The cold was Crisp and Sharp. And it felt like everything around was shattering into shards of crystal and glass. And the bright white seared into the back of his skull. The brightness was so absolute that it overwhelmed the senses.
Such cold just stripped the heat right from your body as fast as you can make it. As laying down on the cold snow definitely didn't help matters. But it was so much more preferable then silhouetting in yourself on the top of the Ridgeline. So the only thing that he could do was just observe the valley in front of him. Observation was life and death in this new world.
Especially when you are being hunted. So far he thought he had avoided any Pursuit but you never know. They could be in front of him hoping to get lucky and catch a glimpse of a lone man.
It wasn't his fault he had a job to do. As well as it wasn't the most objectionable thing that he had done this year. On the contrary this job was actually something he had looked forward to. It was an everyday that you got to rid the world of a monster. If he could only remember that saying. Something that rattled around in the back of his head but just refused to follow on to his tongue.
On a day so bright it was difficult to scan the rest of the valley with all of the snow reflecting the Brilliance of the Sun. It felt like a concentrated beam of light passed through his right eye and into the back of the skull.
Time to take a little bit of a break and to take a nap. And that blowing wind will definitely fill his tracks in. He had reached out in front of him and made a small depression in the snow in front of his position and was watching how the snow was being pushed into the depression erasing any sign that it was there. Within a couple more minutes it was completely gone as was any tracks behind the solitary person who was huddled in a small set of three trees. The wind hadn't totally filled in the space between the trees and the brush did a pretty reasonable job of hiding his positioned and form. There were not very many trees anymore. Let alone living trees. While they did help to blunt the wind, it did little to help the bone-cracking cold blowing through at a furious pace.
Slowly scanning the entire Valley from one side to the other, he waited. Time was on his side after all. Not many men could survive these conditions. And your odds of survival without a prepared position and some protection nearly insured your mortality.
Even with the overhead cover tied on and a small doorway at the rear. The snow scrape position had a wide opening facing Valley and affording an excellent vantage point. A pair of branches on opposite sides of the trunk of the tree gave him a shelf to use his magnified scope. Although looking out upon the white snow expanse was sheer agony. He slid on the snow cover. Which was nothing more than a cap with a narrow horizontal slit which helped to limit the amount of light entering the objective lens on the front of the scope. Which did help quite a bit. Although it did not expose any immediate threats within visual range.
Movement right next to him was immediately reacted to with calm slow deliberation. His left hand dropped down to the Head at his side. A couple of scratches and a whispered command was uttered. "Stay, dog." The man slowly withdrew the magnified scope and using some snow packed in the observation slit.
From the feeling of the roof, the little Brush and scrub the man pulled out of the position he had created had been placed on top and had accumulated enough snow to completely camouflage the snow scrape. As the insulation finally kicked in the man turned around and poked himself through the snowed in back entrance. It always paid to double-check your back Trail. Thankfully all of the tracks leading to this position were erased and pristine snow surrounded the entire area.
Slowly working his way backwards into the hide and using snow to Pack in the small doorway, he Turned Back To His companion.
"Cold enough for you? I'd kill to have a coat like that, Mutt." The man growled at the dog. While he idly scratched the dog's head.
Just a few more days and he would be out of this wind blown flatland. If only it was yesterday. If only he was sitting in his cabin now enjoying hot apple cider from the metal pitcher on his stove. Or a bit of the Corn liquor one of his family had brewed up. Or how about a little bit of both? His mind started to wander about thoughts of his mountains. And of thoughts of a different season that wasn't so bitterly cold.
Awareness. It came slowly. Without opening his eyes he listened and used his mind to feel his immediate surroundings. Other than the large furry klutz snuggled next to him everything was as he remembered. But at least the dog was extremely well-trained and made sure that his back was warm.
