That night the tribe had mixed reactions to Mike and his grumpy ladies. Most people were thrilled to have more dinosaurs, and their smaller size made them less intimidating. However, with Marcus injured and only one of the dinos actually tamed, people were hesitant to approach them. It didn’t help that once they ran out of the fruits they had been feeding them, Karren became much less appreciative of the group of humans. She stuck around beside Mike and Cera, but she would huff at anyone who approached her.

Jack ended up having them rest on the far side of the pond for the night. Mike didn’t seem to mind the fires so long as there was a tribe member beside them, but the others were extremely skittish of them. If Jack walked by them with a torch, Cera would watch him nervously but Karren would start to bellow in anger. So they left them alone and kept the fires on the human side of the pond.

They settled in for the night, leaving a large pile of dino poop at the woodline, then rested against the cliff wall in a cuddle pile. One of the few older men named Justin was overjoyed after he examined the poop. Apparently, the man was a farmer, and according to him, the Styracosaurus made excellent fertilizer. Jack could only shrug. To him, their poop looked no different from Thrasher’s. At Justin’s request, he borrowed the single camp shovel from the builders and dug a small hole. Justin filled it with some tree bark, and then they shoveled some of the poop into the hole. They covered it with more bark, and then cleaned and returned the stone shovel. Apparently, this would slowly turn it into fertilizer with time and heat. Jack was too tired to follow the explanation of how it worked.

With some fertilizer presumably doing its thing, Jack went about his evening. He helped to reorganize the night watch to keep an eye on the new dinos. It wouldn’t do to let them wander off after all the work that went into getting them. The bond was a powerful tool, but it wasn’t mind control. Mike could still wander off if no one kept an eye on him.

Once the light from the sunset fully faded to dark, the tribe quickly fell into a deep sleep. Everyone had been able to shower and the cave smelled much better than it had the first night. Jack checked on Gordon, and helped to carry him outside to let him relieve himself. His friend looked bad. He could barely talk and had spent the past two days lying against the cave wall as people helped him sip water and take small bites of food. Keeping him clean was difficult, but no one complained about helping him. The corpses of the Arthropleura that attacked him were still outside. They couldn’t be eaten, but their blood and hard shells could be useful. Unfortunately, they were starting to rot and they would have to do something with them tomorrow or they would be useless.

Jack had been able to smash through their shells with his club with ease, but the spears of his tribe mates had a lot of trouble with them. There was no shortage of dinosaurs that could crush someone underfoot or bludgeon them with their tails, but there were also many threats that relied on sharp claws and speed. The other hunting team, led by Mattock and Nathaniel, had been attacked while Jack and his team had been taming the Styracosaurus. A group of twelve raptors had tried to ambush them. No one had died, but the team had returned with many long cuts and gashes, and three people were going to be on rest for the next day or two. Fortunately for the tribe, the team had managed to kill a young Hadrosaur close to camp. With the help of the build team and Thrasher, they had taken the crafting team's stockpile of rope and dragged the kill back to camp. There was more meat than they knew what to do with. Even a young dinosaur was close to a ton of meat, and without a fridge or salt, they had no way to keep any of their meat for more than a few days. Which meant that they currently had a ton of meat to spare.

Jack had been able to eat three steaks before he was no longer hungry, and there would be enough for everyone to eat their fill the next day as well. They would still be wasting food. Currently, one person was stationed near the pile of meat with a torch, doing their best to keep the bugs off the food. They had wrapped it in leaves, but that wasn’t stopping the larger insects from trying to bite through the leaves and get at the food. The torch was working well enough, but that job would be a pain for the guards. Jack spent the last two hours before his shift ended on bug duty, and managed to kill three of the larger dragonflies by the time he was relieved and able to sleep. He found a spot beside Mavis in the cave, and quickly fell asleep.

He awoke the next morning to the sound of a tree falling. The ground shook and he heard the muffled sounds of people cheering before the rush of the waterfall once more drowned out the noise of the camp. He slowly stretched his tired muscles as he sat up. The bruise on his chest was much more painful than it had been the day before. He took a deep breath of the clean air. Even in the cave full of people without soap, the air here was so much cleaner than back on Earth.

