Beth and I had another long look at the map. It’s very detailed, and we figured out more of what the Legend on the map identified like the marking that signified a cave or cavern. Apparently caves have to be rather large or well toured or traveled to be listed geographically. The cave I had been in wasn’t on the map, though. That’s a scary thought. What else are we going to find that isn’t on this map?
I finally had the talk with Beth about the possibility of a pregnancy that neither of us could imagine how to deal with.
It was very awkward. Though our attraction for each other may never truly be contained, it does present a reasonable cause to try and find a box of condoms. It’s very odd thinking about it - that finding a drug store would be a priority in an apocalyptic scenario. We could use some medications to stock up on - there’s one good excuse. Then Beth wrote down just two words for me to see - ORAL SEX.
We’ve been laughing about it all night. She did bring it up, though. Damn, I can’t believe I’m writing this.
DAY - 45
Sid was whining like crazy early this morning. I figured it would be the rodents in the wall again, but I was wrong. A handful of deer were just outside the station. Del and I watched them from the window. There was a huge Buck with an eleven-point rack of antlers on him and then four does around him. The Buck kept his head high and was thoroughly studying the area. He could obviously hear Sid’s whining and was trying to pinpoint it. Del whispered to me that the way the deer were acting seemed to be normal behavior. Del then grabbed his shotgun with the thought of food obviously running through his head. I instantly gave him what was probably the same look as a child when I had just seen the ending of Bambi. Del quickly took his shotgun and darted outside in the snow. The deer began running off. Del aimed at them and fired only once. As usual, the deer kept running. Del was sure that he had fatally wounded one of the does, but it would require tracking her down to where she finally lay down to die. Del then explained he was going out anyway to the red circle on the map. I handed him the map and compass and gave him a kiss goodbye. He looked at me with concern, but he said nothing else as he just handed me the journal and took off into the forest. I sat down in the floor and began to pet Sid and scratch his ears.
By midday I was finally appeased somewhat from worrying about Del. Sid was whining and scratching at the back wall again. His rodent friends were back and scurrying about inside the wall. The sounds were more distinct to me this time. I think there are more of the things than at first.
They sound like they are really up to something too. I could only think to start pounding the wall with my fists to get them to stop making so much noise. After a while it finally worked.
It was just getting dark, and I happened to be looking out the windows for Del. I saw him stumbling along in the snow. He even fell a few times. There was blood all over him, even his face. I couldn’t tell if he was hurt or even if he was turned and making his way back to where he last remembered. I grabbed my shotgun and went outside to make sure. Del looked up at me, and in very little breath, he said, “ Don’t shoot. It’s not my blood. It’s from the deer. “ I made him take off the bloody clothes and helped him inside to get warm. I got him more clothes to wear.
Soon enough, Del fell asleep. I was then focused on the fact that he had been using his shotgun as a cane. I checked the chamber of the gun, and then his bloody clothes. He should have had at least ten or so shells on him, but he had none left. Del had to have fired his shotgun many times. If I know Del as well as I think I do, there’s no way he would just shoot blindly and waste his ammunition. I did find that he had folded up and kept the map safe. He had safely pocketed the compass, too. So, now, as it stands, all I can do is wait for him to wake up and explain what happened.
DAY - 46
I thank you, Beth, for keeping the journal current. I must explain the previous day, though. The red circle on the map is not a sanctuary. It’s a clearing in the forest and a nice level plane on the mountainside that harbors something new. I have never seen vegetation anywhere that compares to the vegetation that is growing in the clearing. If I have to compare it - I can only think about things like the Venus Flytrap - just not that small and much more aggressive. I happened to track the deer I shot at from simply paying attention to the disturbed snow. What I finally witnessed was that each of the deer met their end in that clearing. Those plants have thorns longer and thicker than what I’ve seen on Locust trees. What’s worse is that the plants seem to move with amazing reflex - very quick. I spent all of my ammo blasting a path towards one of the deer to try and free it from the plants. I just ended up getting messy and damn near getting trapped. I thought the worst of the plants was what I saw above ground, but they are deadly down to their roots, which also have barbs on them. I’ve never been happier to have on hiking boots. I ended up using the shotgun like a baseball bat to get free of the clearing. The whole process had me fighting so fierce that I wore myself out. I hadn’t anything to eat the entire day, so I got overexerted. I’m surprised I made it back, but I guarantee that I’m definitely making another trip to the clearing soon. I want to see how those fuckers like fire. - Back to the present, though, and our matters at hand.
