Bootstrap Colony (27 page)

The teen rolled her shoulders and
sighed. “So I see we aren’t going out on the plane,” she said, noting the
packed plane. She shuddered.

Mitch nodded. “Yeah, Angie is a
bit shook up, and nervous about taking her up damaged.” Doc looked up
concerned. “They had a run in with Shriekers. Tore the plane up a bit,” Mitch
explained.

Cassie shivered then nodded. “It
was freakin scary mom! Gah! I never want to be in that again!” She shivered a
bit more.

Doc looked up to Mitch. “I need
another day at least to make sure she is out of danger,” Doc said.

“Of course Doc. Worst comes to
worse I will send Sam and his road crew on ahead and we can catch up in the
hummer.” She nodded. “That bad huh?” he asked with a note of concern in his
voice.

She shivered a little. “Yeah,
thank god you packed that surgery kit. And the plasma! We went through
ALL
of it.”

Cassie wrinkled her nose...”I
thought I was going to faint, Natali was gushing blood,” she whispered and bit
her lip. Mitch nodded. “We mucked it up with a mop, but mom is worried about
the blood lost, not to mention bacteria,” Cassie continued.

Mitch nodded. “Okay, we can stick
around a little longer, at least till their medic is able to care for her.”

“Nicole IS there doctor,” she
said tartly.

Mitch winced. “Okay, I didn’t
know that,” he sighed.

“Sorry,” Cassie shrugged him off
so he stopped.

“Okay I will get with Jack; we
can cut some more trees tomorrow, maybe do a bit of hunting. Sam can play in
the dirt.” They laughed at that, seeing Sam come up brushing clouds of dirt off
his overalls, grinning.

“Having fun?” Cassie called over
the heads of others. Everyone looked up interested as Sam’s crew came in to
clean up and eat.

“Oh loads! You have no idea how
much I missed doing this!” Sam said with an ear to ear grin. The group chuckled
and laughter sparkled among the audience. Mitch went to Jack, and quietly let
him know what was going on. Jack nodded.

“Okay,” Jack replied.

Standing and banging a pot Mitch
got everyone’s attention. “For those of you who don’t know, Nicole and the baby
are okay, but Doc wants another day or two to make sure they both pull through.
So we are going to stick around. Axel here can lead Paul, Sara and a few others
to keep cutting trees. I will take a few volunteers tomorrow before dawn and do
a bit of hunting to supplement our rations. If we get lucky we can have a good
old fashion Barbecue roast.” There were some cheers at that news. He smiled. A
few people offered to help on the hunt. He nodded. “Okay, be ready at zero six
hundred,” he instructed. They nodded.

The next morning he pulled out
with two hummers and they split up. The herds have returned so it isn’t that
hard to find them. They found a herd of smaller hammerheads, and picked off a
few. They dressed them in the field, and then called in a truck to pick them
up. Jack called in from car two saying they have killed a couple bison, a
paraceratherium, and caught an auroch calf. “That Para thingy is huge! It
looked like a long legged rhino! A lot of meat on it,” he called in excited. A
second crew came out to his location.

Once the truck was loaded and on
its way the team got back in the hummer and headed back to the retreating herd.
They spotted a few predators, and they stopped to assess the situation. Taking
out a pair of binoculars they watched as a pack of raptors took down a
hammerhead. Jack called in to tell them that the bison had been picked up and
he was now heading to the local watering hole. Deciding to avoid the raptors,
Mitch's crew headed downwind of them in search of safer grounds. They came into
a valley with caves on either side. A creek meandered through it, with a few
trees scattered up the slopes. A couple giraffe creatures ambled off at their
approach, the Barrett dropped them before they could get very far.

They broke for lunch, while the pickup
crew arrived. Gina reported that Angie had shown the villagers how to make a
primitive smoke house with Axel, and they were busy dressing and smoking meat,
while others packed meat in salt or boiled it.

The group moved on when lunch was
finished, exiting the valley to a dead end cliff overlooking an ocean bay. The
sounds of the waves breaking on the beach made Terri wistful for a dip, right
up until she saw a giant fin cutting the water off shore. The smile she had on
her face congealed into a rictus of disbelief as her body shivered in terror.

