I apologize for the delay in posting this part. I know it's been awhile. As I mentioned in the Mac's Loft portion of the forum, I've been busy dealing with personal issues that have kept me from posting this sooner. Oh, that and I almost considered abandoning this project and starting another. After trying that, I realized I like this story after all and I don't want to disappoint other readers who like it, too, so I will continue. I was just stuck there for awhile. Anyway, enjoy!
Trapped Part Four
Rated: PG
A loud, violent banging at his cabin door startled Jared out of his slumber. Unaccustomed to receiving visitors in such a remote location and wary of the unexpected visitor’s intentions, he grabbed his hunting rifle for protection and cautiously opened his door to the wild-eyed, frantic stranger, covered in dirt and numerous scrapes and scratches.
“Please, you have to help me,” Pete said.
Jared studied the man carefully with deep concern, putting away his rifle. “You need medical attention,” he said.
“There’s no time for that. We have to go now! My friend is in trouble!”
“Wait a minute! Slow down! Before we go anywhere, I need you to tell me what happened,” Jared said. “Come in and sit down and I’ll get you cleaned up.”
“But I’m telling you that there’s no time! It’s already been three days since I left him, and he could be dying! Please…”
Jared gently took Pete by the arm, leading him inside the cabin. “Listen, you have to calm down,” he said. “Come on, now. Please, have a seat and I’ll treat your cuts with antiseptic. You’re in terrible condition.”
“I don’t care about me right now,” Pete said, his eyes darting around the room, searching for a phone or a radio, some source of contact. “I have to get back to him. I haven’t slept or eaten since I left him alone out there, I’ve been walking endlessly for days, and I can’t bear the thought of delaying any longer. He needs help, and he needs it now!”
“Don’t worry. We’ll get him the help he needs. Right now, you need to settle down and take care of yourself first so that you can be in a better position to help him. Now, just take it easy and tell me what happened.”
Sighing, Pete reluctantly sat in a creaky wooden chair, realizing that the only way he was going to get this man’s cooperation was if he complied with his requests to treat his cuts. “I was hiking with my friend MacGyver,” he said. “We decided to explore the backcountry instead of staying on the trail.”
As he listened to Pete’s story, Jared pulled out a first aid kit from beneath his kitchen sink and began tending to his cuts, watching as the man winced on occasion when he applied the antiseptic and its powerful medicine stung the open wounds. “Well, that wasn’t smart,” he said, gently dabbing the cuts with a clean, sterile cotton pad, applying just the right amount of pressure to stop the bleeding of the fresher cuts that had reopened.
“I know what you’re thinking, but my friend Mac is an expert woodsman,” Pete said, flinching again as more antiseptic was applied. “He’s done this kind of challenging, dangerous hike in the wilderness many times before, often on his own. He’s highly competent and skilled and knows what he’s doing.”
Jared grinned slightly. “Yeah well, it doesn’t sound like he was too cautious this time,” he said. “What happened? Did you two get lost?”
“Worse than that,” Pete said. “We fell into a mine shaft of some kind.”
Jared paused, looking at him. “Did you say a mine shaft?” He asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow, his interest piqued.
“Yes. Apparently no one was even aware of its existence, otherwise there would have been warning signs posted and we would have avoided the area. Believe me, MacGyver may have an adventurous spirit, but he does not take unnecessary, stupid risks, especially when he has the safety of his friends involved.”
“Okay, so tell me, what happened next? Walk through it step by step so I can get a clearer picture of what kind of rescue is needed in this scenario. So you say you fell in?”
“Yes. The ground just opened up beneath us and swallowed us. We fell several feet and were trapped.”
“So how did you get out?” Jared asked, disposing of used, bloodied cotton swabs. “Why is your friend still back in the shaft?”
“It’s complicated,” Pete said. “You see, MacGyver broke his leg during the fall. He can’t get out. He can barely move. I tried to help him, but I wasn’t strong enough on my own. He told me to leave him and get help.”
“But you still didn’t answer my question,” Jared said. “How did you manage to get out of the shaft?”
“We have climbing gear.”
Jared smiled to himself and nodded. “I see,” he said. “So it does sound like your friend was well-prepared, after all.”
“Yes, but he wasn’t prepared for a broken leg, and neither was I. He needs help, and he needs it desperately. I have this map that he marked for me, detailing his location, so finding him again shouldn’t be a problem.”
Pete pulled out the map from his pack and unfolded it, handing it to Jared, who studied it closely. “I know this area well,” he said. “I used to work for search and rescue up here. Now, I’m retired. I still have most of my equipment, though. I figure with two of us working together to pull him out, we can do it. Your friend will be all right.”
Pete looked at Jared. For the first time, he realized he was looking at a man who was approximately his own age, with a full head of silvery hair and an even fuller, bushier mustache that gave him the appearance of an old mining prospector, something he found ironic given that MacGyver was trapped in a mine shaft. He was sturdier and in better physical condition, giving Pete hope that he was strong and capable enough to pull MacGyver out of the shaft with his assistance.
“I’d appreciate your help,” he said. “You don’t know how relieved I am to have found you living here. Anything you can do…”
“Don’t worry,” Jared said, his eyes still focused intensely on the map. “Your friend will make it. I guarantee it. First though, I’m going to have to finish cleaning your cuts and then stock up on some provisions for our travel. From the looks of things you haven’t eaten or drunk anything in days, and you’re going to need all the energy you have available to you in order to properly make this trek. You can’t go in malnourished or dehydrated.”
Pete nodded. “I understand,” he said. “Again, thanks so much for your help.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“I don’t know what I would have done if no one lived around here.”
Jared didn’t respond, still staring at the map as if transfixed. “So, you say that you and your friend fell into what appeared to be an abandoned mine shaft, huh?” He asked, fascinated.
“Yes. As I said, it was buried and well-hidden, as if it hadn’t been touched for years.”
“Well, there were a lot of mining operations around here before the turn of the century, so it doesn’t surprise me,” Jared said. At last, he seemed to be able to pull himself away from the map, refolding it neatly and tucking it inside the folds of his flannel shirt as if he wanted to guard it as a cherished secret. He looked at Pete and smiled, offering his rough, calloused hand. “I’m Jared, by the way.”
“Pete.”
The two men shook hands.
“Let’s get ready and save your friend.”
***
With little to occupy his time, sleep painful and nearly impossible, MacGyver’s thoughts turned to his decision to send Pete out to seek help, wondering how he was, hoping he had done the right thing. Then he realized there was nothing he could do now, that it was too late to alter the course of events he had set into motion. His circumstances were still improved over what they would have been had he been completely alone and defenseless. Now, all he could do was wait and try to make himself as comfortable as he could inside the cramped, frigid, dark space where he was confined, his leg a constant source of agony and difficult to ignore.
Moving as much as his physical limitations and restrictions would allow him, trying to get in a comfortable position where he could better rest his leg, he brushed against a shiny, powdery substance on the walls that sprinkled on his sleeping bag and glittered in the shaft of sunlight penetrating from the surface. Examining it closely, he couldn’t believe what he was looking at, although he knew that by being in a mine shaft the appearance of the substance was likely. Turning on his flashlight, he shone the beam on the walls, finding them deeply embedded with the glittering, shiny substance as well, almost packed densely between the layers of soil. Never before had he seen such an abundance of it, and he stared at it for a long time, running his hands over it in disbelief, stunned and fascinated.
“Gold,” he whispered.
To be continued…
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."
--Henry David Thoreau
brains+brawn+beauty+personality=MacGyver
