Megan watched as she poured a rainbow of melted wax into each of the jars careful to hold the wicks up as she poured.
“There, done. Now they need to sit overnight and we’ll have fresh candles for tomorrow night.”
“Wow. What will you do when you run out of wax?”
Rosie shrugged. “Well, we do our best to conserve. Anytime we make a run into town, we collect what we can. I have an entire box full of wicks sitting on the shelf. I can keep making candles as long as we keep collecting wax.”
“Then what?”
Rosie shrugged. “Well, people have been making candles for hundreds of years. I have a book upstairs that explains how to use tallow or even beeswax. Eventually, we would like to get some honey bees.”
“Seriously?” Megan couldn’t believe the ideas these people had.
“Yep. It’s on the list of things we want to accomplish by next year. The trick is finding a colony. Then we’ll have plenty of bees to pollinate our garden and an endless supply of honey. Don’t even get me started on how important honey is! And of course, wax.”
Megan blew out a breath. “Amazing. You guys have really thought this out.”
Rosie looked up from her candle making for a moment. “Did you need something else, dear?”
Megan had almost forgotten why she’d come out in the first place.
“Actually, yes. I know you’re doing everything you can for Caitlin, and I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but is there anything else we can do?”
Rosie sighed, giving Megan’s arm a gentle squeeze. “Oh, sweetie. I can’t imagine how worried you must be. We can certainly try something else in the morning. There are some other plants we could try, but I don’t have them in my pantry.”
“I’ll get them.”
Rosie smiled. “I’ll make a list of some plants that may help and show you what they look like.”
Megan had never considered herself a particularly patient person. Life had taught her that if you waited for others to help, you would be waiting a very long time. She was relieved to know that Rosie had other ideas to help Caitlin and she couldn’t wait to head out to find the plants. Being active was far easier than sitting around watching her daughter deteriorate, which she didn’t want to consider. Not now. Not ever.
7
Wyatt had volunteered to take Megan into the forest to search for the plants first thing in the morning. He knew the area well and had a good idea where the plants his mom wanted would be.
Megan had told him that she’d take any help she could get if it meant making her daughter better and he was all for that. Granted, Wyatt knew that meant she’d plan to leave as soon as possible; something he hoped to change.
Wyatt was already dressed and ready to go before the sun rose and was surprised to see Megan stumble out from the bedroom dressed.
“You ready?” he asked, smiling at her. He liked the idea of them being the only ones up.
“Yep, let me grab my pack.”
Wyatt had donned his own backpack. The list of plants he was supposed to get, or try to get, was in the side pocket of his cargo pants. He loved his cargo pants. It was a military thing he supposed, but the luxury of lots of pockets made it easy for him to carry all the gear he needed to survive should he become stuck in the forest. When he’d first laid eyes on Megan wearing cargo pants, he was automatically impressed. The girl was smart.
They both walked to the bedroom where Caitlin slept and Megan had vacated. Duke was still on the bed, snuggling close to his new friend. Megan reached under the bed to grab her backpack. He knew the instant she discovered his secret when a can of corn rolled out from under the bed. The strap of her backpack must have been hung up on it.
She raised an eyebrow in question.
“You caught me. I like to sneak canned corn.”
She looked perplexed as she quirked an eyebrow up waiting for him to continue.
“I hide food under the bed.” Beds really, but he wasn’t going to tell her all of his secrets. Under the beds, in the false floorboards and even in that wood coffee table upstairs. Half the books on the shelves were there to hide the food and other supplies tucked behind them.
“When people are scavenging for food, they don’t typically look under the beds.” He shrugged his shoulders and grinned. “You didn’t.”
She pushed the corn back under the bed. “You’re right, I didn’t. I will from now on.” Wyatt could have sworn he saw the hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. She turned to walk out of the bedroom. “I won’t steal your corn, though.”
Once Megan donned her pack, they headed out, with Wyatt leading the way. At first, Wyatt thought he should take it slow. The woman had a rough trip up here a short two days ago and he didn’t want to push her. They moved deeper into the forest in relative silence. He thought about making small talk, but other than the weather, he didn’t know what to say.
He froze when he heard Megan quietly shush him. Wyatt went on alert. She must have seen someone. He turned back to see her standing still, looking off to the left. He followed her line of sight, but saw nothing.
“Rabbit,” she mouthed.
Wyatt raised his eyebrows. The woman was afraid of a rabbit?
Megan rolled her eyes at him and shook her head. “Stay,” she told him. He felt like a dog.
He watched with curiosity as she reached for the knife she’d sheathed at her hip. This was going a little too far. He moved towards her. The rabbit she’d been watching bolted and ran between them.
“I told you to stay put,” she growled.
“What were you going to do to the thing? Spear it with your knife?”
Megan rolled her eyes again. She stomped into the area the rabbit had been, looking at the ground the entire time. She picked up a fallen tree branch and snapped it in two. Wyatt watched with rapt interest as she propped up a heavy rock on the branch. He knew what she was doing; setting a deadfall trap.
