Chapter 35

It continued to snow for the next two weeks. By the time it actually stopped, the valley floor was covered in so much snow that without snowshoes, a person sank down almost to their chest. It made moving about very difficult, at best.

The snow didn’t stop me from getting my work done. Time was of the essence! I couldn’t waste a moment of it, just because the weather was against us. While what I could actually achieve was limited, a lot did get done. I spent the first couple of days interviewing volunteers for the army I wanted to train. I was surprised by the turn out, especially after having stood before the community to argue my case. Seeing so many people show up the next day actually put a smile on my face.

I did get a mixed bag, although I had expected that to happen. I’d actually planned for it. Sygor was there, as was Ruba, and to my surprise Kobo along with two dozen more volunteers. The first thing I did was to split them up.

People like Sygor went into one group. These were mostly my young hunters, who already knew a little about working as a unit, patrolling defensively, and how to use a firearm. Gort and Bogdi were there, as were Durt, Tonko, and Gogra. These men, plus a few others, would form my vanguard once they were properly trained. Hopefully they would prove to be enough.

The second group was made up of the largest number of volunteers. They included Rugar, Kobo, Uttar, Vedic, and several of the craftsmen who’d only joined our community that summer. That number also included every male survivor of the River People whom I’d rescued from the compound. All of them wanted to learn how to fight. My plan for these people was to train them in the basics, and then divide them up into a second fighting squad that would join the first one in the field. A ‘Home Guard’ commanded by Rugar, would protect our valley from any threat, whether two legged or four. My second in command was pleased with the idea.

The third group were the women who wanted to learn to fight. Ruba was there as was Geeta, Ohba, and to my surprise all the other women from the River People who’d survived and whom I’d rescued. All of them wanted to learn to fight, at least well enough to protect themselves. I had no idea of how many would insist on coming with me once I packed up my force and we headed out in search of Winslow and his people. For now I would make sure they at least learned the basics.

Communication was our biggest problem. The people I wanted to use as instructors couldn’t speak the common tongue. The saving grace, and this was still to my chagrin, was the fact that people like Sygor, Bogdi, Gort, and Geeta all spoke English well enough to serve as translators for the instructors. I wasn’t happy with it, because I truly believed that if people like Dunbar and Burton didn’t immerse themselves in the language from day one, they’d never pick it up, and that would affect the efficiency of my fighting force, and keep the men, technically and emotionally, outsiders. I’d seen this when I’d been in uniform and I’d served oversees. A reliance on locally hired translators while on patrol often left the patrol feeling out of the picture whenever a local was met and the translator started doing their thing. I just didn’t want that happening, here. People could easily make mistakes if other people didn’t understand what was being said. I’d have to keep an eye on that.

By the end of the first week, Sygor’s group had been introduced to the care and handling of the M4 carbine. I had to step in, here, and do most of the training. Sygor still had a touch of attitude that needed handling. The young man knew how to fire a weapon. I’d initially taught him how to handle an automatic shotgun three winters ago, and he’d used it a number of times over the years while out hunting, when a pack of wolves had dropped in on the hunting party while they’d been dressing out a kill. The shotgun had proved to be a great equalizer in a situation like that, and Sygor had shown skill in handling the weapon. It had however made him over confident. The young man believed he could move from a shotgun to a carbine without having to learn the differences. I’d handed him over to Dunbar initially, but the language issue came up when Sygor decided he knew better than the instructor. I was forced to put him in his place.

I did it gently, but I made certain he knew I wasn’t impressed with him. I used him as the training dummy, making him stand in front of the rest of the group, going through each action as I called it out, doing it repetitively, until every person in the group knew what to do. It didn’t make him happy, but he did get the point and more importantly, he learned quickly that a carbine was definitely different from a shotgun.

It turned out that Sygor wanted to be my problem child throughout our instructing what I felt the first squad needed to know. I’d had Dunbar go over basic squad tactics with the men in an effort to give them a refresher in what I’d taught three years before, and to allow Dunbar to work with the squad and to become familiar with each of the men and what they knew. I felt it was a good place to start since most of the commands given during manoeuvres were given in English. Those words that weren’t in English; such as left and right were easy words that Dunbar could pick up as he worked with the squad.

Sygor didn’t give the man a chance. I had to stop Dunbar taking Sygor out and adjusting his attitude behind the stables. In the end, I had to speak to him.

“What is your problem, Sygor?” I asked the youth pointedly at the end of the first week. “You’ve been nothing but trouble for Dunbar. I don’t understand it. I’ve had to speak to you twice, and I’ve had to take over training because you wouldn’t listen to the man. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I don’t need his training,” Sygor told me bluntly, with a voice edged with anger. “I’m a hunter of the Bear Tribe and I know how to kill. These outsiders can teach me nothing.”

