Chapter 50

My people had captured one hundred and five uptime prisoners by the time I started the conversations and interviews. We had only eighty-five left when I was done talking to them. To my surprise, even after explaining the facts of life to them - demonstrating just what I meant by being cooperative and honest with me, by first chatting with the Quartermaster about his faults - a number of people just didn’t get it. They continued to lie to me about what they’d done in serving Winslow, or what they’d done, simply because Winslow turned a blind eye to their predilection to torment people who were weaker than them. The first time one of the men stood up and said it wasn’t true that he was a serial rapist even though a dozen women stepped up and said he was, I shot him between the eyes. That still didn’t keep people from trying to lie to me or from attempting to justify what they’d done. One man actually stood up and declared that I had no right to judge him. From his perspective, our laws and values didn’t apply here and now beyond the Gateway and on this Earth. To him ‘might makes right’ and if he wanted to fuck some bitch’s ass and she didn’t like it, well tough shit. He was stronger and more important than some dumb women. I just shot him dead, without even bothering to explain to him that in a manner of speaking ‘might actually did make right’, but he had one major problem. I was currently the mightiest force on this Earth, and if I wanted to enforce the laws of my old world that said that a sick son of a bitch deserved to die, then I would enforce it! Anyone who thought otherwise should choose his words carefully when he chose to object. That person might end up dead as well.

On the plus side, the interviews and discussions weeded out most of the assholes that hadn’t been killed off either before my arrival, or during the battle. It did mean a lot of the base leadership ended up dead. The Quartermaster was an anomaly. While he’d turned a blind eye to a lot of things, he hadn’t been raping, abusing, or hurting every woman on the base. He’d been content with his two slave girls, and in truth they had been content with him. At least he made certain they got fed and they had clothing and a warm place to sleep. I quickly learned that not every slave had done as well.

The slaves were a big problem. There were over two hundred of them, between those who’d been held on the base and those who’d been living in the fishing village, of which ninety-five percent were women. Many of them were scantily clad even though it was only April and many of them were malnourished. More importantly many of them were afraid of what would become of them, now that I had taken over. It was a problem that I needed to address.

That problem was only one of many that I needed to face that day. Fortunately for me, I had help. The moment I sat down to try and sort out the prisoners and the ex-slaves, Kim stepped in without asking taking charge of everything else. By the time I’d started talking to people it was already past noon and people were hungry. It took a little delegation of authority, but Kim had not problem doing that. She recruited Ohba, Ruba, and Geeta to help organize some of the ex-slaves into cooking up some lunch for everyone. Once that had been taken into hand, Kim turned her attention to the next problem and then the next. She put Dunbar in charge of organizing a work party to collect all the weapons and ammunition that had been left lying about after the battle, and ordered the former quartermaster to secure the stuff in the Quartermaster’s stores. Since I’d already spoken to the man, Kim recruited him into helping out. Given the choice of sitting tied up and waiting for me to decide his fate, or accepting the offer of work (thus proving to us that he was of some value), the man agreed to work. Kim left him with Penny and then went off to speak to Burton next. Kim ended up giving Burton the dirtiest job as she had him assemble a work detail to deal with the dead.

I learned about all of that, and more, later in the day. It took all afternoon to speak to every ex-slave, and all of our uptime prisoners. I definitely felt overwhelmed by the time I was done.

The thing that got to me the most, was the number of people we were dealing with. Between the ex-slaves, the uptime prisoners, the people that Burton had rescued during his time in the south, and the villagers my people had recently rescued; we had dealt, or were dealing with, almost three hundred and fifty people. That was far more people than we had expected to be dealing with at this point in the game. To be honest, I had believed ... and so had others in my group, such as Kim ... that most of Winslow’s flunkies would fight to the death when confronted by our forces. It hadn’t happened. Instead of pitched battles and heavy casualties on both sides, we’d walked in and we’d taken over with a minimum of resistance.

What it meant was that I needed to come up with a new strategy. I’d left our settlement thinking that I might be bringing back a couple of dozen people to live in our community. I’d even left orders with Uttar and Vedic about building a new longhouse to house the survivors from Ozmat’s village and to house anyone else I might bring back. That plan was now dead and I had to come up with a new one.

It wasn’t a problem that I could solve today. I needed to talk to everyone about it, particularly Gogra. The older man was my sounding board when it came to the tribe, and matters that impacted on the tribe ... at least when we were away from the settlement. While Kim, Dunbar, Burton, and probably Penny could give me good advice on the issue; only Gogra could see it with the same eyes as the rest of my people, and only he had the experience of being part of a tribe’s leadership. He knew when a leader was doing something wrong. I’d have to speak to him, and the others, later on. For now, I had other matters to deal with.

