grinned at her. “Obviously. I think I slept for about twelve hours.”
She grinned back. “Yeah, you slept closer to fourteen hours.”
“Holy shit, you’re kiddin’ me.” I hung my head in shame. Norman looked at me. He had a funny look on his face. He looked like he wanted to ask me something but didn’t know how. He was hobbling around on the crutch I had made him.
“What’s up, brother, you need help with something?” I asked.
“Man, I hate to ask you this ’cause after what you did for me yesterday, I really just wanted you to be able to chill out and relax while you were here.” He had the look of being ashamed for asking for help.
“No man, what d’ya need?” I asked again.
“Well, Amanda and I need a smoke house built, but with my foot the way it is, I just can’t do it.”
“No issues, I got ya. Just point me in the direction of your tools and let me know how big you need it, and I’ll Git-er-Done,’” I said, doing my best imitation of Larry the Cable Guy.
Norman pointed to a small shed, telling me that all his tools were in there. Once I had all the tools and wood that I needed, I got to work. Norman wanted the smoker about five feet square, with a flat roof and about five feet high. I wasn’t a carpenter by any sense of the word, but I had spent some time working for my dad’s construction company, so I knew my way around a saw, hammer, and nails.
I spent about three full days working on the smoker. I’d get up in the morning and work all day, taking breaks to eat, drink, and play with Dozer, who had levels of energy I’ve seldom seen in a kid his size. At night, we’d eat dinner together and then sit around in the living room with candles lit, joking, talking, and laughing, almost like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Like life was still normal.
By the end of the week, Dozer and I were rolling around on the floor, wrestling at night. He had really grown accustomed to me, and I’d really started to like being around him. My dad used to wrestle with me when I was a kid. He’d hold me down on the floor and then threaten to lick my face. It grossed me out so bad that I’d scream like I was being killed. So I started to do that to Dozer. He’d scream, giggle, and sometimes scream so hard he’d fart, causing Amanda and Norman to lose it. They would sit in their chairs and laugh out loud all night long at the two of us. I never had the chance to have kids of my own. I was married once, but it just didn’t work out, and we went our separate ways. I eventually learned to use other people’s kids as surrogates, filling in for what I didn’t have.
Josh and Mike each had boys of their own. Before the event when we would hang out together, I let them try my chewing tobacco and sneak sips of my beer. I’d tell them dirty jokes when their moms weren’t around, and sometimes I’d tell them jokes when they were around just to get a reaction from the moms. I’d do things like that because I’d never get a chance to do it with my own kids, so why not take advantage of the opportunity I had with my friend’s kids?
Although I was having a good time with Amanda, Norman, and Dozer, it was time for me to move on. They now had a place to smoke whatever meat they had. Norman’s foot was doing better, and he was able to move around better on it now. He still needed the crutch, but he didn’t seem to be in as much pain. Before I went to bed that night, I bathed, cleaned up my beard again, and washed my civilian clothes, hanging them up to dry while I slept.
I got up the morning of the sixth day with Amanda and Norman and prepared to leave. I unpacked my ruck, repacked it, reorganizing things to get them to sit better and to take an inventory of the gear I had used.
My ammo was still good, and I still had snacks like granola bars and trail mix to eat, along with one more thirty-five-hundred-calorie bar. It wasn’t going to last me for too long, but I’d need to make do. The rest of my gear was still good. I got dressed in my Real Tree camos and strapped on my belt. I also took this opportunity to clean my 1911 and AR.
When I walked out into the living room, Dozer immediately came running over to me.
“Where ya goin’, Mr. Buck?” he asked with a sad look on his face, as I knelt down in front of him.
“I gotta go, buddy. I have friends and family I gotta check on.”
“When are ya comin’ back?” His eyes were starting to water up, which made mine start to water. I wasn’t sure how to answer him, so I figured I’d just go with the truth.
“I don’t think I will be, buddy. Without cars anymore, I just live too far away to be able to come visit.” By this time, he was in full tears. I reached out and hugged him, telling him that I’d never forget him. I was teary-eyed now too, and so was Amanda. I got up and walked over to Amanda, hugging her, then shaking Norman’s hand.
“Let me pack you some food to go,” Amanda said and ran into the kitchen.
I got out my maps, and Norman showed me where his farm was located. I got my compass bearing, orienting myself to the map and the direction I needed to go. Amanda came out of the kitchen with a freezer bag of homemade beef jerky, several sealed foil bags of tuna, and a freezer bag full of oatmeal.
“It’s not much, but it’ll help, I hope,” she said.
“Oh, it’ll help a lot,” I said. “Thank you.”
I leaned forward, hugged her, and kissed her on the cheek. I shook Norman’s hand again then kneeled down and hugged Dozer, who had worked to calm himself down. I thanked everybody again and walked out the door. I got my bearing with the compass, picked out a tree, and set off toward home.
5
I traveled for most of the day, continuously getting a compass bearing and moving from tree to tree. I moved slow and deliberate, keeping an eye on my surroundings, looking for anything that didn’t fit with the normal contours of the woods. A green bush when everything around it was dried up and dead or a dead bush when everything else was green. These types of things were clues to a possible trap or ambush of some kind. I would stop occasionally to listen for anything out of the ordinary, listening for whispers, the clank of steel on steel, or a cough. It was tedious work and took a lot more time than just taking a hike through the woods on a weekend camping trip. After a while, you started to notice the weight of everything; your pack, the rifle, even the pistol on your hip felt like it weighed a ton.
Things went like this for several days, with a couple of breaks a day for water, and a snack. Then, when I’d stop at night, I’d eat a bigger meal. Eating at night before I slept would help keep me warm at night while I was sleeping. I was setting up quick lean-to shelters with my tarp and not much else.
About the fourth day, as the afternoon was progressing, I noticed that it started to get darker, and the temperature was getting cooler. I could tell that it was going to rain. I started to look around for some thicker tree groupings. The more trees there were together, the easier it was to set up a shelter and avoid the rain.
I looked ahead of me and saw a cropping of huge rocks. I walked over to them and started to look around for some kind of overhang that coupled with my tarp could make a pretty serious shelter. I couldn’t believe my luck, but I found a cave. I had always been told that you should never use a cave for shelter, as animals also used caves for shelter. But it looked like a pretty serious storm was moving in, and I didn’t want to be caught in the storm, so I decided to take my chances.
I switched on the flashlight that was attached to my AR and started to search the cave. It wasn’t a cave that went underground for miles, turning into a labyrinth, but it was just a big indentation in the rock that went back maybe twenty to thirty feet. There were no tracks or scat droppings of any kind, so I figured that I would be okay to stay there. In the northeast, especially in the PA and Maryland areas, I knew from experience that black bears were prevalent and I needed to start being more aware of the possible dangers.
I dropped my pack and immediately went out into the woods for kindling and firewood. Even though it was going to rain and the temperature