Chapter 58

Monty came to see me in the morning. He’d flown the drone north yesterday, and he had video for me to look at.

He’d taken the drone straight up our valley and through the pass, and then flown it about the plateau, looking for signs of Winslow and his men, and the Horse People. Then before turning the drone back around and flying it home, he’d taken it back down our original valley to see if he could spot any sign of the Hilltop people.

I quickly found out that Monty had good news and bad. The bad news was he hadn’t spotted any sign of Winslow or his goons during this flight. He promised to keep trying, but both of us knew that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Winslow could have gone anywhere after his arrival in the north.

The good news was that the pass through the mountain was still blocked with snow. It was melting, as was the snow in our valley; but from what I could see on the recordings he’d made I would have had an arduous time walking through the pass, even wearing snowshoes. Given the fact that Winslow and company had only the clothing that they’d been wearing when they stepped through the Gateway, there was no way that they could try and make the trek. The same went for Mondo and his people. Horses would have had a bitch of a time making it through, especially without fodder for them. For the time being, my people were safe.

Monty had flown the drone to where the Horse People wintered. Gogra and Tonko had told us where to look. It was a small valley that ran from the plateau up to the escarpment in the west. The valley was sheltered and the escarpment had caves in it which the Horse People could shelter in through the winter. Monty found their herd of horses near the escarpment wall with the herd definitely looked smaller than I remembered it. He also spotted a few handlers keeping an eye on the animals. When we played back the video, and zoomed in as well as we could, I could tell that the Horse People had suffered through the long winter. The handlers looked thin and haggard, as did the horses.

The flight up our old valley showed nothing that would suggest that Winslow and his goons were still there. Herds of bison and wild cattle appeared plentiful near what was left of the Hilltop village, but the drone didn’t pick up any sign of survivors. Personally I hoped that Winslow and his goons hadn’t found the caves where the Hilltop people wintered. Gort had told me roughly where they were and Monty had flown over the area, but had come up with nothing. For now we left the matter at that. With a promise that he’d expand the search in a day or two, once the drone was charged and serviced again; I left Monty to his work and I headed off to do mine.

My day proved to be a bit of a repeat of the day before. I met with people in the morning, speaking to Kim, Lottie, Murphy, and Burton, before heading out to do some hunting with the boys. My meeting with Kim was short and to the point as we were getting ready to depart. I let her know what Monty had found and what he hadn’t found, and let each other know our plans for the day. Then I spoke to Lottie. She was heading back up to the settlement tomorrow with another load of people and equipment. I made certain that Gogra was on the flight. She promised to ensure that it happened.

My chat with Murphy was short and sweet as well. I found him stripping the engine of the stake truck as he’d plugged the engine into the factory diagnostic kit and now he was trying to fix what the machine had told him to fix. The issue, though, was parts. Murphy told me that somehow, and he didn’t know why or how, parts for the trucks had been left behind when the base had been built and initially stocked. That meant Murphy was doing his best to cannibalize compatible components from other vehicles to try and get the stake truck working again, and he was trying to make what he didn’t have a replacement for. He warned me that there was a good chance the truck wouldn’t run again. I just nodded my understanding, and left him to it. Personally I was divided with regards to the truck. It was a useful tool to have, but it was an impossible tool to maintain, and in this world, here and now, horses were better. I did leave Murphy with one idea before I let him be. I suggest stripping down any vehicle that no longer worked and using the chassis to construct more wagons as wagons would be useful. He said he’d look into it.

Burton came and went as he’d done the day before. He promised me he’d be back later in the day and that we’d speak when he got back. He took with him more supplies and more people. By now he’d transported almost a hundred people to the site of the new settlement. This time he was taking a group of women and children with him. From what I knew from Kim, Burton had a couple of trips left to make before everyone would be in place. I wished him a good day and then let him go.

Lottie had brought back more horses with her from up north. That meant I could put together a bigger hunting party than the day before which I did. It also meant that we could travel a little further afield, even though the day was a third done by the time we mounted up and headed out. This time I dragged Dunbar along for the trip, as well as few people I hadn’t been interacting with as of late. I found Gort, Geeta, and Bogdi and invited them to come along which they agreed to do.

