EMP Lodge Series Box Set | Books 1-6

by Hamilton, Grace

  “They’re illegal, or were illegal, because they can be brutal to whatever gets trapped in it,” she explained. “I know how to use them, but have never actually used them.”

  “You will show me how to set them, right?” Wyatt pressed her.

  She nodded. “Of course. It’s easy. The trick is to set your traps in the right locations, which means you need to know how to do some tracking. Really, you don’t even need an actual trap. You can make a variety of snares that will catch larger animals. Personally, I prefer to use a rifle to take down large game.”

  He nodded. “The idea of trapping a bear is intimidating. I know there are bears around here, but they’ve never been a real issue. If things change, I plan to do what’s necessary to ensure my family is safe and if that means setting traps for bears, then so be it.”

  “Hunting them is a far better option,” Megan advised.

  They continued walking towards the deadfall traps Megan had set earlier. “If you ‘re desperate, you can make a variety of traps using some heavy wire or cable and make them either fixed or spring loaded to snare a deer but really, like bears, hunting is the better option.

  Wyatt nodded. “Got it. Guns only.”

  “Look!” she shouted with glee when she saw a couple of her traps had been triggered.

  She pulled her knife from the sheath once again, in case the rabbit was still alive and would try to make a break for it. Megan quickly went to the first trap and groaned when she saw there was nothing under the heavy rock. “Dammit,” she groaned in frustration.

  “There’s another one over there,” Wyatt pointed, smiling. “And I can tell you that one isn’t empty.”

  Megan quickly reset the first trap and went to get her catch from the second. Yep, a nice fat, gray rabbit. Thankfully, the deadfall trap did its job. While she would and had killed in the past, she always preferred it if they were dead when she found them. The other trap was empty. That was the way it was with trapping she explained to Wyatt who seemed very interested in her trapping skills.

  “I always set about ten and hope for one to have something in it,” she told him matter-of-factly. “It’s part of the game.”

  Again, he looked at her with rapt interest. “Megan?”

  “Yeah?” she said while removing a plastic bag from her pack and stuffing the rabbit inside.

  “Do you think you could show me more of your hunting tricks? I do have rifles at the cabin.”

  She hesitated, fixing him with a hard look before replying. “Yeah. It’s probably a bit late to do any hunting today, but we can come out tomorrow morning first thing. I did see what looked to be a game trail out by the little creek we walked by.”

  The more she thought about it, the more excited she got. It’d been a few years since she’d gone hunting. She used to go every year with her dad. When he died, she couldn’t bring herself to go out without him.

  It was something they shared. Hunting without her partner felt wrong, but now, hunting was a necessity. It wasn’t a hobby. She was an excellent shot and with her years of experience, she was a darn good hunter. It’d been a while though and she wasn’t sure how great her aim would be.

  Megan figured they were helping her, so she owed them. She would teach them about hunting and processing the meat and her debt would be paid. Maybe they would let her take some of the dried meat with her. The thought of some venison jerky made her mouth water. It’d been a long time.

  An hour later, they finally made their way back to the cabin; Megan was excited to give Rosie the prickly plants they’d collected. She walked into the bedroom where Caitlin laid and smiled when she saw Rosie sitting in a chair next to the bed knitting.

  Megan wanted to shout. “I knew it!” when she saw the skein of yarn sitting in her lap but smiled instead; she really was the type of grandma to knit. Duke lifted his head from Caitlin’s stomach, looked at her, apparently approved her presence and went right back to his position. The dog didn’t look quite as lively as he had yesterday.

  Megan decided when they left this place; she was going to get a dog. If she could find one like Duke, it would provide companionship for her daughter and give them a little extra protection. There were more than enough strays around; she had to find the right one.

  Rosie smiled and looked up from her knitting. “Her fever has come down and she seems to be doing a little better.”

  Megan wanted to cry. That was the best news. “Thank you. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”

  Rosie put down her knitting and made her way to the door calling out. “Duke, you keep an eye on Caitlin.”