Most of the people in the cave were from the night watch, and several of them turned back over to try and get more sleep. Jack had never been able to go back to bed after waking up, so he stood up and left the cave. Once outside he saw that the camp was bustling with activity. All of the stones that had littered the ground when they first arrived had been collected by the building team and piled up to mark the western edge of camp. Someone had gone through and pulled out all of the weeds and patches of vegetation that had cropped up. The result was a large area of dirt clear of debris. The ground was mostly flat, with a few holes here and there, and it started to slope the closer it got to the cliff face.

He saw Mike working with Miles and the building team, and he could sense a warm happiness from the dinosaur. He seemed to like being petted, and hand-fed ferns. He didn’t seem to mind any of the ropes that had been tied to the horns on his crest, and he was hauling the fallen trees around without any issue. Three men with stone axes were working on the next tree in the line, and another was filling in the hole the recently cut-down tree had left behind. The large tree stump was placed on the side, likely to be broken down into firewood, or used for some other purpose Jack couldn’t think of.

Mike dragged the tree to the center of the clearing, where it was taken and placed beside four more. The gathering team, led by Syke, were using sharp stone knives to cut away the branches and greenery of the fallen trees. Only one of the trees had been stripped so far, and it lay beside the others. A massive pile of branches was slowly growing beside the central firepit. Some still had their leaves, but most had been fully stripped. A basket made from thinner, flexible branches had been filled with the green leaves. Jack wasn’t sure what they would be used for.

Skye noticed him and gave him a friendly wave.

“Morning, Jack. Sleep well?” She asked.

Jack walked over and stifled a yawn. He reached down and helped one of the gatherer women he was not familiar with break off one of the larger branches, and tossed it onto the pile.

“Morning. I’m still waking up. A bit hungry. How are you?” He responded.

The women he helped gave him a smile, and a quiet thank you. She returned to stripping the leaves from the branch into the basket. Skye gave him a beaming smile.

“Today is a building day. We have more food than we can use or store right now, so Marcus said the hunters get to rest for a day or two. Mavis, Marcus, and Mattock took Thrasher and the second hunter team and went to gather some clay They should be back in a few hours. You can go get breakfast from Ms Margert, and then either join us if you need to take it easy, or go find Miles and help the builders.” Skye said. She seemed to be in a very energetic mood, and her smile was infectious.

“I’ll see who needs help. I could use a rest day, but I can work.” He looked around and noticed that Ms Margert and some of the younger tribe members were gathered around the fire that had been built beside the pond. He saw Haden working with the builders, and Lottie was helping one of the hunters from the other team bandage up a gash on his arm. He didn’t see the rest of his team anywhere, and he knew they weren’t in the cave.

“Where are Soren and Clara? Did they go with Mavis?” He asked. And Skye pointed up the cliff face. Jack looked up, but only saw some dark clouds that hinted at rain in the future.

“They went with a group to do a survey of the top of the cliff. You said something about boulders being pushed down onto us when we were first picking this place out. Yesterday while you were out playing Tarzan, Mavis and I spent the entire dam day working on a rope to string up the cliff face. We just need a group to make the trek and secure it. We tested it out with the heaviest guy in camp, but you should still be careful on it. It will be a rough fall if it breaks.” Skye said with a pleased grin.

Jack looked up at the cliff face and grimaced. He enjoyed rock climbing, but couldn’t claim to be great at it. One of his teachers in high school had fallen from an indoor rock wall when his partner hadn't been properly paying attention and had broken his back. He spent the next two years in a wheelchair, and it had given Jack a healthy distrust of the sport. He would avoid the cliff when he could.

“How was Marcus doing with his arm today?” He looked out towards the river. He hoped that his friends wouldn’t run into anything crazy.

“He was holding it together well. Jade is acting like his secretary, and making sure he doesn't have to use that arm for anything. Lottie and Mavis made a splint for his arm, but I couldn’t say how well it works. Almost looks like wooden armor on.” She answered, breaking another branch off her tree.

