Without Law, page 12
“Aw man, how come she gets to stay outta the rain,” Tara groaned.
“I didn’t know it was going to rain when I planned this,” I started with a shrug. “Though if you want to give up your bath day, be my guest.”
“Okay, nevermind,” the platinum blond replied quickly.
I had started to realize just how powerful a motivator getting to take a bath really was. It would be even more compelling when I figured out how to heat enough water for a warm bath.
“Smoker should be done ‘bout mid-day,” Rolly said. “I can bring the meat in for ya to write down once it is.”
“Perfect. While you are waiting for that to get done I want you to spend your day working on the jeep and the motorcycle. Let’s get those running again,” I ordered.
“We planning a trip?” Anna asked.
“Not yet, but having working vehicles will still be invaluable,” I explained.
“If we get the vehicles running what would be stopping us from just loading up some stuff and getting out of here. I mean this town is not so secluded that we couldn’t make it to an actual town in less than a day’s drive,” Paige said.
“Maybe we could, like, meet our rescue halfway or whatev’,” Tara added.
“Until we know for sure what happened out there that’s not a good idea. Here we have water, shelter, and food.”
“Wouldn’t that be easy to find in a city?” Bailey asked.
“So far everything has worked so well for us simply because everyone in this little town left when trouble came. There is a luxury to our small number, and isolation,” I said. While Bailey wasn’t wrong, I didn’t think it was the right time to discuss the possible destruction and chaos that had probably overtaken the cities at this point.
“I think it’s pretty comfortable up here really,” Rolly said.
“Good, because until we know what we can expect elsewhere this is where we stay. Now come on, you all know what you are doing so let's get to work.”
We all finished our coffee, ate our breakfast, and headed out of the library.
Anna and Tara were already gone by the time Paige joined me at the forest's edge. She had a university jacket pulled over yet another gray t-shirt and had on a tight pair of jeans.
“Alright, let's do this,” I said before heading into the trees.
The forest was gloomy in the rain, but the sound it made as it drummed across the treetops was peaceful. Paige had been right, it was a lot less wet under the forest canopy.
“I love the smell of rain,” Paige mused.
“That’s good. I would hate for a little water to get the best of all of you,” I said.
I stopped as a high-pitched screech filled the air, and I felt my brunette companion grab onto my arm.
“What was that,” she asked.
“That sounds like dinner,” I said with a chuckle. “That sounds like a scared rabbit. Seems one of our traps worked.”
“Oh, of course,” Paige said with a chuckle. She relaxed but didn’t let go of me though as we started towards the sound.
We followed the sound right to the source, and there, stuck in the trap, was a plump brown furred rabbit. It screamed louder at our approach and struggled against the wire. We stood there a moment just watching it desperately try to pull itself from the trap. Every time it would get its feet down and push off the wire would squeeze around its midsection and the creature would cry out again.
“We have to kill it,” I said as I pulled out my knife. “We need to do it quickly so the creature does not suffer.
“Wait,” Paige said as she grabbed my arm and held me back. “Let me do it.”
I looked to her and nodded before offering up my knife.
“Thanks, but I have my spear,” she said.
“Remember to kill it clean,” I said.
Paige agreed and walked over and positioned herself in front of the rabbit, her spear pointed towards its head. It bucked and screamed, never settling down long enough for her to stab.
“God-damnit,” she muttered. “Stop moving.”
I watched from a few feet away. This was her moment, and I would not take it from her, even if I thought the spear was a poor choice.
Frustrated, she dropped the weapon and scanned the area. A moment later she picked up a sizable rock and returned to the rabbit. She got on her knees in front of the creature and raised the rock high above her head.
I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest. I had not expected her to take this approach. It was a closer and more personal method of execution.
With a grunt the nerdy brunette brought the stone down onto the struggling rabbits head, and a crunch echoed through the woods around us as the animal twitched once, and went still.
“Well done,” I said.
Paige looked back at me and smiled wide. She rolled the rock off the lifeless rabbit, removed it from the trap, and held it up by the ears. The head was an ugly mass of broken bone and mushy flesh, but the rest of it was untouched.
“I did it!” She exclaimed. “No way it could have been painful for the creature either. I figured by using the rock I could crush the skull and destroy the brain thus ensuring it could no longer send or receive pain signals.”
“That was a good thought,” I confirmed.
“What now?” she asked.
I knelt and motioned her over to me.
“Place it here, we need to skin it and prepare it for travel,” I said as I set my knife on the ground.
Paige laid the rabbit beside it and picked up the knife.
“You will learn fast since you helped me yesterday with the bear,” I said.
She nodded and flipped the rabbit onto its back.
I pulled out a length of twine I had shoved into my backpack. After it was clean, we could string it on this to make travel easier. Especially if we ended up with more than one.
“You will actually want to put the thing on its side. Don’t worry this is a much easier process. Rabbit hides are paper compared to the bear we cut through yesterday,” I said as I shifted the rabbit into a better position.