Once I’d finished speaking to all the ex-slaves and interviewing the uptime prisoners, I headed off to the sick bay to visit my men. I found Durt, Holgar, and Joko chatting together, although all were confined to hospital bunks. They were chatting away in the common tongue, and they all seemed to be in a good mood. They smiled upon seeing me.

“How are you men?” I asked with obvious concern in my voice, eyeing each of them as I came in.

“We’re good, Jake,” Durt declared rapidly, trying to reassure me with his words. “We’re all doing fine.”

They weren’t fine, but they were better off than they should have been, considering that two of them had been in a non-armoured vehicle that had been totalled by a near miss explosion of an anti-tank missile, and the third had been shot twice. The fact that they were alive at all was down to sheer luck, and the fact that Clara got to them in time. Seeing the trio beam reassuringly in my direction put a smile on my face.

We chatted. I already knew what state they were in. Durt and Joko would be laid up for the longest time. The anti-tank missile hadn’t hit the Humvee. It had hit next to the passenger side of the vehicle as it was trailing behind the Cougar I’d been in, coming up the hill and through the gate to the upper level of the base. The blast had killed the two youths that had been with Joko and Durt, and it had rolled the vehicle over. Durt had broken a wrist, hit his head which had cut it, and had taken a piece of shrapnel in his leg. Joko had banged his head a little harder suffering a concussion, and he’d been hit by several pieces of shrapnel. Fortunately none of the hits had been serious enough to threaten his life. Still, he’d ended up losing a lot of blood. Thanks to Clara and the blood typing kit in her field medical bag, he had received a needed transfusion. That was another new thing for my people to experience and to learn about. I was sure that Clara would be asked about it once we got back. As for Holgar, he’d been hit in an arm and a leg. Both wounds had been minor. The medic had treated them, cleaned them, and then she’d sewn them up.

I spent only half an hour or so speaking with the three young men. I promised them that I’d see them again the next day, and that I’d get them home as soon as it could be arranged. On the way out I stopped to speak to the medic. The medic was a tall, leggy Italian woman who was in her late twenties. She spoke better English than I spoke Italian, which wasn’t saying much since I didn’t speak Italian. We could understand each other, but barely. She’d been sitting at a desk making notes in medical files when I’d walked in originally. I’d startled her, and it was clear, even as I was leaving that she was nervous around me. I could understand why. Carmen had told me her story.

Her name was Gloria Bononcini, and she was a trained nurse who had somehow been recruited by Quantum and dragged across when Winslow had made his great escape from our world. Like Carmen she’d been raped, most likely several times, and probably by men in positions of authority like me. I still needed to speak to her. She was one of the few uptime prisoners that hadn’t been bound when we’d taken the place and the only one I hadn’t interviewed yet. I figured I’d do that before heading off to do my last job of the day.

“I’d like to thank you,” I told the woman, keeping my voice soft and reassuring, “for what you did today. Carmen assured me that you were a big help to her in treating my men. It’s appreciated.”

“I only did my job, ‘ Gloria muttered dismissively, keeping her gaze lowered.

“It may have been your job, but I still appreciated that you did it without thought or resistance,” I responded firmly. “I appreciate it, as do the three young men in your care. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Gloria mouthed in reply, her words barely audible.

“You know that you’re safe, now?” I enquired. “Carmen spoke to me about you, and I know that she told you about me and my people. I’ve spent all afternoon and most of supper speaking to all the ex-slaves, and the various victims of the abuses perpetrated here by men and women who should not have been allowed to do what they did. I ended up killing more than twenty people because of what they did, and the fact they showed no remorse for having done it. I know some people probably see my actions no better than those of the people I killed, but I think differently and I’ve been told differently. Some people have thanked me for giving them justice and closure. I’m only telling you this to let you know that you are now safe from further abuse, and that you do have an avenue of recourse for past wrongs if you choose to pursue it. That choice will be to you to make, one way or another, as will making the decision as to what will happens to you now that Winslow is no longer in charge here. There is a place in my community for you, if you want it. Think about it. The choice is yours alone.”

I didn’t wait for Gloria’s reply. She was sitting at her desk, softly crying. I left hoping that I’d told her the truth and she was now safe. Only time would prove me right or wrong. For now I was off to the morgue.

The morgue was a refrigerated container unit that was parked by the lower mess hall. By the time I visited it, it was already after dark. When I got there, I opened up a side door on the container and I stepped in.

This was the place we were keeping our dead: the three youths that had given their lives, today, for me, their adoptive tribe and for a chance to obtain justice against men who’d wronged them in life. I hoped they’d found it. I also wished that I’d known the lads a little better.

