Chapter 694

Dessie and Phillip at The Waterfall Campsite

Dessie forgot to set her watch alarm, and overslept for the first time since her husband had been injured. After her morning constitutional, she cleaned Phillip and gave him some weak coffee that was barely warm. For obvious reasons, she dared not give him hot coffee. He seemed to appreciate it anyway. Maybe he’s getting better, she told herself wistfully. She had no idea how long it would be before he could walk. She had to face the possibility that it would be months before he could walk, so she had stopped drinking coffee several days ago and was saving it for Phillip.

Phillip loved coffee, as did she, so to be safe, she had brought a small jar of freeze-dried coffee in addition to the bag of regular coffee they used in the percolator. They had far more coffee than they would typically use during a ten-day trip, but she had no idea how long it would be before Phillip could walk. She was going to do everything she could for him.

She had awakened somewhere around one A.M. and unable to go back to sleep, had dressed and walked the few steps to the lake where she lay staring into the night sky. Out here, with no lights to interfere for miles, the clear sky was a literal sea of pinpoints of lights spread out above her like a diamond-studded carpet. While backpacking, she and Phillip had lain staring into the heavens watching shooting stars many times in diverse places around the world.

Loneliness, so intense that it seemed to take her breath, assailed her, and suddenly the sparkling stars seemed to swim in her tears.

Will he ever hold me in his arms again? Is there a blood clot in his brain or a vessel getting ready to burst? Will he just suddenly die? I can’t leave to get help. I would be gone at least four days. He would die from lack of water by then, and with what the aliens have done to this area, could I even find help?

Crying won’t do any good, she admonished herself as she wiped her tears. All you can do is what you have already been doing. A fish broke the surface, its fins briefly sparkling in the moonlight as it chased after a late-night snack.

As big as the lake is and as easy as it is to catch fish here, it’s obvious I haven’t reduced the fish population enough to matter. But ... Phillip and his buddies have returned after fishing all day with zero results. What if that happens to me?

The fish here seem to love those grubs and wigglers that are so plentiful. It takes longer, but the lure I used seems to attract larger fish. I just wish I had never seen a barbless hook. Then again, learning to keep a fish on the line while using a barbless hook has probably made me a better fisherman. I was never that enthusiastic about fishing before, but now that our next meal depends on it...

I need sustainable food — something I can store and certainly something more than blueberries.

Her mind turned to Phillip’s leg. I’ve always heard that most breaks are fully healed in six weeks, and that’s what the first aid instructor said too. But ... most isn’t all. I don’t have a doctor to X-ray Phillip’s leg and tell me when it’s healed, so I’ll have to err — as they say — on the side of caution. Once the six weeks are fully up, and if the leg seems okay, I’ll start short walks with him — if he can walk — and go from there. But what if he’s still only semiconscious? Don’t even think about that, she told herself. When he is sufficiently strong, we can walk out of here. But the worry continued to assail her. He can barely move his limbs now. Will his mind ever function well enough for him to walk, let alone walk on rough terrain for two days? Will he even have to learn to walk all over again?

I need to find a way to preserve food for the trip back. Failing that, there were several streams that we crossed on the way here. Maybe there are fish in them. We saw rabbits off and on during our entire hike, but only one or two were close enough for me to have a chance of killing either with a slingshot. But ... maybe I could kill enough to sustain us. I can get by without food for the two days that it should take to hike back, but will Phillip be strong enough to do it in two days? And what if it takes him more time to get back to the castle? Will I be able to sustain us then? We’ve taken survival courses. Maybe I can remember enough about plants to find us sufficient food to sustain us? Hmmm. I think the material for one of those courses is still on my pad. Maybe I need to start refreshing my memory on survival foods.

She saw an exceptionally bright shooting star and drew breath to call Phillip before she remembered. Will I ever again be able to share a shooting star with him? Her worry almost overwhelmed her for a few moments as she thought of how hopeless her situation had become.

Why hasn’t he awakened? Will he ever wake up?

I wish Selina were here. That mind of hers would come up with a way to solve my problems. Will she get to see her father alive and well ever again?

Sleepy at last, she had gotten up and groggily made her way back to the tent — only to oversleep.

With Phillip taken care of, she fried fish for both their breakfasts. After they had eaten and she had Phillip safely zipped into the tent, Dessie put on her belt, patting the items as she checked them off in her mind, then added a handful of choice slingshot rocks to her pants’ pocket.

With a smile, she loaded a stone into her slingshot’s pocket and exploded one of the small burs from a limb fifteen yards away. I can do this. All I need is something to shoot.

She had already kissed her husband goodbye, so with a last look around their campsite, she started toward the old field. She had only been walking a couple of minutes when she noticed a difference. I feel a lot more confident. And yeah, I don’t have the strength that my husband has — or used to have — but he’ll be strong again. When he is, I want him to be proud of me. And not just because he thinks I’m nice looking or that I’m a good lay, rather, I was able to provide for us under adverse conditions. Hmmm, maybe that’s the difference. I’m beginning to know that I can provide for us — maybe not well, but enough to keep us from starving.

