Storiesonline.net ------- Alaskan Vacation by cmsix Copyright© 2008 by cmsix ------- Description: My new boss had never been exposed to a good old boy from Texas before, and he took a shine to me for some reason. He liked my work so well, he and his wife invited me and mine along for a hunting and fishing trip in Alaska. Y'all ain't gonna believe this shit. Codes: MF TimeTr harem ------- ------- Chapter 1 I didn't care much for Carl, my boss. Chris, my wife, didn't like him even that well. Still, he'd taken a shine to us shortly after I'd been hired to help keep his system operating and productive. At first he'd been amused by and then interested in having a real live cowboy as one of his computer geeks. It wasn't the reason I got hired, but it was damned sure the reason I moved to the head of the six man department within six months of signing on. Carl was not a cowboy or a computer geek. He was one hell of a salesman who'd parlayed his abilities into sixty percent ownership of the specialty fishing equipment manufacturing company that shall remain nameless. Carl wasn't a fisherman either, but he knew exactly how to make profitable deals even if he didn't know very much about what he was selling. His enthusiasm for my talents really got rolling when I taught him to get some useful work out of his computer without once mentioning anything technical. After three weeks of tutoring, Carl was thrilled that he could now locate and peruse facts and figures that formerly required him to ask his secretary to produce a printed report. It was a revelation, to Carl anyway. My hire date was just after Christmas. Carl invited Chris and me to a New Year's Eve outing with him and his wife as a sort of first anniversary celebration. It would be our first time to meet his wife, Mary, and we were not looking forward to it if she could put up with Carl on a permanent basis. On the other hand, even though Chris and I were both born and raised in Texas we were not stupid. Carl was paying me a hell of a lot more than anyone else with my short experience could hope to make and he wasn't a complete jerk off or anything, just not really our kind of people. What the hell? Our kind of people were few and far between up here in Montana. Carl and Mary picked us up in the company limo and we were off to the best dinner club in town to start the evening. Things were looking up. They were promising mostly because Mary was drop dead gorgeous. New Years Eve was cold in Montana but it didn't keep Mary from wearing something sexy under her coat. Carl was in his early fifties and I knew damned well that Mary couldn't be over twenty-five. I'd never met a real live trophy wife before and seeing Mary gave me an new appreciation for them. She had a dangerously sexy voice, long shapely legs, and her titties were big and bouncy. As soon as I saw her I knew Chris and I would both have lust in our hearts before the night was over. Yes Virginia, Chris liked to lick pussy as well as she liked sucking my dick - maybe even more. A good Bi wife is hard to find, but the rewards of a successful search were fantastic. It was one of the things I thought made her a perfect wife. The fact Chris was a real live cowgirl didn't hurt a bit either. It ain't often a guy can find a beautiful wife who likes horses, hunting, fishing, and pussy as much as he does. We were a match made in honky-tonk heaven. Luckily the limo delivered us before I could get too far off into the daydream of Chris licking Mary's nipples while I plowed her bush. It wouldn't be the first sweet young thing we'd double-teamed but I sure hoped she'd be the next. The dinner club Carl took us to was the nicest place Chris and I had ever been in. They had a hostess to show us to our reserved table, a busboy in sparkling white to serve water and deliver menus as soon as we were seated, a waitress for the food orders, and a separate waiter with a wine list. I wondered if their food could match Billy Joe's Bar and Grill from back home. When our orders arrived I was pleasantly surprised with the New Your Strip. It was as good as I'd ever had and Chris loved hers too, at least she said she did. I wasn't much of a wine drinker - I considered Mad Dog 20-20 a delicacy - but whatever Carl had ordered was swell. After the meal we stayed a few minutes for coffee. It was good even if it was a little weak. The biggest surprise of the night was Carl. He hadn't been too boring and that was a big surprise to me, but his next trick just about knocked Chris and I both out of our chairs. He started by telling me how he sometimes felt he was missing out by not knowing very much about what he was selling or even how it worked. "Don't get me wrong, selling is selling and intimate knowledge of the product isn't strictly needed for a winning presentation. Still, I think I could do better with a little hands on training, and I'm hoping you can provide the basics." My first thought was I might as well just puke now and get it over with, but I didn't. I liked my high paying job and now that I was head of the department I got to dole out the kind of shit I usually had to put up with. "I'd love to help you any way I can, Carl. What do you have in mind?" I asked, hoping my fawning wasn't really making the loud sucking noise I could hear in my head. "I thought the four of us could take a hunting and fishing trip. Since you showed me the wonderful things I could find on the Internet I've been checking out outfitters and guides. What I decided on was four weeks of camping in Alaska with some hunting and fishing thrown in. "Most of our products have to do with fishing and so it would be our main focus, but I've been thinking of buying a small company that makes some specialized hunting and camping gear and I want to try that too. "I know what you're thinking and I've already cured the problem. This trip didn't just pop uninvited into my little pea brain yesterday. I've been taking shooting lessons for the last three months," he said, and I was flabbergasted. Carl and a firearm just didn't make me feel comfortable down where it meant the most. Loose bowels were the first thing that came to mind when I thought of Carl and a loaded gun. Still, I was caught out and there was nothing I could do about it. I cheered up considerably when I realized what a wonderful time we could have on a long camping trip while everyone else was working. "I'd love to go Carl, and I'm sure Chris would too, wouldn't you honey?" It was probably the best opening I could have given Chris but I didn't realize it. "Oh, I'd love to go, but I'm not sure I can get that much time off," Chris said, and it made me wonder why she'd even care about the damned two bit job she was putting up with until an opening for a teacher came up somewhere near us. "Hell, tell 'em you quit. I don't know where you work, but I'm sure I can put you somewhere making twice as much and doing less than half of what they're asking you to do," Carl said. "If you think you can find a place for me I'll quit tomorrow," Chris said. "Hell, I'm the boss, I can make a place. Now, if everything's settled, how does leaving two weeks after Easter Sunday sound?" Carl asked. After a glance at Chris I told Carl it would be great so he shocked me again. "In that case I have a special project for you until we leave. I want you to make sure we have all the equipment we'll need for our trip. Get one of the production managers to make sure we have a little of everything we make and then go from there. "I've been taking shooting lessons but I don't even own a rifle or pistol. Please get four different rifles and a couple of pistols for me. Get some for yourself, Chris, and Mary while you're at it. In fact, buy everything you think we even might get a chance to try. I want to do this trip up right," he said. We took off for another place to ring in the New Year after our little discussion and ended up in a club for dancing, drinks, and a good time for the more mature set on this auspicious occasion for a legitimate drunken good time. The way Carl poured it in I was glad the limo had its own driver. There was another treat in store for Chris and I when we were seated at a table near the dance floor. Carl admitted that he wasn't much of a dancer and asked me if I could entertain Mary and Chris while he prowled around back in the gambling room to see if he could catch up with a customer that frequented the place. Hell, I knew he was lying and Chris knew he was lying and I had a pretty good idea Mary did to. It didn't hurt my feelings one bit though and apparently Chris and Mary thought the idea of sharing me for a few hours wouldn't be so bad. I knew that Chris was all for it. This place was no back home Country bar and it wasn't for the young folks either. I figured we were probably the only ones in here less than forty. This meant the music was mostly slow ones and it was fine with me. I could two-step with the best of 'em, but that didn't mean it was the only step I knew. Slow dancing came natural to me. I wasn't sure I could get Mary's panties damp by rubbing bellies with her, but I knew Chris would be hot to trot after not much of it. Hell, it was how I got in her drawers the first time and quite a few times after that. Trying to look like I had good manners, I asked Mary to dance first and while she didn't seem shy, I didn't push the issue for the first two dances. I took her to the table after that and gave Chris a good warm up, pulling her as close as we always danced and taking my customary two handed grip on her wonderful ass as we got started. "Be sure to try your best to warm Mary up next time you get her out here. I have good feelings about fun and games every time I look at her," Chris said, whispering in my ear. Chris wasn't the only one that thought I'd slighted Mary on the first round. When I took her to dance the next time she gave me a little scolding. "If your going to treat me like you're dancing with your mother all night I'm going to give you such a pouting. Now pull me close like you did Chris and see if my ass doesn't feel as good as hers," she said, and then lay her head on my shoulder. Damn if it wasn't Christmas again already. I didn't dry hump Mary out on the dance floor like I'd been known to do Chris after I had a few drinks in me, but I fondled everything I thought I could get away with in a place that wasn't as dark as I was used to. She helped out too and she showed me she could get my dick as hard as Chris could. The three of us spent the next two hours doing vertical foreplay and we only cut it out after Carl came back. Luckily I was fondling my wife when he returned. I hated to be cut off from Mary's charms like that, but after a loud countdown and a couple more drinks we called it a night. Chris and I were in bed, fucking, and talking dirty about Mary fifteen minutes after the limo dropped us off. Work the next morning wasn't going to be a bother for me. When Carl put me on the job of gathering equipment I knew he didn't mean for me to show up at the office. I did have to call him to find out how to get in touch with the guide company that was handling our trip. I wanted to know what we'd be hunting and what we'd be fishing for. "I'm glad you're on the job already, but there's been a slight change in plans if it's ok with you. Charles Frankston takes a fishing trip up there every year and I think we should let him gather up the fishing gear for us, especially since he's very familiar with our stuff." "That's a great idea. Most of the fishing I've ever done was in East Texas and I'm pretty sure Charles can do a better job on that stuff than I could." He gave me the info on the outfitter in Alaska and after a call to them I knew that we needed to be able to take down anything from a Grizzly bear on down. The guy told me we weren't necessarily going to hunt Grizzly, but that the bears usually had the last word on whether we'd have to try killing one of them or not. He also reminded me that we would need the best cold weather gear we could afford. He must have been accustomed to dealing with dyed in the wool dumb asses. Who would take a hunting and fishing vacation to Alaskaand not bring along the best cold weather stuff they could find? I did have my work cut out for me though. The firearms were the easy part. I got Carl and myself BAR Longtracs in 7mm magnum and the girls got the same except in 30-06. Carl had asked for four different rifles each but I didn't go that far. To go with the Brownings, I bought us a Marlin 336C each in thirty-five Remington. They were excellent brush guns and we didn't need a whole damned arsenal with different rounds for each rifle. Even though I didn't think we'd need shotguns, I ordered us each a Beretta Xtrema2 in case Chris and I got to keep ours after the trip was over. I even picked up four Browning Buck Mark 22 autos just for the hell of it. Why not? Carl asked me to get everything we might possibly need. The firearms were easy, but I nearly wore the Internet out looking for extreme weather tents, sleeping bags, and clothes. Of course I couldn't get it all done on the net. I had to organize two shopping trips to Cabela's for clothes. You were stupid if you thought you could get clothes and boots that fit right by pointing and clicking. I had it to do though and as the jump off time came close, everything I could think of was packed and ready to go, even two thousand rounds for each weapon we were taking with us. Of course we had more than that for the 22 semi-autos. I settled for ten thousand rounds each. What the hell, they're small. Carl didn't bat an eye over the cost and I was looking forward to one trip for him and to my keeping up with the equipment in case he wanted to go again next year. The last snag we ran into was the weight and size of the load for the plane. The guide company wanted to fly us in two groups. They intended to take the guys first and then go back for the girls. Carl nixed that right away, telling them he didn't give a shit what it cost as long as our equipment and our asses ended up going at the same time. They took the easy way out, subcontracting to a guy with an old HH/3E of Vietnam era fame and otherwise known as a Jolly Green Giant. It gave us plenty of room and lift. Carl got off into his cups the night before and now, the morning after, he looked like he'd been shot at and missed then shit at and hit. He'd probably tried to drink everything liquid last night. Still, he was a trooper and didn't squawk about the shape his head was in. The guys at the guide's place knew what they were doing. We probably had three times as much equipment as we'd need, but it didn't cause them to even pause in loading the Giant and getting it all tied down. We left early the next morning. It was going to be a long flight - Jolly Green Giants aren't all that fast and we had a long way to go. Since Carl was footing the bill, no one complained when he took the other seat up front. It didn't matter, no one except the pilot knew shit about flying it anyway. At least with Carl up front he could be one of the first two to the crash if we had one. The weather was supposed to be fine all the way to our camp spot, and it was, almost. Somehow we were lucky enought to have a fucking thunderstorm come up. I could have understood a blizzard but not a fucking thunderstorm. The pilot couldn't believe it either, but the damned thing blew up in what seemed like minutes - complete with lightning everywhere and high winds from what seemed like every direction. It didn't worry me much after a few minutes because I knew damned well we were all going to die. It was so dark and raining so hard there was no way to even see the ground. The pilot did the only thing he could - he tried to get the damned thing down. I didn't doubt he'd get that accomplished; it was a forgone conclusion. My only question was about the shape of things after we were on the ground. Oh yeh, I wondered if we'd be burning before we came to a stop. Even though I was strapped in as tightly as possible, I was knocked out right at the last and at least it brought a halt to the screaming Chris, Mary, and I were doing. I never knew whether Carl or the pilot screamed any. I didn't notice it if they did. When I came to, the first thing I wondered was what in the fuck is that funky smell. I nearly lost whatever my last meal had been when I got my answer. By some quirk of fate we had come down by a big tree. As it removed the rotors it managed to sling parts of one of them into the cockpit, or at least I think that's what you call the space where the pilot and co-pilot ride in a helicopter. Carl and the pilot were bloody shitty messes. Carl's head was in his lap and Jim, the pilot, was in two pices. All three of us in the back were relatively unharmed. We were pretty damned cold though. I kept myself right in my seat, mostly, until the girls came around. I felt bad when I had to answer, I don't know to most of their questions. I was able to give them the details on Carl and the pilot and I encouraged them not to look for themselves. Neither expressed any interest in that direction. Since it was night out and since I didn't smell even a hint of jet fuel fumes I suggested we stay where we were until morning. After that motion was accepted by acclimation I looked through some of our things and found a couple of the sleeping bags and an air mattress. Chris and Mary helped me clear out enough space to make our bed and then I found a light tarp to close off the cockpit from the rear area. It would cut down on the cold wind and the smell of the corpses. When we started shucking clothes to get into our sleeping bags, Mary let us know if the bags didn't zip together we'd all be sleeping in one. I didn't blame her a bit since I wouldn't want to be sleeping by myself as cold as things were getting. Not to mention the spooky atmosphere of spending the night with two dead men not twenty feet away. I didn't have a bit of trouble zipping the bags together. It seemed a little odd to come up from being unconscious and then go right off to sleep, but that's what we did. There weren't any productive moves we could make out in the middle of nowhere with everything damned near pitch black outside. We shucked our clothes and got our asses in the doubled bag right away. It was so cold it took me nearly fifteen minutes to sprout a hardon even though I was between two beautiful naked women. ------- Chapter 2 The sunlight streaming in through a couple of gashes in the helicopter's fuselage woke me. I was surprisingly warm and chalked it up to the two naked women snuggled as close to me as they could get. It damned sure wasn't warm out or in, because my breath was making a hell of a fog with every exhale. I didn't even wiggle after I opened my eyes. It was colder than a witch's titty outside the sleeping bag and I was warm where I was. I didn't intend to do a thing that might wake the girls. We'd have hell soon enough with what I knew was coming and I intended to put it off as long as I could. I felt sure that planes would be out looking for us pronto, but hell, we were several hundred miles from where they'd have to start and I figured another ten or fifteen minutes rest wouldn't hurt a bit. For one thing, I was sore all over. There was a knot on my head and my body felt like I'd been through the spin cycle in a washer with an unbalanced load. Not to mention the clean up I'd need to do in the former cockpit that was now doing duty as a morgue. Damn it all, Carl's head wasn't even attached to his body any longer and Jim, the pilot, looked like he'd been in even worse shape. That whole job would be mine too. I was sure the girls wouldn't be able to help and I wouldn't ask them to anyway. The fuselage was all we had for reasonable shelter though and the bodies needed to be put outside and covered up or buried until someone of the rescue persuasion got here to take better care of them. As I considered what I needed to do when I got started, it came to me that the floor was surprisingly level considering it had crashed not long ago. All our gear was where it had been loaded. Some of it was still on pallets and the rest was stowed where it had been tied down. The few gashes in the skin were all there was back here to even hint about what had happened. Mary woke first and when she wiggled a little it woke Chris. They both tried to put on a brave face at first but it slipped away from them pretty fast. At least they didn't start blubbering and tried to keep the old stiff upper lip. "What are we gonna do Jack?" "Mostly it's me that has to do stuff. I need to get things squared away up front and then try to seal up the holes in this thing to help us stay warm in here. We'll need to get dressed first though. It'll probably get even colder in here when I have to open the door to get outside." "Why do you have to go outside? Won't someone come to see about us?" Mary asked. "I'm sure they will, but I need to try and make some kind of big marker outside so they can find us easier. The helicopter should have one of those crash radios to help them find us, but it will only get them to the general area. "I need to do something with Carl and Jim's bodies too. We can't let them stay where they are since we'll have to use this thing as shelter until someone finds us." "Oh," she said, and didn't cry, but both of them came close again. After taking the plunge, so to speak, and getting out of the sleeping bag, I made short work of getting into my clothes. I needed to bleed my lizard pretty bad by now, but I knew I'd have to unpack one of our camping potties. What the hell, Carl had told me to get everything we needed and with two women along on the trip I'd known potties were something we just had to have. The girls stayed in the bag while I was doing my manly duty of getting the shitter in business. I congratulated myself over and over for buying more of the special liquid deodorant for the damned things than I'd thought we would ever need and plenty of the biodegradable ass ribbon. Of course I'd also bought a case of my regular Scott Toilet Tissue too. After all, manly men like Carl and I could brave the wilds and shit in the woods, but using pine needles and other detritus to wipe my ass held no fascination for me. I did spring for one of those little stools that had a regular commode seat so we wouldn't have to squat to do our business. With a potty and some butt wipe made ready for the girls, I opened the big side door enough to look out but closed it again even faster. The first thing that came into sight as the door slid back was a real live pack of wolves. There were six or eight of the fuckers sniffing around and the noise the door made sliding back had every fucking one of them looking right at me as I took a peek. "What's the matter?" Chris asked, as I slammed the door shut. "There are wolves hanging around outside and they look hungry. I didn't get time to see exactly what they were up to but my best guess is they smelled the blood and have come to see if there's a meal near us," I said, as I headed for the pallet that held our young armory. "Do you have to kill them?" Mary asked, and I hoped we weren't in for an endangered species lecture. Mary hadn't given any hints of being an environmentalist whacko up to now, but that last question put me on my guard. I was as environmentally friendly as the next sensitive Texas lad, but I considered myself eminently practical too. When there was something hanging around thinking I might make a good meal, my first thought was to consider it a proper target of opportunity. "I hope not. I'm hoping the sound of gunfire will scare them off. If it doesn't I'll have to kill at least some of them so the others will haul ass. I can't work outside with them hanging around and there are things I need to do out there," I said, trying to make it sound like killing them was the last thing on my mind. "Well I don't think you should fuck around with warning them. I think you should shoot to kill from the get go and see what happens. Those things could be dangerous and teeth marks in my ass don't sound like fun," Mary said, and I'll admit it made me feel much better. What I wanted to do was fish out one of the surprises I had bought for Carl. Since it had been his dime, and since he wanted some actual hunting, shooting, and fishing experience I'd gone a little overboard at the last. What the hell, I'd always wanted a Wildey and a Dirty Harry Special since I'd seen the movies that brought them fame. Now I had two each since Carl would never get a chance to use the two I'd bought for him. I was nearly salivating to see what kind of damage they'd do on our nosey neighbors, but this wasn't the time. Putting on my web belt and attaching a holster, I loaded both Carl's and my Glock 21s. With one in the holster and one in my hand I had Chris slide the door open and started blasting. The damned things had crept up nearly to us by now and were sniffing around diligently. Chris pulled the door back so fast they had barely looked up before my first shot. I nailed three of them and got a good count on the five that scattered and kept running. Damn they were big, much bigger than I'd thought wolves got. "I hate to ask you to do it, but I think one of you should load a Glock and the other should load a rifle and then come out and watch over me while I'm busy outside." "You bet your ass we will. If anything happens to you we'll be further up shit creek than we are already," Chris said. "It's a lot colder out here than I expected. We'd better dig around for the cold weather long Johns and snow boots too. Hell, we might even need our snowshoes." "It's probably my fault. I was hoping for a lot of snow," Mary said. "I don't think it's your fault unless you were hoping for that freak storm too," I said. "I didn't. I guess I'd better load my Glock and let Chris use her rifle. I've practiced some but not nearly as much as Carl did and I know I'll do better with a pistol than a rifle." "Hell, we'll both load our Glocks and our rifles. I think we should load those shotguns too. We can lean them against this crate's side and change out if we need to make long shots or wide shots. I don't think we should take any chances," Chris said. "I didn't even know we had shotguns. I'm a lot better with one of those. I like to shoot skeet," Mary said. It was a good thing the damned Jolly Green Giant was so big inside. More than half of it was taken up with our supplies and equipment but we still had room to unpack things and get dressed in the cold weather clothes. After that we sorted out the weapons, loaded them - including all four shotguns and the two thirty-ought-sixes for the girls. When I slid the door open again we were fresh out of wolves except for dead ones and I was glad. The first order of business was a good look around. I was amazed at what good shape the helicopter was in. The rotors were gone of course, and the cockpit glass was destroyed but other than that and a few gashes in the outer skin everything looked to be in good shape. It wasn't going anywhere under its own power, but that didn't make any difference. If it had been in showroom shape we wouldn't be much better off since none of us knew the first thing about flying it. One thing that really made me happy was a lack of leaking fuel. I looked carefully everywhere, but couldn't find where even one drop had spilled. I couldn't see under the body since it was down in the snow, but then again there couldn't be any fuel under it because none had leaked down the sides and there hadn't been any coming through the inside or we'd have smelled it. Stepping back inside I retrieved our flat point shovel then came back outside to get busy. We were going to be here for at least a day or two and I wanted the inside of the chopper to stay warmer than it was. I piled snow around the bottom of the main body for insulation first. With the sides banked with snow, I set down the shovel, sucked up my nerve, and went back inside to take down the tarp I'd used to close off the cockpit. The smell wasn't nearly as bad this morning since Carl and Jim were frozen solid, kinda. Carl's head was lying in his lap and a closer look at Jim showed he'd been raggedly cut completely in half near his waist. After making sure the girls were standing by the big door and intended to stay there, I threw the frozen pieces of Carl and Jim out of the broken window on the side away from them. Back outside, I pushed them up near the snow I'd banked and took to the shovel again to cover the up, packing the snow firmly over them as I went. I hoped it would freeze solid and keep scavengers from getting to them. Hoping was about the best I could do about it for now. The next two hours were spent with the girls watching out for me while I stomped out a big X in the snow. Mostly it made me sad because Jim had missed a clearing I'm sure he had no chance of seeing in the raging storm. Hell, it was almost completely bare for at least a half-mile square and he missed it by less than a hundred feet. There was a chance we would have ended up stuck here and not be able to leave on our own if he'd come down in the clearing, but at least he and Carl would most likely still be alive. With what I considered the important parts done, we all went back inside and closed the door. I'd been working most of the morning and really wasn't too cold but the girls were. I thought about building a fire outside but canceled it as a bad idea. Even though I'd checked carefully, there was no guarantee fuel wouldn't start leaking and there was always a chance I'd missed something. I wasn't willing to risk it, yet. We ate some energy bars, drank some water, and called it lunch. I braved the cockpit again after that and looked around until I found the little crash radio. It seemed to be working. Looking around more carefully I saw that the main circuit breaker had been tripped and I started to reset it but then thought better of that too. Hell, what was to say there wasn't some short circuit somewhere that could start a fire if I turned the power back on? We were in a lot better shape than we had any right to be. We were set up for several weeks of camping and should have no trouble making it until we were rescued. It would take a real dumbass to risk a fire now since even if we got out fine it would burn up all of our food, supplies, and equipment. Besides, I couldn't think of a thing having the power back on would help. Even I knew the heat for the back section was supplied by the engine and I wasn't about to try starting that. After leaving the cockpit I fished a roll of duct tape out of our things. Any redneck knows that you're always better off if you have plenty of the magic tape with you. I used it first to close the opening between the cockpit and our section by taping the tarp I'd used earlier into place more securely this time. With the cockpit partitioned off, I asked the girls to do lookout duty again while I closed up the gashes in the fuselage we'd acquired during the crash. I was done in and hour or so and we got back inside and closed up. "Jack, do you think we're anywhere close to where we were supposed to be going?" Mary asked, and I could have kissed her for it. Actually I wouldn't mind kissing her just to be kissing her and I'm sure Chris felt the same way. I was excited though because her question made me remember the GPS units I'd bought. I had to dig a little deeper this time but got hold of one in a few minutes and we went outside again to find out exactly where we were. It was a good idea, but it didn't work out. The thing seemed to be working fine, but it couldn't find a damned thing. At least I was glad I'd bought more than one. I was back outside with the other three in a few minutes but not a damned one of them told us one fucking thing. It was as if there weren't any GPS satellites up there at all. I knew damned well there were though, because Jim had used his GPS to set the course he took to get us here. All of the ones I'd bought seemed to be working and they weren't even the same type. I'd bought one each of what I thought were the four best models available. Hell, they were even by different manufacturers. Carl and I had planned on comparing the features of the different units to see what the advantages and disadvantages were, for market research of course. It bothered me a good bit for a while and then I had to mentally shrug it off. Maybe the lightning we'd been through had damaged them somehow. That made me wonder about the walkie-talkies I'd bought so we took time to check them out and they worked fine - better than I'd expected in fact. The mystery was starting to bother me a little by now and I found the multi-band receivers I'd brought. I'd picked up a top of the line model and even brought my personal unit along too. Neither one of them picked up a damned thing but static. This didn't bother me as much as the GPS units had though. There was the chance we were so far from anywhere that we just weren't in range of a transmitter. I'd check again at night since there wasn't a chance we were out of range of everything that would be filling the air after dark. "Jack, I know you don't want to build a fire near the helicopter and I understand why, but sooner or later we're going to have to build one so Mary and I can cook something. Even if we have enough of those energy bars to last until someone finds us we can't live on them alone," Chris said, after we'd given up on the GPS units and the radios. "I know you're right, but we have a lot of work to do before we try it. We'll have to get everything out of the bird in case it does catch fire and explode. We can tough it out without the helicopter but we'll die quickly without our supplies." "Well we've got it to do then. Where will we stack it?" Mary asked. "We'll be better off it we just put it on the sleds." "What sleds?" she asked. "We have four twelve foot sleds for transporting all that crap. They're disassembled now and we'll have to put them together. They're like the dogsleds you've probably seen but designed for people to pull. They're a snap to put together. About two weeks ago I practiced to see what they were like. I'll dig out their boxes first." The sleds were easy to assemble, but it wasn't a quick thing. To make them easier to transport they were in smaller pieces. Basically they were ribs, struts, and runners with a lightweight canvas covering for flooring. Even though there were only three of us to pull them now, we still assembled all four. We'd need the room so we'd have a place for everything without just piling things as high as they'd go. We weren't planning on pulling them far now anyway. We just wanted to make sure our stuff would be a safe distance from the helicopter in case the worst happened with the cooking fire. By the time we had all of the sleds ready to go we had to put off loading them until tomorrow. It was too dark to even start by now. We settled for eating a can of Ranch Style Beans each - straight out of the opened cans. We didn't even joke about who was going to fart the most. We did agree we should wear underwear to bed even though we refrained from mentioning why. ------- Chapter 3 You'd think after a hard days work in the wilds I'd be ready to do some business with two naked women in the same sleeping bag with me. I wasn't and it was obvious neither of them had any ideas at all along those lines. They were beautiful, sexy, and almost naked. I wasn't interested. Our miraculous luck surviving the crash and our current precarious situation kept carnal thoughts on the back burner and that burner wasn't even lit. The biggest surprise was that I fell asleep almost at once. There was no light streaming in the next morning since I'd done a good job of patching the fuselage with duct tape. When I woke it was still easy to tell the sun was up though since I could see there was light on the other side of the tarp closing off the cockpit. My next thought was about trying out the girl's camp potty. I needed to piss worse than a Rocky Mountain Racehorse. To make things worse there was no way to get out of the fart sack without waking Chris and Mary. "Where are you going in such a hurry?" Chris asked. "I have to piss and I don't have time to get dressed and go outside first. I'm gonna try out your potty." "Well you'd better be able to pee sitting down then. That seat doesn't raise and if you splash all over it Mary and I are gonna throw you outside in your drawers. And don't you dare take a dump. You'll gas us all to death. Come on Mary, let's pull the bag over our heads and zip it closed just in case." She needn't have worried. I didn't like the smell of shit any better than anyone else. I was a happy man when I sat on the potty and got to relieve the pressure in my bladder. It also made me remember we were probably going to be dehydrated if we didn't pay extra attention to taking in fluids today. Weather as cold as we were in left damned little humidity in the air. I wasn't familiar with any of the facts and figures but even an idiot could see we were exhaling an awful lot of moisture with every breath. We drank a little water yesterday but probably not as much as we would normally and we hadn't brought that much with us. Nobody needs a lot of bottled water in Alaska. As soon as I dismounted I found out I wasn't the only one that needed the throne. Mary was out of the bag with her big titties jiggling in a flash and she didn't even mention that I should turn my head. I did anyway because I'd never had a sexy thought about a woman pissing and if one should come up out of the blue somehow, now sure as hell wasn't the time for it. Mary was on and off in record time and Chris nearly knocked her down as she made her way to the perch. I was trying to ignore them and get into my clothes. We had a hell of a job lined out for us already, what with unloading our stuff and all, and another one had come to me while I was reigning. We needed to get a big bonfire ready in case we heard aircraft. I wanted to make it easy to get started and have plenty of evergreen branches ready to throw on for smoke. There was no sense in starting it before we heard the searcher's engines since it would work us to death trying to keep it going all the time. Still, we needed to be able to touch it off at the first hint of engines. That realization brought up a decision Carl and I had made that really pissed me off now. He'd wanted to buy four snowmobiles for our trip and like all really great ideas he had, he hadn't come up with it until the last minute. I pointed out that while they'd be great we just didn't have time to arrange for getting them to the jump off point in Alaska before we had to fly up. We didn't have time, or I'd told him we didn't, since I didn't want them at all. I'd felt sure the vacation would degenerate into weeks of snowmobile riding instead of hunting and fishing if Carl had the loud monsters with us. Carl was a guy who liked to have fun and while I did too, mechanical fun didn't do that much for me. Besides, we could buy snowmobiles and drive them all we wanted at home. Montana had plenty of places to go ride snowmobiles without the bother of having to fly them in and bring along fuel by air too. Hell, we'd have had to hire another helicopter just to haul the extra fuel. Of course, now I wished like hell I'd been more of a fun loving guy. With four snowmobiles and plenty of fuel we could get our selves out of this mess. Not to mention the fact that chances were both helicopters wouldn't have crashed and we could have pitched out the fuel and flown back in the other one. Hindsight is twenty twenty and all that shit. We didn't have any snowmobiles, any fuel, or any second helicopter. We'd just have to wait. And that was another thing. I'd forgotten to try the multi-band radios last night. I don't guess it really mattered much. All it would have told us was the world was still there since I didn't have a transmitter and wouldn't know the proper way to use it if I did. Oh, I'd listened to Ham operators enough to know what to do if I had a working transmitter. It wouldn't be proper procedure or anything, but that wouldn't have really mattered. There are thousands of guys sitting up all hours of the day and night listening and talking on Ham radios and they live to get a chance to be in on a situation like ours. One good transmission that any of them could pick up would have all of them over the world focusing on trying to help. I'm sure most of them would be mad at me if they ever found out I had been so rude as to leave them completely out by not bringing a transmitter of any type. They'd have to get in line though because right about now I was pretty mad at myself over it. Melting snow to get water was going to be my first project. Finding clean snow was not going to be a problem and besides, I had three different kinds of filtering contraptions in the stores. We'd planned on four weeks in the wilds and I'd thought this part through. All I needed was three stout sticks for a little tripod to hang a bag of snow from and we'd be in business, kinda. We should be able to get a good bit of water without even building a fire. One of the methods I'd bought into was hanging a black plastic bag from the tripod and putting a black plastic capture pot beneath it. The black color was supposed to gather enough heat from sunlight to melt the snow and keep it melted. At least it was supposed to work that way unless the temperature outside was below zero. For once I planned ahead and found one of our thermometers to check and see exactly how cold it was outside. Damned if we weren't exactly on the borderline for this to work, according to the instructions anyway. After I broke out our miniature weather station it let me know the temp was right on zero and the wind was coming out of the north at three to six miles per hour. I set the contraption up and hoped for the best. Meanwhile, back to the signal fire site. The crash into the trees had helped us out here. I'm sure the rotors hadn't lasted long in the treetops but they had brought down a hell of a lot of limbs and branches. The chainsaw we'd brought along because we expected to be too damned lazy to spend much time cutting wood the old-fashioned way helped too. I wasn't in the mood for real lumberjack work but I found a couple of hardwoods that weren't too big and put them on the ground, uh snow. We'd have plenty of wood for at least a couple of hours of signal fire and it didn't take much work to gather loads of branches off other evergreens to pile near the fire for making plenty of smoke. The next thing I needed for the signal fire was something I dreaded so we took a break after the main part of the fire was ready and did our unloading job. It was more work than we wanted to do but actually less than I'd thought. We didn't have much distance to carry anything and we saved a lot of time by having Chris throw me boxes from the stacks while I stood at the door and handed them to Mary so she could stack them on the sleds we pulled right up to the door. By the time we had everything out and loaded and then pulled about a hundred yards from the helicopter it was past noon. I cleared off snow from the ground so we could build a cooking fire and then got it going. While Mary and Chris took care of the cooking I gathered what squaw wood I could find and when the beef stew was ready to eat I was more than ready to eat it. Damn, it was nice to have real food and plenty of it again. There's also something about having a campfire that makes a human feel secure, especially in weather like this. What I wanted to do right now was set up one of our tents, but I didn't. The signal fire's finishing touches was next on my agenda and it was time to get moving. There was fuel in the helicopter's tanks and while I'd been hoping and praying it wasn't leaking I needed some of it now. I didn't know a good place to get it out but I knew where it went in and if it came down to it I could operate a siphon hose. I found Jim's tool kit in one of the outside accessible compartments first and then started looking around for access panels near where I estimated the bottom of the fuel tank was. I found what I was looking for even more easily than I'd thought I'd be able to and I didn't even have to take off any panels. Hell, I didn't even need the tools I'd found. There was a small panel that opened by had near the lower part of the main body. It had a little valve inside that you could open to drain a little fuel. I assumed it was like the ones I'd seen on small planes that let you check to see if there was water in the fuel. You simply let a little of it out and watched closely to see if it contained any water. Since water was heavier than fuel it would settle to the bottom of the tank and be first out if you opened the valve. The valve was never meant to drain the tank and it was spring loaded to stay closed. That wasn't a big problem though and there was even a handy flexible line stored near the valve that would let you make sure you drained the fuel outside instead of letting it just dribble inside the machine. After finding a two-gallon gas type can behind another panel I got things arranged and then held the valve open. And there was fuel. Ten minutes of holding the valve open let me know I had to come up with something better. The can was full by now but my thumb was aching from holding back the spring to let it flow. I took the first dose and spread it out on our signal fire and then dug around in Jim's tools on my way back. I found a C-clamp I thought would work and went back to the fuel testing panel where I used the clamp to hold the valve open this time. It still took ten minutes to get two gallons but at least my thumb didn't get tired from the process. After my third trip to douse fuel on the potential fire Chris and Mary came to see what the hell I was up to. A short show and tell was delivered and they took over the job. "We can do this and meanwhile you need to get one of the tents ready and gather more firewood in your spare time," Chris said, and I obeyed. They finished putting twenty gallons of fuel on the signal firewood before I was half done putting up the ten by fourteen double-walled tent and installing the wood-burning heater inside. Carl had made sure I didn't try to save money on the tents. Hell, we could walk around inside it without having to stoop over and it even had a hard plastic floor that would completely disassemble into what looked like plastic boards, albeit short ones. Once the tent was erected and the fire in its little stove was underway the girls started on more stew for supper. The solar snow melter hadn't provided very much water at all in this low temperature so they'd taken the expedient way out during the time I was finding a way to get fuel out of the helicopter. We had a couple of big stew pots and they'd built a small fire, put two flat rocks on either side of it to hold one stew pot up and then filled the pot with snow and kept at it while they were fucking with the fuel detail. We now had five gallons of clean and filtered water and five of powder mixed Gatorade in plastic jugs that sat near enough to the fire to keep from freezing again. I gave them each an attaboy and then carried the Jerry cans into the tent, which was getting warm inside by now. After supper I thought I had enough time to set up the radio receivers so we could try to hear what was going on in the rest of the world. I put them on the tent's floor and then spread a dipole antenna between two nearby trees. I just managed to get the job done before sunset and they'd spent most of that time gathering small firewood so our stove wouldn't run out during the night. It was nice to come in from the cold to a place that was really warm. Chris and Mary had already rediscovered this and they were surely in for the night. They were out of their outside gear and lounging around in sweats. I tired my best not to notice how good they looked while I was changing into my own. I didn't want to start a big obvious lump in my pants, especially since they'd turned on the ceiling light that worked off a rechargeable battery. After I was more comfortable I lay down in front of the radios to see what we could find. I started with my old faithful since I knew more about how it worked. Thirty minutes later I was worried. No matter where you were on Earth it just isn't possible to get away from radio signals of some kind, or I didn't think it was until now. Even if you couldn't find them in a language you could understand you could still find something that let you know humans were communicating. No matter what I thought I knew there was absolutely nothing on the radio here. I switched the antenna to the newer radio and got the same thing, as in nothing at all. Not one peep in the static and I even had to turn the volume up to hear that. It left me devastated. How could the whole world just shut up when I needed to hear something out of them? Ham radios could talk around the world on some frequency or the other and they did it all the time. That wasn't even counting big fifty and hundred thousand watt commercial stations or the military - any military. We should have been able to hear Russians, Chinese, or someone. It was worse than a sucker punch in the gut. It didn't take Chris and Mary any time to catch my mood and no doubt it migrated to them pretty quickly. We were all silent and maybe depressed, probably depressed was more like it. We barely spoke as we undressed and got into bed for the night. It was surprising that I didn't take long to fall asleep. Of course I wanted to toss and turn but I made myself lie still. Telegraphing my anxiety even more apparently to the girls wouldn't help a thing. I didn't have any idea what was going on, but that didn't mean it would help anything to have them even more upset. Apparently my subconscious didn't agree with me. It poked and prodded me with scattered patches of dreams all night long. The most prevalent one was with me and the girls being attacked or chased by wolves and then other wild animals. We kept moving our campsite and the animals kept following us and trying to gain an advantage. When I woke the next morning the girls did too. I could tell they hadn't slept any better than I had and all of us had slightly swollen eyes. This morning I wasn't nearly bursting to pee so I dressed to go outside for the chore. Damn if we didn't have more visiting wolves. I warned the girls to get their clothes on and their weapons ready then grabbed one of the Marlin's I'd made sure to dig out and load yesterday. It was to augment the Glocks in my holsters. Since Carl was gone I'd put both of the holsters on my belt. With the left Glock in my right hand and the Marlin in my left, I stepped out of the tent to do my he-man duty. The wolves must not have been snooping around long because they were just now sniffing around our supplies and a few of them would occasionally paw at the boxes as if trying to open them. I took aim with the Glock at a bitch that was closest and not between the supplies and me. I didn't intend to chance shooting any of our stuff because it sure seemed we were going to need every damned thing we had with us. My shot was dead on and the female didn't even squawk as she fell dead. The report got the attention of all the rest of them. They were confused by it and of course they all turned toward me. I had to pick targets that didn't have any of our things behind them but there were plenty. This pack numbered a dozen at least. I lucked out when the obvious leader came from behind the helicopter to see what was happening. Even though it was a long shot he had to go next. I dropped the Glock and shouldered the Marlin to cut down on him. ------- Chapter 4 The leader dropped like a stone and I was happy with my shot even though it didn't get the response from the wolves I'd expected. In the excitement I'd been guilty of anthropomorphism of the rankest type. I'd expected the rest of the wolves to lose heart with the loss of their leader as men would have. My mistake wasn't a fatal one, but I'd probably have been as well off to shoot any of the others. I concentrated on doing just that now. They'd all lost their curiosity about our supplies but they weren't leaving because they'd gained curiosity about me. I was up and moving on my own and I guess that made me look like a better choice for a meal than the boxes and containers they'd been sniffing. Even without the help of their leader's directions they knew I needed to be brought down with superior numbers, which they had. They were all facing me now and seemed to be spreading out to make sure I didn't get away. They needn't have worried because it was the last thing on my mind. While they were getting themselves organized for attack I resumed mine. In the back of my mind I wondered that they didn't seem a bit frightened by a man, but I didn't wonder long. I didn't fire wildly but I did spread the wealth as quickly as I could while still maintaining reasonable accuracy. The six remaining shots in the Marlin's magazine were gone within thirty seconds and I dropped it with my left hand while pulling the Glock from my right holster. Changing weapons took only seconds but by the time I was looking for targets with the Glock they were all long shots. The remaining wolves weren't hauling ass but they had dropped back about fifty yards to do a little consideration of their situation. One or two of their number dropping dead hadn't been such a blow but now there were seven dead or badly wounded and they had no idea how it happened. I managed to nail two more before they beat feet completely. Chris came out of the tent with her scoped BAR thirty-ought six just after I fired at the last one I had a hope of hitting. She shouldered her rifle and made two excellent shots - the last one was nearly two hundred yards. She nearly took another shot but the target was shrinking fast by now and she didn't bother. We'd killed eleven of the bunch and only three got away. I doubted they'd be back since even animals could figure out the numbers didn't add up any more, even if they had no concept of numbers. "Shit, they were determined this time," Chris said. "I'm pretty sure it wasn't the same bunch, but it makes me wonder about how many there might be around here close. I hope like hell we don't have to start keeping a watch at night," I said. "We're going to have to do something. Wolves might not be the only thing roaming around hungry out here," Chris said. "I guess there could be some bears but normally they're hibernating this time of year. Still, they don't all stay in sleeping all winter and it's possible some might come snooping around." "Are you sure there's nothing else to worry about except bears?" she asked. "That's all I can think of that would attack a man. I'm pretty sure big cats are few and far between in Alaska." "Are you sure we're still in Alaska," Mary asked, as she came out of the tent with her shotgun in hand. "I don't see how we could be anywhere else. I know it was a big storm but it wasn't big enough or last long enough to blow us very far off course. In the first place we didn't have enough fuel to get far," I said. "Then why can't we hear anything on the radio?" Chris asked. "I don't have any idea about that but it is really odd. I could believe that one of the radios might have been damaged but not both of them and all four GPS units would have been put completely out of business." "Have you tried the helicopter's radios?" Mary asked, and of course the answer was no so I headed for it. "Check them out but don't get too involved. We'll have some coffee and breakfast ready in a few minutes," Chris said, to my back. Inside the helicopter I pulled the partition I'd put in place open and went back into the cockpit. The radio was easy to find but I still had the same problem with the circuit breaker. I wasn't about to risk my life by switching it on by hand. I decided I'd go get some of the nylon twine I knew we had plenty of and try to rig up a way to reset the breakers from outside and far away. I headed back to our camp. Chris reminded me why I loved her so when I got back. She had a campsite coffee pot heating water in a small fire of its own while she and Mary were frying eggs and bacon in skillets over the larger fire. I decided we could put the radio business off for an hour or so. I sat down and waited for something to get ready for consumption. The eggs were first out and the coffee's water was boiling as we finished our breakfast. Chris put the coffee in, gave it another minute or two on the fire and then set the pot off the fire and onto a small rock. We poured up three mugs a few minutes later and sipped the scalding brew from our campstools in silence, at first. "Are you satisfied that switching the power back on won't start a fire now?" Mary asked. "I doubt it will but I'm not sure enough to try it from inside. I'm going to try rigging up a way to do it with a long piece of twine. The breakers have little holes at the top of their switch handles and I think I can just tie the twine through them and then pull them from outside." "I guess we'd better make sure we have everything out of it before you do that," Chris said. "I thought we unloaded all of it before we left," Mary said. "Me too, but that was before Jack poked around into the outside compartments. Even if its something Jim was carrying there might be something useful. We should at least check it out," Chris said, letting me know I'd been a dumbass. "You're right. I'll get to it as soon as I'm full of coffee." "Mary and I will come along too. I like your ass just the way it is and I'd be mad if you collected teeth marks in it." At the helicopter we discovered something behind door number one, the first one we opened that is. There were two large rough-service type gun cases and several more boxes of ammunition; a shit load of it was fifty caliber. I knew damned well Carl hadn't packed a Ma Deuce, even if he could have acquired one somewhere, so I wondered what in the hell was in those gun cases. Mary cured my curiosity. "My God, I'd completely forgotten about those. Carl was so full of himself over finding out about them too. He said they were some kind of high-tech sniper rifle and he nearly pissed his pants every time he thought of the surprise they'd be to you," Mary said. "Are they Barretts?" I asked, baffled. "Yes! That's what he called them. They have some kind of special scope that lets you see even when it's dark. He even bought some kind of goggles that did the same thing. They're probably in some of these boxes." Carl was looking pretty damned smart right now in my estimation, even if he was still dead. I'd have never let him know it normally, but I'd have considered him an idiot if I'd known about the Barretts from the get go. I still didn't think they'd be needed before we were rescued but that didn't mean I wasn't going to load one and sight it in. If a bear of some kind did happen to stroll by, a Barrett would be a wonderful security blanket. It was a good thing we'd unloaded a couple of the sleds at our camp. The Barretts were heavy enough with their ATN 4-12x80 Day Night scopes, but they didn't even matter. For some reason Carl had five thousand rounds for each of them and a young ammo dump for all our other weapons. It took two trips for both sleds to move it all. If a bunch of bears came around we'd be up to our asses in carcasses in no time. The rest of our search through the outside compartments was uneventful. We found a few more tools and such that Jim had been carrying. We took them but didn't come across anything else exciting. Once everything was back to camp and unloaded I rigged up my makeshift remote switch, paid out the twine and gave it a yank. Noting happened except some navigation lights came on. That was the good news. The radios were on too when I got up my nerve and went back inside. They weren't making a sound though. Even after I turned the squelch all the way down I couldn't find a damned thing on any channel except the one that the emergency beacon was broadcasting on. I could hear it's signal just like I could on the multiband radios, but that was it. Now I was really worried. If anyone was looking for us there would be talking we could hear. Hell, we'd probably be able to talk back. There wasn't a thing though, on any frequency, except for the crash signal and we were doing that. Even though I didn't see any point to it I spent an hour and a half calling out our situation on every frequency the helicopter's radios had. It was all for nothing since I didn't get even one answer. I couldn't believe it at first, but finally I gave up. It looked like we were gong to have to make our own way back to civilization. Back in camp I gave the girls the sad news. "It's what I expected you to find. If there were radio signals being broadcast we'd have heard at least one on the other radios by now. The other radios have always picked up the emergency signal the chopper is putting out and that means they were working," Chris said. "What I don't understand is what else could have happened. I can't even imagine anything that silenced all the radio signals on earth," I said. "I can't either, but if something has, do you think we should even try to find other people now?" Mary asked. "What do you mean?" I asked. "If there's no radio or Television anywhere there's bound to be panic; if not now, then soon. If we can't even hear radio signals it has to mean that no one else can either. It isn't like a government can just shut them off. "If radio doesn't work it means that governments can no longer control police or military units. Sure, they might be able to cobble up something someday, but it will be crude at best. With no viable form of communication, food supplies and services will break down almost at once, especially since the police and militaries won't be able to function," Mary said. "You have a point, but there's something that bothers me about the no radio at all deal. The ones we have still work. We tested the walkie-talkies and they worked fine. The crash beacon is still going at it and we clearly heard Jack on the multiband when he was calling out for help," Chris said. "You're right and I'd completely passed over it. Our radios still work fine," Mary said. "I think you're right too, Mary. I don't think we should be in any hurry to get back to civilization. Face it, we don't know shit about what could be going on, but we do know it's nothing like normal. At least here we have most of what we need to survive for quite a while and our only worries so far have been a few wolves," Chris said. "I'm not convinced either way but since I'm a lazy Texas from the start my vote is for staying where we are for a while anyway. If someone comes to pick us up we can leave and laugh this off, mostly anyway. I don't see a reason to try towing all this shit back to somewhere we think might still be civilized since we don't have one bit of evidence there is such a place any longer," I said. "That doesn't mean you don't have more work to do. We need to build a more permanent structure for storage if nothing else. We can't be bothered with wolves all the time and it will be a pain in the ass to try sleeping in shifts. Do you know how to build a log cabin?" Chris asked. "I can give it a good try even if I don't have all the details in my head right now. I have the first detail down pat though. I know how to cut down trees, and I've got the chainsaw to prove it." "It's as good a place to start as any I guess, but how much fuel do you have for the saw?" Mary asked. I think around thirty gallons. Carl made it clear that he didn't want to run out and I can cut down plenty of trees with that much fuel." "Well don't go hog wild right at first. I think we should build a stout building for our supplies first thing but it doesn't necessarily need a roof, just a good door. We have plenty of waterproof tarps to keep rain out. We just need to keep nosey animals out for now," Chris said. "Fine, but what about our tent? The one we're sleeping in? We need to keep nosey animals out of it too." "That's a good idea. We can just build a larger fort and stack the supplies around the tent. That way we won't even have to open the door to go fetch something we need," Mary said. It suited the hell out of me and I would have started right away if my stomach didn't tell me it was time for a meal. Chris and Mary must have had twinges of their own since they started more water boiling for coffee and began opening cans to make more stew. Of course this made Mary think of something else I needed to do. "Jack, we won't have enough food for long. You're going to have to hunt something to eat. I don't think the wolves will be very tasty." "That's right. Most of our stuff will last and last but the food won't. We brought more than I though we needed but still I don't think it will last us more than a month. I don't know where in hell we're going to find anything resembling vegetables in this weather, but meat, cornbread, and our vitamins should get us by for a good while. I don't have any idea when spring starts up here," Chris said. "I don't think hunting will be a big problem. None of the wolves we killed looked to be starving so there must be some game pretty close. As soon as we can lock things up we can all take a stroll and see if we can kill something." "I don't know much about being quiet or stealthy in the woods, but I sure as hell don't intend to stay here by myself while you two are out hunting, even if the fort you build is bear proof. You'll just have to tell me when I'm doing something wrong. I like to fish but don't know the first damned thing about hunting except that you usually need a gun," Mary said. "Don't worry, it isn't that hard to learn and the snow will help us keep quiet. The main difference between target shooting and hunting is the game moves; it's also usually harder to find," Chris said. At least lunch wasn't hard to find after a few more minutes. It tasted even better than before since I realized that the quantity might turn out to be limited over the long haul. Cutting trees for our fort was no problem. I found and felled thirty with each having about a twelve-inch diameter. I started to go ahead and cut them to fourteen foot lengths right away but something made me try our posthole diggers first and it's a good thing I did. There was nothing wrong with the diggers but the ground was frozen so that they could barley make a mark. Our fort was going to be more along the lines of a roofless log cabin. It didn't really matter at the moment. The sun was setting by now and it was time for supper. Chris had kept watch over me while I worked, just in case, but Mary had the food ready when we got back to camp. After eating I stayed out to build up the fire and drag some more wood closer to it so I could go out and mend it during the night. It was the easiest way I could think of to try keeping unwanted visitors away. As soon as I was in the tent I felt that something was up. I don't know exactly what tipped me off, but I could almost feel a change in something. Maybe it was because Chris and Mary had made the bed with sheets, pillows, and blankets so we wouldn't be sleeping in the bags again. I also noticed they had a pan of water, soap, a washrag, and a towel laid out near it. At least it was obvious that they thought I needed a whore bath at the minimum. Hell, I had to agree with them. They tried not to make it plain that they were watching as I washed myself but when my dick started climbing they started giggling and then began flashing me with shots of their boobs. They were already in bed and seemed to be in a lot better mood than they'd been since the crash. It had me wondering what was going on. It also had my dick hard, and try as I might, I couldn't figure out a way to talk Chris out of some pussy without Mary knowing about it. Suddenly it hit me that there was no need to try hiding things. ------- Chapter 5 While I wasn't sure what this all meant I was confident I was on the right track. Even if Mary didn't join Chris and I for a good wrasslin' match I knew she intended to watch closely. Those thoughts had my dick nearly aching by the time I was done washing and dry. Chris was on the near side of the bed and she made a point of getting out and letting me get in the middle. I didn't have to wonder whether Mary was going to participate after my body hit the sheets. She took hold of my pounding pecker before Chris was even back under the covers. "Resistance is futile. We intend to have our way with you," Chris said, just as Mary's lips engulfed my German helmet. "Careful, that thing's loaded," I said, proud of my wit until it made Mary laugh and release her prize. No matter, she went right back to work a few seconds later and I settled in to tease Chris' titties and swap a little spit. It wasn't long before the two of them switched jobs and it sent my peter meter even higher. I'm not saying that I didn't love and lust after my wife either, but new pussy is new pussy and it's always exciting. Mary kissed differently and her titties were a little larger. It was the difference that got me going though. Chris' titties were plenty to work with and her nipples were a little larger than Mary's. Mary was about half a cup size bigger though. You might think the difference between a large C and a D cup wasn't much but I'm here to say it is noticeable, at least until the fucking gets started. "Time to put big boy to work for real now, Mary. Come on down and saddle up. Don't worry about getting throwed. I've got him broke to death and he'll even neck rein if you grab his balls just right," Chris said. Mary was heavenly as she slid her coochie down around my pole. She wasn't quite as tight as Chris but she had excellent muscle control inside and after a few good warm up strokes I learned she was equipped with the new Ronco fast-action ass. Somehow she seemed to lean over me, putting her titties against my chest and then she kinked her hips to a different angle and took off. No way in hell I could keep up with her either, so I held my ass and dick still and just let her fuck. Mary drew come after only a few heartbeats and I'm sure I'd have deflated before she got her own cookies if Chris hadn't helped out. She was paying attention though and when she saw me stiffen up even more she put her face to Mary's ass and I just know she rimmed her asshole. That was it for Mary and a building orgasm. She exploded promptly, threw her head back, and just howled. It made me feel proud of myself even though most of it was Chris' doing. Chris and I both petted and kissed around on Mary while she caught her breath, but after she was back with us and breathing normally Chris rolled her off, gave my dick a few strong deep sucks and then climbed aboard. She must have been watching Mary pretty close because ten minutes later she did the hip-slipping trick and she was giving me a dose of what Mary had. Even though Chris was fucking down on me hard now, I knew she was hanging on by the skin of her teeth. She wanted me to blast off first but I wasn't gonna let things go that way. As soon as I felt the come gusher rumbling from my balls I gave her rosebud a little finger work and we went off together. At least we were able to stay away from the biting and scratching we sometimes couldn't resist. We were both damned near knocked out over things though. Of course I was ready to saw some logs by now and damned if Chris and Mary didn't seem to have the same thing in mind. Hell, lost in Alaska or not, life was good when you could come twice and not even get tangled up in pillow talk after. I knew damned well that wouldn't last. I felt finer than frog hair when I woke the next morning. No doubt some of it was because both Chris and Mary were holding onto my hard dick in their sleep. They were treating it almost like a handle and I didn't mind a bit. I had to pee though, so I climbed out of bed as gently as I could. Of course it still woke them but they stayed put and just kibitzed as I choked the piss out of my best friend. After our last little dust up with wolves I didn't even consider going outside without both Glocks and a Marlin now, especially not first thing in the morning. I didn't see any suspects when I did get outside but I remembered I was supposed to have mended the fire a couple of times last night and I hadn't done it the first