“These outsiders can kick your ass if I allowed it,” I said in retort, trying not to growl as I said it. “These outsiders are my friends and I expect them to be treated with respect. You may be a hunter of this tribe, but you have been taught by me and by the older men in this tribe to show respect when it is due. I am the chief of this tribe and I have made a decision. Must I embarrass you before the whole community because of your rudeness? I’ve spoken to you long ago about this habit of yours. I had thought you’d grown out of it.”

Sygor glowered at me for bringing up his past behaviour, but he did not say a word. I just sighed and shook my head.

“What can I do to make this better for you, Sygor?” I asked slowly, my voice heavy with exasperation. “I have put you in the vanguard of those who will fight the bad men, when the time comes, and I lead you against them. I have given you a weapon that will do the job well, and I have promised to provide you with a ballistic vest to help protect you, yet you do everything in your power to disrupt training. Do you wish me to remove you from the squad? I can place you with Rugar and Kobo and the others who will stay behind and protect our camp.”

That got the young man’s attention. Sygor’s eyes grew wide at my suggestion. I think he would have actually blown up and attacked me, if I hadn’t been as tall as I was in comparison to him, or as heavily built. The young man was a good eight inches shorter than me, and while he was well built and muscular, I had sixty or more pounds of muscle on him. He did however turn red with anger.

“I will not be left behind,” Sygor snapped back at me. “I am a hunter and not a woman. I will kill the men who brought death to my village and who now threaten this one. You will not leave me behind.”

“I will if you don’t smarten up and stop causing problems,” I told Sygor, now growling as I spoke to him. “I did not push the matter when we spoke at the gathering, but Wodon did bring it up. If you cannot live with my decisions as chief, then you may leave. I will not stop you from going. I will however stop you from doing things that prevent me from ensuring the safety of our community.”

“But they are outsiders, like the men who killed my family,” Sygor protested adamantly. “They do not belong here.”

“They are my friends,” I told Sygor, softening my voice in reply, feeling his pain and anguish, but still standing my ground. “They are here because they came to help us against the others. They came of their own free will, giving up their own home to join us. You will respect that sacrifice, and you will find a way to work with these people. If you cannot, then I will remove you from the squad. This is your only chance and your last warning. Do you understand?”

Sygor understood. He wasn’t happy, but he swore to me that he understood and he would no longer cause problems. I prayed silently that he would keep his word.

The two weeks of snow also helped others to plan and to get organized. With the addition of Alexa to our community, Clara took the opportunity of setting up an actual clinic. For the time being it would be run from a skin tent that Clara ordered erected next to the bathhouse. It would allow Clara and Alexa to treat those who needed medical help, while still training Moya and Trona as medics. It gave them a place to store a lot of Alexa’s equipment and medical supplies, and it gave Clara a domain of her own. She did declare to me emphatically, once the tent had been put up, that she expected me to build her a proper clinic once Quantum had been dealt with once and for all. I reassured her, that it would be done, whether I built it myself, or I left it to the capable hands of Uttar and Vedic who were now my primary foremen when it came to constructing new housing. I was certain that they could handle the job.

The other person who wanted me to build him a place to tinker and work was Carlos. The man had taken over a couple of my workshops, including the one that I had a kiln in for baking ceramics. There was just so much he could do, with the tools I’d scrounged for him from the compound, and what he could fashion for himself. If I wanted real production out of him, I would have to build him a shop where he could breakdown the ores gathered by the others, and smelt them to remove the impurities and to make metal objects out of them. Like Clara, Carlos would have to wait until Quantum was dealt with. In the interim, Carlos was doing his best. He’d crushed down the raw ore containing the copper, finding a way to separate the copper from the rest, and he’d poured a few items just to show me what he could do. They included a copper bowl, a razor, and a few arrowheads. He’d done similar work with the ore containing the iron, although much of his effort there had gone into making tools.

Two weeks of snow also gave me plenty of time for sex. Ruba became a bit of a fixture in my bed during that time. She wanted to make up for three years of not lying with a man. We actually did get an opportunity to take it slowly and enjoy a nice gentle fuck. We also got energetic more than once, and fucked until neither of us could move. When I wasn’t fucking Ruba, I was fucking someone else. Both Kim and Katherine became permanent fixtures in my bed. Clara and Gabby welcomed them both. When it was only those four, it became a fun game of one woman riding me ‘cowgirl’ until she couldn’t take it any longer, or I exploded in her, while another woman rode my tongue. Then the woman riding my tongue would help restore my ardour for round two, while someone else, cleaned the first woman up. We’d keep at it until every woman had enjoyed a ride at least once.

