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Dominant Species
Chapter Sixteen Life out on the ocean proves to be more than the men expected. They expected great adventure and lots of excitement. What they have instead is long days of boredom. The calm sea looks the same, no matter how far they travel. While they are fortunate to have calm seas, it does little to alleviate the boredom that has set in. Add in the same meals every day and you have a crew that is not happy. As Derrick and the chief sit on the deck on evening, they look up to the stars and marvel at the sky full of constellations. "I remember going to a planetarium as a kid and learning about all the constellations." Derrick says as he looks up. "Yeah, there is Orion's belt. That is about all I know." the chief says as he points at the three stars that make up Orion's belt. "I know that one. So tell me, how do we know which way we are going?" The chief smiles as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a compass. "Remember these? Yeah, it's a compass. I found one at a sporting goods store and kept it. It helped me from getting lost in the woods when I went hunting." Derrick looks at the compass and marvels at it. "Do the men consider this sorcery?" Derrick asks. The chief laughs as he puts it back in his pocket "I tried to explain the science to them, but they did not understand it." The two of them look back out at the sea. The moon is reflecting on the still water. There is a mild breeze that is just enough to keep them moving forward, but at a slow pace. "It is hard to think that while it is calm on the surface, that there is probably some giant sea monster underneath us, just waiting to attack." Derrick says as he looks down at the water. The chief also looks down "Yeah, nothing stays safe for long." This makes Derrick think about all the people they came in contact with. "Do you ever feel responsible for all the people who have died after we came in contact with them?" The chief looks at him with an odd look and asks "What do you mean?" Derrick looks back down at the water and says "The people outside of Cincinnati with the spiders. And the people who were at peace with the dragon." The chief laughs a bit as he says "The first thing you have to understand is no one is at peace with a dragon. They had a false sense of security, but they were never at peace. We can learn to live with the beasts of this world, but you must understand that you live by their rules and those rules can be changed at any time. As far as the spider people, they were nothing but slaves to the spider. And when they lost their usefulness, they would become food as well." Derrick looks up at him with a sad look and says "Is there anywhere in this world that is safe for man?" The chief thinks for a moment and turns to him and says "Nope." Below the deck, the rest of the men are trying to rest. Scott is laying on one of the beds and looking at the ceiling. He find it hard to sleep at sea. Even though things are calm now, he still cannot fall asleep. Eightdigit looks over and notices that Scott is still awake. While it is fairly dark, the light from the lantern they have hanging from the ceiling lets off enough light. "Sleep does not come?" Eightdigit asks as he looks over at Scott. "No, I have too much on my mind." Eightdigit rolls over and props his head up with his arm. "What are you thinking about?" Scott turns his head and looks at Eightdigit. His eyes are not as good as Eightdigit's so he only sees a shape of a man. Evolution has been gradually making humans more adaptable to this world. Each generation is a little better prepared than the last one. Limited night vision is one of the adaptations that have benefited humans. Also their hearing has improved as well. And the length of a pregnancy is nearly a month shorter as the fetus grows more rapidly. Humans are also changing as they have gone from primarily hunters to hunter/scavengers. Their immune systems are stronger and their stomachs can better deal with mostly meat diets and eating raw and sometimes rotting meat. As Scott tries to see Eightdigit in the semi darkness, he answers back "Just thinking about the old world." This causes Eightdigit to sit up as he loves to hear about this world. Before Derrick and Scott showed up, the only person he knew from the old world was the chief. But the chief did not talk about the old world too much, so most of what Eightdigit knows is from looking at old magazines or books that he finds. But not being able to read makes it hard to know what he is looking at. "Tell me about the old world." he asks as he sits up in his bed. Scott looks up at the ceiling as he says "I was thinking about how much I miss Sundays. It was the day of the week when everyone was home. We would go to the early mass at church and then head to the Waffle House for breakfast. Then we would come home and watch football all day while my mom made a big dinner that was always so delicious. I can remember how the smell of roast beef or a turkey would waft through the house." Scott smiles as he thinks about how delicious those meals were. Eightdigit is confused. While it