Authors: S D Taylor
Doug had been wondering the same thing. “I have never seen that technology. Not even anything close. It must be something from the future. I am afraid they may be a force we are unequipped to deal with. I hope they got here by accident and we can just avoid them.”
As they neared the shore by the camp, the chief and two of the men jumped out in the shallow water and grabbed the ropes. They pulled the canoe forward and up onto the rocky beach. Doug and Tom beached their zodiacs and they helped the wounded people out of the boat.
“Let’s get them over by the tents and we can work on those with the most severe wounds.” Doug walked over to the chief and pointed to the tents. “We need to take your wounded people there.” Doug spoke slowly, knowing that the man would be unable to understand. Doug nearly fell to the ground when the chief looked at him and equally slowly said, “That will be fine.”
Doug and Erin froze in their tracks and looked at the chief who had a stern but somewhat amused look on his face. “Yes, I speak the English tongue. I do not understand all your words but I understand enough. You are not trying to harm us. You are offering to help. You do not know who we are but you are willing to help us. We value that greatly and for now, we will not kill you for violating our sacred lands.”
Doug was speechless. Erin walked over to the chief. “You could understand what we were saying when we saw you pass by the other night in your canoes?” Erin and Doug had been on the bridge of the Rasputin when the two Haida canoes went past and they had a stare down with the Chief.
“Yes, but I believe you often learn more about someone by keeping quiet. I knew you would not suspect that I had been kidnapped and spent time with missionaries when I was a boy. We can talk later. Now, we must help the wounded.”
“Yes. My apologies for losing focus. We need to move these people over by the tents so we can treat their wounds.” Doug looked at the chief, shook his head and turned quickly towards the beach were Tom and Megan were helping their passengers ashore and Gaby was just pulling the final zodiac into the beach.
The Chief looked at Erin and almost seemed to smile. “I believe you will have many stories to tell me about your people and that I will not be able to believe many of them.”
“You’re correct about that. I have been part of the stories we will tell you and I can hardly believe them myself.
Chapter 5
Peter and Gaby were setting up one of the camp’s machine guns near the trees behind the camp. It would provide a spot to retreat to and defend if there was another pirate attack. The rest of the team was working with the Haida survivors, sewing up their wounds and working out a plan to feed everyone. It was nearly dark and there were limited options for lighting the work area. They built campfires and had a few flashlights in the tents of the most severely wounded. Doug and Tom were happy that they still had the medical kit from the Rasputin. Erin had retrieved it from Mr. Alpha’s cabin when they fled the boat the first time.
“This is a pretty good spot to put the gun. It has a clear field of fire to the west and can still cover the shore.” Peter made a sweeping motion of his arm as Gaby turned to look. “I only wish we had more ammunition.” There were two ammunition boxes but only one had a full belt of the .30 caliber ammo. If it came to a fight, they would have to be careful how they rationed their machine gun fire.
“Do you think there are any more pirates to attack us?” Gaby sat down on the edge of the grass and looked up at Peter as he tried to set the tripod on a stable spot. She admired his focus and dedication to doing things right. He would have made a good German, she thought to herself.
“There was a squad of twelve men we ran into a few days ago. They were heading south, looking for anyone on the island that they could kill. My associate, John, led them on a chase away from the rest of us so we could attack the camp. He said they had gone farther to the south and Doug believes they may come back at any time.”
Gaby was in the camp set up by the Rasputin crew when the pirates had first attacked several days earlier. “I remember several groups of them leaving after they took over, but I did not know what they were up to. I was too worried about being shot at the time. But I got lucky. When there was a lot of commotion with the helicopter, I managed to sneak away and into the forest. I stayed there until you caught me today.”
“I am glad you were able to get away from them. They are a pretty heartless bunch. The more of them we can kill the better.”
Gaby laughed. “I am surprised to hear you say that. I thought you were ready to kill me and all the rest of the crew from the Rasputin also.”
“All things are relative, Gaby. Remember, the pirates killed that other version of me, so I have a score to settle on his behalf. The issues that put us on opposite sides of that battle are over now. We need to work together and we seem to make a pretty good team.” Peter was impressed with how she fearlessly piloted the zodiac while he was shooting at the helicopter. And she had even shown some compassion helping the wounded Haida survivors into the boat. He wondered what she was truly thinking.
“I don’t know if I am ready to call myself your teammate yet, but I am glad we don’t feel the need to kill each other anymore.” She stood up and patted him on the shoulder. “We better go see if they need our help.”
“Right. Lead the way.” Peter slung his AK-47 over his shoulder on its strap and followed her back to the tents. But he continued to look around in all directions. He could not shake the feeling that they would be attacked again soon. He made a note to talk to Doug about how they should keep watch through the night.
Tom had organized the tent hospital. They had thirteen patients that needed either stitching or more involved medical procedures. The Chief, whose name was
Yáahl
Xitgáay, was very actively engaged in overseeing the medical work, having never seen the techniques that Doug and Tom were using. The most critically wounded patient was a young man who had a bullet lodged in his shoulder that just missed the arteries in his neck. Doug had a difficult time getting the bullet out and he was worried the patient would bleed to death if he kept trying too long. He finally succeeded in getting the bullet with the forceps on what he vowed would be his final try. He cleaned the wound, sewed him up and then hoped for the best.
“Will he survive? He is my brother’s son. I promised to watch over him.”
Yáahl
Xitgáay, which roughly meant Flying Raven, always looked stern but now he carried the worried look of a loving uncle on his face as well.
