Chapter 439

The Prison Planet

... It was well past lunchtime, so he stopped to prepare them something to eat and put on a pot of dried beans to soak for their evening meal.

Later, as Morales sat eating a deer steak sandwich made with his homemade bread, he stared at the door while wondering what he could do to provide an entrance for the chickens that would allow them to negotiate the barrier on their own. Shit, the little trench under the bars worked fine for them, but now the bottom log that the door slides in is buried flush with the ground. I can’t do anything on the side, because I have the end post buried vertically in the wall there, and I don’t want to weaken the post’s effectiveness by digging behind it.

Sandwich in hand, he walked over to the door. I guess I could rig some kind of trap door for them so they could come through the door, but that would weaken it. While standing there, he focused on the space between the log wall and the big rock that took up most of the entrance to the cave proper. The log wall ran partway across the cave entrance that was roughly fifteen feet wide, but the rock blocked part of the entrance (the door completed the span), leaving an almost-tunnel-like entranceway. When he had put in the log wall, he had left an area between the wall and the rock, and it was this area that he was looking at now.

Hmmm, there’s just enough room for me to squeeze in there and dig, and ... I can do most of the digging from the inside of the cave, anyway.

With a couple of hasty bites, the sandwich was headed for his belly, and he grabbed up the shovel and mattock. An hour later, he had a narrow tunnel dug under the log wall. The tunnel was barely wider than Gertrude, much like the shallow one he had originally made for the chickens to duck under the bars, but this one was much deeper since it had to go under the bottom log, which was buried. I doubt if any Earth chicken would even think of using that, but Gertrude isn’t any normal chicken. It’s the best I can do, but, dammit, I want the chickens to have a way to get into the cave if something gets after them while Lobo and I are gone somewhere. This will leave a way for small animals to get into the cave, but, then again, they could get between the bars before. Oh, well, can’t have everything.

The chickens were in their brush pen happily scratching away when Morales came looking for Gertrude. “Come here, Gertrude,” he said, snapping his fingers. “Shit, how do you call a chicken?” he mumbled. “I never have to call them in the cave. They know when it’s feeding time and bug me until I feed them.”

Gertrude paused to look at him, then ran over to see what he wanted, or maybe it was to see what food he had for her. For whatever reason, she and all the others came running.

Morales picked her up. “Uggh,” he said with a chuckle. “You’ve gained weight, Girl. Must be the good life, huh?”

Gertrude made her “puck, puck, pucking” sound while he left the chicken yard and went back to the cave with her. After putting the hen down by the tunnel he had dug, he stepped inside before quickly closing the door to leave her on the other side. “Shit, I should have had some food ready,” he groused as he hurried to get an ear of corn. After grabbing the corn, he turned to go back to the entrance, and almost stepped on Gertrude who was standing behind him waiting for her food, much like she had done with the trench under the bars.

“Puck, puck, puck,” she said, turning her head a little to the side to stare up at him.

Morales just stood there for a second, staring, but Gertrude grew impatient and made another sound that projected impatience quite well.

Absently, he began to shell the corn for her, but his concentration was interrupted by sounds coming from the front wall. Junior scrambled out of the tunnel, followed by all the chicks, then lastly by Abigail and Hortense. All of them were flapping their wings to add speed as they ran toward Morales and the food giveaway.

“Well,” he chuckled as he frantically shelled corn, “so much for teaching them to use the tunnel.”

The chickens were all having such a good time that he gave them several handfuls of wheat to go with the corn, although it was well before feeding time.

“You’re all going to get fat,” he predicted, “but you three do a great job of providing breakfast for us, so I can’t complain. Just keep up the good work, Girls,” he said as he knelt to pet his feathered friends.

Junior was too busy eating at that point, but as soon as the food was gone, he flew to Morales’ shoulder. Shortly, the man was sitting on the floor of the cave with the chicks running across his lap cheeping at him, and the hens jostling each other to be petted by their human.

He started to get up, worried that he needed to be working on his next project, but instead, leaned back against the wall of the cave as he continued to pet the chickens. He realized that he was happier than he had been in years – maybe since his Mom had died.

Oh, there are tons of things I need to do, but the wall and door are up, the cave is secure and I have food for the foreseeable future. For the first time in my life, I have true friends. Granted, he thought, they aren’t human, but they love me – as long as I feed them, he finished with a chuckle.

Lobo, sensing something, came over to lie beside Morales who reached over to scratch the wolf’s ears. After watching the human play with the chickens, Lobo reached a foot out to slap indelicately at one of the chicks, then another. Junior, apparently recognizing it as play, jumped on the wolf’s foot, then fluttered away. Lobo made a mock lunge at the chick, just as it hopped onto Lobo’s head.

Lila came partway over to lie and watch, but made no effort to join in. Soon the chicks, apparently realizing that the wolf wanted to play, were all over Lobo. He must have played too rough, though, because the chicks soon tired of the game and went about their business.

Morales came to his feet. “Okay, Ladies, let’s get you back inside the brush fence. I have things to do before nightfall.”

After the chickens were taken care of, he stood looking at the sliding door. “It slides fairly easily to weigh so much, but Lobo needs to be able to open it if he needs to. He could pull the poles out of the wall by grasping them with his mouth, but that sure as hell won’t work with the door. But ... if he could push on the door...” Morales stood thinking for a moment, before, “But, dammit, if I attach a block of wood for him to push against, it won’t clear the side pole that supports my locking braces.”

Then the idea struck. “Fuck, I don’t need a block for him to push on. A hole would provide a shoulder he could put a foot against.” Turning to where Lobo was lying beside Lila, “Come here, Boy. Let’s see if we can figure this out.”

