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Fan fiction based on the MacGyver television series. MacGyver trademarks and copyright are owned by paramount studios. This story is written for fan enjoyment and is not intended to infringe upon any copyright.
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The float bobbed around in the current of the river as the fishing line sank beneath it to the rocky bottom. The water flowed quickly in this section of the mountain stream. MacGyver sat and watched the float on his fishing line for a few seconds before allowing his eyes to wander back to the huge mountains that surrounded him. He inhaled deeply, enjoying the clean fresh mountain air and continued to marvel at the beauty of the wilderness before him. His mind wandered briefly back to the last six months he had spent locked away working in a Phoenix lab, overseeing the new biosynthesis project. Six long months of sterile white walls, long white coats, and emotionless people. Not that MacGyver minded the people, he knew many of them and got on well with them, but this project had been particularly stressful for everyone involved, growing complications and decreasing time frames had kept everyone on edge and resulted in more arguments than MacGyver wanted to remember. But at least that was all over now, he thought to himself as he lay back against his backpack and closed his eyes. He needed to reacquaint his senses with nature and release the tensions of the last six months. And spending a week or so in the mountains with just himself and Mother Nature was the best way he knew of achieving both goals. The solitude of the wilderness had always been MacGyvers release, he loved living off the land, employing the survival techniques his Grandpa Harry had taught him as a kid. Perhaps that was why he enjoyed the wilderness so much, it reminded him of happy times with Harry, or perhaps it was just the piece and quiet of having no one else around.
“Well almost no-one else around!” MacGyver mumbled to himself as the sound of gunshots echoed through the mountains. He sat up and wound in his fishing line. He’d caught one fish already, which when mixed with a packet of dried vegetables would be a sufficient meal for him. He hoisted his backpack onto his shoulders, grabbed his fish and rod, and headed back to his tent.
The tent itself was situated about thirty meters away from where he had been fishing, in a large opening next to the river with a circle of rocks outlining the camp fire, flanked off to the right by MacGyvers’ two-tone blue tent. The spot afforded easy access to the river for water while maintaining a large enough distance from forest vegetation to ensure there was no danger to the forest from jumping sparks or embers from the camp fire. MacGyver had just reached his tent when he heard a voice call out to him.
“Help! I need help!”
MacGyver looked up in the direction of the voice to see a female appear out of the bushes from the other side of the camp opening. She was holding her left upper arm as she ran towards MacGyver.
“Help me please.” She begged as she approached MacGyver who could now see that she had blood running from her clutched arm. MacGyver dropped his backpack and fishing rod as the woman fell to the ground in front of him.
“What happened?” MacGyver asked as he moved the women’s hand to see her wound.
“They shot me!” She answered hysterically. “They’ve got my husband! They’re gonna kill us! You’ve got to help!”
“Ok. Ok! Slow down!” MacGyver insisted. “Let's get this fixed up first,” he said as he investigated the wound. “Well it looks like a flesh wound” he announced as he reached to his survival pack for bandages.
“Well it hurts like hell” the women informed.
“Its gonna hurt more yet. We’re gonna have to take that jacket off” MacGyver said apologetically.
MacGyver helped remove the red ski jacket and rolled up the blood-soaked sleeve of her shirt. He applied one of the pads from his survival kits first aid assortment and finished the dressing with a standard bandage wrapping.
“There, that should help” he proclaimed in an almost proud voice. “But you’re going to need to get to a hospital. The bullet ripped a nasty hole in your arm. Your lucky it missed the bone.”
“Lucky?” the women retorted. As she painfully put her jacket back on.
“Well, as lucky as a person being shot at can be.” He answered with a shy smile as he packed his first-aid kit back into the survival pack and clipped it back around his waist. The woman gave a quiet chuckle.
“Thank you so much for your help.” The women offered sincerely.
“My pleasure…..” MacGyver's words were cut short by gun shots and the sounds of bullets flying past his head. He jumped as the second gunshot sounded. “RUN!” he yelled pushing the women towards the track which led to his fishing spot. MacGyver grabbed his backpack and ran after her, ducking as another shot rang out.
The shots had come from two men who now jumped out of the bushes to give chase to MacGyver and the women. The lead man appeared to be in charge as he barked orders to the more solid-looking man in tow. Both men were dressed in army camouflage clothing and seemed comfortable with the bushy terrain. The heavier man carried a rifle. The slimmer had two hand pistols.
The women stopped at the edge of the river where MacGyver had sat twenty minutes earlier and turned towards MacGyver as he caught up to her.
