"I won't be held responsible for this Ali!" Doug muttered. Ali heaved a sigh, looking at him. She seemed chagrinned.
"Look Doug, I'm sorry for getting so nasty, it's just that..."
Her eyes strayed up into the cloud and mist shrouded hills. She glanced at him again and swallowed, her voice nearly cracked. "He's everything to me, and he's still alive. We've got to find him."
"It would help if you stuck by the radio." Starsky said, fishing out an old blue stocking cap from somewhere in his army coat. He was watching Ali trying to apologize and trying to stay on the suddenly fidgety Blue. Doug pursed his lips in disgust, looking first at Ali, then at Starsky.
"I can do that."
"Just get those SAR teams ready when we call." Starsky grinned, pulling his hat on. Blue danced nervously under him and he quickly grabbed for the saddle horn, to keep from getting upset. Doug sucked in air, trying not to roll his eyes. Ali leaned over in her saddle and caught Blue's bridle. The horse jerked his head up, but she looked him dead in the eye.
"Knock it off!" she growled.
"Quit making him do that!" Starsky snapped, trying to hang on.
Ali looked at him, barely hiding a smirk and let go. She turned the big brown gelding she was on around.
"We'll call hourly, Doug." she said.
"Keep your eyes open for bears." The sheriff warned. "The trackers
mentioned seeing tracks about 4 miles before the waterfall." He barely
saw Ali nod her head before she urged the big animal foreword.
With a typical Quarter horse burst of speed, the horse took off, followed closely by the dapple grey, who wasn't about to be left behind. Starsky let out a yelp, grabbed hold of the horn and tried desperately not to fall off. Doug stared in disbelief.
"A nut case and a greenhorn! We're gonna need more than just Search & Rescue to get those two out!"
In his hole in the side of the mountain, Hutch shivered under the wool coat. Six days without food now, his body had gotten used to the idea of fasting. Water was plentiful from all the snow outside, but he'd stretched the kindling as far as it could go. Cramped, sore and getting colder, he knew if help didn't arrive soon, he wouldn't make it. He did everything he could to keep his arms and legs from getting stiff and paralyzed, even going so far as to climb out on top of the rock and survey his situation. Only climbing gear could get him out of that spot. His body heat, and the snow insulation outside, barely made the aviary warm enough, but if the clouds coming in were any indication, Hutch knew he'd have little chance of surviving the approaching storm. Stuffing his hands back under his armpits and crouching up against the back wall, he kept his thought's focused on staying alive. Somehow, Ali or Starsky had to show up, somehow they just had too.
His hitch in the Army had made Starsky a fast learner. Ali had set a hard pace, especially for a novice rider, but he carefully watched how she handled her horse and before long he had a fairly confident idea on how to stay upright in the saddle. On the low flat areas, Ali cantered or trotted, only slowing to a walk when they began to climb. She didn't push the horses, but she wouldn't stop either. He watched her like a hawk, not trusting her, but realizing he had to depend on her. Ali knew the terrain, and knew how ride. She made it look effortless, he on the other hand was straining every muscle he owned just trying to keep up with her.
They spoke little, and only when he voiced the need to stop. By noon he demanded lunch. Sandwiches had been prepared ahead of time, and Ali wanted to eat as they rode, but he refused. So they paused for roughly half an hour while Ali stalked off on foot to scout the trail ahead. Climbing back into the saddle proved a chore for him, but he did it wordlessly, as she sat astride Duke, waiting for him. Blue, knowing he had a strange rider, acted up accordingly until Ali once again reached out to grab his bridle and telling him to 'knock it off'.
By nightfall, Starsky was exhausted, having been up the better part of 24 hours, not to mention hungry and sore. The clouds had rolled in, thick and threatening snow. Ali had been scanning the skies constantly. They were close to the slightly melted off snow line, catching glimpses of white stuff in the elevations above them. By now they were reduced to mostly walking, as the trail wended in amongst the ridges and gullies. Starsky couldn't figure out for the life of him how a cow could stand the area, until Ali pointed out that they roamed from grassy area to grassy area, and before winter set in they'd drive them all back down to the farmlands to winter in neighboring corn fields. Starsky wondered why they couldn't just stay in a nice, neat, little wrapped package in the meat section.
