Of Men and Spiders

Charlotte watched Scott and Lacy dig a large hole in the ground and line it with some stones She'd brought for them based on Scott's descriptions. The "well," as they called it, was dug a little deeper than the water table, allowing the water to seep in for accessible collection. Scott explained this was superior to creek water because the dirt acted like a filter, straining out any impurities and making the water more safe for humans. She couldn't help but be impressed. "Using the soil that is just sitting in the ground as a water gathering and purification tool. How clever!"

Scott nodded. "Yeah. How do you get water?"

Until now, Charlotte would have only explained using the simplest terms, but she knew humans learned more quickly by relating to outside comparisons. "Well, I leech the water directly from any available source, including the ground, but I don't have to worry about purification because the water capillaries purify the water for me. In many ways, they behave like plant roots. Only I can move them as needed."

Lacy looked back and forth between the two of them. "And this is how you spend your days? Building things while learning about each other?"

Scott shrugged. "Pretty much, yeah. With the help of Chalotte's hands, the work goes much faster, and the conversation keeps me from getting too bored. Plus, I figure this is better than just going off assumptions."

Alice had used that word many times, but even with context, Charlotte wasn't sure of its meaning. That prompted Charlotte to ask, "What's bored?"

Scott placed his latest stone into position, then stopped and looked up at Charlotte as if trying to figure out how to explain it. "Well, the human mind is tricky, and not everyone is quite the same, but for most people, the mind wants to solve problems. This is such an ingrained part of the human brain that we'll often create problems just to solve them. Puzzles, games, and even stories serve a similar purpose. When you're 'bored,' your brain is basically in a kind of mild pain because there are no problems to solve."

That made absolutely no sense to Charlotte. "But there are always problems to solve! Survival is all about problems that must be overcome!"

Scott laughed and nodded. "You're right! You're absolutely right. However, the thing with our brains is that once it's figured a task out well enough, they relegate fewer resources to it so they can focus on something else, and if there's nothing else to focus on..." He paused, then pointed at the well he was building up. "Kind of like this well. At first, making sure everything was working properly was interesting, but at this point, all we were doing was stacking stones. Yeah, it takes some thought, but not as much as it first did, so now our brains are looking for other stimuli like this conversation. If I didn't have someone to talk with while I worked, the work might actually go slower because it'd be looking for distractions and focusing a lot more on anything that took my attention for even a little bit!"

As Lucy grabbed another stone to place, she gave her son an odd look Charlotte didn't fully understand. "Kind of like you're focusing on this conversation, leaving your poor old mom to do all the heavy lifting?"

Scott laughed and grabbed another stone for the well. "Well, it's also important not to push your body too hard! If you're so sore from working that you have to take more time off, that's less efficient than just taking small breaks here and there!"

Lacy didn't seem convinced. "Uh-huh..."

-

Scott and Mom were still asleep. They'd stayed up late working on the well Scott was building. Scott told Alice she wasn't allowed to go anywhere near the well without an adult to keep an eye on her, so right now, she was just wandering around the encampment, followed by Charlotte.

Alice kicked the messed up dirt that was her last hopscotch board. "I'm bored!"

Charlotte leaned down to the girl. "Would you like to play hopscotch again?"

The much smaller Alice shook her head. "No. I wanna go do something different..." She then perked up. "I know! Why don't we go swimming at the creek!"

Charlotte shook her head. "I don't think that would be a good idea without Scott or your mom there."

Alice wasn't deterred. "It'll be fine! Scott let you watch me while I went swimming before!"

The spider woman hesitated. "That's true, but..."

Alice cut her off. "Oh come on! This way, they can sleep a little later, and I don't have to worry about waking them up!"

Charlotte still seemed ready to hesitate, but Alice reached up, grabbed her hand, and started dragging her forward. Of course, even Alice knew that if Charlotte really wanted to resist, there was no way Alice could drag her anywhere. But slowly, Alice got her to move forward one step and then another until the spider lady finally stopped fighting and answered, "Alright. Scott did tell me how unpleasant boredom can be, but only for a little bit."

Alice hopped up and down while clapping. "Yay!"

-

Pete was walking along the forest path, mumbling to himself. "Go check again, Pete! As if I hadn't already gone and checked the forest a hundred times before! There aren't no kids out here. They either died or ran away a long time ago!"

Pete had his gun drawn. He was pretty sure Dave had just been messing with the rest of them about that giant spider, but then again, he had volunteered to do KP and clean the latrines rather than go out on patrol anymore... It didn't matter. Eric had told them spiders couldn't grow that big, or they'd have trouble breathing or something...anyway Eric was the smartest one at camp, so Pete believed him. Still, it didn't hurt no one to be ready, you know, just in case.

Why wouldn't the captain just let them come back? There was no way they'd find anything out here! But he just ordered them to search further and further every day. Eric had some air bikes up and running to explore further out, but there were only a few of them, and Cooper said he wanted them all out in the woods, covering even old territory if need be, just to be safe.

Thinking of the captain, Cooper wasn't like his old self. The man was obsessed with this woman and her two kids. It didn't make no sense! Some gutless whelp had come and offered more than enough money to buy them off. Hell, they could have repaired half their ship with the amount he'd offered. Why didn't they just take the money and leave? Something was off, and it had been ever since the captain spoke with the old man...

That's when he heard it. The sound of a kid laughing in the distance. Pete grabbed his com. "Hey, I'm hearing some kid laughing out here."

Eric came back with a, "Who is this? Pete? You better not be wasting my time!"

That pissed Pete off. "Hey! I wanna get out of here as bad as you. Now, send some guys in case they...OH SHIT FUCK! WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS IS THAT?"

Eric was shouting something about how Pete better not be pulling some prank, but Pete couldn't care less. Right in front of him was what looked like some giant spider, except it had pincers like a scorpion. Without bothering to aim, Pete pointed his gun at the monstrosity and unloaded a good seven or eight shots into the thing, stopping only when it collapsed to the ground. A moment later, the kid's laughter cut off in a sudden scream. Were there more of those things out there, targeting the kid? Well, too damn bad she was on her own. There was no way in hell he was picking a fight with more of those...things!

Eric was practically shouting now. "Pete, you god-forsaken waste of oxygen, pick up your com right now, or I'll turn you into the guy who cleans the latrines from inside the tank!"

Pete grabbed his com. "Shut up! I just got attacked by one of those giant spiders you said was impossible! Sounds like one of them got the kid, too! We need to bugger out of here. I don't care what the captain says. This place ain't worth... Awww hell..."

Out of the undergrowth came another spider, a third, and a fourth. Pete started shooting again, but this time, his fear kept his hand clamped tight on the mic, so Eric heard when the screaming started.