Chapter 2

When we rose the next morning we had the result of Mary's efforts, a thin grain soup with chunks of meat. Even after boiling all night many of the grains were still firm but we didn't care. It was something besides broiled meat!

We restarted the fire again and threw on more green wood. Soon the column of white smoke rose again and we waited. I checked the water bottles and saw we would have to return to the water hole tomorrow even if no one showed up. I have to admit I had lost hope. Suddenly Jerry spoke up from his perch in the tree where he stood watch, "I see a group approaching this way."

We began celebrating and Mary called out, "Can you tell what they are?"

"It looks like several women and at least two men and a couple of children."

I felt better when I heard that there were children with them. They couldn't be too bad if they had children. Suddenly I heard something I hadn't ever thought to hear again. The sound of a gunshot! I heard something hit the tree and Jerry scrambled down.

"They shot at me!" He sounded almost indignant.

We had already made plans if they had proved hostile. We ran toward a brush hut we had made within eyesight of the wreck. There were several brush piles around and we figured that another wouldn't be noticed. In it we had placed several containers of water, figuring that we could wait for the people to leave or escape during the night if we had too. If they didn't see us they would probably assume that we had run away.

When the group arrived at the fire the men looked around the tree where Jerry had been. I guess they were looking for blood. When they didn't see anything they looked around for a while then gathered around the fire. I could see two men gesturing and arguing with another who was carrying a rifle.

Mary grabbed my shoulder and directed my attention toward the rest of the group. The women had dropped like they had been shot. I could see why when I saw what they were carrying. They were heavily loaded up with a miscellaneous collection of items in makeshift bags. Even the children were carrying loads that would have been hard for me to carry. They looked thirsty and hungry but none made any attempt to drink from one of the bottles they were carrying. I also noticed that several of the women were looking at the men but made no attempt to go near them. The man with the rifle looked over at the women and pointed at one of them. She struggled to her feet and ran over to the men. He gestured and she quickly gave him a bottle. When he finished drinking he gave it back. She said something and he suddenly backhanded her, knocking her down. The other men didn't act like it was anything unusual. She slowly got to her feet and limped back to the group of women.

The men sat around and watched the women gather firewood and brush to make a barricade. One of the men looked around and spotted an antelope about 80 yards away. He pulled the rifleman's arm and pointed it out. The rifleman looked at the antelope and argued about something for a while then braced the rifle on a branch and shot. He must have missed because the antelope looked around at the sound of the shot. It had never been shot at before so it didn't run. He shot again and this time he hit it. With two women he headed toward the antelope and had them drag it back. Once it was back at the fire the women skinned the animal, and cut it into pieces with several knives which the man handed to them. When they finished he took the knives back. Two women began cooking it and when it was done took the first pieces to the men. The men also received the second and third pieces that were done. After that they must have been full, because I saw them wave away another piece. Only then did the women and children began to eat.

The women made two beds up and the men went over to the group of women and pulled two of them up. I could see the men laughing as they dragged the women toward the beds. They began roughly removing the women's clothes. I could see one man sink to the bed dragging one woman down with him; while the other pushed the woman he was with down to her knees and made an obvious show of unzipping his pants. The other man watched them while holding the rifle. I didn't see any other guns around.

The actions of the men and the condition of everyone else added up to a situation that I had been afraid of. It appeared that someone had taken advantage of no law to gather goods and force other people to do what he wanted. I found it ominous that there were no more than three men and it appeared to be eight or nine women and children. I would have thought that there would have been more men than women that managed to survive. Like it or not, men were stronger and the situation that we were in would favor the physically stronger person's survival.

Mary started to say something, but I held my hand to her mouth. Jerry looked like he wanted to say something as well but he saw my action and kept silent. Mary snatched my hand from her mouth and then frantically looked around for a stick. She began to write on the ground.

"We need to rescue those women!"

I shook my head in disagreement. I grabbed another stick and wrote, "How do we do that without getting shot?"

Mary looked at me and her eyes filled with tears as she wrote, "We can't just leave them."

