by R. A. Rock
Gideon turned to look at her, confused.
“You’ll need help,” she said. “No point in me going to Wabowden. It was your family we were going to stay with.”
I could see that Gideon was turning this all over in his mind.
“You have food to trade too?” The man squinted at Oona with his beady eyes.
Good to know we could still count on law enforcement to be able to resist bribes.
Jeez, are we in trouble, I thought. Northern Manitoba would be in complete anarchy within a few weeks, at this rate.
Oona nodded.
“Okay then,” he said, lowering his gun but not putting it in the car. I could see Matt’s shoulders relax a bit.
“I’ll take you both. Get your stuff and let’s go. I want to get to town before nightfall and I’m only going sixty to save gas. There’s rumours they need extra help to stop the looting and all that. I need to get there as soon as possible.” And just like that, the cop in him was back on duty.
“I’ll get your stuff,” Matt told Gideon, who nodded.
The man unlocked the car.
“Get in the front seat where I can keep an eye on you,” he said to Gideon. “The girl can sit in the back on the passenger side, too.”
I went around to help Gideon get in the passenger side of the car.
“Are you sure about this?” I said to him, feeling a little worried.
“I’ll only slow you down,” he said, his eyes showing for a moment the anguish he felt about being a dead weight in our little group. “And I’d rather sit in my house in town while this heals rather than in the bush where I can’t do anything. Oona and I can walk out again once my ankle heals.”
“You’re right,” I said, suddenly understanding that the Gideon everyone saw was not who he really was. This was the second time he had deliberately done something dangerous to himself in order to help one of us. I didn’t know how to express my appreciation. “Thank you. If you ever need any help, you know where we are.”
I held out my hand to shake and he took it. It didn’t seem like enough, but it was all I had.
“It was good to meet you, Nessa. You take care of Matt, eh?” And he winked lewdly. I rolled my eyes but smiled.
Matt and Oona ran up, each with a pack.
The man popped the trunk, still not getting out as he swivelled his head from person to person, clearly trying to keep an eye on all of us at once. But he had relaxed a little, so he must have realized that we were relatively harmless.
“Food goes in the trunk. Your packs can go in the backseat.”
Matt and Oona went to the back, pulling the food out to put in the trunk. Then they loaded the backpacks into the back behind the driver’s seat and Oona waved good-bye.
Matt went over and whispered something in Gideon’s ear, who frowned but nodded, looking annoyed and then resigned. Once Oona was in, the man drove off. And just like that our group was down by a third. We waved after them and then stood silently. I felt a bit let down and off-kilter.
“What did you say to Gideon to piss him off?” I said, wondering.
“I took his little bomb,” Matt said. His face looked troubled but at the same time sort of… righteous.
“What?” I stared at him.
“Tell you later,” he said through his teeth, as James and Carlynne approached us. Matt turned to them and smiled.
“Well, I guess we’re walking today after all. Let’s break camp and get on the road.”
Carlynne made a little whiny noise but the rest of us ignored her. I, for one, was eager to get going and in the flurry of packing up, I forgot to ask Matt about his strange bomb comment. I wanted to be at my cabin more than anything. Logically I knew that it wasn’t any safer than most places. But emotionally, I knew that once I got there, I would feel safe.
MATT AND I worked together to pack up the tent and he attached it to the bottom of his backpack with the straps meant for that purpose. I checked that the fire was completely out and that we hadn’t left any garbage behind.
“Ready?” James said, coming over, his backpack already on.
“Ready.” Matt gave a quick nod.
I patted my pocket with my emergency matches and hefted my backpack onto my back.
“Ready.” The three of us turned towards Carlynne, who was waiting at the edge of the clearing.
We walked out to the highway and headed south. It was April in northern Manitoba, so the weather could vary wildly. Often it was below zero in the morning but would be warm enough to not need a coat by the afternoon, with water melting everywhere.
The snow was almost all gone, I noted. There were only dirty patches of it left in the shadowy parts of the woods. It was still puddle season and it would have been handy to bring my rubber boots but I knew that the puddles would only last a couple weeks at the most and it wasn’t worth the weight to have to carry them.
And anyways, the electricity would come back on soon and I would be back at my house in town with a really good story to tell my grandkids.
Right?
It was getting harder and harder to convince myself that this was only temporary when it felt so permanent. Though there was no reason to think that this was really the end.
“We should be more careful,” Matt said to the four of us as we walked along the highway to the shrill sounds of birdsong coming from the forest.
“What do you mean?” Carlynne said, her brow furrowing. “Aren’t we? Nobody’s walking on the shoulder anymore.”
“I don’t mean about falling in the ditch,” Matt said. “I mean about people.”
There was a heavy silence after that.
“It looks like there are already food shortages. If people think we have supplies, they may want to steal them.”
James scowled at the thought.
“I don’t want to lose our food,” he said and Carlynne looked worried.
“None of us wants to lose our food,” Matt said. “That’s why we should be careful of any other cars or people we see.”
I pulled out the map I had.
