Color Me Grey: Book One of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles (20 page)

I supposed I better try to sew myself up. I
tied some of the fishing line to the hook and proceeded to sew. I
had never liked to sew, but this was even worse. When I had first
touched the sharp end of the hook to my hand I thought it would
hurt too much for me to go through with it, but my wound was numb.
At least it was on the outside. If I tried to go too deep it hurt
like hell. I caught myself a couple of times with my other hand
because I had touched a sensitive spot and it made me almost pass
out. I finished sewing up the cut and tied a knot at the end of the
line. I used the knife to cut the plastic line and was pretty
impressed with myself. It wasn’t too straight, but the bleeding had
almost stopped and I hadn’t died because of poisoning either.

It was completely dark around my campfire
now. I got up and quickly changed my clothes. They had almost dried
completely except around the seams but I didn’t want to be covered
in blood anymore. I looked at the snake lying on the ground and my
stomach rumbled.

“
No,” I said and laid out my bedroll.
Then I sat down on it and waited for Mr. Black to reappear. He had
said we were going to move camp today, didn’t he? I wondered why he
wasn’t back. I hoped he hadn’t gotten hurt. I worried about him a
bit to keep my mind off the snake that had almost killed me. Every
once in a while I was hit with a feeling of panic because I wasn’t
totally convinced it hadn’t been poisonous. I thought of eating it
again but decided against it, partly because I wanted to show it to
Mr. Black but mostly because I didn’t want to eat snake.

I sat and looked at it for a long time then
came to the conclusion that a snake was better than bugs. I still
didn’t want to eat it though because I might need to know what kind
it was later.

I stared at the snake with that thought going
through my head for a while and realized I could eat the bottom
part of the snake and leave the head. That should work, I thought.
I picked up the snake and my knife and went to the fire. I cut it
open and inspected the insides while I pulled them out. Yuck, I
thought, but at the same time I was enthralled. I had never seen
the insides of a snake before.

After I got the insides out I looked at it
and wondered if I should skin it too. I tried but there was hardly
any meat on the thing and I pulled most of the meat off where I had
tried to get the skin away from it. I figured I would try to cook
it with the skin on. I moved some of the hot coals away from the
flames of the fire and laid the snake on them and then turned it a
few times. Every once in a while I would open it up and look inside
to see if it looked cooked. Finally, I got up enough courage to
take it off the coals and try it.

It was hot and didn’t taste bad. I had heard
of people eating snakes before and had always thought they were
nuts. I guess if you’re hungry enough you’ll eat anything. I had
heard that saying before too and had never really believed it until
now.

The snake had been a little snake that I
wouldn’t have probably even noticed if it had been in the grass
next to me. I didn’t get much meat because it was mostly bones. But
it was enough to calm my stomach a bit.

After I was finished picking on the snake I
threw the carcass into the fire and wondered after Mr. Black again.
I had had a full day and was extremely tired. I decided I would lie
down on the bedroll while I waited for Mr. Black to come back to
camp.

I woke up some time later, the fire had died
down and there were all kinds of noises around me. I sat up and
looked around for Mr. Black’s body laying close by in his bedroll.
Nope, just me here. I pulled the blanket of the bedroll up over my
head and listened with my eyes wide open. I hadn’t hid under the
covers since I was a little girl. I turned over making sure my head
didn’t exit the blankets and noticed a light coming from somewhere.
It was my wristband. That little thing came in handy.

I began messing around with it and then all
of a sudden there was a little blip on the screen. It was fairly
close and it had to be Mr. Black. I pulled the covers down away
from my face. I thought about getting up to find him but if he was
that close he was probably spying on me. The nerve. He left me out
here all alone and I could have died. Instead of getting up to
search him out I got up and stoked the fire. Then I got out the
book he had left for me and began to read.

I found several things I could do to make
sure my wound didn’t get infected, if I could find the plants I
needed. I had begun to get tired again so I lay back down and went
back to sleep.

