Maureen's Journey Home

by Ian Macdonald

  “He may not be alone; I mean who would be all alone out here in the middle of nowhere?”

  “Good point, let’s head that way to find out, but be careful, they may be amateurs and just shoot anything that moves.”

  “Yeah, they just might at that,” he agreed.

  They had set off earlier that morning to explore an area that they had never been in before and it was a few miles away from their camp site. The forest was quite dense in some areas and even the sky was obscured in places, but the occasional ray of sunshine did break through periodically. There was the ever present smell of pine cones all around and that added a sense of freshness to the air. Chipmunks and squirrels were darting around everywhere and the birds were all chirping away merrily. They had ventured about three miles when they heard that shot and now curiosity had gotten the better of them. There were no roads that they knew about; they were literally miles from civilization and hunters wouldn’t usually trek that far as a rule. So if they had, what was it that had drawn them to the area? It was this question that had both Andre and Paul intrigued. They just had to find the answer to that question. They then set off in the general direction of the rifle shot, but being very stealthy about it. They certainly had their ears pricked listening for the slightest sound that was out of place. They had travelled about a mile or so further when they both heard a noise up ahead. The looked at each other and froze, each hiding behind a tree. Suddenly a woman rushed past them only a few yards away panting with exhaustion. She glanced behind her fleetingly and instantly tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground. That trip saved her life as an arrow whizzed through the air and lodged itself quivering in a tree beside her. As she lay there on the ground totally spent of all her energy a man ambled up to her casually aiming his crossbow at her. He then stood above her and told her she had been a worthwhile adversary and that is was a great shame that he had to kill her. The poor woman just looked up at him, her eyes wide and fearful and too scared and too tired to move.

  “You know Gwen; I wish we had met under different circumstances. I really do like you. You are smart and intelligent as well as beautiful and you were fantastic in bed. I know I am going to regret this, but I really have no choice now do I?” he said as he placed his finger on the trigger.

  They were the last words he spoke. Incensed with rage at this point, Paul just hurled himself at the man and with one mighty chop to the back of his neck the man fell dead on the spot. Andre leapt out from behind his tree and went over to Gwen. They then heard a voice calling the man’s name and it was not all that far off.

  “Fred, where the hell are you man?” the voice called out. “Come on man, call out and give me a clue – that bitch can’t be that far away? She ain’t going anywhere.”

  When no answer came back the man then said,

  “Ah! Now I get it, you fancy screwing her again first eh! Okay then, I’ll leave you alone if she’s that hot – you have certainly paid good money to screw her –nobody said you could only do her once.”

  Andre and Paul had picked up the exhausted Gwen and carried to where there were some bushes and they hid behind them in silence. They motioned her to be quiet and she was. The voice never came any closer and seemed to be going in the opposite direction now. The man had apparently assumed that Fred wanted one last fling with Gwen before he killed her and his presence would not be appreciated.

  Andre and Paul then picked up Gwen between them and headed back to their camp. Both men could clearly see the fear in her eyes, the poor woman was terrified of them and they had just saved her life. What could possibly have happened to her to make her so fearful? They had tried to comfort her by telling her she was safe now – but nothing they said made any difference. Having been through what she had been through, trusting men was something she was certainly not prepared to do just yet. When they arrived back at their camp Gwen could hardly stand. She was totally exhausted and her heart was still racing. Although she had been saved from certain death by these two men, what ambitions did they have for her? Relaxation for Gwen was out of the question for now as her adrenaline was still pumping. The two men put her into Andre’s tent and Gwen now feared the worst, but she was way past caring anymore. When the two men lay her down, put a blanket over her gently and then left she was both relieved and surprised. She then fell asleep wondering just what kind of men these two were. Needless to say, recent experience with men had been traumatic, degrading and humiliating. She had almost forgotten what it was like to be treated like a human being. They had all lied to her and it had cost her big time, what kind of animals do we have here this time she wondered? At this point she wasn’t at all sure.

  When Gwen awoke she could smell dinner cooking. She lay there for a while not daring to tempt fate by poking her head out of the tent. Then after a while she decided to bite the bullet and emerge. The two men did not pounce on her or try to undress her; in fact they were just the opposite, falling over themselves trying to make her comfortable and being very gentle with her. They then started with the questions.

  “Look Gwen, we don’t want to pry here, but, what the hell was going on back there, the man was going to kill you?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Well give it a try at least and see if we can follow it.”