“Who has the bracelet right now?” Jack asked. If the group at the river was getting clay, they might be able to tame a frog or something to help them keep the bugs down.

“Soren is carrying it. He went up the cliff with it and one of the notebooks we have. I think they are also going to try and locate a salt deposit or do some settlement planning.” She responded before leading him over to the cooking and water-boiling fire. They both waved hello to Ms Margret and her helpers.

“Good Morning Jack.” The kind older woman said, passing him one of the water bottles. He took it gladly and drank it down.

“Thank you. I always forget how thirsty I am until I have water in my hands.” He sat down across from her, and passed the water bottle to one of the helpers.

“Happy to help. It's thanks to you that we haven’t had to go to bed with empty stomachs. I don’t think I would have it in me to go hunt down these monsters.” She said as she passed him a large chunk of cooked meat that had been wrapped in leaves. He took it and smiled at her in thanks. His stomach rumbled, and he started to eat.

“Thank you. The tribe is very lucky I’m not the one cooking. I would have burned or undercooked everything. I am impressed that you can make a dinosaur taste like steak.” He complimented the chef. In truth, the meat was much more gamey than a real cow. He missed seasoning like garlic, salt, and pepper, but with how hungry he was each day, the meat was delicious.

He took his time eating and sharing small talk with Ms Margert and the water team. He was surprised to learn that she was close to forty-one years old. She also had a knee replacement three years earlier that still hurt from time to time. That meant that the criteria the alien robots had used to save them was more lenient than he had originally thought. It also meant that there was a good chance Mavis’s parents were alive.

Jack stood up. He would tell Mavis his thoughts when she got back to base. Until then he would work. He thanked the cooking team again, and went to find Miles. His muscles hurt, but he wouldn't slack off. He realized he had forgotten to ask Skye about the Arthropleura bodies. He would help out the builders for a while and then take a break to ask her.

He gave Miles a wave, but the man’s hands were full, so he returned the greeting with a nod. The building team were all working together to lift a tree and slide the ropes under it. Once it was set down, two men tied the rope to Mike’s horns and started leading him back toward the wood pile. Miles turned to Jack with a smile.

“Good morning. How did the night watch go?” He asked. Jack smiled. He hadn’t had much time to talk with Miles since landing on the planet, but he seemed like someone who he could become good friends with. They had fought together when the Baryonyx had attacked and Miles had suffered a concussion. It had only been a few days, but he seemed to be doing better.

“Nothing too interesting. I mostly just tried to keep the bugs away. I think the fires here are doing a lot of the work in keeping us safe.” Jack answered as the builders went back to work chopping down the next tree in line with the stone axes.

“Yeah, the bugs are a pain in the ass. But I won’t feel safe until we have a wall. I think you are right though, the fire is the main reason nothing has come to fuck with us once the sun goes down. One of the morning shift watchers reported seeing the Sabertooth again so people are nervous. I have been trying to figure out how to make a wall that can have a fire pit on top of it without burning the entire thing down.” Miles explained as he led Jack over to another tree.

“What are our plans? Are you working on a wall first? Or a longhouse? I remember something about that being in the plans.” Jack asked, and Miles handed him one of the axes. It felt small in his hand, and the stone was a bit blunt from use. It would need to be sharpened soon.

“Palisade first. We’ll sharpen the trees and make a large ring around the camp. That is what the gathering team is going to work on once they get all the branches off the trees. We use the smaller trees for the palisade, and the larger ones for the longhouse. Without Mike, we wouldn’t be able to move the larger trees without getting all the men in the camp to help. Good work on bringing him home.” Miles said as he used his own ax to cut a small notch in the tree, and gestured for Jack to start hacking at it.

“What is the first step in making the longhouse? I don’t know much about construction, but I’ve seen plenty of log cabins. Is that the plan?” He asked as he started to swing his ax. He made sure to take long, controlled swings. His muscles would help here, but he couldn’t cut the tree down in a single chop. It would take at least a hundred to cut through the larger tree they were working on.

“First thing we need is to level out the foundation. I won’t bore you on the details, but that's what we spent most of yesterday on. Then we will build the walls out of mud and rock. The roof will be these larger logs, and we will top it off with more mud, thatch, and wood.” Miles took up a position on the other side of the tree, and started swinging his ax, working towards the center.

