Jack did not sleep well. The sounds of the redwoods were alien to him in a way he couldn’t put into words. The same sounds of chittering animals and buzzing insects were there, just as they were at the Roaring Falls base but something was off. It took him a while to figure out that he missed the sound of the waterfall itself. The crashing water that had become background noise to his tribe had become a comfort against the harsh wilds of Kittis. He wasn’t sure if it was the aching of his wounds, the unfamiliar people he was with, or the towering woods around him that made him feel particularly ill at ease. He slept against Tilly, and her warm purring helped him stay calm throughout the night as he was awoken many times by one creature or another’s shill cries. Something made a sound that almost sounded like a person at one point. A scream that caused him, Soren, and half the guards to shoot to their feet with weapons raised.

  “What was that?” Soren asked, rubbing his eyes and fighting back a yawn. Jack had grabbed his club and taken a step towards the noise, but one of the guards stopped him.

  “Don’t. We aren't sure what it is, but there is some type of predator out that can somewhat mimic a human voice. It tries to lure people away from the fire before it strikes.” The man said, keeping his spear up and aimed at the darkness. Fireflies danced around them, but didn’t provide enough light to see clearly. Jack watched the woods, his heart racing. Tilly hadn’t even woken up, but some of his anxiety must have bled through their bond and she started to stir.

  For some reason he started counting the fireflies. They danced around in hypnotic patterns that were both beautiful and calming. He started to calm, until he noticed two of the fireflies that were not moving. They both vanished at the same time, then reappeared in the same spots. He watched them for a moment, and slowly raised his bracelet. The fireflies vanished again, and this time when their golden glow reappeared he realized that they were not fireflies. Two eyes glinting in the firelight stared at him.

  “Identify” He whispered.

  “It's some sort of marsupial-lion-leopard thing. It’s up there, on the side of the tree.” Jack said, pointing the creature out to the guards. They tried to follow his finger, but the night was too dark and once all the attention was on it the creature moved away.

  “What’s it called?” Butch asked as he stepped out of the fallen log that was their home. He held his club, but looked half awake. Jack stepped over to him and showed him the identification screen. He blinked and slowly read it.

  “Hmmm. I think our healer said something about these things. Said they lived in redwoods in his games and were dangerous. No one really took him seriously.” Butch said, then looked to the guards. “You lot can go to sleep. Next shift might as well start now. The others will be out here in a minute to relieve you.”

  He and Jack returned to the fire and started to build it up again. Jack sat, keeping one eye on the darkness around them. He could tell Butch was doing the same thing. They were quiet for a while, the guards changed shifts, and Soren fell back asleep. Jack remembered he had stayed up late the night before to let him rest after being injured. He needed the rest. Beth and Shelby had gone inside to sleep near Aster and Izzy. Jack didn’t see Clara, and assumed she had done the same thing.

  Time passed as they sat by the fire. Neither man said much to start as they both woke up. Eventually some of the guards started up conversations, and Jack and Butch started to chat.

  “So. What's it like in the river valley?” Butch asked.

  “Well, it's both louder and quieter. We live in a cave behind a waterfall. Its a beautiful place, but it drowns out a lot of the noise of the woods.” Jack answered and Butch nodded.

  “I guess that makes sense for the Roaring Falls Tribe.” He said. “We explored the river some, but we kept running into giant crocodiles laying in ambush. Didn’t want to risk hunting too close to the water.”

  “If you head upriver some the valley widens out. There is woodland beside the river full of herbivores. It’s been good for hunting so far. We had to drive a croc off, but the creek that flows from the waterfall isn't big enough for them to swim up, so we haven’t had any issues at camp.” Jack explained.

  “You think you will try and tame one?” Butch questioned, a small smile on his face. “They would be terrifying to deal with.”

  “Maybe. They don’t do great outside the water, and we wouldn’t really be able to keep it near the tribe. It would have to live at the river, and who knows if it would survive long there. Maybe it would just act like a normal croc when we aren’t around, but who knows. It would suck to go through all the trouble to trap and tame one, only for it to die as soon as we aren't watching it.” Jack said.

