Chapter 43

The caves were well hidden from anyone looking for them from the direction of the lake. There were three in total and they were all situated in a cluster hidden behind a large flat boulder and obscured by a grove of tall oak trees. We approached them with care.

The first thing we did was look about for any sign that they were occupied. Unfortunately, the rocky ground and the fact it was covered by fallen leaves proved a detriment here. There was little in the way of bare earth near the openings in the valley wall and what was there, bore no sign at all. That forced me to examine them more closely. We did this with some care and a little expediency. I lobbed flash grenades into the opening of each while the others covered the openings to the caves with their carbines. Fortunately, nothing came bolting out in response to the brilliant flash and the loud bang of the grenades and we were able to relax a little and take to exploring the caves in a more traditional manner.

None of the openings were huge. The first was little more than a man-wide fissure in the rock face. I tied a rope about my waist as a safety precaution, leaving the girls to anchor me just in case I fell down a hole and then went and investigated it. I took a flashlight with me and my pistol and another flash grenade. The pistol I kept on my hip and the grenade I kept in my hand. My hope was that if I ran into trouble, the flash of the grenade going off would allow me to retreat before I needed to use my pistol. It was a slim hope but one I clung to. Fortunately, I never had to make use of the grenade. The fissure led about ten feet into the rock face and then opened into a small cave. I actually had to drop to my hands and knees to get into it. The cave had obviously been used as a lair at sometime or another, for it was filled with the detritus of a carnivore's banquet hall, but when I checked it out it was empty. The cave was oblong in shape and no bigger than about eight feet wide at its widest point and five feet high at its tallest. I quickly shuffled out of it and went back to report.

The second cave was another ten feet along the wall of the valley towards the head of the lake. Its entrance was tall enough that a man could walk into it and wide enough that a man could stretch his arms to each side. Again nothing but detritus was within it. The cave was a long, wedge-shaped chamber that tapered towards the back. It was about twenty feet across at the front and barely three feet at the back. The interior terrain was sloped upward causing the floor and the ceiling to come together at the back of the cave. It wasn't much to look at.

The final cave was twenty feet past the middle one and it was the largest and best of the trio. Its opening was under a rock lip that helped obscure it. A man could walk into it standing tall, but just barely and my shoulders rubbed the sides of the entrance as I entered it. Amazingly, after traversing this narrow passage and walking only half a dozen feet, the walls vanished and I found myself in a very large cavern. It was at least forty feet in diameter and I found after a little exploring that it consist of several different connecting chambers. The floor of the cave was mostly covered with earth and it appeared to be reasonably level. The terrain did change a bit; the deeper I went into it. The back of the main cave rose up slightly on an incline and then became tiers of rock One of the chambers actually had running water in it. It came out of a crack in one wall and flowed through a trough in the floor before disappearing into another crack in the opposite wall. A dipping of my fingers into it told me it was cold and a handful to my lips told me it was fresh.

There was a look of relief on the faces of everyone when I finally exited the third cave. I'd been in there for a while and other than the length of rope that I'd been dragging about as I searched the cave, there had been no way for either myself or the women waiting outside to communicate with each other. I apologized for taking so long, explaining what I had found.

"So will we be sleeping there tonight," Lizzy asked once I'd described the main cave and its various antechambers, "or will we be sticking to the original plan?"

I had to stop and think about this. Technically, the campers were safer, however with the assistance of our 'benefactors' we could be very comfortable in the cave. The thought did give me pause to think though. Not because of the risks involved in staying in the cave but because I suddenly realized that I had gotten comfortable asking for things from our 'benefactors' in the last short week. Before I had always been worried about demanding too much and upsetting our 'benefactors' to the point they abandoned us. Now I didn't care.

"Which would you prefer?" I asked my daughter.

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"Well," Lizzy said, drawing out her reply, "if we stayed in the camper, the sleeping area is a bit tight and not very condusive to anything other than sleeping and while we're sharing the camper, I'd rather sleep in the cave. Besides staying in the cave would allow us to all stay together, which would mean that all of us would have access to your manly presence in the night if we needed it."