I awoke the next morning to a severe pain in
my hand and arm. I looked at my cut and it was red and getting
puffy. I better get something on this, I thought as I headed out to
find the plants I needed. As it turned out there were some plants
sitting in a bunch not far from camp, picked and laid out nicely so
I would find them. I compared them to the pictures in the book and
found them to be what I needed. I said to the surrounding trees,
“Thank you.” Then I picked them up and carried them back into camp.
I read about the plants and what I needed to do with them. Mr.
Black had picked the combination that just needed to be ground up
with some water to make a paste. I walked to the creek and found a
nice flat rock, one with a bit of a dip in the center and one I
thought I could use to grind the plants up with. I filled my
canteen and brought it all back to camp. I took the flat rock and
began to grind some of the plants together. Then I switched to
grinding the plants on the rock with the dip in the center because
it was probably the juices from the plant that I needed most. I
didn’t use all the plants because I might have to make some more
and it was easier than hunting down the plants for myself. I
eventually added a bit of water to make it all stick together. Then
I applied it generously to my hand. I took a clean sock and wrapped
it around the wound to make sure the poultice I had applied would
remain where it was supposed to.

After I got myself all doctored up I thought
I might check my traps. I hadn’t done that for a day. The sun
hadn’t been up too long and I walked quietly and carefully in hopes
I might see some wildlife. What I would do if I saw some wildlife
was a different subject I didn’t have any idea about. I had brought
my makeshift spear with me, just in case.

As I neared my trap that had been turned over
more than once, I found the source of the vandalism. There was a
beautiful buck standing near it eating on the bush that I had
placed the trap beside. Of course the trap was turned over again. I
stood and watched the buck for a little while and then got an idea.
I threw my spear at him and embedded it in the ground at his feet.
He dashed away with his white tail flashing behind him. I was going
to have to practice my throw. I went to the trap and removed it
from its spot and carried it with me to check the other two. They
were untouched so I left them where I had found them.

Mr. Black had been following me around. I had
secretly checked my GPS occasionally throughout the morning and his
blip was never too far away. I never did see him or hear him
though. I looked down at the wristband again to check his location
and he was further away. It looked as if he wasn’t close enough to
see me this time. Maybe he went to check his traps.

I had planned my day by the time I reached
camp again. I was going to go fishing and while I waited for a
bite, I would practice my spear throwing. I reached the creek and
checked for Mr. Black but his blip still wasn’t in the immediate
area. I strung out the plastic line and the hook was still tied to
one end of it. I started lifting rocks around the waters edge and
digging in with another rock to look for worms. I finally found one
and put it on the hook. Then I gauged the depth of the water and
tied a small twig to the line at the depth I wanted the worm.
Finally I was able to throw the line in the water. It would have
been easier to hand fish, but I didn’t want to take the chance of
getting another snake. Besides that, I didn’t want to wash off the
medicine I had applied earlier. I sat and watched for a bit but
decided I better start on my practicing.

It was hard to throw with a sock on my hand,
but I got used to it. Sporadically I checked the line and made sure
my worm was still there. Then I would go back to my spear throwing
routine. I had improved considerably before I went to check my line
again. I was at least making it to the target. I didn’t always
stick the knife into it though.

I had tied the line to a stump at the edge of
the creek so I wouldn’t lose it if a fish did try to eat the worm.
I went to check the status and the stick was gone. I pulled on the
line excitedly. Maybe I had a fish. Sure enough, I had a fish on
there. It yanked back on the string and hurt my hands. Now I
understood why people used the reel with the fishing rod. If they
got a big fish it wouldn’t cut their hands to reel him in. I pulled
on the line some more and the fish pulled back on it. I struggled
with him for a while getting a huge rush out of the ordeal. If I
had known catching a fish was so exciting I would have taken it up
years ago.

I pictured myself on a fishing show and the
head fisherman guy was giving me instruction, “Tire him out. You
don’t want the line to break,” my imaginary friend said. Finally, I
got tired of listening to him and started pulling the fish in for
real. When I got him to shore I jumped into the water to grab him
up. I didn’t want the line to break now, mostly because this was my
first fish, but also because I didn’t dare lose my fishing hook. It
was the only one I had and it came in handy for other things.

