Without Law, page 9
“Why don’t you go look around and see if you can find us some berries or mushrooms,” I said as I put a hand on her shoulder.
Bailey wiped her eyes and nodded. She didn’t say anything else before she started to check the bushes in the nearby area.
“What are the berries for?” Paige asked she started to pack dirt around the device to keep it firmly in place.
“It is always good to bait your traps. The rabbits will like the berries. Though we have to hope some deer don’t eat them first.”
“Is there a way to prevent that?”
“Not unless we built the whole thing in a more hard to reach location,” I explained. “Though this is good for a first attempt.”
Bailey came back a minute or two later with a small handful of berries.
Paige picked one up and looked at it a moment. “We might be able to eat these,” she said before she reached into her bag and pulled out the guide to edible plants.
I took the rest the rest from bailey and placed them so the trap was between the food and the trail.
“That’s it then?” Bailey asked.
“That’s it,” I said with a nod. “Though whoever gets water tomorrow will need to check the trap. If you don’t come back to them often enough, a predator might come along for the easy prey.”
“These are huckleberries,” Paige said as she looked up from her book and popped the sweet fruit into her mouth with a grin.
“That’s a good find. Well done Bailey,” I said as I threw my backpack back on. “Alright, I feel like we have been out here long enough, lets head back and let you guys clean up.”
“Oh, this bath is going to be amazing,” Bailey said as she broke into a small smile. The smile wavered as she looked back to the trap but she shook her head.
“I had fun,” Paige said as she packed her bag and slung it onto her shoulder. “Though getting clean does sound pretty amazing.”
As we picked our way back towards the stream, we made a note of the landmarks, and, when there were none, we made marks of our own so that we might find our way back to the snares later. By the time I could hear the rush of the water ahead I was sure that both of my companions could retrace our steps without getting lost.
We broke from the trees to find Tara and Anna sitting at the edge of the stream in a patch of bright sunlight. The two girls had wrapped their hair in a towel and redressed in the same outfit they had started the day in.
“How does it feel to be clean?” Bailey asked.
“Oh geez, I didn’t hear you guys coming,” Anna said as she jolted.
“Were you, like, hoping that if you snuck up on us we might still be naked?” Tara asked before she turned to smirk at me.
“Darn, looks like I was too late,” I said with mild sarcasm. The truth was, part of me had been hoping for that.
“Oh please,” Paige said while she rolled her eyes. “Your guys’ bath time is up. I want to get in there and wipe away too many weeks of grime.”
“Well excuse me for not being more ready to go,” Anna said as she reached for her socks.
Paige stuck out her tongue and pulled off her T-shirt giving me a nice look at her nicely toned petite body beneath. My eyes were so fixed on the bookish brunette as she freed her hair that I didn’t notice Tara bouncing towards me. She tapped me on the shoulder to grab my attention.
“Hey, whatcha lookin it?” She asked with a wide grin.
“I think Tav’s time in the wild left him missing a few things,” Anna chuckled as she walked up. She gave me a wink and pulled on her shoes.
“Aw, that’s like, soooo sad,” Tara teased. “Though it’s sorta his own fault for not, like, sticking around earlier.”
“You’re too kind,” I said with a chuckle.
“Nah, I’m a selfish beyotch,” Tara said with a wink as she pulled the towel free of her platinum blond hair.
“Alright, alright, let’s roll,” I said, and we moved on.
We left Paige and Bailey to wash and headed out in the opposite direction of where I took them earlier. I went over the same trapping information with the new group. We found some rabbit tracks and managed to find another two small game trails hidden in some brush.
Neither of my second group had an issue with the snares, and they both actually seemed to enjoy the activity. Though none had quite the knack for it that Paige seemed to possess.
“So how long do you think it will take before we catch anything?” Anna asked as she put into place her own hanging snare.
“Not sure,” I said. “We will need to check them every day, but the quieter we are when doing so the better.”
“Will these snares, kill the animals?” Tara frowned.
“No, these are designed to capture the creatures alive,” I replied.
“What’s the point in that?” she asked.
“It means we can deliver the kill ourselves and thus ensure a cleaner and more painless death,” I said.
“Oh, does Bailey know that yet?” Anna asked.
“Maybe, we didn’t really go over that part yet,” I said with a shrug. I looked to the sky glad that the trees here were not dense enough to cut off my view of the sun. Based on how high it was I would guess it was around ten which meant we had plenty of time left in the morning.
I brushed the dirt from my hands and pushed myself to my feet. “Come on, let’s go meet up with the others.”
“Are we done out here for the day then?” Anna asked as she made to follow me.
“No,” I said as I shook my head. “With the basics in place I can break you into teams to better scout out the surrounding area.”
“Actually sounds kinda, like, fun,” Tara said while she walked and played with a length of wire.
“That’s good because this is the sort of thing we will be doing a lot of,” I stated.
“I am still surprised at how simple some of this survival stuff is,” the braided redhead said.
“After you learn what to do, these things can be pretty easy,” I said. “The knowledge of what to do though is just not as common anymore.”