As they prepared camp, Ali got a fire going under a shelter belt of trees, not far from a creek, where she filled an old camp coffee pot with fresh water, and rigged it to start boiling. Starsky, meanwhile, had broken out a 4-man tent and was setting it up, trying not to groan. This he knew how to do, having been taught by Hutch many years before. Ali began making the evening meal. The horses where contentedly tied on lead ropes, happily munching at wisps of grass and glad to have the saddles off their backs.
In the ways of modern camping, instant meals were available, just add hot water... Before too long Ali had whipped out a camp version of chili mac. As she set it out to cool, she bundled their remaining food back together, and rose, as Starsky emerged from the tent. Snatching up a rope, she walked a ways out from the camp, looking up into the trees, loosening the rope.
"Is it food yet?" he asked, watching her uneasily. Ali was staring skyward, backing up, jiggling the rope in her hands.
"Yeah, it just needs to cool. The plates should be in that foam bedroll." She said distractedly. She tipped her head slightly, still looking up.
"Coulter? What are you doing?" he finally asked. Ali began swinging her arm.
"Just looking for a good branch." she said and let fly with the coil. It soared up, then barely over, a likely spot.
"What for?" he asked rummaging around in their gear for the roll in question.
"To hang our food from." she replied, feeding line to the other end of the rope until it reached her. She looked at him as he started, and stared at her.
"Hang the food from?" he asked hearing the sound of metallic clinking, music to his growling stomach.
"Bears, Starsky. There've been recent sightings. They love a free meal."
"Bears?" he gulped. Ali looked at him. The smell of the food suddenly reached his nose, setting off an instant reaction his stomach.
"Bears..." she said flatly. "We're not in Central Park!" She looked at the tent, then at him again.
"Where's the other tent?" she asked.
"Other tent?" he replied, helping himself to the food. Ali stopped, as she was gathering up the food bag. She tied it to one end of the rope.
"There was another tent..." she said, then paused looking at him, incredulous. He was happily piling the grub onto his plate.
"Don't tell me you didn't pack the other tent."
"There was only one." he said looking up at her. "And Central Park is probably a whole lot wilder than this place is by now." All he had seen all day long, was the south end of a horse going north, and maybe a bird or two. Ali stared at him, as she hoisted the food bag high into the tree.
"And just who plan's on sleeping in the tent?" she demanded.
Starsky beamed a grin at her. "If you think I'm sitting out here waiting for bears..." he began, while shoveling food down. She could only glare at him. "And I ain't sharing." he added. She continued a moment to lock eyes with him then, smirked, heaving a sigh. Without a word she tied her end of the rope to the tree then stalked to their gear. Finding a rolled up rain cover, another rope, and the hatchet, Ali proceeded to rig up a lean-to.
Starsky only watched her as he polished off his meal. She rolled out the foam pad, piled on an arctic sleeping bag, and started to reach for the .30.06.
"I don't think so." Starsky said, quietly. Ali looked at him.
"I'm not sleeping outside without some sort of protection." she flatly replied.
"You are tonight." he said, reaching for the rifle.
"At least let me have the damn Glock!"
"No way, toots! Don't forget I'm calling the shots here. I ain't about to go to sleep anywhere near you with a weapon in your hand." He smiled, wolfishly. Ali snorted in disgust and tossed the hatchet between his feet.
"You'd better be a light sleeper!" she warned. "Brown bears are numerous out here, and they get a bit surly this time of year knowing hunters have been out!" She snatched up her saddle bag, and a canteen.
Under the lean-to she tugged off her boots, stripped out of the coveralls, back to the jeans and the turtleneck she wore underneath, then fished out a pair of prescription bottles from the pack. Starsky watched as she popped a couple of pills, then set about crawling into the sleeping bag.
