[Mkguild] Hunting the Ice Age part 8

[cokane8116 at aol.com]

     Since getting a famous tv show host and hiscrew trampled to death by a rampaging elephant was considered a bad idea; Jonathanand his crew were left back at the ambush point. The hunt and chase was filmedby a drone flying high overhead.    Barbara, who was flying the drone stoodnearby with the rest of the humans. She was calling out information likeannouncer at a football game. “There not too far away. About a mile. Boy is hemoving fast.”    Jonathan’s sensitive wolf ears picked up thesounds of horns in the distance. Then he saw points of light bouncing about.They grew larger as the hunting party got closer.    “Stay sharp!” Kristen ordered. “This iswhere it gets ugly.”    There was a rumbling that he more feltthrough his paws than heard. Then there was the crashing of trees and voicesshouting.    The voices and sounds grew louder andsuddenly two trees went crashing to the ground and the mammoth charged intoview. A half dozen horses and elk were scattered alongside and behind him. Eachwith a rider.    One elk moved closer and her rider stood upin the saddle and tossed a spear then pulled away. The projectile hit themammoth and lodged there for a moment before falling out. Unphased, theelephantine creature charged onward.    They mammoth quickly came up to the trap andcharged straight into it. The mammoth stopped suddenly, just short of theditch.  It seemed to pause to considerhis options. He turned around sharply, in a move that was surprisingly fast andagile for something so large.    A group humans and predators were clusteredby the opening to the trap. They had expected it to be caught up in the ditch.It wasn’t.    The mammoth trumpeted loudly and chargedstraight at them. The group saw 6 tons of fur, muscle and tusks coming at themlike a living avalanche.    “BACK OFF!” BACK OFF!” Paul ordered betweencurses.    “SCATTER!” One of the lions shouted. “Lethim pass and escape.”

