Cesiator

A "Cape Summerland" story

By Thelma Mary Caroline

Jumping was nothing special.  We probably wouldn't have noticed if we hadn't been told to look out the window.

Dan and Casey stopped rolling.  They weren't allowed to film the jump.

So there we all were, inside the airplane, flying over some small town, and suddenly it disappered.  Undernieth us were strange trees, bushes, animals.  Strange everything.

Everyone was silent, at least at first.  Then cheering, then yelling.  Then, "look at that!  Look at that!"  I clamped my hands over my ears.  I disliked the noise.

We landed on a little strip in a settlement called Stonedale Village.  There were no people there, and never had been.  It had been bulit especially for the crew and the scientists to live.  All the comforts of home.

I stared in awe at everything around.  Pink trees, purple bushes.

Dan and Casey were rolling, catching everyone's expressions, and the beauty of the world around us.

"All right everyone.  When the orignal pioneers came here two years ago, they were all on foot!" Elle Jae announced loudly.  "All they could take with them was what they could carry!  They travelled seven miles until they found the perfect spot to settle -- Cape Summerland!  These piles of supplies" she gestured with her hand to bags of food, cages of chickens and other animals, "represent everything they brought with them on their journey:  food, blankets, animals.  Everything you can take with you to Cape Summerland is yours to keep.  There were fifty people, but there are less than twenty of you.  Chose wisely."

Everyone began clammoring and clattering over the piles.  I stayed on the sidelines for a moment, watching the camera men.  They, too, would be making the trip across the place.  It was probably eighty degrees out.

"All right, Laken, you put the chickens on a leash and lead them.  You're good like that."

I stared quizzically at Jess.  "Are you serious?"

"Yes, the rest of us are going to carry stuff.  We're bigger and stronger."

"Why not just build a sled?  It'd be easier."

"With what?" Sam asked, her eyes scanning the piles.  "These!  They're wheels!"

So we spend twenty minutes buliding a wide sled.  It would be difficult to pull, but with all of us working together ...

Olga, Danny, and Naomi packed it full of supplies:  heavy bags of food, wool blankets with cool designs, tools and our backpacks and suitcases.  Sam, Uncle Ham and me tied ropes securly so nothing would fall out.  Then we pulled.  We took turns, three groups total, switching every hundred yards or so.  It was really hard work.  At first no one complained, but then Danielle began whining that Zach wasn't doing any work.  Zach refused to pull.  Then Jess cried because no one was working as hard as she was, Danielle should just "shut the Hell up."  Wanda and Naomi joined in the whining.

All I could do was shake my head.  They had no right to complain.  Seven miles wasn't really that much.  Not with teamwork.

Mr. Eser didn't do much either.  He just smiled and waved at the cameras.  He wasn't really planning on staying anyway.  He was planning to leave as soon as everyone was settled at the Cape.

But somehow we got there.  Uncle Ham and I pulled it the last mile and a half by ourselves, helped only by Sam, who was pushing.

There we got our first glance of where we would be spending the next six months.