Chapter 7 Chapter 7 "I should have baked a cake"

After a long silence, Jimmy said, "Hey, shut your mouth, or bugs will fly in." "Jimmy, is your head clear?" "It has nothing to do with that. Even so, I will not be indistinguishable from men and women. If one day I don't distinguish between men and women, then I will not be sick, but dead." "But……" Jimmy shrugged. "Ask her!" A shadow appeared at the entrance of the cave, and Rhodes turned around and saw Jack climbing up. "Fresh water, Jimmy." "Thank you, man." Jimmy turned to Rhodes again. "Are you asking?"

Jack looked back and forth between the two. "What look? What are you looking at, Rhodes?" "Jack!" Rhode said slowly, "What's your name?" "What's the matter? Jack Dowt, I told you." "No, not this! What's your full name?" Jack's eyes turned from Rhodes to Jimmy's smirking face, and then back again. "My full name is . . . Jacqueline Maria Dowt—what's your business? What do you want to do with it?" Rhodes took a deep breath and said cautiously: "Jacqueline, I don't know, I..." "You didn't do anything?"

"I...you see, if I say something to offend you, I really didn't mean it." "Did you say anything to offend me? Except your dagger, of course, you fool." "I did not mean that." "You mean girls should all be sent to prison? Is it to you that only boys can stand here? Standing in this environment? No, of course not. But, now I don't mind You know... now it's three people." "But, Jacqueline..." "Call me Jack, please!" She stretched her arms over her shoulders. "Now you know, I don't want to wear this armor-like suit anymore, turn around, and I say you two."

"Hmm..." Rhodes turned around, and Jimmy turned around too, looking at the wall. After a few seconds, Jacqueline said, "Okay." Rhodes turned around.Jack standing in front of him was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. Without the protective clothing, his shoulders became narrower and his body showed a graceful curve. She scratched her ribs and complained, "Rod Volker, I haven't been able to scratch my itch since I met you. I'm dying of itching." "I didn't ask you to wear it." "If I don't wear it, will you still be my partner?"

"Er... well, it's possible. I..." He stopped. "Now you know?" She suddenly became nervous, "Are we still partners?" "Huh? Oh, of course, of course." "Shake hands again, then. This time with Jimmy, okay, Jimmy?" "That's great, Jack." The three of them folded their hands, and Jack put her left hand on the bottom two and said, "Together!" Rhodes pulled out his dagger with his left hand, put the dagger flat on the overlapping hands, and said, "Share together!" "Plus taxes!" Jimmy added jokingly, "Daggers for witness?"

Jacqueline said sternly: "Jimmy Soxton, someday I'm going to make you take life seriously!" "I take life seriously," he retorted. "I just don't want life to take me seriously. Time is endless. You can't bear to have a sad face all the time." "Our time is endless." Rhodes said, "Shut up, Jimmy, you've said enough." "Look, who's angry? It's a tomboy!" "Enough is enough...you shouldn't make fun of Jacqueline, she has done a lot for you." "That's true." "so……" "It's nothing!" Jacqueline said suddenly, "My name is Jack, Rod, forget about Jacqueline, if you start treating me like an outlier, we'll soon be in the trouble you warned about , remember what you said not long ago?"

"But you can't take it seriously, because..." "Are you going to talk about logic again? Do something serious, help me peel off this piece of animal skin, and make a new water bag." Jimmy stayed and tended the cave for the next few days, while Jack and Rod started hunting together again.Jimmy also wanted to go along, but was rejected by two votes.Hunting is not difficult where Jack and Rod are cruising. It takes a few hours and not too much effort to wait for the prey, and their techniques work well-Jack chases, Rod hunts.After finding the herd of beasts, they would choose one side and Jack would crawl close to the herd of beasts alone, and then suddenly get up and drive the herd of beasts towards Rhodes' ambush. There will always be prey that falls into Rhodes' hands.

They have been hunting with daggers, although Jack's gun is also a good choice in the original living environment, and this is an air gun, the bullets can be retracted and reused, and it seems that they can be reused without restriction. Jack is precisely because of this The reason is to choose it instead of ordinary guns and energy guns. Rhodes envied this gun very much, but he objected to using it for hunting. "The air pressure could burst and hurt you." "Never have, and it inflates pretty quickly." "Well... yes, but if we hunt with it, no matter how careful we are, we'll run out of the last round someday. Maybe just when we really, really need it, the bullets run out. We might have to Staying here for a long time, let's save it."

"You are the boss, Rhodes." "No, I'm not, we have equal rights." "You are! Jimmy and I both agree that someone has to take the lead." They spend an hour or two hunting every other day.More time during the day was spent looking for other people. They divided the area into several areas, and the search work was carried out in an orderly manner.Once they found a wound on one of their prey, which seemed to be left by a dagger. They followed the blood on the ground and thought it must be human work, but because it was too dark they were forced to return to the cave. They continued to track the next day, but it rained that night, and they found no bloodstains again.