“You want to pinch a bit of the rabbit’s fur in your hands and make a small cut in it,” I said
Paige was excited, almost giddy as she grasped the rabbit and carefully made a small incision.
“Good, now you want to take both hands and work a couple fingers under the skin so we can pull the cut open.”
“Like this?” She asked as she gently wormed her fingers under the hide.
“Exactly, now you want to gently start to pull with both hands. You need to do this slowly though so you don’t tear the fur too badly. Just gently tug towards both the head and the tail.”
The fur peeled back with ease as the brunette carefully pulled. As the fur tore and separated she grabbed more of it and carefully continued to pull.
“What about the legs?” She asked as she looked up at me with those big brown eyes.
“You will want to work the legs partially out of the fur. Once you have gotten it past the knee and can bend the leg a sharp tug will tear the hide leaving a small almost boot, on the animal.”
There was a wet tear as Paige yanked most of the fur free from the front legs. She pulled the fur up around the neck of the animal and looked up at me. “What now?”
“Repeat the process in the back only after you get the legs free you can fully remove the back portion. The tail may or may not come off when you do that.
The brunette grinned, nodded, and wiped a bloody hand across her forehead before removing the back half of the fur. Then she tossed it to the side and gestured to the mess of fur. “This doesn’t seem to be a very good method for preserving the hide.”
“No, this is more the quick and dirty method. Until we are setup to do some tanning the hides are worthless to us anyway,” I explained.
“I guess that makes sense,” she said as she picked up my knife. “This is fun though. Kinda reminds me of a science class.”
“That’s why I thought you should be the first to do this. I am not sure how well this process is going to go over with some of the others. At least by showing you I will have an extra teacher.”
“I’d like that,” she said as she looked over the mostly naked rabbit sitting on a stone in front of her. “What’s next?”
“You are going to want to cut off the feet at the ankle joint. I like to snap the joint so then all I have to do is cut through the connective tissue with my knife. Makes the whole process a little smoother,” I said.
Paige truly was a quick study. She identified the ankle without instruction and snapped it before severing the muscle and tossing the foot into the pile she had started.
“Next step is going to be cutting off the head,” I instructed. “Even if it were not a messy pulp, we wouldn’t need it. Plus I think Bailey might cry if she saw the state of it.”
“Oh, I hadn’t thought about that,” Paige said as she carefully removed the head. The rest of the fur clung to the almost gooey pulp. She tossed it aside.
“Something will eat well tonight,” I remarked as I looked to the small gore soaked pile.
“Yeah, hopefully us,” Paige said as she admired her work. It was a nice looking skinned rabbit. All the blade work had been clean and nothing besides the head was mangled in any way.
“Let's get this finished up,” I said. “Gutting a rabbit is much easier than what we did with that bear and should only take a couple minutes. I will reset the trap while I talk you through it.”
“Alright, I’m ready,” the brunette said with knife in hand.
“You need to make a small cut into the flesh of the belly. You need to be very careful though as the guts are just underneath, and we don’t want to hit anything.”
“Don’t worry, I have steady hands,” the brunette said as she made the cut.
It was impressive how well she could handle a knife, she would be a real asset to our group. With the most important part out of the way I stood and headed towards our trap.
“Now I will need to cut it open more, like with the bear right?”
“Yeah, you need to cut up to the ribcage, and down to the pelvis. I would gently pull the flesh up with a couple fingers so that you can work without worrying about hitting anything.”
“Got it open,” Paige called out a moment later.
“Cut open the chest cavity to reveal the heart and lungs. Then you just take a couple fingers, start at the top by the neck, and just scoop out all the innards in one motion.”
I finished resetting the trap as I heard a wet slopping noise come from behind me. I turned to see Paige holding a nicely gutted and skinned rabbit in the air by the back feet.
“Looks good,” I commented.
“Yeah, it was cool. Very similar to dissecting a frog, or a rat. This thing just has bigger organs,” she said before she turned her attention to the pile of organs that now sat in the dirt. “Do we need any of these?”
“No. I am sure they have their uses but all I am worried about right now is the meat that the body will provide.” I picked up my knife from the ground, cleaned the blade, and sheathed it again.
As I tied the rabbit to Paige’s backpack a wave of relief washed over me. It felt like everything was coming together. The girls all learned new skills daily, and even our luck with hunting had been good. I had never been truly worried, but, as I looked at the work of my companion, I felt certain that we could handle it.
“We ready to go check the other traps?” Paige asked.
“Yeah, let’s see how many rabbits we bagged.”
An hour later we headed back for the trail with a second rabbit hanging from Paige’s gear. The second animal had been handled entirely by my brown eyed companion. She had not even needed any additional direction. I knew that the others might not pick this up as fast but I would not underestimate their ability.
“I was worried when you came along that my skills might not translate well to our new way of life,” Paige confessed as we walked.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I mean, my limited medical knowledge is obviously useful, but I did not think it would apply to anything other than patching you guys up. That is only good when people get hurt.”
