Preppers of the Apocalypse - Part 2: Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival Read Online Free PDF Page A

chest.
     
    The
animal took two tentative steps forward. Ash felt his pulse fire. He could
almost smell the sweat pouring from his armpits, and he felt it run across his
forehead.
     
    “Stop,
you bastard,” he said.
     
    The
animal took another few steps. It didn’t look like he was going to be able to
scare it away, and there was no way he was going to die in the middle of the
forest trying to having a stern conversation with a mountain lion. Ash slowly
brought his crossbow to eye level. He sighted the lion, filled his chest with
air to steady his aim.
     
    “Please
god, let me hit it,” he said.
     
    Despite
a lifetime as an atheist, this was the third prayer he’d said in less than
twenty four hours. He hadn’t converted, though. This was no religious
experience. This was just a scared guy trying to find some help in a world
steadily tumbling into shit. He envied the people who had found God and who
truly believed in him, because he knew that they would deal with the end of the
world better than most. Hell, some of them would even welcome it.
     
    He
checked his aim once more, brushed the trigger with his index finger, and then
pulled. There was a swishing sound, and then the lion gave a cry of pain that
was something between a growl and a squeal. The arrow had pierced its neck, and
the animal fell to its side and snapped the branches beneath it. It thrashed on
the floor for a few seconds, before becoming still.
     
    Ash
dropped the crossbow to his side. He stood in the forest for a second, his
brain struggling to catch up with what had happened. I actually hit it, he thought. I goddamn hit it.
     
    He
walked over to the lion and stood above it. Its eyes were like crystal now, the
life in them drained away. Its body was packed with muscle, and it looked like
a creature too powerful to have died by Ash’s hand. Suddenly he felt pity well
up in his chest. He almost wished he could rewind time and suck the arrow out
of its neck and back into the bow. It seemed like such a pointless death for a
mighty animal, and the whole thing was unjust. Ash had wandered into its
territory. It wasn’t as if Ash had been at home and the lion had broken into
his garden.
     
    Still.
It was either him, or me. What would happen to Georgia if I died? What about
Ellie and Chad?
     
    ***
     
    An
hour later, As Ash dragged the mountain lion out of the edge of the forest, Chad
got out of the pick-up truck. He stood and stared for a few seconds, wide-eyed
as if he couldn’t believe what he saw.
     
    “Is
that what I think it is?” he shouted.
     
    “You
just gonna stand there, or are you gonna help?”
     
    Ellie
scooched over the back seat and sat with her legs handing out of the vehicle.
     
    “Is
that a lion?”
     
    “You
goddamn legend,” shouted Chad, and ran over to help.
     
    Ash
and Chad pulled the lion over to the pick-up. Blood dribbled from the arrow
wound on its neck, and its coat was covered in mud from the forest floor. By
the time they let go of it, both men felt drained. Ash’s pulse finally settled
as the adrenaline left his body, and he felt like just flopping down to the
floor and closing his eyes for a few hours.
     
    “Can
we cook it?” asked Chad.
     
    “You
have to be careful,” said Ellie, legs swinging over the side of the seat. “My
dad was a weekend hunter. He had this rule; always cook what you kill. He shot
a mountain lion once, and he showed me how to cook it. Thing is, they carry
trinchinella, a parasite that will put you in the grave if you undercook the
meat. So you better roast the heck out of this thing before we eat it.”
     
    Chad
stood over the lion and stared at it in wonder.
     
    “Still,”
he said. “There’s a hell of a lot of meat on it.”
     
    Ellie
shook her head.
     
    “This
is a predator. What you’re looking at there is mostly muscle tissue. Might get
a day or two of food out of it though.”
     
    “Looks
like our MRE’s can take a rest,” said Ash. “I saw a stream in