Dave Ramsey had been instrumental into making those four days very successful. He provided the two rabbits that the Ramseys kept as pets. After receiving timon implants, the rabbits were replicated in the New World, where they were killed, skinned, roasted, and eaten.

Roasted, because Harold Pendleton had made himself useful too. He"d found several flints, and managed to light a fire. Doing this took a long time, and he"d cut his hand on the sharp edge of the flint when striking sparks. There was no cut on his hand when he woke up at home, but he claimed he could feel in itch in his hand, exactly where he had cut it in the New World.

Gladys Pendleton and Susan Ramsey were very busy, too. Initially they focused on finding something to wear. There were plenty of large leaves in the woods that separated their camp in the New World from the sea sh.o.r.e. Susan had found a fibrous plant and cut open its stalk with her fingernails and peeled several long strands from its flesh. She rolled and twisted them into a length of thick thread.

A day later (or two and a half hours later, according to clocks back home) both ladies were wearing leaf miniskirts and bra.s.sieres. The men refused to wear skirts made of leaves. Over the protests of the ladies, they appropriated the rabbit skins and made themselves a pair of large codpieces.

Unfortunately, the implanted rabbits refused to replicate again in the New World. But then Harold had a brainwave. He removed the implants from the rabbits" heads, then gave them fresh implants. Bingo! They had a steady supply of rabbits in the New World. They ate their meat and made clothing out of the skins. Harold had even started working on making fishhooks from the bones.

They"d also found Kakadu plums growing in the woods, and Dave Ramsey did their best to persuade them to try witchetty grubs and green caterpillars. Harold actually ate some grubs, and told Gladys they had a pleasant, nutty taste. But she wasn"t convinced.

A couple of New World days later, she found a colony of mussels along the sea sh.o.r.e, and also something else - something very precious. The hollows of seaside rocks were covered with a whitish sediment. Curiosity led her to smear a fingertip, and put it to her tongue. It was salt! It had been left there by the seawater that had evaporated from the rocks. Their next meal of roasted rabbit was extremely tasty.

It rained on their fourth day out in the New World. This motivated them to build shacks out of leafy branches. They"d only completed one of these before night fell, and they lay down to sleep and resume their life back on Earth.

They all slept at the Pendletons" house, the Ramseys in the guest bedroom. The cube was there: it made a natural base. And because of the cube, an unpleasant surprise awaited them when they woke up.

When Harold walked out into the backyard with the intention of firing up the barbecue grill and making himself a coffee, he saw that he had visitors.

Three young men and a woman were standing around the glowing cube. He knew them. They were renters who lived in a house near the end of the street. They"d been around to his house on the first day after the power outage and the arrival of the cube in his backyard.

He"d told them the same thing he told all of his curious neighbors: he didn"t know what the cube was. It could very well be something dangerous. It was best to leave it be until the proper authorities had had a closer look. No, he hadn"t contacted anyone about it. How could he? The phone wasn"t working. His car had refused to start. Someone - a policeman, a fireman, a local government official - was bound to show up shortly.

They had agreed with Dave Ramsey that it was best to keep the secret of the cube to themselves. They didn"t want other people intruding on their little settlement in the New World. It was almost like having a private summer house.

Well, maybe later when they"d really settled in, they"d invite someone to join them. But only after vetting the people involved very carefully indeed.

When Harold stepped out into his backyard, two of the men were busy taking implant kits out of the cube. They handed them over to their companions, who put them in large carrier bags. They all stopped when Harold stepped out of the house, and looked at him. One of the men smiled, and it wasn"t a pleasant smile. He said:

"Evening, guv. Sorry to drop in unannounced. But we thought you wouldn"t mind us helping ourselves to some of this. It never runs out, right? You won"t miss any."

Harold didn"t answer. He went back into the house and got his gas pistol from the drawer in the bedroom. When he returned with the gun in his hand, the intruders were busy on the doc.u.mentation scrolls. He heard the woman exclaim she"d have a cool bedroom light.

"You," said Harold Pendleton. "Get out of my backyard. This is my house, and you don"t enter unless invited. Got it?"

They all stared at him. He could see they were angry.

