by catt dahman
“Then, go.”
“With Wendy all spooked? And Adrian’s being quiet, we’re supposed to make it alone?”
Mike shrugged, “You aren’t on my duty roster. I have no responsibility for you.”
“You want out too though.”
“When we can. I can’t move Brian.” They had a bag for him to vomit into, and Mike helped him clean up earlier, using water outside, since he already had drunk it and then hot, boiled water with soap. Mike scrubbed Brian’s clothes and laid them out to dry. Brian’s best so far was a quarter cup of tea and one berry; he kept that down for almost fifteen minutes.
“What’s wrong? It was bad water?”
“I don’t know. All kinds of viruses, bacteria, and bad bugs live in some water, depending on where it is and what it’s used for. I took a look at the water, and there are some big fish, small fish and random creatures, but it’s fresh water with a slight salt that’s leached out from the ground. Yeah, I tasted a drop. Because he got sick so fast, I think it’s a bacteria, but I don’t know what kind or what to do.”
Brain heaved over with a cramp, “I’m changing. I’m becoming one of them, Mike.”
“You are not.”
“What if he is?” whispered Wendy, “watch his hands…see? Like claws.”
Brain was making claws of his hands, but it was when the stomach cramps hit him the hardest that he spread his fingers and groaned with the pain that felt as if a bear trap were closing in his belly.
“Boil and filter,” Mike said.
“How can he still be going at both ends? Isn’t he empty?” Serinda asked.
“I have to give him tea, or he’ll dehydrate. So that goes through him, and he pukes it up, but I have to give him something ‘cause I’m outta a fresh IV and saline pack.”
“I’ll sit with him. Come eat; it’s over here so that he don’t have to see us eating,” Adrian offered. He had Wendy robotically help him fix almost the last of their MREs. Adrian ate peanut butter and crackers, which was like heaven to him when he added a chocolate bar in the center. He gulped warm orange drink, swallowed a bunch of jerky and fruit, and chewed
“I have it,” Adrian was almost on a sugar high, but the proteins helped. “I can take care of him.”
Mike went to eat the rest of the meal while Wendy and Serinda ate another of the MREs.
Brian continued to be sick all day, so weak he could hardly drink the tea, but it didn’t remain on his stomach anyway. The infection in his hand caused his fever to rage, and he rarely made sense as he went from teeth-chattering silence to eye- rolling rants. They tried to keep the infection drained, but it wasn’t healing.
“I’m growing a tail, Mike. Have you seen it?”
“Sure, Brian. Try to drink some more so your tail grows better,” Mike said. Brian gave him a wink and sipped the tea.
Serinda began again, “We have to get out of here. You need us as much as we need you; we can go. Maybe we can get help for Brian. Even if you can’t help with the cameras and Bert and Analisa, Mike, you have a duty to report back to the SSDD and producers.”
He ignored her. It was variation of the same arguments she always brought up.
Serinda ran her fingertips along the M16 beside Mike. “I wish I could make you see that we need to go.”
He moved his gun, staring into her cold eyes.
Bored, Adrian studied the bodies, pondering what had happened. He decided the female probably died because of some injury, which the femur would show. Teeth or a claw left scrapes on the bone, and Adrian theorized she must have been infected. “From her journal, it seems she and friends went down into the caves and found something, and when they came out, there were wounded.”
“And the man?”
“I keep looking at his face. He was terrified. I don’t know since there’s no flesh left, but I don’t see an injury. I think we were right about a heart attack. Maybe shock.” Adrian walked over to the strange skeleton and said, “I think that despite the claws and elongated fingers, there must have been a pad here since the bone is so thick, so maybe he could crawl around or climb. Now, these two people are here, she’s hurt, and this thing was hidden in the shadows, or he sauntered in….”
“Sauntered?” Mike chuckled.
“Sneaked. Creeped. He came in, and they turn on their lights and wham. They see this thing that is half like a dino and half like a man. Maybe it took a second to understand that he wasn’t just a deformed guy with bad skin, but they did get it because she wrote that he had blue eyes and that scared them. He was foreign to them. An abomination.”
