Chapter 3

I woke and found myself on the huge bed in my master bedroom inside my safe haven, the cave.

When I stood I was off balance and had to wait a moment before being able to move. It took a few minutes of rolling my shoulders, bending and turning my hips and back, swatting and standing to work out all my joints and muscles. Once I had better control over my movements I saw a drawer slide open from the side of the raised bed inside were clothes and armor. I dressed putting on the silklike pants and long sleeved shirt which were the armor that would protect me from cutting or penetrating actions. I remembered it would not stop crushing actions.

Next there was a vest and pants similar to cargo shorts that appeared to be animal skin with the hair still on the outside but soft yet only as thick as denim. Knee high moccasins had a semi-hard sole which resembled a tennis shoes flexibility. Bracers were the next item and were thick leather that laced up to adjust the tightness. The drawer slid closed when the last items were removed.

A panel slid open along the wall near the entrance and I could see the rest of my gear. I walked over to the cabinet looking inside I saw there were two pistols in thigh holsters with two Tantos parallel along the back opposite each other with the handles outward. A tomahawk hung between them in the middle of the belt. I found the belt fit well, was comfortable, and did not seem to be heavy considering what all was attached.

I went to the kitchen area and made coffee, there was an old fashion coffee pot that set on its own heat source to make coffee. I then gathered all the ingredients and made a cheese omelet. When the coffee was ready I had finished the omelet and sat down to eat. When I finished eating I quickly cleaned up everything and went out to the main area.

A panel opened revealing the rest of my equipment. There was a rifle, compound bow, Quiver with what looked like a lot of arrows and a note that said the current arrows all had hunting tips that would work for defense also, and that there were 20 armor piercing tips and 10 blunt tips in a zipper case attached to the bottom of the quiver. There were in fact 30 arrows in the quiver.

The quiver went over my back and the bow attached on the outside left and the rifle on the outside right for easy of carry.

I made my way toward the exit and suddenly wondered if something were outside waiting for me how would I know.

So I just said out loud that I needed to know if it was safe for me to exit the cave and had no way of knowing. What could be done to allow me to check the area outside the entrance for any dangers. I waited wondering if the aliens were monitoring me and could quickly do something.

There was a loud beeping sound and then what looked like a six inch square window formed in the rock blocking the exit.

It was more like a monitor as it obviously was showing me the view outside the rock exit as it paned right and left slowly. Then a red lit up circle formed around what turned out to be a six foot long snake about 10 feet away from the rock exit. The snake was poisonous as indicated by the red circle.

When the rock rolled out of the way I just pulled my pistol as I walked out and shot the snake.

The pistol bucked about as much as a 22 LR would have, which I was totally able to control. I walked over to the snake and carefully picked it up and threw it inside the cave hallway before the rock had rolled into place closing the entrance.

I decided to walk up to the top of the hill that my cave was inside. It looked doable as it really was not a steep incline. I figured it took me about an hour to reach the top since I was taking a very slow pace checking my surroundings and looking to the distant area as well. I was estimating it to have been about 3 miles to the summit, which was more like a plateau or more correctly a ridgeline. That made sense that the cave could be enlarged by going further back into the existing ridgeline.

Not long after reaching the top I starting to walk further toward the middle of the plateau. Movement caught my eye or rather, hearing the scream drew my attention toward several locals running about 30 yards in front of me across my front from the left toward my right. There were three of them and a tiger that appeared to be chasing them. I was shocked seeing the tiger was huge with fangs looking to be 8” long. It caught one of the locals driving its long fangs into the shoulder and chest of the local.

With a quick shake it ensured the local was dead the tiger released the body letting it fall to the ground. Then the tiger took off after the other two. I suddenly regained my senses and unslung the rifle bringing it up and sighted in on the tiger. It had just pounced on a second local when I fired. The rifle bucked about the same as an AR15/223 would have.

The round went straight through the tiger’s side just behind its front shoulder and I could see bone and blood fly out the far side as the tiger dropped and rolled, not moving, most likely dead! Both the pistol and rifle fired a 10 mm projectile.

The second local had been clawed down both shoulders and upper back knocking them to the ground.

The third local had turned around to see the tiger dead and their friends down quickly moved back toward them looking for what could have caused the tiger’s death.

As I walked up or rather at about 20 feet away the local who turned out to be female heard/saw me and shouted something I did not understand. As I walked closer she shouted it again and I could hear her but could not understand what she was shouting. She stood and took a step toward me with her hands on her hips and shouted “You there hurry come here my friend is hurt bad” I was wondering how was it that I could now understand her.