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mind he though about how nice it would be to have some human company for a change and maybe even get to sleep in a real bed.
    Jessica looked up at the quickly darkening skyline. "Well it’s getting dark and it doesn't make much sense for you to stay out here in the cold. We have a nice warm fire, food and a bed you can sleep in. We've got to do something about that bear meat though, we're gonna lose it to the coyotes if we don't. Our cabin isn't far from here." All three of them were looking at the meat they had taken off the bear.
    Jacob thought of something his father had told him about a long time ago. Those old stories had come in useful more than once since all this began. Now it looked like they would again.
    "We can take some with us and put the rest in the stream. Weigh it down with rocks, the water will keep it cool and the smell out of the air. My dad told me stories about how they did that when they'd stay at the hunting camp when he was growing up." 
    That was a brilliant idea, Jessica wasn't sure why she hadn't though of doing that herself. It made perfect sense.
    "Okay, we'll do that. We better get a move on if we want to get back to the cabin before dark."
    The three of them quickly got to work. Emily brought the slabs of meat over while Jessica and Jacob got rocks to weigh them down. Darkness arrived, and by the time they finished up you could barely see ten feet in front of you. Jacob gathered his things and Jessica retrieved the .22 she had left in the woods.
    They were able to take one of the bear’s hindquarters with them. There was no talking as they worked their way through the forest. Jacob followed closely behind Jessica and Emily, not wanting them to get too far ahead. The forest was pitch black and made it nearly impossible to see where they were going. Luckily Jessica and Emily had made this trip enough they could easily navigate the path in the darkness. It wasn't long before they reached their cabin.
    Before they reached the door to the cabin Jessica handed Emily the .22. "Go inside and put this where it belongs, we're going to put the meat away."
    Emily nodded her head, took the gun and headed inside.
    Jessica turned towards Jacob who was carrying the hindquarter. "Come with me, I'll show you where we store our meat."
    Jessica grabbed a lantern that hung on the edge of the cabin and lit it. The soft white glow lighting up the area around them and enabling them to see where they were going. Jessica led him around the corner of the cabin and then came to a stop. Reaching down she grabbed a set of handles that stuck up out of the ground. Two doors swung upward when she pulled.
    "That's our fridge," She said as she grabbed the hindquarter and tossed it down into the hole.
    "Aren't you worried about it getting dirty?" He thought it was a bit unusual to just throw meat into a hole in the ground.
    Jessica laughed as she closed the doors up and slid a bolt through the handles. "Well it’s lined with plastic and there isn't anything else down there. The depth of the hole keeps anything we store in it cool for short periods of time. We've actually only used it once when I shot a deer earlier in the winter, but that meats all been used up. What we didn't eat right off we smoked so we could have it when we needed it."
    This woman seemed to know what she was doing and wasn't a stranger to the woods, at least from what he could tell.
    "It's just different I guess. I've never heard of anyone doing that before." He came from a family of hunters and never once could he remember hearing of anything like this.             
    "It's something my dad and uncles did when they used the camp a lot. I wouldn't have known about it otherwise. Let’s get inside and get something to eat."
    Jacob followed Jessica inside. The cabin wasn't huge and didn't have a ton of furnishings. It had a big queen size bed, a set of bunk beds and a dinner table with stools carved out of an old Oak tree. A few other random