Ok, Builder wants me to change the name, so the popular vote is "Storm and Fire," so Storm and Fire Part 8

Sorry, this chapter is confusing. I may fix it.

Chapter 8
External Influence

Amidst the dark decaying buildings of the Washingtonian Capital Olympia, there stood a new capitol building. Built around it were other government buildings and several factories. Smoke blew out of the smokestacks. Garbage littered the streets and the smell of chemicals was in the air. Few had seen it because of the armed guards around it. Few even knew about it.
At the time, a government council was taking place. The few lights in the town shone out through the windows of the Capitol Building. The Capitol Building didn’t look much like a capital building. It looked more like a military base, or a bunker. Armed guards patrolled every bit of land around it. The uniforms they wore were old, and still had the symbols of the US army on it. But the men themselves looked like bandits.
Inside, the building was considerably nicer. Finely woven carpets lined the floor, and chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The desks of the congress people were carefully carved and varnished. Several US flags were displayed, depicting only one star on them. The words “One to Guide Many” was carved into a balcony overlooking the council room. At the front of the room behind a podium was a large painting of a man in a uniform.
The door to the room suddenly burst open. A crowd of people in suits strode into the room. They promptly took their seats at chairs behind semi-circle desks crossing the room. At the center point of these, which all these people were facing; a thin man with dark brown hair strode to the podium. He stared out at his crowd, surveying who had come. The usual crowd. He smiled. Things were going his way.

Paul started out on his latest hunting trip. He had spent the days since they past Monroe teaching Silvia survival tactics, and more importantly, how to hunt. The particular animal they were hunting today was the mountain deer. It had evolved during a period of rapid global warming when oxygen content was lower, and had developed better ways of using air, and could climb mountains better. It was also more used to variation of temperature more than most other large animals. Now, with higher oxygen content, it could run very fast. The second a shot was fired the rest of a herd would flee before another shot could be fired. It was good to have another person.
The mountain deer had been in the area for a while. They should be easy to find. Paul and Silvia spent several hours searching the forest. The ground made crunching noises when stepped on, so stealth was hard to achieve. Paul decided they should split up and go in separate directions. If they were found, a bird call would be imitated to notify the other. So they went off in different directions, Silvia into a valley and Paul along the ridge.
It wasn’t too long before Paul heard a chirping sound from the valley. He went as quickly as he could without accidentally startling the deer. He quickly located the source of the chirping. The deer were eating plants in a clearing. Luckily, there were some shrubs for cover. He reached Silvia’s location.
“Seems like you thievery skills let you track easily.” Paul whispered, loading his gun.
“Yes, that was one of the things I mastered in my training. I was one of the best trackers. I was worried they wouldn’t let me go because of the loss it would cause them. Didn’t I tell you that was how I found you even after you jumped in the stream?”
“No! You could have told me that before we started tracking the deer!”
“Well, sorry!” Silvia complained, “I thought you would be smart enough to figure it out on your own.”
Paul grumbled while he readied his gun. Silvia did the same. The deer took no notice of them at all. With a pull of the trigger as Silvia did at the same time, a loud bang startled all the deer. The two targets fell dead, while the rest sprinted away and were gone within three seconds. The hunt was a success.
Paul examined the deer they shot. As he thought, they did have the most meat of all of the deer. It was hard to pick out those two, but it was a good choice. Paul quickly drained the blood and gutted the deer, something Silvia did not care to participate in, so she took a walk during the time. Paul removed the skins for tanning. He thought he would be able to find some salt deposits in the surrounding area for the tanning process as well as curing the meat. He cleared an area in the meadow to build a fire. There was no lack of wood, and the space was large enough. The only problem was, how could the deer be transported?
The camp was set up. The deer were roasting in the fire, which was inside a pit to keep it hidden and to be able to set the deer on top of it. There were clouds and a possibility of raining, but Paul found a small cave only a few hundred meters from the meadow during his firewood collecting. He set up the sleeping pads and most of the supplies there. Being paranoid, he kept the Geiger counter with him.
Sitting in front of the fire, Silvia said, “It smells good. Can we eat it?”
“In another hour, yes.”
“Why can’t it cook faster?” complained Silvia.
“The deer are bigger than just a single chuck of meat. It will take another hour. You don’t want to catch a disease out here, do you?”
“Ok, fine.”
They spent the hour talking about various things, memories before the war, what happened afterward. Paul began to feel less cautious. It was the first time he noticed he could trust a person, miles from any town, to not kill him. It was a strange notion. He had lived with people who wanted to murder him all his life. Now he felt relatively safe.
“Dinner’s ready,” he called. He felt the best he had ever since the war."