I looked at her and shook my head. I didn't like the idea of leaving the women with the men any more than she did. I stayed silent and she looked at Jerry in appeal. He looked at me and then looked away. Damn it! I was responsible for deciding what we should do. I didn't see any way we could rescue the women safely.

I continued to watch and I noticed something. The men traded off holding the rifle and raping the women on the beds. Their attention appeared to be more on the women than any external threat. I noticed the man holding the rifle would look around every so often but his attention would return back to the men who were with the women.

Jerry must have seen my concentration because he grabbed Mary's arm and she stopped crying. "Look at the men and tell me what you see them paying attention to", I wrote.

Both looked at the men and Mary saw it first, "They're guarding against the women moving, not against animals." Jerry nodded agreement.

I wrote, "Let's see if they do the same thing at night. If they are then we might have a chance to do something. Did either of you see any more guns?" Both shook their heads no.

As it got dark the men released the women they had been abusing. They ran back to the other women without putting on their clothes. I could see them gathered into a cuddle with the other women while the men sat together and talked. They kept looking at the fire and I noticed that while they did look around the outside more often they still paid more attention to guarding the women.

I whispered the idea I had developed to Jerry and Mary. I didn't like the idea of being away from fire at night, but there was no way we could handle three alert men. There was a full moon tonight but it would be gone by two AM. I told Mary to sleep and Jerry and I tried to plan the best way to the group. At ten PM Jerry and I tried to sleep while Mary kept watch.

I don't think I had ever been more keyed up. I was sure I'd never get to sleep, so it was a surprise when Mary shook my shoulder to wake me up. It was one thirty and the moon was setting. We crawled on our back out of the opening of the brush hut and stayed down. Using gestures I directed Mary to the back of the barricade while Jerry and I crawled toward the other side. By the time we were within 20 yards the moon had set completely. We got within 5 yards of the barricade and waited.

On the opposite side of the fire from the guard Mary was going to poke the barricade with a long stick. The man with the rifle turning toward the fire was our cue to stand and throw a rock as hard as we could at his head while his night vision was lost. While I threw rocks at the other two if they tried to get to the rifle Jerry would run toward the barricade then jump on top of it. I would be following behind and run over the top of him to use my spear against anyone who offered opposition. Mary would knock the barricade apart on her side and join me to help.

To my surprise the plan went just the way we'd planned with one exception. When we threw the rocks I hit the rifleman in the temple with my rock while Jerry hit his throat. Either one would have been fatal. The other men attempted to untangle themselves from the covers they were in but Jerry threw himself on the brush and I was there before they managed to get organized. One man tried to run around me to get to the rifle but came too near the women. That's where something I hadn't anticipated occurred.

There was a surge from the group of women and he was engulfed by what looked like all of them. I could see them striking him with anything they could find. When I returned my attention to the last man I found Mary had her spear at his throat. I looked back at the man in the group of women and swallowed. He looked like a piece of meat on the ground. One woman was still stabbing him with a knife again and again. The rest held knives, pans and sticks in their hands looking like they didn't know whether to attack me or not.

I honestly think they would have attacked me and Jerry except for Mary. "Are you two all right?" she asked in a concerned voice. I think the tone did as much as the words. I could see the women begin to relax.

From somewhere in the group a voice rang out, "If you plan on taking over I'd rather die now." I could see a woman of about thirty pushing forward to the front of the group. In her hand I could see a bloody knife.

Before I could answer Mary did, "We only wanted to help you. If you want to try and make it on your own you can leave. I'd like to talk to you before you do though. My brother and Mike are alright but they're just men." The woman gave a snort of laughter then turned serious.

Pointing the knife at the man that was still standing she asked, "What about him? Are you going to let him go?"

I spoke up then, "What should we do with him? You're the ones he hurt."

She glared at him, "Kill him! I just wish you'd give him to us."