Slowly he sat up. Reaching next to him he dragged the small backpack next to him and opened it studying the contents. An extremely light and minimalist package awaited his knowing eyes. There was definitely not much in the small pack. You weren't really afforded very many luxuries if you were running for your life. Emergency food was definitely the bulk of the pack. Not much was left. But you didn't have to have mass amounts of food if it was extremely high in calories. The Native American pemmican was jerky that had been pounded into powder mixed with fat and berries. With a pretty much unlimited shelf life extremely rare for it to ever go bad. Not only did it have everything that you needed that also had enough fat to provide the body with that extra amount of energy to produce body heat.
The man Shivers thinking what it would be like with the wrong set of supplies.
Besides fond memory of the children collecting chokecherries for this exact batch of emergency food earlier this year rose up in his mind unbidden.
He savagely crushed the thought down. Very carefully he lifted his magnified rifle scope. Pushing the snow away from his little view point and looking out into the valley he started scanning. Visibility was still not that good and he could only see about a mile out which did get him to be able to see the valley in front of him and most of the slope on the other side. Had this man not Been from these Hills and further on the mountains that he called home, he would be completely lost.
As it was without thinking he could reach out and point exactly which direction home lay. How he missed the high mountain valleys. And how are they blocked and diverted this powerful and unrelenting wind. How the few trees in his land help to tame the wind. Not to mention all of the dry wood that he had collected and was sitting close to his cabin awaiting a nice comfortable fire in his hearth.
With a shake he demanded his full attention to visually scouting all of the area in front of him that he could see. And unfortunately he couldn't see anything other than the fact that it was early morning. And that the snow was still blowing sideways and hadn't even changed direction noticeably. That would definitely be something the man would notice immediately. Wind would disturb the passage of his bullet. It could either push it into his Target or away from it. And it was his job to intimately know how the wind would affect his bullet. Not that there were very many bullets anymore. These days the saying was that lead was more expensive then gold. Which was absolutely true but nobody loaded golden bullets anymore. For that matter not very many people loaded bullets at all unless they were extremely rich or were paid extremely well. And he was paid well for sure. 4 extra magazines Laid inside that small pack. Literally a massive Fortune for anyone to possess in these times.
Besides that there was a full although smaller magazine inside his rifle. Only 5 rounds smaller he felt it helped the handling of the heavy weapon. Which leaned against the tree infront of him. It was still wrapped in the snow camouflage bandages. An old friend as well as a trusted companion. The rifle scope would slide on and lock into the rails when he was done scouting with it.
Slowly the man withdrew his telescopic sight and replaced it where it belonged. He could feel the exact position the scope was to be mounted into. It rocked into place and he pushed the scope forward before flipping the forward lever into the locked position. Then the rear switch. And then the bandage wrapping over the top of the scope was wrapped and tied on.
The man stood after cutting the thin cords holding the cover in place and shook the snow off. Time. Time to move. Stillness is death. Must. Move.
The man settled the pack over his shoulders. The lightness of it sending alarm bells ringing. You didn't have too much longer to wander around anymore. But you can't charge blindly into danger.
The man snap his fingers twice and the dog fell in on his left side while the man's right arm cradled the rifle.
He had seen another small patch of trees on the far Ridgeline before the snow had really gotten to blowing. Setting his Waypoint in front of him at that invisible patch of trees he slowly started walking.
Hours later his breath came in gasps. The cold seared his lungs with every breath. Ice had Frozen on his beard and mustache and would snap raining down shards of ice across the front of his coat. The snowfall continued to get heavier As the Wind picked up speed. Visibility dropped and the temperature refused to go up. Even though the Sun was hopefully still climbing you couldn't tell that it was getting daylight except for counting the breaths expended and the steps taken. Looking back the man noticed that his tracks were nearly erased as soon as they were made.
Just a little more... And he could put together another scrape and be another couple miles closer to his destination if he could only keep from freezing to death.
Feeling the ground change in the incline he knew that he was cresting the top of the ridge. It was much easier going forward now without having the vertical climb in elevation. The man chuckled and thought how lucky he was that the wind is pushing him from behind towards his destination and helping him get there just a little easier. Ha! Easier. What a word he thought.
