Twas The Night by Dan Walsh

Author:Dan Walsh [Walsh, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

16

The next morning, Ransom woke up and looked around. At first, he wasn't totally sure if he was still dreaming. Nothing looked familiar. The room was mostly dark, but there was some light coming in to the right. He sat up and looked around, then his eyes began to adjust. Now, he remembered.

They were in a cave.

He glanced over at Emma. She was still asleep. Looking back at the opening and judging by the brightness of the light coming in, the morning was well underway. He stood, stretched, and rubbed his eyes. The fire had completely gone out. That was probably the first thing he needed to fix. He picked up the rifle and made his way to the cave opening. Stepping outside, he slowly surveyed the scene. He didn't see or hear any animals, except for a collection of songbirds going at it in the trees.

One glance upward confirmed what he’d thought. They had slept in. Judging by where the sun hung in the sky, it was probably after 10 o'clock. He looked back at the cave, wondering if he should wake Emma up. Then he decided against it, realizing there was plenty of firewood scattered throughout the woods nearby. He'd just make sure the mouth of the cave was always in view.

Twenty minutes later, he had gathered enough wood to last at least till midafternoon. While he was building the fire, Emma awoke.

"Where are we?"

"In a cave. Remember last night?"

"Oh, yeah. Not used to it being dark when I wake up. You know, since we started our trip."

"It'll be plenty bright in a few minutes, once I get this fire going. If you want to see something real bright, go outside. Sun's already high in the sky."

"What time is it?"

"Not sure. Think it's after ten anyway. You hungry? I know I am."

Now she seemed fully awake. "I am. But I'm not really looking forward to breakfast. I checked the basket last night. All we got left is some of that last batch of jerky Pa made. My tummy doesn't want that."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like anything I want for breakfast either. Everything else is gone?"

She nodded yes. "Can you go hunt us some food? Not that I'm really in the mood for meat, but we'll need some for later."

"Afraid I can't, Em. I didn't tell you last night, because you fell asleep so fast. But I went down that hill aways in the direction of that smoke we were smelling."

"You left me in here by myself?"

"I didn't go far. Didn't have to. Just down the hill I could see lights through the trees. Couldn’t make out any details, but there's definitely somebody making those lights."

"Really? Why don't we just go there now? Maybe they got bacon and eggs?"

Ransom smiled. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't think that's a good idea. That, nor the hunting."

"Why?"

"You remember what Pa said about the law?"

"Some of it."

"Well, I remember all of it. He made me repeat it over and over. They're the folks in charge.

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