"Then we'll sleep in the cave!" I declared smiling mischievously as I did.

With that decided I made a few requests of our 'benefactors', letting everyone in on what I was requesting. After waiting five minutes, I turned about and walked back into the cave to see if my requests had been fulfilled. They had. Seeing this I walked back out and beckoned everyone to come in and have a look around.

Our 'benefactors' had put in some lighting for us. It was lit sufficiently that we could clearly see the entirety of the main chamber. They had also put in a fire pit for us and a large stock of kindling and firewood. More importantly, they had provided us with three king-size air mattresses with accompanying bedding for all of us to sleep on. It would make tonight an enjoyable occasion. The sight of the mattresses put smiles on everyone's face including Vicky's.

Our first order of business after that was to marshal the vehicles in such a manner that they would act as a defensive barrier in front of the cave entrance, much like what Karen, Samantha, and I had done the night we slept in the ravine. Leaving Vicky to stand watch from a secure position in the bows of one of the nearby trees, I had everyone else drop their trailers from the vehicles, and then one at a time back their vehicle up the rise and into position in front of the cave entrance. Once that was done, we dropped the Argo off the flatbed trailer and then wheeled each of the trailers into position beside the vehicles. When that was done we parked the Argo by the trailers. It wasn't perfect and it certainly wouldn't keep most animals away if they came snooping around, but the wall of equipment should prove to be an impediment to any large predator like the 'big birds'. It also allowed us to access the campers with a minimum of risk involved.

At that point I left Lizzy in charge of unpacking anything we needed from the campers into the cave with the assistance of her sister and cousin. I grabbed my carbine and whistled up the dogs to follow along. I then signalled to Shell and Samantha to follow along. They quickly fell in behind me as I retraced our route down towards the waters that flowed through the centre of the valley.

Shell was ecstatic once we got to the water's edge. The young alien woman had brought her trident along and you could see the excitement as she scanned the water for sign of anything that might be swimming about. While Shell focused on the water, I focused on the surrounding landscape. I brought my binoculars up and gazed through them taking a good look at the opposite side of the lake. The first place I checked out was the rock outcropping that had been the spot where the pride of big cats had been sunning themselves the last time I was here. To my relief I didn't spot them. Silently I hoped that they had followed the herds of grazers south. After checking out the rock, I turned my attention to the land that rose up behind it.

The opposite shore was still very much like I remembered it. The far side of the lake was still a vast expanse of reeds and other water plants that obscured much of the terrain towards the west. The trees that cluttered the area behind the reeds were now stripped of their foliage, yet they were still thickly distributed there, forming a second barrier that prevented me from easily seeing the opposite wall of the valley. It became clear that I'd need to explore that area on foot if I wanted to know what was there.

I then turned my gaze northward. All that I could see was the swiftly flowing waters of the source of the lake and small islands of grasses and reeds indicating where the land was higher than the overflowing waters of the river and the lake. What activity I spotted was from waterfowl swimming on the lake.

I was drawn from my visual distractions by the cheerful chirping of Shell. I found her standing about two feet into the water of the lake looking very happy. She was holding her trident with the fork in the air and a fish firmly skewered upon it. I smiled in response to her obvious joy at catching her own dinner. Amazingly, Shell pulled the fish from the forks of her trident and tossed it onto the shore by my feet. Then she went back to fishing, intent on getting another. I told Samantha to keep an eye on her and then I whistled up the dogs again and start walking north along the edge of the waters, my gaze fixed upon the opposite wall as I went.

I didn't go too far and while my attention was on the distant wall of stone, I was not oblivious to my surroundings. I made certain that Vicky could see me from her perch and that Samantha also had me in her line of sight. Still, it took me by surprise when the report of the big rifle sounded throughout the valley. Instinctively I dropped my binoculars so that they dangled by my neck and brought my carbine up to the ready. As I did, I automatically spun on my heel to see what direction Vicky was firing in. It was then I heard a short burst of fire being spat forth by Samantha's carbine. Instantly I broke into a run, with the dogs leading the way. Samantha's carbine spat twice more before I reached her, as did Vicky's rifle.

