The Watering Hole

"Morning Camp Cretaceous." I yawn as I hop of the top bunk. The thud from the landing wakes up Yaz who was below me. "Do you have to do that?" She questions as I dress for the day. "Of course I have too. I would have gone insane if I didn't have a moment of humour to keep up morale. and don't forget, insanity is the number 1 cause of death in stranded survivors." I say as I put my shirt over my head. "Is it really?" She says worried. I laugh at that. "No Yaz it's mostly starvation and/or dehydration. Insanity happens rarely if at all." She shakes her head, smiling at my antics. I clip the kevlar in place as Yaz hands me my axe. "It almost suits you." I say jokingly. In all honestly, she looks hot, holding the axe. She smiles again as I take the deadly weapon, holestering it at my side.

This has become a recurring theme over the past two weeks. The treehouse, was finished in about 6 days. A running shower was built but only had cold water. Me and Yaz turned out, were the early birds of the group. A makeshift track was built not far into the courtyard, we had built it to keep our strength from waning. After Yaz's ankle had probably healed, she was ready to help out with anything and everything. She even suggested since we were the early birds to train together, helping each other improve. Out of the two of us, we were equal in athletic ability. Yaz was the superior runner. I had stamina that could last a full day. One day, Yaz had discovered that I was a martial artist. My mother would not take no for an answer and took me to be trained in karate, muay thai, and judo. My father had taught me his own style of environmental combat. Using any tools, weaponry or random pieces laying around as makeshift weapons. That was most fun. Yaz had almost begged me to teach her. I couldn't say no for too long. So for a week and a bit. She taught me running techniques while I taught her combat. She was a quick learner but still didn't know when to quit. She's determined though.

We start the day at dawn, do a 10 minute warm up and run and I mean run for an hour. After that, we train in martial arts. Now I would not consider myself an expert in any of the arts that I'm trained in but I do know basics and some dangerous advanced techniques. Today, is judo, one of my favourite martial arts. "Now judo is rarely ever used for offensive. Judo is an art that focuses on you using throws, grapples and holds to incapacitate your opponent. Everything judo is about is in the hips, heart, lungs and brain." I say as she takes in everything. "Why the heart?" She questions. "Judo is primarily a breathing martial art but does require a strong mental fortitude to control it. The heart serves a focal point between the brain and the lungs. Controlling your breathing and emotions will lessen the extent use of energy as well as controlling your heartbeat, less the heart pumps without being fatal of course, the more energy you have to consume. All this together can make you last longer, stamina wise, than your opponent." She nods in understanding.

We begin with some basic drills. The arm drag is one of the most basic moves in judo, using your opponents momentum to flip them over your hip to slam into the ground. Typically the technique is used after your opponent throws a punch, so then after, you have control of the arm. Yaz goes to punch me but I grab her arm with my left hand and throw it over my shoulder while I lift me hips to throw her off her feet and onto the padded ground. Luckily some of the gym survived. "Ow." I smile at her pain. "You wanted this remember?" I say as I kneel beside her head. "You could've gone easy on me." I shake my head at that. "That would be an insult to you and you can't learn martial arts by doing everything halfway, you go all out or you lose. Simple as that." I smile down at her. She looks up and laughs.

Soon enough everyone is up, par Brooklynn who insists of getting more sleep. Darius is studying a curled up group of sleeping compys, until Kenji runs over scaring them away. That was unnecessary. I'm sharping my axe with a whetstone as Darius and Kenji climb the ladder up to the top. Kenji decides to take a shower. "Yagh, why is it always cold?" He whines. At least we have a shower mate. Sammy is trying to open a fruit can with a spoon of all things. I take out my knife and pass it to her. "Thanks Ryan." "Your welcome." Yaz then walks down the crates to the chalkboard. Her ankle is not 100% but she is able to walk without any assistance. She marks the chalkboard. "Another one gone." A tally is kept of how many days we have been on the island. It's pushing to 16. All of a sudden, a large, empty water container is thrown from the shower. "No mas agua. Little help?" Kenji says from the shower. Great, he has drained another one. "I got you, Kenji." Darius says as he picks up the container. "If you keep doing that for him, he won't be able to do it for himself." Yaz says playfully to Darius who smiles as he slides down our slide. "He'll learn eventually." I say.

