Chapter 5

“Gort and Unna are too perfect,” I declared in reply. “Just look at him. I might be totally mistaken, but besides the fact Gort needs a good bath and to have his hair shampooed, he doesn’t look like I would expect him to look, given all the briefings that Dr. Jenkins gave us on what the locals looked like. Oh I know that technically there really isn’t that much difference between early modern man and us; but there were a few, and I’m not seeing them in either Gort or Unna. In fact, given that we’ve bathed Unna a few times, the difference is more obvious in her than in her brother. She’s too white!”

“What do you mean by that?” Gabby asked all surprised by my statement.

“I mean that your complexion is darker than hers,” I pointed out. “True you’ve been pulling a sled about in the middle of summer, but the same should go for her as well. From my understanding, people in this region of Europe some twenty-five or so thousand years ago, had more of a Mediterranean complexion than your typical modern Caucasian. Jenkins had preached that their gene pool wasn’t as diverse as it became, later in history. That diversity only occurred when the great migration took place, and people moved off to the far ends of Europe. On top of that, Gort has a wolf cub as a pet. While I have no idea when the first dog got domesticated, for some reason I’m sure it was at a later date than what is supposed to be the here and now.”

“So you’re saying we’re not as far back in time as we thought?” Clara asked as she glanced first at Unna and then at Gort. “That just doesn’t make sense. Quantum and Jenkins said that we were traveling back at least twenty-five thousand years, if not further. Do you think something went wrong? Is that why the anchor exploded?”

“I don’t think so,” I declared firmly, though I frowned as I said it. “Considering all the junk my friends dropped back here for us to use, my impression is that nothing went wrong in getting us here. What I think happened, is that Quantum lied to us. They sent us to a much later time period than the ‘when’ that they said we were going to.”

“But if that was the case, won’t other things be different?” Gabby asked. “Wouldn’t people be a little more civilized? Those hunters weren’t very civilized, and from the looks of it, the people who raised Gort and Unna aren’t civilized either.”

“That depends on your point of view,” I stated in disagreement. “To them they are probably more civilized than their ancestors. In any case, like I said, I could be wrong; but I doubt it. The other thing that I noted was the stars. From just looking up into the night sky, and taking in the stars, I can recognize a number of familiar planets and constellations. That shouldn’t be possible if we were twenty-five thousand years back in the past. Oh the stars would be there, but their positions would be off more than they were last night. I do think we’re not nearly as far back as we thought.”

“Does it really matter?” Clara asked with some uncertainty in her voice. “We’re still stranded back in time and as far as we know the Gateway home is closed for a while. Should we really be concerned about this or am I missing something all together.”

“Again, it’s a matter of perspective,” I told the woman bluntly. “To you, it doesn’t impact on our current situation; and I agree with you on that. Regardless of whether we’re twenty-five thousand years in our past, or only five thousand, it doesn’t change a thing. We’re still stranded. However, to me and my view on things, it means a lot. One, it means that Quantum was definitely lying to us about something. Two, while Gort and Unna might be part of a hunter/gatherer society still eking out an existence hand to mouth, there were cultures blooming on Earth five thousand years ago that had achieved levels of civilization that we could identify with. They were mostly south of our current location, but if we could get to them, our chances of survival would definitely increase.”

“And if you’re wrong, and we are ‘when’ we’re supposed to be, what then?” Clara asked brusquely, her tone sharp and challenging. “What will happen to us if you march us down to the Middle East in search of the early Mesopotamian cultures and we only find goat herders? What then?”

“Well then, we learn to raise goats,” I replied perhaps a little more flippantly than I normally would have answered her, “and we go for a swim in the Mediterranean.”

That didn’t go over well. Clara glared angrily for a moment or two and then cursed me under her breath in French. Her words made Gabby blanch. In response I sighed heavily, and shook my head.