"What's happening?" I shouted on reaching Samantha, glancing about to see what she was firing at. The first thing I noticed was Shell. The little woman was kneeling there at Samantha's feet with her trident at the ready. Her teeth were bared and she looked ready to take on anything.

"Hyenas," Samantha replied flatly, her attention still down range. "There's a pack of them in the far tree line. Vicky dropped one as it broke cover and I dropped a second. I think the report of Vicky's rifle sent the rest scurrying back under cover."

I immediately spotted the two fallen scavengers. One was about four hundred yards away and the other was about five hundred yards back. If there were others dead I couldn't see them. Then Vicky's rifle spoke again and there was a distinctive yelp from somewhere beyond the trees to the west.

"Cover me," I yelled as I started forward towards the overflowed banks of the river. Naturally, the dogs tagged along as I took off.

"Adam," Samantha exclaimed in surprise, "get back here!"

I didn't listen. Instead I ran towards the carcass of the first dead hyena. It was a big beastie that looked about the size of an African lion. As I approached it, I noticed that Vicky's shot had taken most of its head off. I smiled at that and continued on. The second carcass was just on this side of the river. I moved to it and then stopped. As I did I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the 'flash' grenade that I'd been toting about since I checked out the caves. Once it was in my hand, I dropped to one knee and laid down my carbine. Then in once fluid movement, I pulled the pin of the grenade and rose up as I lobed it across the river and into the tree line beyond it. As I dropped back down the thing went of with a bang.

There was a yelp. In fact there were several yelps. I grabbed for my carbine as I hit the ground. Then before I could even bring it up to the ready, Vicky's rifle barked again and several carbines started to spit ammunition in my direction. My brain told me to stay down and I did. After two minutes all the firing stopped.

"Are you crazy?" Lizzy screamed at me as I started to pick myself up off the ground.

"What?" I said dismissively.

"You know what Daddy," my middle child shouted angrily. "What the hell were you trying to do?"

"I just wanted to flush them out of cover," I replied with a shrug of my shoulder, "so that you guys could pick them off."

"Idiot!" Lizzy threw back at me.

"I beg your pardon," I growled back sternly.

"You heard me Dad," Lizzy replied just as sternly. "Do you think Mom or Grandma would be happy to hear that you risked your life for nothing? It was really stupid!"

With that Lizzy turned and walked away from me. By then the others had gathered near us. They all looked at me with exasperation clearly visible on their faces. The only one not there was Vicky. I could still see her sitting in her perch, holding the big rifle casually at the port arms. Her eyes however were staring in my direction. All I could do was let out a sigh and shake my head in frustration.

The women weren't happy. It was half an hour later and we were all in the cave. By now we had a fire going in the fire pit and a cooking grill positioned over it. Silently I sat on a camp stool and sipped a coffee from a thermos. While I did that, I watched as my daughter Karen rooted about in our various coolers for the makings of tonight's dinner. The rest of the women were sitting and cleaning their weapons. Shell was sitting by the fire waiting for her own meal. Her fish had been cleaned and it was now sitting in a pot over the flames of the fire getting poached. It seemed that she'd acquired a taste for cooked fish in the last month or so. There'd be no sushi tonight.

"So," Vicky said as she sat down beside me a minute or two later, also drinking a coffee, "did you have fun playing John Wayne?"

"It wasn't like that!" I exclaimed, raising my voice in protest.

"Looked like it to everyone else," Vicky responded before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Well, it wasn't!" I growled back in annoyance. "I wasn't playing at anything. I just happen to have that grenade still in my pocket from earlier on and when my hand touched it, I suddenly had the urge to use it. It was like when we touch any equipment that our 'benefactors' provide us. This time when I touched the grenade, I got the urge to run forward and toss it towards the hyenas."