A New Beginning Ch. 09

Thomas, Anthony, Regina, Josephine and Juan are going out on a food hunt tomorrow. We're going to try and tan the skin of whatever animal they bring back. I wish we had skinned the Marineosaurus after we killed it but no one thought about it.

We have more or less divided ourselves into four groups for hunting and food foraging. Joshua leads one party, consisting of myself, him, Natalie, Leonard, and Laci. Thomas leads another group, consisting of him, Juan, Regina and Josephine; Anthony sometimes goes out with them. Anthony leads a hunting and foraging party of Joseph, Chantelle, Aleks and Veronica. Louis, David, Vickie and Akira make up the fourth hunting party but Anthony frequently goes out with them too.

Although I must point out that sometimes Joshua, Thomas and Anthony go out hunting by themselves. They are our best hunters. But it doesn't matter which hunting party goes out, each group takes the .45 pistol with them when they do.

We've had several intense discussions over that. Some of the crew wanted to keep the pistol in camp now that we have crossbows and spears. Others of us wanted the gun to go out with the hunting parties. Both groups were claiming that they wanted it for protection against the large carnivores.

The debate came to a head the evening after the Thomasclub green marsupial returned to our camp one morning. Anthony's team was out hunting; Joshua was with them. The rest of us were busy at various chores. The animal just wandered in from the bushes. Again, it sniffed the air in our direction and, ignoring us, proceeded to snoop around our camp.

As soon as Laci saw it she called out to Thomas that his knobby friend had returned. Thomas picked up a hand crossbow and shot it. David made a stew out of it. Laci named it that evening while we were eating it. That's when the discussion started. The Thomasclub was the first animal that had come into our camp in several weeks. But it raised questions about our safety here without the .45 pistol.

We argued it among ourselves long into the night, even forgoing our movie. In the end, we decided to keep the pistol with the hunting parties. The winning argument was that those who were here had numerous weapons scattered around the patio and kitchen area. They could use these to fend off any beast and then run inside the James Cook for protection.

We've all decided that Doc Yves is too valuable to go out on hunting parties. First of all, he's not a very good shot with a crossbow. The only person worst than him is Beth. Secondly, besides keeping us all healthy, he has to clean the James Cook's windows off almost every other day.

Doc also helps out with the cooking and keeping the camp clean. Some think he's a better cook than David but I prefer Josephine's cooking. She grew up in Paris, France but her mother was from Houma, Louisiana -- a small city not far from New Orleans. Her mother taught her how to cook Cajun style. Need I say more?

Beth stays in camp with her broken ankle. Right now she's acting as Doc's nurse. If she learns enough I'm thinking about suggesting to the others that she stay in camp too; he needs the help. Besides, she is a terrible hunter and the worst shot among us with the crossbow. She even needs help cocking and loading a crossbow.

All the hunting parties and food forages bring back firewood and bone along with any food they get; dinosaur bones can be found all over the place. When we go out we are well armed. Each group brings crossbows with them. The men carry the .45 pistol and the women the two taser guns. Everyone carries either a hunting knife or a hand axe along with a can pepper spray and their club or spear.

Joshua's group goes out on Monday and the next day Thomas and his party go out. No one goes out Wednesday -- we use that day to do things around camp. Some of us use that day to go spear fishing in our lake. But we are careful to post a guard with the .45 to watch out for crocodiles.

Thursday Anthony's hunting party goes out followed the next day by Louis and his hunting and foraging party. Then Saturday we work in the camp again or go fishing. That way once a group has gone out they can look forward to the next several days in camp. Everyone usually relaxes on Sunday, although Joshua, Thomas and Anthony sometimes go out by themselves on Saturday or Sunday.

We've been here almost four months now. Our camp is pretty well set up. We have a small vegetable garden growing just off our kitchen area. Animal hunts and food forages along with gathering firewood and dinosaur bone are our main concerns now.

Juan and I are getting better at tanning animal skin. Both Natalie and Leonard have also learned how to do it too. The four of us usually work on our hides in the evening or sew and repair clothing using strips of animal hide. We use fish bones for needles.

While we do that Anthony and Akira make spears and Doc makes spear throwers; the others make crossbow bolts. Joshua, Louis and Thomas have made 15 crossbows so far, with plans to make at least three more -- that way all of us who go hunting will have one. They also plan to make two more small ones that will be left in the kitchen for protection against any large lizards, small dinosaurs or carnivorous birds that may come around.

We've added two more barrels to the shower, enlarging it to an area about two meters square with three spigots. Everyone is happy about that. But we still haven't solved our door problem. Most of us -- particularly Aleks -- just bathe with the door open. After the shower incident she had with the PrimusPrimate Orange Nose -- it has a dark orange nose -- she refuses to shower with the door closed.

Laci is just the opposite. She takes special care to make sure the shower door is leaning securely against the shower frame. She jokingly calls us all perverts for showering in front of everyone. But then someone will teasingly ask her, why she has no objections to showering with a man -- we all take showers with each other -- she ignores them and walks naked from the shower to her sleeping area with a smirk on her face.

