The Trek: Darwin's World, Book II (The Darwin's World Series 2) Read online

  The Trek

  Book Two, the Darwin’s World Series

  By Jack L. Knapp

  COPYRIGHT

  The Trek

  Book Two, The Darwin’s World Series

  Copyright © 2013 by Jack L Knapp

  Edited by Warren Stewart.

  Cover Photo by Jack L Knapp

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  Disclaimer: The persons and events depicted in this novel were created by the author’s imagination; no resemblance to actual persons or events is intended.

  Product names, brands, and other trademarks referred to within this book are the property of the respective trademark holders. Unless otherwise specified, no association between the author and any trademark holder is expressed or implied. Nor does the use of such trademarks indicate an endorsement of the products, trademarks, or trademark holders unless so stated. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark, registered trademark, or service mark.

  Table of Contents

  COPYRIGHT 2

  Dedication 5

  Preface 6

  Prologue 9

  Chapter 1 12

  Chapter 2 17

  Chapter 3 22

  Chapter 4 26

  Chapter 5 30

  Chapter 6 35

  Chapter 7 40

  Chapter 8 44

  Chapter 9 48

  Chapter 10 53

  Chapter 11 59

  Chapter 12 64

  Chapter 13 69

  Chapter 14 74

  Chapter 15 80

  Chapter 16 84

  Chapter 17 90

  Chapter 18 95

  Chapter 19 101

  Chapter 20 107

  Chapter 21 112

  Chapter 22 117

  Chapter 23 121

  Chapter 24 125

  Chapter 25 130

  Chapter 26 135

  Chapter 27 140

  Chapter 28 144

  Chapter 29 149

  Chapter 30 154

  Chapter 31 159

  Chapter 32 163

  Chapter 33 167

  Chapter 34 171

  Chapter 35 176

  Chapter 36 180

  Chapter 37 186

  Chapter 38 191

  Chapter 39 195

  Combat Wizard, an Excerpt: Chapter 1 200

  Books by the author: 208

  About the Author: 209

  Dedication

  For Sharon and Ronnie, two of my favorite people

  Preface

  This is book two of a series, Darwin’s World, Darwin's World II: The Trek, and Darwin's World III: Home. There are other books planned for the series. All will be set on Darwin’s World, but different characters will be featured. Matt’s story will be complete at the end of Home.

  Darwin’s World introduces a number of concepts and characters.

  The Futurists, ‘downtimers’ are from the 22nd Century or even later. There may be one group of them or there may be several different groups, and it’s not certain that they are working together. Some of the Futurists may have motives that differ from the motives of the others.

  Human civilization of the future is dying. Science has advanced until there are no worlds left to explore or conquer. Disease and the genetic tendency for cell death have been eradicated. As a result, human life spans have been extended indefinitely.

  But this is no utopia. People have become bored; lacking challenge, life has lost its meaning. Few children are being born. The population is shrinking, not because of natural death but from boredom. Simply put, people become tired of living and end their lives.

  A few Futurists are visionary enough to understand that something has been lost from the human character. They hope to use technology to reintroduce what’s missing and save their civilization from extinction.

  The technology of crossing into parallel dimensions has been available for some time. All such crossings lead to versions of Planet Earth. As well as crossing dimensional lines, the technology also permits limited travel in time; the Futurists can visit parallel Earths in the past, but not in the future. It has proved impossible to visit a future in advance of their timeline, whether on Earth Prime or a parallel Earth.

  One of the dimensions contains a version of Earth in which humans did not survive; proto-humans died out before they could begin the long evolutionary journey that resulted in Cro-Magnon man. This Earth dimension has been selected for an experiment, harvesting humans from the 20th and 21st Centuries and transplanting them to this parallel Earth.

  In order not to affect downtime history, only persons in the final stages of life are harvested. They are treated using modern medical science; a number of changes at the genetic level cause their bodies to be changed so extensively as to be ‘reconstituted’. The harvested persons retain their memories and skills, plus they also receive a suite of implanted memories that will help them survive after transplanting.

  The experimental subjects, the transplants, receive a young, healthy body but little else; tools and weapons are limited in number and muscle-powered only, and men aren’t provided with projectile weapons. Individual Futurists have varying protocols for transplanting, although it appears some practices are common to all. Some, perhaps all, of the women are transplanted in groups of three and given a shelter and a crossbow; men are always transplanted singly, with no one to rely on but themselves.

  Men have a knife and a camp-axe, slightly larger than a hatchet but smaller than a woodsman’s axe. Those two items, and the clothing they wear, are the only advantages they have when they arrive. Their memories and implanted knowledge may eventually be of help, but first they must survive as best they can.

  They will receive no further assistance from the Futurists.