"Uh, guys!" Darius shouts out from the river. We all run down to see what the issue is. And it's a big one, the river has dried up. "Where did all the water go?" Sammy says as Brooklynn hops into the ravine. "The water was here last night so it didn't just vanish." I say as Yaz points to Kenji. "Why don't we ask Mr. 45-minute-shower over here?" Kenji looks offended at what Yaz said. "Hey, looking this good isn't easy, and there is no way I drained the river." I look to the direction that the water would usually come from. "We got to figure what happened to the water, or no more drinking water." Brooklynn turns to us from the other side of the river. "Shhh." We all turn to her. "I hear that hum again." We all groan, not this shit again. "The river must have been drowning it out. If I can follow that. I bet I can find-." We all cut her off. "Frozen batch of flowers." She looks nervous. "Oh, I've mentioned it , huh?" I turn to her. "Yes Brooklynn, the flowers you saw once and didn't see again, yes you have told us a hundred times before."

"Uh, I'm sorry if I want to get to the bottom of all this weirdness. I came here to-." We interrupt again. "Unbox Jurassic World." She deadpans to us. "If you are going to look for a noise, I'll come too. Be nice to have an adventure for a fun reason and not a 'running from dinosaurs or immeient danger kind'." Sammy says. "I'll go if Sammy's going...and Brooklynn too." Nice save track-star. "And while you three are off on your little getaway, Darius and Kenji will look for a solution to the water problem." I say as Kenji looks confused at me. "Kenji do what now?" "You are going to help Darius somehow get the water back. You do want to have your showers correct?" He looks bored at that. "Fine, I'm in. Makes sense. Since I know this entire island-." Everyone interrupts him. "Like the back of my VIP hand." He looks bewildered. "We have been spending way too much time together." I roll my eyes. "What are you going to do Ryan?" Yaz asks me. "I'll stay behind at camp and man the fort. I probably be putting some makeshift spears together. Planks of wood and a bat aren't going to last long out here." I say, everyone nods in acceptance and they were off.

Everyone was off doing their own thing. Time for some better protection. In my search of the rumble, I found a wood axe nearby though, it must've been used by workers for the firewood. It will do for cutting down some small trees. I head off not far from camp and find a small grove of thin small trees. This will do nicely. I start cutting down some. Chopping wood was always a hobby of my uncle's whenever he had the time to visit. He said that it kept him occupied, when his mind would wander to his raptors. Now that I think about, I haven't seen any of the raptors for the last 2 weeks. I don't even know if they are free or not. Six trees have been cut, now to get them back to camp. I return and get my survival kit out. These things are godsend, filled with instructions and tools for crafting your own tools and/or weapons. I gather some large rocks and stones to be used for the spear heads. I begin chipping and flaking large pieces off the stones. This takes time but with enough patience, could save your life.

About 2 hours have passed and the stone spear heads are done, now for the handles. I cut the twigs and small branches off each stick. Raking the bark off and smoothing it with limit the risk of splinters or cuts along the wood. I cut a groove along the end of the spear, to hold the spear head. This is the worst part, pine pitch. When my mother taught me how to use it, I almost threw up. Pine pitch is a mixture of wood char, pine resin and...moose poo. And their are no moose on this island. But this needs to get done so off I go...looking for Dino dung. It took a while but I found a pile of dung most likely from a Stegosaurus since we have seen them offen around near camp. I grab a large fern to use as a glove. I grab a large handful, damn that stinks. Back to camp I guess.

