Watching the doors just wouldn’t be enough. It was the voice that’d told her so, and Erika had believed it. After only an hour of sitting, her eyelids getting heavy while she aimed the gun toward one door and then the other, she finally got up to make her play.
Dumb move or not, Erika left the baby unattended and went out to the toolshed. On her way over, she half expected a bunch of cops to come running out of the woods. What would she do then? Shoot? Get shot? Both, probably, and she was strangely okay with that.
The shed was unlocked. She reached around the wall for a cord, which she pulled and sent a dim light spewing over a dusty workbench. There were shelves on either side, a damp smell infesting them. Probably due to collapse soon, she thought.
But Erika had other concerns. Ones that would affect her survival.
She rummaged through the shelves, desperately seeking something that might help. A roll of steel wire was tucked away behind a bag of tools. She put the wire in the bag and kept looking. When the shelves turned up nothing else, she gave up and turned to leave.
That was when she saw it.
“Perfect,” she said aloud, to nobody in particular.
Erika bent down and picked up the jerry can. It was completely full, the cap still sealed from when it’d been purchased. Sliding her hand under the handle and holding the tool bag in the other, she headed back to the cabin where the baby was just waking up.
“Ah, crap. Not again.”
Always.
“Shut up, you.”
Silence. Except for baby spluttering that turned into crying.
Erika ignored it as best she could, kicking the door shut and sliding the bolt across. She dumped the tools to one side and searched the rest of the cabin until she ended up in the bedroom, where it occurred to her that she could use the sheets.
The next hour or so was spent nervously setting up the trap. At any moment the doors could be kicked in, so it was vital that she hurried. All the same, one hour was the best she could do, as she had little experience setting up such a device. She wasn’t even sure if it would really work, but there was hope.
That and a gun would get her to where she needed to go.