The River of Bones--An Archie Hunter Adventure

by E C Hunter

  “First pull out these big flight feathers, it’s easier to do it while it’s still warm.” Archie demonstrated. “Next, start at the neck and pick each feather as you move down. Give it a sharp tug down the way, if you don’t tug it sharply the skin will tear.” The feathers flew as Archie plucked his bird and in a few minutes his bird was bare and looking somewhat like a comedy chicken, but smaller. He looked across at Milly, She was clutching something that resembled a road-kill starling. She had succeeded in removing the flight feathers but after that it had all started to go wrong. Torn skin hung in patches making the unfortunate bird look leprous, feathers clung to the exposed yellow fat and it looked like it was wearing furry trousers. Milly wasn’t much better, she was covered head to toe in feathers. Archie couldn’t help but smile.

  “Not funny, I did my best”. Milly said crossly. Archie reached across and brushed a stray feather from her nose.

  “You look very cute though”. Archie studied her for a few moments and noticed something he never expected to see. “You’re blushing!” He said it before he even realised he was going to.

  “No I’m not, it’s just hot.” She angrily backhanded a feather from her cheek.

  “You still looked cute though.” Archie was on a roll.

  “Yeah, well, anyway, what are we going to do about this?” She held up the ruined bird.

  “It’ll be fine.” Said Archie, deciding that he’d perhaps gone far enough. Probably not wise to keep winding when Milly was showing symptoms of boiling over. Archie quickly plucked the other bird. “Right, now the next bit, ready to get your hands dirty?” Milly nodded but looked slightly nervous. “You’ll need a knife, got one?” Milly nodded grimly. “Is it sharp?” Again the nod.

  “Okay” Archie drew his Fallkniven from it’s sheath and tested the edge on his thumb nail. “Right, first thing you need to do is cut off the head” with a single movement he severed the neck and tossed the head into the bushes. “Next turn it over and cut through the skin on the back all the way up the neck, free the neck from the skin and the two tubes. Pull the neck right back until it cracks, like this.” The neck emitted a horrible noise of breaking bones. Archie glanced across at Milly. She was green.

  “You okay?” Archie asked.

  “Uh huh.” Milly’s answer was muffled, as though she were trying to keep her mouth closed.

  “Oh dear, didn’t have you down as the squeamish type.”

  “I’m not squeamish, just feeling a bit lightheaded; it’s the lack of food.”

  “Whatever. Next you need to take the crop out – it’s a small sac that birds cram food into before they digest it. Just reach into that gap under the neck and pull it out, can be a bit sticky.” Archie was enjoying himself, dressing birds was something he was at home with and seeing miss super-confident out of her comfort zone was an added bonus. Milly had not moved, the bird still dangled from her hand forlornly. Archie carried on regardless. “Now the good bit” said Archie holding up his forefinger. “Insert finger into hole here” He indicated a place between the neck and wishbone. Stick it in and give it a good wiggle.” Archie followed his own instructions. Milly blanched. Archie ignored.

  “Next you need to move to the back end, take your knife and cut a square around the cloaca – that’s a birds’ all-purpose opening. Be careful you don’t go in too far or you’ll cut into the gut and that’ll spoil the meat. When you’ve done that you need to push your fingers in over the top of the guts, work them round loosening everything and then draw it all out.” There was a sucking, slurping sound from the bird followed by a retching noise from Milly.

  “You OK?” Archie asked lightly. Milly nodded uncertainly.

  “I think so, can, er, you do mine?”

  “Sure, leave it there, why don’t you go and collect some sticks.” Milly didn’t need telling twice and tottered off gratefully into the trees. Archie quickly plucked the third bird and finished up the dressing. After wiping his knife with some damp moss and drying it on his trousers he gathered up the birds and looked for the smoke from Milly’s fire. Nothing. There was no smoke, no horse and no Milly.

