What Happened?
By
Apache
All rights reserved
Chapter 7
Winter wore on. The people were doing things like mending
clothing, that didn't need mending. I got all of the ladies
together one day and started on teaching them how to shoot the cross
bow. Once the men saw what the cross bow could do, they wanted a
go at it. After two months of off and on practice, the men were
as good as the ladies. Now all I needed was enough bows to go
around. I had no sooner thought this, than the laptop started
beeping. I opened it and on the screen were the words, "Cross
bows and bolts for all of your people will be there at first light".
Now that's what I call service!
I felt more at ease that I had, from the time I got here, where ever
here is. I knew that as a group we could defend ourselves from
almost anything, from cave bears on down to rabbits! Most of the
men and all of the women were tack drivers.
Winter wore on until it finally wore out and became spring.
I was outside on the first warm day. The snow was almost all
gone, and the river was running full. The grass on the broad
plane in front of me was a brilliant green. The sky was as blue
as I had ever seen it. Wild flowers were starting to bloom in a
rainbow of colours. For the first time in my adult life, I felt
comfortable within myself. I didn't have to worry about getting
to work on time, or if I would have enough money to cover all of my
expenses. Hell, I had no expenses. The food we needed was
out there on the plane just waiting to be taken and eaten.
Off in the distance I could see a group of people hunting. They
had cut a bison from the herd and were chasing if and trying to tire it
to the point that they could kill it with spears. I went and got
the 50. I looked into the scope and picked up the bison being
chased. I knew in my mind that it was a long shot and may miss,
but I eased the trigger back, and BOOM. It took a long time for
the round to get to the target, but when it did the bison dropped like
a rock. The people were looking at the bison, and then suddenly
as the sound of the 50 got to them, they were all looking in my
direction, I stood and waved at them. They all waved and
pointed at the bison. I made a sweeping gesture to try to let
them know that the bison was theirs.
I got down and sighted in on a young bull. BOOM! And it
dropped. Next was a yearling cow. BOOM! Same result.
I got up and made the sweeping gesture again. The group suddenly
grew in size. The women came out of hiding, and went to work on
the bison. It wasn't much more than a half hour and the bison
were gutted, skinned and cut into chunks that a person could carry.
The bad news was, they ran out of people before they ran out of
bison. Three men stayed to guard the rest of the meat from
predators.
One guy took off at a dead run in a direction that must have been
toward their village. The women started to walk in the same
direction and some of the men went with them. The women were
weighted down with all of the bison that they could carry. The
village would eat well tonight. A little later a bunch of people
came into view and headed for the killing site. They made short
work of loading the meat and getting it back to their village.
I saw the same people out hunting eight days later, and again I helped
them out. The river was almost down to the point that I could use
the ford to get across. Hell, I wanted to get out on the plane
and do a little hunting myself. We did not need the food, but a
good fresh bison stake or roast would go very well at this point.
Dawn came out and was looking around. I knew that she and the
rest of the women wanted to go gathering, but I didn't think that there
would be anything big enough to bring home. Man was I
wrong. She and a few of the other women went down by the river
and were doing something. Almost two hours later they came back
with almost thirty fish, and they were big ones. They also had a large
basket full of what looked like mustard greens. It looked like we
might have some very good food to eat tonight.
Things went on very well for the next couple of weeks. We were
finishing up on the food that we had gathered the previous year, and
the women were starting to gather fresh veggies every day. We had
went on a little hunt and brought back a large bull bison.
Then one day, we had a visitor. It was a young woman, about
fifteen or so years old. And a beauty if I do say so
myself. So looked as if she had travelled a long way, in a short
time. The women took her in and got her cleaned up. They
were all talking to her, then Dawn came running to me. She told
me that there were some men chasing her from her tribe. She was
asking for our protection. It seems that her tribe believed in
human sacrifices and she was next up. I was going to put a stop
to that madness any way I could.
It was the following day that we had more visitors. Four guys
showed up. They demanded that the girl be turned over to
them. I asked why.
