Chapter 2

JAKE

I heard a sound, a sharp twang, and saw sand fly up from just in front of my feet. I stared down at the arrow sticking out of the sand with a shiver of dread creeping down my spine. I spun quickly to see who had initiated the attack and there was nothing. Just empty woods. I quickly ducked back into my tent, throwing the scanner onto the bed, and pulling a small crossbow, equipped with quiver and scope, and a handful of bolts out of the survival pack.

I loaded the crossbow quickly and stashed the remaining bolts in the quiver in mere moments as I stepped up to the door of the tent and peered out. My eyes scanned the beach as far as I could and, seeing nothing, I very slowly stuck my head out of the tent. I scanned more and more of the beach as it came into view but I still could not see any sign of my attacker.

I could feel adrenaline pumping furiously through my veins as I stepped out of my tent. I continued to scan the beach with my eyes but I knew that it was unlikely that someone who attacked with such stealth would show themselves at this point.

I glanced back into the woods again and raised the crossbow to my shoulder, ready to fire. I began taking slow steps towards where I thought the attacker had been, stopping after each step to scan the woods.

I searched the woods near my tent that way, slowly and carefully until I happened upon a depression in the moss. I studied it carefully and came to the conclusion that whoever my attacker was they must have knelt there to steady themselves for the shot. I looked back toward the lake and realized that I had not been more than 15 yards or so away. My thoughts whirled in confusion, 'How could they have missed from such close range? Did they miss on purpose? Was it a warning shot? Who attacked me!? Why?'

It was obvious that whoever it was, they were an experienced hunter. Other than the one spot where the attacker had knelt, there was no sign of them.

After continuing to search the woods with all of my senses for the better part of an hour and coming up empty, I slowly walked back to my shelter, glancing behind myself every few steps.

"Its not paranoia if they are really out to get you," I muttered to myself coldly.

Before entering the tent I knelt down and picked up the arrow from the sand and carried it back into the tent with me.

Convinced whoever had been lurking nearby with evil intent was now long gone, I unloaded the crossbow and propped it beside the entryway. I sat down on the bed with a sigh and closed my eyes for a moment, allowing a shudder to wash over me as my tension eased somewhat. With my eyes closed images played across my mind of the events that had unfolded. It was very eerie to be attacked in such a manner and have no idea who had done it or why.

When I opened my eyes I still held the offending arrow in my hands. I studied it carefully. It was extremely well made, consisting of a smooth light wooden shaft, feathers for fletching, and a vicious-looking metal arrowhead. I also noted a nock carved in the end of the wooden arrow to secure it to the bowstring. The arrowhead looked as though it was crafted from a piece of a spaceship hull, likely from another craft that had crashed here. Both the arrowhead and fletching were secured to the arrow with carved grooves and some sort of adhesive resin.

I stared at the arrow for a long time, trying to get a full sense of what I could learn from it. The two significant pieces of information I gathered were that my attacker was exceptional at crafting weaponry and at least one other ship had crashed on this planet at some point in the past.

Finally I realized that there was work I needed to do and I could not afford to sit and stare at the projectile all day long.

I slung the crossbow over my shoulder, and wandered back out of the tent. I admired briefly the large fire pit I had created that morning. Now all it needed was a fire.

I began collecting firewood of all shapes and sizes, mostly driftwood and fallen limbs. It was a mundane task and my mind wandered as I worked, 'The ship is at the bottom of the lake. I have no communications equipment. No one will know I am missing because I had nowhere to be. It could be a long, long time before anyone even decides to look for me! Even then, they wouldn't know where I was when I disappeared. I had better settle in for the long haul here.'

Those thoughts transitioned into, 'Someone is on this planet with me and judging by this morning they are none too happy I am here. But if I am to be here for any length of time it would be nice to have some companionship. Preferably of the non-lethal variety.'

Before I knew it I had a good-sized pile of firewood stacked beside my tent. It pays sometimes to just work mindlessly, by the time your mind is back on your task you are done!

I realized despite my desire to sit around a fire this evening I had no seat other than the sandy beach.

I jogged up the shallow slope to the edge of the woods and looked around for the nearest sizable log that was not attached in some way to the ground. I quickly located an ideal candidate and began heaving and pulling it out of the woods and onto the beach. In a few minutes I had pulled the log up a few feet from the fire pit and I relaxed on my new-found seat, breathing heavily from exertion.

Once again I realized that I had a bit more work to do before I could relax. The sun was nearing the horizon and I wanted to finish up by dark. While I was working in the woods I recalled that when I had the close encounter with the arrow I had been intending on using the scanner to study the lake water and determine if the water quality had suffered due to the impact of my shuttle.

After recovering the scanner from my bed inside the shelter, I jogged down to the edge of the water and leaned in close to the surface, extending the probe from the top of the small device. It gathered a small sample of the water and in a few moments declared it safe to drink, although in the full readout it was apparent that some of the heavy metal levels in the sample were higher than I would have liked. I decided to continue using the water I had for the time being and continue to test the water in the lake daily to see if there were any changes. I also had the water purifier if I needed it but as I did not know how long I needed that equipment to last I preferred to save it for a time when I truly needed it.

After putting away the scanner, and recovering a box of good old waterproof strike-anywhere matches, I built a respectable fire and relaxed beside it, finally removing the crossbow I had carted with me all evening. For whatever reason just having it within arms reach had made me feel secure, though all evening I had still been frequently glancing over my shoulder to ensure there was no danger.

I chuckled as I regarded the crossbow and matches. The technology was centuries upon centuries old but the simple fact of the matter is that in a survival situation it is better to have something reliable. For a survival situation energy weapons were not particularly useful as they were unreliable and required a large number of heavy power cells. Crossbows were still produced, as were longbows and compound bows, for survival and nostalgic hunting purposes. For a variety of reasons, weapons firing bullet projectiles had ceased to exist over a 100 years prior. Those who wanted the best weapon had an energy weapon, those who wanted a traditional weapon used a bow of some sort. The matches were a simply a perfect firestarting method. They had been refined over the years to be completely waterproof and would strike and burn successfully even when soaking wet. At their heart, however, they were still very similar to their predecessors that had existed hundreds of years prior.