Grimacing, I leaned into the walking stick as I moved to gather what I needed to make biscuits.
This was stupid. I should be the one wandering through the snowy forest, looking for dry firewood.
Not that I thought Lana should be the one cooking since she was a woman. I just didn’t like the idea of her having to slug through the snow, hauling heavy firewood. On a normal day, I wouldn’t even break a sweat doing it.
Annoyed at myself all over again for my stupidity yesterday, I tossed my stick down in disgust as I sank to the ground near the fire after retrieving the biscuit ingredients.
Scowling at the bag of biscuit mix, I put a small cast-iron pan on the fire, then added water to it and zipped it shut, beforekneading it through the plastic. After I had it mixed up, I took a little butter from the jar I packed and plopped it onto the pan I had heating on the fire. Once that melted, I cut one corner off the bag with my knife and squeezed some of the batter through the hole onto the pan. It sizzled, butter bubbling up around the edges of the batter.
I made a handful of biscuits before scuffling outside and a soft, feminine curse carried into the shelter on the wind.
Flipping the last biscuit, I glanced up as Lana appeared in the cave’s entrance.
“You will not believe what I found.”
“Oh? What did you find?”
She marched over to the stack of firewood and dropped the poles, then turned to me, pulling a hank of rope off her shoulder. “So, I decided to check the ground around the camp before I came back for anything we could use. I found this”—she shook the rope—“but I also found their firepit.”
I frowned, scanning her person. She didn’t have any more wood on her. Before I could ask any questions, she continued.
“There was very little snow on it. I don’t think the camp was abandoned until sometime early this morning.”
My gaze sharpened, and I automatically looked past her into the woods. “Did you see anyone?”
She shook her head as she walked over to me. “No. And no signs of anyone walking through the snow, either. I think they probably left right before the snow started. Where they went, however, I have no idea.” She sank to the ground and tugged off her gloves. “Trust me, though. My head was on a swivel after that discovery. If they followed me, well, they’re an expert at tracking, because I didn’t see or hear anyone.”
That wasn’t the only way someone could follow her. “Did you cover your tracks?”
She froze, then her shoulders fell. “No.” She sighed. “Sorry. I didn’t even think about it. And honestly, I’m not sure how I could have, anyway. I dragged those poles back, so they left deep gouges in the snow.”
Once more, I eyed the forest beyond our shelter. “We’ll just need to stay vigilant. Maybe set up an early detection system or something?”
“Early detection? With what?”
I lifted a corner of the biscuit to check the bottom. It was done. Carefully, I pulled it off the fire and onto the plate with the others. “We can rig a few saplings to spring up and let some rocks or logs loose. The sound of them falling would give us enough warning to be prepared for an intruder.” We should have done that already, anyway. I’d been too tired and in too much pain last night to think straight, though.
“You’ll have to show me how.”
I nodded once. “We’ll work on it after we eat. Take off that wet coat and get your utensils.”
While she did that, I split the food between us.
The food didn’t last long. In minutes, we’d polished off our plates. I could have eaten another helping, but we needed to ration what we had, just in case we were here longer than planned.
“Thank you for breakfast.” Lana stood, plate in hand.
“You’re welcome.”
“I’ll do the dishes.” She pointed to my plate, then held out her hand.
“Oh.” I handed it over. “Thank you.”
“You cooked. I’ll clean.” Flashing a quick smile, she walked out of the shelter to scrub the food remnants off with a handful of snow.
Pushing to my feet, I grabbed my stick and hobbled over to my backpack for the satellite phone. I wanted to check in with Walker.
Powering up the device, I punched in his number as Lana returned.
