Chapter 1

Carol started walking from the stable to her log cabin when she saw headlights on the road leading to the ranch. She lived alone in the one bedroom, one bath cabin so she was aware of anything out of the ordinary in her world. She watched the headlights and they appeared to be stationary. Carol ran to the cabin and got the 60 power spotting scope that had been her father's. Without turning on the lights in the cabin, she focused on the headlights to try and figure out what the occupants of the car were doing. The car was over a mile away and the snow was stating to fall a little faster than when she had been bedding down the livestock. She could make out two figures moving out from the trees and getting back into the car. As she watched, the headlights started to move and she could see that they were moving away and heading for the state highway. Carol wondered what they had dumped off into the trees. The car appeared to be a large SUV or small van. She could not make the car out at this distance and the visibility was decreasing by the minute. Carol stood at the window as the headlights turned and disappeared. The snow was coming down at a steady pace now and she knew that there would be a considerable accumulation by morning. Carol started getting mad that someone would dump trash on her property. She decided to see if she could find out if the trash had anything in it that would allow her to identify the dumpers. She walked to the stable to saddle her horse and get to the trash before the snow covered it.

He raised his head as he regained consciousness for a few minutes. He couldn't see out of one eye and it felt like every bone hurt. Blood kept dripping into his one good eye and he had to keep blinking so that he could see. He tried to move but he couldn't. He was not coherent enough to realize how badly he was hurt. He thought to himself that it was very cold in the trees and that he should get to his house. He was wondering who had done this to him and if anyone at home would help him. As he lost consciousness he realized that he couldn't remember where he lived. He wondered if he had a home or anyone to hunt for him. As he lost consciousness he fell against the ropes tying him to the tree. The bullet wound is his side was bleeding badly and his entire face and body had numerous cuts. He was naked and the cold was fast sucking the heat from his body. A coyote had already smelled the blood from several hundred yards away and was starting toward the critically injured man.

Carol started for the site where the car had dumped the trash. She had put her revolver in her sheepskin jacket and had picked up an old blanket to wrap the trash in. The fact that some people were so inconsiderate as to dump trash on someone else's property infuriated her. The horse picked his way along the road toward the trash site. Carol did not push the horse too much as she did not want to make him slip and hurt himself or her. As she neared the site where she had last seen the car she started looking for the trash that the car had dumped. She could just make out where the tire tracks of the car were and she knew that the tracks would be gone in a few minutes as the snow was falling at a steady rate now. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a small movement. She peered into the underbrush and could just make out the coyote hiding from her. Her senses were suddenly heightened, as she knew that the coyote would never allow her to get this close until he was either after game that was injured or if he was tracking her. She quickly assured herself that she was not the target. She knew that coyotes would rarely stalk a human much less a human on a horse. Carol pulled her revolver and sent a bullet into the underbrush a foot in front of the coyote. The coyote scrambled for the safety of the trees and she knew that he was still close enough to keep an eye on her.

Carol got off of the horse and started searching for whatever the car had dumped. She led the horse a short way into the trees being careful to not allow the horse to become afraid. She had to keep the horse with her or the coyote might spook the horse and she knew the horse would run back to the stable. If that happened she would have to walk back to the cabin. Even though she knew she knew the coyote would rarely attack a human, she didn't like thought of having to walk through the snow to the cabin. Carol saw the bloody thing on the tree a while before she realized what it was. She tied the horse securely to a tree, as she knew that the horse would spook if he smelled blood. She hoped that the coyote was as cowardly as most of them are, as she did not want the horse to be spooked by the coyote either. Carol walked to the tree and saw that it was a man tied to the tree. He had been severely beaten on his head and his body. He was also naked and she saw that he had been shot. The blood from his injuries was making it hard to really assess his injuries. Carol walked to the horse and got the old blanket. It would not be big enough to be much good but it would help a little. Carol was not really sure if he was dead or alive. She put the blanket on the ground, wrapped him in it and put the body on the horse's saddle. She got on the horse and maneuvered herself onto the horse and into the saddle and pulled the body onto her lap. The man's skin was cold so she could not tell if he was alive, as he was not moving at all. Carol started back to the cabin.