Our rodent friends had been driving Sid insane again. Even I was at my wits end hearing them scratch and flitter about inside the back wall. Beth and I devised a plan that put to good use our old clothing. I started by using the butt of my shotgun to bust a small hole in the drywall. Beth tore strips from the old clothes and got them a bit damp with some of Sid’s personal, yellow snow. Using gloves, of course, because the last thing I want on my hands is the strong smell of Sid’s piss, I stuffed several of the soaked strips into the drywall hole. I used some remaining dry pieces of clothing to stuff the hole making a plug of sorts. It looks a bit white trash, but I seriously am starting to relate to the worst of lower class lifestyles - I could fucking care less. The rodents - whatever they are - haven’t been scratching since. Sid’s piss saved the day.
I was relieving myself outside before evening. A thought suddenly hit me that just hasn’t occurred before. It came to me as I saw Beth returning from doing her business as well.
She grabbed up some snow tossing it into the air and throwing some at Sid as he came running up to her. The both of them were jumping about in the cold like children. And just yesterday I was fighting for my life going bananas to survive. The problem? Neither of us has had so much as a sniffle. Hell, even dogs are known to sneeze as often as people, but neither of us has done so. I don’t even feel feverish after all I went through yesterday. I don’t even know how to start explaining this to Beth.
DAY - 47
I remember liking kittens until quite recently. I can now say the same thing about squirrels. It was squirrels that had been inside the back wall of the station. We found out about midmorning today. Sid had started going
wild again at the wall, so Beth and I came to listen in on the commotion. Then it happened. A squirrel chewed a bigger chunk of drywall where I had made the hole. Sid knew better of the squirrel - obviously sensing it was changed. Sid took off towards the front room. Beth jumped on top of a desk in the room. I made haste and dove into the front room for one of the shotguns. I slid across the slick floor, though and hit the door. I did manage to reach my sword, though. The squirrel came scampering towards Sid and I, but I got up, took a swing at it like a hockey puck and cut the little fucker in half. I must have looked quite silly in what I did next, but I must admit to it - I apologized to my sword and told it I would never neglect it again.
By late afternoon, Beth and I had all but completely destroyed the drywall where the squirrels were inside tearing things up.
There were a lot of blade-thick and hatchet thick slits in the drywall where we had been trying to kill the rodents before they could chew their way out to us. A few trickles of blood out of some of the slits showed us that we had gotten some of them, but the noise of flittering was starting to get louder. It wasn’t sounding to good for us.
Evening had nearly set in when one of the squirrels had apparently chewed through the major wiring in the wall that led to the antenna. We knew because a small ball of fire shot out from the drywall instantly starting a fire inside the wall.
I told Beth to forget trying to save the station and to just get all of our things and head outside. We both grabbed everything and along with Sid, took off outside and began making our way up the mountainside. I told Beth that our best bet would be the cave where the hiker and the bear had been. I could tell from her eyes that she was beyond paranoid about the cave, but for such short notice, it was the best I could think of. I kept looking back several times to the station. It had caught fire pretty quickly. I’m guessing the many strips of clothing, by then dry and with fumes of ammonia from Sid’s strong piss probably helped the fire get going.
I kept my promise to my sword as soon as we reached the cave.
I went in alone as far as I could see. Nothing had made a new home in there since my last time inside. The cold darkness of night set in very quickly, and I knew that Beth and I had to act fast. I helped her as we brought our stuff far enough inside the cave, and then I told her to start getting twigs or kindling of any type for a fire. I took my sword back down to the station, which was easily visible while on fire. I made it a quick trip. I just grabbed a long board from the fire glowing with nice, orange embers. As soon as I got back to the cave, I was able to get us a fire going with the wood that Beth had gathered for us. We continued to get firewood for a while.
Now we are huddled in front of our comfortable fire in our new, cave home. I’m actually more comfortable and warmer with the fire than we had been in the station. Every draft of wind isn’t blocked for us anymore, but the wind has to pass over the fire. It’s like having a heater fan. We’re okay for now.
