Youth World

Chapter 4 – Even More Kids!

Lucas returned the friendly gesture.

"Alexander! I missed you so much as well. I ran into a few people that claimed that they knew where you were, so I followed their directions. Luckily, they were right. Heh, guess those weapons that I taught you how to build proved pretty effective."

"Hey! I was the one who came up with the sling and spear! It's just that your family

has been master bowyers for generations! Anyways, why did you come here? Shouldn't you be at your high school a few miles north of here?"

"Umm… about that…"

Something bad probably happened there, I'd ȧssume.

"Well, I'm in the middle of giving a demonstration on how to make a longbow. If you would care to take over from here, that'd be great. I'll go check on the spear makers, and I'll talk to you about what happened at your high school later. Until then, see you later!"

"I'd be happy to teach your followers how to make a good longbow! You need the type that can be made quickly, right?"

"Exactly."

I left the circle of teenagers that surrounded me and Lucas, and I went over to check up on the spear makers. Just as I was about to do so, about 500 partially covered kids emerged from behind some trees, all of them appearing to be elementary schoolers.

Great. Those kids from that elementary school nearby had arrived.

I quickly hurried over to the horde of elementary school kids that had shown up to our camp of sorts. One of them ran up to me and began blabbering.

"Yo, Alex! I heard that you guys were starting a camp, so we came here!"

I did volunteer at this elementary school, and I also occasionally bought treats for the kids, so it would make sense why they would know about me.

"Did the hunters tell you?"

"The hunters told us."

"Great, so my ȧssumptions were correct. Well, as you can see here, we're making weapons and preparing to hunt and gather. Do you guys want to be useful and do some work?"

"We'd love to do so!"

"On it! Hey guys, let's build some houses!"

"Yeah!!!"

The elementary schoolers began to scamper through the forest, fervently collecting sticks and twine and carrying them all over the place.

That was quite the distraction. What was I going to do again? Right. Check up on the spear makers.

They looked like they were making good progress. Many spears had been completed and were stacked like a teepee, with other complete examples being passed around to others who were struggling with their own construction. Many of the people who were done with their spears began to make slings, and others gathered around to watch Lucas' demonstration.

Lucas was currently bending the long stick, in order to find its optimal curve. Looks like things were going smoothly.

Suddenly, a thought came to my mind. Where was Aidan? Aidan should have been at school that day, but I hadn't seen him yet. About half the school's students left after the first hour or two, so maybe he was one of them?

Well, setting up a camp was more important at the moment, so that would be my main focus for now. Now that I think about it, there's no use in setting up a camp if everybody freezes to death. Should probably teach them how to make cedar bark clothing.

"Hey everybody!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "If you're done making your spears and are not making another weapon, please gather round! I have one last thing I have to show you guys!"

"Follow me."

I walked towards one of the numerous cedar trees, with the teenagers closely following me. After getting to the tree, I used the technique I had used earlier to make my own clothes to make another set of clothing, and I handed it to one of the taller tenth graders.

"Making a set of clothing requires a lot of craftsmanship and it isn't easy. However, if you think you're up to the task, please feel free to try. We should try to make enough clothing for at least half the group before night falls."

"Well," one ninth grader reasoned, "It's worth a shot. Don't want to die of hypothermia, after all."

"Cammy's right. I mean, I don't want to turn into a popsicle. Count me in."

"If Ally says she's in, I'm in."

A bunch of the teenagers, mostly girls, began to strip cedar bark from the trees. Many of the boys began gathering vines to help the girls in their endeavor.

So now, I had people out hunting, gathering water, making weapons, shelters and clothing. That's all I needed for a camp of 2,500 people, right? This was starting to look more like a shantytown than a camp at this point.

Oh yeah! We needed to have bonfires lit around the camp! Or not we'd freeze to death!

Since everybody else was hard at work, it only made sense for me to join in. Since nobody was making shields, how about I get to work?

Since Larry's gang were cutting down a bunch of trees, there was plenty of wood to spare. However, I needed some help to make a bunch of these shields. Since Larry's gang had already cut down almost a hundred trees, they could probably be put to work.

"Hey, Larry! Could you guys help me out for a second?"

"Sure thing Alex! What do you need?"

"I need you guys to help me make shields. They should be 35 inches in diameter, and have a strap made out of vines. You know those Viking shields? Yeah, make them like that. You think you could do that?"

"Well, making them does seem a bit difficult, but I think we could give it a try. What do you boys think!"

"Well, I don't see anything else we could do, so count us in!"

"That's superb! Just make as many shields as you can before the hunting party gets back. Then, be prepared to have the best dinner of your lives!"

Larry's gang went to the fallen trees and began grunting as they hacked portions of the tree into roughly circular patterns. Those guys were certainly the backbone of the group, being able to do anything at any time. Without them, we'd probably be screwed.

Some people were collecting straight sticks, but not for manufacturing weapons. Instead, two of them were put into an X pattern on each side, with an even longer stick placed on top of the center of the X that could be spun around. The meat that the hunters gathered would be spun around like a rotisserie above the fire, allowing all sides of it to be cooked. We would need a lot of these, though, since we had a buŧŧ ton of people in the camp.

Regarding food, some of the weaker individuals in our group were out collecting berries for us to eat. They were led by a boy scout who I knew was very knowledgeable about what was edible and what was not. I did spot some huckleberries and blueberries on the way here, so maybe if they washed them correctly, we would have ourselves a fiber-rich dinner.

I gathered some relatively large leaves to serve as plates for the food that was about to be prepared. Since the hunters were about to be back soon, it was time to make an announcement to the group.

Good thing that I had a loud voice. Some of my debate teammates even compared me to a megaphone as I destroyed some kids from another school in a discussion about philosophy.

I hopped on a tree stump and began my announcement.

"Culinary kids! Are there any culinary kids here! I need your attention!"

"We're here. What do you need?"

"Well, Anderson," I spoke to the tenth grader that had just replied to me, "I need you guys to set up all the cooking material and begin roasting the meat as soon as the hunting party gets back. Speaking of the hunting party, there they are!"

From this vantage point, I could tell that over a hundred kids dragging giant animal carcasses were approaching the northeastern edge of the camp. Although my eyesight was perfect, I couldn't make out exactly what animals they had killed. Some of them resembled deer and cows, but the others were hard to recognize.

This first day had gone pretty well so far. Surprisingly enough, counting high schoolers, middle schoolers, and elementary schoolers, there were only four deaths, and thirteen injured. Out of those injured, about half had recovered, so that was cool and all.

I decided to let the others handle cooking. It was concerning that the people tasked with getting fresh water hadn't returned yet, so it would probably be up to me to look for them. I mean, I think Lucas is competent enough to lead the group in my absence. At least I hope so.

If they didn't come back in the next 15 minutes, I'd have to depart. Hopefully they'd return before then.

In the meantime, maybe I could slightly modify my sandals. They didn't provide any coverage for the sides and front of my feet, and I might get cut and nicked by sharp objects if I wasn't careful. A few vines strung up in a proper manner would probably suffice. Luckily, there were vines and grasses with similar properties literally everywhere. That wouldn't take too long.

I quickly strung the vines together, tying some large leaves with them, and tied those to the straps that I already had on my sandals. Then, I repeated the process all around the sandal until there was only a small hole left, just big enough so I could slide my feet in. Finally, blisters and cuts would be no more!

Just as I began to jump around, testing my new creation, I heard a scream coming from the southern part of the camp.

"The water guys are back! And they brought hundreds of kids with them!"