  The two women went back to the kitchen. Wyatt and Jack were talking about the hunting planned for tomorrow. Watching his animated motions, she could tell he was excited for it.

  Rosie looked over the collection of plants Wyatt and Megan had brought back.

  “Okay, we’re going to need some water. The boys are busy, so I’ll show you where to get it,” Rosie offered as she opened a cupboard and grabbed an empty jug.

  Megan had wanted to ask about the water since yesterday, but felt it would be intruding. Her curiosity got the best of her. “I’ve been wondering where the water was.”

  Rosie smiled. “Ah, one of those things that Albert has declared top secret.”

  Albert was working on the door Megan had broken earlier. “Rosie, I’ll get the water. You two stay put,” he grumbled.

  Megan rolled her eyes. “Albert, I’m not going to steal your water. I can’t exactly carry it away in my hands or toss it in my bag now can I?”

  He started to speak when Rosie hushed him. She took Megan outside and they headed towards the side of the cabin Megan hadn’t investigated when she first arrived. She realized she was looking at what appeared to be an outside wall of the cabin, but was in actuality a hidden room. Rosie walked to the side and pulled back the wall, which was actually a door. Megan couldn’t control the chuckles of appreciation. “Oh my, that’s brilliant. I would never have thought to look that closely.”

  Rosie smiled at her. “My husband used to come up here all the time. He would get here, thinking he was all set up, only to discover the place had been used as a party house or squatted in. The interlopers would use up all of his supplies, so he started hiding things.”

  Megan looked on as she saw ten large plastic barrels lined up on a wooden floor set directly onto the dirt. It was very cool in the hidden room. There were shelves around the walls filled with various supplies. Cans of coffee, toilet paper and a variety of first aid supplies lined the shelf.

  “Wow, he’s a genius.” Megan looked closer and couldn’t believe how carefully everything was labeled and organized.

  Rosie shook her head and looked away. “He sure was. This was a project he and Wyatt had been working on. My husband, Dale, had a feeling something bad was going to happen that would force people to head for the hills so to speak. He didn’t want to be left without the basics. He appealed to Wyatt who got on board the prepping train and they built all this,” she said spreading her arms wide.

  “He designed the four-bedroom, three-bath cabin with security in mind, as that was his top priority. Plus there’s enough room to accommodate a growing family with plenty of natural resources nearby to sustain us. I told Dale if I was going to be living up here, I wanted a nice, big kitchen but he’d gone bigger than I could have dreamed and splurged on granite countertops. Can you imagine how hard it was to get them up the mountain? Both Jack and Wyatt complained for weeks about how heavy they were.” Rosie chuckled, as she stared toward the back door seeming lost in the memory.

  Megan couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose a spouse like Rosie had. She reached out to touch the older woman’s shoulder. “Wyatt told me what happened and what you must have gone through. I’m so sorry.”

  Rosie shrugged. “Dale always took care of us and he still is. His foresight will be what keeps my grandson alive,” she said wistfully.

  “And what he created is a
bsolutely beautiful and functional,” Megan offered, as Rosie wiped at her eyes.

  “That it is.”

  Rosie walked to one of the barrels that had a short hose connected to a spout. She opened the valve and water flowed from the hose into her pitcher. “The water in here has been boiled already. We boil water anytime we use the woodstove so we always have a decent supply. Chase is fixing the rain catchment system my husband built years ago that will go into another set of barrels.”

  Megan was very interested. She’d tried to do something similar, but didn’t quite understand how to make it work.

  Rosie turned off the spout and stood. “Come, I’ll show you.”

  She put the pitcher on the lid of a barrel and walked back outside to point out the gutters connected to a downspout. Around the corner of the home, there was another row of barrels. The barrel directly under the gutter had a spout leading into the top of the lid.

