Chapter 6

Ron saw that Brenda needed a few minutes to herself and started going through the gear to see what they would need to take with them. He loaded both guns and put the Glock in his belt and pulled his shirt over it. He arranged the gear in piles and started tying some things together to make them easier to take with them. He found the hatchet and went a short way into the woods. He cut a branch about 1 inch around and about 5 feet long with a fork at one end. He came back to the edge of the woods and drove the fork into the ground. He took another straight stick about 2 inches around and 8 feet long and put it in the crotch of the fork that he had driven in the ground. He went back into the woods and started gathering small branches and started laying them on the 8-foot stick until he had an open tent shaped structure. After a lot of trips into the woods, carrying armfuls of leaves the structure began to take shape. After about an hour he paused to look at his handiwork. The leaves were about three feet thick over the branches and he knew that the make shift tent would keep in the heat and keep out a lot of rain.

Brenda started watching what he was doing and was amazed when the "tent" started to take shape. She thought to herself that maybe he did know something about living in the woods. She started to feel self-conscious leaving all of the work to him.

"Is there anything that I can do?" she asked.

Ron pointed at the woods, "Get some shoes on and start gathering a lot of firewood. We'll be warm and cozy tonight. The temperature will drop as soon as the Sun goes down. Only dead or dry wood, nothing green."

Brenda had kicked off her high heels before she climbed through the windshield. She went through her suitcase and got a pair of athletic shoes and put them on. She was apprehensive about going into the woods alone but she straightened her shoulders and walked into the woods. After several trips she had a pile of wood about 5 feet high. Ron had been chopping the sticks into firewood-sized pieces and had stacked the wood neatly. By the time she had finished, Ron had built a wall, about 18 inches high, with stones that he had picked up. The wall was about 6 feet in front of the "tent" opening and Ron was starting to stack a few limbs in front of the stones as if to build a fire. He had broken a lot of the twigs into small pieces and put dry leaves under the leaves to start the fire.

"Aren't you going to build another shelter?" she asked.

"Nope, this is plenty big enough for the two of us," he replied.

"Come on," she said, "I'm not going to sleep in that small thing with you."

Ron smiled, "Good then you can stay outside and keep the fire going."

Ron went into the woods and started carrying more dry leaves back to the shelter. He kept putting leaves on the floor of the shelter until he had about a foot of leaves on the floor. He got the two sleeping bags and unzipped them and arraigned them in the shelter. He started a small fire. Since neither of them had eaten since they left Seattle, he started preparing one of the MRE's. He picked out a pasta dish because it would be quick to fix. He had to use water from a gallon jug that he had packed because he was unsure of the lake water. In a short while he called Brenda over and divided the meal into two portions.

"You'll never be able to serve these in a restaurant but they aren't too bad," she said, after tasting her meal.

They ate the rest of the meal quickly and Brenda washed the dishes in the lake. Ron kept a small fire going and secured the gear. As he bent over Brenda saw the pistol in his belt.

"What's that for?" she asked as she pointed at his belt.

"We may have to do some hunting to survive," he answered, "Cal always carried this on hunting trips. I'm glad he did now."

Brenda came over to where Ron was working and sat down. Neither of them spoke for several minutes.

"Ron, just where are we?" she asked.

Ron went over to his flight bag and pulled out the maps that he used to plan the flight and sat next to her. He unfolded the map and pointed to a large patch of green on the map.