“You did,” Justin said, somewhat still in shock. “That was fast.”
Justin jumped up, walked to the edge of the woods and whistled, but Patton knew that the Marshall and Zach were probably on their way to them right now. The gunshot had been too loud. The rabbit lay on the ground, twitching for a while until it finally went still.
Justin and Patton waited at their post until Marshall and Zach came into view. Patton stood up. His face broke into a victorious grin. He pointed at the rabbit. “I got it!” he said.
Marshall and Zach approached him and patted him on the back, all congratulations and joy. They eased closer to the rabbit, and Patton leaned down to look at the first animal he’d taken down. The rabbit looked even bigger up close with soft fur mottled white and brown. It was a good kill. It would help feed his grandfather for a day or two at least, especially if they doled out the meat carefully and didn’t waste it in a salt-filled stew.
“Heck yes! I can’t wait to show this off at the gun club,” Zach said. “It’s huge!”
“I took it down,” Patton said, suddenly defensive. “I’m taking it back to the hotel.”
“What? No way,” Zach said. “Why would you do that?”
“’Cause I took it down,” Patton said. “It’s my kill.”
“You took it down with gun club bullets and weaponry,” Zach said.
“I need to take it back to the hotel,” Patton insisted.
“Why?” Zach said.
“It’s for my grandfather. Look, we can take everything else we get today back to the gun club, but I want to keep this rabbit for my own.”
“You want to take it to the family?” Zach asked. The teasing was back in his voice, but this time it sounded meaner and more pointed.
Patton tried to act seriously. Don’t take the bait. “Yes, I do. Everything else goes to the gun club. This goes with me.”
“Give it to him,” Justin said, shoving Zach in the shoulder. “Patton shot it. He earned it. Let him take it back. Was this really your first kill?”
“First hunt, actually,” Patton said.
Justin reached down and grabbed the rabbit, holding it out to Patton. “It’s yours, then. Take it. Looks like you’re a man now, being able to provide for your family like this.”
Patton grinned. “Thank you.”
“Now here comes the real question,” Justin said. “Do you know how to field dress it?”
Patton shook his head. “Is that something I should do?”
Justin snorted and took the rabbit back from Patton. He laid the animal on its back on the ground, while taking a knife out of his pocket and flipping it open. Pushing apart the four legs and exposing the fuzzy stomach, Justin gave the knife to Patton. “Okay, the first thing you’re going to do is make an incision in the stomach by bunching up the loose skin. You don’t want to puncture the casing that’s surrounding the organs or it will spoil the meat.”
Zach snickered. “This is like, for children.”
“Patton’s never done it before. He should know,” Justin said and showed how to bunch the skin up. “If you didn’t have a knife, you could do this with a sharp stick. Rabbit skin is really thin.”
Patton bit his lip and tried to be brave. He knelt down, determined to do what Justin instructed. He bunched up the skin and taking a deep breath, he made the cut.
“Good. Once you’ve made the cut, you want to open it up with two fingers. It will feel like making a hole in fabric bigger. You know, that ripping-tearing feeling? You want to open up the slit as far as possible so we can strip the whole hide off.”
Patton did so, the rabbit’s heat making his fingers feel as though they were on fire. Blood sprinkled across his hands. His whole body quivered with nerves. This was his first time doing this, but he didn’t want to show weakness. He had to do this. For Grandpa.
He pulled the skin, and it parted easily.
“Keep going,” Justin said.
Patton did so. As the rabbit skin stretched apart closer to the head and feet, the furred pelt separated naturally until he could see the pale pink body underneath. He studied the thin ribs and the encased organs with morbid fascination.
“Okay, so now that you’re at the feet, you have to be firm. Tug it like you’re trying to get off a pair of extra tight shoes,” Justin said. “You’re doing great.”
