*** Chapter 11 day 14 Moses - David - Samuel ***

“Have you spotted it?” David asked.

“I see the red flag,” Moses replied. They had modified a telescope so that they could measure the third dimensional angle of the direction it pointed at. For the last few days they have been mapping the world around them using flags and the telescope. The map is third dimensional.

The process is simple, they set up the telescope on top of the house, making sure that it would remain stationary and could not be moved, then they went around and placed flags, colored shirts on tree limbs. Moses turned out to be very good at finding the flags, it would take him just a couple of minutes to find them even though they couldn’t be spotted with the naked eye. Once they had the angle and direction they would then measure out the distance using multiple flags in between the telescope, the point of origin, and the main flag.

Here is where Samuel became incredibly invaluable, he was not even in highschool, nor had he ever studied geometry, but the math seemed to come incredibly easy to him. He had managed to simplify the mapping so that within a day they could radially map everything within the sight of the telescope.

Sneaking him out was somewhat difficult, but without him the mapping couldn’t be done, for Moses the mapping had become something of an obsession. Every day that they would manage to ghost Samuel, Santos’ younger brother, out of the house and into the mountain forest they would gather enough data to map a couple square miles.

Whenever they couldn’t sneak him out, both Moses and David, would help Samuel draw out what data they had collected. They had mapped up all the way to the bamboo forest and all the way south where they discovered a second and much larger lake.

Today, they were mapping from a cliff that gave them a view of some of their markers around the lake as well as a view of what lay beyond the mountains. There was a vast forest beyond with a forked river cutting through it. Yesterday, Moses and David set up some flags in the forest, because they did not manage to sneak out Samuel and they decided that they might as well set up for the next day. It had been two days since they had managed to get Samuel out and by then the young boy had already managed to draw out most of the data. The map was slowly starting to show a lot of what the world looked like.

“Hmm,” Moses hummed, as he messed with the telescope’s setting. “Readjusting the setting...there seems to be something messing with the red flag. Switching magnification...getting a closer loooook…”

“What is it?” David asked.

“I can’t tell,” he replied. “The tree branches are in the way. We’ll have to go reset that marker.”

“That was the last marker,” Samuel said.

“I’ll go check it out,” Moses said. “David, take Samuel back.”

“You sure you want to be out there alone?” David asked, concerned. It was rare for the two to be apart, especially whenever they were out beyond the house.

“Yeah,” he said, “don’t worry about it.”

Moses picked up the air rifle that was his constant companion on his outings and started making his way down the path that would take him into the forest below. David was nowhere near fast enough to keep up so he relented to allowing his cousin to travel alone and started helping Samuel pick up their tools and supplies so that they could head back.

With practised ease, Moses moved through the forest like a blur, it was rare for him to get a chance to move at such speeds with David by his side all the time, but whenever he could run without holding back it felt exhilarating. In half the time it would have taken if he was allowing David to keep pace with him, he appeared at the spot where they had set up the red flag.

The flag was nowhere to be seen, neither the cloth nor the string he had used to tie it to a high up branch. This was a considerable loss, they were using clothes that they had found in some boxes stuffed in the attic that used to belong to his younger brother, but had already outgrown. It was a limited resource as clothing was already sparse, to lose the clothes they were using as flags was a rather hefty blow.

Whatever had taken it couldn’t be far off, it had only taken him fifteen minutes or so to get there and he had been running. He started looking around for any signs that he could track down to a source responsible for the act. The first thing he noticed was the freshly peeled off bark marks on the tree, something had climbed it.

Immediately alert, he scanned the area with the rifle to make sure he wasn’t about to get surprised. Ground level was clear and after a second of looking upwards, there didn’t appear to be anything on the nearby trees.

To get a better view he decided to climb the tree and scan with the rifle from there to try and spot where the creature might be. The canopies were clear and as far as he could see and there were no signs of creatures or the cloth.

He was about to give up when he spotted a moving object with his scope, he retraced the target, but could only catch glimpses of it as it was too far away and there was too much in between them. Not wanting to lose the target he scampered off the tree and started running in the direction of it. He moved swiftly and silently.

He was worried about losing the target, but it did not appear to be aware of him as he continued to gain on it. When he finally caught sight of it he was surprised, not because of the kind of creature it was, but because it wasn’t a creature, it was a person, a girl maybe his age. She wore tribal leather clothing, her skin was brown, but not as dark as his own, and her long black hair swayed behind her. In her hands he could see the red cloth.

He continued to track her avoiding making his presence known. She was moving at a jogging speed, nothing too hard to keep up with.

The further he followed her the more he felt that she was not alone, this feeling was proven true once he spotted the smoke plumes. There were several and once they got close enough other people began to appear, here is where Moses felt that he could travel no closer without risking getting caught, so before he could be spotted he disappeared back into the forest. He slinked away keeping himself hidden and silent until he was far enough to break into an outright run.

He raced all the way back, but kept track of where the people could be found, it wasn’t that difficult thanks to the map that they were making. When he got back he told David and Samuel what he had seen and placed an approximation mark on the map.

*** Family ***

“So what is it that you want to show us?” George asked his son.

They had cleared away the dinner table where the men gathered after dinner and layed down a stack of papers on it. Samuel and David began spreading out the sheets, the papers were protected by plastic sleeves, Moses had raided his father’s office for the copy paper and sleeves that now composed the map they looked upon.

A few quickly recognized what they were looking at, others took a little more time.

“We’ve been working on mapping out everything we can see,” Moses explained. “We’ve got the general areas so far, like the lakes and the bamboo forest. However, today, while we were working on mapping parts of the second lake we came across people. They are located somewhere around here.”

He pointed to a spot southwest of the second lake.

“How many?” his uncle, Raphael, asked. His expression was creased in worry.

“I do not know,” Moses replied. “I only saw a few of them and I couldn’t get closer without getting caught.”

“So this is what you have been doing when you're gone from the house?” his mother, Gloria, accused. “Is losing Santos not enough that you too want to join your cousin?”

“Gloria!” George silenced her, his eyes glanced towards his brother Raphael and his wife who was in the kitchen and had apparently not heard her comment. Raphael took it in stride, he didn’t show any reaction to the comment.

Moses’ mother fumed, but knew that her words had gone a little too far when she only wanted to admonish her son for putting himself in danger, she didn’t want to be the next mother with a dead son.

“The ones I could see looked like tribal people,” Moses added, changing the somber atmosphere. “I don’t know about their numbers, but I don’t think they have weapons above sticks and stones.”

“Did they follow you?” George asked.

“No,” he replied. “I don’t think they ever even knew I was there.”

“Then there is nothing to worry about,” George stated.

“What about the flag?” David spoke up. Moses’ expression turned grim, he hoped his cousin wouldn’t say anything about it.

“What flag?” Raphael asked.

“We’ve been using Edgar’s old shirts as flags for mapping,” David explained. “We were mapping when they took one of the flags.”

“So they know we are here?” George asked, his anger rising.

“Calm down brother,” Raphael placed an arm on his shoulder. “They don’t know where we are, just that they aren’t alone, the same as us.”

“With the exception that we do know where they are,” Moses pointed out.