Why hunting? Eating unknown mushrooms would be unwise - I cannot die, but twisted mental perception could be equally harmful. I didn’t want to run away from some especially scary hallucination leaving behind my inventory and last chances to find Paige. Considering my recent traumatizing experience with plants, I could not look at those bastards at all. Interesting, will this repulsion last forever or till some really ripe apple? A big piece of meat cooked on an open fire was a completely different thing - well done, it rarely could be harmful to anyone (except for the teeth and jaw, maybe). I felt that I needed it badly.

As I wandered in places not yet touched by Paige’s unexplainable rage, plenty of different animals lurked in the long shadows of the oncoming dusk. Mostly, those were various distant relatives of the giant squirrels from before.

To successfully hunt something, two things are crucial: explicit determination to actually do it and a hunting tool. I had plenty of the first, but the second became a problem. Looking through the stuff in Paige’s bag, none of the items present were suitable for the purpose. I either didn’t know how to use them, or they were of pure utility purpose - it is pretty hard to kill something with a pack of handmade soap or twelve tiny sticks.

I had a bigass gun also. I have never shot with such a thing in my life. Well, at least I cannot remember it happening. I did know something about guns: you should pull a trigger, and a bullet will come out of the opposite side of it. But the most important rule was: if you see that you have to push the trigger and not pull it - you are doing something wrong. How hard can it be, right?

I have waited about half an hour more to ensure the gun is dry already. The second half of an hour was spent on the safeguard placement search. The gun had tremendous zooming on its scope, as well as a very informative scale. I really doubted it was a stock one; the scope even looked different from the rifle’s main body.

Being a ‘do’ king of a guy rather than ‘think’, I’ve aimed at some squirrelish lizard and pulled a trigger. The effect of this action appeared to be entirely unexpected, though. To be more precise, there was no effect whatsoever, and the lizard target continued its sunbathing procedures. The suns will set soon, and It will be much harder to shot at things. I needed to hurry. A mild brainstorm consumed more than half of the time till the sunsset, but the solution was found. The rifle turned out to be not automatic at all. Keeping that in mind, I have found what I was looking for pretty fast - a manually controlled bullets dispenser. I shifted its handle as far as I could, trying to catch the sound of a bullet coming out of the magazine to the barrel. I was not sure about the result since I have never heard the sound before. I decided to move the handle to its initial position, though - it either worked or not.

The squirrel lizard was still there. Not to miss too much, I aimed at the wide body of it instead of the head. This time white pulling the trigger, I felt a small resistance and a barely noticeable click in the end.

The effect of this attempt was entirely different. The recoil hit me so hard I passed out for a moment.

“You are hurt and uncomfortable from his size and constant availability? Micro-soft will handle your problems. Micro-soft - for him”

Well, this commercial break was not so enjoyable as the first one.

Based on the suns position, I concluded that my involuntary absence was not too long. The rifle lay beside me with its bipod buried somewhere in my armpit - this inconvenience brought me from the oblivion.

After a small loading process being performed by my brain, I remembered what the hell I was doing. The stone where that squirrel lizard lay was cracked into several pieces. The animal’s carcass was nowhere to be seen, but it looked like the water under the stone was boiling, so many underwater creatures were feasting on the remains. The first step is always the hardest, yep? The most interesting thing that there were still a lot of other animals around - enough for me to eventually suitably kill one of them. The muzzle on this rifle was exceptional, also.

I used four more bullets but eventually killed some giant flying squirrel sitting at the top of the tree, which grew near my improvised camp.

It was deep into the night when the food was already done. The barbeque turned out to be excellent. I found salt and pepper in Paige’s supplies and a bit of green onion-like herbs on the island. I’ve also found out the answer to the question I was asking myself before about when I will be able to eat local flora. Pretty much now, as it turned out. And the trigger was not a ripe apple but some semi-onion. Well, when the barbeque lacks seasoning, your principles disappear.

I ate, prepared a big snatch of salty meat for the future, and full and satisfied, fell asleep listening to the rattling tinkle of an actual fire.

I was sleeping like a child till I heard the sound.