The shelter construction moves forward gradually. Over one of your communal meals, Michael comments: "You remind me of the Architect. Too bad this place isn't going to be so well known as Umak Tek."
After a couple days you find a stream which comes down from about half-way up the mountain to a spot on the southern shore about five miles from camp. It seems to be fresh and clean.
Perhaps your fishing is improving--at least, you manage to get something worth eating within your allotted time each day for the next several.
There is no sign that any land mammal, let alone person, has ever been on this island but for the two of you.
The evening you finish your shelter, Michael is standing staring at the top of the mountain. When you come over for supper, he says, "Is it just me, or do we have less smoke up there than we did?"
It does look as if the smoke has decreased some.
--M. J. Young
"Hmmm, I don't know if less smoke is a good thing or a bad thing. I don't know enough about volcano's to tell if it's getting close to an eruption or not. Not that there's anything we can do about it, but it would be nice to know one way or the other."
"By the way, You've mentioned him a couple of times, but I never thought to ask. Who is the Architect, and what's Uma Tech?"
With the stream I found I'm going to do some basic laundry. All I can really do is soak my dirty clothes and beat them with a flat rock and let them sit in the sun to dry, but that beats doing nothing. I'll make the trip every other day to clean the set of clothes I'm not wearing, assuming nothing else goes pear shaped in the meantime. I'm also starting to watch the volcano for any other changes. I know that there's supposed to be earthquakes before an eruption but I really don't know anything else about them.
"Oh, well--there's this place called NagaWorld. Time was, every verser I ever knew, their first experience was in NagaWorld. Seems to have changed over time, don't know why. It's a very strange world, and I've been to it several times. So had a lot of other people. Aaron and Annie actually live there.
"Then one day this guy shows up--I wasn't there, but this is how Aaron tells it--and he's given a few of the basics. The glass city is dangerous, because there are these--well, you don't need to know the basics, you're not there. At the time, they ate the orange grass, sometimes the creeper vines, and hunted the giant clams for meat. They also stayed inside in the daytime--there was this truck there with living quarters, no one quite sure why--because of the coral bushes, which use natural lasers to attack people. Well, this guy takes one look at the truck, and says, there's no reason we can't get the generator running in that thing, if we can convert the sugars in the grass to alcohol and distill it. Give me a couple of kitchen pots, and let me see what I can do." So he does this, and in a day he's got about a gallon of alcohol, and he and Aaron are working on adjusting the carb on the auxillary engine to run on alcohol, to run the generator that powers all the peripheral stuff. But he also finds that there's this black tarry stuff in the bottom of the still, apparently from the fibers of the grass. He scrapes this out, leaves it in a mass on the ground, and the next day he finds he's got something hard as rock.
"Well, he's pretty happy with his discovery, and the first thing he does is kill a few coral bushes and combine the mirrors and lenses inside them with this black tar stuff to build a much larger still, and gather a lot of grass, and make a lot more alcohol and a lot more goo. He starts building a low fence all around the truck--like a hundred yards on a side, like he's building a fort--and he builds another still, and then builds a water tower and creates an evaporator system to get water from the ground into the tower, and builds a kiln to make pottery, and a loom, and a paper-making system, and raises the walls with movable slats so they can be opened or closed, and he's got a city. He builds his own little hut so he doesn't have to impose on Aaron and Annie, and keeps making stuff.
"Then he contacted the Dar Koni. They're these aliens who were also trapped there, like tyrannosaurs, but he figured out how to communicate with them, and they started trading language information, and before you knew it there were something like diplomatic ties between the Dar Koni and the Humans. He put a sign over the gate to his city that said, in both the Dar Koni and the English script, 'Umak Tek'--Dar Koni for Human Place. He put plaques up honoring some of us who had been there before him, because he said he never could have survived long enough to do anything if we hadn't been there first to find the water and leave word that you could eat the grass. But what he did outstrips what anyone else ever did there. We made camp; he built a city.
"We've always called him The Architect. I could probably think of his name, if I thought long enough. He's out there somewhere, and we run into each other from time to time, and I hear about him from others on our cycle, but always I call him The Architect, and that's how he's known. If he's been somewhere, he always writes, 'I built Umak-Tek', usually with the Dar Koni letters, so that people who have been there know that it's him and they can trust what he tells them. He's helpful that way. Seems to think it matters."
The volcano seems to have stabilized at this new level of less smoke.
--M. J. Young
"Hmmm, this Architect guys sounds like my kind of fellow. Seeing as how it sounds like people keep running into each other, maybe I'll get a chance to meet up with him some day. I doubt I could have done as much as he did, but I'd still like to leave anyplace I go better than when I found it. Call it ambition, pride or whatever. Heck, call it atonement for a wasted life, I'd still like something that's not going to be wiped out before anyone gets a chance to appreciate it."
Next up I'm going to start construction on a raft. It's going to be simple since I don't have an axe to fell any of the larger trees, but if I make several bamboo platforms like I did for my hut and then lay them on top of each other I should be able to create a floating platform that will act as a raft. I also weave a net out of vines and fill it with rocks, with a vine about fifteen feet long to act as an anchor.