time yet. Oh well, all's well and all that shit. I built another one in the cold ashes, hoping that Chris or Mary would get some coffee going soon. On second thought I started the fire in the coffee pot's spot then filled the pot with water and put it on. Even a no cooking dumbass like me could get water boiling. At least I hoped I could. When I headed back into the tent some sort of motion caught my eye. It was a good way off but I was sure I'd seen something. When I found the source I was surprised and really didn't believe my eyes. I hurried into the tent for a pair of binoculars. Chris and Mary were dressing and when I asked, Mary pointed out where the binoculars were stored. Of course they fogged up at once when I got back outside with them but they cleared up in about five minutes. What I saw with the binoculars was shocking and confusing too. Smilodon had been extinct for ten thousand years or more and even at that I didn't remember any evidence of them ever being as far north as Alaska. Of course this was just one and most paleontologist had thought they stayed in prides, like lions. What ever the speculation there was not a doubt this was some sort of saber tooth tiger. Exhibit A was two eight-inch teeth and I didn't think I needed an Exhibit B to prove my point. I was convinced I was looking at one in the flesh; the only thing I wondered about now was how I could possibly be. I put the binoculars back into their case, hung them on a hook near the tent's door, and went back inside. My news caused the girls to hurry and finish dressing. I took the BAR back outside with me this time and the girls took theirs too. I didn't even want this thing coming close enough for a shot with one of the Marlins and even though we were all carrying our Glocks too, I sure as hell didn't want it getting close enough to use them. Our proximity worries were relieved when we got back out. After a good look by both girls I took another one, as if my eyes lied the first time. The big cat was not only not approaching - it was headed away from us now. It made me wonder why it was out in the field in the first place since I didn't see any prey it might be following and they were supposed to be stealth hunters anyway. There is nothing stealthy about walking across a snowfield with no cover at all. How and why it was doing what it was doing wasn't the main point though. How it was possibly here was getting most of my thoughts. It was clearly impossible; in fact it was more impossible than no radio signals at all to my way of thinking. It was also strictly a mystery and probably one we'd never solve. I wouldn't even try. If we were rescued in an hour I wouldn't bother telling a soul. They would think we were crazy at least. I didn't want to end up on the front page of the Enquirer beneath the headline Drunken crash survivors claim to have seen saber tooth cat. To top things off, the tiger commotion had wasted enough time for half the coffee water to boil away. After thinking about it, the information was cheap at twice the price. I didn't know how there was a saber tooth tiger roaming around but I was glad I knew about it. We were going to have to be even more careful than we'd been being. The replenished coffee pot was boiling again in a few minutes and this time I didn't miss adding the important part and setting it off the fire. We all took a mug and sipped. Breakfast was going to be delayed a few minutes while we settled down and thought about this development. "How in the hell did they survive all these years without someone spotting them?" Chris asked. "I don't have a clue. Do you Jack?" "Not a one. I don't even have a clue about how to find a clue. It's impossible, but we can't all be full of it. We saw the thing," I said. "Well, even if it was exciting for a few minutes I hope we don't see it or any others again. The farther away it gets the better I'll like it. I've already been closer than I want and next time, if there is one, I might start shooting before it gets as close as it did this morning," Chris said, and then Mary and I agreed with her. We were still wondering about the cat after breakfast was done. At least I know I was. I hadn't come up with any reasonable answers though and we had things to do. The fort building had already been at the top of my list but it seemed even more important now. We picked up our weapons, the binoculars, and the chain saw and headed toward the trees I'd felled yesterday. "I cut them into twenty-six foot lengths, limbing as I went. One at a time was as much of a load as I wanted to tow by myself and while I was at it I wanted Chris and Mary both with their hands free for shooting. It was nearly painfully slow this way but I was more worried about safety now than speed. It took two days to get the fort assembled and another one to get a workable strong door made and hung. Of course we didn't have nails with us, or not nearly enough for this anyway. Luckily I'd found a brace and three auger bits among Jim's tools. I didn't have any idea what he'd used them for but I was happy to find them. It let me bore holes in the trees and we made pegs out of some of the branches and drove them into the holes for dowels. Our makeshift fort was hell for stout with this construction. That night was the first peaceful one we had since the cat made his appearance. We spent the next day moving every bit of our supplies inside the fort's walls and then covering them with Visqueen plastic sheeting. It pained me in one way since we only had two rolls of the stuff but I didn't want all our equipment covered with snow. We couldn't pop out to the hardware store to replace something that got ruined. If we were stuck here long we'd need everything we had and more. The girls had even started washing out the cans they opened and emptied. When I woke the next morning I made sure to get up and dressed right away. Coffee was next on the agenda so I went out and started our two usual fires - one for the coffee and one for cooking breakfast. Today we were going to try our first hunting trip and I wanted an early start. We'd head away from camp until noon and start back then whether we'd killed anything or not. Chances of finding something edible to shoot seemed low to me. We didn't have any idea what was around us or even where we were. We could easily follow our own tracks back as long as it didn't start snowing and cover them over, and the day was cloudless so far. If the weather started changing we'd head back right away. I used a compass to take a sighting on our camp but that still didn't mean we couldn't get lost from a mistake. Shit, I really wished the GPS units were working. Even when you're trying it's hard to be quiet in snowshoes. We found that out early on, but they were necessary. Since we struck out through the forest it wasn't so bad overall because the snow kept noise from broken twigs down and we could move along while slipping from tree to tree to help keep hidden from anything in front of us. The snow was both a help and a hindrance though. It kept us from making much noise by breaking twigs, but it hid any game trails we might see unless the prey had been over them lately. My worries about seeing nothing were relieved within an hour. I spied a big deer browsing along on needles and some type of evergreen bush that I wasn't familiar with. I had the girls hold their place and slipped up to within two hundred years without it noticing. I didn't even try getting closer. Using a handy limb for a rest, I took careful aim. I had to just lean there for a few minutes to let my heart rate settle down. Our semi-stealthy hike and the excitement were both working against me. When I finally squeezed the trigger the deer fell at once and I was thankful. When I reached the deer I noticed it wasn't a whitetail. That wasn't so surprising but it did seem a little odd to me since they were the only kind I'd ever killed. This one was larger than a whitetail and it was more nearly brown than the gray I was accustomed to. It was definitely some type of deer though and it looked very edible to me. If I'd been anywhere I was familiar with I'd have dragged it back to camp before gutting, but here and now I didn't want to bring any entrails back close to home. I field dressed it on the spot saving the heart, liver, and kidneys in a plastic bag and cutting the head off to leave with the other refuse after asking to make sure Mary didn't like fried brains. She didn't and I already knew neither Chris nor I would eat them without a long stretch of hunger before hand. I put the carcass on the small game sled Carl had demanded we get and then towed it back to camp while the girls did guard duty. At camp I skinned it out and cut it up. I thought about saving the hide, as if I'd have time to scrape it, stretch it, and give tanning a try. I came to my senses in a few minutes and decided I was being silly. Surely we'd be rescued before I could even make a start at a project like that. We'd damned well better be anyway. Mary and Chris spent the rest of the afternoon cooking it all. We decided that letting it freeze and having to thaw it later would be more trouble than cooking it all now and keeping the cooked meat inside the tent in an ice chest. With snow everywhere we looked it was easy to keep the ice chest cool enough. If we got another kill before we ran out of meat we could give jerking some of it a try. We ate well at supper that night though, very well. If you're ever out doing the survival thing for real with two women along I recommend you go out and kill them something to eat as soon as possible. I felt fat and happy while we ate and part of me turned immediately to stone as soon as we were locked up inside our fort. Mary and Chris were shucking clothes as we entered the tent and they had surprises galore in their plans. First and foremost was the fact they were bare assed in seconds and they didn't seem to be headed into the bed. In fact they turned their attention to removing my clothes and they didn't waste much time about it. More quickly than I'd have ever thought we were engaged in a three-way sponge bath and I had the best end of the deal by far. I had four titties, two buggers, and two rosebuds to take care of and the two of them had to share little old me. Trouble was, I only had the four titties clean by the time they pushed me into bed and had their wicked way with me. They stuck to their last plan and it was a double dose of top down fucking again. In other words I was on the bottom while they did all the work. I could deal with it since I was a caring, sensitive, adaptable Texas boy. Besides, if I wanted to be on top later I'd just roll one of them over and give it to 'em. A bonus was I seemed to be lasting longer since I was fucking up. I could entertain myself with swinging titties and stiff nipples and sort of keep my attention away from blasting off right this second. After the fucking was over I actually tried to stay awake and talk to them for a while. Since I'd done a hell of a job tonight on both of them all they seemed to want out of me was a little cuddling and petting and the few I Love Yous I threw in were just icing on their cake. Damned if they didn't both fall asleep before I did. What kind of man was I, getting my ashes hauled and actually remaining conscious? Finally I decided to try harder to fall asleep. I know that sounds a little stupid but I had a sort of technique that worked for me. I merely started imagining I was king of the world and went over the changes I'd make. Worked every time. ------- Chapter 6 Being stranded out in nowhere Alaska might not be something many people would consider enjoyable. In fact, if you'd asked me before it happened I'd have been one of those that politely declined. After a few days of it I wasn't so sure I was a bit put out over the situation. Sure, losing Carl and Jim had been a major bummer and I'd never have wished for that. Hell, I never even considered it and there wasn't a fucking thing I could do about it, then or now. Aside from that things couldn't have been much better for me. I was stuck here with two beautiful women and they weren't stingy with their pussy. My wife didn't seem a bit jealous of the other woman either. What man wouldn't think he'd died and gone to heaven? Chris had never been jealous of other women I poled. I'm sure it had something to do with her being right there with us while we were exchanging bodily fluids. Out here in the wilds I didn't even have to go to work and try making a living. Needing to kill something to eat every now and then didn't count as work to my way of thinking. Not being able to hear one damned peep out of the radio was a little strange but it was worth it to see an animal that had supposedly been extinct for thousands of years, even if I didn't want a closer look. It was strange, kinda, but I was a little disappointed that most of the real work I needed to do was over now. We had our fort completed and our supplies safely stored and there wasn't really much we needed to do. Hell, we already had enough stuff to wait our rescue out for a year if it took that long. Sure, I'd have to do some more hunting, but what the hell; I'd come up here to hunt. The only thing that would suffer from this was my job and since I felt that Mary would receive Carl's ownership position in the company after his death I wasn't too worried about that. As usual, I did the fire starting duty this morning. I was still careful about braving my initial exit from our fort but I'd even taken care of that pretty much. One of Jim's auger bits and the brace let me drill plenty of peep holes and it was a snap to walk around inside the walls and look out of them before opening the door. After making sure I'd be alone outside the walls I opened the gate, went out, and closed it behind me. Peepholes or no I still carried two Glocks and the Marlin with me. I'd even worked on the left side holster a little and now it was in a cross-draw position, riding in front, with that Glock's grip nearly right at my bellybutton. I wouldn't have to drop it when it was empty any more since I could get it out and back in without any bother now. Realization came to me after I started the coffee fire and was working on the one for cooking. I was being a dumbass making two different fires. We could make coffee just as well, or maybe even better, on the stove inside our tent. That would be a lot easier than building two different fires and it would mean we had coffee quicker to boot. Damn, I could have a cup or two before I even went outside. We'd change coffee arrangements tomorrow though. Now that I had water getting hot out here I wanted coffee out here too. Mary and Chris came out to cook in a few minutes and sure enough the coffee was ready not long after that. We laughed at each other over the extra fire when I mentioned it. "Leave it to Jack to figure out a way to reduce his workload. He not only gets out of building one fire, he'll get by with finding less firewood too," Chris said, grinning "I guess he's going to be mad at us when we mention the kerosene heater we haven't even used yet, but then he'll pout when we run out of kerosene," Mary said. "I hadn't thought of the kerosene heater but I'm glad you mentioned it, and don't worry about running out of kerosene quickly. The jet fuel in the remains of the Jolly Green Giant is practically the same thing," I said, and grinned right back at both of them. They kept trying to yank my chain during the cooking and eating but it didn't bother me a bit. It's in a Texan's job description, they're supposed to be lazy - although most of us prefer to call it preserving our energy for more important tasks. It was just too bad I didn't have the makings for my favorite task - drinking beer. Carl and I had decided it would be stupid to come up here to sit around and guzzle the suds so we'd planned and extra couple of days off for drinking after we got back home. After breakfast I went over to the helicopter and spent another hour trying to raise someone on the radio. I squawked and listened until I was blue in the face with the same results I'd got last time. Either I wasn't talking loud enough or no one was listening. As usual I was in a bad mood when I got back to camp. I did my best to shake it off before going back into the tent. It was easy to see something had the girls in a mood of their own once I was inside. I was about to ask them about it but Chris beat me to the punch. "Mary noticed something a little strange to her and when she told me I thought it was odd too. We think we know the answer to the no radio question, but we can't believe we can be right." "What is it?" I asked, and figuring I was going to hate the surprise. "The days are too long for us to be in Alaska," Mary said. "What?" "The sun is up too long. I didn't think of it at first because it's about like it was at home, but the sun is not supposed to stay up this long where we are. I even remember Carl saying we'd have about two hours less daylight up here this time of year. Someone at the guide company told him about it." "You're right of course. I even knew it myself but forgot about it after we were here. We can't be in Alaska. I don't know where in hell we are but it can't be Alaska. We have to be a good bit farther south nearer the latitude of home. Probably not that far south but close," I said. "But where can we be? If we were just due south of where we started we'd be in the ocean. Something very wrong happened in that storm. Jim didn't even have enough fuel to get as far south as we seem to be. That helicopter doesn't hold that much and the sight glass says it's still over half full even after we've drained out all those cans we poured on the signal fire," Mary said. "I don't have any idea. There seem to be a few really weird things going on, but this even makes the radio silence more impossible. The hell of it ism I don't have a clue about how to find out where we are. I don't think it can be done with only a compass. "Carl saw a sextant when we were shopping somewhere and said he'd buy it if I knew how to use it. All I thought I knew about it was that it wouldn't work on dry land so we left it where it was. Besides, how could we have known the GPS units wouldn't work? They were working after we bought 'em because I tried out every one myself," I said. "If we aren't in, Alaska who in the hell will know to look for us where ever we are? There could be hundreds of people flying around all over up there with no way in hell they can find us, because we aren't there," Mary said. That was a sobering thought and it was exactly correct too. Unless the sun and earth had changed course somehow we were not in Alaska. The only way we could be was if we'd moved a few months in time too and I didn't even want to go there. I liked SciFi as much as anyone, but it was reading it that did it for me. I'd never had a wish to participate. I didn't know whether man would someday learn how to move back and forth in time or not. I was pretty sure no one knew how to do it in a helicopter, yet, no matter how bad a storm it crashed in. That was a bad thought for me to have - completely inappropriate for our situation, because it would explain everything at once, kinda. If we'd moved a few thousand years in time everything would fit just fine, or mostly so. We'd also have had to move in space too since we obviously weren't in Alaska. Wait a minute though; we could easily still be in Alaska from our evidence if we'd only moved back in time. If moving in time was possible, who was to say we'd move back in yearly units? If we'd moved back a couple of extra months the sun would be making these longer days. Of course that begged the question of our watches. They coincided with what our expected time of day appeared to be. Things were getting too confusing now. There were too many options for what might have happened once we considered unknown and previously considered impossible things happening. The bad part was something impossible had happened because it was completely impossible for us to be where we thought we were when we thought we were. If this was just after Easter in 2009 then something impossible had happened to move us much farther than our fuel could have. If this wasn't then, something else completely impossible had happened. To my way of thinking that big cat we saw was giving us one hell of a hint. I didn't want to mention this thought to Chris and Mary but I had to. It was not well received. They weren't mad at me for coming up with it, but they didn't want me to be right. Hell, I couldn't be wrong because I hadn't said it had happened to us, I'd only mentioned that it was a possibility since nothing else we considered possible had happened. We tried to shake off the depressing feeling but weren't able to. Lunch was good but not much fun and supper was about the same. There was no wild sex orgy at bedtime either, but I wasn't in any more of a mood for one than the girls were. That didn't mean I didn't feel like we'd all been fucked somehow because I did. We just didn't get kissed when it happened. I was still completely bummed out when I fell asleep. Even though I woke before sunrise the next morning I didn't even try to stay in bed. Somehow I made it from between Chris and Mary without waking them, but I'm not sure they weren't just pretending to still be asleep. Who knew how women might react to learning they'd been shuffled around in time and space without their knowledge. Hell, I barely knew what to expect out of the fair sex when everything was normal. Coffee on our newly elected appliance came next and as I built up the stove's fire and then put the pot on top I was glad for even that little bit of something to do. I was even happier when it was time to put the coffee in the boiling water. After the delicious aroma made itself known even the girls couldn't stay in bed. "You know, Mary, if we have been moved back in time, Jack's going to have more work to do and we'll have to let our hair grow out long," Chris said, and I recognized a joke on the way but couldn't even get a hint about what it would be. "Why?" Mary asked, and I think she knew what was happening too. "Jack will have to make a big club and we'll need to have longer hair so he can drag us into his cave when he wants some pussy," Chris said. "Damn if that's so. He won't have to hit me with a damned old club. I'll give it up to save the wear and tear on my punkin' head," Mary said. "I guess that would be the smart thing, and besides, we can get back at him easy enough. He has to sleep sometime," Chris said. At least they were feeling a little more cheerful this morning. I was too, but just a little. I guess you could say I didn't know whether to shit or go blind. It seemed odd to me that this new information made me want to be even more careful than I was being already. I wasn't cut off from immediate help any more today than I had been yesterday when I was still sure I knew where and when I was. Things just felt different now though. Maybe it was because I realized that there might be more creatures outside that might want to eat me. Whatever it was, I still had to go out and build a fire for the girls to cook breakfast on. I left the tent after putting on my clothes, strapping on both Glocks, and picking up the Marlin. The bright sunlight in the cloudless sky cheered me up considerably for some reason and I was in good spirits until I peeked out the hole that gave me a good view of the helicopter. The biggest fucking bear I'd ever seen was sniffing around it. Right off the bat it nearly scared the shit out of me and the next effect was to confirm in my mind that we were back in time, at least ten thousand years and maybe more. Ursus spelaeus had dropped off the scene about the same time the saber tooth had. One of them showing up was impossible but both of them sealed the deal for me. He also let me know we were nowhere near Kansas either. Cave bears were from Europe and there abouts. At least the French hadn't made an appearance yet. Ursus spelaeus was a vegetarian, mostly. At least that's what the whiz kids back in the good old USA had thought, and lots of other people with nothing better to do than dig up old bones thought the same thing. Hell, who was I to doubt their word? Still, that big bastard could do a lot of damage even if he didn't want to eat you. It was at least twelve feet tall and my best guess was he weighed over a thousand pounds. It wasn't a grizzly either. It didn't even look like one. I'd seen four or five in zoos and this wasn't one. For one thing, it was bigger and its head was shaped differently too. I went back in the tent and warned the girls not to make any unnecessary noise. "Why?" Chris asked. "Because we have been moved back in time for real somehow, and to Europe too. There's a real live Cave Bear sniffing around the helicopter and I don't want him to come over for a visit." "Cave Bear? Aren't they even bigger than grizzlies?" Mary asked. "From what I've read they are and from what I saw this one was. At least they're supposed to be mostly vegetarian." "Mostly doesn't sound all that reassuring," Chris said. "It isn't. I'm hoping it will wander off on it's own. I'm pretty sure it can come right on through the walls we put up if it sets its mind to it." "That's disturbing. I don't think I really want it in here with us," Mary said, but at least she was grinning. "Me neither. Mary, do you remember if Carl said anything about sighting those Barretts in?" "Yes. He said you two would have to do it here." "Shit, I can't take a chance with them now. At least I'm going to dig out the Wildey and the Smith & Wesson." "Those pistols? You can't try to take that thing with a pistol," Chris said. "I'm not going to try to take it at all. I'm going to watch it and hope it goes away. If it doesn't wander off by itself I'll let it have the 7mm until it's out of bullets and then start in again with the Wildey next and the Smith and Wesson last, if it comes to that. If it's still alive after they're all empty I'll give it some of the Glocks. I'd really appreciate it if you and Mary were also firing by then," I said. "Of course we will be, but do you really think it will be that hard to kill?" "No, but I've only got one hide and I'd like to be like a boy scout on this one." "Like a boy scout?" Mary asked. "Prepared." "Oh. I can see that would be best." After we were all loaded for Cave Bear we went outside. In my original excitement I'd completely forgotten about the 7mm Mag that was supposed to be for Carl. Chris had mentioned it when I loaded the other one so I loaded it too. I still thought they'd be the best weapons to use in case it came down to a gunfight. Sometimes things just work out your way. The bear was still sniffing around the bird when we came out and a few minutes later it moved on off into the trees and then left completely. I was relieved, and I guess the girls were too, but they weren't satisfied with where we were living any longer. "Jack, if this is Europe and at least ten thousand years ago we can't stay here hoping for rescue. We need a better place to live and we need to find some running water. I think we should try to find a cave and at least a small river or big stream," Chris said. "I guess I agree but they don't call those big bastards Cave Bears for nothing. They live in caves too." "I know that and we'll try to fine a cave that isn't occupied, but if we have to kill one for a good cave we'll just have to kill it. It will be a hell of a lot more trouble building a fort to keep one of them out, and that isn't all we have to worry about. There are people here too. People we can't talk to and we don't know anything about," Chris said. "We can probably learn to communicate with them sooner or later, if they do their part too, but Chris is right. We need a cave for protection as much as we need it for shelter. It needs to be big enough for us and for all the supplies and equipment and we'll also have to store food we gather and kill in it too," Mary said. "We're going to have to sort through everything then and make a place to leave some of it. Now that we've found the Barretts and their ammunition we can't get it all on the sleds," I said. "Mary and I will go through everything and see what we can leave behind and hope we'll be able to retrieve it later. All the ammunition needs to come with us though. It's our biggest advantage here and we can't afford to waste one cartridge." "That's a no shitter," I said, agreeing. ------- Chapter 7 I built the breakfast fire next and the girls cooked while I drank coffee and thought about what we'd be doing. I'll admit I wasn't in much of a mood about now. Moving all our crap was going to be a real pain in the ass. We probably had room for most of it on the four sleds but we only had enough people to drag three at a time. I couldn't see pulling them a few hundred feet and then going back for the other one. That would be too much trouble and things would be more dangerous that way too. Breakfast put me in a better mood. They fixed nearly twice as much as we usually ate and then made sure I stuffed in all they couldn't hold. Chris said it was an extra big meal since they weren't sure we'd have time to stop for lunch. I didn't comment, but I was pretty sure I could make time. The two of them hadn't been working on sorting things out for more than an hour when Mary came up with a much better solution to our problems. "Jack, can't we just hook two of the sleds together, side by side, and haul it all? We can shift the weight around as we go, and make sure no one is overloaded. It would be a lot better that way instead of leaving some things to have to try and come back for later." "That's a great idea. If we have to go slower and rest more it'll still be better than a trip back. We can probably get by without a lot of the things we have but most of them will come in damned handy sooner or later. "We aren't going to be breaking any speed records anyway and after a while we'll build up our stamina. I just hope we find a good place before all the snow melts. We don't have any wheels to put on in place of the runners." "Let's have less and less of the talk about still hunting a cave when spring comes. It's hard enough for me to think about dragging one of those things a week," Mary said, so I quit talking about it even though I was still thinking that way. It took me less than an hour to cut enough small poles to put two of the sleds together and the actual construction was a snap. I thought about extending the width by using poles longer than I really needed but gave that idea up as a bad one. I was afraid I'd have a hard enough time finding a path wide enough to pull the double sled through as it was, without making it even wider. As the girls got started on the actual packing, I tried to help but they ran me off almost right away. They knew how they wanted to do it and my work wasn't up to snuff. They put me on guard and fire mending duty and told me to keep up the good work. I thought up a little project for me on my own though. If the Barretts weren't sighted in they were only good to make loud noises or as heavy clubs. Mary had already found the targets Carl had brought to do the job and he'd even found some small target frames that had push-in standards to hold them up. I marked off a hundred yards, give or take, and tried one out. The son-of-a-bitch was loud and heavy, and the recoil let you know it meant business on either end, but at least whoever bore sighted the ATN scopes had done a good job. I tried the other one next and things looked pretty good. After firing at two hundred and then three hundred yards I moved both scopes a couple of clicks to the right. I don't know what range they were supposed to be centered for but they were pretty much on at five hundred yards and that's as far as I wanted to walk, now anyway. I'd be about four inches high at two hundred yards and that was good enough for me. Luckily lunch didn't get bypassed after all and it was big portions again. I wasn't griping, but at least I figured out what they were up to. If we ate more now we'd have less to carry when we left. They probably figured if I couldn't keep us in enough game to survive during the trip we'd be better off to just go ahead and die. It would save a lot of walking. Well, that probably wasn't what they were thinking, but I guess it was close enough to reality. Two mornings later we got out of bed, let the air out of the mattress, and started down with the tent. Once we had it and everything else packed we ate an energy bar and started on our way. The girls had been packing us all full of food at every meal since we decided we had to move, and it made the energy bar seem like slim pickings. I'd live over it though and it would be better to do the packhorse's job without much on my stomach. We'd already decided on our direction of travel. We could see the tops of some mountains off to the south - even over the trees. That had to make them damned big ones and if we wanted a cave we'd have to go to the mountains, or at least we thought so. I don't think we made much more than five miles our first day. While none of the sleds seemed very heavy at first, we weren't in very good shape, especially for that kind of work. We ate an energy bar for lunch too, but stopped in plenty of time to fix a more substantial supper. We didn't pitch the tent but we did air up the bed even though we slept in sleeping bags on top of it. Two were zipped together for Chris and Mary to double but I kept most of my clothes on and used a different bag in case something came around at night. It would also let me get up and put wood on the fire without waking them. We made sure we had enough gathered for a big fire. Damned if it didn't work out fine. Chris and Mary stayed warm and I did too. There wouldn't have been any advantage for me to be in with them anyway, because we were way too tired to fuck. I knew we'd be wanting to take some fuck breaks along the way but that's what they'd have to be, breaks. No way in hell we could be sled dogs all day and screw all night. After two weeks of traveling I thought we were doing pretty well. We needed fewer rest stops and were moving a little faster. I guessed we were making ten to twelve miles a day and we were no longer completely worn out by the time we stopped for the night. We'd even fallen into a semi schedule of only pulling until noon every third day and then knocking off for a little fun in the sleeping bags. Yesterday had been one of those days and I could hardly keep from smiling as I did my duty to God and the sled I was pulling. We'd only been moving for a little over an hour this morning when Mary stopped us by stopping herself and pointing at something furry and lying still under a tree. There seemed to be a burned out small fire near it and by now I was curious as hell. Leaving my rifle where it was lying on the sled, I headed over to whatever it was that had fur and could build a fire too. I made sure the hammer straps were off my Glocks and as I got close I pulled out the one that rode in the cross draw holster. As soon as I reached the furry bundle I put it back in place. It was a girl, or a young woman, and she was asleep or worse. I shook her shoulder gently and her eyes opened. A few seconds later she realized that I was a human and she bared her teeth and showed me that she had a flint blade in her right hand. I backed off and spoke to her softly even though I figured she couldn't understand a word of what I said. She let her knife hand settle to the ground then and let go of the snarl. She said something to me that I couldn't understand either and I tried to look like I was curious but couldn't make it out. I pointed to my chest then and said "Jack." "Jack," she said, almost; close enough anyway. She copied my gesture and spoke her name. It sounded like Reela to me and that's what I said back to her. She smiled a little and nodded her head. I turned toward Chris and Mary and then called for them to come over. I concentrated on sounding as gentle and polite as I could to keep from frightening Reela. When they reached us I introduced them. At least I felt like Reela understood. I left Chris and Mary to make friends and started gathering squaw wood for at least a small fire. Reela made a little sound when I put Zippo to kindling and did the trick to get things started. She didn't panic though and she was happy enough to get nearer the fire when it caught up a little. While she was warming herself I blew up the air mattress and spread the sleeping bags. It was still nearly three hours until noon but we were going to stop here and get the girl warm and fed. I don't know why she was out here alone with nothing but a knife, but I knew damned well she'd die over it if we didn't help. I didn't even consider leaving her where she was. After I had the sleeping arrangements organized, Mary shucked her clothes and climbed inside a double bag. I figured they were probably encouraging Reela to get in with Mary so she could really get warm and I wasn't wrong. I kept myself turned in the other direction to give her some privacy, and my girls didn't have much trouble convincing her she should strip off and get in the bag too. I nearly laughed when Chris stripped off to join the fun, but I made myself stay serious. "Can you warm up some Chicken Noodle soup?" Chris asked me, after she was in the bag. "Sure, if I can find it." She told me exactly where it was and where to find a pan. When I thought it was warm enough I poured a plastic mug full, handing it to Chris. They didn't have much trouble getting Reela to try a sip after they let her get a sniff. It was obvious she was nearly starving by the way she seemed to want to drink it all at once but couldn't really do things that quickly. She kept at it though and when they handed it back to me they told me not to fill it again just yet. All in all it took nearly an hour to get the whole can of soup and four mugs of water into Reela. She was asleep again in minutes, but Mary and Chris stayed put, playing bed warmer. Reela surely needed them. By the time noon rolled around I had lunch ready. I made sure to fix enough for Reela too, but I didn't think she'd be able to eat solid food yet. I was right because she didn't even wake up for more soup. Even though she was lying down when we found her I'm sure she hadn't got much rest last night. She was probably too busy shivering. Chris and Mary ate lunch in turns. Chris came out first, ate, took a leak behind a tree and then got back under the covers. As Mary got out for her meal Reela popped out too but she took a leak of her own and got right back in the bag with Chris. Her actions made me wonder a little. It must have been frightening to be waked by someone you didn't know and who didn't even dress at all like you did. Then again she must have been frightened badly by someone or something to be out in the weather with nothing but a couple of fur wraps and a knife. I'm sure we were a big surprise to her, but after a few minutes she had seemed mostly accustomed to us. Perhaps she knew more about her situation than we did. It seemed reasonable that she probably understood she couldn't last much longer as she was, and she probably knew there wasn't much she could do about it. Her strength was that far gone. About an hour later she perked up again and made Mary understand she thought she could hold some more soup. I'd kept it warm and poured her another mug full. She was able to finish the soup off completely this time. I warmed up another can but she only ate about half a mug and had to stop again for a while. A few minutes later she was asleep again. Chris came out of the bag and left Mary to do the heavy warming for a while. She got back into her clothes and backed up as closely to the fire as she could. "I think we need to put up the tent and stay here for a few days, Jack. We can't speak or understand Reela's language and it's the same for her. We need time to develop some kind of communication between us and we also need to get more food into her." "Are you thinking of trying to convince her to stay with us?" "I think it would be very good for us if we can. She knows how to live in this time and I'm sure she knows a lot about the territory. I can tell she's very smart from the way she's been trying to make herself understood, and I know she has some sort of story she's been trying to get over about why she was out here alone in the forest," Chris said. "You are making excellent points. She could be a gold mine of information for us and we can probably give her excellent protection. My guess is she was trying to get away from someone or some many." "I think you're right and it would have to be one hell of a many to give us any real problems. Besides, she seems impressed with you," Chris said. "What do you mean?" "She keeps her eyes mostly on you when she's awake and I have a suspicion that she likes what she sees. I can't explain it exactly, but Mary and I have both noticed it. She likes being here with us and mostly with you," Chris said, grinning. "That doesn't make sense." "She's a woman, just like Mary and I, and it doesn't have to make sense. I have the feeling she'd like it a lot better if you were in the sleeping bag helping to keep her warm," Chris said, and grinned even more. "I haven't been doing anything that could have caused that," I said, and it even sounded lame to me. "I didn't say you did. I do know it won't hurt your feelings if she does stay." "What?" "That's right, you put on the gentleman act when she was striping to get into the bag. You didn't get a look at her, did you?" she asked. "No. I tried to give her some privacy." "She could use a little time to tidy herself up but even after no doubt days of running from someone, she is gorgeous. Her titties are bigger than mine or Mary's and her ass is spectacular, not to mention her legs. There's something to be said for a girl that has to walk everywhere she wants to go, and her eyes are the deepest blue I've ever seen," she said. "You sound almost like you're tying to give me a sales pitch." "Hell, I am. Hello Jack, it's Chris, your wife. You remember, the one that likes a little pussy along with a dose of dick. I'm practically slobbering over the thought of getting it on with a Cro-Magnon woman. Especially one that beautiful," she said, and licked her lips lasciviously. "OK. It's not like I'm complaining, but I'm going to be careful to make sure I don't scare her off." "Be as careful as you want. I'm not trying to force you into anything. Lets go ahead and put up the tent while you're getting warmed up to be careful," she said. It only took about an hour to pitch the tent and get it warm from it's stove. I made myself scarce while Mary and Reela scampered inside. I went to brush the snow off the bottom of the airbed. When I knocked, Chris took the mattress inside. "Let me know when you have the bed made and Reela in it," I said, as she took the bed, and she said she would. Meanwhile I started scaring up more firewood. It would have been no problem with the chainsaw, but now that we knew the deal, or thought we did, I didn't want to use it any more than I had to. When we used up the saw gas we had there'd be no filling the cans again. I did pick out two oaks that were about eight to ten inches in diameter and felled them with it, but it didn't take long or use much of the precious fuel mixture. I didn't even use it to limb them. My cruiser axe took care of limbing and I cobbled together a sawbuck out of some of the larger limbs and cut the wood to lengths with a bow saw. It wasn't so bad and the exercise didn't hurt me. A sledge and a wood grenade took care of the splitting and our little stove inside the tent had plenty of wood to keep it going for a few days. I even cut the limbs to length to help out. As I got done it was nearing sunset. I built up the fire outside to help ward off visitors and then entered the tent. I was surprised to see Reela up and about, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt. Chris had been exactly right, at least about the parts I could get a good look at. Reela was gorgeous. Ayla, from Jean Auel's "Earth's Children" series of books was the first thing that popped into my mind. Even though Reela's eyes were deep blue instead of Ayla's grayish blue, Reela resembled the fictional cave woman in most ways. Big titties and long legs being chief among them. I had to make myself keep from staring at her. Then she surprised me again. "Hello Jack," she said, and damned if she didn't get it exactly right. "Hello Reela. Well done," I said, and could tell she didn't understand the words, except for her name; she smiled anyway. Reela wasn't all that seemed delicious in the tent though. Chris and Mary were always a pleasure to look at too, but the real treat was the smell of a stew cooking. I could tell they were using up some of the last of another deer I'd killed recently and to tell the truth it took my mind right off the beautiful blonde we'd rescued. ------- Chapter 8 When it was time for the meal, Reela was fascinated with plates and silverware. She learned to use them quickly with Chris and Mary's help and she seemed to pay close attention to the way they ate. In my imagination I'd pictured her gobbling the food down as rapidly as possible, and left to her own devices she might have. She watched the others closely though and did her best to copy their manners. At first it seemed to throw her off that women and men were eating together. I could nearly feel that she wasn't used to eating at the same time as a man and at the same place either. She got through it probably more gracefully than I could have adapted to eating with a bunch of cave men though. After supper she seemed surprised again when I took the dishes outside and cleaned them with snow. Not that I'd used snow to do it I think, but because I was a man doing what she probably considered woman's work. I could grow fond of this woman. While I was out, Chris and Mary started on a show and tell for her. They found things we had that were easily explained and were naming them and showing her how they worked. Many of the things didn't require much explanation. The knives were a no brainer, but when they offered her one she seemed shocked. It took them several minutes to gesture her into accepting it, especially since gestures were the best way they could communicate for now. When Chris and Mary decided it was time for bed I got a triple treat. As soon as they made Reela understand what was up she started shucking clothes right along with them. I could also tell they were making sure I caught onto the fact Reela was not in the least shy about getting bareassed in my presence. If that's the way things were going to be I decided I needn't be the least shy about ogling the three of them, forgetting for a moment I'd be on display next. As they clambered beneath the sheets and blankets I came to my senses and started off with my clothes as well. There was no way for me to figure out what Reela thought about things so far, and it made me wonder what she might be wondering, or what she was expecting to happen next. I had practically zero social cues in this situation. She was looking me over closely while I undressed, but was it for sexual titillation? Maybe she was amazed by the way my clothes worked. How could I know? There was no way I could. I decided my best course was to get naked and in bed with no signal sex was on my agenda. I'd try to act like nothing unusual was happening and go from there. Since Reela was first into bed, Chris and Mary would be between us. The airbed was a king-size so we wouldn't be stacked on top of each other, even though we would have to be friendly. In my naked flesh fogged head I'd forgotten about one signal I'd be giving. When I dropped my boxers it became apparent I was more than just a little bit interested in the naked women. My dick was up and standing on its tiptoes for a look around. So much for being suave. It was interesting that Reela was staring right at it, just like Mary and Chris. She had a surprised look on her face. At least she didn't seem alarmed and wasn't trying to claw her way out of bed. I'm sure the look on my face was hopeful. Chris and Mary threw me a big curve next. As I headed for the bed they both popped out to let me get in beside Reela. I tried to seem like it was what I'd been expecting but couldn't have possibly been convincing. Never the less, Reela didn't shy away or anything. Nothing for it then, I'd have to brazen things out. I fell back on my normal way of proceeding when in bed with naked women. I began foreplay and left it up to them to stop me if they didn't want to participate. Surely Chris and Mary had taught her the word no by now. I just hoped I wouldn't have to try teaching her what I'm sorry meant later. Things went much better than I'd had any right to hope. Reela lay still as our flesh made contact. The bed was crowded and there wasn't room for any real personal space between any of us. Putting an arm around her seemed a natural move for me, and I did. She didn't tense up, just shivered a little, and then snuggled up to me. I let my hand stroke slowly from the back of her neck down to her buns and then back up again, she shivered again and put her face into the hollow of my throat. My dick was throbbing now and I wanted nothing more than to climb on and pump away. I had to get that out of my mind though. My dick wanted some pussy right now but my big head told me I needed to make sure she didn't think she owed it to me. Trying hard to be as gentle as I could, I let my hands keep caressing and my lips start kissing, nibbling, and licking around her ear and down onto her neck. As I moved my kisses this way and that she turned her neck to make more spots accessible. Finally her hands started doing a little exploring of their own. Before too long I was able to nudge her over onto her back and I kissed and licked my way to a titty as quickly as I could without seeming grabby. She sucked in her breath when I licked the nipple and I could feel her hips wiggle just slightly. By the time I'd licked and sucked my way to the other titty her hips started moving more urgently, so I slid a palm down over her flat well toned belly and into her bush. She seemed to be trying to press her sex toward my hand now and I helped her out by covering her vulva with my palm and squeezing gently. She was leaking a little by now, so I teased her love lips with my hand and kept going back and forth with my lips, sucking and licking one nipple and then the next. As I pushed a finger and then two up into her wet heat she spread her legs but it seemed more like a natural movement than an intentional one. As I moved between her long muscular legs she seemed a little confused but when I swabbed my dickhead between her slippery lips she seemed to almost hiss and her arms moved around me to pull me closer. She'd seemed so young to me when I first saw her, but she was a little taller than Chris or Mary. From the way she moved and trembled as I pressed my dick up her I could tell this wasn't her first time no matter how young she looked. The heat inside her was fantastic and she rocked her hips under me almost right away. She gasps lowly as I pushed it in all the way. I moved my lips to hers then and she seemed surprised again when I kissed her and pressed my tongue into her mouth, almost as if she didn't know what I was doing. She caught on to the plan quickly though and as I started stroking in her she sucked on my tongue and slid her hands down along my back and then onto my ass, pulling me to her firmly as I plowed her furrow. We had a good slow rhythm going in seconds and she did her best to speed it up as we went along. There was no way I could know if this was the way she normally did it or not, but if it wasn't she was damned sure adapting at a good rate. She began squeezing me with her insides and it made me help her pick up the pace. Before long we were banging away at each other and she was panting, moaning, and sometimes crying out as we had our way with each other. I was trying to be careful and make sure I didn't go off before she did, but it wasn't a problem. She got ready and went off before I was close, but with her tight hugging and the low crooning sound she made I caught up fast and sprayed her with a big load. After that I couldn't help myself and sagged onto her limply. It must have been fine with her because she kept petting up and down my back with her hands and she seemed to almost giggle to herself while I lay on her panting. About ten minutes later Reela seemed amazed when Mary pulled me over onto my back and put her lips around my dick. She watched carefully and closely while Mary worked to bring it back from the limp. I could tell she wanted to try it too and in seconds Mary released her pacifier and motioned to Reela. I was glad she opened her mouth, pointed to her teeth, and shook her head as if to say no before she turned Reela loose. To me it was obvious that Reela had never had a dick in her mouth before but that didn't mean she didn't do a good job. With a little work and some pointers from Chris and Mary I knew she'd be a first class cocksucker in no time unless she lost interest in the task. Knowing she was a novice at it now made it even better for me though, and I was almost sad when Mary pulled her off so she could have her turn. Almost, but not quite. Mary's pussy consumed my dick in a heartbeat and then she leaned over and put a nipple in my mouth. I didn't need any more of a hint and the titty sucking, licking, and nibbling was on right away. It didn't take me long to figure out that watching Reela get her dose of dick had done a number on Mary. She was more enthusiastic than she'd ever been before and she gave me a sound fucking. She did her best to make it last, but she was howling and nearly screaming by the time she gave up on holding back and just let herself go wild. I learned something else new when Mary rolled off me to give Chris a turn. Reela might be a novice dick sucker but it was apparent at once that she knew all about licking a pussy. As soon as Mary was on her back Reela was between her legs and making sure the comeshot didn't drip on the sheets. She had Mary blasting off again even before Chris pumped another load out of me, and she seemed almost sad that I beat her to Chris' pussy with my mouth. After the licking and sucking was done we all cuddled up together. Chris and I sandwiched Reela between us and Mary snuggled up to my back. Damned if I wasn't the last to fall asleep, but still, I was out within five minutes I know. Even after the wonderful workout I was still able to get up to mend the fire three times during the night. I nearly froze my ass off each time, since all I put on for the trip outside was a pair of jeans, my boots, without socks and the web belt with Glocks attached. At least I was pleased with finding nothing snooping around while I was out. The last time I went outside was just before dawn and I'd dressed fully this time. I built up the fire in hopes that cooking would take place on it soon. I was about to go check on the girls and make sure they were awake when Chris came out with a mug of coffee for me. "Thanks." "We have to be more careful about keeping your strength up now," she said. "Why?" "So you can take care of all of us. Reela was very impressed with your performance. Hell, Mary and I were too. You outdid yourself last night and we're all very happy about it," she said. "I live to serve." "Well you did a bang up job last night. Reela keeps jabbering something about it in her lingo, but all we can make out for sure is that she thinks you're the cat's meow. I'll bet she's been to the peephole ten times this morning to make sure you're still out here. She wanted to come out and join you but we managed to keep her from it." "She'd just be getting cold quicker than she needs to." "She and Mary should be out in a minute anyway. They're bringing the food for breakfast. Are we going to be able to stay here for a couple of days?" Chris asked. "I don't see where a couple of days will make much difference, and if you and Mary can get some kind of better communication going with her it will probably save us time in the end." "That's what we thought too, and it isn't going to be as hard as we thought. She's very clever at learning our language, not to mention her ability with signs. I don't think it's really a formal sign language, but she's very good at waving her hands around and making you understand what she means." "That's better than no language at all. Have you gotten a hint about what she was doing out here alone?" "A little bit of one. Someone chased her away from the ones she was living with. Apparently she managed to get away from them, but I'm sure they intend to do her harm if they find her," Chris said. "It'll be better if they don't find her then, but if they do I doubt I'll let them do her any harm." "I didn't think you would either, and Mary and I can do our share if it comes to it," she said, then Mary and Reela came out with food and dishes. After the look Reela gave my coffee mug I was pretty sure the others had let her have a taste. In fact she grimaced when she looked at my mug again. After that she came over and brushed against me and I assumed it meant she was happy to see me so I gave her a little pat on the ass and a big smile. Damned if it didn't make her blush. Soon enough breakfast was ready and we went back into the tent to eat. Reela wasn't having any more trouble getting things down though she still didn't seem to eat as much as I'd expected. After eating I went back outside while the three of them got back to Reela's lessons. I figured Mary and Chris were trying to pick up on her language too while they were at it. I hoped so since they could probably teach me about it easier than Reela could. I wanted to stay out of their way, and I would have gone hunting if I didn't think that a caveman or cavemen were out their somewhere looking for Reela. I was sure Chris and Mary could take care of things if they had to, but we didn't need more meat that badly right now and there was no sense leaving it to them. I had one of the Marlins and one of the 7mm Brownings leaned against the tent, and I mostly sat or walked around scanning with the binoculars. In hindsight it was probably dumb of us to pitch the tent right at the end of the trail Reela had made. At the time we hadn't even thought about it and to tell the truth I hadn't since then either. It did put us right on the path though and just before noon I saw four men following along in her footsteps. Since I was using the binoculars I'm pretty sure I saw them first. After poking my head in the tent and letting Chris and Mary know what was happening they all came outside with me and they brought their sidearms and long weapons. Chris had her BAR and Mary brought her shotgun. Reela seemed a little frightened but she came out too and was holding her new knife. She had a look of resignation on her face. We stood together with me slightly in front of Reela while Chris and Mary flanked me. Reela tried to come up beside me once but I pushed her back behind me gently. When the others saw us they headed our way at once. When they got close enough for a good look I could tell they were not pleased, but as they realized Chris and Mary were women their attitude changed and I could see one or two of them grin a little. Now I'm no expert on ancient mankind, but my best guess was they felt might made right and I was also sure they felt they had the might, since there were four of them and they were men. I could almost feel them thinking they were about to kill me and take everything I had, including the women. I already knew they weren't. They didn't have a chance in hell of pulling it off. I'm sure a lot of people would think what I planned was cowardly and cruel, but I don't really give a shit what idiots like that think. Four grown men were about to attack me, unless I was mistaken. Their only chance for living was to give it up as a bad job first. If one or more of them attacked I was going to do my best to kill them, all. When someone makes me shoot at them, I shoot to kill. Of course it was still theory now, since I'd never run into someone that tried it yet, but my mind was set on that way of dealing with this type of situation. If I merely wounded one, chances were they'd die a long lingering death anyway, and if they didn't die they'd want revenge later. I didn't have time to fuck with things like that. I didn't know how to survive here and I sure as hell didn't need someone sneaking around to hinder my efforts. As it turned out I didn't have a chance to do anything. They walked up within about thirty feet of us and the biggest one started ranting and raving in their language. I waited for him to wind down and was going to rant and rave at him a little myself. I wasn't as prepared for what he did next as I should have been, but Mary was. Before he even stopped yelling he pulled his arm back and I'm sure he was about to cast the spear he was holding. Mary must have been sitting on go because she and the Extrema2 started making a hell of a lot of noise before the spear was even all the way back. She didn't stop shooting until she'd sent seven rounds of buckshot their way. She shot them all to doll rags. Not a single one of them was drawing breath by the time we walked over. She shot the one trying to cast his spear first and then moved on. She shot so fast that I'm pretty sure she got a second round into the first one before he finished falling. Reela was stupefied. She looked so shocked at first I was afraid one of them might have been an ok guy or something. When she gathered her thoughts she disabused me of that notion by going over and stabbing out their eyes and then turning around and smiling at us. I don't guess she liked any of them after all. Mary and Chris went over to her to talk after that and I left them to it. If we were going to take some time off, the next day would be at least a few miles on down the trail. While the girls were talking I started dismantling the camp. "Where are we going?" Chris asked me, a few minutes later when they came back over. "We'll be better off if we move on at least a few miles. They followed Reela's trail right to us," I said. "Well they'll be able to follow ours too. There's no way for us to move on without making one." "I know, but I figure there's a good chance the next group, if there is one, won't want to follow after they see what shape this bunch is in," I said. "You're probably right," she said, and then she, Mary, and Reela started helping. ------- Chapter 9 Reela seemed a little distressed when we moved out, but she didn't let us get away or anything. She was talking and waving her hands around at Mary for a little while and then she finally settled down. "She thinks she should pull your sled so you can protect us," Mary said. "Hell, you're doing the best protecting so far today. Are you ok with what you had to do?" "Well, I have been wondering about something. Do you think I should carve four notches on the stock?" she asked, and kept a good straight face until she couldn't help laughing at the look I gave her. "I guess it isn't bothering you then." "I'm sure it will later, and I don't think I could have done it if he had been intending to throw that pig sticker at me. I was sure you were the target though and I didn't even think, I just reacted." "Well I'm glad you did. I don't think I could have pulled my head out of my ass fast enough to keep from getting hurt." "Hurt hell, take a look at the spears Reela gathered up next time we stop. The heads were knapped flint and more than a foot long. The edges are sharper than razors too. I cut a finger just touching one on the edge. For a few minutes there I was so mad I wanted to shoot them all again." "I still wish I knew what it was all about." "The best Chris and I can figure from what Reela says is she was one of his mates and he was going to trade her to one of the others. I don't think she really cared for him but apparently she had a real dislike for the one he was going to swap her to," Mary said. "It just shows he was too stupid to live anyway," I said. We were at least five miles from our last spot within two hours, so we stopped and put the tent back up. Mary and Reela gathered squaw wood while Chris and I did the deed on the tent, and by the time we were done Mary and Reela were cooking. I'd noticed Reela had made the coffee and I thought it was odd that she'd caught onto the task since she didn't even like it. I got a big surprise when they poured me a cup. It wasn't coffee - apparently it was some type of tea. Mary said Reela picked the leaves off a bush she found while they were gathering wood. Whatever. It wasn't coffee but it did taste good. At least now I knew we'd have something for a hot drink after the coffee ran out. Supper was ready soon and after eating and cleaning up we headed inside for bed. We were all too tired to get anything started, or at least we new arrivals were. Reela seemed to be game but she didn't squawk about the lack of slap and tickle. I noticed the girls were in different places tonight but I didn't think much of it and I was asleep in minutes. Reela was up before me the next morning and she didn't wake me when she slipped out of bed. She came and shook my shoulder after she'd dressed though. I smiled when I saw her looking at me and she beamed, then she motioned toward the peep panel in the tent's canvas door. I hopped out of bed quickly to see what was up. Not seventy-five yards from the door a deer was browsing along. Just then it was nibbling on a small bush's leaves. I figured it wouldn't be possible to get the door open without spooking it but I grabbed a Marlin and gave it the old schoolboy try. Luck was with me and I knocked it down with the first shot. I was stuck about what to do now though. I was still bare assed and I'd have to dress before going out to fetch it. Reela scampered out the door heading toward it before I could even grab my pants. I didn't want to leave her out there unprotected so I stood inside the tent and watched through the plastic peep panel while she gutted it and dragged it back to camp. I called her inside when she got back to the tent and made motions until she understood I wanted her to watch it from inside while I dressed. She seemed to understand and I got my clothes on as fast as I could. Mary and Chris were up by now too, but Reela and I left them dressing and went out to take care of the kill. I'd only thought I was going to help. Reela had its skin off like it had a zipper. At least she let me use a hatchet to cut it into sections. Mary and Chris came out just then and I knew they assumed they'd be helping too. They gave it their best shot but couldn't hope to keep up. Since I was standing around with my thumb up my ass, figuratively at least, I had nothing to do but watch. At first glance it seemed Reela was hell bent on going as fast as she could, but watching more closely I could tell most of her speed in the process came from experience. She knew exactly what to do and exactly how to do it. I finally realized she'd been doing it for years. She had to. It was the only way they were able to eat regular. At first I also wondered why she was still using the piece of flint after we'd given her a good knife, but the reason was obvious after watching a few cuts. The flint was much sharper than the knife and its shape was better suited for this work. I'd assumed she'd just found a piece of flint that happened to work ok, but if that was the case she'd made a hell of a lucky find because this one seemed to work perfectly and fit her hand exactly. Reela was through with the balance of the carcass before Mary or Chris finished the small parts they'd started. She came over to me and made a chopping motion and I figured she had something else I needed to use the hatchet on. I grabbed it again and she showed me what she wanted. Reela needed the antlers removed from the head and she showed me exactly how she wanted it done, but I put her off and went to a sled, urging her to come with me. After fishing out one of the Wyoming saws, I showed her how to assemble it and then took it over and used it to remove the antlers. She obviously hadn't understood what I was going to do with it while I showed her how to put it together, but she was a lot more interested now. I picked up a piece of firewood and had her give the saw a try on it. She was excited by the process and soon she was sawing up branches all over the place. Finally she came back and made me understand she wanted another lesson on assembly and disassembly. Once she had this part under control I had her put it back in its case and then waved my hands around until she understood I was giving it to her. She was thrilled. Chris and Mary were done by now and they got our delayed breakfast on the way. The recently departed deer ended up being a large part of it. Reela made her contribution as well by adding some sort of ingredient she'd picked yesterday. I didn't have a clue what it was, but it made the venison better and as soon as the meal was over she put one of the big stew pots on the fire and began filling it with snow. Mary and Chris huddled with her for a few minutes and were soon helping. As they kept adding snow, Reela took off into the woods. I'm sure it was irrational on my part but I worried about her going off alone. At least she had better clothes now since Mary and Chris had outfitted her with some of theirs. I was especially glad Chris' boots fit Reela's feet, and even gladder Carl had wanted us to try several different styles and types on this trip. For the hour and a half she was out of sight, I worried and fretted, and knew I was doing it. I couldn't help it though. I was protective of my young harem and it wasn't just thoughts of sex causing it. Reela was fascinating to me. I don't think I was actually in love with her, like I loved Chris and Mary, but I was attached to her and I wanted to love her, or at least get the chance. My fears melted when she returned with her hands full of things she'd found. They were mostly vegetable type things, several even looked a little like potatoes and there were more than a few onionish looking bulbs. Still, I'd have been happier with plainer food and less wandering. As soon as the stew seemed to only need slow cooking to finish, Reela took her new saw and cut four fairly short saplings. She cut the skin from the deer's legs into thongs and then tied the saplings into a box shaped outline. I wondered what she was up to until she stretched the rest of the skin on it and then used the knife we'd given her to scrape the inner side of the hide. Chris, Mary, and I started paying closer attention after we understood what was going on. We wouldn't be able to just leave the skins of animals we killed where they fell any longer. We had plenty of clothes for now, but they wouldn't last forever. They'd only give us the luxury of having plenty of time to learn to make our own clothes. Reela finished dealing with the skin for now just before the stew was ready. She made some more tea and then we settled down to eat. After Mary dug out some of our camping dishes and showed Reela the bowls she was thrilled again. I'm sure they had some things to eat out of where she'd come from but of course she didn't have any of them with her. I hoped we would run into some people that were half-assed friendly sooner or later, since I'd be interested to see what they actually used for eating. After supper I decided we needed to give Reela some more instructions. We were going to be depending on her to help us out with things we didn't know and we had some things we needed to teach her about. Firearms were the first that came to my mind. I just wasn't sure we could communicate well enough with her for proper safe instruction yet. Mary, Chris, and I talked it over and decided we should just do our best and see how it turned out. If she wasn't catching on we could put it off for now and concentrate on language lessons for us and for her. Right now we felt it was better to try teaching her enough of our language so she'd have an easier time teaching her ours. Chris and Mary thought showing her how to use a Glock first was the best way to go and they