Youth World

Chapter 5 – First Dinner

Wait. Where did the water guys get a few hundred kids from? I had to see this for myself.

Grabbing a spear from the pile just to be safe, I sprinted in the southern direction away from all the culinary kids who were preparing the meat for consumption. Leaping over logs and sliding under tree branches, I arrived at the place where the sound was coming from.

Dang, that's a lot of kids. They were all elementary schoolers, too.

I think I know where they came from.

In this area, there are two elementary schools. One only teaches foreign languages, mainly Spanish, and the other is a regular one. The elementary schoolers that had arrived earlier were from the former, so this means that these ones must be from the latter. In fact, that school was on the same hill that my house was located on, but I hadn't bothered to swing by to check on them. Oopsies.

These kids were somewhat decently clothed, with loincloths made of leaves. Also, they were carrying chunks of meat and jugs of water, as well as a plethora of other things such as berries and mushrooms. Some were even carrying larger things, such as clay water stills. I should probably ask them why they tagged along.

The leader of the water guys greeted me after they saw me walk up to them.

"Hi, Alexander! We brought some company with us!"

"Yeah, I can tell. How about the rest of you bring the water to the culinary kids over there, and you stay and tell me why there's a bunch of kids with you?"

The horde of elementary schoolers gave a quick and concise reply.

"Yes sir!"

They sprinted towards the chefs, carrying all sorts of useful items for the camp. To be honest, I didn't really want elementary schoolers in the camp in the first place, but they have proven to be very useful and competent thus far, far exceeding my original expectations for them.

"So, Clint," I asked the leader of the water guys, "Where did you find all these kids?"

"We followed the Coal Creek all the way to its source, which is on a nearby hill or mountain, not sure which. There, we ran into a dozen or so kids from the elementary school, who led us back to their main group. After convincing them to join our cause, they followed us back to the stream's source, and we began to craft clay pots and fill them with water, which we purified using clay water stills. After we were done, we hunted and gathered for a bit before we came back here."

"Well, I got to give it to you. You did a great job getting water and supplies for us all, and also getting us some extra manpower. I'd say we have a good 3,000 people here now, give or take. Well, looks like they're almost done preparing dinner. Better hurry, or not we'll miss out!"

"Got it, boss. See you later!"

Boss, huh? People around here were really considering me to be their leader. Maybe it was just a series of fortunate events or my knowledge about survival, but people were beginning to place their trust in me. That was a good thing.

Not wanting to be left out of dinnertime, I hurried towards the swarm of people that were holding large pieces of leaves, those evidently serving as plates to hold the meat and berries. However, being the great leader that I was, I was going to let everybody go first before me. And to emphasize that point, I would help the culinary kids serve the food.

"Hey, Anderson! Mind if I help you guys out?"

"Gee, that'd be much appreciated! Dude, do you see how many kids there are? At this rate, it's gonna take an hour to serve them all! And we used to call the school lunch line bad."

"Alright then. I'll cut all the pieces of meat, and you serve them. Let's go as fast as possible."

I sat crisscrossed on the ground, chopping and slicing away at the giant cooked cadavers of the animals. Since we had sent hundreds of people out to hunt, they brought back quite a lot of prey. The cow and buffalo hide could be used to make teepees, the bones could be used to make tools and weapons, the tendons could be used to make stews, and oh… the horns… those would make amazing composite bows to be used for mounted archers.

If we wanted to be a strong group, we needed to make adequate use of animal labor. To do that, a mounted archer corps that can be easily maneuvered to defeat enemies would be crucial. Luckily, I knew for a fact that many of the people at my school were diehard equestrians, so we had a leg up in that aspect. Since this school was so rich in comparison to other public schools, many of the upper middle-class families had their own horses.

