That brought a small chuckle from the group. They’d not seen or heard anything from Connor’s group for over a week. Leo had set up early warning systems around the forest with some of the wires and cables from the camera equipment. They all took turns taking watches at night. There were two guarding the camp at all times.
Since the raid over a week and a half ago, all had been quiet, too quiet, but there was nothing they could do but be vigilant. The smell of roasting meat was in the air. Some of the meat was being smoked for future use. They were slowly building up their food stores, everyone had agreed to eat leaner in order to put more food away for uncertain times. The new spears were coming in handy. They had all been practicing with them. Each day they planned what would be done, be that fishing, hunting or gathering.
They’d found several clusters of wild grapes and had picked them and dried them into raisins. They’d also found several nut trees, but only picked the ones off the ground. They went back every few days to gather more that had fallen. Diana was trying to make pemmican, she had a vague idea on how to make it. She knew she needed a lean meat, and she had taken some of the deer meat.
She had then dried it out, in thin strips, and she had also smoked some strips as well. Then she took the raisins and had combined it with the meat, grinding them together and then squishing them into small balls. She’d taken a little of the fat rendered from a rabbit and had poured it over several of the balls. She then wrapped each ball in paper. The balls were now sitting in Marla’s tent. Each day she sniffed them, and put a mark on a paper. She wanted to see how long it took for them to go rancid.
She knew that native Americans had done this and had even seen PBS specials and National Geographic shows. She had an idea of how to do it, just not the exact recipe. And so, she’d fixed them several different ways, some smoked, others sundried, and some had a light coating of fat put on them while others were wrapped as was. If they could use this long term, they’d have meat when they needed it.
“When Sarah comes back, I’ll tell her what I’m doing. Maybe she knows how to make it and maybe with some of the herbs and plants, we can make variations of the same thing.” She’d told Marla, who had wondered at the meatballs decorating her tent.
Diana looked over to Sam, he was sitting with Hunter. Hunter had become very protective of him. Sam was pulling his weight and had apologized to everyone for his foolish and stupid behavior the day they found out that it was an EMP that took everything out and stranded them all here in China. It had taken a better part of a week for everyone to accept him, they were suspicious and rightfully so. But he was proving to everyone that he could be trusted and he worked hard and diligently as did everyone else.
Leo and Gabe were working on spears and the launchers. It was like a new toy for everyone and everyone wanted to try them. She smiled at everyone around her.
“What are you thinking?” Marla asked, everyone having gone back to their jobs.
“Just that things are starting to come together. Everyone is working together to survive. No one is slacking, so there aren’t any hard feelings. We are building reserves, and I don’t know, I think things are going good.” Diana said shrugging.
“Sure, I’m just sorry for Christian, but now he is at rest and isn’t suffering any more. He gave his life to protect others in this group. What time do they plan to bury him?” Marla asked.
“More than likely pretty soon. I don’t think we want his body getting overly warm. The health risks from the nasty bacteria and infection can spread, so we’ll want to be careful. Make sure who ever handles him washes with warm water and the soapberries.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to Leo and see that he takes a few people to help him, I just don’t want to leave the camp unsecured.” Marla worried.
Diana nodded her head in agreement and left to go clean out Christian’s belongings. They would see and inventory what he had and make use of what they could. They didn’t have the luxury of being sensitive about handling things. Their lives and comfort now depended on what they could salvage from what was around them. Everything was useful in some form or fashion. All of his clothing would be used, and it looked like he’d brought quite a bit. That was good.
There were no clothing stores. She held up the shirt. Christian had been six feet tall. Leo was about six feet one, Bruce about five eleven, so the clothing might fit them. It certainly could fit her and Marla, though it would be big on them.
She hoped it would be a while before she was required to wear the dead man’s clothing. He did have socks, and a couple extra pairs of shoes, she checked, size ten. She smiled, she wore a size ten. Dibs on the running shoes. There were handkerchiefs, useful. Condoms, eeewwww, she thought, and wondered what he was thinking. Ewwwww. He had some toiletries which was nice, comb, and clippers, very handy. He’d been sharing his tent with Hudson and Tom, but now she figured Gabe or Henry might move into it.
They had all built or constructed some kind of dwelling. Henry was good with building and had promised to figure out a way