“That way.” he pointed towards a track that led up into the bush, away from the river. He grabbed the women’s hand and set off at a run, pulling the women along behind him into the bush just as the two pursuing men entered the small river side opening. Both men paused briefly and then spotted the women’s red jacket as it disappeared into the bush. The larger of the two men took a step to begin the chase but was halted by the outstretched arm of his partner.
“Come on! They’re getting away!” The man protested as he pushed his partners arm away.
“Look.” The slim man ordered, pointing to a small red puddle on the ground. Both men squatted down to examine the red spots. The larger of the two men reached out and touched the red puddle, pulled his hand back rolling the fluid between his finger and thumb.
“Blood?” he asked, still rolling the fluid between his fingers.
“Yeah.” The other confirmed. “We hit her, she’s losing blood.”
“Which means they’re gonna head for the cars. We should….”
“No.” The other interrupted. “That track they took heads back towards the cave. Alan and Marsh are already heading for the car park. We’d better get back to the cave. Come on I know a short cut.” He announced as he started up the track followed closely by his rifle-carrying partner.
MacGyver and the women continued their pace along the bush track, which lead them up and away from the river for a time, before swinging back towards the river again in a semicircle. The woman was starting to puff and tried to slow MacGyvers pace, but he insistently pulled her along as the sound of the river grew louder once again. They came to a fork in the track, MacGyver paused for a moment, looked at both tracks and headed down the track which seemed to lead straight towards the sound of the river. The track sloped steeply down and then ended suddenly with a shoulder height drop to the river's edge. MacGyver stopped abruptly grabbing a tree beside him to stop himself from falling down to the river's edge. The woman, however, wasn’t as quick to stop and ran into the back of him, sending him over the drop. He landed on all fours and rolled across the sandy ground.
“Oh my god!” the women cried out. “Are you OK? I’m so sorry”
“I’m fine.” MacGyver reassured her as he sat up slowly and dusted the moist sand from his clothes.
“I’m causing all this trouble for you.” She started as MacGyver helped her make the small jump down to the river's edge. “You don’t even know me and I nearly got you killed…”
“It's ok.” MacGyver interrupted.
“But you…”
“But nothing.” MacGyver insisted again. “Listen… how about you tell my why these guys are shooting at us.”
The women explained how her and her husband had been hiking through the mountains and had discovered an old cave. He husband loved exploring, so they went in. At the back of the cave, hidden in the doorway of a tunnel leading deeper into the cave they found boxes of ammunition and guns.
“Guns?” MacGyver repeated.
“Yes. Lots of guns.” The women confirmed. “We were about to get out of there when they turned up.”
“They?” MacGyver interrupted. “The guys following us?”
“Yes. Them and two others. They came in and acted all heavy talking about how they couldn’t let us tell anyone about their stash and said they would have to take care of us. David...”
“David?” MacGyver asked.
“My husband” the women answered. “He tried to stand up to them to protect me, but all four of them attacked him. It was then that I pushed past them and ran, and that’s when they shot at me. I just hope David is still…” Her words faded away. MacGyver squeezed her uninjured shoulder reassuringly.
“Well how about we go find out?” MacGyver proposed.
“But they have guns and there’s four of them… and you don’t even know us.” The women protested.
“Stop.” MacGyver ordered. “Those guys aren’t just going to let me go free. And besides” he added, “I tend to take it personally when people start shooting at me.”
The woman gave a little laugh as she wiped her tears.
“How’s the arm” MacGyver asked.
“Hurts” she replied.
“Do you know where this cave is?”
“Sure. It’s up past the old rail tracks. I think it’s an old mine entrance or something.”
“If it’s the one I’m thinking of it was an old gold mine, and it’s dangerous,” MacGyver informed her as he stood up and looked around. He walked a little way up stream and picked up a long broken branch lying on a bunch of rocks.
“What’s that for?” The women asked as MacGyver returned.
“Well we gotta get those guys off our tail. So I figure the best way to do that is make em think we’re going in the opposite direction.” He explained.
“How?” The women asked. MacGyver reached out to the woman’s punctured jacket arm and folded the torn material out from the bullet hole.
“Sorry about this. I’ll buy you a new one if we get out of this alive.” MacGyver said as he ripped a piece of the jackets outer material from the bullet hole down past the elbow of the sleeve. He placed the material over one end of the branch and rapped the end of the material around itself a couple of times.
“What are you doing?” The woman asked confused as she looked at her ripped jacket sleeve.
“Sending them in the wrong direction, I hope” MacGyver replied as he held the branch up like a spear and aimed it across the river. The women looked on, beginning to understand what MacGyver was planning as he launched the branch into the air. It sailed towards the river bank landing just short of the rivers edge. The branch hit the water and was instantly carried by the current as it worked its way over and between the rocky bed which formed the mountain river. MacGyver and the women watched as the branch was swung around by the current and caught against a protruding rock, the water plucking the material from the end of the stick, sending it further down the river before lodging in its final resting place, against a rock close to the water's edge.