also thought they should be the ones to do it. That was fine with me. They could communicate with her best and what the hell - Chris was a trained teacher. I left it to them, grabbed a Marlin, and went back outside but I didn't get much time to roam around. A little over an hour later Chris called me back into the tent. I expected to go in and help explain but that wasn't what they wanted me for. "Reela has a twin sister back at her old camp and they were both mated to the same man, the one we killed," Mary said. "Ok," I said, not realizing all the implications since I'm only a man. "We have to go get her," Chris said. "Why?" "Because she doesn't have a mate now and Reela says no other man will take her since her mate was killed. We think it is some sort of superstition. From what we think we understand, it will be worse since four men left looking for Reela and none of them returned," Mary said. "Do you have any idea whether we'll get a bunch of static over things if we take her back?" "We just don't know, but it doesn't seem reasonable if no one wants the other woman," Chris said. "It might not seem reasonable to us, but that doesn't mean it won't to them. That doesn't really matter though - if we're going to adopt Reela it wouldn't be right to leave her sister there alone. What about the other men? Did any of them have mates we should take care of now?" There was a short pause while Mary and Chris tried to get this question over to Reela and then tried to decipher what she was telling them in response. Apparently there were no other mates, or widows, involved. We decided to start toward her camp, or village, or whatever it was in the morning. We spent the rest of the day packing up. We even struck the tent and slept on the air mattress in our bags so we could leave earlier, just after sunup. Reela seemed to be a little confused about the whole thing but she went along without trying to ask many questions. It wasn't that she couldn't ask them in our language by now. She had a firm handle on why. The problem was it wasn't so easy to give her an answer she was capable of understanding yet. Twice during the night I woke intending to put wood on the fire but someone had beat me to it. I thought it was probably Reela but never caught anyone at it and gave up trying to do my manly duty after the second time. It was just as well because the fire was still going strong when the sun came up and there was tea made too. After I got up and dressed I saw we had smoked meat for breakfast and it was ready to eat. I had no doubt Reela was responsible for this meal and the first taste let me know she had seasoned it with something too. I didn't have any idea what it was but I knew it tasted good. After we finished breakfast we loaded the last of our things on the sleds and struck out with Reela in the lead. Chris had been able to get a hazy estimate of the distance, but it was heavy on the hazy. She had indicated we would arrive before sunset, maybe. Apparently Reela thought we didn't travel as fast as she had and she was guessing we were going about half her normal speed. It didn't really make much difference. If we didn't make it we would just break out the air mattress again and sleep in place. We could continue in the morning and I didn't see any reason to hurry. Surely Reela's sister could get by one more day. Our trip was uneventful and we arrived much sooner than Reela had estimated. I thought we had probably come closer than Reela thought with our first move away from the bodies. At any rate, it was barely after noon when we arrived. At first no one noticed us and then slowly the word got around. My best guess was there were maybe thirty to thirty-five adult men and nearly twice that many adult females, depending on what age they considered adult. There was a definite dearth of old people, though there were a few. Reela motioned for Chris, Mary, and I to stop just outside the village and she waited with us. Suddenly a female voice shouted her name and I guessed it must be her sister. As the young woman came running up I was certain. I could tell them apart easily because Reela was wearing the clothes we'd provided. The other girl was dressed as Reela had been when we found her. The clothing was the only way I could tell the difference though. Reela led her back to meet us and Keela, Reela's sister, seemed pleased to meet us and she did a good job with our names. She and Reela spoke together in their language for a few minutes while the rest of us stood there and looked pretty, and wondered what was going on. To my way of thinking we were in a slightly precarious position. We had no way of knowing what was happening or what might happen. Several people were standing around staring at us by now. Almost all of them were men and thankfully none were children. After maybe ten minutes an older but still remarkably fit man approached. Reela and Keela turned to face him and when he was near Reela spoke. After a short tale from her, he asked questions and she answered them. Everything seemed to be proceeding peacefully and I sensed an agreement had been reached, but just then another man came up. He wasn't as old as the first one but he was opinionated, even though we couldn't understand a thing he was saying. He seemed to get angry and he kept getting louder. Reela wasn't backing down from him though, and after a while the first man started yelling back at him. When Keela joined the fray I decided things had officially gone to shit. Since any yelling I did would be useless I kept quiet. It was easy to see the man who stirred up the shit was getting madder and madder, but I couldn't think of any way for me to help settle things. He gave me the correct answer when he started toward Reela and Keela, raising a stout club as he went. "Halt," I yelled. Even though I knew he didn't understand the word, I figured he could catch onto what it meant sooner or later. I don't know if he got my drift, but he didn't halt. He turned toward me, raised the club higher, and came on as if to hit me. I palmed my Glock and gave him two in the chest. One shot probably wouldn't have knocked him back on his ass like that but two certainly did. There were several gasps from the crowd, but no one else headed our way. The former loudmouth wasn't saying anything now but his eyes were very wide, and when his mouth sagged open a second later blood poured out. He fell over off his ass and onto his side shortly and the convulsive shiver he gave made me think he was dead. One of the women in the crowd walked up to the dead guy then and my ass wanted a dip of Skoal pretty bad when she did. I had a sneaking suspicion he'd been her mate and I would soon be taking care of her. I was relieved when she didn't seem distressed and started feeling around on his neck, possibly checking for a pulse. She confirmed my hopes when she looked at the first man who'd approached us, the leader was my best guess, and shook her head. He slayed me then by smiling and nodding his head. He walked over to face me, pointed his finger at his own chest, and said, "Jockat." After saying it back to him I pointed to my own chest and said my name, then he repeated it back to me. He said something else to me then and I thought my best bet was to say thank you, and nod. It seemed to work since he turned around and headed back into camp. ------- Chapter 10 I guessed the murder investigation was over and I'd been found to be acting in self-defense. Reela made me more convinced I was right by coming up and signaling for us all to follow her with the sleds. In the camp most of the snow had been trampled to mush already, but the ground was wet enough so the sled's runners didn't drag down too much. As she led the way through camp I finally noticed the construction of the neighborhood. The dwellings were a little like log cabins, and even had peaked roofs, but no shingles. The roofs were covered with skins and it was obvious just from looking they were treated with some type of oily substance. I guessed it was rendered fat. Reela and Keela led us to a fairly large hut and when we reached it she held back the skin door, motioning for us to come in. I worried about the things on the sleds for a minute but then decided my previous demonstration would discourage curiosity. It was pretty dark inside but there were three small lamps that I thought probably burned fat for light, even though it wasn't much light. The hut was packed nearly full with furs, dried meat, and vegetables that had been gathered, but there was still a surprising amount of free space. It was also much neater and tidier than I'd have thought. Damned if Reela, Keela, Mary, and Chris didn't abandon me in the hut to go back outside. I didn't know what they were up to but decided I'd just be in the way what ever it was. Surely they'd come get me if they needed me. They did, or Mary did anyway. "Can you come get the tent's stove and see if you can make it work in here?" she asked. "I'm sure it will, but I'll have to cut a hole in the roof to put the stove pipe through." "That won't matter. Apparently the hut is yours now, and I'm sure you'd rather have your meals cooked inside. It will cut way back on the dirt you have to eat," she said, and then laughed at me. Hell, the stove was no bother to me and it would only be a little extra work to put the pipe out through the roof. I put it through the tent's roof every time we erected the tent anyway. Once I cut the hole it would be basically the same. Thirty minutes later I had the stove installed and a fire going inside it. Keela was plainly amazed and it took several minutes for Reela to explain things for her. She was excited when Reela put a pot of tea on though and as the hut's interior got warmer she was more impressed with my magic fireplace. I guessed we were going to spend a night or two here and I was glad the old guy was going to allow it. We still had a cave to find, and maybe I could talk Mary and Chris into staying here with Reela and Keela while I went on afoot to see if I could do the job without us having to drag everything we owned along behind us. Whatever happened next, in the here and now I was happy. We'd skipped lunch and all four of the women seemed to be working on a little something to chew right now. When Reela showed Keela about the mugs and had her bring me some tea I was even happier. So happy in fact I went out and prowled around in our things until I found the lawn chairs we'd brought. Luckily there were three extra, so we all had one and there were two spares. Sitting in a lawn chair, sipping tea, and watching women work on a meal gave me a lovely feeling of security. I was also speculating on my first night in this hut. Even though we'd had a hell of a hike today I felt fine, and I was hoping that later this evening I'd get a chance to see if there were any differences between Reela and Keela I could find out about in the pile of furs I assumed was our bed. No doubt there were details of life here that I didn't know about. I decided it was too much trouble to try finding them out. I didn't plan to stay over a few days at most, so I just blew it off. By the time we were eating I'd forgotten completely about it and by the time we were done, naked, and in bed I'd forgotten that I'd ever even wondered about such. At least I was right about one thing. In the furs I found myself between Reela and Keela and neither of them were being coy. I could tell which one was Keela by the way she was a little tentative exploring my body. I concentrated on her with my fondling since she'd missed out the other night. She had other differences too. When I shoved it up her wet heat she became a lot more active then Reela had and when I kissed her and sent my tongue in she sucked on it for all she was worth. I nearly had to use my hand to pull it loose so I could get it onto her nipples where I thought it would do more good. Did it ever? She was panting and moaning with just a minute of nipple play so I went for the prize and wedged my dick up in her. Three firm pushes later I was hitting bottom and only a couple more made her legs wrap around my ass and got her hips into action. I didn't mind though, because if she went off before I did I could just swap mounts, and that's what I ended up doing. Reela was next in line and damned if she wasn't blazing tonight. As soon as I climbed between her long lovely muscular legs she was ready, and as I worked my dick up her she gave me every bit the ride her sister had, but she didn't even last as long. When she tensed up all over and wailed I was still hard. Chris and Mary both seemed to catch what the others had. They weren't as frantic for dick as Reela and Keela but they were way ahead of where I'd thought they'd be. Maybe being in on a cluster fuck had their motors revved higher than usual. No matter, I put Mary into orbit and then settled onto Chris. Even though she was steaming too, I knew I'd get my cookies before I quit. She was used to me outlasting her sometimes and if I needed to keep pumping after she went off she'd understand. It didn't come to that though. As she got close I was nearly there myself. She gave me time to get fully primed and then pushed her index finger up where the sun don't shine. We were both howling as we loped across the finish line. I was halfway intending to discuss this phenomena with Chris and Mary, unfortunately I fell right to sleep before they caught their breath. That night I slept more soundly than I had since we crashed. I was surprised when I woke alone in bed and even more surprised when I dressed and went outside. It was easily mid morning and all four of the women were out puttering around among the sleds. That wasn't so unusual but I wondered what Mary and Chris had done about a bathroom. I hadn't seen the camp potty in the hut and I was usually the one that put it up anyway. I asked Chris. "Don't worry about it here. They have places to go already. They don't offer much privacy but they are acceptable. Mary managed to get the job done without anyone coming by, but one of the men here sat down on the spot next to me. He didn't bother me though. In fact he didn't even speak," Chris said. "Well then someone needs to give me directions to the outhouse." "It's out but there's no house. Come on, I'll show you?" Chris said, and led the way. The facilities were rudimentary at best. Someone had dug a trench, and there was a lashed together set of poles and crossbars that let you sit over it to dump a load. At one end there was an open space for men to use if they only needed to piss, or at least that's what it looked like and I used that. It would do fine I guess since it performed the main job of keeping excrement in a specific place so no one would step in it. When we got back to the hut one of the lawn chairs was outside with a plate of food and a mug of tea in the seat. I picked them up, sat my ass down, and watched what was going on while I ate. It seemed four or five men, including Jockat, were getting ready to do something. I asked Mary if she could find out what and the hand waving between the four of them started. In a couple of minutes Chris turned to me. "They're about to go hunting. I think they're going for buffalo. I also think your presence would be well received," she said. "I guess it would be if that's all that are going. Even one buffalo would be a hell of a load to haul back," I said. "I don't think the men bring them back. Reela seems to be saying they'll send a runner back for women to take care of that job if they get one," Mary said. "Then I'll go and take the Barrett. It might take some convincing to get them to let me shoot first, but if I get to I'll keep firing until I get three or four. Meanwhile, y'all should unload the sleds for carrying. It'll be a hell of a lot easier that way and you can just head out if you hear me fire more than once." "For a man, you're smarter than you look. That's a good idea, but you should take Reela with you to translate. I'll see if that's permitted," Chris said, and turned to Reela and Keela. After some more hand waving Reela went inside and fetched her knife and Wyoming saw. She also had a web belt now, and they were hooked to it. I was glad Mary or Chris had showed her how it worked. I took a Barrett off the sled and fished out twenty rounds for it besides the ten I knew it had in its magazine. Reela and I headed for the men when I was ready to go. There was quite a bit of chatter between Jockat and Reela when we got there but nothing abusive in either direction. She also talked to him for a while as we trotted and since I heard my name mentioned I assumed she was securing permission for me to go first. It was a damned good thing Mary, Chris, and I spent several days walking and pulling before we found Reela. My guess was we were four miles from the camp before we approached a large plain. It was at least a thousand acres and probably more. There was a herd of bison grazing about half a mile from where we were now, but I could see we could get much closer by just walking nearer them and staying back in the woods as we went. Apparently this was what the others intended too since Jockat headed that way. We came to a perfect place for me to lie down and fire from prone position after another half mile. I estimated we were only five hundred or so yards from them now and that worked out fine since it was the distance I'd zeroed the rifle to. The others looked at me funny when I stopped but they stopped too. While I settled down and extended the bipod's legs, Reela whispered something to Jockat. I didn't understand a word of it but it didn't matter. When I fired the first time I heard some fairly loud exclamations from my hunting partners but I didn't slow down. The bison were looking around to see where the noise came from but they didn't seem to pay attention to the one that had dropped. I shot three more before they decided they were leaving even if they didn't know what was happening. When I got up Jockat and the others were looking at me with wide eyes. "More?" I asked Reela, and she shook her head. Jockat said something to one of the men, the youngest, and he took off back toward camp in a dead run. I started to explain that the women would be coming along soon but decided not to try it. It would just cause confusion and surely the runner would stop when he saw them headed this way already. He did. He was in the lead when Chris, Mary, Keela, and about half the camp's women showed up half an hour later. I could tell Jockat new something else had gone on but he didn't seem upset about it. We all headed out toward the kills then but it was apparent to me all these women wouldn't be needed. What the hell, maybe they wouldn't get in each other's way and maybe we could get them to help pull the sleds back. Someone had disassembled my double while I was gone and there were now five sleds in all, since they were pulling the small game sled along with them. I was happy when I saw one of them had a small bunch of firewood, a skin bag of what I thought was tea leaves, our coffee pot, several of our mugs, and even more wooden cups. Mary and Chris got a fire going and began melting snow for water while most of the rest of the women started on the processing. Reela and Keela both had Wyoming saws now and they were tending to bones and such that needed to be dealt with. Damn, all the women were fast with their flint knives. The other men seemed to be scanning around and I decided they were keeping their eyes open for uninvited guests. Since Mary or Chris had brought a Marlin, I lay the Barrett down on a sled and picked it up to help with the critter watch. Even though I couldn't understand what the guy was saying, I noticed when all the men and women looked. It sure sounded like a warning he was broadcasting to me, so I looked around in the direction everyone else was. It wasn't the same cat I'd seen near our crash site, I was sure of that since this one was surely even bigger. It was headed our way though. Putting the Marlin right back where I'd found it, I grabbed the Barrett again and asked Chris to bring the Marlin and come with me. Like an asshole idiot I'd only brought one magazine for the Barrett. Since I didn't know how hard the tiger would be to kill, I wanted Chris with me to reload the Barrett's magazine while I filled in the reload time with shots from the Marlin. At least I'd been on the ball enough to refill the magazine after downing the buffalo. I was already prone again, with the extra cartridges lying beside me when she got there. I sighted on the saber tooth that was walking almost straight toward us. He was still about six hundred yards out, and while he wasn't in a dead run; he wasn't merely ambling along either. His damned mouth daggers had most of my attention at first and seeing them headed for me made me want to start blasting right away. I held off though and waited until he approached to what I thought was five hundred yards. I tried to put my first shot straight through him from front to back, hopefully entering just at the base of his throat. After the recoil I got back on him as quickly as I could. It had definitely been a hit, but he was still standing. I almost fired again, but held off when I noticed he wasn't approaching any longer. He was standing still and he seemed to be wavering around a little, as if merely standing was all he could manage. It must have been a good place to hit him because he fell about thirty seconds later. I just watched him for five more minutes, then took the Marlin from Chris, lay the Barrett down in the snow, and started toward him. I was surprised when Reela and Keela followed me. They'd exchanged the saws for the two cruiser axes we had. I guess they'd brought them along in case he needed a lick or two to finish him off. The cat was dead as a turd in a milk bucket when we got to him. I'd hit him almost exactly where I'd been aiming and there was a larger ragged hole on the other end, just below his anus. I'll bet he was a fucking mess inside. Luckily we probably didn't want the meat. Just because the meat wasn't for eating didn't mean Keela and Reela weren't going to skin him out. They got started at once and were well on their way before Mary came trotting up pulling the game sled. Kitty's skin was off in half an hour, but Reela and Keela weren't through there. They removed all the claws and even took out his teeth. I didn't have any idea why but maybe they were useful for something. Mostly I kept my eyes open for another visitor. It was probably three in the afternoon before we were all loaded and ready to go back. All five sleds were fully loaded but there was no way I could pull one. Jockat let me know I was to walk beside him while the other men spread out behind. They were keeping their eyes peeled and I helped. Back at camp I discovered the hunting day had been a good one. Two other groups of men had gone out before we left. One bunch got two deer like I'd killed before and the other had killed a Megaceros. Now that thing was impressive. It had antlers for days and they'd come home too. I wondered about it and looking around I could see the deer's antlers were brought back too. They must use them for something. As soon as the sleds stopped, Reela and Keela seemed to be taking our share of the meat first. I guessed it was because I did the killing. I started to ask them to decline since we had plenty of meat already, but then I decided there was no sense in upsetting the apple cart. They also kept the biggest buffalo hide and the cat's hide along with all its teeth and claws. Those long tusks were damned impressive. Mary got a little commotion started about an hour after we were back. One of the men from the Megaceros hunt had cut himself deeply along his right arm somehow, though I didn't find out how. The woman who'd searched for a pulse on the man I'd shot was tending to it but Mary had been an RN and an EMT before Carl found her and she went over to see if she could help. Mecha, the healer, was a little put out at first, but somehow Reela soothed everyone's nerves. As it turned out Mecha decided she wanted to see what Mary had in mind. Stitches were what Mary wanted to install, after a good cleaning for the wound. The guy would have probably balked if I hadn't been standing near by, but since I was, and since he probably didn't want to seem like a baby, he let Mary have her way. Soon enough there was a pot of water boiling, a spray on topical anesthetic, and a good washing with Phisohex soap going on. Apparently the spray on anesthetic didn't deaden as deeply as Mary was scrubbing but the guy bit his lip and took it. Mary wasn't a doctor or anything, but she knew her business at sewing flesh back together. It was one of the neatest jobs I'd ever seen, maybe too good, because Tadrah thought he was fixed when she finished with some gauze and a strip of Elasticon to cover the wound. He actually tried to pull it back off. I think he just wanted to take a closer look. Mecha didn't let that slide for a second. No doubt she understood what the covering was for and also knew how curious her patients were. As soon as he tugged a corner of the bandage up she slapped him sharply on the back of the head and chewed his ass out from one end to the other. He finally walked off, blushing. That little scene was informative. It wasn't hard to notice men usually had the upper hand on decisions around here, but plainly the healer had her own authority. It seemed to me Mary and Chris both should strike up a friendship with Mecha if they could. It wouldn't hurt a damned thing if Reela and Keela did the same. Maybe it didn't matter much though. If we went off to find a cave of our own, any status they gained would be lost. Still, it might not hurt. I decided to ask Chris what she thought about it. "It sounds like a good idea to me. I'll ask Mary, Reela, and Keela what they think about it." "Can you speak to them that well already?" I asked. "I can't just blurt it out as if I was comfortable with it, but we're making progress. Working with the other women today was a big help too. It won't be long until Mary and I get good at it." "I guess I'd better bear down on my lessons then," I said. "Don't bother. We're also working out the spelling of the words. When we get settled somewhere more permanent you'll be able to read and write your lessons. It should make learning the language much easier." "How can you spell the words? They don't even have an alphabet do they?" I asked, not realizing what an idiot I was being. "Of course they don't have an alphabet. We know one though and that's why we're having to work out how to spell the words they already have. We sound them out, write them down, and later we'll teach them what spelling and reading are all about? "If you say so. I guess I'll just keep us in meat." "You did a bang up job today and everyone is impressed, especially the widows and their children," Chris said. "Why them specifically?" "They don't have anyone to hunt for them, and they don't get much meat unless there is plenty. I think they have plenty of things gathered, things they can get themselves, but meat is usually brought in by men only. There doesn't seem to be any taboo against women hunting, but most of them just don't know how to make a kill," she said. "I can go right back out tomorrow if there isn't enough. I'd have shot more today if I'd known the deal." "That was plenty for today. Mary and I went with Reela and Keela to distribute quite a bit of the meat and they made sure all of the widows had plenty. We'll let you know when it's time for you to pull the great white hunter trick again," she said, and giggled at me. I guess it was my old softie raising, but I hated for anyone to be hungry, and unless I ran out of cartridges, no one I knew about was going to be. I was sure I'd seen enough buffalo this morning to feed thousands for years. The biggest problem must be the way they were hunting them. Maybe I could do something about that too. As far as I could tell they cast their spears instead of trying to slip up on game and stab them. Still, the range had to be severely limited. No doubt going on a hunt for large animals gave you a good chance of ending up hurt too. Today's buffalo hunt was probably one of the best outcomes they'd ever had. They needed weapons with more range. I wasn't sure whether I could make a bow and some arrows or not, but sooner or later I'd give it a try. Maybe I could at least give them enough of an idea so a few of them could figure it out. ------- Chapter 11 Supper came around by and by, but tonight there was no sex play. We'd all done too much work today to be feeling frisky. As we settled into the furs Reela and Keela both had a surprise for me though. "Good night, Jack," they said, at the same time, and then giggled. I gave all my harem girls a good kissing, just to keep up appearances, and then we settled down to sleep. My bladder woke me up with everyone else this morning and I was glad of it. I didn't want to get a reputation for being a lazy ass. Of course my main job in the morning was going to the pisser, but still, I wanted to look like I was at least doing something. I was a little surprised when Mecha came over early to talk with Mary. The tea wasn't quite ready yet, but I went inside and brought out a couple more lawn chairs. One for Mary and one for Mecha. Of course I already had mine outside because I'd been lazing in it when Mecha arrived. Mary came over to join us and she brought mugs of hot tea when she did. I didn't bother she and Mecha while they were talking shop, but I could see Mary was explaining the sewing she'd done yesterday. After a minute she went in and fetched five of the curved needles like she'd used for the job. Mary called Reela over to help translate and then spent several minutes showing Mecha how this trick worked. I was fascinated myself, but realized right away a clinical discussion of the process was far removed from actually sewing a wound back together on a living squirming human. The lesson went on for nearly an hour. When Mecha asked what the spray on stuff had been by holding her arm out and mocking the process as she'd seen it, Mary fetched the pump bottle and gave Mecha's arm a light fogging. Mecha just looked at her arm for a few minutes, no doubt wondering what the deal was. Suddenly, Mary gave Mecha's treated skin a sharp pinch. Of course Mecha didn't feel anything, or not nearly as much as she'd expected. She yelped a little in surprise and then looked at Mary like she was a Goddess come to earth. To head off hero worship Mary had Reela spray a spot on Mecha's other arm, and later Reela gave the pinch demonstration. The teaching was going well and that was fine. My worry was how much of the medicine Mary had, and how long it would last. Finally I asked her about it. "Poppies." "What?" "Poppies. We'll have to find some poppies and extract opium, morphine, and codine for pain relief. You don't have to use it full strength. It can be used topically also and it can be injected. We'll have to make do for other things but if we gather enough of the poppies we shouldn't have any shortage of pain relievers." "But that stuff is addictive," I said. "Almost any pain reliever can be, but it isn't magic. You don't get addicted from medical use, and since I'm sure I'll be the only one who knows how to prepare it there won't be much of a problem. "I have a pretty good supply of other medications, but they will run out sooner or later. Thank goodness I was very interested in home remedies for a couple of years. I think if we get settled I might even be able to make a crude sort of penicillin. We had to do it for a lab experiment once. Of course we didn't give it a real trial, but I think I remember how it was done. No doubt we'll end up with plenty of infections to experiment on," she said. I didn't know how I felt about that, but I'm sure she was right. If someone came up with an infection after the medicine Mary had on hand ran out, they'd be much better off with an experiment than an amputation. Thoughts along those lines let me realize we wouldn't be best served living in a wooden hut with a dirt floor. We needed a cave we could secure, and could eventually get fairly clean. Living with this group was working out fine for now, and it was helpful for both parties. "Mary, can you or Chris communicate well enough with Reela and Keela to ask them if they know where there are any caves? We're in the foothills of those mountains now, and some of the nearby peaks are fairly high. I wonder if there are any caves nearby," I said. "We're ahead of you on that. There is a big cave less than five miles from here. It will be a problem though," she said. "What problem?" "It is occupied by Cave Bears. Keela says several of them hibernate in it every year," she said. "How many is several?" I asked, though I knew even one was close enough to several. "Keela says there are five adults and three yearlings in it this year. There could be some newborns by now too." "That is several, considering their size it's more than plenty to be a problem. I still want to see it though. I want to go right now. Can we do it?" I asked, since I knew every one of them would want to come along. I wasn't wrong about that either. Chris, Mary, Reela, Keela, and even Mecha demanded to come. Mary loaded every Extreama2 we had with slugs. I loaded all the Barretts' extra magazines, strapped on the Wildey, the 44 Mag Smith and Wesson, and both my Glocks, and Chris loaded both thirty ought sixes and both seven millimeter mags. We carried so many guns we needed to take a sled to tow the overflow. As we loaded the sled others in the camp watched with unabashed curiosity. Even Jockat kept up a watchful eye. I wasn't keeping it a secret but I'd rather the rest of them not come with us. I didn't want to have to be careful to keep from shooting one of them. Thankfully none of them came up and asked to join us until right at the last. Kemela didn't exactly ask to join. Apparently she was Mecha's helper, apprentice, student, or something. Mecha let her know she'd be coming too. I had a lot more sense than to argue. Beside, Kemela was another raving beauty, albeit a young one. Male chauvinist pig that I am, I was hoping she'd walk in front of me so I could spend a little quality time ogling that fantastic ass she was almost showing. It was enticing even though it was covered with the fur on the outside winter clothes most of them wore. Thinking about Kemela's ass reminded me that Mecha had a beauty of her own. Somehow I hadn't seen an ugly woman anywhere in the camp, and it made me wonder how they'd cropped up centuries later. The ugly women that is. All the ones I'd seen here and now looked great. Of course some looked better than others, and I seemed to have fallen in among them somehow. It didn't make me feel bad or anything. As we walked I wondered about it some. I'm sure part of their attraction was the excellent physical conditioning. There wasn't a way in hell for any of them to end up fat. They had to work too hard just to stay alive. That didn't explain the generous size of all the titties I could get a hint about, but something was obviously going on in that department too. My voyeurism helped pass the time until we reached the cave, but after we had, the sight of it got all my attention. At least the outside and the area around it did. The entrance was up a shallow slope from a small stream that ran across the bottom of the tall hill, or short mountain I guess you'd say. It wasn't more than three or four hundred feet to the top but it must have been more than a mile around the lower circumference. It wasn't really a circumference though since it molded itself into an even larger peak on the back side, and the one behind it joined an even larger one behind it. Still, the entrance to an obvious cave was apparent. The opening was easily twenty to twenty-five feet across and seemed to be half a semicircle into the mountain. Things looked excellent so far. There were plenty of large trees scattered around near the opening and my first job was convincing the women they needed to get up into the trees. If something came chasing me out of the cave I wanted them in place to start blasting anything that came out behind me. Reela, Keela, Mecha, and Kemela didn't need to be close since they weren't armed. That didn't mean they didn't want to be, and they found their own trees to keep me from making them move farther out. When everything was squared away I walked to the entrance and went inside with the Wildey in one hand and a powerful flashlight in the other. One of the Barretts was leaned up against the nearest tree outside and the other was in similar position about fifty yards farther out. When I entered I passed the light over the cave quickly and it was enormous inside. I was about to start checking it out more closely when one of the occupants let me know he was not pleased about my visit. I swung the light to take a look and nearly shit. Even as it was rising to its feet it was already taller than me. I started backing out of the cave but it kept getting up. Coming to my senses I began letting it have a taste of the Wildey. I was aiming for the head and I know I hit it twice before it roared again, even more loudly this time. I could see others getting to their feet by now, but I kept the light on the first one and kept firing. I had to empty the Wildey before I did any good. That was fine for dealing with the first one, but the others were mostly up now and a couple of the biggest headed for me. I turned and ran, hoping they wouldn't follow me out. I heard Chris fire before I made it to the first Barrett, so I knew my hopes of a clean getaway didn't come true. I snagged the heavy Barrett as I sprinted by and didn't stop to turn around until I reached the other one, farther out. It was just blind luck that I hadn't put the second one too far away. I had no idea Cave Bears could cover ground so much faster than humans could. I know I had at least fifty yards of lead leaving the cave mouth, but when I turned the bear was within twenty. I didn't even have time to shoulder the Barrett. I had to hip shoot, on this one at least. Its great size made it hard for me to miss. Hard to miss didn't mean easy to kill. As big as the fucker was, hitting something immediately vital was chancy. I'm pretty sure the five shots I put in its chest would have killed it eventually, but if Chris hadn't pegged it just above the snout with a seven millimeter I'd have probably died before it did. I hadn't noticed she was taking a seven millimeter up the tree with her, but of course the report let me know she had. I was damned glad about it too. Bears were still coming but they weren't running flat out and I had a little distance to work with now. I swapped magazines in the Barrett I held, put it to my shoulder and started on the next closest. It was a little smaller, but not enough to make me feel confident. My first shot at this one was lucky. It must have severed the spine because the bear fell at once, but didn't seem to be dead. It was done walking though and that was good enough for now. The only precaution the two remaining adults were taking was to come at the same time. I hoped Chris would take the one on the left since I was taking the one on the right. I didn't get another lucky spine shot, but five rounds did stop it, and Chris downed the other one with four shots to the head. The three yearlings we'd been told about were much smaller than the adults. Hell, they weren't much bigger than a grizzly, if that was any real consolation. Still, they didn't take as many shots to kill. Hell, one of them went down from only three. I just hoped the count we had was right. I damned sure didn't try the go inside and look around trick again. We waited thirty minutes to make sure no others were coming out. Finally I bucked up my nerve again, switched the flashlight back on, and entered the cave once more. I don't want it to seem like I was overly cautious, but I damned sure was. I took my time and then took some more. Thankfully the reports had been right on the money. The only remaining bears were four youngsters, each was less than a hundred pounds and I finished them off with a Glock When I came back outside I learned Mecha had sent Kemela back to camp for help. I didn't have to wonder why. We had literally tons of bear meat to deal with. Mecha, Mary, Chris, Reela, and Keela were already working on the first one I'd shot, but it was easy to see there was no way they could deal with all the meat and hides. One thing was obvious - the widows and orphans wouldn't need to worry about their next meal anytime soon. Of course I tried to help and just as predictably my offers were rebuffed. I was nominated for guard duty. I thought it was stupid but I was wrong again. The smell of fresh dead meat did draw a crowd, sorta. Wolves were the worst but thankfully we didn't get a lot of them at once. I did kill six before the other help got to us though, and two badgers showed up early also. My fervent wish for no more saber-tooths was granted though and we didn't see one all day. When Kemela got back with help she had a hell of a lot of it. At least three fourths of the camp came back with her. I was glad they brought the rest of our sleds, but I knew we could never get all of the meat on them. I left the guard duty to the men who'd come along, then started cutting small trees for travois. I had never built one before, but they weren't very complicated. As soon as I started putting the first one together I gathered a crowd of men. They were very curious about what I was doing, but I didn't know enough of their language to explain things. I concentrated on finishing one and then gave them a demonstration. I could almost hear them thinking, Why didn't I think of that? There was so much meat to deal with even some of the younger men helped. Mecha had relinquished her job by now and she and Kemela built a fire and with the help of two other women they started cooking lunch. You'd be surprised how tasty fresh bear meat roasted on a stick turned out to be. Even with the four travois I built there was still no way we could carry all the meat at once, so as soon as we got everything loaded we took off to pull it back to camp. Apparently when in a bind the men were not ashamed to carry. I'd fully intended to pull one of the travois, but that idea was nixed by Mecha, who was quickly supported by all the men and my women. "Don't be a dufus," Mary said, "You can do a better job of protecting us than all the rest of the men combined. You're staying right here for guard duty. Chris and I will go back and pack our sleeping bags and some other things for the return trip. That way we can stay at the cave tonight." What could I do? I was outvoted. I didn't really mind since pulling a travois had never seemed like fun to me. Luckily Mary and Chris had been planning ahead too. It would be much better to stay here during the night. We didn't want to have to come out tomorrow and kill a bunch of squatters before we could start moving in. Reela and Keela knocked off the meat processing a little while later. They wandered off with their axes to cut stout saplings for stretching the hides. There was going to be a hell of a lot of work just getting them dealt with. They had to be stretched onto the racks, which were yet to be built. After the stretching there would be hours of scraping the insides. I didn't know the next step in tanning but I'm sure it wouldn't be easy either. While I waited around and kept watching for varments or pest I wondered if there was some protocol about the cave. I didn't know how everyone else would feel about us taking it over. I figured clearing out the bears would count for something but I wasn't sure how much. If it came to fighting over it I didn't have any doubts we would win, but I wasn't looking forward to anything like that. I wasn't looking forward to living with everyone else in it either, but I probably wouldn't raise hell if they wanted to join us. I hadn't looked the cave over closely but it did seem like it would easily be large enough. I'd just wait and see what happened. It might be so large that having everyone living in it wouldn't be a bother at all. The worst part about doing nothing but standing watch was time seemed to crawl by. They wouldn't even let me go gather firewood for the night. I figured we'd need a big fire near the entrance to make sure nothing tried to come in and bother us. They had a point about watching though, since the boredom was broken by having to kill three more wolves. Finally all the meat had been cut up and dragged off on the sleds and travois. Everyone was gone but my mates, Mecha, and Kemela. We had about an hour of light left to gather firewood and get the fire built after moving our things inside the cave's entrance. While the women got a big bear stew going I took the flashlight and started on a thorough inspection. ------- Chapter 12 There was some nasty crap lying around inside, but mostly gnawed bones and dried shit from animals that used the cave when the bears weren't around. There were even some pieces of chewed up hides from their prey, but nothing serious and nothing still fresh enough to cause much of a stink. It was enough to show me we'd be cleaning for a while. The floor was a pretty big surprise since it was mostly flat. There were several inches of dirt over it, but scraping it back showed a rocky base. It wasn't as flat and even as the dirt covering had led me to believe but it would serve until we could come up with something better. A big surprise was waiting near the back of the huge open chamber. It was the mouth of a sort of tunnel, though it wasn't manmade. The opening looked like a wide crack in the wall and most of the rest of it did too, as far as I could see without entering anyway. I intended to explore it, but not tonight. I wasn't about to go into it by myself. I returned to the opening and found supper was ready. One of the nicest things about finding and befriending locals was their knowledge about edible plants. Probably the only things I recognized in the stew was the bear meat. There were lots of other things in there but the bear was the only thing I was sure about. I didn't give a damn, it was all tasty and I didn't spit out any unidentified parts. After sunset the cave was damned dark inside. We had light from the fire in the entrance, but I didn't think it was enough for us to see while getting the sleeping arrangements settled. I built a smaller one about thirty feet back into the cave from the one at the entrance. Mary and Chris had brought our sleeping bags back from Reela and Keela's hut, but we didn't need them since they also brought a sled full of furs. I didn't get invited to help arrange the bed. In fact, I was shooed away when they started on the job. I did notice something I needed to tend to though. The camp potty had also made the trip. It was empty of course since we didn't haul human waste along. I set it up and poured in a good dose of the chemical that kept the smell down after use. We had a reasonable supply but that didn't mean we could go on using it forever. Tomorrow or the next day I was going to look for a better solution. For tonight, and the next few days, the small potty would suffice. It didn't take long for the women to get the bed arranged and I was done with the potty even faster. Later I would try to get some sort of artificial lighting going, but for tonight sunset meant bedtime. I'll admit I kept my eyes open while the clothes were coming off and was glad I did. Mecha might have been as old as twenty-seven, but probably not. I suspect the clothes she wore were intentionally arranged to make her seem less appealing than other women. When the clothes came off her secret was out, to me. The other women didn't have anything on her in the looks department, or not much anyway. Mecha's face wasn't as pretty as Reela's, Keela's, or Kemela's. She wasn't ugly by any means; she just wasn't as strikingly beautiful as the others. Her body didn't take a back seat at all though. Her big breasts were bountiful and seemingly self-supporting. Her legs were long for her height and they were well shaped. Her ass was amazing, jutting out with muscular definition and practically begging to be fondled. Kemela looked almost like a pervert's dream. I guessed she was old enough to know better, but just. Her breasts were the smallest in the cave but they were plenty for her size, and like all the downtime women she was well toned and shaped and looked simply delicious. I noticed Mary and Chris were getting that well toned look about their assets too by now. I'd been sure I was too tired for fucking tonight, but I was wrong. Chris came over before she shucked her clothes and had a little discussion with me. It made me very happy. "I'm pretty sure Mecha and Kemela are fishing for an invitation to join us permanently. In fact Mary and I have already invited them and Reela and Keela were quick to add their support. Mecha insist the decision is yours, so you'd better give them a good dose of dick unless you want them to leave tomorrow." "I thought Mecha probably had a mate already. If she doesn't I think it would be rude to hold out on her," I said, grinning. "It would be for sure. She will be very helpful here and Mary and I both like her anyway. She's also catching onto our language faster than any of the others. I don't know why she wasn't mated but I know she isn't. Show her what she's been missing," Chris said, and I decided to obey my wife. The way the sleeping spots were arranged at bedtime was still a mystery to me, but I knew Chris had been giving me the straight scoop about Mecha and Kemela when I ended up in the middle between them. I didn't even try to act surprised and I certainly wasn't shy. I didn't just jump Mecha's bones when I was in bed, but I did take her in my arms and show her what kissing was all about right away. She seemed surprised at first but got with the program almost at once. Mecha may have never been mated, but when my hands started fondling her magnificent ass she let me know she could handle a hard dick for the benefit of all. One of her hands found the pole in question right away and she could tease a hardon as well as anyone who'd ever handled mine. Since her big titties and nipples were calling to me, I gave up on her lips and moved my head to the twin peaks. This got her attention, and by the time I'd moved one of my fondling hands to her bush she was trembling and squirming already. I sucked one nipple up to near bursting and then the other, and when I decided she was wet enough down below I maneuvered my legs between hers - they spread wider at once. As I pressed my dickhead to her entrance and started pushing it up her, she sighed. She hadn't put much mileage on her cooter, and though it was drenched, it was much tighter than I'd expected. That just made things more exciting for me. I liked taking my time and having to work my way in. It was worth the effort too, since she had excellent muscle control with her tight tunnel. I did a little sighing myself when I felt my dickhead kiss her cervix, and I delighted in her tight sheath as it seemed to suck against me when I pulled back for another stroke. It seemed only seconds later when her legs came up around me to wrap around my waist, but actually we were well into the ancient rhythm by then. When I put my mouth back on hers and took over a titty with each hand, she moaned loudly and her arms came around to grasps my ass cheeks as I kept pumping. My hands gave her titties the business, gripping and squeezing their plump bulk and then twisting and pinching her nipples. She was nearly gone by now, and I increased my pace to catch up. It sent her over the edge, but luckily I joined in before her orgasm was done, and I gave her insides a hosing deluxe. Since I'd given my all right at the last, I sagged down onto Mecha and gave her head, face, neck, and ears a serious covering of kisses until I had the strength to move off. She cooed sweet nothings to me the whole time, even though I didn't understand a single one. As soon as I was free, Mary gobbled up my dick to revive it while Chris put a lip lock on Mecha's creamy pussy. I didn't have to worry about Kemela missing out on any attention because Reela was working on her fat titties and Keela was giving her pretty quim an energetic licking. As soon as Mary had my dick back in business I intruded on Reela and Keela's fun. Kemela was nearly trembling in anticipation by now. Her nipples seemed near to bursting and she was flushing from her chest up around her neck. She was also panting up a young storm. When I took her in my arms for serious kissing she trembled, but grabbed hold with her arms around my back and pulled me to her tightly. Keela must have already given her a taste of kissing and tongue work; she wasn't surprised when I started my own version. They hadn't taught her anything about handling a dick though, because when my hand found her sparse bush she just kissed back harder and wiggled her hips. The answer was apparent when I began teasing her vulva and tried to slip a finger up her. Kemela was a virgin. In my previous life hymens weren't common on women I came into contact with, and in fact if I'd found one I would have made an exit as gracefully as possible. I didn't know if they were common here and now either, but my attitude had changed remarkably somehow, with Kemela at least. Finding the magic barrier was surprising and inflaming. I'd probably choke the piss out of anyone who tried to stop things now. I didn't understand my sudden desire to be first, but it was there and I was boiling. I gave Kemela as much teasing and petting as I could hold out for, and then moved between her slim muscular legs. She tensed a little when she realized it was almost time, but her arms around me didn't lessen their grip. I used my hand to line us up for the deed and then pressed it up her firmly. She made a small sound as I ripped my way in, but held me even tighter as I pushed through. She kept panting and started a low moan as I pulled back and pushed up into her, slowly lengthening my strokes each time. When I finally hit bottom she moaned softly and low in her throat, but she didn't seem to be having much pain. Even though she was taking it well so far I went as slowly as I could stand. Within minutes I knew she was enjoying my work and her hands slipped down to hold my buns and urge me on. I wasn't complaining. I picked up the strength and tempo of the fucking until I realized I was giving her a serious pounding. She didn't seem distressed, but I tried to level off the speed and power of my strokes. Since Kemela's mouth was busy moaning, I dropped mine to her tasty nipples, kissing, licking, and even giving them the occasional nip with my teeth. It was like throwing more wood on the fire, and her moaning segued to babbling. When I knew she was nearly gone I gave first one nipple and then the other a firm bite and she exploded with the second one, bucking her hips at an outrageous speed and hugging me as tightly as she could. Kemela's last burst of strength and action as she went over drew a come-shot out of me. I'll admit I went a little wild with my final few stabs. I wasn't sure what pulled the animalistic rutting out of me at the last, but I was hoping it would happen again, and often. I sagged down onto her finally, completely spent for now. Even though I'd lost the ability to participate for the moment, I hadn't lost the want to. About ten minutes later my dick reinflated even without any outside help. Reela was closest so I grabbed her and started abusing her shamelessly. That's the way it went the rest of the night. I fucked one of them until I couldn't fuck any more, then rested and started over again. I kept it up for at least three hours, on and off, but luckily that still gave me time for a full night's sleep before the sun came up the next morning. For the first time in a long time I knew my ashes had been completely hauled. I woke with enough lead-time to get fully dressed and go outside to use the bushes for my business. Thankfully we still had toilet paper a'plenty and Chris or Mary had remembered to unpack a little. Before going back into the cave I tried to prioritize what I needed to get accomplished today. I wanted badly to explore the tunnel I'd found at the back of the cave, but I didn't really feel it should come before everything else, even though I wanted it to. We needed to get the rest of our things before others at the camp got curious about them and bucked up the nerve to go exploring. I didn't really believe many of them would do such a thing, but that didn't mean I thought none of them would. We also needed to close off the entrance of our new home. Sooner or later we'd come upon times where we needed to be away from the place for at least hours at a time, and we needed to be able to secure it. Making a door would require the chainsaw and it was still back at our hut. While we ate breakfast I discussed things with Chris and Mary. They thought at least one of us should stay at the cave to watch over things, but I didn't like that idea at all. They gave in after a while. We ended up packing all of our uptime stuff on one of the sleds we'd kept here and we dragged everything back to the camp with us. The trip took less than half an hour and everyone, except Mecha, commenced packing. She made Mary understand where she was going and then wandered off. Mary told us Mecha intended to tell Jockat she'd be joining us. I'm sure he wasn't going to be pleased to lose his healer and I hoped it wouldn't come to a fight. I made sure to keep my eyes open though. "What are we going to do about this hut?" Chris asked. "What do you mean? We can't carry it with us and it would be pointless anyway. It will be easier to build another one there than to take this one apart, carry it to the cave, and put it back together. Not to mention we probably won't need it for a damned thing." "I know that, but it's Reela and Keela's hut. I think they should get to say who gets it," Chris said. "That's fine with me, but you or Mary will have to talk it out with them. I can't yet," I said. It didn't take long for that discussion to come to a stopping point and then Chris was back talking to me about it again. Nothing was simple it seemed. "They say you're their man and the hut is yours. You have to decide what to do with it." Conversation about the hut stopped for a few minutes since Mecha came back just then. I assumed Chris was asking her for advice about the hut problem, and I was right. The new problem was Mecha said not only Reela and Keela's hut were mine now, but hers was too since I was taking them in. "Tell them to do what they think best with the hut's. If Mecha's has something in it we need to haul back we'll carry it, but it will be pointless to take the huts unless they have some overwhelming sentimental value." Another round robin of discussion got started then, but I stayed out of it. I kept loading things and Kemela helped. Finally an agreement seemed to spring up and Mecha took off again. We had everything out of the hut and packed before Mecha returned with four men following along. She gave Mary the short version and then Mary told me. "Mecha is auctioning off this hut and hers. These men are here to look this one over and then they'll peruse Mecha's. The bidding will start after that," Mary said, and seemed to be about to laugh. We waited while the men looked over the hut and then went with them to look at Mecha's. Mecha's hut was bigger, and when I looked inside I could see it held even more things than Reela and Keela's had. Mostly they consisted of dried vegetables and herbs, but a large part was furs of all types. I learned later almost anything might be received in payment for medical attention. Mecha asked me if I was sure I didn't want to do the negotiation, but I declined. I didn't have the least idea of what the huts were worth. I was busy worrying about how in the hell we were going to get Mecha's possessions back to the cave. After the dealing was done I found out Mecha was a lot smarter than I'd thought, and I'd always known she was very smart. Part of what she bargained for was help moving the balance of our things. Before long, the two winning bidders showed back up, with helpers, and dragging all the travois I'd made yesterday and two copies. One of the travois was piled high with skins and what appeared to be gathered food of various types. It took another hour and a half to pack up Mecha and Kemela's things and then we headed back to our cave. The trip back took longer than the one over to the camp but not by much. This was from bringing so much back with us. When we finally made it the two new travois were unloaded and the freight crew headed back to their new huts. It was well after lunchtime before we finished unloading. I did some measuring while the women put a meal together and then stopped to eat. After the meal I took the chainsaw and struck out for building material with Mary and Chris coming along to watch my back. Finding and felling trees wasn't a problem. I cut twenty twelve-foot sections with a nominal twelve-inch diameter first. These were for closest to the ground layers. I finished up with smaller diameter logs but cut them to twenty-four foot lengths. I splurged with the saw gas and limbed them with the saw too. By the time I towed all the materials back to the cave it was nearing sunset and we just scattered them around to provide bad footing for any potential visitors. I still intended to keep the fire going all night but was hoping to have the entrance stopped up by the end of the day tomorrow. During supper I had what could be considered a brainstorm for me. We could take a look at the tunnel tonight, since it wouldn't be any darker at night than it would be during the daylight hours. Mary and Chris agreed to go with me as guards and to carry lights of their own to help make sure we could see. We even took the precaution of wearing ear protection in case we had to fire a gun at some point. The exploration wasn't very exciting until right at the last, and thankfully we had no wild animal confrontations. We did find something exciting though, sorta. The tunnel seemed more like a large crack in the stone of the small mountain. The floor wasn't even or regular and the size of the opening varied considerably as we went along. Its length was a little less than fifty feet but the opening at its other end was a little bigger and what it lead to was another cave, maybe even larger than the one we were living in. It was empty though, thankfully. In fact it seemed to be completely cut off from the outside, except through the secret tunnel. It wasn't though, or not exactly. There was an opening to the outside world, but we only discovered it by accident. It was fully dark out by now and so there was no light to come through the thick bunch of bushes and vines that covered the entrance. They were so thick not much would have made it through during daylight. The entrance wasn't nearly as large as the one to our main cave, but it was at least ten feet tall and maybe eight feet wide. We didn't have any need for this much more room right now, but I was sure it would come in handy for something. In fact, it looked like it would make a perfect barn on down the road. It even had a small stream trickling in and keeping a shallow pool filled. We had no immediate need for it though and we retraced our path back to the main cave. Mecha was in charge of the unloading that was going on when we got back. They were mostly unpacking the gathered food and herbs and the skins. Mary and Chris joined in, unloading the sleds and trying to temporarily organize things that had come with us in the helicopter. One of the first things they set up were the portable lights that ran off rechargeable batteries. There were three of them and they had eight-foot tripod mounted stanchions to keep them up high enough to provide a useable lighted area. The others were frankly amazed by being able to turn light on and off from a switch. As always, I was excluded from the unpacking, but there was no need for me to guard things now since we were in the cave and there was a big fire guarding the door. I made myself useful by finding one of our shovels and getting started removing the crap previous owners had left lying around. Gnawed bones, dried pieces of skins, and piles of droppings. I carried them directly to the fire and added to its fuel supply. Right away I remembered something Carl and I had disagreed about, and it made me sad again he was gone, but happy he'd won the argument. Carl insisted we needed to bring a couple of yard brooms and I'd laughed and told him we wouldn't need to do any lawn work. I still didn't think we would've had any use for them if things had turned out as expected. They were going to come in handy as hell now though. In fact, right now I wished I hadn't talked him into removing the handles and only bringing the heads along. I'd argued it would be no trouble to cut a sapling for a handle if we turned out needing one. His main argument had been we'd be able to clean up after ourselves a lot easier with the metal leaf rakes. Now I wished I had the handles on hand and that we'd brought normal rakes and sling blades too. Still, the yard brooms would be a big help cleaning up the cave's floor after I made a couple of handles and we were damned sure going to need them no matter what I'd thought at the time. Oh well. We worked on for a couple of hours and then hit the bed. Tonight was no time for another orgy, since we were all tired. I noticed Chris and Mary had the seemingly coveted spot near me this time. ------- Chapter 13 Early to bed and early to rise and all that crap. I woke before sunrise the next morning and I'd had plenty of sleep. I don't know who'd mended the fire during the night but someone had and it was still going strong. I dressed and went outside to water a bush, making sure to strap on both Glocks and carry the Marlin in hand. I spied a spent cartridge case on the way out and bent over to pick it up. I'd have to organize a hunting expedition soon for those we'd used in all the excitement here. Here to fore I'd been religious about keeping the spent brass and I didn't want a single one to get away from me. It wasn't like I'd hidden the facts from Carl, but I'd suggested we bring along a portable reloading setup. I can still remember him asking "What the fuck for?" Of course I didn't mention it was mostly for the hope I'd get to keep it all after the trip was over, but I'd told him we might get a chance for me to teach him how in our spare time. I'd made sure that our portable setup was well equipped and well supplied. A rough estimate was I had enough bullets, powder, and primers to reload every spent brass or shotgun shell at least ten time. Of course I didn't have dies or primers for the Barrett's rounds, but I hadn't known about them until after the crash. With the stupendous amount of rounds Carl had bought for them I didn't think I could use them all in a lifetime anyway - still I was keeping up with their spent brass. We needed a semi-permanent privy pretty badly, but I thought we needed a front door first. After breakfast I started installing it. It was slow going since we didn't have suitable fasteners and I couldn't dig holes in the cave floor to set posts. There was five inches of dirt before I hit rock and that wouldn't do. I'd have to build a wall with uprights and then double it with a horizontal layer. I could use dowels to tie it all together. It was time consuming though, especially putting up the uprights. I did a custom fit for each one of them, driving them into place with a big hammer where I could. Even Chris and Mary wondered what I was doing after I had us completely enclosed with no way out. Everyone figured it out when they had to help hold up the first cross piece while I drilled for and installed a dowel at each end, and then went on alone to dowel every upright to the first cross piece. After that was done I cut out a five-foot wide door opening. Lunch had come and gone before I had the opening cut, but the work went faster after that. I was nowhere near through with the wall before supper though, and I called myself done for the day when food was available again. You're not scrimping on strength for the door, are you?" Mary asked, just as we finished the meal. "No, I can't. Just think about the last residents. What if they have friends who want to come for a visit?" "Point taken. How soon will it be finished?" Chris asked. "Tomorrow I hope. Is there something else I need to be planning?" "Some one eleses is more like it. There are seven widows in Jockat's camp. I think we should invite them all to come live with us. They only get meat by gosh and by golly. They could be a big help here and you don't seem to need any help with game," Chris said. I was getting wound up to try and talk my way out of it, but then she hit me with the low blow. "Four of them have young children that go hungry sometimes," she said, and then smiled. There was a battle lost before it could get started, and I knew it. It was my weak spot, as she was well aware, but I didn't mind that she got the point across before any real hand wringing. Hell, I wouldn't let a grown man go hungry if I could do anything about it and children even more so. "I'd better get that wall stable enough to hold out for a day or so. I'm going to need to get right on the privy afterwards. I believe I'll go a little farther toward privacy than they're used to though," I said, and smiled myself. It was easy enough to get the horizontal cross pieces in place and secured by lunch time, up to the one atop the door anyway. I was confident things would stay in place now but I still intended to keep it up all the way to the top. I let it be after lunch though and took time off door building for privy construction. Luckily I was able to find a spot where I could dig a deep pit without moving far from the nearly solid-rock mountain. There wasn't time to build the privacy enclosure I wanted before supper, but at least I made a serviceable bench to sit on before the sun started down. After supper I was ready for bed and some fun and games. I wasn't the only one. If anything they were more enthusiastic tonight and I didn't let them down. I idly wondered how it would be with seven more women and four children living with us. Maybe we wouldn't disturb them too much until I had a partition or two built for some privacy. I hoped like hell my women didn't expect me to go without until we had some sort of privacy-screen in place. Then again, after tonight's workout I wasn't really worried about it at the moment. I slipped off to sleep almost at once. All the women were out of bed with breakfast nearly cooked before I woke. After giving the new outhouse a trial run I found my plate ready and for a change I had coffee this morning instead of the primitive but delicious tea. By now the coffee's main benefit was its sharper jolt of caffeine. I wondered if they thought they needed to get extra action out of me this morning. Apparently they did, since they were anxious to get moving toward Jockat's village. Our sleds were loaded onto our travois and the travois were manned, or femmed as it were. They waited for me to grab my Marlin and come along for protection. I still thought I should be doing some of the heavy work but knew better than to even try. When I nodded they were off. Keeping a careful eye out for danger didn't require a lot of mental calisthenics and my mind wandered as we went. It seemed colder to me today and I assumed it was just a spring thing - a short last minute cold snap before things started thawing. I was sure it would pass in a few days but I did wonder if there was a chance we'd get a late snowstorm. I didn't worry about it much since it would probably melt away before long even if we got a good one. The women we were coming to see didn't have any idea what we were up to and really nobody in Jockat's camp did. When we arrived it was easy to tell Mecha wasn't the least bit worried about that details. Apparently my schedule had already been discussed among them because Chris let me know I should go find Jockat and act like I was trying to have a visit. It suited me so off I went. Jockat seemed