I rounded off the hunting party by asking Gogra to come with us as well as Ruba and Ohba. All three said yes. That gave me a hunting party of eight, with each of us mounted and leading a packhorse.

This time we rode into the small valley just before where the Forest People had lived. We moved swiftly through it until we hit a couple of hills at the head of the valley. We headed up them and then along a narrow pathway that took us up onto the top of the escarpment. Once on top we swung our mounts towards the southeast and I led the way through the trees for another five miles or so until we hit a drop off. At that point we pulled up short.

Dunbar’s surveillance had come up with the place that stood below us. The escarpment fell away at this point, shifting from a rocky outcropping to rolling tree-covered hills and then into a hidden hollow. The hollow was fairly large with a meadow that was covered in a bed of new grass, ferns, and wild flowers upon which a herd of deer were grazing. It was a very impressive sight as there had to be at least fifty of them.

We were above them and well over five hundred feet away, and for the moment they were oblivious to us. I hoped, silently, that it would stay that way.

I dismounted and took my mount and tethered it to a small tree with the rest of the party doing the same. Then we gathered together to discuss how we would begin the hunt. We had a few options, but once again our choices were determined by our weapons. Of the eight of us, four in the party were armed only with rifles. That was Dunbar, Geeta, Ruba, and Ohba who were all using the heavy .338-calibre hunting rifles. It meant that technically, they could open fire from where we were standing and down four, if not more, kills. The draw back to that reality was the fact that the rest of us wouldn’t get a chance to prove our prowess as hunters; something no one wanted.

After talking a bit, and watching the herd as it grazed, we worked out a plan. I left Dunbar and Ruba with our mounts and the pack horses. I sent Geeta and Ohba off into the woods alone as I wanted them to find a track around the herd and towards the woods just south of the meadow. I was certain the deer would bolt in that direction when they either caught a whiff of us, or we opened up on them. I wanted the two young women to act like a cork in a bottle, keeping the animals from fleeing until everyone had made at least one kill. As for the rest of us, we headed off in an easterly direction, hoping to find a track that would take us down closer to the meadow from that direction, so we could get shots with our bows.

Gort found a track that went east for about two hundred feet, sloping down into a rugged ravine that ran off the escarpment towards the south. It ran for about three hundred feet before it broke into open forest. At that point we spread out with bows strung and arrows nocked, and walked carefully back towards the meadow and the herd.

We were moving into place when the herd leader became spooked. I don’t know if he’d heard us approaching or caught our scent, but a second after he had, the big buck snorted an alarm and the herd was off.

“Shit!” I exclaimed aloud when it happened.

Even as I cursed, I brought my bow up and took aim. I heard the report of a rifle, and then another. A doe I’d been tracking with my bow dropped before I loosed the arrow and instinctively I changed target. I let the arrow go, and then I pulled another arrow from my quiver and prepared to fire again.

There was pandemonium out on the meadow. The big buck had headed straight for where I’d sent Geeta and Ohba, and to his surprise he’d found the path barred by the two young women. The buck had turned aside, trying to take his herd around where the women had situated themselves. He didn’t get far as one of the women dropped him. At that point it became every deer for him or herself.

When the dust had settled and the bulk of the herd had made it clear of our fire, I strode out into the open to see how we’d done. I was quickly joined by the others. To our pleasant surprise we’d done amazingly well. In fact, we’d done better than I’d even hoped for. In total my party had dropped almost a quarter of the herd, or to be more precise, twenty-six deer.

It was more than I’d intended, but I wasn’t complaining as my people needed the meat. It definitely wouldn’t go to waste, especially since the base had refrigeration units. It did mean that all of us would have to pitch in to process the kills, and it would definitely take all our horses to haul it back. With that thought in mind, I turned and signalled Dunbar and Ruba to bring the horses down. Then after posting Gogra to stand watch, I went and joined the others who’d already started processing the kills.

