John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 3

I tried to relax as the plane took off. I really didn't know what to expect or when to expect it. It was all so normal to the other passengers. I had to try and act like it was normal for me too.

After we reached our altitude the seat belt sign went off and I unbuckled. The attendant came by and I asked for a beer. The red head must have developed a fascination with watching poor people, as she obviously considered me. I could barely hear her snide comment about me asking for beer just before the attendant reached her. Of course she had to have champagne. Good I thought to myself. A toast for the dying.

Two more beers and about an hour and a half later I sensed Argent's voice in my head.

"Sit back and pretend to fall asleep John. It's nearly time."

My heart lurched in my chest and I could feel the sweat start in my armpits. I leaned back and tried to pretend sleep but I knew that if anyone were paying any attention to me they would be able to tell that I was faking. They were all going to die so I don't guess it really mattered. I felt a strong shock to the plane and suddenly it seemed to dive to the left and sharply down. The red head had just started in with a loud scream as I materialized in the chair in the room with polished metal walls.

"I hope that wasn't too stressful John." Argent said.

"Just the tension and the expectation of doom really. The actual events were anticlimactic. I suppose I would feel differently if I were still on the plane." I replied.

"Indeed. The plane will not strike the ground for another twenty seconds. I'm sure there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth inside it now."

"You didn't make it explode just for my getaway did you?" I had to ask.

"No. It was as we told you. A bomb was planted on it by terroist. If, for some reason, it hadn't exploded we would have had to find another way to cover your exit." Argent told me.

"You could have stopped it if you wanted to?" I asked somewhat accusingly.

"That would have been within our capabilities but we don't intefere in anything that isn't absolutely necessary for us. The plane would have been lost even without your presence. It was just a convenient circumstance for our purpose." Argent explained.

"What happens now?" I asked.

"We would like for you to return to the table for some final adjustments to your body."

"What type of adjustments?" I asked.

"We will effectively be making you younger. We will also modify your immune system to eliminate the possibility of you becoming ill. We will also make sure you carry no disease that would place a hardship on those you will encounter. We are quite familiar with human diseases and their appearance would not serve any purpose in our experiment." Argent explained.

"How long until I'm released?" I wanted to know.

"It can be as soon as three hours. We can delay it for as much as forty-eight hours if you feel the need to rest or if you want to reconsider your supplies or even if you want to reconsider taking part. I should warn you that when you are released you will no longer be allowed to opt out." Argent told me.

"Oh I'm in for the duration now. In fact I'm actually looking forward to it. There's nothing like the alternative of a slow lingering death to make a project look attractive." I told Argent.

He led me back through the sliding wall panel and I mounted the table again and put on the helmet. I was out of it instantly.

I came back later but I didn't know how much time had passed. Removing the helmet let me get off the table. Looking at myself in one of the polished panels surprised me. It appeared that my age was around twenty or twenty-one. My height was the same as it had been. I was much heavier and more muscular though. I estimated that my weight was now around two-twenty and I didn't appear to be carrying any fat at all.

"How long now Argent?" I asked.

"Anytime you are ready John. Do you want to reconsider your supplies?" Argent asked.

"I think I should take a last look. Do you have a list handy?"

"Yes. Here it is." Argent said and handed me a printout.

"We thought that you might be more comfortable going over an actual printed list."

"Thanks."

I spent three hours going over the list and trying to think of anything else I might need. When I'd finished I told Argent that I was ready.

"There is one difficulty waiting for you on the surface John. Hyenas currently occupy the cave you selected. There are six of them in it consuming two young horses that they killed this morning. If we put you and your wagon inside the cave we estimate that you will not be able to retrieve and load a weapon from the wagon before you are attacked by the hyenas and probably killed. Would you like for us to put you somewhere else?" Argent asked.

I thought about this for a minute. I had spent a lot of time looking over the map and I knew that this was the best location of any in the specified area. I didn't want to put the wagon outside the cave because it would be a real bitch trying to move it into the cave by myself.

"Do all of the supplies have to be transferred inside the wagon?" I asked.

"No. That is not a requirement."

"Good, let me take a few with me and put the wagon inside the cave as planned. Put me down outside the cave right here." I told Argent while pointing to a spot on the map.

"Very well. You may proceed to the wagon and remove the things you think you will need."

Argent led me through a couple of corridors and to a large open room that contained my new wagon. It was the first time I had actually seen it and I spent a minute or two looking it over. The workmanship impressed me.

I was about to open the top and start digging for what I wanted when Argent pointed out that I could just tell them what I needed and they would transport it out without the need to search for it. I requested a pair of high top hunting boots. Some jeans and a long sleeved denim shirt, underwear and so on. I asked for a pair of gloves and my alien modified model 1100 Remington 12 gauge. The only modification to the shotgun was extending the magazine. There was no three-shell limit here and the Remington now held twelve in its magazine. I also had them get me my low light goggles.

I had specified that the wagon have a very loud alarm horn with motion sensors for triggers. I asked Argent to put me down first and to set my wagon in the cave five minutes later. I dressed, loaded the shotgun and signaled that I was ready.

Suddenly I was in a small clump of bushes about two hundred yards from the mouth of the cave. I took a quick look around and headed for the caves mouth. I stopped just outside it and waited for the alarm.

The wagon must have appeared right on time. The alarm sounded loudly and in seconds frightened hyenas were dashing out. I was able to down each of them as they came out. I waited until the alarm stopped, put on the low light goggles and entered the cave.

