Chapter 30

Durt led us into the forest. The trail we were following was narrow. It quickly turned away from the broad flowing river and headed inland, climbing uphill as it meandered about trees and outcroppings of rock. The rest of us followed him in silence.

For the most part the trail was bare earth and mud. It climbed one hill and then it slid down the other side, falling into a ravine or a gully only to start climbing again, the hill that lay beyond it. It was wet and miserable in the forest. Everything was damp and cold. We could even see our breath as we breathed in and out. Even so we pressed on further and further into the forest in search of the bear. We paused every time the trail we were following crossed another game track or it fell into a ravine. Durt would stop and cast about for sign. It never took him more than a moment to confirm which way to go. The bear’s tracks were visible for everyone to see.

We stayed alert. The trail wound uphill and downhill, to the left and to the right, and around all sorts of obstructions. With the forest growing densely about us the chance was there that we’d stumble onto the bear without any warning. It made things very interesting. It also made things very dangerous for us all.

To all our surprise it took longer to find the bear than expected. At the pace we were moving it wasn’t hard for the animal to stay just ahead of us. We only came upon it when the bear turned down a ravine and it headed back towards the river. When we did encounter it, the brute was standing at the edge looking about as if it was trying to figure out what to do next. Naturally the animal picked up our scent about two seconds after we spotted it. That whiff of man was just enough to tell the bear that it had more important things to worry about than the river that was flowing swiftly across its path. With a bellowing grunt the bear turned about and faced us, rearing up as it did.

“Don’t fire,” I warned Gabon and Balto who’d come up with their bows the second that the bear let everyone know that it was pissed off. “If you shoot and kill it, the blasted creature might just topple into the river. Wait, and I’ll try to draw it closer.”

Those were very brave words. They also implied I was going to do something incredibly stupid. To put things mildly, baiting a bear isn’t the smartest thing in the world to do. Still I had to do it. Like I had told the men, if we dropped the bear where it was currently standing, there was a good chance that it would tumble into the river and if that happened, the bear would be gone.

I left the men waiting at the edge of the tree-line. All of them with nocked arrows and their bows at half draw, waiting for the opportunity to take their shot. As quickly as possible I dropped my pack by the edge of the trail, pushing it behind a tall oak so no one would trip over it if they turned to flee. I dropped my bow there as well, knowing full well that I wouldn’t need it. I did take my carbine with me and my big sniper rifle. That would definitely come in handy if the others didn’t drop the bear.

Once free of the bulky weight, I slipped into the forest and I worked my way about the edge of it, until I was a good thirty feet from where the other hunters were standing. At that point, I picked a tree and I started climbing. I left my big rifle lying on the ground.

The bear wasn’t just standing there doing nothing. Once it had made itself heard, bellowing out its annoyance at us, the animal had dropped down on all fours again. Once down it had started pacing about, moving from side to side as if it was trying to see what would be the best direction to flee. Regrettably the animal still stayed close to the river’s edge, thus making my life a wee bit more difficult.

It didn’t take me long to climb the tree. It had low hanging branches that I could grab a hold of to pull myself up. Once in it I found a perch that faced the open area where the bear was pacing about. With a heavy sigh I started yelling at it.

I didn’t have too many options here. In truth I was doing my best not to fall out of the tree. The bark was slick and wet. There was nothing I could throw at the animal to attract it towards me, and even if there had been; one good pitch would have probably sent me tumbling. I really only had two options; I could yell and shout at the animal hoping it would move in my general direction, or I could take a shot at it with my carbine. Since I wanted Gabon and Balto to take the kill, option number two was off the table. Besides, all my carbine would do in this instance is to piss the animal off a little more. It certainly wouldn’t have stopped it.

The bear ignored me. It did however finally decide to take a few paces towards where the others were gathered. When it did, I shouted at them to fire.

Gabon’s arrow hit it first, striking the bear in the front right foreleg. That pissed the animal off. It bellowed out in pain and then it rose up again in an attempt to scare us away. That was when Balto fired his shot. It struck the bear in the chest. His arrow was followed closely by a second arrow, this one fired by Durt. It struck an inch or two to the left of the one fired by Balto. Both arrows sank deep.