  It is understood that most will likely not survive, but those who do will have the qualities that Futurist civilization has lost. The few activists of that distant time hope that the descendants of such transplants will have a more-developed survival instinct, as well as the curiosity and ambition that mankind has lost. The conditions on Darwin’s World are such that only those with those qualities are likely to survive. The planet acts as a selection mechanism.

  The Futurists decided, before beginning their project, not to simply pick specimens from an earlier time and transplant them directly to their own society. Too much was unknown, there was too great a danger than a megalomaniac might be loosed into a society that couldn’t cope. But the descendants of the transplants could be tracked and their character assessed.

  #

  The experimental subjects are made aware of what has happened to them. They understand that they are responsible for their own survival. This is ultimate freedom; live or die, succeed or fail.

  The transplanted persons are placed into a time that corresponds to the late Pleistocene of Earth Prime, at selected spots within a zone lying between the 45th degrees of north and south latitude. The climate is temperate, a
nd transplantings occur in late spring or early summer.

  The Pleistocene of Darwin’s World resembles that of the Futurists’ Earth in that the ice sheets have retreated. Glaciers still exist, so temperatures tend to be cooler. Animals are plentiful and many are huge; mammoth, mastodon, giant ground sloth, and stag-moose are representative. Smaller animals, similar to those found in the 20th and 21st Centuries downtime, also flourish.

  There are predators too, and some of them have evolved to prey primarily on the megafauna: saber-toothed cats, giant short-faced bears, dire wolves. There are also lions, American cheetahs, grizzlies, and coyotes. All of these exist on the continents where transplanting takes place.

  Humans lived and flourished in such conditions uptime on Earth Prime. They had the ability to use stone, bone, and antler to fashion tools and weapons, and they possessed a brain superior to other animals of that time.

  That brain enabled them to find substitutes for what nature had failed to provide. Blades of flaked stone replaced claws and teeth. Like wolves and lions, they organized and hunted in packs. Numbers and organization substituted for the speed and strength they lacked, compared to the larger animals.

  Tribes grew and populations spread during that period on Earth Prime. Humans lived in the Americas, Eurasia, Africa, and Australia as well as on a number of islands. Emulating nature, the Futurists transplanted their human specimens to the same locations.

  Some transplants failed; people died. Knowledge is not enough; skill is also needed and that is gained through experience. Determination counts. Experience grows, but learning comes from mistakes survived. An element of luck enters the mix; life or death often happen by simple chance.

  But thousands of transplants are soon in place across Darwin’s World. They adapt and learn; some of them survive. The descendants of the transplanted will become transplants in turn, educated and placed into the highly-evolved world of the Futurists, in the hope that they can revive a dying civilization.

  #

  There are no laws on Darwin’s World other than those that people make for themselves. There is no civilization and no culture. If those are to exist, the Transplants must invent them. When children are born, the Transplants must protect and educate them.

  They must choose from their memories the elements of downtime society they wish to retain and decide which ones they will discard. The civilization the transplants build after this winnowing of ideas will not be the same as what developed on Earth Prime. They have among themselves the knowledge of history, as written by humans who came before. They know of the great cultures of downtime Earth…but how many of these are useful, in a world that’s savage beyond anything known to humans of historic time? Where humans aren’t masters of nature but only part of it, not children of success but prey?

  And some of the predators on Darwin’s World are human.

  Prologue

  Pavel was waiting near the front of the column when Lee approached.

  “Pavel, I want you guarding the left flank when we move out. Get food from the kitchen and move ahead to where you can watch as we leave camp. Stay off to the left and look for danger, and if you see tracks, let me know. We need food, and if there are tracks then the animals are beginning to move back. We can send out hunting parties as soon as it looks worthwhile.”

  “Do it yourself, kid. I’m busy with my group this morning, and I plan on looking in on the group you’ve been with. I won’t have time to wander around in the woods because you think it’s a good idea.”

  Robert had come up while this was going on. He watched for a moment, waiting to see how Lee would handle this.

  “Pavel, you were told before. Do what you’re told and work for the whole group. Or take your stuff and hit the trail, anywhere except where we are. That’s still the only offer you’ve got. You’re flank guard or you’re out. We’ll leave without you.”

  “Suppose we just keep up with the rest of you? We’ve been doing that so far, and we can keep on doing it.”

  “Not you, Pavel. You’ve been a little slow to understand, so I’ll lay it out in a way that even you can’t mistake. We’ll go on, you won’t. If that means we leave you dead alongside the trail, so be it.”

  While speaking, Lee had unslung the heavy spear that always hung across his back. The long, sharp blade now pointed directly at Pavel’s eyes from less than a foot away. Pavel turned pale and took a step back.

  “You would kill me because I won’t pull your guard duty?”

  “No. I’ll kill you because you’re eating our food and not doing your share of the work.”

  Robert spoke. “Pavel, does this mean you’re leaving?”

