Chapter 5: Making camp near the beach. (Part 1)

As Tina and I walked onto the rocky beach, she let out a cry as she looked at the man running over to him and hugged him. I could tell she was close to the man, and I let her mourn her loss as I looked around, finding another bag and walking over to it to open it. I found a note inside, and I froze.

Mrs. Watson wrote this, and it was talking about how she wanted a divorce. As I kept reading, she spoke of her husband being too close to a student for the first part of the year, and she finally found out he had let the student into their home. This information came to me as I looked back on the scene I had witnessed and realized she had a forced smile while they made out.

I think she was going to give this letter to her husband before the end of the trip, as I placed the letter back inside and noticed a pair of laced underwear. I struggled not to grab it and smell it. Why did that have to go through my mind right now? I quickly zipped it up before doing it.

Storing her bag away, I stood up and looked as Tina finally stood up and walked away before looking back at the man once more. She then walked towards me and spoke. "I am ready now, Colt." She said.

I nodded as we didn't have the time to bury the man, as it was getting late in the day. We could walk for maybe two more hours before setting up camp somewhere. As we started walking and I kept an eye on the tree line, Tina spoke.

"How did you get those guns?" She asked, confused, as I tilted my head and spoke. "With my ability, don't you have any?" I asked, making her stop and shake her head.

"I don't have any Ability." She said as I stopped and looked at her for a moment before speaking.

"Do you have a screen that seems to float around you?" I asked, and she shook her head no. This means not everyone awakens to this. Is it just me, or are there others who have it? I need to find more people before I can make up my mind on this.

I started walking again because I didn't know how to continue the conversation. Tina walked behind me as we kept walking, finding bags here and there along with a few dead bodies floating in the water. I checked each one to make sure they weren't anyone I knew and sighed in relief as they weren't.

As it got to the time for us to find a place to camp, I looked at my screen. My mana had almost completely recovered, and I spoke. "We need to find a place to set up, let's walk a little from the beach. We don't want to be in the open like this." It would be best if we could find a place that covers at least two sides of the back, with the left or right side being best.

Tina nodded, leaving everything to me as she was too tired to make the choices. As we entered the forest, she moved closer to my back, looking around, as I held her hand and spoke. "I will do the best I can to protect you, don't worry," I said, trying to help her calm down. Not that I could tell if it worked — after what she went through — but I meant every word I said.

She held my hand tighter as we walked; the sound of the ocean slowly gave way to the sound of moving water. That meant fresh water was close by as I walked towards the sound and found a small waterfall and a good-sized lake. "Wait here, Tina," I said as we got into the small clearing.

Tina nodded as I pulled out the shotgun from my storage and slowly walked towards the lake. The issue with lakes is that you don't know what lives in them. If this were like Earth, with the temperature in this area, there shouldn't be any large animals capable of threatening humans. But this wasn't Earth, and I wanted to scout it out.

As I got closer to the edge, I could see the water's clarity and noticed a large number of big fish. That was a good sign; if there were a large predator in this lake, there shouldn't be this many fish. The only two ways there could be this many were: one, there wasn't anything eating them; and two, it was too big and these things didn't give it enough energy to be worth eating them.

Walking around about half of it, making sure to keep myself close to Tina as much as I could. The lake or pond wasn't very deep, and I could see to the bottom. It was maybe seven feet deep, give or take a few inches. Once I felt comfortable, I returned to Tina, as I had noticed a big tree with roots we could camp between.

"I found us a place, once we set up. I will get us some food." I said, making her smile and nod. Tina followed me because she felt I was worth leading, as we made our way to the root area. The roots had to be nine feet high, and the area between them about five feet wide.

Pulling up my skill and started to make what I wanted, two army issue ponchos, with four five-inch nails and four seven-inch spikes, along with a hammer. Everything cost me 80 mana to make, which wasn't bad. As I lay out one poncho, I find the best place to nail the five-inch nails into the roots. I started tying up the poncho, making a cover before closing and tying off the hood.

I laid the other one on the ground and staked it down through the four ring holes. Now, Tina had a dry place to rest. "Come with me, we need to get firewood," I said while she followed me.

It looked like it hadn't rained in a few days, so a lot of the branches and twigs were dry for the most part. After we collected what I felt like was going to be enough for the night, we headed back.

"Tina, I will show you how to start a fire," I said, pulling up my skill again and buying a fixed blade knife. It wasn't long, about three inches. I wanted to save as much mana as I could.

I picked up a twig about a thumb thick. About that long, I started shaving off the bark before turning it into a flower by cutting it until it looked like it had petals, leaving about a quarter of an inch at the bottom. I did it two more times before placing the bark and some extra shavings in the center of the three twig-like flowers.

Tina watched, not wanting to miss a beat. I pulled up my skill and made a flint piece and striker. I placed the flint in the middle and started hitting it with the striker as sparks shot out. I bent down, blowing on the smoldering sparks until the shavings and bark started to smoke, and embers began to form.

"Okay, now you want the fire in the middle to spread to the twigs I carved into flowers. This way it grows before you put the sticks on it." I said, before blowing on the small fire until it spread to the three flower-like twigs, "It's starting to burn." I said,

Pulling out all the wood we picked up as I spoke. "You want to build up in size of wood, so start small and when the fire is ready for bigger pieces, then you can put them on. You don't want to choke the fire." I said as I put about hand-long sticks on it.

"Tina, were the flames reaching out from in between the ones on it already? You can increase its size. I am going to go get us food and water now." I said as she nodded and watched the fire. She wanted to help me as I was doing most of the work, so I felt I could leave the fire in her care.

For the knife, flint, and striker, I had spent 60 mana on them. As I walked towards the lake, I made a portable water purifier. I also made two camel packs, which could hold 3 liters each. Everything cost me 100 mana. I sighed as this was needed, but so costly.

Looking at the mana left, which was 120, I knew I wouldn't be able to buy much more, so I opted to get a throwing fishing net, as I didn't want to waste time with a fishing rod. With how many fish were in here, I didn't need to get big ones. I also bought a rope about four feet long.

Those two things ran for a hundred, leaving me with 20 left. It was a nice-sized fishing net, 8ft radius. I started making a noose-like loop in the rope and smiled when I was done. This was going to help me carry the fish back: you push the rope through one gill on the fish and out of its mouth, then do the same for all of them, and finally make it through the loop, locking them in place.

"Well, let's get to work," I said, getting myself motivated.