   This male didn’t want to escape.    Enraged, he wanted to fight and take out hisfrustrations on these annoying, little creatures. He charged a man who wasn’tquick enough. The mammoth swung his huge head and caught the hunter dead squarein the chest with one of his ten-foot-long tusks. The hapless man was tossedinto the air and sent flying into a snowbank.    He swung his head back in the oppositedirection and caught a pair of sabretooths’ and the woman with them. All flewin different directions like leaves in the wind. Trying to avoid those ivoryweapons. Humans and animals scattered, some running others tossed by themammoth.    Jonathan looked up to see the monstrouscreature bearing down on him, trumpeting loudly and out for blood. He turnedand started to sprint away but didn’t make it. One of the massive tusks caughthim on the side and sent him tumbling into a group of bushes.    Sabrina fumbled in her bag for a moment;finding everything but the one item she wanted. Finally her fingers wrappedaround the plastic handle of the flare gun. Pulling it out she fumbled for amoment trying to load the cartridge.    One of the sabertooth’s was lying still inthe snow with a second standing over. The mammoth charged intent on killingboth.    Two humans rushed forward with long spears andjabbed the trunk and face of the massive creature. Intent on defending theirfriends. With their life if need be.    The mammoth paused for a moment, surprisedby the sharp pain in a sensitive place. This was new to him. Something so smallshouldn’t cause so much pain.    After what seemed an eternity the flarecartridge slid in and she closed the gun with a click. She aimed the gun at thehead of the rampaging beast.     The mammoth was trying to rush the humansand felines but the sharp points of the spears and their wielder’sdetermination kept it at bay. For the moment.    She pulled the trigger.    Whump! The cartridge shot out the tube and abright, orange light hissed as it streaked across the distance between them. Byluck and aim it hit the mammoth in the side of the head. The flare bounced offand dropped to the ground. It hissed loudly as orange smoke billowed outcompeting with the light given off for attention.    The strange sights and sounds frightened thecreature as nothing else had. The mammoth turned and charged away leaving atrail of shattered trees and injured people in his wake.    There was a profound silence for severalmoments broken only but for the fall of a tree limb.    "So that delivery place in Bangor,” Philipasked slowly. The cave lion was lying in a heap nearby. “Do you have acoupon?"    “Everyone check in!” Kristen called out.“Who’s hurt?” The leopard slowly stood up from the pile of snow where she hadbeen thrown.    “Everyone,” came the sharp answer.    “Guys?” Jonathan asked and looked around forhis TV crew. “Allen, Barbara. Fred?”    “We’re fine,” the woman said. The trio wereoff to one side. “We got it all on film!”    “Call out!” The leopard ordered.    “All the lions are fine,” Philip said. “Exceptfor some cuts and bruises.”    “We prey species are all right,” Cezaryresponded. “Thank God for nimble hooves and strong muscles.”    “How can something that big turn so fast!”    “Last time I was attacked by something thatbig it had treads and a turret,” someone muttered.    “Philip is not moving,” a woman said in apained tone.    They all turned to find a woman kneelingover the prone form of a man. A spear lay next to him. As broken as it’s owner.    Kristen cursed in several languages. Shesprinted over to the two. In moments she was joined by a half dozen others.Human and animal.    Philip was laying still but there was a tearin the fur jacket he had on from which blood was seeping. His clothes weretorn, ripped and covered with mud and blood.    “Get the medevac here NOW?” The leopardordered.    Tobias pulled out a modern looking canvasbag. Opening it he took out several things and started examining the man. “Atleast four broken ribs and a deep laceration. Definite concussion. He’ll be allright but I’ll need to get him to the hospital.”    “Sasha is hurt too,” Reuben said. “Brokenright front leg and a broken shoulder blade.” The man was kneeling over theprone form of a sabertooth. A second was sitting next to them.    “Stabilize him and we’ll put him on thechopper with Philip,” Kristen ordered. “There’s room.”    “What about Cindy? She won’t leave him,”Reuben asked.    “There’s room for her too,” Kristenresponded. “Never argue with a thousand pounds of angry wife.”    Jonathan and his crew were off to one side.“Well,” the TV host said to the camera. “The first hunt went badly. No one waskilled but I learned just how fast a wolf can run. With the right motivation.”     “Having a six-ton hairy mountain chasing youwas great motivation. My shoulder is fractured and I have a minor concussion.I’m not in any pain. Courtesy of a painkiller I was just given. I did learn onething today. I learned that wolves can fly!”    “Unfortunately, I was upside down, screamingand my legs flailing as I was thrown twenty feet by that tusk.” He commented.“Still I wonder if it counts towards my frequent flier miles?”    Darrell was carefully and skillfully tendingto the wolf’s right side. There was a foot-long gash there that he wasstitching closed. The man worked with the skill of a long-practiced doctor.    “I didn’t know you were a doctor,” Jonathansaid. Trying to take his mind off the wound the black man was sewing closed.    The man smiled. “Well, technically I’m not.”    Jonathan looked at the camera for a moment.“So . . “ he said slowly. “Medicine is a hobby? A good one I hope.”    Darrell laughed. “I was a Green Beret forfive years. Technically I am a combat medic but I’m qualified up to surgerylevel.”    “Ah, so you’ve done this before,” Jonathansaid, relieved.    Plenty of times,” the man responded. “Thisis simple. No one is shooting at us.”    “That’s reassuring.”    Darrell finished with the suturing. >From hisbackpack he took out a large very modern looking item of plastic and metal.Carefully he placed it on the injured shoulder. “This is a sonic healingenhancement. With it you’ll get a months’ worth of healing in a few minutes.”    “Stone age medicine?”    He laughed. “I am all for recreating thepast but I have my limits.”    “Thank God for modern medicine.”    The device started to hum and the soundseemed to go right through him. He felt his whole body relaxing as the painvanished. “Oh! That’s nice!”    He man smiled. “I’ll give you some painpills as you’ll really feel it in the morning.”    The rest of the pack clustered close aroundhim. Their closeness was reassuring.    How are you feeling?” Alisha asked.    “A little battered and bruised,” heresponded “But I’ll live. Anyone else hurt?”    Nicholas shook his head. “Aside from a fewbruises no. We managed to get out of the way.”    “Just barely,” Galina added. She picked upsomething from the ground and dropped it in front of Jonathan. “A gift for you.Your own Worry bone.”    Jonathan looked at the gift and found it wasa good-sized bone – over a foot long. It looked and smelled to be a be a beefbone.    “Gnawing on an old bone is really relaxing,”Galina explained.    “I hope you enjoy it,” Alisha joked. “Somecow gave her all.”    “The rest of her was delicious,” Nicholasadded.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.integral.org/archives/mkguild/attachments/20210119/b673961f/attachment-0001.html>