"Get out," he repeated, raising the gun. He hoped they would think it was a gun that fired bullets, not just clouds of gas. The cartridges did make a loud bang, though. At the very least, it would make the neighbors take an interest.

One of the men smirked at him.

"I"ll see you around, geezer," he said, and there was a threat in his voice. Then all four of them grabbed the bulging bags and slung them over the fence and followed suit. As they were starting to walk away, the woman turned round and said:

"f.u.c.k you, you useless old fart."

Harold watched them walk away with a mixture of relief and foreboding. He returned inside the house just as Susan Ramsey walked into the living room.

Dave was still in the shower, she told him. The water was barely running. They should start filling all the containers they could find.

Harold didn"t tell her about the uninvited guests. He did tell Dave Ramsay, later. Dave frowned when he heard what had happened, and said:

"You hundred percent sure the cube can"t be moved?"

"Yes. There"s nothing to hold onto, nothing to grasp. Your hands just go through inside, and you end up with another implant kit or scroll or hiber bed."

"Maybe we could cover it with something."

"No, that doesn"t work either. I tried with the tarp from the garage, and it just dropped to the ground."

Ramsey shook his head.

"I have a feeling that there are going to be more visitors in the future," he said. "That fence of yours is too low to act as a barrier. I"ll bring my shotgun here. Or do you want to move base to our house?"

"No. I think it"s better to stay close to the cube. But wait a moment. You"ve really got a shotgun? I don"t want any corpses here, Dave."

"Pump action. Had it for ages. Bought it when we were living up near Port Darwin, and kept b.u.mping into crocodiles. No one"s going to get dead, Harry. A shot in the air can work wonders. I"ll be back right away."

He returned after an hour with the shotgun and a bagful of supplies that included a box of cartridges for the gun. He explained he had been busy storing up water.

By that time, both Gladys and Susan had eaten a hurried breakfast and returned to the mats lying on top of their beds in the bedrooms. Both women had become great fans of the New World.

When Gladys entered her second self, she found that she was busy walking along the sh.o.r.e to get some more mussels, and maybe - with luck - more salt. It was a fair distance away from what they were all starting to call their settlement. Their settlement in the New World!

It was all so exciting! She felt years younger. How wrong she had been to be so hostile at the start! She had turned seventy a few months back. She couldn"t expect to live much longer. But thanks to the New World, she"d get to experience another thirty, forty, fifty years of life! Ten years for every year of life lived back on Earth!

It was a beautiful day in the New World, but there was a line of clouds approaching from the sea. She quickened her step, taking care not to step on any of the stones that were mixed in with the sand. Some were quite sharp, and she wasn"t used to walking barefoot.

She was keeping her eyes down and didn"t see the three young men and the woman until they were steps away.

They were buck naked, all of them. By that time, Gladys was wearing a rough bikini of rabbit skins. She felt overdressed in their company. She felt that way because they all stared at the bits of fur covering her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and crotch as they approached.

One of the men stopped an arm"s length away from her and said:

"Oooo. Fancy a fur bra and panties, Marion?"

The woman that was with the three men laughed.

"Sure," she said. "Why not."

One of the other men said:

"Hey. Where did you find that rabbit? It"s rabbit, innit? Where?"

"None of your business," Gladys said sharply and they all laughed. The woman said:

"Well I"ll just help myself to these, dear."

She reached out and tore off the bra. Gladys was seventy years old, and she had seventy year old b.r.e.a.s.t.s. They weren"t pretty.

"Oooo," said the man standing in front of Gladys. "s.e.xy."

"Get away from me!" shouted Gladys. She was close to tears. A rough hand ripped off her fur panties, and she instinctively hit the man who"d done that. She had the good or rather bad luck to hit his eye.

"Stupid old c.u.n.t," he snarled, and raised his fist.

They beat her until she couldn"t get up. Then they kicked and stamped on her for a long time. They did that until she stopped moving.

The woman didn"t hit her. She was fussing around with her new clothes, putting them on and making all sorts of tiny adjustments.

When Gladys had stopped moving and breathing and the men finally looked at her, she said:

"How do I look, guys? Isn"t this grand?"

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