*****
Over the next day we set up the larger snares using Hemps uncanny knowledge of physics and counterweight. It was ingenious. We’d gone out to a local gym to gather the necessities that we’d been unable to get the previous trip out, and now had twenty of the plastic-coated, 20 lb barbell weights, and we’d also been able to secure some 50 lb braided fishing line. We had enough materials to construct around 10 large snares capable of capturing a man or woman. Using a small weight initially, we tossed the line over a heavy tree branch near the most likely courses of access to my property.
It sounds easier than it was. Many of the tree branches weren’t heavy enough to support the weight, but eventually, we located enough strategically located trees to get the job done.
Once the line was over the branches, we tied two of the 20 lb weights to each one, and pulled the weights up about 10 feet. Once in the air, the natural friction created between the cord and the branch itself made it easier than I would have thought to hold it up there. Hemp suggested a 20 lb monofilament fishing line as our tripwire, and that was secured between two moderately heavy sticks stuck into the ground. A large slip-loop was placed on the ground around the tripwire, and when completed, we tested it by using a log that weighed around 80 lbs and about the thickness of a man’s leg.
Once tripped, the left-side stick gave way, releasing the weights which dropped fast, drawing the slip-loop closed. One end of the log was snagged, and by virtue of the 40 lbs of counterweight, lifted easily into the air. The snag was tight as shit.
This would catch a zombie.
“Not a protective measure,” Hemp said, reiterating his reasons for building them. “Not in the literal sense. If we catch one, chalk it up to a stray who got lucky. If we have a forest full, we’d better get the hell out of there.”
“So no checking traps alone,” I agreed. “Buddy system, fully armed and on alert.”
The whole process took us over four hours, because all the branches were at different heights, and one design wouldn’t work. Different lengths of cord, obstacles on the ground such as stumps and other things that might prevent the loop from closing as intended.
Hemp’s smaller traps had yielded two small squirrels and a rabbit. We decided to save any rabbits for the humans, and use the squirrels to feed Jamie. We realized it might not be enough to create the vapor, but it was all we had. And we agreed not to let Trina see the rabbits ever. They’d remind her of her sister, and she’d cry because they were dead besides.
Hemp agreed to feed the squirrel to Jamie, and I was glad. I didn’t want to do it, and I didn’t want to watch it, though I didn’t come out and say it. I was still mourning her loss, and while it didn’t feel right in my soul to want to avoid seeing her, much less watch her eat forest rodents, I knew it was the best thing for my sanity.
I’d skinned and cleaned small game before, so I did the honors.
“You’re pretty good at this stuff,” Hemp said, watching as I stripped the hide off each squirrel.
“Practice, that’s all,” I said. “I’ve never messed with the heads, though. Shouldn’t be more than a spoonful of gray matter in either one.”
“I don’t know what it is about the brain that these creatures need, but a squirrel brain should work as well as the next specie as far as makeup of the organ itself.”
“Think you’ll be able to eventually figure it out?” I asked.
Hemp shrugged. “Time will tell. I’m going to work on the EEG machine tomorrow morning, so I should have some sort of update for you after I’m able to hook it up and get some preliminary testing completed.”
I finished dressing the squirrels and had each tiny skull split and the brains exposed. As I’d assumed, the brain was minuscule. Together, it might be a couple of mouthfuls.
Hemp took the metal platter I’d put the meat on and put his hand on the lab door.
“Ready, Flex?”
“No,” I said. “Not really.”
He looked at me. “Flex, I’ll film the experiment. I have two small video cameras that came stocked in the lab. Let me set one up, run the feeding test, and if you feel you can handle it, we’ll watch it together later. But if it does work, I’m going to want to test the eye vapor on you right away, just in case it dissipates over time.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “Perfect. Thanks, Hemp.”
I went back to the house. As I walked the short distance, I saw Charlie coming along the path toward me. On her way to the lab. I stopped as she reached me.
“Hey,” she said. “How are you doing?”
“I’m okay,” I said. “You going inside the lab?”
“I thought I would.”
“Good,” I said. “I really don’t want him doing this by himself. He’s got a few gas masks. Wear one.”
“Absolutely.”
She held her crossbow in her left hand and a Coca Cola in her right, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing a set of scrubs, one of many we pilfered from the hospital. I realized, since she’d showered and gotten cleaned up, that she was quite an attractive young woman – even in the baggy outfit.
I knew that Hemp had noticed, too. He’d been showing her around the lab, and she’d taken a clear interest in his work, and I wasn’t so sure she hadn’t taken an interest in him, too. I hoped she had. In the short time we’d known her – just over a day – both Gem and I had grown to like her a lot.
I watched her continue toward the mobile lab, then waited until she’d rapped gently on the door and gone inside.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Dead Hunger: The Flex Sheridan Chronicle Page 44