The poo is caked in the char from a campfire and pine resin from a nearby tree. I heat the pitch over a flame and coat each of the spear heads into the wood. Now to wrap each end. I find some ruined cloths and clothes. These will have to do. I wrap each spear head in place, now to let them sit and dry. Now for a perimeter defence.

Several hours of cutting, raking, sharping and digging holes to place large tree spikes in strategic places to defend camp. The lower foundations of the tree house have smaller spikes but close together, these will deter any curious predator. Two lines of spikes line the river bed with a small gap for us to walk through to get more water. The main entrance way is covered in concrete so that has no spikes but it does have a trip wire that will spring out a swing spiked wall from around the tree. A lot of work went into defending this camp. I'm not taking any chances with dinosaurs invading the courtyard. I hear water running and see the water rushing down the river. About time, Kenji and Darius fixed the water problem. I check the spear and they look good. I grab one and go to the river. I eye the water, time to catch dinner. I see a particularly large fish. I ready the spear.

SKNIT!

Got it. I pull the spear out of the water with the fish failing around. That's one, five more to go. I got some, I missed some. It was sunset when I got all the fish. I see Kenji and Darius return with shocked eyes. "What happened here?" Darius asks, not seeing me. "Just some modifications." I shout out to the duo. They turn sharply at me. I was carrying the fish in a bag while my other hand had the spear. "Looks like you had a busy day." Darius says as he inspects the spikes on the foundations. "I would sleep better if I knew that the camp was defended from intruders." I reason to them. "What did you guys get up to? The water came back several hours ago, I was wondering where you were?" I question as Darius explains that they found a watering hole that had herbivores and carnivores drinking from it, not bothering anyone. "That actually sounds really cool, ducks that I missed it." I hear the girls come back. "Ryan, what have you done?" Yaz asks wide eyed. "Just added some defence modifications." She looks at me like I've done something wrong. "What?" She shakes her head. "Don't worry about it." I throw me hand ups, I don't understand women. Sammy then interjects. "Well in the spirit of Ester Stone." Who. "Let's..."

"Party." Kenji says as we all clink cups together. "And ch-ch-ch-check it out." Kenji continues as he holds up a speaker. He pressed 'play'.

"Oh yeah, feel the beat that I made."

Dave's voice plays over the speaker. Yeah I'm out. As I get up, Yaz also gets up not agreeing with the bad music. I follow her outside as she draws in Darius's new field guide. "Lovely night, ain't it?" I say as I stand beside her. She smiles at me. "Yes it is. I've never seen something so beautiful." She says as she looks to the stars. I glance at her, yes, beautiful. "I used to star gaze in my spare time back home, I always felt that the world has something to offer a d we just take it for granted." I say to her. She looks at me. "How so?" I think about for a minute. "We as humans have developed more in the last century then we had in the last millennium, and in that time, we have forgotten what nature was originally intended for us, the stars remind me of that fact, of all our advancements and discoveries, the world is filled with secrets that are waiting or never meant to be solved." I say to her. She nods at that. "I guess that dinosaurs coming back is a sign of nature telling us to remember." She says. "They were never meant to come back, but they did and now we have to deal with the consequences of arrogant man who didn't think to stop and question why." I say sadly. "But it's not all bad, the dinosaurs are amazing creatures that deserve their second chance." I add on as Yaz smiles. We look up and see a meteor shower in the night sky. Everyone gathers around to watch the amazing shower. Brooklynn hangs her arm around Sammy and Darius. Kenji puts his hand on Darius shoulder as Yaz rests her head on my shoulder. I wrap my hand around her waist holding her close. This group, these people, they are my family and I promise that I'll protect them with everything I have.

I gaze downwards from the stars to see smoke coming from the jungle, an orange light illuminating the surrounding trees. "Is that smoke?" I say as everyone focuses on the smoke. "A fire." Brooklynn says as Sammy gasps. "A campfire." If that is a campfire, then that means people. Darius then interjects. "Guys... we're not alone."