Chapter 55

Sygor and Ozmat went hunting while Ruba and Ohba set up camp in the small clearing. While they did that chore, I went and spoke to the women and children. For our safety Burton hung back and kept an eye on our surroundings. Considering that we were technically in another tribe’s territory, it was a wise thing to do.

There were six women and eleven children. The oldest woman was actually old. She turned out to be the mother of one of the other women. She was in her early forties, but she looked much older. As for the children, the eldest was a girl about nine and the youngest was a babe in arms. None of the women and children looked healthy.

It didn’t take me long to confirm that my suspicions about the women and children were correct. They were indeed the mates and offspring of the men that my party had killed over a week ago. The headman and the shaman of their village had driven them out.

The old woman was Ukra. When I asked what had happened, she offered up the women’s tale freely, taking on the role of spokesperson for the group. She told me that the bodies of the dead hunters had been found five days ago. By that time scavengers had been at the corpses and most had been well gnawed upon. This fact had caused great distress in the village; even greater than the knowledge that so many hunters had been killed at the same time. The headman of the village had sent the remaining hunters out to track down the scavengers and slay them, so that they could inter the animal remains with the men so that the spirits of the dead would be at peace, but not every team of hunters returned successfully and it became clear to the entire village that the spirits would never be at peace. When that fact was realized the village headman had ordered the women and children gathered so the people of the village could drive them out. They’d been denied the right to take anything with them, save the clothing on their backs. Once that task had been completed, the village had then packed up and they’d moved away, burning anything they couldn’t carry off with them. This had been done in part to purify the ground the village was on, since it was now viewed as being cursed by the tribe, and also in part to prevent the women and children from returning and finding shelter there.

I sighed on hearing the tale, particularly since I learned that their party had been larger earlier in the week. Of the thirty men we’d slain, all of them had been mated and several had fathered children. While not all the women had gone off together in one group, there had been four other women and other children in this group when they had originally set out. Unfortunately hunger, mishap, and broken spirits had taken a toll on the others, resulting in their untimely deaths.

By the time I was finished speaking to Ukra, Ohba had a fire going and Ruba was busy preparing a broth in one of our camp pots. I’d requested it knowing full well that to try and feed the women and children anything else would only result in more problems; something I didn’t want.

We spent the night in the clearing. Ruba and Ohba saw to it that the women and children were fed while Burton and I headed out into the forest to see if we could find any more survivors. We didn’t. We did come across bodies of those that hadn’t made it and eventually we stumbled across the ruins of the old village. We found a few bodies here as well. Some of the women had refused to leave. It wasn’t a pleasant sight.

When we did return to camp we found that Sygor and Ozmat had been luckier, both as hunters and as searchers. They’d brought back a young buck to help feed the survivors and two women with three children that they had found. I thanked them both for doing that.

In the morning I sent Sygor back to the base to raise a rescue party. There was no way that the women and children were going to make the trek on foot. The best bet was for Kim to gather up as many solar powered ATVs she could find along with trailers and send them to us. We would wait here for their return.

The ride back to the base was roughly thirty miles. I took Sygor aside and pointedly told him to pace his trip back. A good trot and an occasional lope would still see him back at the base by noon that day, so galloping the whole distance would only kill his horse, which was something I didn’t want to occur. I pointed out repeatedly that the women and children were showing signs of recovery, so urgency wasn’t a major concern. He promised me he’d be careful, and then he rode off, prodding his horse into a gallop the moment he hit the open valley floor. I just shook my head and sighed.

Food helped the situation. Ruba and Ohba were kept busy most of the day tending the needs of the women and the children. The women were incredibly weak from having not eaten for days as well as being emotionally withdrawn. It took round the clock care to ensure that we didn’t lose any of them. Ruba fed them broth the first night as I’d requested and again the next morning for breakfast. After that Ruba made a stew using up the last of the food we’d brought from the base. It helped in restoring their strength and in putting life back into their eyes. I certainly appreciated it.

