The Virtual Man [The Virtual Reality 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (20 page)

“We won’t starve. Arcadia 10 is populated by a wide variety of animals. I’ll just have to go hunting for our food.”

“Eeew! Yuk! Don’t be ridiculous. We can’t eat animals! Have you seen what they eat or smelled one at a menagerie?”

“Tiana! What do you think you are synthesizing when you create a hamburger? You are synthesizing a piece of a dead cow that has been extruded, formed and cooked — you know, had heat applied to it. Didn’t you take Earth history in high school?”

“Reading about what the human race ate back when we were still savages is totally different from actually eating what they ate! Have you ever eaten animals?”

“Yes, when I was a Galactic Scout, but I can’t claim to have ever hunted.”

“The hunting part should be easy, all you have to do is walk up to an animal and kill it, but eating one … I just don’t know about that. They pee and poop, Derek. What if you eat one of the parts that contain the poop before it has, you know, pooped?”

“I suppose we’ll just have to make sure we select our … parts … carefully before we eat them,” he chuckled. “Tell you what, you lay down and try to get some rest while I go out and hunt us up some dinner.”

“I’m not making any promises to eat whatever you catch, though. What about water?”

“Tiana, we’re right next to a lake! We have all the water we need.”

“But not for drinking! Have you already forgotten what I said? Animals pee and poop. They are probably dumb enough to pee and poop in the lake where they drink.”

“I’m sure there is some survival gear in here somewhere, and, a water filter is the first thing such kits typically include. We’ll filter the water before we drink it. Does that sound okay, Princess Picky?”

Tiana didn’t respond. She was not committing to anything. Thirst might be preferable to drinking lake water.

* * * *

Taking a knife with him, Derek set out to hunt. He wasn’t sure what he was hunting for, but how hard could it be? He had read a variety of books by an early-twentieth century author by the name of Edgar Rice Burroughs and he remembered how the central figure in some of the books, a fellow by the name of Tarzan, would hunt with his bare hands. He also remembered reading how Tarzan would fashion weapons out of tree branches with his knife. He could do that too.

Derek looked for a game trail that might be used by the local animals to come to the lake and drink. Sure enough, he found one and followed it into the neighboring forest. Walking down the trail he soon found himself surrounded by a sea of green. He had never seen so much real plant life in one place before. The trail was bordered by large ferns next to wild flowers, next to tall grasses, next to a variety of other small plants and vines he didn’t even recognize enough to classify. Interspersed amongst the lush vegetation were trees like the ones they had crashed through, rising hundreds of feet into the air with majestic reddish brown trunks that, if hollowed out, could fit two escape pods at the base.

Seeing a small bird with beautiful red and blue plumage fly by, his eyes followed it until it landed on what appeared to be a patch of extremely large and very beautiful red roses. Each one of the flowers was a good twelve to fifteen inches in diameter. Perhaps he’d take back a dozen and surprise Tiana with them. He watched intently as the little bird stuck its beak inside one of the flowers, probably going after the nectar. His mind quickly turned to thoughts of Tiana and sampling her ‘nectar’ before the crash. He had it bad for the little redhead!

Derek’s thoughts were quickly jerked from Tiana as he watched the flower open up and swallow the little bird in the blink of an eye. A single feather gently floated to the ground.

Not only was he not taking any of those flowers back to Tiana, he would seriously need to watch where he peed in this jungle!

Getting to a small clearing, Derek decided this would be the place from which he would hunt. Remembering some of Tarzan’s tricks, Derek checked to see which way the wind was blowing, went off the trail and found a place to hide downwind so that his scent would not be detected by any animals that might wander by. Quite pleased with himself thus far, Derek, after making sure there were no flowers larger than those he would consider normal by Earth standards nearby, settled in and waited for his prey.

