Lincoln held up his sketchbook. Nadia clasped her hands together, pleading, “Yeah! One notebook and pen or pencil each. Please? I promised my friend I would write to her.”
“And since you trashed my phone, the only way I have to preserve these beautiful sights is through my drawing,” Lincoln pointed out.
“Fine,” Perry sighed. “Just know you won’t be starting any fires with paper. Everything else about this survival training course is going by my book. Understand?”
Nadia and Lincoln’s buoyant excitement carried them on a comfortable stroll along a well-worn path behind Clyde’s cabin. The chilly air filled her lungs, but the warm layers of clothing kept her comfortable, and hiking boots made the walk easier. She drank in the experience.
The strong scent of evergreens made her think of Perry’s cologne. Birdsong was punctuated by rustles in the underbrush and the buzz of insects, and a light breeze swirled thin, wispy fog that hung low. About a mile from base camp, Perry directed their attention to the sound of running water.
“You hear that? That’s life,” he said. “We want to build shelter near a water source.”
He showed them how to make a round-lodge by using their knives to cut flexible green saplings that were about thumb thick. It was time-consuming, labor intensive work, but Nadia was pleased with herself for keeping up with the men. They assembled the long wood into a rounded conical shape attached to thicker bows and tied together with cord that Perry showed them how to make with dry grass.
It would take days to make enough cord to assemble the structure; so, after he taught them how to make the binding, he retrieved readymade lengths of cord from his backpack and helped them use it to bring the round-lodge together. Once done, they insulated the lower half of the building with mud and grass from the streambed.
By the time construction was complete, the sun had sunk beneath the tree line, and the clearing was cold. Perry beckoned for Nadia to step into the shelter with him. Her eyes widened in surprise. “It’s warmer in here.”
“Mm-hm. It’ll be even warmer once the three of us are in here together.”
“This is amazing.”
“Shelters like these were predominantly used by early settlers in the Midwest. It’s a strong design that will provide temporary shelter in nearly any situation until you can build something sturdier. Told you that you were in good hands.”
Nadia conceded that she trusted him. Their eyes locked, and Perry hesitantly touched her cheek with the pad of his thumb. She licked her lips as the heat in the room went up another few degrees. The spell was broken when Lincoln stepped into the spacious lodge. “What’s next, boss?”
“Now, we learn how to build a fire.”
Nadia whispered to herself, “I thought we covered that lesson last night.”
Lincoln blushed, but Perry ignored the comment. They used friction build-up, rubbing two sticks together to ignite a carefully constructed fire pit. Nadia pouted when Lincoln mastered the task quickly while she struggled to get the hang of it.
“Take your time. This isn’t a race,” Perry murmured.
“He’s done this before.”
“Yeah, I was a Boy Scout,” Lincoln acknowledged.
“See!”
Perry grinned and shook his head. “So what? Does that mean you shouldn’t learn how? Stop being a spoiled brat and keep trying.” Within minutes, the blazing fire warmed the clearing around the round-lodge, and the heat radiated to the shelter where Nadia sat down to rest. “Aren’t you proud of yourself?”
“I’m not spoiled,” she grumbled.
“You are, but that’s okay. We’re all products of our environment.”
“Shade thrown?”
“Not at all. My point is, we’re sculpted by our challenges. Challenge yourself, even if no one else is challenging you. When you step back and see what you’ve accomplished with your own two hands, you gain the confidence to do more. Now that we’ve got a shelter and a fire going, what’s the next priority?” Perry asked.
“Food and water,” Lincoln answered immediately. His stomach growled audibly. The hard work of building a shelter had taken a lot out of them.
Perry reached into his backpack and brought out three large fabric canteens. “We can’t hunt tonight, but we can forage, and, tomorrow, I’ll teach you how to make these.” He dropped the canteens inside their shelter. “Nadia, you need a break? Lincoln, come with me. Let’s go see what we can find to eat.”