While Ruba and Ohba fed the women, I saw to it that Ozmat took charge of the older children. Besides the young girl there were two boys who were around seven years old. I gave him the task of seeing that they helped out by gathering firewood, water, and anything else that our two women needed to help sustain our small group of refugees.

Kim showed up just after supper with eight ATVs all towing trailers. Each of the vehicles had an uptime driver which included Carmen and Gloria. Gloria was actually driving one of the vehicles which I was very surprised to see.

“She insisted on coming,” Kim told me pointedly, once she’d come up to greet me and to give me a kiss. “Carmen thought it would do her a world of good. The fact is that she’s bored, as are the rest of the people who came along on this trip. You should have seen the number of people who volunteered. God, you’ve really got to get them doing something. They’re going stir-crazy sitting around on that base doing nothing,.”

I assured Kim I was actually trying to do that, however some things took time, and people had to be patient. I then glanced about to see who else was there. Helen had shown up as she’d driven one of the ATVs. Once she’d parked it, she’d gotten off and she’d gone to Burton, who’d greeted her with a kiss. I noted the way the woman clung to the man and shook my head.

“Is there a problem?” Kim enquired in a lowered voice. “Is something wrong?”

“I’ll tell you about it later,” I told Kim, whispering softly in her ear. “For now I guess we should decide whether we’re staying the night. How are the batteries on the ATVs? Do we have enough juice to get us home or do they need a recharge?”

The eight ATVs all needed a recharge which meant that the rescue party had to spend the night sleeping in the woods, not that it was a problem. Kim had come prepared for that eventuality. Everyone had packed bedrolls or sleeping bags, and the impression I got was that they were all happy about getting a chance to sleep out under the stars. Accepting that fact, I left Kim to organize her people, while I wandered over and had a chat with Carmen.

“How’s it going?” I asked out of curiosity, smiling warmly as I pulled the woman aside to chat.

“How’s it going with whom?” Carmen quickly retorted, returning my smile with a mischievous grin. “You need to be specific.”

“I’ll start with your patients,” I stated in a chiding manner, nodding my head to the women and children. “Have you spotted anything that I should be concerned about, besides the fact they are malnourished, disheartened, and a few are still in shock at how their life has fallen apart.”

Carmen reassured me that the women and children we’d been caring for would survive, and very likely recover completely, although she couldn’t guarantee how quickly they would overcome their emotional shock. As for Gloria, Carmen said that she seemed to be doing a bit better and that she’d volunteered to come along on the trip, even driving the ATV. For now it was hard to say, but it could be that Gloria just needed to work, which wasn’t happening back at the base. There weren’t too many sick people to care for, and the wounded were now up and moving about. Even Holgar was spending more time outside the sickbay chatting to ex-slaves than he was resting in bed. That piece of news put a smile on my face.

“As for how I’m doing, I’m doing better than great,” Carmen admitted with a reassuring grin plastered on her face. “I certainly don’t regret joining your fighting force as a medic. I know we got lucky, but I’m proud to have been here for the battle to take the base and I was more than happy to witness you dealing out a little justice, once all the smoke had settled. It helped. Thanks.”

I just nodded and thanked her for staying and for helping us out along with a promise that we’d talk later. I still had plans for Carmen. I just hoped she was still interested.

I took Kim for a walk, once she’d settled her people and seen to it that they’d gotten something to eat. We wandered off into the valley, not going too far, but still going far enough away that we could speak in private. I left Burton in charge.

“So what happened that’s gotten you broody?” Kim asked pointedly once we were out of range of any prying ears. “Is it the women and children, or is it something else?”

“Both,” I admitted thoughtfully, glancing over my shoulder for a second and looking back, before turning my attention completely towards Kim. “The women and children just reminded me that there’s been a lot of collateral damage dealing with Winslow and his goons, and not all of it was caused by him. Oh, it’s true that we didn’t have much of a choice dealing with the local thugs working for Winslow that we killed, but I probably could have handled it differently. If we’d stopped them out in the open the next day and confronted them with our numbers and weapons, the local men might have surrendered. Then again, they might not have. In either case, most likely one of them would have died and their family would have been put out by their tribe regardless of how I’d killed the man. The thing is, I didn’t even think twice about the men’s families.”

