CHAPTER 9
After their brunch, the three came up with ideas and planned what they were to do. The result of this was them making containers out of tree bark and a travois. Through trial and error the three boys finally came up with respectable containers that could be used as back packs. They stitched up things together with the fiber stripped off from under the bark and wet them to make it easier to bend.
The plan was to follow the stream down its path so that they would have a water supply and that if there were any people, they would most likely live near a source of water.
The sun was starting to set again so they stoked up the fire and finished up making equipment. They had fashioned wooden spears to protect themselves with. The two animals they have encountered already made them wary of their surroundings.
Jimmy started serving out dried out meat for himself and Leonard and then berries to all three of them, giving the larger portion to Spock to make up for the lack in meat.
"So, y'already the rations officer, are ya?" Leonard said to Jimmy around a mouthful of berries.
"Guess so," replied Jimmy as he studied his piece of meat, wishing fervently for some salt.
The camp was blanketed in silence yet again, save for the crackle of the campfire and the sounds of nature.
Spock felt the uncomfortable undercurrents of emotion from the other two boys. It spoke of silent longing. What was it?
Jimmy was thinking back a couple days when this whole crazy thing happened. 'If I only let Sam help me, or better yet, if I only let that pole go. I wouldn't be away from my family and home,' Jimmy thought as he stared forlornly at the piece of dried meat in his hands. 'And I would also have salt.'
Leonard was also thinking along the same lines except with a certain blue-eyed girl in mind.
Spock noticed that the humans seemed to be drowsy, perhaps a side effect of full stomachs, and told them, "I will watch our surroundings while both of you sleep."
Leonard wasn't about to have any of that and retorted, "Like I'm gonna trust you to stay awake when you're probably tired with your injury and all."
"Vulcans have much more stamina than a mere human."
"I'll show you what a 'mere human' can do!" Leonard grumbled as he pushed up a sleeve in a half-threatening gesture.
"Guys, guys! We can just take turns! Right Spock? You didn't mean that you'd stay up all night right?" asked Jimmy in such a way that it left no room for argument if Spock had been the type to argue. Luckily for Jimmy, Spock would not lower himself to such a petty practice over guarding the small group.
"Yes," Spock conceded.
"There, that's all settled," Jimmy said happily.
"Yah, so I'll be next after Spock. If you don't wake me up for my turn tonight there'll be hell to pay in the morning," McCoy said, glaring at the Vulcan boy with icy eyes not meant to intimidate seriously, more for show.
Spock gave him a nod and settled back into a meditative state, relaxing each muscle in his body one at a time, using the flames of the fire as a focus point.
"So you'll be waking me up after you're done, right?" asked the youngest boy to Leonard.
"Sure, we're taking turns right? So you'll get your turn. We better turn in now if we want to get our sleep," the Georgian drawled, now tired that he had used energy bantering with the Vulcan. The boys stretched out on the piles of leaves they had collected for the use as bedding since they didn't have much else to do in the spare time they had left after crafting various containers.
'Too bad we can't bring the leaves with us,' Jimmy absently thought as he drifted into sleep.
Author's Notes: It's been about 16 months since I last updated this story. I apologize to all of those who liked this story and especially to those who had left reviews saying they liked it and wanted more. I've been concentrating on my anime fanfic called "For Want of a Nail" (a continuation fic for Escaflowne) since I got pulled into the craze.
I lost some interest in Star Trek, I still have over fifty novels that I pick from to read from time to time, but I'm now geared more towards anime. I just finished this new chapter a few days ago when I had nothing else to do. I hope my floundering interest in Star Trek didn't show through in this chapter other than how late this came out. I'm updating out of guilt and need to do something. I hope to finish this story one day and revive my interest because I had several ideas for more Star Trek Original stories.