"You gonna eat?" he asked.
"Somehow I just lost my appetite." she growled back. Starsky raised an eyebrow at her, shrugged and polished off the rest of the food.
Both rifles and the Glock joined him in the tent that night, but Ali's words came back to mock him. Bears. He despised bears.
He spent a restless night, and it seemed to not last long enough.
Just when he thought he'd finally fallen asleep, Ali was up and
prowling around. It was pitch dark out, except the glow from the rebuilt
fire. He burrowed back deeper into the sleeping bag, not wanting to surrender
the warmth or the darkness. Ali, disgusted with his attitude, set about
breaking down the camp without him. She had to have been up before the
birds, because not a one was singing. The air around them seemed to be
hushed and humbled, waiting for something.
Her foot landing solidly in his back through the tent woke him up.
"Hey!" he snapped.
"We got to get going." she snarled back at him, moving away.
Disgruntled he poked his head out of the tent, running a hand through his short curls and stopped. It was snowing, and dawn barely lit the skies.
"I just fell asleep!" he moaned.
"Too bad." she replied from the vicinity of the horses. She had completely dismantled camp. Most everything was packed back onto Duke and Blue was saddled and waiting.
"What about breakfast?" he asked, still not moving from the tent.
"Later, we have a long way to go. This snow isn't going to help."
"I've got to have something to eat!."
"Starsky is your stomach all you ever think about?!" she snapped.
"Yes!" he snapped back, glad to finally be getting a rise. Ali ignored him, cinching down the rolls on Duke's saddle. Grumbling to himself, he disappeared back into the tent. At some point in time Ali had changed clothes, now wearing one of Hutch's plaid shirts instead of a turtleneck, but had climbed back into the insulated coveralls. When he emerged from the tent, setting off into the trees, she called back..
"Better watch for poison sumac. And you'd better wear extra clothes, it's going to be bitter this morning."
Poison sumac? What was that? He wasn't gone long. By the time he returned she had strapped the .30.06 to her saddle, and the .22 to his, and was busily dismantling the tent.
"Fer cryin' out loud!" he protested. "At least let a guy wake up and eat first!" he groused. Ali heaved a sigh, rolling the tent.
"We don't have a whole lot of time! It's another 14 hours before we get to the search site, I'd like to get up there today! With snow coming on it may be dark by the time we get there." she shot back, tying the tent into a long flat roll. She hefted it, heading for Blue.
"What time is it anyway?" he grumbled, trying to get his sleeping bag together.
"4:30." she replied back.
"Oh man!" he groaned, he didn't see Ali drop her head on Blue's flank, shaking it and rolling her eyes.
"Will you hurry up!" she urged, cinching the tent down behind two other rolls. He continued grumbling. She kept on loading things as they became available. Eventually she dumped a tin of water on the fire, spread the ashes, to make sure they were out, then headed for Duke as Starsky, jerked his stocking cap on.
"Least you can do is feed a guy." he mumbled. Ali, tying the coffee pot down to her saddle pack, flipped the flap up on her saddle bag, groped inside of it and tossed what she'd grabbed his way. A pair of Hershey bars hit him in the chest. He juggled for them as she grasped the horn of Duke's saddle, took a step back and launched herself up onto the tall horse's back. She adjusted the items around her, waiting for him. He deliberately ate both candy bars, before climbing into the saddle, stiff and sore from yesterday's grueling ride. Without a word, Ali headed off up the trail. Another night with him was definitely going to be a trial.
Somehow, the weather held off, but the temperature continued to dropped. It had quit snowing by six, barely putting a cover on the ground. Relieved, Ali urged them on, feeling increasingly more anxious.
Her every sense was on the alert. She was glad to be riding point as she didn't want to have to deal with Starsky muttering under his breath, and his constant pokings at her to get her riled. Their need to get up to the place Hutch had last been seen seemed to be overriding her desire to do something, anything, to shut Starsky up. She just kept upping the pace, refusing to stop to eat, despite the protests. In doing so, she managed to shave their time by close to two hours.