“What is thatch?” Jack asked. “I’ve heard it could be used for housing and stuff, but I'm not sure what it actually is.”

“It's mostly dried plants. They would usually use straw back in Europe, but we can use river reeds and the larger tree palms. That's why Skye is gathering them all. We will dry them out and make our roof out of it” Miles said with a smile.

“Smart.” Jack responded, and the two fell into silence as their axes clacked against the tree in a rhythm. Two more builders came to help them and one of the men started humming a work song. Jack followed the rhythm, and thirty minutes later the tree was ready to fall. Miles held his ax up to stop them and gestured for them all to step back. He swung a few more times then moved around the tree to the side Jack and the workers were on.

“Ok, everyone back. Jack, do you want to get the final hit?” He asked, and Jack nodded. Miles spent a minute explaining where to swing the ax, and how that would cause the tree to fall in the direction they wanted. Once they were ready, everyone stepped back, and Miles called out.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Timber!”

Jack swung his ax hard, hitting the spot Miles had shown him. As he pulled back, the tree shuddered and started to fall. It fell a bit to the right of where they wanted, but no one was where it was standing. The tree crashed to the ground, many of its branches snapping as it fell. Skye and two of her helpers showed up and started collecting the fallen branches while Jack helped lift the tree and attach it to the ropes. Once it was dragged away, they turned their attention to the leftover tree stump. Three of them were still in the ground, and while most of the building crew went to start chopping the next tree down. Haden joined them with the shovel, and gave Jack a nod.

“Morning Jack. Welcome to the work crew. Less fun than playing Tarzan, but it's damn satisfying to see the tree line cut back.” He passed Jack the shovel, and gestured for him to start digging around the tree stump.

“Morning, Haden. Skye said almost the same thing.” He chuckled as he started to dig.

“I swear we have the same sense of humor,” Haden said with a smile as he looked over his shoulder at his girlfriend. She was in the process of sneaking Mike a snack from the ferns they had gathered.

“You two make a good couple.” Jack responded. Grunting as he hit a root, and had to re-angle his next shovel strike.

“I think so. What about you and Mavis?” He asked.

Jack shook his head. And Miles handed him one end of a rope to tie around the root he had unearthed. He tied it off, and Miles moved to wrap the rope around the stump. Then connected it to the one around Mike’s horn. They all stepped away, and with a word from Miles, Mike started to pull the stump out of the ground. The rope started to fray and snap, but the stump was yanked out in a fountain of dirt sprayed across the area.

“You two can fill that in, I’ll go mark the other trees we need down today.” Miles said, and both Haden and Jack started filling in the hole with fresh dirt. They only had one shovel, so it was slow work, with one of them just using their hands.

“I’m not Mavis’s type.” Jack said, continuing their conversation.

“Really? I thought you two were together.” Haden said as he pushed one of the smaller rocks into the hole.

“I used to have a crush on her. But we were never a thing. Have been good friends our entire lives.” Jack shrugged. He honestly hadn’t given it too much thought. Though now that the world had ended and the number of people he knew was less than a hundred, his dating options were suddenly very limited.

“Well, she would be lucky to have you. But if it isn’t to be, then it isn’t to be.” Haden said, and they finished filling in the hole.

“Why are we filling these holes in any way?” Jack asked.

“So Mike doesn’t fall in one and break his leg.” Haden said, causing Jack to look over to the dinosaur that was helping to haul another tree.

“Do you think a hole this small could do that? If so, we could dig some out in the woods and trap some big prey.” Jack thought aloud.

“Good idea. Once everyone is back, let's pitch it to them. We can go find a game trail, make a deep pit, and either catch something small enough to not get out, or a bigger dino with a broken leg. We kill it, and eat well. Easy hunting.” Haden said as they started walking back towards Miles.

“Good idea. That reminds me, do we have a plan for what to use today's taming charge on?” Jack asked Haden. Who nodded.

