59 BULLETS

Thankfully we both slept well, with only minor annoyances from a quilled rodent. One kept hopping in the back, going for the chicken feed every few hours. But anytime we'd flash the headlamp on it would scurry away. I was ready to make it dinner if it wouldn't cost one of my bullets. Maybe tonight I'd get my knife out and try to toss it. Maybe the chicken food would make a good trap. Or! I could use some of the wire to make a snare. Why hadn't I thought of a snare yet? Some fresh meat would be nice.

I tested the potato by putting a slice in my mouth for a few minutes while we continued working to figure out how to make an electric fence. I strung the wire knee height around surrounding trees and hammered sticks in where trees weren't close and brought it back around to the metal conductor piece we'd salvaged off the truck.

"I think that is it!" Jia shouted an hour later. She closed the top and all we could do was hope. We'd need to wait a few more hours for the charge to get powerful enough.

We both ate a ration square for lunch, and she spread a few drops of fish sauce over hers.

"What is fish sauce?" I asked looking at the bottle. I sure couldn't read Korean at least.

She giggled. "It is like soy sauce. Just a flavoring. Very good. Would you like to try?"

Anything called fish sauce really didn't sound appetizing, but she ate chili mac over rice yesterday so I guess I couldn't complain. I poured a drop onto the corner of the biscuit and then cringed at the salty taste. "Whoa."

"I like it at least."

I nodded. "I'd love some ketchup or maybe ranch to dip this thing in." I tried to pretend it was a brilliant chocolate chip cookie.

I wasn't doing a good job.

After lunch I tried to set some snares with the wire. It was heftier wire than I've worked with making other snares, but in this situation, beggars can't be choosers. Anything was worth a try. Then we tossed some chicken feed down hoping those rodents would go for it.

We closed up the food and feed in the bins better and I felt bad for not already thinking to do it. Trying to conserve fuel this time I made a small fire and cooked dinner over it instead of the butane stove. I wasn't sure if I was ready to meet any Martians, but at this point maybe getting probed would be better than dragons and bears.

We sat around the fire and watched the embers burning. Both lost in our own worlds. Or maybe I should say both lost on a different world. Her with her nieces and nephews and me with my animals back on Earth.

No Martians showed up and the sun was beginning to set so we took up our courage and decided to try the fence.

I reached my hand out to the wire and tapped it quick. No shock. I tapped it again. No shock. I quickly put my hand on it a few times and tested, but realized, no. It must not be working. I placed my whole hand down and Jia yelled something about a woman's private parts.

The disappointment on the air that it didn't work was heavy, but her outburst caused a laugh to rumble from me and her face to redden.

"Sorry. I did not mean to speak that way."

"It's okay," I chuckled. "We'll look into it again tomorrow."

She bowed a nod.

The evening went the same as last. Jia gathered some pebbles from camp and made a homemade mancala game and we played until Jia got tired and she rested while I kept watch.

I had been asleep when she tapped my shoulder, whispering hurriedly. "Eleanor. Eleanor! There is a sound!"

I sat up already on high alert, readying my gun. The headlamp was on her and she was scanning the surroundings. Nothing caught right away, so I changed the lamp to my head instead and followed the sound.

A terrifying high pitch squeal was coming from the woods. My inner hunter came out and my ear twisted to find where the sound was. The sound then faded slowly back into silence.

When no other sound came for a few minutes, I smiled and turned to Jia. "I think we may have caught tomorrow's dinner."

Her whole body fell in relief. "Oh. That is good. I was worried."

"The sound came from the area near the third snare. I'm guessing we caught one of those rat porcupines."

"I am glad."

Checking the time on my phone, I still had two hours to sleep. Adrenaline was pumping, but I figured I at least needed to try to keep my energy up for the day. We'd need another walk to the lake today. "I'm going to go back to sleep. Wake me again if something changes."

She took the headlamp back and flipped it off. "I will do that."

I woke up with the sun, so there must not have been need of me. Jia was already playing with the solar panel.

"Did you check out dinner?" I asked as I hopped out of the cab.

"No. I am sorry. I was afraid. And I wanted to work on the panel before we needed to get water."

"No worries. I'll go check it out." I headed to the third snare and spoke to the pile of feathers. "Now what do we have here?" I was expecting a porcupine rat, but it was some kind of fat ball of a bird with a toucan beak and spiked horn coming from its head.

Jia's voice came from the edge of camp. "Anything?"

"We caught a unicorn chicken," I called back with a laugh.

She giggled and started walking through the brush. When she came upon the animal she voiced, "oh my!"

"He'll make a great dinner." I pulled him from the snare and brought it back to camp. Digging through supplies I grabbed my hunting knife, shovel, and multi tool. "I'm going to go gut him. I don't want the scent to be at camp."

"I will work on the fence."

I nodded and walked a far way into the forest. I sat on a stump and began to gut the animal as I would a chicken. It seemed similar enough that I continued on, burying the innards.

