Second Chances (40 page)

Fist fights were common. When they were trapped indoors by the storms people became bored and tempers flared over the stupidest things. Twice Vicky had to intervene when a fight over checkers got so heated it turned into a brawl. Even cards was a dangerous game to play in the wrong company.

Miles lead volunteers outside to shovel snow and in contests. He started one by accident; he threw a knife and Rodrigo bet he could top him. That led to a knife and hatchet throwing contest that lasted all day until they were tired of it. Miles did have to admit, the practice might come in handy in the future.

Angeni Dakota taught those who were interested in making snow shoes and skis. Hunting while on snow shoes was okay, but firing a bow or one of Joe's leaf spring crossbows while on skis was tricky many found.

Half the people became sick with colds or mild hypothermia during the first month. Their only medic was a Hispanic assistant medical examiner trainee named Orlin. He was a ghoulish man of few words that made everyone uncomfortable to be around. He was tall with a long face and dark eyes. He took care of the dead as well and seemed to light up when the day of the dead had rolled around in early fall.

“He's more undertaker than doctor,” Vicky grumbled.

“He's all we've got,” Miles said. He just hoped none of his family got sick.

Joe, Miles and Jake worked in the forge machine shops when they were stuck in the base. They didn't have much power at first; the river had frozen over. But Joe and Jake put their heads together and rigged up a bicycle to an alternator. It wasn't much, but it provided some power for the shop for short bursts.

Miles liked coming to the shop because it was warm. Joe had gathered a lot of firewood, and any of the hardwood he'd collected he'd turned into charcoal. Now he burned it, as much to heat and forge metal as to heat up the area. After a while the secret was out, and the forge became popular. So popular Joe started putting people to work or snarled at them to get the hell out of the way. Drafting them knocked down his uninvited guest list overnight.

Miles wanted them to focus on weapons, but Joe was a dilettante. He went out of his way to make everything from parts for the skis and snowshoes Dakota and her people were making to farm tools and plows for the coming spring. It irritated Miles that the man wouldn't or couldn't focus on any one project for long, but his son just shrugged it off.

One thing Miles did eventually approve of was the wood stoves Joe turned out. He hadn't liked them at first; he'd been a traditionalist and liked a cozy fire in a fireplace. But he'd learned through patient repeated explanations from Joe that a wood stove was ten times more efficient at burning wood and heating the air in a building. Joe turned out twenty of the steel boxes. He even turned an old battered barrel into a wood stove. They were quite popular in the community.

Vicky turned into good female leader. She not only hunted, she also arbitrated disputes with an easy professionalism and cajoled people to keep their spirits up. Miles fought his bitterness over the community having a female leader and wisely kept his mouth shut around Ciara and the other ladies.

His bitterness ended when Vicky was reported killed out hunting and gathering. The other hunters out with her heard her scream. When they had run to her rescue, they'd crunched through the hard snow only to find a blood pool. Her body was never found. Some muttering about that back at base. Some thought Miles killed her because she was competition. He wasn't certain what to do about that. He'd never been the one on the receiving end of a conspiracy before.

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The spring of the second year broke with a rapid thaw as the sun warmed the ground. The snows seemingly melted overnight, heartening those who still went out for food and wood. Their spirits were up, but they were all gaunt shadows of their former selves.

Miles had been terrified when Ciara and Sydney had gotten sick during the last days of winter. Fortunately both had recovered, but it had been a close call.

The plants around the base sprouted nicely. Many had been cut back, even the plants they'd designated as fruit trees to be left alone had been cut down by people who hadn't wanted to venture far during the winter.

They were determined and hungry when the first animals returned. People had a hard time getting about, they were lethargic due to lack of nutrition. Many constantly complained about being dizzy or light headed. All were crabby. Miles was frustrated, but he, Diego and Rodrigo planned carefully. Diego got those who could move out to build a series of funnel trap pens around the area. They tried to use the lay of the land to their advantage as much as possible. The pens were made out of wood, metal, rocks, and brush. They made the finished pens over ten feet high, with an additional two rungs that were angled inward to dissuade the animals from attempting to jump over.

When the second herds started arriving Diego stationed his people in the trees and near the pens. They had to be selective. They knew only certain animals would work in the traps; some would tear them apart. People were impatient to get going, but Diego held firm. At his signal people whooped and hollered from behind the animals and in the trees, driving them into the funnels and then into the pens. Gauchos swung a gate shut, trapping them inside. Once a pen was full they let the animals linger within under the watchful eyes of one or two gauchos while the rest of the team reset with the next trap.

They didn't catch all the animals of course, but they did catch dozens in each trap. During lulls Diego checked the animals over and made notes on which would be culled and which would be kept.

When no herds came for a whole day, the next day Diego swung his people into action. They set up an additional pen next to the catch pens, then started picking the animals they wanted to cull out with gates and ropes.

These animals were run through the chutes to the dairy area then slaughtered downwind of the captured herds to keep them from panicking. Cita worked with the women to dress the meat in a well-oiled assembly line. They ended up with an orgy of meat; so much Miles immediately had them start smoking and salting the excess.

Diego and Miles both agreed to not allow the gauchos to play matador. Diego laid it out to the men; it was purely a safety issue. They couldn't afford to let anyone get injured or killed just for showing off. Life was just too dangerous as it was.

Diego had his hands full breeding the Barox herd and domesticating them. Several new species were caught; they set them aside to be sorted later.