sounds good, he does not know what most of what he is talking about. "Don't think I'm dumb, but what is mass at church, or the Waffle House or football?" Scott looks over at him and says "Church is a place where you go to pray to God. You do know who God is, don't you?" His head nods yes as he answers "You mean like the weatherman?" Scott breaks out laughing "The weatherman? Who told you a weatherman is a God?" The chief told us about men in his time that had great powers and could control the weather. They were called weathermen." Scott rolls over and looks right at him "Either he was trying to scare you or you misunderstood him. Weathermen were people who would predict the weather. They could not control it." Eightdigit thinks about it for a moment. He is not sure if he heard the chief wrong or what. He knows the chief is much smarter than him and he is easily confused by allot of what the chief says. He understands what he can see and touch. Notions like God, something that he cannot see, means little to him. For him the closest he came to a God was the ettin that roamed the city he lived in. Until it was killed by Derrick, he thought it was a vengeful God. "So what do you miss most about the old world?" Derrick looks up at the ceiling again and thinks. There is so much he misses from his old life. Hanging out with friends, computers, pizza, family. It is hard to think of just one single thing. But as he thinks about it, the answer comes to him. He turns to Eightdigit with a smile on his face and says "Security. That is what I miss most." This answer completely confuses Eightdigit. He does not know what he means. "What do you mean by security?" Scott rolls over again and answers "The security of knowing that when I went to sleep in my bed at night, that I would wake up safe the next morning. The feeling I got knowing my mom was going to have dinner ready for us every night. That my father would return from work. The feeling I got from turning on a faucet and water always came out or when I flicked a switch, a light would turn on. Just the security of having a house and a family and knowing everything was going to be all right, no matter what happened." Eightdigit smiles back and says "That sounds like a great place. Why did you leave it?" A frown comes over Scott's face as he answers "Because we never realized how good we had it. Sometimes you need to lose something to understand how special it really is." The next morning, the entire crew is on the deck of the boat. The wind has picked up some and the boat is making good time. The chief is steering the boat with Bearslayer and Eightdigit manning the sails. Scott and Derrick are looking over the side at the water, hoping to see something in the water. They saw some flying fish earlier and were hoping for some more sightings. As the boat travels over the slightly choppy ocean, the hear a noise in the distance. It sounds like a large swoosh of air. The all look at each other to make sure they weren't the only one who heard it. Once they get confirmation that they did indeed hear it, they look up and see a large object in the air. It looks like a large bird flying through the air. As it gets closer, they see how its shadow covers a large area of the ocean. As it gets above them, everything goes dark. The wind from its giant wings also catches the sails and sends the boat off in a different direction. Scott and Derrick look up in amazement at the giant bird that is flying overhead. The bird has reddish brown feathers that cover most of its body and head. It has an enormous beak that looks like a hawk's beak. The talons on its feet are twice as long as any of the men. The bird is easily as big as the dragon, if not bigger. It pays no attention to the boat as it flies past. The waves have swelled from the great wind from its wings and is rocking the boat. Everyone hangs on for dear life as they cannot control the boat. Within seconds, it flies past and things start to slowly calm down. Once the waves calm down and the boat quits rocking so violently, the men all let go of the sides of the boat and relax a bit. Scott looks over at Derrick and says "That was a roc." Derrick looks back with a smile and says "Yeah, just like the one in the Arabian Nights." After two weeks of traveling over the sea, the men come to where the chief estimates the Panama Canal would be. But as they near land, they do not see any canal. The chief looks over his crude maps and charts out his path from New Orleans to the Panama Canal. "I could be wrong, but the Panama Canal should be right in this area." Derrick comes over and looks at the map. "Don't mean question you, but like how do you know?" The chief looks at him and says "I spent time working on a cargo ship. We would pick up cargo in New Orleans and head down to the Panama Canal to cut through to Asia and Europe. Then we would go to China to get more cargo and come back. I must have made that trip a dozen times at least." Derrick looks over the map again and says "Well, everything else has changed in this world, maybe the geography has changed also." The chief looks over his map again and says "It is possible. Things