“You were marching off to do war, Jake,” Kim reminded me with some exasperation in her voice. “You didn’t have time to think about the locals and what would happen to them. You were working at taking down Winslow.”

“I know,” I admitted sheepishly, “and truthfully, I hadn’t known everything about the Forest People that I do now. Marta, Maia, and the other women in our settlement had told me some stuff, particularly about the men being so macho and how they confronted each other and their neighbours all the time whenever they wanted something, but they hadn’t told me that the villages cast out the families of any dead hunter. Even the Horse People weren’t that bad. Now that I know, and I’ve seen the end result, I wonder if I could have done something else.”

“You did your best at the time it happened,” Kim declared firmly and with finality in her voice. “Now stop worrying about it. You’ve rescued these women and children, and I’m certain that once they get used to the idea, they’ll love being part of our tribe. Now what else is bothering you? You said there was something else.”

I sighed again and then nodded my head.

“Helen,” I told her flatly. “Burton is in love with Helen, whether he admits it or not, and to be truthful, he hasn’t actually used those words. The problem is that I’m making Burton a sub-leader. He’s going to have people under his command, equipment, and a region to look after. Being a sub-leader has certain responsibilities that Burton can’t ignore. I’ve built a very communal society here, in which I play a major role. I might not order women into my bed, but if a woman wants to be in my bed, of her own free will, I don’t turn her away. Clara and Gabby understood that from the start and they had no problem with it. Katherine accepted it as well when she climbed into my bed and refused to leave, and so far I haven’t heard you complaining. Helen has said no to Burton sleeping with other women which is going to cause a problem.”

“Oh,” Kim gasped softly in response, nodding her head as she did. “I can see that. Is there a solution?”

“I asked Burton if he wanted the job and he said yes,” I told her. “I thought about replacing him with Dunbar who’d do a good job as well. Whilst Burton insists that he wants to give it a go, I just don’t know about Helen. In a manner of speaking, Helen will be the top woman in the settlement and personally, I can’t see her managing the job. It was the same when I started building our fledgling community shortly after we got here. I made Clara and Gabby equals with me, much to the chagrin of Rugar and the other men, but they came to accept it. What helped was that Ramie and Catta became their immediate assistants. It also helped that Clara realized that she knew nothing about running a tribe. Oh, she knew how to run a medical team in the field, and it helped, but there were things about running a hunter/gatherer community that she had no clue about. She does now because she accepted help from the other women, help offered up freely because the other women were all members of my hearth. I’m not certain that the same thing will happen when Burton establishes his community. Ruba has pointed out a couple of ex-slaves who have been organizing the other women to keep them busy while we figure out what to do about them. I’ve talked to them both and they seem like good future leaders and advisers. Unfortunately, I’ve got a feeling that Helen might not reach out to them. You saw how she was back at the settlement.”

“She was a bit standoffish at times,” Kim admitted readily, “especially when Taka was around. I don’t know what to tell you. Do you want me to speak to her?”

“Not yet,” I told her, glancing back towards where we’d left everyone else. “Burton said he’d deal with it and I’d like to give him a chance. However, there are a couple of things that I’d like you to do when we get back to base. We need to start thinking about leaving. Depending on what Lottie tells me when she gets back from her trip up north, we might be packing up quickly or we might not, but the reality is that we need to start thinking about going home. Winslow is now somewhere beyond the mountains and I’ve got to find him. You and I need to decide who is going with us, who is staying at the base, and who is going to stay with Burton. We’d been making mental lists these last few days, but now we need to finalize our choices and to put them on paper.”

“I can get on with that,” Kim declared without any reservation. “What else.”

