Magic Space: Struggling to Survive in the Apocalypse-Chapter 82: One Person’s Difficult Survival 6
That evening, Evelyn Ford lay in bed, Mina resting on the pillow beside her. Both of them, woman and squirrel, were staring intently at the tablet in Evelyn’s hands.
The tablet was playing one of the most popular suspense movies from before the apocalypse. The visuals were dark, and Mina, finding it unsettling, kept nuzzling Evelyn’s ear with her head.
When a scary scene came on, Mina got so frightened she leaped onto the bed. A closer look showed her tail was still trembling uncontrollably.
"Mina, you’re such a little coward, huh? Okay, okay, don’t be scared. I’ll put on my headphones and watch by myself. You should hurry back to your nest and get some sleep."
Evelyn dug out her headphones and put them on, but Mina just jumped back onto her, looking ready to cause trouble if she wasn’t allowed to watch. Evelyn stared back at the squirrel for two seconds before picking her up with one hand.
"Be quiet."
Mina looked ready to cause more mischief, but Evelyn placed her in her nest, warning, "Go to sleep and be good. No more jumping all over me."
Mina gave her a dejected look, but seeing no sign of Evelyn softening, she could only curl up obediently in her nest.
Evelyn finished the movie by herself, completely unfazed by the plot. However, a glance at the time showed it was already midnight. Startled, she quickly turned off the device and went to sleep.
’I can’t believe I stayed up this late. What a sin.’
Sure enough, when Evelyn woke up the next day, it was already half past ten.
Her stomach was rumbling. Mina was already long awake, and the nuts in her bowl were gone. Evelyn got out of bed and refilled it to the brim. Outside, the world was a vast expanse of white. She then went into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth.
The bruise on her forehead had completely healed, and the cut on her arm had scabbed over.
Evelyn put on a heavy coat and rain boots, bundling herself up tightly before opening the RV door and heading out.
To process the three wild buffalo, Evelyn first set up her workspace. She took out several large sun umbrellas, spread a plastic tarp on the ground, and weighed it down with some rushes. Then, she brought out the first buffalo. Evelyn examined the long knife in her hand, tested its sharpness, and decided to start by cutting off its head.
’As long as the knife is sharp, the work shouldn’t be too hard.’
After putting on gloves and an apron, Butcher Evelyn got to work.
The head came off easily enough, but the next step—skinning it—was the hardest part. Evelyn took out a small knife, made a vertical incision down from the neck, and started peeling the hide away to either side.
Even through her mask, the hot, steaming smell from the skinned carcass was a bit overwhelming.
She cut off the hooves with the hide still attached and placed them with the head. After finishing the skinning, Evelyn had to sit and rest for a long while to recover. It was exhausting. ’I really overestimated myself,’ she thought. ’I figured I could get this done in a day, but I had no idea how much work it would actually be.’
Evelyn took out several large basins, intending to separate the tallow, organs, ribs, and the meat from the front and back legs.
As she sliced through the fascia, some of the organs spilled out. Evelyn quickly guided them into a basin, taking care not to puncture anything.
The wild buffalo’s meat was very firm, and it had a lot of fat. Evelyn took out a boning knife and began trimming away the white suet.
Once the suet was removed, she split the carcass down the middle and proceeded to carve all the meat off the ribs.
She also stripped the large chunks of meat from the other bones, which could be saved for soup.
Watching from a safe distance as Evelyn went at the buffalo with her knives, Mina was too frightened to come any closer.
One buffalo was now roughly processed. Evelyn decided she would deal with the head, organs, and hide all together at the end.
She covered the basins of processed meat with plastic wrap and then brought out the second buffalo.
She worked from morning until night, and by the time she was done, Evelyn had finally finished the rough butchering of all three buffalo. The hides, organs, and heads would have to wait for the next day or two.
Evelyn built a rack in the yard and hung the hides up to dry. Then she stared at the three large basins of organs, feeling a bit dismayed. ’I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this stuff.’
Looking at the wood ash in the fire pit, Evelyn suddenly had an idea.
’I’ll deal with the fat first,’ she decided. After eating dinner, she was determined to finish rendering the tallow before she rested for the night.
She soaked the suet in water for over ten minutes, then drained it and cut it into small pieces. She set an enormous iron pot over the fire and filled it with two buckets of fresh water. Before the water came to a boil, she added the chunks of suet.
After boiling for five or six minutes, she drained the bloody water, scooping the suet out into a basin.
The smell was unpleasant, so Evelyn put on a second mask.
The blanched suet had expanded, now filling two basins. She gave it one last rinse with fresh water.
She poured the water out of the iron pot, refilled it with a bucket of fresh water, and added the suet. Then she began to cook it down, stirring it to render the oil.
The fire for rendering had to be large. Evelyn was a whirlwind of motion, stirring the pot and adding firewood, working herself into a frenzy.
After about forty minutes, she pulled some firewood away to reduce the heat to a low flame. The chunks of suet began to turn golden brown and crispy. At this point, she tossed in the prepared seasonings and continued to stir.
She stirred for five more minutes, then used a slotted spoon to remove the cracklings and seasonings. After letting the rendered tallow cool slightly, she ladled it into iron buckets.
From the three buffalo, Evelyn rendered a total of three and a half buckets of tallow.
The cracklings could be saved to add to vegetable dishes or noodle soup.
Evelyn felt like she reeked of grease, the smell clinging most strongly to her clothes and hair.
She carried the iron buckets into the wooden cabin to cool. The organs, heads, and hooves also had to be brought inside to keep them from freezing into solid blocks. With everything settled, Evelyn was ready to head back to the RV to wash up and go to bed.
After working all evening, she was feeling a bit hungry again. Evelyn glanced at the time and decided to make a quick bowl of noodles.
She added a spoonful of cracklings to the plain noodles, along with some chili peppers, scallions, and cilantro. It was perfect.
Mina had been unusually well-behaved all day, likely frightened by Evelyn’s more brutal side. When Evelyn emerged from the bathroom after washing up, she saw the little squirrel lying obediently in its nest, not daring to move an inch.
Evelyn smiled. She didn’t have the energy to tease the squirrel, so she just quickly climbed into bed, turned off the light, and fell asleep.
In the middle of the night, a noise woke Evelyn. She groggily opened her eyes and saw that Mina had crawled back onto her pillow. Without disturbing the squirrel, she put on her night-vision goggles and peered out the RV window.
She saw no sign of any large animals. After watching for a few minutes, she couldn’t fight off her drowsiness any longer and fell back asleep.
The next morning, she found a small, injured bird near the fire pit. It was about the size of her palm. It was lucky to have landed there; otherwise, with the freezing temperatures and the snow already up to her calves, it would have surely frozen to death overnight.
The bird had long tail feathers in three colors: black, red, and yellow.
Evelyn picked it up and saw that its wing and foot were injured. The little bird was listless; it barely managed to lift its eyelids to look at her before shutting them again in pain.
Evelyn brought it into the RV, took out her first-aid kit, and started treating and bandaging its injuries. Mina, full of curiosity, came over for a closer look.
’So this little guy must have been the source of the noise last night.’ Evelyn placed a cloth on the table and gently set the bird down on it.
"You can rest and recover here, little one."
Evelyn wiped her nose. She’d woken up with it feeling stuffy; she had probably caught a cold from being outside all day yesterday.
"Evelyn, you’ve got to get it together."
Evelyn put her hands on her hips and shouted, trying to psych herself up.