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. She quickly tore up some green leaves and pushed them to the back of the V the rock made against the ground. She walked around the area, making several more traps.
“Wow,” he said for lack of a better word.
She looked at him with irritation. “I probably could have speared him, so you know. It wasn’t my intention, but sometimes you can get close enough. You never pass up an opportunity for a meal. My dad taught me that.”
Wyatt couldn’t hide the surprise. “Did you hunt with your dad a lot?”
She nodded. He noticed the wistful look on her face and instantly regretted bringing up something that probably brought her pain. Maybe her dad had been with her in the beginning as well.
“My dad was an expert hunter. That was his job. He led hunting expeditions in the mountains in Montana and Idaho. I went along whenever I could,” she wiped her hands on her pants and returned to where he was standing. “He taught me a lot about hunting, trapping and even some fishing.”
“Wow,” he repeated. He felt like an idiot, but he still couldn’t find the right words to express his amazement. This is how she’d managed on her own for so long. She wasn’t quite as helpless as he’d assumed.
This time, Megan smiled. “Yep, this girl can hunt. I’m pretty good at it too. What about you?”
“What about me?” Wyatt had been lost in thought and he didn’t hear what she’d asked.
“What skills did your dad teach you?” Megan asked him. She frowned when she saw the look on his face. “Wait, that’s okay, you don’t have to talk about him if you don’t want to, I just thought, I—”
Wyatt reached out to stop her talking but stopped short of touching her. “It’s okay.” Taking a deep breath, he forced a smile. “My dad was the prepper in the family. He realized that the world was changing and bad things were going to happen. He hated the fact that he was right.”
Taking a deep breath, Wyatt explained how he’d been at the airport with his dad and brother, ready to leave the country for a sho
rt stint overseas.
“We managed to survive the airport fiasco and got back to my parents’ house. We knew at that point none of the cars were going to work. Jack was scared to death for his wife and son. My mom and dad insisted they stay at the house and get the bug out bags together along with any other supplies they could gather.”
She nodded, her head, encouraging him to continue with the story.
Jack and I left and headed across the city to his house. Willow and Ryland weren't there. Our trip took us longer than we’d planned. Once we got Ryland and Willow, we made our way back via back alleys and the long way around.”
He paused, took a deep breath and got to the part of the story he still hadn't fully managed to come to terms with. “When we got back to my parents' house, it was too late. My dad was dead.”
As Wyatt talked, Megan had stepped closer to him and he flinched when she touched his arm. Looking down at her hand, it looked so far away. The horror of the moment must have been obvious on his face because when he focused on her, he could see her tears. Shaking his head, he felt Megan step back to give him the space that he so desperately needed. Taking deep breaths, he swallowed several times and gratefully took the canteen she handed him. Taking a drink, he handed it back to her with a nod of thanks.
“When we got back to the house, we knew right away something was wrong. Rushing inside, we found them both in the living room. Looters had broken in to take our supplies and dad fought back. Mom was in shock. She’d locked the front door. When she came to answer it, we knew. We all stood there on the front stoop, staring at one another. She’d done everything she could to save him but he’d been shot in the stomach at close range and bled out.”
Megan gasped and Wyatt looked up to see her covering her mouth as she looked at him in horror. “Oh, Wyatt,” she whispered.
“We buried my dad in the backyard. I wanted to stay at the house. Board up the windows and ride out the initial chaos, but my mom, well, she wanted to get as far away as fast as possible. I understood her need to get away. We loaded up and the five of us set out for the lodge. We knew it would take several days of walking nonstop, but when my mom puts her foot down, it's down.”
Megan smiled, nodding her head. “Women tend to be that way. So, how did you end up with Chase and Albert?”
“We found them as we headed out of town. There was a group of prisoners, from the prison that had collapsed, attacking a house and we had no way to go around them. We could hear whoever was inside shooting back and decided to give them a hand. Then wouldn't you know it, my best friend came strolling out of the house after it was all said and done!”
Megan raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying the story.
“Chase and I grew up together. He was more like a brother to me than a friend. My mom treated him as a son. Anyway, long story short, Chase and Albert knew each other and I trusted Chase's judgment. Once again, my mom insisted they come with us and as you probably are beginning to realize, what mom wants, mom gets.”
Megan chuckled. “Good to know.”
Wyatt gave Megan a tight smile. “It’s been hard. All we had was our bug out bags and our feet. Fifty miles is a rough trek for the most experienced hikers and with such a large group, we really didn’t want to draw any attention to our movements, so we walked at night when it was the coldest and slept in shifts during the day. Chase and I wanted to get here as quickly as possible but Willow, Ryland and mom, they couldn’t move as fast and we didn’t dare split up. Not again. It wasn’t until we were close to the cabin that we felt safe enough to stop to scavenge for potential supplies. Albert had found a couple wheelbarrows and we loaded up what we could to bring up.”
When he finished talking, he looked at Megan again. She’d pulled some sort of contraption out of her bag and was holding it on her lap as she quietly listened to him talk. She gave him a tremulous smile. “I can’t even imagine what you went through. Making our way here, I’d come across so much death and destruction, I tried to shield Caitlin from it but to have it be your father? Oh Wyatt, I know there isn’t anything I can do for the pain, but—”
“You could tell me what you have in your hands.” Wyatt desperately wanted a distraction from his thoughts and Megan seemed to notice that.
