Over the next months, this became a pattern. Ham and his friends would reach another village. Ham would ask about the Lightbringer. With no luck. Some of the group would elect to stay in the village, and some from the village would elect to travel with Ham and his group. Martin remained a constant. Ham [...]
For the next three days, Ham and Walt and June and even Martin taught the six from Lost how to survive on their own. More importantly, though, they taught them how to learn. When they were done, Lyle asked “Can I go with you?” Lorna, Larry, and Lynn each said “Me, too?” Link and Lonny [...]
After pulling some of their food out of their packs to share with the other Huddlers, Ham said to the leader, “Follow me.” Ham led the other Huddler to the apple tree, and showed him how to pick an apple. With apparent fear and unease, the other Huddler reached up and pulled loosed a rich, [...]
The other Huddler standing almost directly in front of Ham, maybe two paces away, said “We’re hungry. Give us food.” This caught Ham completely by surprise. After all, there was food all around – hanging from trees, growing in the ground. In fact, not ten paces from where they stood was an apple tree, with [...]
For the first couple of days, the small group found the traveling to be pretty much the same as what Ham and Martin had found before. Much of it was new to Walt and June, but quickly they adjusted to being outside their village of Wait and to seeing new things. They all slept under [...]
The morning came, the travelers met at the center of the village, and Hal and Rachel joined them. Hal cocked his head to the left, looked at Ham, cocked his head to the right, said “…thanks” and, smiling sadly, brought his head back to the center. Rachel, in her now-usual position leaning against Hal, shrugged [...]
They sat in companionable silence for a time. Rachel sat close to Hal, shoulders touching. Ham noticed that Rachel was carrying a staff in one hand, and was pretty sure that it was new. Hal cocked his head to the left, looked at Ham, smiled briefly, cocked his head to the right, looked at Rachel, [...]
