The Monster Hero

Chapter 17 - Food

I wake up to a sound in the main room. When I come out, I see Elliott searching his bag for something.

"Elliott, save it for tomorrow. I want to sleep. I still haven't caught up on sleep from when we made this fort," I say.

"Well, would you rather catch up on sleep or eat?" Elliott answers.

"Sleep," I say, "Wait. What?!"

"We only have enough food for today. Then we're out of food," Elliott states.

I just stand there gaping at him.

"What?" Elliott says.

"I'll be back," I say, as I pass Elliott and go out the door and down the ladder.

I swing open the tree door. I go to the river right next to the trees. After skimming away my stress, I go back to the tree. Elliott is in the entrance eating his breakfast when I return. When he sees me coming, he swallows and stands up.

"Hey. I was thinking, to make it easier to bring things to the fort, we could make a basket pulley. What do you say?" Elliott says.

"Okay. Lets get to work," I say.

Elliott moves the remains of his breakfast to the trash can type thing in the entrance. I go to gather some vines, while Elliott goes to get some long grass and branches.

When we meet back up, we get started. Elliott ties the branches together to form a cube frame. I weave the grass into a basket, big enough to fit in the cube frame.

After that, we put the basket into the cube frame and tie it with vines. Three of the vines are tied tight to the middle of the longest vine. The longest vine then goes over a gear that we hang near the top of the tree, where our fort is. We tie the end of the long vine to a nail we put in the tree at ground level.When there is no vine on the ground, the basket is at waist level. When there is lots of vine on the ground, the basket is at fort level.

Science. Funny, right?

After we finish that project our minds turn back to the food situation. I start thinking about how we can get more food. Then my mind gives me an idea. I rush up the ladder to the fort. Elliott looks up after me.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

"Seeing how close the closest town is," I answer.

I turn on my iPad's GPS.

"Aha!" I yell, "The closest town is 5,940 yards!"

Elliott comes into the main room just as I go in my room. I prop my iPad up on the desk we made. Then I try to force my wild hair into a ponytail. Once I get my hair in a ponytail, I repack my backpack. I notice that I'm missing some things. So I come into the main room to look for my things.

"What are you doing now?" Elliott asks.

"I'm going to that town to get supplies," I answer.

Elliott runs into his room. I stare at his door for a few seconds, then I continue searching. I consult my iPad for the inventory of my belongings.

Once I find every thing, I go back to my room to put the rest in my backpack. When I come out, Elliott is standing there with his backpack.

"I'm going with you," he says, "You'll need someone to carry the new supplies."

I roll my eyes and gesture for him to follow me down the ladder.

"How are we going to get new supplies?" Elliott asks when we stop at the stream to fill up our water bottles.

"Remember when we left my house because of the attack? Well, I grabbed my dad's wallet before we went out the door," I answer, "Now hurry up. We have a long walk."