The Fog (HIATUS)

Chapter 13

A whole week passed since Cooper showed me the fort. He showed me two more as we walked and even tried to show the pros and cons of living in one.
I wasn't really interested in that at all.

It was as if his demeanor turned upside down. A man who cursed the forts is now trying to paint them in better light.

I took my shoes and socks off before rolling my pants slightly up, we stopped at a stream, and I definitely saw some crayfish. Turning rock after rock I managed to catch a few, not enough to eat by themselves but enough to add them into a stock.

Eating meat from the infected animals started making me slightly sick, nothing too severe, just hard to swallow. So Cooper managed to catch two pigeons.

Unfortunately, we were running out of salt and other spices. So the trading might be necessary in the near future.

I grabbed another one of the gray crayfish and walked out of the water in hopes of doing some laundry as well today. After all it's not every day that we make camp this early next to a body of water.

The crayfish were safely in a plastic container with some water and inside my bag as I grabbed the dirty clothes and soap, in hopes of getting them somewhat clean.

,,Hey kid, what you're doing." Cooper came back with another handful of wood.

,,Laundry, also I got some crayfish in my bag. You can start cooking them if you want."

He took out the gray creatures and stared at them for a few seconds.
,,How in the name of animals do I cook 'em."

I just shrugged my shoulders.
,,I caught them. You cook them."

He walked away grunting as he stared at the crayfish in confusion. Maybe he never saw them before.

Shaking my head, I grabbed the first thing to wash, my hoodie. I thoroughly soaked it and with the help of soap tried to get rid of the stains. Some of them were easy to remove, but one oil stain on my pants definitely didn't want to go.

I gave up on the stain and called it a work done. All of my clothes, minus the ones I was wearing, were clean-ish now.

After hanging them on low branches I walk back to the camp where Cooper is boiling the meat. Except the crayfish, those were still alive in the plastic box.

,,What about the crayfish?" I ask as I sit down on a fallen log, hoping that no termites called it home.

,,I have no idea how to cook them." He glares at the small grey shellfish.

,,Cut the head of and throw them in. Unless you're a psychopath, then throw them in alive."

He glares at me before grabbing the container and pulling one of the shellfish out.
I rather clean my arm then watch him kill a bunch of crayfish.

I peel the fabric, that was once a sleeve off the wound. It didn't look extremely bad, just red around the wound. Cleaning it every day definitely helped as it looked way better, but it was still rather painful.

,,Doesn't look infected." Cooper commented and threw the headless crayfish to the boiling water with the pigeon meat.

,,Lucky me." The sarcasm in my response wasn't intended but was definitely present.
,,It's taking us much longer to get to Crystal Falls."

,,Yeah."

Cooper seemed to be deep in his thoughts. Fine by me as I could focus on different stuff. Making sure that no animals were close by was one of them.

I got up and decided to check the surrounding forest as well as get some more water from the stream.

My leisure walk was nice and calming, a big welcome after the fast pace we lately used. Hiding and sneaking around forts seemed to be Coopers new hobby.