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they could do it once they could do it again and learn to survive in these mountains even when the supplies they'd brought were gone.
    His cousin left the innards where they were for the moment and got Trev's help in rigging a pair of ropes tied to the ends of a sturdy stick, to hang the deer from a nearby leaning tree by its back feet with the stick keeping them spread. With some effort they managed to get the job done, then Lewis retrieved his knife and frowned at the hanging carcass. “I've seen people skin and quarter a buck in under fifteen minutes. Let's see if I can do it in a half hour.”
    That seemed impossible to Trev, but he watched in admiration as his cousin clumsily but with purpose cut the hide along the legs and then peeled it off in one piece, leaving the meat behind. He hung the skin from the tree, then had Trev spread the tarp as he began quartering the deer.
    Trev had thought this part, at least, would be messy and difficult, but as he watched his cousin cut free the shoulders and joint the meat, then get to work on the back straps, tenderloins, and ribs, and finally cut free the hams and joint them as well, it all seemed to go smoothly.
    “You got all that from watching videos?” he asked incredulously.
    Lewis smiled as he set the last ham on the tarp. All that was left hanging was the ribs and hips with a few scraps of meat, sinew, and cartilage, and the intact neck and head. In a pile with the innards were the discarded lower legs and hooves. “It helps to have a sharp knife and know exactly what you're doing. Copying what I saw seemed to work pretty good.”
    “Think you managed it in fifteen minutes?” Trev asked. He'd been so intent on the job that he hadn't really noticed the passage of time.
    “How should I know?” His cousin chuckled and motioned to the meat piled on the tarp. “Come on, let's get this packed in snow in the icehouse. Then we can gather up the rest and toss it off the cliff.”
    Trev glanced at the hanging carcass. “What about the meat on the neck?” There wasn't much, but there was some.
    Lewis hesitated. “Not sure,” he admitted. “In the videos it's usually kept intact to mount, or just discarded.”
    Fair enough. Trev grabbed one end of the tarp as his cousin grabbed the other, and together they carried it towards the icehouse.
    * * * * *
    Their first day on the mountain and they'd already bagged a buck and caught five fish. Trev wasn't sure whether to credit that to incredible good luck, divine providence, or the fact that with the lack of people able to get up here the fish and game were more plentiful. Maybe all three.
    What he did know was that he couldn't believe all the refugees starving in the valleys to the east and west weren't coming up here to enjoy the same bounty. Then again most of them probably didn't have the equipment or shelter to make it work the way he and his cousin were.
    After they'd tossed the rest of the carcass and washed up it was still sunny and fairly warm outside, so while Lewis scraped the hide to prepare it for curing Trev got a fire going in the old pit they'd used when a stove hadn't been available. Once it was crackling merrily, not smoking much with the dry wood he used, he cut strips from one of the shoulders and seasoned them with a rub made from the spices Lewis had brought, then got out the skewers they used to use for marshmallow and hotdogs years ago. The skewers were beneath his cousin's cot with all the other stuff they'd had in the lean-to, and after sitting them in the fire to sterilize them he skewered the strips and got them cooking over the coals.
    The smell was enough to lure his cousin away from his work and he came over, staring at the searing venison in anticipation. As soon as it looked done they were quick to pull off the skewers and dig in, tearing into the hot meat with their teeth and burning their mouths on the first few bites. Trev didn't think he'd ever had anything as delicious. Not in his entire