by Eric Vall
“Oh, I always thought you just had to rub a shit ton of salt onto the meat and call it good,” Paige said.
“Things would be a lot simpler if that were the case,” I replied. “Let’s drop our meat in the dining hall and grab some tools.”
“Can't we just leave the meat here until we finish this hut?” Anna asked.
“Probably not the best idea with a mountain lion in the area,” Paige said.
“A what now?” Anna asked as her eyes went wide.
“Oh yeah, guess you weren’t there when Tav told us about it,” Bailey said.
“It’s nothing to worry about,” I assured her. “Just be on guard and don’t go anywhere unarmed. It shouldn’t have any reason to mess with us. We even left it plenty of food this morning.”
“Is that a good idea?” Anna asked. “Won’t it want to come find you guys to get more or something?”
“We didn’t feed it like that,” Paige replied. “But we left all the deer’s entrails, and its head behind.”
“That should keep it full for a while,” I said before I looked to Paige.
“You and Anna go wash your hands and meet us back here,” I ordered.
“There’s some hand sanitizer in our sleeping area if you want to use that,” Bailey offered.
“Perfect,” Anna said with a nod. “I’ll drop the rabbit off on my way.” Then she headed for the dorm.
“Wait for me,” Paige called out as she ran after the athlete.
“Anyone seen Rolly today?” I asked as I shouldered the skinned deer.
“He was out in the parking lot changing the oil on the Jeep a little while ago,” Bailey said. “Apparently it should have been done before we went to Lanceton.”
“Go check on him for me, and grab the keys to the shed,” I said.
Bailey nodded and took off in that direction as I headed for the dorm building.
“So uh, you are Paige were out there for a while this morning,” Tara said as she walked along beside me. “Do anything fun?”
“Hunting is pretty fun, yeah,” I said coyly.
“I meant, like, really fun,” the blonde said as she repositioned her hand on her hip.
“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell,” I replied with a smirk.
“So something did happen then?” the platinum blonde asked as her smile curled into a grin.
“I guess you’ll have to ask Paige if you want to know for sure,” I said.
“I’m a little jealous now,” Tara said as she licked her lips. “Plus, seeing you hunt would be totally hot.”
“You’ll get your turn,” I said. “When you do though, I expect you to get your hands dirty.”
“I’ll get dirty for you anytime,” she purred before she winked at me.
“So I've noticed,” I said with a grin, and then I pushed open the door and stepped into the dorm building. The first floor was made up mostly of the dining hall and a now unused kitchen space. I flopped the deer onto one of the many, empty cafeteria tables where it landed with a wet slap.
The door to the building swung open and Bailey jogged in with a large ring of keys.
“How’s Rolly?” I asked.
“He’s good,” Bailey said. “Says he will keep an eye out for the mountain lion and told me there is a pile of usable wood out behind the shed.” She tossed the keys at me.
“Good, that saves us from having to break up some desks or furniture,” I said with a nod as I caught the keyring. “Time to do some building.”
I led the two women back out of the building, and towards the long shed adorned with a metal roof. I unlocked the large padlock used to keep the heavy wooden door closed and stepped inside. I looked over the racks of neatly organized tools and grabbed enough hammers for all of us. Then I grabbed a few tape measures, ring shank, nails, and a couple hand saws. I handed the tools off to Tara, and Bailey, before I grabbed a level, and some hinges for a door.
“Is that everything?” Bailey asked as I made my way outside.
“Should be,” I said with a nod. “Not like we have to go far for more if it isn’t.”
“True,” she replied. “So where are we going to build this thing?”
“Probably in the shadow of one of the campus buildings,” I said, “We need to make sure it stays cool, and keeping it out of the sun will help with that.”
As we began to work, Paige and Bailey rejoined us. They were clean of the blood that had stained their hands and arms, and I was anxious to have them give us a hand.
“You two look refreshed,” Tara said as she walked over and handed them each a hammer.
“Just in time too,” Bailey said.
We all hauled a bunch of wood over to a spot behind the dorm building where the sun never quite reached, and I started to pick out a few good 2x4 boards to construct a frame.
“So first we need to create a base, and some walls out of 2x4,” I explained. “These will form a sort of skeleton for us to attach our plywood too.”
“Okay, yeah,” Anna said. “Part of my parents place got remodeled when I was younger, and I sorta remember that. It’s what they attached the drywall to.”
“Exactly,” I said with a nod. “We can also pack the areas between the 2x4 with insulation to help regulate temperature.”
“Where would we get insulation?” Bailey asked.
“We could probably pull it out of almost any house down the hill,” Paige replied with a shrug.
“Oh yeah, it’s the fluffy pink stuff you, like, find in the attic or whatev’, right?” Tara asked.
“It can come in a couple different colors, but yeah I think it is most well known as the itchy pink stuff,” I said.
“So how do we build these skeleton sections?” Anna asked.
“Well, we need to decide on dimensions,” I said as I tossed her a tape measure. “Check what size 2x4s we have there, and we will go from there.”