“Look, Doc,” I told her, going formal on her again, “I don’t want to fight with you over this, or anything else. I’m just discussing a thought that popped into my head. I might be right and I might be wrong, but it’s not worth fighting over. Truthfully, have I done anything on this little trek through the past without talking about it with Gabby and you first? I consider us a team, and teammates work together.”

“You shot that doe without telling us first,” Clara muttered in reply, her voice drawn and still angry. “You should have warned us first. We thought we were under attack.”

“I’m sorry about that incident,” I told her apologetically. “I’ll try not to do it again unless we are really under attack. However, besides that incident have I not discussed everything with you first and asked for your opinion? I’m certain I have.”

“You have,” Gabby stated interrupting Clara’s and my discussion, pointing out the truth of my words, “and we both appreciate the fact that you do. Don’t we, Clara?”

“Oui,” Clara grunted in reply, still appearing to be pissed off with me and not really wanting to let the matter go. Unfortunately for her I wasn’t going to play that game. Instead I got up and I grabbed hold of my carbine. I had some work to do. I hadn’t cleaned the weapon since I’d fired it the day before.

Clara was back to her normal self in the morning which as a relief to both Gabby and me. I found her tending to Unna. The girl was awake, but she still didn’t look very good.

“How’s Unna responding, Doc?” I asked Clara once I’d returned from watering a bush. My semi-formality in addressing her took her by surprise. “Is she doing any better?”

Clara bit her tongue before answering me. I saw it in her face when she first glanced up at me from where she was sitting cradling the girl in her arms. Gort was there as well trying to get his sister to drink something from a cup.

“Unna’s responding, Jake,” Clara answered slowly, using my first name and not my last. “It’ll still take a few more days before we see any real improvement, but I do think she’ll recover. Once she’s had some more broth, and a little more water, I’d like to give her a bath again. It seems to be helping her, and it’ll clean her up. Then I’ll change her dressings.”

“Okay,” I muttered in reply, accepting the inevitable. “Just shout when you need me to take her down to the river for the bath. Until then, I’m going to break out some of our supplies and make us some pan biscuits for breakfast.”

I did just that. I grabbed everything I needed out of our precious stores, and I quickly whipped up some biscuits that I could bake in a covered frying pan. It didn’t take long to get the job done. It did however garner me some strange looks from Gort. He definitely wasn’t used to seeing a man make breakfast.

Breakfast went over great! Gabby had made a pot of beef broth that all of us had a bowl of. With my pan biscuits it was a very good meal. I’d actually tossed in a few herbs into the mix when I made the dough up. Even Gort ate one when it was offered to him.

After breakfast, the day got interesting for me once again. Clara decided it was time for Unna to take another dip. By now we had a routine down pat. I got into the water with Clara, and Gabby handed Unna to me. This time I actually lowered Unna into the cold water with me. It was a bit of a shook for the young girl. She definitely didn’t like it. While we had her in the water, Clara actually broke out a bar of soap to wash Unna’s body and hair. It meant that we were in the water a lot longer than I wanted to be. God it was cold. The only thing that made it worth my while was seeing Clara’s nipples jutting out of her compact bosom. It was clear that the water was cold for her as well.

Once Unna was settled and we were all dressed once again, Clara changed Unna’s bandages. I took a quick look as she did so, and to my unprofessional eye the cuts and scrapes and the burn on her arm seemed to be healing. To me, that was a good thing.

I stuck around until Clara was done and Unna had been tucked back into her bedroll. Then I decided it was time for Gort and me to go for a walk. By now I knew a little more about Gort and Unna’s situation in life, and I wanted to go off on a patrol in the general direction of his village.

“I don’t like the idea,” Clara said in response to my idea. “It might be too dangerous for you. You don’t speak enough of their language yet to avoid upsetting the villagers. You should wait a day or two and then go. By then you should be able to at least understand Gort.”

Clara had a point. Gabby had made inroads last night, during and after supper, and she was definitely communicating with the kids. But the fact was, I really didn’t know much of the language. But I did want to head out and have a look around.