He must have waited for what felt like at least an hour before he heard the rustling of leaves and twigs underneath the paws of an animal. Not ten feet from him, he saw what appeared to be a small doe, no more than four feet in height, with only minor cosmetic differences from the ones he’d seen in zoos on Earth, carelessly looking around and leisurely strolling down the trail. With his heart beating rapidly, and his knife in hand, he prepared to pounce on it. This would be too easy. He almost felt sorry for the little animal. He would grab it from behind and either stab it in the heart or slice its throat like Tarzan did in the books he’d read.

Carefully stepping so as to avoid alerting the dumb animal, he approached it slowly, like an animal stalking its prey. This must have been how the ancients felt when they had hunted to provide for their families and their tribes. Derek felt energized and more alive than he’d ever felt.

At last, within a couple of feet of his prey, Derek, with all his instincts and senses ablaze, threw himself at the animal. No sooner had his feet left the ground than the animal let out what sounded like a loud moan and darted for the cover of the forest, leaving the hunter to land with a thud hard on his stomach in the middle of the game trail.

Okay, that didn’t go too well.

Getting up off the ground, Derek dusted himself off and watched as his and his mate’s lunch ran down the trail and eventually disappeared.

Perhaps I could try a different approach, I could hide and …

A loud, low, angry moan shattered the silence of the forest. Derek turned and looked at the spot where he had last seen his prey and saw instead a large deer-like creature that stood, he guessed, around ten feet in height with mean-looking antlers running full-throttle down the trail straight for him. Oops, suddenly, he remembered that the Tarzan books were classified under fiction. Derek didn’t bother analyzing the situation or wondering how Tarzan would have handled things. He turned and ran as fast as he could back the way he had come.

* * * *

It took a while, what with not having the comfort of the anti-gravity features of her bed, but Tiana finally managed to fall asleep, only to be awakened by loud banging on the hull of the escape pod and thunder-like growling directly outside. With great effort, she stood up and hobbled over to the window to see what was going on. As she reached the window, she saw a large tiger-like creature with a head at least three feet in diameter and long, sharp-looking canine teeth rise up on its hind legs to peer in the window at her. Tiana froze. Her first thoughts were of Derek. Had this thing eaten Derek and was it now coming after her for its second course? She had her answer within seconds as she saw Derek run out of the forest with … a very large deer-type animal chasing him. Hearing Derek, the large cat turned away from the pod and headed in Derek’s direction.

With threats to his life in front and behind him, Derek thought he was a goner. He veered off to the right, hoping that perhaps he could get to the water before the two creatures converged on him. To his amazement and relief, once the two creatures saw each other they didn’t bother chasing after him. The buck lowered his antlers as he and the tiger squared off.

Tiana watched the surreal scene as it unfolded before her. She moved to the door to open it for Derek, who was now running in her direction.

“Tiana, grab the medical and survival kits and whatever else you can and get out, quickly!”

Err, hello. Get out, as in outside?

“Hurry, Derek. Get in before they come after you,” she yelled, fear paralyzing all but her vocal cords.

“No! Come on, Tiana, we need to get out of here before one of them kills the other.”

Tiana stood in the pod’s doorway staring at Derek as if he had lost his mind.

“Tiana, trust me!” he yelled as he continued running.

She just stared blankly at him, not wanting to leave the perceived protection of the escape pod.

“Okay, move it, sweet cheeks!”

That got her attention. Huffing and grumbling under her breath, she grabbed the medical kit and the survival kit, along with a few other potentially useful items, and hobbled out to meet Derek. He didn’t bother asking, simply grabbed her, laid her across his arms and carried her off without losing much speed. As Derek ran down the beach, Tiana looked back at the battle taking place. It wasn’t long before the saber tooth tiger, for that is what it must have been, emerged as the victor. Tiana watched as the angry cat then turned its attention back on the escape pod. The powerful paws ripped and smashed the already weakened and damaged hull of the escape pod. Finally, with one last shove, the wall gave and the cat entered the pod. Having done so must have thrown off the balance of the pod, for it slid into the lake and sank, taking the powerful carnivore with it.

