Chapter 5

Siena crawled out of the tent, the wet morning dew doing its job of shocking her even more awake. She stood, brushing the water from her hands and knees as she took a deep breath.

Morning on a new world.

She walked towards the stream. There were sounds in some of the tents, others rising. Much different than the sounds of the night before. Had being bi-sexual been part of the Lady's recruiting requirements? Or was everyone just fully aware there was only one guy? Hard to say. They hadn't fooled around. No need to, given the pleasure flowing from the others.

"What are we doing today?" Kei and Laura knelt down beside her next to the stream. Siena brought her cupped hands up, drinking the fresh water. Almost as refreshing as orange juice.

"I want to look at the beach again," Kei said. "Maybe explore it."

"Know anything about beaches?"

"We used to vacation around Cape Cod, Jekyll Island. I picked up some stuff about shellfish and stuff."

"Cool." Siena saw a blonde crawling from a dome tent. "Get your stuff, and I'll tell someone were going."

Breakfast consisted of light red berries found on the path. A touch tart, but Siena thought they were good. They also didn't seem to be poisonous, at least in the short term. That was a bonus. There seemed to be quite a few bushes as well. She wondered how often they replenished their berry supply.

The heat of the morning sun brought a sigh from the girls as they left the shade of the trees. The yellow ball was just over the horizon, long shadows pointed towards them. Laura stretched.

"That way is East, I assume."

"It's our planet. We can call it any direction we want." Kei looked around. "I say we call it Azuma."

"What does that mean?"

"East."

Siena walked along side the stream, grass becoming sand. It emptied into the ocean as a small delta.

"See anything?" Kei asked. She shook her head.

"Not yet."

"Is the ocean salty?" Kei moved away from the stream, squatting as a small wave hit her feet. She scooped up some of it. "Yup. Tastes salty."

"At least we have a supply of salt." Siena saw movement in the sand. "And crabs."

"Small one." Kei rose. "We need to see if there are some tidal pools. Lots of things live in those."

"Let's go north, then."

Oatmeal.

Alan looked down at his bowl. He hadn't eaten oatmeal in ... god, since he was a kid. And with good reason. It wasn't the most tasty of breakfast foods, especially when made with water instead of milk. Filling, though, and the red and blue berries helped quite a bit. So too the brown sugar someone brought. He went easy on that. Had to last.

"We have four or five more meals worth of this," Jeanie said. She took another spoon full. "Wish we had more."

"We're going to be saying that a lot I think." Alan stared into the surrounding woods. "Feeding a hundred every meal..."

"Maybe we should divide up." He looked at Jeanie. She shrugged. "Four groups of twenty five, camped near a food source, may work out better. We trade to give ourselves variety, stay close enough to always be in contact, have group meetings slash orgies every few days."

"Hmm." He took another spoon full. It could work. If they found the right spots. Still... "I want to keep us together."

"I know. It's just something to consider eventually. Once we get a grip on all this."

The stranger stood in front of them again.

Siena just stared at her. Same red hair. Same lack of belly button. She didn't understand why that upset her so much. Some people had innies, some outies. This girl just had ... a nonie.

"Why are you here?" The girl asked the same question she had before. Obviously a one note person. Siena glanced at the others before answering.

"We're exploring our new home. See what's where. See if there are more tidal pools up here like the ones we just passed."

"Aren't those enough?" Her voice sounded worried. Laura frowned.

"We don't know. That's the point. Who are you?"

"Turn around. Please. You ... you shouldn't be this far."

"Why the hell not? It's our home now. We have to know what's here."

"Who the hell are you?" Siena asked. While her bow was still held casually, she slowly removed an arrow from her quiver.

The stranger frowned.

"Go back. Now."

A sound came from the north.

Siena looked over the stranger's head. Beach, extending as far as she could see. The sound came again. She could see the tops of trees move about halfway to the horizon. Her feet took half a step back.

From the woods came ... something. It was large. Furry. It walked on all fours. Scratch that- it walked on six legs. The dark brown fur was so long she could tell nothing about the head, other than it had one.

"Run," the stranger whispered.

They did.

Venus led the girls through the woods, spear acting as a walking stick.

