by Eric Vall
“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Anna said with a furrowed brow.
“Don’t worry, we won't go looking for it today,” I said. “Though there is a chance this is a problem that needs to be taken care of soon.”
“Just promise that you won’t let the mountain lion eat me when we do take care of it,” Anna said.
“I’ll do my best,” I promised.
“That’s not exactly what I asked, but thanks,” she said with a smile.
“Come on, let’s finish checking the traps and get back to the others,” I said.
My redheaded companion nodded, looked around the area one last time, and followed me out of the area.
Only two of our seven traps seemed to be undisturbed. The two sites that were not destroyed or covered in signs of the big cat were the two farthest out. That meant that the cat lived closer to campus than I would have liked.
We checked the trotlines, but sadly there was nothing in them today. So the two of us headed back with nothing but the news of the mountain lion to show for our morning efforts.
“It’s always disappointing to come back empty handed,” Anna said as we hiked.
“It’s okay, that’s how this goes,” I said with a shrug. “Plus we will want to give the area a rest once we have a good month or two of meat. We don’t want to overtrap our forest.”
“Makes sense, but we aren't to that point yet, are we?” Anna asked
“Not yet,” I assured her. “Plus, with our tools we can start hunting and curing larger animals. Each deer, elk, or mountain lion will go a long way.”
“You know, as a kid I used to read those little house on the prairie books,” Anna said. “Every day we wake up and talk about farms or water I think about those books. I once found the idea of living like that exciting, but now I just sorta wish things were back to the way they were.”
“We might never get back to exactly where we were before, but we are doing what we can to make life comfortable,” I said.
“I know,” Anna said with a sigh. “And I also know that things could be a lot worse. It’s just hard sometimes to think that all of my future plans are sorta gone now. Not like I can be an athlete anymore.”
“No, but your past prepared you for the hard work and long days of hiking,” I explained.
“True,” Anna conceded. “I don’t know. It’s not that I am unhappy or anything it is just that some days the massive changes to pretty much every part of my life are harder than others. I mean, I don’t even know if I will ever see my family again.” She sighed. “Not that I had a great relationship with them anyway.”
“I bet it’s the same for the others too,” I said. “It’s not like we were prepared and hoping power would go out, and the world would be plunged into some sort of strange second dark age.”
“I’m sure someone was,” Anna said.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t one of us,” I replied as I clapped her on the shoulder. Anna looked back at me, and I gave her a big smile.
“Guess we were too busy trying to live normal lives,” she said and then she looked back at me and grinned. “Well, maybe not you Mr. I lived in the woods by myself for a year.”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” I said before I laughed. “Though I might have reconsidered if I had known I wouldn’t get a cold beer when I returned.”
“You know, we could maybe do something about that,” Anna said. “Growing up my dad had this little home brewing kit. Once we have all the necessary stuff in place, maybe we could work on growing our own beer.”
“That’s not a bad plan,” I said. “It would be a good morale booster and could even be used in trade if we ever ran into anyone who wasn’t a murdering lunatic.”
“Do you actually think that will happen?” the redhead asked.
“I do,” I nodded. Then we arrived at the campus again and broke free of the forest. “Lots of farmers and country folk around here who will be able to adapt to this new world, and they will want to trade.”
“That’s kinda exciting,” Anna said with a distant gaze in her eyes that made me think she was visualizing the future.
“Take a break,” I told Anna. “I’m going to go see how Rolly is doing and get things setup for this afternoon.
“Sounds good,” she replied with a nod. “I’ll see you at the gun range in a bit. Should I grab the others?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind,” I said.
“Of course not,” she said with a smile before she gave me a wave and headed out.
I watched her leave before I made my way to the shooting range. Along the way, I ran into Bailey who was standing in the middle of a square chunk of the courtyard that had been marked out with wooden stakes and twine. The thin blonde woman leaned on a shovel as she flipped through a thick book on gardening
“How’s it going?” I asked?
Bailey jumped at the sound of my voice. “Holy crap. Sorry, didn’t notice you walk up.”
“Yeah I got that,” I said with a small chuckle. “Made any progress?”
“I think so,” Bailey said as she nodded towards several small freshly dug mounds of earth. “I planted some tomato seeds today. I have ten of them planted, and they are spaced out how the book recommended.”
“Don’t you need a cage or a fence for the tomatoes to grow up?” I asked
“Yeah,” Bailey nodded. “I have some sticks that I sharpened up to get them started, and I figure if they take off we can just build a small wall alongside the row I made.”
“Sounds like you are getting it figured out,” I stated.
“Yeah, it’s actually pretty nice,” She admitted. “I like the digging and getting to put something back into the earth.”
“Good, I had hoped that you might enjoy this task,” I said.
“Thanks,” Bailey said. “Did you and Anna have any luck this morning?”
“Not really,” I said. “Looks like the mountain lion really wants to screw with our stuff.”
“Uh-oh,” she replied.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “We will need to build some more traps.”
“At least we know how to do that,” the blond hippie mused.