“She said he hated them and himself. I wonder how they knew that? Do you think he spoke?” Mike asked.
“I wonder who did this to him? If he had some intelligence, then he knew what he was. That was enough to cause a huge rage. I would think he would hate anyone who was normal. I don’t know how he died, but his old tatters of clothing suggested some massive bleeding. I guess we’ll never know.”
“Why do you care?” Serinda asked dully.
“I don’t know. Maybe because, if someone was doing this a hundred years ago…or at least long ago, then it wasn’t modern SSDD who figured out how to work with dino DNA,” Adrian thought aloud.
Mike frowned, “Which means everything is a lie. They won’t want this revealed, and we’ll be questioned, and I bet they are good at asking questions. So we may never go back to our homes anyway. We’re a danger to SSDD.”
“No one would believe it,” Serinda said. “The public would laugh at us. I almost could laugh at us.” She didn’t laugh as she looked at Wendy who was still quiet. She had to remind Wendy to eat and drink. Running for the finish line would be difficult with Wendy unable to think, plan, fight, or act on her own; the more time that went by, the worst the situation became.
Serinda decided that the next morning, she would take a gun and make Mike and Adrian go with her to try for the end and the five million dollars, but in the morning, Mike called for her help.
Adrian looked greenish.
Brian’s hand looked as bad as before, he was feverish, and his face was sweaty and red, but Mike was puzzling over something else. He showed her several clear, pink blisters that rose on Brian’s belly and legs; within each blister was a tiny grain of rice that moved slowly.
“What the hell is that?”
“No idea,” Mike said. He used a cloth and dabbed each with clean, boiled water so he could wash the little blisters. To their shock, the grains of rice poked upwards, breaking the thick membrane of the blisters. Using tweezers, Mike grasped the rice and pulled gently. To his shock, the grains were long, and he pulled out several inches with no end in sight.
“Worms?” Adrian gasped.
Mike muttered curses and took a stick that he wrapped in the strand. He twirled it like thin pasta and kept pulling until he found the end, three feet later. Tossing it into the fire, he sat back, gagging.
Adrian ran outside to vomit.
Mike didn’t know the name. It was Dracunculus Medininsis, a microorganism that entered his body in the unboiled, unfiltered water. Able to survive stomach acid, the larvae hatched, and the females grew, and when they wanted out, they escaped through the blisters. The water Mike used made them more active and interested in releasing their own eggs. Normally, they would, in turn, release millions of larvae and infect a water source quickly.
The vomiting and diarrhea was usual as was the fever. With no known cure, the worms had to be removed one at a time, slowly, as victims in some areas of Africa knew. Steeling himself, Mike continued the process until Brian was clear of the creatures, cleaned the blisters, and applied plasters.
Serinda cried, “I want to go home. I don’t wanna see dino men or worms or dinosaurs or anything anymore. I just want to go home. Please, Mike.”
“I won’t leave Brian. I get nothing anyway. It’s your money, not mine, so why should I push to go?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do? Because we want to go home.
I’ll pay you. You can have half of my money, Mike,” Serinda sobbed harder.
“I could enjoy two and a half million, another half if you win Most Valuable Player,” Mike mused, “Adrian? Wendy? Wanna chip in and help me decide? I could think better with nine million reasons.”
“There’s no way to make it now. There’s no time, Serinda. If we went at a dead run and dumped all but critical supplies, we could possibly make it, but any delays or attacks and we won’t make it. Those packs are out there, and Ruby said another pack of tyrannosaurs,” Adrian said. His eyes always slipped over to the bones in the corner.
“We can’t leave Wendy,” Serinda hissed.
“Ahhh. Now, you see my dilemma,” Mike said.
Serinda spoke to Wendy, trying to get a reaction, but Wendy said she was tired and watched the fire with glassy eyes.
“Maybe he is deformed and they used his DNA to bridge the genetics to bring back the dinosaurs,” Adrian said, continuing his line of thought. “No, then he would have been taken away and put in a lab.”