Patton bit his lip and gently yanked on the hind legs, feeling strong resistance before the fur finally made a pop and the paws slid out. It was such a strange sensation, as if he were removing the rabbit’s clothes rather than its fur. Justin guided him through cutting off the paws and the tail, and then helped him twist the head off with a final sharp stroke of the knife. Patton was left with the rabbit’s pink body.
“Okay, now we need to cut out the organs,” Justin instructed. “You have to be really careful. There’s still a chance you could puncture something and spoil the meat.” Justin pointed his finger above the rabbit’s stomach. “Cut here.”
Patton did so, and the blood-red organs were suddenly exposed. Steam rose from them. Patton snipped the casing and then scooped out the organs. He laid them down in the grass. Then he stripped off any remaining organ casing until he had a compact body in front of him. Cleaned, gutted, and ready for eating. A rush of strength and bravery filled Patton all at once.
“Great job,” Justin said, standing up on his feet. “If you can tie the legs to your belt loops, your hands will be free. Now that we’ve got the lean meat out of the way, let’s go take down something bigger.”
“Sounds good,” Patton said. He was satisfied and found himself thrilled after the high of the hunt. He had brought down game all on his own. Somehow, he felt as if he’d graduated and had left his boyhood behind. Like Justin said, he was a man now.
“We should stick together this time,” Marshall said. “I don’t want to be traipsing back and forth across the woods, man.”
“You’re such a baby,” Justin said.
“I just don’t wanna have to walk so much,” Marshall grumbled. “Hunting deer is way harder than finding a rabbit.”
Patton chuckled. “Whatever, man. I’ll go wherever you guys want to.”
As they walked deeper into the woods, Patton felt as if he could provide for his family now. The rabbit was small, but it was the quality of the meat that was important. He cradled the rabbit in his arms before figuring out how to hang it from his belt, and knew the rabbit was more important than gold.
17
When Patton spotted the River Rock Hotel after the hunt, it sat in a beam of early morning sunlight. The darkness of dawn had drifted away after he had helped the other gun club boys butcher the deer they’d taken down. He had blood under his nails, and his clothes were filthy from stalking the woodland creatures, but he held his skinned rabbit proudly. The slippery body was his contribution to the family. An offering to his grandfather. He couldn’t be more pleased with himself.
Even if all he wanted was to collapse into his bed in exhaustion. Even though the day was just beginning.
Already, he could see people milling about the property doing chores. There were people he didn’t know yet from the gun club and other, familiar faces. Like Allison, who was headed out to her garden plot with her arms full of tools. He wanted to call out to her and show her the rabbit. He felt like a returning warrior showing up to disrupt the generalities of everyone’s normal life with gold in his pockets. He couldn’t wait to hear what his grandfather would say about his first kill.
He didn’t expect to walk into the hotel’s front lobby and see his mother burst into tears at the sight of him.
Not the good tears either. Not the I’m-so-proud tears. These were the I’m-so-relieved-you’re-here tears, the kind that meant he was going to get a stern talking-to when things calmed down. He hoped that they would see the rabbit and realize what he’d done, but it felt as though they didn’t notice his offering at all. His father’s face was flushed with anger, and his blue eyes glittered with frustrat
ion and relief. Patton’s hope and excitement crashed to the ground.
“What were you thinking?” Matthew demanded. “Disappearing like that?”
“We didn’t know where you were!” Kathleen sobbed, taking Patton in her arms. He held his rabbit out by the neck so it wouldn’t be squished. Kathleen took Patton’s face between her hands and stared at him as if she hadn’t seen him in years. “Why would you just leave without telling us?”
Shame filled Patton as he glanced between his father’s fury and his mother’s terror. In the back of his mind, sure, he figured they might be annoyed at him, but he figured that the rabbit would smooth everything over. Once they understood.
“I’m sorry for scaring you,” he said.
“You should be!” Matthew snapped. “We were both terrified when we found out you were missing. After everything that’s happened, you should never have snuck out of the hotel without telling someone.”
“I had to,” Patton said, even as the ache in his stomach began to take root and grow once again. “I went hunting. I took down a rabbit—”
“How did you go hunting?” Matthew demanded. “Who did you go hunting with?”
