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“Hey, Thomas, wake up.” Bo nudged Thomas awake.
Moaning and groaning, Thomas finally replied, “Why do I need to wake up right now? The sun isn’t up yet.”
“Cause I got something I need to discuss with you.”
“Fine, give me a minute.”
“Sure, I’ll be over getting the fire started.”
Thomas rolled over and sat up on his makeshift bedding and rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t imagine what Bo wanted so early in the morning but knew it had to be important. He tossed on his shirt and jacket, strapped his boots on, got up, and headed to the campfire. “What’s so dang important you’ve got to wake me so early?”
“I got to thinking when I fell asleep that we should go now and leave her here.”
“What are you saying? We told her we’d come back for her and take her to our place.”
“I don’t know, but I think she’ll be more trouble than she’s worth.”
“Good thing you’re not in charge of our group, else a lot of other people would have ended up with the same fate.”
“Ah, come on, I’m not that bad of a guy.”
“No, but darn close. We’ll do our hunting and come back as promised.”
“How about a compromise? If we don’t get anything today, we keep hunting, so we don’t have to start over each day. If we get something and are closer to our place, we go there first, and then come back to get her. Heck, we might bring a stretcher with a few others to help her if she needs it. She can’t walk that far, not on that ankle of hers.”
“Fine. I’ll tell her when she wakes up what the plan is. For now, why don’t you get something going for breakfast?”
Bo went to his pack and came back with the makings for breakfast. A few minutes later, Thomas smelled things cooking.
Paulette stirred in her sleeping bag. Something smelled good, and the aroma woke her out of a deep sleep. She rolled over and sat up and noticed that Bo and Thomas were already up and making breakfast. She chided herself for being so lazy, quickly got her coat and one boot on, and crawled out of her lean-to. She hobbled over to the stump near the fire and sat down with her bad ankle stretched out in front of her. “Hey what smells so good?”
Bo piped up. “Eggs and some leftover, hydrated deer meat.”
“Sounds great. So, I take it you guys will head out soon.”
“Yep.”
“So, anything you want me to do while I wait for you two to get back?”
“Nope.”
Thomas had finally had enough. “Paulette, things have changed. We got to talking and have decided that with your ankle the way it is, it would be best for us to keep hunting until we get something, take it back to our village, then come back for you. We figure we could bring a few extra people back here to help haul you and your gear. If need be, we can put you on a stretcher.”
“Wow that’s quite the change. So how long do you think that will take?”
“Don’t know, but it could be upwards of a week.”
“A week is a long time for me to go without water, and possibly food. I can’t get the water myself and I’m almost out.”
“We’ll go get water for you and leave you one of our containers to help hold you over. We also can spare a little extra food. That should hold you over while we’re gone.”
“Are you certain you’ll come back? I mean, there’s no way to communicate with each other. What if something happens to you guys and well ... you know?”
“Nothing will happen. I promise we’ll be back.”
“Okay, fine. I don’t really have much choice now, do I?”
“Unfortunately, you don’t. One other thing, we should help you shore up your shelter. The wind can be bad when a storm blows through.”
“That would be wonderful. I appreciate the help.”
“Breakfast is ready, guys,” Bo said. He then dished out portions for each person. Everyone ate in silence. Once breakfast was over, Bo and Thomas got their things together and quickly headed out to gather water.
Paulette noticed they were going the wrong way and yelled, “Hey, the water’s the other direction.”
Thomas looked back and replied, “No, it’s not. There’s a source closer to your campsite in this direction. It’s about a thousand yards down.”
“Well, dang! That would have been helpful to know a few days back.”
Thomas and Bo strode into camp about ten minutes later and set the water containers down close to Paulette’s shelter.
“Wow, that was quick. What do you think we should do about my shelter?”
“We need to gather more tree limbs, branches, and some moss. Then we’ll dig a trench where you have them and place the current and new ones about a foot down and cover them back up. That will help stabilize them. Then we’ll use rope to bundle them at the top and tie them down to the trees. We’ll use smaller branches to cover the larger holes, then moss to fill in any smaller holes. It should hold well enough during the winds and rains,” Thomas replied.
“Why that’s amazing. What can I do to help?”
“We’ll remove the current branches. Can you sit and dig close to a foot down along the edges?”
“I can sure give it a go.”
“Great. We’ll gather the other branches and materials we’ll need.”
Bo and Thomas quickly removed her branches and went to gather more. Paulette sat down with her little shovel and began the laborious task of digging a trench all the way around her shelter. It took longer than they thought to get all the materials; and even with Bo and Thomas helping to dig the hole, it was still near lunchtime before they were ready to put things back together. “Phew that was a lot of work,” Paulette said, as she wiped sweat from her brow with a dirty hand, smearing the dirt on her forehead.
“Yes, it was,” Thomas exclaimed. He noticed dirt smudges on Paulette’s face and said, “You have dirt smeared on your face and forehead.”
Paulette’s cheeks reddened under the dirt as she grabbed a rag, wet it, and wiped her face.
“Thanks for letting me know.”
“No problem. Now, let’s eat lunch and then finish this project so we can get hunting before it gets dark.”
They took a short break to eat jerky and drink water. Once they finished, they quickly got to work on the shelter. They placed the branches they had collected into the trench and leaned them against her tarp. Once they got everything laid in the trench, Paulette piled and packed the dirt back on top. The guys finished up by tying the branches to the trees and then began placing the moss in the remaining holes of the structure. With her help, they finished the whole thing about two hours after lunch. Bo and Thomas did most of the work and were exhausted from the effort.
“We got your shelter set up and plenty of water and food set aside for you. You should be good till we get back. Take the time to let your ankle heal. We’ll see you in about a week,” Thomas said.
“Okay, I’ll do my best to keep my weight off this ankle. Thanks again for all your hard work and for helping me. I’ll see you in a week.”
“All right then, wish us luck at finding some game.”
Bo and Thomas put on their gear and hiked out of the campsite. Paulette sighed as she watched them leave. It would be a long, boring week. She was thinking how glad she was that she had brought a few books along. One was more of a survivalist book, which it wouldn’t hurt her to study. She had been intending to read the other one and hadn’t gotten to it yet. It was written by Tom Abrahams and was titled “Home.” It was about a man named Marcus Battle who had survived a virus but had lost his family, and he was just trying to survive in his new world. Both the books seemed to be subjects she needed then, and she’d certainly have plenty of time for reading during the next few days.