I was sitting at a table in the mess hall when Burton returned. It was late and I’d finished eating a while ago, and was sitting drinking a cup of tea and writing. That was something that I’d started doing since taking the base. I’d found plenty of paper and pens, and I was hand writing a journal. In a way, it was an account of everything that had happened to me since getting stuck in the here and now. I spent most of the time trying to remember dates in relation to our old recollection of time. I had a feeling that dates would be important in the journal, someday down the road. I’d even picked Kim’s brains about stuff that had happened to her back on our Earth, leading up to Ridgeway contacting her because I felt that was important as well. Eventually, I planned on talking to everyone from uptime who’d come through with Kim or because of her. I wanted to account for everything that had happened to them that resulted in them being here with me. Most people just smiled knowingly when I asked them a question and then answered me with not one asking about the journal. I had a feeling about that as well, but for now I didn’t dwell upon it. I just kept on writing, in between everything else.

“So how’s it going at the new site?” I asked Burton when he finally sat down across from me. “Have you started the settlement yet?”

“Not yet,” Burton responded as he picked up his knife and fork so he could eat. He had a plate of venison ragout. The venison was from another kill, made by Tonko a day ago, and not from the kills we’d brought back today. The cooks had made rice to go with it, and they’d served local greens that the women had gone out and foraged today. I’d had a plate a little while ago and it had been good. Burton took a mouthful of his food before continuing on. “We’re actually looking at a different place to establish the settlement. There’s another hill to the northeast of the hill we stayed on. It’s about twice the size and it backs up to a ridge of land that’ll provide us with some shelter. More importantly, there’s about fifty acres of open field on three sides of it and a deep stream flows down the hill and through the area. The survey team should be done looking it over by tomorrow and if they think that it’s the best location to build, then that’s what we’ll do. I’ll let you know tomorrow.”

“Have you considered a ceremony?” I asked Burton in a thoughtful manner. “We didn’t do one back at the old settlement, but then we weren’t really thinking of ourselves as the Bear Tribe. Now that we are, we might want to put on a show for the natives; so to speak. What do you think?”

“I can see how that might make people think positively about what we’re doing,” Burton muttered as he cut into a piece of venison and then forked it. “Would you be presiding?”

“I should,” I stated firmly as the man shovelled food in his mouth. “I’m the shaman, until I can figure out a way to confirm you as such in the eyes of the locals. I’m going to have to think about that. I might have to employ a little magic, or some sleight of hand. In fact, I think we’ll be having a number of ceremonies rolled up into one. I want to do a naming ceremony for some of the key people staying behind, both here and at your settlement. I’ll need to confirm both Monty and you as my sub-chiefs. Let me think about it for a bit. I’ll get back to you on my plans. I do think that it should be done before you start digging, and definitely before I head back home.”

“Have you decided on that yet?” Burton enquired pointedly, his voice going all serious.

“Monty flew a drone north yesterday and he didn’t find any sign of Winslow, except what I’ve told you about already,” I responded with a hint of frustration and anger in my voice. “He’ll be flying another one tomorrow, taking the drone out over the northern plain. Hopefully, he’ll find something. Regardless of whether he does or he doesn’t, I still need to think about heading back north. Lottie is burning up helicopter fuel like there is no tomorrow, and we’ll be down to fumes very soon. I might even have Rita drain the Huey. I’d been going to leave it for you to use, but with the number of people we’ve been flying north, we really haven’t been taking back as much gear as I’d like. I’ve got the feeling that I’m going to have to shift the bulk of it by packhorse the way it’s going. I’m just thankful we haven’t run into any more survivors of Winslow’s carnage as I’ve no idea where to put anyone else, let alone the people we’re already taking care of.”

“Speaking of more people,” Burton muttered after taking a swig of his drink. “Patar and the Forest People showed up just before I left today. I left Sygor and Sakkor see to them and to make certain they got settled. I promised Patar I’d speak to him tomorrow when I got back. Oh, and Dekat and his people have been sniffing about in an attempt to see what we’re up to in the valley. So far they’ve kept their distance, but I’m certain that once we start building and ploughing, they’ll be coming by for a visit.”