  “We should probably test that at some point. I wonder if we could make a tracker or something that lets our tamed dinos appear on the map. That way we could leave them out to graze or wander or whatever, and still find them when needed.” Butch said. Jack half expected the Alien bird women to show up and give him the ability to do just that, but nothing happened.

  “That would be nice. Might be necessary eventually. A lot of the encyclopedia entries mention migratory instincts and such, so I suspect some of the tames will be prone to wandering off.” Jack said. They were quiet for a few minutes as they looked out into the night. Despite the creepy Thylacoleo and giant bugs, his mind was stuck on the knife handed Therizenosaurus they had seen.

  “Have you considered going after one of those big turkeys with the knife hands?” He asked. Butch chuckled in response.

  “No. We watched one fight off a young T-Rex and decided to keep our distance. It could kill us with a careless swipe of those claws. I suspect we will try and figure out a way to trap one eventually. They would be great for the fight ahead of us.” Butch said.

  Jack held back the urge to whistle, knowing that the majority of the tribe was still asleep around them. But he smiled.

  “I don’t think I want to see what one of those things could do in a real fight.” He said, pushing away the thoughts of men hanging from those claws.

  Butch took a turn looking into the darkness while one of the other guards moved to take his place at the fire. Jack tried to sleep some more, but only managed a few minutes here and there. Eventually, the sun started to rise and the fireflies fled back into the bushes. Dawn in the redwoods was beautiful. Golden light trickled through the tall trees, their leaves tinting the light and creating an intricate pattern of green and orange interspersed by golden sun beams that managed to peek through the canopy. The wind blew, causing the leaves to shift and the patterns of light to dance.

  It didn’t take long for the Wild Bunch to wake up. Groups of men and women gathered up and shared a small pile of berries for breakfast. They had taken large strips of bark to use as plates and bowls, but didn’t have a lot of food to go around. A group of eight women grabbed their makeshift bowls and headed out into the woods to gather more food. Three men with spears followed them while Butch and his hunters also prepared to leave.

  “Hey Jack, could we have one of those baskets? I would love to use one to bring home some meat in.” Butch asked. Jack gave it some thought, but decided it was worth it. He nodded and led the man over to Thrasher. Clara and Soren had removed the baskets from him so he could lay down and sleep comfortably.

  Macy followed Butch over to take a look at the large basket. They had already seen that they were large and sturdy enough to carry a small woman in them, but they hadn’t seen the small amount of coiled thread at the bottom of the baskets. Jack grabbed one and handed it to Butch, who put it down to look inside. Macy peered over the edge, then fished out the twine.

  “Wow. This could be super useful.” She said.

  “Yeah. With this we could carry home way more meat.” Butch said as he tested the side of the basket. Macy elbowed him in the side.

  “No you dork, the thread. We need this stuff. We could make stone tools, fishing line, sutures, and clothing with it.” She said, pulling all the thread out of the basket and coiling it around her shoulder like a hose.

  “One of the reasons we came here was to establish trade. I already told Cassady about our discoveries with the alien artifact, and our knowledge on the other aggressive tribes, but we also want to trade resources. We have plenty of the types of plants needed to make more of this twine, and are happy to trade it to you.” He said.

  “I’m going to go show this to Andria.” Macy said, running off. Butch watched after her, not bothering to stop her from running off. He looked back to Jack and the baskets.

  “Andria will probably love the thread. But I’m afraid we don’t have a ton to trade with right now.” Butch said.

  Jack wasn’t concerned, and shrugged. He was curious though.

  “Who’s Andria?” He asked.

  “Macy’s sister. She was a fashion designer of some sort back on earth. She has been trying to make something similar to your thread out of the plants here, but has only managed to find the ancestors of poison ivy. Most of the plants around here aren’t good for it apparently.” Butch said, and Jack followed him over to their stegosaurus.

