Chapter Four
It took us a good three hours just to find a decent, safe spot. We moved away from the river and tried to head back West, using the sun as our directional guide. We knew the general direction of the camping site but we were still miles away and nothing here looked familiar.
Fortunately, we did reach a small glade where there was nothing but soft grass and a rocky center that wasn’t filled with mud. The trees around this area were all evergreens and I did spot what looked like a blueberry tree.
I crashed down in the center and lay on my back. “Fuck. We’ve been walking for forever and we’re nowhere near the camping site.”
“If we keep going like this it’ll be nightfall and we’ll be exposed out here,” Chris pointed out. “Without the rain, all the wild animals out here will go out and we’ll be up high on their hunting list.”
“So we need a place to camp out until we know a bit more about this place,” I said. “Don’t you think our friends are looking for us?”
Brandon nodded but he then pointed to our environment. “Sure they are. I bet they’re all worried about us. Even if they are looking for us it could take days before they find us or before we manage to get back to the camping grounds. It’s best we find a safe spot, rest there, and then each day try to trek further out until we know where we are and how to get back to them.”
That sounded reasonable. I had no survival skills, however, and I wanted to let them know I’d be pretty much useless out here. “I do have to admit though, I suck at this. I can’t build a fire, I can’t really cook unless it’s with my usual appliances and I don’t know the first thing about first aid.”
Both men laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I asked with a frown on my face.
“Don’t you worry,” Brandon said. “We were both in the Marines. We can take care of you, little baby.”
Little baby? Oddly enough, it kind of felt nice to be called that.
“Yeah,” Chris added in. “We can handle all this. You just sit back and stay pretty.”
That got a laugh out of me. “Really, you guys think I’m pretty?”
“No,” Brandon answered. “We think you’re goddamn fucking hot. You’ve got nice tits, too.”
My jaw dropped and I looked at him with a blank expression on my face. I didn’t know what to say to that.
“Yeah, we know you saw us peeping at you when you were taking a bath,” Chris said with a big grin on his face. “You loved flashing those perky tits at us, didn’t you?”
I seriously wanted to smack them both in the face. “Okay, I enjoyed it. Can we go now? I’d rather find a roof to sleep under instead of discussing whether or not I enjoyed flashing for you guys.”
They both laughed again and to be honest, I appreciated the light-hearted moment. Ever since it began raining I was filled with dread and worry. This was legitimately the first time I felt a little okay.
“Are any of you guys hungry?” Brandon asked. “We could get some berries and then look for shelter. There’s probably a cave here or some fallen logs and branches we could use to make a hut or something.”
Berries sounded like a good idea. A place to sleep in sounded even better.
“Yeah, that sounds like a genius idea,” I said. I got up and headed over to the berry tree. Brandon and Chris followed suit. Chris ripped what was left of his shirt and made a makeshift bag out of it. We dumped some berries into it and looked around for something else we could use. Chris took off for a bit and said he was going to look for a tree to climb and see where we were.
We spent about twenty minutes harvesting food when Chris suddenly hollered out.
“Hey! I found something!”
I looked at Brandon and he looked back with a confused shrug. We waited until we saw Chris running back.
“Whew,” he said as he finally caught up to us and leaned down, trying to catch his breath. “I saw a cabin, just a little ways out North. It’s between some trees and it looks like it’s in good shape. Not sure if anyone lives there or not. It could be an old office lodge of the camp site managers or something.”
“I hope there are people,” I told him. “Whether from the camp site administration or not, someone will be able to help us get back.”
Just saying it out loud gave me a strong feeling of redemption and hope.
We walked along a clear path between ridges of trees and after just a few minutes we managed to spot the cabin. Up close, it looked a lot bigger than how Chris described it to be. It was a bungalow but it was long and made of thick logs. The windows were dark and there were no lights turned on, inside and out. That kind of dampened my hopes as it meant no one was there to help us. When we got even closer I realized two of the windows were shattered and there were vines crawling in.
“Wow, this place looks pretty abandoned,” I commented as we stood just a few feet outside the main door.
“It looks pretty solid though,” Brandon exclaimed. “I mean, just look at it. It’s still standing pretty strong. There’s a chimney too so I guess we can get a fire going inside. That’d be nice and comfortable.”
Chris walked up to the door, checked if it was locked, and when he found it wasn’t he opened the front door and went inside. Brandon and I quickly followed.
Inside the cabin was dark and there were a few puddles of water by the broken windows. Other areas were dusty but other than the dirt, leaves, and water it looked like a perfectly maintained cabin. By my guess, it was last used just in the last few months although I couldn’t explain why it was abandoned. There were still some plates behind a glass cabinet, leather couches that looked brand new if not for the dust and the fireplace was in good shape. It had a neat cover that prevented rain water from flooding in and fortunately this cover was shut which meant we could get a fire going this instant if either of these two knew how to build a fire without a lighter or matches.
“Well, we better try to patch these windows with something and then clean out the place,” Chris said. “I’ll go check the rooms and see what still works here.”
He walked out of the living room and entered through the nearby doors. I watched as he took a quick sneak peek at each room while Brandon grabbed some old cloth from the kitchen area and began wiping down the couches.
“We got running water,” Chris hollered from the back. “I think they got this place hooked up to a natural spring or something.”
“Oh damn, that’s music to my ears,” I answered. I rushed to follow him and found him cleaning the bathroom with an old towel from the rooms. “Is that a hotel towel?”
He looked back at me and nodded, “Yeah. I guess this place could be rented out. They got towels here, cooking utensils, a heater, some soap and other things. They even got bathrobes and slippers. I checked the rooms. They even got nice white duvets and those thick blankets.”
Wow, that sounded like a really good hotel description but it was out here in the middle of nowhere.
“I’m going to take a shower then,” I told him.
Chris didn’t budge. It was like he didn’t hear me. He just kept on cleaning like it was nobody’s business.
I cleared my throat. “Uh, Chris? I’m going to take a shower.”
“Huh? Oh right, right,” he got up and started to head out of the bathroom. “I just assumed you wouldn’t mind.”
I laughed and gave him a flying kiss and a wink. He winked back and walked out, allowing me to take a nice bath in private. When I was done, they followed suit and we all just dressed into the bathrobes that were kept in the drawers. These were well protected from dust and dirt and even smelled good.
By evening we were all on the couch having berries. Even though we were out here in the wild, far away from our friends and civilization, I oddly felt secure and at ease with these two. Because I was the only girl here I felt a rush of pride, like I was so important to them.
I smiled and hugged them both.