They both walked to the bedroom where Caitlin slept and Megan had just 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. But 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 stalk 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 had sheathed at her hip. This was going a little too far. He moved towards her. The rabbit she had 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, just 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 had managed on her own for so long. She wasn’t quite as helpless as he had assumed.
This time, Megan smiled. “Yep, this girl can hunt. I am pretty good at it too. What about you?”
“What about me?” Wyatt had been lost in thought and he didn’t hear what she had 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 really hated the fact that he was right.”
Taking a deep breath, Wyatt plunged on. “We wanted to go to the cabin but it was the middle of winter and since the electromagnetic pulse had fried all the newer vehicles, I—” His voice was heavy with emotion and he stepped back when Megan looked like she was going to touch him. He wouldn’t be able to continue if she did.
“I’d been out looking and that’s when I found Chase. I’d never been so happy in my life to see a friendly face and I knew that my mom would be overjoyed to see him. We’d grown up together and he’d spent so much time at our house, it was like having another brother. He’d been looking for a car too and we figured strength in numbers. When we couldn’t find a vehicle, we decided to head back to my parents’ house and that’s when we found them.”
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, sitting on the floor next to my father’s body. She had 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 and Chase covered all the windows and doors with plywood. Since it was so cold, we tucked blankets round where we could to insulate the rooms we were using better but we didn’t dare have a fire. We couldn’t risk losing anyone else and didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves. Around that time, my brother showed up with his wife and son along with Albert. He was their neighbor. Oh, and Duke. We waited out the worst of the weather and as soon as we started having milder weather, we left Spokane and didn’t look back.”
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 had 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 had 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 will 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 had 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 had 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 had 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 is 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.
“They are 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 really 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 are 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, just 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 is not 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 just 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 had been a few years since she had 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 had 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 had 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 had 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 just had to find the right one.
The EMP Lodge Series: Books One to Three Page 6