  Chapter 34

  She hadn’t been feeling well reasoned Archie, perhaps she’d just wandered off to freshen up. No, she wouldn’t have taken the horse, besides, her saddles bags were still here. Surely she wouldn’t have gone far. Archie walked to where the horse had been tethered. Strewn round the spot was a handful of kindling twigs, too many in one place to be random. The vegetation was trampled but that was to be expected, the horse had been stood there for a while. Archie cast a little further out. There were no tracks he could make out easily. He went to the edge of the forest road and cautiously peeped out of the undergrowth. Nothing. Left or right? She couldn’t have gone deeper into the forest, not with the horse and as far as he was aware, this road was the last before the national park, no roads in there. Just trees, million upon million.

  Archie stepped onto the road, still uneasy. Why would she have gone? Surely not because she was embarrassed about feeling queasy? Perhaps he had laid it on a bit thick but he hadn’t criticised her. Not everyone can do the unpleasant stuff like that. OK, he thought, discounting running off, what else could have happened? His mind began to dance with the awful possibilities. The trackers, her father, the Sasquatches, his father. But if she had been captured, they must have known he was there too, why hadn’t they come for him? Nothing made sense. Perhaps he’d just better wait here. She might come back and if he wasn’t there, they’d perhaps never meet up.

  He gathered the dropped sticks, added a few larger pieces of wood to the pile and lit his fire. He made a makeshift spit from a couple of Y shaped sticks pushed into the ground and threaded the grouse on to a green maple stick, tying them in place with lengths of thin spruce root. Archie laid the stick in the Y’s so that it was supported some way above the flames. Not too close, he didn’t want crispy on the outside and raw in the middle. He sat on a log and watched the fire, turning the spit occasionally, deep in thought. As the birds cooked a waft of delicious odour drifted over him. At once his stomach responded with a growl and his salivary glands gave a painful squirt. It seemed to take forever for the birds to cook. Every few minutes he would give them an experimental prod with his knife and feel the slide of disappointment when the juices still ran pink.

  The finished product, delicately lifted from the fire, slipped from the rod and laid on a burdock leaf looked delicious and provided a new problem – scoff the lot, save some for Milly or eat some and save some for later. The answer didn’t become apparent until he had downed every last morsel and sucked the bones clean. He’d set the trap again, there was still some of the bait left. He put some water to boil in one of the Pepsi cans and went off to find the trap.

  This time, he decided, he would rig a trigger system so that he could leave it and get on with something else. It took almost an hour of experimentation before he got the combination of propped and balancing sticks right. When at last he was satisfied with the arrangement Archie wandered back to his fire and sat down to think. Almost at once he felt himself slipping into a ‘poor me’ loop. No, he took a leaf from Milly’s book and changed direction. Positive thoughts only he told himself, only losers lie down and wallow in self-pity and he’d not been brought up to do that.

  It was time for rational thought. He had no way of knowing where Milly was, where his father was or where his pursuers were so it was pointless to worry about any of that. It sounded harsh but it was fact. His immediate concern now must be to stay alive and get to a settlement. Looked like he was back at square one. Just him, his pack and the knowledge he carried in his head.

  *

  Milly was cross, she hated to feel weak, hated that there was a situation she couldn’t cope with but those guts, blurgh, they had been the limit. She reached the horse, needing a drink badly. There was a little water left in one of the old canteen bottles and she glugged it down gratefully. It was warm and had a metallic taste but it was better
than the alternative. ‘I am tough, I am strong’ she counselled herself. It was a mantra she had used many times through her life. Through losing her mother, through the violence her father dished out regularly, through the teasing of her brothers, through the lustful glances of the men her father employed.

  She had stayed strong, she had remained an island and now she was truly on her own. Well, except for Archie. Archie. Funny kid she thought, not seen much of life but there’s something about him. Sure he’s good looking but there’s something else too. Something she couldn’t quite pin down. There was a small noise behind her. Archie come to see how she was, he was like that, for all his faults, she smiled to herself.

