us, and we changed course a couple of times to get around brush and thickets of trees. A slave raider couldn't have known which direction we'd go when we did that. Instead, I think he's probably in the same situation I was, dropped here by the futurists and surviving on his own. Warn your scouts, OK?"
"Thanks, Matt. I'll pass the word. They're watchful anyway, but warning about the tracks you found won't hurt."
"We'll have our hands full tomorrow, getting the carts safely down that hill. I'll be working with Colin until the job's done. Unless someone comes up with a better place, we’ll follow the ravine down, the same one we came up while dragging the pigs.
“I don't think it's worth looking for a ford. That river's too wide and it looks deep. The little ones can't swim and maybe some of the adults can't either. Even with safety ropes, we'll lose people. A ferry would be better.
"We've got the high ground right now, but no water except what we brought with us. Sending people down to fill the small containers we’ve got, it will take too long and we’ll tire our people even more. So we need to get down to the river as soon as we can.
"The most dangerous time will be while we're moving down that slope. Every
one is going to be busy, and if we’re raided we won't be able to just drop what we're doing and fight. The women will be on security, the cooks will be setting up the kitchen, Millie or Cindy will have the children. Six men will have their hands full controlling a cart, six others will be on the way back resting. That’s just about all of us.
"I estimate the carts weigh about half a ton. We may have to offload the heaviest ones before we can get them down to the river. If we do, the men will be backpacking heavy weights, things like those steel blades we haven't had time to make into spears yet, the tools we stole from the mine, everything.
"I'll look at that slope again, Matt. I can put the women along the top of the ridge. They could delay the raiders until you can bring the rest of the people up to help. Is there any chance you could be up there with that rifle you took from Pavel?"
"Good idea. I'll carry the rifle, but remember I've only got one magazine for it. The original owner fired it before he was killed and Pavel fired it twice more during the Riverbend fight. There are only twenty-three rounds left." Matt held up his fingers, closed them and then opened them again to indicate twenty, then held up three fingers more. "I cleaned the rifle, but I don't want to waste ammo testing it. It might jam again. I won't know how reliable it is until I use it, and I can't practice because there's no replacement ammo.
"But the bows are dependable. Make sure everyone's quivers are as full as possible. Collect any spare arrows, even the practice ones that are a little crooked, so they’re available if we need them. We can make more later, but we can't make anything if the slave raiders win.
"If we can get across the river without being attacked, I think we're done with the slavers. It's just as well. I feel sorry for the people they captured, but I'm not risking our tribe by attacking a large force to free people we don't know. If there were fewer of them I'd consider it. It’s dangerous to leave them behind, they might spread their poison to others. But for now, I won't take the chance.