Jesus it smelled bad in here. Apparently this was a regular hangout for the hyenas. There were bones, tattered hides and hyena shit everywhere. I would have to clean the place out before I could hope to stay in it.

I opened the wagon top and thought about what I'd need first. Illumination. A little light on the subject. The fuel cell was in the right rear corner of the wagon. Just outside the wagon from it was a socket to place a twelve-foot by one-inch titanium tube. My light post. I fished it out and attached the super efficient florescent light fixture that the Aliens had provided. I set it up and plugged it in and there was light.

I found my yard broom and my rake and a square point shovel and retrieved them. I had to laugh for a few seconds. Here I was forty thousand years ago with a yard broom and a rake that would cost at least two thousand dollars each in the world I'd left. I'd found that I could save a lot of weight by substituting titanium for steel where ever I could.

It took nearly three hours to get rid of the stinking rotting shitty mess. The smell didn't leave with the refuse. I decided a fire would be the best cure for that. Near the entrance but back far enough to be out of any wind looked like a good place to me. I rummaged around outside and was able to find enough rocks to make a nice circular fireplace.

Next I needed something to burn. I took an axe and a bow saw with me and found a dead fall that had dried out but wasn't rotten yet. By the time I'd cut enough wood to matter I was cursing myself for not asking the aliens for a chainsaw that would run on water. It took several trips to carry the wood back to my cave but I soon had a small fire in the pit. It wasn't needed for warmth; I was hoping it would soon at least mask the stench.

I went back outside the cave taking the shotgun with me. I wanted to look around a little. I also had a Glock with me in a cross draw holster, right in front of my belt buckle. I'd brought the low light goggles in a pouch at my side and I also had probably the finest pair of binoculars that had ever been produced.

The particular area I was in was composed of scattered canyons that relieved a practically flat floor. There were scattered small forest around and it was just to the north of a fairly large steppe like plane.

While I was out I ranged no further than a half mile from my camp. I used the glasses on each small high spot I came to and watched closely for any sign of humans. I saw none at this time. I was a little more than ten miles from a Cro-Magnon settlement and about twelve miles in the other direction from a Neanderthal cave. I knew that I would have to make contact with both eventually but I wanted to do it after I'd had a little more time to prepare my home.

Knowing that I needed to get started on a couple of important projects in the morning sent me in to warm a little supper and then sleep. I smiled to myself again as I warmed a fifty cent can of Ranch Style beans in what would have surely been at least a five hundred dollar titanium pan. I completed the meal with a not quite delicious Salisbury steak that had been sterilized with radiation so that it didn't require refrigeration. Yum.

inflated my air mattress in the center of the wagon and unrolled my sleeping bag. I removed a few of the screw in plugs in the sides of the wagon and turned on a tiny exhaust fan that would insure I didn't suffocate in the night then I closed the wagon's top back down and locked it from the inside. I'd banked the fire and set the light to come back on if the motion sensor activated. I'd also turned down the alarm's volume significantly.

My rest went undisturbed thankfully and looking out one of the ventilation holes let me know that the sun was on its way up when I woke. I opened the wagon, dressed and got out. When it was fully light outside I went out to water a bush.

I had planned on eating from my supplies for the first few days at least but when I stepped out of the cave I saw a large deer grazing not more than two hundred yards from me. I went back to the wagon and retrieved my Alien improved M1. It was basically an M1.30-06. It's stock was synthetic however and its barrel was stainless steel. I'd also had the aliens modify it to use removable magazines similar to those used by and M16. They held twenty cartridges instead of the M1's normal eight rounds. The rifle no longer had to be loaded through the receiver and now the magazine could just be changed by releasing and empty one and replacing it with a full one. It sported a four to ten power scope also. I took a rest on the side of the cave entrance and dropped the deer with one shot.

I quickly took a leak and then went to the deer. I drug it back near the cave and strung it up for cleaning in a tree near the entrance. I gutted and skinned it and left it hanging to cool off a little. I'd have to keep an eye out for more hyenas and other scavengers until I found a good place to put it but I just couldn't pass up this obvious gift of fresh meat.

I had intended to look for something I'd wanted to bring with me but wasn't allowed to. While I'd been studying the map in preparation I'd located several places that were marked as wolf dens. The time of year was right for young pups just now and capturing a couple to tame and train was high on my list of things to do. A couple of tame wolves would be a lot of help to me, not to mention company.

Now it looked like staying close today and trying to get started plugging that big hole at the front of my new home was the order of the day. There were small relatively straight trees nearby and getting enough of them to the entrance to frame up for a stockade type front wall wasn't a poblem. A door large enough for the wagon to exit wasn't in my plans. By the time traveling in the wagon was in order I could just cut out enough wall to leave. Framing up the wall, building the door and hanging it was done before dark. Tomorrow would be soon enough to finish covering the wall.

I brought the deer carcass inside and cut off a haunch to cook. A small grill over the fire gave me a place to put the meat for cooking. While the meat was on I finished cutting up the rest of the deer. Later I warmed up some more beans and had them with the venison. It beat the hell out of an irradiated Salisbury steak.

I banked the fire again and then shut myself up in the wagon to sleep. The alarm woke me three times during the night. I never did get a peek at what set if off so I figured the fire, the light and the noise was doing a good job of scaring creatures off.