“Yeah, but that’s a problem for another day,” I said. “Once you are finished up here head for the shooting range. We are going to get some more practice in.”
“Alright, I wanna throw the book inside and put away my tools and then I'll be there,” she said.
I gave her a nod and continued on and arrived at our shooting range a few moments later. The mound had shrunk a little overnight as the dirt settled, but the actual shooting line was much improved.
Rolly had pulled out a table from one of the college buildings to set all the guns on, and he had created a single person shooting bench out of a desk. A large rectangle had been drawn on the ground with spray paint around the desk and the table.
Rolly, who sat at the shooting bench with a notebook, looked back as I approached. “What do you think?”
“I like the shooting bench,” I said. “The table is nice too, but I don’t understand what you have going on down here on the ground.”
“It’s where I am going to build the shooting hut,” The old man said as he stood. He handed me his notebook and tapped the page. “It’s all right here.”
The first dozen pages were filled with rough blueprints for a larger smoker, possible outdoor bathrooms, and a multi-laned rectangular building that would allow them to shoot regardless of the weather. The shooting shed was complete with a roof, individual shooting benches and a shelf that ran along the back to store extra guns or ammo.
“This is really good stuff,” I said as I flipped through the pages.
“I have always liked designing construction projects,” Rolly said with a shrug. “I figured having a blueprint would also help us know what sort of stuff we would need to make it possible.”
“I agree,” I said with a nod. “We can check the material list you have here against what we
have so we don’t end up with half completed projects.”
“Yeah, but all of this is going to take a little while,” he said. “I won't be able to just put this stuff up overnight.”
“That’s alright,” I replied. “I would rather we take a little time and do it right than to rush it and have the projects fall apart.”
“Glad we are on the same page,” Rolly said with a wide grin.
I nodded and handed him back his notebook as Tara and Paige walked up with the duffle of weapons and ammo.
“I heard we were supposed to meet you here,” Paige said as she tossed the bag onto the table.
“Yeah, how was your morning?” I asked.
“I think we’re really, like, starting to get the hang on this knife fighting stuff,” Tara said with a grin.
“I agree,” Paige said while she was taking off her glasses to clean the smudged lenses. “It is also a lot of fun too.”
“Well good,” I said. “Did Anna fill you in on our morning?”
“She told us that you found mountain lion tracks,” Tara said. “Is there anything else we need to know?”
“Not really,” I replied. “I just want you all to know so you can be careful.”
“Thanks for the heads up,” Paige said as she started to unpack the duffle bag. She laid out each of the guns on the table and ensured they all faced down range. “I feel way safer just having my own gun.”
“Same here,” Tara said.
“Good, but don’t get cocky,” I warned. “You’re far from invincible.”
“Yeah, but at least now I feel I stand a chance if I run into the kitty,” Paige said as she pulled out her pistol and checked the magazine.
I took some time to set up the range while we waited for Anna and Bailey. This time I set up some old tin cans, so that we could work on hitting smaller targets. Once they started to nail those regularly, I would get rid of the cans and setup old shotgun shells as targets. Once they were accurate, we would start to work on speed and combat drills.
The rest of the girls joined us, and we spent the afternoon shooting. The girls did well, but we didn’t move to smaller targets that afternoon. Bailey was a naturally good shot, and Anna, with her previous coaching, could hit the can almost every time. However, Paige and Tara struggled, but both for different reasons. Paige seemed to have a tough time picking out the metal can against the dirt backstop. It seemed her eyesight, even with glasses, was a little worse than the rest of ours. Tara, on the other hand, acted like she was afraid of the gun. She still jolted every time she squeezed the trigger.
“You have to relax,” I instructed. “The gun’s not going to hurt you.”
“I know that,” Tara said with a scowl. “I just can’t help it. I even like shooting these things, but--” She jolted as another BOOM shook the air, as Rolly fired his pistol.
“It’s alright,” I said as I put a hand on her shoulder. “I think the best way to get you through this might just be to have you keep shooting. You will get used to the sound and the feeling.”
“Does this mean I need private lessons?” Tara asked as her scowl transformed into a coy smile.
“Maybe,” I said with a smirk. “I might have a way to help you relax.”
“That would be good,” she said with mock innocence. “After all, I have been sooo stressed lately.”
“Well, then maybe you should meet me in my office later today,” I said.
“Oh, I’ll be there,” the platinum blond said with a wink before she shouldered the shotgun again and fired off another round.
As dusk approached, we called it a day. The ground was littered with empty shells and casings, and I had us spend the time cleaning them up after we emptied the guns and put them away.
“So how worried should we actually be about this mountain lion?” Bailey asked as she dumped a handful of shotgun shells into a five-gallon bucket Rolly had grabbed from his shed.
“Yeah, it seems to really like messing up our stuff,” Anna said.
“This thing is a predator but we are hardly its ideal prey,” I replied.
“Just keep your eyes and ears open.”
“Is that going to be enough?” Paige asked as she stood and brushed the dirt from her pants. “I mean, large cats are usually known for stealth right?”