As I continued to ardently dice and mince the meat, I began to ponder and devise military strategies and technologies for our group to use. Since everybody else in the region would probably be like us, they'd be pretty weak and unadvanced. That means that we need the technological edge. Most likely, we were the most advanced group in the entire area at this point in time, but we needed even better weapons. Hmm… What would be a good weapon that would tip the scales in our favor?

After handing a cut piece of meat to the culinary kids, I came up with a stellar idea. It was a bit far fetched and would require an intense effort from much of the group, but it might work.

We needed mountain guns. That's right, cannons. A few of them would suffice. If you showed up to a battlefield with brass muzzle loading cannons, I could guarantee the other side might flee without a fight. Let's see, there's a lot of copper and zinc in this area, so brass wouldn't be too hard to make. Besides, we live in an area with tons of volcanoes, so that meant there was a lot of sulfur. Potassium nitrate could be found in caves with plenty of bats, which were quite common in this state, and we had trees absolutely everywhere which would provide us with charcoal. Yes! Making cannons would actually be possible!

"Hey, Alex! Can you pass us more meat!"

I was distracted by my strain of thoughts. Anyways, as I was saying, cannons would be a big help on the battlefield. It would probably take a few weeks to make them, but we'd have them eventually. Giant round stones could serve as projectiles. Muskets would be a bit far-fetched for the time being, as it would be extremely difficult to cast barrels good enough to manufacture them. For military strategies, we could probably just combine medieval infantry with Comanche cavalry techniques, so that's all sorted out.

Wait, but was staying in Western Washington even the best idea? The area was full of people, and there were very few resources or arable land to spare. Staying here would probably entail tons of wars and conflict, which wouldn't be very good for us. Besides, that meant that we would probably be wiped out or ȧssimilated before we even got a chance to really start our civilization. Maybe a migration would be a good idea?

What were some good destinations for migration? Southern Washington didn't have any standout qualities, British Columbia wasn't great either, and anything further west wasn't arable and was mostly mountains and water. This left only one option.

To head east, across the mountain, to the fertile lands of the Yakima River valley, which was the most fertile and arable land in the whole region.

This was a genius idea! The land there was more sparsely populated, with tons of water to spare, and we could cultivate more than enough food for everybody!

However, as great as that idea sounded, there was one big problem.

The Cascade Mountains.

Luckily, there was one saving grace. The Snoqualmie Mountain Pass, which used to have a highway going through it. It was one of the only places where you could cross the mountains, but there was one major issue.

It was cold and dangerous.

If we tamed some animals such as horses or cattle and used them to pull carts full of supplies such as salted meat across the mountains, the casualties could be heavily minimized. Maybe a few scouts could be sent to survey the path up to the pass before the main group began journeying. That would be quite helpful.

Maybe that could all be dealt with, but this was by leaps and bounds the biggest issue. Convincing all these people to abandon this area and cross the mountains for the promise of a more peaceful life and nearly infinite food.

To convince them to embark on such a massive trek would require a moving speech. I would probably have to come up with one and deliver it right after dinner. By that point, people would be very satisfied since they had just filled their bellies, and they would be more likely to listen to me since I had indirectly brought them food and shelter. If there was any time to deliver a speech, it would have to be soon.

There were many great public speakers in history, including Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Maybe I could blend elements from a bunch of them to formulate the best speech anybody's ever heard!

As I was deeply embroiled in my line of thought, I was interrupted by a masculine voice, causing me to jolt in shock.

"Oh, sorry to scare you," Anderson apologized, "I just want to thank you for your help. Without you, we wouldn't have been able to distribute food to everybody! Here's some food for you. It's the biggest portion! Once again, thank you!"

"No need. I should be thanking you guys for feeding everybody!"

"No! Thank the hunters and the gatherers!"

"If we keep thanking people all day, we'll have no time to eat. Bon Appetit!"

Now, time to plan a speech. Gotta quickly come up with one before everybody's done eating.. Since teenagers like to chat and loiter around as they eat, that means I should have an hour or so to prepare.