“Remember the old rail bed that they use as a snowmobile trail now?” I said, pointing at the map. The others stopped to look. “It runs almost parallel to the road.”
“We could walk there,” Carlynne said, eagerly. “Probably not many other people are using it.”
Matt tilted his head back and forth, thinking about it.
“I don’t know. The walking won’t be as good as on asphalt. And this is the first we’ve seen of anyone else on the highway. I’d be reluctant to move that much more slowly without good reason.”
“He’s got a point, Carly,” James said. “It’ll be harder walking on the trail and you’re already having a hard enough time.”
“How about we keep it in mind,” I said. “And if we need it, we can move over. I just wanted everyone to know we have options.”
Carlynne nodded, having been won over by James’ comment about how much harder walking on the trail would be.
“And we’ll get off the road and into the bush if we see a car or people coming,” Matt added.
We all nodded in agreement.
“Good, then. Let’s march.” He smiled and clapped his hands as if he was looking forward to it.
I just hoped I would make it another day of non-stop hiking without collapsing. But I didn’t say a word, only turned south and set my face into the wind. I gathered my courage and strength close around me and started to walk.
Nessa
I gazed around at the pretty campsite we had chosen for tonight with a feeling not unlike happiness. We were in a stand of poplar. And the tall graceful trees with pale green bark stretched their lithe arms to the sky and formed a protective circle around us. If it were summer, they would be playful and whispering to the wind but right now at the edge of winter, they were silent and solemn, guarding their secrets well.
With the late start, we had still managed to go twenty kilometres but it felt like fifty. I think all of u
s were ready to stop by the time the sun began to set. I had volunteered to make the fire tonight, feeling a need to be helpful and busy.
I squatted in the middle of our new camp, completely focused on what I was doing, while the others pitched the tents and gathered wood around me. I tore a circle of moss, removing every last bit of plant matter until I had a bare patch of ground that wouldn’t catch anything on fire.
Then I looked at the pile of wood, sticks, leaves, and bark that Carlynne had gathered while the men set up the tents. The leaves and sticks looked slightly damp but I hoped that they would still burn. It was hard to find dry enough tinder and wood when it had been drizzling for days.
The birch bark was like paper and would make very good starter. I set it in the middle of the dirt. Then I chose the driest, smallest sticks and made a tiny tent over the birch bark. That done, I grabbed some bigger sticks and made a larger tent over the smaller one. Choosing carefully, I laid out the wood I thought would burn best from smallest to largest.
I nodded to myself.
Now I was ready.
I pulled the matches from my pocket and selected one.
I have a rule. Only one match per fire. If I use more, I consider that wasteful. I knew that I would have to be very attentive if I didn’t want this fire to go out. And if it went out then I would have to use another match.
If it turned out that the electricity never came back on, matches were going to be as valuable as gold, so I didn’t want to waste even one of my emergency stash. Narrowing my focus to my little teepee of sticks, I struck the match.
The acrid smell of sulphur hit my nose but I ignored it and slowly touched the flame to the birch bark. It caught in an instant, lighting the grey day, and curling as it burned. I watched avidly as the small sticks caught fire. I gave one of them a push so that it was right in the flame and was rewarded by it catching as well.
The small sticks quickly burned up, setting the larger sticks on fire and with quick but deliberate movements, I leaned some bigger pieces against each other so that the larger burning sticks would catch these pieces of wood on fire next. I was careful not to knock the wood over because that could put out the flames in a second, wasting the materials you had used to start it as well as your time and energy — and of course the match.
But the wood didn’t fall, the larger pieces caught and once they were burning well, I tipped them over, knowing that now they wouldn’t go out. I piled more wood on, crisscrossing the pieces so that they would get plenty of air.
With the fire no longer in danger of going out, I allowed myself to pay attention again to what was happening around me. James and Carlynne were gone and Matt was sitting on his coat, watching.
“Hey,” I said, with a happy smile. “The fire’s going.”
“I see that,” he said. “I admire your focus.”
“One match.” I held up my pointer finger.
“What?” His eyebrows drew together.
“I try to only use one match,” I explained.
Now his eyebrows flew up in surprise.
“And are you generally successful?”
I shrugged one shoulder.
“Most of the time. This time it was a challenge with everything being so damp, but I managed.” I slapped my forehead. “But what am I talking about. You’re the wilderness guide. You can probably get a fire going in the pouring rain by rubbing two sticks together.”
He laughed out loud at that and I giggled. Soon we were both laughing uncontrollably. After all the stress of the guy with the gun and losing Gideon and Oona, I think we needed the release.
“I actually have a knife with a flint,” he said next and that sounded so funny to me at that moment that I went off again holding my stomach I was laughing so hard.
“What?” I managed to get out between gasps.
“I have this knife,” he said, smiling at me. “It has a flint that fits into the handle and you use the back of the knife to strike it. It’s perfect for making a fire if you lose your matches or get them wet. I never go anywhere without it in the bush.”
