Wild Desperation

Chapter 35

                                 Sang

I woke to one of the bucks head-butting my leg only to find myself surrounded by goats, all sleeping in a pile around Arrow and I in the hay. I kicked out at the brown buck who was getting ready to have another run at my leg and he moved away on his own. I dusted myself off from the hay as I got up to dish out some more pellet feed to the hungry grazers, my stallion was looking pampered by the little treat. I went to the bathroom and did my business before feeding Arrow and going back to sit with the boys for breakfast, the sooner we could hunt the better with our food reserves so low. 

"So Cupcake what is it we'll be helping you with when we get to Charleston?" Luke's beaming grin was a welcome sight but I wasn't sure how to respond. "In all honesty I'm not sure, I just know it was something very important. My father was somewhat of a scientist before the virus broke out and before he died he mentioned something about going back there, that whatever is there is extremely important. I don't have any details just a place to go to try and find some answers." I sigh out, choosing my words carefully. "Well Peanut we're happy to help." Nate smiled as I nodded towards him in thanks. 

"I know we were planning on taking a different route today but I think we need to take the 95 over to get to the Sergeant Jasper Park." I state clearly to the group. "That's a main highway, we'll be far out in the open." Owen states sending a glance towards my new herd of goats. "Yes but it knocks off 7 miles of traveling and will be a lot quicker, I want to get some fresh meat and to do that I need hunting time." I retort, the risk was necessary to keep everyone well fed. It didn't take much convincing once I laid out a few arguments and soon we were packed up and on our way. 

I was glad to see that Sean didn't start limping until mile ten on foot, his muscles were starting to handle distance better, I was glad to see him feeling better. We stopped for a short break, and I let Sean ride Nightmare for 6 miles before switching with me again. We made it to Sergeant Jasper park a little after 3 and got to work setting up camp while the goats started to eat the leaves and shrubs nearby, Nightmare went straight to grazing as usual. I made sure to check the area for safety before going off to hunt with Arrow on my own, even if the boys were learning I still enjoyed some alone time.

 I set snares along the way but mostly I was keeping a lookout for big game, no signs of deer but wild boar tracks were everywhere. "Arrow we might just have some fresh bacon tonight." I hummed softly as I picked the more heavily trafficked trail in search of our dinner. I even was feeling confident enough to set a trap for larger game, a simple leg snare that might catch a boar when he came down to drink. I set the trap and anchored it tightly to a tree to prevent any catch from running off, at this point I was fine with eating anything, as long as it was disease free. I continued down the path with my bow ready for any passing prey, when Arrow alerted me I knew we were closing in on them. 

I slunk along quietly as he went to circle behind them as I caught the glimpse of five big and healthy pigs, two were very large, the rest were half the size of the bigger ones. I pulled a few more arrows from my quiver as I readied my shot at the largest sow. The arrow I sent through her gave her a chance to squeal once before stumbling and falling over, this sent the others off running but Arrow was quick enough to get hold of one of the smaller ones. I helped finish it off as quickly as I could before praising my proud pooch and getting to work gutting our kills. I tossed the guts to Arrow to avoid having to drag them back to camp with all the meat I'd already collected, letting them bleed out as I tied their back hooves together in order to make dragging them a little easier.