Jack woke up a few hours later, and it seemed that most of the tribe had decided to sleep in around him. He slowly sat up and blinked the sleep from his eyes. The clouds had cleared and the sun outside the cave was bright. He stood up and stretched. Mavis was still asleep so he went to check on Gordon. His friend wasn’t looking good. He had spent the night tossing around his sleep, and his face looked pained when he did wake up.

Jack gently shook him awake. Gordon’s eyes were bloodshot but he managed a small smile when he saw Jack.

“Hey.” He said, his voice rough. Jack tried to smile for him, but it felt fake.

“Hey. How are you feeling?” Jack asked, and Gordon coughed weakly.

“I’ve certainly been better. Could you bring me some water?” He asked.

“Yeah, I’ll bring you a bottle.” Jack tested his temperature as he spoke. Gordon was hot to the touch. “I think you have a fever. I’ll be right back. Hang in there.”

Gordon nodded and returned his head to the wall of the cave.

Jack got up and walked outside. He found Ms Margret, who gave him a water bottle and food for both himself and Gordon. She also pointed him towards a newly built lean to, made from ferns and the leftover wood they had processed the day before. She gave him an extra chunk of cooked meat, and sent him off. Inside the lean-to he found Lottie sitting beside Maple and one of the gatherers who had drank from the pond and gotten sick. Both of them were asleep, but Lottie was awake. She looked up to Jack as he entered.

“Good morning.” She said with a tired look in her eyes. “Please tell me there isn’t an emergency.”

“Um. Morning. It’s Gordon. He is running a fever and I’m not sure what to do.” Jack said.

“Take some cloth, dip it in the water and try to keep him cool. Give him as much water as we can spare. I’ll come check on him when my replacement wakes up. We can’t leave Maple alone right now.” She turned to look at the sleeping women. Her shirt had been taken off and torn into strips, cleaned, and then applied as bandages to her shoulder and back. Jack could see the long scars she would have, if she survived. He nodded.

“I um. I think I’ll be leaving today to try and find other tribes.” He said. She looked worried for him, her eyebrows knitting together. But she nodded.

“I guess all I can say is good luck. You be safe. Try and bring home a doctor or something. I don’t think I’m cut out to work on people.” She said with a self deprecating smile. He sat beside her and gently nudged her shoulder.

“You do the best you can with what you have. We are lucky to have you. I’m useless with this kind of stuff, but you have at least some idea what you are doing. Without you, Maple would be dead. Gordon likely would be as well. Don’t beat yourself up.” He said, his own smile surprisingly genuine. He believed in her. She nudged him back.

“That's sweet, but I want to be a vet. I would much rather cure Mike of his toothache than stitch up my friends.” She smiled, slightly more genuine. “But, I’ll keep everyone here breathing until you get back with either a doctor or some antibiotics.”

He nodded, and passed her some of the food Ms Margret had given him.

“I’ll hold you to that. Do your best. I should be back in a few days at most. Soren saw smoke about a day's walk south.” He said, standing up.

“You should get going then. It’s mid morning already. I’ll come help Gordon as soon as I can.” She checked Maple’s temperature, and once she was satisfied, opened the wrapped meat and took a bite.

Jack nodded to her, and slipped out of the lean-to he was mentally calling the doctors tent. He saw Marcus and Jade speaking with Miles beside the main bonfire. Marcus gestured with his good hand for Jack to come join them, but Jack held up both water bottles and gestured to the cave. Marcus nodded, and waved him on.

In the cave he rejoined Gordon, waking his friend up again and helping him drink. Gordon was able to drink it all, and started picking at the meat while Jack grabbed his shirt from the rock outside, wet it again, and brought it inside. He put it to Gordon’s forehead, letting the cool water fight his fever. Gordon let out a sigh of relief, and lay back to let the makeshift cloth rest easier on his head.

“So, sounded like there was some excitement last night.” He said. “I have been in and out of things since I was bit. How have things been going?”