“Marcus told Soren to tame something if he thought it would be useful, but if he gets back to camp without a new dino we will probably use it on Karren to get her to chill. She is extra cranky in the mornings apparently. She took another tail swipe at the guys who went to get Mike. No one was hurt, thankfully.” He answered, causing Jack to shake his head.

“What a pain in the ass. I suppose the name fits.” They both chuckled.

The next few hours were more of the same. They cut down trees until their axes were too blunt to be of use. By then it was past noon and the group of thirty builders had cleared away a good portion of the treeline. They now had a good four hundred feet of cleared land between the cliff face and the woods, most of which was very flat. To Jack, the land almost looked like a farm. Most of the dirt had been churned up by the removal of the plants and trees and then stomped down by Mike and his ladies.

They had cut down around forty small trees. Their tools were still unable to dent the larger ones, but fortunately, there were only three such trees scattered around the clearing. They provided nice shade for the tired workers to rest under, and one of them had some unripened fruit among its highest branches.

Jack was sore. He hadn’t been this tired since some of his early days playing hockey. His chest hurt with every breath, and his arm and leg muscles made their discomfort known with each step. He decided to finally rest and after another serving of meat, he went to sit with Skye and help the gatherers.

“Hey Skye, do you have plans for the Arthropleura bodies?” He asked as he sat down beside the tree pile, and started to slowly pull the branches off. He was glad he could do most of the work using leverage, and not his strength. She blinked at him for a few seconds, until he pointed to the three bodies against the cliff wall.

“Oh! The big centipede fuckers. I don’t know. Mavis said their blood was acidic so I haven’t really given them any thought.” She had put her blond hair in a bun, and used a small branch as a hairpin. It had three leaves on it, and it gave her a very charming druid look.

“They are probably going to start stinking soon. They have been in the sun for two days.” He said, which caused her to scrunch her nose.

“Gross. Do you have any ideas on what to do with them then? I don’t think we need to eat them.” She went back to cutting one of the larger branches.

“Well, I was thinking that we could use their shells as armor or something. It wouldn’t help against anything massive, but it would probably help against raptors or spears.” He pitched his idea and she glanced over at one of the men who was resting beside the pond. A fresh cut was still red on his exposed shoulder from the raptors.

“Probably a good idea. But I have no idea how to process those things without getting burned. Feel free to give it a try though. Just drag it a bit out of camp before you do. We don’t want the smell of the blood to draw anything.” She said, and Jack glanced over at the bones of the Hadrosaur that had been cleaned and piled up beside the crafting fire.

“I think we might be beyond that. We still have a pile of cooked meat.” He said, and she shook her head.

“Yes, but we did our butchering and cooking of it away from the main camp. It may have only been a few hundred feet away, but I would rather have things get attracted around our camp, than in our camp. Also, it will probably smell.”

Jack couldn’t disagree, so once he had finished helping debranch the fallen trees he excused himself from helping build the palisade and went to experiment with the bodies. He borrowed one of the stone knives, and dragged the most intact Arthropleura to the western edge of camp where they had butchered the Hadrosaur the night before. The rocks there were stained with blood, and there were a lot more bugs swarming around him. He moved a bit further away and found a nice rock to sit on while he worked.

The first thing he did was test how acidic the blood was. He dipped a regular stone in, but nothing noticeable happened. The blood was green, and left a slimy residue on the rock. But it didn’t smoke or sizzle. He then poked it with a stick, and had similar results. Jack hadn’t been the best in his chemistry class, but he remembered that sometimes when a chemical is exposed to air it could bond with the oxygen and change. He was pretty sure that's how rust was formed, but he wasn’t sure if that process applied to acidic blood.

For his final test, he poked it with his finger. It was gross, but it didn’t hurt. This more or less confirmed that the acid had lost its potency over the past few days. Either it had been the rain, the oxygen, or something else. He had no idea, but it meant the blood was useless to him unless he wanted gross, green paint.

