Chapter 7 - "The Plan."
Alpha Date Year(002): 315,848
Day: 271/365
Day: 13
"Three days after the hounds attacked my camp, I woke up and started writing in my journal again. The reason I chose to do this today is that I needed to study the black rabbits instead of just hunting them, and if I can keep notes about the rabbits, maybe I can figure out how they were able to avoid the Mountain Hounds. It was also because now that the Mountain Hounds are hunting in the same area as me, I may end up getting hurt or killed, so…it is better to at least write down what has happened to me if I survive." We see J writing in his journal in the early morning, with his gear already prepped and ready for the day, and after writing that message in his journal, he heads out toward the clearing, the best place to watch for any black rabbits. As he walks through the woods on a cloudy day, we see how tense his steps are, and with his quick pace, he appears nervous about whether he is being stalked by the predators roaming the woods.
He then wanders until he sees the clearing and takes up the usual hiding spot as before. However, he doesn't set the snare and just waits for a black rabbit to pass by, hopefully revealing how it runs so fast. After a while, nothing passes him, and he becomes increasingly hungry over time, which makes him reconsider just watching the black rabbit pass by. Then he sees it, a black rabbit, passing right in front of him, and in his mind, he is only thinking about how hungry he is while preparing his knife to stab the rabbit straight through the abdomen. Other thoughts cross his mind, like how he needs to buy the coat and catch as many rabbits as he can to accomplish this task. But just as he pulls his knife and prepares to hunt the black rabbit, the rabbit twitches, startling him, but then he hears a rustling sound coming from the bushes on the far side of him.
Just then, an ominous silence falls, as if something dangerous is about to happen…and what emerges scares him greatly. A mountain hound jumps straight out of the bushes and lunges at the rabbit with its large teeth and strong paws. This scene fills J with fear for his life, freezing him in terror at the thought that the Mountain Hound could kill him just as quickly after catching the rabbit, but just as the black rabbit is beneath the Mountain Hound, it immediately jumps to the side and avoids being killed. This shocks J even more, and he continues to watch how the rabbit avoids the hound. He sees how fast it moves toward the bushes, using them as cover while running through them as the Mountain Hound chases it. At this time, J knows he needs to move if he wants to see how the rabbit avoids being caught by such a beast, so he forces himself to get up and starts running, this time toward the possible danger.
He witnesses just how nimble the black rabbit is and is amazed by how well it can avoid being captured by the hound. He sees the strange path the rabbit takes, bouncing between the trees and side-stepping the paths between them to slow down the hound. But once it reaches a downward slope that is then followed by a clearing, the rabbit begins to pick up speed faster and faster downhill. While the hound struggles to keep its balance going down, the rabbit goes straight and fast down the hill until it finally reaches a large cluster of brambles where it can hide. Once the Mountain Hound finally reaches the bushes, it tries to go through them, but the brambles are too rough and thorny, so it decides to give up the hunt and take another path. J watches this happen uphill as the hunt unfolds, following them until the downward clearing, where he can see everything.
This sighting gives him everything he needs, and after running away from the clearing and toward the borders of his new safe zone, he starts writing in his journal. "I SAW! The black rabbit ran so fast and avoided the Mountain Hound. But there was more…it didn't just go fast, it tricked it. The black rabbit went between the trees over and over again, running in a zig-zag pattern. It was so crazy how the rabbit was able to outrun the hound going downhill. Not only that, but it looked like the hound was having problems because it couldn't move as quickly as the rabbit and couldn't turn its body like the rabbit could. And the hound didn't seem like it could run down the hill as well as the rabbit…it looked like it was shaking." J continued to write in his journal about what he saw and his ideas about how he could face those predators in the future.
"The Mountain Hound seemed very strong compared to the rabbit still, and when it lunged at the rabbit, it was so quick…if it lunged at me, what would I do?! Well, let's see what the rabbit showed me. I know that the Mountain Hound can't turn very well, and it isn't as…what's the word…" He then starts looking once again through his dictionary for the word he saw before and starts writing a second time. "NIMBLE: quick and light in movement or action; agile." And apparently, it's because of the mountain. The rabbits use the mountain to go down it properly. They are so much more balanced, nimble, and 'dexterous'—yes, more 'dexterous' than even the black mountain hounds. They're terrifying, but they're also very hard to run against. Compared to the black rabbits, who themselves are so nimble that it's scary. They use the mountain's downhill most effectively. They utilize the downhills of the mountains better than the hounds. I've even seen the hound trip and fall while going downhill while chasing after the rabbits.
