14 Traps

In the end Mark decided to wait more, even craving to leave the hole, he thought was better to be sure that the beasts were not around, and after a few more hours passed, Mark slowly but steadily started to raise the rock above him.

Using his back to push the rock above him, he quickly opened a gap between the ground and the rock, so he could see the surroundings.

The sun's rays entered his view almost blinding him, but he was happy, after an entire night inside that hole, any warmth even if little was precious.

'I don't see beasts nor any damage on the trees around, it must be safe to leave' thought Mark already pushing the rock up using all the strength he could muster, once a gap enough for him to pass was made he grabbed the same stick he used yesterday and put between the rock and the ground.

Mark crawled out of the hole, and quickly grabbed his rifle. It was better to be prepared for any 'lucky' encounter with the beasts, but after a few minutes and seeing nothing happened, Mark felt more at ease.

All that Mark wanted to do right now was to lay above a rock and sunbath to get some warmth, but he knew he couldn't do it, it was too risky and a wyvern could easily spot him on the open, 'I need to check the battle' thought Mark, but soon that thought was crossed out of his mind, 'too much risk to take now, I will go there tomorrow'

Mark's situation was extremely complicated right now, because in his backpack he had only one meal remaining. It was his emergency meal, a military ration that he brought before coming to the mission, he also had only one bottle of water.

Not only that, but Mark was in the middle between the next military base and the previous one, if he wanted to go to any of them it would take 2 days using a vehicle, if he went on foot it would take probably a week or more.

That's why he needed to go and scavenger the battle, to see if he could find any supplies that were not destroyed by the beasts.

Mark knew it would be extremely hard to survive the next days, but he also knew that eventually the army would send another mission, because the resources left behind, especially the coal and the guns, were way too important for the other bases to be left behind. It was a matter of time until the other bases noticed the failure of the mission.

'Two days until they notice the failure, one or two days to prepare another mission and two more days of travel. That leaves a gap of 4 to 6 or maybe 7 days until the next fleet comes here.'

Thinking about that, Mark knew he needed to survive alone in the woods for at least seven days, he knew the army would prioritize the retrieval of what was left behind, but he also knew that was hard to prepare a mission of that size quickly.

'I have a meal for today, and water too. The problem is tomorrow,' thought Mark, while scouting the surroundings of his 'hole', he was searching for any signal left behind by beasts, if they passed close to his 'hole', they would leave scratches on the trees or a trail on the ground, especially the heavier beasts like trolls.

'I really hope that all the runners were killed,' thought Mark, while putting his hand on a tree that had a scratch on it. 'By the cut and color, it must have been a bear, and it's from a few days ago.'

Mark thanked his father in his mind for always teaching him things about hunting since he was a child. 'If he was alive, he would be a king in this new era of hunting mutated animals,' thought Mark, because he knew that his knowledge was very shallow compared to his father.

...

Time passed and, not seeing any signs of beasts, Mark went back to his 'hole' and eat half of the military ration he had, and drank a bit of water. The military ration was akin to a few cereal bars but a bit more wet, the taste was another matter, any cereal bar was gold compared to the taste of cereal bars made by the army, but it was a complete meal with everything that Mark needed to survive.

Once he finished eating, he packed everything again inside his backpack and put on his back, Mark learned the harder way to always carry his backpack with him.

'I should start to prepare a few traps,' thought Mark.

He knew that he could go to the trucks to find food, but he could not depend on it, it was better to be prepared for the worst, thus, Mark began to search for material for traps in the woods.

There were several types of traps that Mark could make in a forest like this, but knowing how to make a trap and that trap been effective was another matter.

He still remembered the first time he made one. 'That trap was so lame', the trap itself was way too weak for the animals, it was a rabbit trap, but the rabbit just forced his way out of the trap and Mark and his father found the trap dismantled on the next day, the worst was that his father knew the trap was not made well, but even so, let Mark, a kid, see for his own eyes the result of not working hard.

'I guess he was right in the end, because I still remember that day until now,' thought Mark, shaking his head while assembling a few sticks and using the rest of the bandage he had as a rope.

It was a 'snares' type of trap but also called a cable trap. It was the most common type of trap, and originally used to catch beavers, but Mark learned with his father that he could adapt it to catch rabbits and small rodents on a forest, the only difference was that it used a leverage to catch the animal, usually a small tree or a flexible branch of one, once the animal triggered the trap the small tree would be released and the rope around the animal's neck would quickly strangle it.

'All ready, now I need to wait,' said Mark, putting on a small piece of one of his remaining military rations.