“Will that work?” the women wondered out loud.
“Let's not hang around to find out,” MacGyver suggested as he headed up the rocky river bed. The women looked back at the material still lying against the rock on the other side of the stream and then followed after MacGyver.
The two men arrived back at the cave. It was a big cave set in the side of the mountain terrain. Rocks and boulders littered the entrance of the cave, some the remains of the caves former life as a mine, others probably the result of slides in recent years. The bush-covered right up to the caves entrance and even had some tree roots hanging down through the top of the cave, giving a somewhat eerie appearance to the cave. Both men headed straight to the back of the cave where a man sat tied and gagged. He lay on a slight angle against the rocks with his hands behind his back. He looked up as the two men approached him.
“Why don’t we just kill him and be done with it.” The larger of the two men asked.
“No, not yet” the other replied. “Let's wait and see if those other two come back here to get him. If they do we can knock them all off together. If they don’t…”
“We can use him as bait” the other man finished as he leaned over and smacked the gagged man in the side of the head with his rifle butt, knocking him out. “Now we just gotta wait for em.” He announced.
“But not here.” The other suggested. “We gotta find somewhere to hide. We wait until they are in the cave then we kill them all.”
“Yeah.” The other agreed with a laugh as both men headed outside the cave. They stopped at the cave entrance and looked around for the best place to hide. There where plenty of trees and bushes to hide behind, but they wanted to be away from the entrance to make sure they weren’t detected by MacGyver or the women until they were both inside the cave.
“Hey over here.” The slimmer man called out as he jumped down into a trench just off to the left of the cave. “This trench will be perfect.”
“Yeah” the other man agreed as he jumped into it as well.
MacGyver watched the goings-on at the cave through his binoculars. He was situated across the valley from the cave standing on an old structure left over from the valleys gold mining days. It was mostly over grown with bush and vegetation now, but still provided MacGyver the elevation required, affording him a view of the cave through the dense vegetation. He continued to examine the cave entrance before his attention was interrupted by a question from the women.
“Can you see it?” She asked.
“Yes,” MacGyver replied. “ Looks like my diversion at the river was a waste of time. They’re already at the cave.” He conceded as he jumped down from the old frame.
“What about David? Can you see him?”
“No. He must be inside the cave.”
“Oh my…” the women started sadly. “What if…. What if they’ve…..”
“Hey,” MacGyver interjected. “Don’t give up on me now.”
“He’s dead, isn’t he. I just know it.” The women looked at MacGyver as tears formed in her eyes.
“Now let’s not jump to conclusions.” MacGyver said offering the women a comforting hug. “All we know so far is that two of those guys are hiding at the cave entrance, probably waiting for us to come back for your husband. Which means there's a good chance he’s still alive.”
“But we can’t get to him with the men there” The women sobbed, wiping tears from her cheeks and eyes. “Shouldn’t we call the police or something? We need help.”
MacGyver paused.
“You said there were four men in the cave?” he questioned.
“Yes.” The women confirmed.
“I only saw two,” MacGyver said thoughtfully. “The other two might be waiting at the car park, to make sure you don’t call for help.”
MacGyver grabbed the women s hand and started up the track, which would wind around the valley wall and take them to the cave.
The track rose and fell as it cut its way through the vegetation of the mountain. MacGyver was used to it, but the women was having trouble keeping up, the loss of blood from her wound combined with the shock and trauma of the events so far were taking their toll on her.
Finally, the pair stopped as they approached what appeared to be part of an old railway line.
“You sit down here and rest.” MacGyver ordered softly as he helped her sit on the side of the track. MacGyver undid his backpack and let it slide to the ground as he looked around at the trees surrounding them. A few paces ahead of them was a rusty old frame that jutted out of the side of the mountain and crossed over their heads. It appeared to be connected with the rail track somehow, although most of it had long since broken away. MacGyver stood studying the frame and then turned to some of the smaller trees around them.
“What’s wrong?” The women asked.