  “No, Robert. I’ll do the guard if that’s what you want. But this kid has no right to be giving orders! I’ve been part of this tribe for a long time. Why is he giving commands?”

  “He commands because I trust his judgment, Pavel. Matt and I delegated that authority to him. It’s his until I decide it should go to someone better qualified. I don’t know anyone better qualified.” When he said this, Robert looked directly at Pavel.

  Pavel stalked away and took up his post as Robert got the tribe moving. Travel would be slower by necessity; everything now moved by travois and backpack.

  Robert missed Matt. It was not easily explained, but the man had exuded confidence. You simply knew that whatever came up, Matt would deal with it. It was hard to believe he was dead. Briefly, Robert wondered how Gregor and Vlad had found Matt and Pavel. Coincidence? They were all traveling in the same direction after all, so it was possible.

  #

  Pavel came into camp late and decided to look in on the women who had been part of Matt’s group. They now cooked for themselves rather than sharing the communal kitchen; did they have treats hidden away?

  “Pavel, you should be over at the kitchen. They’ll be shutting down shortly and if you don’t eat now, you won’t get anything before morning,” Lilia said.

  “I came over to get to know you ladies better. We need to work together now, right? So I thought I’d have my dinner with you. What are you making?”

  “We’re only making enough for ourselves, Pavel. We think of ourselves as family, so we’ll be cooking and taking our meals with family members for now.”

  “Still, there are four of you women. You’ll need men around to help you if there’s danger.”

  Pavel felt a sudden coldness beside his ear. He reached up absently to brush it away…a bit of snow fallen from the tree, perhaps…but froze when he felt the sharp tip.

  “I wouldn’t turn my head if I were you, Pavel. Sandra’s pretty good with that spear. And if she’s not, you might spare a glance for Millie.”

  Millie was now holding her own spear, relaxed, but ready to use it without wasted effort.

  “I’ll go, I’ll go! There’s no need for threats! I was just trying to be helpful, like.”

  “We don’t want your help. You might remember that. Next time, the lesson will be more pointed. The kitchen is right over there,” Lilia said, pointing. Her expression might have been amused.

  #

  After they finished the meal, Lilia spoke to Lee.

  “I’m not satisfied with Pavel’s story. Matt slipped on the riverbank and somehow lost his parka and weapons? What happened to his bow? He had a backpack with food and there was a quiver of arrows too. What happened to those? How could Matt lose his parka when he was wearing his weapons belt around it and the quiver was strapped over the parka too? If he had taken the quiver off before he slipped, there was no reason why Pavel and Gregor shouldn’t have brought it back. And why were Gregor and Vlad even there? They should have been scouting a mile or two away from Pavel and Matt. Their story is just too pat; I think they ambushed Matt and killed him.

  “I can follow their tracks. There were three of them, and they have about as much regard for hiding a trail as a mammoth! If I can’t find Matt’s body where they left it, I’ll look around and see if there’s evidence where they
ambushed him, but eventually I’ll catch up with the rest of you. I don’t like the thought of him just lying alongside the river and no one to even look for his body.

  “Anyway, you explain it to Robert when you see him tomorrow. I’m leaving tonight after it’s dark. I’ll be back in a week or so.”

  #

  The cold woke him.

  He was lying on a sandbar, washed up on the sand and left behind when the water receded. He was cold and damp, and his right eye was glued shut.

  He pawed at his eye, trying to open the eyelid. Finally he scooped up water in his hand and washed his face. In the process he found the large bump over his eye but had no idea where it had come from. More washing removed the crusted blood and finally he got the eye open. Blearily, he closed it after a moment; he’d seen two images of the small tree that leaned over the bank. He blinked, then closed the eye again and that felt better.

  He had a severe headache and the lump was sore, but at least it was no longer bleeding.

  Muddy, shivering, he crawled off the sand and found a pile of grass. Blown flat during the winter, then left ashore when the river’s spring flood receded, the grasses now slowly decayed on the river’s bank. He wormed his way into the drift and pulled more of the grass around him.

  He needed fire, but that would have to wait until he could see better. He remembered having a parka, but that was gone; maybe the grass would help. He pulled up handfuls of the fallen stems and stuffed them inside his shirt. They prickled, but he added more. Presently the shivering abated.

  While pressing the grass inside his buckskin shirt, he found a small pouch at his waist and opened it. Inside was a roll of string, a small flint knife, and a scrap of steel. There was also tinder but it was wet, useless. Still, he could find more tinder; there would be a downed tree nearby, and beneath the outer bark would be a layer of dried cambium.

  He felt warm enough after a while to pull more of the grass together. Judging finally that he had enough, he pulled off his wet clothes and wrung them out as best he could. Naked, he crawled into the pile and burrowed further until he felt warmth from the decaying material.