Another time they found a pile of ashes from a fire, but Rhodes thought it was at least two weeks ago. A week passed without any results.They came back late one afternoon and Jimmy looked up at them just as he was lighting the fire. "How's the census?" "Don't mention it!" Rhodes replied, and then he lay down lazily. "What's for dinner?" "Raw meat, grilled meat, grilled meat. I tried to make some roasted meat out of wet clay, but it didn't seem to work. But I made some cookers out of clay, and it didn't look like much, but it worked."

"Thank you, it's just as you said." "Jimmy," said Jack, "we should burn some kettles with that clay." "I did. The first one had a big tear, but I'll try to make another one. I said kids, have you ever wondered in your smart little minds if there is something wrong with the way you do things now?" What's the problem?" "What's the problem?" Rhodes asked. "If you're exercising...that's fine. But you've been walking all over the place, sweaty, and there's nowhere to go. Maybe sit back and let them come to you by themselves? " "Then how can we achieve this effect?" "Burn up the smoke column and send out the signal." "We've discussed it. It's just that we don't want to put anyone on board, we don't want to advertise where we live. We're looking for someone who will really strengthen our team." "That's what the engineers call the self-evasion rule. A good bushhunter is the one you can't find him at all, but he can find you. You walk so loudly that you can kick rocks up with your feet , stepping on broken branches, scaring birds away. He can hide where you can't see, and notice your every move, but you can't see him." "Rod, there are indeed such people." Jack said. Rhodes said to Jimmy: "We found that you are too careless, and you may not be the kind of person we want very much." "I haven't recovered yet." Jimmy retorted: "When I recover and my strength comes back, I will show you my true self, ah, ah, King Kong is me. I will be like a cheetah Swift and strong as a giant." He patted his chest, but coughed. "Is it like this? It doesn't seem to be very good!" "Don't underestimate me. Don't forget, you are my defeat." "You mean playing cards, right? But playing them doesn't do much good now." Jimmy was rescued with a pack of playing cards in his bag.He later explained that the cards were actually his survival gear as well. He said: "First, if I get lost, I can sit and play a game of cards, someone may pass by soon, and then..." "He'll tell you that the Ten of Spades is better than the Jack of Hearts, and we've heard that!" "Quiet, Rhodes. One more thing, Jack, I also want to be partnered with a master. I will say that I can beat him in a game of cards. If he says he doesn't believe me, I will play cards with him. I can win him all." An investment for the next year. It’s also a strategy for survival.” Whatever the reason, Jimmy pulled out his poker.The three of them would play poker together for a while every night, one point was one million Platon dollars, and Jack basically never lost or won, but Rhodes owed Jimmy millions of Platon dollars.Now they discussed the issue again during the game, and Rhodes still had doubts about burning smoke near the hiding place to attract people. Rhodes said thoughtfully: "But we can light the smoke column in other places, and then we hide in another safe place to observe, play cards, Jimmy." "It's worth taking a little risk...Xiao Wu, this is exactly what I need! If you want to light a smoke column at a farther place and observe it in a safe place, then at least you have to go back and forth twice a day, so that There will be many dangers on the road, good luck, it will always run out, maybe one day you won't be able to come back. It's nothing to me, it's just that no one plays cards." "Who should come out?" "Jack is out. But if we pick a place close by, we, we can sit here and we can see it, and it's safe. I can sit comfortably with my back against the wall and watch while I rest. I'll take Jack's toy gun Put it on your lap, if you see a face you don't like - 'poof!' Let him be fucked, if we like him, let him join the game." "Score." "Fifteen-six, fifteen-twelve, one pair, J six, another million for you, my friend." "One of those jacks is a Q." Rhodes said gloomily. "It's almost there? Look, it's so dark that you can hardly see it. Is it over?" They took Jimmy's advice.This saves more time, and Rhode owes hundreds of millions.The smoke column is just downstream of the stream below the cave. If the wind direction is normal, the black smoke will not be blown in the direction of the cave, but if the wind direction changes, they will be smoked to tears and have to take shelter elsewhere. Over the next four days, they were smoked three times.Their ad didn't attract anyone, but they were tired enough.They had to gather dry twigs to fuel the smoke column, and young twigs to create the smoke.As they escaped the headwind for the third time, Jimmy said, "I admit it, Rod, it's not a good idea." "No!" "Huh? Seriously, I can't live in smoke—no vitamins, let's put up a flag! I donate my shirt." Rhodes thought for a while: "Okay, let's do it." "Hey, wait a minute, I'm just joking, my skin is very tender and I get sunburned easily!" "Don't be too nervous, you don't need to be the flagpole. We'll erect another flagpole and just use your shirt as the flag. But the smoke column is still there. How about moving it to the open space below?" "The smoke poured straight into our 'villa'." "Okay! Go further away, burn the fire a little bigger, so that the effective range of