Chapter 18.1

Sara sipped her coffee as she stood in the cabin doorway, looking up at the night sky. The storm system had finally passed, and the stars were shining brightly. Sara felt a calm contentment she had not experienced since the first night of her excursion.  She had not realized how on edge the storms had left her.

“Ted, are you going to be glad when I’m gone?” she asked into the darkness.

A snort and the rustling of leaves came from the side of the cabin. The buck stepped out of the darkness, frantically shaking his head. He stopped, lowered his head, and looked up at Sara as if to tell her he was sad about her leaving.

“I know,” Sara told the deer softly. “I will miss you too. There is something special about you. I can feel it in my gut.”

The deer let out a long huff and lay down at the base of a tree near the cabin. He shifted and wiggled a little until he got comfortable and bedded down. He never took his gaze off Sara as he did so. 

Sara smiled at the deer before looking back up at the stars. She was relieved to know that she would be able to hike out as soon as it was daylight. Sara and her husband, Kevin, had spoken earlier and confirmed he and Steve would be waiting for her at her car. Sara took another sip of her coffee before turning back to the deer.

“I’m going inside, Ted,” she said to the deer. “Have a good night.”

The deer huffed at her without so much as raising his head.

“I’m sorry, but I need to get some sleep, so I have the energy to hike back to my car and go home.”

The buck raised his head and snorted at her.

“Hey, don’t get upset. You can walk with me the entire way back to my car, as long as you don’t try to kill me again. I am also going to come back often and visit you. This place means a lot to me. Between this cabin sheltering me when I needed it, and after reading the journal Herschel wrote, I feel like I have a connection to it now.”

Sara watched the deer lower his head and settle back in for the night. She smiled and shook her head as she stepped back inside and secured the door for the night. She sat down at the table and looked around the cabin. 

Sara had packed most of her things into her backpack in preparation for leaving the cabin early in the morning. She was taking Herschel’s journal with her. That was not even a question in her mind. She was thinking about the personal items that belonged to the men. She knew she was not supposed to remove anything from the state forest, but she felt their families deserved at least something that had belonged to them. 

Sara went to the shelves and started to look through the wooden boxes. She gently removed the metal box that contained items belonging to Herschel’s Sarah and placed it on the table. She continued looking through the crates, taking out the leather pouch of spices and a few other things that had belonged to the men. 

Sara went back to the table and studied the items she had laid out before her. After reading the journal, each of the things on the table meant more than they had when she first saw them. After some thought, she unzipped her backpack and pulled out some of her clothing. She began to carefully wrap each item in the clothes and pack them in her bag. 

Sara sat at the table and finished her coffee as she continued to study every inch of the cabin. She had developed a strange fondness for the place and its previous inhabitants that she would never be able to explain.  It had been the shelter she had needed from the storms and to heal from her minor injuries. What she had learned about Herschel and Jim would be with her for the rest of her life. When she got home, it was going to be her mission to find their families and give them closure as to what happened to the two men, or at least as much closure as possible under the circumstances.

Sara sighed as she glanced at her sleeping bag. She was both exhausted and wide awake. She needed to go to sleep to be ready for the hike out in the morning. Unfortunately, the excitement of seeing her husband and going home was keeping her from sleeping. The cup of coffee in her hands was also not helping with the sleep she knew she needed.

Sara set her phone alarm to go off at 5:00 AM. She would have time to eat and leave the cabin right after sunrise. She plugged her phone into her last battery charging pack before she crawled into her sleeping bag. Even if she did not sleep, she would at least be able to rest before her trek out tomorrow morning.

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Sara awoke to her blaring alarm. She had left her phone on the table so she would be forced to get up to turn it off, and there would be no chance of her falling back to sleep. Squinting, she fumbled her way out of her sleeping bag and lurched to the table to shut off the alarm. After shutting it off, she stood rubbing her eyes in an attempt to wake up enough to heat the pot of water on her camp stove. 

Sara sighed as she turned on her stove and began heating the water in the old Dutch oven for the last time. She was taken aback by the nostalgia she was feeling from that one simple action. Sara was rarely sentimental and laughed at herself for being so this time. 

Sara sat in the glow of the chemical light hanging from the ceiling, reflecting on her time in the forest as she waited for the water to be warm enough to make coffee. Instead of cooking breakfast, she was going to have a few protein bars and some trail mix. She did not want to do anything that would keep her in the cabin any longer than necessary so that she could start the hike out as early as possible. 

When Sara could see the water steaming, she turned off her camp stove and carefully moved the pot of water over to sit on top of the antique cast iron stove where she had set up her camp stove.  She dipped her first cup of hot water and quickly made her coffee. She sipped from her cup and thought about how she would transport her camp stove if it had not cooked by the time she wanted to leave. Looking at her pack, she saw the whistle she always carried and the chain it was attached to. She could attach the chain to the stove in some way and use it as a handle. She leaned back in her chair and smiled at how easy that solution was.

