Two weeks went by, and Lara seemed to have mastered the art of living naked in the woods. Raiding trash cans in the National Forest produced an abundance of food and supplies. She now had a few razors she could shave herself with as well.
The leaves of branches that she had gathered nearly two weeks ago had dried up and lost their cushion. But she had since found so many articles of clothing that she was able to create a more soft and comfortable bedding. She also had plenty of blankets to cover herself with. She was quite rested and toasty each morning.
Things had now progressed to the point where she was producing trash of her own after consuming boxes of cookies, bags of chips, and jars of pickles and olives. Stashed in one corner of her cinder block house were about 10 unopened cans of food, including soups and raviolis that people had threw out. Except, she still hadn't found a tool to open them with, and so stacked them there in the meantime.
Lara was able to keep track of the calendar by taking notice of the date on newspapers she found in the trash. She was now nearly two months into living nude in public. She felt rather proud of herself as well, and entertained the idea of keeping a diary. She had enough pens and notepads gathered from the trash. But she knew she'd never be able to haul them around with her should she have to vacate.
The next day, Lara decided to hike the opposite direction around the lake. The lake itself probably contained some 100 miles of shoreline, while Lara had resided towards the southern portion where camping and boating was more prevalent.
While walking through the tree cover but keeping an eye's view of the water, Lara stopped after hearing someone sing. She tip-toed carefully to see where this person was. Seated on the dirt, facing the water, was Lucy.
It was just over two weeks since Lara last saw her. Lucy seemed to be focused on the water and quite comfortable on her blanket. Lara felt sorry for her, realizing how heartbroken she must still be.
But Lara wasn't the naive little girl that Lucy fell in love with. She needed to be the mature, free-spirited young woman thriving on her determination and cunning to survive in the forest. Lara understood the naive little girl was still buried inside her, but after over two-weeks of living on her own, in her own house, with her own system of survival, she wasn't prepared to let the little girl out.
Lucy finally stood up, picked up her blanket, brushed it off and folded it back up. Then she headed back up the dirt trail that led to her house.
Something inside Lara, however, wanted to follow.
She stepped away from the trees and walked carefully to the shore line and then found the same dirt trail. Lucy was several yards up the trail when Lara started up. She felt a strange sense of curiosity. When Lucy got to her house, Lara stepped back into the trees, but got to within 20 yards and watched for a sign. When she felt safe enough, Lara tip-toed to Lucy's car and looked inside. It still looked the same as it did before, but somehow it satisfied her to see it again.
The galvanized wash tub was there, and it reminded her of the afternoons they'd wash each other. The fire pit was right there too, and she recalled a few nights when they'd sit in the chairs and warm their feet by the fire. She could still remember what the inside of the house looked like, the couch, the bed, the pot bellied stove.
It was all coming back to her.
But living the past two weeks in her own cinder block house somehow made her more determined to hide and remain silent. It changed Lara into more of a survivalist than a nudist. She was still fully nude as before, but being nude and loving the feeling of sunshine and breeze on her bare skin no longer entered her mind.
She was only concerned about living.
Seeing Lucy again and all the familiar things around her house, jogged a certain feeling from her that she had forgotten about. Lucy had the presence and demeanor to pull out the tender, emotional side of Lara. That's what made her follow her back.
Lara thought about the feeling she was sensing and became conflicted. She knew if she allowed Lucy to see her, Lucy would go after her. Lara wasn't ready for that, and was still concerned about the police.
Lara followed the dirt trail back to the lake, and eventually found her way back to her cinder block house.
There, she laid on her bedding of used clothes and thought about Lucy some more.
Masturbation had become a much more common occurrence at this point. Without having to travel each day, and without anyone to interact with, all she had were books and the curiosity to explore the woods to entertain her. But in the evening, when it became pitch black, the darkness beckoned her into an escape inside herself.
Lara touched herself for hours, often late into the early hours of the morning. She produced numerous orgasms each night, recessing into memories of Teresa and crafting her own fantasies that mixed together other people including Julia, Nan, and Lucy.
Her eroticism had reached an intensity to where her body had produced high levels of Oxytocin and Dopamine, creating a high that kept her addicted and dissociative.
Only when the morning light freckled through the leaves and branches covering the window of the cinder block house, was she finally catapulted back into her adult being, ready to handle the responsibilities of survival.
