A man tried exhaling into the night air. The all too familiar hit of the incoming frigid forced down his throat. A breath of savage winter blowing in sideways funneled throughout the blown-down tree corridors. The falling timber limbs followed by fierce flurries that matched an ever intensifying building tension before the inevitable snap.
At the edges of the steep hill it whipped up snowflakes like a blender into the night skies where the second person caught up climbing together in the intensifying weather.
Bessie and Jed were out in the dark. The light cast by their runaway chuck wagon had long disappeared. The wild call of hungry wolves could still be heard however the good news was it was diminishing in the distance. The pack chased the gravy train driven by Mule acting as bait, but hopefully he would come back for them eventually.
“Are you sure you don’t have a light.. I have a healing kit in my backpack that might have a glowstick,” said Bessie.
She limped injured behind with two guns ready. The ground was a slippery mix between black ice on exposed granite and snow. The skin around the injury on the leg could be seen black and blue even in the limited light of full moons.
Jed started fumbling with his clothing ruffling through the pockets of his winter jacket.
“Shit you didn’t tell me you had survival supplies. Give me your healing kit off your back, let's see what we got,” commanded Jed.
“Aaa. Sorry it’s hard to think, give me a second to adjust to the pain,” she mumbled, barely holding her head up.
She began to fall until he caught her shoulder Jed inspected the makeshift bandage wound around the wound.
“Dang nammit Bessie you need immediate care from a doctor fuck, MULE WHERE ARE YOU?” hollored Jed, as loud as possible.
His voice echoed through the snowy valley scaring the crows. He hastily unzipped the medical supplies and knocked things everywhere. Jed rested Bessie gently on a stump. He got on his hands and knees on the cold snow slowly losing his mind. His heart beat out of his chest as he picked through ointment tubes, and tweezers. It was impossible to see the full picture and find light.
“Snap.”
“Found it now let’s fix me up,” said Bessie, holding the glow stick that slowly warmed into color.
She rolled up her pant leg and applied the stinging disinfectant on the puncture while wincing.
“You ok?”
“Nope but let’s roll anyway,” she said, before biting into the fabric of her sleeve.
He started retying the bandage tightly as possible. The winds seemed to whine into ears while he wound tape around the last bandage and cut it off. They had used up all the medical supplies left on hand. This had long become a truly urgent wilderness survival situation.
He dumped snow that had rapidly accumulated on the trenchcoat. The area was growing thinner with trees just like his hairline. The valley was filled deeper every second with rapidly collecting snowflakes. The inclement weather seemed to be building into a rage yet to be fully unleashed from the elements.
“MULE HELP,” whistled Jed.
“No sense wasting vital energy man, let's figure out our best shot at not freezing come morning,” yelled Bessie over the storm.
She juggled through her weapons while limping along in the rear.
“I’ll help you live the best I can ma’am, even if we have to spend the night on ice,” he said.
“The good news is those wolves seem to all be focused on Mule.. Ouch..The so-called nature preserves we are in are massive,” she said.
Jed wrapped his flannel around her face to protect it.
“Thank you.”
“Brrrr,” he said, buttoning up the winter trench coat with one layer underneath removed.
He paused and slapped his forehead in frustration. Off fell the used beaver skin hat Mule had previously looted from a creature now forever rendered brain damaged.
“What's your pain level for walking forward?,”Jed asked, pausing the hike and listening intently.
“I’m fine..Grr….,” she mouthed additional swears that didn’t fully form vowels.
The wolves howled in the distance while she did in his face. Jed bent down and retrieved his hat.
“Here take my hat lady, unfortunately we can’t really settle down somewhere, start a fire, and huddle for warmth with all the hungry predators about,” he said.
“You go find help from a nearby village. I will finish climbing the hill and bask in the green stone fires,” she stammered in pain.
She gripped her crippled leg before shrieking.
“I will carry you on my back up this hill,” said Jed, tossing away 1 of 2 lever action rifles in order to not be encumbered by weight.
“Only go just as far as you can manage,” she said, getting into position.
Jed grunted, lifting her onto his back. “You will have to do the shooting from here on out,” he said.
“Okay we got this team survival mode,” she said.
Jed retreated into his mind to continue hiking. He let out a long and exacerbated sigh as the terrain ahead became twice as difficult. The trek continued over deep snow and exposed glacier boulders for some time. The repeating gallery woodland in the background blurred together. Thousands of steps later he glanced around as if he had just awakened from a deep slumber in an unfamiliar area.
The two of them awkwardly supported each other in a spacious thin forest on a hillside. A possible result of meticulous cleaning just like her wound needed to be treated. Despite being treated to the best of his abilities Bessie was still bleeding all over him. Jed struggled into gear slowly moving forward one step at a time. His paints and back had become warm due to her leaking fluids.
He continued almost jogging faster uphill. It took several minutes of intense cardio until finally he reached the rocks. A section heading straight up with an iron rung ladder. He hosted her half way up and she pulled herself to the top. He followed and they arrived into a thickly forested area full of moss covered rocks jutting sharply through the foliage. A cave revealed itself shining on the cliff edge.