When I finished, I started back to camp and heard cursing followed by a yelp of happiness. I broke through the trees and Jia stared up at me, eyes glinting. "We have done it!"

A smile flooded my face. "The fence works!?"

"Yes! It hurts."

I laughed and leaned down to tap it. A full shock brought my hand back in the air. "Yikes! And yes, it works!"

"Yes. We have fixed it."

"Well, you have Jia. I just coiled the wire."

She looked down to the processed bird. "I have fixed the electricity. But I cannot hunt. We are a good team."

"Two is better than one." I agreed. "I'll get this bird on to cook for tonight and then we need to head for water."

Once we got down to the lake, we scanned the area to make sure everything was safe, then filtered water for a drink and cleaned the extra clothes with a bit of dish soap from my kitchen tools box and laid them across tree branches to dry.

Jia took off her scrubs and waded into the water.

"Whoa! What are you doing? There's the eyeball fish in there, right?!"

"It was afraid. This lake is good for a bath. It is very warm." She sat down in the water, so it came to her shoulders.

"Are you crazy?" I set my gun over the water. "What if there are evil alligators or sharks or something?"

"I washed in the lake when I was here. Nothing hurt me." She bent to wash her hair and swam around.

I scowled. "That doesn't mean there is nothing in there."

"We need a bath Eleanor. You have been out here for almost a week. We have hiked."

My eyes scanned down the beach and over the water, then conceded looking at myself. "Maybe I do."

"Come in. The water is warm." She giggled, playfully slapping water my way.

I spoke nervously, "I'll take the next shift. You can watch over me."

"It is safe," she smiled laying back to float.

"Nothing is safe on this planet. Even the chicken had a spike."

"You worry too much."

"You don't worry enough." The tree closest to the beach was towering tall and had good branches for climbing, so I decided to get higher. When I looked back down to her, I sighed in exasperation as she cupped water in her hand to her mouth. "And don't drink the water!"

"It is fine!" She laughed up to me.

I grumbled to myself. "You're going to get parasites."

I climbed as high as I dared and set my scope out like binoculars to see the other side of the lake and around the valley. I kept watch around the area, my eyes going back to a grouping of the monkey things across the lake again and again apprehensively. They were black and hairy like monkeys but had arms all the way around their bodies like starfish.

"Your turn!" Jia called up.

I shushed her and climbed down.

She spoke quieter as she let the sun dry her tiny frame. "I will take watch now."

My scope went around the area again, looking again at the monkeys. Everything else seemed clear, but that didn't stop the anxious feeling in my stomach. I handed her the gun and she held it the best she could. I thought about handing her over the pepper spray too but figured it might confuse her to have two things to fire if danger showed.

I sighed and figured I better finish quick. First I pulled all of the pins and ties from the bun of hair on my head, letting the blonde locks fall down to my waist. I started stepping out of my clothes when Jia's excited voice cut through the air.

"Oh my. Your hair is very pretty. Why hide it?"

"Thank you." I turned around and kicked my shoes off then pulled the shirt over my head. "But long hair and camping don't mix. It's easier to keep it up."

"I understand."

I waded out into the water in my underwear and the lake was as warm as a bubble bath. If I didn't have to worry about eyeball fish and monkeystars I would be happy to just float for a while like Jia had. But I was still unsettled, so with a bit of dishsoap I cleaned through my hair and over my body. I had been so covered with dirt I almost forgot how light my skin was.

Finishing quickly, I walked back to shore and allowed myself to air dry in the sun. Jia handed me the gun back and a square of ration biscuit. "See? That was not bad."

"It feels nice to be clean," I admitted.

We kept an eye on the monkeys across the lake and a flock of tiny hummingbirds that kept flying over the lake as we ate lunch and waited for our extra clothes to dry.

Jia told stories of her pet bird. And I told her of my farm dog and cat. We both were giggling at the other's funny animal stories until we decided the sun was getting low and we needed to get back to camp.

We collected all our clothes and water bottles and started the trek back to the truck.

"Couldn't the universe have parked my truck closer to the water?" I griped.

"Or even just downhill," Jia agreed with a laugh.

We finally made it to the truck eager to eat our unicorn chicken. We were both worn from the heavy climb and each had two servings of chicken with broth and decided today would be a good night to sleep right away.

I took first watch again, being more used to farm work, letting her sleep as soon as the sun downed in the sky.

I felt more at ease than I had in a few days with the new perimeter fence electrified and snares out across the woods.  Also a new friend to help with chores and loneliness. The full belly was surely helping as well. Who knew? Maybe this was a good enough life. But good enough for forever?  Someday we'd need to start looking for civilization. It seemed like a summer here. Would this planet have seasons like Earth? We couldn't survive any snowfalls with just a sleeping bag. Maybe we were closer to the equator, and this was normal temp year round? We could hope, but I'm guessing we need to find others. Maybe there were even more humans transported.

Was it time to go searching for more?

The idea was frightening.