Second Chances (34 page)

“I hope you know what you're doing,” he muttered.

“I'm wondering how hard it'll be to ride these avestruz,” Diego mused.

Miles stared at him. Diego shrugged. “We'll, it's a thought hombre,” he said.

Miles shook his head. “You're insane,” he muttered, keeping a sharp eye out as they made off with their kidnap victims.

\------{}------/

Grudingly, Miles admitted gauchos make good dinosaur cowboys. The first time he'd seen them riding the strutters he'd just about died laughing, but he had to admit they worked out okay. Sure he'd never ride one. He felt sea sick just watching someone else on one, but they worked.

Breaking the animals in had been tough; they'd lost a few. But of course there were more out there to catch, which they did. A lot more. And those that died from stress or broken bones...well, they tasted just great.

Over the course of the spring they rounded up Bolladons, Auruch, Struthomimus, some other bipedal dinos, a few six-legged critters, Protoceratops, and Barox. The Barox was the closest to a bison but oddly shaped. It had a low slung head, tusks and horns on its hump. It was an omnivore, so they had to be careful around the front end since they'd just as soon take a bite out of someone as look at them.

The gauchos were good at driving the animals, he finally understood why they made all those sounds and loud whoops and shit. They could get the animals in a frenzy of a stampede chasing them over a cliff or into a corral easily. After their first successful time doing that he'd figured they'd gotten their meat problem solved. In a way they had but not quite the way he'd expected.

They had found through the process of trial and error that the Bolladons were about useless. The things were armored all over, walking tanks with massive beaks and a spiked tail. They were untrainable and just too ornery to have around. Even the meat was horrible; the spics wouldn't touch it under a mountain of hot sauce. Miles had tried a bite and agreed. Even burned to charcoal it was nasty. So, they'd driven the things out. He'd been tempted to use a few as bait, but Abe had nixed the idea.

The Auruchs were primitive cattle; those they put to good use. The Protoceratops were like pigs with a hint of chicken for taste. The six-legged critters were great for dark meat, but had an odd metallic flavor.

The dinos like the strutters, the Struthomimus, or the overgrown red rooster Citipati were used as riding animals or were kept for their eggs or meat. Miles couldn't ride them; they were just too damn weird for his tastes. The gauchos broke them in handily though; it took roughly a day to get one trained. The Indians liked them for the feathers. He'd caught Rodrigo and a few others using the animals in cock matches. The things were damn impressive when they fought each other.

The one animal he liked the best for domestication was the Barox. They were plug ugly, but they ate just about everything. And they had another thing going for them; one he didn't appreciate but others did. The Barox were found to be good for milk. After they dropped their calves mid-spring, they started lactating very rich milk and cream. Thick stuff with a greenish tint to it.

“So freaking what? Latte? Like we need that shit,” Miles scoffed at the next council meeting.

“For your information, some people use cream other than for their morning coffee,” Nicole lectured him. Diego nodded. “We're going to milk them, though I'm not sure how.”

“We'll create a chute. That's how the dairies did it,” Diego said. She looked to him and then nodded.

“Okay, I bow to the expert,” Nicole said. “We'll need containers, and someone will have to figure out how to, I dunno, treat it.”

“Pasteurize and homogenize,” Diego supplied softly. She nodded again.

“Right. With that we'll have, oh, milk, butter, yogurt, ice cream, cheese, all sorts of things,” she said, looking triumphantly to her husband.

He grunted. “Fine,” he finally said, waving a hand. “Go to it,” he said. “Have a ball,” he growled.

“Animals are good for more than just meat mister carnivore,” Nicole teased. He snorted.

\------{}------/

Joe and the gauchos made chutes and metal paddocks out of fencing he had from an old stockyard. “I'm glad I didn't cut it up and recycle it before we left,” Joe admitted.

“Good for you I suppose,” Miles grunted. He would have loved to have used the metal for the wall but admitted it wasn't really suited for his purposes. Sure it kept animals out, but they had a wall about twenty-feet high now. Adding the fencing would have raised it another six feet or so, but they wouldn't have been able to mount a walk on it like they were working on now.