DAY - 48
I have no idea what time I got up this morning, but it struck me to check out the cave more thoroughly. I used one of our last useless pieces of clothing to wrap around a thick piece of wood we hadn’t yet used for firewood, and I had made myself a torch. I grabbed my sword and put it in my belt loop and then grabbed my shotgun. I don’t know exactly how far I had gone into the cave, but I know that I was searching for a while.
I finally came to an area of the cave that was only a crawl space that seemed to go much further. My conclusion was - fuck it! The only thing living beyond that point had to be bats and cave crickets. Neither of those things I feel like ever having to deal with, especially bats. They’re just flying mice, and I think I’ve clearly made my point about rodents.
Beth didn’t look very amused at me when I returned to her and Sid. She looked rather pissed and relieved all at once, but she was in no way happy about me leaving her behind. I apologized as best I could, but hell, she’s a woman, and I knew it was fully up to her to decide when she would no longer be mad. I just let it be, and tried to put more effort into reading the map of the area. Before long Beth joined me. We kept looking over it and narrowing down which areas seemed fit to try and relocate to. The best bet seems to be reaching a road that winds up to the neighboring mountaintop. It does say LOOKOUT POINT on the map, and if we’re lucky, there just might be a building there - a souvenir shop, a restrooms building or something - anything. We’re not in any position to be picky. Had I actually paid attention to the map earlier on then I might have already made a go for it. I’ve never been that lucky, though. Granted, being alive is pretty damned lucky for me, but this seems rather on track with how my whole life has played out. I just never find out what I need until the last minute, and then I have to bust my ass to get that thing of need. Another problem was soon made clear to us. The best, shortest and only reasonable way to get to the road for us is going to have us going through the red circle.
We could go around, but it will have us taking twice as much time. The days are still short, so time isn’t much of a virtue right now. I’m just going to get my wish and try to burn those bastard thorn-plant-fuckers to dust. It should probably be done anyway if only to prevent the damned things from breeding further and spreading out in the forest. Beth seemed apprehensive when I told her that fire would take care of them for good. I promised her that fire is always right. She looked like she didn’t believe me too much, so I asked her if she ever tried to tell a fire, NO - to which she just gave me a smug look and slapped my shoulder. She did end up laughing, though.
It was the first time I had seen her smile today, and I needed it. It’s bad enough thinking about having to get close to those plants again. Now I have to get us all safely past them. I’ll also make sure we eat something before we set out - not eating last time almost cost me.
DAY - 49
I was right about the possibility of a building atop the lookout point of the mountain. It’s no bigger than a rest stop like those along major highways, but it has a three-story platform built around it that people seemingly paid to walk up on for a better view. Although we got her well past nightfall, I found a small breaker room and restored the electricity. Mission: successful.
We were all up by first light this morning and quickly packed our things. I took notice that our food supply is dwindling, but I still made sure we ate enough that we would be ready for the challenge ahead of us. We then headed out. I had Beth hold Sid on his chain leash. I really didn’t want him wandering too far ahead of us, but most importantly I was wearing our new backpack full of some of our things, my sword in my belt loop, a shotgun in my left hand and a makeshift torch in my right hand. I think it was more than a fair trade of duties.
It was probably several hours later that I began to recognize some of the scenery as being close to the clearing - the red circle - something hard to forget. I made Beth stop, and we double-checked that our shotguns we
re fully loaded. I realized that we are also dwindling down on ammo. As soon as Beth convinced me that she was ready, we began to slowly advance to the clearing. Once there, Beth looked amazed at how the plants were able to move at will. Sid didn’t like them at all, and his barking and whining made the plants act anxious in their movements. I told Beth that they would probably burn easier if they weren’t moving so much. She quickly took to unloading her shotgun on the plants. I then tossed the torch on the ones she had torn up well enough. The roots of the plants began to start springing up from the soil and started acting like snakes wrapping around the plants on fire. They were constricting each other trying to suffocate the fire.
That’s when I began shooting - aiming only for those roots.
Beth and I were soon out ammo. Instead of reloading with the few shells we had left, I told Beth to just secure her hold on Sid and her shotgun. I used some of the extra straps to fasten my shotgun to it in a sideways fashion to my backpack, readied my sword and told Beth to stay close. I took off swinging and cutting a path through the roots and towards the plants well lit with fire. I was even chopping away a pieces on fire sending them towards the other plants. I don’t even think it took very long to get through, but it felt like it took forever.
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