“Heading out already?” she asked, her sleepy eyes barely open.
“Yes, I am. Sorry I woke you. Stay by the fire and you’ll be fine. Go back to sleep, if you want. I’ll be back in a few hours,” he said. He gently touched her face and smiled at her.
Murdock didn’t take long to find the bower and an ambush position. He picked a spot by a tree with the wind blowing from the direction he expected the deer to come and waited, spear ready. While he waited, his mind worked on all the little details that he would have to attend to if he managed to harvest a deer. A part of his consciousness was always focused on the task at hand, but the majority of his mind thought what it wanted. I’m a little worried about Rose, he thought. I’m sure she’ll be alright. She’s more capable than she thinks and I do enjoy her company. He had found the hike from the cave to be pleasant, even though he had intentionally walked slowly so she could keep up.
I’m more than a little worried about winter. How cold is it going to get and how much snow? Is game going to be available?
He had already planned to move to the lower parts of the cave, where it was warmer, when the weather turned cold. He could store the wood and meat in the salt mine. The dry air would help speed the curing rate for the wood and preserve the meat by drying it somewhat. The hard part is going to be properly tanning the hides, he thought. I have no idea how to make barrels or buckets, and I wish I did.
His attention snapped back to the present when he felt the vibrations of hooves through his feet. Dawn had just broken, and the deer were coming down the path that led across the dread feeling area. They were in a panic, as they had been before. His pulse quickened as the sound of hoof beats approached. The animals were running with the small breeze that gently blew this morning, so with luck, if they didn’t see him, they wouldn’t know he was there until it was too late for one of them.
Murdock saw the herd coming toward him and noticed that their pace had slowed somewhat. He timed his spring to take the deer that was behind the leader and jumped into the path with his spear at the ready. When he entered the path, his target was startled and tried to skid to a halt, but the creature was too slow. Murdock had dropped the butt end of the spear onto the path with the point aimed at the chest. The deer, pressed forward by momentum as well as the rest of the herd, skidded directly into his spearhead, which sank deeply into the center of the animal’s chest. Then the spear, unable to take the stress, snapped in half, leaving the business end hanging from the animal’s chest.
Meanwhile, Murdock had quickly darted across the path to avoid being trampled by the herd. He watched as his target ran off down the path with part of his spear still in its chest.
Shaking from the massive amount of adrenalin flowing through him, he tried to calm himself.
Now the hard part began. He had to wait before he could track his prey, but he didn’t want to wait too long, or his prey would be dinner for another animal. After calming down quite a bit, he walked over to the spot at which the deer had run into his spear and found a massive spill of blood and a good blood trail leading down the path. Murdock began following the blood trail, careful not to come up on the animal before it had a chance to bleed out. He didn’t want to startle it any more than he already had. Fear would give the animal more adrenalin and thus more strength to run farther.
As he followed the trail, his thoughts began. That was lucky. Lucky I’d found the right place for an ambush. Lucky I hit the target the first try. Lucky I didn’t get trampled.
Soon Murdock came upon the body of his prey. It had run about five hundred yards before it had calmed down. Then it lay down and bled to death. The animal was a little off the main trail, and as Murdock looked around, he thought he saw smoke off in the direction of the mountain.
“Rose,” Murdock yelled as loud as he could. “Follow my voice!” He listened for a while and heard nothing, so he repeated the call. While he listened for a response, he unwound the rope he had tied across his chest and threw one end over a tree branch, tying the other end around the neck of the deer, close to its head. He repeated his call for Rose and pulled on the other end of the rope with all his weight and strength. When he could no longer pull on the rope, he tied it to the trunk of the tree.
There’s no way I’m going to get this animal hung without help. He still hadn’t heard anything to indicate that Rose had heard him. As he walked around the animal, he could see the end of his spear, battered and broken, but the machete tied to the end had stayed in the chest and done its deadly work. Murdock pulled it out slowly, noticing that the blade had lain flat and slid between the ribs. More luck, on his part. The spear had either just missed or slid slightly off center of the animal’s sternum, probably piercing the lungs or the heart. After withdrawing the machete and stowing it, Murdock stood looking at the animal.
“I’m sorry,” he said to the dead animal. “We need to eat and clothe ourselves, and you’re helping to ensure we survive.”
Just then, Rose came upon him from the direction of the smoke.
“Who were you talking to?” she asked. She had just cleared a little rise and now saw the huge deer partially hung in a tree. Her mouth fell open, and she looked at Murdock. “Oh, my God,” she exclaimed. “That is a big deer!”
“It certainly is! And it’s not even the biggest one of the herd,” he said.
“Damn!” she said with great admiration. “You got a deer!”
“I did! Now, we have to get it hung and dress it out. It won’t be easy, but I think if we both work at it, we’ll get it done.”
They spent the next hour hanging the deer. They both pulled on the rope as hard as they could to get the animal’s head as high as possible. When they could pull no more, Murdock began skinning and gutting the animal, spilling its intestines and vital organs on the ground and pulling as much of the hide as he could down closer to the ground. Then they both pulled on the rope again. Alternating this way, they managed to get the animal’s hind feet off the ground, barely.
