“Don’t even talk about that,” I warned, “I’m going to crash so hard tonight, it’s not going to be funny.”
I wouldn’t imagine it would be, the voice in my head noted. Karla Nash, over and out. For now.
“Over and out,” I repeated, and then the voice went silent.
“That sounded like it went better than we thought it might,” Natalie observed.
“Karla definitely wasn’t happy,” I confirmed as I pushed a bit of brush out of the way. “But she really doesn’t have much say in the matter.”
“I think we’re almost there… ” the blonde woman announced as she paused her gait. “Listen.”
Both of us stopped talking, and instantly I could hear the soft crash of waves against the land.
We were definitely close to the beach.
The two of us continued onward for another ten minutes, and then we came out of the forest onto a small sandbar just on the edge of Lake Michigan.
“Welcome to paradise,” Natalie chuckled. “Or, at least, the closest thing to paradise you’ll get to see in this dimension.”
It really was a tiny spot to set up camp. There must have only been ten feet of sand between the forest and the lake, barely enough room for the two of us and our fire.
Then again, that probably meant other creatures were less likely to hang around here, too.
“Hey,” I snorted, “this beats the bug-infested forest any day.”
“It’s a nice night, so I doubt we’ll need any sort of shelter,” the blonde woman noted. “But we will need a fire and some sort of ground coverings, unless we want to sleep on the gritty sand.”
“Probably not,” I agreed. “I didn’t find any blankets back in the supply house, but I can try to whip us up some makeshift cots out of sticks and rope. It’ll be no Serta, but it’s better than sleeping on the ground.”
“Excellent.” She nodded. “Then I will start building the fire, and you can begin to gather the materials for our beds.”
“Right away,” I confirmed as I pulled my backpack off my shoulders and plopped it down on the ground by Natalie. “I’ll be back shortly.”
As I turned to walk away, the Scavenger’s voice stopped me.
“Hunter?” Natalie spoke up timidly. “Make sure you don’t wander too far into the forest. Neither of us really have the energy for a rescue mission right now.”
“Noted,” I chuckled, and then I headed into the tree line.
I’d made plenty of prototype cots and shelters and the like in my yard back in Minnesota, but this was way different. In those instances, I’d used simple twigs from the spruce trees behind my property. However, I had no freaking clue how Radon’s Root functioned as a construction material.
Was it sturdy enough that it would only need a few lashings and a horizontal flat? Or, was I going to have to build up a small tower if I wanted to build a bed higher off the ground?
There was only one way to find out.
I spent the next twenty minutes walking around the forest and hacking off the branches of Radon’s Root trees with my E-Tool. When all was said and done, I had a full armful of the shimmering white sticks, so I headed back to our campsite.
Natalie was sitting there in front of a bunch of sticks that had been arranged in a teepee-style setup, and she had her head down by the base of the structure as she blew at the tiny embers that danced around in the kindling. Finally, one of the sparks lit up, and the kindling caught on fire.
“Haha!” The blonde woman held her hands up high as she sat up. “Success!”
“Don’t get too ahead of yourself,” I joked as I dropped my armful of sticks. “It still hasn’t caught the rest of the teepee yet. I’m more of a log cabin guy myself.”
“The log cabin?” Natalie scoffed. “Please. That’s the fire-building structure of amateurs.”
“What can I say?” I knelt down and pulled the twine out of my pocket. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Now, would you mind coming over here and helping me out? It’s gonna take two sets of hands to make sure these things are sturdy.”
The blonde scavenger stood from her fire and sauntered over to my position. Then she knelt down and looked me squarely in the eyes.
“Just tell me what to do,” she noted. “I mean, I already know how I’d do it… but this is your baby, so I’ll follow your lead.”
How thoughtful of her.
“Okay, fine.” I shrugged. “I’m going to try the standard cot structure first. You know, the one with the little ‘x’es and the bed on top?”
Natalie raised her eyebrows, but she remained silent.
I stabbed two of the larger sticks into the sand so they’d form an “X” pattern, and then I had Natalie hold them tight while I lashed them together at their overlap. I repeated the action on another set of sticks about six feet away, and then again about halfway in between. After those were done, I got to work on the bed portion of the cot.
For that, I simply lined up a bunch of the longer sticks horizontally and then tied each one of them up with a series of shear lashings. When all was said and done, I placed the structure up on top of the three “X”s and then took a step back.
“There.” I whistled. “That doesn’t look too shabby, does it?”
“Not at all,” Natalie agreed. “Now, one of us just needs to test it out.”
“I guess I will,” I chuckled and shrugged. “Maybe it’s just my tired ass talking, but it actually looks kinda comfy.”
I walked over to the stick-cot, turned around, and sat down on the middle section. I then swung my legs up onto the structure, laid my head back, and stared up at the stars of the night sky.
I did it. Holy crap… I just made a freaking cot out of nothing but sticks, twine, and my own intuition.
Natalie and I spent the next ten minutes building the second bed, and then we rolled it over to the other side of the fire. Our campfire had now grown from a small spark into a tiny inferno whose heat radiated hotter than even the Radon’s Root in the forest.
“There,” Natalie mused as she clapped her hands together. “We should be all set for the night. Now, I don’t know about you… but I want to get this gunk off me. It’s hard to sleep with the blood and innards of your enemies crusted to your body.”
The blonde Scavenger twirled around and then headed down to the water.
“Hold on,” I called out. “I thought you said the water here was dangerous?”
“It is,” she admitted. “But as long as you stay in the shallows, you’ll be fine. The bigger creatures can’t swim up that close to the shore.”
I watched as Natalie waded out into the water, only about ankle deep, and then reached down and scooped up a handful of the murky liquid with her cupped hands.
She raised the makeshift basin over her head, closed her eyes, and poured it down the front of her body. The water dampened her clothes, and I couldn’t help but stare as the fabric of her garments began to cling to her body as if it wasn’t even there.
Then my mind snapped me out of my trance.
“Oh, wait!” I called out as I ran for my bag. “I’ve got something that’ll help.”
I pulled out the canister of baking soda, made sure there was still some left inside, and jogged down to where Natalie was standing. Then I tossed the can into the air and whistled for her attention.
“What’s this?” she mused as she caught the canister. “Some of your bug killer?”
“Not quite,” I chuckled. “Here… Take a little bit on your hand, and then mix it with the water and rub it over your body. It’s not the most powerful of soaps, but I’ve used baking soda to freshen up and clean myself off on plenty of camping trips.”
She poured some of the powder out into her hands, and then I watched as she began to scrub her skin with the sudsy mixture.