Obsolete Theorem

by Stan C. Smith

  “You must not move during the night,” Skyra said, her voice hushed.

  “Why?”

  “The vipers. The scorpions. They like our warmth. They come to us and rest against our skin as we sleep. If you move, they become angry.”

  Lincoln lifted his head. “They rest against our skin?”

  She remained silent for a few seconds, then her chest shook. “at-at-at-at-at.”

  17

  Cornered

  47,659 years ago - Day 4

  While trying not to move, Skyra watched the sky turn orange as the sun finally began to show itself. What would this new day bring? Would it be her last? Skyra knew she could never return to Una-Loto tribe. On her own, she might live until the cold season if she could avoid bolup camps, but she would surely die before the hills turned green again. She had little choice but to stay with the strange bolup who now lay against her body with his skinny arms around her neck and chest.

  Skyra knew Lincoln was awake. His breathing had changed, and he had been shifting his weight every few breaths. He was not used to sleeping on rocks without his skins, which made Skyra wonder about the place he was from. Did he have a sturdy shelter, with furs on which he slept in secure comfort? How was it possible that the place he was from did not have predators or men to fear? Skyra had never known of such a place. If Lincoln was lying to her, she would have to kill him then find another nandup tribe willing to accept her. She hoped his words were true—she did not want to kill him.

  He gently squeezed her chest then pulled away. The cold air rushed in against her back. She growled her displeasure, sat up, and pulled her cape on over her head. She scanned the wide river plain around them and saw no sign of her tribemates. Then she turned to watch Lincoln as he brushed his hand over his body, wiping away sand and rocks that had stuck to his skin. She did not understand many things about this strange bolup, but she was glad she had found him. Skyra’s chest hurt for many days after the woolly rhino had killed her birthmother. When Gelrut had killed Veenah, the hurting started all over again. While lying with Lincoln, though, the hurting was not so bad. Again, she hoped she did not have to kill the strange bolup.

  “Thank you for sharing your warmth with me,” he said.

  “Thank you is a strange word.”

  He bared his teeth. “It’s actually two words. Why is it strange?”

  “It is strange because I do not know when to say it.”

  “You say it whenever you like what someone has done for you.”

  She grunted as she got to her feet. “That does not make sense. It also does not make sense when you say I’m sorry. You and Ripple say these words, and the words do not make sense to me. Stop saying them, please.”

  He looked up at her for several breaths. “Yet you like to say please. Okay, I’ll try to remember.” He got up and looked out across the plain. “Speaking of Ripple, I thought maybe we’d see the sneaky little bastard by now.”

  She stared at him. “What does that mean?”

  “It just means I thought Ripple might catch up to us during the night.”

  “Ripple planned to meet us at the hill of rocks.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He wrapped his skinny arms around his own belly. “Are you ready to go? I’m not looking forward to walking on my foot, but I need to get moving to warm myself.”

  She secured the two knives in her wrist sheath. These were now the only weapons she and Lincoln had, which made her feel vulnerable. The hunters from her tribe—at least some of them—were probably alive, and they would be coming soon. Cave hyenas could certainly kill nandups, but the creatures were easier to frighten than lions or long-tooth cats. She gazed toward the rising sun, studying the faint shapes of the distant hills, then she pointed. “The hill of rocks is that way. If we do not find water before we get there, we will fill our bellies when we cross the river. We will also make weapons at the river.”

  Lincoln said, “If we go straight to my team then get to the T3, we won’t need weapons.”

  “What is the T3?”

  “It’s the object we were hiding behind when you first saw us days ago. I’m not even going to try to explain it, but the object will help us get to the place where I am from.”

  “You do not need weapons in this place?”

  He seemed to think about this for a few breaths. “No, not really. Not very often.”

  Again, Skyra tried to imagine such a place.

  They had no belongings to gather, so they started walking toward the rising sun. Lincoln limped on his hurt foot, mumbling several words Skyra did not know. Soon, though, he began to run, and Skyra ran beside him.