Murdock and Rose were both worn out by the time they got the deer hung. Two piles lay close to the hind legs. One pile consisted of the hide, and the other consisted of the deer’s entrails. They took a breather and drank some water while Murdock inspected the heart and the surrounding arteries. The heart was intact, but the machete had severed a main artery.
“I couldn’t get luckier than that,” he exclaimed as he took a long drink of water. “That’s as close to a heart shot as you can get.”
Rose was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the animal and the work necessary just to get this far.
“Do you have your machete on you?” he asked Rose.
“Yes, I have the one you gave me when we left the cave. Why do you ask?”
“Someone has to stay here and guard the carcass while the other runs for more water. We have to get as much blood washed out of it as we can,” he explained. “Since I can run farther than you can and know where the water is, you can stand guard.”
“What am I guarding against?” she asked.
“Other animals may try to get at the carcass; the smell of the blood is sure to draw them in. You have to stop them any way you can. Did you bring any rope with you?”
“Some, yes.”
“I’m going to have to make a travois to haul the beast back to the cave after I quarter it. That’s the plan, anyway. Are you okay with it?”
“Umm. . .how long will it take you to get more water?” She was nervous about staying here alone with bait hanging.
Murdock cut a small tree and in short order had a spear made for Rose to use.
“If anything comes around, stand your ground and stab at it with this,” he said, handing her the crude spear. “It should change their minds about a free lunch! The water is that way,” he said, indicating the path the deer had taken. “It shouldn’t take me more than a few minutes to get there and back. Fifteen minutes, tops.”
“Okay. I guess I can do that, but hurry back, please? I feel like I may
be the free lunch. I’ve never had to fight off animals before, and the thought of it scares me,” she explained.
“It scares the hell out of me every time I have to do it as well. I’ll hurry. Try to think of it as defending your meals for the next few months, as well as a new dress. Maybe that will help give you courage,” he told her, trying to bolster her confidence. Then he smiled at her and took off at a fast trot in the direction he had indicated.
Murdock moved as fast as he could toward the river he had found days earlier. Soon he reached the river, where he filled the water skin, and then began running back.
Then he heard a scream. He ran faster toward Rose and the deer. As he approached the scene, he saw two dead wolves. One had been speared through its mouth, and the other’s head lay at an odd angle. Rose, machete drawn and bloodied, was trying to fight off the rest of the pack as they circled. Murdock picked up a heavy rock and stopped long enough to use his improvised sling.
The lead animal caught the heavy rock at the jaw joint and dropped. The rest turned in his direction. Murdock continued running toward them with both machetes drawn. The remaining members of the pack, seeing another antagonist entering the fray, wanted no part of it and gave up, running off out of sight.
“Are you okay?” Murdock asked, breathless after the long run. He inspected Rose as best he could while trying to catch his breath.
“I’m okay. None of them bit me,” she said, though her hands shook terribly and her voice trembled as she talked.
“Damn, woman! You sure did give ‘em hell,” Murdock exclaimed, still breathless.
“Well, I asked them nicely to leave. It really got my blood up when they refused!”
Murdock laughed. Rose started laughing, too. When they had both calmed down, Murdock inspected the wolf carcasses. Each was bigger than any wolf he had ever heard of. The first one to attack had gotten a mouthful of Rose’s spear, dying when the point entered his chest cavity via his mouth. The second one had attacked when she had the eighteen-inch machete out; she had almost decapitated him. The skull of the one he had hit with the rock was crushed. At some point, the wolves had eaten or dragged off the deer intestines, and they had dragged the hide a short distance from where he had left it.
“Not a bad day’s work, if I do say so myself,” he told Rose after inspecting the wolves.
“Did I do okay?” she asked.
“You sure did! Couldn’t have done better myself,” he exclaimed with great pride.
“They got the guts. I didn’t know if you wanted them or not, but when they tried for the hide and the carcass, I got really mad,” she explained.
Murdock smiled broadly and handed Rose the water skin. “Getting the intestines is probably what slowed the wolves down. Take some water and pour the rest inside the deer carcass. I’ll make the travois to haul the meat and skins back to the cave.”
When Murdock had built the travois, he quartered the deer carcass and put the quarters and the hide on it. Then he skinned the wolf carcasses and put the pelts on the travois with the deer skin. He left the carcasses where they lay. Then they both grabbed a pole on either side and began dragging the travois, stopping at their campsite only to rest and load it with their gear.
#
Murdock figured the haul to the cave would take at least twice as long as it had to get to the campsite. “After we’ve rested, we’ll be going back the way we came,” he explained. “With any luck, we should make it halfway home before dark.” He pointed back the way they had come. “The stream is that way.”
“This is a lot of hard work,” Rose exclaimed, looking at the travois loaded with meat, skins, and gear.
“Nothing worth the effort is ever easy,” Murdock said.