“We can only pray for good fortune now. He is young and strong. I only wish we had a way to give him extra blood.” Doug cleaned off his hands and put the instruments in a plastic container to be cleaned. Boiling water will be our best and only way to clean them he thought to himself.
“How can you give a man extra blood? The tools and weapons you and your people have are mysteries to me. How can such things be possible? The other white men I have seen had many mysterious things but they are but children’s toys compared to what you have brought to this island.”
“It is a very strange story that can explain why we are here and why we have the mysterious ways and weapons. It will seem like a myth if I tell you, but I assure you it is true.” Doug looked at him and could tell the interest he had in the full story.
“Tell me. I like to always like to learn the legends of both my friends and my enemies.”
Doug paused. He wondered which category applied to him. He could tell by the Chief’s glance that he had said that for the reaction it would provoke. But Doug did not rise to the bait.
“We come from a faraway place. We found our way to this island after we were attacked by people who had created a very powerful weapon. The most powerful weapon in our world. It was so powerful that it could tear a hole in the universe.”
“A hole in the universe? How is that possible?” The Chief was intrigued by the concept.
“How long have your people existed? Do you measure the number of seasons?” Doug had no idea how these people would track time but he assumed they had figured out something.
“More seasons than we can remember. Why do you ask?”
“The hole in the universe permits a journey between two seasons. Any two seasons that have ever been or ever will be. And it cannot be controlled. We were taken into such a hole in the universe and brought to this place.” Doug hoped he was telling the story in a way that would be understood. Erin had joined them and was checking on the two wounded men in the tent.
Doug could tell the Chief was trying hard to understand. “You have come here from another season and another place? And you did not plan to come to this exact spot? It was chosen for you in some way that you do not understand?”
“That is correct. And the place we come from is many seasons from now. Many, many seasons from now.”
Flying Raven understood what Doug was telling him. These people were from the future. Their weapons were not those of gods or demons. Just the products of men who had many more seasons to develop them. He could accept that since it fit his view of the capability of mankind to grow and develop. He knew that his tribe continually refined their techniques and technologies, borrowing what they saw from others or just coming up with new ideas. Year after year there were little improvements in how they fought, how they caught fish or how they cooked their food. People from the distant future would be expected to have magical things, wouldn’t they? He nodded to Doug and said, “I understand now. Could you now tell me why there are two versions of each of you?”
Doug and Erin laughed hard at that question. The Chief smiled at their reaction. Doug said simply, “That is a story for later. And perhaps later you could tell us more about how you learned to speak our tongue so well. Right now we should check the rest of our patients.”
Chapter 6
An uneasy feeling settled over the camp as midnight approached. It was a cloudless night with no moon and a million stars overhead. A light breeze whispered quietly through the extremely tall trees that defined the boundaries of the large field where the camp was located. Peter had taken first watch and was sitting near the machine gun nest he and Gaby had set up earlier. Gaby volunteered to keep him company and was sitting next to him, scanning the darkness as best she could and cradling an AK-47 in her arms like a newborn.
“I would sure love to have a pair of night vision goggles. Did you have any on the boat?” Peter assumed that the loss of the Rasputin took away many helpful pieces of technology and probably lots of food as well. To say nothing of beds, showers, toilets, hot water and electricity.
“We only had one pair. A guy named Yuri took them when he went to kill Erin and Doug. I don’t know what became of him. He never returned.”
“Doug killed him. He attacked them while they were taking a bath in the lake and Doug managed to shoot him when his first shot missed Doug’s head.”
“Knowing Yuri, he was probably distracted by watching Erin bathing in the lake. He never gave me a moment’s peace, despite the five hundred times I told him I was not interested.”
Peter chuckled. “Some men just don’t believe “no” applies to them. They hear everything as “maybe” and keep trying. It must work with some women or so many guys wouldn’t keep trying.”
“It is just in their chemistry. It controls everything about them. Sorry if I discuss men generically like that, given that you are a man. I assume you understand what I am talking about.” Gaby strained to see anything in the dark night as she stared into the void that lay before them.
“I do completely. Before I was married, I probably fit your description of a hormone-based chemistry experiment since I was highly motivated by the quest for females. Marriage and children settled me down.”
“I didn’t realize you were married. Where does your wife live?” Gaby wasn’t sure why she was disappointed by this bit of news since they were in some other time and it was highly unlikely that Peter would ever be going home to his wife and child.
Peter paused as he thought back on Gwendolyn and little Marion. “My wife and little girl are both gone. They died in a motorcar accident five years ago.”
Gaby instinctively put her hand on Peter’s shoulder. “I am so sorry. I didn’t know or I wouldn’t have said anything.”
“No apologies needed. You could not have known. It was a perfectly natural question to ask. Anyway, as I was saying, once I was married I gained a different view of the mating rituals that dominate so many people. I guess the end justifies the means for some people, but I realize now that I was a real ass at times and I wasn’t very fair to some girls who cared for me.”
Gaby was quiet for several minutes and the two of them sat in uncomfortable silence. Their talk had turned too intimate for their level of acquaintance and they were both trying to find their way through this new territory. “I like you and I like talking to you.” Gaby said it suddenly and forcefully. “I am sorry if I was being too personal. We hardly know each other.”
“I hardly think you need to apologize. With all that has taken place in the past two days, we all have to be emotionally and physically resilient or we will end up like my doppelganger over there in the cemetery.”