They told me that several men had starved last winter, and they had to
appease the Gods, or more would die next winter. They told me
their sad tale and when they were done I laughed at them. I told
them that they were wrong to believe in those things. Killing a
person would not please the Gods, but would tend to make them
angry. They then said that they would just kill me and take her
and any other woman in the cave. With that I pulled my Glock and
shot him, centre of mass. The others checked him out and then one
more got bold and tried to through his spear at me. That made two
of them laying on the ground. The rest of them thought better
than to cause any more trouble. They all turned and started to
leave. I fired into the air, and then told them to take the dead
ones with them. They did, but that left two girls standing
there. I asked why they did not go with the group. The
reply was, "You have killed the men who claimed us as mates. We
now belong to you".
Two more wives! I knew that I could care for them so I just let
Dawn take over and bring them into my growing family.
The next day I was told that the tribe would just pick out another
young girl and burn her at the stake, "To appease the Gods".
Not on my watch.
The next day I and several of my wives were on our way at first light
to the place where the tribe was camping. It took almost three
hours to get there, because the women that had become my wives were not
sure of the way. When we arrived they had a young girl tied to a
post in the middle of the camp area. They had a huge pile of wood
around her. I drove the cart right up to the post and got
off. The girl had a gag in her mouth, so she couldn't make a
sound, except for a low whimper. Two guys came running up to me,
as I started to untie the girl. One had a club in his hands and
the other had a throwing spear. The one with the club was in the
lead, so I pot a round into the ground just in front of him. He
stopped running. The other guy was about ready to throw his
spear. He let it fly before I could get a round off. Time
and motion seemed to slow way down. I saw the spear headed right
at me, but I was stepping to one side. I was just out of the way
when the spear started to pass me. I reached out and grabbed the
spear about half way from the end. The thrower's eyes almost
bugged out of his head. The motion of the spear jerked me around
and as I turned the point turned with me. The guy with the club
ran right into the point. Right in the gut. He screamed as
the flint point tore into his body. He would be dead in a short
while. The spear thrower took off running. I pulled the
Glock and put a round right between his shoulder blades. He was
dead before he hit the ground.
Then I spotted an old man slowly approaching. He came up to me
and said, "I was against this from the beginning. The fools,
thought that by making a sacrifice, things would go better for the
tribe. I tried to stop them but I was not strong enough to do
it. I hope you will forgive the tribe for doing something like
this".
I asked, "Were there any others that wanted to do this"? He
pointed out one other man who took off running. It was too long a
shot for the Glock, but not for the M1. I grabbed it and
aimed. When I pulled the trigger, the guy stumbled. Instead
of centre of mass, I hit centre of his head. His head looked as
if it exploded.
I said, "It is not the fault of the tribe what a few of the people do".
Then I asked, "Why were they trying to do these things"?
The old man said, "We had a very bad winter. The food ran out,
and we had to hunt in the snow. One person got killed by a long
tooth cat, while hunting. These men thought we had angered the
Gods, but I told them that we had not. They did not believe me".
I said, "So if someone gets killed while hunting, this angers the Gods,
but to kill someone else in the tribe, makes the Gods happy. I
don't think that the Gods would be happy in either case"!
By now Dawn had the girl under wing and was talking to her. I
don't know what Dawn was saying, but the girl kept smiling and looking
at me.
I had the old man gather everyone together. As soon as everyone
was present, I made an announcement. "People of this tribe.
You have been led in the wrong direction. Your leaders have made
many mistakes. All of you who wish to have me as your leader,
come and stand behind me".
All of the people walked around behind me!
I said, "We will be moving to my cave as soon as everyone is ready to
travel. You will not need your tents, but you can take them if
you wish. I will carry all of the heavy things and some of the
people in this, pointing to the trailer. All of the women will
ride, and all of the men will walk". There was a bit of grumbling
but I expected it.
They all tried to take the tents, polls and all. I put a stop to
that in a hurry. By the time they got everything sorted there was
room for all of them to ride, but it was almost night by the time they
did. So it was sleeping under the stars for all of us. The
people took turns all night keeping the fires going and keeping an eye
out for any danger.
Oh yes, the girl that was to be burnt at the stake was snuggled to my
back all night. I could have worse things happen to me!