Chapter 22

Mack and Kathy are searching for vegetables.

... As they made their way through an area with undergrowth interspersed with fewer trees, Mack noticed that Kathy had drawn her weapon.

Mack stopped and pulled on some smaller vines that were hanging from a tree. Satisfied with their strength, he began cutting the vines to the lengths he needed with Thad’s knife. At Kathy’s inquisitive look, “We don’t have a way to carry any vegetables we might find, and I don’t want to have to retrace our steps looking for vines if we do luck up and find something.”

A few minutes later, Kathy holstered her weapon, but it was obvious that she was nervous as she began to help weave the vines into crude nets. When the nets were finished, Mack handed Kathy one, chuckled and said, “We might as well be positive. We’ll carry the vegetables we find in these.”

“If we find any,” she said, but at least she grinned.

A couple of minutes later, as they forced their way through another dense area, something made a sound and rushed away through the bushes. Kathy’s gun was instantly in her hand again.

“Easy, Girl,” Mack said with a chuckle, “As long as it’s running away from us, we’re okay. It’s the ones that come toward us that we need to worry about.”

“I know that,” she half-snarled back at him, “but that thing back at one million wanted to eat us, and every time I hear a sudden noise out here, I think of that beast trying to force its way into our cave. It knew we were in there, but it waited most of the night before suddenly charging in. Even as fast as Thad is, it had half its body inside the cave before his pulse killed it.”

“Thad said we should wait on the thing to try to come into the cave. I wanted to go out with us both firing our guns and get it over with, but as usual, his way turned out for the best. He said that we would make it attack on our terms.”

A little later, they found several ground-hugging plants that might be edible. Mack took a tiny bite of the first one but wrinkled his brow as he spat repeatedly. “Trust me. Nothing can eat that.”

Giggling, Kathy handed him her canteen so he could rinse his mouth. “Any ill effects other than the taste?” she asked, seemingly concerned.

“No. And I suppose it was rather stupid of me to just taste it like that, but I only took the tiniest piece into my mouth, and I certainly didn’t swallow it.”

“Some poisons only require a tiny bit to kill,” she offered.

“Yeah, I know,” he replied as he leaned his head back a little to take a sip from the canteen. That was when he saw it.

“There,” he said while pointing. “That tree way over there by itself on the slope — the one with the animals under it. They are the same type we’ve been eating. I think they’re spaced out like that because they hate each other, not to mention anything else that happens to come near. Their meat is good, though, and we’ve been eating it for the last week or so, but never let one of them get near you. They’re faster than you might think, and dangerous. If you meet one coming in your direction, don’t hesitate to fire and hope you’re fast and accurate enough. Oh, they’re easy enough to take down, but never give one of those things a chance. And by the way, I think the tree they’re under is the type with the potato-like fruit that I told you about.”

As Kathy took a step, Mack reached to touch her arm. “Take your gun out and let’s just calmly walk in their direction. Maybe they’ll see us and leave. I hope I don’t have to kill one of the things, but I won’t waste a pulse firing into the air just to scare them off.”

When they got close, the animals stopped their searching in the thick weeds, raised their heads and looked at them. Before they could charge, Mack threw a rock the size of his fist as hard as he could. He was aiming for one of the animal’s side, but the beast moved just as Mack released the missile. Instead of the rock hitting the animal’s side, it hit its head. With a startled grunt, it went down. With that, the other two must have decided they had better things to do. Ill-tempered or not, they sped off as Mack sent more rocks flying in their direction.

“Well, crap,” he grumbled. “I didn’t mean to kill the thing. As big as they are, I never thought a rock would take one down. Oh, well, look here,” he said with a chuckle as he kicked about in the thick weeds and grass before leaning over to pick up two of the fruit-like things that must have dropped from the large tree, then stood for a moment looking up into the tree. “This is the fruit-like things I was telling you about before. They taste a little like a potato, but there’s a hint of orange too. Whatever, they’re decent to eat, and the taste tends to grow on you.” As he stood looking around, he continued, “There seems to be a lot of them on the ground, and the tree is loaded as well. Another good thing about them is they don’t spoil quickly. We humans tend to tire when we have to repeatedly eat the same type of food, but for a different taste, you can roast, fry or boil the things, and they’re not that bad raw. With these and the meat, we should have plenty of food for the near future.”

“We still need something green, and if we could find something to substitute for coffee, that would be great too,” Kathy said wistfully.

“Agreed, but there are also many types of teas. Maybe we can find a substitute.”

“Hopefully, we won’t have to be here that long. But what about the animal you killed?”

