Encompassing Read Online Free PDF

Renfield’s body.  But then, what would he say?  He wondered.  “Hey all, I talked big brass into this mission, we came all the way out here.  The man killed himself and I wasted your time.  But hey, instead of hanging with your family and friends tonight you’re stuck out here.  Isn’t this a great boy’s night out?”  He smiled at the irony, and yet worried about the reality of how bad a mistake he had made.
    “We have supplies sir, but I suggest we live off of what’s provided by nature before we rely on those.” reported Officer Cavidge.   That statement made their reality strike deep in Brady.  This wasn’t a three-hour tour anymore.
    “OK, see what you can find.  Build a fire, if there’s food out here, we’ll want to cook it, no?” replied Brady.
    “Sir, we’ve already started looking.  It’s pretty sparse out here, ya know?”  Cavidge looks at Brady with a look that was representative of the entire team.  Then he turned and looked at the great expanse of sand and architecture around them.  Then he looks back at Detective Brady again, this time with some pity for the fool.
    “Cavidge, nature will provide, I’m sure of it!  Now please, just continue on.”  Just as Brady was finishing the sentence a torn rabbit fell from the sky at his feet.  With shock clear on his face, he turned to the rest of the officers and said, “See what I mean?”
    Cavidge, looking dumbfounded at Brady who begins to chuckle to himself.  The Brady picks up the rabbit and displays it to everyone around, “Well there must be a god up there somewhere smiling down upon us!”  Brady smiled for the first time that day and replied, “That’s what I’m counting on.”
    Cavidge looked at Brady with sympathy for his dilemma and thought, “How could anything get you out of this?”
    Brady looks back at Cavidge the way a man who is sentence to the noose looks at an old friend.  He simply grits his teeth and then asks the team. “One of you must know how to cook up rabbit stew, right?”
    Jacobs stands and says, “I do.  You gotta skin it first, then everyone should pee on the skin to help preserve it.  Then we…”
    Brady holds up a hand.  “Ok, so make the stew Jacobs.  We don’t need a speech on how the chef makes the meal, we just want to eat.”  Then Detective Brady looks at Jacobs, “Why would we preserve the skin?”
    Jacobs looks at Brady confused and replies, “Sir, it’s the desert.  It gets pretty cold out here at night.  We get enough of these and it’s a blanket, or mittens or something.”
    Brady’s first reaction is to be dismissive but then he asks, “How cold?”
    “Well sir, I don’t really know.  What I know I seen on the TV, but it seems it gets mighty cold for a place so dang hot.”  Jacobs can’t resist the involuntary reaction to his own sentence and wipes the sweat from his brow as he picks up the rabbit.  “The good news is, this didn’t come from no buzzard.  It’s a fresh kill so we can eat it.  If it was rotting, well, I’d reckon our stomachs wouldn’t handle it well.”
    Brady gets a semi-disgusted look on his face as he realizes that stepping down to rabbit stew was not as far a fall from grace as he initially thought.  Brady feels humbled as he stands and asks of his team, “Do we have a fire going yet?”  He hears miscellaneous, “Yes, sir’s.” and looks back at Jacobs.  “Besides water, what usually goes in rabbit stew?”
    “Well, depends on what you have on hand.  It all works as long as it’s got flavor.”  Jacobs replies.
    “Okay, Jacobs, there are MRE’s.  Find one you think would go well, but only one.  Use that as flavoring.  I don’t see many carrots nor celery popping out of the ground here.  Just make sure to add enough water that everyone gets a share.  That means chopping that thing into pretty small bits.  Understand?”
    “Yes, sir.”  Jacobs begins to think as he turns to the area where the rest of the