Holding it up, she smiled at him. “This? It’s a snare trap and works great for snaring squirrels, which isn’t the tastiest of meats but it’s protein. All we need to do is find a tree that they like and I can put this on a branch. When they run up the branch through the little loops, it will tighten and trap them.”
Wyatt shook his head silently agreeing with her even though he’d never had to eat squirrel. First time for everything, he mused to himself. “I’m going to take your word for it. So, do we leave these here?”
“Yep. Let’s go get those plants. I know dandelion, but even looking at the pictures Rosie showed me, I’m not sure what I’m looking for.”
He grinned. “Lucky for you, I do.” He pulled the list out of his pocket. “We need stinging nettle, Echinacea and pine needles, which we’ll grab from the trees around the house.”
“Stinging nettle? Really?” Megan grimaced. “I remember my dad telling horror stories about one of his clients brushing up against it. He broke out in what looked like hives and couldn’t stop scratching. Your mom is going to feed that to my daughter?”
“Well, she boils the leaves to make into some kind of tea. Once it’s boiled, there won’t be any itching from contact,” he assured her.
“Okay. Well, let’s get to it.” She reached into her pack and pulled out a pair of gloves.
Wyatt followed her lead and they both set out in the same direction, but some distance apart, looking for what they needed.
Wyatt watched as she navigated the rocky terrain covered with heavy brush. She was a natural. He found himself following her. He knew the area well, but she had a knack for getting around the brush and trees with ease. He mused she must be part woodland nymph, she was so at home in the woods.
After collecting the various plants, they headed back to check the traps. He hadn’t meant to tell her about his dad but once he started talking, he couldn’t seem to stop. Wyatt realized that it was the first time he’d talked about him outside the family and it felt good to let some of the emotions he’d been bottling up out. Wyatt knew that there was both strength and safety in numbers but there was also that need for an emotional connection that family couldn’t provide. Family was important; he knew that but to have someone by his side that he could share his life with that would be perfect.
As they walked, Wyatt wondered what it would take for Megan to trust him. Up until he talked about his dad, he could tell she was holding back and only being polite. A glimmer of hope began to grow inside him that maybe she would see that there could be a place for her and Caitlin with them. If only she would stop being so stubborn.
8
Megan was in shock over what Wyatt shared. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose someone you loved like that. The thought of losing Caitlin had her placing her hand over her heart to still the pain pangs of what if. What if she didn’t wake up? What if she got worse? This world had become so frightening. Wyatt and his family were very lucky to have each other. To be able to rely on each other. Compared to what they went through, she’d been very lucky. And they were so warm and friendly despite what happened to them. If they became friends, it was going to be tough to leave. Already, she could feel herself getting comfortable. It was nice to have another adult to talk with. She loved her daughter, but three months of talking with a seven-year-old did get trying. Megan longed for family, friends and a normal life. She wasn’t convinced any of that could ever happen again even if she could see it with the Morris family.
After everything he’d shared, Wyatt seemed shook up, so Megan filled the painful silence by talking about trapping. They set the snare loop along a tree trunk they’d watched some squirrels running up and down.
Megan instructed him on how
to use paracord to create a noose and then secure the tag end to another branch. She explained how paracord would work, but that she preferred the snare wire. It was easier and seemed to be a bit more effective. While she’d used this method multiple times to catch rabbits, she didn’t see why it wouldn’t work on smaller game like squirrels. She reached into her pack and pulled out components for three trigger spring traps.
“These will work for rabbits and we may possibly trap something a little bigger. It really depends on what your family is willing to eat.”
“I don’t think we’re desperate enough to eat something like a raccoon. Yet. And I hope we never get there,” he answered her as he watched her with the traps.
“While I haven’t eaten one, my dad said that raccoons are good food so long as we’re careful and only keep the healthy ones. And really, in our situation, protein is protein. We need it to survive.”
“Will those hold a bobcat?”
She eyed the traps, cocking her head slightly. “Probably. Depending on its size.”
“If you don’t mind, can we set them? We know there’s one in the area. I would hate for it to sneak up on us or, go after Duke.”
Megan didn’t hesitate and showed him how to set the traps. “Bobcats are fairly shy and chances are, if it knows we’re nearby, he’ll steer clear of us and I really doubt one would go after Duke, he’s much too big.” Reaching into her pack, she pulled out a plastic bag. Megan answered Wyatt’s questioning look. “Rosie let me have some of the freeze dried beef. I’m hoping it will be sufficient to catch something. Once we’ve snared something, we can use the organs to bait future traps.” Burying the traps and bait under some leaves near the base of the trees, she stood up and dusted herself off.
“I think we might have some larger traps in the shed. Bear traps I think. My dad had apparently tried trapping in the past, but never really got into it.”
Megan didn’t feel overly excited at the idea.
EMP Lodge Series Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 6