"Alright... Ladies and grandpas first," Mark said while extending his right arm in front of him as if expressing that he wanted the old man to lead the way.
"Tsk, young people these days, they don't even call a person by his name anymore, old man this, grampa that, Tsk, I have a name you know?" said the old man, walking ahead while leaving the camp. "Its Samuel, Samuel! Ok?" whimpered the old man.
"Ok gramps, I got it," Mark said, almost making the old man fall in his tracks when he called him old man once again, but he said nothing and just kept walking.
The forest was not far from the camp, but since the two did not know each other very well, they did not speak anymore, only when reaching the trees that Mark asked, "Do you know how to hunt gramps?"
The old man scratched his bald head and, as if trying to find the correct words, said, "I used to hunt when I was young, but that was a long time ago, but I still know a few tricks... follow my lead ok?"
Mark smiled softly and decided to see what the old man knew about hunting before coming to conclusions. After all, almost every old man knew something about hunting.
'Maybe it's a prerequisite for becoming old. It's like, do you want to live another ten years? You need to learn how to hunt, and go on a cruise,' Mark thought but refrained from saying anything aloud. Because one thing that Mark learned with his own grampas was that old people held grunges, and for a very long time.
"Did you already when on a cruise before the apocalypse?" Mark asked by passing while both of them walked among the trees. The current place was still on the border of the forest and they would never catch anything there.
"I went once, but it rained the entire trip. Why?" asked the old man, a bit puzzled by the sudden question out of context.
"Nothing, just came to mind," Mark said, controlling himself to no laugh.
"Ok.... now let's talk less, ok? The creak is just ahead, let's see if we can find a good spot." said the old man pointing with his nose toward a few bushes and Mark nodded in response and both of them bended their backs while slowly approaching the bushes.
Mark carefully removed a few leaves in front of him and saw the small creek that barely had any water running on it with a few birds chirping on the water, just as Mark thought he was getting lucky he heard the old man changing his rifle to single shot mode and quickly put his hand over the rifle.
The old man looked at Mark, puzzled by the sudden interruption, and saw Mark shaking his head as if saying for him to not take the shot.
Seeing that the old man was not understanding what was happening, Mark came closer to him and said in a low voice, "Not that crow, I know that one. The one with silver talons."
"What? Why?" asked the old man puzzled, but seeing the resolute expression on Mark's face, he gave up. "Ok, I will not shoot that one, satisfied?"
Mark nodded but was not sure what to do himself. He needed to hunt, and he could not always stay there to protect the little bird, even if he was, was it even correct to not kill it? After all, he needed to eat.
~sigh~
Mark sighed. He could not do it, not a crow. Not that one.
"Don't just shoot any animal. First, we need to be sure it has abilities, otherwise we will scare all the animals around, Ok?" Mark said in a low voice.
The old man nodded, and started scanning the birds on the creek, in hopes he could find anything weird on them. Mark did the same, but found nothing unusual about the rest of the birds. All normal small birds that you could find in any kind of place.
But thinking again... Mark remembered about something very important about birds... more exactly, how they were born. "The fucking eggs!" said Mark while grabbing the old man by the collar and bringing it closer to him.
"What now?!!! What Eggs!" said the old man, almost falling on the ground because Mark set him off balance because he was crouching with only one knee on the ground.
"Every animal born in the last year has mutations... Every single one of them. We just need to find eggs! Eggs!" Mark said a bit euphoric because he didn't think about this until now, only when he saw the birds drinking water, he remembered about the eggs.
"Will the eggs work? I mean... they are eggs... not fully born?" asked the old man.
"I'm not sure either, but let's try. The creek here barely has any water... so.. we will not be able to catch fish, apart from birds. What more this small forest can have?"
"Small?" asked the old man, puzzled once again, "Ahh... I see.. You think this is a small forest because from above the hill it looks thin, right? No, my young man... This forest spans across the entire west side of Canada.... It's called... Great Bear something..."
"Are you sure, old man? I mean.... I'm not from here... but the forest looks small from outside," Mark said.
"Trust this old man for once, ok? I grew up in Canada. I even saw a bear in this forest when I was a kid, what you saw from the hill it's the tip of the forest, it has several small and big forests connecting each other, its like a giant puzzle, people usually get lost in this forest when hunting"
Mark once again felt stupid for doubting Frank's plans. Of course, he would not bring them to nowhere, and now it made a lot more sense to him why the west side of Canada was abandoned.
Mark felt a chill on his spine thinking about how many people were left behind to fight for their lives, without support from the union, having to rely only on luck.