The athletic redhead nodded, crouched next to the lumber, and started to measure the pieces. She muttered to herself as she measured the wood that I had set aside.
“Do we have a common size?” I asked.
“Yeah, looks like mostly eight foot pieces,” she said after she finished measuring about a dozen.
“Then we will build a nice eight foot box of a building,” I stated. “We will start with the floor. Start by making a square frame. Then take your tape and make a mark every sixteen inches. That is where we will place our studs.”
“I thought studs were used on walls,” Paige said. “Don’t you use a joist on a floor?”
“Is there any topic you don’t have at least some knowledge of?” Tara asked.
The brunette shrugged and went a little red.
“You’re right,” I said as I chuckled and gave her a smile. “Well… normally you’d be right. Though if they were actual joists they would use something bigger than a 2x4.”
“Do we have to do any cutting?” Bailey asked as she knelt and helped Anna lineup the first piece.
“Not yet,” I said. “Since we have so many pieces that are the same size we can just knock out some wall frames.”
I started on a frame by myself as the girls all worked together on one of their own. I looked up as the sound of hammering filled the air and watched them work. It wasn’t hard to tell that they had not spent much time swinging a hammer before today, but there wasn’t much I could do to help them along except to let them practice.
“Fuck!” Anna exclaimed as she dropped her hammer and grabbed at her thumb. “God-damnit, why does it hurt so fucking much?”
“Are you okay?” Bailey asked.
“Yeah, is there any blood?” Paige asked.
“I’m fine, there’s no blood,” Anna seethed. “I’m just a fucking idiot.”
“Catch your thumb?” I asked despite knowing the answer.
“Yes,” She replied as her cheeks turned red.
“Is she going to be okay?” Tara asked.
“She’ll be fine,” I assured her. “And
, Anna, you’re not an idiot. Even I have smashed my thumb more times than I care to count. You’ll get better the more you do it.”
“Well it feels like a stupid thing to do anyway,” Anna said as she stretched out her fingers and looked at her thumb. It was red but not swollen, and she grumbled but retrieved her fallen hammer. “The pain is already fading, we should probably get back to work.”
“Probably a good idea,” I said with a chuckle before I went back to it.
It didn’t take long for me to finish the eight by eight segment. I put it where I wanted the shack to sit and looked over at the girls. They positioned the inner studs on their marks, and Tara worked to nail them in place.
“Careful Tara, keep this up and you might develop some calluses on those soft hands of yours,” Paige said sarcastically.
“You know what, that doesn’t, like, scare me anymore.”
“Oh my gosh, are you feeling okay?” Anna asked with a smile.
“Hey, I’m as shocked as you are,” Tara replied. “This fresh mountain air must be getting to my head or something.”
“People always told me spending so much time in the woods was not normal,” Bailey said. “Maybe they were on to something.”
“Next thing you know our diva here will spend less time shaving,” Paige joked.
“Ew, that one goes too far, even for the new me,” Tara said with a grimace. “The only place on my body that needs hair is my head thank you.”
“What happens if we run out of razors?” I asked as I looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
“Then I guess you will have to show me how to shave with a knife,” the platinum blond replied with a shrug.
“Wow, I’m impressed at how quickly you came up with that solution,” Anna said.
“I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about this before,” Tara said. “Though before Tav came along I just thought I would have to teach myself.”
“Yikes, I can’t imagine that would have ended real well,” Paige said.
“Yeah, at least now I know I won’t find you bleeding out in a bathroom with a knife stuck in your leg,” Anna said.
“I think, just to be safe, we should try to find razors for as long as possible,” I said. “My only experience is with shaving faces.”
“Huh, I pegged you as the type to shave his legs for speed,” Bailey said with a grin.
“Nah, I wax,” I joked, and everyone giggled.
The girls got the last nail in place and stood up the eight foot segment.
“Look at that, we built a wall,” Paige said as she brushed some stray brunette hair from her face.
I walked over and tested each stud with the level and was happy to find that it was all very straight.
“So, how’d we do?” Bailey asked.
“It looks good,” I said. “Now we just need to attach this to our base there and make two more. The one that holds the door will be a little different, but not by much. Especially since our door will just be a simple swinging piece of reinforced plywood.”
The girls picked up the wall and moved it onto the base and, once in place, I nailed it down and used a piece of scrap wood to ensure that it stayed upright until we could support it with the other walls.
“I like it,” Anna said. “This is actually pretty fun.”
“Yeah, I think so too,” Tara agreed. “You know, before this whole EMP business I had never built anything.”
“I’m shocked,” Paige said with the driest sarcasm she could muster.
“Alright fine, maybe that was, like, totally obvious or whatever, but still this is a nice change,” Tara replied with a shrug.
“It is really nice to know that you are good for more than just looking pretty sometimes,” Bailey said.
“Exactly,” Tara agreed.
I grinned as I watched the four women admire their handiwork. They had been far from helpless when I first arrived, but they had really started to come into their own with only a bit of training and encouragement.
