"Come, come, we have fire..."
Ning Shu moved the bonfire in front of Lu Zhe and Tang Xiaoguo and began adding firewood.
Lu Zhe praised: "Good job, squad leader!"
Ning Shu smiled proudly: "Pretty awesome, right?"
"Have some water first."
Ning Shu wiped away her sweat and drank half a bottle of water in big gulps.
It was also at this time that Lu Zhe noticed some blood stains smeared on the water bottle, probably from Ning Shu's scraped palms after all that friction from the bow drill.
She rested for a while to catch her breath, then picked up a type 30 commando dagger: "You guys wait here, I need to chop some more firewood, or we won't have enough for the night."
Lu Zhe knew how tiring using a bow drill was, when he tried it himself for the first time his arms nearly broke off, even though the wood in the woods was a little better. Ning Shu's stamina was pretty much depleted.
"Xiaoguo is feeling a little better now, squad leader should rest first, leave the rest to me."
Tang Xiaoguo also saw the toll Ning Shu's fire starting took on her, and said: "Squad leader, keep me company..."
Ning Shu really had no energy left, so she nodded: "Alright then, Lu Zhe, be careful!"
"Remember, don't move, but stay awake. Shout if you need anything, I won't go far."
Ning Shu gave an "OK" hand sign: "Got it."
Lu Zhe took the type 30 commando dagger and searched around nearby, collecting a large bundle of firewood rather quickly, as there were many trees in the woods.
It was also at this time that he took a quick look around the cliff top.
He realized the terrain here was completely different from the foot of the mountain!
The ground was strewn with rocks that had tumbled down from the mountainside, fallen leaves, and wild ferns. The trees were gnarled and the bushes thorny.
If the foot of the mountain was like a tropical rainforest, this was more like a subtropical woodland.
As night fell, the sea breeze howled through the woods like ghosts.
Suddenly, a distant beastly "whoop..." cried out, sending chills down their spines.
Lu Zhe hurried back with an armful of branches.
Ning Shu said: "Lu Zhe, did you hear that, what was it?"
Tang Xiaoguo asserted: "I suspect goblins?"
"Certainly not."
Lu Zhe put down the firewood: "It was likely some kind of feline, but don't worry, felines on this island won't be very large. Plus we have fire, it won't risk attacking us."
He then smiled: "Even if it comes, it'll just provide us some extra protein."
Lu Zhe's confidence reassured the girls. What's a little cat to a man who could take down a giant bear?
Next, Lu Zhe placed a tuft of Selaginella moellendorffii in the fire to roast.
"Your hands are scraped up right?"
Ning Shu pursed her lips: "No big deal..."
"The ash from this plant can treat wounds, I'll apply some later."
"It's really called 'back from the dead' grass?"
"That's just a common name, the scientific name is Selaginella moellendorffii, it grows on cliffs and is found in temperate regions, but also in tropical places like the Philippines. It has some medicinal value, it can stop bleeding."
"I see..."
Soon, Lu Zhe took out the cooled medicinal ash, grabbed Ning Shu's hand!
Indeed her palms had several scrapes, feeling a little distressed.
He rinsed it clean with water, sprinkled on the ash. With no extra cloth, he ripped some strips off his tank top to wrap her hands.
"What's the plan going forward?"
"The wind is quite strong near the cliff, the woods are dangerous, we need some kind of shelter to make it through the night. We can figure things out tomorrow."
Ning Shu said: "When I was making the hand drill earlier I also surveyed the area. The branches here are too flimsy, either too thin or too short, or not hard enough. Barely enough for firewood, but won't work for building a shelter."
Lu Zhe nodded, he knew Ning Shu was right. The trees here grew too gnarled, hard to find suitable branches for building shelter.
Lu Zhe thought for a moment: "Then we won't use branches. There are plenty of rocks here, we can use those and leaves!"
He looked at the darkening sky: "Let's gather some rocks while we can still see, we'll build a semicircular wall here to block the wind."
"Sounds good, be careful."
Lu Zhe searched around for rocks nearby, while Ning Shu slowly constructed the wall. After half an hour, most of the nearby rocks were picked clean, and they built a one meter high semi-circular stone wall, just big enough for the three to huddle inside.
There were still gaps, but no matter!
They hacked off some branches and leaves to pile against the back of the wall, blocking much more wind.
After a period of busy work, another half hour went by, and the sky was now completely dark.
The woods seemed increasingly eerie.
Finally settled in.
"How are you holding up, Xiaoguo?"
"I'm okay, just some tightness in my chest, feeling a little fatigued."
"Whatever you do, don't sleep, I'm telling you."
"Then we gotta do something to keep alert!"
"No, you can't move around."
"So no sleep, no movement?"
"That's right."
"Then we can only play snake."
"Hold on, let's take stock of our supplies first, and plan our next steps."
"That works too."
"My backpack is here. For tools we only have the commando dagger.
Left the machete and other gear for Sister Bing and them.
Considering we may have to spend the night out, brought the aluminum lunchboxes too, inside is some pork jerky, banana jerky, and bamboo shoots, so food shouldn't be a worry. Should we eat something now?"
Tang Xiaoguo shook her head: "I can't eat."
Ning Shu said: "I'll have some jerky."
"We have three bottles of drinking water left. It just rained, shouldn't be hard to find fresh water in the woods, so water is covered.
As for salt intake.
The pork contains some salt, so a couple days without shouldn't be an issue, but lack of salt long term will cause problems.
Then there's the cell phone.
Not sure if remaining battery will last til morning on standby, but we have the charger cable, maybe we can find a fruit to charge with.
We also have some rope, two plastic bags, matches, bamboo skewers and other supplies.
For survival purposes we should be good."
Ning Shu nodded: "Better off than when we first landed on the island."
Lu Zhe thought for a moment: "Given Xiaoguo's condition, she probably can't get down the mountain tomorrow. We'll use this as base camp tomorrow, explore the woods a bit, and when Xiaoguo fully recovers we can climb to the highest point of the peak.
Ning Shu said: "If we don't head back for a few days, won't Sister Bing and them worry?"
"No, try to see it from their perspective. If you were Sister Bing or Qian Qian, and I didn't come back from the cliff on time, what would you do?"
The girls thought about it. Ning Shu considered: "Would be very worried, go wait by the cliff and call out for you."
"Might blow a whistle too."
"Right, if we hear them shouting or whistling, we'll know they've come, and can update them on our situation and next steps, so they won't fret."