When she got to the cabin she gently pushed the body forward and slide out from under the man. She got down and slid the body from the horse. Carol struggled with the body, as he was large man. With considerable difficulty she got him in the cabin and pulled him in front of the wood stove. She still could not tell if he was alive or not. Carol rushed outside and grabbed the reins of her horse and led him to the stable. She knew that although the man might need care they both would be in deep trouble if the horse were allowed to die in the freezing weather. She unsaddled the horse and threw some feed in his trough and made sure he had water. She ran to the cabin to check on the man to see if she could detect any signs of life. The body was still in the same spot that he was when she had left. She quickly uncovered him so that she could find out if he was alive and if he was, to check on the extent of his injuries. Carol saw that he was alive but just barely. She ran to get her medical bag and than got a large pail of hot water and all of the washcloths and towels she could carry. She washed the man down completely and started dressing his wounds. The man had been beaten severely over most of his body. She noticed that several toes were mashed as though they had been hit with a hammer. The gunshot wound had stopped bleeding and Carol did not work on that until she had stopped the bleeding on the numerous wounds on his head and body.

As much as she dreaded it she started cleaning the area around the bullet wound. A check of the wound indicated to her that the bullet had not hit the intestines or any vital organs. Carol silently hoped that the bullet didn't make a turn after it went into his body. She took a pin and stuck him in his side. He didn't even twitch so Carol knew that she could work without giving him an anesthetic. Carol probed for the bullet and dug it out as gently as she could, which was none too gentle considering how deep the bullet was. Carol stood up and viewed her handiwork. The man had about 30 cuts on his head and body, several broken toes and a simple fracture of his leg. She had to put in about 50 stitches on his body and about 20 in his face. She felt that he would recover all right if infection didn't set in. She gave him some antibiotics and looked over his body to make sure that she had not missed any injuries. She again noticed that he was a big man in more ways than one. The man's one uninjured eye fluttered open and he looked at Carol. "God, I hurt," he said softly. "What's your name?" Carol asked. He replied," Susan," and lost consciousness again. Carol chuckled, "I don't think so, cowboy."

Carol got several old blankets and ripped them into stripes about 4 inches wide and wrapped his arms and legs loosely in case any frostbite had started. She put a heavy coating of Vaseline on his face to hold in the moisture and heat. She then got a 0 degree sleeping bag and put in on the floor far enough from the woodstove so that he would remain warm but not get too hot. Carol was exhausted from the care that she had given him and the tension of the experience. She lay down on the couch and was soon sound asleep.

Carol occasionally cleaned him and put lotion on his body and cleaned his dressings. He rarely moved or gave any indication that he was alive. She force fed him soup and tried to get as much water in him as possible. The storm had dumped about 30 inches of snow on the ranch and they were effectively shutoff from the world. Carol could not get out to call on the farms in the area so she cared for the man pretty much full time. Carol found some of her father's clothes that she thought would fit the man if and when he woke up. Her father was about the same size as the injured man.

The farm was fairly isolated so Carol did not have many visitors. Those that did come to the farm were usually farmers or ranchers bringing their animals by. Carol liked it that way. She had pretty much withdrawn from society since her husband had died from the Desert Storm disease that had killed many but that the Pentagon had refused to acknowledge existed. They had only been married about 6 months before he went to the Saudi and Iraqi desert. When he came home every thing was fine for about a year and then the illnesses started. The illnesses were hard to describe and doctors did not know how to treat the illnesses that had so many different symptoms. In her mind Carol told herself that her husband had died of the illnesses. What had happened really she refused to think about. One morning he had got up before dawn, saddled a horse and rode out. She had gone looking for him later that morning and found him on a blanket curled up in a fetal position. He left a note that he could not stand being sick anymore and had sent a bullet into his brain. A part of Carol had died that day. The people who knew her understood her feelings and honored her wishes. They watched out for her for a while and then life drifted to the way it was now. Any human contact was strictly business.