Or, was her walking stick acting as a spear? It was a good question. She had salvaged the wood from what was gathered for the fire, intent unknown. Only boredom and access to a good knife had gotten her to sharpen the one end. What did she need a spear for? There wouldn't be anything dangerous here. And, if there was, Dana's bow would be much more effective. Anything close enough for the spear to be useful would be too close for her to actually use it.

Mostly because she'd be running.

She glanced at the others. The spear also made her feel like an African native among her European companions. Only her lack of ornamentation ruined the look. How long would that last? How long until the girls started missing jewelry and other pretty things? Venus had her tattoo, but it was damned hard to see on her dark skin. She needed some bead necklaces. Or small bird skulls.

"Shhh. Stop." Maria's voice was low. She dropped into a crouch, Venus and the others doing the same. Venus looked around. She heard birds. Wind.

A low growl.

Her body swiveled to the left, spear planted in the dirt before her. From the foliage came something black and yellow, teeth and eyes. Her own eyes closed, both hands clutching the spear as she felt the weight of the creature impact on the end. Girls screamed. The sound of a bow as she felt the spear bend. Letting go, she half leapt, half rolled away. The bow sounding again, wood snapped as heavy fur fell on her leg. Another twang from Dana's weapon.

"Jesus! Are you OK?"

Venus assumed they were referring to her. She blinked her eyes, taking it in. The creature lay still, torso on top of her right leg. She didn't see the spear, but three arrows were embedded in the body.

"Yeah. I'm OK." She tried to move her leg. "I think. Get this off of me." As they rushed over, her eyes caught sight of a stranger. A redhead just standing there on the path. Venus blinked.

She was gone.

Venus closed her eyes. Must have hit her head.

"I'm telling you, it was HUGE!"

Brenda said nothing as the girls told their tale to Alan. She believed them. No reason not to, given everything else. This was not the time nor place to be a skeptic. Or was it? Should they be skeptical of some of the things they had assumed to be true? It's not like they had, in fact, been told much.

"And the girl was the same one we saw yesterday?" They nodded at Teri.

"Definitely." Kei looked at the others, getting their nods of agreement. "Same girl. Same lack of a bellybutton."

Brenda felt arms wrap around her belly. Sally pressed against her back. This also wasn't the time nor place to think of last night.

"We have boundaries, then." Jeanie looked around. "I don't like that."

"Especially when they're undefined." Brenda sighed. "I'm really starting to doubt our benefactor."

"She's young," Alan said. A dark haired girl with large breasts sat beside him, white starting to ooze out between her legs. "I think she's learning as she goes."

Brenda was about to bitch about that, how she preferred an old god who knew what they were doing, but remembered what kind of stuff that god put in their holy books. This one did have some advantages.

"Hello!"

She looked at the other side of the field. Girls were coming out of the woods, carrying something over their shoulders. Brenda and some others stood.

"What do you have?"

"Deer!"

Sure enough, the five girls struggled with a long pole, the legs of a deer tied to it. Some of the cheerleaders leapt over the stream, rushing to take their burden. Brenda walked to the water's edge.

"We'll clean it on that side! Anyone know how to do that?"

Two girls raised their hands, a third half raising hers before dropping it. Brenda gave her a look. The girl grimaced.

"My step dad made me help once. I didn't like it."

Brenda nodded.

"Well, if you can help them at all, we'd appreciate it, if not that's OK."

"We need some help here!"

Brenda looked west, surprised. Venus stood there with a jury rigged crutch. Others were dragging something.

"What the hell happened?" Brenda ran over, Jeanie and Teri at her side. Venus gave a snort of disgust.

"That the hell happened." She pointed with her crutch.

It was a tiger. Or a weird lion. Something in the cat family. Black fur with some yellow on its muzzle and chest. A broken off shaft of wood stuck out from its chest, blood slowly oozing from wounds elsewhere on its body. The other four girls let go of the legs they had been dragging it by.

"Jesus."

"We killed Jesus? Good shot, Dana."

Jeanie just stood there, shaking her head.

"God. If these live this close, it's too dangerous to camp here. We have to get walls up, now."

"That'll take awhile," Teri said, "even if we take down some of the tents, make the camp smaller."