Beyond The Burning Shore: Searching For Survival

by Ron Foster

  Evidently Hogan’s thoughts of the deer population being driven this way with pressure from other hunters at the adjoining state parks were wrong. Their hunting efforts had produced nothing so far except some unwary squirrels and a possum Hogan had snared. Annie didn’t particularly like being coaxed to eat it but it beat plain rice and beans and she had to admit didn’t taste all that bad.

  Hogan had commented a time or two if it was worth the time and the risk to go back to Mr. Wong’s to find more soy sauce after getting semi addicted to it along with hot sauce to vary the diet after a few weeks. They did all right with their campfire cooking and basically were left alone in solitude.

  They only had one encounter where a kayaker had hollered at Hogan seeing him on the bank and asking him did he have any food.

  Hogan had hollered back that fish were free in the river if they were biting but he was sorry he hadn’t had any luck today.

  Today though was different, he wasn’t subsistence fishing it was a contest of bragging rights casting for the big ones with Annie. It wasn’t a matter of who caught the first or the most fish it was who got the first rod bender and lunker on the line.

  Fishing tackle wise Annie was grossly mismatched as Annie wasn’t the sportsman he was that had the age, opportunity and expense to try to catch some real gut buster sized fish.

  The rules were simple in regard to species or ways of fishing to offset the differences in rod and reel sizes between them.

  They each got two jugs they could bait for catfish and the same sized hooks, leaders and stinking fish bait to throw out in the current and shared equally in the wealth of Panther Martin lures and soft baits Hogan had in his tackle box. Hogan had the advantage here as they were fishing with his baits you might say but he gave Annie first choice to pick a synthetic or manmade lure to entice the game fish of her choice.

  The deal was largest by species and not a singular fish because with the heavy Inland fishing rod Hogan had, it was evident he was only going to try for some sizable denizens of the deep.

  They both put on their best fishing game faces and Hogan chose his artificial lure after Annie was done picking and said “ Monkey dust” doing some weird magicians “prang” with his fingers towards the bait after he clipped it to the brass swivel on some ten pound test monofilament,

  “You didn’t happen to have any fish smell on that hand did you, Hogan?” Annie said not trusting him not to weight the game and bet in his favor by slipping in some fish attractant under his fingernails or something to get disbursed on the lure he had chosen.

  “I ain’t cheating, Annie! I swear to it. Tell you what, gimme three casts with this lure to loosen my arm up and I will change up and pick something else and you can use it if you want.” Hogan offered.

  Annie begrudgingly conceded that sounded fair to her but she was going to be watching him for tricks as the world class fishing tournament began.

  Annie was the first one to reel in a whopper that Hogan felt hard pressed to compete with: a granddaddy trout.

  After he had caught about three middling size largemouth bass that weren’t going to win because of the biggest species caveat, something slammed his Secret weapon Panther Martin Tail Spinner that didn’t feel like a large mouth. It peeled line off his reel and bored for the bottom.

  “Big One!” came Hogan’s immediate reply. The fish was strong and reminded him of a snook he had caught in Florida.

  “Striper!” Hogan hollered jubilantly as the great fish tail danced across the sparkling waters trying to spit out the hook.

  “It was a monster! It wasn’t as big as some of the megalithic fishes he had seen other people catch in this river but it was his all time biggest score if he could land it on the boat.

  Just when he was thinking about how to secure that behemoth of a fish it gill raked his line and got away.

  Hogan had been in about mid sentence telling Annie she would never be able to win or boast about a fishing contest again when it happened and they both looked at empty water with their mouths open for a moment.

  Annie burst out laughing at Hogan’s bad luck as her bobber went under and a small crappie was found to be on the line.

  “Hey we didn’t include minnows as a species, Annie!” Hogan joked but was still grousing at the loss of that huge fish he had almost caught.