“Why did you skin the wolves?” Rose asked.
“Winter will be hard. Gloves and warm boots will come in handy. Besides, they’re your trophies.” Murdock could see Rose’s pride and confidence in the way she carried herself and the way she looked at the wolf pelts.
“Rose?” he asked as he got to his feet and took his position on one of the travois poles.
“Yes, Kevin?” Rose followed his lead, taking up her position on the other pole.
“I’m very proud of you! You did extremely well today. Better than most people I have known on their first time out,” he told her, looking her straight in the eye so she could see his sincerity.
“I think we make a good team,” she responded, smiling with pride at him as they both started hauling the travois toward home.
Several hours later, Murdock decided that they had gone far enough for the day. Sun-down was coming; he had to get a fire going, and both he and Rose were exhausted and famished from their exertions.
As he got the fire going, he marveled that Rose was doing her part without being told every little thing to do. He had feared he would have to lead her by the hand when he had met her the first day after landing here. Now, he thought she was quite impressive.
Rose, who had been picking up firewood, had returned with the first load. After dumping that by the fire, she was off to gather more. Murdock threw some wood on the fire and cut a couple of good-sized chunks of venison from the deer carcass. He was starting to cook them when she returned with her second load.
“Sorry, we haven’t got any water, but at least we don’t have to eat fish for a while,” he said to her.
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I was getting a little tired of fish,” she said as she placed the load of wood close to the fire. “How far do you think we have to go?”
“We should be at the stream, or close to it, by about midday tomorrow,” Murdock told her. “Why don’t you sit and take a load off?”
“My legs are too stiff to sit on the ground,” she said.
“So, sit on the travois,” he said.
She sat on the deer pelt covering the deer meat and exhaled loudly.
“Feels really good to sit on something other than rocks or the ground,” she said. She patted the deer meat. “This is quite a haul!”
“Yes, it is! It’s too much, though.”
“How were you going to get all this back by yourself?” she asked.
“The same way we are, except I wouldn’t have been able to take all of it and it would have taken me a lot longer.” Murdock sat next to Rose on the travois.
“What do you mean, it’s too much?” she asked.
“We have no way of refrigerating all this meat,” Murdock explained. “We’ll salt and smoke as much as we can, but about a third is going to rot before we can eat it all.”
“Then why are we hauling this much home?” she asked.
“I’m hoping to get it home and take the choicest cuts for us. The rest I hope to trade for tools we’ll need,” he explained.
“Trade?” she questioned, her voice pitched higher than normal. Murdock could tell Rose was upset. “You’re going to trade with Whittier and that pack of bottom feeders?”
“We don’t have a lot of choice,” he explained. “We’re going to need saws, tarpaulins, more rope, and more water skins if we’re going to survive.”
“You’re going to trust them to trade fairly with us?” she asked incredulously.
“No, but I am counting on a few things that will work in our favor.”
“Like what?”
“I won’t deal with Whittier at all. I’ll work it so that everyone will see what we have, and they’ll do the trading, without regard for Whittier or his wants. I can’t see him, or his thugs, fighting everyone.”
“Kevin?” Rose asked somewhat calmly.
“Yes?”
“What is this I shit you’re talking?” Her calm voice and the smirk on her face didn’t ally with the venom of her words. “I helped dress and defend the deer. I’m helping haul it back home. I do have a say in this!”
Murdock looked at her, startled. He hadn’t figured on her wanting a say. He had assumed she would just go along with whatever he decided.
“Besides, you�
��re going to need someone to watch your back with those two-legged snakes!” she continued. “You said this was a team effort, and now you want to cut me out of the team?”
Murdock got up to turn the meat and to think. “That isn’t what I’m trying to do, Rose,” he said as he walked over to face her.
“Then start explaining,” she said crossing her arms over her chest with a defiant look. “I’m all ears!”
“My plan is to set up a campfire and start cooking some of the meat so that the wind will carry the smell to the transport pod. I’m counting on everyone being tired of the bland oatmeal they’ve been eating. They’ll come to me salivating, wanting the meat. It’s then that I’ll trade the meat for the tools and supplies we need. Whittier and his thugs won’t be able to control all of them, not with hunger driving them.”
Murdock was pretty proud of his plan. But when he looked at Rose, who sat swinging her legs, he saw that his explanation wasn’t good enough for her.
“Sounds good, except for one minor detail,” she said with arms still crossed and legs still swinging.
“What detail?” he asked.
“How are you going to defend yourself against an entire group bent on revenge?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked.
“The night you rescued me, did you cover up all the evidence?” she baited him.
“Umm . . . no, I didn’t. I was more concerned about preserving your life.”
“And I’m truly thankful you did, but knowing Whittier, what do you think he did with the evidence that you failed to cover up?” she asked. Murdock remained silent while he turned the meat again. “If I know Whittier,” Rose continued, “he’s made you out to be the worst kind of criminal. A terrorist who preys on defenseless women, raping and pillaging and taking what you want with no regard for human life.”
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