In the Loup Box Set #4

So, um, how did you find this place that we're going to?" his partner wondered in awe and nervousness.
"Dumb luck. I was wandering around one day after you hired me trying to look for a good spot for a house. I followed the logging road up as far as the cabin we're going to and thought that'd be a great place to hide in case something bad happened."
"That's you, Chuck, always the optimist," she teased. They hit another hard bump, and she just couldn't take the suspense anymore. "All right, how much longer? I feel like my body's going to fall apart any minute now." Chuck leaned over the wheel and smiled.
"Actually, we're here."
His words proved to be true, and the road before them suddenly opened up. Revealed to them was a large, shadowed meadow. Wild bushes dotted the bunches of grass, and the trees on all sides were cleared back a good fifty yards. In the center of the clearing was a low, wood cabin. The building had been constructed partially underground in a natural dip and steps led down to a heavy slab of wood which acted as a door.
Chuck stopped the car a few feet from the entrance, and Stephanie stepped out to gather a better look at the place. There was no electricity, not this far out in the wilderness, but there were two windows on the east and west sides of the cabin to provide natural light during the day. Dark glass covered the holes and curtains inside blocked out any prying eyes. The roof was covered with a thick layer of moss, grass and weeds which allowed it to blend into its surroundings. The logs used for the walls were over a foot in diameter, and the spaces between them had been chinked with gray mud. Stephanie noticed a shed just a few yards from the building, and against that was a large pile of chopped wood.
"It's not much, but it is pretty comfortable inside," Chuck assured her.
He led the way down to the door and pushed open the heavy portal. Stephanie imagined no one but a werewolf could get that door open. Then Chuck carefully stepped inside, and she hesitantly followed. The small space was too dark for her eyes to see much more than shapes, but her companion had no trouble in the blackness. He turned to their left and wandered over to an object which for Stephanie appeared to be a light.
She was right in her assumption when Chuck lit the propane lantern, and the inside of the room was illuminated. Stephanie flinched at the mass of cobwebs in every corner of the small cabin, but the one room building was quaint. There was a large rock chimney in the center back and a large, hewn-log bed on the right. She bet Chuck had made that piece of furniture, along with the simple, hefty dining table on the left with its fat-legged chairs. There was a plain bench in front of the fire and on the left beyond the dining table was a counter and cupboards. That must have been the kitchen, as the area also included a large wooden stove.
"I'm really surprised at this place," Chuck spoke up with evident satisfaction. He glanced around the room with a smile and nodded. "I expected this place to be ransacked and all the food taken. Hunters are known to frequent the area and that crowd does tend to get hungry. I probably wouldn't have blamed them "
Stephanie wandered over to the closed cupboards and opened the secured doors. She was greeted by shelves filled to bursting with canned and powdered goods. Every imaginable type of food that would last for well over a year was represented, and she saw a hand-crank can opener to free the meals from their tin containers.
"What were you preparing for, the end of the world?" Stephanie asked. She picked up a large can of beans and shuddered. She didn't want to know the results of someone eating all that in one sitting.
"My world, at least. This is where I planned to go if Gregory's group ever caught me," he explained. He got a broom from the corner and began dusting out the mouth of the chimney. "The nights are pretty cold here, so we'd better make sure we have enough firewood close by."
"I'm pretty sure you chopped enough to last until next year," she reassured him, remembering the pile she'd seen outside.
"You'd be surprised how fast wood burns, especially since it's been sitting out there drying for a few years," he countered. With the chimney cleaned, he stood up and looked at the windows on either side of the building. " The sun's going to be up soon. Maybe we should have some natural light so we don't use up all our propane tanks."
"Yes, I'm sure we're going to have to worry," Stephanie teased. She'd just found the stash of tanks and figured there was about two dozen of the small containers. "So you said you just found this place, right?"
"Yep, just dumb luck. The loggers had cleared the place around it and otherwise left it alone." Chuck opened the curtains on the windows and the weak light of the rising sun peaked out from the east windows. "I pretty much claimed it for myself and fixed it up with the spare money I had lying around."
"You certainly like to be prepared," she complimented, but with a hint of disbelief. In her eyes he was turning from this stiff, no-nonsense advertising business partner into a roughing-it backwoodsman. That, and he had that whole werewolf thing going for him now. That probably helped him to rough it out here in the middle of nowhere. "Is there anything we need to worry about in the next six months?"
"Water, actually. We have to haul it from a stream just in the trees." He nodded in the general direction as he shut off the lantern. "I was thinking about digging a well, but I figured since I was going to be up here alone I wouldn't need that much water."