“Aw. I totally wish I had one of those now. I‘m practically married to my emergency matches.”
I patted my pocket and nodded solemnly.
“Those matches are a good idea,” he said.
Yeah, especially since the chances of me getting one of those cool fire-starting knives was zero percent at this moment. I sighed, thinking sadly of online stores that only a few weeks ago could have shipped me one in about eight days.
At that somewhat dismal turn of the conversation, Matt got up to see what could be made for supper. We compared what food we had left and James and Carlynne came in while we were discussing.
“I need us to use the rest of the potatoes that I brought,” I said, rolling my sore shoulders backwards. “I’m pretty sure they weigh five pounds all on their own.”
Carlynne smiled.
“What about soup again?” Matt said. “That’s filling and goes a long way.”
“What else do we have to use up?” Carlynne said to James. Then she turned to us and explained. “He’s the cook in our house.”
James rummaged through his pack. Carlynne had told me that James was carrying all the food and she was carrying everything else. Everything else seeming to be not very much in my opinion.
“We still have some carrots that were left in the fridge. I’ve got a dried soup pack that we could add to it. And… bacon.”
“Bacon?” I scowled.
Bear bait, more like.
“It was in the fridge. I didn’t want to leave it.”
Matt shook his head.
“We shouldn’t cook bacon.”
I thought of grumpy bears. Hungry spring bears being woken from their hibernation by the smell of frying bacon.
There ensued an argument between Matt and James that was basically Matt telling James that the bacon would attract bears and James telling Matt that we shouldn’t waste food. In the end, Matt conceded.
“You can cook it in the morning and then we’ll move on. That’ll be a bear magnet, James. It wasn’t a very good choice to bring and I still don’t think you should cook it at all.”
“I couldn’t leave it,” he said again, which made Carlynne roll her eyes.
“So, potato soup?” I said, getting out the tiny cutting board and my multi-purpose camping knife — that I now wished was a cool knife with a flint in the handle — and started to chop.
Matt got out his pot. James had found a stream nearby and was purifying the water. Matt made a flat spot on some hot coals and carefully set the water there to boil. Carlynne handed me their carrots and the dried soup packet. I chopped all the veggies glad to be rid of the weight but not looking forward to the end of the fresh food. I still had dried stuff but it wasn’t quite the same.
When the water had boiled for about ten minutes for additional purification, I added the soup packet and the veggies, stirring so that it wouldn’t burn. It was hard to control temperature cooking on coals.
The others busied themselves getting more wood, washing in the nearby stream, and laying out their sleeping bags in the tents.
In about fifteen minutes of hard boiling, the veggies were cooked. I wrapped the pot handle in the tea towel I had brought and took it out of the fire. Everyone brought their bowls and I ladled it out.
Such simple food smelled and tasted delicious after a day of walking. I chuckled to myself that I would never eat this on a regular day at home. Probably neither would any of the others. But when you were hungry enough, anything tasted good.
It reminded me, though, that we needed to get to our destinations. There was food there.
Matt and I were going to Sipwesk lake. And Carlynne’s grandparents had a cabin on Clark Lake, which is where they were headed — an extra couple day’s hike past Sipwesk.
“Thanks for making supper, Nessa,” Matt said and the others echoed him.
“No problem,” I said, with a smile. “It was my t
urn.”
“I’ll wash the dishes tonight,” Carlynne said and James offered to keep her company. The two of them headed for the little stream, talking softly to each other.
I kind of envied them.
They at least had each other in these troubled times.
And me, I was all alone.
At that moment, I looked up and caught Matt’s blue eyes on me — so intense, I felt as though he was seeing into my soul. His hair was untidy and had fallen on his forehead, giving me the urge to push it off. We gazed at each other and I felt myself falling into those eyes, never wanting to come out.
Hmph. Maybe I wasn’t as alone as I thought.
Matt
The good soup that Nessa had made filled my belly and I felt good. Content. James and Carlynne had gone to bed. They had put their tent quite a ways away and from the odd noise coming from that direction, I thought maybe good old James was getting some. It reminded me that I hadn’t got any since my girlfriend had broken up with me not long ago.
But I should not be thinking about sex. That would only make me crazy with Nessa only a few feet away. She was alternating between poking the fire with a stick and staring up at the sky. The firelight and shadows danced across her pretty face, which had a smudge of charcoal on the cheek.
The clouds had cleared and the stars were as bright as I had ever seen them. Looking up at them, made me feel a little melancholy. It was unsettling to lose Gideon and Oona. The more people in our group, the stronger it was, after all. But I felt confident that the four of us could make it the rest of the way. We were getting close. Four more days. Maybe five. That was all it would take.
Well, that was probably a little optimistic considering that Carlynne was one of our group members. But we would surely be there within the week.
Then I would see my mother and make sure she was okay. Then I would set us up for the next few weeks to deal with whatever the world might throw at us until everything got back to normal.
And I was going to help Nessa in any way I could. I had sworn I’d be a good friend. And I would.
But I didn’t want to only be her friend.