  Rosie explained that when it rained or the snow melted, it went into the gutters and drained into the barrel. A screen was placed between the opening in the lid and the spout to filter out all the leaves and pine needles. Once a barrel was filled, it was moved out of the way to make room for another. Apparently, some of the gutters had holes or had been pulled away from the house because of heavy snow and Chase was fixing them all back up.

  “This is amazing. You guys have a great thing here,” Megan said, trying to hide the envy in her voice. Once she found some place to live, she was going to do something similar she decided.

  “What will really be great is when they get the plumbing working again. That’s on the boys’ to do list. There’s a cistern up on the hill behind the house that uses gravity to push water through the pipes. There’s a catchment system on it too. Wyatt can show you all that up there. He hasn’t gotten to it yet, but he thinks the screen is plugged or something.”

  Now Megan was impressed. This family was born to survive. “Seriously?”

  Rosie chuckled. “Yep. That will be a real luxury, but for now, it isn’t our priority. The old outhouse will do fine. At least until the weather starts getting cold again.”

  The women walked back into the kitchen. Megan was ready to get this magic tea made and her daughter better.

  Rosie explained how each of the plants would work. The dandelion would help cleanse the kidneys and keep her organs from shutting down. The Echinacea would help boost her immune system, as would the pine needles she’d brewed into a tea.

  She had to leave the majority of her vitamins and other homeopathic medicines behind when they left Spokane, but she wasn’t too worried because the forest provided the plants she needed to take care of her family. Like pine needles, which were full of vitamin C and a necessity during the winter and, of course, flu season.

  “Normally, I wouldn’t put all of this in one cup, but I think we need to give this girl every bit of help she can get,” Rosie said chopping up leaves and tossing them into the pan of water. “I did some checking in my books and I’m stumped. I think it has to be a virus or some kind of bug that has taken hold. Hopefully, her immune system will get a boost and be able to fight back and the dandelion will help push out whatever is making her ill. We should know if it’s working after a day or so, maybe sooner.”

  Megan racked her brain and couldn’t think of anything that her daughter could’ve eaten that would make her ill. As much as she wanted to believe her daughter knew better, she also knew kids were curious and didn’t always listen.

  “Are you thinking something like E. coli or dysentery?” Megan asked in shock.

  Rosie added a teaspoon of raw honey to the tea after she ran it through a strainer several times. The woman explained it would make it taste a little better and the honey was an excellent healing agent and antibacterial. If there was something nasty in there, the honey would help kill it off and the rest would push it out. Megan was at her mercy and simply took her word for it.

  Megan sat behind her daughter, propping her up while Rosie used a syringe to drop a little liquid in her daughter’s mouth. Caitlin was semi-conscious and able to swallow the tea that would hopefully save her life.

  Once half the cup was down, Rosie told Megan it was a waiting game now. It would take a couple hours for the tea to do its work. Megan tucked her daughter in, patted Duke on the head, and wandered back out to the kitchen. She could see Wyatt and Jack outside standing over some rope, tools, and what looked like a huge, heavy roll of barbed wire.

  Megan wandered outside to get a closer look.

  “Hi, guys. What are you on the fence about?” Wyatt chuckled as Jack shook his head.

  Suddenly Chase appeared straight out of the ground and set some jars down. Megan yelped in surprise realizing there was a hole in the ground. She’d walked right past it when she came through the back door yesterday.

  “Root cellar,” Wyatt said in explanation. “Everything was tucked away in the root cellar. My dad had expressed the importance of hiding their goods from the squatters and looters a long time ago. The root cellar was camouflaged by the trees and the door was painted a brownish yellow color that blended in with the surroundings. You could see it if you knew where to look, but for the person casually walking by, it didn’t stand out. When we close it back up, we make sure to kick dried leaves over the top and usually add branches if we’re were going to be gone.”

  Looking at the contents of the jars, Megan realized they were home-canned vegetables.