The fact was that I hadn’t spent as much time with these young men as I’d done with those who’d been with me from the start. The past five months had been busy for all of us. They’d trained with men like Sygor, Durt, Tonko, and Bogdi. They’d eaten in the cave with Ozmat and Holgar. I’d only seen them a few times during training scenarios, feasts, and during the ceremony admitting them into the tribe. Now I was here to conduct one last ceremony. It was my final duty to my people; not as their leader, but as their shaman. It was a duty I gladly accepted.

The youths were laid out on pallets. Someone had cleaned their bodies and had wrapped them in their furs. Only their pale, lifeless faces showed. I looked upon them for several minutes in the dim light of the container’s interior, memorizing their features and reciting their names. I hoped when all this was over I would remember them. I then knelt down beside each of them so I could mark their naked brow with the sacred ochre. As I did, I said a silent prayer, to both my God that I had been raised to believe in, and the Earth Mother whom these youths believed in; asking both to look after them. Then I prayed for the spirits of the river and the bear to guide them on their final journey. Hopefully, one of them would hear me. When I was done, I turned and let them be.

When I stepped out into the night I found Bogdi standing nearby, armed with his carbine and fully equipped. I immediately raised an eyebrow at him.

“Sentry duty,” Bogdi told me. “Kim put Gogra in charge of watching these people tonight. Most of them are in their beds already, now that everyone has eaten and the women have cleaned up. They’ve been told to stay there until morning.”

I nodded my understanding and once again thanked God and a few spirits that I had people who could step in and do the hard work of thinking, while I was off doing something else. I then asked Bogdi how he was.

Bogdi was fine, although a bit miffed at me. I’d placed him, Geeta, and Gort in a reserve force earlier that morning, officially to have trained and experienced people available to cover our back if our raid fell apart and help pull our asses out of the fire, but unofficially to keep him, his sister, and Gort safe. I thought I owed it to them after what they’d been put through before, and I’d promised their mothers to keep them safe. Bogdi didn’t hold that same view, and while he was courteous about it, he made it clear that he’d rather have been with me at the point than bringing up the rear.

“I know,” I told him apologetically, my voice sincere, “but it was how I felt and I made my decision based on that feeling, for better or for worse. In any case, you might get another chance to obtain justice against these people. Their leader escaped somehow and he took men with him. They might be off in the nearby woods, or far away. I don’t know. I do know that I’ll be looking for them, which means I’ll need my best scouts to help me find them. That will be you, your sister, and Gort. For now though, I want you to keep your eyes open. These people have seen the hard side of me today. I’m hoping that it will keep them quiet at least for tonight. We’ll see one way or another by morning. Just be careful, tonight.”

Bogdi promised he would and he promised to pass on my concerns to those who relieved him. I thanked him and then I headed off to bed.

“We’re screwed,” Burton said bluntly, frustration filling his voice.

It was morning and we were all at breakfast. None of us were enjoying it. It was one of the reasons that Burton was exclaiming that we were screwed. We were eating dry cereal doused in instant milk and that was it. It wasn’t very appetizing.

“I know,” I muttered sympathetically in response. “I’m not stupid you know and I’m certainly not blind. I just can’t believe that with all these so called experts, these people haven’t sorted themselves out, at least to the point that this base was self-sustaining. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“It does actually, whether you know it or not,” Penny piped up from across the table, grabbing everyone’s attention including mine. “This isn’t a new phenomenon, you know. I could point out a dozen historical instances where the same thing has happened in the past. The first Jamestown, Plymouth Rock and the pilgrims; I could go on. They were all technologically advanced groups plopped down in new settings and unprepared for the harshness of life in a new land. If the locals hadn’t come to the rescue at Plymouth, who knows what the fate of the colony would have been. The point is that Winslow’s people are the same. However unlike the pilgrims they didn’t make friends with the locals; they tried to dominate them, and then they tried to wipe them out. Now you’re looking at the end result of that policy. These people are on the verge of dying out.”

Nobody said anything in reply. That was because there wasn’t much that could be said; at least, nothing that would help the situation. Calling Winslow and his flunkies a bunch of narrow minded idiots wasn’t going to help.

We were meeting in the upper mess hall so we could have a little privacy. My people had things to report to me and I really didn’t want to discuss them out in the open, whether the uptime people could understand us or not. I didn’t want any interruptions. All my leaders were there. What they’d been telling me painted a very bleak picture.