“I can’t just leave it lying there to go to waste,” Mack replied with a sigh. “We’ll take a load of the potato fruit back with us, then I’ll come back, field dress Mr. Ornery and take him back to the cave. Looks as if we’ll be up late drying meat again tonight. If you don’t mind, give me a hand, and I’ll hook his feet in the fork of that tree over there. I might as well cut his throat and let him bleed out.”

“You want me to help you lift that thing up into a tree?” Kathy began with a hint of secretary coming through.

“Come on, Kathy, all you have to do is help lift it until I can catch its legs in that fork there,” he said while pointing.

Kathy wasn’t enthusiastic about touching the beast, but she had helped butcher others like it, so helping to lift the beast shouldn’t be too bad.

When they drew close, with Mack’s rifle casually pointed at the beast, he motioned for Kathy to wait a moment while he nudged it with a boot. On the second nudge, there was a sound, and Mack motioned Kathy well back. After another even harder nudge, the animal grunted, staggered to its feet, stared at the weapon pointed at its head for a heartbeat, then with its mind apparently clearing, it dashed for the woods at high speed.

As they stood laughing, “See what I mean about fast?” Mack asked.

“I would never have thought that thing could run like that.”

“That rock must have made a believer out of it, but I’m glad to see it go,” he said with a sigh. “We have fresh meat at the cave, and I didn’t want to process another animal this afternoon. “Continue to keep a sharp lookout for anything happening around us, but let’s fill our nets with the fruit things. Now, if we can just find something green to go with these, we’ll have food for the next several weeks.

With as much fruit as Kathy thought she could carry and with Mack’s net full, he said, “Let’s take our find back to the cave. We can always come back another day and continue our search for other types of vegetables.”

As they made their way along, Mack’s mind drifted. He felt embarrassed as he looked over at the young woman walking beside him. Telling himself there was no logical reason for the feeling only confused him more. Janie was gone, and according to Kathy, it had been several years since she lost her husband. He still loved and missed Janie, but he realized that the raw edge of his sorrow had eased with the passing of a couple of years.

I’ll never forget her and our time together, Never, but why did I kiss Kathy? A couple of moments prior to the kiss, I hadn’t even been thinking about it. When she sat and turned to face me, we were suddenly close together, and her mouth looked so inviting. Did I see a kindred soul in her because she, too, has lost a spouse? What does she think of me?

Mack surreptitiously glanced again at the young woman walking beside him. Thad is younger, isn’t he? Well, maybe not in actual years. Not with Temporal’s lack of aging, but he looks younger than I do, but not by much. Might as well face it, he’s a lot better looking, too, but Janie picked me out of all those other guys.

Hmmm. From the discussions of Temporal we’ve had, it’s evident that nothing would be said if Kathy decided to live with someone at Temporal. Many people in my time did that without anything much being thought about it, but still, Kathy seems not to have formed a sexual relationship with anyone at Temporal. At least, that was the implication from Thad’s remarks about her.

For the first hour or so after we returned from our little excursion to the top of the bluff, Kathy avoided eye contact with me. She fussed over Thad, virtually ignoring me as she arranged the two small pillows for Thad to lean against as he ate, but she acted as she normally does around me during our search today. Does that mean I’m forgiven for kissing her? Crap, get your mind off that and onto something productive.

Back at the cave, they emptied both nets into the far back corner. Since there was little sunlight there, Mack hoped the potato fruit would last longer stored in the back.

After washing three of the fruit, Kathy peeled, thinly sliced, and put them on to fry. They weren’t potatoes, exactly, but they went well with their fresh meat.

Mack sat as he waited for the meal to cook. It’s an almost certainty that Temporal’s chamber can’t reach us — Thad and Kathy say that Temporal can’t pass the barrier — and although our trip through the barrier should have registered loud and clear at Temporal (Mack’s earlier trip definitely had, according to Thad), it wouldn’t do them any good if the chamber couldn’t get through the barrier thing. If they went back across the barrier, Temporal should be able to find them, but there will be a delay getting the chamber to us. What will the Aliens be doing in the meantime? Obviously, they can trace the chamber, or maybe us, or both. Will they attack again? The risk is just too great to take. The Others/aliens are better armed and apparently bent on killing us without hesitation. Luck favored us once; none of us are foolish enough to think it will again. That leaves me. But how am I going to find Temporal? I can follow my own treks through time, but what about the chamber? Can I find its trace? Why hadn’t Temporal picked us up before the Others came?

Thad’s little hoard of supplies had been geared for two. Three eating from the cache had dwindled the supplies to almost nothing, and they were keeping the remainder for emergencies. But their fresh meat only lasted a couple of days before they were back on jerky, now accompanied by the “potatoes,” as they had begun calling them. They could exist here for an extended period, but it would be boring, at least as far as eating was concerned. Also, the power packs for the rifle and pistols would eventually be exhausted, no matter how much they conserved.