do seem more spread out. Maybe it is just further down." Bearslayer comes over and interrupts "Excuse me, but maybe we should stop here. We are out of food and almost out of water." The chief looks at him and then looks at the land. It is lush tropical jungles. "When I see a beach or an inlet, I will pull in and we can get supplies." Bearslayer nods in agreement and heads back to his post. An hour later, they come across an inlet that is wide enough for the boat to go in. The chief steers it into the inlet that goes into a lagoon. As they look around in the lagoon, they see beautiful white sand beaches and crystal clear water. There are cliffs that surround the lagoon and block it off from the rest of the land. As they sail towards the beach, they see lots of fish swimming in the lagoon. They also see numerous birds flying around. Parrots, egrets, herons, sea gulls and more are seen flying around. Everything looks so peaceful. As they get further in, the chief drops the anchor. "Let's head ashore." he says as the men all cheer. They are getting tired of being on the boat and they are especially tired of eating spam. With the anchor down, the men drop the row boats and head ashore. While they could all fit in one of the large row boats, they want a second one so they have room for supplies. They are hoping to find lots of fresh water and food. They have a long journey ahead of them and they do not know the next time they will be able to stop and replenish their supplies. As the boats pull up to the beach, they see movement in the jungle. Bearslayer points out some movement among the trees and plants to the chief. He also notices the rustling leaves. "We may be walking into an ambush. Be ready." he says to Bearslayer and Howlingmad in a hushed voice. Bearslayer pulls out an arrow and readies his bow. This leaves the chief and Howlingmad to paddle the oars. As they get to the beach, they quickly pull the boats up onto the sand and pull out their weapons. As the second boat, manned by Eightdigit, Derrick and Scott come ashore, they run over to see what is happening. As Derrick walks up, the chief intercepts him and says "We may have company." Derrick then looks over at Bearslayer who has his bow aimed at the jungle and Howlingmad, who has his glowing sword out and ready. They then see some more movement in the jungle. The chief yells out "Show yourself or we will attack." There is a few moments of silence and then they hear a voice yell out "Please put down your weapons, we mean no harm." As soon as they say that, a group of men walk out of the jungle. There is a dozen men, all of who look like scared. As they walk out, they put down their sticks, which must be their weapons. The sticks have one end scraped to a point and look like crudely made spears. But they are not straight and would not make good projectiles. The men wear ragged clothes and have a frazzled look to them. They are ill shaven and have tired looks in their eyes. "What happened to you?" Scott says as he can easily see they do not look healthy, neither physically or mentally. "We were simple fishermen with a happy life before they came." A look of terror fills his eyes as he thinks about it. "Who or what came?" the chief asks as he learned that in this world, it can be a person or a creature. A look of sheer terror overcomes the man as he says "The amazons." All the men shudder in fear at the very mention of the word. Bearslayer and the others look puzzled. They do not know what an Amazon is or why these men fear them?" Realizing this, the chief turns to them and says "Amazons are women warriors who hate men." This confuses Howlingmad as he came from a culture where the men were the warriors. The women were the ones that cooked food, made clothes and took care of children. They were to be respected, not feared. "What kind of man fears a woman?" he says in a boastful voice. The men are too scared to worry about their pride. "The amazons are great in numbers and attack without mercy. They come down once a month to capture men to mate with." Now Howlingmad is really confused. What is wrong with mating? It is one of the few enjoyable things on this world. "So what is so bad about that? No woman would have to capture me to make me want to mate." The rest of the men laugh at this remark. Realizing that he was not understanding, the man says "Once they are done mating with you, they kill you. First they cut off your man part and then they cut out your heart." Hearing that made Howlingmad and the rest of the men cringe. The chief decides to ask more questions to figure out more about the situation. "Why don't you men just leave?" The man looks at him and says "We tried. We have lived here for a long time and were happy. Then the amazons came and took all the women. They gave the women a choice of joining their sisterhood or being killed. They then started monthly attacks to capture a few of us at a time. We tried to fight back, but they are too strong. And with the cliffs, we cannot leave this lagoon. We had boats, but they destroy them before we can leave." We are trapped here, like animals in a cage." The men all look at each