While I'm building the raft I also start surveying the ocean around the island. I want to find out how far out the lava flow has gone in the past, and am looking for a reef that is further out than that. I also keep an eye out for any downed palm trees that I think I can shift into the water. What I have in mind is going to take more than bamboo and vines, but I think I can manage if I can find my reef and a tree or two.
The raft materials obviously are plentiful. However, large fallen trees down near the water are all rather rotted, and fall apart quickly when you attempt to move them. You do find a couple in good shape, but they are both at least a mile inland up the slope, and a few miles from each other.
How are you going about seeking a reef? And how are you checking the size of the coastal shelf? Generally, volcanic islands are really the tips of the mountains, so they tend to slope much the same to the ocean floor. That means a relatively steep descent not far from shore--but you would have to wade out, and then you would probably need to swim underwater, since the water will be over your head for quite a distance while it's still technically coastal shelf.
--M. J. Young
At first I'm going to be searching visually by swimming out a hundred feet or so. I did not mention the skill be cause I didn't think of it, but I am a strong swimmer and more than good enough to swim out and search quite a bit underwater. If I can't find a reef within the first hundred feet I'll wait until I have my first raft built and use it as a platform to get further out and search from. I figure even if there isn't anything good enough out there it's good exercise.
The island is about fifteen miles from east to west, five miles from north to south, not of course exactly any particular shape but having a perimeter of roughly thirty-two miles. How much of this do you think you can explore in a day? How thoroughly are you exploring it--swimming out every hundred yards, every mile, every several miles?
I've put you down as a high amateur swimmer.
--M. J. Young
I plan to swim out and then cut across for a quarter mile or so, then swim back to shore, then skip a quarter mile. I figure that half a mile a day to start with will be my limit, but may get longer as my endurance builds back up. Everything will go faster once I have a raft as well, as I can just pole along for a bit and dunk my head. I'm assuming that the water is fairly clear even this far out, as would be typical for a tropical island on earth. Let me know if my assumption is wrong.
Assuming you mean a half mile of swimming (since a quarter mile of swimming plus a quarter mile of walking the shore equals half a mile, but there's not much point in that), you cover a mile of coastline with no indication of anything like a reef yet.
Yes, the water is clear, and not quite as salty as Earth oceans so it does not so much sting the eyes. However, glare on the surface can be pretty bad, so seeing the bottom from the top is not easy most of the time.
Building a raft is similar to building a shelter, but it's not exactly the same thing. It is evident from your survival skill that you have skill at lashing and knots, but this skill has not been listed on your sheet independently; nor is there a listing for building a boat. Assuming you've never built a boat, we can roll for you teaching yourself that skill, or we can do it based on lashing and see how it floats when you've finished it. What's your preference?
--M. J. Young
I figure that the boat building would be a new skill altogether, hopefully with a bonus from lashing and knots since that's how I'm constructing it.
I also planned on dunking my head under the water as I was swimming to cut the glare down and allow me to see the ocean bottom if it rises near the surface. Really I'm looking for a shallow place as much as a reef, and as long as that shallow place is outside the ring of the lava flow I'm not too picky. I figure that a depth of fifteen feet is as much as I can hope to overcome with the materials on hand, and even that may be too much for me.
It takes about a week for you to finish the raft, and it's not the best raft, but it floats, and does so with you and your gear on it.
The same day you launch your raft, the smoke vanishes from the top of the volcano.
You still have not found a reef, although you've only covered about eight miles of coastline, and the coastline is getting farther from your base camp every day.
--M. J. Young
I'm pretty much going to continue with what I'm doing as far as looking for a reef and day to day activities, with the addendum that I'm going to also be mapping the coastline as I go. I don't expect an exact map but I want to mark landmarks that could be useful such as large bamboo groves, fallen tree's and fresh water.
You are awakened early the next morning. You're not certain quite why; it's as if you've been shaken. Your things are a bit knocked about as well.
How are you making this map? Include such details as the materials you are using and the methodology and intended accuracy.
--M. J. Young
I want a rough outline of the island, not necessarily to scale but at least placing important landmarks like streams, large outcroppings or boulder's, large stands of bamboo or other trees, as well as downed trees. I'm using the one of the notebooks and the pens I brought with me to do the mapping.
I figure that the disturbance was an earthquake, something that I'm definate is a warning sign of volcanic activity. I ask Michael if he felt anything to confirm it, and look around for any downed tree's or disturbed boulders. I'm guessing it was a minor tremor since I didn't get woken up enough to really experience it.
"Yes," Michael confirm, "we had a tremor this morning, not too bad, not hear what it was in San Francisco in--oh, and the smoke has stopped, so I'd say the pressure must be building. We don't have much time left, unless something shifts in a way that lets the pressure out gently."
You've managed to map and examine eight or nine miles of coastline, and have not yet reached the other end. Have you any changes to make to your routine?
