Chapter 8

Doug was right. No sooner had Doug made his announcement than 4 families showed up asking to join the Firm Friends community. All 4 families were widows with children. None of them had actually taken part in the raid, but in all 4 cases, the husbands had. Doug consulted with his advisors, and they decided to welcome the new people to the community. This brought in 6 women and 11 children of various ages, but none over 10.

There were no single men left in the Firm Friends community, so the women would have to remain unwed, or else become the second wife, or even the third wife in a family. Doug left it to the individuals to work it out. In the meantime, the new people were fed from the community larder, just like anyone else.

They picked up several more families before the Gathering was closed that year, including one family, with husband, from a third village. Doug feared that this would cause ill will, but nothing happened before they left the Gathering.

The Mammoth Hunt farce was held that year, just as in previous years, but the Firm Friends community declined to participate. Doug had done a hard sell campaign before they had left for the Gathering, and had convinced most of his people that the "Hunt" was nothing but an excuse to torture some relatively defenseless animals. The few that didn't agree with Doug went along with the majority out of fear that they would otherwise be shunned.

Instead of participating in the Mammoth Hunt, the Firm Friends community staged an elaborate athletic competition with all sorts of contests for men, women, and children. The prize for the winner of each contest was a specially marked crossbow. This brought in contestants from other villages, since everybody wanted to win a prized crossbow. Enough people from outside the Firm Friends community won a crossbow that everybody conceded that the contests had been fair. The contests were a big hit and Doug expected to see even more participants from other villages next year.

Doug had taken the opportunity offered by the Gathering to ask if anyone knew of any metal deposits in the neighborhood. Doug hoped to move into a Copper Age if he could. He didn't expect to find what he needed for a Bronze Age, but copper was possible and would do as a starter. One man did give Doug hope of finding copper up in the nearby mountains, but he didn't give Doug any specific directions. Doug hoped that it was because the man saw a way to make a profit from his knowledge and would start bringing in pieces of copper in the next few months.

They were nearly home when one of the outlying guards came running to Doug with the word that they had found a dead human who looked very peculiar. Doug asked if anyone had touched the body and was assured that they had been afraid to, because the body looked so horrible. Doug went with the man to see the corpse, and he recoiled the moment he saw it. BUBONIC PLAGUE!

Even in the late 21^st century, it was possible to contract bubonic plague during a casual stroll through an animal preserve in the wilds of New Mexico. Chance contact which resulted in a bite from an infected flea or tick could produce the disease and immediate medical treatment was necessary to prevent, not only a fatal case of the plague, but a spread of the bacteria to the general population. If the disease moved into the pneumonic form, it could spread through the air to infect other people or animals. This was a very dangerous situation.

Doug raced back to the caravan and called all of the people together to warn them about the disease. He had to be careful how he described the danger, because the people had no grasp of the concept of germs. He had to resort to attributing the problem to evil spirits that no charm or amulet could repel. He warned them to avoid all strangers who appeared to be sick and, especially, to avoid any bodies they might see lying on the ground. He warned them that curiosity could get them killed! He closed his warnings by telling the people that anyone caught violating these rules would be shunned! This was enough to get their attention, because shunning was almost a death sentence, in itself, especially for women and children.

They were so near home that Doug worried that the plague carriers might be in their neighborhood, already. If so, they were in real trouble! The first evening that they were home, Doug called a meeting of his advisory council and reviewed the dangers of bubonic plague and how it could wipe out whole villages in only a few days. They had to do something, but he was not sure what until he talked to the advisors.

He managed to get through to the advisors the danger that they were in, because they had all heard the stories of villages where everybody died of a mysterious sickness very nearly overnight. The colder weather was coming on, so they would be in greater danger until spring, and they were going to have to come up with a solution very soon. His recommendation was that they move before the rats and other varmints had a chance to move into the huts with their fleas and ticks. He knew of several places where they would probably be safe from the disease, but it would mean a radical change in their living habits. Would the people be willing to do this?

The consensus was that, if the danger was as great as Doug thought, then the people could be talked into moving, but how could they convince the people that the danger was really that great. After all, the village had been here for over 50 years and in the vicinity ever since the ice had retreated hundreds of years before.

Doug explained that the animals with the right kind of fleas and ticks had not returned to this area until this year, because the weather had finally warmed enough. The whole point was that they had to move to a place where the fleas, particularly, had not arrived, yet, or to a place where they were not likely to go.

Essentially, they had two choices. They could move closer to the ice and live there for a while until the weather warmed enough for the dangerous varmints to move in with them, and then they would have to move again. Or, they could move where they could keep the varmints away and live there as long as they wanted to. The council quickly voted for the latter location, because moving was such a pain.

Doug said that there were two places that they could move to which would fit that requirement, but either place was a radical departure from their current style. Both were the same idea, one was just closer to the ice than the other. He recommended that they move closer to the ice, but the ironic part was that they would probably have to go back to hunting mammoth. This comment brought a wry laugh from the council.

Doug wanted them to move into cliff dwellings which they would carve out of the rock. These homes would be difficult to make, but would last for hundreds, even thousands, of years. Thus, once a house was built, it would need very little maintenance; the living would be easy from that point of view. He proposed that an advance crew of mostly men, with a few women to do the domestic chores leave as soon as possible to start work on the new homes, and the rest of the village could follow after the first houses were ready. Most people could live in the temporary shelters like they used at a Gathering until the permanent houses were built.

Raven countered with the suggestion that the whole family, man, wives, and children, move so that there would be little disruption of their normal lives, and they could treat the whole thing as a family adventure. The houses that these people built would be taken for themselves, and the second wave could do the same thing. This could continue until the whole village had moved, and it would be much easier to manage.