Chapter 36

The shot hadn’t come from the compound. That much was certain. It sounded a lot further away than where we were in relationship to the compound. It also sounded a little further to my left, towards where I’d fought the assholes that had shot at me. It made sense, as I remembered the terrain in that area. That was where the trail from the southwest came out of the forest on the other side of the valley where the compound stood. Obviously, whoever had fired the shot was somewhere off along that trail.

I grabbed for my binoculars. They were hanging off my saddle horn. As I pulled them out of their protective case, I noticed that Kim was doing the very same thing with her binoculars; a set that she’d brought with her through the Gateway. I smiled approvingly towards her, and then I brought the binoculars up to my eyes to see if I could spot anything that would tell me who had fired the shot.

The shot we’d heard had definitely come from a shotgun. I found that to be a relief, in a way. I was pretty certain that any patrol sent out by Winslow to find his missing group of troopers would be armed to the teeth and if they did cut loose with a weapon, it would definitely be automatic fire, and not a single blast. To me it suggested that perhaps Sygor was out hunting and he’d just bagged himself a deer.

“What do we do?” Gort asked nervously, eyeing me for a moment and then eyeing the compound that stood visible in the distance. “Do we head towards the sound or do we check the compound out first?”

I sighed in response. Whether I liked it or not, and whether I wanted to go after the person who’d fired the shot or not; I couldn’t. I had to stop at the compound and make certain that Sygor wasn’t holed up in it, and I had to be sure that Winslow’s men had not moved back into it.

“We ride down and we check out the compound,” I told Gort as I turned my binoculars onto the compound, now that I’d scanned the far side of the open area and I’d found nothing of note, “and then we’ll move on. It’s the smart thing to do.”

Rugar agreed and suggested that he go ahead of us and take a look while I covered him with my big rifle. I told him I would. Then I turned to Kim and Alexa and enlightened them on what was our plan. Kim nodded her head and then took the reins of my mount, while I dismounted so I could step over to my packhorse and claim my heavy weapon.

I was hesitant to actually send Rugar down alone. If Quantum had shown up, he could be walking into a trap. I stopped him just before he rode down the trail towards the compound and I cautioned him to keep an eye out for anything suspicious, including how to spot booby-traps. I know it was a bit amateurish on my part, but the truth was that I was in a better position to cover Rugar if he got into trouble than the other way around.

It took Rugar half an hour to ride down the slope and to cross over to the compound. He rode slowly around it until he got to the vehicle bay door. We’d left it open when we’d departed, and it was still open. Rugar dismounted and then he brought his shotgun up to the ready. He took a pace forward, and then paused, glancing about one last time before continuing on and disappearing from sight. I watched through the scope of my rifle, tracking Rugar’s movements when I spotted him wandering about the inner courtyard of the compound, before sweeping my gaze about at the containers that made up the place. Ten minutes after Rugar had entered the place, he waved us on down.

As I approached the open vehicle bay I spotted a set of tracks leading off towards the other side of the valley and the forest that stood there. The tracks were clearly made by a horse. I hoped it had been Sygor’s mount.

“He’s not here,” Rugar stated as he strolled out of the vehicle bay, “and from the look of it, he didn’t even stop here. I couldn’t spot any sign inside that anything bigger than a rabbit has been in there since it last snowed.”

I grunted my acknowledgement and then I glanced about while Rugar walked over to where he’d left his horse and mounted up. I glanced in the direction that we’d heard the shot come from, and then I glanced at my companions, checking each one of them out. Of the others, only Gort seemed out of sorts.

“Are you okay?” I asked the youth, prodding my horse over beside his so I could speak to him in a lowered voice.

“I’m fine,” Gort snapped back in protest, before turning his face away, embarrassed at how he had responded to my question.

“It’s okay, Gort,” I told the young man. “I understand. If you need to talk, I’m here. If you’d rather speak to someone else, there’s Clara or Alexa you can speak to. They’re both healers and they will understand how you feel. If you can’t speak to them, find someone else. Just remember that you’re not alone! There are others here who suffered because of the bad people who once were here. You might want to speak to Ohba. It might help.”

Gort blushed in response to my whispered suggestion. He just nodded his head in silent acknowledgement, before prodding his mount gently so it would move away from me. I just sighed softly as he moved away.

“Is he okay?” Alexa asked moving up beside me as I got ready to lead us out of there and onward towards the distant trail.