Panting, Derek stopped, gently put Tiana down on the beach and collapsed next to her with his head on her healthy leg. Tiana lovingly caressed his face and ran her fingers through his jet-black hair. This was the second time in as many hours that he had saved her life. More importantly, though, he hadn’t lost his.

“Derek, it looks like in just a few hours it will be dark. Where are we going to sleep? We have no shelter.”

“We’ll need to sleep up in a tree. If we sleep on the ground we’ll be eaten before morning.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“Leave it to me.”

Before sundown, Derek completed what appeared to Tiana to be some kind of a platform between two level branches. She was amazed at his ingenuity. He had tied a series of thick bamboo stems appearing to each be roughly three inches in diameter together using some kind of a vine and had then, also with the vine, secured the platform to the two branches forming the supports. He had left enough space between the tree trunk and the platform that the only way an animal could get to them would be by walking over one of the support branches while holding on to another branch directly above. It was a feat for which opposable thumbs and the ability to walk upright were definite requirements.

Once he completed his project, he climbed down to her. Smiling encouragement, he asked, “Well, what do you think of our first home as husband and wife?”

Out of her elements of urban civilization and computerized comforts, she said, “It has a nice airy look to it. Do you really think I can climb up?”

“Probably not, but I think I have just enough daylight left to build you an elevator.”

“Don’t expect anything fancy.”

Tiana stared in disbelief as he gathered more vines and began twisting and knitting them together. In no time he had made a long rope that, after climbing up to the platform, he draped over a branch directly above it, on a spot he had carved and smoothed out with his knife. The end lying on the ground ended in a harness that went between her legs and around her waist.

“Step into the harness, place the second loop underneath your arms and hold on tight to the rope,” he yelled down to her.

“Okay, I’m in it and I’m holding on tight. Now what do you … AHHHH DDEEEEERRRRREEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!”

Tiana was rapidly raised up to the platform some forty feet in the air as Derek, having jumped off the branch while still holding on to the rope, descended to the ground, allowing his weight to lift her.

“Weehah!” Derek yelled in exhilaration as he dropped to the jungle floor. “Okay, now get on the platform and take off the rope.”

“Don’t you ever do that again, you overgrown child! You nearly gave me a heart attack,” Tiana shrieked at him as she quickly sought the safety of the platform. When she looked down she saw a joyful grin on his face. He seemed quite pleased with himself.

He enjoys making me mad. The big oaf actually enjoys it. If I throw up I’m going to make sure it’s on him.

Looking around the platform with a slightly less agitated demeanor, Tiana noticed that he had also stacked up a large amount of long grass, forming a primitive mattress for her. He had also, despite the rush to get all the work done before sundown, taken the time to leave a beautiful red, yellow and orange petalled flower in the middle of the grass mattress.
Okay, he may be a pig, but he’s a sweet pig.

“I’m going to look for food,” Derek called up to her. “You’ll be safe up there.”

“How can I get down if I need to?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t figured out that part yet.”

He’s enjoying this way too much
.

Tiana slowly awoke from another restless night’s sleep. They had been stranded on Arcadia 10 for three days and things weren’t looking any better. Her wounded leg was redder, the pain had increased and she was feeling rather poorly. The medical kit had been very limited in its contents. While it boasted a skin regenerator, infection-seeking nano-bots and various other medical instruments, they didn’t do her a bit of good on this primitive world without power. Infections had been easily treatable since the early twentieth century, yet here she was hundreds of years later with an infected wound that, left untended, could kill her.

Derek had been able to find various fruit trees nearby and she was very grateful that they had had plenty to eat, but they were both getting real tired of their fruit-only diet.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Derek greeted her. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh, fine,” she responded as she tried to sit up. A dizzy spell threw her off balance and she immediately lay back down to avoid the possibility of falling off the side of the platform.

“What was that? Are you feeling light-headed?”

“No. I just got up a little too fast. I’ll be okay.”

Derek came closer and accidentally brushed the wound on her leg through its dressing. She winced and moved away.

“Tiana, I barely touched you. You haven’t let me look at your wound since you regained consciousness after the crash. Please let me see it.”