She's very promiscuous. Except for Doc Yves, I don't think there is any man she hasn't slept with.

Some are complaining that we need another toilet. With twenty of us using the one toilet in the James Cook's lower flight deck, sometimes someone has to wait in line. No one likes that but then neither does anyone like garbage or shit detail.

About every two days two people have to empty the ship's toilet. Then they team up with two more people and the four of them carry our waste and our other garbage out to our garbage dump on the dried up lake bed.

We've stopped burning it. Between the Daffyducktus, the dung beetles and the rats it's all eaten up within a day or two. Yes, we have large rats and mice; at least they look like the little varmints.

It's a major chore to carry all the garbage and waste out to the site. It will be even more of a chore if we have two toilets to empty. So, I'm reluctant to assign a team to build an outhouse for another toilet. Besides, we all use the bushes when there is an urgent situation.

Except for the one Marineosaurus, no large carnivores have entered our camp or even come near it. Nor have any more Hawkosaurs come around looking for food. In fact, there are no more Hawkosaurs within a kilometer or two of camp -- I'm pretty sure we killed them all -- and virtually no more Blackraptors. We see one in a tree every now and then but they too stay away from us.

As I said earlier, the dinosaurs have learned that there is a meaner, tougher kid on the block and they fear us. That is exactly what I want.

However there was an incident last week that I think I should mention. Anthony's group was out on a hunting and food forage. They were returning with two baskets of some mushrooms and that potato looking vegetable -- they even taste like potatoes.

They were about two kilometers from camp when they came upon a Chantelleosaurus theropod, the two meter high dinosaur that looks like a coral snake that swallowed something too big to digest.

She was guarding her nest of eggs. She started to make a cawing sound at them and then she attacked Chantelle, knocking her down. But Aleks and Veronica each shot it with their crossbows. It didn't die right away so Anthony hit it with an axe, chopping its head off.

Then they gathered up her 15 eggs, which Josephine made into a potato and egg omelet the next morning. We ate the Chantelleosaurus the next evening as David had already prepared a lizard stew for our supper that evening.

Everyone teased Chanatelle and said that the Chantelleosaurus attacked her because that was its way of getting even with our security chief. But Chantelle said that she did not believe in such superstitious nonsense. She said that the dinosaur attacked her because she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I just smiled at my lesbian lover.

Later that night we made love and she confessed to me that she hadn't been that scared since she rode on the back of the Dromeaosaur raptor our first day back on Earth.

We are living completely on our own now. With the exception of toilet paper and tampons -- we are almost out of those -- we have used up all the supplies we took from the cafeteria. Josephine cooked our last can of beans yesterday.

I'm not counting one, four liter can of candid sweet potatoes, one, four liter can of peas and one, four liter can of candid apples we still have. We all voted to save them for our Christmas diner, which is a little over two months away.

But we cannot decide what meat we will eat. Some want to eat baked Daffyducktus but others want to feast on pigmy hippopotamus. There are several of them living in burrows near our lake. The problem is that the hippopotami are nocturnal and it is hard to catch them. Joshua, Thomas and Anthony went out in the evening last month and shot one with a crossbow. They're delicious and taste just like pork. The Daffyducktus taste like chicken.

Joshua, Thomas and Anthony are about the only ones who go out hunting at night. Sometimes Louis or David or one of the other men will go out with them. But none of them go out very often or too far away; it's too dangerous. We have five rechargeable flashlights that they use. That helps a little bit but it is very easy for some nocturnal beast to hide in the undergrowth and catch them unawares. Enough said.

We've started to relax and enjoy our selves. Louis brought a football; a souvenir from a winning touchdown he made in college. He said he didn't have the heart to leave it with the living section. Anthony made a baseball bat. Leonard made a baseball of sorts out of some left over Teflon and fiberglass and Beth and Aleks made some gloves out of dino hide.

Some of us often team up and play touch football or baseball; others just watch. But we only use two bases and a home plate; I forgot to download the exact dimensions of a baseball infield. Besides, unless everyone plays -- which has yet to happen -- we don't have enough players for three bases.

We also play soccer. We use a ball that Josephine made by wiring some bamboo stalks in a somewhat spherical shape and covering it with animal skin. The problem is, is that if you kick it too hard it breaks and we have to stop our game until she or someone fixes it.

Everyone still pretty much looks to me as their leader. But everything we do, every major undertaking is voted on by all of us. If a problem arises we all sit around after supper and discuss it. Everyone has a say so in what he or she thinks the solution ought to be and then we decide what to do.

I would rather have it that way. It makes me feel like we are living in a democracy instead of a dictatorship. We are no longer traveling through space. There is no more UNESA or UER to report to. We alone are responsible for our actions. So, why have a specific leader.

Bedsides, I look to Doc Yves for support. He's become my refuge and my strength as I've been Chantelle's refuge and strength. I often find myself turning to him and unloading myself on him, especially in the evening after everyone goes to sleep.

I may not get to live out my final days lying naked next to the pool on Nuda Earth but I believe this is better.

To be continued . . .