The base had maybe a week’s worth of food left, and a lot of that was fish. Winslow’s people had been planning on supporting themselves using the Gateway. When the Gateway had closed, they’d turned to raiding other villages for food and supplies. The problem was that they’d killed off most of the villagers in the process, eliminating the possibility that those villagers would gather more food that the base could steal. The more people they killed the less food they collected. The community was on the verge of starvation. Currently they were down to two meals a day. Something had to be done. The problem was that it was early spring and most of the forageable plants weren’t ready to be collected. It meant for the next little while these people would have to live on meat. It wasn’t a very healthy option.

“I’ll send out hunting parties today,” I told everyone after a moment or two of contemplation. “We can send them to that valley we landed in. That herd of aurochs should still be around. We could thin them out a bit and haul everything back in that truck Burton captured. It would make life easier in the immediate future and give us a chance to figure something else out.”

“That might be a problem as well,” Penny interjected before anyone else could open their mouths. “I did a walk around yesterday once things had been secured to check on certain stocks of supplies. It turns out that this place is almost out of petroleum based stores and what is here is going bad.”

“What do you mean, going bad?” Kim asked with a startled look upon her face. “How does gasoline go bad?”

“It can, and I’m certain that one of the eggheads we captured could give you a better explanation,” Penny replied without pause and in a very serious manner, “but the fact is that petroleum products break down over time. These idiots were lucky in that they’d packed along a fuel additive that extended the usefulness of their fuel supplies. Unfortunately those additives can only do so much and most of the fuels still held in the stores are useless. We might be able to get one vehicle fuelled up and running, such as that stake truck, but we won’t be running it for too long. We certainly won’t be running the vehicles we captured. Sooner or later the fuel in their tanks will turn to gel and the engines will seize up.”

“That’s just fucking great,” Burton grunted in disgust. “How the hell are we going to get back to the settlement? Will the helicopters work?”

“We’re in luck there,” Lottie declared quickly jumping into the conversation. “The aviation fuel is still good and usable. With the amount of fuel in the storage tanks, it’ll mean that we can use the Chinook to carry everyone home and then come back to pick up supplies.”

“When you say everyone home,” Dunbar asked jumping into the conversation next, “do you mean our people or everyone here and at the cave that Burton was using as a hide out?”

“I meant our people,” Lottie answered hesitantly. “I haven’t factored in airlifting everyone else. I think we could do it maybe once or twice, but if we do, we won’t be able to airlift everyone to the settlement and we certainly won’t be able to airlift any supplies. The Chinook can only do so much.”

I nodded my head in response to that and sighed. That was another problem that had to be addressed. How the hell were we going to move everyone north and did we really want to?

“Do we really want to do that?” I asked soberly, voicing my thoughts. “I intended to have this discussion later today with Gogra and Kim and a couple of other people; but we might as well talk about it, now. I hadn’t expected to capture this many people. To be truthful about it, I didn’t want to capture this many people. There are too many of them to safely integrate into our community. So what should we do? Do we take a few back with us or do we set up a new community here, or do we simply abandon everyone and just go home? What do you people think?”

My question caused everyone to glance about with some uncertainty as if no one really wanted to answer me, or at least to be the first to speak up. Finally, Gogra rose from his seat almost in a formal manner, to address us all.

“This is a grave question,” Gogra declared solemnly, “for it conflicts with the spirit of our tribe. Jake has welcomed many people from many cultures into his tribe over the last three years, and we have become accustomed to it. It is why we travelled with him during the heavy snow to help the River People. It is also why those we left behind willingly accepted the task of building a new longhouse for those same people and for whoever we brought back with us on our return. However now we talk about abandoning these people to their own fate, and I for one find it hard to think about. Even so, I must admit that I too wonder at the numbers we are talking about. Could we truly integrate these people into our community? I also wonder if, even with all the amazing things I have seen here, and the wonders that Jake has told me about; if we could feed everyone with what we have in our village. I am torn between what our community wants to do for these people, and what it can do.”

“I am torn as well,” I interjected as Gogra’s voice trailed off. “I’d like to help everyone that we’ve liberated, and those we now hold prisoner; but I fear for our community, and the consequences of bringing these people back to our home. It is definitely something we need to talk about.”

“It is, although we really don’t know how many of these people will want to come with us,” Kim pointed out, her voice suggesting hope that it wouldn’t be many. “What if none of the people we’re talking about chose to return to the north with us? What then?”

“There is no way these people could survive on their own, even if we left them tools to do it,” I pointed out bluntly, sighing heavily as I did. “The numbers are just too great. Out of all the ex-slaves we have roughly ten men and well over two hundred women. Those ten men are fishermen. Even if they were very lucky they couldn’t feed two hundred women on their own, and to be honest about it, they probably wouldn’t even try. Left to their own devices the men would take a mate and then head off to form a new village, leaving the rest of the women to die. It sounds cold, but it’s the truth.”