“We need a way to stop these guys.” MacGyver began as he unhooked the rope, which hung on his backpack. “This might be a good place to start.” He swung the rope up and over the rusted frame, then tied one end of the rope to the top handle of his backpack. “I’ll need your help with this” he prompted to the women. She rose slowly and walked to his side as he pulled on the rope, hoisting it off the ground. He raised the bag up to about chest height then asked the women to hold the bag while he again threw the rope over the rusted frame. He did this several more times and then wrapped the remaining rope off to the side and around the trunk of a near by tree. The woman stood looking at the bag, which now hung at chest height in the middle of the bush track. She turned to MacGyver with a questioning expression. MacGyver answered her unasked question by holding up the roll of fishing nylon he had just removed from his survival pack. He tied the end of the nylon to the bottom of his backpack and walked a few paces back up the path. Finding a good high branch, he tossed the roll of nylon up over the branch. MacGyver picked up the roll of nylon and fed it back along the edge of the track to where the bag was still hanging, fed it around a nearby tree and across the width of the path. Now he started to gently pull on the nylon, the bag begun to move into the air as the nylon took up the strain.
“Now I see.” The women burst out in relief.
“The trick is not to snap the nylon before its ready.” MacGyver instructed as he continued to gently pull the nylon hoisting the bag further into the forest canopy.
The bag was now lifted higher than the rusted frame, which had moments before supported the bag. The rope was drawn tight from this frame to the bag itself, but the weight of the bag was now being held by the nylon thread, which MacGyver had just finished tying around a thick shrub on the other side of the path. The nylon crossed the width of the path at about shine level.
“Wow.” The woman said as she looked up at the bag hanging high above their heads. “What is it?” she asked blankly.
“Well, I hope it’s something to slow those guys down if nothing else” MacGyver offered modestly. He explained his plan to the woman as they started towards the cave. As they approached the cave MacGyver led the women off the side of the track and slowly worked their way through the underbrush until they could see the cave entrance. MacGyver indicated for the women to stay there while he worked his way back along the side of the track until he was far enough away from the cave that he couldn’t be seen before climbing out onto the track again.
MacGyver walked towards the cave entrance. He knew where the two men where hiding so he slowed down as he rounded the corner to the cave entrance. He’d only taken a few steps towards the cave when a gun shot rung out. MacGyver jumped as the bullet embedded itself in the tree beside him with a thump. Another gunshot rang out as MacGyver turn and started to run. Both men jumped out of their hiding spot to give chase as they continued to shot at MacGyver who ducked and weaved as he ran back towards his trap. He ran around the next corner and jumped up into the bushes next to the track laying still amongst the vegetation as the two armed men came to a stop just past his hidden location.
“Where’d he go?” Asked one of the men as he loaded a fresh magazine into his rifle.
“He’s either hiding or we hit him,” the second man said as they continued slowly along the path turning in all directions looking for MacGyver. The lead man lowered his rifle as he took his next step. His leg pushing hard into the nylon pulled across the track, stretching it to breaking point. The man stopped and looked down as he felt his leg snap through the nylon, releasing the backpack from its precarious suspension. The bag swung down, gaining momentum as it fell, the weight of the bag pulled tight on the rope, swinging the full force of the backpack into the chest of the rifleman. It knocked him off his feet and into the man standing behind him. Both men hit the ground with a thud. MacGyver jumped out from his hiding spot and grabbed the rifle from its owner. He swung the rifle through the air connecting the guns butt with the side of the mans head. The other man aimed his pistol at MacGyver, who now swung the rifle again to knock the pistol from the man's hand before delivering a blow with his fist to the side of the man's jaw. He quickly rolled the man over and tied his hands and feet together with a roll of duct tape from a side pocket of his backpack. He did the same to the other man and gagged them both with a strip of tape across their mouths.
MacGyver ran back to the cave entrance, signaled to the woman to come out from her hiding spot and both entered the cave. They worked their way over the rocks and boulders towards the back of the cave, where the battered and bruised body of David lay against the wall. One eye was swollen shut and a trickle of dried blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
“David! Oh My God!” the women cried out in shock as she saw her husband's face. MacGyver ran over to where the man lay and removed his gag. “What did they do to you?” The women asked in tears as she embraced him while MacGyver cut the ropes binding his hands and feet.
“Can you walk?” MacGyver asked as he slipped his Swiss army knife into his pocket and began looking through the assortment of weapons boxed up behind them.
“I think so.” The man answered as he slowly got to his feet. “They just knocked me around a bit.” He leaned against the wall as the circulation returned to his legs.
“Did they say anything about what was going to happen to these guns?” MacGyver asked, digging a hand full of bullets from the munitions box he had just opened, and slipped them, into the pocket of his shirt.
“No.” David replied. “I’ve spent most of the time alone here.”
“Alone?” MacGyver asked standing up.
“Yeah after Gail ran out this morning, two of the guys headed back to the car park. They thought she was heading for a phone to call the cops.”