“Can you stop thinking and talking about him? Who cares?” Serinda yelled. She launched herself over onto Michael, reaching for his M-16. Mike flipped her away from him, and she landed hard with a groan but was back at him immediately, trying to scratch and yelling for help. Adrian didn’t move, and Wendy didn’t look around.
As she clawed at his eyes, Mike yelled and threw her as hard as he could. Serinda fell into the fire, shrieked, and rolled violently. Because the fire was so hot and the coals burned so high, her nerves reacted, making her jerk but unable to steady herself to get away from the fire. Mike grabbed her feet and yanked, scattering the fire, but pulling her away except for the few embers that slid with her and continued to burn until she rolled away.
Adrian kicked the embers back into the fire.
Mike ripped Serinda’s shirt away to see her back. The flesh of her back, arms, and hands was blistered deeply and covered with ash. It was a deep burn that would take hours to clean, and that would be very painful. She would be unable to do anything but lie on her stomach for weeks.
“What now?” Adrian asked. He looked from Almost-Comatose Wendy to Squealing Serinda, to Vomiting Brian with no idea of what to do. Gentle by nature, he had been a formidable warrior so far, but he was horrified by everything he had seen the last week and was close to emotionally shutting down.
“I don’t know, Ade. We can wait, but we don’t have the supplies or means to stay here unless we get very busy, and then, we can either go on and get out without anyone’s winning money, or we can stay with the others. I don’t know any more what to do.”
In the night, Brian died quietly.
Mike dozed as did Adrian, and when they awoke, it was to a deafening explosion in the cave. Wendy patiently waited until their ears stopped aching so they could hear again. She had found her gun and a few random rounds for it at the bottom of her pack. Smiling softly, she looked at Serinda who had a neat bullet hole in the back of her skull.
“Wendy….”
“Hi, Adrian. I really thought I was going to win, you know? I was ready, so I stayed healthy and sharp; Serinda and I made a good team.”
“You did.”
“She was in pain though. She cried and cried, and she asked me to make her stop hurting. She didn’t think I was listening, but I was. Do you want me to help you?” Wendy asked, her face childlike with innocence.
“No, thanks for asking. You helped Serinda though. That was merciful of you,” Mike said conversationally.
Wendy looked as if she had a secret. Leaning forwards, she said, “She was hurt, but guess what? I think she was changing, see? Her skin had to burn away so the new skin could come out.”
“New skin?”
“Yes. Rough skin. And you know what else? I think her hands were changing. See how they look like claws?”
Mike didn’t say the burns had caused it. Serinda’s poor hands had drawn up as the ligaments burned and drew tightly. Her fingertips burned away, leaving bare bones poking out; they did look faintly like claws.
“Maybe she was growing a tail, too. She wouldn’t want that. She didn’t want to be a dinosaur, Mike.” She raised her gun to her head as Mike reached for her to take it away, but she said, “I don’t either,” as she pulled the trigger.
Chapter Sixteen: House of Bamboo
After a lot of discussion, the people at the cave decided that their focus would be preparing for colder weather; there weren’t really that many low temperatures in that area except for a few weeks at night in December, January, and maybe February. Then, it wouldn’t be much below freezing or maybe only ten degrees below freezing. However, since they were higher in altitude than east and south of what had been Arkansas, they could expect more snow and lower temperatures.
The main issues, as always, were food, water, and warmth.
Susan slowly tested the hot spring and the cold spring and decided they were both safe. Sending the teams to gather her some pine sap and bundles of bamboo, Susan wasn’t satisfied until the stacks of bamboo, eight and ten feet long, rose way above her head. Everyone grumbled as she requested more and kept saying they didn’t have enough, so they went out to gather more as Susan kept watch with Marshall. Luck was with them since they weren’t attacked, the pile grew, and Susan promised an interesting lesson about bamboo.