He tipped the body over, and let its blood drain from the wound where its face used to be. It would take a long time to drain like this, so he used his knife to try and cut it open. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to cut through its shell with the wimpy stone blade. He gave up on that, and just started working from the other end of the creature. It was approximately seven feet long, and its shell was segmented. He placed his knife between the segments and slowly tried to pry the shell off. It took some time, and the use of a stick to create some leverage, but he was able to pry off the first band of shell and cut away at the rotting muscle that connected it to the body. It was gross, and he would need to shower after this, but he had a process. With each segment he removed he was able to work faster, and it only took three hours to fully peel the shell off the creature.

What was left behind was a disgusting pile of half-rotted meat with a green tint and a pool of slime. A pile of chitinous shells that definitely needed to be cleaned, but were otherwise in decently good condition. They were almost all the same size, and Jack guessed that he could fashion shoulder or chest guards for both groups of hunters, or maybe arm bracers for the entire tribe. Someone else could probably turn this pile into a full suit of armor for a single person, but he wasn’t sure how you could make a helmet or boots out of the material. He plugged his nose and carried the rotting meat further away from camp. He jogged half a mile away before dumping it and jogging back. He made sure to stay far from the treeline.

He took his prized pile of shells over to the waterfall. He was going to clean them and then shower, but from the looks he got from the water-boiling crew and the very unkind words Haden had shared about his smell when he passed the builders, he decided to just take a shower first. It took a lot of scrubbing to get the smell off of him, and his shirt was now stained green. It was inevitable that his shirt would change color from the grass stains, dirt, blood, and general grime that came with living primitively. He just hadn't expected it to happen so soon. He spent another hour cleaning each of the shell pieces and then took another shower. He piled his spoils up near the crafting team’s designated fire. They had spent the day making more stone axes for the building team and weaving more baskets when they could. Making the axes was difficult, and each one took them a while to properly sharpen.

It was around this time when Jack heard voices from above him. He turned to look, and saw Soren and Clara at the top of the cliff. The cliff above them spanned nearly a hundred feet tall. It was like looking up a ten-story building. He couldn’t make out what they were shouting, but he waved at them and they waved back. He could see another two people behind them, but couldn't tell who they were.

Jack walked over to Skye and pointed her attention up the cliff. She clapped as Clara tossed down the thick rope that Mavis and Skye had made the day before. It fell down the cliff face, but got caught on a ledge. Soren and Clara started to pull it back up. They threw it again, further out this time, and the rope cleared the ledge and made it all the way down to the camp. Jack was impressed with how well the rope was made. It looked like dozens of strands of twine had been twisted together to make each section, and then those had been knotted together to create a longer and longer rope.

Despite its impressive length and construction, he didn’t trust it to hold him. Maybe someone like Skye who was half his weight. Still, he would rather have it there should he need to climb up the cliff face. Soren yelled something else, but Jack couldn’t hear him over the roar of the waterfall. They dipped back over the cliff face, and the rope went taught as they secured it to something. Skye had run over to grab the bottom end of the rope, and she anchored it to one of the large boulders that acted as windbreaks for the cave entrance.

That was all of the excitement for around thirty minutes. Jack had gone to get his next ration of water when he heard a crash. He looked to the east, and saw a boulder the size of a desk crash down the cliff. It was far from the camp, and no one was in any danger from it or the smaller rocks that followed it down. A few seconds later another large rock went over the edge, and Jack, along with everyone else in camp, went to get a better look. They could see that Soren and Clara had spent the past half hour pushing the larger rocks on the cliff top towards its edge. Now they were pushing them all off in one big go.

Jack was glad that these rocks couldn’t be tossed down onto the camp by an enemy tribe. He watched one rock bounce and shatter one of the larger trees, causing it to creek and slowly crash to the ground. If they had built their longhouse, or wall, anyone could have destroyed it by just tossing rocks.

Fortunately, there were only a few large boulders that needed to be shoved, and after a few minutes, the show was over. Soren and Clara must have decided to return to camp the long way, because they didn’t climb down the rope. After Soren shouted something that no one could hear, they vanished again.