  They ran until the flat river plain became dotted with mounds of boulders. When Skyra was sure they were far ahead of any Una-Loto hunters that might be tracking them, she slowed to a walk.

  They continued walking until the sun was high above before coming upon a small stream. After filling their bellies with water, Skyra caught four crayfish and gave two to Lincoln. He made strange faces and noises, but this time he ate them raw. Skyra was still hungry, but she didn’t want to risk staying any longer. They moved on.

  The boulder mounds became larger, and Skyra soon realized she had not been to this area before. She had led Lincoln to the wrong place. She left Lincoln on the ground, climbed atop one of the mounds, and looked out over the plain. In the distance was a line of trees and a river. Several low, rocky hills rose up beside the river, and Skyra immediately recognized them. The burned forest and bolup camp would be beyond those rocky hills. She followed the line of trees with her eyes as the river wound its way nearer to her and Lincoln. Then she spotted what she was looking for. The hill of rocks was just there, beyond the river, only a short walk away.

  “We are almost there!” she shouted down to Lincoln.

  “Good,” he replied. “I was starting to think we were lost.”

  She looked back the way they had come and scanned the horizon. There was movement—three figures, running steadily toward her between the scattered mounds of rocks. A growl rose from Skyra’s chest.

  One of the figures stopped. Skyra couldn’t be sure, but she thought the figure was pointing at her. The other two stopped and stared. Then they all started running again.

  Skyra dropped to her butt and slid down the rock to the next boulder, then the next below that, until she was on the ground beside Lincoln. “Una-Loto hunters!” she said. “They are coming.” She turned and pointed. Now she could actually see the approaching hunters from the ground. They were getting closer with every breath.

  “Shit,” Lincoln said. “We have to get my team and get to the T3.”

  Skyra started running. When he caught up to her, she said, “We must keep running, or we must stop and fight.”

  “We won’t have to fight if we can just get to the T3.”

  This didn’t make sense to Skyra, but there was no time to ask questions now. She spotted the tree-lined river as they rounded another boulder pile, so she grabbed Lincoln’s arm and changed direction, heading for the trees.

  She looked back over her shoulder as they neared the river. For now, the hunters were beyond the trees lining the river and were not in sight, which meant they could not see her and Lincoln either.

  “Into the water,” she said.

  They plunged in. Lincoln took her hand in his, and she held on tight. They began walking upstream as fast as they could. Lincoln fell to his knees, but she pulled him back up to his feet.

  “They will know we are in the river,” she said, “but they will not know if we are walking upstream or downstream.”

  He glanced back. “Let’s hope they choose the wrong direction.”

  They kept moving, but Skyra did not like how slow they were forced to walk in the water. Her tribemates could catch up to them by running along the riverbank. She headed to the far side, pulling Lincoln with her. They stepped from the water and began running again. As they emerged from the narrow strip of trees, Skyra spotted the hill of rocks in
the distance and pointed.

  “It’s wide open between here and there,” Lincoln said, still running. “We’ll be visible, but we have no choice.”

  Skyra still did not understand, but she remained silent and continued running. By the time they had crossed the open rocky field between the river and the hill of rocks, she was struggling to keep up with Lincoln. It seemed as if the skinny bolup could run forever without slowing down.

  She looked back—still no sign of her tribemates. Maybe they were still searching along the river.

  As they stopped at the base of the hill of boulders, Lincoln cupped his hands to his face and shouted, “Jazzlyn, Derek, Virgil!”

  Skyra threw a hand over his mouth. “My tribemates will hear you!”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, pulling her hand away. “I thought it’d be faster than climbing up there. We all need to get to the T3.”

  She growled. “The T3 is at the river. My tribemates are probably at the river. They want to kill you. Why do you want to go to the T3?”

  “I don’t know if I can explain it to you. The T3 will take us to where I’m from. We’ll be safe there.” He turned and stared up the hill of boulders. “They must not have heard me.”

  Skyra took Lincoln’s hand and began making her way up one of the sloped rocks at the foot of the hill. “Your tribemates are in a cave we can defend. They have the spears we made. If we are not going to keep running, that is where we need to go.”