“Well, I’ll leave them for you to deal with,” I told Burton dismissively. “I’d prefer that they became part of the tribe, or they move on to another location to live. I definitely don’t want them causing us trouble. We’ve spilt too much blood already.”

Burton agreed. He said he’d deal with the other tribe if necessary, but he wouldn’t pressure them too much, as yet. There was just too much work to do at the other site to worry about the neighbours, particularly as the neighbours were behaving themselves.

I left Burton at that point as it was late and I knew that I was going to have another long night. I headed back to my bed and the women who’d be waiting for me in it. I’d do my duty with a smile, and then I’d get some sleep.

The next morning Burton took off once more, his convoy loaded with more people and more supplies; and, much to my surprise, with Helen. I didn’t say a word about that. I just watched her climb into a seat in one of the ATVs, and then waved to the whole departing group as they drove away. Then I went and told Kim about it.

“I know,” Kim admitted. “Burton saw me this morning and he told me that he was taking Helen with him. They haven’t made up or anything like that, and Burton was still holding the line about the leadership situation; but he did feel that Helen would be better off in his settlement, than in ours. I didn’t argue with him about it, particularly since it did mean that Burton was taking responsibility for a person that neither Monty nor you wanted anything to do with. I just told him that I hoped it worked out for him.”

“I do as well,” I murmured thoughtfully in reply, silently thanking the spirits for letting me dodge that bullet altogether.

“Well, now that Burton has solved that problem for you, what are you going to do about Dr. von Stubbing?” Kim enquired, eyeing me in all seriousness as she asked the question. “We can’t just leave him here; at least, not without a minder. The way things are going, there isn’t anyone left here who has the time to babysit him. What are you going to do?”

I hadn’t given von Stubbing any thought lately as I’d been too busy with other stuff. Even so, Kim was right. My initial plan had been for Hendrick to watch over him, but from the way things were going, and particularly if Monty is forced to move the base, Hendrick wouldn’t be able to do that. That left me with another problem that I needed to resolve before we headed home.

“I don’t know,” I told Kim flatly. “I still need the man. If he can open the Gateway even once back to Earth, then that would be a plus according to the way I see things. Unfortunately, the good doctor has said he can’t. I don’t know if he’s telling the truth or not, but I know torturing the man to find out would only kill him. I guess I should go and have a chat with him.”

“I guess,” Kim muttered in agreement. “Shall I come along?”

The answer to that was yes. I’d need all the help I could get in speaking to the good doctor. I even brought Dunbar along.

We walked up to the temporary shelter where the Gateway was erected. Dr. von Stubbing was there under guard, sitting at a desk scribbling away on a note pad. His feet were shackled and a chain ran from the shackles to the frame of his bed. The man needed a bath.

“So, you remember me,” the good doctor declared upon seeing us walk in, speaking heavily accented English. “It’s about time!”

“Now, now Doctor,” I scolded the man as I came to a halt several feet from him. “If you keep up with that attitude, I might just forget you for ever. If I do that, so will everyone else. I’m certain even a man like you can figure out what that would mean. You’d end up dead, most likely starved to death. Is that what you want?”

“No, I don’t want that,” Dr. von Stubbing stated plainly. “I want to go back to our Earth. Why didn’t you just let me leave when the Gateway opened? You know I’m no use to you here. This Gateway doesn’t work well without a nuclear power source.”

“Are you certain about that Doctor?” I asked the man, pressing him on the issue. “Is there no way to boost the power that you have available here and now, without us having to build a nuclear reactor for you, which isn’t likely to happen? I only need the Gateway open long enough to get a message through to our world. After that, the blasted thing can stay closed for all I care.”

“So that was how it was done,” Dr. von Stubbing growled in reply. “Somehow, you got this Gateway to work long enough to get a message through to that traitor. Well, I will not help you do it. I would rather die than allow you to win.”