Research. It's a scientific term used to describe how to learn about something, usually to understand everything about it. I liked learning about this term because it helped me learn how to survive more methodically or in a more organized way. Again, all these words kept popping into my head. New, different types of knowledge and understanding. I learned so many things these past few days, but I mostly started learning about just how those monsters can do the amazing things that they do. However, there's a problem. I don't think I'm nearly as fast as the rabbits, and I think that because I'm too big compared to the rabbits, I won't be as effective going down the hills. And there's another problem. I can't seem to be as fast as them, but they also have a way of completely ruining that plan. If there are two of them, I won't be able to run away. This is because one can be at the end of the hill, and if they're already there, then all they need to do is chase me down. They're fast enough, and that's the problem. They are fast enough; meanwhile, I'm not fast at all compared to a rabbit. A rabbit can bounce and bound through trees and move again and again, and it is so nimble compared to what I can do. Meanwhile, I'm just trying to keep up with their speed, while trying to be as nimble only slows me down."
He began to think about just what he could do to fight against the Mountain Hounds. He was now thinking about just what he could do, given that from anyone's perspective, it seemed impossible for someone like him to fight against such fast and large predators. He only had his traps and his gear, like his knife, to defend himself or hunt. "Maybe…I can make my pit a bit bigger. Yeah…if I do that, then I could hunt the Mountain Hounds. They already seem to have fallen into the traps and probably discovered them by falling inside, like how the pit trap was disturbed when the rabbit was lying inside it; it's just that they just climb out before they reach the bottom. That was why the pit trap had claw marks inside and outside the pit!" This realization made him jump out of his seat, and he started to gather as much as he could for the coming days. He had a plan and was going to make sure that it would work.
He then started looking into his 'Basic Monster Survival' book for the materials that he needed to improve the pit. As he read the book about the improved and larger pit, he noticed how many more details he had missed in the description to improve the pit. He now understood what he needed to do to improve the pit properly. "The book stated, 'To catch prey of all types, the larger sticks need to be placed towards the center of the trap, and the smaller sticks around it must be spread evenly around the larger sticks. Also, to enlarge the pit, you must take out all sticks and start digging the pit from the ground up.' It's also recommended to use a shovel…I knew what a shovel was by using my dictionary and remembering the small tool my Uncle used to help set up camp one time, but the problem was I didn't know how to make one or use one, so at first I decided to just use my knife and hands like before. However, once I pulled out my knife, I started looking at the branches around me and thought that maybe I could craft one using the branches around me." J then started cutting off the branches around him, and even though his knife was feeling less and less sharp every time he cut one of those large branches, he knew that he needed to split the branches in half and down the middle if he was to make a shovel he could use properly.
He then finished splitting two sticks in half and down the middle to properly make the flat side for the shovel, took the straightest branch he could find, and shaved it down to be as smooth as possible. After wrapping the short sticks together as tightly as possible, the long stick in the center is placed to properly keep the flat side of the shovel. Then, after tightening the sticks down with the last bit of rope he had at camp, he made small cuts and shavings to the flat side, creating a small dent in the flat side to help with digging. J then began testing the shovel and tried digging in the ground in front of him, but there was a problem. "It's only scraping off the top layer of the ground…I need the shovel to dig into the ground if I'm going to use it to improve the pit." J then remembered the small shovel that his Uncle used, remembering that it was small, but it also had a sharp point. "Maybe I can sharpen the shovel to a point!" He then put the shovel over the fire and began burning the ends of the shovel, cutting down the burned ends to a point on both sides. It took him only 20 minutes to finish sharpening the shovel, and after hardening the edge to also be sharp, similar to what he did before when hardening the sticks for the pit.
J once again tested the improved shovel on the dirt in front of him, and after trying it a second time, he found that it worked so much better at digging holes, especially compared to when he used his knife and hands. "With this shovel, it won't take me a whole day to dig out a hole…I could do it in less than a day. Maybe I can also set more traps tomorrow, just using this." He then began fishing up his night work by hardening even more sticks of larger sizes for the pit; however, it was night by this time, and he needed to head to bed, so he only made about six or so large sticks for the pit. He was happy, though, feeling like he had an idea of what he could accomplish tomorrow. He then awoke the next day, this time instead of feeling tired or nervous, he felt happy that day, happy that he knew just what he was going to do that day, with a plan in mind for the coming day. J then prepped his gear, including his newly made shovel, and headed to the pit. As he walked into the woods and headed to the pit, he clutched his shovel, tightly holding it by his side, thinking that if he were to be attacked, then the shovel was the only thing he could use to defend himself. But even after going through the woods, he found no danger or signs that the Mountain Hounds were hunting that day. he even made it to the pit without so much as a rustling in the forest.
