A Distant Eden

by Lloyd Tackitt

  “It’ll take a several days to dry enough meat and to render enough marrow fat to make the pemmican. By that time you’ll have helped us through the hard part of the harvest as well. We’ll make the marrow tallow by breaking the bones up and boiling them until the fat is rendered. Then let the cool and the fat will congeal on top of the water. Skim the fat off and render it again. Simple, but it does take a large pot and a steady fire.”

  “It’s a deal. Alfred, when do you want to go visit Raymond?”

  “Right now. We have time to get there and back. Ma, pack us up a lunch and something to offer to the Harts as hospitality. Then we’re off.”

  Alfred halloed the house when they were close enough to be heard. Moments later, Raymond came out carrying a rifle in the ready position. He stood and waited as they approached. It wasn’t until they came close that he recognized Alfred, laughed, and let out a whoop, then yelled. “Mother, get the beans ready; we have company for lunch!” He hugged Alfred like a long lost son and slapped him on the back. Alfred introduced Matt and briefly explained their mission.

  Raymond said, “Boy can we fix you up. I have twelve mountain bikes, very nice ones with all the bells and whistles, spare parts, spare tires, tools, pumps, and repair kits—everything you could possibly need. I don’t need them. They’re yours to pick and choose from. Take as many as you want.”

  Matt said, “I brought two rifles and ammunition to trade; no point in me carrying them back.”

  “Hell of a deal, son, hell of a deal. I can actually use the guns and ammo and not the bikes.”

  Later that afternoon as they were saying goodbye, Matt said, “Raymond, it’s been a pleasure meeting you, and a profitable trade. These are top notch bikes, better than ours. My boys’ll be over tomorrow to pick up the other two bikes.”

  Matt and Alfred headed home, walking the bikes because Alfred had never learned to ride one.

  Chapter 24

  “Come in, Adrian,” Jerry responded to Adrian’s knock on the skirting. Adrian had set the men on guard outside. After the requisite hand shaking, backslapping and hugging was accomplished, he was given a grand tour of the “down under.”

  Adrian said, “I’m impressed. It’s well conceived and well done, and has apparently served you well, even with bandits next door and the cold weather.”

  “Thanks,” said Jerry. “But believe me when I tell you we are ready to move out of here and into the sunshine.” A chorus of amens followed.

  Adrian laughed. “Well, I don’t know about sunshine but we’re out of here as soon as it gets dark again.”

  The day passed as the group slept in shifts, Adrian’s men guarding in twos—one outside and one watching from the windows. Shortly before sunset, Isaac, who was on outside guard, roused the men. He said, “The natives next door are stirring and one of em came over to this yard to take a leak. The man saw something that caught his eye and when he went back, he told the boss there about it and they started planning something. I think it’s just a matter of minutes before they investigate whatever it was caught his eye.”

  Adrian said, “Well, we can wait and see what they do, or we can take action.” The men just stared at him. “OK, I was just kidding; we take action. Let’s try out our Zulu spears and tactics. This will be good training. Pistols and spears only; make it sporting, what do you say?”

  If cold-hearted grins could send a man to the grave, then the men next door were already buried as Adrian and his squad stacked their long-arms.

  Adrian explained to Jerry what they were doing. Jerry and Dave both wanted to go but Adrian said, “No offense, guys, and don’t take this as a slight. But my men and I have worked together like a machine for years. We’ve trained and trained and trained and know how each of us will react in any given situation without speaking or thinking. When we have a new element, an unknown person in the equation, it makes us weaker. I hope you understand.”

  Jerry and Dave reluctantly agreed. The logic of what Adrian said was indisputable, though disappointing.

  The men, armed with holstered sidearms and their short spears, approached the hedge separating the properties. They had sharpened the spearheads to surgical edges on both sides and back around the curved rear portion. They were wide and long, able to penetrate flesh and slice through ribs like butter. The rounded and sharpened rear portion of the spearhead made withdrawing the head, even from deep inside a rib cage, extremely easy. They were wicked weapons.

  The men knew their tactics: surprise and speed. They would rush through the hedge and attack without speaking or slowing down. Anyone that had to use their sidearm had to wash socks for a week. It was a point of honor not to fall back to a firearm for this.

  The gang had gathered before starting to investigate Jerry’s house. Adrian could hear that the man had noticed the gun ports cut into the underpinning. Apparently, he was the most observant person in their gang, but way down the totem pole from the way he talked and acted.

  They gathered in a loose knot as Adrian’s team charged out of the hedge, completely silent. It was such an unexpected thing that the gang members were shocked into momentary inaction. The lack of noise by the attackers also made the situation seem unreal to them, purchasing the attackers an extra second of time. It was enough.

  Adrian hit the group first, pushing the spear into the leader’s heart and pulling it out before the man realized what was happening. His men fell almost as quickly. With concerted and practiced effort, the team thrust, slashed and thrust again. It was over in seconds. The bandits were on the ground, thrashing their lives out. The spears were spectacularly efficient weapons, but they rarely caused instant death. While a spear through the heart immobilized a man, it still took a solid three to four minutes before he was completely unconscious, and another three or four minutes before he was clinically dead. A man did a lot of thrashing in that time span.