Mary looked at me. I nodded my acceptance of her judgment. Mary then looked at the man. With a thrust she sent the spear through his throat then turned and vomited, leaving the spear standing upright in the ground. The woman looked disappointed for a moment then walked over to Mary with the knife still in her hand. She began to reach toward Mary then realized that she was still holding the knife. She dropped it and began to hug Mary. I could hear the thud of the weapons hitting the ground and the women came together in a group hug and cry.

Well almost everyone. One woman remained mindlessly stabbing the man on the ground. The woman who had spoken left the group and headed toward the woman on the ground. She held on to the woman's hand and allowed her to stab the man a few more times then gently held it still. She whispered something in her ear. The woman released the knife and held on to her sobbing desperately.

The other women tore into the bundles they had been carrying and dragged out bottles of water and packages of snacks. The children I could see were all older girls and they had remained in their own small group during all this. Two of the women went to them and led them over to the women's group. Every so often I would see the women look at Jerry and me with hostility. I would have just as soon approached a lion as any of the women right then. We stood watch and kept our attention on the outside. Mary talked to the women and I could feel the tension slowly lowering. I think the thing that did the most good was when Mary picked up the rifle and gave it to the older woman.

By the time it began to get light many of the women were sleeping. Three were still awake; Mary, the woman who spoke to us and the woman who continued to stab the man. Mary waved at me to come over. Carefully I approached, leaving my spear on the ground behind me. "This is Susan", she introduced the woman who had spoken, "and this is Ann."

Susan spoke up, "What are your plans for us?"

"We just wanted to help. You can leave whenever you want. We are living near a water hole near here and plan to move toward the ocean during the rainy season."

She sniffed when she heard this, "There's no way you're going anywhere during the rainy season around here. The rains are so strong no one moves around. Even the animals stay in one place until they stop."

"How long have you been here and do you know where here is?"

"I've been here the longest, about a month. And we are in what looks like the African highland savanna."

I must have looked like I was wondering about her mental state. "Not the savanna of the twenty-first century, the savanna of about forty to one hundred thousand B.C." she told me.

"How could you know that?"

"I am or rather was an anthropologist before I got here. I recognize the plants and the animals of the savanna as being almost what we are used to seeing but not quite the same. There are enough differences to tell that they were or will become the animals we knew. The weather is much wetter than it was in our time. The only time this happens is immediately after an ice age. Man made enough changes to the landscape in our time that I would have seen some signs of mankind's presence if this was the future. People were widespread in Africa after 40,000 BC. I haven't seen any people wandering around. Therefore we are in the past and probably in the era I told you."

"What about an alternative dimension?"

She snorted, "Don't be ridiculous! There's no such thing!"

"Do you know how we got here?"

"God sent us here for some reason."

I knew the type of person I was dealing with now. She had made up her mind and that was that. Silence was the best way I could see to avoid an argument that I really didn't care about. I tried to find out if we shared any common characteristics that might explain why we were all here.

Susan had been on sabbatical in Africa on Wednesday, March 15, 20XX. She had been part of a group excavating a dig when she suddenly found herself kneeling among trees with her brush and trowel in her hands. Ann had been going to school with her brother in Missouri when they had found themselves driving in an open field. They had stayed at the car for two days before leaving to find help. Instead they had found the three men we had killed. They killed her brother and had been raping her daily for the last two weeks. Susan told us Ann's story, as Ann remained silent staring out at us with frightened eyes.

Apparently the others came from different places, had different backgrounds and were doing different things prior to arriving here, but all remembered the last day they were home was March 15, 20XX. That seemed all they had in common. Three others had male family members who had come over with them but they had suffered the same fate as Ann's brother. Apparently the three men we killed were all members of a prison crew that had been clearing brush with a guard in Arizona. When they came through they had managed to get the gun from the guard and kill him. They had planned to find a good place to settle with them as the only men. They had been killing any men they found and taking the women with them as slaves. Any resistance was met with blows and other abuse. One woman had been killed for causing too much trouble.

"You're safe now. You are welcome to stay with us. We plan on going toward the coast when we can and seeing if we can find more people. I don't know why we are here, but we have to support each other to survive", I reassured them.