glad enough to see me, and he called something to one of his women that had her making tea in a few minutes. He had a couple of short stool-like contraptions made from tree trunks that seemed to have been smoothed off just for the purpose and he gestured for me to have a seat as he did the same. We did our own version of trying to learn each other's language while we sipped the tea and we didn't care whether we were making sense to each other or not. Apparently his women had told him to get lost too. We hadn't been at it very long before Mecha, Chris, Mary, and the seven women came over. A short discussion ensued and before I knew it Jockat seemed to be pleased and thanking me profusely. Maybe he was happy to get rid of the women. Chris told me to say my goodbyes and I did, following the women to whatever destination they had in mind. The widow's huts weren't all in the same area nor were they alike. Some were small and some fairly large. I had no trouble deciding which were the huts of the widows though, since work was going on at each of them. Possessions were being packed and brought to the travois and sleds and then loaded. Mecha found me another sort of stool to sit on and then with Chris helping translate she asked if I wanted her to be auctioneer again. Of course I did. There weren't as many potential buyers this time. Plenty of men were standing around but she only made three sales, and they weren't even the largest huts. I thought something was fishy but couldn't figure out what. After the selling was done, the men who'd bought brought their payments and they were loaded onto travois too. Chris came over and told me Mecha thought others wanted the two largest huts for sure, but she decided they were intending to wait until we were gone and just fight over them. I might not know much about the local customs, but I did have the cure for that type of crap. "Tell Mecha to show me which huts didn't sell. I'll take them down and we can haul them away too. If the sorry bastards want a hut, they're going to pay for it or it's leaving with us, no matter how many trips it takes," I said, making sure I was loud enough so everyone could hear me, even if they couldn't understand one word. Mecha could understand enough to get the idea though, and from her evil grin I could tell she was going to have fun with this. She called our new members together and gave them the lowdown in a loud voice of her own. I didn't know what she was saying but from the looks the men were giving her it was obvious she wasn't making any close friends with her speech. It must have pissed one of them off pretty badly. From his reaction I figured he was one of the ringleaders. I'd have let it slide by just laughing at him if he hadn't headed toward Mecha with murder in his eyes. He made it to within ten feet before I stood up and worked the lever on my Marlin. It got his attention in a heartbeat and he actually went pale as his eyes flew wide and he stopped in his tracks. "What the fuck do you want asshole?" I asked, and if the words weren't understandable the tone surely was. No doubt he was smarter than he looked, since it only took him about three seconds to make an obvious bid for the largest hut. Another one that had remained in the background must have felt guilty too, because he made a bid of his own. In the end we sold all but the smallest two huts. We didn't bother to take them down. I had Mecha and Chris go back to see Jockat with me and we made him understand we were giving the small huts to him. He seemed glad to get them and Mecha told Chris later that Jokat was having a hard time not laughing at the others who'd thought they would cheat us out of the bigger ones. It wasn't even the principle of the thing to me. The huts weren't worth taking apart and hauling off, but it was a little bit of a pecker test type thing. If I'd let the assholes pull a fast one on me there'd be no end to others trying something similar, and there was no question about letting the number one asshole abuse Mecha. If he hadn't backed water there'd have been singing and slow walking in his future, if they did such. As we made our way back to the cave I got even madder about it. Not only were the worthless bastards letting widows and orphans slowly starve, they were trying to steal from them too. I know there wasn't really a civilization and surely not much in the way of charity, but thieving from them was beyond the pale. It didn't really matter, because I could take good care of them all now. I hadn't even been introduced to any of them yet but I had noticed they were the normal Cromagnon beautiful. It made me wonder again where the ugly women werem but there was no answer, not for me anyway. The children were a complete delight so far. Every one of them were girls and the cutest little things I ever did see. My first lesson for the mothers would be teaching them to plait pigtails for their daughters. Well, maybe it would come under the heading of Chris or Mary's first lesson. I wasn't sure I could get the job done. After we were home I helped with the carrying and unloading no matter what any of them wanted. There was plenty of it to do and my arms weren't broken. I made sure the Marlin was easy to hand just inside the door opening and then got down to my manly duty. At least they didn't have any real furniture to move. I left them to it once everything was inside though and went back to work. One thing that made me happy right away was the cooking started. Lunch would probably be a little late, but that couldn't be helped. I was happy that it wouldn't be skipped. Soon enough Chris called me to eat. Before they shared the food I got an introduction to our new group. I did my best trying to pronounce their names and they seemed to think I did well enough. We had Welta and her daughter, Wetita. They were both as blonde as Reela and Keela and their eyes were a little darker blue. Wetita seemed to be the oldest of the girls but she couldn't have been eight yet. She had a beautiful smile, like her mother and I figured she'd be a tall one someday since Welta was the tallest of all. She also had to be the oldest of the bunch, but she didn't look like she was even twenty-one. They sure as hell started early back now. Shantee and her daughter Shayla were both brunets with big dark brown eyes. I guessed Shayla might be four. Shantee was the shortest of the adults but at about five six she was not that short. Both of them had big dimples and they showed them to me early and often. Dela had deep red hair and blue eyes. She didn't have a child and I figured it was because she was so young. Her height was between Shantee and Reela and her figure was curvy even by their standards. She had a few delightful freckles but they were pale this time of year. Kalela's hair was coal black and so was her daughter's. Beachee was a little younger than Wetita. Mother and daughter's eyes were the same bright blue, so bright it was nearly startling with their hair. Kalela face was what I'd consider classically beautiful. In our original time she could be a model with no problem. Beechee was easily one of the most active and curious of the children and I could tell she'd be into or at least in on everything around here. Marita's hair was a darker red than Sika's, her daughter, and both theirs was even darker than Dela's. Of course Sika didn't have much hair yet, since she couldn't be much more than two if any. She was a happy baby though and she giggled when I tickled her under her chin. Bayla was easily the youngest of the widows. I doubted she was even sixteen. She was another blonde but her color was a little darker and her eyes were big and blue. She was obviously happy to be with us and I remembered now that she'd had been the one with the smallest hut. I guessed her former mate had been very young too. I wondered how she'd even had time to marry and then become a widow so fast. Crayta was another youngster, but not as young as Bayla. Her red hair was nearly as dark as Marita's but not quite. Her eyes were dark green but nearly shouted sparkling green. She had a bigger share of freckles too, but they looked grand on her - nearly as grand as the generous titties. If I had to make a general comment about them it would be they were all outstanding in the looks department and I had lust in my heart for every widow in sight. I'd have to watch myself to keep from taking advantage of my position as head man in charge. I didn't want them to think I'd gathered them up for ulterior motives. I did find it a little unbelievable they'd come into the market, so to speak, and got no takers because of some superstition. As soon as the food began being served I discovered what my next project had to be. Neither the small table we'd had in the tent nor the slightly larger one for outdoors was even close to large enough to use for this many people. I didn't know how I was going to make a decent dining table but I had it to do somehow. A few chairs of some type were mandatory too. Oh well, walls for the shitter had to come first and the wall for the cave's opening and a door to close it were even more important. Looked like I'd be doing carpenter work for quite a while. After I'd finished I went right back to work on the opening, or closing, depending on the point of view. Since I'd made it to the original cross piece and was now working over my head I had to have help again. There were plenty of volunteers and things went faster than I thought they would. By supper time only the door was left to do. I was more than happy about that, in fact I felt like I wanted to party. Always be sure you really want what you ask for. ------- Chapter 14 At first, my surprise wish fulfillment seemed harmless enough. Welta brought some kind of skin bag out of her things and started pouring a cup of it for each of us. I was delighted after the first sip. It didn't taste exactly like beer and it didn't foam much, but it wasn't exactly wine either. It did taste great though and there was no mistaking the alcohol content. There was no lack of kick either. After one cup I knew I'd be better served without another one, but I couldn't resist. At least I didn't let her give me a third round. The kids got a small cup each too - except Sika, the baby. It did a number on then, and every one, even including Sika was asleep in less than half an hour. We adults were having a big time enjoying each other's company after that. When Mary flicked the switch to turn on the lights our new members were every bit as surprised as Reela, Keela, Mecha, and Kemela had been the first time they saw the trick. It wasn't the last surprise though. Chris plugged her iPod into its external speakers next, and before I really knew what was happening Garth Brooks was singing about his friends in low places. None of the downtimers could understand a word, but they caught on to the beat right away and Chris pulled me to her for an impromptu dancing lesson. Garth's tempo was a little fast for learners, but Chris switched to one of her favorites next. Gentleman Jim Reeves was more to her liking anyway. Before the friend had to go I was showing Welta what it was all about and with pointers from Mary and Chris she had her head on my shoulder and my hands were full of splendid cheeks while my boner pressed against her rock hard abs. I even showed her what a French kiss was like at the end. It was a lesson for each of the rest after that. Gentleman Jim sang over and over and I groped every ass that came close. I figured I'd be raring to get it on with what I thought of to my self as my mini-harem of Chris, Mary, Reela, Keela, Mecha, and Kemela after the lights went out, but I was Wrong with a capital W. Earlier, while I'd been putting the final touches on the front wall, I hadn't had time to keep up with where the furs were being spread. When I finally glanced that way I knew there'd probably be more entertainment tonight than I had even a hope of getting through. From the way our sleeping furs had expanded it was obvious I had a full grown harem now. I must not have been paying close enough attention at some point. Without a doubt every one of the widows was scheduled to sleep right in the pile with us and I had a feeling we wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon. I finally got a turn at being right. Mary didn't dim the lights until every female even close to adulthood was bare assed, and they'd done it semi-slowly, one at a time. Of course I was the star of the show for a couple of minutes after that. I didn't give one shit about it either. The alcoholic drink we'd had put me in the proper mood for new social situations and I wasn't one to look a gift horse, or pussy, in the mouth. When my clothes were off I crawled directly to the middle of the bed and took Welta in my arms. There was no chance I could do them all tonight, but it was time for the old schoolboy try. With the help of the good lord I made it through all the mothers plus Kemela and Mecha. That was it though. I was done for the night. If I'd stayed away from the alcohol drink I might have held on for one more, but there was no sense in showing off. After Mecha and I finished doing the nasty I simply conked out. When I woke the next morning I only had a trace of a headache. Three big cups of water and one hell of a breakfast cured it and it was time for the door. Of course we didn't have a damned thing for hinges. I didn't even bother trying leather straps since the door I intended to build would be way too damned heavy. I settled for two short pieces of half-inch chain I rescued from one of Jim's junk boxes. The door didn't open so much as we dragged it. All the chain accomplished was keeping it from falling. It did work though. The effort was worth it big time. Every single female in the place came over to thank me, except Sika, and she gave me a big grin. They were sincere too and it made me feel good about providing them a safe place to live, even if it wasn't going to protect their virtue. Hell, if anybody's virtue needed protecting it was mine, but I didn't have any. The new arrivals didn't sit around on their cute asses either. Because of the buffalo hunt and the bear massacre we had lots of skins that needed tending and meat that needed attention too. Chris sent me out for stout poles to make stretching frames and drying racks and that was all the help they needed from me. Some of the women tied the racks together, stretched the skins on them, and commenced scraping while others built the drying racks and finished cutting all the meat into strips and laying those strips on the racks. I finished the day by finishing the outhouse. Since the women were still working after I called it quits, I settled into the middle of our sleeping furs for a few minutes of wrasslin' with the three youngsters and finished off with fifteen minutes of tickling and rocking Sika. Damn it made me feel important and I noticed that all the women approved. During supper Chris had a little news for me. "Do you remember back when we were trying to decide where and when we were?" she asked. "Kinda." "Well you hit the nail on the head for part of it." "Which part are you talking about?" "We didn't necessarily move in year long increments," she said. "Huh?" "The autumnal equinox was a little over two weeks ago." "You mean all the snow outside is in the second week of October?" "Yes, and Mecha says it's light this year so far." "Good God. Does she think we'll have enough food to make it?" "Yes, she thinks we have enough, but if you want to do a little hunting she doesn't think it will go to waste. She even says she knows of a valley, not far from here, where horses hang out. She thinks you could get a couple without any problem." "Damn if that's so. If I go after any horses it'll be to catch them for riding and working," I said. "I told her that and she was amazed at the thought. Still, if you get caught up we might want to take another look around for more bison." "We can do that in a day or two. I want to build us a big dining table, but that can wait too. I'm going to take a couple of days off after all this building though. Let's plan on hunting three days from now." "We'll get ready for it then." The bison hunt didn't seem like it would be much of a problem but the news about horses had my interest. I wanted some. Reality set in though and I knew it would have to wait until spring. We'd never be able to feed them through the winter this year. Next spring I could figure out a way to store some hay, but there couldn't be enough time for it now. Or could there? I couldn't try to go and catch several because there'd be no hope of feeding many, but one or two might be possible, maybe. All I had to do was look out the cave's new front door and see plenty of food. There was a sort of clearing maybe a quarter mile straight out. It was three or four hundred acres at least. Sure, it would be labor intensive to cut and gather hay by hand, but I'd done more than intensive fucking last night. I'd realized the widows had joined us, at Mecha's urging, because they thought I could help them survive and feed their children. This morning had shown they expected to do most of the work, especially the light work. Cutting and bundling hay by hand would be serious work, but it didn't require great strength and it wasn't particularly dangerous. They might be skeptical about the purpose, but I knew it would be more than worthwhile and I'm sure Mary and Chris would too. Come to think of it, I wasn't sure I had to convince them at all. I was the only man around and they would probably do it for me without many questions and without understanding why I needed it done. I didn't want to resort to an autocratic type of rule, but I was sure they'd participate after I asked and explained. There was plenty of labor here with us now. I'd have to talk it over with Chris and Mary but it seemed like it might be a workable deal. We didn't have any made to order sickles or scythes, but we did have two machetes and if sharpened properly they could probably do at least a half-assed job. There was no doubt cutting and gathering enough hay for a horse or two this late in the year would be chancy, time consuming, and tiresome. Having horses to help us carry things would be an enormous benefit though. Of course I didn't have enough knowledge about whether horses in this time were even big enough to ride. Ancient history wasn't a big interest of mine, or hadn't been. Now that I was living it things would be different. If there were horses around this must be Europe, or somewhere close. It didn't look like what I'd figured the Russian steppe to, so it must be Europe, or pre-Europe, or something like that. It didn't make much difference though because if they were only the size of Shetland ponies they could be used to pull travois and I'm sure the kids would love them even if they weren't big enough for adults to ride. Besides, if they weren't usable at all they could be eaten. Even I wasn't dumb enough to just unilaterally decide on something this troublesome. After lunch I called Mary, Chris, Mecha, Keela, Reela, and Kemela to me for a conference. "If there are horses near us we need to think about capturing some of them. Chris, you and Mary know already how valuable they can be and I want to know what you think of catching a few. I want you to explain what I have in mind to Mecha, Keela, Reela, and Kemela and see if you can get their ideas. "I think catching two to train during the winter will be enough at first. We can keep them in the other cave and I can work with them in there. Hopefully I'll be able to have them in useful shape before spring comes around." "It will be a lot of work, but there's no doubt they'll be worth it after they're trained. Two sounds like enough for a start and when we want more it'll be easier to catch others if you have one or two that will carry a rider to help," Chris said. "Wouldn't it be easier to wait until spring to catch and train them? What will we feed them during the bad weather?" Mary asked. "It might be easier, but it will put us a year behind. With as much help as we have now we should be able to cut enough hay for two horses before we get completely snowed in, if that's going to happen. I expect that it is and if I had the horses here I could do the training when I couldn't do anything else. "I think it will also be much easier to make a couple of saddles while we have the horses here to measure against. Instead of waiting around for catching and training next spring we could be in business early on," I said, and I knew Chris and Mary were fairly well convinced. Mecha, Reela, Keela, and Kemela hadn't been able to follow the conversation though, except I thought Mecha had been partially able to catch on. I shut my mouth and listened while Mary and Chris got the point over to the others. Explaining didn't take as long as I'd thought it would and Mecha was convinced first, and quickly at that. She even started in with the my hero stare at me, about the time I recognized Chris was telling her I could make the horses do what I wanted them to after working with them a while. Reela and Keela had still seemed a little skeptical but it must have been because they weren't as far along in communicating as Mecha was. When she gave them the story in their own language they were fast converts too. Kemela just seemed like she was going to be happy to do anything I thought she should anyway. Before I knew exactly what was happening Mecha called all the widows and their children to join us and gave them the lowdown. I was far enough along in learning their language to understand when she started saying I would train the horses to do useful work, and when she did all their eyes landed on me with that mighty leader wonderment in their gazes. There was no argument about it after Mecha's talk and within minutes we were choosing up sides to go cut hay. I was amazed at the apparent enthusiasm and I didn't mind asking Chris about it. "You don't really understand what the horses are going to be doing most of the time they're helping, do you?" "I assumed they'd be pulling travois and carrying things and such, mostly," I said, not really understanding what she was getting at. "Who does that now?" "That's another thing that pisses me off a little, mostly the women do the heavy lifting," I said. "Exactly. They see the horses as taking over most of their workload. Oh, they're fascinated by the fact you might be able to ride around on one, but when Mecha told them you were going to make the horses carry the heavy loads by pulling the wonderful new travois you showed everyone how to make they were thrilled. They're practically slavering to go out and cut hay, which they think will be easy," she said, and didn't even laugh too hard at my look. ------- Chapter 15 She had me there. I had work to do now even though it wasn't much. I fished out the machetes, gave their edges a lick and a promise with a whetstone, and then headed for the door. When I stopped to pick up a Marlin the machetes were taken from me. Mary and Chris didn't get away free either. Mecha talked and waved hands at them until they each picked up a long gun to carry. In minutes we were through the small tree covered stretch and starting out across hundreds of acres of standing hay, kinda. On closer inspection I saw it was some type of wild grain and my best guess was oats. Oats or not there were seed heads apparent and it gave me an even better idea. Hay cutting was off for the day. "Chris, we need to harvest this grain first. These look like wild oats to me. Hell, we can eat them and the horses can too." "I think you're right," she said, and started talking to Mecha. Mecha wasn't a bit surprised about finding the oats. She'd known all along they were here and grains were a big part of their diet. This just didn't happen to be the type they liked best. The camp they'd come from had other places to gather other grains they liked better. Local women were all glad to find out this grain was suitable horse feed, since they knew exactly how to harvest it. We went right back to the cave and they gathered baskets and flint knives as more appropriate tools for the job. The harvesting went fast once we had the correct tools. We'd still need to cut hay at some point but it was better to get the grain while the getting was good. Get the grain they did too. We only stayed at it for about three hours and I'm sure they had more than three hundred pounds when they quit. I know because I put my foot down and demanded the job of pulling the travois loaded with baskets of oats back. While Mecha, Kemela, Reela, and a few of the others started on a big meal Chris and Mary buttonholed me for more conversation of the horse persuasion. "That looks like one problem on the way to being solved," Chris said. "Tell me about it. We can have plenty to feed a couple of horses within a week easily," I said. "Poor Jack, we've been working you too hard. We can have enough to feed ten in a day or two. Just the few of us can't get the job done that quickly, but Mecha is already wanting to go and get most of the women and children at Jockat's camp to help. She says she can trade a buffalo or two for all the labor you need with no problem. They will cut the hay and grain and you go shoot a buffalo or two," Chris said. She and Mary were right of course, or at least I thought they were. It just hadn't occurred to me. I knew I wasn't familiar enough with the language or the customs to get this bartering done, but I'm sure Mecha could handle it with ease, especially since she'd be trading with women. The men weren't going to come cut hay, but they weren't needed anyway. Chris asked Mecha to join us and when she did they went over a plan for hiring temporary labor in the morning. I listened carefully and was able to keep up with what was going on, mostly. In the end it was decided that we'd take off for Jockat's camp in the morning and see what kind of deal we could make. That was tomorrow though and this was tonight and Shantee called from the nominal kitchen and let us know the food was ready. That little detail pushed thoughts of hay cutting and oat gathering out of my mind completely. After we'd eaten I thought about asking Chris and Mary to see if they couldn't get some pigtails going for some of the young girls but before I got the thought into words plaiting took over completely. If we were going to catch horses I needed a Lariat and the best ones were always plaited. I knew there was a way to get the material out of the skins we had, but I didn't know how. I was sure I could teach the women to plait one if we could get the leather in suitable shape to provide the proper makings. No way to avoid it, we needed another discussion. This one turned out to be easy for me. After telling Chris what I had in mind she and Mary got the idea over to Mecha and the solution came up right away. Mecha, and all the downtime women knew exactly how to get long strings of leather out of hides. They took a wild ass guess about how much skin they would need, picked out a piece they thought would do, and started around the outside edge cutting off a continuous string in whatever width they needed. It was a sort of modified spiral along the outer circumference of the original material and it worked perfectly. Explaining how much of the material I would need was the hard part, mostly because I didn't know myself. Mecha cured this problem too, or at least let us know how we were going to cure it. She named Kalela as the very best thong cutter she knew of and had her pick out a piece of tanned and hairless hide to give us a demo. In fifteen minutes I had about thirty feet of leather string that was about three sixteenths of an inch wide and that happened to be approximately that thickness to. It didn't take me long to cut it into eight equal lengths, tie them together at one end and demonstrate the process of plaiting. I ended up with about four feet of eight-plait. It was approximately the right size for a lariat, maybe a little small, but it gave them the general idea. The next trick was explaining how long I wanted it to be when we were done with it and trying to get them dialed in on one with just a little more diameter. The real breakthrough came when Mary explained more carefully to Mecha that the rope I wanted was for catching the horses and that more would also be needed for control devices and training aids. After Mecha shared the new information with the other women the race was on. Most of them got up and started unstacking hides and then they went through them in a sort of grading and examination process. Thirty minutes later Kalela and Marita were cutting away at thongs, going round and round on large hides and turning out foot after nearly perfect foot of my soon to be rope. While the two were working I had a lucid thought and fished out a hank of nylon rope we'd brought with us. It was only about twenty feet long but it was good enough for a show and tell. I tied a small loop on one end and came up with a cobbled up demo. Chris volunteered as a guinea pig and walked off a few paces to be roped. It was a showstopper and then an inspiration to boot. It didn't cause Kalela or Marita to try going faster, but it did put big smiles on their faces regarding their tasks. We were going to need some things made of rawhide too, but I didn't bring it up right away. I left Chris and Mary talking to all the women and gathered the children up, taking them onto the big pallet of sleeping furs for some more wrasslin' and other entertainment. They loved it, I loved it, and the women kept smiling at us. What could be better? Our two cutters turned out an impressive amount of lariat material before we decided to head for the furs. I had successfully worn out the kids and they were sleeping when the adult females converged on the furs and started wearing me out. I had to admit it after a few minutes. This was even better than playing with the kids. The women woke me early the next morning but some of them had to have been up even earlier. By the time I'd dressed and visited the privy breakfast was ready and the children were already eating. One of my favorite spectacles was in progress too. Sika was having her breakfast and she was lustily sucking at Marita's beautiful full titties. It was relaxing to watch while I stuffed my own face. Marita and Kalela were staying to get back to work on the thongs and Mary was staying for emergency protection. We shut the door behind us but I remembered I hadn't finished the stout method for keeping it close yet and resolved to get to it after dark. I was confident the door and wall would keep them safe while we were gone, especially with Mary and her shotgun as backup. We traveled light and made good time. I went to visit with Jockat while Mecha was recruiting and one of his women provided tea while we told each other things we couldn't understand. I did notice by now I could catch on a little to what he was saying. Mary and Mecha came to collect me a lot sooner than I'd have thought. They had fourteen women who were coming to help. When we headed back every one of the women that came with us brought a couple of baskets and looked to be ready to get going. We stopped at the cave and Mary had hot tea ready for us all. After the short break even Marita and Kalela joined us and before long the grain was coming in fast and furious. Somehow I was able to put Mary on lookout duty with her shotgun and I did the honors of taking the grain back into the cave and unloading it. Still, by lunchtime every basket we could scrape up was full. We didn't have a good option for dealing with more grain right now. I had some plastic trash bags, but didn't think they would be suitable for holding freshly harvested grain. I was pretty sure mold or something else would ruin a lot of it if we tied it up in plastic. As a work around we switched to hay for the afternoon. Cutting hay wasn't nearly as efficient as harvesting the grain. The machetes worked better than expected, but we only had two. The women were not deterred. They grabbed handfuls, cut them close to the ground with flint knives and then did it over and over. When they got more than they could hold in one hand they tied it into a bundle with one of the tall stalks and went from there. Even though I'd been sure cutting hay this way would be even more time consuming, I was wrong, sorta. I'm not sure about the weight of edible hay we got, but I know the volume far outstripped that of the grain. I couldn't hope to keep up with the women in moving the hay to storage, even the temporary storage in the cave we lived in. I was also very aware of the danger of keeping it with us, though I did know that danger wasn't immediate. By the time I'd escorted the women back to Jockat's camp and returned to my cave, my women had supper ready and I was more than ready for it. Since they'd come over to do a job the women from Jockat's had done a job. They didn't start at can see but they did work until as near can't see as I'd let them and we had hay. I couldn't tell for sure, but my best guess was the amount we had stacked would equal over a hundred bales of hay. Back home in Texas that would have been more than enough for one horse all through winter, maybe for two. Even though I thought we'd need more here with what I assumed would be a lot longer and harder winter, I still called off any work for tomorrow. Hell, I had to make some better arrangements for storing it. After supper was done the plaiting practice was on. There was more than enough material now since Kalela and Marita had worked on it most of the day. I had them cut four sets of eight-foot strands to use for practice and there were enough for everyone to get some practice time in. When they finished with one piece we undid it and someone else started in. This process was Mecha's idea and I let her run with it. In the end the plaiting practice turned out to be more of an audition. When a piece was done Mecha brought it over for me to examine and critique the work. Just before bedtime she declared Dela and Crayta the designated workwomen for the lariat project. She was intending to let them start on it tomorrow, but I had her put it off a day so their hands could get accustomed to the wear and tear. Raising a bunch of blisters would be counter productive. Besides, we had our work cut out for us tomorrow, or at least we had to do a lot of cutting out. The entrance to the cave next door, our prospective barn, had to be opened and provisions for separating the hay, grain, and upcoming horses had to be made. There was plenty of space, but if the food wasn't separated physically from the stock the two would become one much faster than the cold weather would go away. Without my knowledge the sex play for the evening had been reorganized. When I heard the new plan I was all for it. Chris and Mary were the ringleaders and they felt, what with the plaiting classes, they needed to start some cock sucking instructions. Fortunately for me I owned the only practice cock. I didn't get one bit of pussy that night, but I can't say I felt deprived. Three days later we headed back to Jockat's camp early and we had four more volunteers when we left. I'd built a dividing fence in the newly opened and doored cave and we'd moved the hay and grain we'd gathered already into it. I'd left room for about five times as much hay as we'd already gathered and about that much more grain too. While I'd worked on that the women had woven many more baskets and they were larger ones too. After we came back with baskets of grain we could simply pour them into the large storage baskets and head back out with the ones used for gathering. I'd also developed a crosshatch pattern for stacking the hay so it would have proper ventilation and we could cut down on the chance for spontaneous combustion. I considered us ready for collecting and storing grain and forage for our stock and we were. I wasn't ready for the large quantities we'd get in the short amount of time, but I managed to get through it. I'd just thought I hated hauling hay when I was a youngster. By the end of the day I was worn fucking out and I even begged off of the ladies stimulation for the night. I think they were nearly as tired as I was so they didn't put up much fuss. The next day we rested and it didn't bother me a bit. Well, I mostly rested but the women kept puttering with things. Two lariats were created along with some shorter and larger diameter lead ropes. They even made some ten-foot sections to use as makeshift halters. Makeshift my ass, they were probably as good as I was going to get. I thought they'd work though. It finally occurred to me I didn't have any idea what we'd find when we went to confront the horses. I was mainly just hoping. When we settled into the furs a little early that night I was ready and willing for full participation. For the first time since I'd acquired so many women I used my big head from the start. I let them all see that a man could lick a pussy as easily as a woman could suck a dick. The latest arrivals were flabbergasted. When the first suspect skyrocketed into orgasm from a man's tongue they were nearly in shock and then almost came to blows over who would be next. By the time my work was finished they were all more than happy to be going on the horse catching mission, as long as it didn't start before tomorrow. ------- Chapter 16 We left as quickly after breakfast as we could get organized. Everyone was going and so we had to parcel out the loads and the childcare. All of them could walk except Sika, and Marita had a type of carrier she wore for that. They weren't big enough to walk all the way though and I was afraid of delays along the way. I cured it by pressing another travois into duty. I covered it with a bear fur and it was a good place for the children to ride for resting stretches. I thought it would be a lot less trouble than halting everyone for numerous breaks. It was a brisk pace, for me anyway, but we reached the spot Mecha had been leading us toward in a little over two hours. We just didn't see any horses. There was plenty of sign they'd been here before though and a lot of it was fresh, there just weren't any horses in sight. To me it was a slightly odd area to begin with. Of course, being a Texas boy from the particular part of Texas I was from, mountains, or even tall hills were a little odd to me. This was a sort of hanging valley I think you'd call it. For the last mile or so we'd been gaining altitude, sorta. Let me put it this way; we'd been walking up. Not a steep slope or anything, just a gradual rise. Mecha had brought us to a wide opening between two mountains; it was easily two hundred yards from the closest point on one to the other. Behind the opening from where we were was mostly level ground surrounded by the mountains on either side. There was also a nice sized stream flowing and it basically cut the two halves of the valley in half down the nominal middle. The oddest part was the way everything in the little valley was basically level and regular. It seemed almost as if the mountains had been carefully placed to surround and fence off about three thousand acres of mostly grassland, with the entrance we were standing in as the only good way in or out. Mecha broke my amazement over the area by chivying us along. Apparently she wasn't disturbed about the missing horses. She headed toward the stream and we followed. When she reached it she stooped over for a drink and at once everyone realized they were thirsty. When I took a cupful of the water I was surprised and delighted. It was nearly freezing cold and as far as water went it was delicious. "It's from a glacier," Mary said, letting me know after she and Mecha had a small discussion. "How far is it? I've never seen a real glacier and if it isn't too far I'd like to," I said. "You'll probably get an excellent chance to see plenty sooner or later. Mecha says this particular glacier is a small one. Of course she didn't call it a glacier and she doesn't realize how it got where it is. She has no idea it was probably once hundreds or thousands of feet thick. "We need to look for more than horses in this valley though. We need to find a cave, or a spot where we can build suitable shelter. If that's the only way horses can get in or out, we could build a fence to keep most of them out and we probably won't have to cut hay ever again. There's plenty in here for horses to pull up on their own all through the winter, especially if we keep large numbers of them out," Mary said. "Of course there is. The high mountains on either side will keep even blizzards from covering the ground very deep in snow. We need to explore this valley more than we need to find horses," Chris said. Even a man with more available pussy than the law allows can understand when the women have spoken. The horse hunt was off for now and the valley exploration was on. As a sop to my feelings the women declared we'd have an early lunch before we got started. It was traveling food, good cold water, and they even made a pot of coffee - in my honor I'm sure. As long as they had the fire going anyway Chris and Mary showed their worth by digging out some shish kabobs they'd cobbled together and roasted them. Half an hour later they had be fat and happy and pumped full of caffeine. Mecha, Mary, and Chris thought it would be fine to separate into two groups so we could cover ground more quickly, but I managed to kill that idea by pointing out we might very well find another cave full of bears. Mecha sealed the deal when she agreed it was very possible. I took the Barretts out of their cases, made sure all the spare magazines were loaded, and then drafted Reela to carry my Marlin and Keela to carry the other Barrett and magazines. Mecha detailed Bayla as Mary's gun bearer and Crayta as Chris'. Bayla carried Mary's thirty-ought-six and extra ammo while Mary was using the shotgun and Crayta hefted Chris' shotgun and extra shells while Chris carried Carl's former 7mm magnum. We headed back to the entrance and started exploring along the valley's outer edge around to the left. Things were mostly uninteresting as we made our way around, but it didn't take long to see that the area was much more productive than our current spot. Keela and Reela found sign and footprints, or pawprints, in abundance. I didn't know if we'd run into any cave bears, but there was evidence they knew about this place. Wolf sign was also plentiful and we even noticed saber tooths had been by and even a larger cats too, they were larger if the size of their paws were any indication. We found a cave when we made it about a quarter of the way around. It's opening wasn't nearly as large as the one we were currently using, but it was large enough for anything we might want. We put off exploring it in detail. A look with a flashlight showed it was more than large enough for all of us, but tracks in and out showed both Cave bear sign and large black bear travel. If we wanted this cave we'd no doubt have to perform another eviction and we weren't prepared for it this trip. Moving on around we found another cave with an even larger entrance about two hundred yards on. The sign in and out of it was mostly wolf size. If there were wolves in there we didn't disturb them either, even though looking in with the flashlight told us this cave might be even bigger. As we neared a spot almost exactly opposite the valley's entrance we discovered where the stream came from, kinda. It flowed down the middle of a much smaller opening in the mountains. Another discovery had most of our attention though. There was almost a road passing through a narrow cut in between two mountains. The total opening wasn't more than seventy feet and the road had been practically graded by hoof prints. The downtime women examined it closely and they identified several different types of animal sign, from deer to bison and even aurochs, at least that was the best translation Chris and Mary could come up with. Reela and Keela even described an animal Mary thought must be an elephant, but even she didn't believe it. It was getting on into the afternoon by now and it was time to leave or make camp. We decided to camp even though we would be exposed. We headed back along the stream toward the first entrance we'd come through, but only moved a couple of hundred yards out of the small forest along the back of the first valley. Keela, Reela, and Chris had been bringing the travois and we went back to the edge of the forest. They wanted me to stand guard while they gathered firewood. It only took about half an hour for them to pile the travois so high I had to drag it back and let Chris take over the guard duty. Mecha, Kemela, and a few others had started a cooking fire with the few scraps they could gather from nearby and they built it up to cooking size with what we brought back. Everyone though it was enough wood for now except me and I was able to get another load put on the agenda. We even brought a little more back this time. I spent the rest of the time until dark making places for fires to keep curious animals away. It was a little tricky since I had to burn off a larger spot before placing the actual fire. The grass was high and mostly dry in the valley and I didn't want to accidentally get a sho nough grass fire going since it would probably burn from now on, killing us all in the process. It was just getting dark as we ate but we were in good shape for the night's camping. We'd brought plenty of furs for bedding and plenty of food too. I'm pretty sure Mecha was responsible for the extra preparations and it made me think she'd guessed what would happen all along. After we got the children settled down and crawled into the furs ourselves I discovered the thought of fucking out in the open with the night sky for a ceiling did wonders for my libido. I didn't try to show off or anything, but I did do my dickly duty to half of the women and then joined in for a genuine lick-a-thon on the remainder. A wonderful time was had by all, especially me. Though I tried to get up and mend the fires during the night I never got a chance to. Someone or some many were taking the task seriously and every time I woke to check, the fires were in good shape. My next delight was to find the cooking fire going gangbusters when I woke with the sunrise. Reela, Keela, Mary, Chris, and Mecha were directing the cooking and Bayla was tending a small fire of her own. It had hot coffee ready and a large hanging skin bag with tea no doubt. Since none of the others liked coffee I had plenty to get me started. By the time I'd poured down one cup and had a refill in hand the breakfast started being passed around. I thought they'd done one hell of a job with it since they started mostly with dried meet and only a few spices. It tasted fine and was filling too. After I'd tanked completely up with coffee we started stirring, but the whole crew wasn't going together today. Reela, Keela, Mecha, Kemela, and I were headed for the newly discovered path while Mary, Chris, and the others intended to stay right where they were and watch over the other women. They had a gathering jaunt planned near and around the band of forest. We'd seen berries and some small fruit looking things that they recognized. Reela and Keela had at least fired their Glocks a time or two but we weren't familiar enough with their language to give them a real safety gun-handling scheme. They carried them now though because in some situations I could see where a few even half-assed aimed shots could be beneficial. At least I was sure they'd leave them holstered unless I told them otherwise. Meanwhile Kemela carried extra ammo for me for the Marlin and for the Barrett she was packing in case I needed it. When we made it to the smaller passage we kept our eyes open and headed through. It was only a little over a hundred yards or so until it opened into yet another hanging valley. This one even seemed a little larger but it was not empty like the one we'd come through. There were several types of animals to be seen almost right away. Bison were plentiful but not up in the thousands. There were also aurochs, a few wolves, several types of deer, some Megaceros, and damned if we didn't see about twenty or so Woolly Mammoths. Of course coming across this nearly captured menagerie was exciting, but still the horses would be the most useful for us. They were a surprise themselves since they looked more like the horses I was used to than I could have hoped. Well some of them did at least. There were several types and they seemed to keep themselves to themselves. Birds of a feather and all that. The bunch that seemed to be our best choice had around a hundred. Even though most of the beast present had spotted us by now, none of them paid much attention. I knew I wouldn't be able to walk up close enough to rope one, but they were remarkably unimpressed with our presence. In less than an hour I'd seen all I thought I needed to. I had a rough plan for capturing some horses without a lot of bother. I'd also decided we needed to go back and start making plans and preparations for moving here. According to Mecha the winter would be a lot harder and faster to arrive than we'd first thought, especially since we thought it was around Easter when we crashed. I didn't want to waste any more time improving the location we were in. I wanted to come here and get started on this place. We headed back to the others to share the happy news. When we made it back to the rest of our bunch they were still gathering but came back to the site of our fire. We had a short discussion of my plans and to my surprise everyone that understood agreed. We stayed for lunch and then packed our bags and headed home, arriving tired but half an hour before sunset. It gave us plenty of time to get everything inside for the night. After supper we talked about it further and Mecha said she was sure all the people at Jockat's camp would come to help us for a while if we let them have the caves here and some of the meat that was stored. Mecha said that we'd have plenty of help to pull enough travois to take care of everything we wanted to carry. We went to the furs early and to sleep nearly as early without much in the way of nighttime gymnastics. Early to bed and early to rise and all that crap. We had breakfast and left for Jockat's camp, empty handed for once. Jockat smiled when he saw us, called his mate to put the tea on and then Mecha got down to business. He wasn't convinced right away but he was interested, and so after a good bit of talking he decided he and his mates would come back to our place for lunch and a visit. I finally discovered Jockat had three mates and two small children, though they were old enough to make the trip all the way on their own feet. He was in a sort of festive mood as we made our way back to the cave, but he turned more serious when he got his first look at the way I'd stopped up the entrance and he was delighted with the door. We didn't let him see our electric lights but built several small fires for light. The women fixed us a nice meal and though we were still sitting around where ever we could to eat I was now glad I hadn't taken time yet to build a table. After we'd eaten, Mecha and Jockat were back at the bargaining. Within ten minutes even I could tell a deal would be struck sooner or later. They haggled over how much meat and how many furs we'd be leaving and I think there were some other considerations I didn't understand. Suddenly, after Mecha told him something that must have been important, Jockat's expression changed and I could tell the deal was on. Jockat and his mates left almost at once after that. I was curious about the last part but kept my mouth shut until they were gone, especially since I could tell Mary and Chris knew what had done the trick. "What was the last part, the one that closed the deal?" I asked, after we were shut up inside with the door closed. "Mecha told him about the possible bears there and said they could have all the meat and half the furs from any you shot. She said if there weren't enough bears you'd go and get them bison or aurochs to finish loading out all they wanted to carry," Chris said. "Well hell, that's wonderful. We have to kill all the bears in both caves before we can move in anyway and there isn't a chance in hell they can carry off enough to put us short." "He was happy with it too. All he needs is a couple of days so every one of them can build a travois. He also agreed they'd carry the hay and grain we'd already gathered," Mary said. That was more than I'd even hoped for. We'd get everything to our new place in one trip and the meat from the bears would be tended to. I was even sure I could do a more intelligent job of killing any bears this time. I sure as hell planed to try it anyway. ------- Chapter 17 We got started packing right away, or getting organized to pack. We loaded the sleds first, mostly with things that had come from our time with us. I made another discovery when I was loading the ammunition Carl had bought for the Barretts. There'd been so much extra ammo for them and for the other weapons we had in that large compartment I hadn't even paid very close attention to what everything was. Eight of the boxes I'd thought were ammo had been repacked. Carl hadn't known anything about reloading, but apparently he'd paid attention when I told him we might have time for me to give him an introduction to it while we were enjoying Alaska. The repacked boxes contained a complete setup and plenty of powder, bullets, and primers for the fifty caliber rounds. When Carl bought in quantity he didn't pinch pennies. I assumed Chris, Mary, and I would be here for the rest of our lives and I still couldn't feature ever using up the ammunition and reloading supplies Carl slipped by me. I didn't think there was any way I'd ever shoot even two thousand rounds through both of the Barretts, but it didn't matter. The powder he'd bought thirty canisters of would work fine in every rifle we had, and it was over and above the supplies and equipment I'd brought for the other weapons. Our supply was overkill, but it was a lot better than running short. I wished again I'd let him buy some snowmobiles. At least the deal Mecha had made ended up being the next best thing. Thanks to her bargaining we had plenty of labor lined up to help us with the hauling. I couldn't think of a thing she could have traded for she didn't get. Two days later Jockat and his whole camp showed up just after noon. Every man woman and child had come, except for four of the oldest men who were staying to guard their camp and four women who stayed to cook for them. They set up to camp on our doorstep for the night and then the travois loading was on. We packed up everything but enough dishes for supper and breakfast and enough furs for the night. Even after spreading the load out to make the trek easy there were still six travois that would be making the trip empty. Our cooking was back to the old fashioned way tonight too. Mecha and the downtime women took over completely and they encouraged Mary and Chris to join me in playing with the kids until the food was ready. It was a party type atmosphere with everyone here eating together, but I was glad enough none of the tasty brew made an appearance. By the time it was dark and everyone's kids were asleep the adults hit their furs too. Since I heard the unmistakable sounds of fucking going on I started teasing body parts myself. I was probably showing off, but I instigated a nice demonstration of how Chris, and then Mary could howl when they got their cookies and with a breather every now and then I showed off with a few of the others. I was beat before I was halfway done though and I had to give up doing them all as an impossible job. Breakfast the next morning was a rushed affair, consisting of mostly tea and dried meat. It was like jerky, kinda, but not nearly as spicy. We finished packing up our bedding and headed off down the trail, or up the trail depending on your way of thinking. We made the trip faster this time, probably due to the light loading. I led the bunch to the place we'd used for camping last time and quickly enough the women were setting up a camp and the men were ready to watch me do my stuff. Some of them stayed to watch over the women and the camp, but most of them came with Reela, Keela, Mecha, Kemela, Chris, Mary, and I. We had a better plan in place this time even though I wasn't all that comfortable with it. I found a good place where I could take a rest across a stout branch of a smallish tree. It was about a hundred and fifty yards from the entrance to the first cave we needed to evacuate. I cleared other branches and basically hacked out a good stable firing position. Reela and Keela, who could run one hell of a lot faster than I could, were going to carefully approach the cave and try to disturb and draw out bears, hopefully one at a time. Just in case something went wrong they had selected near by trees to climb within running distance. Mary and Chris also prepared good firing positions for emergency tactics. I checked to make sure I had a pocketful of loaded magazines and nodded to the bait. Keela went first, approaching the entrance with one of my flashlights and examining the inside as she went. She must have spotted one almost right away because she threw a rock at it. Apparently she hit a sore spot because it made about half a sleepy sounding roar and then there were noises that seemed to mock what I thought of as rousing sounds. Keela yelled something at it a couple of times and then turned to haul her cute ass, trying her best to catch her sister who'd had sense enough to leave earlier. Sure enough a Cave bear came rumbling out, no doubt looking for the perpetrator. I let it get maybe thirty yards from the entrance and then cut loose with what I hoped was a much better shot this time. It was. I'll swear it took almost half the giant's head off and he dropped like a rock, albeit a big one. Jockat and his merry men were amazed and they weren't the only ones. I was surprised myself, but five minutes later Reela and Keela scampered down from their perches, smiling wide, and heading back to do it again. Reela was first at bat this time and apparently the Barrett had disturbed some of the others. At least it didn't take anything but a little yelling this time before the twins were rushing back for safety. Still, only one more bear came out. This one seemed even bigger and my aim wasn't as good either. It was still a good headshot but wasn't immediately fatal. The one I put in its upper chest finished the job though. I reloaded the magazine and waited for my nest trick. When Keela tried her luck again she did a better job, I guess. Two bears came out as she and Reela were leaving rapidly. It took two round for one and three for the other. At least they both seemed a little smaller. The girls were barely down out of their trees when another bear came out uninvited this time. The twins changed direction and I waited for it to get farther out of the door. When it came to the first bear I'd killed it went to all fours and sniffed around on it some. When it stood on its hind legs again I fired and one shot was enough for that one too. We kept at it and by the time we were down to the youngsters there were twelve adults and three yearlings lying dead outside, not to mention the four small models that we had to go in after. Jockat was shaking his head and he sent a runner back to bring all the women to start skinning and cleaning. When I had Mecha ask him if he was ready for me to start on the next cave he declined politely, so I took a break while the women, and even a few of the men got to work. The lunch break was only a little late, but in its favor was the fresh roasted bear meat. I'd come to like it a lot by now and there was damned sure plenty. Afterwards, while most everyone went back to work, Reela, Keela, and I went back into the cave to look around more closely. It really was better than the one we'd left. It was bigger, the floor was more nearly level, and it had a small stream running down near one side and into a pool. As water overflowed the pool it disappeared down a nearby crack - leaving only a small muddy spot. We didn't find a tunnel leading off anywhere else but there was one place that was almost like a separate room about twenty by thirty. It looked like a young storage closet to me. By suppertime the skinning and cutting up was mostly done. We had another big bear meat meal and finally settled in for the night, with most people tired. I wasn't so much, but the day had seemed long. I spent part of the afternoon gathering wood to build a good fire in the entrance to our prospective new home and piling more wood near it. None of my women snuck off without me to tend it in the night though. They took care of it, but they woke me to go with them when they did. We were up for a bear breakfast at sunrise the next morning. I wanted to get done with the other cave and I knew Jockat and his people probably did too. It took a little time to locate new positions, but soon enough the bait got started on their jobs and almost as soon they got action. It was mostly more of the same, but I think Jockat was glad we didn't get quite so much business today. We got nine though and every damned one was a full-grown adult. It was so much meat they had to leave two here for us. Every travois they'd brought was loaded with meat and furs before sunset, except the three they'd used to bring bedding, traveling food, and such. By the time supper was finished I'd had all the bear I was really pining for. I knew it was probably going to be the main dish at all three meals tomorrow too, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if we had something else the next day. Jockat and his folks took off as early as they could the next morning and it was no wonder. They probably had days worth of work moving into their new caves and there was still the balance of the bear processing to be dealt with. We wished them well, and started tending to our own rat killing. The second cave was even a good bit larger than the first one, but we decided it would be the barn. It had running water of a sort too, but the drain wasn't as nice and tidy and there was no handy dandy storage facility. The first order of business was a good cleaning in our new residence. I had handles in the yard brooms now and things went much faster. Chris declared the place clean enough to move into just after we ate lunch, which was thankfully a deer meat stew. I knew we'd be back to bear before long though because the cleaning, skinning, and cutting up for the two Jockat left us was finished by the end of the day. At least we weren't too tired for a little fucking to break in our new digs that night. Chris or Mary one had taught the others a new cooking trick and I got most of the benefit the first morning we woke in our new cave. Someone had done a lot of thin slicing and we had what looked for all the world to me like bacon, but it had a bearish flavor. Hell, it might have been as good as normal bacon but it had been so long since I'd had the real thing I couldn't tell for sure. It was a treat though and I ate every slice I could get. A big breakfast was just the thing this morning since I had my work cut out for me and I had some decisions to make. After talking things over with everyone that could understand me we came up with a plan. Of course my priorities were rearranged. I intended to build a privy first and then two walls and doors to close off the entrances to both our new caves. "We don't need an enclosed privy yet. We can get by without the privacy for now and we can keep a fire going in the entrance to the cave we're in," Chris said. "You need to capture a horse or a few of them and get started training. At the least you need one or two you can teach to follow on a lead rope and drag a travois or skid small logs for your building projects," Mary said, and it seemed Mecha was getting good at understanding our language because she agreed with them. "There aren't enough trees scattered around close enough for you to build much without cutting every one out in that giant pasture, but there are plenty back near the path into the other valley. You'll need at least one horse to get them up here after you cut them down or you'll still be at it this time next year," Chris said. Believe me I had noticed the problem. I'd be the only one strong enough to pull the trees with human power, or I thought I was anyway. That would make things more complicated since I was the he-man and needed to do the main protection deal. Finally I let them convince me. We loaded a travois with the tools I thought I'd need for preparation and took off for the backdoor after building a good fire in our cave's entrance. My plan for catching a few horses wasn't complicated, but it would require some preparation. Our first job was a stout fence and gate across this side of the small trail into the back valley. It was our only project for today too since it took all day. At least we could use our set of posthole diggers this time and we were able to build a tall strong fence. Its top rail was at the height of my head to discourage attempts to jump it. The blocking fence took so much time because I put a post every four feet for extra strength. That still wouldn't be strong enough if the Wooly Mammoths wanted out, but we didn't put the gate up when we left for the night and I hoped if any of the big beast wanted out they would use the opening. The next day was more of the same, but on the other end of the passage. We left a much wider gate on this end and even built two thirty foot wings out from the gate opening to funnel the horses into our new catch pen. It took another full day of hard work, but by the time we left for our cave I knew we could at least give things a try the next day. On the way back to the cave I went over each step I anticipated needing to capture a horse, and it let me know we wouldn't be able to do it tomorrow. It was going to take us at least a day to make arrangements. In the first place we really needed at least two more ropes. The catch pen didn't have a single tree in it; no doubt heavy traffic had kept any from growing there. No trees close by meant no suitable snubbing post. Just outside the gate there were plenty of candidates, but roping a horse and controlling it enough to tie it to the snubbing post wasn't going to be possible with just one loop on it. There was also the problem of human hands trying to keep hold of a rope around the neck of a thousand pound or better horse when he or she did not want to be controlled. After telling Chris and Mary about this snag they explained to Mecha and all the others about gloves and how they were made. The work got started on them just after we ate and two more ropes were started too. I also got some carrying slings for the rifles and shotguns underway. The plaiting instructions were now well understood by the women, but sewing gloves using leather thongs for thread would have been a monumental pain in the ass. We had the cure for that though. I was the kind of camper that never did any without bringing a pack of sewing needles with me and for this Alaskan trip I brought several. What the hell they were small and hadn't cost me a cent. I hadn't brought but a spool or two of thread though. The nature of our trip had cured that lack. We'd been planning on hunting, and fishing - including ice fishing. In fact equipment for ice fishing had been some of Carl's companies' main sellers. We had fishing line of all size and strength with us and Chris pointed out a nice monofilament would be great for sewing up the gloves. I swear I'd have never thought of that. The women worked a few hours before bed and then were up early the next morning. After breakfast they went right back to it. I took care of the few things I thought I could and then decided it was time I made some real progress with hunters safety for the downtimers. I crooked my finger at Chris and Mecha. It only made good sense to teach Mecha first, even though Reela and Keela were catching on faster than we'd had any right to expect. Mecha was by far the best at communication and I knew exchanging ideas about the process would be much more important than the physical realities of firing a weapon. Since Chris was the best at communicating with me I had her come along for potential help over the rough spots. ------- Chapter 18 Chris, Mecha, and I sat down with a Glock and I got started with the details. Mecha could understand me better than I thought and Chris provided clarification as we went along. I went over all I knew about safe handling, loading, unloading, and keeping it clean. Mecha soaked it up like a sponge. After nearly two hours of class time we found an extra web belt and holster for Mecha and gave her one of Carl's extra 45 caliber Glocks and she strapped her gun-belt around her waist. I dug out one of the target stands and a couple of human silhouette targets and outside we went to make some noise. The forty-five would have more recoil than the nine millimeters Chris and Mary were using, but Mecha and most of the other downtime women were built a little more sturdy. I didn't think she'd have any problem after the initial surprise was past. She didn't care much for the ear protection, but I'm sure she appreciated it after the first try. Mary came along too for the firing practice and after Mecha took a couple of shots I let Chris and Mary give her the pointers. They knew the drill as well as I did and had the benefit of being able to communicate better, even though I thought I could make myself understood to Mecha by now. Mecha took to it like a duck to water and with an hour of live fire practice she could punch out the target fine from forty yards. That was damned sure better shooting than I ever wanted her to need. We called ourselves done with the pistol practice for the day and I started wondering if it wouldn't be a good idea to get her acquainted with a Marlin. Most of the rest of the day was boring for me, but I stayed around and was pressed into service when it came time for them to make my gloves. It was a little embarrassing that they'd left mine for last. Chris told me they'd done everyone else's first so they'd be better at it when they got to mine. It was the first time I'd been hand fitted for a pair of custom made gloves, but I can't complain about the result. They were the best pair of gloves I'd ever had. They even went to the trouble of sewing on a piece of rawhide in the palm for extra wear protection. At least I got plenty of time to horse around with the kids while all the mothers were working. We had some excellent G-rated games of slap and tickle and hide and seek among the furs. Everything was merry as long as I was always it. I also got several turns as the horse in horsy. They adapted well to that even though they originally had no concept of riding a horse. I was especially glad they didn't know anything about saddles, bridles, bits, or spurs yet. The rope, sling, and glove making was done before suppertime came near and it was a good thing because it let the women put their full attention on cooking. Chris and Mary had some lessons in store for them too. They introduced the others to the concept of broiling bear with a piece of equipment they'd brought along and I hadn't noticed before. It was a cast iron broiler and it did a wonderful job on the bear steaks they'd cut especially for it. We had a very tasty vegetable stew too, but I made a mental note to try my hardest to find some kind of potato next spring. I didn't even hope I could find pinto beans. With supper over and the kids snoozing I tried a more mature version of slap and tickle with the grown women. All but Chris and Mary were surprised but they were laughing and scrambling to get away from me before long. Since getting off the furs was against my rules I didn't have much trouble catching a suspect and of course they had to give it up when I did. Breakfast was cooking before I woke the next morning and I assumed they'd been careful not to wake me. I got a shock when I headed out to bleed my lizard. There was light snow falling, but thankfully nothing serious and no appreciable wind. Still, it was a reminder I'd have to catch some horses