  It was a nasty scene they left behind. The men dead where they fell, some with their guts spilled. The ground was gory with their blood. “The hogs will feast tonight,” Adrian told Jerry later.

  With Adrian in the lead and John bringing up the rear, they headed out of town after dark. The men carried the children on their backs, for speed and silence. Jerry and Dave carried them as well. This duty was shifted around to keep any members of the group becoming too tired. This was aimed primarily at Jerry and Dave, who were not in very good physical condition. First they had been desk jockeys, and then they had been living under a house on reduced rations with little chance of anything resembling exercise. Adrian would have preferred to keep the carrying among his men, but Adrian was aware that Jerry and Dave needed to be fully involved in this.

  As they worked their way out of town, they followed the same path they had coming in. This was not normally a good idea, but they weren’t up against an organized enemy at this point, and it could be more dangerous trying an untested route. They left town without incident. Now and again they heard roving bands, but avoided them. The bands seemed to be making as much noise as possible in order to scare others away from them.

  When they were well out in the brush they put the children down to walk and stopped for the rest of the night. At daybreak, they started out again. Adrian decided to travel by day because the women and children were not adept at night travel. If they had too many encounters in the daytime, they would switch to night travel again.

  Most of the first day was spent travelling, making relatively decent progress, but Adrian was restless. Herding civilians, even though they were family, wore on him. It was all he had been doing for weeks now. He wanted to move freely. He knew his men felt the same. But they were committed and had no intention of doing anything else. When they came to a small town, the boredom he was feeling contributed to his decision to take a look around the town. He stopped the group on the outskirts of the small for the day, saying this would be a good place to camp for the night. As they were settling, he and John went into town to explore.

  This town was li
ke a smaller version of the city. Houses were empty and looted. The stores were ransacked and all foods and weapons were gone. There were bodies in about half of the houses and many lying at random out in the open—or at least what was left of bodies after the hogs, coyotes and coy-dogs had fed on them.

  Adrian told John, “Over the years, stray dogs that have wandered off from home formed into packs. Then interbreeding between the feral dogs and the coyotes happened. The offspring of feral dogs and coyotes are what the ranchers called coy-dogs. The offspring could look like anything, depending on what breed of dog had bred with the coyotes. These animals, whatever they look like, have the coyote’s wildness and the dog’s lack of fear. Some of these animals are large—think Great Dane crossed with coyote. These larger dogs eventually formed up into packs, and they are fearsome things. When a pack was spotted the ranchers and the game wardens went into war mode to wipe them out. Coy-dog packs kill livestock for pleasure and would attack people.

  “Now there won’t be any control on them. There must be millions of dogs that went feral when their owners disappeared. In the future, wild dog packs are going to be something to contend with. Right now we have a coy-dog pack already on the loose around here; their tracks are all over. As long as we don’t cross them, I think they may avoid us, at least for now. There’s still plenty of meat for them to eat here, even though it’s rotten. Scary thing is that now that they have a taste for it; now they’ll be hunting humans for meat. Between them and the wild hogs there will be danger in the fields that we have never had before.”

  Adrian’s words were prophetic. As they approached the camp, they heard the howling of a pack of dogs nearby. Before they went a dozen steps, dogs were attacking them from all sides. Twenty or more dogs had emerged from the brush around them and in a circling swirl were darting in to bite and then dart out. Their tactic was as old as wolves themselves. Overwhelm by numbers, coming in quickly from all directions to pull the prey down. Once the prey is down it would be quickly covered by biting dogs. Eventually one of the coy-dogs would grab the throat and lock on in a smothering death grip. Then the feasting would begin.

  Adrian, faster than an old west gunslinger, had his pistol out and firing. John wasn’t far behind. They stood back to back as they fired. Both counted their own and the other’s shots. They weren’t both going to run out of ammo and have to reload at the same time; that would give the coy-dogs an opening. This was where the years of training and operating together paid off: they performed this vital function without consultation.

  Both men were excellent shots and the large coy-dogs were not particularly difficult targets for highly trained marksmen. For each shot, a coy-dog went down. By the time the rest of the men had arrived from camp the dogs had run off, leaving ten dead behind.

  Adrian said, “Just a taste of the future, I think.”

  Chapter 25

  It was an ecstatic Sarah and Roman that greeted their children and grandchildren. While the rest of the men had escorted the family to the river, Adrian and John had scouted far and wide along the path. They were primarily looking ahead for any trouble, but they were also learning what the situation was in the area.

  Adrian told Roman, “Lots of bodies, or more accurately the remains of bodies, scattered all over out there. Mostly along the roads, but some in the fields too. We checked every farmhouse we came to and found no one alive. In some cases we could tell that the owners had been killed, either by walkers or raiders. In some cases we could tell they had starved. In most cases we couldn’t tell which. We found a lot of houses with no one around them at all. There were times when it felt like we were being watched, so I think there are still some out there hiding.