“You’re intelligent though, and that helps you adapt to the situation,” I said.”
“We’re all smart. Even Tara is sharper than she sometimes sounds,” Paige said as she looked over to me.
I stood there distracted as my eyes were fixed on a plume of smoke off in the distance. It wasn’t close enough to be coming from the campus but it was not quite as far away as I would hope.
“What’s over there?” I asked pointing to the smoke.
“Lanceton, I think,” Paige replied with a frown. “Should we be worried?”
“I don’t think so,” I said as I tried to hide my emotions. “Even if people are still there, the lack of technology means no running firetrucks, or alarm systems. When fires start, they will be tough to put out.”
“That still doesn’t sound good,” she said.
“It’s not good for Lanceton, but it does not concern us. Even if the blaze gets out-of-control things are not dry enough for it to push up to where we are,” I said as I started to move again.
“Alright,” Paige said as she fell in behind me.
While we walked my eyes kept being drawn back to the distant smoke. It didn’t feel right to me. Maybe I was just being paranoid but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was not natural. I felt it was more likely that someone dangerous had done this. If that was true then things might have been worse than I had first thought. People like that only went unchecked this long if order could not be maintained. I had a feeling that we would need to find more guns.
By the time we all met up in the early afternoon the light rain had stopped completely, and the sun peeked out from behind broken clouds. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood but none of them had failed to miss the smoke.
“Maybe it’s, like, a good thing,” Tara said.
“How can that much smoke ever be a good thing?” Anna asked with a raised brow.
“I dunno, what if it’s help?” the platinum blond reasoned with a shrug.
“Help usually doesn’t light fires,” Paige stated.
“In a situation like this one, fires are normal,” I interrupted. “Without emergency services any small spark could spell trouble. Don’t worry about it, just focus on our place here.”
Reassured by my words the girls looked once more to the smoke and went back about their business.
By the time we all met for dinner the smoke in the distance was all but forgotten by most of the group. They were instead focused on the piles of cans, water, and supplies Bailey had worked so hard to inventory and organize.
“What do you think?” the hippie-blonde said with a grin.
“Wow, we can actually make sense of what we have,” Anna said. “Very nice.”
“I have a list of everything on this,” Bailey said as she handed me a clipboard with several pages of paper bound to it.
I flipped through the pages and found myself impressed by her clean penmanship. Each line had another item and the quantity of that item. There was also a checkbox in front of each line so we could mark off when the item was taken or used.
“This is very nice,” I said as I passed it around. “The more we can all make use of this list the better off we will be. When we find something new, we will add it to the list and make sure you mark the box when something runs out.”
“There are, like, lots of canned vegetables,” Tara commented. “I could probably, I dunno, use them to make a stew or something for dinner tonight.”
“You can cook?” Bailey asked skeptically.
“She couldn’t have hoped to become a trophy wife without having a few skills that she could use outside the bedroom,” Anna said with a grin.
“So, is that a yes?” Tara asked after she gave us a wink and pulled a couple cans of veggies from the pile.
“I have no objections,” I said with a shrug.
Turned out that Tara was a pretty damn fine cook. The stew she made up for us was full of canned vegetables that we might not have wanted to eat on their own, a generous portion of rabbit, and enough spices to make it smell gourmet.
Tara filled cafeteria bowls full of the steaming stew and began passing them around to our group. She was even careful to pick out any chunks of rabbit as she prepared a bowl for Bailey.
“Well I must say Miss Tara, this stuff is wonderful,” Rolly said after he took his first bite. He washed it down with a sip of coke and grinned at our gracious chef.
Tara smiled and gave a small curtsey as the rest of us expressed our similar sentiments.
“Rabbit is so good,” Anna said before she shoved another bite of meat into her mouth.
“I think I like it even better knowing I was able to trap and clean it,” Paige added.
“That’s the satisfaction of a job well done,” Rolly commented.
“It does help when your hard work pays off in such a delicious fashion,” I added.
Bailey sat silent as she poked at her steaming bowl of vegetable stew. After a moment she let out a small sigh and looked to Tara. “Can I get some with everything in it?”
There was a moment of silence as we all stopped and stared at Bailey.
“Fuck yeah, babe,” Tara said before she hopped up and grabbed her friend’s bowl. She returned to the pot, emptied the bowl into it, and scooped a fresh and complete portion into Bailey’s dish.
We all watched as Bailey accepted the bowl and took her first small bite.
“It’s actually good,” the hippie chick admitted after she finished that first piece of rabbit. “It was savory, chewy, and just, well, good.”
We all gave a small cheer and Tara clapped excitedly. Everyone knew how big a deal this was, and we congratulated our friend on her breakthrough. Despite the rain it had been a good day, and that night, we celebrated.
Chapter 10
Rolly and I were up early again the next morning. We met around the fire to talk before the girls woke up.