It did make for long nights, but I was the leader of the tribe and I had to set an example. I quickly worked my way through all the up-time women. All of them came to my bed freely and without coercion. Even Cora insisted on sampling my wares and she turned out to be a very good ‘Catholic’ girl. I’ll admit now, that she was the oldest virgin that I’d ever known.

On the plus side, Dunbar, Burton, Monty, and Rolf Anderson all seemed to be getting about as much action as I was. Ramie reported with a smile that many of my women had sampled the wares on offer. Some had gone back for seconds and thirds, while others were interested in when I’d be free for a little one-on-one. The only male who seemed reticent to take up the offer was Carlos. He was still limping about on the crutch I’d fashioned for him, and I knew he would be doing so for some time yet, but according to both Clara and Alexa there was no reason he couldn’t engage in sex, so long as he was careful. Naturally I didn’t press the issue, or even broach it with the man. For all I knew he was a good ‘Catholic’ boy just as his sister had been before she climbed into my bed. Then again, he could be gay. I certainly didn’t want to know that. For now, it didn’t matter.

When the snow stopped we went hunting. We didn’t really need meat; our larder was full as were our smokehouses. It was more of an excuse to get out of the longhouse and do something other than looking at four walls, and each other’s faces. Almost every man in the community wanted to go, as did several of our young ladies who were training to be soldiers. They wanted a chance to show their stuff.

That naturally caused a stir. Sygor was adamant that he wasn’t going hunting with a woman. A few of the other men agreed with him, and I knew deep inside that arguing with the young hunter would lead nowhere, but to further strife. I decided to allow a compromise; we’d form multiple hunting parties.

Hunting in winter is a little more fun than hunting in the summer. In the summer, many of the larger grazing animals such as the aurochs, the bison, and the wild cattle move out into the open on the valley floor to graze on the sweet grass growing there. They come out in herds numbering in the hundreds at times, and they are easy to kill. With one of our compound bows that I’d been making lately, a skilled hunter could easily take down a grown cow at fifty yards. It isn’t really a difficult job.

Hunting in winter is more difficult. The larger herds either move on to places lower down and out of our valley where snow rarely falls, or the herds break up into smaller groups of animals and they go off into the forests, or into a number of cul-de-sacs scattered about the foothills and near the valley walls where they can find both shelter and enough food that they can last on for the winter. It means winding our way through the woods and over tree-covered hills, in search of prey, or along frozen-over streams that stretch upward from the valley floor into the more sheltered areas of the valley. Sometimes we stumble on a herd, but more often than not, we find a lone animal standing in a hillside clearing trying to get at grass buried under a foot of snow. If we are lucky, we come upon the animal undetected. Unfortunately in the dead of winter sound travels and animals are skittish at the best of times. There have been times when a hunting party came home with nothing.

“How are we going to do this?” Dunbar asked the morning the snow had stopped falling and we’d decided that going hunting was the plan for the day.

We were standing out on the stone steps that led into the longhouse. I was decked out in my wolf fur winter coat, my heavy winter buckskin pants that were padded to keep me warm, and my combat boots. Dunbar was decked out in his up-time clothing including a winter parka with webbing strapped over it.

“Sygor will probably want to head towards the mouth of the valley,” I told the man, glancing off in that direction, though there was no way I could see it from where we stood. “There is usually a fair number of deer that winter in that area, and the men know it well. They’ll be taking bows with them. You and Burton should tag along for the experience, and to cover their asses just in case Quantum is roaming around.”

Dunbar looked at me and shook his head and then sighed. We’d had this talk before. Kim had stated emphatically that we wouldn’t have any problems until springtime and then only because we go after them, and not because Quantum comes looking for us. I’d asked how she knew for sure, especially since her buddy Ridgeway hadn’t told her that I would get shot. Kim could never give me an answer beyond what she always told me when I raised the question about why she’d volunteered to come back and join me here and now, and why the others had done so as well. That answer was always, “I’ll explain everything once you’ve figured it out. Then it will make sense to you.” I always shook my head in response, and I’d give her a dirty look. I didn’t tell her what I really thought. That I kept to myself and to Clara and Gabby. For now, they were the only ones I could really trust.

“Let’s skip that topic for now,” I suggested when Dunbar didn’t reply, only giving me a tired look. “Rugar and the other men will probably head across the valley and up into the hills on the far side, past where the apple trees stand. There are a couple of nice sheltered hollows back there where the local herd of bison usually hold up for the winter. If you don’t want to tag along with Sygor and the younger hunters, you should at least go with those men. Rugar’s a good hunter and I think the two of you will get along.”

