A New Beginning Ch. 13

I mentioned earlier that every now and then we just go exploring our world. Joshua, Thomas and Anthony want to go to the other side of Lake Hope and explore it, to see what kind of wildlife it harbors. They figured it to be about a three day journey around to the other side. From the photos we have of it from space it looks to be oval, measuring about forty by sixty-five kilometers. Then they would stay there at least six or seven days and then another three days coming back.

Most of the women are against them going. They don't want to be without the protection of the men for two weeks, especially if they take the pistol with them. Although I believe it's just a chauvinistic, immature adventure, I'm more or less neutral as long as they leave the gun here -- the three of them are excellent shots with their crossbows.

In fact, all of us who go hunting are excellent shots with the crossbows. We all practice shooting with them at least once or twice a week and everyone except Laci Bianca and Veronica Anne can hit a bull's eye with almost every shot. But on a zero to ten scale I'd give both women an eight point five, maybe nine.

Anyway, the subject of Joshua, Thomas and Anthony going exploring for two weeks gets "tabled" every time they bring it up. I think that's because most of the other men side with the women. If it ever comes down to a vote, I'll probably vote against them going.

But I'm not worried because one exploring adventure by Chantelle Dawn, Regina Aurora, Leonard and Laci gave us all a scare and at the same time helped solve their adventure problem.

None of us wants to be away from camp at night. It's too dangerous because some of these monsters can see better in the dark than we can. So, no matter where we are, we all head back to camp as late afternoon approaches.

Every now and then a party will come in after dark. But those instances are rare and even then they will be in within an hour or so of sunset. Sometimes a hunting and foraging party will take one or two of the five rechargeable flashlights with them if they think they might come in late -- like when Joshua, Thomas and Anthony go out for a night hunt. But those instances are also rare. I also want to point out that the three of them stay close to camp and only go to known areas whenever they do go out on a night hunt.

Anyway, long after sunset, Chantelle and her party still hadn't come in. We knew that they didn't have a flashlight with them and we were all worried. By twenty hundred hours we all figured they were holed up somewhere. None of us wanted to even consider the alternative.

Nothing like this had ever happened. Their absence was felt by all. The mood of everyone was very similar to that when Sam, Valarie and Carli were killed. Doc Yves suggested a movie about the evil inherent in vigilante justice, the 1943 classic The Ox-bow Incident, starring Henry Fonda. But no one really watched it. Half way through it he turned it off and no one complained. We all felt that bad.

All of us were hoping, sitting up watching and jumping up at every little sound coming from the forest around us. As twenty-two hundred approached, no one had even used the love nests. I had to practically order everyone to bed. I reminded them that we would all have to have a good night's sleep in case Chantelle and the others needed our help.

I took little Joseph, Chantelle's boy, Beth took Eve Marie, Laci's little girl and Vickie took Niño Esperanza, Regina's daughter. Then we all turned in for the night.

I didn't have a fire watch that night but I might just as well have had one. I was up it seems every hour. I finally dozed off about zero three hundred. Before falling to sleep I resolved that I would form a search party as soon as the sun came up. I didn't know where I was going to look. All I knew was that they had gone east along the edge of Lake Hope. My friend and lover was out there and I wanted to help her.

I woke up a little after zero eight hundred with a start. I usually get up around six but the sleepless night I put in caused me to miss my own wakeup call. Dawn was still sleeping at my side but little Joseph was gone. Then I remembered Joseph coming to get him, saying something about feeding him.

I hurriedly put on my Marineosaurus shorts. I still sleep in the nude as do most of us. Even with the fans blowing it's still rather warm in the James Cook. Then I headed for the stairs with Dawn sucking on my nipple.

Halfway down the steps I heard her voice. I looked under the wing between the strips of parachute hanging down. Chantelle and her team were sitting down eating a breakfast of hadrosaur eggs and fried duckbilled platypus. She was breast feeding little Joseph. She stopped in mid sentence, looked up at me and waved with a sad, please-forgive-me smile on her face.

