Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
I get bitten by more than one bug, and as we walk deeper and deeper, it begins getting cool. I made sure I put a good amount of layers on, and even though I’m hot during the walk, I can feel the cool air tickling the skin on my face so I know I made the right choice.
Already my stomach is grumbling and my hangover is wearing off, and I wonder if they have some sort of secret stash of food if we can’t find an adequate amount. All the ranchers are wearing packs, so I can only imagine they’re filled with some essential items just in case, but surely they’ve stashed some granola bars or something delicious in there. I’m dreading the idea of having to find something to eat.
What do you eat in the middle of nowhere?
If they think I’m hunting an animal they’re sadly mistaken.
We walk until the afternoon sun begins to set in the horizon, and only then do we arrive at a beautiful big clearing right next to a large river. It’s beautiful, with mountains in the background and crystal-clear water. Rhett stops and turns, facing the group. “This is where we’ll be setting up camp. There are plenty of things around to make a shelter. We have a list of what is safe to eat and what isn’t. After you’ve made your shelter you better find yourselves something for dinner or you’ll go to bed hungry. We’ll begin a fire.”
I stare at him, more than a little horrified.
Shelter? Find dinner?
On the first night?
Seriously?
I glance at Fallon and Ember as they approach.
“We have a much better chance of creating a decent shelter if we share one. So, do you two want to camp out together?”
Camp out?
God.
I want to scream.
“Sounds good to me, I know nothing about making a shelter.” Ember crosses her arms, rubbing them.
“I did some research,” Fallon tells me. “We need some really thick longs and sticks, some large leaves or foliage that we can use to protect us if it rains, and oh, see that large rock face near the water—” she points to where the rocks get larger and larger as they near closer to the water “—if we can find something like that closer to camp, we can use it as protection from the elements.”
Jesus, she really did do her research.
“Do we sleep on the floor?” I ask, staring down at the sandy, stick and rock filled ground.
“I think they did bring us one tiny foam mat each,” Ember says. “But it certainly won’t be luxury. We’ll need to think outside the square.”
Wonderful.
Well, we’re not getting anywhere standing here.
“Let’s get to it then,” I say. “We should all get one thing each, save time. I’ll get some decent sticks and logs.”
Both the girls nod, and I walk away before I hear them divide up the other jobs. I start walking off toward the trees again, knowing there were some decent fallen ones that would probably be okay to use for shelter.
“Straight into it, here I was thinking you’d throw down first.”
Lake’s voice, behind me as always.
“Do you enjoy following people around just to torment them?” I ask him, not even looking to see how close he is as I start rummaging around for what I need.
“I do, actually.”
He steps past me and leans down, hauling up a nice thick, round log that I was literally about to grab for myself.
“Hey,” I snap. “I was going to get that. Go find your own logs.”
He grins at me. “Got to be quicker than that.”
“You better watch it, River. I’ll burn your shelter down while you sleep.”
He loses his grin, but not the amusement in his eyes. “How are you going to do that without a match?”
He turns and continues his journey of picking up things for a shelter, never once releasing my log from his hand. Grumpily, I stomp around until I have enough in my hands to walk back to camp. I dump them on the ground where we’re setting up and continue going back and forth until I’m huffing and puffing and dripping with sweat. Still, I think I have enough to get a good start on our shelter.
For the next hour the three of us manage to create what I’d like to think is a pretty good shelter. We find a rock that’s quite high near the campsite and use it as somewhat of a wall, then we build a shelter coming off it. We dig our large logs into the ground as much as we can and then use other sticks and branches to hold them up. Then we use a vine Fallon found to secure them before using smaller branches as the roof, and thick-leaved branches to stop the weather from coming in.
I’m certain if there was a storm we’d probably be concerned, but Rhett assured us the weather is meant to stay storm free, so we should make our shelters mostly sun protected over rain protection. Once we’re done, we stand back and admire our little creation, and I have to admit, I’m actually kind of proud. It’s roomy, it’s tall enough that we can sit down easily, and it feels pretty safe.