“Well. Last night I single handedly fought and killed a Sabertooth tiger. But not before it attacked one of the gatherers.” Jack said, taking a bite of his own food. Gordon winced.

“Did she live?” He asked.

“Yeah. But she is pretty bad off. You have the second worst injuries in camp now.” It was supposed to be a joke, but he couldn’t even fake a smile at his friend's condition.

“But hey. She lived. And you killed a fucking Sabertooth Tiger. That's pretty badass.” Gordon smiled at him.

“I also tamed a Styracosaurus, named Mike, and his two grumpy wives. Clara named them Cera and Karren. They are like mini triceratops. We got a good start on the camp wall, obviously it's not Sabertooth proof yet. But it's good progress.” Jack started telling the story of everything that had happened over the past few days. From their adventure to the river and how Marcus hurt his arm, to Soren and Clara’s trip to the top of the cliffs and how they rolled the boulders down. Gordon smiled though most of the story, but didn’t say much. Jack made sure he kept eating. He needed as much food as he could stomach.

“But, um. That brings me to today. The plan is for me to take a few people and go try and find some allies. We need a doctor and to make friends. So I will be traveling down the canyon towards some smoke that Soren saw. I’ll probably be gone for three or four days. But I’ll be back with help.” He forced a smile, but he knew the probability of finding a doctor in the closest tribe was minimal.

Gordon put his hand on Jack's shoulder. He pulled the wet shirt off his head, and looked into his friend's eyes.

“Jack, I trust you. You’ll find what you are looking for. But I have a big favor to ask.” He looked pained as he spoke. Jack couldn’t tell if the pain was from his injuries, or the heavy emotions in his voice. He looked like he was on the verge of crying. Jack was not used to seeing his friend like this, and it made his stomach drop. He nodded.

“Anything you need. Just ask.” He said. Gordon coughed into his elbow, removing his hand from Jack’s shoulder. His cough was wet, and lasted for half a minute. He took another breath.

“If you get back and I don’t make it, I want you to finish the base and bring Ellie and the twins here. Take care of them for me.” Gordon asked. As soon as he finished talking he started to cough again, and rested his head back against the wall. Jack was surprised by the request.

“What about her brother? Isn’t he also trying to bring her to his tribe?” Jack asked in confusion. And Gordon weekly nodded.

“He was in prison. Back on Earth. He was convicted for murder. It was gang related. His family testified against him at the trial. I don’t trust him to take care of them.” He said.

Jack took his hand and squeezed it. He replaced the wet shirt on Gordon’s forehead.

“No problem. I’ll make sure they end up here. But you have to fight. I don’t want to raise your kids for you. You have to do that yourself. So you better stay alive.” Jack said.

Lottie came into the cave and gently placed her hand on Jack’s shoulder to get his attention.

“Marcus and Jade are waiting on you. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him.” She said. Jack nodded, and squeezed Gordon’s hand again. Gordon returned the faint squeeze and gave him a smile.

“Go kick some ass Jack.” He said, before tossing Jack his shirt and closing his eyes. Lottie moved in beside him and produced a fresh cloth. She started to care for Gordon, and Jack took his moment to leave the cave.

Mavis was awake and sitting beside Marcus by the fire. She was scanning though the alien encyclopedia and chatting Marcus’s ear off. Jack sat beside her on one of the logs that had been dragged over for use as seating around the large bonfire. There were now enough seats for the entire tribe to squeeze in around the fire pit, and it made for a good centralized meeting spot.

“There isn’t anything in here about how they interact with other herbivores, and there isn’t anything about their gestation rate, how long their eggs need to be incubated before they hatch, or about the dietary requirements of the hatchlings. I mean, I checked, and Cera doesn’t exactly have an udder.” Jack heard the end of Mavis’s sentence. Marcus looked thoughtful at her words, and gestured for her to continue as he passed Jack one of the backpacks the high schoolers had been carrying when they were abducted.

