Insert Civilisation Here Part IV

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and relieved that we had found people, but, I didn’t know whether to trust them or not. I left my tent and saw Maria and her daughters sitting by the fire, which was still smoking. I walked over and said hello, and we started to talk. The conversation got onto how they got here, and Maria told me “Well my husband is Rod, We were holidaying with him at a local ranger station, so we could get out of the city, and he could continue working, that was just before the bombs hit, and when they did, Rod radioed Terry here, and within a day and a half we got here, and have been camping here ever since.”

“Since then, have you had any, encounters, with the cuprah cobra”, I struggled with the word.

“Chupracabra”, Maria finished.

“Yes those”, I said softly.

“Well, a couple of days into us staying here, we started to hear sounds, and a couple of days later they attacked, they took another cop that was here and”,-Just then, Terry came running up with a serious expression, but then it changed, and he was happy again, he just said “Hi guys”, and sat down, Maria stopped talking and we changed the subject onto stuff about me and what I did before coming here, such as my school and where we lived. Then, we were joined by Vera who came over, we could tell by her face something was up, because, everyone stopped talking.

“I heard some noises, just before, I didn’t know whether I should come tell you or not.”

“Always come tell us Vera, but the sun is up now, and they wouldn’t dare attack, but maybe tonight, that’s the way it went last time.” Terry’s voice trailed off. I had an idea.

“What if we set up some defences?”

“Defences?” Terry asked.

“Yeah you know, cut down some trees, and sharpen them, set up a defence line, and light more than one fire, they hate it, and their greasy skin is flammable.”

“How do you know that?” Maria piped in.

“I thought Geoff would have told you... We threw one into the fire when we encountered them, he lit up really fast.”

“I think this boy is onto something Terry”, I didn’t enjoy being called boy, but Vera didn’t notice and continued, “We have enough people here to do it in a day, and plus, it can’t do any harm, and it gives us something to do.”

“Alright, we’ll do it Will, but you had better be right. I don’t feel too good about cutting down these trees.”