Chapter 15

Lilia wasn’t happy with my sloppy bandage. Nothing would do but that she remove it and examine the wound. She sniffed around the open cut, then held the back of her hand against my forehead. Another sniff, but this one was a sniff of dissatisfaction. I thought the fever was gone, but she had other ideas.

“Leave it open to the air. I’ll be right back.” With that, she headed off into the forest.

She returned with an armful of vegetation. I recognized bay leaves and there was a root of some kind, but I had no clue what the rest of the things were. I gave them the scientific name of Weedus curiosa. I wasn’t going to tell her that and earn another sniff, though.

She started a small fire and half-filled a small clay pot with water from the stream. When the water boiled, she fed the green material in. It turned the water a dark brown color. The steam smelled good to me, although maybe not to whatever germs lived inside the hole in my leg. She let the water cool, then gently poured the warm tea over the wound. It stung a little, but that soon faded. She packed the boiled residue over the wound and, finally satisfied, rewrapped it in a clean bandage.

I was pleased; I had been afraid she would want me to drink that stuff or eat the mush that remained!

“We will rest here until tomorrow,” she said. “I will build up the fires and Lee will set traps and hunt. You need meat, and rest. The trip back will be slow, but that cannot be helped. Lee will conceal our tracks. With luck, we shall be home in no more than four days and enemies won’t be able to track us.”

Her plan sounded good. Finally I could turn some of the responsibility over to someone else!

If there had been fever, it was gone now. Other than minor pain and stiffness, I felt good when I woke in the mornings, and if I was tired in the afternoon that was only to be expected. I had lost a considerable amount of blood and the weakness had only increased while I was unconscious, kept from falling by the rope. I had barely been able to eat and drink during the brief periods I was awake, and it had not been enough to regain or even keep my strength.

The cut scabbed over and two days later Lilia decided I could remove the bandage.

We barely spoke while on the trail, remaining alert instead. Beasts lived in the wilderness. Some of them had four legs.

Lilia led, I limped along behind. We left little sign of our passage and Lee brushed out what there was. I kept moving at the best speed I could manage. When I tired, Lilia found a sheltered spot to camp and Lee set out snares. We paused while she gathered things along the way that would be included in our evening meal. Lee was a skilled trapper and hunter, so I ate a lot of meat. Slowly I regained some of my strength, and our little group moved faster. Even so, it took a full five days to cover the remaining distance that, healthy, I could have traveled in just a little more than a day.

Lilia had been wrong about something, which I found reassuring!

Late in the afternoon, we came to a stream and agreed this was likely the stream that flowed near the cabin. But we were probably a few miles too far south, so we would make our way up the stream until we found a place we recognized. We were more than usually careful to leave no sign of our passing from that time on. If those other warriors managed to follow us this far, it wouldn’t take much to lead them the rest of the way. The smell of cooking bread, the slight noise I made while chipping points for arrows, spotting evidence where we’d trapped animals or gathered plants, the sight of a set snare; any of these might be the clue that led enemies to us.

We woke early the next morning and, after a hasty breakfast, were soon following the stream north. I spotted the salt lick just after noon, then we passed the bee tree that Lee and I had robbed. Lee went on ahead at that point, leaving Lilia with me. He was able to move faster, which gave him time to circle the cabin and look for danger before we approached. He rejoined us as we entered the clearing and we reached the door together.

I slept in the cabin that night; I hadn’t fully recovered and the leg was still painful. Lilia and Lee camped in the forest. The following night, Lilia remained in the cabin while Sandra stayed in the forest with Lee. The women made the decision in each case.

Was this no more than rotating space on the more-comfortable bed in the cabin, or was something else going on? Lee, after all, was an adult, even if society downtime might not consider him so. He was a proven warrior, he’d killed enemies, and the occasional scruffy whiskers I saw before he shaved them off indicated he was past puberty. I had no claim on Sandra, but still, I felt a bit of jealousy. Still, if anything happened between them it would be her decision.

In a sense, this too was survival at work. There were three women in our little tribe but only two men. Relationships would have to adjust if we weren’t to be forced apart by jealousy. Lilia and Lee would probably not have a physical relationship, but any other shuffling of our personal cards was possible. Even for the two of them, old taboos based on genetics and reinforcing of recessive traits might not control their relationship.

The new arrangements might also not be permanent. Each of us might live a long time on this world if we could avoid accidents, dangerous animals, or dangerous people. Assuming, of course, that what I’d been told downtime was true and the women had undergone the kind of physical and genetic restructuring that I had.

Would pairings be permanent? As people age, they change; those who are compatible might find themselves much less so ten, twenty, even a hundred years later. Could this be the reason so few marriages lasted during my original lifetime, because people changed as they grew older?

What would be the effect of living well past the century mark be, assuming that the Futurist had told me the truth? How long could we live here on Darwin’s World? He’d mentioned that his culture had conquered death from ‘natural causes’, that he’d reworked my own DNA to the same standards.

Not that living forever on this world was guaranteed; fire, flood, famine, dangerous beasts, and dangerous people would prevent that from happening. Even lethal diseases might evolve at some point; the Futurist had mentioned that too. Meantime, there weren’t enough of us to survive a war, just one more life-ending threat among the rest.

Finding a better place to live was critical. I brought up the subject that night. “Lee and I went southwest first, about thirty miles or so. We found no human sign. We turned northwest after that. I came here from the southeast, and the only thing I saw was a long-abandoned hut. There were things there that the owners wouldn’t have left. They might have left the grinding stones, but they’d have at least taken the spear and darts if they’d moved on willingly. I’m guessing they died or were picked up by the Futurists. So figure that whole quadrant from the southeast to southwest from here is probably safe.

“We had turned northwest when we ran into that patrol, and shortly after that we found an operating mine farther to the west. We were probably somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-five miles farther west of our cabin. We might have been somewhere near your home by that time, Lilia, though it could also be that we were still a little south of there.

“There were different kinds of people working at the mine, warriors like the ones we killed and some that were probably miners. We don’t know who any of them are, where they came from, or what they’re doing. We only know they’re there and they’re probably involved in some way with the Futurists. Those swords were made using advanced technology, so I think the warriors probably got them from the people operating the mine.”

I was drawing on the floor to illustrate my thoughts. Even though my fingers left no marks, the movements were short and obvious enough that the others understood.

“We know we want to avoid those people,” I went on. “Two found their way here to the cabin. I doubt anyone sent them, because if they had someone would have come looking after the first two turned up missing, and they’d have been here by now if they knew where the other two had gone. We’re too close to that mine. We found it, sooner or later more of them will find us, and next time it might be the people in charge instead of two renegades.

Another thing, the game will soon be hunted out around here or the animals will move on. The snares aren’t working as well as they were, and Lee told me he’s had to go farther to find game. We talked about farming, but I don’t think that’s an option now. It ties us to this location and planted fields makes it easier to find us. I understand that it’s not an easy choice to make, especially for Sandra and Millie, but I think we have to leave here.