--M. J. Young
At this point I'm going to step up my coast line exploration and double the amount of coastline I cover in a day. I agree with Michael that something is going to happen soon with the volcano, and if there is a possibility that I can find a way to survive an eruption I would like to try. So I'm also going to begin expanding the raft by creating another couple of platforms. I don't think I ever asked, but are there any other islands on the horizon?
There are no other islands in view, and the sea birds seem to congregate around this one, going out within sight to fish and returning.
Your efforts to build a second raft keep falling apart--vines snap, knots slip, the wood doesn't mesh together. After a week of attempts you are no closer to having two than you were when you began.
You round the end of the island and are making your way back the next week when you find a bit of a reef--not much, nothing like the thousands-of-years coral reefs people explore, but the beginnings of coral and barnacles clinging to a rock outcropping on the slope, about fifty yards off shore, maybe fifty feet long and five or six wide where it roots on the floor.
--M. J. Young
I want to create something semi-permanent to leave behind so I'm going to start working on a large sign. I want to cut a hole in the coral that I can put a post into. I will bind ten long bamboo poles together with vines and use them as the post. I will have to dig the coral out with my utility knife while holding my breath, so I know it will take a while. I plan on making the hole as deep as possible but at least a foot deep and packing the edges with the cast off coral to steady the pole. At the top of the pole I'm going to create a sign made out of bamboo slats that I split with my knife. Each slat will be thin but I should be able to bind them together with strips of vine. Instead of paint I'm going to have to carve into the bamboo. Once I'm done with the sign and post I'll have to decide what to write on it.
It may be that my experience is warped, because I never dealt with fresh bamboo; however, every bamboo rod I ever had (and I've had quite a few) was mostly hollow--sections between eight and fourteen inches long with solid spots at the joints. If that experience is correct, then splitting bamboo will give you hollow half-pipes.
As I say, you might know something about bamboo that I do not (such as that the core deteriorates rapidly when it dries?), but I'm inclined to think you can't easily make flat strips of bamboo that way. If I'm mistaken, show me something that says so.
Although you have no problem getting down to the reef, it crumbles away when you chip into it. The knife does not seem the tool for the job, or else the coral is not dense enough to hold.
--M. J. Young
I did leave out an important step when I talked about making my sign. What I have to do is split the bamboo in half then dig out the joints. Then while the bamboo is still fresh you cut partially into the inside and then flatten it with a large rock. Let it sit for a day or so and while it dries it will harden into it's new shape. It doesn't make perfectly flat slats but they are a lot better than a half pipe of bamboo.
Cool. Have you done this before? It sounds like you either have skill in woodworking that doesn't appear on your sheet, or you've got knowledge in the area from which to learn the skills. Which do you suppose is the better description?
--M. J. Young
I really don't have much of a skill in woodworking but I have played around with bamboo before since there was a stand of bamboo out back of the house I lived in when I was a kid. Me and my brothers tried a bunch of stuff with it, including trying to create a tree fort out of it. The stuff we had was very thin and green and didn't work too well, but I know that there are older bamboo patches that get thicker and taller when left alone. I'm assuming that the patches I've found on the island have been there a couple of years at least and haven't been cut back year after year like the one I had to work with as a kid.
I'll give you a 1@4 low amateur skill in build with bamboo, placing it at T2@1.
Unfortunately, you have a terrible time getting the bamboo to cooperate. You feel like it was easier to work with the stuff when you were little, which makes very little sense, but that's how it feels.
Where are you working on this, relative to such landmarks as Michael's camp?
--M. J. Young
For the sign and the pole I'm working in the camp, since I can always load them on my raft and take them over that way.
Since the reef didn't work out too well I'm going to start trying to build another raft a couple of hours a day while also looking for a cave of some kind. Actually, I'm looking for something very specific. I want to find a cave that is near an old lava flow without being in it's path. I'm hoping for a place that will hopefully be safe from an eruption, such as a cave in the side of a cliff on the coastline.
That night you are awakened in the darkness. The world is shaking violently. The moonlight has been occluded, but a red glow in the sky shows you your immediate surroundings.
You hear what sounds like it might be a battle cry coming from the direction of Michael's camp.
--M. J. Young
I grab my zatoichi and run up to his camp. When I'm about fifty meters out I remember that he's borderline paranoid (probably well over the border actually) and heavily armed so I shout "Michael, it's Drew, don't shoot!" Hopefully he hears me and decides to hold his fire rather than going for the shoot first, ask questions of the survivors method.
You move into view of Michael's camp. You can see lava flowing down the mountain, and Michael charging toward it, swinging a large object that looks something like an oversized crowbar with a spiked end.
Hot gas fills your lungs. There is a searing pain, and you feel your consciousness slipping from you.
--M. J. Young
I think I know what Michael is doing but I don't feel right just leaving him to it. Also, I pretty much know that there's no chance of me surviving since I never managed to create a boat big enough to get off the island. I try to follow him as best I can and hopefully get a quick, if not painless death.
You take a few steps up the slope, lose consciousness with your lungs searing, and (I should get a flexibility rating from you, but it's not urgent) we need to take this to a new thread, Andrew the Wanderer.
--M. J. Young