D.A.B. day 2
Not in Kansas
Another screech wakes me up, but my heart tries to calm down after I realise it's just that freaking bird sitting on a branch a bit away. A normal sized bird but very loud and its call sure isn't pretty. My mood drops as I realise I'm still in my shelter and this is day two.
"Shit."
The sun seems to just have risen, so I use the lap timer on the watch and write down the time on my small notepad, and write it with charcoal on the wall, and start a calender for days. Just in case. If I use the same shadow on those mountains tomorrow I will have a better idea. I haven't bothered keep track of how much I've slept - it just feels too little. It took far to long to return to sleep. I drink a bit of water and just look around, and end up standing there looking out over the landscape while I limber up my body. Soap would be so nice. I also need a slightly better shelter and bed. The bad part about being high on a cliff on a ridge is I have to climb up with almost everything, and this is between 60 to 100 meters if I guesstimate from trees.
It is a nice day, and not that much clouds in the sky. I can see as far as the terrain lets me, and from this height it's quite far until the distance disappear in haze or curvature of the Earth. I look at all the grazing animals a kilometer and more away. I have no idea what they're called, but they're many different types and sizes. Some big and lumbering, while others are quick.
"What do I do now?"
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Well that question is answered by actually just sucking it up and moving down to check my traps. The grazers are back and a few were drinking in the river on the other side, so I guess it's as safe as it will ever be, and I will need more clay. I don't know if my pottery works yet, but it will take days until then, and when I eventually try to fire it in some kind of kiln, I need to have many things ready to go, and the kiln must be built too, and I'll need plenty of dry seasoned wood. Some pots might crack, or if my vase is an indication they might collapse before then. The clay might have been too wet for that one, but I can reuse the clay. First I need to check the traps, then sneak over and collect more clay and grass while I'm there. Then go back and bring more stones up here. Both more of those flint style and flat slate-shale ones to make pots on and other. I will probably spend a lot of the day just making pots, tools and cordage. Then try to improve my shelter and improve security. Improved security and weapons is a very attractive idea.
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Yeah, something bad happened at this trap. There is dried blood, scattered feathers and broken branches, and there is a weird smell. Moving on to the other two traps it seems something small took the other bait without taking it from the correct way, so yeah. Another lesson learned. The third trap hasn't been touched, so I leave it there and move down to the beach. I have an idea I want to try, as it is just stupid to think about bringing seawater up to my shelter to evaporate it there. I want to try filling a few large seashells with saltwater from the sea, and just balance them on three rocks each and let the sun evaporate the water. It probably won't give me much salt but any is better than none.
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I again go up the rocky grass knoll to check surroundings but I avoid disturbing the birds by sneaking up the side facing the river. There are dinosaurs just 300m from me and they're big but not huge. Still wouldn't want to be attacked by one, but I should be able to move up the river and get clay and grass. I make sure to keep turning my head so I don't become target focused. I would really really want to have someone with me just to watch my back. What is that new icky smell?
More birds are disturbed and make noise and fly away as I locate the new smell. It is a big fishy looking thing the waves have pushed up at the shore and birds are eating from. That was probably a dolphin sized animal that something took a big bite out off. A really big bite out off. With lots of big sharp teeth. Yeah. Going out on the sea is definitely a no-no without a big boat. A really big and solid boat. I giggle a bit and whisper: "You're gonna need a bigger boat."
I find myself humming the 'Shark' theme as I continue. I try not to be too confident, and seeing that dark shape have really helped, but the waves crashing on the beach makes a lot of noise, and dark humour helps. I might be able to use bait to lure something big into a pit fall och larger trap like falling log with spikes or something. Sure it will just wound the animal and make it hopefully bleed out, but I really have no bleeding heart issues with that. It's far better than it being a danger of bleeding my heart and eating it. If I do it enough I might kill enough large predators that the closest area becomes safer for a while. Other predators will move in eventually, but that is eventually. I might also get a hell of a lot of meat. On the other side I can't store that amount of meat, and the rest will attract scavengers and predators.