“I was.” She replied, “but one of the shots hit me”. David’s eye opened wide in horror. “Don’t worry” Gail smiled seeing the worry in her husband's face. “They only nicked me and…” her sentence died away as she looked over at MacGyver and realized that she didn’t know his name. “Um…” see began, “I don’t know your name.” MacGyver looked up at her.
“Names MacGyver.” He stated. “And you must be Gail and you..” he looked at David who was now slowly stretching the numbness from his body.
“David.” He introduced himself with a painfully outstretched arm. MacGyver took his hand in time to help him lean back against the wall with a groan. “listen, thanks for your help. I mean, you could have just run off and left us…”
“Here to die.” MacGyver butted in. “No, I couldn’t do that. And besides, they saw me patching up Gail's arm, so they would be after me as well. So now we have to get out of here. How do you feel?” MacGyver asked.
“My ribs hurt when I breath and my left leg doesn’t feel right.”
“Well, we’d better take a look before we move anywhere,” MacGyver suggested as he helped David sit down. MacGyver lifted David’s shirt to reveal a mostly bruised and swelling rib cage. The bruises covered his whole chest and abdominal area. “Well, I’d say there’s at least one broken rib in there,” MacGyver announced as he let the shirt back down and moved to the leg. He carefully raised David’s trouser leg to reveal more swelling on his lower leg. MacGyver examined the leg while David groaned in pain. “This could well be fractured.” MacGyver told him as he pulled his trouser leg back down.
“Great.” David sighed. “I’m battered and broken in the middle of nowhere, stuck in a cave with crazed gun runners trying to kill us.” MacGyver stood up and walked to the pile of guns and ammunitions stacked in the corner.
“Well, when you put it like that, we’d better get out of here, what do you say?” He suggested with a slight smile as he started digging through the assortment of weapons before him.
“Sure, and how do we do that?” David asked hopelessly.
MacGyver pulled a couple of automatic assault rifles from the pile. He looked at the metal frames, which formed the butt of the guns. They were hinged to allow the guns to be compacted for easy carrying. Pressing the spring-loaded pins on either side of the frame allowed him to pull the shoulder butt right out of the frame. He did this to both guns and then unscrewed the plastic shoulder rest leaving him with two steel rods, each about a foot and a half long.
“Hold these,” MacGyver ordered handing the two rods to David before digging through the pile of guns again, this time coming up with what appeared to be some sort of sniper rifle. He removed the bolt and magazine from the gun discarding them off to one side. He grabbed one of the automatic weapons he had just pulled apart and removed the magazine and firing mechanism of this gun also as both David and Gale looked at each other curiously. MacGyver had now fitted the smaller barrel of the automatic weapon inside the barrel of the rifle so the two guns were facing each other.
“What are you doing?” Gail asked as MacGyver began to bash the two weapons like a pile driver into the hard rocky cave floor.
“Making a crutch to help David walk,” MacGyver replied, pausing long enough to check the firmness of the guns barrels before giving them another bash. Again he checked the barrels and saw that he had forced them together enough that one was now firmly jammed inside the other. He grabbed his roll of duct tape out of his pocket and took the two steel rods from David as he squatted beside him. He placed a rod on either side of his injured leg.
“Can you hold these in place?” MacGyver asked as he pulled a long strip of tape from the roll and proceeded to wrap the tape tightly around David’s leg, firstly just below his knee and then just above the ankle. He finished the splint with a third wrapping, around the center of his lower leg thus forming a secure brace.
“A splint,” Gale said amazed.
“Don’t you use these on broken legs?” David asked confused.
“Well.. yeah, normally.” MacGyver replied. “But your legs fractured and we don’t want it getting any worse so the splint will help.” He reached over and grabbed the crutch he had made, and helped David on to his feet. “Let’s get out of here.”
The three of them made their way out of the cave and started along the track. Their progress was slow as David hobbled with the injuries inflicted on him by the four gunrunners. They approached the two men MacGyver had left tied on the track. MacGyver rolled them both over and sat them up against the edge of the track. He checked to make sure they were still securely bound, a quick check of their eyes revealed that they were both still knocked out.
“You did this?” David asked as MacGyver slung his pack back onto his shoulders.
“Yeah,” MacGyver confirmed. “They’re still out to it.”
The three continued their slow trek along the winding bush track. A light drizzle had begun to fall which was starting to make the track muddy in the exposed areas. They had just rounded a corner when a gunshot rang out. All three of them jumped as more shots where fired.
“Back this way.” MacGyver ordered as he directed the pair back up the track. David dropped his crutch and tried to run as best he could as more shots rang out. MacGyver felt an impact on his back as one of the bullets lodged itself in his backpack. “Down here.” He cried as he pulled the pair off the track and over the side of the ridge.
