Chapter 2.1

Sara lay in her tent, listening to the tapping of rain dripping from the trees and landing on the tent’s rain flap. Waves of thunderstorms had rolled through during the night, making sleep nearly impossible. She was exhausted, yet she knew she needed to push on to the next location now that the rain had dwindled to a fine mist.

After stretching as much as she could in her two-person tent, Sara rolled over and unzipped the tent just enough to peek out. Instead of the view of the valley she had the night before, there was now a wall of white fog and rain. Sara did not mind hiking in the rain; at times, she even found it almost meditative. Hiking in fog was something she hated. The fog kept her from seeing her surroundings, and that made her on guard and jumpy. 

Sara flopped back into her sleeping bag and sighed. She was contemplating breakfast and whether or when to start hiking when a twig snapped right behind her tent.

She called out, “Ted? Is that you?” She was almost immediately answered with a snort from the deer that had started following her the day before. “Well, Ted, if the weather is good enough for you to be out, I guess it’s good enough for me too.”

Sara sat up and rummaged through her pack for her breakfast. It would be protein bars and trail mix because she did not want to set up her small camp stove in the rain, and starting a fire would be almost impossible. She studied her map while she ate. The trail she wanted to take would be treacherous and slow going thanks to the weather. She resigned herself to that and decided, if needed, she would power through other sections instead of lingering as she had planned. 

Sara quickly finished her breakfast and dressed in her rain gear before hesitantly unzipping her tent and climbing out. The only thing left for her to do before heading out for the day was to break down her tent and pack it. Within minutes, she had her tent tightly packed in a waterproof bag and strapped to her backpack, ready to get back on the trail.

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Sara had been hiking for almost three hours when a sudden flash of lightning and nearly simultaneous clap of thunder made her jump. That was when the heavens opened, and pouring rain began to fall. She looked around quickly to see if there was somewhere she could take shelter from the violent storm, but to no avail. She began trying to jog to find cover, only to be met with a familiar presence after a few steps.

The enormous white-tailed buck came running out of the underbrush and crashed into Sara. The impact sent her off the path and tumbling down the embankment. The only thing Sara could do was try to protect her head and neck as she careened down the hillside, bouncing off trees and rocks. She was nearly in the fetal position with her arms covering her head and neck when she felt her backpack snag on something and spin her around. She was sliding in a near freefall when she slammed back first into a fallen tree trunk at the bottom of the hill. 

Sara opened her eyes to see flashes of light in her field of vision. Her head throbbed, her body ached from the impact, and there was a sharp pain in her lower leg. She carefully glanced at her leg to see a tear in her rain pants and blood seeping out of it. She lay still in the pouring rain, trying to catch her breath after having the wind knocked out of her by the impact of the deer.

When her vision cleared and she was no longer struggling to breathe, Sara sat up and began taking stock of her injuries. Her leg was first, and from what she could see, it was a deep laceration from something she had hit while falling. Her leg was not broken, and to her, that was the important thing. She struggled to her feet, leaning on the tree that had stopped her. 

Sara heard a familiar snort to the side of where she stood. She turned to see the same deer that had been following her from the moment she got out of her car. A wave of anger washed over her.

“What is wrong with you?” Sara screamed at the deer. “I should have called you Charles Manson, you freaking psycho!”

The deer let out another snort and slowly walked around Sara, keeping the tree trunk between the two of them. Sara watched him move without a sound in the pouring rain and stop on the opposite side of her. It gave a leap and disappeared behind something that at first she thought was brush and debris. After a moment of focusing on it, she was able to make out that it was a building.

“Okay, I’ll stick with Ted for now,” Sara murmured. “If that thing is dry inside, I am buying you the biggest bag of deer treats they make. If they even make deer treats.”

Sara limped toward the building the deer had disappeared behind. When she reached it, she could see it was a small cabin built of heavy logs. She pushed the door open and gingerly stepped in. There were no windows or sources of light other than the door she had entered. 

Sara reached into one of her pack pouches and grabbed a flashlight. She flicked it on and was surprised at what she saw. The cabin was small, with only one room. Heavy cedar logs made up the entire structure, including the roof. There was a small cast iron stove sitting toward the back of the cabin, and it looked like there had been two beds, one on each side of the stove. Rusted steel traps hung on one wall. The only other things in the cabin were some shelves containing wooden boxes, a small table, and two simple wooden chairs. 

Sara left the door open as she went further to get a better look at what was inside. She worried that an animal was living in the cabin and that it would not take kindly to her invading its territory. To her surprise, the cabin was relatively clean. There was at least several decades’ worth of dust and dirt but no signs of animals or pests. She didn’t even see any water leaking in due to the torrential rain. 

Sara unbuckled her pack and dropped it by the door. She dug out a small battery-powered lantern, turned it on, and placed it on the table. She looked at the open door and contemplated leaving it open. Ultimately, she opted to close it and further secure it with one of the wooden chairs. Something shiny on the floor caught Sara’s attention. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was blood from her leg.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Sara muttered to herself.

Sara grabbed her backpack and placed it beside the table as she tested the second chair to make sure it was sturdy enough to hold her weight. She took off her rain gear and sat down in the chair before pulling her first-aid kit from her bag. Sara exhaled through her teeth as she began to care for the wound in her calf. From the amount of bark and shape of the injury, she was guessing that her leg had been impaled on a small tree branch as she tumbled down the hill. 

Sara treated the injury to her leg and took a couple of acetaminophen tablets. She checked her phone for a signal and found she had no service. She sat quietly, her foot propped on the table, waiting for the pain medication to take effect, and took advantage of the time to study her new home until the storms abated. The sharp cracks of thunder and the distant rumbles were all dampened by the little building's thick log construction. Sara was finding it quite cozy and comfortable under the circumstances. 

Sara felt herself begin to drift off as she sat listening to the storm raging outside. After not sleeping well the previous night, she decided to give in to it. She unrolled her pad and sleeping bag on the floor, crawled in, and checked her phone for service one last time before she lay down, falling asleep within moments.

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