They'd set up the dairy next to the base on the west side next to the junkyard. The two places shared a wall with the base and each other. He didn't like how it was so close; predators would be drawn to the barns for the animals. But the barn and ranch had been Abe and Diego's project; they'd set it up their way when he'd been out hunting. They'd rammed it through the council in a rump vote that still had him stinging a little.

They had a nice dairy system set up or so they said. They had taken about a week to get the kinks out of it. They had feeding troughs and the waste was picked up and composted for the gardens and fields. Closing the loop or so they said.

He eyed the animals, then the metal poles. He was glad they had used metal though he was a bit annoyed by it. He could have used the metal poles for something else. Honestly, it seemed a waste he groused to himself.

As he watched an animal meandered away from the herd and then to an opening. The opening got narrower until it became a chute. The chute led to a raised platform. Two bars pinned the animal on the flanks. Feed was presented to it in a trough, then the person doing the milking went to work, cleaning the udders with a wet rag then milking it into a stainless steel pail. When they were done the trough was withdrawn and the animal was allowed to leave through the front of the chute.

“Like it?” Diego asked.

“I guess so,” Miles said, sounding bored. He looked over to the others. Nicole raised an eyebrow to him but didn't say anything.

“It's taken us a couple weeks to train the animals; they still aren't broken to us. I doubt this generation will ever be anything beyond half wild,” Diego admitted. Miles grunted in agreement. He'd seen a few of the animals kick when they'd been milked, but now the animals seemed docile about the whole process. “See, they want to relieve the pressure since we've taken the calves away,” Diego explained. Miles nodded. They'd separated the calves as soon as they'd been born. “As long as we feed them and keep milking them we'll have milk for a couple months,” he said proudly.

“We've gone from nothing to a glut. Or will soon, though we're working on other ways to store the milk in other forms,” Moira said.

“Like yogurt, butter and cheese,” Nicole nodded in approval. Moira shrugged.

“They won't dry up?” Carlos asked.

“No,” Diego said shaking his head. “I don't think so. But we'll know they're done when the milk starts to sour. That's when the weaning starts,” he said.

“Then we can slaughter them?” Miles demanded. “Feeding them is a pain in the ass,” he grumbled. He didn't like that the gauchos had to go out with the herds to secure feeding pastures, then drive the animals back at night, or round them up and put up some sort of temporary fence and defenses and sleep in the field. He was pretty sure the gauchos weren't happy about that part either.

Having the animals in the field...with about ten to twenty gauchos was a serious manpower drain as well. It also put a lot of their weapons and precious ammunition out in the field, something he didn't like at all. The gauchos were firing one or two shots a night to scare off predators.

“We need to kill them off when they aren't useful anymore and find a way to deal with the damn predators in the area,” Miles grumbled. He now understood the ranchers’ position about cattle and wolves. The damn things had to be exterminated. The same went here. And fortunately there weren't any bleeding heart environmentalists to stop them. The only good Rex or raptor was a dead one in his opinion. The same went for anything else that had sharp teeth.

“Or, and this is just a thought, we'll breed them,” Diego said, looking to Carlos and Nicole for support. “And when they have their calves we'll have more milk.”

“And in the meantime we'll have unproductive animals to house and feed,” Miles said darkly. He shook his head. “No, we can't afford it.”

“Let me worry about the feeding part, jefe,” Diego said. “I'm handling it,” he said. “If it gets out of hand, we'll cull the herd. We don't need so many bulls; that's why I turned them over to you anyway. We'll do the same with the calves when they get a bit bigger.”

“Fine,” Miles grumbled.

“It's easier to use a ranch then to hunt them,” Nicole reminded him.

Abe nodded. “It's how we did it in Texas. These things are uglier than bison, but they get the job done,” he said.