other. Eightdigit finally speaks up. "You can come with us in our boat." The man all fall to their knees and start praying "Thank you, great ones." The chief quickly speaks up "But we need supplies, if you help us get food and water, we will gladly take you out of here." The man smiles and says "We can get you all the fish you want. And there is a river with plenty of fresh water." Another man jumps in "And there is plenty of fresh fruit and nuts." The men get all excited. The chief quickly jumps in "Well, let's get going. The quicker we get the supplies, the less chance the amazons will come." With that, the men all rush off to get supplies. A stunning woman with long blonde hair and wearing armor that was obviously made for a woman, walks past three rows of young girls. She has a long cape that hangs behind her and she wears a short skirt that matches her decorated breast plate. She looks to be in her late twenties and has the looks of a model. The girls all have their backs to her as they do thrusts with wooden staffs. Leading the group is a middle aged woman in a short shirt. She has short black hair and deep green eyes. There is a look of anger in her arms as she instructs the girls on various thrusts and blocks with their staffs. As the stunning woman watches, she is approached by a short girl with a battle helmet on. "My queen, I come with urgent news." The queen keeps watching the girls as she says "This may be our finest group of girls yet." The lady looks real quick and then looks back at the queen. "Yes, my queen. But I have urgent news." The queen turns to her and says "Well, what is it?" The girl looks down as she tells her "A ship of men have landed in the lagoon." The queen turns to her and says "Good, we need new men to breed with. I want strong men to make strong girls." The woman is surprised. She thought the queen would be upset. "But queen, what if they leave with the men of the lagoon?" The queen returns her gaze to the girls and asks "How many men were on this ship?" The girl once again looks down as she says "We do not know for sure, but it seems to be less than ten." The queen laughs "We number in the hundreds. Why should we fear a handful of men? Tell Captain Tiffany to ready the ships. Let her know that I want her to sink their ship and blockade the lagoon. I want these men to be stranded here. Also, have Major Maria ready the ground troops. Tell her I want a raid tonight and to bring back two of the new men." The girl bows as she quickly leaves. The queen then turns back to watching the girls and smiles. The men are busy filling the row boats with supplies. The men have captured a few hundred pounds of fish and one row boat is half filled with the fish. The other row boat is partially filled with coconuts, pineapples, papayas, bananas and other fruit. A few other men come back with flasks of fresh water. The chief looks over all the food and says "This will get us to the other side of the Panama Canal, if we can find it." One of the men walks up to him and asks "What is this Panama Canal you are searching for?" The chief looks at him and says "It is a waterway that goes from this body of water to another body of water on the other side. Another sea." The man thinks for a moment and says "You may be talking about the River of the Demon." The chief looks at him and says "The river of the demon? I never heard of that. Does it go all the way through to the other sea?" The man nods yes as he says "Traders from the east would use it to come here. They told of a river demon who would demand sacrifice for safe passage." The chief looks at him and says "That may be what we are looking for." As the men prepare the boats, they see something that scares the men. Coming through the inlet and into the lagoon are two black ships. Both ships are painted pure black. The masts, the sails, everything is black. The only other color is on the flag. In bright pink is a long staff with a thorny rose intertwined around it. The men all get scared and run into the jungle. As they run they yell out "It's the amazons. Hide!" The chief and the rest of the men hold their ground. They watch as the two ships come into the lagoon and head towards their ship. As the near it, they turn and fire a volley of cannons at the ship. Four cannons shoot off and the cannonballs fly towards the ship, tearing holes in the hull. The other ship comes around the other side and aims at the ship. While it gets in position, the first ship sails off. A second set of cannons go off and once again, cannonballs tear into the hull of the ship. This time, water starts pouring in the holes and the ship begins to sink. The ship then sails in front of the ship and stops to aim. This time, two cannons are fired and two more cannonballs tear into the ship. This causes the amount of water pouring in to increase and the ship sinks further into the lagoon. The men stand there stunned as watch their ship sink. The two ships then turn around and sail back out of the lagoon. The men just watch helplessly as their ship sinks into the water. Dominant Species © 2006 - 2007 Tom Zjaba |
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