Eden's Children (Earth Exiles Book 2) (3 page)

Matki grinned again, “Yes, my friend, I will ‘expound on my position.’”  Matki was proud of his grasp of the English language.  Matki had learned a lot of their language, more than they knew of his.  This didn’t surprise Joan or Joel, the neurologists.  Hunter-gathers usually had much better memories than their more civilized cousins.  They didn’t even need the A.I. translator anymore to understand Matki.

Matki continued, “That is a cunning dragon.  The other dragons, they don’t like him, but they listen to him.”

Mike put out his hand to stop Matki, “Uh, what do you mean, other dragons?”

Matki’s face grew serious, “I mean, there are other dragons out there.  Not just the brooding females.”

Matki used his hand to smooth the dirt in front of him.  He traced the outline of the larger valley beyond.

“This is where we are,” he placed an x where they were located along one edge of the drawing.  “This is where the three dragon females are brooding,” he put three dots on the drawing.  He moved his finger across where the great valley opened onto the plains beyond, “Here, there are four younger dragons.”

“And?” Everett asked.

Matki wiped the rough map away, “And, I don’t know.  The ancient one, he has some hold on them.  I don’t know why this is happening.”

Mike was confused, “How?  How can he do this?  Are you telling me that those mindless monsters can think and plan?”

Matki place a hand behind him onto the ground as he sank from his squat to take a seat, “I honestly don’t know.  This is beyond my experience with the dragons.  I have seen them fight for mates.  I have seen them hunt prey.  I have seen them hunt each other.  I know everything about them from when they hatch and swarm, to when they are ready to mate.  But I have never seen so many in one place not trying to kill each other.  I think though, that they don’t like you.  They don't understand you.  You confuse them.  They don’t like things they don’t understand.  You are a thorn in their sides.”

Matki leaned back, “I think,” Matki paused, “that this is an unexpected thing.  When dragons stop acting like dragons, it is a very dangerous thing indeed.”

“Have you been able to warn your people about the dragon spawn?” Everett asked.

Matki nodded, “Yes.  Since I told the council about you, they have left a scout closer to the dragon valley.  I was able to warn him that there were a lot of dragon spawn there.”

Matki had been slipping back and forth between the old Earth compound and his tribe.  He still held the position of dragon watcher, to keep an eye on the dragon spawn that would issue forth from the hatched eggs of the female dragons and to warn his people.  When the spawn went hunting, nothing was safe.  They were the size of pit bulls, hunted in packs until they grew larger, and were just as dangerous as their parents.

Matki’s travel to his tribe had the added benefit of his bringing salt back to the compound.  It wasn’t much, but it helped.  His tribe had a salt lick close to their home.  What he’d been able to bring back was sorely needed at the compound.  Mike just wished they could figure out a way to get more salt.  They only had enough Freon for the combat suits.  They didn’t have enough Freon to make refrigeration units.  Salt would help them preserve their food from spoilage.

“What do you think they will do?” Mike asked.

“They will retreat to the higher caves.  They have no choice.  They will have to limit their hunting, and the distances that they travel.  They will tell the other tribes that there is great danger here.”

A concerned look crossed Everett’s face, “What did your council say when you told them about us?”

Matki grinned, “Well, I told them about your metal wealth.  Of course, they didn’t believe me.  At least, not until I showed them this,” he patted the knife on his side.  The fabrication team had been busy making tools, not only for the compound, but Matki as well.  Matki continued, “and these,” he pointed at his atlatl and arrows.  The atlatl was polished hard wood, the center drilled out and filled with iron.  The atlatl could be used to launch arrows, and it could also be used as a club.  The arrows were tipped with iron arrowheads.  “They are very interested in trading with you,” he finished.

Mike hooked a thumb back towards the wall, “What do you think we should do about the Ancient?”

Matki shook his head, “I am not sure you can do anything short of going out to hunt him.  But, you would have to deal with seven or eight other dragons as well.”

Mike thought for a moment before he spoke.  He looked at Everett and Tom, “I don’t want to go out there and attack the ancient with that many dragons out there.  The most we’ve tackled is three at once, and they were tough to kill.  I’d hate to think about fighting eight of them.  We don’t have that kind of firepower on the mechs.”