Once we arrived at the stream we were joined once more by our freshly cleaned companions. We took a moment to sit, relax, and sip at our water bottles.
“How do we feel about the snares?” I asked as I looked them over. “Think you can build one without me around?”
“I can,” Paige said quickly.
“Yeah, I’m with her. These are not all that tough to figure out,’ Anna added.
“Good, because I am breaking you guys up into two-man teams. Anna, you and Bailey will go over the stream and check the area behind it,” I said.
They nodded and started to gather their gear.
“Paige, Tara, you guys will head down the trail towards the campus a bit before searching the areas off to either side.”
“What are you going to do?” Bailey asked.
“I’m heading up that way,” I said as I pointed up the stream. “Don’t get too far away from the stream, make sure to mark your trail so you can find your way back, and try to stay quiet.”
“What do we do if we, like, run out of snare supplies?” Tara asked.
“Come back to the stream and wait for the rest of us. We will hike back to the campus together.”
They girls all exchanged nods and started off in their ordered directions.
A feeling of pride swelled in me as they moved out. Overall, they appeared to be more comfortable in the forest and they worked well even when I was not there to watch them. I lost sight of them all as they disappeared into the trees and turned to head up the stream.
I followed the stream and noticed places where the flow slowed and allowed fish to gather. I made a note of it and continued on as I wondered how Bailey would feel about fishing. In my experience it seemed people did not mind as much when you harmed uglier creatures.
I stalked silently through a dense patch of woods as I followed a set of racoon tracks that I had picked up at the edge of the stream. I had my knife in one hand as I slowly pushed a branch out of my way. I could hear the chitter of a small animal up ahead of me, and I was glad I had yet to bathe. The fragrant sweetness of the freshly cleaned women would not help them sneak up on live prey.
I crouched low and peered through the foliage. A plump racoon sat with a pile of berries in front of it.
Bingo.
I grinned and set myself up to spring out at the creature when it suddenly looked up and froze. A moment later the animal dashed away, and it left its pile of berries behind.
Something had spooked it.
“Tav!” I heard a distant voice yell.
I bolted upright and jogged back to the stream. No one would be yelling out here unless something was wrong.
“Goddamnit Tav, help!”
I broke from the trees and saw Anna running along the stream.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded.
Anna stopped for a moment and took a large breath before pointing behind her. “Bear!”
I nodded and took off running with the redhead at my back. It wasn’t long before I heard a scream ahead of me and a low roar.
Anna pulled ahead of me and led me to the top of a ravine. In the distance Tara and Paige stood with their spears pointed at something I could not see.
“Oh thank God you are here,” Paige said as I came to a stop next to them.
There, with her back against the side of the ravine, stood Bailey. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to keep her spear pointed at the black bear that had her backed into a corner.
“What do we do?” Tara asked.
All eyes were on me as I stared into the ravine.
Without hesitation, I pulled the rifle from my shoulder, chambered a round, and hopped into the ravine behind the bear.
Chapter 7
I landed with a soft thud barely ten feet from the backside of the bear, and the creature roared and faced me as I raised my rifle.
The black bear reared up to stand on its hind legs, and it became clear that this one was larger than most black bears. It was almost six feet in length and very lean. Its thick black fur was tangled and matted together in places. It snorted and bared its large teeth as I let out a long slow breath.
The noises of the world faded away as I focused in on the sound of my own beating heart.
I took another breath and forced my rapid heartbeat to slow. I had little time, and with such a small bullet I had very little room for error. If I could put the bullet right between the eyes, at the very top of the nose, then there was a chance I could punch through and end this, so I closed my left eye and lined up my shot.
The animal let out a terrible roar and changed towards me as I pulled the trigger. There was a sharp crack and a small splash of blood and fur as the bullet tore a small furrow into the bears scalp. It didn’t stop or even slow its charge, so I dropped the gun and pulled out my knife right as the creature’s immense bulk ploughed into me.
I hit the ground hard, but not before I had driven my knife into the animal’s neck. Then I rolled out from under it as the bear came in for a bite and sprung to my feet with my knife left behind in the bear’s throat.
The animal stumbled towards me, but stopped, grunted, and huffed a moment before shaking its head in an attempt to dislodge my knife.
I went to step around it, but the beast lashed wildly at me, so I threw myself towards the rifle but winced as I felt a claw clip into my outer thigh.
The girls screamed as they saw my pant leg turn red, and the bear turned to face them.
I seized that moment to grab the rifle and struggle to my feet. My leg throbbed, and I could feel the blood running down it. However, I could still stand. It had gotten lucky. A small tremor ran though my body as I shouldered the gun once more.
Then I closed my eyes, tried to block out my pain, and I opened my right eye.
“Hey, leave them alone!” I shouted to the wounded creature.
It turned towards me slowly. The bear roared and swiped at the knife with one front paw and staggered sideways into the gully wall. This time the creature didn’t charge, and I readied my next shot.
The sharp crack of the rifle echoed through the forest once more, but then the black bear stepped forward one last time, slouched over, and collapsed.
