CHAPTER FOUR
The whole day was wasted having spent its entirety awaiting Jonathan's return. It was a tragic waste, given that there was still the task of clearing the final trap of any animals that might have gotten a bit too curious.
Instead, Andrew took the time to gather his ax and his jacket, because today was the day he was gonna get some more firewood lined up. First step was to get a tree picked out that was far enough away from camp that his location wouldn't be as easy to track. Then he was going to prepare it for dissection tomorrow by chopping it down today.
With not a great deal of options for starting path, Andrew decided to head straight across the frozen lake, as that seemed to work wells enough last time. He even took a couple of moments to examine the ice sheet to his right hand side. Noticing that the breaks in the ice were traveling towards him, Andrew decided to take precautionary measures.
Once he was across the lake, Andrew made two markers at the shore. One to indicate where the farthest known break was, and one to mark which way he crossed the lake. This would come to help later, but for now, a tree must be chosen for the chopping block.
Desiring a tall, skinny tree, his options close by were limited, which is precisely what his preferences were in the ways of finding the perfect coverage. However, the farther out he journeyed, the more cumbersome it would be to bring the tree towards camp the next day. The search went on for perhaps another hour before Andrew found one that suited his needs.
Getting himself into position, Andrew took a few practice swings with the blunt side of the ax to make sure his aim was on point. Satisfied with his efforts, he turned the ax around and swung away.
Within three hours, the tree was getting close to being ready to yell timber. Rather than risk the tree being spotted by a hiker, Andrew reconsidered his plan to take the tree to the ground today and postpone it until tomorrow. Having made up his mind, he made his way back to camp. This way, if Jonathan showed up, they would be together again.
Sadly, no such luck was to be had. Instead, once Andrew made his way back to the shores, he noticed no change with the status of the ice sheet. Comfortable enough to keep crossing the same path as before, he carefully trudged across and made his way back to camp. Luckily for him, no more bears would wander his direction today. However, no sign of Jonathan either.
Andrew decided it was time to take an easy night. ‘Rest and relax til it turns dark,’ he told himself. Then, after about four more hours of anxiety ridden ‘relaxing’, he started dinner. On the plus side of things, the less food Jonathan was around to eat, the longer supplies would last. After dinner, it was time to sleep.
Early in the morning, and still no sign of Jonathan's return, Andrew rushed out of bed to see if there was any sight of him from the cave entrance. No such luck. Even still, this was not the time to sulk. Instead, he prepared his ropes, grabbed the ax, and set out to get that tree a little closer to home. He had maybe a day or two of firewood left, so there was no time to dawdle.
Taking his chances that the same path as yesterday was still safe to cross the frozen lake, he cautiously moved along, listening carefully for any cracks in the ice. In his intense listening, it seemed his fears were realized. The crumbling of rocks above caused him to turn around, only to see a number of large rocks falling towards him. Seeing this, Andrew turned to run across the lake in full sprint.
There was no telling if any of the rocks would have hit him, but Andrew knew one thing for sure. They broke a larger hole in the ice sheet than any that had been made so far. Worse still, the hole was right in the middle of the lake, where he had come to rely on the past couple days. Seeing this, Andrew's heart sank to the bottom of his stomach.
‘Welp’, he thought to himself, ‘no sense lettin’ the day go to waste.’
Keeping his course towards the tree that was prepared yesterday. The faster this tree was brought down, the faster it could be dragged home, and the sooner it could be converted into more firewood. He had also hoped to be out of these woods as quickly as possible, but that was another matter.
Once Andrew found his tree, he immediately started going to work on the task at hand. Spending nearly five minutes breaking off chunks of the tree was sufficient to bring the tree down. This was possibly the luckiest part of the day for Andrew.
Once the tree had fallen, the noise alone was enough to convince Andrew not to scream “Timber.” Instead, he rushed to the bottom of the cut and tied his ropes to it as best as he knew how. Knots never were Andrew's Forte.
Once this was done, the journey to camp was set in motion. One hour of walking turned into four hours of painstaking effort, having to manuevre the future firewood around a complex path of trees. Thus was an overlooked detail that nearly cost Andrew his entire energy supply for the day. However, given his persistence, Andrew's hard work paid off. The shores of the frozen lake were in sight.
After all the work it took to get the tree this far, Andrew lacked the confidence to make his journey across the ice with the weight of the tree and still safely cross without risking his hard work going to waste. Making up his mind and leaving the tree where it was for the time being, Andrew started to cross the lake on the far right side, making certain that there would be no breaks in the ice for which to fret.
Once he was back to camp, he lit the fires with what was nearly the very last of his firewood supply. Once the fire was hot enough, he prepared his food and waited for any sight or sound of Jonathan's return. In ten minute’s time, dinner was ready, and a short time after eating, stress and anxiety had set in, and he saw only one sensible outlet. He decided to make the first few logs to drag across the lake in the morning.
Taking up his ax once more, Andrew clung to the wall on the left side of the frozen lake, ensuring he would avoid any perils in the dead of night. It was much colder than the night before, yet insufficient to improve any chances of the breaks in the ice freezing over, which would provide safety for future travels otherwise.
Safely crossing the ice, Andrew walked across the snowy shores with not but the light of the stars to guide him. ‘This was a mistake,’ he thought to himself, but it was too late to turn back without it being a complete waste of time. Therefore, the only option was to proceed as planned.
He spent about an hour or so chopping through at least two logs before calling it for the night. His only true regret was that he had not brought his sled to pull one of the logs tonight, but at least they would be prepared in the morning. Andrew declared his work for the day complete. He set out to cross the frozen lake one final time this evening and prepare himself for bed.
Once he was safe in his cave, he prepared his beddings and sat down on his bed. At that moment, for some reason, he felt the need to fiddle with the revolver left by Jonathan just two nights ago.
He pointed the gun at the back wall of the cave, pretended to fire, then turned towards the cave entrance. He pretended to fire one more time, and acted as if he had to reload, knowing the gun only had two rounds in the reel. Shock set in when he opened the reel and learned that there was only one round left.
Questions raced through his mind. Did Jonathan come back? Did he fire a bullet and somehow wasn't heard? Why did he REALLY leave his gun behind? It was all too much, so Andrew decided to call it for the night and let the questions subside over time until he finally managed to fall asleep.
Morning came and still no sign of Jonathan. At least, not while he was awake, anyway. There was no time to lose. Before even getting food ready, Andrew readied his ax and sled and set forth to collect the first two logs of his haul. However, just before he left, his eyes caught sight of something even more disturbing than the night before.
He saw a plate of food sitting on his improvised table. On that plate was a pheasant, just like the one Jonathan had prepared just the other day. At first it seemed that Jonathan might have come in the dead of night and made something for him to wake up to. Unfortunately, with a bit more examination, the meat of the pheasant had been stripped off the bones and the organs right where Jonathan had left them.
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