Chapter 15

Act 3

Scene 1

Paul walked to the edge of the huge oak's shade, and without a backward glance, crept into the undergrowth. He kept his eyes flickering in all directions. As soon as he found cover, Paul stilled himself to listen to the sounds of the forest. Even here, the cries of the seabirds carried from the mangroves. The songs of thousands of frogs in the marsh added their chorus, with a counter point from the periodic deep bellows of crocs. After a minute, Paul noticed sounds from the trees above him. He sent his eyes questing upward for the source of the noise.

Watching for wildlife, Paul hadn't paid much attention to the trees. He suddenly stiffened as the trees in front of him suddenly came into context. They were pecan trees, but what pecans! Thousands of three-inch long nuts were surrounded by thousands of flowers the size of a fist! Pecans didn't get that big. Their flowers should be tiny, delicate, one-inch pink blossoms, not these huge magnolia-like blooms! Besides, they shouldn't be both flowering and bearing fruit.

While Paul was puzzling out the incongruities of the pecan trees, the whole tree started rustling. A hundred small hairy humanoids swung into the tree and settled down for lunch. Clutching the huge nuts in both hands and biting off the stems, they'd sit and begin tearing at the husk with both teeth and nails. Monkeys in North America? Paul was beyond boggled, but he silently backed away and started his sweep.

Slowly and silently, Paul worked his way through the underbrush. Paul saw plenty of signs of wildlife, both tracks and droppings of deer and rabbit.

Halfway around the small hill their camp was at the top of, Paul found different tracks. Deep gouges in the soft dirt made by cloven hooves nearly six inches wide. Paul looked around warily. He thought, "Holy shit! Not sure if that's a pig or a deer, but I sure as hell don't want to meet him!"

The tracks lead to the waters of the marsh. Paul stood up and peered out over the reeds into the marsh. The glare off the water made him pull out his sunglasses and put them on. The tall reeds hid whatever had made the tracks. Paul knew he had to keep moving to stay on schedule. But, as he started to pad off, he noticed something rising over the reeds in the marsh. He shrunk down involuntarily, trying to make himself as small as possible. A bull moose! Paul froze, motionless, barely daring to breathe, until the head went back down, and silently backed away. A bull moose was over a ton of trouble that he didn't need right now.

Following the water's edge for another hundred yards, he saw tracks of crocs and both moose and deer. Just the nose and eyes of several small crocs, all under four feet long, stuck up out of the water in the shallows. To complete his circuit, Paul had to leave the edge of the marsh and cut back toward where the boats were moored.

As Paul moved through the undergrowth, he came upon an open area. Huge mushrooms, some three feet wide and four feet tall grew out of an old rotting stump. In the center were a dozen spheres of various sizes, from three inches to over two feet. They looked like puffballs, and were surrounded by a gleaming pile of small jumbled bones, and glowed with a shimmering blue light. Odd nearly invisible strands of light stretched out to touch each of the giant mushrooms. Paul's hair stood on end. He wasn't sure what he was seeing. He crouched down outside the open area and took off his sunglasses. Now, he couldn't see the blue light, the tendrils, or the gleaming pile of jumbled bones surrounding the puffballs. He backed away, unsure what the puffballs were, but sure he didn't want to find out the hard way.

Placing his sunglasses on the tip of his nose, he looked back at the puffballs. Looking through the polarized lenses, he could see the blue light, the tendrils and the bones, but when he looked over the top of the lenses, he couldn't. He had to get back, so he filed the information away, circled, giving the clearing a wide berth, and minutes later saw both the Dragon Lady and Topaz Fire. A large pile of gear was heaped on the deck of the Dragon Lady. Just as Paul stepped aboard, Kim and Becky came out, heavily laden with another load.

"Jesus Christ sis! What do you think you're doing? It'll take us three trips with everyone to move all this shit!"

"And if the Pirates show up and take the boats? We might as well get everything useful we can now, while we can. I'm not going to be stuck in this godforsaken place without the essentials!"

Paul grabbed a bottle of conditioner, and shook it at her. He demanded, "Essentials? Come on sis! We need to prioritize! We need all the guns, ammo, knives, tools, pots and pans, silverware and food, but the rest? Leave it for now."

Becky wailed, "What about my clothes?"

Paul rolled his eyes and dropped his head to his chest in defeat. "Ok! Ok, I'll take a load with me and bring back the others for a load in a minute."

Paul walked up the trail leading to the camp, still shaking his head at the insanity of women in general and his sister in particular. Paul stopped in the thicket next to the pile of two to three inch poles that the boys had ready. Clark was just stripping the last branches off a sapling, and Lewis held the shotgun at port arms, eyes scanning for danger. When Lewis met his eye, Paul nodded in approval. As Clark carried the newly cut pole over to add it to the pile, Paul told him to pick up what he had and for them both to come back to camp.

