Chapter 14

The temperature began to drop quite dramatically over the next five or six weeks. There was still a lot of rain, but now it was beginning to turn to sleet, with the promise that snow wouldn't be long in making an appearance.

The twins had done well in those weeks, adding significantly to their store of meat to see them through the winter. They had also managed to replicate some thread and a pair of scissors and the girls had grown adept at making rough clothing from the animal skins.

The off-cuts from their efforts were added to the raw materials for the replicator and that in turn allowed them to produce some warm boots for each of them. The girls had tried to make footwear themselves, but found it too difficult.

The axe had been used to hollow out a log that they had found to make a basic boat and the girls had also made really good progress in making braids from the dried bast fibres from the hemp. That had allowed them to make a rudimentary net. The boat and the net meant that they could fish the lake and they found a number of different varieties to supplement their diet.

The shovel was employed to dig their first purpose built latrines and the toothbrushes they had replicated improved their oral hygiene significantly.

Thomas had been using the replicator to make different small gadgets - such as a hand-powered, wind-up lamp - and some electronic components that he was playing around with. No one knew what he was trying to make, but he seemed happy enough and they left him to it most of the time.

Ben hadn't made any further trips to try to find the other two sources of metal that he had seen in his dream, but he planned to make one last effort before the snow arrived.

At present he was using a hammer and chisel to bore two holes into the rock above and to either side of the cave they were sleeping in. Once they were deep enough, he fitted the two branches he had selected and it appeared as if there were two flagpoles jutting out at an upward angle. A much longer branch could now be laid across the other two and so provide a rail from which to hang some skins. That would close off the cave mouth and hopefully help keep them much warmer.

Ben had used the metal nuggets a number of times during those weeks too. He had done as he suggested to Sarah - slept with the silvery-white nuggets in his hand in an attempt to find out where David had gone.

His efforts were successful and he was able to see David sleeping in what looked like another cave. There was nothing in his 'dream' however, to give him a clue as to exactly where the other boy might be.

Even tuning in during daylight hours wasn't of much benefit, as Ben didn't recognise any of the scenery that David passed through. His 'sight' did tell him one thing however - David had clearly replicated a gun and he was quite proficient with it.

Ben and Sarah debated whether they should share this news with the others. David with a handgun could be a huge danger to them all, but Ben argued against telling the other twins.

"How do I explain knowing what I know without telling them about the nuggets? I vote that I try to control David and get him to destroy the gun," he said.

"But Ben, what if that doesn't work and he kills one of us? We have to tell the others, it's the right thing to do and you know it. Anyway, maybe David needs the gun to survive on his own - maybe he's got no intention of attacking us with it. You can't just make him throw it away, not if that means he can't survive."

Despite what David had done, Sarah was still able to show her natural compassion. She was confused over how she felt about this. On the one hand there was fear from the possibility that David might shoot one of them, but on the other she wondered just how awful it must be trying to get by without companions.

The pair argued for days until Ben finally gave in. He had guarded the knowledge of the nuggets jealously up until now, but he knew Sarah was right in this - David with a gun was too much of a danger not to tell the others. He could try to keep track of the other boy using the power of the nuggets, but it was still too risky.

"Okay," he gave in at last, "I'll tell them about the power of the nuggets to let me see over long distances, but not that they can let me control people or find metal."

Sarah agreed with the compromise and Ben shared his secret with the other two sets of twins as they ate around the fire. The response from Adam, Hannah, Thomas and Elizabeth was disbelief and Ben had to demonstrate what he could do before they were convinced.

"There's only one way to get you all to believe me. I want each of you to go outside the cave - go anywhere you want and do something. When you come back I'll tell you what you did."

All but Sarah laughed at his claims, but they decided to humour him and one by one they left the cave and returned a few minutes later.

Ben turned to Adam.

"You walked into the woods and sat down beside a hazel bush."

Adam looked stunned, but Ben ignored him and turned to Hannah.

"You went to the hemp and cut some of the plants down for using later."

He didn't pause and went on to Elizabeth.

"You walked down to the lake and watched two fish swimming in the water. And not surprisingly, you, Thomas, just sat down outside the cave and did nothing."

Thomas' face grew red at Ben's words. In other circumstances the insult would have led to an argument, but the fact that Ben had proved the nuggets let him watch people remotely was such a revelation that the focus was all on that.

"You really can watch people like that. How is it possible? Nothing in my memories suggests anything like that is possible on Woden," said Elizabeth.

"What have you been watching? Have you watched all of us? Are you another David?" asked Thomas, the accusation clear.

"No I have not!" snapped Ben, "what do you take me for?"

His answer was probably a little too heated, possibly because he felt the guilt of having watched Sarah and Hannah together.

"I think this metal is unique to this planet, that's why no one can do this on Woden," Ben added.

"How long have you known about this?" asked Adam.

"A few weeks," he replied.

"So why are you telling us now? I can see that Sarah obviously knew about it, but you've both kept this a secret up until now. What's changed?" asked Elizabeth.

"I've been keeping an eye on David," explained Ben. "At first I hoped that I would be able to find out where he is, but I don't recognise the place where he's found a cave.

"The problem is that he's used the replicator to make a handgun and he's been hunting with it. I thought that was important enough to tell you all."