“Morning, Jack.” Mavis said, giving him a warm smile. Seeing that Mavis wasn’t going to continue, Marcus spoke up as well.

“Good morning, Jack. Jade prepared some supplies for you in there. We are also going to load Thrasher up with two baskets full of rope. We can only spare one water bottle for you to carry with you, so you will need to be careful and boil water when you camp. You will have the beer can, but with only three of you it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.” He said as Jack went through the bag.

“Thank you. I will make sure not to lose it.” Jack said. Inside the bag were several more wrapped cuts of cooked meat, some more rope, and as many spare torches as they could fit.

“The most important thing is that you don’t lose your fire. Our torches are pretty bad and will burn though in about two hours of use at best. I’ve tried making better ones, but we need a more reliable cloth or something. I’m not sure.” Mavis said.

“If your torches start to burn out and you run out of spares, stop and build a fire. Make more torches, and gather spares. Even if it's the middle of the day. Fire is what is keeping the dinosaurs away from us. If yours goes out, your chances of surviving the night go down dramatically.” Marcus said, looking Jack in the eyes. He nodded, and zipped up the bag.

“I understand. We will make it a priority. I aim to be back within three to five days, depending if the nearest tribe can help us or not.” Jack said.

“Soren and Clara are wrapping up with their friends right now. They will join us soon and then you should go. The sooner you are back, the sooner we can hopefully heal our people. But you need to be safe as well. A lot is going to ride on your success.” Marcus said.

“I know this mission is half to search for medical aid, and half diplomacy. What should I offer on our behalf if I need to negotiate with the other tribe?” Jack asked. Causing Marcus to nod.

“Honestly, just about anything. Especially if they have the skills or resources we need. Beyond doctors, we need more of everything. Skilled hunters, farmers, craftsmen, warriors. We need as many able bodied people as we can get. Currently we can bring down a Hadrosaur or Parasaur and get enough meat to survive for three or four days with more to spare. Literally tons of meat are going to waste because we cannot store it properly. I would be willing to let them join us, move here. I am happy to trade more rope, or stone tools once we have a surplus. We can also make agreements for trading dinosaur eggs, or assisting in trapping larger dinosaurs to tame.” Marcus listed the options he had prepared, but then his eyes turned harder.

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“The only thing I am not giving you the ability to decide for us is if we go to war. I do not want to be in a conflict with another tribe, especially when we have so many people injured and no good way to help them recover. If they already know about the alien supply drops, you can make a deal where we split them evenly. If they don’t know, or don’t have any of the charms we have unlocked, you can trade that information as you see fit.” He finished. Jack committed his options to memory, which was easy because it boiled down to anything except war.

“If things are looking good, can I suggest a defensive pact?” He asked, and Marcus looked thoughtful.

“Offer the chance to negotiate one. I trust you Jack, but that’s a conversation I want to have with all our counselors before we agree to anything.” Marcus said.

Clara jogged over to the fire and sat beside Jack. She was dressed in the leaf skirt and wrap that the crafting team had started to make. Nearly all her exposed skin was covered in a film of gray clay, leaving only her face clean.

“Good morning. Are we ready to go?” She asked.

“You fall in a mud pit?” Jack asked, and she scowled.

“No. It was Matt’s idea. He wants to cover each of us in clay to keep the bugs off us and hide our smell. I didn’t feel like destroying my only set of real clothing, so here I am. It’s honestly not that bad. My gym clothes were getting pretty gross.” She said. Mavis nodded, while looking down at her own clothing. Everyone was smelly, and everyone had grass and dirt stains all over them. He suspected almost everyone would be wearing the leaf skirts when he got back. He would be sticking with his jeans, at least for the journey he was about to go on.

“Looks like kilts will be in season for a while.” Marcus said. “At least until we can make leather consistently. That Sabertooth should help with that, but we don’t have any clue how to make proper clothing. I think most of its hide will either be turned into a blanket, or made into practice scraps so our crafters can learn how to use it.”