“Good luck crystals wow those are big,” said Jed.
“Look there's a light in the distance,” whispered Bessie.
“Hope it’s Mule,” said Jed, squinting with the blizzard clouding his eyes.
The wind howled while the wolves joined in. The angry storm clouds momentarily pushed aside to reveal a steep drop below the trail and the northern lights. Where trees thinned to nothing but the smallest saplings rooted among crevices dotted a full slope.
“Hey there it looks like a familiar camp,” she mumbled, pointing above where the green waves danced with the stars on top of the hill.
“Yes, shelter soon,” whispered Jed.
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“It’s such a steep climb,” she said before passing out cold.
“Ooof,” he called, falling over each other after tripping on something.
He dusted off some of the ground in an effort to pull himself upwards, but slipped. They tumbled over the peak of a cord of chopped firewood buried under the snow. He turned and pulled out a splinter from himself before dumping her into a small cave. There he found a steady pulse, and her breathing gently in and out. She has only passed out for now.
Jed worked free the crystal cutting hatchet strapped to her pack. His hands trembled as he pulled out a matchbook and lit off three duds in a row. He smacked himself in the face to calm his nerves. He tried again but he was no match for the match, this time drawing a brief flame that flickered a few seconds extinguishing before he could do anything with it.
“Farc,” he yelled.
“Who goes there?,” an angry voice couldn't exactly cut through to make out the entire thing. “Hello HQ does this fucking thing work Hello?” a voice screamed into the microphone.
Loud static responded while the firestarter found in the health kit sparked to life with moist twigs.
“Stay here safe,” Jed whispered looking over Bessie one last time before crawling forward.
“Hello, anybody home?” the unknown voice yelled again, breaking branches as it got closer.
A high beam light started bouncing from the tree to the exposed ledge above him. Jed remained unseen on the ground like a worm. The light inched closer and closer towards Jed who lay still under a tiny spruce sapling. He readied his hatchet to attack from the back, but then paused at the last second.
The light was right on top of him now blinding him from sight before taking a detour around him. The heavy soldier worked extra hard to be moving forward with thunder shock thighs scraping together. He also wore fur and goose carcass stuffing, and held a mighty fat gun in his mittens. With the exterior armor covering everything sparkling beside the crystal light it was evident that this was made out of heavenly material slowed down due to body mass.
Jed was dumbfounded at how to improvise another way of sneak attacking the especially large goon. He stroked his black and white beard. The option he needed to be thinking of was dragging Bessie out stealthily. He knew logically he could just leave her out in the frost to the wolves, and run for Mule, but that wasn’t right. Besides, as long as the geezer was alive he would never give them back the jungle juice if they didn’t return his daughter alive.
He had to act fast on coming up with a plan. Jed looked all around while the soldier lumbered forward directly into the slim shade of moons.
“Chop, chop, chop!”
“Who goes there?,” demanded the heavily armored troop.
He started to turn his body at 11 RPM, his minigun also began to spin. Finally after many sweaty seconds waddling around he saw nothing.The blizzard swirled around obscuring all vision.
“Chop, Chop, chop, chop!” cried the trees from the forest.
“Prepare to die animals,” announced the heavy soldier spinning up six rotating barrels with a quick crank spinning into action.
Fresh bullets entered the many chambers to be ignited. The thug had dropped his light breaking out the crystal juice that seared a hole into the snow yellow just like piss. The light was gradually fading.
“Timber!” called Jed, exacting the round he had just shot in response while sprinting away.
The tree was falling when the bullets started loudly shooting while dust and lead dust riddled the air around the camping shooter. The air was raining sweet smelling sawdust as the thing was full of enough holes to be a cheese. It became pulpwood falling to dust on its obliterator.
“HAhaHA,” taunted the heavily armored individual.
A single branch managed to escape, scratching the heavy armor on the way down. The minigun barrels glowed bright red while smoke poured out the ends that continued spinning to cool. The snow swirling around sizzling after coming in contact with the hot metal barrels.
Jed started hacking into another gnarly ancient tree. It was like butter with the fresh cutting crystal blade of her factory new hatchet. His arms burned with exertion as he forced his body to hack like no tomorrow.
The bullets pelted the forest shredding trees, stumps, and burrows. Jed lay on the ground covering above his head as he army crawled behind a small bump in the terrain. The heavy soldier spun his big weapon around slowly shooting in that direction. The bullets whizzed by as they ricocheted off rocks and zipped into squirrel holes. A tree creaked as it was torn apart at the roots. Another one cracked apart as it fell over.
Jed rolled away just in time with one side of branches stabbing into the frozen ground like dozens of swords. The smallest limbs snapped and shattered by the impact, throwing them out like quills. He covered his face with an already bandaged hand that was now full of splinters. An intense flurry of snow was kicked up burying him in the aftermath.