The three trooped into camp, which was beginning to take shape. Becky still lay on her makeshift stretcher, propped up on both ends by a log. Evan was digging holes and pushing the sharp end of the poles deep into the ground to anchor them every two feet across the open side. A tarp had been tied off to both of the fallen limbs and stretched over another pole in the center, creating a safe dry place to store their supplies.

"Well, this is really starting to take shape guys." Paul said as he dropped his load under the tarp. "The girls have the gear pretty much ready back at the Dragon Lady, and I need some help. Lewis, I need you to stay here with Becky, the rest of you, off we go!"

Bell and Jenny jumped up, eager to help out. "Uncle Paul, how come we are camping out under this old tree instead of going to the building that Daddy saw? That way, maybe we wouldn't have to sleep outside in this icky jungle." Bell asked as they all started walking back through the underbrush.

Paul looked at her questioningly, and then to Evan. "You saw a building? Where? What did you see?"

Evan joined Paul's side, shrugged and explained, "Damn, forgot to mention that. As we were nearing the shore, I caught a glimpse of a structure. I lost sight of it as we made the mouth of the river, but it looks to be just a mile away."

Looking at both men, Bell's upturned face held an expression of expectation. "Well young lady, first we need to get everything to our camp. Then your Dad and I need to talk about this some more", Paul gently explained.

Stepping up her stride with the thought of sleeping inside, Bell started to skip ahead of the group. "Bell, don't get too far ahead of us honey." Evan called after her and she slowed to a walk.

As they rounded a bend in the trail, they heard screaming from the beach. Without thought, everyone started to run. "Everyone, move it. Sounds like Kimber's in trouble!" Paul shouted as he broke into a trot.

Stopping just short of the break in the trees, Evan stared at his wife. Kimber was swinging a half full duffel bag at the half dozen seagulls hopping just outside her range. Every swing was punctuated, with a shout.

"Shoo, shoo, get the hell out of here you mangy birds! Damn it, get away!"

Finally, feed up, Kimber dropped the duffel and went for her shotgun. Yanking the shotgun off her, Kimber yelled, "Ok, let's see how you sky rats like this!" Evan could see her starting to take aim with the shotgun at one of the birds.

"Kimber! Stop! Don't shoot!" Paul and Evan shouted together as they ducked down, pulling the kids with them.

Kimber looked up with relief, pulled the gun down and replied urgently, "Well it's about time you got here! I can't keep these thieves away from our supplies, or those fish over there. The girls are scared to death that they will have their eyes pecked out, so they won't even come up top!"

Seeing Kimber lower the gun, they stood up, looked at each other, struggling valiantly to hold in their laughter. They quickly ran across the beach, waving their arms to help ward off the thieves. "Are you sure they just didn't want to get shot?" Evan chuckled as he reached the side of the Dragon Lady.

"Oh just shut up Evan. What do you expect me to do?" Kimber replied shortly. Seeing the grin on her husband's face, she started to laugh and continued, "I guess I look pretty silly, don't I?"

Grabbing his wife in a bear hug, he yelled to Paul and the girls, "I have her restrained, it's safe to come aboard now."

Clark looked at his Dad, then to the pile of gear on deck. Immediately he ran over to the fish that all of the eyes had been plucked out, but there was no other apparent damage. Bell and Jenny, deciding they didn't want to get in the way, ran to the hatch to get below.

"Ok, so tell me about this building Evan," Paul asked as he gently took the gun from his sister's hands.

"Well, I saw a building with a green roof and walls. I couldn't make out much detail, but it looked to be on higher ground. Kimber, grab that map, I marked the spot."

Scanning the map, Paul paused and replied, "Looks like its due northwest of here. It may only be a mile away as the crow flies, but I'll have to go around the little pond at the end of this branch of the stream before I can head west. This could be good or bad. We aren't really prepared for an ambush from both the pirates and whoever is from this building. Starting now, we need to keep everyone together. Let's all grab what we can haul and take it back to camp. When we get there, I'll go scout it out to while I still have some light."

"Everyone, it's time to go. We need to carry as much as we can to the camp." Kimber said as she turned to the hatch, clapping her hands to get their attention down below.

The girls piled out, one at a time, cautiously looking for the birds as they exited the hatch. "Oh you ninnies, they're gone. C'mon, we need to get moving", Kimber admonished the girls.

Loaded down with supplies and the salmon, the group headed back into the jungle. The girls bunched together in the middle of the adults, staying to the middle of the path to avoid touching anything. Huddling together, Beth and Sarah walked silently, while Bell and Jenny trotted near Clark, speculating about the building in the jungle.

Excited, Bell said to Jenny, "Maybe it's a hotel, with a pool! And a Restaurant with ice cream!"

"I don't think it's a hotel, Bell. And I definitely don't think there's any ice cream," Clark responded with a grunt as he shifted the fish.

"I bet there's a game room too!" Jenny said, ignoring Clark's comments.

Overhearing the conversation, Beth couldn't resist taunting her sister, "I'm sure it's not a hotel, squirt. It's probably a prison, with bars and a torture chamber. Put there just for little girls!"