While Diego had been working on the herds, Miles and Rodrigo had worked on other more dangerous animals. Many of the hunters had set up traps in the area, these were checked daily but most didn't pan out. With the return of the herds, that changed. But predators came as well. Miles planned to do something about that.

They drove some animals into pits lined with stakes. The smaller raptors and other predators were netted and then crushed under rocks or clubbed to death. The larger predators were picked off with a rifle at range. Miles found that, like the buffalo hunters back in the nineteenth century, if you killed one animal the others would linger. With predators it didn't matter if it was the alpha or one of the others if they were hungry enough. The better thing to do was to kill a prey animal, then let them scavenge it. Some of the smarter animals would flee when the bullets started flying, but some of the hungry ones would stay to poke their pack mate...and then feed on them. Apparently meat was meat as far as they were concerned.

This was why, after killing one he waited until the others settled back down, then picked them off one by one. And when the other scavengers came on the scene, he picked some of them off until Joe spoiled his fun by reminding him about the gunpowder situation. Half the predator meat and hides were used, but a lot of it spoiled in the sun.

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Despite the problems with nutrition during the long winter, Ciara hadn't miscarried. She was woefully thin though. Angeni had her eating as much as possible to make up for what nutrition she'd lacked in the second trimester.

Ciara woke Miles with severe contractions. He sent a terrified Sydney to fetch Angeni, then did his best to help. When Angeni and her helper Cita had arrived, they'd banished the sleepy men folk out of the trailer. With the tight room, Sydney soon joined them.

Jake yawned, then fell into a doze with his sister under his favorite Transformers comforter. Miles tried to sit still but couldn't. When dawn broke he fetched them some food and then tried to keep busy. The kids headed off to do their community chores. When Cita realized Miles was still hovering, she chased him away.

“Go. Go supervise or something. We've got this,” she said, waving an airy hand.

“You're sure?” he asked, still concerned.

“Go!”

He went. Jake found him near lunch time, grinning. He stopped shoveling to look at his son. “What are you grinning about?”

“Well, it's a girl!” Jake said. Miles broke out into a grin of approval. Together they went to meet their new family member.

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Carlos used clear plastic to create temporary greenhouses. Any translucent plastic was used, even trash bags. He put black bags to use covering the soil. Miles snarled about the waste of time and material, but Carlos just held up a finger. He was about to explain when a sentry called Miles away.

Miles later learned that the black plastic absorbed more heat like a solar blanket. “So, maybe Carlos knows what he's doing,” he muttered, leaving the man to his work.

When the nursery was overgrown with plants, Carlos planted them clearing the space out for the next batch. Jake and Sydney helped wherever they could. Grimly the teen protected the area, even going so far as to gather drift wood and use it to create improvised fences along the roads.

Now that the grounds had thawed out and they had time and energy, Joe created a better network of roads for the hunters and gatherers to go across. He even went so far as to rig a sign with arrows pointing into the sky to various locations on earth in whimsical distances in light years.

When the hunters tried to shortcut through the fields, Jake snarled and warned them to go around. That got their attention. Sheepishly they returned to the roads. Miles caught one shouting match and nodded to his son in approval when Omar backed down.

When the fodder was ankle high, Diego led the gauchos out to pick up new herds. It took a week to round the animals up. They sorted them out; any that couldn't be used were culled for food right off. They spent another two weeks breaking in the dinosaurs in a spring rodeo everyone attended. They found it was easier to domesticate young dinosaurs; some of the older ones just couldn't handle the stress or were just too wild. It was a wild affair and a bit scary. Twenty animals died of stress. Two gauchos were injured; one with a broken arm and ribs before Diego called a halt to the proceedings.

Irma went along with them in the field. She caught the smaller animals with nets and snares. They had found out the previous year that some made great substitutes for chickens. By applying what they knew about chickens, they could get them to lay all year-round with careful management and feeding.

Soon base had them all over; many of the people didn't believe in containing the things. But when they started pooping all over, Miles had them build a chicken coop. He tried to have the birds confined there, but they kept getting out. He snarled when a rooster woke him up and threatened to kill them on sight if they didn't get them contained.

Carlos and Diego got the animals back into the coop and then rigged a lid to the outer area so the animals couldn't jump out. Any animals that were particularly gifted at escape they confined in the old cock cages or put them first in line for culling.

Moira was disgusted when some of the residents got back into cock fighting. Miles shrugged it off when she complained about it to the community. “Hey, they've got to have some amusement. I say leave them alone. The animal dies we'll eat it. End of story,” he said.

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Ten miles south of the community they found some odd polyps growing on a vine along a creek. They weren't fruit, but like a coconut they were filed with juice. “It's not milk. It's...” Carlos sniffed then gagged. He covered his mouth and nose with his arm, turning away. “Smells like alcohol,” he said.

Miles took it to the fireplace and dribbled some onto the cold coals, then went over to the common fire that they kept going and brought back a burning torch. When the flame touched the liquid it wooshed up in a fiery explosion.

“Wish we'd found this last year,” Miles grumbled. They'd used all of their propane and most of their fuel to stay warm and alive all winter. Some families had burned through their wood and had resorted to burning their own shit. He didn't envy them at all.

“Can we use it for something? I mean a lamp would be too dangerous but...”

“I'll get Joe on it,” Miles said. “We'll see what he can come up with,” he said. Carlos nodded.

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Diego had to treat a Barox calf that had gas. The animal was down, unable to get up. It was obviously in distress. “So, what, he can't fart?”

“Burp. See the bulge in his stomach? It's a gas pocket. It's pressing against his organs, compressing his lungs so he's having trouble breathing.”