"Stop gawking and get over here with that log," Recruit 1 barked, her tone cutting through their awe.
The command instantly snapped Henry and 7 out of their daze. Grunting from the effort, they hoisted the heavy log and hauled it over to where she stood waiting.
Recruit 1 immediately stepped up to the tip of the log with a hatchet. 'She came with an axe and a hatchet,' Henry thought, a wave of deep respect washing over him. She really thought of every scenario.
With precise, practiced strikes, she began chipping away at the thick wood, rapidly thinning out the top. As Henry watched pieces of wood fly, he traced the trajectory of the logs up to the apex of the lodge. At the very center, where all the other lumber converged, she had fashioned a central locking ring out of dense wood. There was exactly one empty slot left in the ring, clearly meant for the log she was currently shaping.
When she was satisfied with the angle, she stepped back and wiped a few drops of sweat from her forehead. "Alright, lift it. Base goes in there," she instructed, pointing to the final excavated trench at their feet.
Henry and 7 grabbed the trunk, their exhausted muscles screaming as they heaved the massive piece of wood upward. As the heavy base slid down into the dirt hole, Recruit 1 guided the thinned tip, angling it perfectly so it slotted right into the gap at the apex. It locked into place with a deep, solid thud that echoed through the structure, locking the entire massive frame together.
Recruit 7 immediately let go of the wood and let out a dramatic, exaggerated groan, bending over to rest his hands on his knees.
"Finally," 7 gasped, looking like he was ready to faceplant into the dirt. "I need a break. Today might've actually been worse than that extra-long joint training session with Ma'am White."
Dragging his feet, he turned and began walking toward the triangular entrance they had left open at the front of the lodge, desperate to collapse inside.
"It's not over yet," Recruit 1's voice rang out, freezing him in his tracks. "We still need to lay the leaf-covered branches over the frame to actually enclose it."
Recruit 7's shoulders slumped in utter defeat. "Ah, shit. That's right," he whined, looking over at the massive pile of foliage he had gathered that morning. "Can't we do that later, though? The frame is up!"
Recruit 1 didn't even acknowledge the complaint. She simply pointed toward the sloping wooden walls of their new fortress. "You see the notches I cut into the exterior of the logs? That's where you'll wedge the leafy branches in, so they don't slide off. Start from the bottom and work your way up."
Seeing Henry grab a leafy branch without complaint, Recruit 7 realized his silent rebellion had lost its audience. He muttered something foul under his breath—words Henry couldn't quite catch—and reluctantly dragged his own branch over to the structure.
Thankfully, weaving the foliage was significantly less agonizing than felling titan trees. With Recruit 1 directing the placement, they managed to cover the entire frame just as the last sliver of the sun dipped below the horizon, plunging the Hope Forest into total darkness.
"Come inside, you two," Recruit 1 called out from the entrance. "We need to talk about what comes next."
"We can do all the talking you want," 7 groaned, "as long as I can lie on my sleeping mat while you do it."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go, 7," she replied dismissively.
Henry was the last to come through the triangular entryway. Inside, the lodge was surprisingly spacious, with a circular floor plan of about 400 square feet. It was bare, holding only their sleeping mats and survival packs. Off to the right side, five smaller logs rested against the curved wall, looking distinctly out of place.
"So this is home for the next month, huh?" Henry said, his voice echoing slightly in the enclosed dome. "Not bad."
"This is the least we should expect after all the work we put in," 7 grumbled, already moving toward his mat.
"Why are you acting like the base is complete?" Recruit 1 asked, her tone cutting through the gloom.
"It's not?" Henry and 7 said in unison.
Recruit 1 let out a tired sigh. "Of course it's not. Do you think we're going to sleep directly on the cold ground for a month? Never mind that question. If it weren't for me, you two would still be sleeping out in the open. Tomorrow, we're putting the finishing touches on this place, a floor, and some outer defenses."
She pointed to the smaller logs on the right. "For now, grab those five logs. They fit into the interior latches I carved around the entryway. We can lock the front up from the inside."
The logs were sturdy but significantly lighter than the logs that made up the heavy frame. Henry and 7 quickly slotted them into place, barricading the doorway and effectively eliminating easy access for anything bigger than a large rat.
Once they were sealed inside, Henry frowned in the darkness. "These logs definitely keep big predators out, but what if we need to get out in a hurry?"
In response, Recruit 1 walked toward the very back of the lodge.
"You see this section here?" She reached out and pushed. A small, hidden flap of woven branches lifted easily, exposing the night air outside. "I left a gap in the frame just big enough for us to crawl through. From the outside, the foliage covers it completely."
She let the flap fall back into place, sealing them in again, before finally walking over to her sleeping mat. She laid down with a heavy exhale.
"Alright, I'm exhausted too, so I'll make this quick. Here is what we need to do tomorrow."
She ticked the items off in the dark. "First, we burn the rest of the Lynx carcass. The meat spoiled shortly after lunch because of the daytime heat. We're lucky the temperature dropped enough up here to keep the smell from carrying, but we need to dispose of it at the edge of the clearing before the sun rises and it starts rotting."
"After that, you both will harvest ten more logs. I'll split them and turn them into a proper floor. Once the floor is down, we'll dig a perimeter of holes around the base, plant wooden spikes inside, and backfill them with loose dirt. We'll mark them so we don't accidentally impale ourselves."
Henry, in his tiredness, thought it was the end of the briefing, but it was just a pause.
"How much water do you two have left?"
"None," 7 admitted shamelessly. "All that logging had me super thirsty."
"Same here," Henry echoed.
Even in the pitch black, Henry could feel Recruit 1's glare. She was clearly annoyed by their complete lack of rationing. "Fine," she snapped. "If we have daylight left after the defenses are up, we'll have to scout for a water source nearby so we can haul it back and boil it. Alright. Let's get some rest."
Silence fell over the lodge, heavy but welcomed. Henry lay back on his thin mat, his muscles aching with a deep, satisfying exhaustion.
High above, through a small ventilation gap left in the center of the wooden locking ring, a single beam of moonlight pierced the darkness.
As his eyes drifted shut, his last coherent thought was a wave of pure gratitude that, with a locked door and thick walls, he wouldn't have to suffer through watch duty tonight.