I woke up in my bed. I could hear birds chirping. I rolled onto my back and opened my eyes. Light from the window assaulted them. I put my hands to them and rubbed. Slowly my eyes adjusted to the warm yellow sunlight. I laid in bed and looked up towards the ceiling. I focused on a little knot on the beam. I don’t remember going to sleep.

Staring at the beam I thought long and hard about the last thing I remember. I remember shooting a mule deer. And dragging it to the house. I remember the fall. Suddenly there was a massive pain in my leg. I winced hard. Then I remembered the rest.

The long hobble to the cliffs the cauterizing, but nothing else. How did I get in my bed? I sat up and felt the massive pain in my leg. I bit my lip as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and looked down. I saw the upper part of my left leg wrapped in lots of gauze. It looked clean and nicely taken care of.

I also noticed I wasn’t wearing pants, which brought up another question. Where were my pants, and did any of the guys see me without them? I took a turn around the room and found them in the corner. I stood up and saw spots. Unable to reach the bed I crashed to the floor causing a huge amount of pain. I waited for the spots to clear before I tried again, and this time I took it slow. I bent down and retrieved my pants.

They had been cut from the ankle up to the top of the thigh. “So much for brand new pants,” I said amusing myself. I dropped the tattered cloth and hobbled over to the closet. I opened it and took out a pair of baggy sweat pants. I pulled them up my right leg easily.

The left took a bit of maneuvering. Finally, it was up around my waist. I took I t-shirt out of the closet and slipped it on. I struggled over to the door and opened it. The cabin was silent. That worried me a bit.

“Where is everyone?” I asked to myself. I hobbled down to the bathroom flipped on the lights. My reflection looked like something that crawled out of a horror movie. My hair was matted with dirt blood and leaves.

The skin on my arms was smeared with dirt and bruises the color of berries. There was a scrape on my chin that reached back to my ear. I looked like I was ran over by a car. Not being able to stand the grunge that was my person I tore off my freshly dawned clothes and jumped into the shower.

Before I turned on the water I removed the carefully placed bandage wrapped around my leg. The more I removed the more of my abused skin on my thigh was revealed. With the last bit of gauze wrapping, there was a waterproof patch over the gash.

The wrapping was the size of my palm. The skin ten inches spread out in each direction of my leg was a deep purple almost black. Everything purple was extremely tender. Placing a light finger on it caused horrible pain.

Looking away from the wound I held my breath and turned on the water. There was no point in waiting for the warmth. The cold felt good on my bruised skin. I washed my body to the best my sore limbs would allow. I turned off the water and as carefully as possible stepped out of the shower. I was very close to losing my footing, but extra concentration made sure I didn't. I put my clothes back on and brushed my hair to the best of my ability and got out of the bathroom.

I hobbled down the hallway until I reached the top of the stairs. There was no way I was going to be able to hop walk down them. I carefully lowered myself down on my butt using the wall and scooted myself down the stairs. I’m sure that this was a record length descent down a single flight of stairs.

By the time I reached the bottom I was worn out. The pain that was my body was everywhere. Everything hurt everywhere. I clasped the banister and worked myself into a standing position.

“Hello? Guys? Is anyone here?” I called to my friends. Not an answer. I stood there and listened for a few moments and then I heard them speaking outside. I used every piece of furniture and wall to brace myself on as I made my slow journey to the door.

I sort of fell against it once I reached it. I braced myself up and turned the knob. Natural sunlight hit me in the face and I covered my eyes with my hand. I looked around and saw everyone over by the storage house. I began to hobble over. Halfway there Max turned and saw me, “Sophiene!” he yelled and rushed forward.

“Oh please be gentle," I begged as he reached me. With his cry everyone turned and started coming over. After Max gave me a gentle squeeze my body was taken into Trevor's arms.

“I was so worried,” he said gently rubbing my back. He pulled back a bit and placed a gentle kiss on my lips.

“I told you I was tougher than you,” I whispered after his lips left mine. Justin cleared his throat. Trevor and I separated a small bit from one another, but he wrapped his arm around my waist and braced me up against him.

“I feel like we are owed a few explanations,” Justin said in a semi humorous tone.

“What do you want to know?”I asked pretending to look like I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“First why don’t we discuss how you almost died, and second why you guys are kissing now?” he said crossing his arms pretending to look stern.

“Well, the first is easy to explain. I was dragging a very large deer back to the cabin, and I end up falling down a huge hill getting an antler shard stuck in my leg. Then I am pretty sure my second fall on the way back for help only made things much worse,” I said looking at him.

“Alright seems legit. Now answer the second question,” he said pretending to look harder at me.

“Well, you wouldn’t know this is possible, but when two people like each other a whole awful lot they like to express that by putting their lips together in what society calls a kiss,” I said explaining it to him like he was five.

“Oh blow it out your back end. I know you guys are a thing now, but when did that exactly happen?” he asked sarcastically.

“You idiot, they have always been a thing, but they were both too stupid to realize they were a thing,” Sasha said in a teacher like tone.

“We have not always been a thing,” Trevor said defensively.

“Oh yes you have and everyone, including you, knows it. Neither one of you has ever been in a relationship with another person. You both spend almost every waking minute of free time with each other, and you both bicker like an old married couple,” Meagan said as if it was common fact.

Trevor opened his mouth in what must have been a comment that would contradict everything she just said, but he closed it. I think deep down he knew what she said was true. I knew it.

