Wild Desperation

Chapter 12

The third day of traveling went much like the others despite our loss of food, we traveled a total of 78 miles as we stopped once to rest and let Night fill his stomach at least. I woke before dawn on the forth day to an empty stomach, I hoped to cover some ground and still have enough light to set some snares near our next campsite. We made it 90 miles and finding ourselves at the border into Illinois I made an early camp, I set my snares and was more than happy to find three healthy rabbits when I checked them a few hours later. 

I cleaned them and cooked them, deciding not to save any in hopes I would have more caught by morning, so Arrow and I split the three rabbits equally. I slept surprisingly well that night, but still I woke at 3 in the morning to go check my snares. I found two birds and one more rabbit which I easily cleaned and cooked after Arrow's approval, saving the birds and their feathers for later we ate the rabbit for breakfast. I packed up everything and after putting out the fire I checked my map for our route and we headed off. 

We crossed the McKinley Bridge into Illinois later that day, then made camp in Stemler Cave Woods Nature Preserve. I set some snares before starting up my fire and splitting the two birds with Arrow, then I hauled the two of us into a nearby tree to sleep till morning. I only found a pair of squirrels amd one sick possum in my snares the next morning so after cleaning and cooking the squirrels and burning the overgrown rat I stored the meat away for later and mounted Nightmare for another exhausting day of travel. It was a push to Ferne Clyffe State Park, over 100 miles away but we made it, exhausted but in one piece.

 I didn't set any traps in hopes of getting on our way quicker the next morning, but decided to go ahead and eat the squirrels before they could go bad in the heat. I slept in spurts that night as Nightmare seemed uneasy with the howling beasts of the darkness. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes at 4:30 the next morning and silently packed my things up and moved out. We crossed the border into Kentucky and after taking an hour and a half to rest I pushed Night on, crossing over into Tennessee and coming to a stop at West Sandy Wildlife Management Area. 

I was proud of our traveling 120 miles in just one day, but I could see that it was doing a number on all of us so I decided to spend the next day resting around camp for all of our sakes. I went to sleep hungry and waited until first light to get up and go hunting, Arrow seemed happy to have me on foot rather than on horseback, he made this clear by constantly coming over to brush against my legs. Once he realized that I was serious about our hunt though he broke off to scare up something for me to shoot at. 

I patiently waited treading softly along to stay close, this was one way we combined our hunting strategy to take down prey and it worked. Arrow ran out a nice sized turkey and with a quick aimed shot of my arrow we had fresh meat, I cleaned it quickly and headed back to camp with Arrow trotting happily at my side. I separated enough meat to cook for our meals today then cut the rest into strips to dry into jerky. I even made a sort of salad to go with the meat out of some dandelion, clover and even a few edible berries I found nearby. 

Nightmare seemed to be enjoying the day of rest and had been alternating between eating and sleeping to make up for what he'd missed over the last couple of days. I read more of my fathers notes about the virus and tracked my progress on the map before heading to my tree branch bed to get as much sleep before starting our travel again. I woke a little late the next morning a little after 7 and gathered my things as I prepared Night for the ride, the stallion groaned knowing that my actions meant a long and tiring day.