I quickly excused myself with the statement that I had forgotten something upstairs. I went to my sleeping area and broke down. I was still crying tears of joy when she came to me. She put her arms around me and Dawn.

"Chantelle, I was so worried about you. I didn't know what to think. I didn't know if you were dead or lost or . . ."

"Hush my love. I know you were worried about me," she ran her fingers through my hair. "I was worried about you worrying about me. But I'm here now."

"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," I cried into her bare shoulder.

"Hey, aren't you the strong one between the two of us? Isn't it you who usually comforts me?"

I looked up and smiled at her. Chantelle wiped my tear streaked face with a towel. "Come on downstairs with me," she said. "We killed a couple of duckbilled platypuses on the way in this morning. You can eat your breakfast while I tell you all about our adventure."

Before I even sat down Leonard disclosed, "We killed a juvenile pigmy hippopotamus yesterday afternoon and were on our way back to camp when we spotted a cave overlooking the northeast end of Lake Hope. We left the hippo at the bottom of the cliff because it was too heavy to lug up the steep incline to the cave's mouth."

Laci interjected excitedly, "You should see it Toni. The mouth of the cave is about thirty meters above the beach and is about three meters high by seven meters wide. The climb up the right side of the cliff is very difficult."

"But the view is breathless," Chantelle added. "Off to the left we could see a high plateau about twenty kilometers north of the lake with a waterfall spilling over its edge and into the forest below."

Laci exclaimed, "Except for the lake, there was nothing but greenery and blue sky as far as we could see."

"About fifteen kilometers farther down the beach we saw a river that fed into the northern edge of the lake; presumably the river came from the waterfall," Regina said.

Leonard continued, "Nestled into the cliff above us we could see numerous birds' nests. We explored the cave but didn't go too far into it as we didn't have anything we could burn to use as torches. But we resolved to return if only to raid the bird nests for their eggs."

Chantelle said, "When we started to come down from the cliff there was a pack of nine Dromaesaurids waiting at the bottom. These raptors were larger than a Deinonychus but smaller than an Utahraptor. They were adorned with feathers just like other raptors we've seen except the almost completely featherless Utahraptor. Their heads, hands and feet were featherless but the rest of their bodies were covered with feathers."

"The feathers of theses carnivores were white," Laci said. "But some of them had a sprinkling of black feathers on their chests and mingled within their tails."

Anthony guessed that these latter were the males and the others were the females.

According to the group the dinosaurs had already eaten the pigmy hippopotamus and were sniffing the air for more. Chantelle ventured a guess that the carnivores also picked up their scent because they kept coming to the area where she and the others started their climb up the cliff.

There the monsters would sniff around some more and then bark up in their direction. Laci said that these animals didn't really bark. According to her it was more of a cross between the squawk of a parrot and the caw of a crow.

Anyway, Chantelle and her party knew they couldn't come down with the Dromaesaurids waiting for them at the bottom. The approach the exploring party took up the cliff only allowed them to ascend in single file and their descent would also have to be single file. Such a descent would allow the carnivorous theropods to pick them off one at a time as they descended.

They debated among themselves whether or not to try and kill the beasts with their crossbows. But they figured the raptors were all out of their effective firing range. I've mentioned that we are all excellent shots but that is shooting at a dinosaur that is only about fifteen or twenty meters away for most of us. Joshua, Anthony, Thomas and Chantelle, our best shooters, are good for up to about twenty or twenty-five meters.

These dinosaurs were just over thirty meters below them. So, they had to wait the beasts out. But the Dromaesaurids didn't leave until just after sunset when they were chased away by a pack of marsupial wolves, which stayed around for another hour or so just sniffing the remains of the hippopotamus as well as the approach up the cliff.

Our friends said they then debated among themselves whether or not to try and get back to camp; it's a two and a half hour journey away from here. They decided that without a flashlight they knew better than to try and make it in the dark, even walking along the beach.

As I said earlier, there are several large, nocturnal carnivores we hear at night prowling around. So, they decided to spend the night in the cave. They knew we would all be worried about them but there was nothing else they could do. None of them slept much during the night either.