“Well I’m glad we got this whole Jerry Springer episode out of the way, but now we should probably get back to work. Not that I am not overjoyed you are alright Soph, but we need to figure out how we are going to store and divide everything we have collected,” Aaron said ending the conversation.

“Yes let’s get back to work,” Meagan said turning back towards the storage shed.

“What should I do?” I asked intending to follow her.

“You Miss Tumble are going to go back into the house get something nice to eat and drink and are going to rest. You lost a good amount of blood yesterday, and your body has had a great amount of stress and physical exertion in the past few days,” Meagan said turning towards me and ordering me in a bossy tone.

“But I want to help. I’m going to get bored just sitting there,”I said refusing to go and play a patient in the house.

“Soph,” it was Max who interjected,”You scared all of us a great deal yesterday, and you need to rest. Come on I will walk you to the cabin and make you some food,” he said. Never before had he taken someone else’s side in an argument. He was always one with me. I hesitated then I nodded my head. I knew he was right. He walked over and took me away from Trevor. He and I both walked back into the cabin.

“So since you are going to confine me into the cabin why don’t you tell me what everyone brought back from yesterday. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who was able to get something,”I asked as he helped me sit on a bar stool. Pain shot up my leg, but I sat anyway.

Well, both Justin and Aaron came back with scores of rabbits and one turkey. Sasha brought back a whole sack full of herbs she has drying in the pantry. Meagan found some huckle berry trees and picked loads of berries.

Trevor shot another mule deer just as you, only his was bigger and didn’t almost kill him,” he said with a laugh while he pulled out a power bar and some berries and set it before me with a glass of powdered milk.

“Wow that’s a bunch, and how about you?” I asked popping some sweet berries into my mouth.

“I shot six squirrels, and filled up half of the wood shed with firewood,” he said sitting down next to me.

“That sounds great. You always were the sharp shot when it came to squirrels,” I said finishing my bowl of berries and moving on to a power bar that was supposed to taste like lemon, but it tasted like carpet fibers. I made a bitter face.

“Thanks, I felt good. I filled two large boxes with pine cones, and also those bars are nasty,” he said with a laugh.

“Well I’m happy about everything that we were able to get yesterday, but what are they doing out there?” I asked looking through the window.

“They are trying to figure out the best place to store all of the meat that came into our possession. Their deer were both a good size and once they were butchered there was a great deal of meat, not to add to the rabbits, squirrels, and the turkey,” he said looking out the window with me.

“Do they know about the cellar that dad put under the pump shed?”I asked looking at him.

“I’m assuming not. I totally forgot until you mentioned something,” he said looking at me.

“That would be the perfect place to store anything that we can, and some of the non-perishables,” I said drinking my milk.

“You want me to go tell them that you figured out our storage issue?” he asked with a small laugh.

“Yeah sure tell them to come here,” I said laughing. Max walked outside and I watched as he told them I found a place to store our now bursting supplies. They all headed for the cabin and walked in.

“How is it that every time we have a dilemma you are the one who solves it with minimal effort?” Aaron said rubbing his temples.

“Well it’s plain and simple,” I said looking at him,”I’m just smarter than you,” I said with a laugh. Everyone laughed and he just rolled his eyes.

“What's your solution Soph?” Sasha asked.

“Under the pump house, there is a cellar about as big the kitchen. There should be shelves in there if they haven’t rotted with age. Our dad built it when he used to come stay up here for months after our mom died. I only just remembered it today,” I said looking at them with a smile on my face.

“You’re kidding me, there’s a cellar too?” Meagan asked looking in awe. “Geez, I take back everything I thought about your dad. He’s a freaking genius. It is almost like he knew this was going to happen,” she said looking around the room.

I wasn’t going to pretend like her comment didn’t hurt a bit. My dad was known to be a bit off. Some people in town called him crazy, especially after our mom died and he disappeared for three months. He always seemed to be preparing for something, even if he didn’t know what it was. That is what made him a great survivalist. He adapted. There is no doubt in my mind that he is still alive.

“Yes Mr. Porter was a genius, now Max can you show us where this cellar is so we can start moving things into it?” Aaron asked.

“Yeah sure follow me,” he said leading the troop out. Everyone left, except Trevor.

“I know you well enough to know that Meagan’s comment hurt you.I know you know she didn’t mean anything by it,” he said coming and rubbing my shoulders.

“I know she didn’t, but is my dad crazy? I don’t mean the bad kind, I mean the good kind,” I asked him.

“How do you mean?” he asked.

“He built this place to last. He made sure to only show this place to people he trusted, he didn’t want us to tell a bunch of people about it. After all these years I was just thinking he really just wanted to be the supreme survivalist, but what if that isn’t true? What if on some level my dad knew that one day we would need to survive here?” I asked him with tears pricking at the edge of my eyes.

“I don’t know what to say, Soph. Both of those could be possible, or it can be something totally different. The only one who knows the answer to that question is your dad. It is best not to dwell on it. Now would you like help up to the bedroom so you can take a nap?” he said stroking my hair.

“Why do I need to go take a nap? I literally woke up a while ago,” I asked relieved that the previous conversation was over for the time being.

“Because Meagan said to rest and I can tell by looking at our eyes you are tired,” he answered. I did still feel tired. I nodded and he picked me up. My thigh was pressed up against him which caused me to wince.

“I’m sorry am I hurting you?” he said in a concerned tone. I shook my head. He walked out of the kitchen and headed up the stairs. It only took him a few minutes to get there, but it felt much longer with the pain. He put me down right outside the door and opened it.