The broken dove

This will be the last hunt before the winter hits, I really need to find a good sized antelope for butchering, Robin thinks to himself. 

  He’s been trekking for more then half the day and is starting to loose hope of finding anything to hunt. The storm is starting to form on the horizon and it’s going to be a long trek back to the cabin.

As usual Robin finds his thoughts turn to Mindy and what could have been. Even after a whole year, he still finds it hard to let go, to not think about her, and to not think about the ultimate betrayal she and his brother had done against him. Trying to concentrate on the task at hand, Robin turns his thoughts back to the hunt. Besides he's made a promise to himself that he's going to try his best not to think about them anymore. 

Looking up at the sky, watching as the dark clouds roll in, assessing how much time he has before he needs to turn back in order to get back to the cabin before the storm hits. 

  “I’ll give it another half-hour then turn back” he says to himself. 

  Not sure why he says it to himself, but he does. Robin finds himself talking to himself more and more as the time passes, since he has lived up in the cabin on his own. The cabin was meant to be his and Mindy’s homestead. Something they had talked about and dreamed of having for years. They were gonna get married, make a clearing in the forest on a piece of his Dads land near the mountain spring where they could build a little house on the mountain, grow food and bring up livestock. Use the spring to bring water to the homestead with water and even electric to the house. They had it all planned out. How many animals they would have, how their green house would look, what vegetables they would grow, how many children they planned on having.

You know, just make a self sustaining life up in the Alaskan mountains, a proper little homestead for them and their future kids. 

  It’s been nearly a year now, struggling away at finishing the homestead on his own. The hurt of what happened between him and his twin brother and Mindy still stings like a bitch when he thinks of it. He may have told them that he's okay with the set up, but really, he isn’t! It kills him to see them so happy. Her, now pregnant with his brothers child and them living their perfect life in town. 

  “I just don’t know why she wanted so badly to have the homestead life for so long, and then change her mind like she did? I thought we were happy!” Robin, says to himself, thoughts turning once again to Mindy. 

  

  Crack-click!

A twig is broken.

Robin stops dead in his tracks.

Listening intently and scanning the tree line for signs of the animal that made the sound. 

  

  There she is, a deer, standing near the bottom of the cliff that towers overhead. She’s grazing quietly and hasn’t noticed him. He pulls his rifle out and looks through the viewer but she’s still too far away for a good clean shot. 

  “Okay, here goes” he whispers to himself. 

  

  Robin starts to edge nearer as quietly as he can, making sure to stay downwind. After a good 25 feet he finds a nicely situated log that he can perch behind to take the shot. As he lays down and sets the rifle sights on the deer, just waiting for her to move a pinch forward for the perfect shot. Something spooks her and she takes off, leaving Robin looking straight at ... "what is that?" Cocking his head to the side as if that's going to help him see better, "it strangely looks like a disfigured white dove, red and white, is that blood?" He asks himself aloud. "It looks like, a broken white dove", he thinks to himself. Still not quite making the connection in his brain, of what he is looking at, as if the sight is completely absurd or ,alien, to him. 

  It takes a moment of staring, for his mind to register as if trying to piece together a difficult puzzle, before coming to the realisation that what he is actually looking at is not a broken white dove, but is in fact a practically naked, pale as snow girl, covered in blood. And just as his mind makes the connection, Robin's heart sinks like a stone to his stomach leaving him with a gut wrenching feeling which automatically sets his body off in motion involuntarily towards her.

 

  “Jesus!” Robin gets up as quickly as he can, he practically falls over the log in the rush to get to her to see if she’s dead or alive. 

  A million things going through Robins mind as to why the hell there’s a girl with no clothes on the top of a mountain, blood everywhere. First thing that comes to mind is that she may have fallen down the cliff while hiking, but that doesn’t explain why she’s naked. Although, she is bloody, maybe she’s fallen down the cliff and then been attacked by animals, there are plenty of wolves and bear around these parts. But she wouldn’t have be left in once piece like she is if they had. Maybe she’s been attacked by a wild animal, it’s ripped her clothing off and then she’s fallen down the cliff where the animal couldn’t reach her anymore. Yes, that makes sense.

"Doesn’t it?!"

  

  “F*ck!” Robin shouts in annoyance as he tries to scramble up to where she's perched at the bottom of the cliff. It’s not easy getting to her as there are a lot of rocks and brush in the way.

  “Hey,

hey,

are you alive?”

He shouts as he scrambles up nearer to her. 

  “Can you hear me?” 

