A Survivalists Tale (5 page)

The mud that lined the huts walls had been the hardest to put on right and a lot of hard work three days of hard, work and I knew what they meant for I had also had to do it on my own shelters in the past. Cold and sore hands that could barely pick up my food at the end of a day, but they had accomplished so much and were still enjoying putting into practice new skills. The new stock pens had been finished given the sheep a very secure new home, they weren’t too happy and startled at any quick movement or loud noise, but they were slowly settling down. Two weeks passed as we slowly but surely got more and more work done for the approaching winter. We had built shelters for the sheep and a log cabin that was way too big for any one person, luckily, I had explained this would be a winter meeting place for us all and where we can learn new skills during the bad weather. The winter came and we had trapped some young wild razor backs but they proved too dangerous, so ended up just hunting them or trapping them instead. We lost two of the huts during a winter hurricane and had to rebuild them, apart from that we were so busy as a community, the winter whizzed past, we learned how to weave baskets, improved in making our pottery and even found iron ore we didn’t have to mine for. We built cold rooms into the ground and even built a stable for the blacksmith, and were soon making our own tools. We had a celebration that night for reaching the bronze age, and yes we had been brewing our own beer and making our own wine and spirits, it is terrible some of the things we survivalists learn and get up to. At Christmas and the new year, the cameras switched of, after all religion is a very personal thing, it was also in the agreement everyone signed. One camera only would be on and everyone knew that whatever you said to that camera on that day it would go only to who’s name you spoke at the beginning. The winter was so mild as in no snow, so we didn’t bother hunting bear; we had enough of everything else. At the end of winter, we had made chisels and hammers even nails, so we started in building our cabins, we even had saws for cutting planks with, it was the hardest work yet.

The big pit saw was not as hard as they thought it would be, once you got the hang of it and only cut on the pull not push, we broke two blades until people got the hang of that. One person on top and the other in the pit getting covered with sawdust, others were making charcoal piles that had to be watched all the time.

Amanda and Jess were brilliant at producing charcoal, I admit was rubbish, I was lucky if I got fifty percent. They got over ninety percent, they could keep the blacksmith supplied no problems. Others would be shaping the wood for the cabins; it always amazed me how lucky I had been with my team. Just before our second winter we had all our cabins finished and moved in, we had this winter to learn how to now make really good furniture, for we now had a lathe, chisels, saws, box planes, nails and hammers. Everything to make nice chairs, tables and cupboards, Jack even volunteered to make sun baked tiles, with a waterproof slick he had worked out, while doing pots. Every day was full and when the weather was bad we done all the indoor jobs, life was so good, we had birthday parties and crop parties everything was going so fast. We were well into our third year when we had a disaster with the crops; the weather turned bad a hurricane came early out of nowhere, rather than let it get us down. We just re-planted the veg and looked for wild substitutes, which we had gotten our type of veg from any way, the wild wasn’t as great as our ones were for ours didn’t have competition, but it meant we wouldn’t starve either. By the third year, we were like a small village, rather than survivalists, Jack had even started making barrels for long term storage. We had a try at glass but didn’t seem to have the right sand or something, it never worked. We had made a couple of dugout canoes and used them for fishing with nets, we were however running out of new things to challenge us, never before had anyone gone this far under controlled conditions, so it was pretty amazing. However, it was getting to the team now; we had not only survived but were flourishing. Therefore, it was starting to mentally bring them down, not for the reasons you would think, it was a case of the team wanted to stay here and bring their families here to live. It really was a quiet and peaceful life style.

We even had our first indoor metal baths, pure luxury, and soap also, Mike made some nice smelling shampoo, it was green but done the job very well indeed. We still done a lot of cooking outdoors sharing the work and sitting down to fantastic meals under the stars at times, I wondered what the world must have thought while looking in on these people who were supposed to be having a hard time of it. However saw these eleven people kicking back sharing the work and making a relaxed and hardworking community and fast becoming best friends. It was on our last year that we had the biggest challenge, the producers must have thought it was all going to easy with my group. For a helicopter landed and some of the top TV people got out, they told us the cameras had all been switched off; they told us only two groups had survived. The women I had met on the plane and my group, they had come up with a new challenge and hoped we would help them out. I was not happy when I heard what they wanted to do, not fecking happy at all, I looked on these guys now more as family than friends and what they were proposing was just fecking dangerous.