I just sighed and shook my head in wonder at the stupidity of the man. Then I fixed my gaze upon him, giving him the look usually reserved for young recruits who think they can pull something over on their platoon sergeant.

“Listen up, Doc,” I told the older man crisply. “We’ve already won! You’re stuck here on this Earth, and Winslow is off in the north, wandering around looking for someone who is currently out of his reach. You can’t go home, and neither can he! Whether you help me or not, it is clear to me ... and everyone else ... that a Gateway did open at some point, and a message did get through to General Ridgeway. He, as you know, messed up Winslow’s and your plans on world domination. Now you’ve got a choice to make. You can help make that Gateway happen, or you can piss me off and not cooperate. If you do that, then I’ll simply kill you and figure this problem out by myself. If you do cooperate, I’ll send you through with that message. That will allow you to return home. I’m sure the government will give you a job. Now what do you think about that?”

I could tell exactly what Dr. von Stubbing thought about that. He didn’t even have to say a word in reply. His face did all the talking for him and it was plain to see that he wasn’t interested. The good doctor was a fanatic to the end. I just sighed when the man didn’t even think of a reply to give me.

“Okay, Doc,” I told the man. “You’ve made your choice. Now I’m going to make mine. I’m going to leave you in the loving and tender care of my two friends here. I want to know exactly how to power up the Gateway and how to use it. They’re going to ask you how to make that happen. If you refuse to answer them, then they’ll torture you. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll try something else, but one way or another you are going to talk.”

Dr. von Stubbing didn’t respond, or at least not verbally. He glanced from me to Dunbar and Kim, and then back at me. Then suddenly he leapt from his seat, overturning the table as he did. As he stood, he grabbed for the metal chair that he’d been sitting upon. Even as he picked it up, both Dunbar and I were scrambling towards the man in an effort to stop him. Kim proved faster than we were. She also proved deadlier. She pulled her pistol and shot the man.

Dr. von Stubbing didn’t know what hit him, literally. Kim was so fast on the draw and so accurate in firing that she put a bullet into the man’s heart and killed him before he had a chance to do anything. The man staggered back a bit from the impact of the round. He dropped the chair that he’d picked up, and then his whole body just went limp and he collapsed in a heap on the ground.

“Shit!” I declared as I skidded to a stop next to the man.

“Oh, fuck!” Dunbar gasped a second later.

“No,” Kim exclaimed half a second later. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

I knew that Kim hadn’t meant to do that. Dr. von Stubbing had taken us all by surprise. No one had expected the man to get physical. He was old and feeble, and he was chained to a bed. Even so, the man had tried to do something unexpected. He might have intended to fling the chair at the Gateway in an attempt to damage it, or he could have meant to attack one or more of us with the chair. We’d never know as the man was now dead. I just shook my head in disbelief and then I stepped over to where Kim was standing in shock. I took her pistol from her, and then I pulled her into my arms.

“It’s all right,” I whispered as Kim clung to me. “We’ll figure something out.”

“You’ve got to be kidding?” Monty stated in utter disbelief upon hearing the news. He looked at me and then he looked at Kim, eyeing her questioningly. “You shot him?”

“It was instinctive,” Kim pleaded in her defence. “He had the chair in his hands and he was getting ready to fling it. I didn’t know if he was going fling it at Jake or at the Gateway. I just went for my pistol. The next thing I knew was that I’d shot him. He was dead before I even realized it. I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I told Kim, reaching out and squeezing her hand in an attempt to reassure her. “It just happened and there’s nothing we can do to change that fact. All we can do now is to put it behind us and move on.”

“Can we move on?” Monty asked with a skeptical look on his face. “The Gateway was von Stubbing’s toy. He didn’t share too much information on it with the people who worked with him, and most of those went back to our Earth when the last Gateway opened. I think you’ve got one systems engineer left and she’s ploughing fields for Burton. I think you’re screwed as far as this Gateway is concerned.”

“I don’t,” I told him bluntly and perhaps a little optimistically. “I think we can get it working. It might not happen today or in twenty years, but one day that Gateway is going to work and when it does, somebody is going to get a message to General Ridgeway, and that message is going to start all of this, from me getting hired by Quantum to all of you people getting hired to come through the Gateway to help me out.”