“The boys at the gun club,” Patton said meekly, feeling like he was betraying his friends. “They’ve been teaching me how to shoot and hunt—”
“All without permission?” Kathleen gasped. “You’ve been shooting guns this whole time?”
“Mom, it was perfectly safe. You’re making it sound as if I did something terrible.”
“You did do something terrible,” Matthew said, even as the front door opened and Wyatt walked in. “You lied to us. You went behind our backs.”
“It was worth it,” Patton said fiercely. He held out his skinned rabbit to them. “Look what I hunted down. I didn’t mean to scare either of you, but I had to do it. I wanted to help Grandpa and get him something that would make him healthy. That’s what you said, Mom. You said if he didn’t get any lean meat in his diet, that it might make his heart worse.”
Kathleen’s eyes widened. “I didn’t mean for you to disobey us and leave without telling us. Or start hunting and using guns without our say-so.”
“Mom, I had to.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Matthew said. “No matter what your intentions, the fact of the matter is that you snuck off without letting an adult know where you were. You lied to us about what you were up to at the gun club. You’re grounded from leaving the hotel property. You are forbidden from firing a weapon until we say so.”
Patton’s mouth dropped open in shock. “That’s not fair!”
“I think it’s plenty fair,” Matthew fumed even as he turned his fury onto Wyatt. “And why was he even allowed to touch a gun in the first place? I had your word that Patton would be safe!”
Wyatt’s eyes narrowed at the accusation. “Now listen here, Matt. I don’t want you accusing me of things before you have the whole story. The boys have gotten one over on us while we’ve all been busy with other repair tasks. I didn’t allow a twelve-year-old to shoot a gun without my permission or without supervision. It sounds like Patton convinced the other boys at the gun club to teach him. While I don’t approve of his methods, maybe you should thank those kids for teaching Patton at least how to shoot properly before he took matters into his own hands.”
“Yeah,” Patton said, unsure if Wyatt was actually on his side, but he felt like the tide of anger directed at him might be turning. “They were the best teachers. They took time to show me what to do, unlike you, Dad.”
“Now I’m not supporting Patton in his decisions,” Wyatt said, casting a stern eye on Patton. “But I will admit that now he has the means to protect himself. If someone comes knocking with a goal to kidnap him, I bet that person would think twice.”
Ugh. The ache in Patton’s stomach twisted until hurt. That stupid kidnapping.
“And we should see the bigger picture here, that at least now Patton will be able to assist in hunting and bringing in fresh food supplies for all of us,” Wyatt finished.
“We shouldn’t reward this kind of behavior,” Matthew said.
“I’m not arguing that he shouldn’t be punished for lying and scaring you, but I suppose I can’t condemn him for wanting to be more helpful.” Wyatt shrugged. “You know what it’s like being a boy, Matt. You can’t tell me that you didn’t get into trouble when you were his age. He is becoming a teenager.”
Matthew huffed, but at least Wyatt seemed to have curbed his anger. Patton still didn’t quite get what Wyatt was alluding to. It wasn’t his age that made him do things. He had decided to go hunting for his grandfather all on his own. It wasn’t like his age made him stupid or crazy or rebellious. Patton was trying to help. No, not trying. He did help.
“You can’t keep me inside,” Patton said sullenly. “There’s too much to do around here to ground me to my room.”
Kathleen sighed. “You’re right,” she said. “You can go outside, but do not leave the hotel grounds.”
“Whatever,” Patton snarled, wrenching away from her and slapping the rabbit carcass down on one of the side tables. “Then you’ll have to take this to Grandma and have her fix it up for Grandpa. Don’t worry. I already cleaned it. Something I learned from the boys at the gun club. Not from any of you.”
He spun on his heel and marched out of the hotel, hearing the adults sigh collectively behind him. He hated feeling this way. As he stepped into the sunlight and went around the side, he shoved his hands into his pockets and tried to fight back a wash of tears.
