Zoe breathed slowly, giving her cuts time to scab as she watched the sun rise. Examining her hands, she found the shallow wounds had mostly closed. Stretching a bit she drops from the branch, falling a few meters, she kicks off the tree trunk, and transitions into a roll.
"Urgh, stupid wolves," she muttered. "Now I've got to make a new axe before I can get anything done."
Walking toward her fire, she tossed more logs on and grabbed her knife from its loop on her bag. After attaching the knife to her belt, she returned to the four fallen wolves. Crouching down, she hooked both arms under a wolf each and lifted them with surprising ease. Steadying herself, she began carrying the massive corpses back to the river.
At the river, she looked for a tree with an overhanging branch. Finding one, she dropped the bodies beneath it and went back for the others. When she returned, she was surprised to find only one body under the tree—the wolf she had struck with her axe had apparently survived.
Eyeing the trail of blood leading into the underbrush, she sighed before grabbing the remaining body. She retrieved the first wolf as well, then dropped them all by the river. Grimacing at the blood on her hands, she rinsed them in the cold water.
Next, she searched for long vines among the nearby trees. After finding some, she tore them free and knotted them together. Back at the wolves, she tossed a vine over the branch and tied the free end to the first wolf's hind legs. Pressing her foot against its skull, she pulled her spear free.
She frowned as she inspected the obsidian spearhead. "Seriously, how tough are their bones? It chipped the obsidian." Sighing, she untied the obsidian blade, hooked it to her pouch, and discarded the stick.
Grabbing the end of the vine not attached to the wolf, she lifted the carcass off the ground. After securing the vine to a nearby rock, she equipped her knife, found the wolf's throat artery, and sliced it. Blood gushed from the cut as she bled the corpse.
Moving back over to the vine she unfastens it and raised the wolf until its lowest point was three meters from the ground, before tying off the vine, and heading back into the forest to gather more vines for the rest of the wolves.
An hour later, she had hung the last wolf to bleed out. After rinsing the blood from her hands, she returned to camp to craft a new axe. With her modest experience, she quickly finished a tool of better quality than before, and while at it, she made two new spears as a precaution.
Fully equipped, she slung her backpack over her shoulders and started the long trek upstream, keeping vigilant for predators or useful materials. She gathered fruit along the way, tossing it into her backpack.
Several hours into her journey, she discovered a vibrant bamboo forest just off the river. Smiling widely, she grabbed her axe and approached. She spent hours chopping bamboo, using the vines she'd gathered throughout the day to strap them into a makeshift raft.
After considering the river's terrain, she found an especially long piece of bamboo to use as a pole. Pushing the raft into the water, she tied it to an overhanging tree and looked up at the sky.
"I've got about three hours before sunset. Probably best if I get out of here now—but first..."
She gathered more vines from nearby trees and tossed them onto her raft. Carefully balancing on the long raft, she grabbed her bamboo pole, untied the tether, and pushed out into the current. The raft immediately started speeding downstream. Sitting near the edge, she kept watch for both the wolves and obstacles.
It took nearly two hours to reach her camp. Stabbing the pole into the riverbed, she strained against the current to stop the raft. Guiding it into a cove just off the river, she jumped into the shallow water and pulled the raft onto the gravel beach. Getting a good grip, she hauled it completely out of the water, then untied and neatly piled the vines nearby.
As the sun set, she lugged the huge haul of bamboo back to her clearing, regularly stoking her fire. Just after midnight, she dropped the last piece as her stomach rumbled. Looking up at the tree, she thought, 'I reckon I can finish this later; I should check on the wolves and get some food.'
Walking back to the river, she found a wolf that had finished bleeding, untied it, and carried it back to the clearing. Setting it down at the edge, she dragged over a rock to sit on and began carefully skinning the corpse with her knife.
She worked through the night, eating miscellaneous fruits as she meticulously stripped the wolf of everything useful. From thin pieces of bamboo, she constructed a basic tanning rack where she hung the wolf's dark brown, almost black pelt.
As the sun rose over the horizon, she sat by the fire to roast a piece of meat.
"This takes far too long," she said. "I need some extra manpower—the question is how do I get it?"