“Language training,” I sighed in reply. “I know Ohba has been working with some of the ex-slaves, introducing them to our common tongue, but I’m not certain how many have made the effort to learn it. Now we have Forest People who will also need to learn it. It’s going to get interesting fast.”

“Maybe we should send Marta or one of the other ex-Forest People from up north down here,” Kim suggested. “It would certainly help with the integration.”

I nodded my head thoughtfully for a moment or two, musing on Kim’s words and then I sighed once again.

“I’d love to send Marta down here, at least for a year or so,” I admitted. “She’d make a good leader and she’s picked up not only our common tongue in such a short time, but some English and River dialect as well. Unfortunately that brings us back to Burton and Helen. I’m sure that Marta wouldn’t have any problems crawling into Burton’s furs if it meant she was establishing herself as one of the ‘Alpha’ women of the settlement. Personally I don’t see a problem with her doing that. It’s culturally expected and I doubt than any other local woman in the tribe would give her any grief about it, except maybe a little envy that they hadn’t done the same. However, I’m not so sure that Helen would let her.”

There was nothing that Kim could say in response to my statement except to shake her head and to let out a deep, drawn out sigh. We’d definitely have to see. Then Kim took a deep breath and turned to me. She looked at me very seriously, and then she looked away.

“What’s wrong?” I asked a second later when Kim gave me another look. “Is everything okay back at the base?”

Kim looked away for a moment and then she started to explain.

“Things are fine at the base,” Kim stated in an attempt to reassure me, “however, there is something wrong. Bob the Quartermaster has taken off.”

“What?” I exclaimed in disbelief. “When did this happen.”

“It happened while we were prepping to head out and find you,” Kim informed me. “I asked for volunteers and he was one of them. I didn’t think anything about it. I told people to pack for the trip once they’d drawn weapons and ammunition and to meet me outside the mess hall. Every other volunteer did. Bob didn’t. When I asked, I found out that someone had seen him take the last working gun truck and head out about five minutes before I saw to marshalling our vehicles. They said he left with his two girlfriends.”

“Fuck,” I said with a shake of my head trying to accept that the man would do such a stupid thing. “What the hell does he think he’s doing?”

“He thinks he’s getting away from you and what you want to do here,” Kim stated bluntly. “The guy didn’t like the idea that he wasn’t going to be the number one man around here anymore. It’s true he didn’t force women to have sex with him, and he certainly didn’t go out killing the locals like all the other bastards were doing, but he had built himself a nice little empire here and you took that away. The way it was going, he was going to go off with Burton to live in the woods and play at being cavemen; or to be precise, that was what he thought was about to happen. He didn’t want to be a flunky. He’d used his position as quartermaster to influence people. Now that he didn’t have the power to make others do what he wanted, people ignored him and actually were rude to him. Bob didn’t like it. My guess he’s headed off somewhere with his two girlfriends hoping to set up a new empire with him at the top.”

“Shit!” I exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yeah, you can say that again,” Kim muttered in response. “The good news is, he didn’t leave with much. He got a carbine and a pistol when he drew weapons like everyone else, plus a full combat load. It’ll do him for a while, but eventually he’ll run out, especially if he’s using the carbine for hunting.”

“Did anyone go after him?” I asked out of curiosity, fearing the worst.

“Tonko wanted to go, but I told him no,” Kim said. “Instead I took the time to organize a perimeter defence and to post sentries, just in case Bob decides to come back for more supplies now that he’s armed. I figured defending the base would be a better plan than traipsing after the man.”

“You’re right,” I reassured Kim, smiling warmly at her as I did. “It’s a better plan for now. I do think we’ll need to go after Bob eventually, but that might be a job for Burton to tend to once we head back. He is going to have to start running things.”

Kim agreed. By then it was dark and we’d walked as far as the river. We stopped and looked at it for a moment. The river wasn’t as turbulent here as it was further up stream. Part of that was because the grade had levelled out a short distance past the gap that led into the upper valley, and part of it was because the river had widened some, and there was a couple of twists and turns in it that had slackened the flow. It was shallower as well. However it still was cold.