“I think this place spooked him,” I sighed in reply. “They hurt him here, and then they dragged him off into the woods, forcing him to lead them to our settlement. We really haven’t spoken about that yet. I don’t know if they broke him or not, and I haven’t had the desire to ask him about it. He might have simply been leading them northward hoping that someone from our community would stumble across them and rescue him. For now, let’s leave that be. I think you should keep an eye on him though, just in case the situation is worse than I think.”

Alexa agreed to do it. With that I prodded my horse forward following the trail left by the animal I presumed to be Sygor’s mount. Ten minutes later we were in the tree-line and heading down the trail.

We’d only travelled another quarter mile into the forest when we came upon the site where someone had taken a shot. It was obvious that the person had used a shotgun, as a spent shotgun shell was lying visible on the right side of the trail, sitting atop of a two foot high drift of snow. Rugar retrieved it and then handed it to me. From the smell coming off the spent shell, it was clear that it had only recently been fired.

“Look about for more sign,” I muttered to Rugar and Gort, pointing each of them towards either side of the trail. “If Sygor did stop here to shoot at something, his tracks should be somewhere around here, especially if he went off the trail in search of his kill.”

Gort spotted the tracks almost immediately. The horse tracks we’d been following had left the trail less than a dozen feet from where we’d found the spent shell. They headed into the trees and vanished after only a few feet.

“Let’s follow them,” I told Rugar, indicating he should lead, before turning to Kim and Alexa and telling them what we were going to do.

Rugar went on foot. He handed the reins of his mount to Gort who had dismounted as well so he could also follow Rugar on the ground. Taking the hint, I dismounted as well. Naturally, the women followed suit.

I left Alexa and Ohba minding the horses and leading them behind us as I ducked off the trail and followed after Rugar and Gort. I left Kim armed and ready for action with them.

The trek off the trail and into the forest didn’t go very far. Twenty yards into the tree-line Rugar found where whoever had fired the shotgun had hit a deer. There were hoof prints leading out of the trees and into the small clearing that stood visible from the trail, and there was plenty of blood splattered on the ground where the animal had been when it was shot. There was also a trail of blood leading away from the spot heading deeper into the forest. At a nod from me Rugar carried on.

It took only five more minutes for Rugar to find where the animal had gone down. The animal had bled heavily and it had left a clear trail in the snow. It had battered branches aside and it had torn up what snow cover lying on the ground in its frantic attempt to get away. It had gone over a small brush-covered knoll and then it had collapsed, tumbling to the bottom on the other side. It hadn’t gotten up again. It was also the place where whoever had shot it had been attacked, and from the look of it, that person had been Sygor.

He wasn’t there, nor was the deer he’d killed. There was however a lot of blood, and more importantly, his horse’s tack, as well as parts of the animal. Someone had killed his mount.

I looked about, disgustedly. I could easily make out what had happened. Sygor had obviously tethered his horse to a sapling so he could dress out his kill. He’d laid his shotgun to the side while he worked. I knew that because it was still lying on the ground where he’d put it down. Someone, and from the sign left behind it looked to be six someones, had attacked him while his attention was taken by dealing with the deer. Somehow they had overpowered him and captured him, and then they’d killed and slaughtered his animal, taking it and the deer along with them when they had left. They’d also taken Sygor with them.

“It wasn’t Quantum,” I muttered absentmindedly, speaking to no one in particular. “They’d have taken the horse and kept it; not killed it like these people did. They would have also worn hard-soled boots. These people are wearing moccasins.”

Rugar agreed. He pointed in the direction the others had gone. I told him to wait while I sent Gort back for the others. It didn’t take long. Then we were all off, after picking up Sygor’s weapon, tack, and gear.

I took the lead once more, knowing full well that we were walking into trouble. I had my carbine up and ready to use. Rugar and Gort trailed behind me on either flank of the track I was following, keeping an eye out for trouble, armed with their shotguns. Behind them walked Ohba leading one string of horses and Alexa leading another. Kim brought up the rear, also armed with a carbine. She patrolled a few feet back, keeping an eye on our back-trail.

The tracks left by Sygor’s attackers headed into the forest and towards the river. They weren’t that hard to follow. No one had tried to hide where they were headed and as it turned out, we really didn’t have far to walk.

The attackers were living in a bowl shape hollow about six hundred yards away from where Sygor had dropped his deer. Obviously they’d heard his shot and the hunters there had gone to investigate. I could easily guess what had happened next, though it wasn’t important. What was important, was that they still had Sygor; and from the look of it, Sygor was still alive.