“Are you that certain about this?” Kim asked still looking somewhat dejected about what had happened. “What if I just screwed everything up?”

“You didn’t,” I told Kim firmly and with confidence in my voice.

“But how can you know she didn’t?” Monty asked pointedly, still looking at me skeptically. “What proof do you have?”

“My proof is you people,” I told him plainly, fixing my gaze upon his doubting stare. “You people showed up. Somebody told Ridgeway to hire you people and to get you to that compound just when my people were captured. You know that General Ridgeway implied it was me. I know we don’t speak about it, but it’s true. He convinced Kim to come here for me. For all I know, the General could have been manipulating all of us from the start.”

“Is that why you’ve been writing your journal?” Dunbar asked from the doorway of the temporary shelter. He’d been off with the guard getting rid of von Stubbing’s body. Now he was back.

“It’s one of the reasons,” I admitted willingly. “I really don’t know if I personally tell Ridgeway about Winslow, Quantum, and all of this. For all I know, it might be one of you who passes this information on to him. But I can’t be certain, so I’m writing everything down the way it happened, putting in every instance that the Gateway was used and what we think happened when it was used. One day I’m hoping that the document will reach the General, and then ... well who knows what might occur. Maybe at the end of all of this we’ll get to go home.”

“I thought you viewed this place as home?” Kim stated looking at me with surprise on her face, and a little concern.

“I do,” I stated firmly. “If the Gateway opens and Ridgeway orders me home, I’ll tell him ‘no.’ I’m not in the service any more, although technically I am on the Active Reserve List. That really doesn’t mean much. I’d be staying regardless. I’d hope you people would stay as well.”

“You know we wouldn’t leave,” Kim swore emphatically. “I came here for you, and I certainly wouldn’t leave you if you chose to stay.”

“That still leaves this Gateway and what you want us to do with it,” Monty pointed out rather than respond to Kim’s declaration. “What about it?”

“Try and figure it out,” I told him. “There has to be an operator’s manual somewhere. Unlock the good doctor’s laptop and read what he’s written there. Look at the controls. There has to be someway of using it to our advantage. I still think we can put a hole through to our Earth, even though it might not happen for years and years. All we can do is to try and make it work.”

“All right,” Monty replied sighing as he did. “It’ll be a chore, but hell ... what else do we have to do around here? I’ll see if that systems engineer wants to come back here for a bit. You never know.”

“No you never do,” I admitted ruefully, looking about the interior of the temporary shelter as I said it; taking in the over turned table, the scattered papers and pens, the metal chair, and the pool of blood lying on the ground. You certainly never knew.

That night we had a naming ceremony. Gogra had returned from our settlement with his mate and all their possessions. After informing me of his intent to take the two ex-River women as his mates, he’d expected me to just agree, particularly since he’d already spoken to me about his intentions. I just shook my head and then told him to send his mate to speak to me. I think that surprised Gogra.

Korta was a short, spare looking woman who’s face was weathered and wrinkled and her hair was grey. Technically she was a year younger than Gogra, but in appearance she looked older. It didn’t help that she was missing teeth in her mouth as it gave her a decrepit appearance that was hard to shake, even though her voice was strong and her eyes burnt brightly when I spoke to her.

“You surprised Gogra,” Korta cackled once we were sitting alone. “He expected you to say yes and not speak to me. I knew different. You are a man like most men, but you are also different. Your tribe has many women in it and you see that. More importantly, you know their value. Gogra is a good man and a good leader, and he will do well here in this strange place. But you are the true leader. Remember that.”

As it turned out, there really wasn’t much to talk about. Korta didn’t mind the fact that Gogra was going to take two other women as his mates. She was too old to be bothered by that. She would still be Gogra’s first mate, and that would be enough. She would sit at Gogra’s fire and share his furs, and all would know she was important to him and to the tribe. Korta promised to work with the other women, particularly in teaching them our ways. I thanked her for that.