The day before was devoted to hunting, and they had a stellar find in the woods that grew close by where they found squirrels for the fur and the meat for a stew that made one of the best meals they had had so far. Alex bagged a deer to use for the hide and for rich, savory jerky. The scouts reported that in the next few days, they would get more deer, squirrel, game birds, and raccoons, and Jeremy had a plan for a wild hog he intended to track and kill.
The three beavers they brought back kept them busy with tanning the fur, preparing the meat for pemmican, and using the rich fat to preserve the other meat and to add flavor to their cooking.
“I am exhausted Susan, and my fingers are almost raw. I hope all this bamboo is here for a reason,” Ruby said, sitting down by the fire as the rest prepared an evening meal. They harvested bamboo all day, and no one could imagine what it was for.
Susan just grinned happily.
They ate more of the squirrel stew and sniffed at another stew Susan had been stirring for a long time. She dished it out and said, “Try this.”
“Damn. How did you make this?” Marcus almost shouted after his first bite, digging in, “Susan, this is wild.”
“Like it?” Susan asked.
Jack grinned, “This is almost better than the squirrel stew. What is it though?”
“I sent Bert and Sandra on a special mission, and they found everything I needed easily and super fast. They brought back crawfish, a few frogs, and some turtles.”
“What?” Alex stared into his bowl and drew the tender meat from a bone, “This is a frog leg? It’s like chicken.”
“In warm weather, we can catch a ton of frogs down there, and we can make a soup like this, or we can grill them with spices. The crawfish are everywhere down there, and Bert and Sandra found fresh water clams and mussels. The shells can be made into jewelry when we get bored, but also they can be made into spoons and scrapers.”
Jeremy laughed, “You are full of ideas.”
“The turtle shells will be bowls. If we catch the big ones, we can have some huge bowls, and I bet we’ll find some gourds as well for dippers. That’s my plan. Containers, see? That’s why I had all of you looking for those.”
Alex admitted he had seen some but hadn’t been able to get them. However, now he would get them as soon as he could especially after Susan suggested they use wild grapes to make wine and store in the gourd jugs for medicine and enjoyment. He said he saw wild pumpkins that plant eaters had been feeding on as well. “Can those be used?”
“The seeds can be roasted with a few drops of oil and some coltsfoot for salt, are very nutritious, and easy to store. “Susan, you’re mak
ing the difference between surviving and really living. This sounds better than back home in so many ways. Sure, we eat better, but the cave is more comfortable than my drafty house, and the water tastes cleaner, too,” Mali said.
Susan blushed.
“Okay, so what about bamboo? We have so much….”
Jeremy interrupted Jack, “Wait until she tells you. I know,” he said as he winked.
“For one thing, we are going to have drinking glasses once I get them cut and the bottoms sealed with pine sap. We can also make containers for storage. That stew you are eating contains turtle, crawfish, and clams and has a vegetable if you noticed? Good? That is bamboo. Now, they can be made into spears as Jack already found out,” She laughed as he nodded and showed off the spear he had formed easily.
“Fishing poles, too,” Jack said.
“And woven together, they will make a place to sit on instead of on the cold stone because in the winter, the floor will be like ice. It can be used for screens and doors as well, and although dinos can smell us, we can use them as camouflage for the cave so we aren’t seen by them. But my biggest idea, which you have to figure out how to do but which I know it can work, is that they will be great pipes and be fitted together with pine sap to seal them, so we can have hot and cold water run where we need it.”
For a few long seconds, everyone stared.
“What? Stupid idea?”
“Susan, that is brilliant,” Lawryn said, “I am in shock.”
“Pipes…we can do that,” Trevor said, “and make a sort of latrine with a bidet since we won’t always have toilet paper,” he blushed a little. “But that will be cleaner, and I think clean is a safety factor.”
“We can make cages, too, so if we raise any chicken or birds, we can keep them over the winter,” Marshall added. “I have a dozen ideas going.” He wasn’t able to walk easily with his heel still inflamed, but the infection was gone, and he felt better as if he had been lucky. Susan was set to release him as a patient in a few days as long as he rested his foot often.