“Hey, you all have a gun and the training to use it,” I said. “It hasn’t been on the campus grounds and since it has used our traps for easy food, it should be well fed.”
“Yeah but we won’t get to keep eating so well if we can’t trap,” Tara said.
“I know,” I said with a nod, dumped my own handful of brass into the bucket, and grabbed the duffle bag. “I am hoping if we stop arming our traps for a couple days it will wander off into a different area to find food.”
“What if it doesn’t?” Rolly asked.
“Then we hunt it down and kill it,” I said with a shrug. “Now come on, let’s go cook up some dinner. It’s getting late, and we can worry about all of this in the morning.” I headed out for the firepit and assumed the others would follow.
“Alright,” Anna said from behind me. “But if I get eaten in my sleep, I will become a ghost and I will haunt the shit out of you.”
The sound of laughter echoed through the campus grounds as we all gathered around the fire to cook and eat.
Chapter 6
That night, Tara cooked up a dinner of fish seasoned with basil, garlic salt, and pepper. She heated some canned green beans for a side, and we washed it down with some alcohol.
“Shooting is fun, but man is my shoulder sore,” Paige groaned.
“Tell me about it,” Tara agreed with a nod.
“I didn’t really notice it until we stopped,” Anna said.
“I dunno,” Paige said. “I kinda like it. It sorta feels like the sorta pain you feel when you exercise.”
“I guess,” the redhead said with a shrug. “Though I don’t like the soreness of exercise either. It usually means I need to take a day off.”
“I’m with Paige,” Rolly said. “I like the feeling of a sore shoulder after a day of shooting.”
“If we do this long enough does the pain go away?” Paige asked.
“Not really,” I said as I shook my head. “You just get used to it once you shoot long enough.”
“Guess we just have to shoot more then,” Bailey said with a shrug.
“You seem really broken up about that,” I said with a grin.
The blond hippie shrugged and took a bite of fish.
“At least we can always shoot our pistols without worrying about our shoulders,” Tara said.
“Well we can’t shoot every day anyway,” I added. “We have to keep in mind our ammo reserves.”
“Oh yeah, I kinda forgot about that part,” Anna sighed.
“It’s easy to forget about,” Rolly said. “Ammo is the real reason that shooting was always such an expensive hobby.”
“I never had to worry about that,” I said with a smile. “All my shooting sessions were sponsored by the government.”
“That’s one way to do it,” Rolly said with a nod.
“Did you ever get to shoot rockets or anything?” Tara asked with a large smile.
“Yeah, I got lots of special weapons training,” I said. “Mounted fifty cals are always a good time. Though you quickly lose feeling in your hands.”
“Holy shit, how come?” Bailey asked.
“They are such big bullets that the continuous fire just sorta shakes the feeling outta you,” I replied with a shrug.
“Dang, that sounds pretty hardcore,” Paige mused.
“Nah, it was just a big gun,” I said. “A lot of times you don’t actually need a bigger gun. Bullets are nasty pretty much regardless of size.”
“So what you’re saying is it’s not the size of the gun that matters?” Anna asked with a grin.
“Not as long as you know how to use it,” I said with a grin before I winked at the redhead.
“Well you certainly do,” Tara cooed.
Bailey giggled and went red but stayed silent.
Suddenly, Tara shrieked and jumped upright as she frantically looked for where she had set her pistol.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I too stood and pulled my pistol.
“There's, like, something in the trees!” she screeched as she pointed to the treeline behind me.
“Shit!” I spun and saw a pair of glowing green eyes just inside the forest.
“It’s that fucking cat isn’t it?” Anna whispered around and scanned the forest. She spotted the eyes, pulled her pistol and aimed.
The green dots disappeared into the darkness of the forest.
“Shit,” Anna spat as she lowered her gun.
“Where did it go?” Bailey asked as she grabbed onto my arm and pressed herself against me.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I am guessing the smell of our food lured it here though.”
“Hasn’t it been stealing enough of our food already?” Paige asked.
“Yeah, it’s already trashed several traps and taken our rabbits,” Anna added.
“Maybe there is more than one,” I suggested.
“Well that’s super terrifying to think about,” Tara said.
I sighed and scanned the forest for a minute longer before I holstered my pistol.
“So what do we do?” Paige asked.
“For tonight I think we should get some sleep,” I said. “I’ll cleanup the firepit and dispose of our trash before heading in.”
“Well what about tomorrow?” Paige asked. “What will we do about this then?”
“Let’s worry about that in the morning,” I said as I turned to the girls. “But we have done a lot in the last couple of days, and I think getting some rest is really the best option at this point.”
“What if the kitty tries to get into the dorm building?” Bailey asked.
“I’ll make sure the door is locked on my way in,” I assured her. “It won't be bothering us.”
The blond woman nodded but her eyes never left the treeline. She shivered, let go of me, and quickly started towards the dorm.
“Watch your back while you clean up,” Rolly said as he stood up and stretched. “That thing could still be out there.”