“But there’s no track” Gail protested as she tripped and began sliding down the steep bank. She looked sideways and saw both men also sliding and rolling their way towards the stream at the valley floor as another round of shots were fired from the man now standing at the edge of the track. The vegetation on the hillside obscured his view of them, but he shot at them non-the less. MacGyver reached the rocky riverside first, he turned to see where the other two where as David slide straight into him throwing MacGyver to the ground. He gave a grown as David landed on top of him.
“Sorry about that.” David apologized as he pulled himself off MacGyver. He yelped as he tried to stand and collapsed against one of the large nearby rocks. Gail ran to his side. “My ribs.” He said weakly. A bullet ricochet off the top of the bounder. MacGyver pulled David to his feet and slung David’s arm around his neck.
“He’s hurt. He can’t go on.” Gail protested.
“Lady. We’re being shot at! If we stay here we die. Help me move him!” MacGyver ordered sharply. Gail grabbed David's other arm and slung it around her neck. Together MacGyver and Gail dragged David along the river edge. They kept moving until they were quite some distance away from their initial landing point. The gunshots had stopped as they sat David down against the small embankment carved by the river at some time in its, no doubt, swollen and torrent past. MacGyver stood up and watched behind them. He was looking for the gunman but saw and heard no sign of him. Their immediate view of where they had come from was blocked by a large bolder, no different to any of the other boulders, which scattered the riverbed. This one was of medium size, about waist high on MacGyver's tall stance. But it would hide their position nicely as long as they stayed seated. David moaned again, seeming to lapse in and out of consciousness. Gail hugged him lovingly as her eyes filled with tears.
“He’s dying.” She cried
“No. His body’s trying to keep itself alive.” MacGyver explained. “In times of extreme damage, the body shuts down any non-vital functions so it can concentrate all its energy and resources on healing itself.”
“Extreme damage? But he said he was all right. He was walking.” Gail questioned between sobs.
“Gail.” MacGyver started softly, “He’s got a punctured lung and some internal bleeding.” Gail hugged her husband tightly.
“He’s going to die. We’re all going to die out here.”
“Listen! We are not going to die! You’re going to stay here. Right behind this rock with David. While I work my way downstream and see if I can get some help.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “We’re going to make it, ok? I promise.” She looked at MacGyver and nodded, her eyes were red from crying, her cheeks moist from the tears which still ran down her face and dripped off the bottom of her chin. “We’ll be ok” MacGyver repeated as he stood up and took his backpack off dropping it beside Gail’s leg. “There’s food in there, have some” He called to her as he set off down the rivers edge.
The gunman stood at the edge of the track looking down the hill, his field of vision limited by the bush vegetation. He could see the spot where they landed, but had lost sight of them soon after, he thought about going after them but decided getting his two colleagues from the cave would be more fruitful and increase their chances of catching the three. He turned and headed towards the cave at a trot. He too was dressed in full camouflage clothing and seemed to handle the mountain terrain with ease. It wasn’t long before he came across his two buddies hunched against the trackside, still unconscious. He gave them a shake.
“Hey!” he yelled at them as he shook them again. They sagged back against the embankment, which formed the edge of the track. “Damn it!” he cursed as he started running back towards the car park.
MacGyver worked his way down the rocky stream, moving as fast as the slippery wet rock would allow him. He weaved his way between the bigger rocks looking for the flattest, fasted route he could find. Even the areas away from the stream were wet from the drizzle, which was quickly turning into a full downpour. MacGyver pulled up the zip of his jacket its remaining couple of inches sealing the collar around his neck. The jacket was only a couple of years old. It was an all-weather outdoors jacket. Designed to keep you warm and dry, while allowing your body to breathe. It was a vast improvement on his old ski jacket which kept you warm, mainly from the weight of it and was more water-absorbent than repellent. MacGyver’s legs where soaking wet from the rain as he continued down the river bed. He paused for a moment to try to figure out his location. He had walked along here to get to his camping site. The area he was in looked to be close to the car park. He set off again at his previous pace.
The fourth gunrunner sat against an old concrete frame set back in the hillside. Oblivious to its historic use as a means to dump mined materials into trucks for haulage off to processing plants. The whole car parking area was basically the old truck loading bay, warn into the mountainside by the erosion of the trucks which once worked here. The position of the fourth gunman hid him away, while affording him a good view in all directions. He looked at his watch, it had been an hour since the last lot of gunshots he’d heard. He hadn’t seen anyone come out of the bush. He assumed that the shoots he’d heard had stopped the man and women he’d been waiting for, but the plan was for him to stay there until Marsh, or one of the others, had returned and that’s exactly what he intended to do. What he didn’t realize was at that very moment Marsh was racing back towards the car park, to tell him what had happened. Moving with ease along the bush track, his pace never slowing regardless of the mud and slush he encountered at various spots along the track.