Chapter: Three

The ratings had gone down, especially in the last six months, due to it seemed that the pubic believed that it was all staged, as there had been no danger and no one had even suffered a twisted ankle. The producers had asked the public where in the world do you think the groups couldn't survive and the biggest majority had said in the jungle or rainforest. I said but that’s nuts the rainforest has more food, medicines and materials to work with than anywhere else on the planet. They said that’s what we replied to the public, so over a billion people voted on the second option, Africa and not just anyplace but a preserve where the public have never been allowed because of the amount of wild animals that are near extinct. This place has been kept as pristine as possible without interference from man, the guards are all on the outside and once a year a team fly slowly over the preserve to gather as much data as they can. It is one hundred miles by sixty miles and no one has lived there since it was set up by a very wealthy patriot one hundred and seventy-eight years ago. Due to the danger we are allowing both groups to work together and you will be allowed a rifle each with one full magazine so you can’t use them for hunting, you will each be paid one million on completing the year and if both groups survive the year the charities will receive ten million and not five. We can give you ten minutes to think about it the other group has already said yes, so we hope you all will too.

This is why I wasn’t happy; I told my group it is the most dangerous place on earth, there is every chance you won’t survive in there, but the group wanted the chance to try, their argument was if they crashed in a place like that, could anyone survive. They wanted to be the first all of them but they wanted me along as well, I couldn't allow them to go alone. I asked them how many had fired a rifle, they admitted that none of them had ever fired a rifle nor even held one. I told the producers we would go but before we did anything, the two groups would have to meet on neutral ground and everyone should be given lessons on firing the rifles no lessons, then, no me, simple. They agreed far too quick and said they would give us all a week to get used to the rifles, we flew out of there two hours later and we were all sad to see the end of our little community.

We all met at a marine camp, somewhere near the coast, our helicopter landed near a two stories building and a firing range just off to the left, this looked like it had been thrown up for a small group of marines to train on. We would get instructions from trained weapons instructors; we would all be using the FN Scar MK 17.

The reason they were giving us these weapons were, they were easy to use and get used to and be quickly adjusted to fit anyone’s arms. They let us practice the first day with military ones, however anyone who fires a rifle regularly will tell you, you can never fire another man’s or woman’s rifle, as they are actually set up for individual users, the sights and the stock being the most obvious. On the second day, we started to use our new ones, which were black, we were getting along well with Carols group, which were a lot like my team always interested in new techniques and very willing to get on with any job, no matter what. Out of the twenty-two people in the group, everyone bar five of them could use the rifles and hit the targets at a hundred yards. I convinced the producers to give them pump action shotguns instead, and within the last two days, they could obliterate anything in front of them. We were all set the instructors gave us a nice going away party with a few beers thrown in, both Carol and myself told them no more than three beers each as we were flying out early. We had a good time I found out Carol had been a fan of mine since she was ten, we were also the exact same age, when I had done my stint with the survival competition when I was ten, she hadn’t even been allowed out the yard and was very much wrapped in cotton wool, figuratively speaking. She had used the competition to bring to her dads and mothers attention that here was a ten-year-old boy on his own, surviving on an island and she wasn’t allowed to leave the yard. Her father was a soldier and her mother was so worried all the time he was away, she had become over protective. At first, her father said it was just a stunt and they would have a full crew there to look after them, so I pointed out to my father in no uncertain terms, that they couldn't have as the internet cameras were everywhere and you could jump from one to another in seconds. She said I told him there was no place to hide a crew, as you could see everywhere, my dad became fascinated with what you were doing and even had my mum watch what you were doing. Thank god, they hadn’t seen your stupid move with that first pig trap, or I would never have convinced them, but after that, my father started to teach me how to do survival. In addition, he agreed if I went to self-defence classes, he would allow me more freedom. My mother even agreed, so ever since then I have had you to thank for my freedom, I said you were welcome, but I think you would have eventually talked them around. Carol and I also discussed the type of shelter we would build in Africa, we would go kind of native, but with air and light being important to us, this is the kind of shelter we would build.