Devastation - Days of Extinction Book 3: (A Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Series) by Justin Bell

Author:Justin Bell [Bell, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wolf's Head Publishing
Published: 2024-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Maplewood Ridge, Wisconsin

Day 06

Becca crouched near the tree line at the back of her property, clutching a bundle of sticks in her left hand and a coil of wire in her right. A kerosene lantern sat nearby, spreading a low, yellow light throughout the edge of the trees. Since Dexter and Benny’s luck with catching rabbits that morning, she’d decided to set even more snares around the property, hoping to replenish the meat she’d given to the search party that evening. Rabbits were in plentiful supply throughout the land surrounding her farm, and she wasn’t especially worried about the meat they’d given away.

All the same, her conscience would be eased if she could snare a few more in the coming days, especially considering some of the precious meat had been consumed by the Crossmans. Grabbing one of the thick sticks, she pulled a knife from her pocket and began to chisel at the end, whittling it slightly, carving it to a point. After a few moments, the two sticks had become two stakes, their pointed ends long and sharp, like oversized pencils.

Stuffing one of the stakes into the dirt, she reached behind her and unhooked the mallet from a loop on her work pants where she’d stored it, then swiftly pounded the stake into the ground. Three rapid jerks of her wrist and the stake was embedded several inches into the hard dirt. She repeated the motion with the second stake, spacing them about a foot apart, ensuring they were at similar heights. Taking a third stick, she used some paracord to tie it to the first two, building out three sides of a rectangle.

Afterwards, she uncoiled some of the wire, taking the end and looping it around, tying it off, then tugging more wire through it, creating a makeshift noose at the end. She eyed the hoop in the low light of the nearby lantern, quietly estimating whether it was big enough to fit over the rabbit’s head. One of the keys to an effective snare was making sure the hoop was large enough for the head to fit through, but not so large that the rabbit’s entire body could slip through.

She tested the noose slightly, and once satisfied that it tightened effectively, she snipped the wire and coiled the opposite end around the wooden crossbar, letting the hoop hang low, a few inches off the ground. She shuffled a few feet to the right, found another gap between two trees and repeated the process, hammering the stakes in, tying down the cross bar, looping the wire and hanging it in place. Time would tell if she had the same luck that her kids had earlier, but it was worth a shot, at the least.

“Don’t bother trying, Mom, you’ll never be better than us.” Benny walked across the grass, shooting a finger gun in his mother’s direction. “We’re the rabbit snaring masters.”

Dexter struck a pose next to him, turning sideways into a martial arts stance.

“Teach me your ways, oh wise trappers of Leporidae.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.