  “I am glad that big fish didn’t get on my line, it would of probably busted my rod in half. That rod of yours sure did hold up though. I had my doubts though for a minute, that big striper had your rod almost bent double.” Annie said admiring Hogan’s sturdy fishing rod.

  “Boss gave me that Daiwa Harrier fishing rod and that fancy reel to me as a present for Christmas. He said I might know a lot about prepping but he knew more about fishing reels than I did and what could be caught around here as well as down on the Gulf. What I have here is a pretty much do it all setup that like my shotgun is built to serve many different purposes. That Daiwa Luvias 3000 is the smoothest spinning reel I have ever held. Everything about that spinning reel says it comes from a top shelf in their line of fishing reels crafted for exceptional strength and corrosion-resistance. . These are the kind of eye candy quality fishing tournament reels you might see off in the fancy locked wooden cabinet away from the glass display cases.” Hogan said.

  “That reel is smooth as glass and that magnetic oil feature instead of rubber seals I find amazing.” Annie said.

  “You know what is amazing? I am about to catch me another fish that size.” Hogan boasted tying on a different unique bait made by Panther Martin.

  Time was forgotten: they rose; they caught game occasionally; cooked and ate. They followed each other through the woods learning about each other as Hogan held class on what to do and when and the habits of nature he knew to observe.

  Annie awoke to a marvelous sunny morning. She grabbed the 9mm carbine that was her constant companion and stepped out of the tent. It had rained the last couple days and they had moved closer to the river bank to watch the boats as well as avoid any lightning from the storm up on the ridge. Hogan was still asleep and she was quiet around camp so she didn’t wake him.

  She paused from trying to stir up the campfire ashes looking for glowing embers to start a new fire. She had seen movement from the corner of her eye from the trail by the bluff.

  She froze after dropping the stick she was stirring the fire with and looked towards the trail. A shadowy form moved slowly in the woods and disappeared from sight.

  Annie quickly moved to the camp stool she had her carbine leaned on and retrieved her weapon. She wanted to notify Hogan she had seen something but what was it? She was debating calling Hogan when she saw brush move where something had disappeared.

  Annie shouldered her weapon and waited. A nice four point buck presented itself and she squeezed the trigger aiming just below the shoulder and it dropped like a sack of potatoes.

  Hogan woke up instantly at the sound of the shot and grabbed his shotgun. He had sort of sat up in his sleeping bag grabbing the gun and then belly flopped over with the bag still around his waist and peeked out the tent flap.

  “What’s going on, Annie?” Hogan said from his vantage point a couple inches above the ground trying to scan the wood line where she was looking.

  “No worries, Hogan. I just shot a deer!” Annie said jubilantly standing up.

  “Way to go! I will be out to help you with it in a minute.” Hogan said and then popped his head back into the tent.

  “Ok! Hey it went down right off the trail by the bluff. I am going to go look at it.” Annie called back.

  “Ok, I will be there shortly!” “Hogan called from the tent as he worked on getting his boots on.

  The deer lay motionless in the leaves next to the trail. Annie admired it for a moment and gave her thanks to the creature that had delivered itself so close to their doorstep.

  Hogan wandered down the trail shortly and congratulated her on the clean kill. He wrestled with his need for more sleep and aske
d her if there was any coffee made yet. She advised him that there wasn’t even a fire made yet and he suggested they go get coffee before cleaning the deer.

  “That will give the carcass some time to cool so that’s fine by me. I am going to just point that animals head downhill and slit its throat and let it bleed out.” Annie said and pulled her sheath knife out to accomplish the task.

  “Are you any good at cleaning deer, Annie?” Hogan asked watching her deftly accomplish the task.

  “I have done a few, how about you?” Annie replied wiping her blade clean on some leaves.

  “I have done my share. We can talk various techniques to get the task done easiest over coffee. I guess today is going to be another good day! That was quite a surprise to wake up to.” Hogan said smiling as they headed back to camp.