soon or put it off until spring. We were fed and on our way within an hour, even though we'd packed an extra travois load of bedding and food incase we needed to stay out a few nights or more probably incase the snow came on with a will and we couldn't make it back to the cave. When we reached the backstop fence we put it's gate in place and paid extra attention to make sure it couldn't be knocked down easily. Everyone that was going to carry a weapon put it over their back by its new sling and we headed through the cut and into the other valley. There was a little more wind on this side but it wasn't strong. It was blowing mostly toward the cut and that would be in our favor since it carried our scent that way. The group of a hundred or so horses that looked like the best for our use was about a mile on into the valley and we headed around the outer walls to try getting in behind them. Even though we had slings for our rifles now, Marita had been detailed as gun bearer for one of the Barretts for me. I was carrying the Marlin in my hands but she stayed right beside me in case I needed more ammunition or the larger rifle. Most of the women had a rifle or shotgun slung even though they didn't know how to use it. They did know how to hand one to Chris, Mary, or me if we needed it though. Just from looking it didn't seem like that would come up. The only predators we saw were a small pack of wolves and they were bothering some bison nearly all the way at the far end of this valley. After a while it was easy to tell we weren't passing without the horses noticing. They didn't move off significantly, they glanced at us now and again and kept up with what we were up to. When we were behind them we spread out with me in the middle of the line and Chris and Mary near the other two ends. It was a slow walk toward the band then and when we got as close as they wanted us to they moved along. Luckily for us it was in the exact direction we wanted them to go. To me it looked obvious they'd been up to look around our construction at some time since we left it. They weren't disturbed or shy about the fence and gate on this end and they moved into the gap and beyond the open gate without any panic. After they were caught we stopped up this end and gave them half an hour to catch onto what had happened. What I thought was the lead mare came back toward us after about ten minutes. The head stallion in charge was right with her and it was easy enough to tell she was distressed when she found there was no easy way out. I changed my plans slightly after watching them. I'd intended to rope the stallion and try to get some control of him, hoping to get him out into the small forest on the other end. That now looked like it would be more trouble than I'd assumed. Catching him or the lead mare looked possible from this end now and there were a couple of trees near us that could easily be trimmed of low limbs for snubbing post duty. I'd already gone over the snubbing post and winding the rope around it details with the women and it only took a mention for Reela and Keela to use the axes to clean the small oaks of limbs up to about eight feet. Their next job was to get into the makeshift pen and try separating the bunch to keep the lead mare and the stallion at this end and the rest of the small herd at the other. With any other type of animal I knew of, this would be difficult, but I hoped these horses acted like the more modern ones I was familiar with. At any rate the walls of the cut weren't impossible to climb and Reela and Keela were good at such. They didn't need to get very high, but traveling eight or ten feet above the horses would make things easier. They started up on our side of the gate and were able to move along the walls and get behind six or eight horses, including the suspects I wanted. Horses aren't the smartest animals, but they aren't stupid. They moved to the other side of the cut from the climbing cave women, and kept a serious watch on the goings on now. Reela and Keela climbed down to the ground again about midway through the cut. Now I was on the wrong side of the fence. Roping one of them over the fence might be possible but handling it with the rope wouldn't be. I followed Reela and Keela's path, though not nearly as easily, and let myself down between them and the few horses near the end I'd come from. I was going to try roping one and then hope it would go out the gate when the others opened it. Mecha and Chris intended to try and grab the rope to help me as I was pulled through, hopefully on my feet the whole time. The plan was to close the gate again after the horse and I were outside it. Although I'd thought all along I should try the stallion first, the lead mare was curious and gave me a good chance at her. I wasn't a world-class roper, but I managed to drop the loop over her head and flick my wrist so it closed snugly around her throatlatch; it was in the best place I could have hoped for. My gatekeepers did an excellent job and when the mare whirled to run the gate was open and away she went. It was all I could do to keep from being pulled over and that wouldn't have lasted if Mecha and Chris hadn't latched on too. The mare was stronger than the three of us combined, but she wasn't strong enough to keep running after we tried to dig in, especially since we had hold of her neck, just below her head. Every time she tried pulling her hardest the rope kept turning her head and neck to the side. That didn't mean she wasn't wearing us completely out with her efforts. We'd have lost her and the rope if reinforcements hadn't showed up so promptly. When there were six women holding this rope I let go and Marita handed me the other one. It took two tries to get this loop on the mare, but I got it done and all the others, except for the children, grabbed hold. She was caught now; she just hadn't given up yet. The two groups of women spread out and soon had the mare between them. With a stout pull coming from either side we finally got the mare to realize she wasn't getting away, or not soon anyway. As she quit fighting they let off the pressure and soon enough the mare was standing still with her sides heaving for air. We let her rest for about fifteen minutes and then I had the two rope-holding groups move together. I made my way out behind the mare and then we started a careful dance with me hazing the mare so that she passed by one of the trees we had ready. The women maneuvered the rope on their end and soon we had a couple of wraps around the trunk. They tied off the ends and got out of the way while I started following the mare from a safe distance as she wound herself up. The women backed off as planned now and I spent the next hour moving slowly and non-aggressively toward the mare and finally getting her calm enough to get a hand on her. It took nearly another hour before she was partially convinced I didn't mean her any immediate harm and would let me pet around and rub on her, mostly at will. I felt much better after she took the piece of small apple-like fruit from my hand and ate it. Unfortunately we weren't even half way home. I had to move slowly all the time, especially with my hands. It was a bitch tying one of the short thicker homemade ropes into a stout halter and it was even more trouble to get it tied to the tree and then unwind the two lariats from around it and then off her neck. Finally, about five hours after we ran them into the cobbled up pen, we had one horse started on her lessons. We took a short break for lunch and then it was nearly the same song second verse for the stallion. He was a little stronger, but after the previous run-through we were a little better at our job. He was wrapped up around the tree in less time, but he made up for it by not being nearly as easy to settle down as the mare had been. It was nearly dark before he was wearing his halter and standing nearly peacefully. Supper was ready and the children had finished eating before I quit for the day. I was as tense as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. To me it's nearly torture to have to make yourself move slowly and calmly enough to keep from spooking a completely wild horse as you try to handle it. Doing two in one day wasn't something I wanted to try ever again. At least I'd gone as far toward training the first two as I could. Horses are generally calm creatures unless something is causing them anxiety. These two were going to have even more patience before they were ever loose from where they were tied again. Teaching a horse to stand tied is the bedrock of their training. They have to learn they are no longer masters of their own fate and as far as I know a halter, rope, and stout post is the best way to clue them in. If one of these two somehow got loose I'd just shoot them and we'd have horsemeat added to our diet. It's possible to mostly train a horse that's broken away in this stage of their initial training, but from my experience it's never possible to keep them from trying to break away every time they're tied after that. That's also one of the reason I do my best to never let one throw me at all. One of the other reasons being I don't want to take that hard fall. The women I had with me were getting damned efficient if you asked me. While I'd been fucking with the two trainees they'd made time to bring our things through the cut and I'm sure it must have been tricky with the horses still penned up in there. They'd got the job done though and hadn't mentioned any of the horses getting out. That was good in two ways. The horses penned up now had at least a little experience with people being close and not pestering them and the lead mare and head stallion were within their view. It would mean they probably assumed they were still their leaders and when we left to go back to our cave the whole group would probably follow them, even if it was from afar. ------- Chapter 19 I don't mind saying I was tired when it came time to hit the furs. I hoped the women weren't expecting fun and games and apparently they weren't. I wasn't sorry though when Mary said she was going to give me a blowjob to help me get to sleep. Help hell, I was sawing logs ten seconds after she did it. I didn't even last long enough to remind them we'd need to take turns keeping watch during the night since the two trainees would be helpless since they were tied. Falling to sleep right after a good dick sucking usually made me wake the next morning with an exceptional attitude. I'd recommend it to anyone. I was flying high and feeling mean when the sun got my attention. The women were cooking, I had a few thousand acres for taking an early morning piss, and as far as I could tell all was right with my world. The trainees had been unmolested too. They'd both done a lot or pawing and moving around as best they could, but they hadn't been able to get loose and when I walked over to give them a little petting and rubbing neither one of them showed their ass about it. It was a good sign, but I knew they weren't convinced yet. After breakfast there was nothing we really needed to do but wait. I figured we'd leave the tied horses where they were until at least noon. After that I'd start with the mare and see if I could get her to act even halfway sane while I tried to teach her to follow when I led. The only productive thing I could think of was walking around in the pen among the still wild horses. This had to be done slowly too, but by now I didn't think they'd panic. I entered by climbing the fence on one side and then I walked along the edge to the other fence, crossing there and walking back along the opposite side. The horses naturally stayed against the side I wasn't on and then moved to the other one as I came back. After three circuits I started heading toward them. I went slowly and they moved out of the way without getting upset, so I kept it up - going back and forth calmly without trying to catch them or anything - just letting them get used to it. By an hour before lunch there were five of us in the pen doing the same thing. By now the horses weren't upset at all about our presence. They were letting us come closer before they moved now, but they still moved away before we could touch them. I'm sure they were bored by now, since they couldn't go anywhere to speak of and there was nothing to graze on. Our walking seemed to almost turn into a game for them since it was the only thing going on. We stopped for lunch and had a good meal. I headed for the mare afterwards, but some of the women took up the horse game again. I think they secretly enjoyed it too, since being that close to a live horse was surely a novelty for them too. The big mare was a bay and didn't have even one white hair on her. She was well formed and would have sold well in any auction I'd been to in my former time. She was taller than I'd have expected before seeing them, but with my size that was a plus. I was still hoping she was smart and had a good disposition but there was no way to tell yet. She nearly seemed glad to see me when I walked up to her, and she was convinced it was a good thing after I scratched around on her ears and petted down along her neck and back. She was only curious as I untied the leather rope from the tree but she caught on to what was happening quickly as I tugged her away from it. Luckily I was more prepared for what happened next than she was. One of the great things about handling an untrained horse by giving them a long turn at the snubbing post first is they learn they can not get away and they make their necks as sore as a boil doing it. She'd been standing there for over twenty-four hours straining and pulling against the halter, lead rope, and the tree. I'd assumed she'd try to bolt when she realized she was loose from the tree, but I'd been ready for it with a stout grip on the lead rope. When she headed off I gave her a sharp tug on the rope and set myself for a pulling match. It was short lived since she decided it hurt too much to try it long. In twenty minutes she would follow when I said get and pulled lightly on the lead and she would stop even faster when I said whoa. Her reward was a trip over to the stream for a drink of water. I couldn't let her drink her fill at one go, but I let her have some, pulled her back, and then let her have more a few minutes later. I kept it up until she wasn't interested in more. We went to work for real then with me leading her, stopping her, and then turning her left or right using gee and haw as vocal commands as we went. It isn't strictly necessary to give them training for vocal commands, but it doesn't hurt a damned thing and right off the bat is the best way to start. I kept it up for a little longer than I normally would have, but an hour was more than she wanted to deal with it. Keela was ready to take over after I put a longer lead to the halter and she rode herd on the mare and gave her some time to graze. Keela's main job was to keep the longer lead rope from getting tangled up in the mare's feet. When I moved on to the stallion it was apparent at once he'd been watching the action closely. He minded his manners perfectly and never gave me a hint of trouble until we moved away from the post. He made and even harder dash to get away but he also stopped much more quickly when I pulled him back. If he'd had a voice he'd have been screaming ouch, ouch, ouch when he felt the strain against his even more tender neck muscles. I'm sure he'd fought longer and harder against the rope and the tree during the night and as a result his neck was in even more delicate shape. That was the last trouble he gave. After his drinks of water and some leading practice was done, Marita came with a longer lead and took over the nursemaid duties so he could grab a meal. She said later he didn't give her a bit of trouble. A few hours later it was back to work for the mare, kinda. Sunset was only and hour or so away and she needed to stand still for a fitting. We needed a couple of straps for her - one over her withers and one as a sort of breast strap tied into the overstrap. This was going to be our first try at harness for a travois. We'd have to do it by gosh or by golly though, since I'd never actually seen one. We found out almost right away that Lola, the name I'd given the mare, was a sucker for attention. She fidgeted at first while Mecha and Marita were trying to measure and make sense of what I wanted. Mecha said something to the others that were standing around and they came up slowly and started petting and stroking all around. Lola got fairly still after that and it was easy to see she enjoyed the attention. I figured she'd be a shameless whore for it after I'd cobbled up some brushes and a couple of combs for their manes and tails. Mecha had the harness cut out and temporarily stitched right before dark. I'd already tied Red - the name I'd given the sorrel stallion - back to his snubbing post and Lola didn't give me any trouble when I put her up either. I'd thought about just turning them into the pen with the others but decided it might get to be too much trouble catching them again. We had supper and playtime for the kids and then it was playtime for me and the women. I wasn't worn to a frazzle tonight and I didn't need any tender loving care. I did take advantage between every pair of thighs I could hold up for though. After all, it was healthy for my prostate. I could tell Lola wanted to give us trouble after breakfast the next day, and I knew she thought it was her duty, but with six women stroking and petting her every place their was a place she just couldn't build up enough steam to get a good mad on. She reveled in the attention until we had an empty travois hooked to her new finery and then she dutifully started pulling it when I led off. She only gave it a couple of sideways glances to see what was making the noise behind her. As far as I was concerned it was excellent progress. The downtimers thought it was plainly magic. Lola didn't give us any static as we loaded bundles of our furs aboard either. She'd take a funny step or two when the load was more drag than she expected, but she even learned to give a stronger effort from the start and then ease back as she settled to her actual load. Just before noon was the highlight for the kids, except Sika. We unloaded the furs, leaving only a couple spread out for the children to sit on, and Lola gave them a short ride. They were astonished and thrilled and it easily made their week. I was surprised the horses in the pen seemed to be watching the whole thing closely. After lunch Red got his lesson, and although he wasn't as cooperative there wasn't a lot he could do that would help him out any. He seemed to realize it somehow. After the first few steps with the travois following he must have decided it wasn't much of a bother after all. Hell, I declared victory and the women started packing while I walked through the pen and opened the far gate. They didn't rush for the exit but they did move out smartly. They'd had plenty of water the whole time but nothing to eat, not even as much as Lola and Red got, and the escapees intended to make up for lost meals. It was an hour or more before sunset when we made it back to the cave. As I'd hoped almost all of the band of horses must still consider Red and Lola their leaders and they grazed along with us as we went. After we dropped off the travois it was time for Lola and Red's last lesson today. We had two sets of hobbles ready already and I put them on Lola first and then took her lead giving her encouragement and practice getting used to them. She didn't like the hobbles much and Red didn't like them that well. It was another indignity they had to endure though. The probably didn't feel a bit sorry for us about the need to take shifts and watch over then during the night either. No matter what it looked like or what it was, I always felt more comfortable sleeping at what I considered my home at the time. I was glad to get back to the cave and I knew I'd sleep better tonight. After supper I spent more time playing with the children and I could tell they were still excited about the travois ride they'd had today. Apparently the mothers were happy about it too, or at least they were happy about not having to do the travois dragging on the way home. They wanted to play too and I was more than happy to oblige. I didn't wake before dawn the next morning, but the sun hadn't been up long before I did. Breakfast was nearly ready, but at least I had time to go out, take a look around, and water a bush. I saw Red and Lola right away and this morning and it seemed all their band was near them. As I took out my pride and joy, Keela giggled at me from about twenty feet above the cave's entrance. No doubt it was the favored position for keeping track of our stock over night. Reela was coming out to relieve her sister as I headed back inside. I stayed to watch her make the climb and to wait for Keela to make her way down. I paid attention to the way they did it and thought I could probably make it up there myself. I also spotted another little platform like spot about fifty feet up and thought we might be able to climb it too. That was for later though. Keela and I went in to get our breakfast. It was a thick stew and after asking, Mecha made me understand it was some Megacerous meat that had come to us via a trade for one of the widow's huts. It had a really good flavor and I figured I needed to try for one of them sooner or later. Finally today I was going to get to closing in our privy and start on walling off the two cave entrances. Gathering the materials would have to come first and that meant skidding work for our partially trained horses. After the meal was over Chris and three of the widows stayed at the cave, Mary, Welta, and Wetita were going to pick a place about half way to the woods to keep a watch on possible comings and goings of predators while the rest of the women went with me. We might have been being a little overly cautious, but I didn't want something helping themselves to members of our newly acquired herd of horses. When we got started selecting and felling trees I wouldn't be able to pay much attention for guard duty so Mecha, Reela, and Keela were assigned the job. They didn't stay in place and keep their eyes open so much as they roamed around making sure nothing was lurking and circulated around in the mini-forest near us. My faithful chainsaw and I felled six fairly large trees, and I was topping the last one when Keela came up jabbering to Mecha about something. Mecha came to me then and gave me the news. Oh well, no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. Reela and Keela had been roaming around together when Reela spotted a fairly large wolf. Instead of shooting it Keela tossed a handy rock and happened to hit it. Instead of simply hauling ass like the girls had expected, the wolf scampered into a den. It looked like it had been dug out by a badger or something but it was in the wolf's possession now. Reela was now stationed near the den, armed with more rocks incase the wolf tried to come back out, and Keela had come back to report in and ask me to come and shoot it. "Was it a male or female wolf?" I asked Mecha. I could figure out the answer as Mecha and Keela talked it over. Mecha told me it was a female, and that Reela and Keela both thought they'd heard cubs squealing and whimpering in the den. Privy, entrance walls, and doors were all high on my list of things to do, but this opportunity I'd never even considered shot right to the top. I didn't have any idea whether or not the bitch could be trained or domesticated, but I was almost positive the cubs could be. The logging was off and the cage making was about to begin. At first I was afraid the concept of building a cage for the wolf would be a hard one to convey, so I sent Reela to fetch Mary and her bunch to join us so Mary could help me by translating. In the mean time I made a stab at telling Mecha what was on my mind and she had things well in hand in a few minutes. What the hell, Mary, Welta, and Wetita could watch with the rest of us. Mecha had all the women with a suitable cutting device gathering nominal one inch straight limbs and trimming them in minutes and when we had enough to get started I showed them how to make two foot by four foot panels with cross bars every four inches both horizontally and vertically. They were well on their way by the time Mary and crew walked up. I was in lazy mode now and Mecha did the explaining to Mary, even though I could tell Mecha wasn't exactly convinced we were doing a good thing. I was relieved when Mary understood the possibilities at once and explained them to Mecha. After they had that puzzled out Mary and Reela headed back to the cave to clue Chris in and to bring back some meat, hoping it would serve as bait and help calm the mother wolf if we caught her. The hardest part of the construction was the trap door and naturally it was left to me. It wasn't a bit easy either, but within an hour I had one panel that stood straight up above the open end and I made guides that would let it drop down in place after someone triggered it with a long piece of fishing twine. We tied a large piece of the meat to the closed end, set the trap near the den's entrance, and then everyone but Reela, Keela, and I made themselves scarce. Keela was going to spring the trap and she hid herself about thirty feet away. Keela stayed with her and I took a few small pieces of meat to throw down into the hole and try to get things moving. After I did my duty I hid myself and concentrated on watching and being as still as I could stay. The bitch didn't come bounding out right away, but she did put her head out for a look-around after about half an hour. Since she didn't see any danger she kept sniffing her way around. It was obvious she could smell the bait but I figured she just couldn't understand why it was there. By an hour after everyone else had left she finally went into the cage and Keela did her job perfectly. The wolf spun around at the noise and then started trying to dig her way out for a bit. She gave up on that idea after ten minutes of scratching and biting at her cafe, and settled down to at least eat the bait. She growled convincingly when we showed ourselves but gave it up after a while when we left her alone. She was back to being mad at us when I started digging into her den with one of the shovels. It took about half an hour to open it up so I could see the cubs. They looked about five or six weeks old, and though they could walk some it was a challenge for them. There was something else they could do though. They already had small sharp teeth and I wasn't going to sacrifice any hide to capture them. Mecha and the others must have envisioned our plight. They'd built a large basket while we were busy catching the mother and they brought my gloves that I'd left with the chainsaw. The gloves caught hell while I gathered the six babies but my hands weren't damaged, and the cubs settled right down to gnawing on the meat Mecha doled out after we had them in the fur lined basket. The mother was not amused when we put stout limbs through her cage at front and back and then a woman on each corner picked it up and headed for a travois with it. Lola didn't much care for the smell of her cargo either, but she was a trooper and hauled it back to the cave with only a few sniffs and snorts. Mary went along with our cargo as guard and ramrod for unloading and storing the mother while I stayed to get three logs ready to travel under Red power. ------- Chapter 20 By the time we got back to the cave with Red's cargo a late lunch was waiting for us and Lola was hobbled and grazing. I unhitched Red and did him the same favor while the women took our brand new dog into the upcoming horse cave and set her cage down with the door end against a wall, just in case. As I went in looking for my next meal I could see the cubs - or pups - weren't going to be even nearly as much trouble as their mother. All six of them were on a big bear skin and were already quite fond of the meat bearing children that wanted to play. All the kids, except Sika, were on the fur, making friends. "You just don't have any task commitment do you?" Chris asked, softening the blow with a thick broiled bear steak. "You know I'm easily distracted." "If those cubs grow up to be what I think we both hope, you're going to be so forgiven." "I'm sure they'll fall right in line, but I am worried about ever being able to trust their mother." "I wouldn't bother hoping for that much if I were you. If you can just get her where she doesn't try to bite you immediately we should be able to chain her out front at night and she'll be a hell of a lot better lookout than any of us could ever be," she said. "You might be right, but I think there's a chance she'll just take up dog habits if we feed her well." "That shouldn't be much of a problem. There's probably over a thousand tons of meat on the hoof in the back valley and we're the only ones around here with guns. I don't think meat will ever be a problem for us," she said. "You're probably right, but it just adds an item to my todo list. After I get caught up we need to do some more in-depth scouting in the back valley and try to get rid of some of the pest that must be hiding back there somewhere." "Poor Jack. His work is never done. Cut it out Jack, you don't look good when you're trying to piss and moan at the same time. You only have one set of lips, remember," Chris said, and she and Mary both laughed at me - meanwhile the other women wanted to know what was so funny. After we'd finished eating I took the scraps back to the wolf bitch. She growled at me at first, but cut it out when she smelled the food. She even let me get close to the cage and hand her pieces of meat, and she almost danced a jig when I pushed a big bear leg bone through her prison's mesh. She was doing some serious gnawing when I left. We got back to work soon enough but didn't bother stranding Mary in the middle again. She came on to the back with us. I felled sixteen more trees before time to go and eight of them got moved up near the caves. One wasn't for construction though. I'd found a big hickory and it was cooking-fire wood only. In my opinion nothing could beat hickory for smoking meat. It left the best flavor, and besides, it smelled best too. I cut it into two-foot sections before I went in for supper. After it was over I took another load of leftovers to the wolf and she didn't even growl once when I got near and then started giving things to her by hand. I decided to see if I could get someone to make her a good stout collar. She was probably about ready to have a walk so she could scratch and sniff a little. When I got back into the cave and explained what I wanted, Marita was first to volunteer and it didn't take her long. I robbed a heavy buckle from a belt I'd brought with me and Marita had everything in shape, including a D-ring to snap a light chain onto, in less than an hour. I took a little more meat with me to encourage cooperation and Welta, Reela, and Keela waited just inside our cave's entrance with a lariat and two clubs. Getting the collar on the wolf wasn't that easy, no matter how much meat I had for bribery. She finally stood still for it though and after I had the chain attached I raised the trap door completely and she made a break when it looked to her like she could. She ran so hard she flipped herself when the chain ran out and she got up snarling. I wasn't extremely worried because I had on Carhartt bibs and a Carhartt canvas coat covering most of my tender hide, but for some reason she didn't associate the jerk she got with me. When I held out another morsel she cautiously came to me and gobbled it down. Now that it was dark she seemed more comfortable for some reason and after a few minutes I walked off and she came along behind me. When I stopped she did too and as I knelt beside her she sat on her ass. I did a lot of petting and stroking on her then and she seemed to appreciate the effort. Later, when I stood again and just stayed where I was she moved off slowly after a few minutes and began sniffing around, pissing first and after some more wandering and sniffing she took a big dump. Not being a dummy I praised and petted her for doing her duty and walked her around a little more before getting started on the struggle to put her back in her cage. She fussed and even growled at me a little, but finally she went on in, even though I knew she didn't like the idea. I considered it a major breakthrough and was very pleased with myself. Back in the cave everyone wanted to know how things had gone, even the three that watched over me for safety's sake jabbered out questions. I even talked slowly as I told the whole tale to Mary, Chris, and Mecha. I knew for sure by now that Mecha could understand almost everything I said if I said it slowly and distinctly. They were all surprised she cooperated so well so quickly. Mary thought wolves might not be as hostile toward men as we'd assumed because they probably had little contact, or contact they lived over anyway. I didn't know what I thought about that but it didn't raise any immediately wrong flags. I just didn't really have an opinion. Mecha had one right away though and she wasn't shy about spitting it out. As far as she was concerned she didn't blame the wolf for not wanting to get back in the cage and she thought we should build her a larger one first thing tomorrow and also put in some kind of bedding for her. I couldn't argue over that either. She barely had room to nurse her pups in her current cage and it sure as hell couldn't be comfortable trying to lie down across that crosshatch pattern of sticks. Speaking of sleeping I was ready for it and headed for the furs, hoping at least a few of them would join me. They all did and Chris let me know right away she wanted some attention. Hell, I live to serve and as soon as Chris was pacified Welta showed me Mary had taught her how to suck a dick. While she was at it Mary gave a demo of sitting on the man's face and it was well received by all, even me. By the time Welta has sucked me back hard Chris prompted her to the cowgirl position and she and Mary found themselves face-to-face and titty-to-titty. From the moaning and groaning that got started I felt sure I was missing quite a show up there. There was definitely an advantage to this setup though. I could basically take care of two women at once and it let me get through the sexy nights with less work and more satisfied women. The next morning was up and at 'em early for all of us. Breakfast wasn't a big event even though there was plenty. We had things to do, a wolf to train, and trees to haul. My first project after breakfast though was finding chain. I knew damned well I had about a hundred feet of porch swing type chain hidden in our uptime supplies somewhere. We'd been planning to spend a few weeks out in the boonies and I'd brought the chain to surprise the women with some swings. Chain is really all you need to make them when you have trees around and I'd made sure to bring plenty. Later I'm sure I'd make some swings here and now, but today I wanted to take Missy with us and I wanted to make sure she hung around. I found the chain after about ten minutes of digging and Welta, Shantee, and Kalela joined Reela, Keela, and me for the logging today. We not only needed more big logs - we had an order from Mecha for more wolf cage sized straight branches so we could build Missy a large cage that would hold her pups too. I didn't actually think we'd need a cage for her more than a couple of days, especially now that I had the long chain in operation. All we had to do was keep the pups in a small comfortable cage or basket of some type and keep Missy chained up. I'd make a decision after a couple of hours of letting her try out the chain. We worked two hours past lunch and got all the trees I thought we'd need down and trimmed. I'd also built two narrow travois for easier log skidding. We could skid up to three logs at a time with them and we headed for the cave with a full load on both. Red and Lola weren't in a real bind pulling this bunch so we made it in about half an hour with no trouble. The rest of the horses had wandered down to be near Red and Lola and they more or less followed us back. The others had already eaten since we stayed late and some of them unloaded the travois and headed back with Mecha in command to try for another round. Chris and Mary went along as guards. The women were going to try skidding logs without me and I intended to start privy, entrance wall, and door construction. The outhouse was my first project and I made it sturdy. I also put it on small skids for when we filled up one hole and needed to move it to another one. I didn't get the early model porta-potty finished before sunset, but I come awful close. The skidder women brought back twelve more trees during the afternoon and I considered it a day well spent. Especially when supper was served. The next week was productive, but it was also a lot of work. We quit about three hours before sunset every other day for a little extra time for resting and relaxing so we'd have time for nighttime adult games in the furs. Even though these nights were energy intensive I still woke feeling fine the next morning. Nights were long this time of year and getting longer and it left plenty of time for sleeping no matter how long we stayed up fucking. Missy got with the program much easier than I'd have guessed and she also took her nighttime watchfulness seriously, to my delight. I had so much confidence in her acclimation I gave up chaining her one night, but she was still with us the next morning. I guessed she liked it here. This second time around on closing up the caves went better than the first time. Everything was about as ready as we could make it for closing ourselves in for a hard winter. I didn't expect it to come on really strong for another month or so, but I'll admit I was only guessing. I only had one more construction project I wanted to make sure I got done, or only one I could think of right now. We needed at least one table to eat on and for preparing meals. Of course a few chairs would go a long way to making life more pleasant too. I was going to take a couple of days off for resting with only minor training for Lola and Red before I cut a few more trees to build the table and seats. We'd been handling both horses every day and so Lola didn't think a thing about it when I took her hobbles off the next morning. I changed her halter for a headstall and bosal with a one-piece rein and lead rope. Marita had done great work on it with my meager instructions, and since we'd carefully adjusted the fit on Lola's head as we went along it fit perfectly. Chris helped me this morning and we spent about an hour petting and grooming Lola and talking to her in soft encouraging tones. It was time to try riding her and I wanted her as calm as she would get. I didn't have a saddle and handholds and stirrups would not be available if things started happening faster than I wanted them to. After much petting and stroking I spent about half an hour leaning on her with my arms across her back while Chris led her around. She used get and whoa and gee and haw liberally as a refresher course for Lola. Heavy on the whoa too. Finally I had Chris lead Lola up beside a two foot upended section of a good-sized trunk, one that I'd cut just for this purpose. She had Lola stop and we did a little more petting and calming and then I got on top of the short booster step, made sure Lola knew where I was exactly, and then I put a leg across her back and let myself down astride her. Lola tensed up a little, but I kept up a stream of praise and petted her from where I sat. After a few minutes I had Chris lead her away and lead her around with me in the driver's seat. I handled the reins and used them every time Chris put Lola through one of her moves while still giving her vocal commands. Lola took everything pretty much in stride and didn't get nervous about carrying me. About twenty minutes of this convinced me it was time to solo. Chris stopped her and we looped the lead rope around the base of Lola's neck. When everything was ready Chris walked away and as Lola started to follow I said whoa and pulled back on the reins a little. She stopped at once. Get was the next command I tried, urging her with my heels at the same time and Lola preformed as expected - much better than expected frankly. With an hour of practice she was an old hand at this game and she actually seemed to enjoy the activity. My next trick was calling Missy to join us. Missy and Lola weren't what you'd call bosom buddies yet, but they were accustomed to working together by now and they each seemed to understand they were on the same team. When Missy reached us I urged Lola to move out again and sure enough Missy fell in with us and away we went. We headed toward a small group of the wild horses that were watching our antics. I could almost feel them wanting to approach Lola, but thankfully Missy's presence kept them back. After about half an hour of riding Lola around it was time to dismount and let her take the rest of the day off. I rode her back near where her hobbles lay, got off and changed her headstall for her halter, hobbled her, and then turned her loose. Red had paid attention closely to the whole drill and of course he was next in line. Not right this minute though. I went into the cave for a cup of tea and called Missy inside for a few treats of her own. After all, she'd done a damned good job herself. Mecha, and all our downtime friends had been watching from inside the cave and they were all excited. We'd been telling them for days this was coming, but it was more exciting for them to see it happen than it had been hearing about it. They got another shock after Mecha said it was very good now that I would be able to ride the horse. "I'm not the only one who'll be riding a horse." "Chris, you and Mary ride too?" Mecha asked, with what I considered her remarkable command of our language. "We will all ride. Every one of us will have a horse to ride," Chris said. "Will we ride too?" asked Wetita. "Everyone will ride, except Sika, and she will ride as soon as she is old enough," I said. That was a show stopper for a few seconds. The women, except for Chris and Mary, looked at each other and seemed a little nervous about the thought. The children didn't seem nervous at all, they were thrilled and I knew every one of them was ready to hop on and try it right now. A little explanation was needed and Mary took care of it. Telling them they would have to be slowly trained to ride just as the horses had to be trained to let them. It didn't dampen the children's excitement much but at least it relieved the women's anxiety. "I never thought of such thing," Mecha said, "but everything you teach us good. We will try hard and pay attention to do right." All the others, except Sika nodded their heads in agreement. Sika just cut a small fart and then giggled loudly. It made the rest of us laugh. After lunch Chris led Lola over near the cave's entrance and she and Marita got started on saddle making. It was mostly measuring and drawing so far, but some of the work had been done already. I had cut and carved three pieces of wood for the saddle tree and I'd even baked them in a small stone oven we'd cobbled up. It wasn't really baking though, just warming them to drive out the moisture - using the oven as a sort of rudimentary dry kiln. They had been the most difficult pieces of the saddle to make. We were painfully short of wood working tools. For this I'd pressed one of the bow saws into service and there were two wood chisels in Jim's stuff, one of them nearly two inches wide. Still, it was like carving a board instead of cutting one out. I got them done though and then laminated rawhide to them with glue made from boiling bison hooves. It was a tedious process, but the saddle making could commence now that we had two trees completed. Mary helped me with Red's first lesson and it took us a little longer to get him settled down. He even gave me a crow hop or two when I lowered myself onto his back. Things went fine after that though, and by the end of the day it was a done deal. There were still miles and hours of practice to go, but a good beginning was something to celebrate, so I rewarded myself with extra gobbling at the supper table that night. ------- Chapter 21 The next day started with me riding Lola and leading Red on a long rope while both pulled one of the narrow log travois. Six women rode three each on the travois. Mary, Chris, Reela, Keela, Shantee, and Welta came to help me get the logs loaded. They were going to stay in place while I took the last six logs back to the cave. They'd spend their time looking for small diameter straight trees I planned to use during the winter for making furniture. The long logs we were taking back now were also for winter use. All the women and even the children had been making a point of getting familiar with Missy for the last few days. I'd asked them to pet her and give her treats whenever they could. I wanted Missy to look at them as parts of her pack. She stayed with the six women while I moved the logs back to the cave. We wanted to get our morning chores finished as soon as possible and then we planned to pull a trick on some of the free roaming horses that were hanging around to stay near Red and Lola. I couldn't catch them in all this free area. Even though I could ride Lola and Red and I figured I could rope them off either of their backs - my saddles weren't ready yet and my best guess was dropping a loop over one of the wild horses would lead directly to my unanchored ass being pulled off and dragged several feet before I could let go of the rope. I had it in my head we could tie Red and Lola inside their cave near the back and they'd soon get at least some company in for a visit. We'd just hide behind the closed door in our cave and see what we could see through a few peepholes I'd bored. I knew the wild ones visited during nights when I tied the two inside, but I didn't know whether they'd try that during the day. In hopes of success we'd installed four snubbing post to use if we could capture new prospects this way. After lunch we did the deed. Red and Lola were tied as far away from the entrance as we could get them and we left the double doors I'd just finished building last week wide open. I pulled rank and watched from the peephole with the best view of the other entrance. It wasn't the happening spot, but then again none of the peepholes were. Left to their own devices horses spend a hell of a lot of time moseying around, pulling up a mouthful of grass here and a mouthful there. They do not bolt down their food unless it's grain and they're really hungry. Finally a couple of them made their way inside, but they were yearlings at best. If we caught them we could train them fine, but we couldn't ride them for eighteen months or so and maybe not for two years. It took almost all afternoon but finally there were five fully adult horses inside besides Lola and Red. I gave it another half hour to make sure they'd move on into the back and then walked out front and closed the doors almost all the way. I'd intended to go inside and do most of the work myself, but the women raised hell about it, so Chris, Reela, Keela, and Dela came with me. Mary and Mecha both wanted to come too, but the others vetoed that idea, because they were our healers and were best at treating sickness or injury. I'm sure at least some of them and probably all were sure I was going to be injured, a little at least. I didn't intend to be injured at all. Our first job was getting the young ones out. Marita and Welta took over the doors and I told them to slam them shut if I yelled. I wanted the youngsters to vacate, but I didn't intend to let any of the adults loose. We only got about half of them out before it was so dark outside there wasn't enough light coming in to do things safely. We shut the doors, latched them, and headed for supper. Of course Missy had lost her bedroom in the other cave, but she didn't look very upset about it. She and her pups were ensconced on a big bear fur. Apparently the pups had gone on a nursing spree lately because they were piled together sleeping it off while Missy looked pretty well fed herself and was just laying down and watching what her humans were up to. She didn't even think about coming to sniff around and beg for handouts while we were eating. No, I hadn't gotten around to making a table yet, but I was going to get right on it, as soon as the weather got too bad for us to go outside. One of the reasons I hadn't started yet was I didn't have the first damned idea about how to proceed. How would you turn logs into boards? Without the help of a sawmill I just knew it was going to be a bitch. After supper we played with the kids a little and then with the pups for a while. After the kids and pups were worn out I spent a good bit of time playing with the mothers. It was a nice ending to a semi-productive but mostly boring day. For once I was the first one out of the furs the next morning. I got the fires going good again and then headed outside for the privy. I was damned glad I'd done such a good job on it as soon as I opened the cave's door. It was snowing moderately outside and we had what I guessed was a ten to fifteen mile-per-hour wind. I knew it must be more than a little colder today when I actually felt warm once I was closed up in the shitter, out of the wind. Back inside the cave I called Missy to me and took her out to take care of business. She didn't waste any time watering, fertilizing, and heading right back inside. I wondered if we were the only people on earth who had a cave-broken wolf. Hell, of course we were. We were probably the only ones that had a tame wolf at all. Cooking was going on but there was also a steady stream of women taking children to the privy and using it themselves while they were at it. We also had one of the chemical potties set up inside in case of emergencies, but hardly anyone used it unless it was time to go NOW. It was just too much trouble to clean. When we ate breakfast I noticed there was an extra large pot of tea to start off with and with this weather I hoped it would stay full all day. At least I wasn't worried about having to sit around on my ass doing nothing. We had enough horses to get started with the initial training and we still had a few to escort out into the cruel world before we could even start. It was four hours later before I had enough free time to even think of getting cold. It was easy enough to release the unwanted stock and it wasn't hard at all to rope a prospect for training, but the easy part was over then. We didn't have a handy confined trail to run the captives down or a snubbing post close enough for quickly wrapping the rope around before the captive understood what was going on. It was a bitch to get a freshly roped one settled down by main strength so we could get them outside and wind them up around their new friend the post. The whole time I wondered if they were working up a sweat and would get sick or even badly stressed by having to settle in to standing around tied to a post in the cold wind and falling snow. I knew it wouldn't be good for them, but I hoped it wouldn't do any serious damage. We broke for lunch when it was ready and then caught the forth one just after. It left one new student without a post to be snubbed to and I said fuckit and let him out after I took Lola and Red out to see about a little grazing. As the afternoon passed I mostly just watched the horses in training. Luckily it warmed up a little and the snow petered out. By the time sunset rolled around I was convinced the trainees would be fine during the night, but we decided someone needed to go out and check on them every once and a while to make sure nothing bothered them. With fresh snow on the ground and colder temperatures of course something bothered them, or intended to. Luckily it was only one something. Since it was a young cave lion I felt damned lucky it was only one and I was proud of the luck that had let us capture Missy, because she smelled it out, or knew about it somehow, and she raised hell before it was within a quarter mile of the cave. I didn't feel too happy about an impromptu night-hunting trip, so I took a Barrett with its night vision scope and shot the damned thing as soon as it got within three hundred yards. It still made us uneasy for the rest of the night and caused us a lot of tossing and turning. It didn't do much for the trainees feelings either. They'd redoubled their efforts to get loose after they'd smelled the lion, just after Missy had, and Lola and Red both had hobbled toward their cave. Missy wanted badly to go check out the dead body and so I walked with her. She growled when we got close and even ran up to give it a quick bite. She settled down when it didn't move from her attack. I petted and praised her all the way back to the cave and told the others that were awake, all except the children, to give her a little dose of the same. She was happy but alert when she went back outside for more prowling around. When I woke I wasn't in my usual everything is wonderful mood, and the women had been expecting it. There was a fresh pot of strong coffee and a big breakfast too. Mary even cheered me up by saying Mecha and Kemela thought they knew where we could find some guinea hen eggs next spring. I headed out for our trainees with thoughts of a guinea house in my head. The tied horses barely gave me a glance when I came out. I spent some time with each one of them and when I finished petting and rubbing on one I got a replacement for my job from on of the women when I moved on to the next in line. And so it goes. Three days later they all found out what it was like to pull a travois and the next day I started showing them what a rider I was. All in all they took it well. The part they hated was the hobbles, but they all got an education with them too. I was thinking about trying to get another class together but the women had one saddle nearly ready so we took the rest of the day off after lunch. I finally had an idea for coming up with nearly boards and I wanted to try it. Thank goodness when I was gathering equipment I'd bought some of the more normal old fashioned wedges for splitting firewood along with the wood grenades I thought did a better job. I had four of the standard type and I tried using them to split boards off the twelve or so foot logs I wanted to turn into lumber. It worked, kinda. The proceeds didn't look much like boards, but with a lot of axe work, some chiseling, and a hell of a lot of smoothing with rough rocks I thought we could come up with something useful. Lucky for me the women caught me at it pretty quick and sent me back to the wedges for more raw material while they did the job of the planer we didn't have. Two mornings later we had our first meal at the table. We had to stand for it, since the benches we were working on weren't quite ready, but it was still an improvement. After breakfast Red and then Lola got to learn about the saddle. Damned if they didn't seem to like it better too. I know I felt a lot more stable with stirrups for my feet. This was also their first experience with anything faster than a trot with me aboard. By the end of the day they were old hands. For the next six days I pushed the horses hard, Lola and Red the hardest, since they were the best of those we had captured. All of them got their turns every day though. Finally I decided it was time to see if I could rope a wild one and get it snubbed to a post to begin training. I wanted at least one horse for each adult and two spares before the weather turned really no shit wintery. We'd already installed four more snubbing post and we'd built a wind break out from the side of the horse cave, so even if it was cold and windy snubbed horses wouldn't be without some protection. I was as comfortable as practice could make me for roping off Red's back and so after breakfast one morning I saddled him up and climbed aboard. Chris joined me, putting the latest saddle on Lola and intending to help if she could. Chris could rope a little too, but I didn't think we'd come out any better if we had to heel a horse to settle it down. Chris was basically going along for emergency help. I picked out a smaller horse, Johnny, for the first attempt. It wasn't unusually small, but probably at least a hundred pounds lighter than Red. I wanted to give Red an idea about what was coming before we got down to the nut cuttin'. The wild ones weren't alarmed when we approached and there was no mad dash away on my first throw. My target did take offense though and turned to make himself scarce. Two dallies made sure we'd have a good hold on him though and before long he realized he wasn't going to out pull Red. Chris came over to hold the dally tight before I dismounted. Her help let me walk back along the rope and the intended settled down after fifteen or twenty minutes of calm talking and then gentle stroking. He didn't understand the significance of the loop I put in the rope and placed over his muzzle and about a third of the way up his head. I walked back to Red after that, making sure I kept the rope snug so the expedient halter I'd placed didn't slip down and off. Johnny was surprised when Red and I headed back toward the horse cave and the snubbing posts. He tried to resist at first, but that only caused the loop around his snout to close tightly and the more he resisted the tighter it got. He saw things our way quickly. Reela, Keela, and Dela were ready and standing near the post and at the ready. I made a half circle to get the rope against the post and they took things from there when I released my end. Johnny was soon wearing a halter and lead rope and tied securely. When the women left him there he began his first tries to pull loose, but of course he didn't make it. Meanwhile Red, Lola, Chris, and I went after another. I roped one pretty quickly. Jane was larger than Johnny, but still not the largest I was after. She preformed almost exactly the same drill and it earned her the same fate. We gave Red and Lola a blow after Jane was set for inaction, and we all went inside for a cup of tea. After our break I decided to take on the prime goods I'd picked. The best of the lot was a bay stallion. He'd have become the herd stallion within a year or two, barring accident. He was already a little taller than Red even though I didn't think he was fully mature. When he packed on the weight I figured he could carry he would have had no trouble taking command from Red. He'd never get the chance though. When I roped him he gave Red all he could handle in the tug of war department, but he gave up quickly as he had to. The rope was around his neck after all, while it was attached to Red's saddle and gave a large advantage for pulling. We broke for lunch after he was getting acquainted with his post. We filled the rest of the vacant posts in the afternoon, hobbled our other stock for grazing, and then I went inside to take a nap. Reela and Mecha did roving guard duty among the horses while Mary, Chris, and Marita joined us napping. We'd learned last time a nap in the afternoon made the next day easier after a night of rotating watch duty. There'd be plenty of it for the next few days. Mecha had lobbied for more hay and grain in storage. I'd been sure we already had plenty for a couple of horses over the winter before we moved here, and we had. Now that we intended to keep fourteen inside a good bit of the time during the bad weather, we were going to run short even with the amount of standing grass I expected. I wasn't against gathering more wild oats and hay if we had the strength and time for it. More was better after all and we couldn't be sure how the winter would go. So two or three women cut oats and hay almost every day and the stacks of hay and baskets of oats grew at a steady and, to me, impressive rate. The other side of the equation, namely horseshit that had to be mucked, wasn't as attractive to me, but I damned sure knew the drill. One last Mecha announcement surprised me though. One morning after coming back from the privy, Mecha announced the heavy snow would start in seven days. I didn't have one clue how she could tell, but I already knew she was right about things like that a lot more often than she was wrong. The horses we held were mostly well started in their training by now and so we put more dedication into the hay and grain for the week. Mecha was right on the money too. We went to bed the night before she thought the weather would hit and the night sky seemed it was clear and the weather was pleasant. When I woke around time for sunrise it was noticeably colder inside the cave and I headed out into a heavy snowfall to make my trip to the outhouse. She'd been right on the money. ------- Chapter 22 Our weather conditions had me thinking of new phrases to describe how cold it was. Colder than a witch's titty in a brass brassiere didn't seem to convey enough meaning for the situation. Colder than a well digger's ass wasn't in the running either, since I'd actually helped dig a well once and it wasn't really that cold. Colder than a Texas boy in a privy during his first real blizzard after being sent back to ice age Europe by a fucking thunderstorm fit my opinion of being scientifically correct, but it just didn't have much of a ring to it. Oh well, I'd never even hoped to be a poet anyway. Then again, I'd never been this cold while trying to choke the piss out of my best friend either. Thankfully I didn't have any idea what things were like outside this valley, but if the nearby mountains were shielding us from many of the conditions - everyone outside this valley was catching hell with a capital H. I finally gave up on an insightful new phrase for how I felt about the weather and fell back on my old standard. Goddamn it was cold. I made myself a hero when I got back inside by telling the women to use the campstool potty we had and I'd clean it out. It was going to be a necessity for the children anyway because I didn't want them out in this weather. I hoped things weren't this way all winter long, but hoping was all I could do about it. I did promise myself I was building an enclosed walkway to the privy if we got enough break in the weather to get it done and I also figured it would be a good idea to make something like that for getting to the horse cave. That thought got me started worrying about the wild horses. I hadn't seen a one when I'd gone outside for my trip. They were most likely in the small forest near the back of this valley. It probably provided quite a bit of shelter, from the wind at least. Before I could get myself wound up tight with worries about things I should have done but hadn't in preparation for seriously cold weather the women reminded me it was time for breakfast. The cooks must have had their own ideas about cold weather feeding. There was much more meat for our ingestion this morning and not only did they encourage the children to eat more, they gave me a dose of that too. I could live with instructions like these. The heavy snowfall lasted for three days, but after it was over I was surprised. The wind funneling down through the two valleys had seemed to keep the snow mostly blown out of the one we were in. It still covered the ground, but not thickly and it hadn't hidden the standing grass. The temperature must have been seriously low too, because even snow that hit the ground got swept toward the end of the valley without much of it sticking in place. Apparently it was so cold the snow didn't cling together after it fell. When the snow backed off a little and the wind settled down the still wild horses were back with us, nosing around and paying a lot closer attention to eating. I noticed they spent a lot of time cropping off the oat's seed heads now. Our horses were happy to get back outside even if they were hobbled and they had the same thing on their mind the wild ones did. Even though we'd been generous with the stored feed and hay we had, they still seemed to be in a mood to concentrate on the business of eating. We had to pay more attention to our predator watch now too. Another solo cave lion came snooping about and I had to tend to him early. Lola didn't like pulling this one near the cave either, but she didn't fuss much about it and the women were determined to get the skin. Hell, they even brought back the four wolves I killed too. It was the first time we'd ever skinned out wolves but hell, they were doing it and I didn't mind at all. On the second morning of our break a saber tooth took down one of the horses shortly after sun-up. I happened to have a Barrett close to hand and killed it before the horse finished dying. We couldn't do anything for the horse to save it, except to save it for the table. Mecha and Keela had Lola in her dragging harness and were off after the horse and the lion as soon as they made me understand they wanted me to come and look out over them while they were at it. Of course I was Johnny on the spot and I even discovered something I hadn't noticed before. The downtime women had learned to make thick-soled leather boots while I wasn't paying attention. Mecha and I could understand each other very well by now, and when I asked her about it she was happy to tell me. They'd copied Mary and Chris' boots as well as they could. They didn't disassemble them of course, but Mary and Chris had helped them figure out the parts they couldn't see. The soles and heels were made from laminated rawhide using melted hooves as glue. They'd even put the rawhide into the small broiling oven to drive out as much moisture as possible and they'd applied the glue while it was hot and used plenty of it too. They didn't have the tiny eyelets to use on the holes for the laces, but they'd made do with rawhide and more glue to hold it in place along with stitching it there. While I wasn't watching, the downtime women had become experts with the needles I'd brought almost as an afterthought. I was impressed. The boots didn't look like the store bought models we had, but it seemed they worked just as well and I could tell by looking they fit better from each pair being custom made to fit exactly. Hell, once I started looking each of the kids were sporting a pair too, except Sika. The women swarmed on the two carcasses when we dragged them up near the backside of the windbreak wall. They even carefully remove the cat's teeth and claws. Missy was allowed to do all the gnawing she wanted on the cat and she seemed to like parts of it, especially the heart and the liver. She didn't get much of the horse though. They let her have the leftovers around where the cat had ripped its throat out, but they kept the rest and I saw they made sure to collect the hooves - for more glue probably. I wondered why they took the trouble to open both skulls and remove the brains. I was pretty sure we didn't eat them, but when I asked Mecha told me they used them in tanning hides. The horse was the first fresh meat we'd had in a while. We had plenty that was smoked and dried but the horse was fresh. Mary and Chris suggested I build a meat cache so we could keep the horse cool by piling a section at the bottom of the new cache full of snow, or even ice if we could collect some. At least I knew the cure for finding ice. "We don't have to look for ice. We can just put water outside in containers and make ice overnight. It probably won't even take that long." "What containers do you suggest? We don't have any ice trays and I don't want to use our pots and pans because they'll end up stretched out of shape," Chris said. "I know we still have some trash bags left. We can use those long enough for me to build something suitable out of wood," I said, suggesting myself into more construction of the chop it out of a log type. Mecha was ahead of us on that score though. She asked me to just cut off some short, two foot or so, sections of a log and then we'd split it in half longways. "We burn it hollow then with coals from the fire and then smooth insides with flint. Good for making ice and since round it come out easy with only a little time to thaw around edges." It sounded like a plan to me and I went to work while the horse was becoming the main attraction at lunch. I tried to make the cache like a stand-up refrigerator. It was tedious to get the round wood into shape to form a good seal that would hold the heat out. Still, for months it would mean nearly fresh meat without having to freeze, smoke, or jerk everything. After our first meal of horse since we'd come here, I didn't really see the point in building the ice box any longer. The fresh meat wasn't that much better to me than the dried or smoked meat had been. At least I wasn't dumb enough to mention that. I cut, scraped, and carved until I had it in suitable shape. Its door was even light enough to be put on with a couple of small hinges I'd found in one of Jim's toolboxes. The best way for me to describe winter in our caves was mostly uneventful. We found enough to do to keep from going stir crazy, but just barely. We did introduce the Christmas holiday to the ancients, but I'm afraid we were pretty generic about it and light on the details surrounding its beginning, which was about nine or ten thousand years into the future after all. We were heavy on the celebrations though and light on gift giving. I made sure to make a toy for every child and I was stunned by their response. They were totally surprised and completely at a loss. They were also very affectionate toward their new Daddy. It had me thinking of the next things I might make them. I wasn't the only one making things though. The women seemed to be racing me to see if they could use up all the skins we had before I could use up the logs we'd gathered. There was a saddle, fur blanket, braided headstall, bosal, and even a twenty-two foot braided mecate for every horse in the other cave. They even showed me up on the reins and lead-rope knot. I showed them once and every damned one of them was better at it than me on their first try. We were still all sick of everything except the fucking by what we thought was the end of February. I had used up every scrap of the wood we'd brought in and must have ridden every horse we had thirty miles around and back and forth in the cave. It was bigger inside than most rodeo arenas and every one of them was well mannered and well trained. Of course, since they outnumbered me the women had out produced me. There were two pair of custom made lace up boots for each of us along with moccasins, both soft and hard soled. We had three sets of clothes each. Chris and Mary had designed them like the Indian buckskins from not long before our original time, and every woman had a lariat, including smaller models for the girls. They practiced regularly on mock steers I'd knocked together. All the women and girls were well started on riding too, even though the smallest horse was too big for most of the kids. Sika had even learned to wobble around on her own two feet though the longest trip she liked to make was to me, where she'd hold her arms up for me to carry her. After she learned to say DaDa as she pulled this trick she never failed to get a lift. To me, the strangest thing about being mostly inside all the time was the women's periods seemed to fall into sync somehow. They were as regular as clockwork about it too. Every one of them would start on the same day mostly. Some would last a day or so longer but be right back on schedule by the next month. None of them missed any either and I began wondering if I was sterile somehow. I finally asked Chris about it when it had bothered me long enough. I didn't have some macho hang-up about being the big daddy of a whole tribe or anything, but I did think I should know about it if I was sterile. Chris didn't have any sympathy on me at first and she made me spell out plainly what I was asking. Then she laughed at me. Not much but enough to be annoying. "There's nothing wrong with your equipment Jack. Mecha knows how to make a tea that works as well