Mavis nodded, and flicked through the encyclopedia on Marcus’s arm. She stopped on an entry for Sabertooth Tigers.

“So, there are several subspecies of Sabertooth, but all of them have a few things in common. Importantly, they all live in biomes that experience snowy winters. So either the ones here are invasive, or we will be getting a harsh winter, eventually.” She said.

“But, it’s almost tropical here. I know it’s not as wet as a true jungle, but I have a hard time imagining all these big ferns surviving a harsh winter” Clara said, gesturing to the leaves that made up her skirt.

“I think it will be like the Appalachians back on earth. Dense woodlands, high mountains, and relatively soft winters when compared to the Rockies, but they still got snow, especially at higher altitude. We might not get more than a few feet of snow at a time, but it will get cold, especially at night. If we don’t have warmer clothing and covered homes by then, it will be bad.” Mavis explained.

“And who is to say the AI that controls this planet won’t change things. We know it can impact the terrain, replace materials when they are used. If the aliens are to be believed at least. I have been wondering if the divide between the denser vegetation at the top of the cliff and the more open woods down here is natural. There are a lot more herbivores down here, but the trees are almost completely different. I don’t remember seeing any of the yellow fruit trees up top. Though I wasn’t paying as much attention to the foliage when we were up there. Regardless, we don’t know how much control the AI has over the climate here.” Marcus said.

“The only other mammal we have seen that could give us a decent amount of leather is that big ground sloth we found evidence of on the day we arrived.” Jack said, and Mavis nodded.

“It is listed in the encyclopedia for the dense mountain biome. We are in the river basin biome. I have gone through the list and there are a few mammals here that we could hunt. The problem is they are all listed as migratory, so they might not arrive until it gets colder. Giant elk, mammoths, and weirdly camels.” Mavis said, showing the group the list of large mammals in their biome. That list also included Sabertooth tigers and some type of prehistoric bison.

Jack caught sight of Soren walking towards the fire. He had a bundle of spears strapped to his back. He was also covered in clay, but he was still wearing his jeans. His red hair had been covered in mud, and Jack barely recognized him. He sat on the far side of Marcus, and waved hello to the group, not interrupting Mavis.

“Good morning.” Jack said once she was done speaking. The group echoed his words, and Soren returned the greeting.

“Are we ready to head off?” He asked.

“Only two more things to go over.” Marcus said.

“Three.” Mavis said, interrupting him. She looked a bit sheepish afterwards, but continued talking as Marcus didn’t chastise her.

“The alien encyclopedia isn’t perfect. It's missing a lot of information about the dinosaurs. It is a good overview, but we can’t rely on it for everything. For example, there is almost no information on how long Styracosaurus eggs take to hatch, or how they are usually cared for. It also said that Sabertooth’s always travel in packs, like lions from earth. But the one we found was a lone male. So we need to assume that there is more to learn about these creatures. If you use the encyclopedia on something you have never seen, you can’t underestimate it.” She said, and everyone nodded. It was good to know, but it didn’t seem relevant to their upcoming trip.

“That brings us to the next point. You will be bringing the alien artifact with you.” Marcus said, removing the bracelet from his wrist by rolling it against his leg. He tossed it to Jack, who caught it. That caught everyone except Mavis by surprise.

“Um. Isn’t that a bit risky?” Soren asked before Jack was done processing what it meant that he had the bracelet.

“Yes. If you die, or are captured, we will be at a huge disadvantage. I don’t know what happens if another tribe gets their hands on it. But I am not in the state to be running around taming more dinosaurs. We already know what berries are safe to eat, and we know what to hunt. We have the map that Lennox drew yesterday, and our current focus is on building up our home.” Marcus explained. Jack felt the charms, each of them was warm except for the taming charm. He looked around, seeing no new dinosaurs.

“Soren tamed Karren yesterday evening, so you won’t have a charge for the day. But if you get the opportunity to tame anything that will help you or the tribe, take it. I would rather you have the map to get home with if you get lost, or the food scan to make your scavenging risk free.” He continued.

