After a few more days of travel, where watching our toes extra closely has replaced brooding about Tyler and Rocco, it's getting close to dusk and we hear a wolf howl. Haven’t heard a lot of wolves since we moved into this world. It’s off to the right of the direction we’re heading in. Maybe there’s a forest over that way. The howl was maybe a mile off, and visibility isn't great.

A few minutes later there’s another wolf howl same direction, maybe a bit in front of us. It’s tricky to tell even if it’s the same wolf when we’ve been walking and I don’t know exactly how far we’ve gone. However, it’s pitch is about three hertz higher, so I’m guessing it’s not the same critter. Voices tend to be unique in animals, and unless there’s effort being made to sound different that’s probably a different wolf.

Yep. Not the same. Next howl comes from our left, and we haven’t turned. That howl was also distinctly different sounding. So far we’ve got three wolves. Not too dangerous, but I should probably say something. Four and five sound off.

“Hey guys,” I say, “Let’s get ready for defense.”

“What’s going on?” asks Priyu.

I let them know what I’ve learned. “We’ve got company. We’re being tracked by at least five wolves, and they’re moving along with us.”

Priyanka starts directing. “See the hill a hundred yards over there? Ok, we’re going to get up to the top of that one, and start setting up a defensive perimeter. Miguel, you’ve got defense. Steve, can you help Miguel at all, or do you just need to be working on your static shock?”

We all glance up and the cloud cover isn’t in our favor today. No clouds means no call lightning. Steve's got tasers and handheld lightning, I guess.

Steve had time to make a decision. “I’ll get static set up as we walk, and when we get to the hill, I’ll work with Miguel.”

Priya continues organizing, “Snake, I need to know what we’re facing. Can you get a count? And what they actually are? I don’t trust that they’re wolves, what with all the changes to the world.”

It takes a minute to find the first one, and then another ten to find most of the rest.

They are wolves, mostly: same shape, same behavior, same sounds, and not the same size. They stand six feet at the shoulder, and there are a couple dozen of them, and have us pretty well surrounded. By the time we’re to the top of the hill, they’ve got a 100 yard perimeter around us, and are moving closer.

This is bad for us. Steve’s best attack is out, and in this world, I haven’t found a lot of creatures I can really do much against. Mike needs to run defense, so it’s a question of whether they can harass us enough before we've got our defense set up.

Priya starts trying to help Mike put together his barricade, as does Steve. Most of the work is Mike, but there are poles, and someone planting them in the dirt is a win. “Snake,” she calls, “ See if you can buy us a bit of time.”

We’re nowhere near Chicago, I’ve got a full tank of thaums, half a dozen drums, it’s dusk, and I lost my sunglasses. Close enough. I hit it. I move at fast jog speeds. With the wolves in a big circle, it’s about twenty-five yards between wolves. When I head towards one, a couple others move closer, but I’ve still got fifteen yards to either side by the time I get to the first wolf. I take a quarter-second to saserface it, stunning it enough for me to get a good windup with my tail and crack it hard across the muzzle with my tail-stick. Dart in, dart out. I’m all “sting like a butterfly” and stuff.

There’s blood from the one wolf’s mouth, which seems to piss it off. On the other hand, it doesn't seem damaged, just angry, and the other two are closer. Two more start ambling our way. I pop a sound bomb at the two on my left, then zip around them to outside the circle. Their stun and my speed makes it pretty impossible to stop me. I start a jog around the outside of the wolf circle.

Phuc shares the "humans as evolved runners" theory with me. In a short footrace with almost any mobile animal on earth, old world human beings lose. Not me, of course. Fastest humans ever are running 9.5 in 100 meters. 10.5 meters a second, 23 miles an hour. Domestic dogs and cats can manage thirty. Wolves are near thirty five. Horses can clear fifty for short distances. More or less anything we want to race against we lose. We lose when the distance is under a mile.

I jog around the circle of wolves, saserfacing each of them enough that they notice me. I keep a bit ahead of the ones pestering me. If they fall back, I annoy them extra. If they speed up, I do too.

Halfway around the circle, and I’ve got a dozen wolves following me. Phuc continues. The weird thing that makes humans good happens when we talk about long runs. In a long distance run, speed isn’t really important. What’s important is endurance, which is what Phuc’s been working on with me this past couple years. Turtle and rabbit stuff.

What’s important in longer term endurance, though is more interesting. It’s heat dispersal. How well something dumps heat turns out to be the central question in how long it can last. What’s the best biological technique for dumping heat? Evaporation of water off bare skin.

I have managed to cover three quarters of the circle, and there’s nearly twenty wolves following me at a lope. I’m paying attention to Miguel as he’s constructing his wall and spear defenses. Both Steve and Piyu are doing whatever they can to help him.

How many animals do you think have good evaporation of water off bare skin? Phuc informs me that in the old world, the answer was one: humans. Humans who are used to physical work, like primitive hunters are, could run down any animal on old earth. They would start by chasing it, and it would sprint off. Then they'd do it again. Humans can keep going for longer. The story is that in marathons, humans could beat horses. Apparently there was some scottish race that tested that annually, and in 22 miles, it was a close thing between a horse-and-rider vs. a runner. Some years people won. Other years, the horse did.

Picking up the last wolf, I’ve now got the whole pack trailing me, and I’m keeping twenty yards away, still looping around the hill. Wolves are great pack predators. One wolf will chase me a bit, and make me speed up, and then that wolf drops back into the pack. They’re actively trying to get me to use up my energy. If I was slower, or alone, or or hadn’t been training endurance with Phuc, I’d be phuc’ed. Heh.

It looks like Miguel has one side of the hill fortified with a steeply sloped wall, reinforced with metal braces, and has a second side fortified with big spears in a medieval-looking spear fortification thing. Certainly horses would not want to, nor probably would they be able to jump over it. Especially with the two rows of spears set up to prevent that.

A marathon is just 26 and change miles, though, and both horses and humans can do that in about 2 hours. On the other hand, horses don’t do a lot of 100 mile runs, whereas ultramarathoners reliably do a hundred miles in twelve hours, and almost two hundred miles in twenty-four hours. That's been the record since about the year 2000. Horses can’t keep up with that speed and that distance, and no other animal on earth does either. What makes humans able to do this? Phuc says it’s no real body hair, and the ability to sweat.

Wolves might be the second best critters at this, though. They’re pack predators, trying to get the prey to use up its energy, while the pack members trade off, so no single wolf gets exhausted.

Another circle around the hill, and I am able to count 28 wolves loping along with me. I bet I could tire them all out enough that they give up if we just do a loop, but they might get tired and go pester the others, which wouldn't be good. Staying together is key. After the second loop, there’s two sides of spear fortifications, plus the metal wall. I have no idea how Miguel keeps that much metal in his pocket.

Then the wolves notice we’re doing circles, and a few of them peel back to go around the hill the other way. Since the fortifications are mostly done, I zip up the hill and drop into the fortifications to take a break. Miguel finishes up his fortification circle, and the wolves surround us. I hope they get bored soon.