“Ugh! I think I’m losing some of my enthusiasm for this,” he complained with a laugh.
Nadia chuckled and moved closer to the fire. “No, I can help, you guys. I’m not the weakest link.”
“It doesn’t take three people to forage. If you want to help, I can show you how to make a bough bed. Let’s get the frames in place. Then, you can fill it with dry leaves and grass. You’ll want to make the mattress about six inches thick to get us off the ground and provide insulation against the cold. Can you handle it?”
“We’ll see,” she replied. That smoky quality tinged her voice again.
Perry found downed branches that were large enough to provide the frame of the bed, and Lincoln lugged them with him to the shelter despite the fact that his muscles ached and his blood sugar was crashing. He could not wait to get back to civilization to give Mitch Trepan a piece of his mind. What made the director think this experience was what he needed to be a better actor?
His hands were dirty and blistered from sawing through boughs all afternoon. He was sweaty. He hated to think of what he would smell like after a few more days of this. Lincoln blew out a frustrated sigh as Perry gestured for him to join him foraging for food.
“Why would anyone want to do this?” Lincoln muttered. “With all the technological advances we have, this is work for the sake of work. And what the hell is on the forager menu?”
“Weeds, roots and bark. Berries, if we’re lucky.”
“What about protein?”
“Pick a rock. I’ll show you the best grubs and larvae you can find,” Perry chuckled.
“Please tell me you’re pulling my leg!”
“You’ll eat anything you have to, if you get hungry enough.” Perry led him closer to the stream where the waning light fell upon nothing that looked remotely edible. “You have to know where to look. You don’t want anything from the roadside or anything that might have been exposed to dangerous pollutants and pesticides. Forage from places with low traffic, like out here.”
They found dandelion and chicory, wild leeks and elderberry and returned to camp with the bounty of “food.” Nadia was still working on the beds. Perry used a flat stone slab and made a salad. Finally, the three of them settled close to the fire and ate together.
The greens were bitter, but the elderberries were sweet and tart. Perry lauded the benefits of eating clean. Nadia tentatively tried everything laid before her as her expression ranged from perplexed to bravely determined. Lincoln found the meal barely palatable, and his stomach begged for real food. “This feels like a punishment.” He tried to force a laugh, but was obviously struggling to find the humor in the situation.
With a grin, Perry gestured back the way they had come. “The moss grows on the north side of the tree. If you don’t like how I do things around here, you’re welcome to make your way north to the cabin.”
“You’re getting a kick out of this, aren’t you?” Lincoln accused. Something about Perry’s smug grin made him angrier. The survival instructor spread his arms and shrugged.
“I’m just giving you your options. You can eat this, go hungry, or go home.”
Nadia’s eyes swung from Perry to Lincoln.
“And I’m just saying,” Lincoln fired back, “you could offer protein bars or something. It’ll do your business some good. You’ve got us eating weeds like nut jobs. I mean, you don’t like Rick Feldman, but I saw his brochure. Whatever he’s doing is working.”
Perry’s jaw tightened perceptibly, but he spoke calmly. “Oh, thanks
for the business advice. Better yet, you can quit now and sign up for Rick’s course. See where that gets you.” Perry chuckled bitterly and shook his head. “You don’t take this seriously anyway. For you, this is about a character you’ll be playing in a movie.”
“Oh, come on! I don’t take this seriously?’” Lincoln exclaimed defensively.
Perry pinned him with a look. “I’m not here to entertain you or to stroke your ego. I’m here to teach you how to have a chance at making it in a dangerous world. So, my offer still stands. You don’t like how I run things? Get the fuck out of my camp!”
“Guys,” Nadia interjected. She swept her hands through the air in a slicing motion. “Enough with the pissing match. We’re in this together.”
Lincoln backed down. He hated to seem like a jerk, but Perry was pushing his buttons. He wondered if things would have gotten as heated if they had not slept together. The argument was laced with tensions from sexual frustration, a desire to dominate, a need to regain control of a situation none of them seemed to have control over.