as birth control pills apparently. Mary and I ran out two periods ago, but we started drinking a cup of the tea every morning like the others. Two days after we stop drinking it our period starts just like the others. I guess we should have asked you if it was all right." "No, that isn't my decision. You're the ones that have to deliver the watermelon-sized bundles of joy and that's something I'd never ask anyone to do. If you decide you want to I'll be happy to do my part, but I think it's very smart to hold off. Besides it would be best if we could work things so any children are born near the middle of winter. Especially this year." "What's so important about no babies in the spring this year?" Chris asked. "I think we need to see if we can find the helicopter and retrieve it. We'll all need to go together." "I thought we unloaded everything before we left." "I think we did, but there may be a few things we missed and I'm not talking about what was in the helicopter anyway. I think we should bring the actual entire thing back here," I said. "Whatever for? Even if we can do it, what's the point? And how in the hell would we do it anyway?" "Raw materials are why we should bring it here. As far as I know it's the only source of useable metal for thousands of years. As a first plus there are probably still three to four hundred gallons of kerosene in the tanks and we could use it as lamp oil if nothing else. There are giant twelve-volt batteries and there's an alternator somewhere that we could use to charge them. The sunlight charger we have can barely keep our three light bulbs going," I said. "You're right, I just hadn't thought of that. How do you think we'll be able to get it back though?" "The easy way if we can. I'm hoping since it settled into fairly deep snow the landing gear and tires haven't been damaged. We can draft plenty of horsepower to bring it back. I think we can do it without having to capture and train any of the mammoths," I said, joking by now. "I just hope we don't find something impassable between here and there," Chris said. "I wasn't thinking along those lines on our way here, but I don't remember seeing anything that would be a big bother. Of course there will probably be a lot more streams and such during the spring. We'll just have to make sure to keep our eyes open when we go looking for it." That left us not with a plan, but at least a goal. All we needed now was to get through another couple of months of winter. ------- Chapter 23 Mary had been keeping up with our calendar, such as it was, and she figured April tenth was today. It was warm enough to start riding the horses outside again and maybe to do a little hunting. The ground was still damp and soft, but the grasses were getting started for another year. There was a lot of whinnying and such as we rode out. Not all of us of course, but only Kalela, Dela, and Bayla stayed to ride herd on the kids. Most of us were only going to ride around in the giant pasture in front of the caves anyway and the three babysitters would be swapping out later with others so they could do some outdoor riding too. Reela, Keela, and I had Marlins in our saddle scabbards while Mary had a shotgun and Mecha and Chris carried thirty-ought-sixes. We were going to ride a little to get acclimated and then head back to the rear valley to see what we could see. Our catch fences were still in place on both ends of the path between the valleys and they seemed no worse for the wear except the gates were sagging a little from their rawhide hinges. They were actually in better shape than I'd thought they would be, and I didn't expect any more need for them anyway. Once we were into the back valley I was completely amazed, or thought I was. It was apparent to me there'd been even less snow back here than we'd had out front. In the front valley it was still surviving against the walls where it had drifted higher, but there was none back here at all, and the ground was considerably drier. It was possible we'd chosen the wrong valley, but we had come through the cold weather well enough and I wouldn't consider moving until we finished our summer activities. The animals back here had seemed to do better though. They didn't look as stressed by winter as the horses who'd moved to the front valley with us. Those had done fairly well, but the others back here had held more of their weight. One vote against moving back here was the presence of the cave lions. I spotted twelve of them and I'm sure there were at least a few more. Cave bears were also visible, but only eight from where we were. I knew that couldn't be all of them though since I didn't see any young ones and there must have been some born this winter. That meant they were still in caves somewhere with their mothers. They weren't an enormous problem, but they would be a hell of a job to get rid of and it would be better to do it during the late fall after they'd picked up more weight. We left it to the present occupants for now. There were entirely too many lions in sight for us to try killing anything to eat and I wasn't ready to start clearing them out now. We went back to our cave so the other women and the children could do some riding. After lunch I didn't see anything that would stop us from getting started on capturing and training more horses. The pups intended to crap it up since they were big enough to run around now and when Chris and I headed out to rope our first new pupil they wanted to follow. They were very upset with us when we had to pen them up in Missy's old cage. Missy would mind well enough to stay back if I told her to, but the pups hadn't had many lessons yet. We had a little trouble with the first big mare we roped, but it was more our fault than hers. My fault I should say. I didn't miss, but the loop tightened too far down her neck for good control and it took some fiddling around to get it loose enough so a flick of the wrist would snap it up around her throatlatch. The normal tug of war was on after that and it ended like it always had so far with the mare learning about staying where she was tied. We settled into a good routine quickly enough though and before sunset we had all eight post giving the lessons they were put in place for and we turned the rest of our riding stock out hobbled for a little grazing on the new grass. When supper was ready we sat down and I enjoyed it more after the day outside. Winter had been more pleasant than I'd thought it would be and a lot of that was from the disposition of the women with me. They were picking up on Chris and Mary's habit of teasing me if they could think of a way, but they had a deference to me that Chris and Mary didn't have and didn't want for that matter. Thankfully the original part of the deference, which distressed me, was leaving. I didn't want them doing what I told them to just because it was me, a man, telling them. I knew better than anyone I could make mistakes and I didn't want someone going ahead with something I suggested if they knew it was wrong. Mecha was completely over such as that by now but the others were only working their way toward it. At least deference had fled the vicinity of the furs. When we were naked and squirming together it was every sex organ for itself, and while dog style was a big favorite, two women facing each other and squatting over me was still number one in their book, in all their books in fact. They did their best to wear me out with it every night. They never got it done though. They could get my hardon to give up the ghost, but my tongue was still champ. And breakfast was king of the morning. They all knew I could get a cloudy disposition if I ended up on short rations. There wasn't much chance of that with so many cooks though. In the morning I usually took charge of Sika as soon as she finished nursing. I cleaned her up and put her on my lap for a little ride that horsy on my knee until food was available for me. She retired to a pile of furs then and most mornings there was a puppy scramble with her the center of attention. Missy always watched over those proceedings and she was quick to give a nip to any of her brood that wanted to play too rough. Missy had taken a shine to Sika and made sure her kids played nice. Playtime was over for me after breakfast this morning though. I had horses to train and hoped to have more, later. We had to get our current eight following the leader first though so we could refill the posts. Thankfully I didn't have to do it all myself any longer. Getting a new pupil started was my job though. I introduced them to the concept of following the one holding the rope that was attached to their head via the halter. Reela or Keela usually hazed from behind for the first few stops and starts and after that it was just me leading and stopping then geeing and hawing until the horse had a general idea. The real training came after my replacement took over. By now the women knew the drill and when one of them took hold of a lead rope so I could get to the next student, they were looking at a couple of hours of leading and training to follow. It was a good way to distribute the load and I didn't have a hope in hell of doing it all myself. We got all eight of our newly acquireds moving that day, but we didn't have time to saddle up and gather more. There'd be another day tomorrow for catching more and then the next day we'd get them moving. I hoped our recruiting would be over then. It would give us thirty horses and that should be enough to take us all out to the crash site and tow the helicopter back here too. I hoped. We still had the horses to train before we could reasonably expect to do much though. It would be different if we didn't have any, but we did have some now. Once we had some we all needed one. It would be impossible to travel with some of us riding and some walking because we couldn't stay together that way. Separation was something I couldn't bare either. I never wanted to be far away from any of them because I knew I was the one most qualified to protect them. They could do a hell of a job helping me, but if something was causing trouble I intended to be there to deal with it. I had a big family now, but they were my family as far as I was concerned and I intended to make sure they stayed safe. All it would take was work. Seventeen days of work is what it turned out to be. The horses alone didn't require all of it, but a new barricade at the front of each cave's entrance ate up four complete days. We mounted two large poles in front of each entrance and then used a pulley and cable to lower logs to lie in front of the cave's doors between the walls and the new poles. Of course we had to cut and trim all the logs too. I was satisfied there wasn't a way in hell an animal or even a good group of men could get in without one hell of a lot of work. On the next day we ate early, lowered the barrier logs into place on the caves, and then took off. The bad part was we didn't know which way was the shortest from where we were. The good part was we weren't worried about it. We headed for Jockat's village first. We hadn't seen each other since they left with the bear meat last fall and besides, we could find our way to the helicopter more easily leaving from there. They were stupefied when we rode into the camp, or up to the outskirts at least. Even though they knew exactly who we were, only Jockat could get up the nerve to come out and greet us and even he looked wary. The horses weren't the only surprise for him though. I'm sure he thought it was odd that he could now understand what I was saying when I talked. It wasn't a miracle he'd preformed though. It was the result of one hell of a lot of work by my women and me. Mary and Chris had indeed written a dictionary and they'd made sure I learned and practiced every word as they went. That hard work paid off right away though. I could talk to Jockat now and it was easier explaining things to him than it would have been trying to explain it to all of them at once. It only left me one person asking questions. Of course the horses weren't the only culture shock for Jockat, even though they were the most visible. Missy scared the shit out of him when she appeared at my side and explaining her and her cubs took even longer than the horses. Jockat's intelligence took a giant leap in my estimation when he asked if baby cave lions could be tamed the same way. "I don't know Jockat and I'll admit I don't have the balls to find out. I don't think the wolf could kill me if it changed its mind about being friends, but I know damned well a cave lion could." "I see. I think you are right too. I've watched lions from well back before. Even if they were friendly I could not live through the way they play with each other," he said. Of course a feed was on after the news of our trip was out. I wasn't sure if they were celebrating our departure or hoping to aid us on our way with full stomachs. Jockat couldn't understand what we were going after or the need for it, but at least he understood we'd have a much easier time fetching with the horses under our control. Most of the rest of his group seemed to take the attitude that what we were doing was wonderful as long as they didn't have to help, and I could understand their attitude. Soon enough they'd have their own work to take care of. Right now they were waiting on new fruits and grains to gather and there was no need to get in a hurry hunting. They could easily bring in enough meat for their current needs without much bother and bringing in large amounts now would be pointless since their methods of preservation didn't allow them to keep meat in good shape to eat for years on end or even one full year. Besides they hadn't eaten all the bear they'd earned by helping us last fall. Even coming out of a moderately severe winter they were still fat and slick from the bear they'd had in abundance. They didn't know yet but they'd be able to have plenty of meat next winter too, unless we fell on very hard times during this trip. We'd need even more hay and grain for our expanded herd and I'd be happy to supply meat for their help in harvesting the crop. I also planned on making some better tools for the harvest too, mostly from parts of the helicopter that would no longer be needed for its prospective new duty as the only wheeled vehicle anywhere around. Mecha, Chris, Mary, and I decided that we weren't in such a hurry we couldn't spend the night here enjoying the hospitality of Jockat's tribe. The weather looked good and we wouldn't even need to put up any of our temporary shelters and the women's work of cooking would be mostly nil. For a while Chris thought about introducing some music from her portable player but she changed her mind before revealing anything. "I don't want to get another surprise out in the open and then leave with it. I guess we've caused enough of a stir already." In the afternoon Jockat called most of his hunters up for a talk about our proposed route. Luckily it was only one or two at a time, but unfortunately none of them had been as far as the big lake we'd come down by. They just didn't roam that far. In fact only one man had even heard of the lake and he didn't have a handle on the way to where it was supposed to be. What the hell, we'd find it sooner or later and maybe if I paid more attention to the compass on the way we could find our way back without much trouble. The next morning they sent us off after a big breakfast and with plenty of good wishes. I was glad to be on the way again and everyone, except the kids, seemed to feel the same way. I think most of the kids wanted to stay another week or so and take advantage of the extra playmates, then again, they might have been a little saddle sore but they didn't complain of such. They probably would in the morning after sleeping off the fatigue from the first full day of riding. Hell, I would probably be bitching about it myself. My best guess was we were covering about twice as much ground on the horses as we had coming the other way afoot. I figured we didn't need to worry about getting there for at least ten more days. We weren't retracing our steps, since last time we had angled toward Jockat's camp after the run in with the assholes chasing Reela. About mid-morning on our third day of travel from Jockat's camp I decided I should start keeping an eye out for some camp meat. We'd brought plenty of dried meat with us, but fresh venison would hit the spot and we usually flushed three or four deer a day from our traveling. I had just finished reminding everyone of the signal for stopping - place, me raising my left hand straight up, when I could see we were coming to a clearing and noticed some movement in it that didn't look normal. I raised my hand and heard the others reining in but I continued to the edge of the clearing. You'd think a guy from thousands of years into the future would find little that surprised him way back when, but you'd be wrong this time. There was clearly a lot of running and chasing going on in the medium sized clearing. I had to stop myself before I could get a good look, and I pulled out a pair of binoculars to do it. There were about eight men chasing a small bison and taking turns doing it. I hadn't seen this technique before, but understood it was the way Jockat and the others did things. These weren't the others or not others from Jockat's camp anyway. They weren't even others like Jockat and his bunch. With the binoculars I could tell they were Neanderthals. They were a topic that had never come up. I motioned Mecha to me, pointed at the hunting party and gave her the binoculars, which she already knew how to use. In a moment she handed the binoculars back and said something that my tireless study during the winter hadn't taught me. It was easy to tell she disapproved of them though. Since Mary and Chris were both nearby now I handed them the glasses so they could take a look. I hoped they knew something that would shed a little light for me. ------- Chapter 24 After they'd both had a look they started talking with Mecha. I could hear and understand a few words every now and then but they were speaking much faster than I could keep up, especially Mecha. The gist of it was Mecha and her type of people did not admire the Neanderthals even a little bit. According to Mecha, their biggest sin was they were thieves. They would steal kills from others, especially from Cro-Magnons. If hunting parties of both types ran across one another, the Neanderthals would try to steal kills - especially if they out numbered the Cro-Magnons. I could see where that kind of behavior would lead to hard feelings. It wouldn't be critical for us, or I didn't think it would, since hunting wasn't that much of a strain. That wouldn't be the case for Jockat and his people though. Besides it was bad form all around and I could see where allowing it to go on would cause grief sooner or later. I didn't think far enough ahead to reach what was surely a natural conclusion though and I didn't feel any better because none of us did. We decided to bypass hunting now, even though there were still plenty of bison nearby. The Neanderthals had spotted us too and their body language, even from the three hundred or so yard distance, didn't seem to be welcoming. We decided to go on, remounted, and headed across the clearing. I hadn't paid any more attention to them after that, but we weren't even half way across before Chris spoke up. "Jack, one of them is running toward us with a spear raised. I wonder what he wants?" I looked then and I knew for sure what he was after. Horses were food on the table for them and I could tell it was surely what was on his mind, even though he could plainly see we were riding most of them. Mecha's disgust took on a whole new meaning. I raised my left hand, pulled out my thirty-ought-six and fired near his left side and in front of him. I could see the bullet strike the ground near him and I saw him flinch. No doubt my shot had thrown us some small pebbles or other debris that hit him. He slowed for a minute and then redoubled his speed. If I'd thought they were starving I'd have killed some bison for them, but that wasn't his motivation, and even if it had been he could have communicated first. He was within a hundred yards now and my next shot was center of mass. It did more than slow him down this time. I could tell by the way he fell he was deader than shit. The women who were the best shots already knew who they were and we'd made a point to assign them as helpers for protecting us. They fell out of line with me, pulling their long-arms from their saddle scabbards and we headed for the dead man. The other Neanderthals started toward him too. Even though they were all carrying spears none of them were raised, and they weren't running to their fallen comrade either. Of course we reached him first - we were closer and mounted besides. None of us dismounted, but Mecha came up beside me and I hoped she was in a translating mood. The biggest Neanderthal was the leader or at least seemed to be. As they arrived at the body he walked toward it, pushing the dead guys head with his foot as if trying to wake him. He spoke after a few seconds and I was right back to not understanding one single word. "He wants to know if you want Greggo's possessions," Mecha said. "Oh. I killed him and they're mine for the taking?" "Of course," she said. "I'm assuming it would be rude of me to reject them." "Yes, I think so." I dismounted and before I had time to even turn away from Red I heard Mary's shotgun speak and turned in time to see a fairly young guy's face disappear. I watched him drop. The headman turned to face his men and started yelling something. He wasn't being kind. I wondered what the hell was going on, but Mecha was listening carefully and in a second she smiled. "He was telling them if they were stupid enough to try killing us after they'd seen our magic they should just lie down and cut their own throats lest they make us mad enough to kill them all. "Please tell him that we do not want to kill anyone and ask him if he would like more bison." "What?" she asked. "I'm going to go ahead and shoot a small one for us. It might give them something to do if I killed a couple for them while I'm at it," I said. She nodded and spit it out. The leader seemed shocked and then he said something back I knew must mean yes. After Mecha confirmed my suspicion I turned toward three small bison, probably yearlings or a little older, and cashed their chips in. All the Neanderthals were shocked, both by the noise and the falling bison. Another one made a fuckup then, though luckily it wasn't fatal. He took off toward the bison in a dead run, but the leader yelled something at him very loudly and he stopped in his tracks, turned around, and came back. He got a serious dressing down and then went to the first man I'd killed here, untied a piece of leather from around his waist and pulled it off. It was a sort of rudimentary belt with a knife scabbard attached. He then picked up the spear and brought them both to me. When I took them he retreated and the leader turned toward where women were working on the kill they'd made earlier and yelled something at them. About half of them headed toward us. As they approached I got a serious shock. Most of the women were between five two and five four. They were not nearly as unattractive as learned scholars of my time had thought, though they did look different and shorter. That seemed natural since the men were shorter too. Almost to a woman they had brown eyes and dark brown hair. One of them was seriously different. I'd have wanted to call her Ayla except she had dark red hair and deep green eyes. She was nearly as tall as I was and she was not petite in the least. It was obvious she was a big strong woman, but she was a raving beauty, to my eyes anyway. I had that good old Jimmy Carter lust in my heart right away, as if I didn't have more than plenty of women already. When they reached us the others stayed behind the rest of their men and I could tell they were trying to look unobtrusive. The redhead walked right up to the leader and he started telling her something. She agreed with him and then looked at the dead guy and nearly smiled, but not quite. Next thing I know she comes over to stand by me and starts talking, but it was in the same language Mecha and the others spoke, or nearly the same. At any rate I could understand her. "I am Sahnay. You have killed my mate and now I am yours. What would you have me do?" she asked. I should have been surprised, but it went with the way my luck had been going lately and I wasn't disappointed. "Do any of them understand the language you're using now?" "No. They won't even try. They think it's beneath them," she said. "I don't mean to pry, but how did you come to be with them?" "The one you rid us of killed my mother and father during the night and captured me several years ago. He took me as a mate when I became a woman. I am glad you have killed him, but I will be sad to leave my daughter. She is only four years old." "Wasn't she one of your mates possessions?" I asked. "Yes, but they are picky about such things. They will do their best to keep children, even if they aren't their kind. I do not know why," she said. "Mecha, please ask the leader why he is trying to hold back my possession," I said, pulling my Glock while I was at it and letting it hang by my side along my right leg. I never thought I was much of a fast draw anyway, so I wasn't a bit ashamed by my small head start. Mecha barely had the question out of her mouth before the leader shouted something at Sahnay and actually made a threatening move toward her. A round from the Glock, between his feet, helped him regain his focus. I was beginning to see why Neanderthals died out and Cro-Magnons lived on. The Neanderthals were too damned ornery to live and the Cro-Magnons must have killed them for it. The leader nearly fell backwards but it wasn't the only excitement. One of the others started up with a spear. I shot him through the upper arm and he lost interest in his previous plan right away. At least he was kind enough to let the others know the magic I was using hurt, and he kept letting them know until he was hoarse. Mecha, please tell him I am tired of his sneaky games and I will kill all the men and take all the women and children and everything else if he doesn't bring me the possessions of the first one I killed. "May I speak?" Sahnay asked. "Anytime you want to." "You should let me speak to him. He understands I know him and won't let him get away with anything. I'm going to tell him we will kill them with your magic weapons and that I'll then lead you back to the camp and you'll kill all the men there too," she said. "Tell him anything that will make him do what we want." "I want to look at that arm that's still bleeding," Mary said. "Sahnay, please tell him Mary wants to treat the man's arm also," I said. "I will." And she did. It was plain from her voice she was telling him exactly how the cow ate the cabbage and it was also plain it irked him. It did the job though and Mary did hers also. Lucky for the one who'd been shot I didn't hit bone. Mary cleaned and bandaged the wound. The headman did some yelling back toward those still standing around the first kill and they all headed our way. Sahnay's daughter was easy to spot. She was obviously the youngest child but she was taller than some that were older. Sahnay stepped out so the youngster could see her and made a clapping motion with her hand. As soon as she did the little girl smiled wide and ran to her. I moved beside them. "Who is this?" I asked. "She is Cinqua," Sahnay said. "She is very pretty, may I hold her?" "Of course you may," Sahnay said. "May I hold you Cinqua?" "Yes," she said, shyly. I bent down and picked her up. "I think you will like living with us. Do you see our wolf?" I asked, pointing to Missy. "Yes. I am afraid of her." "Don't be. Missy is very nice. We'll go see her." She did tense in my arms as we got near. I knelt and Missy gave Cinqua a good sniffing. Cinqua giggled when Missy licked her on the face. "You see, Missy is very nice. She has pups too, but they are rowdy. We have to put them in a cage to ride on the travois since they want to run around and smell everything. What do you think of our horses?" "I have never been this close to one. I saw them carrying people on their back when you first came. Can I ride one someday?" "Of course. You will have one of your own. It will carry you and pull your travois." "My what?" "Your travois." We went over the travois then and how the horses pulled all our loads. Finally I decided I'd made the Neanderthals wait long enough and I returned to them, handing Cinqua back to her mother. "Please ask if they are ready to take care of the young bison yet," I said, to Mecha. They were ready. We mounted up after showing Sahnay a spot to ride on a travois and then we rode to the dead bison. The Neanderthals actually covered the short distance before we did. The leader was surprised that two of the bison were for them and Mecha explained that we were traveling and wouldn't be able to eat two before they started spoiling. Growwta, the leader, finally broke down and asked how we caught the horses and how we made them carry us. Mecha explained how we made our captures and then explained about the post in the ground. He didn't understand what she was saying about a rope so I showed him mine and then turned around and roped Red as a demo. I told him it was much harder to rope the wild ones and they pulled and fought when you did. I think he gave up on it after that, but I reminded him they were not so hard to teach to stand still or pull a travois. He got interested in travois then and so Mecha and I took him into the edge of the woods and while I explained how to make one Mecha translated while he did it. They looked like they'd need one to carry off all the meat they'd have. With so many helping we were done with our meat, had it loaded, and were ready to leave shortly after he finished his travois. We said goodbye, mounted up, and left. I was glad to leave it to Growwta and his bunch, but every time I caught sight of Sahnay I was happy we'd run into them. I wondered several times if there really could be too much of a good thing. Two days later we came to a much smaller clearing near noon. I decided to spend the night in it, and after lunch we put one of the spare saddles on a big mare that had an excellent disposition, and I taught Sahnay to ride. She was game, but the best part of it for me was boosting her into the saddle before she learned to get aboard by herself. Sahnay was well indoctrinated into the tease Jack scheme within days but to make up for it she caught onto deep throat action right away even though she claimed Neanderthal men had no concept of getting their dicks sucked. It didn't matter to me anyway, but I liked the fact she took right to having my dick in her mouth. Cinqua fit in even better. She adored Sika and played with her as long as Sika could keep her eyes open. They'd been with us fourteen days when we broke out of the last bit of woods and spotted the giant lake. We hadn't hit the nail on the head but I could see the remains of the helo we'd left right away. It was less than a mile from us but looked a little strange since its wheels and landing gear were no longer hidden beneath snow. That fact reminded me Carl and Jim's bodies had been exposed to the elements for quite a while. I asked Chris to keep Mary occupied while Reela, Keela, and I rode up to see if they were still there. We took a shovel with us. There were some remains left even though the bones were scattered a little. I dug two graves while Reela and Keela kept watch and we called the others to come up for a small ceremony after we had them buried. With that sad task out of the way Chris, Mary, and I made another inspection of the helo - we didn't hurry either but we only found one thing we hadn't taken last time. I knew about it but had forgotten. Jim had a king-size inflatable Zodiac in what he called his emergency compartment. He even had a small outboard in there and a ten-gallon fuel tank for it. Unfortunately the mechanism for airing it up was a hand pump. Obviously he never really thought he'd need it, or not quickly anyway. Maybe so, but I was damned glad to have it. Ten gallons of gas might not get us far with it, but we could make some paddles and we had plenty of hands for rowing. The gas might even be put to better use in the chainsaw. We were low on fuel for it and it would run on the outboard motor's mix. There wasn't really much use I could think of for the Zodiac, but we'd be a hell of a lot better with it than without it. Maybe we could use it fishing or something. Who knew? At least we had it and the horses probably wouldn't bitch much about carrying it back to our cave home. As far as I was concerned we'd already accomplished most of what we came here to do. The only thing left was leaving with the helicopter. There was a big tow loop right in the middle of the front and it only took about an hour fooling with horses and harness to find out the thing wasn't all that hard to move. Six horses pulled it out of the indentations the wheels had settled into and with one person leading them and one in the cockpit taking care of the steering, things went a lot more smoothly than I'd hoped. It wasn't going to be a cakewalk by any means, because the damned thing was taller than I remembered. We'd have plenty of overhanging branches to trim out of the way. Luckily it wasn't nearly as wide as I thought either, so felling complete trees to make room for passage might not come up too often. While the women were setting up camp I moved a few things off travois and into the helo. Mostly heavy stuff. The weighty things would probably ride more easily on wheels than on the travois poles that merely dragged against the ground. There was also a lot more room for things. All in all I was pleased with the way things were going, and then I heard one of the children screaming and thoughts of our rolling storage shed went away. By the time I was out of the damned thing Wetita had been surrounded by armed cave women, but she didn't appear hurt or even frightened. She was pointing back the way she'd come and jabbering at full speed though. By the time I'd reached the commotion Chris and Mary had things pretty well under control. "Any ideas about what caused it?" I asked. "All she can tell us is she thought she saw a giant bird by the shore, but that it wasn't moving," Chris said. "Did you ask her what kind of bird?" "Of course, and she didn't know, but she said it was bigger than the helicopter," Mary said. "I hope like hell it isn't hungry, but I guess I should ride down there and look." "What do you me by ride down there and look. Tell me you don't intend to go by yourself paleface," Chris said. "Ok, I'll wait for a couple of you Indians to go with me." "That's better. Mary and I will ride along and we'll take Reela and Keela too." Mecha spoke up again and we had another volunteer. I'd done about all I could around here for now except for daydreaming of a truck with real horsepower I could make out of the remains of the helicopter. All the horses had been released to graze hobbled so it took a few minutes to get a few saddled and ready to ride. When we were set I led out with Keela and Reela on either side of me and the other three close up behind. When I saw what had caused Wetita's yelling my mind took off in turmoil. At first I thought it was a plane come to rescue us and then knew that just was not possible. It was a plane for sure but PBYs had never been equipped with temporal drives and I knew this one had come here by accident like we had. What I didn't know was anything about why or how or who. That wasn't a surprise though. After several months I still didn't know why or how we'd come here. I hoped I could get some useful information from whoever might be the pilot of the plane, but I was already pretty sure more information would only cause trouble. Where would I be if the pilot somehow knew the way back? Would we go back? What of my new family? Would they want to go back with me? Could they if they wanted to. Should I take them? My stomach was in knots by the time we reached the beached plane and the worry had been for nothing. The PBY was closed up and no amount of knocking got a rise from inside even though I was sure I could see someone sitting in one of the pilot's seats. I tried the door's handle and it opened easily. The first thing I noticed was the smell of shit. I crawled up the ladder anyway and went toward the cockpit. The pilot was sitting in his seat and he was dead. The odd part was he didn't appear to have been dead long. He was cold by now but not decayed yet. Mary and Chris came on in after I said they could and Mary took over examining the pilot. "Three days dead, maybe four," Mary said. "Any ideas about the cause?" "No, and I don't think I'd know any more if we were to post him," she said. Even a country boy like me knew post stood for post mortem. I'd learned it from my vet. I didn't think it mattered so much why he was dead, but I was curious as hell about how he got here. A cursory examination of the plane's cargo area gave me a hint about why he might have been somewhere he could find his way to our little paradise. Me was almost surely some kind of expensive mechanic. Maybe he lived in Alaska and flew out for oilfield equipment repairs or maybe it was for aircraft repair. No matter what he had been or was up to, he was some kind of mechanic and while the plane had quite a few things of a supply type nature it was mostly full of tools and repair machinery. Damn, he even had a small supply of body bags. Mecha, Reela, and Keela were inside with us by now, mostly looking around wide-eyed. When I unfolded and opened the bag and headed for the body Mecha caught onto what I was doing and the three of them helped. We had him outside in a few minutes. ------- Chapter 25 We didn't even have to ride back for a shovel since Mary spotted one in the plane. We had him planted in half an hour and by that time Chris and Mary were back out on the ground and the discussion was on. "It's bad luck for him but a treasure chest for us. You'll probably be happy to know we found twenty three-pound cans of Maxwell house coffee," Mary said. "The tools will be worth a fortune for us too," Chris said. "Not to mention the fuel. If we can figure out how to move it," I said. "Can't we remove its tanks?" Mary asked. "Maybe, but that would be too much work. Its wings have the tanks built in. It probably has over a thousand gallons of fuel and it could have as much as fifteen hundred or so. We'll never have to worry about the chain saw running low again." "Does the chain saw use the same fuel?" Chris asked. "It can. Avgas will be much better quality fuel than that chain saw has ever even heard of, but it will run great on it. So will that small welding machine I saw in there and I'm sure it can charge batteries on the side." "It's sad for him, but it's going to be wonderful for us isn't it?" Mary asked. "The only thing any better I can think of is a route to fly the plane back and forth between where he came from and where we are," I said. "You sound like Mary and me. I don't think I'd go back to stay now if I could," Chris said. "That's the way I feel too, but we don't even have to worry about decisions like that, because we can't get back. Still, I'm glad we found this and I'm happy about everything in it. We'll have hell figuring out how to get it back to the caves, but we will sooner or later." "Why don't you just fly it back?" Chris asked. "I might be able to, but I've never flown anything except a Cessna 150. If this still runs I'm pretty sure I can get it in the air, but I'm not so sure I could get it back on the ground, or water. Not safely at least," I said. "We can worry about that later. Do you think you can move it closer to where our camp is?" Chris asked. "I'm sure I can handle that, but the rest of you should probably go back and warn the others I'm coming. Let me see if I can even get it started." Back inside, and in the pilot's seat I looked around and managed to get the engines started. I turned them back off and got out so I could direct getting it headed away from the shore. Later I was right back inside, started both engines, and then headed down the edge of the lake, sitting still for a while to let the others get ahead of me and then moving on until I eased it against the shore near our camp. The bad part about even thinking of trying to fly the damned thing home was I didn't have the slightest idea how fast I needed to get it going to even lift off. Not to mention not knowing whether the landing gear even worked or not. The owner could have been operating it strictly off water for landings as far as I knew. Still, it would save a hell of a lot of time if I could fly it back. I knew it would take days for me to work up the nerve to try though. The rest of our people had a hard time grasping what they were seeing when I pulled into the shore. Chris, Mary, Mecha, and the girls had warned them not to be afraid and I think some of them were even able to get it done, but they were mostly nervous when I got there. The bad part was most of them couldn't understand what good the things we'd found would do us. They had a point in a way, since none of it would be immediately wonderful and nothing in there was critical to our short-term survival. Still, I could think of dozens of things we could do much more easily with the plane, its tools, and equipment. It was going home with us or we were going to make a new home here. The first thing I though of was big hinges for our cave's doors. Even if there weren't any already among the cargo they'd be simple to build. I tried to quit thinking up more things to do with these tools though and tried to figure out a way to get them all home. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting things set up for sleeping. We didn't try to put up any kind of shelter and we didn't poke around in the plane looking for things we could use right now because we just didn't need them. There'd be plenty of time for all that starting tomorrow. Besides, I had a new wife/mate to get acquainted with and she was on my mind by sunset. I was in an excellent mood the next morning and the women cooking made it better almost at once. They'd even made coffee for me since I could put off fears of running out forever for a long while now. My main dilemma was what to do first. The plane's fuel gauges has showed practically full and I decided to get more familiar with running it across the water. The lake was very large and I had no worries about running out of room. It was also a good excuse to get out of helping pack things up for the trip back. Of course I got tired of riding it across the water, and after half an hour of so I picked out a long stretch, pushed the throttles forward and ran the speed up. It was an adrenaline rush and before I knew it I was passing eighty mph. I eased back on the yoke and away we went. This was dangerous as hell, or it had been until I lifted off and it would be again when I tried to set it back down. Chris and Mary were probably going to give me hell about doing it without warning them, but it was done now and as long as I was up I just had to take a look around. By the time I passed six thousand feet I could see where we'd come from. It didn't take twenty minutes to go check it out and I did. From the air I could tell that landing was going to be simple if I could do my part even half ass. I made a mock run from the far end of the back valley and even coming over the ridge between them was not going to cause me grief. The only possible snag would be stray horses and they headed for the woods when I flew low. If the landing gear worked I felt nothing could go wrong, or maybe it wouldn't anyway. I lowered the gear on the way home and all the right lights came on so I raised it again and went back to the lake. When I was back I made several circles while I lowered and raised the gear a couple of times hoping Mary or Chris would notice and pay attention. I really should have let them in on at least the potential for takeoff. Finally I raised the gear and put us on the water. Everyone was waiting at the shore when I eased back up to it. "Asshole. You could have warned us," Chris said, and Mary was giving me a hard look too. "I didn't know myself until I was zipping across the lake and it practically jumped into the air by itself." "That's what they all say isn't it Chris?" Mary asked. "Especially this one, but he lived over it and there's no sense beating him to death now." "I guess you're right. What was it like flyboy?" Mary asked me. "It flies great and the horses get out of the way in the valley after you make one pass. It should be no problem to land there." "You mean you went there and back already?" Chris asked. "Yep, it can't be much over thirty miles. We took a long way around. I sighted the direction and even found a good place to enter the forest about a mile past here in the other direction. Even on the horses the trip will be much shorter. We'll come back to the caves north of where the entrance is. "That isn't all I saw either. There's another nice valley coming off the end of the one we caught Red and Lola in. It doesn't have any way out though." "It's just too damned bad you can't carry us, the horses, and all in that thing," Chris said. "It might not be so bad on the way back, especially if the route is as good as it looks," I said. "I'll still be nervous without you to watch over us," Chris said. "I'll be with you all the way. There are still three horses back there that we've trained to ride. I'll rope one, saddle up and come back here before we leave for there again. I'll be with you all the way. I need to make sure of the route anyway. I should be able to make the trip in three or at the most four days if it's just me and a horse with no travois to drag," I said. "You mean if it's just you, Reela, and Keela. We're not letting you ride around the country by yourself. Somebody has to watch your back," Mary said. "I wonder how they'll like riding in that plane?" Chris asked, and then laughed. That wasn't the end of the talking or planning by a long shot. Reela and Keela didn't know what to think about riding in the plane at first and none of the others thought much of it either. To cure that we all piled in after lunch and I showed them what it was like. No matter how they tried they couldn't help screaming a few times, especially when we landed. They knew we were headed back to earth but couldn't see anything. The plane ride put pep in everybody's step. We had an early supper and then early to the furs. It was a little hard to get the kids settled down after the excitement, but finally they dropped off. The next morning was serious packing from after breakfast until we were done. It was mostly just moving loads off the travois and into the grounded helo. After I had the entire load on it I wanted we moved everything else up to the entrance toward our new point of departure, the one I'd found from the air, and set camp up again there. The next morning Reela, Keela, and I put our tack in the PBY and took off. Thankfully the previous owner had left one of the seats for the radio man or something in place and I was able to show Reela and Keela how to strap themselves in. I wanted them to be stable when I tired to land on the ground for the first time. Thinking about that made the flight short for me and after a couple of practice runs I put it down in the pasture and we lived over it. It had been rougher than I'd expected but thankfully we didn't find any holes to fall into. I taxied it right up between the two cave entrances and we got our feet back on the ground. The already tamed horses didn't give us much grief catching them and soon enough they were saddled, we were mounted, and away we went. Traveling food had been packed for us before we left and we didn't plan on stopping for anything except sleep. We rode mostly at a trot and it ended up covering ground even faster than I'd expected. We spent only one night away from the others and we rode until dark. Reela built a small fire while I hobbled the horses and rubbed them down a little. She warmed us up some stew they'd brought along in an animal stomach, and we had more of it for breakfast. We skipped lunch and were back with the others just after dark. The three of us were worn out, but it didn't matter because all the others pampered us until we dropped off for the night. For some reason I was up early the next morning, and when I wiggled my way out of the women and furs it woke most of them. I was in a really good mood and it got better as I heard the women rattling cooking utensils. They put the coffee pot on and all was right with my world. I even made up for short meals we'd had on our way back from the caves and literally stuffed myself. "So, are we finally heading home today?" Chris asked, as I was admiring the damaged I'd done to breakfast and drinking yet another cup of coffee. I came within a second of saying yes, but I didn't want to. I felt like fucking off all day and I had the kind of manners that didn't keep me from saying so. Chris and Mary both laughed and even Mecha caught the joke. "What are we going to do all day then. Everything is already packed up," Chris said, and I could tell she was trolling for more bullshit from me. "Everything except the most important thing," I said. "And what would that be?" "My big fat ass. I'm too lazy to go today. Besides, we need to wander around the lake a little more. Maybe we'll find something else we need," I said, though I didn't really think we would. I was able to sit on my ass and fuck off for about another hour but even I got tired of it by then. We finally saddled up our horses and headed back toward where we'd found the PBY. I wanted to take another look around. I'd given it a pretty good going over from the air, but you never knew what you'd see from the ground, especially under the forest cover. Mostly we saw the normal things you 'd see around a lake with a forest nearby in the spring. Wildlife, trees, and flowers. I was enjoying myself just riding around, doing nothing, and having fun at it. Suddenly, in the edge of the woods I saw something that made me want to get on my knees and thank someone I'd once thought had abandoned us. When she saw me looking at her it was as if she couldn't believe it at first, and then she ran toward us, yelling weakly and crying her eyes out. I kicked Bob into a lope and met her. "Where have you been sweetie? How did you get here? Hush now, everything is going to be fine. We've found you now and we'll take care of you," I said, stroking my hand along her dirty matted blonde hair and patting her back while she bawled as if her heart was broken. All I could do was hug her to me. Thank God Chris and Mary came and helped. With their soft voices they were able to calm her down. Mecha came with a cup of water and I saw Welta and Shantee were building a small fire and warming up something on it already. She looked like she might be five or six. It was easy to see she was a real cutie most of the time, but now she was a dirty frightened lost child. Maybe more lost than any child had ever been. She had on blue jeans and a stained and soiled Mickey Mouse T-shirt. She never got a coherent word out, but the women were able to get her to drink a good bit of water and eat half a cup of soup before she just conked completely out. We hadn't brought any travois with us this morning so I carried her back to our camp while Reela led Red for me. I lay her in our furs when we got there and the women surrounded her while she slept. "Where can she have come from," Chris asked. "We won't know until she's strong enough to tell us. I'm so glad I felt lazy this morning. I came within seconds of leaving," I said, and the thought of what would have become of the girl made my stomach cramp so hard I nearly heaved. She slept deeply for hours, but about mid-afternoon she tossed and turned a little as if she were having bad dreams. She woke up with a start a little later, but she smiled shyly when she saw we were still with her. Mary got a little more soup down her and she drank three cups of water and was able to tell us a little of her story. The plane we'd stolen had belonged to Christy's grandfather. He was indeed some kind of fly to the job mechanic in Alaska. Christy loved to fly with him and they had been caught in the same storm as us I think, because she was positive of the date and it was the same as ours. I didn't know how that could be right, but it really didn't matter, because what happened to us was impossible too. No matter how it happened she was here now. She'd got a small bump on the head when they landed and she said her grandfather had told her his chest was hurting before he went to sleep and then wouldn't wake up. She'd stayed with him for a day, but decided she should go and see if she could find some help and had gotten lost in the forest and had been staying in a small cave with not much access to water and no food. She'd heard us when we started the plane the first time a few days ago and it had taken her until now to make her way here. The sound of the plane's engines had given her the direction to try for. As best we could tell they had landed on the lake six days ago. ------- Chapter 26 It must have been awful for her and thinking about it still nearly made me sick. We had her now though and she was safe and would soon be well fed. The hard part would be explaining that her grandfather had died from the ache in his chest, but we had it to do. We spent the next few hours just sort of hoping we could think of something to cheer her up. The pups finally did the deal for us after we let them out to play. The pups and the other children that is. Hell, all we'd needed to do in the first place was put them together. She couldn't understand a word they said, but it didn't seem to matter in the least. In fact they had a grand game of trying to figure out what each other's words meant. Christy was delighted to find out they had the same words as her for puppy and dog, which she thought Missy was. When supper was ready I asked Christy if she'd sit with me and let me feed her. "I'm old enough to feed myself," she said, but then smiled at me and agreed. After we'd eaten I told her about her grandfather. She didn't start crying again but she did seem near to it. "I knew he'd died all along, but I didn't want to be here alone and so I told myself he was just sleeping. Where is he now?" "We buried him when we found the plane. Do you want to see where?" "Yes, can we go? Is it far?" "No, it's just down there a little way," I said, pointing. I got up and we headed toward it. "Did you fly his plane away?" "Yes, I took it to our home." "Where are we?" "That's something I don't know. I do know we are not in the same time we're from. The storm moved us way back into the past. There are no roads, or streets, or stores, or anything like that here." "Oh. How do you have food then?" "We hunt it, the meat, and we gather the fruits and things like that." "I wish I'd known about things like that. I got very hungry before you found me. I'm full now though. Those ladies are all very good cooks. Is one of them your wife?" "Things are different in this time. They are all my wives," I said, feeling a storm coming on. "Oh, are you Mormons?" "No sugar, and we're not really Christians either. You see, in this place Jesus won't even be born for eight thousand more years." "Oh. I think I see now, kinda. How are we going to get back to your house? I didn't see any cars or trucks or anything but that big helicopter without any rotors on it." "We're going to have to ride back, on the horses." "I've never ridden a horse before." "Don't worry. We'll teach you how tomorrow." "This back in time stuff might not be so bad then," she said, and giggled. We'd reached the grave then and she was a little surprised to see that we'd put up a cross to mark it. She was quiet for a few minutes and then turned away and we headed back. She asked a few more questions and I did the best I could to make things sound like one big party. Hell, in my view they were. It wasn't like we had to go to work or anything. By bedtime for the kids Christy and Cinqua were big time buddies. They bundled up in the furs together and Missy snuggled down with them. I hoped I could remember not to get any of the women too excited tonight. We didn't want to wake the kids and have them laughing at our antics. The next morning I was up first and Christy was up next. I showed her where the women had been doing their business and then slipped off to take care of some of my own. When I came back she was talking to Chris about the puppies as she called them. "You know that they're really just baby wolves don't you?" Chris asked. "No. I didn't know it. I thought they were just German Sheppards or something. They don't seem wild." "The pups aren't wild actually, but Missy was wild when we caught her. We bribed her into staying with us and behaving by feeding her all she would eat. I think she likes being a substitute dog by now. How do you think you'll like living with us?" "I already know I'll like it much better than living by myself like I was. I know I'll miss gramma though, but there's nothing we can do about that. I'm just here now and there's no way to go back. I'll just have to make the best of it like you and Jack and Mary had to. The horses will probably make it easier," Christy said, and then giggled. "You think you'll like having horses to ride?" "Yes, I've always wanted one but we lived in Anchorage and there wasn't room to keep one where we were. It's probably better for gramma that way. Now that we're gone she's going to need her friends. I'm sorry she'll be so sad. I'm going to try not to be though." It was a pretty mature attitude I thought, and I hoped she'd be able to pull it off. We'd help her all we could but I knew it would still be tough. Soon enough the food was ready, eaten, and it was time to get Christy started learning to ride. I saddled the smallest and gentlest horse for her and gave her the opening speech. A well trained horse was the best teaching aid at this point and I knew the children had this one well in hand. It had been Cinqua's taxi lately but Cinqua could handle something a little more challenging by now. After and hour or so of practice Cinqua joined us on her new mount and I turned the two of them loose to practice. That would do more for Christy's horsemanship than anything else. While they were riding I tried to help get everything else ready to move out. The travois packing was already done and the only thing left was hitching the draft eligible horses to the helicopter. For maneuverability we connected a short piece of one-inch chain to the helo's draw hook and then connected the horse's harness lines to the chain. We'd already learned that steering the helicopter was not so easy without the engines running. That wasn't going to happen even though I was sure they would start right up. There was an emergency steering mechanism for the nose wheel and so we decided to use it. My only other choice would be to remove the steering completely and cobble up something to manually steer the nose wheel from pulling it with the towlines. That would probably work better, but the manual emergency system would work now and I thought it would be good enough. When we started on our way things worked well but slowly. The manual steering was slow, but it did well enough. Even though we'd piled almost all we could in the helo's cargo area it still wasn't much of a load for the twelve horses that were pulling it. It made me decide I needed to think up some way to make at least small wheels for the travois' dragging ends. Getting started was the hardest part. We had to swing the helo wide so we could line up with the narrow but useable trail. We also had to keep a careful watch on where we were going, and I do mean exactly where. Twice we had to unhitch the team from the front, go to the back, and reverse our course to make room to dodge a tree we misjudged and weren't going to be able to miss. Three other times the trees in the way were small so we cut them down and then cut them up for firewood, loading them onto empty travois who's former cargo was now in the helo. One of them was a hickory and was actually large enough that the unhitch, re-hitch, reverse, and then repeat would have been justified. Since it was hickory I went ahead and cut it down then cut it up for meat-smoking wood. It saved us the bother of fooling with the team and left one more hickory back home we could use later. The human labor involved was actually less than fooling with the teams and the lucky horse that ended up with the load had been walking along without a load, so what the hell? She didn't have to pull it far today anyhow. We stopped for supper and the night about an hour later. Unpacking for the night turned out to be no strain at all for me, or anyone else either really. The women had made sure to leave what we'd need for overnights loaded on top and easy to get to. A few of them gathered wood and started a fire while the others spread furs and some cooked. The cooking held my attention for the moment, but I was also slightly interested in the fur spreading since it would be the location for my next duties. I could already tell I was going to enjoy them. We were up, fed, and gone early the next morning, but from the pace we'd been making I knew we'd be spending at least two more nights on the trail as we liked to say in Texas. Hell, if we ran into many more trees we had to cut it might take even longer. Didn't really matter though since there was plenty of game running around and Missy was pretty good at helping hunt by now. We stopped for lunch and a rest about noon. While the women were cooking Missy and I struck out into the woods to see if we could scare up some meat. We didn't have to have it but a deer or something near that size would be nice. Missy smelled something she wanted to check on almost right away, but by now she'd learned charging ahead without me was a no no. That didn't mean she didn't let me know she was excited and anxious to be about her business. The trouble was she could move practically silently and with all the twigs and leaves on the forest floor I couldn't. She waited on me but it was plain she was impatient. We were probably almost a mile from where we'd stopped when Missy slowed herself. She took a semi-stalking posture and only moved slowly. I realized she thought we were close so I stopped and brought out the binoculars to search ahead. I located her intended quarry within a minute or so but it wasn't something to eat, or not food anyway. There were two Neanderthal women working their way in our direction, kinda. They didn't seem to know exactly where they were going nor did they seem in a hurry to get there. They spent most of their time looking around, as if keeping a sharp watch to keep from running across something they might not want to come across. They watched their back trail closely. There was no point in approaching them because we couldn't communicate. I whispered to Missy to follow me and we went back to our trail stop. Missy wasn't happy about it and she wanted to turn right back around and go back when we made it to the break spot. I found Sahnay for a little conference. Mary, Chris, Mecha, Reela, and Keela joined us. I explained what I'd seen and then had to do my best to describe the women to Sahnay. To me they'd looked younger than eighteen, but I wasn't the best judge of a Neanderthal woman's age. Despite what my uptime education had led me to believe about Neanderthals, none of them had seemed like monsters or high class apes to me. The men weren't extremely handsome by any means, but they weren't butt ugly either. They were mostly about five-eight to five-ten and they were all muscular. Not bodybuilder muscular but more like extremely fit with a few bulging muscles, especially their upper arms, around their chest and backs, and their legs were obviously built up. The women weren't as apparently muscular as the men, nor were any of them more than five-six. They all looked fit and healthy to me though and breast-feeding would not leave their children hungry. I know their faces wouldn't be called beautiful by any standard, but to me they were cute, especially if you caught one of them smiling. I'll admit I hadn't seen many doing it. No matter how hard I described, Sahnay couldn't figure out who they were and surely couldn't think of a reason for them to be out alone in the woods, especially after I told her they weren't carrying any type of baskets with them like they'd have needed for gathering. "There's nothing else for it, we'll just have to go and see if we can find out what they're up too." "I think you're right," Sahnay said, and so she, Reela, and Keela came along with Missy and me after they'd picked up two of the Marlin's. We'd made it about halfway to where Missy and I had last seen the women when Sahnay stopped us. After we were still she made some type of low volume but high pitched animalish noise. She got a return greeting right away. "I still can't tell who they are or what they are doing, but they are women from my old camp. They're expecting us now so we might as well go right on to them," she said. The two women were standing in one spot waiting when we came into sight of them and when they saw Sahnay they both smiled wide. I was right; they were very cute in the face. Sahnay smiled widely at them too and then spoke to them in their language. They spoke back and there was a conversation going when we got near. My only useful action at this point was to try and look friendly while Sahnay got their stories. The way the three were acting toward each other was more like a family reunion than anything else I could think of. After five minutes or so of conversation I didn't have a hope of understanding, I started to get a feeling of dread. Not exactly dread though, but I was almost sure I wasn't going to like what happened next. The feeling got even stronger when I noticed Mecha listening carefully and nodding her head in agreement occasionally. "They have run away from their camp and would like to join yours," Sahnay said, calmly and looking right at me when she did. "If you don't want them they'd like to know if you would at least let them stay awhile and give them some information about living on their own. They promise to leave quietly later if you say they must." I know it was inappropriate of me and I should never have done it, but I just lost it laughing. In one way this was a serious, life or death, moment for the two women. It was the idea of what was happening that set me off laughing though. These Neanderthal cave women were using the puppy close on me to finalize the sale. It just puts in perspective how long lasting and successful that particular method is. "I'm sorry for laughing and it wasn't about their situation. Of course they can stay with us and I won't be telling them they have to leave later. While we're eating maybe you can tell me what got this all started." Missy made her own plea for attention just then. I'm sure she felt like she'd been preempted somehow. After all, she was the one who'd made the discovery and here she was left out of the negotiations. I called her to me, petted and praised her and then took her over to get a good sniff of the new arrivals. It turned out I didn't mind getting a little sniff of them myself, even though I wasn't as direct about it as Missy. They had been out walking at least since daylight and I wasn't sure they hadn't started days ago. At any rate they didn't smell sweaty or sour. In fact they smelled freshly washed with just a hint of, well, fertile. I can't really explain it, but they smelled fertile somehow. If you'd have ask me before then I couldn't have explained what fertile smelled like, and I still couldn't for that matter. I just know they smelled fertile now, and it made my dick hard at once. I'm sure they noticed too, because they both gave me another shot of their wonderful smiles. We headed back to our lunch then and the two new arrivals stayed close to me all the way back. Missy didn't know from manners yet and I saw she gave the two of them a few more sniffs around their asses. It let me know I wasn't making the fertile smell up anyway. Cheetal and Sholou were put to food service duty as soon as we got back. I was sure this was Sahnay's doing, but I didn't mind. There was some confusion after they'd brought me a plate and a big cup of hot tea though. They'd intended to wait and watch to make sure they didn't need to fetch anything else for me. Sahnay had a talk with them and they both went over to get their own plates and then came back to sit on the ground on either side of me. I knew what the deal had been, because Sahnay had tried the same thing when she first joined us. Apparently the Neanderthal women didn't eat with the men. They watched and served until the men were finished and then they ate later. Sahnay must have explained it wasn't our custom. After we'd eaten, Mecha and the others began packing back up. Sahnay tried to get away to help but I wasn't having that. "Ok, you're going to at least give me the short version." "They slipped away from their camp. They were from the same camp I was from. Their mates were both killed in a failed hunt about eight suns before you met us. After they saw you take Cinqua and I in, they decided to slip away and see if you would take them in also," Sahnay explained. "They only found us by blind luck then," I said. "Not exactly. They have been following us since the second day we left the ones they were with. They watched us at the lake and even saw you take us flying. They were amazed when you came back, and delighted too. They were sure you had taken us all off to the spirit world in the plane since they had no more idea what it was than any of us except Chris and Mary did." "But why didn't they approach us earlier?" "They doubted you'd take them in all along and didn't show themselves until they realized you were taking a new path back to your home. They showed themselves today since they felt they were far enough from the other camp so the men could not find them, in case you wouldn't let them stay," Sahnay said. "You mean the others might be searching for them? Did one of the other men intend to take them for mates?" I asked. "Oh no. No man in that camp wants them. They are bad luck since their mates were killed. One of the men might be assigned to take them in by the leader, but that won't come for years if it ever does. That doesn't mean the camp's leader doesn't want them back. They are good workers and their leaving won't be allowed if they're found." "Like hell it won't. It'll be a cold day in hell when I let someone take them away to be slaves, and that's exactly what it would be." "Where is hell and what are slaves?" Sahnay asked. "It will be a long lesson telling you and we need to move on now. It'll be our luck the men come and find them with us. After that there'll be more women we have to take in. I'm not saying I'd mind at all, but it seems wrong somehow for me to wait around to kill men so I can have their mates," I said. "I don't understand you, but we must do as you say," she said. "No, you don't have to do as I say just because I say it, but I'm going to leave and you probably should come along." "Now that you've taught me to ride a horse you can't run fast enough to get away from me," Sahnay said, and then laughed. Deciding that deceit was the better part of valor, I had Cheetal and Sholou ride inside the helo. I don't care how good the Neanderthal men were at tracking, they weren't going to be able to find footprints if the two women didn't make any. They were afraid to ride in it with the pups at first, but it didn't take them long to make friends. We made about an hour's worth of travel before we came to a spot where we had to cut another tree. I'd just fished out the chainsaw and was trying to figure the best way to cut the tree when damned if Growwta and a few men didn't show up. Luckily it wasn't all the men that had