A short time later they ran out
of terrain. They turned around, and spotted deer and elk in a copse, catching a
few with well aimed shots. They tossed the animals up on the roof racks, and
then got the lay of the land while searching for more. Jack called in that his
team had run the herds clear of the area, but had brought down another dozen.
“It looked like we have saturated our cooking crew anyway,” Jack cautioned.
Mitch nodded. His back up team were already heading out back to the village.
They decided to pack it in. Terri spotted a patch of safe berries; they paused
to pick some bushels.

As the sun began to set they
turned around and retraced their tracks now homeward bound. At the mouth of the
valley the sun set in glorious gold and low yips and yowls began to echo among
the valley walls. Concerned they looked around for the source of the predatory
sounds while trundling along. Gary spotted something and then gasped as a dark
shape ran parallel along their path and disappeared. Concerned they looked at
the ridge lines, just as Terri screamed and pointed. Hammerhead creatures,
smooth skin with fins along their sides and tail stepped out...

Awed Mitch looked at the
infrared. “They are warm blooded.”

Terri pointed out that, “They are
dark, almost purplish black. Are they predators?”

Gary stared. “I can’t see a
mouth... Do you think their related to the hammerhead herbivores...” Mitch made
a sharp intake of breath as he noted something and then told Gary to speed up.

”No, by their approach I would
say they aren’t herbivores; herbivores would be scared of the scent of blood.
They seem, attracted to it,” Mitch said. With the animal's heads down and
moving side to side they couldn’t see the mouth clearly.

Terri’s soft “Omygodomygod...”
was the only other thing they could hear over their own ragged breathing. Then
she screeched when one of the creatures sat up and scratched an itch like a
dog. Talon claws could be seen gleaming in the dying light. A yawn showed a
mouth much like a shark, a half moon shape filled with rows upon rows of sharp
triangular teeth. “Get us out of here!” She screamed. Gary slammed the
accelerator to the floor.

The hills boiled as the animals
came out, scenting the blood just as the suns final gasp ended the ambient
light. Gary plowed on, dodging rocks and animals that get in the high beams.
Mitch called in, warning the others.

“Just what we didn’t need. You
need help?” Jack responded.

“Not yet, but you better head in
our direction just in case. These things are mean and nasty, like sharks with
legs,” Mitch replied.

Jack paused for a moment. “Roger
that,” he said. He started muttering: “Just what we need, lawyers. More
competition.” One of the creatures jumped from a rock and landed on the hood.
Screeching its claws dug into the metal hood as it turned around and tore at
the elk carcass. Gary tried to shake it off but failed, the thing bit into the
elk and started to tear chunks off. One forehand clutched at the roof rack to
keep it steady, while the right arm scraped at the windshield before latching
on as well. Terri was hysterical, scrunched down in her seat. Suddenly she
reared up, fumbling with her belt for her knife. She screamed to cut the elk
off, but Mitch grabbed her. “Don’t be stupid. Keep your arms inside.” He
pointed as the creature tore at the meat. Other snapped at a dangling leg near
her window, the shark like teeth made Terri scream and pee her pants in fear.

Gary hollered to get the thing
off, he couldn’t see, and narrowly dodged a tree. The low branches scraped the
animal off, making it tumble in the dirt behind them. They exited the valley
into the plains, sighing in relief. Mitch looked back, noted the pack following
at a good clip and let them know that they weren’t out of the woods just yet.

He pulled a knife and with
Terry's help they severed the lines holding the elk to the roof. Gary jigged
the car back and forth and the carcass came off, tumbling with a thump off the
rear to roll in the muck behind them. Pulling out the night vision goggles,
Mitch noted that some of the pack stopped at the carcass, but all too many of
them continued the pursuit.

He had Gary slow down, and then
called in. Jack acknowledged, and called the village to prepare to bunker up.
Gary hollered as one of the creatures’s jumped into their path but Mitch told
him to hit it. Setting his jaw and arms he prepared to do so. It jumped out of
the way only getting lightly clipped. It did break the right headlight though.
Mitch pulled up a string of fire crackers, lit the fuse and then tossed them
out behind them. The sharp pop pop pops made a few of the animals jumped around
them, but didn’t scare them off. He radioed Jack the news.