  He let go of her hand but continued following. “The last thing I want is to be cornered in a tiny cave. I can’t imagine that ending well.” After several more breaths he said, “I wonder why they didn’t hear me.”

  As they climbed, Skyra paused atop each boulder and rock slab to gaze out toward the river. She did not see the hunters.

  When they were nearing the cave, Skyra thought she heard something—a voice. It was faint, as if from a great distance. She snapped her head around and scanned the scene below. She could see nothing there. The voice came again. “Listen!” she hissed to Lincoln.

  He froze.

  The voice continued, this time swelling and fading away then swelling again.

  “It’s music,” he said. “Maddy must be playing music.”

  “What is music?”

  Instead of answering her, he put his hands to his face again and called out, “Hey! Can you hear me?”

  The sound stopped. Several breaths later, a face appeared over a ledge above. It was the dark-faced woman, Jazzlyn. “Lincoln, it’s you!”

  The other two bolups, Derek and Virgil, appeared beside Jazzlyn. “Hot damn!” Derek said. “We were getting seriously worried.”

  Jazzlyn said, “You don’t look so good, sir. What happened to your clothes?”

  “Listen up,” Lincoln said. “We’ve got a problem. We need to get to the T3 now, then jump the hell out of here.”

  They fell silent and glanced at each other.

  “Now! We have to go.”

  “Our gear is scattered all over,” Derek said. “It’ll take us a while to pack it up.”

  Lincoln muttered something Skyra couldn’t understand. He closed his eyes for a few breaths as if thinking. “Just leave the stuff. Get down here now.”

  Virgil spoke for the first time. “We can’t leave our gear. It’s all we’ve got in case—”

  “Oh shit, Lincoln!” Jazzlyn said. She pointed down the boulder slope past Lincoln and Skyra. “Does our problem have anything to do with those men?”

  Skyra spun around and stepped closer to the edge. She saw nothing but boulders. Then movement caught her eye as two nandup men came into view, crawling up a sloped rock on their way up the hill of boulders. Skyra knew them—Durnin and Brillir. Both were dominant men in Una-Loto tribe.

  A third man appeared on the rock behind them. Skyra squinted and stared, shocked. The man was Gelrut. His face was still smeared with his own blood, and even from this distance Skyra could see the two holes in his face where Lincoln’s arrow had passed through. How was Gelrut still alive, and how could he have traveled so far with such a wound?

  Gelrut paused and looked up. His eyes met Skyra’s. He tried to speak, but nothing came from his mouth but garbled, bubbling sounds. He wiped blood from his chin and resumed climbing.

  Skyra stepped back from the edge and turned to Lincoln. “Durnin and Brillir and Gelrut. These men are skilled hunters and fighters. They have chased us very far, so I know they will not return to Una-Loto without killing you and taking me.”

  He looked at the climbing men below then at his tribemates above. “They’ll kill my team, too, won’t they?”

  “Yes, your tribemates are bolups. We must fight.”

  His lips trembled as he took a deep breath. “I thought we were far enough ahead. Jesus Christ, I can’t believe this! We aren’t fighters. We’re just—”

  She struck him in the chest, knocking him back a step. His eyes widened.

  She stepped closer to his face. “Your fear will kill you! Push your fear out of your head and into your arms and legs, then it will save you.”

  “You guys are scaring the hell out of me,” Virgil said from above. “Are those men coming to kill us?”

  Lincoln continued staring at Skyra for another breath, then he nodded. “Okay, we can do this. We can do it. We need to get in the cave, right?”

  “Yes, we can defend the cave.” She stepped away from Lincoln and turned to the others looking down from above. “Do you still have the two spears?”

  Derek said, “Yeah, and we made a third one so we’d each have one. We also collected a bunch of rocks. There’s been a big-ass bear climbing around on these boulders—we wanted to be able to defend ourselves.”

  She peered over the edge again. Durnin, Brillir, and Gelrut were now halfway up the hill of boulders.

