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Stories from the Verse
Con Verse Lea
Chapter 35: Takano 68
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Beam 134
Tommy had told herself not to be nervous. After all, it was supposed to be a two-minute walk, and she didn’t have a watch. And Lauren wouldn’t know when she’d arrived, because Tommy had the map. And because she was being careful, she would probably walk slowly; and she would have to look around when she got there. So how long had it been? And how would she know when it was too long?
Of course, she could still feel Lauren out there, but pretty much straight ahead. Maybe the vector wobbled a bit, left, right, up, down, but it was very slight, slight enough that she could have been imagining it.
Then she heard her voice.
“Tommy?” Lauren called. “This looks good. We’ve got space to camp, clean water, and I’ve gotten us a bit of food, although it will require some work.”
By now the woman had emerged from the cover of the trees and was approaching her wagon. “I hope I can manage this on this very worn road,” she said, “but I think I’ve done worse. Everyone!” she shouted, “Follow me!”
The road was worse than Tommy had anticipated, but Lauren seemed to be managing it. Tommy was reminded that she had spent decades exercising, and was remarkably strong. Soon they reached a more open area which, Tommy decided, must once have been a campground. Lauren dragged her cart forward until they reached something large on the ground.
It was a fallen deer, one of Lauren’s arrows still in its breast.
“You killed this?”
Lauren only nodded, then she called, “Leaders? Conference.”
In a moment her three group leaders and three team leaders had gathered.
“I expect this will take a lot more work than the turkeys,” she said, “but it’s going to be the same kind of work. Also, it’s time to start teaching everyone else. Pretty much everything I’ve taught you so far has to be taught to all those people out there, or you’re going to find yourselves taxed with more work than you can manage. So today each of you is going to choose two or three students. Group leaders, you’re going to work on that large fire pit over there, and show them what you’ve learned about building a safe fireplace. Team leaders, you’ll teach your people how to recognize and collect firewood so we can build a fire. Then we’ll teach them all how to do that, and we’ll clean and cook this buck and hopefully feed everyone from it. Questions?”
There were none.
“Oh, and while you’re scouting, take note of everything you find, and tell me about it when you return. One more thing,” she said as she started walking toward a strange pipe protruding from the ground. “If you see any of these, make note of them. This,” she said, opening the valve to let water flow out of it, “is our water supply.”
And with that, she dismissed them.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #465: Characters Wander. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