  Together they attached the basket between its large bony plates on its back. The Stego, who Jack learned was named Lego, didn’t seem to mind his presence now, but didn’t like Jack touching him. So Jack just handed some of the straps to Butch and let him tie them off. Jack took a moment to look around the now lit interior of the fallen tree they lived in. It had clearly been there a long time, as its interior had rotted away and a layer of dirt had filled in the floor. The Wild Bunch had seemingly removed most of the rotted wood from the inside of the tree, and Jack could see a large pile of it outside the log. This gave them more space, and cut down on the smell. There were large strips of bark that had been turned into basic privacy screens along one side of the tree’s interior, as well as the back wall. It reminded him of an army camp from the movies, but with massive tree bark instead of tents.

  Macy pulled aside one of the privacy screens, and started walking towards Jack. Following her was an extremely beautiful woman. She was tall with brown hair and her skin was tanned and slightly dirty, which made her stand out as very clean when compared to himself or the other members of the Wild Bunch he had seen so far. She was around six feet tall, and wore short shorts and a black sweatshirt that had the name of some bar on it. Jack was very happy that Soren and Clara were elsewhere, or they both would have given him endless amount of shit for the way his brain turned off upon seeing her. He managed to regain his composure before they reached him.

  “Andria, this is Jack, the warrior I told you about from the waterfall tribe. Jack, this is my sister Andria, our seamstress.” Macy said with a coy grin on her lips. Andria had a faint pink glow to her cheeks as Jack offered his hand.

  “Nice to meet you.” He said, and she took his hand for a polite handshake. He noticed how soft her fingers were.

  “Likewise.” She said. Her voice sounded almost musical to his ears, slightly higher pitched than he had expected.

  “Macy showed me the thread you made. Do you have more of it? She said something about trade.” She continued.

  “Well, we actually had to dump most of it to fit the injured women. But our crafting team was able to make about two baskets full in a day. If you want more of it we can definitely work out a deal for trade. Now that we know where you guys are we can probably make the trip between us in around two days. So you could get a shipment weekly, assuming our crafting team has the time to work on it.” He said. Slipping into business and logistics mode seemed to help him keep his focus. Though he still felt his eyes drifting to take in Andria’s body. He made an effort to look into her eyes and keep his own face in a neutral smile.

  She had a big smile on her lips and looked like she was nearly ready to start jumping up and down.

  “That's wonderful. Have your people tried making clothing out of it?” She asked. Jack knew nothing about clothing or fashion, so he quickly decided to send her to the one person with his group who might.

  “Well, because the area we are in is so hot, most of the men go without shirts. We stored most of the clothes we arrived with in case things get colder. You should talk to Clara though, one of our tribe mates started stitching large leaves together to make simple skirts and wraps. She is wearing them now.” He said.

  Andria started to look around for Clara, and Butch pointed her towards one of the closed rooms. She said something resembling a thank you and then ran off. Jack felt stupid, immediately regretting not offering to sit with her and talk more. He was still staring after her when Macy elbowed him in the side and he jerked back to reality. Both Macy and Butch were chuckling.

  “Yeah. I think this one is smitten.” Butch said, and Jack felt his cheeks warm.

  “Don’t worry. She was the same way when I described you to her.” Macy said with a shit eating grin.

  Jack forced a cough and covered his face. He took a breath to compose himself, then turned to move back to the fire. Tilly was awake, but hadn’t moved from her sleeping spot.

  “Moving on.” Jack said, not bothering to deny their words. “Do you need to lead the hunting team Butch?”

  The man nodded and walked past the fire, Macy followed him.

  “Yeah. We are going to try our luck again. The medium sized herbivores like to gather along the streams in the mornings to drink. Sometimes the younger ones can be brought down. But today we are going to go after the turkeys. See if Macy’s new bow can get the job done.” He said.