“Not tonight,” Kim chuckled softly as I looked at the water wondering if I should go for a dip. “Tomorrow is going to be a long day and we’ll need to get up early to see that the solar arrays are up and charging the vehicles. If you want, we can go for a dip tomorrow, once everyone else is working, or if you’re smart you’ll wait till we get back to the base. Warm water would be so much nicer, particularly if you’re planning to play.”

I nodded and smiled. Kim was right. Tomorrow would be a long day, and warm water would be much better. I agreed and then I leaned down and kissed her tenderly on the lips. Once our embrace was finished we turned back towards the camp. Sleep was awaiting us.

We spent the morning charging the batteries of the ATVs. That allowed the uptime people who’d come with Kim the opportunity to stretch their legs and to have some fun. Murphy had come along, and it turned out that he knew how to ride. I let him and a couple of the other men head off to do some hunting in the upper part of the valley. I sent Burton along with them, to show them the way and to get him working with these people. They returned shortly after noon, dragging three fresh kills behind their horses. Burton had dropped another elk whilst Murphy and one of his friends had dropped a deer each. It made everyone happy, and it ensured that we’d have ample meat when we got back to the base for supper.

The trip back turned out to be uneventful. The women and children panicked a bit when we first headed out, freaking when the ATVs started moving. A couple of the children actually leapt from the back decks wailing with fright. I had to stop and explain the vehicles to them.

It helped when I explained that not only was I the leader of the Bear Tribe, but that I was the tribe’s shaman as well. While I was honest about the vehicles, doing my best to keep away from the belief that they were magical, the fact I was a shaman controlling the vehicles helped settle everyone down so we could head off again. It turned out that knowing that a shaman was there to protect them from evil forces was all they really needed to know. I let it be for the time being since we all wanted to hit the road and get back to the base. Two hours later we were there. I called a meeting that night, limiting it to the people I’d brought down with me. I wanted to point out that it was now time to think about going home. All of them were in agreement.

I did point out to everyone my plan involving Burton and Monty. I mentioned the fact that I wanted Sygor, Ozmat, and Holgar to stay with Burton and to help him out. I also mentioned that there would be opportunities for other volunteers to do the same. Both Burton and Monty would need men and women who understood our tribe so they could help integrate everyone we’d rescued into the community. Talking about that brought up questions which I did my best to answer.

The concept of one leader over many villages was something my downtime people needed to get their heads around. The Plains People and the River People were the only ones in my tribe, before coming to Winslow’s base, who came from a multi-village society. The others had lived in one village that made up the whole tribe. Even so, the others who’d been raised in a multi-village society had never heard of one leader ruling all the villages. They knew of councils made up of various elders from each of the villages, but no one man controlled everyone. My proposal that we set up multiple settlements and that they all answered to me was something new. Fortunately most of my people really didn’t have a problem with it once I explained how it worked. The only one to push the issue was Sygor, and I got the impression he was doing it to be obstinate. I was still pushing him to stay with Burton and he still wanted to go north with me to deal with Winslow, and it was becoming clear to me and the others that Sygor was going to be a pain in the butt until the issue was resolved.

The discussion did end on a high note. To the surprise of everyone, both youths wanted to take a mate from amongst the ex-slaves. As it turned out, both young men had been busy since our arrival, meeting and greeting many of the young women who’d been liberated. They’d been helped in this by Ohba, who I quickly found out had been playing match maker in a very mischievous manner.

The fact was that since arriving and liberating the base, Ohba had been introducing me to a number of young local women, such as the three young women who’d helped out at the funeral and who’d spent the night at sea with me afterwards. It quickly became clear that not only did Ohba buy into the idea that a woman sleeping with me was somehow purified, but she’d sold the idea to Ozmat and Holgar. Two of the young women who’d spent the night at sea with me believed they were pregnant. I knew that it was highly unlikely that if they were pregnant that the child would be mine considering that we’d only had sex together once and that was less than a week ago. It was definitely too soon for ‘my child’ to make its presence known, however I didn’t press the point, at least publicly. The chances were that the two young women had been impregnated by one of their tormentors. Even if that was true, it didn’t really matter. The women believed they were now purified and Ozmat and Holgar believed it as well. I simply congratulated the two young men and told them we’d talk in the morning. I now had a wedding ceremony to plan.