I sank to the ground with a groan as the girls hopped into the ravine and rushed towards me.
“Oh my fucking god, are you okay?” Tara asked as she crouched beside me.
“You saved me!” Bailey pushed past them all, threw her arms around me, and buried her face in my chest.
“Come on, we need to look at his leg,” Paige said as she started to pull Bailey gently off me.
“It’s okay,” I said quietly as I put up a hand to stop her.
“I’m so sorry,” Bailey managed through her tears. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“Hey, it’s alright. Everyone is fine,” I said.
She pulled her face free of my gear and stared at me. “What about your leg?”
“It’s not that bad,” I said with a shrug. In truth my leg hurt like hell, but the fact I was still conscious was a good sign, and I didn’t think the cuts were too deep.
“You are so brave.” Bailey sniffled and wiped at the never-ending stream of tears that ran down her face. She nodded and stood up.
“Not like I’m going to let any of you get hurt,” I said as I looked at them, and each of the four women blushed slightly.
“That was really impressive,” Anna cleared her throat, and then she helped me to my feet.
“Yeah, well, let’s not not do it again for a while,” I chuckled.
With Anna’s help I limped over to a nearby rock and took a seat.
Paige was by my side in an instant. She yanked her backpack off and pulled out a small first aid kid. It looked like she had built it herself out of the supplies we took from the general store.
“We totally would have died if you had not been here,” Tara said.
“She’s right,” Anna sighed. “Once again you prove that without you we would be fucked. I’m sorry I gave you such a hard time about joining us. I was just worried that--”
“It’s fine,” I interrupted her. “We are all good now. I’m going to protect you all, and we are going to survive together.
“It was just so fucking hot,” Tara gushed. “You just jumped in there like Co-man and fucking knifed the fuck out of that bear. Oh my god.”
“Co-man?” Paige asked as she glanced at the blonde.
“You know,” Tara said as she bit her lip and looked at me. “Like in the movie with Arnold Swarg--”
“You mean Conan,” Anna laughed.
“Whatever,” Tara laughed. “It was just so hot. Wow.”
“It wasn’t a big deal,” I laughed.
“But it was to me,” Bailey said quietly with a small shy smile. “Thank you so much, Tav.”
Paige cleared her throat, and I looked to see a small roll of bandages, a bottle of peroxide, and some needle and thread set out on a clean cloth.
“I uh,” she cleared her throat again and adjusted her glasses. “I need you to take your pants off.”
“First, he saves us from a bear and then we get to see him pants-less? Can this day, like, get any better?” Tara giggled. Then she leaned in close, and I could feel her platinum blond hair brush across my shoulders. “Go ahead.”
As I unbuckled my belt, I could feel all eyes on me. I chuckled as I slowly removed my pants. The fabric stuck a little around my wound but it peeled away with a little force to reveal an ugly mess of inflamed skin and sticky blood. The agitation drew fresh crimson out from the two slashes in my skin.
“Oh Tav… this is all my fault,” Bailey said as she raised a hand to her mouth.
“Hey, we already went over this, I’m fine.”
“He’s right. This is not really that bad,” Paige said with a nod after she inspected the wound. “It looks ugly, but that is just on account of all this blood.”
“I dunno, I think there are, like, way better places to look than his thigh,” Tara said as she licked her lips. “You don’t need to remove those underwear do you?”
Paige shook her head as she poured the peroxide onto my flesh. It bubbled as it did its job, and the nerdy brunette grinned as she did hers.
A few minutes later the blood was cleared away, and the stinging of the antiseptic was replaced by the pinch of a needle being pushed through my flesh. The first slash, the smaller one, was already closed with a fine black thread.
“Have you done this before?” Anna asked as she watched Paige work.
“Not on anything living,” Paige responded while she tugged at the thread, and my flesh pulled neatly together. “It helps that Tav seems really good at ignoring the pain.”
I chuckled and leaned back into the warmth of Tara’s breasts. It certainly helped with the pain to have better things to focus on.
“This is why we have the buddy system,” I said. “If any one of us got caught in this situation alone, we would be down a member.”
“Even you?” Bailey asked.
“Probably. I won’t exclude myself from our system in the future,” I said with a nod.
I stiffened as my nurse gave one final tug and leaned forward to bite off the end of her thread. A tingle ran through me as her lips brushed my leg.
Paige sat up quickly as her cheeks went bright red.
“Whoa, nice one Paige,” Tara exclaimed with a giggle.
“Sorry, I forgot my scissors,” the brunette said as she wiped her mouth.
“Sure you did,” Anna said as she nudged the girl.
As I reached for my pants, I saw that even Bailey was smiling again.
“Come on, now that I am patched up we can get back to work.” I pulled on my pants, returned to the bear, and yanked my knife free of its neck.
“What else could we possibly need to do?” Anna asked.
“We can’t leave this corpse here or by the time we come back tomorrow there won’t be anything useable left.”
“How are we going to carry a whole bear back to campus?” Paige asked while she packed her supplies back into her bag.
