Hunting

"T.B. When morning comes, we will gather what we need and begin our journey. Now, the most important thing we need to do is prepare a place to sleep. Lack of sleep will cause our strength and spirit to decline quickly. Sleep will help us recover our health soon. We can't go to find Ms. Layla Smith with an exhausted body and mind."

Anderson Jr. Seely told T.B. while T.B. was searching for something in the flickering firelight over the rubbles of the camp. Since their friendship established, Anderson didn't add pretext "Mr" before T.B.'s name anymore. He was tauch to be as a gentleman when he was a child.

Without waiting for T.B.'s reply, Anderson gathered the burning pieces of wood and put them together into a big fire. He picked up wooden sticks of different lengths and bent them on his knees to make them equal. He tied three wooden bars together with some fabrics he collected into a wooden tripod. He firmly planted each leg of the tripod into the ground. Another long wooden bar was placed on top of three tripods. Then, he covered two doormats over them to set up an A-shaped tent next to the fire.

He pulled together the scraps and remains of a burnt bed mattress, forming a dirty but warm bed under the tent. Then he crawled into that warm nest. In just a few minutes, his snoring sounded out, sometimes low, sometimes high like the sound of a trumpet before the battle.

T.B. nodded and smiled. Anderson was truly resilient and calm in the face of all the terrible things that happened. Nothing can dampen his spirit. The Inuit Eskimos have a respectful saying about those people: "as brave as an alpha wolf" The Alpha wolves are never afraid. They never change their expression when encountering fear. They never show anxiety about anything happening in their lives. They always steadfastly face challenges and rush into challenges without any hesitation. The alpha wolves are always strong support for the others and always be the first ones rushing into danger in their flock.

T.B. once witnessed one of those people. That is Sir. William Smith. Now, he's seeing the second one. He understood that Willam Smith was like that because of his life experiences. He gained the experience through business deals in war zones around the world. He also had this experience thanks to his age.

But for Anderson Jr. Seely, the qualities he possessed were due to the instincts of an Inuit Eskimo and the knowledge he held firmly in his head. Instincts are the best things in a person. Knowledge is the experiences that have been summarized, systematized, and synthesized into theories for teaching in the educational system. The knowledge that T.B. was also taught and trained at the safeguard-training schools that William Smith sent him to study. Instincts and knowledge will be integrated. Instincts create the premise and foundation for knowledge. And the knowledge consolidates and strengthens the instincts of an Inuit Eskimo. Those characters will help an Inupiat Eskimo overcome all difficulties in his life. This, by now, T.B. just realized.

T.B. quickly imitated what Anderson had just done. Sleep immediately came to him. He was too tired. Two young guys slept well next to the camp, or more accurately, what was left of the camp after a day filled with events that made both their bodies and minds exhausted.

—

The early morning clicks and clacks of bricks hitting each other woke Anderson up. Outside his tent, T.B. was digging for something in the rubble, where T.B.'s bedroom used to be. Anderson walked out. He realized that the necessary things and tools for a journey to find Layla Smith were arranged into categories right in front of the camp yard by T.B. already.

There were several items including several Columbia backpacks, The North Face climbing shoes, and clothes. There are 11 canned meats. Two bottles of drinking water. Some pills and medical bandages. Everything was partly burned and covered in black smoke.

The first thing Anderson did was finish a canned meat. Then he stripped off all the clothes on his body, including his underwear, shoes, and socks. He changed his clothes. New ones, although slightly shrunken by the heat, were still cleaner than the others he was wearing. Then he took the doormat, rolled up his dirty clothes, and put them on top of his Columbia backpack.

His Columbia backpack was in the best condition among the others. He picked out a few pairs of socks, and put the remaining 9 boxes of almost intact meat, a roll of toilet paper, which somehow miraculously did not burn, and all the medicine and medical bandages inside the backpack.

He gave T.B. a canned meat for breakfast as he climbed into the rubbles that used to be Layla Smith's room. He wanted to find her stainless steel cups. The stainless steel cup will be useful when boiling water and cooking food. He also found her baseball cap. He put that smoky cap on his head. The hat will be very useful under this Alaska weather. At least, he won't have to bare his head in the sunlight, snow, and rain.

He picked up a Leatherman Crater C33 multi-purpose folding knife and put it in the small outer compartment of the backpack. Two bottles of drinking water that were not burned at all were stuffed into the sides of the backpack. The roll of clothes was tied onto the backpack lid. He looked around. It seemed like something was missing that he couldn't remember at the moment.

"This is enough. T.B. We can be on our way now. What else are you looking for?"

"A lighter. I have to find my second lighter."

Anderson clapped to his forehead. Cooking at the camp was done by electricity and no one smokes so the lighter was rarely in the camp. The first T.B.'s lighter - Bic - was in the pocket of his 5.11 Tactical pants. He took off those wet clothes and replaced them with his The North Face clothes after bringing T.B. and the headless corpse to shore. His 5.11 Tactical pants were in the Toyota Hilux. And the Toyota Hilux was taken by a fake Hanta.

Walking in the forests of Alaska's ice and snow region or anywhere, at any time, it was impossible not to have a fire. The most effortless way to create fire is with a lighter or a magnesium bar.

"We can go now, Anderson."

T.B. tossed to Anderson a Zippo lighter made of brass hes found under the rubble where was his room before. The lighter that he used to make a fire when they were at the first rest stop. Anderson tried the lighter. A blue flame appeared. He closed the lid and stuffed the lighter into his pocket. He nodded to T.B.