“What about you?” Dunbar asked out of curiosity. “Where are you going hunting?”

I turned and pointed behind us, through the longhouse and towards the tree-covered slopes that stood behind our settlement. Naturally, with the structure standing between us and the slope there was nothing really to see. Dunbar took a quick look and then glanced back at me.

“I’m going to take the women out hunting,” I declared in a matter-of-fact manner. “None of the other hunters will do it. We’ll head up the slope. It’s a good walk and I’m pretty certain that I can find us a deer or two to take down. It’s not the best location in the valley to hunt, but I’m hoping with all the snow that we just got, some herd took to the forest for shelter and we’ll be able to find them. In any case, I’ll be taking the women armed with shotguns and rifles in the hopes of giving them a little on the spot training.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Dunbar grunted.

A breeze whipped about us, raising some snow and chilling both of us to the bone. It was a really cold day. As Dunbar stood there watching the wind blow the snow about, his eyes took in what could be seen from our front steps. Mostly that was our stables, our front gate and a couple of hay sheds. Still it was enough to let the man appraise our settlement and comment upon it.

After a moment Dunbar continued, “You know, you’ve done pretty well here on your own. It’s a bit rustic for my taste, but it’s a hell of a lot better than I expected to find waiting here for us when I signed on for this mission. I thought we’d be living in caves.”

“I did that the first year,” I chuckled in reply. “It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, but it wasn’t great either. You smelt like smoke all the time and even with solar powered lamps, it is dark in a cave for the most part. While you see rustic here, my people see advancement. We’ve got central heating, water being pumped into the main longhouse, and solar powered lighting. That’s all magic to them, although most of them accept it; particularly if I can show them how it really works, but the rest of this stuff is just an improvement on what they had before. They went from skin tents and living in caves to log huts with thatched roof. They went from walking on two feet to riding a horse. They’ve learned to adapt and to embrace change. Next spring we’re expanding our farm production to include a wheat field. It’s slow work, but it is sustainable. Hopefully, once I’ve lived a nice long life here, my children and their children can carry on, and this little tribe of people will not only survive, but grow and help shape the future; particularly the future that Quantum seems to fear.”

“Amen to that,” Dunbar muttered in agreement. “We can only hope.”

It turned out that I did get a couple of men joining my hunting party. Both Gort and Bogdi volunteered to go with me. Both youths were fully recovered and both were anxious to get out and to prove they were more than capable of pulling their weight and contributing to the safety of our community. The only thing that overshadowed their enthusiasm was the fact that Gort’s wolf was no longer with us. The loyal animal had gone with Gort when Bogdi, Geeta, and he had travelled southwest along the river. When they’d been captured, the wolf had tried to protect Gort and one of the men from the compound had killed it.

While nothing was said about it back in the longhouse, out in the woods it became clear that the animal’s death still weighed heavily on Gort and both his friends. They became serious the moment we stepped out of our enclosure and we headed up the hill, each of them spreading out in front of our hunting party as if to place themselves between us and any possible danger. Their actions impressed me, but it also left me concerned. I’d have to speak to them all, later.

Everyone in my group had fired a weapon at least once. I’d dug out the old survival weapons that Kim had provided us when Clara, Gabby, and I had originally shown up in the here and now and we were stranded with only spears and a stone axe. The three weapons had barely been used and once I’d inspected and cleaned them they were ready to use. The same applied to the ammunition for the weapons. It had been packed away in one of the plastic storage boxes we’d received back when we’d first arrived. Once I’d inspected all the rounds for any corrosion or damage to them, I found that what ammunition we had left was sufficient in quantity that every female volunteer could put a few rounds down range, to get the feel of what firing a weapon was like.

My party, besides Gort, Bogdi, and Geeta, included Ruba, Ohba and the other women of her former tribe, and Kim. With Kim there with us, I was relegated to being a pack animal. I ended up pulling our sled while Kim walked beside me armed with one of the hunting rifles that I’d taken from Rolf Anderson and his crew.

Gort found tracks in the snow that covered the slope behind our settlement about an hour after we’d headed out. He waited until we’d all had a look at them, and I’d had a chance to explain a few facts of life to the women with us. I knew there was no way all of us would make a kill that day. I had the women draw lots to see who would get the honour of first, second, and possibly third shot. It turned out to be Ohba, Ruba, and Geeta. I then teamed people up. I put Ohba and Bogdi together as a team, and then paired Ruba and Gort up. The final pair I made up of Geeta and Olla. Geeta was one of the most experienced explorers in our community and she spoke Olla’s language. I figured that Geeta could give the young woman pointers and still track the prey we were after. I then assigned Kim with one of the other young women to watch everyone’s back. The rest of us brought up the rear.