I’ve found blueberries to add to our diet of fish. Granted, constant fish isn’t much of a diet, and certainly not balanced, but the rabbits and now the pheasants have given me at least a measure of confidence. There have to be many rabbits to go with no telling how many pheasants. That must be a gigantic field and may have fed dozens or maybe even hundreds of people somewhere in times past. All I have to do is work at it a bit, and I can provide for us, at least during the summer. I won’t even think about staying here until the weather changes. Phillip’s body will be fine in a few weeks, and by then, we’ll be back at the castle and having a good time with Mia and the others. He’ll be fine. He has to be.

Hmmm. Can I devise some type of trap or snare for the rabbits? Maybe even the pheasants too? I have some paracord. I’ll have to think about that, but Phillip wouldn’t have to think about it — he would just know how.

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a rabbit that dashed from practically under her feet only to stop ten yards away to look back at her. Since it seemed prone to suicide, she slowly put a rock in the pouch before drawing the slingshot fully back. The rabbit’s head almost seemed to explode as the rock hit. A moment later, she hung the creature on a bush so she could easily find their lunch on the way back. With confidence, she continued with her exploration.

As she moved past the place where she had killed the pheasant, she was again startled by a dozen or more of the big birds suddenly taking flight. After their initial ruckus of beating wings and squawking, they landed only a couple of hundred feet to the right of her planned path.

There were places where the grass, weeds and brambles were so intense that she was forced to alter her course. Other areas were almost bare of anything but grass. After a time, she realized that she was moving through an area with a different type of plant interspersed throughout the weeds. As she continued on, there was an almost bare place a few feet long, and as she looked down and kicked at the dirt, she realized it was similar to the soil in her garden back home. She had several flowerbeds, and she preferred this type of soft soil for all her plants. As she glanced at the foliage, she saw something of a different color peeking out from under one of the leafy plants.

Almost holding her breath, she dropped to her knees as she fumbled her folding shovel from her belt. The shovel wouldn’t be of much use if you had to dig a big hole, but it worked nicely for scooping out a shallow fire pit to ring with rocks when they made camp, and it was perfect for scooping the soft dirt away from the plant. A moment later, she dropped the shovel and brushed the remaining dirt out of the way to reveal a potato roughly the size of her fist.

After setting it aside, she scooped more dirt away with her hands to reveal several, but much smaller, potatoes under the same plant. With a new perspective, she sat back on her haunches to scan around her. The weeds were all through the area, but the potato plants were plentiful as well, and there was no telling how far the potato field had at one time extended.

With tears streaming down her face, she recovered the smaller potatoes, careful not to damage the roots that connected them to the plant so they would continue growing.

Not five feet away, she had to chop weeds away in order to get to the next plant, but there were potatoes under it too, and one was even larger than the one she had recovered from the first plant. The next plant had only small potatoes under it, but she had bought small “new” potatoes at the grocery store and boiled them whole. Instead of harvesting them, though, she re-covered them and went on to the next plant.

In no time, she had a pile of full-sized potatoes. If kept out of the sun and cool, the potatoes would last for weeks. She and Phillip could have food for the trip back to the castle — once his leg healed... and he was conscious again.

She stood, hands on her hips, as she cast a critical eye over the area in front of her. Now that she knew the color of the potato plant’s leaves, she could pick out the plants scattered between the terraces as far as she could see.

Phillip was right. In years long past, this must have been the equivalent of a truck garden that served the castle owners in the area, or maybe just Mia’s castle. Who knows? For whatever reason, she and Phillip had a reliable food source that should last well past the time for them to leave the area.

What else is here? And ... just how big is this field? It goes on around the curve of the mountain as far as I can see. This wasn’t just someone’s garden. At one time, this must have been planted to serve many people — maybe a castle, its household and all the servants. Phillip must have been right. The people who owned the castle and others in the area had to have food from somewhere. What better place? The soil is soft and obviously nutritious to plants. And with the nearby waterfalls coming down the mountain, there would have been plenty of water for irrigation.

I have to get back and tell Phillip... But then reality struck, and she remembered. Oh, I know he understands what I’m telling him. He just has to. I can hardly wait to get back to tell him about the potatoes.

She hadn’t realized just how worried she had been about food until there was suddenly a plentiful supply of it — food that could be stored. She wanted to share the good news with her husband, but he wasn’t with her, and no telling how long it would be before he could walk out here — if the concussion and possible brain bleed didn’t kill him first.

With a lap so full of potatoes that they kept rolling off, and heedless of the dirt, she just sat there and sobbed. Finally, she wiped most of the dirt from her hoard and nestled them into her backpack.

With one last glance toward the trees that she, yet again, hadn’t reached, she made sure her folding shovel was attached to her belt and turned back toward the falls and their campsite.

Back at the campsite a few minutes later, she put the rabbit and her backpack down. Quickly unzipping the tent, she glanced in to make sure her husband was okay. His breath appeared normal, and he opened his eyes about halfway before moving his head a little.