“So, I won’t go to the village,” I conceded after giving the matter some thought. “I’d still like to go and check out that cave system I was thinking of moving us into. It can’t be more than two miles up this side of the valley. Gort and I can get there in twenty minutes at a slow jog and then take a look. If all goes well we’ll be back in an hour’s time or a little bit more.”

Clara couldn’t argue with me on that point so she agreed that it would be a good idea for me to at least see if the caves I was interested in moving us into, were free and not occupied by any locals. I started getting ready to go, and it was at that point that Gabby explained to Gort what my intentions were. Surprisingly, whatever Gabby said to him set Gort off worse than seeing me make breakfast!

“What’s the problem?” I asked as I pulled my webbing on, and fastened it about my waist. Today I was once more dressed up as a soldier. I figured it was a little more appropriate to wear than just buckskins. After all I had been thinking of sneaking up on Gort’s old village until Clara had changed my mind.

Gabby didn’t get a chance to reply. Gort did it for her. He stood up and in his loudest voice he made a growling sound that set his pup off yapping excitedly. From the noise Gort made, I got the impression that something big and ferocious lived in the caves.

“Interesting,” I muttered thoughtfully in surprise.

“What do you mean interesting?” Clara demanded to know, getting to her feet as she asked the question. “What are you intending to do?”

“I’m intending to go and check out the caves,” I replied firmly. “I’m also going to take my big rifle with me, just in case I need to deal with some awfully big predators. From the sound of it we’ve got a few big lions as neighbours. That just won’t do.”

For a second Clara pursed her lips and colour came to her face. I was certain that she was going to explode into a little more French, and I was also certain that even if I knew what she was saying in her language, I wouldn’t really want to know. Fortunately, things didn’t get that far. After a second, Clara let out a big breath of air and the tension in her faded away.

“I’m sorry,” Clara said in a low voice. “I won’t get mad at you, Jake. I promise you that. But please try and keep careful. I don’t want to see you get hurt. Not for any reason. Please?”

For a moment I felt like a heel. I really shouldn’t have, because I hadn’t really done anything wrong, but when a five foot nothing woman starts looking like she’s about to cry then a person automatically begins to feel like they did something wrong. In response I stepped over to where Clara was standing and I took her in my arms. Amazingly Clara came to me and cuddled into me without resistance.

“I’m sorry as well,” I told her in a hushed voice, trying to reassure Clara that everything would be all right. “I will be careful. I promise.”

With that I bent down and kissed Clara on top of the head.

I went loaded for bear, even though I knew we were hunting cats. I took my sniper rifle with me and two spare magazines. I also packed along my bow and arrow. Personally it was my weapon of choice, given the fact I knew that once I’d blown away the ammunition for the sniper rifle, that would be it. I wasn’t about to take any chances, though.

Gort wasn’t happy about my intentions. It took Gabby talking to him a bit, for Gort to understand that I could take care of any problem. It helped that I came up with an alternative method of approaching the cave system, and possibly the cats. We’d walk back to the ford and cross there. Then we’d walk back up the length of the river keeping it between us and the caves and any possible cats. I figured it was morning now, and the cats should be taking a nap. With luck we would be the only predators on the prowl.

I grabbed my pack and brought it with me. I tossed in some rope and a hand axe. There was plenty of room in my pack now that we’d eaten all the ration packs that had been stored in it. It was certainly a lot lighter than the day I pulled it out of the cave.

It took Gort and me fifteen minutes to jog back to the ford, and another fifteen minutes to jog back up the other side. I waved to Clara and Gabby as we went past them. Gabby was standing there holding my carbine, looking pretty efficient in her own set of combat gear. Once again I had a fleeting though about her and her olive skinned body. Then, realizing that I was heading off on a mission, I pushed the thought out of my head and I got my mind on my job. Thirty minutes later Gort and I were standing by the river bank looking across at the caves that I wanted to check out. As forewarned, the caves were definitely occupied.

