Free Second Chances by Chris Hechtl

on that,” John said. He waved the others out. “Good work, Gerald, very cool,” he said. Gerald bobbed a nod then turned back to work with Bert as the hunter picked up a rifle.
    ~~~~~~(@)~~~~~~
     
    As the rains slacked off to once or twice a week and the sun warmed the ground, they worried about balancing the need for various things while also husbanding their limited resources. Building and expanding the fort was an obvious priority, but so was setting up the farms and hunting. Somewhere along the line they had to start gathering additional resources other than just wood and food, John thought.
    They were starting to deal with nosy animals more often. Bert and Heather were fortunate to be able to make kills from the walls on three occasions last week, each time with Gerald's Gauss coil hunting rifle. Two of the animals had been duckbilled Hadrosaurs, another had been a six-legged ceratops with a big rhino horn that had gotten too close to the wall for comfort. Getting the kills into the fort had been easy; they'd hooked up a pickup and dragged in pieces for slaughter.
    But really, it felt like they were racing the clock. John, Victor, the Gummers, and others who came from the north knew the snows would be bad. It was hoped that they'd only get a moderate dusting, but they couldn't plan on that.
    A quarter of their meat was set aside for smoking. Gerald was pretty much filled up with meat, so much that he traded his excess to Victor for various things in short supply.
    They realized with relief it was indeed spring as the temperature warmed and sprouts formed on the bare branches and in the fields. But the realization and relief that it was spring was fleeting; they needed to plant more and secure the area. “Each person needs roughly about one acre of land for farming, that's produce, grains, and grazing,” John said to a group of teens when they complained about all the work. The group had planted two fields, and much to John's annoyance he'd used his dozer to rip drainage ditches around the perimeter. They hadn't planted close to the tree line for several reasons. One was the threat of animals; the second was that the shade from the trees would stifle the plant growth. Not that the trees were much of a problem. He and the others were cutting the trees down at a good clip now.
    John looked over to see Sophia, Dawn, Joy, Nel, Trey, Gwen, and Kevin had moved away, not interested in the lecture apparently. One kid had stuck around though.
    “Why?” A teen asked. It took John a moment to recognize him, but the name didn't come to him right away. “Why is spring such a good thing?” he asked.
    John reminded himself that the kid just didn't know. He had to be patient and educate him. “Because of winter. Right now you all think it's one big joke or did. A paradise right?”
    “Not anymore,” the kid replied. He shivered. John looked at him. His name was Sean; he had started out being a bit of a troublemaker, running with Kevin for a bit before he'd finally wised up. He was almost through puberty with one hell of a case of acne to go with his freckles. He was still in that awkward phase, all knees and elbows, constantly tripping over his own feet. People thought of him as the local klutz. John hoped it wouldn't inhibit the kid, so he did his best to treat him as an adult.
    John nodded. “Right. One look at a Rex is enough to scare the piss out of anyone, even if it's a mile away. But we also need the basics; I mean, do you want to go to the local watering hole for water? That's where the predators stake out the area you know for little morsels to eat. My pump won't last forever. When it breaks we're down to going to the creek for water,” he said.
    The kid paled and gulped.
    John nodded grimly. “But we also need firewood, wood to make shelters and the wall,” he said, “though stone would be better. I know they found some rocks nearby but moving them is a bitch and a half, trust me,” he said grimly. The teen