  Lincoln moved to her side. “Maybe we can hit them with rocks before they even get to the cave.”

  “Maybe,” she said, although she did not believe Una-Loto hunters would be so easily stopped. She stepped back from the edge. “We must go to the cave now.”

  Skyra did not see any loose rocks as they made their way up—Lincoln’s tribemates must have collected them all.

  The easiest access to the rock ledge in front of the cave was a narrow, sloped boulder leading to a gap between rocks at one end of the ledge. Skyra considered killing her tribemates as they crawled up the boulder. She dismissed this idea quickly, though, because she would be exposed at the top of the slope. Una-Loto hunters were skilled at throwing their spears, khuls, and hand blades, and once they knew Skyra wanted to kill them, they would kill her on the ledge. No, the ledge was not the place to reveal her intentions.

  When Skyra had told Lincoln to use his bow to kill Gelrut, her tribemates could not have understood her words, so she assumed Durnin, Brillir, and Gelrut did not know she was planning to kill them. Maybe they thought Lincoln had somehow tricked her into running away with him. Maybe they still intended to take her back to Una-Loto camp to celebrate her ilmekho. If so, she might be able to surprise them.

  Skyra scrambled up the sloped boulder, followed by Lincoln, and they made their way along the ledge to the cave. Lincoln’s tribemates each held a spear, and they glanced up and down Lincoln’s body as if they thought it was very strange for him to be without his skins.

  “Those are hunters from Skyra’s tribe,” Lincoln said. “Yes, they intend to attack, but I want you to remember what we did to the humans who took Skyra’s sister.”

  “We were lucky then,” Virgil said, his voice trembling and showing his fear. “I can’t believe this is happening again. Our luck can’t—”

  “Into the cave!” Skyra ordered.

  One at a time, the bolups ducked into the cave opening. Skyra took another look over the ledge. She glimpsed one of her tribemates coming around a boulder, almost to the ledge where she and Lincoln had stood only a few breaths past. She crouched and followed the others inside.

  Maddy was standing to one side
, the red dots encircling her ruined orb glowing softly. Beside Maddy was a pile of loose rocks that were small enough to throw.

  Skyra pointed to the pile and eyed the gray-bearded bolup Derek. “You. Take rocks out of the cave please and try to kill the hunters. Do not let them throw their weapons at you. You must do this now.” She held her hand out. “Spear.”

  Derek glanced at Lincoln.

  “Just do what she says,” Lincoln said.

  Derek nodded. He handed Skyra his spear, gathered an armful of the rocks, and ducked out of the cave and onto the ledge.

  Skyra scanned the inside of the cave. The cave opening was nothing more than a gap between boulders that had fallen against each other, and there was only room on one side of the opening for someone to stand without being seen from outside. Skyra positioned herself there, then turned to Lincoln, Jazzlyn, and Virgil. “The hunters know you will kill them if they come into the cave slow, so they will come in fast. When the hunters come in, I will use my spear like this.” She drove her spear’s sharpened tip straight down from above. She pointed to the rock floor beside her. “Lincoln, you will stand here. You will use your spear like this.” She stepped into his spot, lowered her spear, and drove it forward at the height where the entering attacker’s head would be. She pointed to Jazzlyn. “Give Lincoln your spear.”

  Jazzlyn silently handed him the spear.

  Derek scuttled in through the cave opening. “Goddammit, I tried. I hit one guy’s leg, but I don’t think it hurt him much. Then they made it impossible for me to get a clear shot. They’ll be at the cave soon.” He moved away from the opening.

  Skyra positioned Derek and Jazzlyn beside the collected pile of rocks and told them to be ready to throw them at the hunters’ heads. Then she put Virgil beside Lincoln and instructed him to use his spear to kill any man who made it all the way into the cave.

  That was the plan, and there was no time to change it. Skyra could hear her tribemates just outside the cave, speaking softly to each other. As long as the men were talking, they would remain outside. To calm her fears, she rubbed the tip of her spear against the boulder beside her, rotating the shaft to sharpen the tip evenly on all sides.