The bear didn’t like getting hit by the arrows. It bellowed again and then it dropped to all fours once again. At that point Gabon got a second hit in, striking the bear in the animal’s back just between the shoulders. It just pissed the creature off a little more. Annoyed the bear started to charge. It didn’t get too far. A high powered rifle bullet took it down.

The shot took me by surprise. It also took my men by surprise as well. Luckily I recovered quickly.

“Scatter,” I shouted out in our common tongue, just before I slipped off the branch in the tree and dropped to the ground. When I did hit the earth, I rolled away from the tree and further into the brush. There I waited in a crouch to see what would happen next. I had my carbine up and a round up the spout.

I heard the laughter a few minutes later. It was boisterous and carefree. Whoever was laughing didn’t give a damn who heard him.

“Hey, dude, did you see those fucking cavemen run?” the laughing person called out to some other person. “They scattered like bloody sheep. It was hilarious to see them run.”

Another voice answered the man. I could hear it, but just barely, and I definitely couldn’t make out what the other person was saying. Obviously that person was further back in the forest. It really didn’t matter much to me. The first man was speaking English and the other person understood him. That and the fact that one of them had used a high power rifle to drop the bear in its tracks, meant that I was dealing with somebody from my own time. That implied that they worked for Quantum, and to me that spelt trouble. I crouched lower and silently hoped that my people kept under cover.

A moment later a man stepped into the clearing where the bear lay. He stood at least six feet tall. He was wearing a camouflage hunting suit. It was sort of a winter pattern with a mix of white, greys, and black. To me it looked like a combination of bibbed thermal pants and a parka. The parka stood open. He had a black wool toque on his head. In his gloved hands he was carrying a bolt action rifle. It looked a lot like the weapon that Rolf Anderson had been carrying.

“The bear’s dead,” the guy cried out, looking up the trail that he’d just wandered down, “and from the look of it, you were right. Those cavemen were using bows and arrows. They must be the ones we’re looking for.”

This time I heard the other man’s voice. It was closer and clearer. The man told the other guy to hang on a second and he’d be there. The big guy in the clearing just grunted an acknowledgement and then he turned about, casting his gaze in the direction of where my people had gone.

“I don’t see anyone,” the big guy shouted out loudly. “I think I scared the shit out of them. They’re probably off hiding in their cave right now telling their cave buddies that a thunderbolt killed the bear. Boy, won’t they be surprised when we track them down.”

“Yeah, they certainly will,” the other voice called out of the forest, the sound of the person speaking even closer now. “Still keep your eyes open. These guys have bows and arrows, and they shouldn’t have. That could mean that Ryerson is somewhere about here helping them out. We can’t be too careful with him. Winslow wants him dead almost as much as he wants that Ayoub bitch dead. I don’t know how, but they’ve certainly screwed things up for the man.”

“Yeah, so you keep telling me,” the big guy muttered dismissively. “I still think that Chinese woman is full of it. Everyone knows that Ryerson is dead. I don’t know why Winslow even sent her back here. She’s only a data analyst. What the hell do we need a desk jockey poking about in our work?”

“I hear you there, Frankie,” the other guy shouted back, “but I don’t give the orders. That fucking tin-plated General is calling the shots, so the ice queen is here with us and we’re out traipsing through the woods with some slope-headed kid looking for his tribe. I just hope we can find it soon so we can kill everyone and then head for home.”

At that point the other speaker walked into the open space where the bear lay dead and the big guy stood glancing about. The guy was a bit shorter than the other one. He was dressed similar to the first guy. The only differences were the fact he was carrying a pack on his back and he was cradling a M4 carbine in his arms. He was also leading someone tied to a tether rope. It only took me a moment to recognize who it was. It was Gort. I reacted instantly.

I came up with the carbine to my shoulder and my eye fixed to my scope. I put a three round burst into the back of the head of the man leading Gort on a rope. His head exploded, spraying grey matter everywhere. Naturally it threw his companion off.

I didn’t hesitate. I shifted my position and I changed my aim point. I could see the other man’s expression changing from surprise to horror to fear. I squeezed the trigger of my carbine again and I put three rounds through the second man’s forehead even before he could think about brining up his weapon. It was all over in a matter of seconds.

Gort dropped to the ground. He fell a second after I’d stop firing. I waited and watched for a moment, listening for any sound that might suggest that there was another bad guy. When I didn’t hear anything I called out.

“Gort,” I shouted to him, “It’s Jake. Are you okay?”

