IN NATURA: a science fiction novel (ARZAT SERIES Book 2) (31 page)

EPILOGUE

Alex nudged the sides of her horse with her new moccasins, gently coaxing it up a slight grade. There was no clear path. She and her four-footed companion were on unfamiliar ground that was rocky and coarse. Alex knew it and her horse seemed to sense it with every careful step it took.

  She had named him Plato, which seemed only fitting based on what she understood from Maria about the name of her own horse. Plato was gelded but still had the spirit of a stallion, and Alex had grown quite fond of him in the last six months or so that they had been traveling together. He was quite intuitive, totally reliable, and, she had realized early on, quite simply the finest horse she had ever ridden. She completely trusted him, which she knew—particularly regarding horses—was a mistake. She gave Plato a pat on the neck, resolved to be wary, and continued on. Soon they would be at the summit of a small hill. She was looking for something specific and was sure she was close.

  Woman’s intuition, Alex?

  Yes, Simon, she answered her father’s ghostly voice. But if you have any better ideas, I’d love to hear them.

  Her father’s comments came to her less and less these days, perhaps because as time had worn on since her rescue, there had been fewer and fewer moments of crisis.

  They had been moving southeast for several weeks and the season had passed from summer into fall during their journey. Tom had been insistent that they at least attempt to locate the Colorado ARC, which was located somewhere near what—in a different world—had been the town of Colorado Springs.

  “It is likely that the Colorado ARC has hermetic safes as well,” he told Alex. “In any case, it was worth checking.” Tom hoped they could somehow gain access though he couldn’t imagine that it could still be occupied after so many years. Surely, even if the ARC had long been deserted, they might find something of use. If not, they could move on to Kansas and try to find the ARC there.

  Personally, Alex would have done anything just for a real toothbrush, so she was almost as eager as Tom was to try to find the Colorado ARC. Attempting to brush her teeth with the broken end of a green piece of birch the way Maria had shown her just didn’t quite do it for her. More importantly, the paleontologist in her was curious to see if, as she suspected, Maria’s ancestors and the rest of the humans had originally emerged from one or more of the remaining ARCs—and if so, how and when.

  Maria had explained to her that it was in her tribe’s folklore that her people had been born from caves—and Alex wondered if that really meant
man-made
caves. Colorado would be their first opportunity to explore that possibility. Kansas, as far as she knew, would be their last.
Either way,
she thought,
we have plenty time to find out.

  So far, they had crossed several hundred miles and hadn’t seen one single sign of civilization of any kind. No other Arzats. No other humans. Not even any remaining evidence of the twenty-first century humans. If eight thousand years had passed since either one of the species had reemerged—Arzat or human—they were certainly taking their own sweet time about repopulating.

  Perhaps it had happened more recently for both of them.
Perhaps,
Alex thought, remembering the earthquake,
this new version of Mother Nature just continued to kick everyone’s ass.

  But the land was far from empty. It had otherwise been repopulated with every imaginable animal—some that had been native and some that were not. Deer and buffalo abounded. Once in a while, Mot detected the presence of large cats and a bear or two close by, but they fortunately had not had any direct encounters with those larger predators or any more with wolf packs. Each night, they built large fires, and the Arzats—who had self-proclaimed themselves to be far superior to the humans in the role—rotated as camp guards.

  Along the way, Tom and Mot had become a deadly team of hunters. Maria had shown them how to properly construct bows and how to fashion arrows. Mot had become such an expert in their use that he had practically forgotten about his killing stick. He sometimes actually left it in camp when he went to hunt. The female Arzats still joined Tom and Mot when the quarry was buffalo, but they left the hunting of smaller quarry to the males most of the time.

  In addition to showing Tom and Mot how to construct weapons, Maria had also shown the females how to do just about everything else in order to survive. She was an expert at foraging for food, the manufacture of clothing from hides, natural remedies. . . the list was long.

  At first, Alex had been almost overwhelmed by Maria’s prowess. But as time went by, she had become friends with the young woman and began to fully appreciate her extreme survival skills. Maria had become their guide in this new world—and god knew they needed one.

  Occasionally, they would happen upon a grove of apple trees or even plums, which Alex knew had to have originated from the humans who had lived in the area prior to the asteroid. When they were lucky enough to find them, the fruit somehow tasted far better than she could ever remember it tasting in her old life.

  So all of them were well fed, and, over the summer, Maria had also shown them how to tan the hides of deer and buffalo and how to make excellent clothing. The garments that had come with them from the ARC had been discarded long ago. Even Ara and Mot had eventually converted their precious reptilian loincloths to leather and the female Arzat Ma’ar had even surrendered hers for a newer version. Occasionally, Alex and Maria would attempt to interest the Arzats in more coverage, but it was still warm enough that the Arzats were quite content with just their loincloths. “Much easier to move about,” Mot had told them.

  Now,
Alex thought,
at least the human component of their group looked just about as Native American as . . . well . . . Native Americans.
She laughed out loud as she surveyed her interesting . . . tribe . . . no . . . clan . . . Maybe they weren’t a tribe yet, but perhaps they had become a clan—mixed race! She laughed again and Plato snorted. Never in her wildest dreams . . .

  As the season moved toward winter, Alex’s priority had shifted from reaching Colorado and looking for the ARC to simply finding long-term shelter. As a young girl, her father had taken her to some fantastic caves near the springs and Tom had assured her that they were in approximately the right spot to find one or the other, give or take twenty or thirty miles. All they needed now was a bit of luck. Whether the ARC or a nice, natural cave, Alex and the rest of the females would be happy either way.