been with him the last time we'd met. He was speechless at first, especially after he took a good look at the helo. Mecha and Sahnay did the translating and I explained more than he could understand about it. I could see he was also very curious about the chainsaw I had in my hands. He was about to get up his nerve to ask about it when one of his curious men made a stab at getting into the helo. I was surprised he was even able to figure out which part was the door, but Missy was not amused. Apparently she'd started paying attention to him when he wandered. She started paying a lot more attention when he touched the helo. Her pups were in there after all. She had his screaming nosey ass on the ground and was dealing out puncture wounds right away. Growwta and all his group ran to the other side of the helo then and when they saw what was happening one of them raised a spear. I didn't even have to shoot him. I just gave the chainsaw's start rope a yank and the big Stihl took everyone's attention off the screaming wanna-be thief. It even made Missy stop biting him and she'd heard it before. Carl hadn't fucked around with one of those homeowner toy saws. He'd bought a real live felling saw, and its voice did not shout look at me, ain't I a cute little saw. It said get out of the fucking way cause trees are about to start falling. I walked toward the one that had thought about putting a spear in Missy and let him watch the saw bar come close to his body then I swiped it across his spear. It became a short spear and a club at once. ------- Chapter 27 The halves of the former spear flying off to the side and the short burst of sawdust were a big surprise, both to the one who'd held the spear and Growwta. He gave me such an odd look for a minute and then asked me something. Sahnay translated. "He wants to know why you attacked Jolat." "Because Jolat was about to attack Missy for doing her job. Tell him the wolf watches over our things and the one on the ground was snooping around to steal something. Go ahead and tell him I know about the way his people like to steal," I told her. "He won't like that. He knows it's the truth, but they get offended when someone lets them know they know it." "Let him know even though we are busy we have time to go back to their camp and gather up the mates of any men we have to kill," I said, setting the chainsaw down and pulling a Glock and a Wildey. Growwta didn't miss my actions and when his men voiced their displeasure at what I'd said after Sahnay translated he silenced them right away. Since only one of them started toward me I didn't shoot, I just called Missy and leveled my pistols. I also heard Mary and Chris jacking shells into the shotguns. Apparently the one intending to attack me to salvage the pride of the band had forgotten about Missy already. He remembered fast when her teeth clamped into his ass. He dropped his spear at once, but Missy didn't stop right away. Another one started to lift his spear then, probably intending to help the one on the ground by dealing with Missy once and for all. He was standing near Growwta and he received a backhand in the mouth for his trouble - it was from Growwta. When he hit the ground the ass chewing was on and Missy stopped what she was doing to watch, so I guess he did help his buddy out after all. "Growwta is telling him if he's fool enough to attack the wolf he has to go to the side away from everyone else because you will surely kill him for it," Sahnay said. Growwta punctuated his lecture with a kick to the offender's ribs and then he spoke to me while Sahnay translated. "It is true that many of my men are thieves and many act without thinking." "I don't mind, but it would be easier if they brought their women with them when they came to bother me. It would save me a long trip back to your camp to pick them up. You would probably be better off too, since if I come to your camp and see a woman I want I might go ahead and kill her mate and take her away too." I could tell Sahnay had a hard time keeping her composure when she gave him the word. "I started the day trying to keep from hurting any of you, since I felt you might come around. After the way some of you have acted I don't care anymore. Cheetal and Sholou are with us. You can stop trying to find them now. They are to be my mates. I don't believe in bad luck." Sahnay had an even harder time getting over this translation, but it didn't seem to bother Growwta at all. "They were good workers and they will be missed, but I will not fight you over them. Some of the men might want to, but if they are that stupid we'll be better off rid of them as soon as possible." "Why don't you and your men go to our camp with us. I will be glad to kill all the meat you can carry back for you?" He smiled when he heard the translation and then after he finished his part Sahnay told me what he said. "He wants to go back to his camp and bring most of his people in case you are always as good a hunter as you were last time he saw you." "Tell him to bring them all and all their things. Tell him there is a nice big cave they can all live in and there is plenty of meat if they like bear." My women all gave me a look when I said it, but Growwta did seem pleased. He talked it over with his men and asked one to go with us and then come back to show everyone else the way. He and the others headed back to their place right away. I noticed he gave the young one who was going with us a long talk before the others left. It was a couple of hours nearly wasted, but I thought something good would come from it. Growwta seemed like he had good sense, and if the rest didn't I figured I could thin the heard until only the ones smart enough to learn some manners survived. We dealt with the tree that was in our way and then left ourselves. At least Cheetal and Sholou didn't have to ride in the helo any longer since their cat was already out of the bag. They even seemed to be extra happy after hearing they'd become my mates. I was looking forward to them thanking me tonight. I'll admit it wasn't true love that made me do it. Then again it hadn't been with any of the other local women I'd cabbaged on to. Still, I was pretty sure I would come to care strongly for all of them since it never seemed hard to do. Mating here and now was a lot different than marriage had been back in my original time. Men seemed a little like meat gathering pets here. They acted as if they were running the show, and they dealt with things concerning hunting and protection. The truth of the matter was the men would be lost without the women. It was obvious the women were the ones who encouraged banding together. Left to their own devices the men would end up hunting alone sooner or later and most likely dying alone. My reasons for asking Growwta and his group to join us were selfish also. There was more than plenty of meat and shelter in our valley and the over flight had showed me there was three or four times more space than I'd thought at first. We needed the bodies to help us get things sorted out. Especially when it came time to put up more hay or to clean kills. I was probably going to ask Jockat to bring his group closer too. I was pretty sure there were plenty of caves and more. My guess was we'd have enough meat to last all summer and probably all winter too just from evicting the current residents. We kept a good pace for the rest of the day and were up and moving with the sun. We were damned near home by sunset and we didn't stop. With our flashlights and Missy keeping a good nose-out I felt safe enough moving on in the dark. We were all riding anyway and I knew damned well the horses could still see where they were going. Traveling after dark upset Gacto a little. He was the younger man Growwta sent with us to return to camp later and lead the others. He was the only one walking and he didn't like doing it after the sun was down. I offered to let him ride in the helo and it made him come to his senses. No doubt he was more afraid of having it told around that he was afraid to walk after dark when none of the women were bothered about it at all. We made it back to the caves with no trouble. It was a hell of a job moving the logs out of the way so we could get in for the night though. Gacto was amazed by our barricade and seemed even more surprised by the door behind it. The three electric lights we had to provide at least a little illumination inside the cave nearly did him in. Most of the women went on into the cave to unpack a little and I hoped to cook a lot. A few of them helped me strip the tack and travois off the horses and put them into the cave for the night. Usually I let them stay hobbled and outside, but we still had plenty of hay and I wanted them cooped up for this night anyway. I don't mind admitting I was nearly done in by the time we were done with them. All the fatigue took some time off after we went back into our residence and I smelled the food that was ready. It didn't take me long to find my chair and my plate and I let the others explain the eating arrangements to Cheetal, Sholou, and Gacto. They didn't have much trouble catching on after the food started appearing. Christy sat in my lap again and I got to enjoy feeding her once more. The next morning Gacto was anxious to be off, but he was no more so than the women seemed to be to have him gone. They had breakfast ready almost before he was dressed. I knew there hadn't been any trouble spring up during the night and so I wondered what it was all about. After he was gone they clued me in. It wasn't just Gacto that had their panties in a wad, even thought not a one of them wore any, and only two of them even knew what panties were. It turned out not a one of them liked the idea of the Neanderthal tribe, or clan, or bunch, or whatever you wanted to call them coming to live with us. "Why?" Every one of them had plenty of reasons and they weren't shy about sharing them with me. I let them get it all out of their systems before I said a single word, but I did let them know how I felt about it once they were done. "Almost everything you're concerned about seems to be because of the actions of the men. Are there any complaints about the women at all?" I asked. In fact they couldn't think of a one and they finally admitted it. "So, instead of inviting them here and letting those women get a little relief, like you have you'd rather condemn them to staying with these men you dislike so?" That put a different light on things for them liked I'd hoped it would "What's the problem? If they move here I'll just kill any man who gets too obnoxious. I'm sure Growwta understands this from the start. He isn't stupid. It may their policy to let even the biggest assholes live no matter what they do, but I'm sure Growwta already knows it isn't the way I do things. "There is the chance he thinks he can kill me and take over, but I doubt it. I'm not sure about the rest of his men, but I do know Growwta isn't that stupid. My guess is he'll be the last one to give me any backtalk. If the other men think they're coming here to cause trouble and get by with it I actually feel sorry for them, because I'm sure teeth marks in their asses are the least they'll get off with. What do you say Missy?" I asked, and Missy, who'd learned this trick really fast, growled low in her throat and showed her teeth. In fact I was pretty sure Missy was going to be responsible for at least two of the Neanderthals to die early. In point of fact I invited them here because I wanted some more men around, both to help with very heavy work and to provide additional help watching over us and fighting off the multitude of lions, cats, and bears I knew were in the two rear valleys. I was pretty sure I could come to a good understanding with all the men that lived, and I knew I could with the widowed women. It might seem cruel or unfair of me, but if you think so then you need to come to your senses. I knew it was the way the world of this time worked, and I'd learned that women who lost their mate ended up struggling to get by. Not while I was here they wouldn't. I had ultimate control of all the firearms in existence and probably enough ammunition for three lifetimes thanks to Carl, may he rest in peace. I didn't want to be a King and I didn't want to take over the world, but I was going to run the show around me and I was going to do it by right of might. From my time on earth I knew democracy was not a sane way to run a civilization. It beat hell out of communism; at least in the way it had been practiced while I was paying attention. Democracy's big failing was the laziness of the voters and the ability of those elected to stay in office and get their hooks into the people's treasury. Judges and lawyers sealed its doom by doing exactly what was best for them and not giving a shit whether the justice system worked as conceived. One of the best examples was the way the United States treated what they called illegal drugs. They threw away billions of dollars of the people's treasury trying to stop some of those same people from using recreational drugs. I'm sure somewhere back down the line there was a good idea at the start of things, but they had made it a crime and thus created a market for criminals and artificially boosted the price of what they were selling. When it comes down to it, what is the fucking danger of letting people who wanted to smoke weed smoke weed. It isn't addictive and it doesn't cause them to commit crimes. It makes them want to eat cookies and then go to sleep for God's sake. The biggest harm in marijuana is the artificial shortage lawmakers created. Not only did it cause the people who wanted some to pay an obscenely inflated price. It let the cat out of the bag on the fact the government would lie to its own people. The United States created Reefer Madness out of whole cloth and then spent millions creating a crisis so those same politicians could have something to brag about when election time came around. If ever there was one, here was a lie with legs. Oh, but marijuana leads to stronger drugs you say, and that's more pure government bullshit. People who can't afford weed try other things to get high on. Many of them are addictive, and the price can be jacked up even higher after they are addicted. Oh, but what about all the poor people that waste their lives on the illegal drugs? Hell, they wouldn't have to waste their lives to get the drugs if armies of police, special agents, and other assholes weren't being paid billions of dollars to try catching the people who were smuggling the drugs in. On top of that, the attraction of doing something a little risky would be gone without drug laws and a whole lot of worthless humans could be allowed to overdose themselves to death in peace and for not very much money. Surely you don't believe that crap about every life being precious. Face it; some people just aren't even worth killing. There were way to damned many people on the version of earth we'd been removed from. It wouldn't hurt a thing to let a few of them kill themselves if they didn't have any better sense than to do it. Oh, but the children will be enticed into trying it. "That's what the fucking parents are for. It's they're job to keep children from doing things like that before they're mature enough to make a reasonable decision. Making the drugs available for a small profit by the government would go a hell of a long way toward making the tax bill a thing of the past. Billons could be saved by reducing money for giant police forces and hundreds of thousands could be spared a life of crime by making the drugs more affordable. Hell, if they want to waste their life away on drugs, let them. They are going to do it anyway and the kindest thing to do is let them do it cheaply enough so they don't have to rob, steal, and kill innocent people for the money. Thankfully it was one fucking thing I wasn't going to have to worry about. If some of the cave men or women I came into contact with found some type of drug and started using it I'd advise them against it and find new friends if I couldn't make them stop it. The biggest problem with a government program to deny the availability of drugs was that it let the parents of potential drug users ease the responsibility over onto police. No government can enforce morals. Parents are the only hope of getting that job done. Anybody with any damned sense knows that. Of course politicians don't have any damned sense and it isn't a required qualification for holding office. All they have is an unholy thirst for power and the money they can acquire if they get the power. Well I had the power here and I didn't really want it. That didn't mean I wasn't going to keep it and wield it. I was going to shoot the first wise guy who thought up democracy and electing leaders. That was the first step on the road to hell as far as I was concerned. It's common knowledge, though not so common any longer, that a wise benevolent ruler is the best form of government available. The only hang up involved in the system is the dilemma faced when you need to pick that ruler. Thankfully for the ones around me, the onerous task had been taken care of for them, for my lifetime at least. ------- Chapter 28 It was halfway to noon before the pow-wow was over and the women were settled down. I'd soldiered on through it without one sip of coffee, but that lack was about to come to an end. As things broke up the women seemed to still be thinking over what I'd said and Mary and Chris were in among 'em trying to explain some of it. I fished out the coffee pot myself and didn't feel a bit ashamed about brewing a pot of the scarce beverage. There had been a lot of it in the PBY's supplies. Cheetal and Sholou were hanging around the edges of the group of women, but I'd already noticed they hardly let me out of their sight. They were both scandalized when I started acting like I was cooking and they rushed to me at once to take over the job. I wouldn't have minded letting them do it, but of course they didn't have the foggiest idea how. Unfortunately, I couldn't explain this to them since they understood only their own language and I couldn't speak it. We came to an understanding after a bit and I made a pot slowly, with plenty of hand motions as I went. Soon enough I was sipping a big mug of boiled coffee and they were jabbering questions that I couldn't answer. At first I thought possibly they wanted to try the coffee. I started to get them both a cup, but decided it would be senseless since I was almost sure they wouldn't like it. I signaled them closer to me and encouraged each of them to take a sip after doing my best to remind them it was hot. I was surprised by how surprised they seemed at my offer. The result was more like what I expected. It was obvious neither one of them had any desire for more than the one taste, but something about the process made them almost giddy and I wondered what the hell I'd done. My curiosity was reinforced when I noticed Christy and Cinqua were watching too and Cinqua was staring open mouthed. Apparently Sahnay had seen it too and she headed toward me. I hoped she was coming to explain. As it turned out she was not coming to explain, she was coming to find out about the cause for the ceremony. After she told me it was a great honor for the leader to let a mere woman have a drink from his cup I understood a little. I thought about telling her what an honor I thought it was for the women to offer me a shot of pussy every night. I decided not to when I saw I needed to offer Christy and Cinqua a sip also... Christy wasn't as excited by the mini-ceremony as Cinqua, but she played along. I think Sahnay was proud of it in spite of herself. I was pretty sure it wasn't such a big deal among Cro-Magnon women, but I was going to find out and make sure I didn't slight any of my mates. Meanwhile Cheetal and Sholou still seemed to be basking in the thrill of it all and they hung even closer to me. The rest of the women finally decided they had a workable strategy I guess, because their impromptu meeting seemed to break up. Chris and Mary came over and I made sure they got a sip of my coffee just in case. They looked at me like I was nuts, but at least they played along. While we were at it each of the women and children got a sip whether they wanted one or not. I hoped it wouldn't dilute the thrill Sholou, Cheetal, Cinqua, and Sahnay got out of the new ceremony and apparently it didn't. After the sipping from my cup was over I refilled it and tried to get still and have a cup to myself. I managed the trick because all the women started working on projects of their own and the kids got interested in playing with the pups. After lunch Reela, Keela, Mecha, Kemela, and I went to work with the horses. We hobbled them outside so they could catch up on their eating with fresh grass. We didn't turn all of them loose though since we each saddled up and spent some time looking for any predators that might have taken up residence in our valley. After a good inspection of the outer valley we moved toward what I now thought of as the middle valley. The over flight had let me know there was an even bigger one off the opposite end of it. As far as I was concerned there were still too many wild things in it for us to do much exploring. "Won't they always be here until we deal with them?" Mecha asked. "I'm sure they will, but I'm hoping for more help before we get started." "Who are you hoping will help? No one has guns but us? It isn't the kind of hunting most men would be interested in doing. Bears aren't so likely to bother people unless people bother them, but they can become very angry when troubled. I'm sure you remember from last year," Mecha said. "I'm not worried about killing them. I'm worried about what comes next. There will be a lot of skinning, cleaning, cutting up, and preserving to do once the killing starts. We will need help to take care of it. "Growwta and his band should be here in another day or two and I've been thinking of inviting Jockat to bring his bunch to join us too. I'd like to see how much room there is in the other caves first though." "Then we should go and look. The bears are probably not inside them now. They are out finding food. We will have to be very careful of the lions though. We should be able to deal with them since all of us can shoot well now," she said. What the hell, we headed for the cave with the largest opening. There were at least five caves in this valley and there could be more since at least half of it was fairly densely wooded and we couldn't really see half of the rock walls. The largest opening did seem like the one to start with though. Thankfully, as Mecha had said, no one was home. I knew someone would be soon though and I intended for it to be us. This cave was much larger than the one we were already using and after a close inspection we found other features that were desirable. In my opinion the best features were two streams of water flowing down from above. There was one near the entrance and an even larger one near the rear. Both flowed out via holes in the floor. The one near the rear formed a rather large pool in a depression in the floor and it almost shouted bathtub to me after a good look at it. It overflowed via a low spot and the escaping water flowed about ten feet across to a rather large hole. No doubt it could be arranged into an indoor privy while we were at it. Unlike our current residence, there was no handy passage leading to the next cave over. I didn't see that as a drawback. Even though it was handy to be able to check on and feed the horses without going outside, the loss of the ability of the smell of horseshit to move directly into our living area would not be missed. When we explored the cave near the first one it was clear it was too good to be used for horses. It wasn't quite as large as the first one we checked, but it nearly was and it had remarkably similar provisions for water. Sahnay said it was easily large enough to accommodate three times more people than would be coming with Growwta. It was getting on in the afternoon after we left the second cave, but our luck had been so good we decided to ride across the valley, nearly a mile, and check out at least one of the two caves we could see across the way. There was one more entrance visible from where we were, but it was just inside the line of trees near the rear section of the valley and we didn't intend to go there with sunset coming in an hour or so. We found a surprise across the valley. The two entrances both led to the same large cave. It went deep under the mountains and was easily ten times as large as any we'd found so far. I thought it was large enough to keep every horse, ass, donkey, or onager we could corral. Hell there was even room for the aurochs to spend the winter in there though I had no intention of trying to capture and domesticate them. They'd been getting along on their own during the winters for centuries and I doubted the ones we'd want to eat would thin them significantly. As we headed home I was convinced we had more than plenty of cave space for every human I knew of in this time and place. It would be better if we could find one more livable cave in the central valley so we could all live near each other, but it wasn't mandatory to my way of thinking. I was almost positive there was plenty of meat available for a thousand or more people, and as we captured and trained more horses and riders we'd have plenty of mobility for gathering fruit and vegetables for our diet. Hell, it shouldn't be hard to cobble up some plows and get a little agriculture going. Time would tell in the long run but to me it seemed we had plenty of time. Once back to the cave we had explaining to do. Thankfully the cooking continued while we were at it and equally fortuitous I didn't have to do all the talking. Mecha, Reela, and Keela did a lot of it. Of course Mary and Chris had to have it from me. The upshot was another trip was planned at once. Chris and Mary would come with Reela, Keela, and me in the morning. It was easy to see Christy and Cinqua wanted to tag along but Chris, Mary, and Sahnay vetoed that notion. Sahnay was coming with us too, but Reela and Keela thought it was too dangerous for any of the children to come yet. Mecha and Kemela promised to tell plenty of stories during the day tomorrow, just after Christy and Cinqua finished their riding practice. "Nothing must keep you from learning the riding. These horses Jack has given us are the most important thing I've seen in my life and anyone who doesn't learn to ride properly will find themselves at the mercy of those who can." To my way of thinking Mecha was spreading my praise a little thick, but what the hell, it couldn't hurt. I felt better about it when Christy and Cinqua came over to both sit in my lap at once and give me a sound kissing on both cheeks. Of course capturing and training horses had been a no-brainer for someone who knew about them. To me they were a bigger development in human history than the exalted wheel. After all, a wheel was a poor device without something to pull what it was attached to. Sure, a wheeled vehicle was much easier to pull than a travois, but a horse drawn travois beat a man or woman drawn cart every fucking time. Chris and Mary had more surprises for me before we headed out. They were bringing Welta, Shantee, and Kalela along too. I knew that some firearms training and practice had been going on but I didn't know the three were the best shots so far. Of course they weren't up to Keela and Reela's skill but Chris told me they were getting close. "How did you get them to bear down on the practice?" I asked. "We told them they'd be able to go on these little missions when they got good enough. Welta is a caution with a shotgun too. She's a great wingshot, but of course she's loaded with slugs today. None of us intend to be a lion's lunch." "Me neither, that's why I'm wearing the Wildey and the Dirty Harry Special along with my Glock." When we entered the middle valley I offered to show them all the caves we'd examined yesterday, but Mary and Chris nixed that deal. "We can look at them on the way back. I want to see the one in the edge of the woods there and then we need to take a ride around the outside of the walls, all the way around. We need to get a handle of whatever may still be dangerous in those woods and it won't hurt a thing to see if there's a way to get into the next valley from this one. Mary and I don't want to be planning a move into an even better cave this time next year. We want to skip any possible intermediate stop." "I knew there was some reason I brought y'all along." "You mean besides the excellent pussy?" Mary asked, and it started she and Chris laughing. The other women laughed too. I'm not sure they understood exactly what had been said, but they could tell at once Mary had pulled a good one on me, no matter what it was. Since there was no mistaking the marching orders I'd received we headed directly for the farthest visible cave entrance. It was, or could be a nice place, but not nearly as large as any of the others. That didn't mean there wasn't room for at least thirty or forty people to live in it. It also had some running water, but there was no handy potential shitter inside. Taking a leak would be possible without contaminating the indoor environment, but serious shithouse business couldn't be transacted inside. As we started around the outer circumference of the wooded part of the valley we began seeing large blackberry patches. There were several and they seemed nearly a quarter acre each. Just finding them made the trip worthwhile for me. Of course we were much more vigilant searching for wolves and other pest that might attack people who'd be picking said berries after that. For some damned reason there was a small pride of Cave lions settled down maybe a mile or so from the first patch of berries we found. There was one big male, four females, and four fairly small cubs. We hadn't come intending to go lion hunting today, but we were armed well enough to take on these few in my estimation. We backed off about fifty yards and dismounted. I was carrying my Marlin in 35 Remington, and of course my three favorite pistols. Mary and Chris were both carrying their thirty-ought-six Remingtons and Reela and Keela had a 7mm Magnum each while Welta, Shantee, and Kalela were packing Extrema2s loaded with 00 buckshot, except for Welta who had slugs. Once we had our plan settled we moved forward again, as quietly as we could. We were within sixty feet of the lions when all of us with rifles cut loose. The three with shotguns were held in reserve incase something live headed for us. Poor girls didn't even get to fire a shot. "Ain't that a bitch?" Chris said. "What?" "We have to stop our exploring now and build a couple of travois to take these things back," she said. "Why, we don't want to eat them," I said. "No, but I'm sure Missy and the cubs won't turn up their noses. Besides, we sure as hell want the skins, claws, and teeth. Haven't you noticed how impressive they are when we wear them around our necks? There should be enough now to make a necklace or bracelet for every one of the pussy providers now, and probably enough left over for you and the kids to have a few trinkets," Mary said, and then they all laughed at me. I didn't give a shit, I was used to it by now and even though I wanted to do some more exploring I figured even after building a couple of travois we'd still make it home in time for a late lunch. Meanwhile most of the women that weren't standing guard started on the blackberry harvest. Most of the berries weren't ripe yet, but there seemed to be quite a few that had reached maturity early. We made it back to our cave just at the perfect moment. Growwta and his bunch were just arriving and their open mouthed stares at the freight on the travois let me know they were impressed. The delay didn't go to waste either since Mecha pressed the kitchen crew into getting more food ready. Sahnay even asked a few of the arriving women to help and they were glad to. Sahnay stayed with me to translate for Growwta and me. I explained why we'd been out hunting lions without mentioning we hadn't done it on purpose. I did let him know we were looking for more caves since I hoped Jockat and his people would join us. He hit me with a shocker of his own then. He and his most trusted men had talked things over and they hadn't come here to live near us. They wanted to join our clan as he called it. Growwta was giving up any claim to leadership and they wanted me to be their leader also. I was fucked is what I was. I was able to put my foot down and demand Growwta share part of the burden by advising me when he had an opinion and by helping make his people understand when I steered them away from the way things had always been for them. I could tell he actually didn't want to have anything to do with it and figured he wanted to go back to being an ordinary Joe, so to speak. He finally came around though and promised to do his part. ------- Chapter 29 We had about an hour before enough food was ready for our first mass meal. We didn't rush eating it and I took this chance to introduce the thirty or so grown Neanderthal men to the way things would be going from here on out. As in, if we were eating outside they'd be coming to a serving line to get a plate full. There was a little grumbling, but only one man who had to get the message by hand. When he ignored my instructions and tried to bully his woman into fetching his plate I asked Sahnay to explain what was about to happen. Tell Growwta I'm not going to kill that jackass for ignoring my instructions this time. I'm only going to beat the shit out of him unless he picks up a weapon. If he does he'll be a dead man when he reaches for it. Ask Growwta to explain things to him," I told her as I walked toward the offender. Of course he wasn't impressed and was still sitting on his ass when I reached him. I guess they hadn't paid much attention to my manly footwear. I'm sure the boot he got to his face would have him, and all of them paying more attention from now on. Yes, it pissed him off and he was on his feet in a split second. He was just in time to catch a right fist in his solar plexus. It knocked the breath out of him and the openhanded slap to his right ear had him back on the ground screaming in pain right away. I turned my back to him to walk away, but I kept my eyes on others that were watching him and my hand on the Glock's butt. He must have made a move for a weapon because I heard another blow land on someone before I could finish turning back toward him with my Glock in my hand. At least one of the others had been paying attention when Growwta gave the explanation, because one of them had knocked him back on his ass before he could get himself killed. He was looking at me with hate in his eyes, but he was also giving my Glock careful scrutiny. I had Sahnay ask Growwta to come and eat with me and after we'd had our plates filled we sat down to eat and talk. Of course Sahnay had to translate, but I made sure she brought her plate with her when she did. Growwta tried to apologize right off the bat, but I didn't let Sahnay finish the translation. "You can't be responsible for every man that wants to act like a fool and besides, I expected at least one of them to try me early. We have rules here, not many but we do have some. The women have more important things to do than bring food to men who are too lazy to get their own. Everyone here works, unless they think they can live without eating. "If I'm going to be their leader that's just what I'll be and I don't intend to beg them to do what I say, especially since I don't say much. If they don't want to live that way they know the way out of these valleys. Just remind them they aren't taking their women with them unless the women tell me they want to go and make me believe it. "You might as well tell them I don't allow men to beat women either. I won't be wasting time fighting the ones who think they have to, I'll kill them out of hand," I said, and then watched Growwta's face as Sahnay translated. She translated back after he finished. "You are more than I hoped for. I'm not ashamed to say I never wanted to be the leader and that I haven't been a very good one. My guess is you'll have to kill at least three of them who think it is fun to hit their women. I won't miss them at all and I don't think their women will either." "I'm not going to demand it, but I think you should be the first to learn how to deal with the horses and how to ride them. They are our most valuable possessions and they help us in more ways than you probably realize. Will you feel dishonored if Reela teaches you?" After Sahnay translated his answer of no, he wouldn't mind learning from a woman we parted and his lessons started while I went to help skin out and do the little bit of processing the lions were going to get. Cinqua and Christy wanted to help and in fact even the smallest girls wanted to be involved. We watched them carefully and let them do what they could. Mostly they ended up holding and then rinsing blood off the teeth and claws after they were removed. I did my best to seem as if I was paying attention to what I was doing, but I spent most of my time glancing toward the new men. A thought came to me and I asked Mecha to see if she could tend to the bruises and scrapes that must be adorning the one I'd had trouble with. I wasn't picking on him this time, since I did want to make sure he wasn't actually hurt. I even cut off two thick pieces of lion meat for her to hold against his bruised eye and cheek. Sometimes when I think of something I have no idea the kind of difference it will make. Congra, the one I'd tangled with, was amazed I'd send my woman over to take care of his hurts. He understood she was a healing woman, but it seemed it made the attention from her even more of a status symbol for him. Being doctored with fresh meat from a lion seemed to please him even more and I later learned he'd actually asked Mecha if she would explain to his woman what she was doing. Apparently he told Mecha he often let his attitude get him in trouble. At any rate, most of the Neanderthals were getting acclimated faster than I'd hoped. They were amazed again when Chris and Mary came out and started showing their women to the space they'd cleared out inside our cave for their belongings. They seemed surprised we'd make room inside for them and there'd be no need to erect huts. I guess they didn't have any trouble understanding after they got a look at the size of the cave's interior. Catching on to riding a horse seemed to go faster for Growwta than I'd expected. Thankfully all of ours were well mannered by now. I had plans for Growwta and at least a couple of the other new arrivals to ride to Jockat's place with me in a couple of days. I figured it would grease the skids for talking Jockat's people into joining us. Our new arrivals were introduced to another big surprise at suppertime. Many of them were nearly convinced we weren't going to have an evening meal since I made sure it didn't get started until nearly dark thirty. Since we were already inside the cave it was plenty dark for my show. Our original three small light bulbs wouldn't have made much of an impression I'm sure, but the dc powered florescent fixtures we'd found in the PBY had been easy to strategically install and just one of the massive twenty-four volt batteries from the salvaged helo was plenty of power. Of course the light they provided wouldn't have seemed like much to modern people, but it was amazing and wonderful here and now. Even though eating by fluorescent light wasn't in the same class as a candlelight dinner, most of the new ones I could see seemed to enjoy it. It did keep things a little subdued but nothing alarming. When I had Sahnay make an announcement apologizing for the lack of more tables than the one my family ate at and promise more soon so everyone could eat at a table there was a generalized rumble of approval. That was about it for the Neanderthal civilization attempts for the night. After the dishes and utensils were cleaned and put away we all headed for the furs. I left the small bulbs on but they didn't make enough light to deter sleeping. For some reason my women seemed more enthusiastic about bedtime, or furtime, than usual. I'd hung back for a few words with Growwta and my women were all naked on the fur pile when I reached them. I could smell aroused pussy before I got there and Chris, Mary, Mecha, Reela, and Keela met me at the edge of the furs, stripped me bare, and sacrificed me to Cheetal and Sholou, but only as starters. It seemed they worked on me for hours and practically demanded I do my duty to all. If you think I'm complaining you are wrong. I rested so well after the workout in the furs the night before that I was up early. Cheetal and Sholou had commandeered the coffee making chore and they came bringing me a cup as soon as I was dressed and even before I made it to the table. I offered them another sip and even though I could tell they didn't really want it they took a small one and smiled as if it was the most wonderful thing they'd ever had. Growwta joined me in a few minutes but he politely declined a mug off coffee. He'd come to me for marching orders and I was glad because I needed some information from him. "I think you should take more training with the horses, but do you have any men that are good working with wood?" "Yes, Cragna is an excellent spear maker. Shalot is also good with spears and he makes small things like stools and tables. He is also an excellent flint knapper. "Good, that is very good. I hope they will make the tables for us." "I'm sure they will be glad to if we don't need to do much hunting. Felling the trees is always the hardest part of making large furniture," he said, and Sahnay translated. "I can fell trees with no problem. After I talk to them a few of us will go and take care of it." As soon as breakfast was over I took Reela, Keela, Kemela, Welta, Sahnay, and Shantee with me along with a few horses, and the chainsaw and headed for the back forest in the first valley in search of table and chair material. Cheetal and Sholou didn't let me out of their sight either. They thought further ahead than anyone since they brought coffee, mugs, and the coffee pot. Cragna and Shalot came along too since I wanted them to help pick their materials. The two craftsmen picked out the trees they wanted, but I had to ask them to select more. Sahnay said they were afraid they'd picked out three days worth of felling already. I had her ask them to pick out as many again, and when they'd marked them I fired up the chainsaw. They were stupefied as trees hit the ground in a rush. They also fell in love with the two axes I brought along for limbing and they barely knew what to think when I sent them back with Kemela so they could show her where to release the first load of four trees she would be taking back with Lola providing the work. I used an axe to continue limbing while they were gone and only remembered the hundreds of gallons of suitable fuel in the PBY when I spotted it as I was watching them return. I'd worried about preserving the saw gas so long saving it was ingrained. Of course I could forget that now, but I hadn't until that moment. I fired the chainsaw back up and finished all the limbing while they were in transit. It only took three more trips to have all the logging done. The whole crew went back with the last load. I'd intended to help our two carpenters with the splitting, but they were so excited when I showed them how well our steel wedges worked with a two-pound hammer. They loved the new tools and we left the two of them at it. Growwta had been riding all morning on his own. It looked to me like he had a handle on things and I decided it was time to show him the next valley in line. We took a break for an early lunch and after we finished Chris and Mary joined my current crew while Cheetal and Sholou stayed behind, we saddled up and headed for the next valley. We stopped to go over the already explored caves so Growwta, Chris, and Mary could take a look at them too. Growwta was most impressed since I hadn't even mentioned them to him yet. As soon as he'd had a look at the biggest, two-entrance model and the smaller one we'd checked out last we decided to resume the lion interrupted circumnavigation where we'd left off last time. ------- Chapter 30 We mounted again and retraced our trail around the outer wall. I pointed out where we'd come across the lions as we passed it and Growwta was impressed. Nearly a mile farther on he was even more impressed, and so were we. Two mature female cave bears and four cubs were gobbling up berries at a prodigious rate. That wasn't surprising since it was the biggest patch of black berries I'd ever seen. As best I could tell it had to be at least five acres of the thorny delicacy. I asked Kemela to lead Growwta and the others back toward the small cave while Reela, Keela, Chris, Mary and I dismounted and sent our mounts back with the rest. Chris, Mary, and Keela took one mama bear while Reela and I drew beads on the other one. Of course the bears had seen us by now but they weren't interested. It was obvious we were staying back and I'm sure they didn't consider us dangerous. We all fired on my signal and both mothers hit the ground and stayed there. It seemed a little cruel when we got around to the youngsters, but we did what we had to. Afterwards it was more of stop and deal with the fresh kills. I sent Reela back to the main cave and asked her to bring everyone except for a small crew to watch the cave's entrance and guard it against any threat. We left the bear meat where it was, regrouped, and left Kemela to watch over them until the others arrived while the rest of us continued. I thought we might as well go on and actually hoped we could get rid of a couple more bears, or some lions today. Our next customer wasn't a lion or bear though. It was an obviously pregnant wolf. We didn't kill her but Reela stayed behind to see if she could track the wolf to her den. I had visions of trying to trap the female before she gave birth. Reela and Kemela caught back up with us as we were examining the passage into the last valley. The river, which ran through the first passage made its way through this one too. I decided to just stop here and wait, mostly. There was no sense in potentially stirring up more predators while Reela was still slow trailing the pregnant wolf. In the meantime Chris, Mary, and I headed through the passage intending to get a first peek into the next valley. The footing in this passage wasn't as good as in the first one. It was plenty wide but more of the bottom was rocky and it wasn't possible to make the whole trip feet dry. The stream meandered completely against the wall on one side and then the next. If we'd been walking through we'd have had to wade three or four times. It was worth the trip though. The last valley was even larger. I'd noticed from the air of course, but the difference was more impressive on the ground. I estimated it might be even twice the size of the central valley we'd just been in. There was obviously more game in it too. More aurochs, bison, and even several Mammoths were visible. The grass seemed substantially higher for some reason and it seemed greener. I didn't have any idea why, but it's the way things looked. Apparently this valley was just more fertile. Chris went back to the others and told them to come on in for a look around. Reela was back with us now and she told me she'd found the wolf's den and knew how to find it again easily. We could come back with shovels and a big cage tomorrow, for now I wanted to finish the circular trip around the middle valley we'd already started so we all returned to it and started around the other side. The first thing of interest was another cave probably a quarter of a mile on around. It was fairly large too and it also had running water and there were a couple of handy holes where the water ran out - they were perfectly suitable for indoor shitters too. We passed more berry patches and I saw three more bee trees on the way around, but we didn't see any more wolves, cats, or bears until we were nearly back out of the forest. We could already see it was thinning before we spotted five mature cave bear mothers, nine cubs, and even a giant male in the biggest berry patch yet. The sows were keeping the male far from their cubs but they were all chowing down on the berries. It was a hell of a note, but we decided we should take care of all the sows before we took on the male. If we left them until last the sows would probably come after us trying to protect their cubs from potential danger hinted at by all the loud noises. This time we got our lies completely straight on which bear we were to shoot first and we also planned out who each of us would help if one of our targets held up longer. We sent the unarmed back to make sure they were out of danger, each of us picked a tree we thought we could get up if worse came to worst, and we all found a comfortable and useful rest for more accurate fire. All the bears survived the first shot and since no one shot the male in that round he was up on his hind legs giving us a hard looking over. We didn't try to maintain simultaneous fire after the first shot so the rifle shots continued rapidly until all the sows were on the ground. By the time they were all down the male was convinced something was dreadfully wrong, made a hell of a roar, and started in our direction. We all fired at him then and he went down at once. We did away with the youngsters then. They were all small and we could have captured some of them easily, but what the hell would we do with a pet cave bear after a year or two of its growth. We had a major meat moving job now, but it turned out not to be so much of a problem. We were not far from our exit back onto the plain and we were even able to go out and signal for the others to head our way. They were done with moving the first kills to the front to be processed already and they came with the horses and plenty of help with only a little waving. Of course this was more meat than we had any immediate need for and it was going to be one hell of a lot of work. Still, killing them this way was not nearly as dangerous as trying to lure them out of a cave to do it, and the cave bears had to go. They were too damned dangerous to leave roaming around. Growwta was completely amazed. In the first place they'd have never hunted the monsters on purpose. In the second this was more dead meat than he'd ever seen at one time, not to mention more bearskins for warm winter clothing. Everyone except the children, Cragna, and Shalot was on bear duty now. Keela and Reela rode back to our home and brought back four more horses. Kemela went with them and brought the chain saw and one axe so we could make more travois. It took most of the rest of the day to get the carcasses back near our cave and it was more than an hour after sunset before we had them all gutted and skinned out. We had to set up a guard rotation for the night too and we built and tended several fires to make sure nothing bothered the meat we'd have to finish tending to tomorrow and with the drying it would even take a few more days. Not to mention the need to build dozens of additional drying racks. At least we'd be set up well with meat. Setup well wasn't really the half of it. It was past time to go see Jockat about his people coming for a visit and maybe to stay. Growwta, Mary, Chris, Mecha, Reela, and Keela planned a trip for first thing day after tomorrow. Of course we had plenty of fresh bear for breakfast the next morning. We decided to eat the young ones first since they'd be more tender and it would be easier to deal with the larger ones for preserving. Our new members, both men and women, were practically giddy about the wealth of food. They hadn't been on short rations or anything, but hunting meat with sharpened sticks was always a chancy business. It would be months before we had any need to hunt any animals unless they looked like they'd cause us troubles in some way. The Neanderthal women showed they were going to be one hell of an asset right off the bat too. We had so many women with us now the extra meat turned out to be less of a chore than one or two would have been for my group before. They also knew a way to include blackberries while preserving the meat, and supposedly it made it even tastier when it was used later. At least they claimed it would. We wouldn't know the truth until we got around to eating some, but we had no reason to doubt them. Everyone thought it was a wonderful omen of things to come since it seemed to happen when they'd moved in with us. Most of my crew already understood there would be a tremendous amount of meat coming in as we culled the two additional valleys, but even knowing it wasn't as impressive as having tons of food appear in one day. It was basically assholes and elbows all the next day. Everyone was tired when night came even if they were happy over the developments. The Neanderthal men had even been pressed into food preparing service and they weren't put out a bit over it. Washing out intestines and cutting up meat wasn't nearly the job going out and killing the meat would have been. The next morning after breakfast Chris, Mary, Mecha, Growwta, and I headed toward the cave we'd passed down to Jockat, leading a saddled spare mount. Nothing much seemed to be going on but it looked like most of them were home. Jockat threw out the welcome mat for us when he got word. He was glad we'd made it back and after Mecha told him about he helo and flying machine in her own words he started acting like a young boy with worms. He couldn't sit still. After she mentioned the group of others who'd moved into our valley to live with us he was done for. Chris started telling of our recent bear massacre then and Jockat was only saved from begging to go home with us and take a look by me inviting him to come along. When he learned the extra horse we'd brought with us was for carrying him there the deal was done. Of course his mates and a few others had heard most of the talking, and the rumor spread like wildfire among the rest of his folk. Jockat was waiting on go, so we mounted up and headed home after giving him rudimentary riding instructions and telling his people we'd bring him back tomorrow and bring along more spare mounts so more of them could see our place. Actually climbing aboard a horse and riding it was something Jockat had a hard time getting over at first. He reminded me of a kid taking his first ride on the killer roller coaster he'd heard so much about. He was thrilled, but scared shitless at the same time. Mecha, who was an accomplished rider by now did the explaining for him and rode near him to help with pointers. He made a few false moves at first, but with her help he caught on fast. Of course the trip home took longer than the trip to Jockat's cave. Mainly because it was also Jockat's first rodeo on the hurricane deck of a horse. The mare he rode was well broken, but it was a new skill for him and there are things to learn. When we rode into our valley it was culture shock all over again for Jockat. The helo had him spellbound until he switched to looking at the PBY. Even on the ground the resemblance to a bird in flight was obvious. Mecha gave him the tale of the ride we'd all taken when he asked about the plane. That kept him quiet for a long while, but when she told him I'd flown the plane here and landed in the valley he gave me the oddest look and got quiet again. Putting two and two together I got the feeling Jockat was getting ready to put me into a sort of deity classification or something. His look gave me the feeling. My first instinct was to head this off, but I wised up and decided to see if I could use it to get the camp merging deal over with sooner. In real life we should do more preparations before we tried it, but being born and raised in Texas had naturally made me a strike while the iron is hot kind of guy. Besides, we could do any needed preparations and settling in work easier with more people, and especially more who I could speak to directly. I was learning the Neanderthal's language but the going was slow. Later that night I was going to button hole Chris and Mary and make sure they thought I'd be doing the right thing, but I was sure in my own mind I only wanted to take Jockat back to his cave to get his followers loaded up to head this way. ------- Chapter 31 Mary and Chris agreed wholeheartedly with my plan and the next morning I was one of the first up. I was able to take a good survey of the space we still had available. I'd ask Jockat what he thought first, but to me it looked like we could all live in this cave, for now anyway. I broached the question while we were having breakfast. He was excited with the thought of joining us so we discussed it for a while. He said clearly from the first he wouldn't want to be the leader and knew I'd be the only possible choice. I didn't mentinon it was already my intention. It was my turn to clue him in on the way women and men split duties in my camp then and he didn't think it would be a problem at all, and admitting that was the way they did things now mostly. "We will have one of my men grumbling over it, but we can take care of him," Jockat said. "I've already had to tussle with one of he others when hey first came and I'm not too proud to do it again. After they're here, if he causes trouble and won't mend his ways I'll send him off and his woman won't be leaving with him unless she makes me believe she wants too. I don't let the men beat their women," I said. "I don't either, I've always hated that and if there's a man in my camp who does it I don't know about him. It is a disgraceful thing to do." "Do you think we can get everyone settled in this one cave for a while?" "For a while? Yes, we will not need more room than this cave, but are you going to move again?" Jockat asked. "Yes, but not at first. We have already found a better cave in the next valley back. We haven't been able to search the last valley farthest back though. The only reason we haven't moved to it yet is because we want to make sure it is the best cave. We don't want to move and then find an even better cave in the last valley." "That is good planning. We won't have any trouble finding places enough in this cave, and if you find a better one later moving again won't be such a bother. But what of your magical birds? How can you move them? Can they still fly?" he asked. "The one that looks most like a bird can still fly, and there is room for it to land in the last valley. The other one lost its wings in the storm that brought us here. I think we can move it to the back valley too, but it will be harder and will be much work. We won't worry about moving either one until we are sure where we are going." "It all sounds excellent. When should we go tell my people?" "I think we should go today, and soon if it is what you wish." "It is." We didn't take Growwta on this trip. Chris, Mary, Mecha, Kemela, Reela, Keela, Welta, Shantee, and I went with Jockat. We took a few minutes to show Jockat how to lead two horses from the back of another one before we left though. It would be much better if he showed back up appearing to already be a proficient horseman. He wouldn't need any extensive skill to look that way to his members, but he did need a few pointers. Chris, Mary, Reela, Keela, and I were only going along as a sort of escort. My other women would stay to help get the move organized while the five of us came back to ride herd over the main camp. Growwta could have probably done a fine job, but when I asked him he was hesitant to take on the responsibility yet. Jockat's people seemed all for it as soon as he spread the news. When he didn't get any initial squawking he told them all loudly about the modified rules of engagement over the way women would be treated and meals would be served, or not served but only made available. He did get some grumbling from one man and his glance let me know it was from the one he expected. We were still mounted and I was about to go introduce myself, but Jockat beat me to it and practically ran to the offender. It surprised me a little since Jockat's leadership had always seemed very low key, even though things always seemed to be running smoothly in his camp. After he talked to the offender by hand I realized the guy would have been far better off if I'd taken over the duty. From my perch in the saddle I had a good view and I saw exactly why Jockat's camp always seemed to run smoothly. Jockat didn't pull punches during discipline. He beat the coon dog shit out of the offender. I was sure he wouldn't be able to do anything but ride to his new home. Chris, Mary, Reela, Keela, and I left then. Jockat said they would come tomorrow, leaving here early. He wasn't sure they could bring everything in one trip, but promised they'd try. We had our own things to take care of as soon as we made it back. I guess it was wishful thinking, but I'd decided the last valley would surely have suitable facilities available and I got several people started unloading the PBY into a section of the horse cave temporarily. Mostly it was for safety's sake and to gain more room for error. I was practically sure there'd be no trouble taking off here and landing back there, but removing weight wouldn't hurt, and if a fuckup did happen it would be better if I didn't scatter the bounty all over a crash site. Most of my women could shoot well by now, and all could ride even better. I decided to go back to the rear valley for more inspection and since most of the work was basically finished we mounted up. We only had ten horses here though. They would be enough for most of my mates who were still here, but it wouldn't leave any extra for pulling meat travois. I decided to leave a few of them to mind the camp, just in case. I'd intended to ask Growwta to ride back there with us, but he thought he should stay at camp to at least make a show at keeping the lid on. Finally Chris, Mary, Reela, Keela, Sahnay, Crayta, and I chose our weapons and mounted. We were going to try not to kill anything today, but we'd send for help cleaning and move anything we had to shoot. We made it through the middle valley with only one stop. We were bringing a new improved wolf trap to set out near the den of the pregnant wolf Keela had tracked down. Keela was dragging it behind her mount in fact, on a special small travois I'd have built last night. We set and baited the trap and left it in place. As we filed into the new valley we saw more game today and even more species. I recognized the thirty or so Wooly Rhinos almost at once and I was shocked. There were also several more Mammoths feeding and the bison were much more evident today along with many horses and over two hundred aurochs. This was better than a frozen meat locker. We weren't after game though so we started around the left side valley walls, but stayed about a hundred yards out from them to make seeing what was coming next in them easier. We stopped in place for a minute while I fished out the binoculars and took a short survey of what we'd encounter. I thought I could see an entrance opening nearly a mile away and we headed for it. After a half mile of travel it was clear there was not only an entrance, but two within a hundred or so yards of each other. I wondered if it was something like the one we'd found in the central valley where two entrances led to one cave. When we arrived things were clearer. One entrance was roughly ten feet high and eight or so feet wide. The other was about the same height by probably thirty feet wide. We dismounted and I stepped to the smaller one with a flashlight and with Reela and Keela guarding my back. It took several minutes to get a good idea of the size and it was practically perfect for us. My best guess was four times the size of our current cave. Near a back wall water was flowing in from some sort of crack in the wall and it ran into a small trench it had cut over the centuries and disappeared down in three separate holes that seemed deep and were easily large enough to dispose of waste. I tasted the water and it seemed pure but was nearly freezing cold. I guessed it might be melt water from a glacier on the other side or top of this mountain. The floor was mostly level and was another feature in favor of this cave. The most surprising part was the way the walls seemed very regular without any rock formations jutting out to get in the way. It seemed like one large open room and best of all there were no occupants of any species - none large enough for us to see anyway. This was going to be our new home. It was easily large enough for the combined groups and in fact would give us more room than any cave we'd ever lived in. The last possible snag was whether fires in the cave would be able to draft smoke out. We built a small test fire and piled green limbs and leaves on. The smoke went up and drifted out somewhere. Almost as if it had been planned the other nearby cave with the wider entrance was just the ticket too. It wasn't as large as the central valley's double entrance cave but it wasn't much smaller and it was easily large enough for our horses. In fact it could hold more than ten times as many while still leaving room for riding practice and some training inside. We'd even be able to exercise the horses during the winter. It also had near freezing water flowing in and out and there was plenty of it. I was ready to start moving now. We would need to make a serious inspection of any proposed landing area before we tried it, but there was easily enough room to land without having to remove any trees while I knew from the overhead view the largest part of the valley by far was wooded. It might take us years to explore the wooded portion. There were no complaints from any of my mates over moving to this new pair of caves. The opposite was true. They were all ready to get started today. At first I'd wanted to clear the two valleys of predators before moving into one, but now realized it would be senseless to try that. We'd waste most of our time killing and processing animals and hauling them all the way to the forward most valley, and from what we'd already run into I knew it was just too much extra work. Our time would be much better spent moving and being careful not to let anything vicious slip up on us. We stopped our search and headed back toward the front valley. We'd had more luck on the trip back. The pregnant wolf was in the cage, looked even closer to her delivery date than last time we'd seen her, and seemed fairly upset about her predicament. It hadn't kept her from doing serious damage to the bison hearts and livers we'd used for bait though. Her distended stomach was probably going a long way toward making her look so pregnant. She howled, growled, and threatened while we put her cage onto the task built travois to take her with us, but raising hell was all she could do about it. That and ride along whether she wanted to or not. Growwta could barely believe the new cave was as good as we claimed, but he understood if it was even as good as the one we were using now it would be more convenient to cut distance off the trips to carry game to where we needed it. He was also surprised with the appearance of the wolf. Sahnay helped by translating while I told him it was how we came to have wolves traveling and living with us. We began getting organized for moving right away. Growwta took over getting the people who'd come with him on the ball and my mates and children who were here made preparations mostly. With most of the horses off to fetch Jockat and his people we wouldn't be able to do much moving. Chris, Mary, and my two self-appointed bodyguards had news for me though. They broke out stored travois and got busy packing up our furs and as much of our things as they could with the horses we did have available. "We must move in first. You are the leader and need to take best place first so others know where to put their things," Reela explained, and it did make sense. I even helped them stepping and fetching all they'd let me. I guess they finally decided I was more of a nuisance while they were working than a help. They conspired with Cheetal and Sholou to have something for me to eat prepared and some coffee made. After I was done they put me to playing with the children so we could keep each other from getting underfoot. Two hours later we headed out for our new home with a loaded travois being pulled by every available horse. The trip was uneventful and soon enough we pulled into the cave. The women decided on the prime location and we unloaded everything and then headed back so others could use the horses and travois to get some of their things down here. Growwta volunteered to spend the night in our current cave with a few of his people so someone would be there tomorrow when Jockat, his people, and the rest of my mates arrived in case they made it before we came back up from our new place. Jockat and his people could just continue to the new digs and skip the step of unloading at the old cave and having to load back up to come back to the new one. ------- Chapter 32 We were all inside the new cave, busily unloading when the rest of my mates, those who'd stayed to help Jockat's people organize their move, came in to join us. Mecha had been leading the group and she told me she hadn't wanted to stay overnight. "They knew what to do by the time we left and they have plenty of horses and help. We wanted to be home so we left. We came on back to this valley when we learned the rest of you had. We weren't very far behind, in fact we saw the last of you going into the woodline in the middle valley." "I'm Glad you came back early. We can have a little celebration for our first night in the new cave," I said, picking her up in my arms and spinning her around. It was a good move since it had her giggling and yelling for me to put her down. I did of course, and then gave Kemela the same treatment, and then the others in turn. My frivolity was well received, especially by the children. I wasn't done yet though. I asked Chris to go ahead and dig out her iPod again and I even helped her select the first number. Somehow "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly sounded just right to me and Chris said "What the hell," and put it on. Chris had never considered her iPod a proper way to play music. To her it was only handy temporary storage media. Of course this meant it would have never been appropriate as the primary sound system for enjoying music. It also meant it wasn't going to be the only device she extracted from the carrying case she almost never left home without. Our original trip had been planned as a two-week vacation and her soft-sided musical-stuff case had come on the trip too. Including the laptop she devoted to MP3s only and her three piece set of Klipsch speakers with its sub-woofer and two satellite speakers. The amount of sound she could generate from such a small system would make the TV advertised Bose setup crawl away and hide behind a commode. Of course everyone but Mary and me crowded around to watch whatever Chris was doing. Mary took the short break to buttonhole Welta and ask her to provide more of the alcoholic drink she'd come up with earlier. Welta smiled wide when Mary mentioned it and came back with a skin-bag full of the stuff just before Chris finished her wiring job and set Iron Butterfly's biggest hit playing. It was nothing like the Garth Brooks tune she'd started with the last time we did any real celebrating, but the haunting first few bars got their attention at once, then Welta and Mary started handing out cups of the booze as the bass line got going. Even though they could only understand a word or two of the lyrics the back beat and bass line had prehistoric hips swaying within minutes and even the children were excited. Christy and Cinqua tried to copy the mature women by swishing their young asses, but the younger ones mostly concentrated on stomping their feet to the beat. Still they were all dancing, sorta, in seconds. I got my