  “Turkey?” Jack asked.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Archaeopteryx.” Macy said. “But they look sort of like turkeys, only they are better flyers and have sharper claws. So we call them turkeys. They aren’t dangerous on their own, but a flock of them can be nasty.” She said, showing Jack one of her arrows. It was a sharpened stick that had been carved down. They had nice brown feathers embedded in the shaft. She put the arrow away before he could get a better look, but he was impressed. He had no idea how to attach a feather to an arrow without twine, and didn’t even know if that would work.

  “I see. Good luck hunting then. We may be gone when you return. Our plan is to keep searching for a doctor. I need to talk to Cassady about any other tribes you guys have met and try to make it to another one before nightfall.” Jack said, moving to shake hands with Butch. The big man took his hand again.

  “Best of luck to you then. I’m sure Cass will tell you the same, but the leader of the lake tribe is a doctor of some sort. His name is Austin Findley. I’m not sure what sort of doctor he is, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up about convincing him to come back to your tribe with you. They are all stubborn fishermen, and have had plenty of their own injuries to deal with.” Butch said.

  Macy poked her head into their conversation again, and Jack moved his arms to guard his sides. She smiled.

  “You said your friend was bitten by one of the giant centipedes right?” She asked, and Jack nodded.

  “Yeah, something called an Arthropleura.” He said. “Its blood is acidic, and it's venomous. Hard shell, overall nasty creature.”

  “We have seen some in the woods. They are usually scavengers. We have a guy who used to be a chemist. He is trying to figure out how to make medicine and stuff out of the local herbs and plants and stuff. If we kill one of the big centipedes, he might be able to make an anti-venom.” Macy said.

  Jack’s eyebrows raised. He wanted to rush out then and there to find another stupid centipede and bring it back right now. Any chance to save Gordon would be worth it. He had no idea how antivenoms worked, but he knew they saved lives back on earth, even from the most deadly snakes.

  “You think he could do it?” Jack asked, a twinge of hope and desperation mixed into his voice.

  “Hold on. Don’t go promising things yet.” Butch said, putting his hand on Macy’s head. “We have no idea if Nathan knows how to make something like that, or if it would even work. I seem to remember those sorts of things requiring refrigeration and a centrifuge. Neither of which we have.”

  Macy and Jack both looked at him with strange expressions.

  “How do you know how to make anti-venom?” Macy asked in an accusatory tone.

  “I used to watch a lot of animal planet.” Butch said defensively.

  Macy opened her mouth to say something snappy, but one of the other hunters stepped into the conversation.

  “Um. Butch, we need to go if we are going to catch anything by the streams.” He said.

  “You’re right.” Butch said, turning to Jack. “We will do our best to catch one of those things and let Nathan play with its venom. I won’t promise a miracle, but we will try. Stop back here on your way home.”

  Jack nodded, and after saying another round of goodbyes and good luck, the hunter team left. The gathering team had yet to return, and Jack realized that there couldn’t be more than thirty members of the Wild Bunch. They were much smaller than his own tribe. For a moment he considered offering them a place with the Roaring Falls, but he stopped himself. They were carving out a place for themselves here and Jack technically didn’t have the authority to negotiate such a thing. That would be a decision for Marcus once he and Cassady could meet in person.

  Soren didn’t take long to wake up after the sunlight hit him. He sat and rubbed his eyes, then stared at the beautiful scene that Jack had been enjoying for a few minutes. He eventually got up and joined Jack by the fire.

  “Morning.” He said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

  “Morning.” Jack said, passing him some of the clean water he had been given. Soren took it and drank deeply.

  “Thanks.” He said, passing it back after he had his fill. “What’s the plan for today?”

  “Well. I need to talk with Cassady again, and then I was thinking we should try and find the lake tribe they mentioned. Butch told me their leader is a doctor of some kind.” Jack said.

  “How are the women?” Soren asked.

  “Not sure. Clara slept in there with them, and I’ve been waiting for her to come out to ask.”