That night I found myself in bed with two more young women that I’d probably only spoken to once and that was when I was interviewing everyone and dealing out justice. It didn’t matter as Kim was there along with Ohba. I’d have to have a chat with the young woman. I didn’t object to her matchmaking efforts, but I really didn’t like where the whole game was going. I had no god-like aspirations, and I certainly would rather people get over their cultural hang ups on their own without falling back on some false belief. I knew in my heart that I was simply arguing with myself and that no one else saw matters that way. I still wanted to talk to the young woman. Later, though, since I did have to admit that both of the young women Ohba had brought to me were definitely a pretty sight.

Lottie, Sarah, and Rita returned from the northern base the next morning. They’d made the flight up the day before taking Durt and Joko home. They’d also transported up the skid steer tractor and all its attachments, some of the seed stock that had been sent us, one of the two metal ploughs, and some miscellaneous supplies including some flour. When they got back and finished servicing the helicopter they came to see me.

“First off, everyone up north is fine,” Lottie declared before I could even open my mouth, smiling broadly as she did. “There is still a ton of snow on the ground up there, but it is melting. It does mean that no work has really started on any of the projects that you left for Rugar and the others to do. It also means that the pass is still closed through the mountains to the north, so if you want to head after Winslow soon, we’re going to have to fly.”

I thought about that for a moment. I hadn’t quite decided yet on how I was going to go after Winslow and his gang of thugs, but flying over the mountains seemed to be the best option. I could probably just make it through the pass on foot, with snowshoes and a lot of effort, but it could be done if necessary. I just hadn’t decided if it was that necessary.

“How was your fuel consumption on the flight up and back?” I enquired a moment or two later, deciding that information might be a determining factor in what we did next.

“It was what I had expected, given the load we were carrying and atmospheric conditions,” Lottie replied with a dismissive shrug of her shoulder. “We still had fuel in the tank when we got back, but not much. Rita did recover the fuel from the Puma. She’s going to have to filter it and test it, but she thinks we’ll get a flight out of it.”

“Okay,” I responded automatically, my mind already moving on, “and just how much fuel does Rita have left in the two tanker trucks she’d got parked down the hill, and how many flights does that add up to in the Chinook.”

Lottie paused for a moment to think about it, and then sighed.

“We just drained one tanker dry,” Lottie reported solemnly. “That leaves the other tanker almost full. Depending on consumption, weather, and how much bang we get out of the fuel we have, I’d have to say we’ve got five to six flights left and that includes the fuel from the Puma. It’s not much.”

“Well, it’s more than I expected,” I reassured Lottie, “although we will still need to make efficient use of the fuel we have. For now, take the day off and rest. Kim and I are putting together our final list of who’s staying and who’s leaving, plus a look at what we want transferred down from the settlement, to here. I haven’t seen a single herd of horses around here, so I think on your next flight back from the settlement I’m going to want a stallion or two brought along. We’ll see. We can talk about it later.”

Sarah did tell me one more thing before taking off to get a hot shower and some clean clothing. It turned out that Beverly, the former food services girl from the southern compound, knew how to operate a skid steer tractor. I was definitely surprised hearing the news and I had to ask about it.

“It turns out that Beverly’s father ran a construction company back on our Earth,” Sarah informed me, smiling cheerfully as she did, “and her daddy allowed her to play. In fact, according to Beverly, she worked two summers for her dad, before getting hired by Quantum. I just don’t know how the hell she ever ended up working food services. You’d think someone would have set her to work down here, helping build the base and operating the equipment.”