The kid never said a word.

By the time I reached where the boy had fallen, the others in my company had rejoined me. I really didn’t take notice of them right away. I heard Rugar snap a couple of orders to the others, but in my state, they went over my head. My only thought at that moment was to see to the boy.

Without hesitation I rolled the boy over onto his back. He was in a sorry state. For whatever reason the bastards had been dragging him about the forest dressed only in a loincloth. His body was pale and clammy and I had the immediate impression that the kid was suffering from hypothermia. I paused long enough to check for a pulse before I started barking my own orders.

“He’s alive, but deathly sick,” I told everyone. “Find my pack and bring it here. I need to wrap him up against the cold.”

Rugar grunted an acknowledgement and I went back to working on the boy. I touched his brow and I found him feverish. I checked his eyes and noted that they were not responsive when I flicked the light of my flashlight across them. I cursed under my breath and then started to cut Gort free of the ropes that bound him.

It didn’t take me long. The bastards had tied his wrists behind his back with a rawhide thong. The rawhide had chafed the skin and it dug into his flesh. His wrists were a mess of cuts and sores. So were his feet and legs. They’d been cut and bruised on rocks and by brambles. His back looked like someone had beaten him. Once I’d cut his wrists free I laid him back upon the ground, and I slipped the lead rope that hung about his neck off of it. By then Gabon had returned with my pack.

“We need to start getting him warm,” I told the man in a low voice. “Lay out my bedroll and we’ll put him in it. Then I’ll need to make a travois. We’ll need to get him back to a vehicle and then back to the enclosure. Only Clara can help him now.”

“I’ll get a travois started,” Balto offered from where he was standing off to the side of the clearing. “It won’t take me long.”

I grunted my thanks and then I turned my attention back to Gort. I got him wrapped up in my bedroll and then I covered him in my bearskin that I always dragged with me when I knew I’d be camping out. I hoped it would help warm him up. Once Gort was settled I looked about.

I saw the ruined remains of the two men that I’d shot. They were still lying exactly where they’d fallen. I ignored them for a second. I stood up and looked at each of my companions. Each of them looked back at me with a sober stare. They all looked extremely shaken.

“It’ll be all right,” I reassured them as best as I could. “I’ll get Gort to Clara first and then I’ll be back. I’ll find Bogdi and Geeta. You can count on that. Everything else doesn’t matter.”

“We know,” Rugar muttered in reply, looking at me with concern. “We trust you to bring the children back. What do you need us to do?”

I sighed and thought for a moment. I looked up at the sky. It was now mid-afternoon and the sky was overcast. It looked like we would be in for some rain. I sighed openly at that, and then I looked back at my companions.

“I want Durt to track these bastards back the way they came,” I told Rugar, glancing towards Durt as I spoke before continuing on. “I don’t want him to track them all the way back to wherever they came from. That would be too dangerous for one man to do, and from the look of Gort, they probably travelled some distance before they showed up here. I just want him to follow the trail as far as he can for a couple of hours, marking his course so I can follow it later, especially if we get rain or snow overnight. Once Durt has done that, I want him to head back to where we’ve parked the vehicles. By then the rest of you should have loaded the bear into the wagon.”

“You still want us to deal with the bear?” Gogra asked in an incredulous manner.

“I do,” I told the older man and the rest of our company. “The people at the enclosure can always use fresh meat and I’m certain the women will appreciate more bear fat. When you’re done dealing with the bear, strip these men of their clothing, their weapons, and their gear. One of them has a pack, but the other doesn’t. There is a good chance that the big man dropped his back up the trail when he shot the bear. Find it and bring it back with you.”

“Do you want anyone to come with you?” Rugar asked worriedly.

“No,” I told him flatly. “I’ll put Gort in the passenger seat beside me. That way I’ll be able to drive a little quicker back to the enclosure. It’ll still take me almost three hours, but it is the best I can do. Hopefully it will be enough.”

“I’m sure it will be,” Rugar murmured softly, clasping a hand to my shoulder. “Just be careful. There might be more men like these two out there. You never know.”

“You be careful as well,” I told Rugar and then the other men still there. Durt had already taken off, having slipped away while I chatted to Rugar and the others.