Jack said “Keep coming...We have
you in sight now.” The soft pop made Mitch turn around to just catch a
hammerhead go tumbling in their wake. Another fell and then another, then one
gave a series of yips and turned. Jack muttered an oath over the radio. Mitch
looked up their path, seeing the pack heading directly for him now.

“Damn their smart,” Jack said
over the radio, sounding unnerved. Mitch pulled the Barrett from its sleeve and
had Gary slow down. Jack’s team scrambled back into the hummer just as the
creatures with blinding speed arrived. Jack pulled out with a rooster tail of
dirt, slashing the hummer back and forth, making the animals jump out of the
way.

Mitch got a bead and shot,
grimacing because it missed. A few more miss before he got his eye in and
dropped one animal with a shot right in the skull. A second shot at another
animal hit a rock just as it passed over; he thought he missed but then the
animal fell. “Ricochet,” he muttered.

“At least it hit it!” Terri
called up.

“Just who is saving who here?”
Jack called over the radio. Mitch snorted, took a bead and hit another in the
shoulder, making it tumbled and then writhe in the dirt with yowls of pain.

Two of the others turned, and
then the last stopped and turned back. They nudged the wounded and dead, and
then in a flash turn on the wounded animal, ripping it apart as it screams turn
to gurgles. Mitch winced. “What what?” Terri asked.

He waved her off. “You don’t want
to know,” he growled.

Shaken she stared straight ahead
with a quiet, “You’re probably right.”

Gary snorted. “Yah think?”

Followed by Jack they arrived at
the village which was lit like it was Christmas time. They barreled in past the
gate, and then Axel grunting and swore behind him as he and others pushed it
closed. Jenny called from atop the palisade, there were glowing eyes and
shadowy shapes all around. The low pitched yap, yips and hisses drove out the
sounds of the local insects. No one slept well that night.

The next morning Jack checked the
perimeter and then met up with Mitch. A boy running around bumped into him; he
righted him and tousled his hair. He pulled the lad over to Mitch. “Mitch this
is Paco Mencia, his ma is our local potter, his dad is our carpenter.” Mitch
nodded to Paco and handed him an energy bar. “Sam’s crew was kind of leery
about going out, and it took an hour and a double guard to convince them it was
safe,” Jack reported. Mitch grimaced, and then turned to finish his energy bar.

 Paco chattered about his mom,
Jack waved Mitch to follow. They went to a hut with a woman working a potting
wheel. A beehive kiln was nearby, along with a little girl who was playing with
a makeshift doll made out of scraps and pieces of grass. All around were stacks
of bricks, plates, and other ceramics, drying in the sun.

“Senora Mencia this is Senor
Mitch Chambers,” Jack said introducing Mitch and then chattered in Spanish a
bit. Mitch took the sight in and then turned to her.

“Can you make tile?”

“Tile? Si.” Her face blossomed in
amusement. “SI! Si senor I make tile in México.”

He nodded. “Can you make roofing
tiles?” Mitch asked. Her brows nit, as did Jack and the others. He tried to
demonstrate with his hands, then gave up and had Paco get a log. He held it up
and Mitch nodded. Scampering back Paco handed it to him. Mitch described what
he was talking about a half cylinder shape curving his hands over the log. Then
he tried to demonstrate with his hands how they would overlap.

Her browse knit in thought for a
moment longer before they suddenly cleared and she barked a laugh. “SI! Si!”
she nodded eagerly.

Jack shook his head in
bemusement. “Why didn’t I think of that? We could roof the buildings with it!
Yeah. It is a great use of resources, and will last a very long time.” Jack
chattered and then told Paco to get Julio. Julio came out wiping his hands.
“Senor Julio Mencia this is Senor Chambers, he has an idea.” They went through
the pantomime again until Senora Mencia, with twinkling eyes erupted with a
spat of Spanish, explaining the need for a wood mold. Julio nodded.