The hunters in the hollow spotted me seconds after I’d spotted them. The trail I had followed had climbed a slight rise that was covered in new growth. Once through the new growth, I’d come upon the hollow unexpectedly. I had in fact almost stepped over the lip that led down into the hollow. I had caught myself at the last moment, but my appearance hadn’t gone unnoticed. Needless to say, a party of men jumped to their feet the instant they spotted me, grabbing spears as they did.

“Stop,” I snapped sharply in the River People’s dialect, bringing my carbine up to my shoulder as I did.

The sharpness of my command gave the men pause, as did the fact I spoke their language.

“Who are you?” one of the hunters shouted up at me.

“A friend,” I shouted back.

By then Gort and Rugar had appeared at the lip of the hollow as well. One stood about ten feet to my right and the other about the same distance to my left. It caused quite the stir amongst the people milling about down in the hollow.

“Not friend,” the man snarled back at me after glancing at Rugar and then Gort, both of who were pointing shotguns down into the hollow. “Enemy!”

“No,” I snapped back at the man. “Wait! Talk! Friend.”

The man hesitated, looking a bit uncertain in response to my feeble attempt to communicate with him. I took advantage of that to quickly glance over my shoulder to call Ohba up beside me. She appeared a moment later.

“Talk to these people,” I implored the young woman, “and convince them that we mean no harm to them. All we want is Sygor. If they cooperate, we’ll just take him and leave.”

Ohba spoke without hesitation, and from what I could tell, confidence. She addressed the hunter who’d stepped forward making himself the obvious leader of the group. She spoke rapidly in her own language. I caught very little of it. Her speech was quick and in a sing-song style, and too fast for me to follow. The man’s replies were equally quick, though I did get the impression that he was being curt with Ohba. I wondered for a moment if we were stepping on toes again, and if the man didn’t like speaking to a woman. Unfortunately, Ohba was all we had in the way of a translator, and ‘buddy’ would just have to live with it. If he couldn’t, well then things would certainly get messy.

“His name is Osgar,” Ohba informed me in a low voice after speaking to the man for five minutes. “He leads these people. They are from the village south of here by the river. Weeks ago bad men with thunder-sticks came and killed many of the people who lived in the village. Osgar and these people escaped. The bad men left, and they were never seen again. These people have been living hand to mouth since then. All their winter supplies are gone and while they could move to caves to get out of the cold, doing so would take them away from the forest where they can at least find game to feed themselves. They took Sygor because he had a thunder-stick and he used it. They heard his shot and found him dressing out the deer. They hit him many times and knocked him out, fearing he would use the thunder-stick against them. Now they fear you. I have told them you are the enemy of the bad men and that you kill them. That hasn’t made Osgar happy, but he will let you take Sygor away, if you promise to leave his people in peace.”

I sighed hearing that. I wondered which group of Quantum thugs had done the job; whether it had been people from the compound or Max and his buddies. That just made matters worse. I glanced about and I took in a lot of angry faces.

“Are they interested in our help?” I asked Ohba in a hushed voice. “They could come back with us to the settlement, and live in our cave for the winter. We have plenty of food that we could share with them, if they wished it.”

Ohba made the offer for me. She spoke to the man for a few minutes and then she fell silent, sighing heavily as she turned back towards me to speak.

“Osgar said no,” Ohba informed me with some sadness in her voice. “Osgar thinks that you are a bad man as well, and he does not trust you. He and the other survivors will stay here for the winter, and hope for the best. He just wants you to leave him alone.”

I sighed again after hearing that. I’d hoped that these people would come back with us to the settlement. I’d been counting bodies while Ohba had spoken to the man. There were six adult hunters, three teenage youths who were carrying spears, and almost two dozen women of varying ages. I didn’t even try to count the children. All of them looked hungry, sick, and frightened. The men could have been a good addition to our group and saving the others would have bolstered our population. I was going to hate leaving these people behind.

“Tell them that the offer remains open for whenever Osgar changes his mind,” I told Ohba. “Tell him we are friends and only wish to help them through the winter. Tell him we have healers to treat his sick and injured, and strong walls to keep bad people out, as well as predators like wolves. Tell him that no one will make him stay if he wishes to leave come springtime. All I want to do is to help.”

Ohba tried again, telling Osgar what I’d told her to say, but like before he rejected the offer. Finally, I had to accept that we were at a standstill. I told Ohba to take Alexa down into the hollow to see to Sygor and his injuries. I then set Rugar and Gort to work making a travois. There was no way that Sygor was going to ride out of here.