  The baby that she carried in her belly stirred. Alex wasn’t sure how far along she was since she had lost all real track of time, but Maria had placed her hand on Alex and informed her that it would be soon and it would be a girl. Ara and Ma’ar had gotten in on the act and had confirmed the same.

  Eve, daughter of the Great Pilot Tom—that will be your full name for all of your life,
Alex thought. She smiled, and then she wondered for an uncomfortable moment what Tom’s last name had been in their previous lives, sure the name would come to her any moment. She shrugged, relieved when she finally remembered, though it no longer mattered.
Now,
she thought, looking down at her swollen belly,
all we have to do is find you an Adam.

  Alex turned her horse slightly and stopped so that she could look back down the hill. Maria was not far behind her with Ara, Mot, Ma’ar, and Tom trailing. Tom was leading the remaining train of horses.

  The Arzats, after much convincing, had eventually been persuaded to try riding. Now, all of them were more adept horsemen than any of the humans, including Maria—which was saying something. Alex smiled as she watched them, complete experts now on their mounts.

  Both Ara and Ma’ar carried slings similar to the one that held Maria’s son, loaded with their own precious cargo. Ara’s egg was on the verge of hatching any moment and was similarly slung over her shoulder. After considerable thought and discussion with Mot, Ara had already named her son Peter, though her baby Arzat hadn’t yet shown signs of emerging.

  Ma’ar’s egg had hatched a few weeks before, producing a female. She had named her Raz. The young Arzat had an insatiable appetite for meat and appeared to be quite healthy. Before she had hatched, Alex might have said that there was nothing cuter than a newborn puppy. Ma’ar’s baby had changed her opinion about that.

  Maria had named her baby Abraham in honor of her father, and, for the moment, the child was still content to feed mostly from Maria’s milk. The boy had Maria’s deep blue eyes, olive skin, and raven hair. He was cute, but in Alex’s opinion, not as cute as the infant Raz. She was careful to block that thought from everyone.

  Initially, there had been long discussions with Maria about trying to reunite her with her tribe. Each time, the conversation would inevitably fall back on the issue of the Arzats. Maria knew, and Tom and Alex didn’t need much convincing, that their scaly companions would never be welcome there. Besides, Maria had told them, as far as she was concerned, they could do better themselves. Her memory of starvation and death within the confines of the tribe still plagued her. Since her father and her mate were gone, there was nothing drawing her back.

  Maria’s only concern now was the health of her baby and the prospect of having more with Tom the Pilot. Alex hadn’t come around to that idea yet, but eventually she would. Maria was sure that it was only a matter of time before Alex would see the sense of it. Children, and lots of them, were the key to their future.

  Plato rounded a corner and hesitated. Alex saw something that looked like the entrance to a cave. She dismounted and walked toward it.
I cannot
believe
my luck,
she thought, unconsciously crossing her fingers as she examined the gaping hole in the side of the hill.

  “Alex, hang on just a minute,” Tom said, as he and the rest of the group caught up to her.

  “Tom, I think we might have actually found it,” Alex said, using only her mind. She began to move toward the opening. “If this is what I think it is, this will be the perfect place to winter, even if we don’t find the ARC.”

  “Wait up a second Alex, would ya?” Tom said aloud, using a method of communication that was now a rarity. Not only could he communicate with Alex and the Arzats telepathically, he could also communicate with Maria in the same way, as could Alex. Needless to say, he had also become an expert at blocking.

  “Mot, do you have some torches?” Alex asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Yes, Alex.”

  The big Arzat was soon beside her and in the process of using the precious flint and steel Tom had given him to create the spark for a small flame. In addition to torches, Mot was in the habit of carrying a leather satchel on his horse that also contained dried grass and small chips of wood for just such a purpose. Soon, he had one of the torches blazing. He lit two others and passed them to Alex and Tom.

  “Let me go first, Alex, daughter of Simon,” Mot cautioned her.

  Mot knew, as did the others, that there was no way to know what danger might be lurking inside. But if there was danger, he knew his human friend Alex was very good at finding it—and somehow placing him right in the middle of it! He looked at his bow for a moment, which was hanging from a makeshift leather saddle on the side of his horse, then slipped his killing stick from its scabbard instead. He gripped it in one hand and held his torch high in the other.

  Alex turned to her female companions Ara, Ma’ar, and Maria. They were still in the process of dismounting, and she could feel their apprehension. They already knew her too well.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll be right back,” she assured them.

  “Are you ready?” Mot looked back at Alex. She was smiling at him.

  “Come on Mot! Let’s get going. We need a place to live. I’m about to have a baby,” Alex said to him, laughing, using only the power of her mind.

  The big Arzat Hunter proceeded ahead of Alex—with Tom the Pilot in tow—into the dark depths of the cave. Alex, now almost nine months pregnant, slipped. Tom barely caught her before she tumbled.

  “Careful, Alex!”

  “You try walking with a belly like this without tripping, Thomas,” she replied, not really annoyed but grateful he had saved her from a fall.

  After they had traversed just a short tunnel and turned a corner, the cave opened up into a large cavern. Even in the dim light of the torches, Alex could see that the ceiling was quite high and the floor of most of the chamber was flat and useable. This would be the perfect place for them to winter.

  She glanced back up at the ceiling, trying to remember the outside topography and wondered what it would take for Mot and Tom to create some sort of vent for a fire.

  “Alex, come and take a look at this,” Tom said.

  Alex looked back down. Tom had crossed the chamber and was holding his torch near a section of the cave wall. Even at a distance, she immediately sensed that there was something unnatural about it.

  “Tom, can you hold my torch?”

  She walked over and looked more closely. The shape was oblong and looked like it could be the outline of a door, but there was a thin sheet of limestone covering it. Alex ran her fingers over its surface.