“Thank you for trusting us with it.” Clara said, and Marcus nodded.

“You are all extremely brave, and frankly good at what you do. Part of leading is making sure the right people have the right tools to succeed.” He looked at Jack, and their eyes met.

“I’ll bring back something useful. Thank you.” Jack said as he slipped the bracelet on.

“Good. That will also prove that you speak with my authority as a tribe leader, should that be necessary.” Marcus finished.

“What is the last thing?” Soren asked. He looked equal parts excited and nervous to be going. Mavis grinned. It was a grin that Jack had seen many times, and it meant he was about to have a bad time.

“Jack needs to get a mud bath, just like you two.” She said with an evil laugh.

Jack shook his head, and stood up. He passed the backpack to Clara.

“Alright. I’ll go wallow in the clay. I’ll meet you both over by Thrasher when I’m done.” He said, and the group stood. Marcus gave Jack an awkward handshake, with his dominant arm broken he had to use his left, Jack reached with his right on instinct, and then settled with a fist bump.

“Good luck.” Marcus said, giving proper handshakes to Clara and Soren. Everyone chuckled, and started to move away. Mavis grabbed Jack’s hand to stop him.

“Good luck Jack. Don’t do anything stupid. Make sure you have a watch rotation set up each night, even if you are with another tribe. You know what people can be like out here.” She said. He could hear the worry in her voice, and see it in her eyes. He pulled her into a hug.

“I promise I’ll be safe. Take care of Gordon and everyone else. I’ll be back before you know it.” He said.

The hug lasted a few seconds longer, before they both pulled away. She nodded to him, and he turned to go find the clay. He found Taressa and Mattock, along with half the crafting team working with the clay. Mattock grinned at Jack as he approached, and Taressa offered him a smile and a wave.

“It's about time.” Mattock said with more joy that Jack had ever heard from the man.

“Don’t bother running. It won’t help.” Taressa said, her own smile slowly turning into a grin as she picked up a ball of wet clay and held it like a snowball. Jack chuckled.

“Do your worst.” He said, and spread his arms out to expose his chest.

Instead of tossing the ball of clay at him, they led him to the area where they were storing the majority of the clay. They had dug a hole near the pond, and were keeping it wet. As they walked, Jack glanced at what they were doing with the clay. Five of the crafters were working with it, and each one had either a very floppy bowl, or a misshapen pot. No one looked satisfied with their work yet, and he watched two people push their clay back into a ball and start over. Jack wasn’t sure how they could fire the clay, to his memory they needed a big fancy oven called a kiln. Someone clearly smarter than him had a plan as he couldn’t imagine Taressa would be leading this group if such an obvious problem wasn’t being solved.

Jack was lost in his own thoughts for a second but was quickly brought back to the present when Mattock shoved him into the hole full of clay and water. It wasn’t a far drop, but it surprised him. He landed on the soft clay, leaving an indent in it. The cold water full of silt rushed over him, and he shot to standing to give Mattock a glare. The man was nearly doubled over laughing, pointing down at the pile of clay. When Jack looked, he could see a similar indent on the other side of the pile that looked suspiciously like Soren.

“Very funny.” Jack said as he wiped the water out of his face. The silt was sticking to his skin, and he had no doubt that it would harden after some time in the sun. He picked up a chunk of the clay and started to rub it into his skin. It was cold, but the heat of the sun quickly warmed him. Once Mattock and Taressa had stopped laughing they started giving him a small safety speech.

“So, with you covered like this, you won’t stink as much to the animals. They will have a much harder time tracking you, and you might even be able to sneak up on some. It will also keep the bugs off you. The problem is twofold though. A determined bug will get through it, so it's not perfect. But it will also limit how much you can sweat. If you start to overheat, stop and rest, or scrape some of the clay off you. Also it can be uncomfortable. Make sure you don’t have it down your pants, or it will harden and be difficult to run. Go wash off by the pond.” Mattock explained as he offered Jack his hand to get out of the hole. Jack took it, and pulled himself out. He was tempted to pull the older man in for revenge, but decided it wasn’t the time to mess around.