“Sit here, Lobo,” he told the wolf when he came over. Positioning him so that his right side was close to the sliding door, and having him sit down, he grasped the big animal’s right foot and put it against the door. “Could you push, if I cut a hole in the door big enough for you to get purchase?”

Lobo looked at Morales and whined, obviously not understanding, but Morales had decided where he should put the hole. With hammer and chisel, he set about making a hole in the log large enough to get a saw blade into. When he was finally done, he called his buddy over again. Kneeling, he put a hand on the side of the hole and pushed. It took a little effort for Morales to push the door along its track, but the wolf had to weigh well over a hundred and fifty pounds, and in addition, he knew the animal was strong.

“Push like this,” he told Lobo, demonstrating several times before moving aside to put Lobo’s foot against the side of the hole. Lobo chuffed at him and pushed, coming to his feet as he did so. The door glided to its stops.

“Okay, now let’s try it from the outside.” They did it with Morales again amazed at Lobo’s intelligence.

While looking at his creation, a sobering thought came to Morales. “With winter, I’ll have to cover the wall and door with hides, and that will prevent him from getting to the hole from the inside. Oh, well, as long as he can get in when he needs to...”

I wonder if Lila will learn. With her hurt foot, it will be awhile before she can even try. Oh, well, Lobo will be with her and he can certainly open the door if they need in while I’m not around.

The chickens came trooping down the passageway and he realized that it was getting close to nightfall. He had boiled cane for syrup both yesterday and today, so he took time out to pour today’s syrup up before portioning out the stew he had been cooking slowly all afternoon.

With the meal over and their trip outside behind them, he pulled the door closed against the cool wind. He could feel the difference almost immediately, even though he hadn’t chinked the few cracks that were still showing in the door, not to mention the holes he had cut for a firing port or for Lobo to push against. He would see to those in the near future. Closing the door had some drawbacks, though, even with the small fire he had maintained against the chill. He had left an opening above the top left side of the log wall so the smoke could go out through it and on past the edge of the big rock, but some of the smoke had gone out the entranceway. Now that the door was closed, the cave had a lot more smoke slowly swirling about before it eventually found its way out the opening above the wall. With small cooking fires, this had not been much of a problem, but with winter on the way, the fires would have to be bigger to warm the cave. And that was with dried wood. He could imagine how stifling the smoke would be with green wood.

He had an idea on how to vent the smoke, but he needed more information. With the computer balanced on his lap, he began the research.

The Retreat

The day had warmed to a few degrees above freezing, and more of the snow had melted. However, in late afternoon, the temperature was dropping again, which caused more slush to refreeze, thus causing a thin sheet of ice to form where the plow had failed to scrape the parking lot completely clean.

Holding hands, Jeff and Kayla dodged patches of ice and were soon at the fence with the visible guards coming to attention as the couple walked past. Hall, looking out the door of the office trailer, wondered, yet again, just who their client was. Mr. Matthews has told us his Security is military, and they refer to him as Colonel, but even if I didn’t know that, I would suspect from his ramrod-straight carriage, not to mention the way his Security acts around him. Our helicopter pilots make damn sure they call in and stay within the prescribed flight path. What the heck is this place, anyway? he wondered yet again. Shaking his head, Shit, looks like I’m going to get my ass fired over the incident. But, dammit, it went down and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. How am I supposed to convince headquarters that Mr. Matthews was going in there come hell or high water, as my dad used to say. He’s just not somebody you can tell no to.

Then, almost sick with worry, his thoughts continued, Shit. He said he would sign off on my report. Maybe ... just maybe, he’ll stick up for me and the office won’t fire my ass, but it sure as hell sounded bad when I talked to them. At least Mr. Higgins won’t be back until tomorrow...

Kayla, followed by Jeff, stepped up to the small porch on the office trailer as Hall held the door open for them. “Hello,” he said as he ushered them to folding chairs near the front desk. “All I have to offer is coffee, but it’s fresh.”

Jeff, realizing just how uptight Hall was, grinned back at him before glancing at Kayla. “Sounds good. Kayla takes two sugars and cream. I’ll go with black.”

Hall hurried to get their coffee, glad that he had made some just in case, although, he hadn’t really expected the wealthy people to accept anything from him. “All I have is powdered creamer and sugar, with Styrofoam cups, of course. I hope you...”

“Guaranteed it will be better than some of the coffee I have had to drink on duty,” Jeff said with a chuckle, hoping to relax an obviously nervous Hall.

“I was with the FBI, then the military, so I’ve also had a bad cup or two,” Kayla assured him.

“Well, the company does spring for some very decent coffee,” Hall responded as he poured three cups before fixing Kayla’s and taking it to her, then handing Jeff his.

Cup in hand, the assistant sat at the battered metal desk, took a sip and continued, “There’s always plenty of it and they never try to make us pay for it. It’s a good company to work for and we have several other nice perks.”

“Sounds good,” Jeff returned, then mentioned that he had talked to the company’s top executive about paying for another boring crew to expedite boring out the numerous rooms, now that the main tunneling was finished. “I’m well aware that there is an enormous amount of work still to be completed before the fortress can be called finished, and ... that includes bringing in construction crews to finalize the interior after your guys have finished. As I’ve already mentioned – and I told the executive this as well – I am totally pleased with the work you and your crews have already done. But, I have what is essentially a ... deadline, and I need to get this project completed ASAP. The only practical way – that I can see – to accomplish that is to bring in more equipment and the personnel to operate it. Again, you and Mr. Higgins have done an excellent job as far as I’m concerned...”