Okay guys, honestly sometimes I wish I had gone the route of Jem just going out with Elm. I think that would have been funny.

Anyways guys, I finally got a pay raise at work. Now I'm prepping for my EPA 608 test. I also will be putting down a down payment for a Colt Anaconda at the gun store I work at.

Why?

1. Wanted something in 44 Magnum

2. This is America

Jem

Jem had taken a break from the campaign trail for a bit. He was back on Earth camping out in a Cabin with Winter and Nala. After Zeus died he decided to take a day or two back on Earth to get his mind right. He would be back in Mantle after this weekend. Right now he was just chopping wood for the fireplace while Nala was getting water from the well. Winter was inside watching the fire and preparing a meal.

Jem was glad he had taken that money he got from using Clover as a human scratch off card and bought this land out in South Dakota. The cabin he had built as an off grid getaway. He did have electricity, but the only items he really had hooked up to it were a fridge and some lighting. He powered it all with a mixture of a solar generator and a small hydroelectric generator he had set up in the river.

But no tv, no cellphones, no electronics of any kind. Just man and nature. The way God intended.

CHOP

Jem felt a sense of satisfaction everytime he managed to split a log on the first try. He could remember the very first time he ever tried to split a log. The results were pitiful. However now it was as easy as breathing.

"Dad, Mom says the food is almost done." Nala said as Jem nodded and picked up a load of wood.

"Perfect, should have enough for the rest of the weekend." He said as he was just finishing up.

"Are you doing okay?" Nala asked as she had been checking up on her father multiple times since Zeus passed.

She had never had a dog before, but she had met Zeus too. And he was an adorable ball of fluff. She couldn't imagine how Jem had felt after having him for nine years after adopting him when he was five.

"I'm doing better Munchkin. Did your mother say what she was making?" He asked as Nala nodded.

"She's cooking up some of the duck and pheasant you shot from this year." That made Jem smile.

Truth was he had a lot of meat left over from his previous hunts just for these occasions. There was just something amazing about eating meat that you shot in a cabin in the woods. Especially during this time of the year. Winter was starting to show its face around these parts. You could see the snow trying to stick to the roof of the cabin as Jem hauled the last of the wood into his little home away from home.

He stripped off his jacket and hung it up as Nala went and sat on the couch. She was ready to get back to her book that her dad had gotten her.

"The industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race?" Nala was confused. This wasn't her book.

"Sorry Sweetie, that ones mine. Yours is on the other end of the couch." Nala scurried over to the other side and made a 'Oh' face as she recovered her book.

Instead she continued to enjoy the adventure of Brian Robeson in Hatchet. (1)

"Hey babe." Jem said as he kissed the back of Winter's neck as he cuddled into her from behind as she was cooking.

"Hey sweetie." She said as she was trying not to mess up the meat.

Jem knew how to cook game meat. She however was still learning. And she was worried if she lost concentration then she would ruin the birds. (2)

"I'd say those are about done." Jem said giving her the go ahead to get them ready.

"I still don't see how you manage to get these perfect every time." Winter may be getting better, but Jem just had magic hands when it came to cooking duck and pheasant.

"Well Winnie, when you grow up in the countryside with a family that loves the outdoors, you tend to get raised into a hunting lifestyle, I simply have more experience with it, don't worry you'll get better the more you do it." He said as he got the table set.

Jem had cast iron silverware and some old blue enamel plates for dining. He wanted to get as far away from plastic as possible. It just ruined the atmosphere of the cabin. This place had a soothing feel to it.

With all the hustle and bustle of running for office, he had almost forgotten what it was like to just kick back and relax. It was nice not having to hear the sound of roaring bullheads. Instead he could listen to the sound of howling late at night and the sound of the wind roaring through the trees. There was a peaceful serenity to this place that he had not felt in a long time.

It almost made him wonder if he should just stay and never go back to Mantle. But he couldn't just leave them. There were far too many people counting on him now. He was a symbol of hope and liberty for so many citizens, he couldn't leave no matter how tempting it was to stay here. But maybe eventually if he actually won and he was elected, after he was done he could always come back here.

He didn't need the money anymore, Clover had set him up for life.

He was't doing it for the fame. He didn't mind the quiet life.

He was simply doing it because it needed to be done.

And because it was fun to piss off Robyn Hill and Jacques Schnee simultaneously.

Come to think of it? Did Jacques even know he was dating his daughter?

Honestly it had been so long since this whole mess started that he couldn't even remember. (3)

1. If you have never read Hatchet, you're missing out. It was one of those books I read as a kid that inspired my love for wilderness survival.

2. Truth be told, Duck, Pheasant, Deer, etc etc, any game meat is going to be different from cooking beef. Just because someone shot a deer and processed it doesn't necessarily mean they know how to cook it right.

Any game meat can taste good if the chef knows what hes doing. But the opposite can also be true.

3. Honestly guys, theres been so many chapters, I don't even remember my own plot points.

Also if I was to make a spin off where Jem dates Elm, would anyone read that?