The cave system was in a bit of a hollow in the distant slope. A long finger of land jutted out to my right towards the cave that we’d found Gort and his sister in. That finger of land was covered in pine and a few other trees. To the south of it and my left the finger curved into the slope a good hundred yards or more. The curve extended south for about half a mile before it swung back out towards the river. At the back of the curve I could see three openings. They weren’t huge in appearance, but it was visibly clear that they could easily be inhabited by people, if the current occupants were evicted. The current occupants were sunning themselves on rocks. There was an overhang that sheltered the entrance of the central opening. It was a good twenty feet above the ground, and it appeared to be a prized spot for big cats to catch some rays. That was where the cats were gathered as far as I could see with the naked eye. I quickly counted three. They looked to be an adult male and two females.

My problem was the range. I had hoped to use my bow instead of my sniper rifle. Unfortunately, even without turning on my laser range finder and measuring, I could tell the cats were too far away. I sighed softly on seeing that.

I didn’t give up the idea, though. Giving Gort my bow to hold, I had a look through the scope of my sniper rifle at the terrain on the far side of the valley, I took a minute or two to assess what I was up against. If all else failed I’d just take the shot. Clearing the cats out of the area was more important than saving ammunition.

I quickly found the terrain behind the caves and the outcropping that the cats were sunning themselves was rough and at a higher altitude than the surrounding terrain. That fact gave me an idea. If I could get up and behind the cats, it was possible I could still get close enough to them to use the bow. It just meant that I’d have to ford the river again, and that I would have to sneak up on the cats without alerting them. Suddenly, I realized I needed a little more information.

I tried asking Gort. I pulled out my knife and I drew a rough map into the dirt at our feet. I pointed to the long squiggly line and I used Gort’s word for river. Gort nodded his head. I then drew the ford that we’d crossed back down the river onto the map. I pointed to it and used Gort’s word for ford. Again Gort nodded his head. I did the same with the cave across our way and the big cats. Then I pointed upriver, past where I’d marked the caves, and I repeated Gort’s word for ford. It took a couple of tries but eventually he got it. Pulling his own knife out of his belt, Gort drew another ford on my map. From where he placed it the ford looked to be reasonably close.

“Come,” I told Gort in his language. Then I slung my rifle and took back my bow, and we were off once again.

We came to another ford near a wide bend in the river. The river bent to my left as we ran up the length of the bank. The ford was just before the turn. It was actually shallower than the one we’d crossed down where Gort’s cave was situated. I dashed across it, and then headed for the distant hills and the brush and forest covering them. Within minutes we were in amongst the trees and heading up hill, angling back towards the direction from which we’d come.

It took us a bit of time to weave our way through the underbrush around the trees and then out onto the heights that over looked the valley and the land surrounding it. The whole time we moved, all I could think about was the fact that I was going to get an earful from Clara. The pint-sized lady was really going to be pissed at me for the time this job was taking. Still, it couldn’t be helped.

Eventually we came out well above the area where the cats were sunning themselves. I stopped and Gort stopped right beside me. We could see the three cats clearly from where we were standing. We could also see that there was a cub with them. It looked to be only a few months old.

We were still too far away from the cats to get them with my bow so it was obvious that we needed to get closer. I surveyed the lay of the land from where we were and I picked the spot where we needed to go. I pointed out the spot to Gort, who just grunted softly his acknowledgement. I still got the feeling he wasn’t happy going up against the cats.

Carefully we headed down the hill, trying as we went to not make any noise. Eventually we got to the spot where we needed to be. As we moved into position I noticed that we had a problem. The cats were on their feet and looking around. The big male was sniffing the air and his tail was swishing in a manner that suggested he was annoyed. Seeing this I jumped into action.

We’d come all this way so I could kill the cats with my bow, so regardless of what was happening before me, that was exactly what I was going to do. I laid my rifle down and I grabbed hold of my bow. As I nocked my arrow to the bowstring I noticed that the big cat was looking right up at me. He actually let out a growl. Laughingly, the wolf pup started yapping in reply.