By late afternoon, her ears picked up the sounds of the waterfall. They
had finally entered the snow line, thankfully only a few
inches deep. She stopped Duke, waiting for Starsky to catch up. "Hear
that?" she said, stretching her back, the saddle creaking
under her. Duke blasted air out of his nostrils, his ears swinging
back and forth.
"What?" he growled, convinced every nerve in his butt was numb, and that he no longer had feet.
"That's the waterfall Ken and the trackers split up at. His last position was an hour up that ridge." she said pointing it out to him.
Starsky was suddenly interested. The ridge rose sharply along a crest then was obliterated by the mountain.
"You can just make out the trail before it gets hidden by that out cropping of rocks."
"How long?" he asked.
"Another hour."
"Think we'll get there before dark?"
"If we move now." she said, and urged Duke to go. She lead the way, as Starsky keyed his mike and radioed their progress to Riley, still waiting back at the ranch. As they neared the waterfall, Ali leaned over slightly, carefully looking at the ground, then sat up straight, scanning around the area. She said nothing to her reluctant partner, but continued a ways further, occasionally pausing and looking around. Starsky watched her suspiciously.
The itch between her shoulders definitely felt worse. She rolled them,
trying to rid herself of the feeling of intuition. Something
definitely was out of wack, but she couldn't figure it out. She scanned
every bare piece of ground, listening, searching. Nothing. She silently
lead them up the right fork, remembering that only a week ago, her husband
had last been seen here. She didn't need to urge Duke anymore, he seemed
to know exactly where to go and in moments left Starsky behind. At least
he had shut up. Along the way, she began to catch site of search markers.
Gaining the knife edged ridge, her ears caught sound, but just as quickly
lost it, she twisted around, searching, unable to pinpoint where and what
it was.
Duke apparently began to notice it too. His ears began flicking and he snorted, bobbing his head. Ahead of Ali was an outcrop of rocks, surrounded by thick trees. Four inches of snow lightly covered everything. Various search markers jutted up here and there and continued past the rocks to a small clearing further down the trail. Duke began to dance a little. Ali's ears heard a muffled crackling in the trees sloping up above her, but for the life of her couldn't quite tell what it was.
She continued on past the rocks, shivering at the sad little reminders of the failed search. Hutch had been here, she knew it, but where could he be now? She glanced to her right, sloping dangerously down some 150 feet then vanishing at the drop. Wispy grey mists shrouded the canyon beyond.
She approached the clearing after hearing Starsky yelling for her to slow up. Heaving a sigh she reigned in, looking worriedly around. Duke danced under her, bobbing his head nervously. Ali thought she heard crackling again, sounding like snow dumping off a tree. She looked up the slight incline, as Starsky appeared passing the rocks.
"This the place?" he asked looking around. Ali didn't answer him.
He glanced up at her as Blue suddenly began to shift uneasily. Ali distinctly heard a loud, inhuman, huff of air...
Starsky stared uneasily as Ali froze momentarily in the saddle, her left hand holding Duke's reins out a bit as he shuffled, balking at having to stay still. Blue also began to move, his ears pinned flat.
Starsky didn't like the blank look appearing on Ali's face, it looked suspiciously familiar.
"Coulter?!" he snapped uneasily trying to stay upright as Blue edged his way forward. Ali stared just beyond him, past the rock group, to the slight curve of trees beyond. A distinctive crackling met her ears again.
To Starsky's disbelief, Ali's face suddenly went pale before his eyes and she moved like quicksilver, her right hand flashing down, ripping the .30.06 from it's scabbard. The rifle flew to her shoulder, aiming at him. Starsky moved too, the Glock appearing in his hand as if by magic.
"Drop it!" he shouted, ignoring the fact that he was sitting on a horse whose reins he'd just dropped. Ali didn't listen, she worked the bolt, dropping her own reins. Starsky knew she was going to fire. As he began to squeeze the trigger on the Glock, his ears caught the sounds of deep unnatural growling, just as Blue bolted.