  The two of them sat in silence for a minute, enjoying the fire. Jack tossed another log into it as the flames got low. Jack realized that he had come to trust Soren, thought of him as a close friend, but didn’t actually know him that well. They had mostly discussed how to craft, find food, and survive. A few times they had discussed their old lives, but Jack realized he didn’t know that much about his friend.

  “Do you have family in storage?” Jack asked. Soren blinked, clearly not expecting the question. He smiled faintly and looked into the fire.

  “No. I have been on my own for a while. My dad died when I was little, mom worked herself to the bone. Only child, no grandparents, no cousins or aunts and uncles. She was in her early fifties, and the aliens said they only took people under forty.” Soren explained, his voice sad. He looked to Jack. “You?”

  Jack shook his head.

  “Both my parents were in their late forties. I have a cousin, but she is a few years older than me and we weren't close. I honestly haven’t really thought about her since this all started.” He said.

  “Well, that's one thing about this world. There is never a dull moment. I don’t feel like anyone has had a real chance to grieve. It's been what? Two weeks now?” Soren said, the sadness leaving his voice.

  Jack tried to think back, but the days and nights had started to blend together.

  “Yeah, something like that. Feels like it's been a lot longer.”

  Cassady stepped up to join them by the fire. She was dressed the same as last night, her pistol still on her hip, but she had a much happier expression on her face. Her eyes were brighter, and she looked well rested. She sat beside Jack and offered him a fruit with a waxy skin that reminded him of an apple.

  “Today is day ten, at least for us. Who knows if the aliens actually released us at the same time.” She said.

  “Good morning.” Both Soren and Jack said at the same time.

  “Morning.” She said with a smile. “I overheard you were planning on going to meet the Lake Tribe.”

  Jack nodded and took a bite of the apple like fruit. It tasted bitter, but not bad. He had to spit out some of the large seeds and made sure to keep them. Maybe they could grow some back home.

  “Butch mentioned that their leader is a doctor. We need to find one if we have any hope of saving some of our people. One girl was badly mauled by a sabertooth, our leader has a broken arm, and our second in command was bitten by an Arthropleura. We need advice or help to save him.” Jack said.

  Cassady nodded and took a bite of her own weird alien apple.

  “I planned to tell you about him. But I don’t think you will be able to convince him to help you. Leaving his tribe would put them at risk and they are a very stubborn lot.” She said.

  “What can you tell us about them?” Soren asked. Cassady looked him over for a second, her face hard to read, but she answered him.

  “They are from Florida. Half of them are older fishermen, the other half belonged to some hedge fund in Miami. They ran into some issues where a handful of people didn’t speak English, and it was causing friction when they couldn’t communicate during life and death fights. They call themselves Tribe Deep Water, and live on the side of the lake that feeds the smaller river you crossed. Apparently one or two of the fishermen appeared with some of their gear on them, and it let them make an easy living by the waters edge. But they were having problems, and were losing a person or two each day due to predators.” She explained.

  “Any idea what they are losing them to?” Jack asked. He noticed Shelby, Clara, and Beth leaving the room they had slept in to come join them.

  “They had some trouble with some of the lake predators, but their main losses were with something in the jungle. It started stalking them on their second or third night, and used ambush tactics to pick them off when they went gathering.” Cassady said.

  The other women, looking better rested, joined the group by the fire. Everyone exchanged a quick good morning.

  “Well, even if the doctor won’t come home with us, we should still meet with him and discuss trade and an alliance.” Jack said.

  Shelby spoke up at that point.

  “Beth and I wanted to talk to you both about that.” She said, gesturing to both Jack and Cassady. “Thank you very much for helping us. We wouldn’t have lasted long on our own, and without your kindness Aster and Izzy wouldn't have lived through the night. They need another few days to recover, but from what we can tell they will be ok.”

  She took a breath, and addressed Jack.