the smoke column will be wider, and the flag will be erected on the top of our cave." "Then it might also attract some big furry guys that we don't want to see! They are emotionless." "Since we have decided to use the smoke column, it doesn't matter if we are busy." Rhodes picked a taller tree and climbed onto the branch.The branches bent downwards badly under his weight.He then spent some time trimming the branch, tying Jimmy's shirt sleeves to the branch.Then he went down the tree and cut some twigs along the way.Fortunately, the position of the trunk is relatively high, even if it is far downstream, it can still be seen.As soon as the wind blew, the shirt bulged up. Rhodes looked up. Although he was a little tired, he was quite satisfied. It really looked like a banner. Jimmy and Jack also set up a new pile downstream, and moved the one on the rocks over.Jack still has some firewood left, and Jimmy's firewood is basically full, but considering that they have been exiled for so long, and the return journey is far away, they have become a bit stingy and blame each other, so Rhodes went down and joined them. middle.With no space restrictions, the fire is now larger, with a much wider range of spread, and it is easier to add firewood. Rhodes glanced at them, Jack's face was covered with beads of sweat, because he wiped the sweat with his hands just now, and because of the smoke, he now looked like a big face, and Jimmy's pink face was also flushed. of. "A pair of arsonists." "It's your order," said Jimmy. "I'm going to burn Rome just like that. Give me a violin and a bracket." "That was before the violin was invented! Nero played the lyre." "It's still a bit small, we should create a mushroom cloud effect, what do you think?" "Come on, Rod!" Jacqueline suggested.She wiped her face and it got worse. "It's so fun." She picked up a twig in the river and threw it into the fire, and a puff of smoke rose and completely covered her. "Some more dry sticks, Jimmy." "As ordered." Rhodes joins in, and soon he's as dirty as the other two, the happiest he's been since the exams began.When the sun went down behind the treetops, they stopped trying to make the fire bigger and the smoke thicker.They looked up at the cave, and Rhodes suddenly realized that he was too negligent and ignored safety. Fortunately, at least he knew that dangerous animals were afraid of fire. They saw the dying fire still smoking upwards.After dinner, Jimmy showed his cards again, and he wanted to win a fortune. "Who's interested? Friendly match, little lottery." "Too tired." Rhodes said: "You just keep accounts." "That's not the spirit of sports! What's the matter? Didn't you just win a game last week? Jack, are you coming?" Just as Jacqueline was about to answer, Rhodes suddenly motioned for silence. "Hush! Listen." The two people stopped moving for a while, and they quietly pulled out their daggers.Rhodes bit the dagger in his mouth and crawled to the entrance of the cave.There is no one on the cliff, and the thorns and obstacles have not been moved.He poked out and looked around, trying to find the source of the sound. "Hey, down there!" someone yelled, not very loudly.Rhodes tensed up, he glanced back, Jimmy climbed to the side, guarding the passage into the hole.Jacqueline also took out the air gun and quickly inflated it. Rhodes asked, "Who's there?" There was a silence, and then a voice answered, "Bob Baxter and Carmen Garcia, who are you?" Rhodes took a breath, "Rod Walker, Jimmy Soxton, and one more, not from our class...Jack Dowt." Baxter seemed to consider it for a moment. "Well, can we join you? At least, tonight?" "certainly!" "Then how can we get down to your place? Carmen can't get up easily, her foot hurts." "Are you on top of us?" "I think so, but I can't see you." "Stay there, I will go up." Rhodes turned around and smiled at the two of them. "The supper mates are here, Jimmy, don't let the fire go out." Jimmy pouted and said, "Oh, there is almost nothing in the house. I should have baked a cake if I knew it." When they came back, Jimmy had roasted meat and was waiting.Because of Carmen's delay, her ankle was twisted, and she had to crawl in with her hands, which was slow and painful. Tears welled up in her eyes when she saw that the stranger at the dinner party was also a woman.Jack glanced at the men, but Rhodes said nothing, so Jack led her to the corner of the cave where he slept.They were muttering something there.Bob Baxter and Jimmy and Rod share their experiences. Bob and Carmen had no particular difficulty until Carmen sprained her ankle two days ago - and of course they were in the same predicament as Rhodes.He admitted: "I didn't know what to do when I realized they weren't going to come and take us back. But Carmen was nagging me to get her out of here. Carmen is a very realistic girl." "Girls are always very realistic." Jimmy echoed: "Look at me, I'm just very romantic." "You are not." Rhodes said. "Rod, are you jealous? Bob, old man, how about a roast? Well done, medium rare?" "Whatever it is, we haven't eaten much for a few days, it must taste good." "Of course." Jimmy said confidently, "You know, I'm a first-class chef. First you have to melt a piece of butter in a pan, and then you..." "That's enough, Jimmy. Would you and Carmen join us, Bob? I don't think we can count on going back anytime soon, so we've got to plan for the future." "I think you're right." "Rod is always right," Jimmy said. "Planning for the future, well, well said... Bob, can you and Carmen play poker?" "Won't." "It's okay, I can teach you."