I could see by looking at the women that we weren't going to be able to go anywhere today. Mary began going around the women and encouraging them to let her check them out for injuries. She told Jerry and me not to come near them until they had begun to believe they were safe again.

"Bring back some water and we'll try and get them back to camp tomorrow. We have the rifle here so we should be safe."

Jerry and I had been given our orders and we left to carry them out. We had managed to pull off the gas tank and after emptying it out had been using it as a water tank. It still tasted somewhat like gasoline but it was the biggest container we had. We placed the tank on the cart after we filled it at the well and began to take it back to the women.

We had gotten about half way back when we suddenly heard several shots. Abandoning the cart we ran toward the sounds of the shots. When we got there we found several women dragging something back to the barricades while Susan stood guard with the rifle. Mary was assisting one of the other women back to the barricade, while blood dripped from the woman's shoulder.

Jerry ran over and picked up the woman before anyone could say anything. He ran back to the barricade and set her on one of the beds followed closely by Mary and Susan. The women were dragging a lion, possibly the same one I had seen the first day. Apparently it had attacked some of the women gathering wood. Susan was standing guard and shot it as it attacked. She had killed it, but not before it had managed to claw one of them.

Mary took charge with Susan assisting. Susan boiled water and began to clean the wound while Mary tore up cloth to make a bandage. The woman had two lacerations on her arm where she had thrown it up to protect her face. The injured woman insisted on holding on to Jerry's hand while she was being treated.

Mary sent me back to get the water with two women. The two women she sent back with me were nervous about going with me until I gave one the spear to carry. When we got to the cart I began pushing it. The woman without the spear took one of the poles and began to help me.

When we arrived the women had begun making a meal. Mary came up to me excitedly, "Mike, Susan told me this is pearl millet! She also showed me some root plants we can eat and promised me that she'd show me how to tan skins." She handed me the seed head of one of the grasses and something that looked and smelled like mint. She continued, "She told me that we can use the roots just like potatoes and dry them and use them for flour." Next she handed me a round furry looking nut like thing. "This is a baobab and we can use it for juice and roast the nut inside and even eat the leaves and..." I put up my hand.

"Settle down! It seems that Susan knows a lot surviving in this area." Mary nodded happily and headed toward the other women. Susan approached after Mary took off. She looked after Mary with approval.

"She's a good woman. Do you know she's in love with you?"

I had to confess this was a shock. I hadn't even thought about romance since I got here. I was too busy trying to survive and keep the others alive too.

"We need to find more men. There are going to be some children born of the rapes and I don't think you'll be able to support all of the women with just two men", Susan commented as she watched the women around the fire.

"I agree, but what if they are like the three we killed?"

Susan looked at me, "Most people are good if given a chance. Actively evil people are rare individuals indeed. There are too many women and not enough men to make a viable society in any case."

"You are a stronger person than I am if you're willing to risk meeting more people like them."

"We have learned the cost of giving in to people like that. I think that all of us would rather die than allow ourselves to be enslaved again. We can't let our fears rule us though."

"Before we relight the signal fire, I'd like to get the weaker women to our other camp", I told her Susan nodded thoughtfully.

"There are some that will panic as soon as they see another man until they are sure they're safe. You should keep the rifle here with someone who can shoot so I need to stay here with you. Jerry needs to stay with them in case we run into more than we can handle so there's at least one man."

I gave her a dubious look, "Could you shoot someone if it's necessary?"

She snorted, "Mike, I may be a woman, but that doesn't mean I won't defend myself or other people if I need to. Would I shoot someone like those three? In a heartbeat."

Susan was a tough bird. I had a hard time with the fact I killed the one man, even though I knew what sort of man he was. Susan must have noticed my feelings because she attempted to comfort me, "Mike, I'm not going to tell you not to feel bad about killing that man. You wouldn't be human if you didn't. They never expressed any remorse about killing. That means they weren't human, just animals in human form. Besides nowhere in the bible does it say "Thou shalt not kill!" The correct translation is "Thou shalt not murder!" and what you did was justice, not murder."