MacGyver too had made excellent progress and now found himself approaching the car park area. The river dropped more steeply in this section as it curled sharply to the left and headed down past the car parking area.
MacGyver worked his way over to the rivers edge and used the bush vegetation as cover. Even though there was no way he could have been seen from the park, he felt more comfortable moving this way. He worked his way around the right-hand side of the rivers bend, over the giant rocks and boulders which formed the river's path until finally he was sitting under the embankment of the car park. He sat there for a moment catching his breath. The bank was a straight drop down to the rivers edge, and was, he guessed, about shoulder height for him, but he couldn’t just pop his head up over the bank and be a sitting target. He listened for any sounds, which might indicate the location of people. He heard nothing. Carefully he took off the waist bag, which made his survival pack, dug into the front pocket and pulled out a small square mirror. He held this at an angle and slowly raised it holding it as close to the boulder beside him as he could. The mirror would be a perfect viewing tool. Working much like a periscope would allow him to covertly check the scene. Even if anyone looked in his direction, the angle he was holding the mirror would reflect the grass from the edge of the bank and, hopefully, not attract attention to him. He slowly moved the mirror from side to side, taking in all it reflected to him. Eventually, he spotted the fourth gunman still sitting on the concrete frame waiting for his buddies. He had a rifle of some sort slung over his shoulder, but MacGyver couldn’t make out from the mirror's reflection what sort of gun it was. As far as MacGyver was concerned, a gun's a gun, they all did the same thing… Killed.
Gail sat holding her husband in her arms. His breathing was shallow. She’d found a survival blanket in MacGyvers pack and had it pulled over them both as a shelter from the rain, which had now eased off to a fine drizzle again. She looked at her arm and realized that she’d forgotten about her gunshot wound, until now. The pain started coming back as she stared at it.
“At least the bleeding has stopped,” she remarked to herself as she changed her seating position slightly.
MacGyver needed a way to put this fourth gunman out of action. He knew he couldn’t just run up to him. Even trying to creep around to him wasn’t the smartest idea. The guy had a gun and from what MacGyver had seen of the others, he knew they weren’t afraid to use them. MacGyver sat looking around, thinking. He raised his hand to his shoulder to scratch, as he placed his hand on his shoulder, he felt the bullets in his pocket, he remembered picking them up from the cave. He pulled them out and placed them on the ground beside him. They where long big bullets. Full of gunpowder, MacGyver thought to himself. He dug into his survival kit again and pulled out three small plastic screw-lid containers. He undid the lids and dumped the contents onto the ground. Pulling out his knife he popped open the screwdriver blade and began prising the end off one of the bullets. Once he had the end off, he dumped its powder content into one of the plastic containers. He pulled a small ball of string from his pack along with a bottle of medical alcohol. Unrolling a good length of string, he fed it down into the container of alcohol and put the lid back on leaving the string to sock before continuing with his previous task of opening the bullets and dumping the powder into the three plastic containers. After a few minutes, MacGyver had each container half full of powder. He placed the lids back on the containers and proceeded to make a small hole in each lid. He removed the alcohol-soaked string from the bottle and cut it into three even lengths then poked each piece of string down through the holes he had just made in the lids. MacGyver put the rest of his stuff back in his pack and slung it around his waist. He grabbed some matches out of his pocket and readied himself. He slowly moved his head up to see where his target was. The man was walking away from the concrete structure he had been sitting on and heading across to the other side of the car park. MacGyver lit the first match and held it to one of the string wicks. It leaped into flame. MacGyver threw the container in the direction of the man. To his horror, the flame went out in mid-air, the bottle hit the ground and rolled a little way towards the cars before coming to a complete stop. MacGyver ducked down as the gunman stopped and looked around. He’d heard something but wasn’t sure what. He listened for the noise again as he pulled his gun around to his chest and loaded a bullet into the chamber. MacGyver carefully looked up over the ridge in time to see the man turn towards the vehicles again. He lit the second fuse, this time giving it time to burn and make sure it was fully alight before he threw it towards the gunman’s position. This time it landed just behind his position. MacGyver lit the third fuse as the man turned around in response to the sound of the plastic container landing behind him. He looked down at the container just in time to see it explode with a brilliant flash of light sending shards of plastic into the man's face. He yelled and grabbed his face as MacGyver launched the third explosive container. This one landed right in front of the man as he dropped to his knees in pain. The third container exploded with another blast of plastic and flames at the mans face. MacGyver climbed out from his hiding spot and ran across the park to where the man lay yelling in pain. He grabbed the gun from the man, pulled its magazine out and discarded the loaded bullet from the chamber before throwing the gun across the park into the river. He stuffed the magazine and loose bullet into his pocket and pulled the mans hands away from his face.