  “That’s sweet, coming to see how…” A hand snaked over her shoulder and cut off her words abruptly. She struggled, kicked backwards, elbowed but her captor was implacable, sinewy and strong as rope. Expertly he kicked her knees away and she fell to the ground. He was on her like a cougar on a jack rabbit. She fought, bravely and savagely but her captor merely grinned at her efforts. He sat astride her body. She felt her flailing legs gathered and pressed to the ground. There were two of them, it was hopeless but she didn’t stop, she writhed and bucked, twisted and thrashed.

  “You better calm right down there little lady else someone’s gonna get hurt”. Milly glared at him, willing her gaze to bore into his head. She was almost surprised when it didn’t. “Now you gonna come quiet or we gonna have to rope you?” For an answer Milly renewed her thrashing. “Have it your way my pretty”. Expertly Clyde Burke hog tied her and between him and his partner threw her over the saddle of the horse.

  “What about the boy Clyde?” asked Louis.

  “He’s busy feeding his face, we can come and pick him off anytime, let’s get Pocahontas here back to her daddy then come back and arrange an accident.” Milly’s rage deepened at the name Pocahontas, it became a fire burning within her, an almost holy fire. She made a sacred vowed to herself. These men would pay. Just how she would work out later but they would pay.

  Chapter 35

  There was some small satisfaction gained by Milly in the fact that her captors had to walk, she occupying the only horse. Burke periodically checked his cell phone for signal. Nothing. Milly watched them, searching for any weakness, any little thing that might make them vulnerable. As yet she had seen nothing. Her bindings were efficient, her gag secure but not restricting her breathing. The men watched her as she watched them. They were good, there was no complacency. She could see why Burke had made it on to the TV. He was good looking too, for an old guy.

  “Getting’ dark Clyde, we oughta make a stop, be too dark to see soon enough.”

  “Guess so, find us a clearing Louis.” Five minutes later they were making camp which in effect was nothing more than a fire with a couple of logs drawn up to it. Milly was dumped unceremoniously in the shadows. It was not long before she felt a certain urgency. Fifteen minutes later urgency had become desperate need. She made a squealing noise in the back of her throat to try and get one of the men over. She was determined not to pee in her pants. She made the keening noise louder and more insistent. At last Louis rose from his log and sauntered over to her.

  “What’s up missy? You missing your lover boy?” Milly squealed at him louder and tried to make it sound like ‘I need to pee’. She glanced down and back up to him. He got the message and leered at her lasciviously. “Come on then”, he undid the ropes from her ankles and led her a short way from the camp. She held up her tied hands in mute protest, there was no way she could undo her jeans. The man made a movement towards her and she recoiled instinctively. There was no way this evil creature was coming anywhere near her. She hissed at him, eyes blazing and held her wrists towards him. After a moment’s hesitation he came to a decision. He held out both palms to indicate his compliance.

  “OK, I’m going to tie a rope to your leg and then undo your hands, that OK? Milly realised that this was the best she was going to get and gave in. Louis tied one end to Milly’s ankle and the other to his own wrist. “Go behind the tree sweetie, I’ll turn my back, promise” he sneered. Milly breathed a sigh of relief and went behind the tree. She was mid-flow when a strange sensation of being watched came over her. Slowly, almost imperceptibly out of the undergrowth rose a figure. It moved like a wraith through the trees towards her, silent and purposeful. The figure was massive in the darkness, the firelight serving only to make it seems more enormous. A wave of fear hit Milly, if she hadn’t already been peeing, well, it would have been a wet pants situation.

  The figure drew closer, reached out to her with two huge hands and tweaked the rope on her wrists. It broke with barely a tug to her arms. Milly quickly pulled up her jeans. The huge hands reached down and broke the ankle rope. The female Sasquatch yanked on the rope and Louis came flying towards them, left leg first. His right leg caught a tree as he flew through the air and broke with a sickening crunch. He had not had time to make a sound and now lay unmoving in the dark. Milly poked him with a toe, there was no response. She looked up at the Sasquatch and nodded. The Sasquatch gave a slight, almost imperceptible incline of the head in return, like it was trying out something new.

