Morse had also brought the bows and arrows from the boat. Ryan took the bows, keeping one for himself, then passing the others out to Jak and Dean. J.B. was good in the brush, as well, but he wanted the Armorer on hand in case Elmore or Morse decided getting the hell out of the area was in their best interests.
Doc busied himself with scavenging the local flora and fauna to add to whatever supper Ryan, Jak and Dean were able to bring down. Self-heats hadn’t sounded good to anyone after they’d had them earlier in the day, and Ryan wanted something solid to put in Krysty’s stomach to keep her strength up.
The others, under Krysty’s and Mildred’s supervision, were put to work gathering firewood.
Satisfied, Ryan led Jak and Dean into the thick forest surrounding the river. The bow wasn’t his favorite weapon, but it allowed them to conserve the precious little ammo they had left and not announce their presence for miles.
Bud and Sandy had informed them that the local game included rabbits, quail, frogs and turkeys. Bears lived in the forest, as well, and a small type of mountain cat.
Ryan went naked except for the SIG-Sauer and panga belted around his lean hips, his boots, and the Steyr across his back. Mosquitoes were a problem, but Morse had a foul-smelling concoction in his kit that kept them away. After wearing dog shit for hours, the mosquito repellent was easy to put up with, although it left a greasy film that shone in the moonlight.
Jak and Dean were naked, as well, moving through the shadows like savages. Ryan was proud of his son; he was used to Jak not making any noise, but even Dean was soundless.
Less than five minutes into the brush, Ryan spotted a young tom turkey that probably dressed out near to fifteen pounds. The bird lurked in the shadows thirty feet away, only the bobbing of its head and the light band across its wings attracting Ryan’s attention. The one-eyed man squatted beside a tree and nocked an arrow, breathing shallowly as he steadied himself for the shot.
Before he could release the bowstring, an arrow plunged through the night and burst through the turkey’s head. The force of the shaft dragged the turkey’s head sideways, pinning it to the side of a nearby tree.
The turkey beat its wings as it died, making only tiny noises because the shaft evidently lodged in its throat as well. Other sudden movement erupted around the turkey as more birds ran through the brush and tried to take flight.
Marking the other archer’s probable location from the angle of the shot, Ryan loosed his shaft at a turkey hen leaping for a low-hanging branch. His arrow caught her in midflight, nailing one of her wings to her body. She screamed in pain as she fell, then flopped on the ground.
Dean slipped out of the shadows and squatted beside her to slit her throat with his knife, stilling her mournful cries. “Lot of noise, Dad,” he admonished. “Should have aimed for the head.”
Ryan grinned at his son, feeling proud. “I’ll try to remember that in the future.”
“Scare away the game,” Dean said, “and it’ll be hard feeding all those people.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Ryan strode out into the clearing and used the panga to cut strips of young bark from the trees.
They used the bark strips to tie the turkeys by the feet to branches above the ground, then cut their throats. It would allow the bodies to bleed out, and keep them from easy reach of other predators while they finished the hunt.
“There’s a lot of meat here,” Ryan said, meaning it as a compliment.
“Mebbe,” Dean said, “but if the hunting’s good, might as well make the most of it. Gonna be aboard ship for a while. Mebbe we can jerk some of the meat down in the kitchen, get it ready to travel.”
“That’s good thinking, Dean.” Ryan dropped a hand on the boy’s shoulder and they melted into the night again, two of the deadliest predators in the region.
A LITTLE OVER AN HOUR later, Ryan walked drag behind Jak and Dean, his hand hard around the Steyr. Four good-sized turkeys were slung over his shoulders. Their blood streamed down his body, but he didn’t care; it would wash off easily enough.