The Darkened Highway

The Darkened Highway Chapter Twenty-Two

Maya and I took refuge under a giant Hyperion tree with a hollowed-out trunk. The tree towered high above the equally giant sequoia trees. It had a massive trunk as wide as a semi-truck with a space big enough for us to be comfortable. The floor beneath the tree was a mixture of broken tree limbs and dirt. To make our night more comfortable, we gathered dry leaves from the surrounding area and made a bed of leaves. Over my head, dark clouds scattered across the sky and the rumbles of thunder roared in the distance. The sky was turning a dark gray, and it sent an ominous feeling through my body. Chills came over my exposed body as the breeze flowed over my skin. The wind was steadily growing into a heavy gust and held myself with my arms until the breeze passed.

"We better hurry before the storm hits us."

"It will probably last all night and into tomorrow. Storms here seem to last for hours and sometimes several days. This is a good place to rest for now, but we have to find better shelter as it can get freezing during a storm."

"We'd better hurry then."

A powerful gust of wind swirled around us, tossing up leaves and debris through the air. It was difficult to pick up Maxen's scent, but I hoped I would be able to track down his scent in the morning. Maya and I gathered as many leaves and broken branches as we could. Using the resources available to use we planned to close off but sides of the tree effectively blocking the wind from chilling us while we slept. I knew a little about how to set up a makeshift lean too, and that was the idea behind our efforts.

"Grab as many dry sticks as you can. We're gonna need them. Oh, and get a bunch of rocks. Make sure they are a good size too"

"Gotcha. What else do we need?"

"Dry kindle so we can make a fire. With a fire, we can stay warm even if the wind picks up extra branches to keep our fire going."

"Are you sure these branches will hold up in the wind?"

"Yes. We are going to weave them together and stick some of the strongest ones in the dirt just inside the trunk. Then all we have to do is pack leaves and dirt on the outside. The rain will turn the dirt into mud and if we do it right, then that will keep the structure together."

"You sure do know a lot about this stuff."

"My parents took me camping a lot when I was younger. I guess some of their lessons rubbed off on me."

"I'm glad I got lost out here with you!"

"Thanks, I guess. I'm glad I'm out here with you too."

We kept the chatter to a minimum as the faint sounds of thunder echoed became louder and the wind picked up. We made quick work of putting our shelter together and when I felt the first drops of rain; we had almost finished putting the finishing touches on the entrance. When the rain finally burst down from the heavens it was brought forth by a series of cracking thunderous roars and bright flashes of lightning.

I closed off the entrance just in time to avoid the relentless downpour of rain. We were lucky the Hyperion tree we took refuge under was on a moderate hill. The rain drained downhill and thankfully not into our shelter. With everything we built holding up against the powerful gusts of wind and rainwater, I shifted my attention to building us a source of warmth. Maya was correct in her assumption that the temperature would drop. I was freezing despite being sheltered from the raging storm. I help Maya gather several large rocks the size of a grapefruit. Some were lager and we fashioned them into a circle. After that, we dug out a hole about 3 feet deep. We put extra dirt under each of the entrances to block wind from coming through it. I completely covered the back entrance with sticks, leaves, and dirt. Nothing was going to get through that. We added a bunch of rocks for added stability. The front entrance was similarly constructed, but we left a small gap. We crafted a door made of sticks by using strips of tree skin to tie the stick together, then weaved more tree skin into the door.