  As he gets closer, Robin can see that this girl hasn’t been attacked by wild animals, to the contrary, she’s been shot with a hunting arrow. He manages to get up to where she is, he touches her face but she’s cold to the touch. 

  “Hello, can you hear me? Are you alive?” He says again. 

  

  “Uhh” is all that Cam can muster, with a slight movement from her right hand. 

  

  “Help” she whispers. 

  

  “Jesus, your alive! Oh my god!” Robin frantically pants. He immediately takes his coat off and puts it over her. 

  “What’s your name? How did you get here?”, he asks.

  But Cammie can’t do anymore, she’s physically unable to speak or move. 

  

  Robin has to think on his feet, there's no way she would still be alive if he were to trek back to the cabin to radio for help. He notices the start of some snow falling and looks up to the sky, the clouds are thick and black and the storm is upon them. The rescue chopper wouldn’t get here before the storm does. He's going to have to carry her down. 

  Time is of the essence, he puts the coat over her and puts her arms into the arm holes. She complains with the hurt it causes.

  “I am so sorry, but this is going to hurt!"

He picks her up and leans her against the cliff wall. He leans down and swings her around his neck as if he was carrying a deer he’d hunted. 

  “Aaarrgghh” she cries and then passes out with the pain. 

  

  Robin struggles down the mountain edge, luckily the girl doesn’t weight as much a deer and he finally gets to a natural path that the animals have made through the forest, it’s a path he’s used many times before too, for foraging and hunting, so it’s well used and makes it easier to walk. 

  Going on the hunt is slow going, going slow means the hunter can try to find and shoot their prey as close to home as possible so he doesn’t have to carry it too far back to the homestead. So, although Robin had trekked for half a day going on the hunt, the trek back only took an hour and a half because he wasn’t trying to go slow or quiet. Not to mention the rush of adrenaline that was pumping through him since the second his brain registered at what he was seeing. 

  

  Once at the cabin, Robin flops the half dead, frozen and unconscious girl on his bed.

Unable to think, he stares at her for a moment, seeing her lay there on his bed, bloodied and torn to shreds of whatever is left of her clothes. The arrow sticking through her. She's pale, deathly pale. Robin gets a shiver down his spine as he wonders who could do something like this to another person.

That one shiver sets off a torrent of shivers. Not knowing if it's the reaction of finding her that's sent him into shock and the adrenaline wearing off, or if he is reacting to the cold. Never the less, she must be freezing. He throws the covers over her and feeds the wood stove to help warm the place through. He goes straight to the radio.

Thank god he got this working last week. He tries a few times for the emergency services, but the snow storm is going full throttle now and it’s probably causing the bad signal. He keeps trying and after a few minutes he finally gets a crackly feed through. It’s the sheriff. 

  

  Robin scrambles, “SHERIFF!?, Robin here, I need emergency medical care up at my cabin, I have a young woman half dead and frozen with an arrow through her side. Can you send someone please?”

  

  Kshshsh, crackling from the radio 

  

  " Robin, Robin McRay is that you? What did you say? please repeat, over”

  

  Kshshsh

  

“yeah sheriff this is Robin McRay, I need immediate, emergency medical evacuation, right now!”

  

  Kshshsh

  

  Sheriff , “ that is going to be a negative I’m afraid to say Robin. What is the medical emergency? Over”

  

  Kshshsh

  

" I have a half near dead, frozen girl with a hunting arrow through her side. She's been bleeding profusely and needs emergency hospital treatment. Please sherif! I’ve just carried this woman down the mountain to save her life, please don’t let her die now!”

  

  Kshshsh

  

“Robin, give me some time, let me see what I can do. Hold tight! Over”

  

  Kshshsh

  

  With that the radio goes quiet. Robin sits in disbelief and despair. 

  

  *** 

  

  After what feels like a life time, the radio crackles and Robin hears the sheriffs voice. 

  

  “Rob? You there Robin? Over”

  

  Kshshsh, crackling from the radio.

  

  Sheriff, “Robin, you there? Over”

  

  Kshshsh

  

  Robin grabs the receiver, “Robin here sheriff, is the chopper on its way?”

  

  Kshshsh

  

  Sheriff, “ that’s a negative. I repeat negative to the chopper. Don’t worry though, the roads are still passable, the wife and I are picking up supplies and meds and are on our way up to you. Just sit tight. Over”

  

  Kshshsh

  

 Unable to believe his ears, Robin replies frantically, "sheriff, I don't think you understand, this woman needs a hospital!"

Sheriff?.....SHERIFF?”

  

  Kshshsh

   

  Radio silence