Wasting no time at all, J then went down the pit, using the sides to climb down slowly since he had no rope to get himself down easily. He made it to the side of the pit where the number of sharp sticks was low, and gained his footing at the bottom of the pit, he then started taking the sticks from the bottom of the pit, and once J was finished collecting all the sticks, he then took the shovel from his side and began digging out the side of the pit. Using the shovel, he was able to dig out the dense dirt and rocks beneath the ground, widening it outwards until the pit was as wide as he could make it. J then started to place the large sticks in the center of the pit, digging out a small ditch of displaced dirt to properly insert the sticks into the ground. J then thought, "Wow! I'm so glad that I was able to read the survival guide again and learn so much more than before." J finished inserting the large sticks into the ground and then started placing the smaller sticks, spreading them around the larger sticks evenly, as the survival guide described. Making sure that each stick was placed sparingly around the pit. Lastly, after making sure each part of the bottom of the pit was covered in sharp sticks, he began trying to climb out of the pit.
J wasn't able to simply press on the sides of the pit and climb out like before, and since he didn't have any rope left, he needed to be more methodical about how to get out of the pit, so he started gathering dirt towards the side of the hole. After gathering and pressing dirt to the side of the pit, J began climbing over it until he was halfway up the pit. Then, using his knife and a spare stick, J used the upward-slanted part of the pit, and he was able to climb up and out of the pit, although he was very dirty and tired after the pit was finished. J looked down and admired his work. With all the dirt on his clothes, he felt pretty exhausted, but he knew that he had done so much, since during that time, only an hour or so had passed, and it was still morning. All he needed to do was properly finish the pit. "If a Mountain Hound is going to fall in here and stay there, then I'll need to make sure it can't climb out like I could. The 'Basic Monster Survival' book mentioned that by carving out the sides of the pit, you can make sure that the animal can stay inside the pit." He then began smoothing out the sides of the pit, beginning at where he climbed out and throwing either outside the pit or inside the pit, where it would fall over the sticks, making the trap more dangerous. "The book said, 'It would increase the chances of infection, ' and infection meant that it could kill the animal quicker, and that was exactly what I needed."
After finally flattening out the sides of the cave, he still had plenty of time left in the day, so he decided to do something different, and walked away from the pit, after reaching a small clearing with no grass and a large flat ground, he then started digging another hole, smaller than the pit he improved before, but larger than its initial size. He was still able to dig out this hole in less than an hour, and after cutting up some small branches, he was able to climb slowly into the pit and begin setting up the trap. J was tired of climbing in and out of holes at this time and was now regretting not making any more rope beforehand to help him get out of the pits more easily. After he climbed into the trap, placed all the small sticks evenly and securely into the ground, and climbed out of the pit, he finished it up like before and made another proper trap. He now had two different pit traps on the same day and was able to hunt twice as well. J felt even more worn out than before, but he still needed to hunt for the day, so he set up his snare and waited for any chance of catching a rabbit. He was lucky one appeared during the afternoon, and he caught it using only the snare, but he still had questions even after capturing the rabbit. "What happens when I can't catch the rabbit with just the snare…I don't want to miss a rabbit and starve for the day."
He then started thinking about how he could improve his hunting with his snare, like he did with his pit. He thought this as he reached his camp for the day, deciding simply to turn in for the night, not wanting to hunt anymore, even though he hadn't gathered nearly enough monster cores to buy the coat he wanted from his uncle. This weighed on his mind, but he still just wanted to sleep. He was simply happy to prep his meal early for the day and check tomorrow to see if he had caught any more animals. In the back of his mind, he hoped that his improved pit would catch a Mountain Hound and that he could get a higher-quality monster core that could pay for the new coat, plus extra time in the cave during the winter. J's hopes were raised high; after all, he was able to accomplish so much in one day. After prepping his meal for that day, he ate his food and then slept for the rest of the day, feeling that everything was going according to his plans.