I reached down and grabbed him by the
openings in his gills. I knew some fish you picked up by their
bottom lips but some of them had teeth and I didn’t know what kind
this was. When I got it out of the water I guessed it must be a
trout. I brought it up on the shore and retrieved my spear. I used
the knife end to open the fish up and remove his insides. Then I
trooped back to camp to eat my catch.

I got the fire going again and cooked the
fish just like I had the snake. It took a little longer than the
snake but then again it was much larger than the snake. My first
fish was nice-sized. The size you would take a picture of if it
were regular life.

While it cooked on the fire I continued to
practice throwing. I didn’t think I would be good enough by dusk
tonight, but I had to try. My plan was to go back to the meadow and
wait for the deer to show. Then I would attack. I wanted to get
down off this hill and back to the cabin. For some reason, I knew
we wouldn’t go back until I bagged us enough meat to last a
while.

I glanced at my wristband while retrieving my
spear and noticed Mr. Black was close again. I considered going out
to find him but I didn’t want to try to find him if I was
empty-handed. I went back to the fish and turned it one more time.
Then while it finished cooking I ground up some more of the plants
to make more salve to put on my hand. It was feeling better since
this morning but I was pretty sure going in the water after the
fish had probably washed off most of the previous application. I
wanted to put on a dry sock too. I got all that done and then
pulled the fish off the coals and picked at the meat through the
bones. I picked them clean and threw the remains in the fire. Then
I went back to throwing my spear.

My arm started to feel tired after a while so
I stopped and started reading the book Mr. Black had left for me. I
learned a lot in the short break I took from my throwing practice.
I got up off the ground, the fire had burned itself out and it was
getting close to when I needed to get to the meadow. As I was
walking away from camp I checked for Mr. Black and he was out there
close by still.

I reached the meadow and the deer were
already grazing. I didn’t want to spook them so I made sure I was
downwind before I even reached them and then slowly crept up on
them. I checked again and Mr. Black was some distance away now. He
must not have followed me.

I circled around the deer quietly and slowly.
I got as close as I could without scaring them off and threw my
spear and missed. The deer scattered and I cussed. I went in search
of my homemade spear to wait to see if they would come back before
dark. I didn’t have long to wait, for dark, not the deer. They
never did show back up. I was thinking of heading back to camp but
thought I might try to track down Mr. Black instead.

I did some backtracking to get closer to his
signal. It had strayed from its stationary position near my camp. I
passed through my camp noticing that nothing had changed. The fire
was dead and my belongings didn’t look to have been moved.

I got a bit closer to his signal but decided
against going all the way to his camp this early in the evening
because he might be paying attention to my signal on his wristband.
I didn’t want to give myself away. I went back to my camp but
didn’t light the fire. I checked periodically on Mr. Black’s signal
and it stayed put. I sat for a good two hours before I couldn’t
stand it anymore. The wait was driving me bonkers. I went to see if
the buck had returned to the scene of the crime. It was completely
dark with the moon behind clouds. I was able to remain quiet as
long as I took my time. Normally it took me about fifteen minutes
to get to the spot where I had placed my first trap, but I was
going on about forty-five minutes. My eyes were adjusted to the
light or lack of and I could see reasonably well. I was coming up
on the spot where I had seen the large buck before. I stopped to
check the wind and realized that I had better circle around to come
upon the spot downwind.

I did just that and next thing I knew, I saw
the monster right in front of me! He couldn’t have been more than
seven or eight feet away. I immediately launched my spear and it
hit its mark. Well, not quite. I had been aiming for the heart and
I got the deer in the neck. It bounded off and I raced after him.
Soon he was out of sight. Shit. I thought. Now if I didn’t find
him, I lost my knife. I had to find him because I couldn’t be out
here without that knife. I didn’t realize until it disappeared with
the buck that I used the knife for so much.