It wasn’t fair. He didn’t get why everyone was being so protective of him. He should be able to do things to help out. Why did they have to treat him like a child?
Rounding the corner, he saw his sister puttering around in the garden. The earth had been turned, the weeds ripped up and placed into a far-off pile. The dirt had been mounded and separated into straight, even lines. Allison ripped open a packet of seeds and shook some into the palm of her hand. Then she started scattering them down the tilled soil. The young woman with the pixie cut was doing the same at the other end of the garden.
Allison would understand why he did what he did. She’d get that he was only trying to help Grandpa. She shared the same fears that he did. He approached his sister, and she glanced up at him, giving him a small smile.
“Nice to see you this morning,” she said off-handedly. “You had Mom and Dad in a panic.”
Patton rolled his eyes. “I was just out hunting,” he said in a rush of anger. “Okay sure, I didn’t tell them that I was going to the gun club to learn to hunt and shoot. But I needed to know how to do that to help our family. I wanted to hunt for rabbits to give to Grandpa. Everyone is just blowing this all out of proportion. They’re treating me like a child. It’s so annoying.”
“Patton, c’mon,” Allison said, bending down to scatter the seeds into the rows. “What did you expect? Of course they’re going to be mad.”
“But I was helping out,” Patton pointed out, hating how whiny his voice had become. “I just wanted to help us.”
“That’s what I’m doing,” Allison countered, gesturing to the newly tilled ground. “I’m helping our family out, and I didn’t need to fire a gun or waste limited bullets to do it. I get that you wanted to help Grandpa, but honestly, are you sure it’s just about that?”
“What do you mean?” Patton asked uneasily.
“I mean, you’ve been through a lot. And I know you don’t like to talk about it”—she cast him a sharp look—“and I’m not saying you have to talk about it. But it feels like maybe you wanting to hunt so bad or fire a gun or kill something might be because you don’t feel powerful enough in your own life at the moment. That maybe, being taken by those jerks made you feel more out of control than you cared to admit.”
Patton fell silent and glared at his sister.
“I’m just saying that by learning how to shoot, you can now handle a gun. It gave you near instant gratification, right? You wen
t out one morning and brought back a dead creature. It’s fast and easy. It’s not like growing a garden. A garden takes time, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to do anything but sit there like a lump of dirt.” Allison poured more seeds into her hands. “But I know I have to be patient. I have to give it time to make something. I think you might get the same satisfaction out of working with me in this garden as you would shooting an animal. What do you think?”
“Maybe,” Patton said, knowing he couldn’t outright agree with Allison, even though he got what she was saying. It was principle that he couldn’t let Allison’s ego get too inflated with her so-called big sister wisdom. But she did have a point.
“We’ll need help once things start growing, to keep animals out of the garden,” Allison said. “Lauren said that deer and rabbits will be drawn to it and try to eat everything. We’ll need to figure out a way to keep them out. I know I’ll definitely need your help. If you want to, that is.”
Patton scuffed his foot against the dirt. “I guess.”
“Thanks,” Allison said with a bright smile. “I promise. You’ll feel just as good when we harvest as you did today.”
“Okay, sure, Allison,” Patton said, wishing he didn’t trust his sister so implicitly, and yet here they were. “Calm down. I’ll help you with your stupid garden.”
“Our stupid garden,” Allison said.
“Our stupid garden,” Patton agreed.
18
David woke from an unexpected nap to the bright shine of mid-morning on his face. He let out a soft sigh. Even though he’d been feeling better over the past few days, there was still the drag of exhaustion dogging his every movement. Now, though, it seemed that bone-deep exhaustion had abated, giving him a moment to breathe before it might all begin to crush him again.
His chest felt normal. His heart didn’t race. The tight band strung around his lungs had loosened. In essence, he felt as he once had before the heart attack. Fragile, but normal.
EMP Catastrophe | Book 3 | Erupting Chaos Page 12