Everett spread his hands, “Why do we have to worry about them?  They’re out there, and we’re in here.  They can’t get in here.”

Mike paused, “I don’t know, Everett.  I don’t have a good feeling about this.  I think, we need to bring the entire team in.  I think we should warn the techies as well.  We need to prep.”

Everett held up his hands, “Whoa Mike, what the hell.  Don’t you think that’s a little rash?”

“What do you mean?” Mike asked.

Everett pointed back at the compound wall, “We have that big damn wall over there.  Hell, we built it to keep them out.  The dragon swarms can’t get over the top, and they sure can’t get through that iron portcullis that the fabrication team built.  Even that gigantic dragon can’t get over it.  And that’s the biggest damn thing I’ve seen since we’ve been here.”

Mike shook his head, “I don’t know Everett.  There was something there.  I looked into its eye, and I saw, well, I don’t know what I saw.”

Everett turned to Tom, “What do you think?”

Tom was a quiet man.  He only spoke when he had something that people needed to hear.  Tom spoke in his typical laconic style, with few words, and straight to the point, “I think, that if Mike’s concerned, we should probably listen to him.”

Everett struggled with the idea that they may be in danger again, then nodded.  He looked at Mike, “What do you want to do?”

Mike shrugged, “I don’t know.  I’m worried about those three brooding females and the spawn.”  Mike hooked a thumb in the direction of the wall, “That ancient has a reason for what he’s doing.  I have no idea what it is, but this turn of events worries me.” Mike turned to Matki, “How many eggs do the females have.”

Matki leaned over and put his hand on Mike’s shoulder, “I don’t know.  I couldn’t get close enough to find out.  I don’t smell like them, so I couldn’t chance it.  The dragon that I watched, the one that you killed, it had anywhere from forty to fifty, sometimes more.”

Mike ran his hand through his hair, “I don’t know.  I just have a bad feeling about this.”  He stood up, and brushed off the dirt, “Well, Everett, you and I have a meeting anyway.  We can talk to them about this.”

They all stood up with Mike.  Matki parted from them and headed toward the smoker to get some food.

“Uh, do I need to be there?” Tom asked.  Tom hated meetings.  He hated them more now, because it usually involved more mundane items like sanitation.  If the meeting didn’t involve weapons, whether shooting or fixing them, he didn’t like to participate.

The expression on Everett's face turned serious “Well Tom, since we’re going to be talking about the dragons, we may need your expertise on weapons.  You should probably join us at the meeting.”

Tom’s face fell.  Everett grinned and Mike laughed.  Everett let him off the hook, “No, Tom, we don’t need you there.  You can go back to working on the weapons.”

A broad smile appeared on Tom’s face.  He looked like a little kid with an ice cream cone, “You got it.  It’ll give me a chance to show a few things to Latricia.”

A few of the people, like Ben, Latricia, and Mitchem, had been administrators, and really didn’t have a skill or job to do.  So, the more enterprising ones were learning new skills.  Latricia volunteered to learn weapons maintenance.  Tom had been teaching her gunsmith techniques.

“Uh huh.  Are you sure that’s the only thing you’re going to show her?” Everett asked.

Tom’s expression grew guarded, “I’m not sure what you mean.  I’m teaching her about gun smithing.”

Mike turned to Everett, a grin on his face, “I don’t think Tom’s teaching Latricia anything.  I think she’s teaching him.”

Months had passed, and everybody understood that there was no going back to their old reality.  It hadn’t been an easy decision for Tom, but while he still mourned Barbara and his children, he’d moved on.

Tom glanced over at Mike and Everett, “Why are you interested in Latricia?”

Mike grinned at him, “Because I’m nosy.” 

Everett nodded, “Yup, what he said.”

Tom smiled.  Getting information out of the taciturn southerner wasn’t ever easy.  They already had the inside scoop, though.  Their source had all the juicy intel.  Everett’s wife, Joan Nosstrand had gotten the details from Latricia.  Everett had, of course, passed the information on to the team.