The echo of both weapons going off, ricocheted around the hills, as several things happened at once. Starsky hit the ground with a jarring impact, loosing the Glock momentarily. Duke reared, as Ali was abruptly jerked out of the saddle, the rifle tumbling to the ground. Both horses spooked and took off a little distance down the trail. Starsky rolled, snatching the Glock up, and scrambled to his feet, holding the weapon in a stiff two handed grip on Ali, who was shaking her head and trying to sit up, looking down at herself.
"Freeze!" he yelled at her. Ali looked up at him as she pulled her hand away from her side. A mixture of anger and incredulity was written all over her face.
"You IDIOT!" she yelled at him, then looked down at her hand. "You shot me!"
"Move away from the rifle!" he ordered. Ali ignored him, looking down at her hand, and at the hole that had appeared in her coveralls. She glared at him.
"What do you think you're doing!?" she yelled back, trying to roll onto her knees, pulling the coveralls away from her left side.
"One more move Coulter and I'll put the next bullet between your eyes!" he threatened.
"You damned idiot!" she raged, climbing to her feet. "Look behind you!"
"I ain't that stupid!" Starsky raged right back as Ali unzipped the coveralls, and swayed suddenly on her feet.
"Stupid should be your middle name!" she yelled at him, pulling her arm out. She swayed again, pulling the clothes away from her side and suddenly dropped to her knees. The blood stain was growing. Starsky approached cautiously, keeping his gun trained on her. Ali looked up at him, angrily.
"You colossal idiot!" she hollered at him. "I was aiming for the damn bear behind you!"
Starsky stopped at her words, as she glanced down again at her bleeding side. He very carefully turned his head, never letting the pistol drop. Not thirty feet behind where he had just been sitting on the horse, lay a nearly 300lb brown bear. It lay face first in the snow on the path directly in back of him, front paws splayed out before him, twitching in it's death throes.
Starsky let out a yell that echoed off all the surrounding hills. Instead of the Glock pointing at Ali, it now covered the bear. It had been an incredible instant kill. Starsky stared at it in shock and disbelief, slowly backing up away from it. He glanced at Ali as he backed up past her. She was staring at her bleeding side, then looked up at him.
"I can't believe you shot me!" she snapped. He looked at her, incredulous, still holding the pistol on the dead bear. He was looking very pale, and was trying to get something other than a yell of terror to come out of his lips when both of them heard the unmistakable sounds of a gunshot, from a very familiar gun...
Both looked at each other in surprise.
"Ken!" Ali gasped. Starsky spun towards the edge of the cliff.
"HUUUUTCH!" he hollered, running part way's up the trail. Ali struggled to her feet, stumbling after him.
When the second shot rang out, Starsky fixed the location, sidling uneasily
around the bear, and slid to a stop at the edge of the
ridge. He hollered Hutch's name again. Both heard a very muffled far
off reply.
"He's alive!" Ali shrieked. Starsky was peeling the radio off of him, dropping it to the ground next to the Glock.
"Go get the horses!" he ordered. "We need the climbing gear!"
Ali, slapping her hand to her side, stumbled away, inserting the thumb and ring fingers of her free hand to her teeth and whistling loudly.
Farther down the path where they had stopped, Blue jerked his head up, then began trotting back up the trail. Not about to be left alone Duke followed.
Within a matter of minutes, Starsky had securely tied two ropes around a very sturdy tree, donned the climbing harness, and hurled both ropes down the cliff.
"Are you sure you..." Ali started.
"Had to learn how in the army, cliff scaling was a weekend activity." He looked at her as he threaded the ropes properly before and behind him. "Call Riley. Tell him to get the chopper out here and to hurry, it's getting dark." She nodded and looked at him with sudden deep concern.
"Be careful! I don't need you both going down that cliff!"
"Nothin' to it!" he grinned and began to rappel down the side of the
mountain. Ali grabbed the radio, quickly contacting Doug, and looking down
at her bleeding side. How on earth was she going to explain this?