“Are you talking to squirrels again Kat?,” I asked as we returned. “Yes, he’s over there eating a piece of bread I gave him,” said Kat. Sure enough, there he was eating happily, until the cats spotted him. Meow,meow!=Squirrel!, they both said and zoom, the chase was on! “Hmm, looks like they will get stuck up a tree again,” I said sighing. But soon Kat had some soup and crackers ready for us and that brought the cats down in a hurry. They liked that chicken noodle soup, even though it didn’t have any chicken. “It won’t be very filling,” said Kat, “but it will be helpful anyway.” The cats added some of their dry food to the soup which made it even better they said.

I looked. So I tried it. “Hey, that’s really not so bad,” I said and added a bit more. “Let me try that,” said Kat, and she agreed it was quite good. We set up our little tent before it got too dark and managed to fall asleep very quickly with the sound of the wind through the pines relaxing us. The night passed too quickly though and the sun was just starting to peek over the distant horizon when I woke up. I figured those people following us are likely still asleep, so I sent the cats to check them out a bit more thoroughly. Kat was up by the time they returned and gave their report. Meow,meow.=They still sleep, one have gun with strange big round thing on top. There is one woman, 2 men. Meow.=Yep, each have backpack. They have lots weapons, including these boom boom eggs. They each had brought back a grenade.

“Are they planning to blow us up with grenades?”, asked Kat. “Well, most likely just to scare us I think,” said I, “but who knows what they have in mind. But that gun with the round thing, that’s how they listen to us from far away. So they know we are heading to that lake with the islands and have likely told their friends about it.” “So, what now?”, asked Kat. “A slight change in plans,” I said, “and this is what we will do.” I then told them all what I had in mind. After a quick breakfast of oatmeal, and some blueberries I found, we packed up and went on our way. We kept heading down towards that lake and had to walk through very thick underbrush for the first 2 hours.

Finally it opened up again to nice granite hills and pines. “That looks like a perfect spot to rest for a while,” I said. So we hid in this area behind some nice large boulders until those people following us showed up. “That was hard walking,” said the woman just as we jumped out from behind the rocks with our guns out. The cats ran over to the other side of them and got ready. “Who are you?”, I asked the woman. “If you think I’m going to tell you anything, forget it!,” she growled in return. I told them to toss their guns over by the boulders and drop their backpacks beside them. Then I told them to move over to another spot and remove their hiking boots and socks, which they did.

We already had guns from the last 2 guys so I just smashed these, except the hand guns which I kept. I did take their ammunition for the other guns though. Then I told them to turn around and gave them a good knock to put them out for a while. I then shot their phones so they can’t call for help. Meow,meow.=Maybe they have tracker device on them. “That’s okay,” I said, “we don’t want to make things too difficult for them.” I put the backpacks together, with the grenades and…boom! “Taking their boots and socks is one thing, but taking their jeans too?”, asked Kat laughing. “It will definitely slow them down,” I said. The cats giggled.

It was a long day, our legs were definitely not used to this much bush hiking. “How much farther do you think it is Steve?”, asked Kat rather tired. “Probably another 5 miles,” I said, “but I only want to make it to that ridge over there.” Kat just looked and said, “I don’t think I can make it that far today Steve.” Looking at her told me she really was too tired to go on. “We’ll stop just up this hill over here,” I said to her. “I can make it that far,” she said with a tired smile. I set up our tent while Kat made some coffee. Meow,meow.=Not like this spot, danger here. Meow.=Yep, very bad, shouldn’t stay here.

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.