Mike thought about it.  Looking at Tom, and looking at Latricia, the fit wasn’t evident from the outside.  It wasn’t that Tom was so white he looked like fresh morning snow and Latricia was an ebony beauty.  No, the difference was that Tom was as country as anyone could be, raised in rural Tennessee.  When Mike thought about a good ole boy, Tom was the poster boy.  Latricia was from Cleveland, Ohio.  She liked hip-hop and rap.  Culturally, the two were pretty far apart.  Here though, the two were hot and heavy, cultural differences be damned.

The old issues were dead.  Liberal, conservative, libertarian, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, it didn’t matter.  The loneliness of their current situation and horror of what had happened to their families brought people together.  There were only fifty-one of them left.  Hook ups were a thing of the past.  With reality shifting so quickly, people wanted substance, an anchor to cushion them from the new reality.  They wanted a reliable partner.  There had been a few problems at the beginning, but most of that had been resolved.  There was a problem since there were fewer women than men, and a few guys were a little upset that they had been passed over.  Still, there hadn’t been a problem lately.

Tom looked over at Mike, “So, when are you and Jen going to hook up?”

Now Mike’s expression grew guarded, “What do you mean.”

Jennifer was Mike’s closest female friend on new Earth.  Deep down, he knew she was in love with him.  She was a ton of bad ass warrior in a five foot frame.  Two tons of amazing packed into a ninety-five pound body.  She was Hmong, and one of the most bad ass Air Force officers to walk the earth, despite her size.  She’d taken on giant terror birds, bear packs, and medusa dragons, putting most of the men in their group to shame.  Plus, she was sexy as hell.

Mike was still in love with Jo.  He knew he was in love with Jennifer as well, though.  Conflicted was his constant mental state.  He knew that there was no way that he would ever see Jo again.  She had been pregnant with their first child, and it had hit him hard, not knowing what had happened to her and the baby.  Even if she had survived the nuclear war, she was long dead.

What had happened a billion years ago was recent history to Mike, though.  That was part of the reason that he fled to mathematics and research into the nature of time.  His turmoil subsided as he tried to find a path back to Jo.  Still, the more he studied, the more he knew it unlikely it was that he would ever find his way back to her.

Everett put his hand on the back of Mike’s neck, and gave him a little shake, “Man, you can’t be that much of a dumbass.  That girl has you in her sights.”

Mike didn’t say anything.

“Mike, she’s not going to wait forever.  Other guys are sniffing around.  She keeps putting them off, for now,” Everett said, emphasis on the ‘for now’.

Mike looked over at Everett and shrugged.  He knew that they were telling him the truth.  Jennifer was one hell of a woman.

Tom changed the subject back to Latricia, letting Mike off the hook, “I’m pretty sure you two know all the particulars anyway.  Latricia is one, ah, sociable young woman.”

Everett nodded, “That she is.”

Tom looked at Mike, “That woman won’t give up until she gets what she wants.  I’m just lucky that she wanted me.”

Mike nodded.  He got the message.

The two of them took pity on Mike.  Everett pointed toward the stairs, “Well, Mike, I guess we can’t put it off, we need to get to the meeting,” The three turned and started up the stairs to the tunnel.

Everett sighed, “Man, you’d think, now that we’re a billion years in the future, that meetings would have died with the bureaucracy that created them.”

Mike grinned, “Yeah, if it was just us military types, maybe.  Not with the academics though.  They love meetings.”

They took the first tunnel.  They took turns stepping through the rebar cage.  The front of the tunnel sloped up as they walked in, to keep water from flooding into the living and work areas.  The tunnel was narrow, only wide enough to allow one person through at a time.  The tunnel widened out about ten feet past the entrance and opened up into a bigger area, the armory.  The room was a hundred feet square. 

Weapons and tech were kept in this room.  Tom had a work area over to the right.  Joe Oaks, Rick Stein, and Latricia were there stripping weapons for maintenance.  Along the left side of the room, there was a big screen TV set up, with a video feed from the drone giving them situational awareness of anything approaching the compound wall.  There were also feeds from two cameras that were mounted high up on the cliff walls.  They’d been put in place when inclement weather almost brought the drone down.