  “I was a vet back on earth. I have passable medical skills, and I’m good with animals. I want to join the Roaring Falls tribe and do what I can to help heal your friends. That being said, my experience with venom is to call animal control or the hospital. So I would like to go with you to meet this doctor, and ask him to teach me what he can while we are there.”

  Jack smiled. He had assumed that Shelby and Beth would join his tribe, and he was more than happy to have them. He wasn’t sure what the other women would want. They had barely been conscious enough to understand what was happening when they had met. He was just happy they had survived. Traveling in Thrasher’s baskets could not have been comfortable, but it was better than being carried while they fought off the Dilophosaurus. He suspected they would want to stay with the Wild Bunch once they woke up.

  “If it's alright with you Cassady, I would like to stay here until Jack and others return. I want to stay with Aster and Izzy, and I can help out with the gathering or crafting teams. I promise I can make myself useful.” Beth said, addressing Cassady.

  The shorter women assessed Beth, then nodded.

  “That’s alright with me. I don’t have the heart to turn you and your friends away, but I will expect all of you to work once they are better. We don’t have enough food to go around as is, and still have a lot to learn about the wilds here.” Cassady said. “It helps that even if you leave you will be joining a tribe that has shown to be honorable and willing to work together.”

  She turned to look at Jack.

  “Speaking of which, we should discuss the terms of our alliance.”

  He nodded.

  “The main things we want are trade for our twine, we can also make baskets and simple stone tools for now. Butch took one of the baskets we brought hunting for the day. We don’t have anything in particular that we want for our goods, but as you discover useful things around you that you think will come in handy we will happily trade for them. Be it hardwood or specially made bowls, anything and everything could be helpful.” He explained, trying to remember everything Marcus and Jade had told him.

  “Other than that, we want to remain peaceful when the drops start. Either we have a rotation where we take turns claiming them, or we split each one based on what we need. We have no idea what they will be, how often they will appear, or what tricks the aliens will play. The only other thing my tribe leader wanted to make sure we have down, is an information exchange. We have already shared everything we know about the aliens, the artifacts, and the drops, but going forward we also want to exchange information about how to make certain tools, the different uses we have for dinosaur tames, and anything else that could benefit both tribes.”

  Cassady was nodding along. Clara also gave Jack a nod, which helped him feel better about not forgetting anything.

  “I can agree to that. Right now I am ashamed to say we don’t have as much to offer. However, we do have some unique fruits, and we have some skilled people. I’m sure Butch told you our chemist Nathan is trying to remake some types of medicine from earth, and Andria is already going crazy with your twine. She wants to make more proper clothing out of it with some of the materials we have around here. If you figure out how to make leather we can probably turn it into some real clothing or armor. Other than that, we haven't figured out much. Most of our time is spent just trying to survive here. I suspect we won’t be able to do much until we have more tames and a proper wall or gate.” She said. Jack noticed that she talked with her hands a lot, gesturing to each of the privacy screens as she spoke of her tribe mates, and to the outside as she discussed the forest.

  Jack nodded, these were easy things to agree to. Medicine and proper clothing would be incredibly valuable to trade, even if it took some time to come back to them.

  “Those would both be worthwhile to trade. Can we bring some of the fruits home with us on our way back?” Jack asked.

  Cassady thought for a moment and nodded.

  “How many people do you have?” She asked.

  “Around seventy people.” He said.

  Cassady looked surprised, and frowned slightly.

  “Well, I can get you a dozen to bring back. More than that and we will be cutting into our own food supply, unless Butch brings back a kill.” She said.

  “That is plenty. And we can come back with more twine afterwards to trade for clothing.” Jack said.

  “Let’s discuss the numbers once Andria has been able to make a few prototypes.” She said.

  “That makes sense. We do have someone who is going to try and figure out how to make leather. So if things go well we could probably provide some for use in clothing as well.” Jack was feeling good about this deal. He was happy that they were so willing to help.

  “How far is it to the Lake Tribe?” Clara asked.

