Chapter 18

Everybody was thrilled by the arrival of the horses, but not everybody was anxious to learn to ride. I was sure when they were faced with the choice of being left at home or learning to ride, they would choose riding. All we needed was the tack. Triceratops hide made a very high quality leather, so we did not lack for that, but we still had to shape it into something useful.

It was only a matter of a day and a half for Jim Bell to make bridles to be used by the riders on the draft horses. He made up four of the bridles and we headed back to Landing Site #1 to pick up some of the wood from the stalls to use in the fabrication of saddles. With the horses to pull the wagons, we could get to the site in only one day, load what we planned to salvage, and return the next day. We still took a ballista with us, since we could never be sure whether or not we would meet a large carnivore. We took four wagons, one for wood and three for other salvage; we didn't want to waste a trip. Out and back in only two days; that was great!

While the expedition was gone to fetch the wood and other things from the ship, Jim Bell studied the type of saddle we wanted on the computer DVDs that Dad had stowed aboard our boat. Thank God that we had the electricity to keep the laptop battery charged. Jim was not sure at first that he wanted to get that close to such powerful magic, but his curiosity soon won him over, and he quickly dove into the saddle fabrication problem.

It did take four weeks to make the first saddle because of the bugs that Jim had to work out of his original design, but he had a working prototype that met all of his and our specifications. We used a sort of boot or cover over the front of the stirrups so that we would not need high-heeled boots for safety. The saddle seat was covered with leather and over that was a seat cover made from blankets salvaged from here and there. The chafing of bare skin on leather was not something anybody wanted to put up with, but the blanket cover took care of that problem.

After the prototype was functioning to everyone's satisfaction, we were able to turn out one saddle per week. The women who already knew how to ride were busy riding at every opportunity. Both landing sites were visited by scouts twice a week in case a new boat showed up, but nothing did for over two months. Then it seemed like rush hour started!

One morning, a smoke signal was spotted from Landing Site #2, so a contact crew was sent to investigate. Ezra, Swift Rat, and I went as guards and we took ballista crew #1 and three empty wagons with us. We reached the site in about 90-100 minutes and were surprised to see one man, three women, and 15 children about 10 years old wandering around. We rode up and introduced ourselves. Of course, the newly arrived adults were shocked to see our nude "display" when we dismounted from our horses. The women sent the children scurrying behind their boat before they could get a good look at us. Naturally, we laughed at that and the women, all of whom appeared to be between 40 and 50 years old, were dumbfounded when we were not the least bit embarrassed to be stared at.

It seems that this was a Sunday School group of somewhat fundamentalist Christians who were out on a little excursion as a special treat for the children. A couple of the women refused to have anything to do with us at first, so we wound up talking to the man, Wilbur Hastings, and a woman, Mable Smith. It was Hastings' boat that had transported them to us, and he was really pissed, since he had a family back in the 21^st century that was expecting him home for supper. Mable was in a similar situation, but she was already resigned to "God's will."

We were in the process of explaining to them where they were when we heard a scream from the other side of the boat. We all ran to see what was going on and saw a group of seven velociraptors giving the children the eye as potential snacks. One of the women had fainted at the sight of the dinosaurs, but the children were all ecstatic at the sight. Wilbur and Swift Rat carried the fainted woman up on deck and all of the newcomers were sent up there, with orders to hide inside if we were not able to kill the raptors.

Today, I was carrying the BAR and Ezra had the M1. The others had their crossbows with the explosive warheads, so we were in pretty good shape, but Mable did not recognize the danger and asked us not to kill the beautiful animals. I told her that those beautiful animals would kill and eat us if we did not kill them first, but she was not convinced. Finally, I lost patience and shouted, "MABLE, GET YOUR ASS BELOW DECK, AND LET US SAVE YOUR STUPID LIFE!" She humphed at me, but did as I ordered.

As usual, we were conserving ammunition, so we left it up to the crossbows to take care of the raptors. The raptors were walking toward us, not charging, so there was plenty of time for the crossbowmen to do their job. The job was made easier because the other raptors stopped to sample the flesh of the first one killed by an exploding warhead. The remaining six raptors were picked off with few missed shots; familiarity with the crossbows was making all of us better shots.

When we were sure that the raptors were all dead, I invited the newcomers to join me for a short jaunt to examine the raptors to see why they were so dangerous. They were all amazed at the number of teeth sported by the raptors and those curved claws were particularly frightening. Mable apologized to me for doubting my judgment about the potential danger from the animals.

As usual, there was little in the way of personal items that needed to be taken to the cave, so we piled everybody into the wagons and picked up all of the food and medical items that Wilbur had aboard, along with a .38 revolver and a 12-gauge shotgun. There was no extra ammunition for the .38, and only six shells for the shotgun.

The return trip took about two hours, and there was still plenty of daylight left when we got back to the cave. The elderly women were shocked again by the casual nudity of those of us who had been around a while, but they did not faint this time. We left it to the women to explain to the children that they would not be going home, but were going to be living permanently in a real cool summer camp. Most of the kids wanted to take off their clothes right then, and the boys, particularly, could not stop staring at all the naked women.

Wilbur was now the oldest man among us, but we let him know right away that he was not automatically in charge because of that. Fortunately, Wilbur was not stupid, and he could see that he did not have enough information or experience to be the top dog. On the other hand, the three women assumed that they were going to be the senior females, but it did not take long for them to find out that such was not the case. One of the women, Janet Floorshimer, was mortally insulted, but the other woman, Hazel Johnson, was happy to let somebody else have the responsibility. It took a couple of hours, but Janet was finally made to see reason.

We now had 9 men and 25 women, so it would be possible to start thinking of forming family groups. The sudden influx of children took a lot of the pressure off the breeding program, and we could breathe a lot easier. The new children were going to need a family structure to fall back on when homesickness had a chance to get to them. Right now, the novelty of the situation was carrying them along, but they would be back to reality within a week, I was sure.

I talked to John about my assessment of the situation now that we had the new additions, and he agreed with me. The two of us approached Adel about getting the women together and having them pick out which man they wanted for a semi-permanent husband. We put it that way, because we wanted to leave wiggle room in case some of the choices turned out to be less than ideal.

Since Wilbur was 61 years old, I suggested assigning him the three new elderly women as a starting point. Some man was going to get fewer women, but we should leave it up to the women to decide who that would be. Unless they had other ideas, I wanted Angie and Jean, but I was open to anybody as my third wife. Adel said that she would work on it and would probably have an answer in one or two days.