  “I was so lucky to see him! I didn’t know what I was looking at until he stepped out. I thought about calling for you but I wasn’t even sure what I was actually watching until he just walked slowly out into the open.” Annie said happily recounting how she managed to get the scopes cross hairs on it.

  “You did well, that ought to take away any doubts about 9mm you might of had.” Hogan said knowing she was more familiar with high powered rifle rounds for deer hunting versus pistol caliber carbines.

  “Oh I knew a 9 mm coming out of that rifle was potent. I was just worried if I was going to hit it. I don’t have much range time with that gun, as you know.” Annie said referring to the fact she had only shot it six times in practice.

  “You didn’t need no range time! You are a natural with that thing. You put six shots in two targets spread 30 yards apart. That shot you made was about 75 yards and if that was where you were aiming you were dead on target.” Hogan said proud of her marksmanship.

  “That’s exactly where I was aiming. That rifle is a tack driver accurate piece of work, Hogan! Thank you so much for lending it to me.” Annie said giving him a smiling hug.

  “Wow, I ought to lend you my shotgun sometime. I could sleep in and play king of the campsite and you could wake me up when it was time for dinner.” Hogan said kidding with her.

  “Now you’re being mean, I ought to make you clean that deer by yourself for that wisecrack.” Annie said teasing him back.

  “We ought to make Dixon and crew clean it. We could ride up to the bank with that pretty buck tied to the end of the bow of my boat and tell them “Behold the mighty hunters have returned!” Hogan said laughing. He said thinking that although he was joking, that didn’t sound like such a bad idea.

  “We should go check on them.” Annie suggested seriously eying Hogan for confirmation.’

  “I am thinking the same.” Hogan came back with and suggested that they really should take the deer, hide and all back with them.

  “Well if we left now it would take us about four hours to get to the landing. This is why we should have taken your gas motor but that is neither here nor there.” Annie said thinking about when they would arrive and questioning Hogan about how long he thought the meat would keep in the oppressive heat that was soon to come later in the day.

  “Do you want to take half this carcass to them?” Annie suggested.

  “It would be good practice for us to try to cure the meat in a makeshift smoker here but if he has the Hulkster boys in tow by now we could maybe use that fancy grill of theirs to do a better job of it.”Hogan suggested.

  “I think you are right. I agree we should carry the apartment crew some meat today since we got lucky. How are we going to handle that? Do we let Dixon do the meat distribution?” Annie asked.

  “I think that will be best, we told them we might be back to share and if they got the Hulksters working with them it might help prop up their leadership.” Hogan suggested.

  Annie figured that since checking on Dixon and Marylyn had come up they might as well discuss their impending departure for good out of here.

  “Hogan, are you going to tell Marylyn and Dixon we are leaving soon?” Annie asked.

  “Do you have any suggestions on how to do that? I am sort of at a loss on how to broach that subject let alone how we are actually going to just load up the vehicles and leave out.” Hogan said watching the sticks and twigs they had thrown on the campfire catch and flame.

  “No that last good bye tore me up, I don’t look forward to the next couple. I know we can’t do anything more for them than we have done but I hate leaving them permanently behind.” Annie said sadly.

  “Same here. Problem is we don’t know how they are doing now. If they aren’t getting along with the Hulksters, I figure they are barricaded in my apartment and not going out. There is not really any way of knowing what condition they are in.” Hogan said hoping that the old married couple wasn’t suffering much.

  “We don’t know what condition our vehicles are in, either. We are screwed if someone has stolen all our gas.” Annie responded.

  “I know, jeez coming up with plan ABCD, etc. is driving me crazy. I would probably be even crazier if I was hanging out with them back there rather than out here on vacation though. Well we knew this day was eventually coming, what do you want to do?” Hogan asked thinking he had enough so called vacation to last him awhile.