  “It’s most of the day's hike. Maybe a bit faster with your Parasaur. You should head out soon if you want to avoid the night. Just head back to the smaller river and follow it upstream. It's shallow enough that there usually aren't giant crocodiles. Though we have seen normal sized ones so you still need to be careful.” Cassady said. “Once you get to the lake, keep to the east and follow the shoreline until you find them.”

  They all nodded.

  “Thank you for your generosity.” Jack said, standing. He wanted to get on the move, but Before he could offer his hand to Cassady again, Shelby stopped him.

  “Hold on. Before we leave I need to fix your stitches. Sit down.” She said in an authoritative tone that booked no argument. Jack sat down and gave his right arm to Shelby.

  “Do you mind if I get Nathan to come out here and watch? I want him to have as much medical training as possible, even if it's just second hand like this.” Cassady asked.

  Soren handed her the needle and thread they had kept for this purpose, and Shelby started cleaning the needle in the fire. “No problem.”

  Jack decided he didn’t need to see this again. He focused on the fire and tuned out the conversation around him. He felt Shelby take his arm and start removing some of the broken stitches. It hurt, but he could grit his teeth and push past the pain. Someone brought her a bowl of clean water, and she used it to clean the dirt away from his wounds, as well as her hands.

  Jack focused on his surroundings and ignored the discomfort. He ignored the deep red gashes in his arms, and the itching pain as part of his scabs were removed so they could heal properly. He saw the man named Nathan leave the medical room they had set up. He was a bit overweight and dressed in baggy sweatpants. He had long black hair and a very patchy beard. He didn’t look strong, and didn’t carry any sort of weapons, but his blue eyes sparkled with curiosity. That look turned to concern when he saw Jack and Soren, and turned to fear when he saw Tilly. It was enough to make Jack chuckle and temporarily forget the pain he was about to experience.

  Soren gave Jack a piece of hard wood to bite down on. He hadn't needed it when Shelby had stitched up his chest, but that wound hadn't been nearly as bad. He could tell that the cuts in his arms were worse than he first thought. He had been ignoring a lot of the pain over the past day with adrenaline and grit, but he would need to let them heal or he would risk permanent injury.

  He bit down on the stick, and Shelby started to work. It hurt a lot. His wounds stung and he held back tears from the pain. He didn’t pass out though, and it wasn’t as bad as Soren’s attempt to patch him up. He wasn’t sure how long it took, but when the pain stopped Tilly had put her head in his lap and was looking at him with concern. Soren was holding him up with an arm around his back, and Clara was gently petting Tilly to help keep her calm. Shelby had a bead of sweat on her forehead as she finished her work, and started to bandage his arms again. She had to use leaves this time, but they were probably cleaner than his shirt had been.

  He dropped the stick and took some deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Shelby put one of the water bottles in his hand, and he slowly drank.

  “Thanks.” He said.

  “Those should hold better, but honestly you should avoid using your hands until that heals up.” She said.

  “I don’t know if that is in the cards. We still have at least two days of travel before we can get home, at a minimum. Probably three to four.” Soren said.

  “Well, we just need to stop getting injured.” Jack said.

  “Armor would help.” Clara said, helping Jack stand.

  “It’s on the list.” Jack said, petting Tilly behind the ears. “I had planned on making something out of the Arthropleura shells, but we had to leave before I could.”

  Cassady stood, drawing their attention.

  “You should all get going if you want to make it to the lake tribe by nightfall.” She said.

  Jack moved to shake her hand, but winced in pain. Cassady chuckled and gave him a pat on the shoulder.

  “It’s been nice meeting you lot. And it's good to know we have some people out there who are willing to talk first and fight later.” She said. Jack nodded, still a bit weary from the pain.

  “Thank you for looking after the girls.” He said, nodding to her.

  Jack, Soren, Clara, Shelby, Tilly, and Thrasher said their goodbyes to the other members of the Wild Bunch, and after refilling their water, stepped back into the Redwoods.