She pondered the question using her multiple trains of thought, then set it aside to eat.
"I reckon if anyone else is alive, they'll settle close to the coast. My priority now should be establishing basic tools—oh, I should build a water wheel."
She bit into the meat, grimacing at the taste, then chased it with a berry.
'This is disgusting—but food is food, and I can't be picky.'
Tuning out her taste buds, she quickly finished the steak, grabbed a handful of berries, then jogged to the river to wash down the taste.
"There's so much I need to make. I'm going to need some containers." She sighed as she returned to the clearing. Looking up at the tall oak tree, she mentally pieced together her building plans.
She moved to the tree she had felled earlier, equipped her axe, and began swinging. Throughout the day, she chopped the trunk into more manageable pieces that she awkwardly lifted into the tree.
Working into the night, she adjusted the logs' positions along the branches, eyeballing the level. Wrapping vines around the joints, she thoroughly tightening the logs in place. After hours of work, she had a solid frame strung up within the branches.
Looking at the dark sky, she thought, 'I should probably process the rest of the wolves; I can smoke the meat.'
Grabbing bamboo pieces she headed to the clearing's edge. Cutting them into approximately two-meter lengths, she hammered them into the ground in a rectangle. She dug a hole in the bottom, and after a few hours of work through the night, she had set up an adequate smoke room.
Over the next few days, she alternated between processing the wolves and building her shelter. Gradually, her shelter took shape as she filled out the frame with a bamboo floor, then added a roof and walls.
As darkness fell on the twelfth day, Zoe sat comfortably in her bamboo shelter, working on a new bed.
"Day twelve comes to a close with the completion of a basic shelter. I should be able to actually get stuff done after this."
Climbing onto her surprisingly comfortable bed, she slowly fell asleep under the moonlight and the glow of the distant fire.
From that day on, time passed quickly as Zoe spent every waking moment improving her situation. Days became weeks, which eventually became months. As time progressed, the last remnants of winter gave way to spring and the bloom of fresh vegetation.
Walking around her significantly more developed camp, Zoe wore a long cloak made from the darkest wolf pelt. Beneath it, she had woven plant-fibre underwear during the first few weeks. Completing her outfit were a pair of shoes that resembled leather socks.
Approaching her latest project, she dropped a thin log onto her workbench. Grabbing a tool, she began whittling away at the wood to straighten and flatten it. Beside her, a weighted device slowly rotated a similar board over a smoky fire.
'This should be the last board I need for the waterwheel. After this, I can work on building a high-grade furnace.'
She took the completed board from the workbench and put it in place of the smoking board. After winding up the system, she headed back toward the river with the finished board in hand.
At the small cove, she walked along a bamboo walkway to where a thick wooden wheel sat supported by an equally robust frame. She pressed the board against a blank space, delicately chipping away as she sculpted it.
Satisfied with the shape, she pushed on the board until it clicked into place. Taking a square wooden peg from her leather pouch and her hammer, she fastened the board securely.
Hooking her hammer on the wheel, she jogged back to her camp. Grabbing the final board she examined it.
"The char and smoke should help the wood resist water better. It doesn't have to last long—just until I can make proper tools."
Gathering different materials she returned again to the river. Hammering the final board into place, she completed the wheel's blades. Brimming with excitement, she took wolf fat from her pouch and smeared it along the rounded sticks she planned to use for bearings.
Moving quickly, her excitement visible, she inserted the last roller and moved to where a single stick held the wheel out of the water. Checking her footing, she rested the protruding axle on her shoulder and lifted.
As she struggled with the hefty wheel, the support stick gave way and the bamboo beneath her feet began cracking. Quickly, she lowered the wheel into the water. The current immediately caught it, spinning the wheel rapidly.
"Yes! It worked!" She jumped with excitement and rushed back to shore, where the wheel's axle rested on a bearing identical to the one she had just finished. Looking at the spinning axle, a realization dawned on her.
"I forgot to make something to use it..." She smacked her forehead with her hands and groaned as she trudged back to camp. Walking up to a tool rack, she grabbed a stone pick and shovel.
"Well, the grind never ends, I guess. Time to make a furnace."