A thud on the door made Sara jump, spilling her coffee on her hand. She cursed under her breath as she flicked the coffee off of it and wiped the remainder on her t-shirt. She set the cup down on the table and went to the door.

“Ted? Is that you?” Sara asked, trying not to laugh.

The deer replied with his customary snort from near the cabin door. 

Sara laughed as she went back to the table and picked up her cup, downed the contents, and dipped another cup of water in one continuous motion.  She dropped back into her chair at the table and quickly made another cup of coffee. She looked at the time on her phone and smiled. It was nearing sunrise. 

Sara took her coffee cup with her as she went to the door, untied it, and peeked out. The morning twilight was starting, and it filled her with joy. A rustle in the leaves beside the cabin made her look to see the buck patiently waiting for her. 

“Oh, Ted,” Sara sighed. “You are something else. I hope you’re ready to escort me out of this forest because I will be leaving here in about thirty minutes.”

The big buck huffed at Sara as he moved his head in a nodding motion. He stopped and looked Sara in the eyes, giving her an odd feeling that he understood far more than any average white-tail deer should. Without saying a word, Sara stepped back inside and secured the door.

Sara checked her camp stove to see if it had cooled sufficiently to pack. It was not cool enough to attach to her pack, but it had cooled enough to let her carry it using her makeshift handle until it was. She downed the rest of her coffee before picking up the old cast iron pot, taking it outside, and pouring out the water. The buck waiting outside the door tipped his head to the side as she emptied the water from the pot. Sara ignored him as she stepped back inside and secured the door again.

Sara sat at the table and ate the protein bars she had laid out the night before. She was anxious to get started and had considered eating as she went, then thought better of it. She needed to eat before she left, so she was ready for the grueling pace she was determined to keep so she could get out of the forest as quickly as possible. 

As she ate, Sara packed the few things she still had out of her pack, including fashioning the handle for her stove from her whistle chain. She strapped her solar charging panel to the top of her backpack and plugged in a battery pack, tucking it into a pocket on the side of the bag. 

Sara looked around the tiny room once more to make sure she had everything. The last things she needed to do were call her husband to let him know she was leaving the cabin and remove the paracord and chemical lightstick from the hook in the ceiling. Sara picked up her phone from the table and dialed her husband’s number. As she waited for him to answer, she reached up and removed the paracord from the hook and laid it and the lightstick on the table.

“Hello, my love!” Kevin answered his phone excitedly. “Are you ready to come home?”

Sara laughed, “Oh yes. I have everything packed, and I am ready to head out as soon as I hang up. My guard deer is patiently waiting for me outside to personally escort me out of the forest.”

“That deer worries me. Are you sure that he isn’t going to knock you off the side of a mountain again?” Kevin asked only half-jokingly.

“I’m sure,” Sara told him. “Alright, I am going to get off here so I can get started. We can talk on the drive home. Have you left yet?”

“We have. Since Steve knows where we are going, he’s driving,” Kevin answered.

“Perfect. I will see you soon. I love you, bye,” Sara said.

“I love you too, bye,” Kevin replied.

Sara hung up her phone and stuck it in the pocket of her shorts. She opened the door so the morning light could shine inside before wrapping the paracord around the lightstick and stuffing it into a pouch in her backpack. She let out a sigh as she hefted her pack onto her back and buckled it. She shifted it several times to make it more comfortable, feeling every injury she had received from her fall. 

“Oh, this is not going to be fun,” Sara groaned. She had not realized how sore and bruised she still was until she put her backpack on and fastened it. “Are you ready, Ted?” Sara called out the cabin door.

The buck stood beside a large tree in front of the cabin, waiting for her when she stepped out the door.

“Let me take a few pictures of the cabin, and then we are off, my friend,” Sara told the deer.

Sara took her phone from her pocket and began taking pictures of the cabin from all sides before taking more pictures with her camera. She wanted to make sure it was thoroughly documented with as many photos inside and out as possible. She put her camera away before looking at the pictures on her phone to ensure they were clear, then slipped it into her pocket once more and set off. 

After hiking for only about one hundred yards, Sara came to a circle of trees. Seeing it made her mind jump to the journal and the passage Herschel had written about where he wanted to inter Jim. Her heart skipped a beat as she walked into the circle and saw the low mound of rocks in the center. Her eyes filled with tears as she neared the burial site. Sara knelt beside the mound and placed her hand on it.

Sara spoke, barely above a whisper, “I will make sure that you are not forgotten, Jim. I will also make sure that you and Herschel are both at peace if I can.”

Sara stood and saw the buck waiting at the edge of the clearing, watching what was taking place. There was a strange expression in his eyes that seemed very human. Sara again took her phone from her pocket and took several pictures. She also marked her coordinates so she would be able to find the grave later and to ensure the state was aware it was there. The last picture she took before putting her phone away was of the deer and its peculiar expression.

“Alright, Ted, let’s go. We have a lot of ground to cover,” Sara told the deer as she continued her hike out of the forest.

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