Chapter 22

CAST in this chapter:

Amos Jones (mechanic, B)—Mary (B), Luanne (B), Molly (W), 7 children

Bill Zafir (chemist, W)—Alice (surgeon, W), Sarah (big gun, W), Jane Martin (W), 8 children

Ezra Pond (navigator, W)—Margaret (computer expert, W), Sue (W), Beautiful Flower (I), 6 children

Jimmy Winslow (hunter, narrator, W)—Angie (farmer, W), Jean (hunter, W), Martha (EMT, W), 7 children

John Williams (generalist, W)—Adel (women's coordinator, W), Janice (big gun, W), Lynne (glass blowing, W), 7 children

Swift Rat (hunter, I)—Helen (big gun, W), Liz (big gun, W), 5 children

Wilbur Hastings (plumber, W)—Mabel (teacher, W), Janet (teacher, W), Hazel (teacher, W), 6 children

It had now been five years since Angie, Jean, and I had been marooned among the dinosaurs. We had accomplished a hell of a lot in these few years, mostly because of the other people who had been marooned with us. Our luck had held up, and we had not lost anybody to death, except for that teenaged boy we were glad to get rid of, anyway.

John, Adel, and I were the de facto leaders of the colony, as we called ourselves, but our group really ran as a pure democracy most of the time. We had initially worried about the fundamentalist Christian women who had joined us, but they had melded into our community over the years and had caused no dissension. I wonder if that was because they no longer had a group of like-thinkers to back them up and egg them on. The children that came with them were now 13 years old, and some of the girls were already using tampons. Like all teenagers, the boys were masturbating at every opportunity and staring at the nude females. We didn't expect any problems, but there was going to be a lot of mating going on over the next few years.

The babies kept coming along at a steady rate, though birthdays were now concentrated during the monsoon season, since that was the most convenient time. The only birth control we had was the rhythm method, and that was no more reliable for us than it had ever been for anybody else. We really didn't care, since we wanted as many children as we could get. We were going to need every adult hand if we we going to progress as much as we wanted to. We now had 50 people, including infants, but we wanted more.

In the last couple of years, we have received four more boats, but none of them had any people on board by the time they got to us. All of the boats have been from the 18^th and 19^th centuries, which was to our advantage, since they provided us with much of the bronze and copper we needed.

Thanks to Amy, Lynne, and Bill, every house has electric lights and access to a computer, mostly laptops. School is still taught in the original cave, and the kids seem to get a kick out of that. We also use the swimming pool in the cave, even though baths are now taken at home, since Wilbur was able to set us up with running water to every house. The sewage can be a problem at times if everybody flushes at the same time, but that has been a minor nuisance so far.

GOD ... DAMN ... IT! We have been invaded by a bunch of 21^st century pirates! There's been a rumor for years back at home that many of the disappearances in the Atlantic Ocean near the Florida coast were the result of pirate operations. Well, we have the living proof! Swift Rat and a couple of his scouting pupils went to make a regularly scheduled inspection of Landing Site #1 and ran head on into the pirates. They barely got away, but one of the two boys was captured by the pirates, so we knew that they would soon know how to find us.

We were almost certain to be attacked, and we were anxious to rescue the boy before he was killed. Swift Rat and his remaining pupil had raced to our town to report the encounter so that we would not be caught unprepared. We immediately put our defense plan into action while Swift Rat led a group of five back to Landing Site #1 to try to rescue Tommy, the captured boy.

The pirates had AR-15s and at least two M2.50 caliber machine guns, so we had to take them seriously. Swift Rat and his team found that the entire gang of 43 pirates had headed in our direction, bringing Tommy with them. This was too many well armed pirates for Swift Rat's small group to take on, but they were going to try to rescue Tommy before the pirates got to our town.

Naturally, they were using Tommy as a slave, so the first night they had to camp, the pirates sent Tommy out under guard to gather firewood. The pirates did nothing by halves, so they wanted a big fire, thus, Tommy had to range pretty far from camp to find enough dried fallen wood. This was the rescue opportunity Swift Rat was looking for.

Tommy expected to be rescued, so he was on the lookout for help. That way, he was not surprised when his guard suddenly dropped with a crossbow bolt in his chest and another in his neck. Swift Rat had known that there were too many pirates for an attack in force, so he had swapped the shotguns for crossbows before he left town on the rescue mission.

Fortunately, Tommy was restrained only by a rope tied to a loop around his neck, so there was no problem freeing him once the guard had been eliminated. Tommy said that he was in pretty good condition, since he had followed John's recommendation and answered all questions truthfully, but not volunteered anything. The pirates had roughed him up a little bit, he thought that it was more for form's sake than from any real animosity.

They had brought an extra horse for Tommy to use, since the pirate captain was using Tommy's old one. They rode to town, and Tommy gave a very good appraisal of the pirates' capabilities. They were pretty sloppy with the treatment of their guns, and Tommy doubted that the pirates could get much reliable use from them. He thought that the pirate guns would be dangerous, but the pirates were not expecting much from the shotguns. Furthermore, they had no idea of the presence of the big guns. The pirates were in for a big surprise. When asked, Tommy had said that his shotgun was hand made, which was literally true.

Swift Rat and two of his scout pupils, but not Tommy, went back to keep an eye on the pirates. At the rate they were going, it was going to take at least four more days for the pirates to reach the town. If they should run into any carnivores larger than the Velociraptor, they were done for. So far, the pirates had been lucky and had not seen a dinosaur of any sort, but that could change at any moment. Swift Rat had even looked around for a few Utahraptors to entertain the pirates, but they were all somewhere else, so it looked like the humans would have to deal with the pirates.

The pirates finally showed up, and the pirate captain rode up to the east gate and demanded the we surrender; otherwise, we could expect severe consequences. John went out to talk to him and explained that we were not going to surrender. Furthermore, if they did not leave right away, we were going to kill all of them that we could find.

The pirate captain laughed at John and started to point his AR-15 in an unfriendly direction. I didn't hesitate; from my position on the wall, I put a non-exploding shotgun slug through the bastard's chest. I made a point of not using the exploding slug because I didn't want to chance harming the horse. I was using the 20-gauge shotgun for that shot, but I set it aside and picked up my 12-gauge with the exploding slugs in case anybody else got obviously unfriendly.

The rest of the pirates were standing in a tight bunch about 20 yards behind their captain. When I shot the captain, John ran back through the gate, pulling the horse with him. The rest of the pirates raised their guns to shoot at me, I suppose, because nobody else was showing himself. That was the signal that the two big gun crews needed to go into action. Each crew fired a full complement of five rounds from the magazine into the pirate gang. At full speed, the big gun was capable of 30 rounds per minute, so it only took about 10-12 seconds for the 10 explosive shells to rain down upon the pirates. The whole gang disappeared within that time, leaving behind a bloody hole in the ground.