  “I’m not sure how representative that is though; remember, there are houses between here and the big city. If we went looking around away from the city, we might find people. In fact, I plan on doing just that in a couple of weeks. I want to take a look all around us, see who is out there and what they’re up to. Maybe make contact with some of them after watching them a while to try and get an idea of what kind of people they are. I’ll take a couple of the boys with me; leave the rest here to guard the fort.”

  Three nights later Matt and his family rode in silently on their bicycles. Matt had radioed before he left that he was coming, along his anticipated arrival date and mode of transportation so that the guards could be on the lookout for them. They arrived early in the evening, in time for supper.

  Matt said, “Fish! I love venison, I really do, but it can grow old after a few hundred meals. Fish! Outstanding!” They had a grand meal of fried catfish, hush puppies and rice with beans. After dinner, they all sat around the fire as Matt described their experiences.

  Matt started off with their leaving Dallas, and about life in West Texas. He continued on to tell of them leaving West Texas for Fort Brazos. “It was a good setup we had there, but not for the number of people. We left it in good hands. James is a good man and he’ll be a boon to Alfred and Wilma, and vice versa. Maybe someday James will come here for a visit, or to stay, but I expect that would be a few years down the road.”

  “We worked for two weeks, killing deer, drying meat, rendering fat, making pemmican. We set up a production line. The work went fast with all hands on deck. The pemmican turned out excellent, tastes good and really stokes the metabolism.

  “With the panniers and backpacks and rifle scabbards each bike was loaded to the maximum we could handle, about two hundred pounds each. This weight reduced the speed and flexibility of the bikes, but we could never have brought so much with us otherwise. When we started, we had to walk the bikes up the hills, then coast down. By the last two days, we were pedaling up the hills. Primarily because we had grown accustomed, muscle wise, to the work. From west Texas to here, we also dropped a thousand feet of elevation, so it was on average a downhill ride.

  “The bikes are dead silent at night on asphalt. It’s amazing how fast we could cruise and how little sound we made. We traveled at night, and slept through the day. We slept well too because of the amount of work we did each night. I can’t say enough for the fuel value of that pemmican, amazing stuff.

  After he’d recounted the preparations they’d made before leaving Texas, he said, “We didn’t see any people by design. Had we traveled by day I think we may have seen some, but not many. We did see three different campfires near the road. In each case, we just cruised on by silently. They didn’t have guards out on the roads, and why would they? Even if they had, they probably wouldn’t have seen us. We dressed in dark clothing and faded into the night.

  “Overall, it was a quiet trip, just the kind I wanted. I can’t tell you how happy we are to be here. From what I’ve seen of the countryside in the daytime, this is a perfect area to be in. It has all the benefits. A moderate climate, not too cold in the winter. Plenty of water and game with the river being nearby. Far enough from the city. Long growing season for when we start farming. An ideal place!”

  Roman said, “I have an announcement to make. With Matt’s arrival, the tribe is complete for the first time since the grid went down. This is a special night and it brings big changes. Tomorrow we start moving! Tonight we break out the reserve bottles of whisky and the cigars and we celebrate! Someone get out the battery and the record player; let’s have music and dance!”

  The next morning Roman called everyone together. Standing, he said, “This is our first official tribal meeting. In this meeting, I want to make some suggestions and to begin the process of formally organizing.

  “Through all of ancient history and up to just a few hundred years ago, and in some places to this day, the tribe was the basic social unit beyond the family. Tribes are man’s best method of survival. Tribal members survive better and longer than individuals.

  “We are a tribe. Tribes have many different styles or cultures. They can be strict authoritarian or they can be pure democratic. I want to suggest that we determine, right now and on purpose, how we will organize.
If we don’t decide, then we will do it by accident and may not do it well. So, here are my suggestions.

  “I suggest that we form a composite of the two extremes. During times of peace and plenty, we will be a democracy. During times of war or famine, we will be under an elected dictator. History tells us this is the best method. We elect a war leader who leads during war and starvation. We elect a general leader who advises and consults and counts votes during times of peace and plenty.

  “I suspect that most of you would jump up and declare yourselves for me as one of those leaders right now, out of loyalty. I won’t ask you to, and frankly, I don’t want the job particularly. But I will, if elected, take the post of general leader. I won’t take the post of war leader. I believe that Adrian is the best qualified for that position.

  “So, let’s hear nominations, seconds and votes on the two positions.”

  After the raised hand votes were counted, Roman said, “Adrian, before I go into a lot of detail about the next few days, why don’t you say a few words?”

  Adrian stood. “I appreciate the vote of confidence and I’ll try not to let you down. The first order of business for the war department is to gather intelligence. We need to know everything that is going on within a thirty-mile radius and we need to know it right now. To that end, I’m going to send out scouts, including myself, to roam the countryside and see what’s happening out there. John, Isaac, Jerry and I will go, each taking a different point of the compass. I expect that we will be gone for two weeks or so. We will need travel rations, as scouts do not do anything to give their positions away—no hunting, no shooting, no cooking fires, etc. The rest of the adults will take turns on guard duty—day and night. I will post the roster before we leave tomorrow.”