I let them stand for a moment longer as I started on another wall segment, and when they were done with their little moment they joined in.
As the sun started to set, we had a mostly completed shack built out behind the dorm building. All the exterior walls were nailed together, sheeted in plywood, and in place. Even the front had been built and attached to the simple base I had created for the structure.
For the front of the shack we had built two walls that were only two-and-a-half feet. Then, in the three-foot gap we left between them, I built a header out of some scrap two by ten to create the opening for our front door. Since I had cut the wood to create the header, I quickly realized how much I missed corded tools.
I worked to put the header in place while the girls worked on the door. It was a three foot by seven foot chunk of plywood that we reinforced with 2x4 so that it could not be as easily destroyed.
“I can’t believe this is almost done,” Bailey said as she worked to tighten the bolts that we used to hold on the heavy duty metal hinges.
“This is nothing,” I said as I pounded the final nail into the header. “We could have done this in an hour if we had a circular saw and a nail gun.”
“This still didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would,” Paige confressed. “Especially since the four of us are new to construction.”
“Let’s not gloat yet,” I said. “We still need to put on the door and find a roof.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot it needs a top,” Anna said.
“Door’s ready though,” Bailey said as she stood and wiped her hands on her pants.
Together we managed to hold the door in place and get it nailed into our wall segments so that it was solid. It swung open and closed nicely, and the frame even worked as a seal to help the door stay closed.
“Use some bolts to get that latch in place while I go find us a top,” I said.
“Try not to take too long,” Anna teased. “We want to get this done by sundown.”
“Of course, boss,” I said as I gave her a mock salute. Then I grinned, waved, and headed off.
An hour later, Bailey put the final nail into the chunk of aluminum I had found to use as a roof, and it was finished. It wasn’t much but there were four walls, a slanted metal roof, and a locking door.
“Well, what do you think?” I asked as I stepped back and inspected my work.
“It isn’t very pretty,” Tara said.
“We can paint it later,” I replied.
“Will it get the job done?” Anna asked.
“Oh yeah,” I said.
“Does this mean we get to salt the meat now?” Paige asked
“Yes it does,” I confirmed. “Let’s go grab the deer, rabbit, and a shitload of salt.” I led them towards the dining hall.
“So, this was cool and all, but I can’t help feeling like we could have built something more practical,” Tara said.
“I don’t know, a place to store our food seems pretty practical to me,” Anna said.
“I mean, yeah it is, but what about a shower?” Tara asked. “Taking a bath in the stream is great and all but nothing, like, beats a hot shower.”
“I don’t think that’s a bad idea,” I said. “But we need to get our water pump up and running before we will even have the necessary amounts of water needed to create a shower.”
“He’s right,” Paige agreed. “As it is now, we would probably need another water run every day to get us enough water for showering.”
“Ugh, man, life is so much work sometimes,” Bailey complained.
“It will get easier,” I said as we stepped into the dining hall. “In fact, tomorrow we will be working on getting that line ran to the stream so we can use those water pumps.”
“Thank god for that,” Tara said. “I won’t miss lugging water.”
I grabbed the deer and some rope, while the girls grabbed the rabbit and salt. Then we made our way back to the shack where I hung the carcass after cutting off a rump for
dinner.
“So the actual salting part of this is easy,” I explained before I took a canister full of salt and started to pour it generously over the meat. “You want to cover the entire animal in salt, inside and out.”
“Someone else can do the inside part,” Bailey said. She took a handful of salt and pressed it to the meat. She grimaced but didn’t complain.
“I’m all over it,” the bookish brunette said as she took her own box of salt and stuck her head into the chest cavity.
“You know, sometimes I think you are a little too eager to do the gross things,” Tara said while she spread salt over the neck stump.
“I’m sorry, would you rather come over here and stick your head in this thing?” Paige asked, her voice muffled by the meat around her.
“Ohmigod, no,” the platinum blond replied.
“She’s got a point,” Anna said. “Her willingness to get in there just saves the rest of us from having to do it.”
“It’s always nice to have someone on the team who wants to do what you don’t,” I said.
“I guess so,” Tara conceded.
It took us less than ten minutes with five pairs of hands to coat the deer, and the rabbit, in salt completely. By the time we were done with the process my hands felt like sandpaper devoid of all moisture.
“Well now what?” Anna asked.
“Now we let it sit,” I said with a shrug. “We keep the meat in here and try to keep it cool. We’ll find a thermometer in the kitchen that we can use to check the temperature a couple times a day.”
“The spring weather might work to our advantage there,” Paige said.
“Yeah, nights still get pretty chilly,” Anna agreed.
“This is all way easier than I thought it would be,” Bailey said.
“I know right?” Paige added. “I feel like all of these skills we have learned should have been more widely taught. Not like it would have taken much to teach them.”
“Up until a few months ago, we lived in a different world,” I said with a shrug. “Things like salting meat and hunting were not as important when you could buy meat almost anywhere and just throw it in the fridge or freezer.”
“I guess, but then you are left in the situation we were when things went wrong,” Anna said.