Yeah, put that plan on the back burner.
Shit, my mind keeps wandering when I should stay on task. It might literally kill me. So I focus on my tasks, but this time I have cord and collect two big bundles of grass before making my way over to the clay. I bring as much with me as I can, and as I cover my tracks I remember to bring more flint like stones. Pants with many big pockets rock, but I need a backpack basket or load carrying frame. And improved camouflage. And maybe use charcoal to break up my face and arms. I should bring some of that fish fat with me. Eating it will be a bad idea and horrible to do, but I might use it for soap or something.
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I make another deep sigh of relief as I get back up to my camp, and salute the bird with the bird. There is piles of dinosaur shit all over that land across the river, and I wonder if I should try to do some waddle and daub walls. There are plenty of long thin flexible branches and small trees all over the lower half of the ridge, although there are trees even on the ridge. If I can wedge and anchor a few beams between the cliff sides and somehow attach a roof with cord this camp would feel far more secure, and any pressure from the outside would go into the rock. I need to make an axe and fell a few thicker trees as a solid framework. There will still be a bit uncomfortably big area outside that wall for animals. I really need to stay in the shade to delay the sunburn on the hands that is just a matter of time, and shade keeps me cooler. Guess it's future work but I can improve the shade by just stinging up a few leaves above me by using the ladder to reach higher on the cliff. Also works as camouflage. I need to dry my socks and shoes, and make sure to keep them and my feet in good health, so I start removing the little rubble there is and by using a leafy bush as a broom and clean up my area so I can walk around barefoot. The stone is very warm. More shade is next.
After that I spend the morning with making more pots for water storage and food preparation, and four tuyere pipes to add to a forge and kiln and store them with the rest, out of the way and protected from rain and direct sunlight in a warm spot. Then I try to knap an okayish axe blade. The plan is to make an oblong hole in a solid thick branch by probably burning or chisel it with my flathead screwdriver. I should probably fire harden the hole anyway. Then tap the stone blade in place. Every chop should reinforce the blades seating. But the stone blade will dull quite fast, so I will need to resharpen it or replace it.
"Shit. I will need to make several axes, don't I?"
That forge is becoming more and more tempting. Sure, I might be able to use a fire instead of a true forge, but I should focus on getting it right in the first attempt, so better forge is better, and maybe a furnace to really melt the steel.
The problem is that my wrench isn't big, so it can't be a very good axe simple due to size and weight. I've tried to calculate the weight of the wrench and it is probably 350 grams. Thoughts about which is best between an axe, machete or parang becomes a pretty dead issue. I will only be able to make a quite short parang style blade and the blade would need to continue into the grip. A 5mm blade would only be about 20 cm long, which feels too short without much mass at the head. It's basically just a large knife. Still useful, but an axe with a small blade on a long handle will have more mass in motion behind the cutting edge and be more effective for chopping larger trees and splitting wood. I might be able to forge together all my 'steel' metal, but that feels like a bad idea for several reasons. Different metals, and just one tool that have to be good at everything, and can be lost. Turning the wrench into an axe, and the spring steel tape measure into a knife feels like the best option. The tape measures metal case is some kind of shiny cast metal, and probably aluminium or zinc, which is terrible for tools. The philips screwdriver could become a chisel, and if I fuck it up I still have the flathead screwdriver to use as that. The coins might make a small blade or something, and same with the keys. Doing all that work will be very very nerve wrecking. I have shaped steel, grinded and welded a lot of times before, and not just to fix rust on a car, but with different welding equipment, gas torch, induction furnace and other proper tools. Here I have to use rocks as both anvil and hammer. At least the small multi tool have a 4 cm file which should make it faster than using a stone for all grinding. Getting the hardening and tempering right will suck.