“Thank you. I’ll do that.” He said as he turned to Taressa. “Good luck. We should be back in three to five days.”

“Don’t worry about us. We have plenty of good people here to help keep us safe and busy.” She said.

“Be safe, Jack.” Mattock said more seriously, offering his hand. Jack took it and they shook.

“I will. See you all soon.” He said, and went over to the pond. He very carefully cleaned the clay from his legs and pants, then went to join Clara and Soren. He passed Haden and Miles on the way, and both men gave him words of encouragement as they passed. The final person they passed was Nate, who nodded to Jack.

“Good luck. Don’t worry about the tribe. Matt and I will bring down another Hadrosaur tomorrow. But make sure you get back before the aliens start their supply drops. I don’t want to have to fight someone off it alone.” He said, very seriously. Jack nodded, and shook his ex bullies hand.

“I will. Only a few days. With any luck, I'll hopefully return with a doctor, if not, I’ll make a deal with the nearest tribe to get us a fair portion of the supplies. The aliens will probably send antibiotics or some magic medicine down. All our people will be ok.” Jack said.

“Be careful of raptors. Especially when you sleep. The little fuckers are nasty.” Nate said, and with a final nod, they parted ways.

Jack was getting tired of repeating his goodbyes over and over, of making promises to return safe and triumphant. His anxiety grew with each person he spoke to. He knew once he left it would fade as he focused on the dangers of the woods, but the longer he spent in camp the worse it would get.

He reached Thrasher, and saw Jade speaking with Soren and Clara. She passed them each a lit torch, and was holding one for Jack. She gave him a warm nod.

“Good morning Jack. I won’t keep you for long.” She offered her hand, and Jack shook it.

“The basket on Thrasher is filled with as much rope as we could make. We spent most of our time on the cliff rope and making more stone tools yesterday. But it's a good sample of what we can make, and should be useful. The other basket has some bolas we made. It's just a few rocks tied around more rope, and we weren’t able to test them out much. But hopefully you will get some use out of them. I suggest you all practice with one as you hike. They could be helpful in hunting, taming, and if we need to, fighting other people.” She started to show them the bolas, opening one of the large baskets on Thrasher's side and pulling one out. It was longer than Jack had expected them to be, but he supposed it needed to be if they wanted to tangle up some of the larger dinosaurs they would be fighting.

“Do we have any reason to think these people are hostile?” Soren asked.

“No. But that is something I want you all to observe as you travel. There were a lot of cultures on Earth that treated women as property. And who knows how bad it could get in a world like this. Watch how the tribes around us treat their people, make note of their governance style and any strong personalities. We need information, and if they are mistreating their women we can discuss raiding them.” Jade said, passing the bola to Clara.

“We can do that. But unless it's really bad, we won’t start any fights without coming home first.” Jack said, walking beside Thrasher and petting his head. The big dinosaur nuzzled into his touch and made a happy chirping sound.

Soren looked uncomfortable at the idea of killing people, but nodded. Jade handed her torch to Jack, and gave them all a nod.

“Thank you, and good luck. Be safe. If you aren't back in a week, we will send a full raiding party after you. Every hunter and able bodied fighter we have. So if the other tribe is hostile, hold out for a week and we will do our best to rescue you.”

“We will do our best to make sure that's not needed, but thank you. Good luck, Jade. Stay safe.” Clara said, and Jack nodded to her.

“Alright. Get going. You still have a good amount of sunlight, but you will need to move quickly if you don’t want to spend the night in the wilds here.” Jade said, and passed Jack his torch. It was burning low, slowly eating away at the long stick. He took it and held it away from Thrasher, who still wasn’t a huge fan of fire. They started out of the camp. After a few hundred feet, the woods swallowed the noise from the waterfall, and their journey began.