The sky was bright. Both young men walked side by side. No one said a word. Both of them knew that they had to save every bit of their energy for the difficult tracing ahead. The search was with limited resources but their hearts were brave and their heads were resourceful.

The tire tracks were still intact on the ground from last night because the ground was still wet from yesterday's rains. These traces were redundant because they both knew they just needed to follow the only road out of the valley.

After walking for about 3 hours, Anderson was tired and felt hot and uncomfortable. It wasn't raining, but it was humid and uncomfortable. The backpack, which was light at first, now weighed heavily on his shoulders to the point of numbness. He glanced at his companion. T.B. still walks briskly. He was still breathing evenly. And Anderson began panting.

Hearing Anderson's heavy breathing next to him, T.B. smiled. The day he sat in the security room watching the video clip recording the scene of Anderson knocking Layla Smith down, he wanted to compete with him in the ring.

"But now, no need to compete with him anymore. After all, he is still just a fresh graduate and a genuine urban guy. He cannot be compared to people with field experience like me. But, in just a few years, if he maintains his current form, few people can surpass him." T.B. thought.

T.B. stopped. Anderson also stopped. T.B. took the Leatherman Crater C33 multi-purpose folding knife in the small outer compartment of Anderson's backpack, went to the edge of the forest, and cut two long pieces of the tree.

Anderson put his backpack on the ground, took out a bottle of water, took a sip, and gave it to T.B. when he went out of the edge of the forest. T.B. put two tree sticks on the ground, took a small sip of water, reached into his pants pocket, took out the canned meat that Anderson gave him in the morning, and sat down on a rock on the side of the road. He started eating a can of canned meat. T.B. did not invite Anderson to eat with him. As a tacit agreement between the two young men, the canned meat was each person's daily ration.

"Anderson. We will take a rest for a bit. But we won't stop here too long because our muscles will get cold. Our muscles will be cramped. Anderson. While walking, you should pay attention to maintaining a normal speed of walking pace. You need to take long and deep breaths, especially when climbing and descending hills." T.B. was eating his canned meat while talking.

"When climbing uphill, you should not walk straight. You should walk in cross-legged steps. You can find the support position by climbing on the rocks and trees. That will waste less energy. Take a straight and long branch of the tree that I have just cut to use as a walking stick. The tree stick will support you as a fulcrum. It can create a force for each step you walk."

"Thank you. T.B. I don't know those things."

"Because you don't have experience in traveling through cold and snowy mountains and forests of Alaska. When walking downhill, your body tends to rush forward by gravity and it is easy to fall. Therefore, the soles of your feet need to be placed at a suitable angle. Your upper body should be slightly bent over. For going down the slope, you should turn sideways to walk down. This will make it easier and prevent you from falling and hitting your face on the ground.

When climbing a mountain, you should remember that three points on your body must always touch the ground. The points are one hand and two feet or one foot and two hands. All of them must touch the ground. If only two points on your body touch the ground, such as two arms, or two legs, or one leg and one hand, there is not enough strength to keep your body steady."

"I see. T.B. Thank you."

Anderson grabbed the log and the water bottle. He thoughtfully looked at the gravel road stretching into the distance.

"T.B. Do you know the nearest Inupiat Eskimo village?" Anderson asked. "In the car on the way here, I didn't see a single Inuit village on the Google Map. I just saw the path we were on. The road extends to the shore of the Bering Strait. If you know the way to the nearest village, we can go there to find some vehicles to move faster. Because I'm afraid it will take us from 15 to 24 hours by this waking pace to get to the place where the Toyota Hilux ran out of fuel."

"There is no Inupiat Eskimo village nearby. The road you saw is the trading route of the Inupiat Eskimos a long time ago. Before the arrival of European people, Inupiat groups traded with each other across the Arctic and First Nations further south." T.B. replied. "The items that the Inupiat Eskimos traded included copper, iron, and other metals. Those materials were valuable for making tools. Inupiat groups also traded animal furs and tendons. These things were necessary to make fishing lines and clothes.

With the arrival of European people, the Inuit began to trade mainly in furs, including the fur of polar foxes. This kind of animal was not commonly hunted for its fur by the Inuit before they traded with European people. In return, the Inupiat Eskimos received guns and other tools that made their lives easier but also increased their dependence on the European people."

Silence. Both young men continued walking.

"How do you know that it will take us from 15 to 24 hours to get to the out-of-gasoline Toyota Hilux?" T.B. suddenly asked.

"Diesel. T.B. The fuel of this Toyota Hilux is diesel." Anderson corrected him. "Normally, when the fuel gauge comes to the red line, it means that the fuel in the tank will remain about 10 to 15% of the volume of the total fuel tank. The total fuel tank capacity of the Toyota Hilux is about 21 gallons. Thus, there will be about 2 to 3 gallons of diesel left.

The average fuel consumption of this pickup model is about 2 gallons per 62 miles. Therefore, the Toyota Hilux will travel from 62 to 90 miles until it completely runs out of fuel."

"Really? How come? Anderson."

"Our average walking pace is about 4 mph because of the weather and difficult road. I checked my watch already. Therefore, it will take us about 15 hours to 24 hours to get to the Toyota Hilux. That doesn't include the vacation time."

"Anderson. We have no other choice. But we just need 13 to 21 hours to get to the Toyota Hilux. You forgot to deduct 3 hours we were gone."