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As I work, I try to look out and see anything dangerous or interesting moving about. I make two okayish stone axe blades, and shape a large knife blade too, and I wrap cord around the knife handle to improve grip. Even small wounds might become infected, and that might kill me.
I climb down and locate a couple of can-be-okay-axe-handles. Cutting them down by using the stone knife is far from ideal, but it has more mass and is far better than trying to carve through with my small knife. I make a few chops in a couple of different looking trees to see how their wood and sap is, and also cut different leaves. I've realised that I need to learn if there is something like that manchineel tree here so I can avoid it. I take a drop of each trees and leaf sap and put that drop on my arm and mark it with one of my Pilot gel pens, and cut corresponding Roman numeral mark in each tree with the knife. Hardly a perfect test, but better than none. I need to test their smoke when burning, so I collect branches and leaves from the different types I see and more dead dried wood. Trying to find edible plants will be harder, but I need to do it eventually. I will start the same way by rubbing it against my arm and wait. Then rub a piece against my lip or inside of the lip and wait. Then try a very small piece and wait. Just looking at what the wildlife eat will help but it sure isn't a safe bet. Capsaicin burns and is strong because it works as a chemical irritant for mammals. Birds can just eat it like nothing. I realise that number 3 on my arm is starting to itch like crazy so I wash it off trying to leave the rest in place. There is a red mark, so that's one to avoid. I locate number 3, and try to make sure to remember how it looks by mentally describing and the leaves and bark with a low voice.
It takes a couple of trips before I'm back up and I try to restart my little fire. After several attempts I manage to relight it. My stomach reminds me to eat and I eat more smoked meat after I reheating it a bit. There might be harmful bacteria on the outside. That bird was big enough that I have another full meal, so tomorrow I will try to kill another bird. Hopefully I will have a couple of fish traps ready by then that I can place at the same time. It's a warm day especially up here among the sunlit rocks, but the sea breeze helps to keep me cool. It must be closer to 30 C. I'm going to need plenty of water if this temperature lasts. After my late breakfast I start to make oblong holes in the handles.
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It takes time but eventually I have those holes done and can seat each blade. So far so good. Then I shape the handles which takes more time. I climb down a bit and look at all the trees. Number 2 seems to have real sticky sap as the small stick I used to collect it is stuck to the tree, although it isn't hardened. Might be good to use as some kind of glue? Help keep the axe head in its slot? I find a good 8 cm wide tree to chop down. Stone axe works but a proper axe is far better and faster. I try to make sure each cut hits true and that I don't put much side pressure on the stone blade. But it works. Weirdly I don't feel any relieve or real joy over that. Is it because I know I might have to do this a heck of a lot in the future? I really hope there is some kind of better civilization around here, and I can get a good position in that civilization. It would suck to be alone here.
I climb back up and as I again turn around to look at the view and search for danger, I realise there is a large dot rising over the mountains. What the hell is that?
A terrible idea pops into my head and I look towards the moon that is beginning to set. Now that I really look at it, that moon is big, but it doesn't really look like the moon I'm used to. I never bothered looking closer at it last night as other thoughts distracted me and it was very cloudy, but that new dot might be another but much smaller moon in another orbit. The quote: 'That is not a moon' pops in to my head so I have to admit it can be a really large round space station too, but I am quite sure that is a moon. I also realise that the sun is moving the wrong way across the sky if I'm facing south. Sure, the magnetic poles on Earth have flipped before, but when every other explanation has been eliminated, you just have to start accepting the explanation that fit the facts. No matter what you want. And I don't think I am on Earth.
"How the fuck can I be on another fucking planet?! What the fuck happened during those 9 days?! How can it only be 9 days if I'm on another fucking planet?!"
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That dot really looks like a moon.