“Oh quit yellin. You got scratches and some flash burns. You’ll survive!” MacGyver told the man as he pulled his roll of duct tape from his trousers pocket and proceeded to tie and gag the man. He ran to his jeep, unlocked the door and grabbed the hand unit of his car phone. He plugged in the speed dial for Pete Thornton's office.
“Hello.” Came the voice of Pete Thornton.
“Pete. Its me.”
“Mac? Pete questioned in surprise. “I thought you were still on holiday up at the Greenwood peaks?”
“I am. Pete I’ve got problems.” MacGyver stated bluntly.
“What’s wrong Mac?”
“Gunrunners Pete. Two people have already been shot…” His sentence was cut short by the sound of a gun being cocked next to his ear. MacGyver froze as an arm reached over and took the phone piece from his hand. MacGyver slowly turned around to see Marsh, the man who had shot at them before.
“MacGyver! Answer me! MacGyver” Petes voice pleaded through the handset as Marsh gave it a hard yank ripping the cord out. He threw the phone piece away.
“Your buddies can’t help you now.” Marsh growled.
“They know where I am. The police are probably already on their way.” MacGyver told the man as he moved away from his jeep with his hands in the air. Marsh grabbed MacGyver with his free hand and pulled him around towards another vehicle. MacGyver slammed into the side of the vehicle. He looked down and saw the unexploded plastic container laying beside the cars wheel
“It doesn’t matter.” Marsh told him putting a cigarette in his mouth and lighting it with his free hand, all the time keeping his gun pointed at MacGyver. “By the time they get here you’ll be dead.”
“There are two others who know what you look like and you don’t know where they are.” MacGyver taunted, playing for time.
“They’re both wounded and alone in the bush.” The man said. MacGyver stepped sideways, crushing the plastic container and its explosive content under his foot. “They’ll die up there like the wounded animals they are.” Marsh laughed and drew a deep puff of his cigarette.
“You know, smoking's bad for you.” MacGyver said as he grabbed the cigarette from the man's mouth, stepped sideways and dropped it into the crushed plastic container. The man looked down just as the heat of the cigarette ignited the gunpowder into a flash of explosive fire. It exploded up into the mans face. He screamed, dropped his gun and grabbed his face in pain. MacGyver grabbed the man by his collar, swung him around with all his might and slammed his head into the side of the car. Marsh fell to the ground unconscious. “See. I told you smoking was bad for you.” MacGyver said as he wrapped the man's arms and legs with tape.
Just as MacGyver had finished tieing up Marsh, he heard the welcoming sound of a helicopter echoing off the mountain range. He watched as the chopper circled and then landed in the car park. He was greeted by Pete's smiling face as the door slide back on the chopper.
“I miss all the fun again?” Pete asked, gesturing towards the two bound men. MacGyver smiled back at Pete.
“I got bored,” MacGyver smirked. “Listen, Pete, I’ve got a couple of injured hikers still up there. Ones pretty bad.”
“Jump in,” Pete gestured to MacGyver as he climbed back into the chopper. MacGyver looked back to see two police cars and vans arrive in the carpark as the helicopter took off.
“That’s all you sent? Two police cars?” MacGyver asked, looking over at Pete.
“And two vans.” Pete argued back. MacGyver shrugged. “Geesh!” Pete exclaimed to MacGyver, who smiled as the helicopter headed into the mountains to pick up the hikers.
A week later MacGyver walked down the hospital corridor, around a corner, and into the single ward. David sat up as MacGyver walked in.
“MacGyver.” He said holding out his arm to shake hands. MacGyver took his hand warmly.
“How you feeling?” MacGyver asked as Gail walked into the room.
“He’s doing fine.” She answered for him. MacGyver turned and smiled as he saw the expression on Davids's face.
“I’ll be out of here in another couple of days,” David told MacGyver. “Oh and thanks for… Well saving our lives” David added.
“No thanks necessary,” MacGyver replied. “I’m just glad it all worked out.” He turned to Gail and held up a large cardboard box. “Remember I promised to buy you a new jacket?” he asked. Gail's face broke into a huge smile as MacGyver pulled open the box to reveal a new bright red outdoor jacket.
“Oh…. You didn’t have to” She started as she realized it was a top of the range adventure-wear brand.
“A promise is a promise.” MacGyver smiled back.
The End
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Was good the first time... is even better this time! 
Will wonders never cease? 