Balto told me that the travois was ready. Together the men put Gort’s unconscious body onto it, securing his limp form with a couple of rawhide straps to keep him from rolling off whenever I dragged him up a steep incline. While they did this, I went and recovered my big rifle from where I’d left it lying by the tree. Once I got back I secured it to my pack. Then I got ready to go.

“I’ll go with you,” Gabon told me firmly. “There are some steep hills along the route we followed and it’ll take two people to pull the travois up them. It will help speed your trek back home.”

I wasn’t in the mood to argue with him and considering he was right, I simply thanked him. By then I had my pack on and my carbine slung about my neck. I turned and wished everyone good luck.

I let Gabon take the lead for the first part of the trek while I pulled the travois. He went ahead to make certain the trail was clear. He went carrying his shotgun at the ready. I could tell there was seriousness in the man’s demeanour. I could see it in the other men’s faces as well. For the first time in their lives they had seen real evil, and now they were angry. There’d be no going back from here. Quantum had finally screwed up big time.

I stood at the gate of the enclosure well past dark, dressed in my winter clothing. Gort was with Clara. He had come to a couple of times during the trip back to the ATV and then again back to the enclosure. What he said made very little sense. I got the impression he was delirious. Hopefully rest, food, and a warm bed would sort that out. We’d see later when I spoke to Clara. For now, I stood watch.

The others returned well after dark. I had people waiting to help them. The bear meat was hauled off and taken care of by the women. The gear belonging to the men was put aside for me to take a look at. The vehicles got parked, and I had someone set up the chargers. I doubted I’d need the vehicles in the morning, but it would be a smart thing to recharge them. Once I’d seen to that, I went and joined the others at our fire.

“What can you tell me?” I asked Durt pointedly, looking across at the young hunter while he settled himself down to eat the food brought to him by my women.

“I followed their trail for miles,” Durt replied bluntly. “They made no effort to disguise where they had come from. Their tracks wound back and forth, here and there as it went uphill and down, but for the most part it followed the course of the great river, heading towards the southwest. I passed a spot where they had camped the night before. The fire must have been big. The embers were still warm even when I came upon them. I travelled on for a little further until I came to a broad stream that cut the trail in half. It looked to me that they felled a tree to cross it. When I saw it I turned back. I don’t think you will have any problem following their trail beyond that point. They left sign everywhere.”

I nodded my head in understanding. Then I sat back and rested, while the other men ate. Not another word was spoken until the meal was done.

“What do you intend to do?” Gogra asked, voicing the question on everyone’s lips.

By then the common area of my longhouse had filled with people. It made sense. Everyone in the community knew that Geeta and the two boys were off exploring and that I was worried about them. Now I had brought one of the three back home, injured and at death’s door. They were concerned and in need of reassuring that everything would be all right. I couldn’t blame them one bit.

It did amaze me though who was in attendance. I had expected the men to be there. They had all been restless since I’d driven in with Gort strapped into the seat of the ATV beside me, half dead and still unconscious. It hadn’t made them happy that I’d brushed their questions aside while I’d rushed to get the boy to Clara so that she could care for him. Still ruffled feathers had gotten smoothed out quickly once commonsense prevailed. What amazed me was the fact that not every man at the hearth this evening was technically a man. I had become indulgent over the years towards many of the youths in our community. If they could show leadership and maturity then I treated them as leaders and adults. That had started with Gort and then Tabor. It had progressed to Geeta and a number of the younger girls who helped in a number of my projects and who helped others in our community. Unna was one of them. They were all gathered, tonight. Gort had been their example and now they wanted to know what I would do to avenge their friend.

The children weren’t the only ones there looking for answers and willing to stand by the men and make their presence known. It spoke well of my community. Cala was there looking lost and fragile, worried about her two missing children. She was surrounded by women who did what they could to comfort her. Not all of them were ex-Horse People. Zeya was there as was Ruba and Taka. Even Marta was with her. That helped me a lot. It told me just how strong my community had grown.

“I’ll be riding out in the morning to find Geeta and Bogdi,” I told Gogra, though my words were for everyone in the room. “I won’t be back until I find them.”

“Will you kill the bad men?” Sygor asked from where he sat to my right, anger in his voice.

“I will find Geeta and Bogdi,” I repeated solemnly, “and then I will free them and bring them home. If the bad men get in my way I will kill them like I killed the men who had Gort, today. If they do not interfere, then for now, I will let them live.”