The end result of their little exploring adventure was twofold. First, we all realized just how much we depend on us all staying together as a unit. There are only twenty of us. If that number is reduced by four or five, that will increase the workload for the remainder of us considerably. For example, tanning hides, hunting parties, making crossbow bolts and weapons all take several of us to accomplish.

Then we have to have a minimum of eight people for fire watch. We could probably get by with four individuals. But no one wants to spend fire watch by themselves just in case a monster comes snooping around -- thus eight are needed. Thankfully, a nocturnal carnivore visiting us has only happened twice in all the time we have been here and neither incident came to much.

The first time Juan and Natalie Amiee were on the twenty-four to zero two hundred watch. All of a sudden, a giant carnivore came into our camp and started to tear open the smokehouse. Neither Juan nor Natalie got a good look at the beast; they had the lights off.

They didn't admit it but I'm sure the reason they didn't know what kind of animal it was, was because they were too busy making love in the shower when it came into our camp. But even if they did admit it, I knew I couldn't admonish them for it; we all did it. It was before we made the rule of no sex in the shower.

Juan sent Natalie upstairs to wake up Joshua and Thomas and a couple of others and to get the .45; she woke everyone. By the time we all got downstairs the beast had left. But not before destroying our smokehouse and eating all the meat we had in it. Juan didn't try to kill it because he didn't have sufficient weaponry. He could only find two hand crossbows, a meat cleaver and some spears.

We rebuilt the smokehouse, making it twice as large as the first one.

The second time it was a pack of eight marsupial wolves. Josephine Jasmine and Victoria Rose were standing the zero two hundred to zero four hundred fire watch. The beasts came in looking for food but quickly attempted to surround Josephine and Vickie. The two women managed to get to the stairs. Vickie went upstairs to wake us while Josephine stayed on the steps and held the carnivores at bay with a spear. Can you believe her bravery?

Anyway, from the steps, Anthony shot a wolf with his crossbow. Seeing their comrades die put a little scare into the rest of the wolves; they backed off a bit. That gave the rest of us time to come charging down the stairs, frightening the seven remaining wolves away. We named them Night Wolves.

But getting back to what I was saying. We try to give those who stand fire watch the next morning off, especially those who stand it the six hours between twenty-four hundred and zero six hundred.

If several of our numbers leave for an overnight exploring trip and with eight others standing fire watch, that leaves barely enough people to gather firewood, hunt for and gather food, cook the food, garbage detail, clean up, make arrowheads or tan hides and numerous other little jobs that must be done.

True, some of these chores aren't done everyday but if the exploring party is gone for several days . . . well it would make it extremely hard for those who stayed behind.

So, the little exploring party of Chantelle, Regina, Leonard and Laci effectively killed forever Joshua's plans to explore the other side of Lake Hope. At least until the children reach an age where they can join the hunting parties and help out with the chores.

However, the afternoon the exploring party got back Joshua, Anthony, Leonard, Laci and Juan took the five rechargeable flashlights and explored the cave quite extensively.

At supper that evening they said that with a little fixing up, it would make a great retreat or second camp. This was the second outcome from the exploring party's overnight stay. The rest of us were all anxious to see it for ourselves, to see if we could use it as an overnight retreat or second camp.

The problem was that while we were discussing that we also discussed whether we could all abandon the James Cook for a day and go visit it. Most of the women were against that, me among them. Most of the men wanted us all to go together in one group.

They claimed that we had enough crossbow bolts, firewood, bone, smoked meat and other foods and supplies stored that we could afford to lay off one day and relax. They believed that we could make the visit to the cave a group outing.

Those of us who wanted to go in two groups didn't have any objection to that. What we were opposed to was leaving the James Cook without anyone here to protect the camp -- we had never done that before. Beth didn't want to leave Fur Ball here all by himself as she was afraid that Boss Hog might kill him. After two hours of discussion we couldn't agree.

Then Anthony and Leonard -- they were the leaders among those who wanted us all to go together -- finally gave in after Veronica and Akira Carissa reminded them that they were fathers now and would have to help take care of their children if we all went together as a group.

