Tina followed me away from the group. We'd
walked a good distance up the corridor before she took my arm in hers, and
leaned against me as we wondered the corridors of dungeon Four. We finally sat
on the stairs leading to the dungeon masters quarters and began to talk about
how we were going to accomplish the task of moving the number of people from
the city to our waiting friends at the rock face.
It was Tina who made the original suggestion
that all who came to us, would be blindfolded and bound before their journey
ever began. While we talked that day, the basic outline of the logistics was
worked out. Most would be transported at night, while during the heavy rain
season we could use the lack of visibility for cover. During the times when the
rain was more like heavy mist we would have to depend entirely on the darkness
to avoid detection, as we moved the Clients from the city.
We had talked for some time, and I was
growing tired, and soon told Tina I wanted to sleep. She pulled me to my feet
and led me to a prison cot, where she laid herself down, and took me to her as
she laid there, taking me home, and away from my troubles for a peaceful nights
rest in her saddle.
*** *** *** *** ***
When Gil and Sean had left Tina, Toni,
Lavern, Debbie, Cindy, and myself in the rain, they traveled in silence for
most of the day. They were soaked clear through, but for them, it was just a
part of life.
They followed the river north and east until
it finally divided into several smaller streams, then they turned north and
west, crossing several streams. They continued their travel for several days
until they had made a large circle, bringing them back to the rock face, and
our old camp site.
The two men kept their word to the letter and
built the water cistern; then went on with their labors building homes for
themselves, and shelter space for many more besides. Mostly they built the
shelters and other out-buildings to keep busy, rather than because any plan
that had ever been made for them to do so.
Sean and Gil were thinking of going down
river to see if the horses, they had run off from our pursuers camp, could be
found, when a small group of men, including two of their former traveling
companions, arrived at the place I always think of as the rock camp. The group
numbered ten in all, mostly young men, except for two fellows who were old
enough to remember a time, before the Counsel of Six had seized power, before
the advent of all out war.
None of the men who arrived in the advanced
group had been involved in the fighting over the years, although there were
some who had witnessed at least one of the battles, and all but three had seen
the aftermath of at least one battle. Even at that, they had the attitude that
the war was politically motivated. For the two or three days following the new
men's arrival, all work came to a complete stop as old friends met for the
first time in many months, and even years.
The new arrivals were disappointed that there
were no women in camp when they arrived, but it turned out to be for the best,
as it gave them time to rest from their trip. The other advantage to not having
the women there when the men arrived from the north, was Sean and Gil time to
give some basic attitude instructions to the new arrivals. Even at that, there
were some tight situations from time to time when someone would forget to put
away their old attitudes about the other sex.
Sean and Gil told and retold the story of how
the two of them had defeated a much larger force of the women, and sent the
leaders of the group down the river on the caged raft, but mostly the new group
of men wanted to know what it was like to be with a woman. My two friend showed
themselves to be wise indeed when they glossed over their experiences with my
group, telling the rest they would be better off to wait for the first women to
arrive, and judge for themselves.
The older men in the group soon found
themselves being used as most old men are used by the younger ones around them,
and became advisors, if not actual directors, or planners of the construction
projects undertaken after their arrival at Rock Camp. It was those wise old
lechers, who advised the dividing of the common shelters into smaller rooms for
the women when they arrived, and then cautioned the younger men not to decorate
the interiors at all, saying, "Let the women have something to do when
they get here besides sit."
Before too long had passed, a party was
organized to go down river and try to recover any horses that had survived their
swim and made it to land, beyond the small canyon below the meadow. Since most
of the men had gone west to search for the horses, only the two oldsters and
Gil were in camp for the next two weeks, and spent their time building a cold
house for food storage in a deep crack they found above the water cistern.
The cold house was finished and a large
cooking fireplace was under construction when the rest of the men, led by Sean
arrived with an impressive herd of horses. Because of the huge success of that round
up, several new corrals had to be built, not to mention pasture found for the
now sizable heard of horses at Rock Camp. The older men advised the need for
scouting parties to be sent out looking for suitable pasture, and to hunt, as
food supplies were starting to dwindle at camp.
During the time between the arrival of the
first men at Rock Camp, and the time the pipeline from the City of Towers began
to operate, Gil and Sean were kept busy just finding projects and missions to
send the men on to keep them occupied. Not that the things the men did were
useless, they weren't, but it was hard to keep ahead of that many willing
helpers. In the end it was the two old fossils who came up with the projects
that were ultimately to prove to be the most useful constructions, and the most
time consuming.
The first was the construction of a bridge
across the north river. That bridge was rebuilt three times by the time the
pipeline closed, giving many hands, and minds, many hours of occupation during
the time they were required to wait at Rock Camp for the arrival of more
females from the City of Towers.
Construction on the first bridge to be built
was started soon after the round-up was complete, and the food situation was
handled. The men had been in camp for about a week, laying about, and beginning
to complain about the waiting, especially since that first group was waiting on
faith in the words of their friends, and it became apparent a large time
consuming project was needed to keep the men from using their fertile
imaginations too freely.
The thought that finally decided the question
of to build, or not to build, was the idea that half the distance from the City
of Towers to Rock Camp could be cut from the travel time by the building of
that bridge. With that thought in mind the twelve men at Rock Camp started the
huge project of building the bridge. The first thing they had to do was to
select a suitable site for the proposed bridge to be built at.
Site selection took the best part of the next
two weeks, as the men inspected both banks of the river from the meadow several
miles upstream, where the river turned sharply and followed a northerly course
for many miles, until it again turned to the east, following it upstream. A
site was finally chosen about two and a half miles upstream from the meadow. It
was a place where the river lay in a shallow sort of canyon, or gully, and the
ground on either side was only a few feet thick on top of solid rock, just the
sort of place that a good foundation could be easily built for the bridge.
The two old men became good friends during
the construction of the first bridge, and spent much of their time from that
day onward, tormenting the younger men who came and went from Rock Camp with
their constant insistence on first class work, and inspections of every detail
of the construction projects. As time went by, it became clear to those of us
involved in the pipeline that it was those two old geezers who did more to keep
things on an even keel at Rock Camp, than any other influence the waiting men,
and at times women, had to deal with. That is of course, until the arrival of
Flow and Naomi!
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Chapter 79 | Chapter 81
Index | Title Page
| Credits | Preamble | TOC