“You’re right,” he sighed. “We’re in this together.” Lincoln stuck out a conciliatory hand which Perry pointedly ignored.
Chapter 7
Perry came to a creek that was glistening in the moonlight, found a sizeable boulder and took a seat at the water’s edge. He was off his game, acting out of character.
He found Lincoln’s lack of curiosity unsettling. Even Nadia’s complaints about building a fire had grated on his nerves. The same qualities that were good for publicity—Lincoln and Nadia’s fame and fortune—would make it difficult for Perry to show them he had something of merit to offer.
“This is my life,” he whispered to himself. He taught survival skills because he was a survivor. Of course, Nadia and Lincoln were having trouble adapting to his world. Maybe it was his fault. Perry rarely connected with people, much preferring his own company.
They had, however, shown him a good time at the hotel and made him hopeful this trip would be fun. Maybe that was why he was taking this so damn personally. Perry sighed and skipped a stone. It plunked into the water and he sighed again in frustration. To get through these three weeks with his sanity intact, he would have to stop imagining what could be and accept what was. The others were way out of his league and nothing was going to change that.
Perry heard footsteps behind him. Lincoln settled next to him and stared out at the water. “I didn’t mean to set you off,” Lincoln muttered.
“The other day,” said Perry, “Rick Feldman made a jab about the spike in sign-ups during uncertain times, but I understand why people do that. Terrorism, war or natural disasters, make some people scared. Most look to authority for help and reassurance but a small subset of people get into radical self-reliance. I’m trying to teach you how to be radically self-reliant.”
“I appreciate it. Perry, I wasn’t trying to offend you or make light of your passion. I’m just not the kind of guy to build a bunker in my backyard. I mean, I get that anything can happen at any time, but I don’t jump at every conspiracy theory. I’m not that paranoid.”
Perry nodded, understanding that, too. “I’m not talking about paranoia. I’m talking about emergency preparedness. The average American believes our society is set, ad infinitum. Our money will always be good. Our government will always be benevolent. And our neighbors will always stay on their side of the fence. But that’s an illusion.”
He looked at Lincoln. “After Hurricane Katrina, you know a lot of sick and injured people were stuck in a large metropolitan area without access to food water or the most basic of services. Power grids went out, waste management systems went down, and this lead to a whole host of problems. Let me ask you this: You carry a lot of cash on you?”
“No,” Lincoln snorted. “That’d be asking to be robbed.”
“Yeah? How do you get access to the money in your bank when the roads are washed out and the ATMs don’t work? Hurricane Katrina happened over a decade ago. We’re even more dependent on the power grids and internet now. Ever thought of that?”
Lincoln chuckled quietly and rubbed his hands together slowly. “I’m thinking about it now.”
Perry stared at his hands. Large, elegant hands that would get callouses and chipped fingernails over the next few weeks. Perry wanted to lace their fingers together, but he restrained himself.
They both looked back when Nadia approached, hugging herself to ward against the cold. “I come in peace,” she said lightheartedly.
Perry smiled and beckoned her to join them. “I’m sorry for being temperamental. I think Lincoln and I see eye to eye now. We were just talking about radical self-reliance and the state of the world.”
“My father and some of his friends talk about it all the time. They have a survivalist club. I think that’s why he hasn’t put up much fuss about me being here,” she said. Perry kept his thoughts to himself and nodded for her to continue. “We have an insurance home in New Zealand. In the event of wide scale societal collapse, we have a safe-haven. I used to think Dad was being over the top, but lately I consider it forward-thinking.”
“Is it forward-thinking?” Perry asked lightly. “I imagine it’s a step backwards.”
“Why so?”
He did not answer. He did not want to get into a spirited debate about how billionaires could afford to invest in fixing the problems instead of running from them. He wanted to kiss her. Perry forced the thought away. Rising to his feet, he gestured toward camp where the fire was dying.