  .” I say we break camp and haul our crap back there and leave out for Alabama in the morning.” Annie offered. Radio reception on the Hooch was spotty at best and from what they could ascertain over the last many weeks, the big cities were war zones, the President was hiding in a bunker somewhere away from Washington DC, the military was becoming factionalized as oath keepers, loyalists and various constitutionalists and nationalists vied for power and influence. Generally speaking, it was organized chaos from the top down as the populace reverted to another primordial century of comparable to the Dark Ages in cruelty and virulent death.

  “I am for doing that if the vehicles still operate ok and we don’t have any bad surprises when we get there. We could end up having our butts chased back here too. Have you thought about that yet, Annie?” Hogan asked thinking they already knew staying where they were at was not an option really. It was just too hard of living unless they made some major changes.

  “Oh I have thought about that worse case scenario a lot, even if we can’t get out of Atlanta by vehicle we are still so much better off than most. I ain’t worried, Hogan. I think Marylyn and Dixon are doing as well as to be expected and the Hulksters are behaving and helping.” Annie said.

  “We took a big gamble, Annie, going on vacation like we did, I just hope it pays off in our favor.” Hogan said reserving judgment for now.

  “So what do you say? Break camp and tow my boat?” Annie asked.

  “Let’s do it!” Hogan said and they spent the next hour breaking camp before getting ready to cast off.

  “The way that deer is sitting in the boat looks like I am trying to be a smart ass.” Hogan said with a chuckle and a distorted grin.

  “I admit that looks like a pretty much staged or posed deer we have there for a ships figurehead but it works!” Annie said grinning with Hogan about what an unlikely sight they were going to be with that deer as a boat ornament going up river.

  They had eyed various ways to secure the dead deer and found just sitting it down in back of the bench and tying its legs around the front of it and the seat to be the most reasonable course of action.

  Annie would sit next to Hogan on the captain’s bench next to his seat in the back of the boat and the deer and the gear in the front would balance the load out. Hogan had tied the deer’s head back by the horns giving it a zephyr car hood ornament look.

  “Leave it to you to turn your boat into something that looks like a Viking long ship!” Annie laughed.

  “It does sort of resemble one, don’t it!” Hogan said as they cast off.

  “I told you perfection takes time!” Hogan said as Annie used the Super Stik push pole to open the brush gate and push it back closed behind them.

  “I am going to pull over here in a minute. As
cool as that deer looks, let’s not press our luck and throw a tarp over that thing. No sense us tempting fate or somebody’s hunger with that thing.” Hogan said ominously and pulled over towards the bank so they could hide the carcass. Once that was done, they resumed their trip up river without incident.

  Several Kayak and motor boat camps were observed along the way, some with many members but no one challenged their right to navigate the waters.

  That was a good thing in more ways than one because throwing that tarp over the deer blocked a lot of Hogan’s vision as well as made it look like he was riding a giant Grinch sled with presents piled up in front of him.

  When they got closer to the landing, Hogan said he had enough of trying to look around that lump and had Annie pull off the canvas.

  “We might as well look spectacular!” Hogan joked as he resumed sailing his alleged Viking ship with a stag figurehead.

  “Guess who is on the beach, Hogan!” Annie cried as she peered around the slightly bobbing deer’s head.

  “Hot damn! I see them up there waving their arms off . HEY DIXON AND MARYLYN!” Hogan shouted as Annie joined in hollering her own greetings to the couple.

  “Watch out for my bobber!” Dixon called pointing out about mid river in front of him.

  “What the hell is that? A buoy of some kind?” Hogan asked Annie.

  “Looks like a giant bobber to me! I saw one of those things before! It’s an ice chest!” Annie said as they neared the bank.

  “We got the end of the trot line on it!” Marylyn called back.

  “Well, I’ll be damned.” Hogan said as he looked at the improvised float.

  “I gave him that cooler one Father’s Day for a joke gift but he always liked it. Now it has a new use.” Marylyn said as Hogan killed the motor and raised it up out of the water to clear the bottom as he got ready to land.