Nothing in this world was easy anymore especially getting from place to place. Only the rich had horses as pretty much all animals have been eaten long ago. Well all domesticated animals that is. Once endangered predators now rebounded 2 healthy populations. Bears and wolves had lost any fear of men immediately upon The Disappearance of firearms and bullets. That old high technology was disappearing quickly. Very few people remained who knew the magic.
His people were among those very few. His talent at sending a small piece of metal through the air and into another human being paid extremely handsomely. In this profession you had to be better at escaping with your tools as the rifle and 5 magazines alone would set up a bandit as a pretty major threat. Even if he didn't understand how to take advantage of the weapons range.
Lost in thought the man nearly didn't notice when he finally discovered his potential hiding place in front of them. Pointing his left hand forward and snapping his fingers once the other the command "Search!" to the dog. Without even a hesitating pause the dog Leaped Forward and immediately started scouting forward towards the small stand of trees.
Finding it clear of any threats the dog immediately returned and circled back onto the man's left side. With a wolfish grin and toothy smile the dog used his nose to nuzzle the man's hip and gloved hand. The man and his furred companion both moved into the trees and prepared the same kind of position. With the wind and snow it wasn't long before it was invisible to the eye.
With conditions being so Wendy and snowing it wasn't any use trying to scout the area so the man just curled up into a ball beside his dog and rifle. With having a trusted companion on either side of him he immediately fell into a deep sleep.
This time as he floated to awareness. Things felt different. The wind had stopped. Carefully getting to his feet he opened a observation port in the snow. Blinding sunlight filtered through and then burst into his little area. And not only did the blinding sunlight leap through. But also far distant sounds in the valley in front of him. The man turned and with Deft skilled hands flipped off the bandage cover threw both levers and removed the scope from the rifle.
There was activity going on in the valley and he needed to see what was going on without having an extra two and a half feet hanging in front of the telescopic lens he needed. Again he cursed himself for not being able to bring the spotting scope that he normally carried with him.
Far down in the valley he could see what Looked to Him like an extremely pissed off moose. Using both the zoom and The Parallax adjustments he focused the lens. It was very much a four-legged huge monstrosity of a creature. 1800 pounds at the minimum and taller than a grown man. These creatures had very little fear of human beings. Let alone having a temper like an abusive drunk. And this one was definitely upset and had a Target.
When the picture finally snapped into full Focus and the man saw what was transpiring further down in the valley immediately and without thought grab the rifle and slid the scope back into place. Both levers were locked in a Flash and the rifle Rose and was locked into a stable shooting position braced against a branch and the trunk of a tree.
A million thoughts raced through his mind. Shooting on a decline therefore the range isn't as far as I think. It is completely still there for the wind holds no value against the flying projectile. Just behind the front leg will be the heart and lungs. Although if we aim higher on the neck and shoulders there is the spine shot. Central Nervous system impacts will shut down this raging Behemoth instantly.
All these thoughts flu in to the man's head and then were immediately quiet. Silence is golden. He could hear everything in the valley Crystal clear. And then the muted chug and thump against his shoulder. Without regard to the safety of himself and his dog, he ran down the slope. His biggest thought was why did he have this huge feeling of dread. He knew that his bullet flew through the rage filled Beast. He could see it melt into the snow. He could hear it cries and see a little thrashing. But he knew as sure as the sun was so bright that his mark had been hit.
As he come running up to the dying animal. His heart froze. That animal had been busy attacking another one. And the blood was scattered all over a large chunk of the snow. Most of the snow in that area had been mixed in with the blood by the violent action and now held the pinkish tinge. As the man carefully walked forward he noticed that the fur covered Pile in front of him wasn't another animal but was a poorly made coat covering a human being.
Time seemed to both stop and speed up at the same time. Hours flew by or were they minutes.
In his Rush to provide pressure upon Grievous wounds, he couldn't get tourniquets on fast enough. Smaller cuts were packed with snow until his hands found Frozen dirt under his hands to claw, and then to pack into this mystery man's wounds.
Dragging the mystery man into a snow-covered brush pile and doing what he could to secure is little tarp above both of them and provide what little protection he could manage. He collapsed into a fitful sleep haunted by nightmares........