“I think we better get more firewood before it gets late. Nadia, why don’t you grab the canteens and take water back to camp. We’ll meet you there.”
“Wait! Why do you think it’s a step backwards?”
“Because,” he sighed. “The same things that destroy the world will be waiting in the hearts of men, no matter how many utopias we try to build. You can run, but you can’t hide from human nature.” The words rang in his head as he ambled away with Lincoln on his heels. Back at the hotel, Nadia had called the volatile chemistry between them human nature. They could not hide from that, either.
In the days that followed, Lincoln managed to keep his complaints to a minimum, and time passed. Each day, there was so much to learn, so much to do, that by nightfall the three of them fell into bed, exhausted.
They developed a regular routine, rising early and washing up with water from the creek. For soap, Perry extracted tannins from aspen bark boiled in a hollowed-out rabbit skull. The astringent, murky black solution was great for bathing.
They each had two sets of clothes and when one outfit got dirty, they washed it and hung it on the trees to dry. It was not a perfect system, but it worked. Perry taught them how to groom without conventional tools of hygiene. They used a chewed and softened sassafras twig to brush their teeth using a primitive toothpaste made from ashes.
Around the third day out, Perry appeared with a bristly plant that he held up proudly. “Found this. Teasel plant. It’s an invasive species that normally isn’t cultivated, but it grows wild. If we get rid of all the seedpods, this will make a perfect hairbrush,” he announced.
He later produced a medicinal stash of homemade alcohol and taught them how to make neem-infused insect-repellant when Nadia complained about the bugs. Using the tip of a knife, he showed them resin bubbles on a spruce tree and pierced each pocket to produce enough resin for her bites. The clear, antibacterial sap was perfect for wound healing.
Perry also showed them how to make deodorant in the wilderness, explaining that it was not a vital survival component. They picked usnea, a pale green lichen, from the branches of a spruce tree. He demonstrated how to moisten their underarms with water from the creek and how to rub sun-dried usnea along the skin to minimize body odor.
Breakfast was whatever they could forage, trap, fish or hunt. Lincoln developed an appreciation for the peaceful nature walks they took to gather food. He enjoyed the playful banter that belied the simmering attraction that
smoldered just under the surface. They grew closer and became good friends, no matter how hard Perry tried to keep the barriers in place.
With every bush-craft lesson, Perry’s calming voice stirred arousal. He would put a hand over Lincoln’s to show him proper form or stand close behind him and whisper instructions. At night, Nadia would gravitate toward him like the moon caught in earth’s pull. Lincoln would wrap his arms around her and breathe in the scent of her sweat and think it was better than any perfume money could buy.
He had no clue whether his senses simply grew accustomed to less luxury and frills or if his primal nature was unleashed by the setting. The hard work of surviving day to day left Lincoln aching for sex. Whenever the desire became too strong to ignore, he would slip away from camp and sketch to take his mind off the tantalizing fantasies.
He caught himself staring when he had no reason to stare, daydreaming when he should have been focused on work. Nadia, who had seemed most eager to flaunt social conventions in the beginning, now seemed determined to keep the men at arm’s length. Perry, for his part, was diligent about maintaining a proper student/teacher relationship.
Lincoln seemed to be the only one suffering from flashbacks of their one-night stand. He wondered what would happen when the days wound down and they had to go back to their real lives. He filled his sketchbook with memories, knowing it was all he would take with him when he went back to Hollywood.
As the week closed out on Friday night, he looked forward to next, when they would move on to another camp. Then, he could expend his excess energy on the hike. Anything to take the edge off.
Nadia scooted closer to the warm, crackling campfire. The cold air was laden with the smell of the roasted rabbit the three of them had enjoyed just moments earlier. She licked her lips and gazed at the cold blue-black sky. She looked back down at the letter she was writing to Maria.
With Lincoln and Perry away getting more firewood, she had time to herself to think of the unlikely bond forming between the three of them, and her thoughts tumbled onto the page:
Survival for Three: MMF Bisexual Romance Page 7