The palisade was coming along nicely as everyone in camp was pulled in to sharpen the large branches and thinnest trees. Once they had a long line of spikes, the builders went back to work. They dug deep post holes, and then placed the spiked logs into them facing up before filling in the hole to secure the post. By the time they were done, it was nearly nighttime, but the camp had a ring of sharpened trees around twelve to fifteen feet tall surrounding it. They couldn’t call it a wall yet, as anyone less than four feet wide could easily step between the posts. It was still a monumental amount of work to have completed in just three days, and as Marcus and the clay team returned, having to take Thrasher through the “gate”, the tribe collectively cheered.

They were still in danger, and a night watch would be kept, but they finally had a real defense against the massive dinosaurs they all knew could have crushed them without a thought. Any adult Triceratops, standing close to twenty feet tall, could have stomped through their camp, and a T-Rex would have slaughtered them. Now they had a wall of tall, sturdy spikes to keep the larger predators back.

The clay team had returned with five large baskets filled to the brim. They had fashioned a simple harness for Thrasher, and used him like a pack mule to carry it back. He didn’t seem to mind much, so long as someone kept giving him pets and encouragement as they walked. Though it was clear he was happy when they took the baskets off him, and he eagerly ran to the pond to clean himself off.

Marcus looked tired and his arm was swollen, even though it was hard to tell with the splint Lottie had made for him. She and Jade more or less ordered Marcus to bed, and Jack wasn’t going to be far behind him. He was assigned to morning watch, so he needed to sleep as soon as the sun went down. He checked on Gordon again, but he hadn’t moved since lunch.

“Any change?” Marcus asked as he entered the cave.

“None.” Jack said, shaking his head as he sat beside his friend and faced his leader.

“Fuck.” Was all Marcus said as he found his own spot.

“How is the arm?” Jack asked him.

“Hurts like a bitch. I nearly woke up the entire camp screaming when I rolled onto it last night. It just needs time, but I hate not being able to help. We almost caught one of those frogs today. Damn things are nearly as large as a pit bull. If I had both arms it wouldn’t have gotten away.” Marcus closed his eyes as he leaned against the wall. He pressed his good hand to his face and shook his head.

“Jack. I don’t know if Gordon is going to make it. My arm is fucked. We have dozens of people with cuts and scrapes, and I just got a report that three people drank from the pond without boiling it and are not feeling well. If those wounds become infected we could start losing people quickly. I might need to ask you to do something dangerous soon.” He continued. Jack sat up, anxiety struck at his heart at his chief's words and the sense of despair in his voice.

“What do you want me to do?” He asked, doing his best to keep his voice calm. Marcus sighed and removed his hand to look Jack in the eyes.

“I might need you to go search for other tribes. Find a doctor or nurse, and ask them to come help up.” Marcus’s voice was tired.

Jack thought about the request. It would be extremely dangerous to go searching for other tribes. And trying to find a doctor that was willing to come back with him would be hard. He had other concerns. He would need to bring others with him, or he would quickly be killed by the first pack of raptors he came across. But if he brought his hunting team with him, that would leave the tribe without some of their most fit warriors and hunters. The other team was already injured. Not enough to stop them, but their wounds could easily become infected. If that happened, the tribe could lose all of their hunters.

“Does the mapping feature on the bracelet show other tribes?” He asked. If he had a map, he could probably make the trip quickly, and with only two or three others. Marcus shook his head.

“I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so. If it does, there are no other tribes within ten miles of us. But I suspect that there are. Another man at our landing spot made a tribe, and they would have to be idiots to try and survive in the jungle. They would have gone downhill and found the same river we did. I suspect they are to the west of us, upriver. Or they kept following the cliff face south and ended up much further to the east following the mesa.” Marcus answered.

They both sat in silence for a while. Thinking over the problems. Eventually, Jack had to yawn, breaking the silence.

“Ok. I’ll go. I want to bring at least two people with me. And if you can spare him I would like to bring Thrasher or Mike. I also want to see if we can make some armor out of the Arthropleura shells I dismantled today. Let’s say I leave in two days. That gives us time to prepare.” Jack said.

“That works. I just worry we won’t have long.” Marcus said as he closed his eyes and rested his head against the cave wall.

Jack did the same. As night fell on the camp, the sound of the waterfall lulled him to sleep. His dreams were full of blood.