The anger at the theft of the replicator had dimmed over the weeks, particularly as the group had managed to get the duplicate working quickly, but now it flared up again.

"I always knew that little bastard was going to be trouble. You should have let me carry on looking until I found him," snarled Adam.

"Does that mean we're all going to have to have handguns to protect ourselves?" asked Hannah.

"I still think that would be a waste of the replicators' resources. What I suggest is that I just keep an eye on him and if it looks as if he's heading in our direction then we can decide what to do about him."

Adam couldn't stop himself from having one more dig at David.

"Maybe we'll be lucky and he'll shoot himself!"

"Adam! That's awful. How can you wish harm on somebody else?" Sarah asked.

"Trust me, that boy is going to cause more trouble. When he does, remember I voted to kill him from the outset."

"Let's get back to this spooky ability that the nuggets bring. How are we going to use that apart from watching David?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, I've got two nuggets so I suggest I give one to Sarah. If she stays here when I go out on a trip, I'll always be able to communicate with her and warn you if David decides to visit. Whenever we need to split up we just need to make sure Sarah's in one group and I'm in the other."

The rest of the group was disgruntled at Ben's suggestion. Sarah didn't like the idea of not being able to accompany Ben at all times and the other sets of twins saw that he wasn't willing to share the nuggets beyond his own mate.

Sarah had to bite her tongue though, as her nimble mind had reasoned why Ben wouldn't be willing to let any of the others have access to the nuggets. If they found out that he could also use them to control people, that would cause untold trouble.

She knew that without doubt, because the second thing that Ben had used the nuggets for during the past few weeks was to control Thomas. Ben had reasoned that Thomas' laziness was a handicap for the group and he had used the metal to get him to do more work. If that got out, she knew Thomas would be extremely mad. The others would be too in all likelihood.

"It sounds as if you're planning on another trip soon," suggested Hannah.

"I was hoping to get in one more before we get snow, so I'll need to leave soon. So far we don't know what's to the north or northeast of us and I'd like to know more before the weather closes in."

Finding the iron ore had been such a huge benefit that no one really grumbled about Ben's plans. They all agreed that he shouldn't go on his own however. Always going around in at least pairs had become the norm over the weeks and Elizabeth volunteered to go with him.

Their success in hunting and the girls' skills with the needles would at least mean that both of them would be well wrapped up against the increasingly cold winds.

David was having to learn fast and the lessons were sometimes harsh - as with the incident with the wolf pack and not thinking through his first hunting trip and subsequent butchering of the meat so close to the cave.

He was also beginning to realise just how much of a handicap being on his own was. He could make all manner of useful things with the replicator, but the one thing that he couldn't produce was extra pairs of hands and some jobs just needed more than one person.

On top of that, he could only do one thing at a time so progress was frustratingly slow. Each time this problem arose, he blamed the twins for all his troubles and as the weeks passed his annoyance at the group grew and was cemented in his mind.

He had certainly learned his lesson with regard to having a store of firewood available at all times inside the cave. Hauling wood up the hillside had been a backbreaking effort, but he stubbornly stuck to his task over a number of days and he believed he had enough now to last him for months.

One lucky break that came his way was the discovery of a huge herd of buffalo. The beasts were located in a valley several miles away from the cave and he had stumbled upon them while out looking for deer.

David found that the animals weren't spooked when he approached them and was amazed that they let him walk right up to them before moving away. He realised that he could take advantage of that to simply walk up to one and shoot it in the head.

The way the deer had stampeded previously made him think carefully about how he was going to do this and he picked an animal on the very fringes of the herd. The noise from his shot would startle the masses of buffalo, but they would run away from him, not towards him.

The kill was remarkably easy and he didn't feel as bad about doing it this time either. As he had suspected, the shot caused the herd to bolt and the sight and sound of hundreds of buffalo thundering off down the valley was really impressive.

David had come prepared this time and he skinned and butchered the beast where it lay. It was a simple matter to use the large hide and two branches to form a travois and he used that to transport the meat back to the cave.

David had also noticed that the weather was growing markedly cooler and that snow was lying higher up the mountain where his cave was located. He also had the idea of using snow and ice to help keep meat fresh but the task of moving sufficient quantities was much harder for him without a pod to help.

Once again it was incredibly hard work to create his own cold store, but all the effort of moving the wood and now the snow did wonders to begin to build hard muscle on his young body.

The wind had begun to howl through the cave and David was determined to do something about it. His solution was different to the one that Ben had come up. He remembered the screen the girls had used to help prepare the animal hides and thought he could make something similar to cover the cave mouth.

The replicator manufactured several strong 'eye-bolts' and he hammered these into fissures in the rock to create anchors that he could secure the screen to.

The buffalo herd had only run a few miles down the valley before settling down and David repeated his trick of simply walking up and shooting one four more times. Each time he killed a beast, the herd ran in the opposite direction, but never more than a few miles away.

Within a few weeks he had enough buffalo meat and skins to make his screen and to keep him in food for a considerable time. He had to admit that he was becoming a little tired of eating the same thing all the time however, and every few days he would treat himself to something created by the replicator.

One thing he was thankful for was that there had been no signs of any more wolves. He had come across some tracks near a stream, but they looked like they belonged to something bigger. His imagination assigned the tracks to a mountain lion and he was more alert for days after he came across them.