  It was Jack’s turn to offer an explanation. “Willow is going to make a stew with that rabbit you guys brought back. The fresh meat will be appreciated since all we’ve been eating is freeze-dried. Too bad, you couldn’t have caught a second one.”

  Megan wished the same thing. One rabbit usually fed her and Caitlin for two meals, if they were careful. Granted, she didn’t have vegetables to add to the meal

  “Did you already clean the rabbit?” Megan asked. She’d forgotten all about it in her anxiousness to get the plants to Rosie.

  Wyatt shook his head. “Not yet, Jack wants to show Ryland how to do it. We’ll take care of it before we leave.”

  “I can do it,” Megan said, taking a step toward Wyatt.

  Jack and Wyatt exchanged a glance and then both looked at her in amazement. In unison, they asked, “What?”

  Megan laughed. “I can clean and process the meat I get. You guys take care of your fence stuff and I’ll show Ryland.”

  Wyatt and Jack looked at each other again. “Sure. Thanks,” Jack replied.

  “Yes,” Wyatt blurted out. When Megan looked at him in confusion, he clarified. “In answer to your question, yes, we’re building a fence.”

  “Oh, around the house?”

  Jack spoke up. “Pretty much. We need to set up a perimeter. There’s no way we can fence in all fifty acres, but we can provide some additional security in the area surrounding the house. The barbed wire makes it a little more difficult for the Average Joe to get through.”

  Megan nodded her head. “Oh, good thinking. Okay then, I’ll let you get back to it.” From everything she’d seen and what Rosie had told her, it was clear that they were making their safety and security their number one priority. Megan knew she could learn much from these people but she doubted she’d be around long enough to take it all in. As soon as Caitlin was awake and ready to go, they were gone.

  9

  Wyatt watched as Megan took another look around the property before heading back inside. He hoped she saw how much they were doing to protect their people. Each of them had the same goal—to survive. He couldn’t imagine her leaving and facing what was out there all alone. He didn’t want to think about it.

  The attack on his parents and their time at the cabin revealed how nasty the world was. Many of the houses they came upon while scavenging had been burned. There was evidence of death at every corner. The bad guys were running things and the good guys were forced to hide out. She wouldn’t last long on her own. He had to make her see that.

  The
guys filled the wheelbarrows they’d used to cart supplies up the old service road from town. Chase was the expert in this area and had come up with a plan to make the area they were calling home a little safer. After what had been happening in towns and to their own family, no one wanted to take any chances.

  There’d been a lot of discussion about the area they wanted to reinforce. Jack wanted to fence in about ten acres. His outline created a bit of a rectangle shape around the house and included a portion of the creek that ran through the property.

  While Chase agreed with Jack, they really needed to keep the area around the house the most fortified emphasizing that fencing in the garden and soon-to-be barn area was of utmost importance. Their supplies were limited and they could put in more fencing as time and supplies allowed. Having several barriers between the outside world and the house was the ultimate goal.

  For now, they were only going out about two hundred feet on three sides and using the base of the mountain as a wall on the backside. The small stream that flowed through the east corner of the property was included in the main perimeter. The water would ultimately serve as irrigation for the farm they would need to sustain them.

  Chase, Albert, Jack and Wyatt all headed out to start on the west corner. Since they didn’t have any T-posts or actual fence posts, they were going to use the trees around the property as fence poles. In some cases, they were going to have to dig down to set logs that had been cut from fallen trees, which was hard labor and required all of them pitching in.

  “Are you going to ask her to stay?” Jack asked as he stretched the barbed wire. He didn’t have to direct the question at Wyatt. They all knew he had the final say.

  Wyatt shrugged. “I think she should stay. I don’t think she wants to stay, but it’s the smartest move for her.”

  Albert was busy tying some tin cans together on fishing line. “You need to think long and hard about that. You can’t trust anyone these days.” He connected the cans to another length of fishing line that ran under the barbed wire. “I don’t care if she’s pretty.”