  “Louis, what ya doin?” came a voice from the darkness. “I gotta come over there and help you? Jesus Louis, the simplest thing…” The voice trailed off. The female Sasquatch melted into the trees. A few moments later there was a muffled thump and she returned carrying the inert body of Clyde Burke. He was dropped without ceremony next to Louis. Milly bent over and checked his breathing. It was there, just.

  The Sasquatch reached out and took her hand and then without warning hefted Milly into her arms and set off through the bush. It was a strange but uncomplicated thing, it made her unconsciously start to think of the days when her mum was alive, of her touch and her smell. Her warmth. As the minutes went by Milly was lulled by the motion and the soft hair of the Sasquatch, even if the smell was a little unpleasant and fell into a drowsy stupor. She had never felt so safe, here in the arms of this creature, this creature who could snap her neck as if it were a twig. She lost all concept of time as she was rocked through the trees by this mother of the forest. In her semi-conscious state Milly saw and felt things the like of which she had had never experienced before. She saw the plight of these forest people, the consequences of their discovery, she had insights into the wickedness of her father and brothers. She saw Magnus, saw the events that lead to their meeting and how wrong she had been. She saw Archie, at his home as she imagined it, he was an adult, she had the feeling she was there too but couldn’t quite see herself. Above all she saw her mother, bittersweet memories welled up and swirled away into the night. She had the most amazing feeling that everything was going to be all right.

  It must have been well past midnight when the creature finally stopped and set her gently on her feet. The forest was completely dark, she turned around on the spot. A pin point of light became visible. A fire, it must be. Milly turned back to the Sasquatch. There was nothing, she had melted into the night.

  Picking her way slowly and focusing on the flickering light of the fire Milly carefully walked towards it. As she drew closer she could see a shape curled up next to it, a familiar shape. Archie. Without hesitation she crept into the camp, lay herself down behind Archie and snuggled into his back. She was asleep in a moment.

  Chapter 36

  “Jesus! What the hell.” Archie woke with a body clinging to him. He wriggled himself free and was not wholly surprised to find Milly, she opened a bleary eye and looked up at him.

  “Hello” she said simply.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Archie was surprised at the level of his anger. Milly rolled over on to her back and put both hands behind her head and stretched luxuriously.

  “I was kidnapped by a guy from the TV and rescued by a mythical beast” she said lightly.

  “Rescued? How? Archie’s interest was piqued. Milly explained about the ropes, the rescue and the transport, she omitted
the part about being caught with her pants down. “So you’re saying that the female knew that you were tied and got you out? Wow, that shows real intelligence, I mean real intelligence. These guys are far more than chimps with attitude.” Archie was becoming animated.

  “Suppose you ate all the grouse?”

  “’Fraid so, but guess what?” Archie pointed up a tree to where a snowshoe hare was hanging. “I got Bugs!” Milly glanced at the hare for a moment and smiled wanly. “Don’t worry, it’s already gutted, I’ll just skin it and we can get it on the fire.” With bears in mind he moved away from the camp, found a useful stump and set to work. First he broke all four legs, hoping Milly couldn’t hear the snap then he extended the gutting cut over the sternum, up the insides of the forelegs and then did the same with the back legs. Then it was a simple matter to cut off the head and strip off the skin. Then in the same manner as the grouse he threaded and tied the hare on a stick.

  Minutes later the hare was starting to sizzle nicely, there was water boiling and Archie could spend some more time questioning Milly about her capture and rescue.

  “So do you have any idea which way you went? Where these guys might be? You’re sure it was Burke and his buddy?” Archie fired off his questions but the only thing Milly could be truly sure of was that it was definitely Burke who had taken her and that it was the female Sasquatch who had rescued her. Milly described her experience with the mother Sasquatch, about how she had felt when she was being carried, the feeling of intense connection, the dream like state. It had been an experience like no other, deeply emotional but at the same time powerfully physical. Archie listened intently, a wave of sadness washing over him when Milly described how she had seen her mother. “What do we do now?” he asked when Milly had finally finished.