Days 33-46: Leo

Ava said we should stay put for a while—it was smarter than driving around aimlessly. I agreed, though it felt like she just wanted to try out camping. On the first day we didn’t really do much except set up our tent.

Ava dumped out the contents of the bag and stared at the mess. She then tilted her head with a sheepish grin, “Uh, so do you know how to do this?”

“Yeah. I think,” I said.

“You think?” She raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

“Yeah. I think—I haven’t been camping in a while, so it’s kind of fuzzy.”

“There’s got to be instructions for this.” Staring back at the mess, “Can you go and look into the bag to see if it’s there?”

“Yeah, sure.” I tried looking in the bag but couldn’t find anything. “It’s not here.”

“Guess we wing it,” she said.

We started building it and everything went wrong. The more we messed up the more Ava tried taking over and doing it herself. Which made things worse. But I didn’t mind that she took it over though. Sitting back and watching her continuously fail had been kind of—entertaining.

“Aren’t you supposed to be smart?” I teased.

“Yeah, so watch to build this damn thing.”

“Alright then, good luck. Just call me if it collapses on you.”

“No need,” Her smirk was smug. “Have you forgotten? I got into med school.” She was trying too hard to sound smug, but I couldn’t help laughing. And when I did, she smiled—just barely, like that had been her goal all along. It seemed like she was talking weirdly just to cheer me up. After an hour and a half of Ava struggling she fell over. I walked over to her, hovering my head over her body. She was lying facing down flat and looked exhausted.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Uh huh,” she mumbled, face down in the dirt. Ava rolled over and looked up at me, “Just give me a little break and I’ll have this up in no time.” She gave me a reassuring smile, as if she were still trying to cheer me up. I smiled back and offered her my hand. “Here, get up. How about you take a break and I set up the tent for us.”

She reached out and pulled herself up. “Are you sure? You shouldn’t push yourself if you’re feeling tired.”

“Yeah. Besides, I’m not the one that fell from exhaustion.”

Ava squinted her eyes and glared at me, “Fine, but if it’s too much don’t come begging for me to help.”

“If you were to help, you’d probably end up breaking everything.” I mumbled to myself.

“HUH? Did you say something?” She got up in my face and gave me an annoyed look. We stared at each other for a second before Ava pulled back. She smiled, “If you’re in the mood for jokes then you must be feeling better.”

“Yeah,” I admitted, “Just a little. Thanks to you.”

Ava’s face turned a little red and she looked away, “Yeah, no problem.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked again, “Your face is turning all red,” I said, placing my hand on her head. She was heating up.

Did she really overwork herself that badly?

Her face turned even more red and got even hotter. She pushed my hand away from her forehead , “I’m fine!” she called over her shoulder, voice slightly too loud. “Just tired. That’s all.” She immediately bolts to the van, “Good luck building the tent!”

“Uh, okay then…”

Ava sat in the van with the windows down while I started on the tent. I looked around and noticed that everything was off. I had to start from scratch. As I disassembled Ava’s mess I could feel her burning a hole into the back of my head. She was staring at me. I look over and she immediately turns away.

She’s probably sad that all her work was kind of for nothing.

I continued working on the tent and it turned out to be as hard as it looked. It took me about thirty minutes to assemble the tent. Half of that time we spent disassembling Ava’s mess. When I was done, I told her to come out and see.

“Impressive right?” I asked.

“I mean… it’s alright…” she teased.

A smug expression crept onto my face, “Damn, I guess I’ll take it down and you can make it for us instead.”

“Please, no.”

“I was just kidding,” I said. We shared a laugh and decided to call it a day.

That night Ava offered to sleep in the car saying that I was the one who made the tent so I deserved to be in it. I asked her if it was big enough for the both of us but she was hesitant. After a little bit of convincing she finally became willing to sleep in the tent.

She was fine sleeping in the same room as me when we were at my house. I wonder why she is so hesitant now.

Ava had slept rather quickly despite her nervousness but for me… It was hard to sleep. I was distracted all day with the tent and Ava’s failure so I didn’t think much about what had happened yesterday. Until now, it all came back to me. Everything that had happened did happen. But the days go on as if everything was fine. I couldn’t sleep much that night.

The next day, we wandered through the forest searching for supplies. We were lucky to find a stream that led to a lake, full of fish—enough to live off without dipping into the canned food in the van. A sign warned of wild animals, since this was beyond the designated camping grounds, but we scouted the area and saw nothing. At the lake, Ava mentioned how much she liked fish and hadn’t had any in a while. I told her we could catch some for dinner. She pointed out we didn’t have any fishing rods, but I asked if there was a cabin nearby—places like this often rent them out. She said there was one, so we checked it out and found four rods. We took all of them, just in case one broke. They also sold fishing line and bait, so we got lucky.

I taught Ava how to fish, though she looked bored the entire time—and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. Fishing isn’t exactly exciting. After about twenty minutes of waiting, I finally got a bite and reeled one in. But one fish wasn’t enough, so we stayed until we caught three. Back at the campsite, we started preparing dinner. It was already getting dark—we’d spent most of the day exploring and fishing. After we ate, we headed into the tent.

"We should try swimming in the lake tomorrow," Ava suggested.

“But we don’t have any swimming clothes.”

“I took a few from your parent’s place so we should be fine. We just need to be careful in case of any animals.”

“Alright then.”

That's how our days went for the next two weeks—exploring the forest, swimming in the lake, fishing. It wasn’t exactly thrilling, but it was strangely enjoyable.

I never liked camping much before, but being here with Ava made it bearable. The way she did things often made me laugh; it was like watching a kid go camping for the first time. She’d suggest random ideas, and with nothing else to do, I usually went along. She seemed to be having fun every day, like she’d forgotten the world was falling apart. Maybe I had too.

Still, at night, I couldn’t sleep. I’d drift in and out, and Ava started to notice. Some nights I didn’t sleep at all. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them—Mom, Dad, John, the criminal. The bodies I left behind. The images haunted me like a disease I couldn’t shake.

Toward the end of the second week, we went fishing again. I stood there, rod in hand, but my mind wandered—back to my parents. The guilt never left. No matter how hard I tried it was impossible. Even Ava’s words couldn’t reach me. I don’t deserve to live after letting them die…

Then—

AHHH

A scream. I turned. A bear charged toward Ava.

A bear?! Here?!

The sign had warned about wild animals, but I hadn’t thought…

Damn I didn’t think it meant a bear.

I sprinted, hurling my rod. The bear looked up. I kept running, drew my knife and gun but the bear swatted aside. I hit the ground, hard, my weapons scattering. I looked at my knife and gun as the bear slowly approached me. I grabbed the knife and charged at the bear again. Slashed blindly. Its claws tore at me—arms, ribs—but not deep. I didn’t stop.

Then—

BANG

The bear collapsed. Ava stood behind it, gun still raised.

Ava walked to my side, “Why didn’t you pick up the gun?”

“I… didn’t want to kill it, I guess.”

“Sometimes you have to kill,” Her voice was flat and serious, “like I said before—don’t hesitate.”

“O-okay.”

Her tone softened. “Let’s drag it back. We’ve got food for days.”

“Right.”

It was a small black bear—light enough to move. Back at camp, we skinned and cooked it. Kept the carcass a little away from the tent so it wouldn’t stink.

I guess I owe Ava for saving my life—again.