“Less fun than hunting but less dangerous,” Miles grumbled. “And we don't have to use fuel. I see your point,” he nodded.

Chapter 19

A roar from a predator woke the community a few hours before dawn. Sydney woke so terrified she peed the bed. Her mother sighed when she admitted it, completely contrite. “I'll take care of it honey,” Nicole said, taking the soiled bedding.

“You said it came from the east?” Miles asked. Diego nodded. “Fine, we'll head that way,” Miles said. He rounded up Rodrigo and a couple gauchos and went out to check the area for the predator, to kill it or drive it off.

Nicole went out the west gate; it was after dawn, quite nice out. She knelt on the bank of the river doing the laundry. She was tempted to use the large rock and some smaller rocks to lay the sheets out, but instead found a vine nearby that would serve the purpose better. “Wish I had some clothespins,” she muttered. She didn't see the shadow behind her until it was too late.

Sydney and Jake went looking for her when she didn't come home to make lunch. The kids were horrified when they found a thing made out of tentacles feeding on her body. Sydney screamed, startling the pale thing back into the river water.

The little girl was hysterical; she screamed over and over for her mother and blamed herself. Jake held her back and then slapped her to get her under control. She screamed when the feeding animal turned on them. Jake got between her and the predator.

Miles heard the shouts from the wall from his trailer. He saw people pointing and something about kids. He started to walk, then when he heard a little girl's scream he broke into a run. Rodrigo looked up startled as he thundered past and followed.

Miles came out the gate, oriented on the screams and then ran on. Rodrigo said something about getting weapons but he didn't stop. He rounded a rock to find Sydney behind Jake. Jake was fending some nightmare creature off with a branch.

Miles pulled his trusty 357 out of his hip holster just as the thing wrapped tentacles around the stick Jake had and then pulled him off balance. The magnum barked once, and the thing practically exploded in gore.

“Oh my god,” Jake said, spitting. He turned to his father. “I'm sorry, I...there was...nothing...” He choked up. “Mom...”

Miles stiffened as feet came up behind him and Rodrigo. He moved forward dumbly and saw the body of his wife lying on the bank. Already another tentacle beast was moving in the water to her body. It wrapped a tentacle around her leg and started dragging her corpse into the water.

“Leave her the hell alone,” Miles snarled, leveling the magnum. He fired once, but either he'd missed or the thing was too deep. Either way it jerked, dragging her body down with it. More eye stalks started to appear in the water though.

“We've got to go, jefe,” Rodrigo urged, picking Sydney up. “Come on man,” he said.

He had wanted to toughen up his kids up but even the colonel was shaken and tearful. “You're right; there is nothing we can do here,” Miles ground out, backing away from the embankment. He forced himself to get his people to safety, but in doing so he had to abandon his wife's body to the predators. He looked over his shoulder, face full of hate for things. For first time, he didn't just blame them though, he blamed himself as well. He realized he'd driven her to it with the crap about roles and such. Now he'd never get the chance to hold her or make it up to her.

\------{}------/

They held a funeral for Nicole later that evening. Everyone in the community attended. Jesus Salazar led a mass for the group. At first awkward and uncomfortable in the role, Jesus settled down near the end.

Miles listened with half an ear while the kids stood on either side of him. He regretted Nicole's death. She'd been his anchor, one of the reason's he'd stayed sane. She'd countered his excesses and kept him on the middle of the road. The kids were thrown into chaos. He knew Jake was hurt by her death, Sydney even more so at her young age. The girl had hugged his leg crying quietly throughout the entire funeral. He'd patted her awkwardly; unsure anything he could say could help her. She had to get over it, they all had to. They had to move on. Eventually Jake and Ciara took the girl in hand and led her off to eat.

Now with Nicole gone he got into a grim power trip. He didn't want a repeat, despite everyone wanting to just forget about the whole thing and return to normal. He trained everyone mercilessly to respond when an alert was sounded and to buddy up and check on their buddies often. Abe and Vicky treated him gently for a while and agreed with his policy decisions.