Taking advantage of the situation, I immediately called for a vote. Most of the men didn't want to vote in favor of taking care of the children while visiting the cave. The vote was sixteen to four.

We formed into two groups. One consisting of Joshua's and Anthony's original hunting and foraging parties. We went the next afternoon. Doc Yves went with us. The original hunting and foraging parties of Louis and Thomas went the following day. Elizabeth Dee went with them. Those who stayed home watched the children.

Chantelle was right; the view is spectacular. It's more than that, it's magnificent. I stood for ten minutes just looking out over Lake Hope, toward the forest to the north and to the plateau beyond the forest. To the south all I could see was beach and lake.

Nesting in the bushes all around the cave are thousands of grey birds with burnt orange breasts and green throats. David called them Egg Warblers because their eggs will be an excellent source of food and their song reminded him of Yellow Warblers. Me, I wouldn't know a Warbler's song from a Robin's, which I believe they more closely resemble, although they are about the same size as a pheasant.

The cave is L shaped and has three levels. The front is an area about 7 meters wide by 6 long. Immediately behind this area and off to the right, as one looks into the cave, is what used to be a small pool. It has a sandy bottom with steep sides. I paced it off and it is some 3.5 meters wide at the near end, 2.5 meters wide at the far end and about 5 meters long. It is about waist deep in the front and on its left side; its right side is the cave wall.

To the rear of the dried up pool and about a half a meter above it is an area close to 10 meters long by 5 meters wide. Then off to the left of this area, forming the leg of the L is the largest area, measuring some 6.5 meters wide and 20 meters deep.

The third level is on the left side of the cave wall. It is some 3 to 3.5 meters above the cave floor. It is also overhanging the largest area in the rear and the left side of the cave a little bit. It resembles a hayloft. It measures some 7 meters deep by 12 meters wide by about 2 meters high.

Directly below this "hayloft" area is a small channel about three quarters of a meter wide. It runs along the wall on the left side of the cave, creating a "walkway" between the left cave wall and the dried up pool. The water flowing through it is ankle deep and fed by a small stream coming out of the wall above and behind the hayloft, near the top of the L.

The water empties out of the cave's mouth on the left side of the cave and disappears into the underbrush down the side of the cliff. It is apparent that the water used to flow through the dried up pool and out the front of the cave on the right. But an earthquake or rock slide must have diverted the flow of water.

As soon as I saw the cave I knew what the others were going to think but I didn't say anything. Mainly because I didn't want everyone to think I was pushing my view off on everyone but also because I thought that there might be a small chance that I was wrong. We are really settled in, in the James Cook and some of the crew might not want to leave it. I cautioned those who went to view the cave first to keep their opinions to themselves until everyone had a chance to see it.

The next evening, after Louis and Thomas and their groups returned from visiting the cave, we were all sitting around eating a supper of baked Cornosaurus -- it tastes like frog legs -- and a vegetable soup that David and Yves cooked up. Thomas was the first to speak.

"So Toni, when do you think we should move into the cave?"

"I don't think it should be my decision. I believe that's a decision we should all make together," I answered him.

"Come on, is there anyone here who doesn't think the cave is a better place to live," added Juan. "We would have more than three times as much living area."

"I think it would be a safer place to raise our children," Laci said. "That pit on the right would make a perfect nursery. A small child couldn't possibly climb out of it."

"And it's too high up for the monsters to get at us," Aleks Michelle put in.

"So Toni, what do you think?" Thomas again asked. "You're our leader."

"I wasn't aware that I was the one to make all the decisions around here Thomas. I thought that we had a democracy here." I know that everyone still thought of me as the captain and maybe I am their leader . . . sort of. But I still wanted to emphasize that I wanted everyone to have a voice in what we did.

"OK," Joshua interjected, "is there anyone here who doesn't want to move to the cave?"

Regina added a bit of excellent wisdom. "I want to move but I think we should wait until after we've fixed it up for the babies. I just think that it will be easier for us seeing that there's nothing set up in the cave."