ass busy putting up a few of our magic light fixtures. Hell, I wanted to see it all. Apparently Chris wasn't going to be satisfied with me observing the night away though. Her next selection had nothing to do with any type of rock and roll. I didn't recall the name of the track but it was country and the beat practically screamed two-step. No doubt I'd be called on to finish the lessons I'd started that time before. Dancing was fun for me and I didn't mind one damned bit. Most of the kids were sacked out by now, but Christy and Cinqua were still up and wanted a lesson too. I gave them both a turn and then Chris and Mary helped them with more pointers after their first lesson was done. My main complaint was I could only dance with one woman at a time. The women weren't dismayed though. As soon as I finished a song teaching one she'd take a partner for practicing and sharing what she'd learned. My next thought just shows how my mind works when it gets lubricated with strong drink. Suddenly I was dreaming of a caveman titty bar. I couldn't find a brass pole for the girls to swing around on, but I thought I could smooth off a small hardwood and mount it firmly after I cobbled up a stage. Luckily I came to my senses before I daydreamed up a riot. It would be fine to have something like that and I could probably even cajole my women into performing for me, but there was no privacy in a cave, and I was pretty sure getting dozens of cave men to spring a boner would not lead to a pleasant evening for all concerned. No doubt I'd have to end up shooting several of them. Well, it was a nice diversion for a few minutes, but when things came down to it my boat was already loaded. Not only did I have more women than I could hose per night, I even had Cinqua and Christy waiting in the wings, not to mention the widow of any man I might be forced to kill in the future. Where Christy and Cinqua were concerned I could always hope they'd find some young man nearer their age to admire and then give it up for, but I had my doubts. I was afraid proximity would keep their focus on me and I knew myself well enough to understand when they started asking I wasn't going to be able to tell them no forever. Luckily the two of them decided they'd had enough dancing lessons and stumbled to the children's furs for the night. As if it was the cue Chris had been waiting for, she switched to all country slow songs all the time. She even came over to get the first turn at the new tempo. Our dance party degenerated into vertical foreplay after that. I heard Mary egging it on by telling Reela and Keela all there was to this type of dance was moving around slowly with me while I played with their goodies. What the hell, it was fine with me. A few dances later I discovered I actually could fingerfuck a woman on the dance floor and still seem to be dancing with her, kinda. Now was the time to teach them the horizontal bop, and I could do it to any type of music. The next morning started out grand. I didn't even have to go outside to piss, and since there were no fixtures yet I got a wonderful view of any woman I wanted to watch pee. Most of them didn't even bother to put on a stitch before they headed for the bathroom. Breakfast was another treat. We didn't have a table down here yet, but there were plenty of cooks and they'd brought more than enough food. After we'd finished eating Reela, Keela, and me headed back to the first valley while the others stayed behind to get our things organized. That first night had put Growwta and Jockat in charge of the initial merging of their two groups. I could tell right away that it hadn't been completely painless since both of them had skinned knuckles and Jockat even had a small knot on his head. Things seemed to be going smoothly now though. We got together for a small talk over a cup of tea right off the bat and I was a little surprised to see Growwta call Congra over to join us. I greeted him and didn't say anything else about his appearance, but Jockat did. "I'm not sure how much progress we'd have made last night without Congra. Several men in both groups thought they needed to assert themselves. Growwta and I had our hands full with discipline until Congra decided we needed some help. "He provided it from behind with a stout club, and he didn't even kill a single fool. He did give Balat, one of my idiots, a nice nap though. Balat thought I needed this knot on my head and he installed it while I was busy," Jockat said. "I could see things were getting confused and I thought with less men standing and shouting we could restore order more quickly. I seem to remember someone pointing that out to me a few days ago," Congra said, and he and Growwta laughed. I was impressed with Congra's progress toward responsibility, but didn't actually count the ass kicking I gave him as a major motivator. I didn't know what had set him on the straight and narrow for a while, but was glad to take any help we could get. Things were looking up though because breakfast had been served here and there'd been no major malfunctions. Growwta and Jockat both thought the moving should resume right away and they got their people started. We had a lot of horses now, but still not nearly enough to carry everything. Many travois had to be pulled by men and women. The girls and I spread ourselves out along the line to help with protection and about half of the combined men did the same. The remainder of the men and most of the women helped pull travois. Almost all the things belonging to our new members were moved with the early morning trip. My mates and I still had a lot of moving to do, but it could wait. The rest of the day was devoted to unpacking and getting settled. We took the next day off for getting our new home organized too. Mostly it was making tables and chairs or stools and other things that made life easier in a permanent residence. Meanwhile I spent lots of time marking out a potential landing strip for the PBY. I was able to get plenty of length for a runway, but was going to need help checking for obstructions which might be hidden in the grass. We took off early that night for our complete new group to celebrate together. The women cooked plenty of food and then the booze, or at least what they had to substitute, was passed around. A good-natured drunken state ruled the rest of the evening, and somehow we made it through without any fights. I considered it remarkable luck. The usual drawback from a good drunk put progress on hold the next morning. The main thing I needed to get done was a thorough search of my marked off runway to rid it of rocks, exposed roots, or hidden stumps. It was a perfect day for such but the people weren't in perfect shape. A pounding headache wasn't conducive to paying attention to the ground while wandering around in high grass. Slow progress didn't put me off my feed though, in fact the opposite was true. Sure, there were things we needed to get done and yes, hangover recovery time was holding us back. Unlike the life Chris, Mary, and I had come from though, there was no rush. We didn't have a deadline. In fact some of the strange things we'd come across, namely the PBY from nowhere had already saved us years worth of effort. I had a great idea of exactly where we were and mostly of what we'd find near us. I new where we might explore for possible beneficial resources and I also knew where we needn't bother. I wanted to get our runway useable, but there was no hurry. Tomorrow would be soon enough. And it was. We had an early rise and a good breakfast with plenty of tea to get started. I took the floor for a little speech then and explained I was going to try bringing my big bird back here to join us. Everyone was excited at once, and after I explained the bird could be injured when it came back to earth if we didn't make sure the path was clear, everyone was ready to go out and take care of things right away. Hell, they seemed excited by the prospect. They were even happier when we made it outside and I showed them the path the bird would take when it settled back to earth. Of course they'd all seen me marking it off while their heads were pounding, but it made sense to them after they understood what it was for. With Jockat and Growwta's help I had everyone line up across one end of the prospective airstrip and we headed toward the other end, one step at a time. In their enthusiasm they scoured the ground. If they found a rock they could handle alone they raced away to put it well clear and raced back into place; if the rock was too large to handle alone it was mobbed by any others who thought they could even get close enough to get a hand in on the job. The same was true of roots that needed removing or small holes that needed filling. Finally, the ones who didn't see any such obstacles started carrying dried dung to the edge. We had plenty of people who wanted to be a part of this and frankly, there wasn't enough detritus to be removed. Three Neanderthal men were practically giddy when they found a small tree which had been pushed down, probably by a Mammoth. They ripped it out of the ground roots and all and ran away with it smiling wide. One thing I hadn't expected was the thorough care they took to make sure things were done exactly right. As soon as we made it to the end they decided we needed to shuffle around and head right back over the same ground. We did it three times and at the last they even started removing the not even nearly dry dung they found. The cooking for the noon meal didn't start until about two PM and while the women cooked, most of the men sat around and bragged about the crap they'd removed from the runway as they now knew it was called. I considered the job done and was all for taking off early tomorrow morning, but Congra posed the question of clearing the other runway. When I asked him what he meant I learned he was talking about the one I'd need to take off from. To him, and to others after he mentioned it, it seemed only right our big bird would need a clean place to start flying from. Who was I to argue? I said it would be better, but I'd been afraid they wouldn't want to do it all again. The next morning we all, every one of us, walked back to the first valley and not only cleared a runway for takeoff, but they also scoured the proposed taxiway. ------- Chapter 33 After all the work they'd put in everyone wanted to see both the takeoff and the landing. It worried me a little since I wasn't sure the landing strip would remain clear of animals with no one in the back valley to make sure of it. I was embarrassed, but only to myself since I told no one else, but I had ignored the obvious solution. Since they all loved the idea of our big bird I'd nearly missed an excellent chance to put on an impressive show. I was on it now though. I had a short talk with Chris and Mary and they agreed to help, then I made the happy announcement. A change in plans was put forth. First I'd take off with everyone up in the first valley to watch and then I'd do one touch and go and finally I'd land again. The takeoff, touch and go, and landing at the same place was explained as to make sure it would be safe for me to take Chris and Mary with me for the next takeoff. After we were airborne we would circle around and examine the area more closely while everyone else returned to the back valley to make sure the runway was clear of animals. It would give us an hour or so of flight time to get a real good look at where we were and it was a good stall for while they were moving. The change of plans was very well received and all I could think of now was getting on with the show. We were going to wait until tomorrow to get an early start, so we headed back to our new digs and spent the rest of the day doing mostly nothing but talking about tomorrow's excitement. The next morning it was quite a job to keep everyone calm enough to eat. I wouldn't budge without some coffee though and that was final. Soon enough we were on our way. Things were nearly at a fever pitch by the time the PBY had been hand rolled to the head of the strip and I hadn't even started the engines yet. When I finally fired up the first one most of our people were frightened at first, but they caught on it was part of the show and they actually roared some type of cheer when I started the other one. The preflight cockpit checks flew by and then I ran the engines up and released the brakes when the time was right. The rollout was a little longer than I'd expected and I guess it was from the grass and semi-soft ground, but I had no trouble getting airborne. About two thousand feet seemed enough to me and I made a long circle and came back for the touch and go. It went perfectly and when I took a glance at the crowd every one of them was waving fanatically at me. The landing a few minutes later was even more excitement for most of them and they were spellbound when I simply turned around and taxied back to the starting place. Everyone was happy again when Chris and Mary came and got in for their part. Mary said she'd been patted on the back for encouragement until she thought she might be bruised over it and Chris echoed her comment. "Wait until we land down there. They all love this and it's making us heroes," I said. "Maybe. You must make damned sure you don't crash us and give them even more excitement," Chris said. This takeoff was uneventful too, but once we were in the air and had some altitude we had work to do. I flew us back to the lake first thing and we made sure there were no new arrivals. I hadn't expected any since there'd been no unusual weather events since the last time we were there. Things seemed just the same as we'd left them so we flew back to our valleys and worked a spiral pattern out from the center with all of us trying to get a look below us and wanting to make sure we remembered what we saw when we were back on the ground. "Dammit, we should have brought at least one of the digital cameras," Mary said, and it was the first time I'd thought of them since our crash. Carl had made sure we had the best available before we left and he'd planned on taking thousands of pictures, at least. I could remember being as happy as could be over the cameras since he'd bought one for each of us and I was sure we'd be taking them home after the trip. He'd also loaded up on the memory modules. "Don't worry, we're barely using any fuel at all and we'll have plenty for another flight later to get a more permanent record of our surroundings. At the moment I was looking over the reason for our running water. The mountains we were living among weren't extremely high, but they were containing a glacier field, or at least up against one anyway. It was almost certain the water we were getting was being melted out of the glaciers by the tremendous weight of the ice. Sadly our water supply would probably be exhausted within five or six thousand years. Now, since we had more time and more observers we spotted a large clearing near the rear end of our current home valley. It was easily twice as large as the clearing just outside our front door and it showed us where the animals went when they seemed to be absent in front. It also showed us there were easily twice as many as we'd thought before. We spotted several places we'd like to investigate later, but nothing that screamed for us to make the effort in a hurry. We were already doing very well where we were and I thought another flight with the cameras and some of the longer lenses Carl had found so necessary would tell us much more about what we might expect to find. One thing we didn't spot was more people. Strangely it didn't bother me a bit. The lack encouraged me to feel we wouldn't be bothered with un-neighborly neighbors any time soon and we had plenty of people to conduct our business now. The rest of our friends were into the back valley by now and so I made a trial run down to within ten feet of our new runway. It went even better than I'd thought it would. A small bunch of aurochs had drifted out of the wooded area and they were within a couple of hundred yards of where we'd end up. Buzzing the strip changed their minds and they cleared the area at once. After I climbed out again we turned and went over the downwind leg again, turned again and lined up for landing. I lowered the gear and we dropped in and I put it on the ground. Rolling out in the moderately high grass seemed exciting, but we didn't find anything nasty. As we came to rest I saw everyone on the ground was running to reach us so I killed the engines quickly to make sure they didn't encounter the spinning death in their excitement. We were able to exit before they reached us and it was a good thing because it took about half an hour to get them settled down. Of course everyone wanted to help push the plane to the place I'd marked out for it near our cave's entrance. Chris and Mary culled the volunteers and to keep from disappointing the children she tied a long rope to the nose wheel so they could pull. It was so long they'd probably be hard pressed to keep it from dragging the ground, much less be able to actually help much with the pulling. It was a wonderful idea though since it kept them busy and also had them far enough in front of me so I could stop easily if one or more fell down in my path. They picked out ten men to do the actual pushing and they stayed out to give directions while I took my seat at the controls again to do the steering. Fifteen minutes later the plane was in place and tied down to some hastily installed anchor points. Getting the helicopter back here wouldn't be nearly as exciting nor as easy. We had things to do though and people to see and we harnessed some real horsepower and plenty of us headed back to the front. Reela, Keela, Mary, Chris, Mecha, and I rode so we could have extra mobility as we provided an armed escort. The trip there was uneventful and getting the helo hitched to ten horses wasn't as difficult as you might imagine. Our trip to the back was tricky in spots though and especially getting the damned thing through the last gap. We had it parked by two PM though and it was damned sure time for lunch and a break. We still had plenty of things to move from the front cave back to these we were using now. Almost everything we'd unloaded from the PBY was still stacked inside the horse cave and there were a lot of furs and food still stored up there too. I decided we'd put it off until tomorrow though. We'd done enough for today. Things after we hit the furs were a little different tonight. All the downtime women had been impressed by my antics today, and by Mary and Chris too. It was as if they thought of us differently somehow. They insisted Chris and Mary were first for a weenie ride and then they really went to town trying to make my life a sexual thrill ride. Two or three of them kissed and caressed everything they could reach as I did the nasty with everyone. If one got off before I did another mounted me or pulled me between her legs as soon as possible. The next morning I had to sleep in for a couple of hours because I'd fucked so late into the night before. There could be worse fates. After I finally made it to the table I found breakfast everywhere. It was literally piled wide and deep, and I had no hope of stuffing it all in. I gave it my best shot since I'd already decided everyone was still too excited for any real work today. Most of the day continued in a general party atmosphere and I let it. There was nowhere we had to be any time soon. That night was another marathon fucking session, but thankfully we got started early. We weren't the only ones either. There were moans and groans from every direction. One thing about all of us living in the same cave was everyone knew when you were bumping fuzz with your mates. It went a long way toward making sure everyone got horny every night. Thankfully my myriad mates didn't try stuffing me full to the top the next morning. There was plenty to eat for sure, but I was able to do my duty to breakfast without getting too full to move. We did have work to do today. Moving the last of our new things wasn't quite the onerous task I'd expected. With everyone wanting to help we even had horses coming back without a damned thing on their travois and we didn't load a single one heavily. By two days later we had everything stowed in the main cave and we even had a few more electric lights running on battery power. I'd been able to cobble up a bicycle type chain drive for one of the helo's alternators and with everyone getting in five or ten minutes of pedaling a day we had more than enough power. Now there was a green solution for energy generation. Not that I needed to train my own Mongol type horde, but I was feeling a little insecure about having so many of my people who didn't ride well, or even at all. We started giving lessons early the next day and they went surprisingly well. The main stumbling blocks were not enough horses and not enough saddles either. For once I asked for help in planning ahead instead of just bailing off into what I thought should come next. Chris, Mary, and Mecha were surprised I'd come up with something so sensible and they told me early and often we needed to prepare racks for the skins and for preserving meat before we did any hunting. "Just because they are easy to kill doesn't mean they're no trouble to take care of after they're dead. Try shooting a few at a time for once," Chris said. "She'd right. Try to hold it down to four bison at a time. It will give us plenty of help to deal with them and with any predators you end up having to kill whether we need them or not," Mary said, and I was getting the message. "You two are not considering the way we feel about it. To us it is always important to kill any game we can. We've grown up living and dying over not enough meat. It is hard to become accustomed to killing only what we need for a few weeks. "It will be fine to make extra racks and gather smoking wood first, but when the hunting starts everyone will be happy to work long and hard taking care of more kills. I think we should keep taking game ahead of time and not worry about the extra work until people start complaining," Mecha said. In their ways all three of them were right. Chris and Mary were taking a sensible approach, but it was heavily influenced by the way they grew up. Hell, the way we'd grown up. Mecha and the people from this time had never been able to consider food as something you went for only when you needed it. If they didn't prepare ahead of time they starved. While the way Chris and Mary wanted to do things did make perfectly good sense for our situation it would make most people with us thinking we were living from hand to mouth, no matter that fresh meat was actually better. People from this time didn't have corner grocery stores to consider. They surely felt better with plenty of food stored in case times got hard, and if lean times didn't come after all, so much the better. At least I didn't have to try explaining it to Chris and Mary. They could realize the conflict as easily as I could, and maybe even more so. No woman I'd ever met wanted to even think about hungry children. We talked it over more carefully and finally the three women came up with a compromise. I was to kill a few bison and then prowl around in the woods trying for bears, lions, and other undesirables. We could even count on eating the bears and no one could doubt the need to kill any lion or any other cat we got the chance to do away with. Face it, if you live in a cave the thought of lions or other big cats becoming extinct didn't sound like a bad idea at all. We concentrated on riding lessons for the next two days and those who weren't involved worked on building racks and cutting and splitting oak and hickory for smoking. Once word got around about a big hunt in the next few days everyone tried to help. They built more racks than I thought we could ever use and piled up split wood by the cord. A better way of smoking the meat finally flashed back into my mind. We didn't have any large pipes to make the kind of smoker I was used to, but we could sure as hell come up with something better than cutting the meat thin and putting up racks near dozens of small fires. It's a good thing the idea came to me after lunch one day since I wouldn't have quit working on it in time for lunch if it had come early in the morning. No doubt I would have missed supper too and even bedtime if help hadn't arrived while I was digging a big hole near the stream running down through all the valleys. I did get help though and it kept building. Men who didn't have something to do kept drifting my way and after an hour or so I couldn't even get hold of a shovel. When the hole digging and mud mixing got too crowded I started sorting the spit wood for pieces I could use to make brick moulds. I was able to get through the sorting without more help than I needed, but when the carving and sizing got started I was soon swamped again. We called a halt just after sunset, had a delayed supper and then found our furs. I was too tired to fuck and my mates figured it out right away. When Chris, Mary, Mecha and even Reela and Keela quizzed me about what I was up to all I could do was tell them smoker and drop off to sleep. Yes, my muscles were complaining the next morning, but I could get around well enough to make it to the table for coffee and breakfast. There was mostly peace and quiet while I ate, but I could see Chris and Mary were going to get some information out of me or I was going to be confined to the furs until I gave it up. "I want some real meat smokers. We don't have much metal for them, but there were some metal fence post in the PBY and there are enough to use in a meat smoker. We're now making adobe bricks and smokers can be built out of bricks. We can use the metal fence post to make a grill surface. We'll lay the meat out on them and then keep a small oak and hickory fire going in a firebox on the side. The main part of the smoker will be a sort of horizontal chimney. "Well, you could have told us earlier," Mary said. "I probably should have, but now you know." "What will you use for a lid? It'll have to be pretty large and it can't weigh much or it'll be too hard to raise," Chris said. "Panels from the helicopter. They're aluminum and the heat on them shouldn't be too bad. They'll easily be light enough. ------- Chapter 34 After breakfast I went right back to work on the smoker and I had more help than I could use. A couple of Growwta's guys caught on to laying the adobe brick fast and with Sahnay's help I was able to get them going on what I wanted. I left them to it and made my way to the helo to see about removing an aluminum panel for use as a top. I found a good prospect for the end door right off the bat since one of the side compartments had a door which would do a fine job. I was even able to remove the frame around it and I took it to our newly elected masons for inclusion at their earliest convenience. After careful examination the big sliding door on the side looked like it would be our best bet for the top. Something would have to be rigged up to help while raising and lowering and we'd have to cobble up some sort of hinge to help hold it in place, but I thought it was our best bet. Unfortunately it took most of the rest of the day to get it off the remains of the bird and to remove the extraneous hardware we wouldn't need for smoking meat. Eventually I was eased out of this line of work too. It seemed no matter what I started there were people coming around wanting to get hands on training and then they'd take over the job. Maybe it was all part of delegating responsibility. Hell, I let it happen gladly. Being from Texas I wasn't afraid of work. I could stand around and watch people do it all day long without being the least bit frightened. Their behavior was actually helping make me be the leader instead of letting me try to do everything myself. I wised up and wandered from project to project, looking things over and trying to decide whether they were doing things closely enough to correct. Things in and around our living area were coming together even more quickly than what I had on my front burner outside. It was due to the more expert leadership the women had. I had lots of mates and my status as leader gave them status too. Besides, most of them were naturally take charge type girls. Chris, Mary, and Mecha were taking names and assigning duties inside while keeping Sahnay close to me so she could hold down misunderstandings from translation difficulties. Just after the lunch break some sort of commotion got started back near the woodline. Using the binoculars I could see some type of hunting was going on back there and it was four legged hunters doing it. I knew they had to eat to stay alive, but I didn't have to like it. In fact we were in direct competition with them for meat. Sooner or later they'd have to go and since everything seemed to be under control on the brick making and smoker building, Reela, Keela, Kemela, Welta, and I saddled some horses, picked up our rifles and headed back to at least thin out the predators. When we got near I could see cave lions had caused the trouble and things had escalated from there. Apparently the lions had downed two bison, but hyenas had intruded in greater numbers and had pushed the lions back from one of the kills. As far as my feelings went we could get along fine with no lions at all and no hyenas either. I was wary about taking on the whole crowd at once, but decided if we stayed mounted we'd be safe enough. The bad part was the numbers. There were eight or nine mature lions and at least twenty hyenas. They were still at sort of a standoff and making noises and feints toward each other. One on one a hyena was no match for a lion and wouldn't even consider hanging around to fight, but on the other hand hyenas were much more accustomed to working together for group attacks. After a little squabbling the male lion must have decided he could be bothered after all and came up to roar and strut. The hyenas backed down slightly from his attempt to assert control, but they wouldn't abandon the kill they'd already stolen. I decided to help. The next time the male lunged toward a nearby defiant hyena I shot him. It was only a wound, but it broke one of his hind legs and seriously hampered his mobility. The hyenas could recognize his injury at once even if they didn't have any idea what caused it. They spent their whole lives attacking and killing lame animals and several of them rushed him. For the hyenas, the hard part was the lions front legs were not hurt and since they were the main things he fought with the battle wasn't as one sided as they might have hoped. They were winning at first, but they still lost a few of the early arrivals. The female lions joined the fray then. Their job was usually the hunting, but they didn't seem too proud to jump in and help big daddy fight when they needed to. The fight turned into a real fur ball then, with all comers joining in. I had the girls join me in firing then and we concentrated on the hyenas. There were more of them and they were sneakier too. If we killed enough hyenas to let the lions win it would be fine, since lions were easier to find and dispose of anyway. Besides, the hyenas were just plain ugly along with being vicious. Before long the hyenas somehow realized they weren't doing as well as it might seem. They began to disengage and as they did we redoubled our efforts to finish them off before they made their escape. I'm pretty sure we did away with all but three of them. It left us the lions to deal with. The big male was in bad shape. Several hyenas had done a number on him after I lamed him. He was still alive, but he was fairly well torn up. I put him out of his misery right off the bat. A couple of the females were also worse for the wear, but not anything they couldn't get over. We made sure to change their status as quickly as possible. After all the mature lions were dead we had to search for the cubs. Apparently they were old enough to know about hiding when the shit hit the fan. We found and killed six, but I wasn't sure it was the whole bunch. The danger to us from them at this age was low anyway; still, I'd rather they were dead than alive. Keela got my attention and pointed back toward our cave. Four more of my mates were riding toward us. Apparently they had saddled up, hitched a travois and headed our way when they heard the shooting start. At least there'd be no big bear to deal with. Reela and Keela stayed with the crew skinning and taking trophies from the lions while Kemela, Welta, and I bunched up and started probing into the edge of the woods. We weren't exactly hunting. We were looking for pest animals to get rid of. We did find two more hyenas we were able to kill, but we had no way of knowing whether they'd played a part in the earlier fracas. I decided we'd keep prowling around and looking for more troublemakers. Hyenas don't seem so vicious from first glance, but in reality they are. Their forequarters are powerful and they have the most powerful jaws of anything even near their size. In fact their bite is much more powerful per square inch than any lion. With all that said we didn't see anything else dangerous moving for nearly an hour and Reela and Keela had rejoined us by then. Next we broke out into one of the small clearings I'd seen from the air. I say small, and it was, relatively speaking. In person though it was around two hundred acres and at the moment it was home to about thirty or so horses who were being chased around by maybe ten hyenas. The chasing came to an end just as we broke into the clearing when the hyenas dragged down an older mare. They also took her foal a few seconds later. Since they were within a couple of hundred yards of us we let them get going good on the fight for who got to eat which parts before we started firing. We closed to within seventy yards or so and they were so busy fighting among themselves they never noticed. When we started on them they became confused again and I guess they assumed the wounds we dished out came from others in their own group. There were none left to sneak off this time and we made a clean sweep. Of course there was nothing we could do for the mare or foal except make sure they were dead, and when we rode up they obviously were. I remembered I'd seen four or five of these little clearings and my best recollection was this was the smallest. We moved off toward the direction I thought I remembered the next one was. We came into it maybe half an hour or so later, but things were pretty peaceful. It was hosting maybe seventy or so aurochs and there was no game of chase going on with anything. I didn't wonder why because aurochs seemed pretty formidable to me. They were nearly twice the size of normal cattle from my time and they were equipped with horns which looked seriously dangerous. We drifted through the clearing and headed for the next one. At least I hoped we were heading for it. I'll admit I did a lot of second guessing myself and my poor memory before we came out into what I thought was the largest clearing I'd seen from above. The occupants were more troubling, to me anyway. We found a few mammoths and a few wooly rhinos and a lot of bison. There were also some horses. Added to the mix was another pride of cave lions and another bunch of hyenas. The cave lions were already at lunch on a bison. The male was eating his fill while his six females and four youngsters were watching impatiently. About a dozen hyenas were hanging close too. I took the male and the girls started on the females. By the time there were only three of the females still standing the hyenas made their move. It was a good day for us. We switched to the hyenas as they moved in and between our firing and the female lions we were able to kill them all. We went back to the female lions then and polished off the cubs last. Finally I decided it was time to give up on varmint hunting for the day, so we built some travois and loaded up the lions to take back to be denuded and furnish tasty organs for Mama and her crew to feast on. Loading them was a bother and carrying them out too, since it required a lot of dodging trees on the way out, but the lion furs were nice and I had a lot of mates who needed bracelets and necklaces. I also new no matter who had actually shot the lions I'd get the status credit and it would put me even more firmly in charge. I didn't really have any worries that way, but it would also make all my people feel more secure with me as leader and that couldn't hurt a thing. On the way back I wondered about cave bears. We hadn't seen a damned one today. I guessed we could have simply missed them, but that didn't seem right. Maybe they were off finding berries or something like it. Hell, who knew, they could be following us and cleaning up the kills of the predators we'd cashed in. My idea was bears weren't so likely to actually kill something to eat, but I knew they weren't above eating something dead they happened across. Whatever, when we returned we were the conquering heroes and it was all we could do to keep a party from breaking out. Luckily people were still working on their projects and they kept at it after a short pause to see what we'd been up to. For my part I was tired of killing the damned lions. I wanted them gone for sure, but killing them out didn't sit right for someone raised in the twentieth century. Extinction and all that crap don't you know. It didn't mean I would hesitate to do away with any I saw or any of the long tooth cats either. I was tired of exterminating them, but I hadn't developed a religious taboo against it. ------- Chapter 35 I was as fond of preservation as anyone, especially since I'd come from a place where the last of the huntable animals were scarce because there were just too damned many people. Still, I was growing fond of the people around me in the here and now and having lions, cave bears, hyenas, and sabertooths roaming around was not healthy for my people. If the predators thought they had to stay here we were going to kill them all if we could. In a way it was survival of the fitest. Of course we had some mechanical help in the fittest considerations, but we weren't going to give up our advantage simply because we hadn't come by it completely naturally. Besides, who was to say me and mine hadn't been put back here and now by a natural process. At any rate we didn't know how to do it, or undo it either for that matter. We were here now and I was going to use everything I knew of or could dream up to keep us well fed, healthy, and happy. In that vein, as the sun was setting and supper was about to appear I wandered around talking to my women and let them know I thought a little more extermination needed to be done tomorrow. We were all agreed before supper was over. Tomorrow we'd start a little earlier and take a larger group with us to help with skinning out and cutting up. My women had other things on their minds just now though and another round of my nightly duties got started almost right away. We got up fairly early the next morning, but plans for a hunting and eliminating trip were over early. A hellaciouly dark storm cloud seemed to be boiling over in the direction of the large lake we'd dropped in on. Of course our own clusterfuck there was the first thing I thought of, and the tragedy of Christy's ordeal came next. In real life we had no way to know if this was an oridinary big storm or another temporal event. No matter which, we stayed in the cave and waited for things to settle down. When the storm was over and gone after only a few hours I decided chances were it was something else suspicious. I intended to at least do a flyover to check things out, and as I expected Chris, Mary, Reela, Sahnay, and Keela were coming along too. The weather looked almost completely clear by noon and we fired up the PBY and took off. Ten minutes later we were over the lake and something new was there. Something new and not of this time either. Best I could tell from the air it looked like medical rescue helicopter of the Blackhawk persuasion. After making sure they knew we were around I set down and then taxied back toward them. They had pontoons, but had landed on the lake's beach. I pulled the PBY up against the shore near them and shutdown. We were out and had it tied off in minutes. Theree women got out of the Blackhawk. According to the way they were dressed I figured it to be a pilot, co-pilot, and a corpman, or maybe even a doctor. I was a little surprised when we approached since they all seemed to be scowling. Scowling or not, when we approached the one I considered the pilot had a question at once - without any niceties such as an introduction. "We seem to have lost our communication equipment during a storm. Could you tell us where we are?" she asked, looking in my general direction. "I can tell you, but you won't believe me. You are somewhere in central Europe." "That's impossible," she said. "I told you so. Your Global Positioning system isn't working either. The information which will be most helpful to you is the time, or where we are in time. We are at least ten thousand years back." She laughed at me this time, but I didn't blame her. Chris and Mary weren't helping any by snikering behind my back, but what the hell. "If you don't want to help us it's your business, but there's no point on spewing pure bullshit." "Speak to her in your language Reena." She did it. She told them I had been telling the truth as best she knew, but in her own Cro-Magnon tongue. Of course it didn't prove anything and I guess I'd just been stalling for time. "And just what language was that?" the probable pilot asked. "Cro-Magnon. Would you like to hear it in Neanderthal? Go ahead Shanay, tell her in your language," I said, and Shanay did. "So you're trying to make us believe we've made some type of trip through space and time and you're trying to convince us we're back with Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals? Pull my other finger," she said. "Actually I'm trying to help you, but I realize you probably can't come to grips with it yet." "Isn't it always the way it is. Some man is trying to shoot his mouth off and sell us a load of bullshit and thinks we'll believe it because we're women," the one I assumed was a corpman or a doctor said. I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't help myself. I burst out laughing and was followed right away by Chris and Mary. Reela, Keela, and Shanay didn't think it was so funny though. "I am sorry for laughing at you and I know there's no way you can believe any of us so quickly. If you wise up in time you'll probably laugh it off sooner or later yourself. We can't hang around here all day though. If you'd care to follow us you'll get reassurance at our home. It's less than thirty minutes by air and we can refuel you there if you need it," I said. "Why should we follow you anywhere?" the pilot asked. "For one thing you probably don't have adequate shelter if a heavy snow blows in. For another, do you have adequate food for an extended stay. Even if you don't believe me you probably don't have enough fuel for a long flight, and believe me it will be a long one." "I don't believe a word you're saying. Just tell us which way to head for the nearest civilization," the pilot asked. "That's the point. There isn't any civilization here." All three of them concentrated on giving me hard looks for a few seconds, but we were saved, sorta, by another smilodon appearance. Reela saw it first, over by the edge of the woods. She pointed it out. Our visitors were stupefied as it approached. When the one I thought was a Doctor started screaming for us not to shoot it I was baffled for a second. "Don't you realize what it is? They've been thought extinct for ten thousand years," she yelled. "Very well, you go talk to it and tell it not to eat any of us." That stumped her for a minute. "Look at my necklace. They aren't so hard to come by here and now," I said, showing my necklace of saber teeth. "My God. It's bad enough killing for furs, but did you actually shoot one already for a mere trophy?" the assumed doctor asked. "Just because you don't believe what I tell you doesn't mean I'm going to let that sabertooth kill one of us because you don't know what your talking about. If it turns away we won't bother it. If you're so damned worried about it stand out in front of us and then tell us how close you want to let it get before we shoot," I said, and I'll admit I might not have been as polite as I could have been. "But." "But what? If you're determined we can always get back in our PBY and leave the three of you here to deal with it," I said. "You might as well go since we're not falling for your science fiction bullshit anyway," the presumed pilot said. Smilodon must not have liked the odds because he turned away then. I was glad because I assumed it would give us more time to try and talk sense into them. My next though was it wouldn't help anyway. "We might as well go girls. They haven't had time to come to grips with their situation yet and they'll never believe us no matter how long we stay to chat. "Do you at least have firearms to protect yourselves?" "We have our sidearms?" "Do you have extra ammunition. You won't kill one of those with two or three shots." "We have a little." "Do you have food?" "We have some MREs." "I guess you'll get by a day or two then. If you decide you want to try finding us later it's only about ten or fifteen minutes thataway," I said, pointing. "Do you really have fuel?" the presumed pilot asked, sounding almost half way reasonable this time. We've got what's left of our Jolly Green giant with nearly full tanks," I said, and she looked at me really funny. "We might as well follow him to his base," she said. "What for?" the presumed corpman asked. "Food for one thing. How are you going to like having nothing but MREs for the rest of your life. He is probably lying like hell, but the GPS is down and we can't raise anyone on the radio. I don't know where we are, but it damned sure isn't any place in Alaska I know about." "Feel free to follow us if you want to. We'll be landing in a valley. You'll have an easier time getting down than I will," I said, and we headed back to the PBY. I took us up and made a circle while they argued among themselves on the ground. Their engine had been off so it took them a few minutes to let it warm up. When they were airborne I headed home. I made a low pass over the valley in case someone needed a reminder to get out of the way and then circled and put us down, taxing to the parking place we'd made. They set down close to us, and after they did cave men and women came flooding out to greet us. Since most of our friends still wore their standard clothing the three lost airmen were shocked again as they got out of their bird. The three walked over to us then and I remembered my manners if they didn't. I introduced myslef and the others with me. The one I considered the pilot said her name was Jannet and she intorduced the presumed corpman as Dr Kim Johnson, and the one I thought of as the co-pilot was Karen. "I'm getting the hint we were acting like bitches a few minutes ago," Karen said. "I am too. That wouldn't happen to be Jim's bird over there would it," Jannet asked. "In fact it is. Jim and Carl, Mary's husband, were killed by pieces of the rotor when we crashed after our storm ride." "Jim who?" Kim asked. "I didn't know his last name, but I knew him as an expedition pilot. Don't you remember all the time we spent on the search for him. In fact his last known position was near the place we got caught up in the storm that put us here," Jannet said. "You two are catching on," I said. "Did you come down in this valley?" Jannet asked. "No, we came down close to where you did. Jim got tangled up in the trees though and it was all over but the singing and slow walking when the rotors started hitting them. "I figure we'd have all been dead if there hadn't been so much snow on the ground at the time." Christy came up to me then and leaped into my arms. "This little beauty is Christy. Her grandfather flew the PBY here, but died of a heart attack after landing," I said, and by now Christy could keep a brave face about it. "I'd have died too if Jack hadn't come to save me and be my Daddy," Christy said, and then gave me a big kiss on the cheek. "Why don't you ladies come on into the cave. Someone will start cooking before long and we'll need to set you up with some furs for sleeping." "Furs, you mean you really do slaughter animals for thier fur?" Doctor Kim asked. "Not exactly. Mostly we kill them for food. We kill cave lions to make sure our horses aren't killed for food, and we usually kill cave bears for the caves they occupy so we can have a place to live. You needn't worry though. After we all die they'll have ten thousand years or so to become extinct on their own." Apparently she finally tumbled to her own situation because she shut up. I could see it still didn't sit well with her, but there wasn't shit I could do about it and I didn't really care anyway. She could believe whatever she wanted to believe. I was sure she wasn't going to find a Wal-Mart to save her from eventually wearing furs herself. It was even possible she'd end up being a big help to something I wanted to do, as in getting a little agriculture going. Maybe she'd catch fire on transplanting some of the plants we currently had to gather. Even if she didn't it would be nice to have a real doctor around. It wasn't like I didn't score any points with the newbies though. It took about an hour before Dr Kim noticed Mama and the cubs. She cocked her head at an odd angle when she first saw Mama. "What kind of dogs are those. They look a little like German Shepards, but I don't think they are." "You're right. They aren't. They're wolves in fact. We built a humane trap and were able to capture the Mama and then we fished her cubs our of the den. I only wanted to keep the cubs and raise them to serve as dogs. I never dreamed we could tame Mama. By now though she's better as a dog than any one I've ever owned." "You were able to domesticate a wild wolf?" "It was easier than I'd have thought too. It didn't take her long to get used to having her food delivered, and she noticed right away I was the one doing most of the delivering. Before long she was happy as a lark and she never lets anything sneak up on us. The hardest part was keeping her from attacking when something came up. I don't think she'd last long getting after cave lions," I said. She wanted to talk about Mama some more and I answered all her questions I could, but soon enough it was time to sleep. We'd put furs for them down fairly close to our, but I didn't pay them any mind. I had my own women for entertainment while the disrobing was going on, and I tried to never miss the show. Something was up with my girls tonight though and they weren't a damned bit shy about claiming a serving of dick after we were naked and bunched up. In fact, even Chris and Mary seemed to make more noise tonight than they usually did. What did I care? They could moan, groan, and squeal all they wanted to. I just did my best to give them plenty to make noise about. ------- Chapter 36 For some reason our new arrivals seemed back to their standoffish behavior toward me the next morning, but I ignored the hateful looks they gave me. It didn't stop them from eathing with us though and they were happy enough with the coffee when it appeared. Still they had regained all the attitude I'd seen from them at first yesterday. It didn't really bother me much since I'd already figured military or not they seemed to be very much of the pie in the sky persuasion. The hard part for me was I knew they weren't out of line for the civilization they'd come from. Their assumed superiority of the way things ought to be was annoying too. They knew what they knew and everyone else was wrong. Most of my women had picked up on it too though and I don't guess they were taking it as well as I was. Expecting the three women to adapt to this type of life quickly was pretty much unfair and I didn't expect them to catch on fast. I didn't think they were slow learners or anything. They just weren't prepared for anything of the sort and no doubt they had to be suspicious of any man who seemed to be running the show. They were suspicious of me and they had at least some reason to be. Mary might have been the same way if not for Chris who had known me for years and knew good and well I wasn't all that bossy in the first place. Chris and Mary weren't the problem though. My downtime family wouldn't put up with much shit out of the three newbies. Most of them had understood within days of encountering me I was the main force bringing them a way of life which was orders of magnitude better than anything they could have ever hoped for. With me around they felt perfectly safe and secure. Before me an encounter with cave lions would have meant a life or death situation for more than a few of them. Now, when they saw a cave lion someone mentioned it to me and the next worry was about who would skin it and remove its teeth and claws. Jannet, Karen, and Dr Kim had never thought about being in such mortal danger. They also had no concept of having to kill their own meals or skin animals so they could have clothes. I'd have to keep a close eye on things to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible. "What's on for today Jack," Mary asked, after we were underway with breakfast. "We still need to do some prowling around and checking for cave lions, wolves, and hyenas. When the weather gets worse they'll have a harder time getting food and they'll be pestering our animals for it." "And why shouldn't they? They rely on the other animals to feed themselves," Dr Kim said. "I don't know where you grew up, but I do understand you've probably never had to provide your own food before. It doesn't mean we don't know how, you stupid bitch. "It's simple, we kill predators so they won't kill off the animals we need to eat to insure our own survival. If it offends your delicate sensibilities why don't you just go outside and slit your wrist. We'll have less animals to kill since we won't be feeding you," Chris said, and come to think of it her tone wasn't all that jovial. "Now Chris, we don't have to be nasty about it. It's almost no extra trouble to provide food for her," I said. "I know it, but she can't seem to get it through her head there's no Seven Eleven around the corner to buy food from. It's obvious she traded her common sense in as a down payment for her degree. She thinks rescue is right around the corner and she doesn't want to do any environmental damage before they get here," Chris said. "I know, but they only arrived yesterday," I said. "By God they're already too damned slow at finding out what they're in for. My husband was in the front seat with his head in his lap as soon as we woke up from the crash and Jim was in two pieces, sliced in half by a rotor blade. "They should be thanking their luck instead of turning up their nose at the way we have to live. Not a damned one of them turned up their nose at the breakfast we served. I'm sure even they realize it was once warm and fuzzy and walking around out there eating grass," Mary said. "Well, they're officers, and if you know anything about the service you'll understand they don't know what to do without a first sergeant around to tell them when to wipe their asses. Breakfast was a lot better than I've ever had from the service and it doesn't bother me a whit what you had to shoot to get it. In fact I'd love to go on the next hunt," Karen said. "We may not be staying that long," Jannet said, switching into her commanding officer role almost automatically. "What do you mean we, paleface. It isn't my fault you failed in situational awareness somewhere along your trail to officer country. I didn't. I know very damned well we're sitting here eating breakfast with dozens of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. I have eyes. I also know there's no place on earth we wouldn't have been able to pick up at least something on the radios, not to mention GPS signals." "But you're still in the army and I'm your superior officer," Jannet said, and I'm sure it even sounded lame to her. "You can superior officer your ass all over the place if you want to, but you're going to have hell gathering up a bunch of MPs to take me in. You know damned well I'm a better shot then you and the doctor both, so you're just shit out of luck until you get help. Your rank went to hell when you flew us back in time," Karen said, and she wasn't trying to be extremely nasty about things, but it was the honnest truth. "Why I'll... "You'll do nothing. I'm the one in charge here no matter what army you think you belong to. You're free to come and go as you please, but you're not free to make someone else do anything they don't want to. I'd hoped we could get along until you realized your position. I can see Karen already has. If you haven't it's your own hard luck, not hers. "You'll never see the earth you were raised on again and your time in the armed forces is over because there are no armed forces here, except for the ones armed with pointed sticks." "We should have known he only wanted to capture us and put us in his harem like these other poor women," Dr Kim said, and we were through talking then because every one of my women could understand enough English to know what she'd said and they were all laughing at her. "You actually believe that don't you?" Mary asked her. "Isn't it obvious what he's up to?" "Only to someone who thinks she has the golden fleece down between her legs instead of pubic hair. You haven't noticed how many more women there are here than men? Don't you understand how much easier life is when a man can bring in all the meat you can eat. Not to mention he knows how to captuer and train horses to do most of the heavy work. "Look around yourself and see just how many women you think you outshine sexually. Most of the ones without mates would love to crawl in the furs with Jack every night. All of us who get to are damned glad about it. Count on it, as far as sleeping your way to the top here you are shit out of luck. Jack doesn't have to worry about getting pussy, his main worry is keeping from being fucked completely to death," Chris said. "She's got you there Doctor. I have been paying attention and I've noticed at least fifteen women who are dying to be over here making a V for their leader. In fact I'm getting warmed up to do it myself," Karen said, and it shut the Doctor up completely. In fact I could see even Jannet was doing a little rethinking of her position too. She didn't appear to be panting for me or anything like it, but she did look like she wasn't as sure of herself as she had been a few minutes ago. "Well, no matter about all that now. We still have some predators to flush out and deal with. If you want to come along Karen you're welcome. Can you ride a horse?" I asked. "You betcha. We're in a little bit better shape for firearms than they wanted you to know too. Each of us has an M4, but I'm the only one with an M203 attachment," Karen said, as her two mates glowered at her. "I don't think you'll need the grenade launcher, but the M4 could come in handy. When we crashed we had plenty of weapons, but as we've gained members we're pretty much behind the eight ball with everything assigned. At least we do have some ammunition that'll fit your weapon. Try to catch the brass you shoot though, we have the ability to reload it though we haven't needed to yet. "I'll keep it in mind." I decided to give Karen, and the others too an education if they'd pay attention. I cleared off a spot on the floor near the fire and started drawing in the dirt. Even though I wasn't the best at drawing, our place was easily sketched and she'd had a look from above on the flight in. Though the good Doctor didn't seen interested Jannet paid close attention while I was showing what I knew about our location. In fact she was the first to say anything after I was done. "You do have an excelent position. Are you sure there's no way in except for the path from the next valley?" she asked. "No, we're not completely sure, but even if there isn't we'll be better off doing away with undesireables. I'll even admit I don't like the idea of it myself, but having some of my people or their children maimed or killed will have me shooting cave lions, hyenas, or cave bears every time. Besides, cave bears have delicious meat," I said. "I'd like to come along too if you don't mind?" Jannet said. "Jannet, how could you?" Doctor Kim asked. "I can because I now know he has no reason to keep us here except to make sure we're safe. You can keep worrying about the poor sabertooth tigers if you want to, but I can catch on when someone slaps me in the face with how foolish I'm being. "Hell, even if he makes me put out to stay I'm gonna lay back and enjoy it if I can. After we've been here a couple of weeks I might even beg him. He sure ain't ugly or nothing," Janet said, and then actually giggled. It was only about thirty minutes later we had horses saddled and were all mounted. As usual we took off around one side of the rear forest with Reela, Keela, and me in the lead. Meecha and Kemela came along too, but mostly they were riding herd on the Neanderthal men who were leading travois horses to haul meat back if we came across any. We found meat in plenty nearly from the first. I don't know what had the cave bears out in force today, but I guessed they were filling up the corners before they began their winter snooze. There were eight of them going over the remains of the first big berry patch we came to. It turned out Karen was an excellent shot and apparently she knew the limitations of her rifle too. She went for head shots, and damned if her first move wasn't to shoot the eyes out of the bears she took on. We'd barely gone anywhere before we had all the meat we could handle. We let the Neanderthal men load them up while we kept our eyes open for danger. Our hunt hadn't lasted long, but it had been productive. We were back to the main cave and tending to bearmeat less than three hours after we left. The good Doctor hadn't come along, but she was right out front when we came back. "My God. I had no idea the bears you were talking about were so large and vicious. Jesus, my sidearm wouldn't even slow one down would it," she said, "Not unless you were an expert shot and very lucky besides. They don't usually go after people though, but usually isn't much comfort when they do." She went back inside after a few minutes. ------- Chapter 37 As processing got started Dr Kim was surprised again when the wolves started receiving their due. She could barely hold her tongue and when I spotted her discomfiture I had to ask. "If you have a question Dr, don't be shy. I can tell you want to know something." "I was just wondering why the wolves seem to be getting some of the most nutritious parts?" she asked. "I guess part of it is my fault. The livers, kidneys, and other organs may be the most nutritious, but they're also the parts most people like least. Some of our folks like them a little, but we've always had plenty for them, and the wolves don't really care. "At the moment they're going to eat absolutely all they can hold and then go somewhere to lie down and stay out of the way. Everyone here knows to come up and mention it if they want some particular part while it's fresh. People get first choice, but the wolves get the next. "I guess the organ meat is good for them though. Missy's cubs are already bigger than she is and my guess is it's because they've never gone hungry a day. I'm betting they're the best fed wolves anywhere," I said. "You're probably right and they seem healthy enough. I'm afraid I might have misjudged you," she said. "Don't worry about it. I was almost positive you were going to from the first time I saw you. It was probably the only sensible conclusion you could come to. I certainly expected it." "May I ask how we were so transparent to you?" "The first clue was you were all military and I know women in the military are not treated as respectfully as society might think. You all probably had more than a few run ins which weren't to your liking with male soldiers. "Men here weren't any better until I killed a few who thought they had the last word simply because they were male. Men of this time had zero knowledge of firearms and they never considered being outsmarted. "I knew from the start I'd never lose a fight with any of them. It isn't so much I'm more intelligent, it's because I know more. I know better than to fight them hand-to-hand in a fair fight because there's a chance I might lose, or at least be injured. I just go ahead and shoot the ones who give me trouble." "But that's murder." "There's no such thing as murder here and even if there were I'd do it anyway. I'm not merely protecting myself. I'm protecting all of them from things I realize and they have no idea about. "For instance, it can be as simple as basic economics. More women mean more potential offspring. Of course some men are required, but each birth requires the participation of a woman for nine months. It only takes a few minutes for the man to do his part, and then he's done. One man can also do his part for many women while it is a much more time intensive task for the women involved. "In short, we can dispense with dyed in the wool trouble makers and get along just fine now. Our arrival with modern weapons made men much less of a scarce commodity. My weapons save more men than they cost though and now an intelligent choice is more likely to be made on who stays and who goes." "Yes, but it is your intelligent choice," she said. "Not completely. Any of the armed women can make the choice anytime. You for instance. You could choose to kill nearly any man here and it's likely nothing would come of it unless I decided you had to be punished for your wicked ways." "I'd never do any such thing," she said. "Never say never, Doctor. You don't have all the information yet." "What do you mean?" "Do you think I arrived here hoping to kill other humans on a whim? We live our lives here and do what has to be done when need presents itself. If you see a man beating a woman don't you think you'll want to do something about it? There probably won't be any police to call unless I happen to be near. You might very well be her last chance to live." Even Mastercard couldn't have paid enough for the look on her face. It was indeed priceless. I knew it was a shock for her to realize she now had the power of life and death over most people here and I could tell at once she didn't like the idea at all. For that matter I didn't like it very much myself unless I considered what things would be like if I didn't have it. I had considered it though and I knew it would be unfair of me to try passing it on to some appointed judge and jury. One of the most irritating things about crime and punishment in the place I'd come from was the long drawn out process it took to decide who'd done the crime and what punishment they needed. Making the effort to make sure the right person got punished was laudable in one sense, but it took so long it was far from effective. I knew no one wanted to go to prison, but years of statistics had proved it wasn't a deterrent. Some people weren't worth keeping around, even back home. Here and now it was something we simply couldn't afford. The current methods were harsh, but they were all we could pay for. If you fucked up a few times you died. It had the benefit of providing all the deterrent we could. Seeing one jackass get it in front of God and everybody was a strong message and others didn't have time to wonder whether they'd be released on appeal later. They knew for a fact they wouldn't be. Our ways weren't perfect, but so far I hadn't killed anyone who didn't need it. "But I'm not qualified to make those kinds of decisions," she said. "You have to be. There's no judge or jury here and you're much more qualified than any of the others. Playtime is over Doctor. Here and now we have to live our lives every day. Your reluctance to kill another human is admirable, but when you have to, you have to. If worse comes to worst and you can't go through with it call for help at once. You'd probably be better off making sure there is always some help close too." "But it seems so cruel." "It is cruel, but all of life here is, or can be. Nature has no concept of right and wrong. The people have no concept of do unto others here. Life is hard and danger is everywhere. We've been able to let them know not to fight among themselves and frankly I'm amazed they caught on so quickly." "I just know I'm not up to it. Not yet at least." "Stay close to Mary, Mecha, and Chris. They are up to it by now, and Mary and Mecha would love to learn anything you can teach them about medicine." She nodded and drifted away toward our two healers. I figured she'd get a good education of her own from them. I didn't think she'd be able to teach Mecha about tending to first aid like things, but I was happy she was here all the same. She would be much better prepared for handling any difficult deliveries. The impossible amount of fucking I'd been doing would lead to babies too. I was sure most of my women were already pregnant and it was probably a good bet most of the other women were too since the special tea they'd been drinking went by the wayside weeks ago. The change in their lifestyle was tremendous already and I hadn't been here a year yet. Everyone was already much better fed and the drudgery of their existence had been cut down considerably already. Our large group had caused most of it too. Now, since the enforced cooperation my girls and I brought, things were quite a bit easier. Most of it was because the men didn't have so much hunting to do any longer. It left them with time on their hands. They had naturally sought out things to do and when they saw me doing something they wanted to help. I thought it was mostly because they wanted to learn what I knew how to do, but that wasn't it entirely. They had seen the things I did made life even easier. The men who had started on the smoker had picked up on brick making and now were doing a much better job of it than when I'd got them started. The first smoker was finished and had been in operation for a week or so, but the men who had finished it were already planning on two more inside the cave. The chimney on the end had been a real revelation to them and they wanted to build one higher inside the cave and wanted two smokers so one could be cooking while the other was cleaned out and tended to. I was happier with their brickwork than you might think. I noted happily that brick production was outstripping brick use. I actively encouraged the production and I had some ideas for partition walls and other projects during the winter. Winter projects were getting nearer too, because winter was getting close. We'd be snowed in for a lot of it, but there were things we could do inside to make our lives even more livable. I had high hopes for the bricks and separating out living areas. Hell, if we could figure out a way to bake the bricks without them exploding I thought we could make a few bathtubs and even build a couple of big soaking tubs for some good old family togetherness. I also had some smaller cookers in mind. Everywhere we now had an open fire for cooking we could build a small brick oven and stove top for cooking. Hell, I might even be able to figure out a brick shitter instead of just hanging our asses over the deep hole in the floor on a wooden frame. I had a lot of plans for projects to get going once we were locked inside by the snow. Of course we could go ahead and get started on them now, but I didn't want to. We would have a lot to do during the winter, but then again we'd have one hell of a lot of time to do it. We'd see what we saw, but for right now it looked like it was better to spend all the time fucking around outside we could while we could. ------- Incomplete and Inactive ------- Posted: 2008-04-11 Last Modified: 2009-07-21 / 06:56:20 pm ------- http://storiesonline.net/ -------