And I really really need to look at the night sky tonight. I don't expect to see any star formation I recognise as I basically know Orion and how to find the north star, so if I were on the southern hemisphere I would be completely lost. And if there is more than a few thousand years difference a lot of the stars will have moved enough to distort or completely change those star formations I know. But I'm also getting more convinced that the gravity is slightly less than Earth's, but not by that much. It just feels a bit... off.
I try to weave and make two cone and tunnel basket fish traps, but that damn dot keep distracting me and I make mistakes all the time, or just notice that I'm staring at the view and not really doing anything. Yeah, I'm am really really screwed, and not the fun way. I don't think I can get back. The unlikely options start to line up, and I even start to wonder if this is some kind of hell for atheists like the ultimate 'screw you' from the different Gods.
"You can't go to heaven or hell, so here; start from scratch, and try to do better and not get eaten. Have fun."
Did I fall from the roof? Am I dead? What will then happen if I die here?
It seem just a step below the more likely but equally weird option of having been cloned or kidnapped by Aliens to fuck with me or in some kind of survival experiment, because why the hell would I be here otherwise? Are there hidden cameras watching me? Is there some kind of win condition where I am rewarded with going back to Earth? Or just some kind of civilization that I want to live in? Or are the Alien utter bastards eating popcorn and hoping for gruesome highlights?
"On tonights episode: Watch the human getting a face full of raptor and die screaming after being dragged to the nest and slowly eaten alive by the raptor babies."
I bet there is points and betting. People are assholes, and it doesn't really matter what the reason is that I was dumped here - it is just a clear asshole move on my expense. My life here is probably measured in days more than decades.
"Damn Alien Bastards."
I give the bird all around me. If they look at me they deserve it, and if no-one see it? Well, then it doesn't really matter that I did it. Should I start to worry for my mental health? Paranoia seems to be a given considering the nature and my life here. And I might have damn alien bastards to worry about too.
Just lovely.
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The sun begins to go low and I finish the work on the two fish traps, and start with a backpack load carrying frame with double layered weaved grass and branches for rigidity and support so I can carry stuff with me and have my hands free. I can also add a few fronds poking away from the straps to improve my upper body camouflage. The night shouldn't be as bright as the last one since the big moon has set, but that dot is making a nice slow arch over the sky just like a distant moon should make the night brighter, and I worry about something else in the sky I've seen, but it can be strange clouds. I hope it is clouds. I'll make cords to bind the fish traps until it's too dark, and continue first thing tomorrow. My teeth feels 'gah', so I should use a stick like a toothpick and fray the other end. It's pretty much what I can do for my dental health.
I check my watch as the sun passed the cliff wall mark and timer shows 26 hours 5 minutes, and I reset the timer to get a more accurate time. Yeah, I'm not really surprised that the day and night combined is more than 24 hours. It could be far in the future since Earths rotation is slowing down and a hit from a large asteroid could slow it down more. That is pretty much how Earth's moon came to be, but really early in history and way before there as life. The moon is basically a part of Earth thrown out and catched in orbit. But that is less likely than the rest of the options, which is bad when that lists include Heaven and Hell's third unmentioned option.
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When the sun finally sets I make a new lap time and just let it run to get a better fix over several days. I mark the time. If the days become longer I know I'm heading for summer, and the rate of change combined with taking sun height at noon will help me to figure out how much the planet leans in its orbit. I need to do a simple plate with degree marking with a plumb bob on a string and aim the top towards the sun and measure the angle. It's not hard. The right design and more like a plumb square and I can use it to level the logs in my future hut too. I might as well set another alarm on my smartwatch for noon.
The sky is bright and I sit outside for a couple of hours. Far after I no longer continue working making cord. Yeah, that dot is a moon all right, but I've also figured out why the previous night seemed bright before the moon showed and confirmed my suspicion that it wasn't clouds. This planet have rings. They might be hardly visible during the day, but against the night sky? There they are. It's honestly very very pretty, and truly is an off-worldly view.
"Damn Alien Bastards."
They are getting all the birds.