Meanwhile Mule remained on the run from a pack of hungry wolves. There must have been a hundred predators in hot pursuit of the chuck wagon he was hauling up the hill. The sharp incline and slippery snow meant one misteap could easily be the end after a trip.
"OooooooooooooooooOOOO,” howled the pack, drooling for food.
The two leading predators were in front of over a dozen more nipping at his hooves. Mule couldn’t turn his head to see how close they were getting to catching him. The trees got smaller and smaller as did the path. The crushed stones zipped behind him with the wolves as he climbed.
Mule huffed and he puffed. He closed his eyes and dissociated into a happy place. His legs were on fire from a hundred suns but he persisted to run. He possessed practically unlimited depths to his abilities and cultivation, however his power came at a significant cost. It was getting very close to time to pay up.
“I’m not becoming dog food,” he repeated in his head over and over again.
He almost didn’t hear the teeth clacking together after a narrow miss at eating his hind quarters. Mule opened his eyes and kicked.
“Wham!”
The loaded two front wolves went flying as their limp bodies took off sledding downwards fast. The chuck wagon slowed down. The terrain had suddenly become covered in a thin layer of black ice laying in surprise. Mule had discovered this grave danger far too late as he slipped.
“Woof,” snarled a jumping wolf, biting onto his tail.
“Yooow!” yelled the ass.
Mule bucked forward, throwing off the attacker while skating uphill due to momentum. The rest of the pack cautiously advanced to finish the hunt with their unclipped claws digging into him. Their rabid eyes worked with their voracious appetites to overpower danger to self. The load was slowly killing Mule as he slowly lost the battle against gravity.
The wagon skidded sideways adding more passengers as wolves sailed through the air jumping aboard. The dogs ripped into cupboards gobbling up a store of lard in a bucket. They howled in delight, also nibbling on spilled kibble.
A surprised wolf yelped as the icebox crushed it. The rest of the ride tilted sideways bucking him off paste on the trail. Mule's momentum had stalled out after crunching on another wolf's foot. Now his hooves were sliding backwards pulled down by the anchor on wheels. The weight of the many mangy bodies of the attacking starving beasts. A particularly malnourished wolf the straw that collapsed the camel's back.
The entire thing fell backwards. A tangled mess all wound together, the wagon spun and flipped taking out half a dozen enemies who had yet to climb aboard. The entire thing was launched off a cliff. Mule had used every last drop of his energy reserves. He had none left to take on any other form except for his default donkey skin. A wolf had jumped on top of him. He wiggled for dear life fighting to reach the saddle bag. He bucked and kicked, smacking off an attacker's canine teeth. The crash was imminent. A wolf yelped as another bit him in the back as some last ditch effort of control. At the last second a slim tentacle lashed into the saddlebag fishing out a farc crystal.
“Poof!”
Mule and wolves attached to him no clipped through the floor disappearing from this reality.
The wagon and everything else exploded onto the ground. Flames lit up a tree covered in spilled magma powder. An explosion rocked the hillside reverberating across the valley. The laughing of the heavy soldier echoed the clearing with it. Nothing in the immediate area had been left standing after the hail of bullets. He spun his minigun over his head and then dunked it in snow that quickly melted.
“Targets eliminated,” he cackled into a crackling earpiece under the low visibility heavy duty helmet.
“Roger timber trooper,” replied a max volume radio.
“I wish I could hear you but I’m heading back to base camp over and out,” he said waddling forward.
“Gotcha timber trooper we will inform the lookout for more enemies,” blared outside the slowly retreating heavily armored infantry.
“Hey timber,” hollored an unseen voice.
“What?” Asked the soldier looking up over and out of bounds.
“Timber,” Yelled Jed pushing a boulder above.
“Yeah whaaAAAAAAAAAAAAT THE FUC!”
“SMASH.”
It was lights out forever bonked out with a noggin crushed on direct impact from a falling boulder. Jed shimmed the ledge he had climbed working to the body. It was still squirming with the life not fully squeezed out of it.
“Bang.”
Jed retrieved the fallen minigun as the ammo had started to roll off the cliff. A makeshift sled was made out of the heavy soldier's dislocated breast plate. The area was fully exposed to the elements. He would have to work fast to avoid frostbite to shovel in as many bullets as he could carry. Jed quickly checked the dead a final time discovering a pack he threw with the other loot. He had already found a rope he used to pull the attached sled.
The snowflakes blinded him from the path, but he had tied red ribbons. He smelled smoke from the cave and heard knocking sounds. He jogged increasingly quickly, spilling bullets. Outside the area he found Bessie knocking together frozen firewood.
“Ah Jed I didn’t know if you had gone for help like I suggested, but regardless have you seen my ax it would make the fire much easier to manage?” .
“Yeah actually…” Jed searched himself and sled for it, but came up empty handed. “Here check out this loot I got you as a present, I’ve got more stuff to get including your ax but understand I was under attack.”
“Yeah I understand, stay safe,” she called, but he had already left.