Ohba and Alexa found Sygor tied to the base of a tree, unconscious. He’d been hit at least once across the head with the length of a spear shaft. He had cuts and scrapes and it was clear that Osgar and his people hadn’t been gentle with him. Once Alexa had cut him loose and she’d laid him flat on the bottom of the hollow, she’d examined him. She found a broken right arm that needed setting, and a couple of fractured ribs. When Alexa had poked and prodded Sygor, the young hunter had moaned in complaint.

It took time to tend to Sygor’s wounds. Alexa did her best, given the conditions and the fact that she spoke very little of the common tongue. Her only helper was Ohba. Kim and I stood watch with our carbines at the ready, while Rugar and Gort did their thing and chopped down saplings to make a travois. Alexa had to cut the sleeve off his winter coat and then the same to his buckskin shirt so she could set his arm and put an inflatable cast on it. She also immobilized his head with a neck brace.

Osgar and his people became a little excited when Rugar brought the travois forward. He’d hooked it up behind one of our packhorses to haul it. When Rugar led the animal down the side of the hollow and towards where Sygor was lying, the locals’ voices took on a hint of excitement that I found to be worrisome at best.

“Tell them to keep their hands off the horse,” I shouted over at Ohba, letting my voice boom loudly as I spoke, thus drawing the hunters’ attention to me. “They’ve already killed one of our horses, and I’m not happy about that. They will not kill another.”

I guess Ohba got the gist of what I had said. She stood up from where she’d been kneeling by Sygor and she addressed Osgar once again. She rattled off something to the man using a hell of a lot less words than I had when I’d spoken to her. Osgar snapped back angrily at Ohba, but the young woman stood her ground, responding to his outburst with a couple of curt words and an arm pointed towards me. When Osgar glanced in my direction he found himself staring down the barrel of my carbine. It quickly shut him up. It also caused the hunters in the group to back off.

We didn’t loiter long after that. Rugar helped Alexa load Sygor onto the travois. Sygor groaned a few more times, but he never woke up. Once he was on the travois, covered up and ready to go, we headed out. Rugar led the way, guiding the horse pulling the travois. Gort, Ohba, and Alexa led the other horses, and Kim and I brought up the rear. We headed off back the way we’d come.

I told Rugar to head for the compound. By then it was midday and I knew it would be our best shelter for the night. We’d move on in the morning. It would allow Alexa to have a better look at Sygor to make certain he was okay and to bind his chest. It would also give our horses a place to rest. Most of all it would be a lot warmer at the compound than spending the night out on the trail. There was still electricity at the compound which meant lights, heat, and running water. I couldn’t really complain about that.

Once we got there I swept the compound before letting anyone else into it. Rugar had said no one had been there, when he’d gone through it, but I still felt better doing it myself. I was actually looking for any sign that someone might have been there and left. I didn’t find any, nor did I find any booby traps or surprises that could have ruined our day. Once I was satisfied we weren’t going to trip a mine, I called everyone in.

I left Rugar and Gort to manage our livestock and feed them, while I helped Alexa carry Sygor into the sickbay and get him onto an examination table. For the time being, it would have to do as a bed. There was no way I was going to drag him up to the ward until Alexa told me that the young hunter was fine. Once we had him on the table, I gave Alexa a hand stripping Sygor down to his loincloth so she would have a better look at his injuries. Thankfully, by that time, the electric heating in the room had started to do its job. The room had been an icebox when we’d entered it, but while I had manhandled Sygor through the door and into the examining room to put him on the table, Alexa had turned on the lights and cranked up the heat.

“Jake?” Sygor muttered questioningly as I held him upright so that Alexa could bind his chest. “What happened?”

“You ran into someone who didn’t like you,” I grunted in reply, trying to keep Sygor from flopping about while Alexa worked on him. “Just stay still and don’t move.”

I wasted my breath there. Sygor had passed out again. He didn’t say another thing until well after Alexa had finished and I’d actually tucked him into bed.

I didn’t take him up to the ward. Instead I found his sleeping furs and I brought them in and I laid them out on the floor next to the examination table. It was the best solution given our situation. There weren’t any mattresses upstairs, anyway, so taking him there wasn’t really a necessity. Once I had him comfortable, and Alexa had hooked him up to an IV, I left her sitting watch over him so I could go and see how everyone else was doing. I did promise the woman that I’d send her a relief in a little while.

I found Rugar and Gort tending our livestock in the vehicle bay. They’d closed the outer door sealing it off to the exterior. They had all our animals crammed into it and the empty cargo bay next to it. By the time I got to them, Rugar and Gort had rubbed down the animals, covered them with blankets, and they’d put the animals’ feedbags on them. Other than providing them with some water, there was little else that needed to be done.