  Gwen then started to tell them her story. The two men just sat there looking incredulous as she related everything that had gone on in that camp. When she burst into tears at one point André leapt up and sat beside her and just hugged her. He let her compose herself and then she continued. The look on the faces of the two men told her that they wouldn’t hurt her and that they were shocked by what she was telling them. They just looked at each other periodically in total disbelief thinking to themselves - surely this can’t be true. Who would want to hurt such a beautiful woman in a pretty pale blue dress? These two damaged soldiers were all about protecting people – this just didn’t make sense to them - and here in Canada too. She described in detail what the men had done to her and she then stood up, lifted up her dress and showed them her injuries. This time she was wearing underwear, but once again the look on the men’s faces told Gwen that these two men were genuine and perhaps the unicorns she and the others had been seeking. They did exist after all. It simply never crossed her mind they would live in a forest, but she thought that she really had found a couple now alright, time would tell, she told herself.

  The two men sat and listened to the whole story and cringed in places as they continued to prepare the meal. They told her that she could sleep in Andre’s tent and they would share Paul’s. They chatted some more around the campfire until bedtime and then they just added a few more logs to the fire and turned in for the night. Gwen fell asleep quite content that night, it simply never crossed her mind that one of the men may creep into the tent in the middle of the night and rape her. Restful sleep was something she had not been able to have for some time now. The next morning she herself was up with the birds and had the coffee going before the two men crawled out all bleary eyed and lethargic. She had washed her underwear as soon as she got up and hung it on a tree to dry and was now only wearing her pale blue dress. This was all the clothing she had and maintaining personal hygiene was not easy under those conditions.

  “Good Morning, guys she said I have the coffee going.”

  “Thank you ma’am that’s very good of you.”

  “How are you this morning, Gwen?” inquired Andre, “did you sleep well?”

  “Like a log, Andre, and I haven’t been able to do that for some time.”

  “I can’t even begin to imagine it”, said Andre.

  “Me neither said Paul, those bastards are real sick. How could they treat a woman like that?”

  “Well we have the evidence right here – poor Gwen lived that nightmare” said Andre.

  “She’s the lucky one, sick as that sounds, the other poor women are probably dead now. Those bastards have to be made to pay for this.
If we do nothing it will continue indefinitely” said Paul.

  “I agree” said Andre.

  “Look, based on what we know so far, no other women will be killed for a couple of weeks at least, Right? So with that in mind I am going to row over to the logging camp and see how the land lies and, if I can, I can bring back another woman. Can you draw me a map of the camp Gwen?”

  ‘Yes I’d be happy to, but be careful. Those men are brutes.”

  “Don’t worry about Paul, Gwen, it’s those guys who won’t be safe, trust me, Paul can take care of himself. You saw what he did to the man who tried to shoot you. Hopefully he can avoid being seen and that way they won’t know that we know all about them and what they are doing. That way, hopefully, they won’t try to destroy all the evidence so to speak. It will take us a few days to walk out to the nearest road, Gwen. Do you think you’ll be up for that?”

  “If it gets me out of here and away from those people I’m good for anything even if it kills me.”

  “Oh we’ll go at your pace, Gwen, that’s the least we can do after what you have suffered – today you can just take it easy and rest up.”

  “As soon as breakfast is over I’ll take the boat and go and recce that camp over there. If I can I’ll try to rescue another woman and bring her back with me, but that may be tough as I cannot be seen by anyone in case they blow the whistle on us. I want to nail these bastards for what they have done. We have to get enough evidence to take to the police so that they can nail these guys and no slick lawyers can get them off. Another woman’s testimony will be sufficient I think, well enough to get them to investigate anyway. If they then raid the camp they’ll get everything they need to put them in jail. If it were up to me I’d do to them what they did to the women – and then shoot them with their own crossbows.”

  “Works for me” said Andre.

  ***

  The hunting lodge had been in a total panic last night when Fred Matthews failed to return and his GPS tracker had not been activated. That device he was supposed to plant on the corpse of his victim so the cleanup squad could locate it and bury it quickly. A search party had been organized, but it was called off when it got dark and resumed the following morning. They found him lying face down in the forest with a broken neck and his crossbow beside him. Speculation was that he either fell or was swatted by an angry bear. Had the woman somehow managed to do it she would have taken his crossbow to defend herself against the animals. The ground was hard and no other tracks were evident so they took him back to the hunting lodge and called the police. When the police arrived by helicopter they explained to them that they had to bring the body in or the animals would have feasted on it. The police accepted that explanation and took statements from everyone – all of them pretty much saying the same thing. There were of course certain omissions and the women were never mentioned naturally. The police then took the body to be examined by their pathologist and later the relatives would be able to collect the body for funeral arrangements. No foul play was suspected, it was simply an unfortunate accident. He had perhaps come across a Momma Bear with young cubs and that was that. In the absence of any other explanation – that was what they recorded for the official record – misadventure.

  There was no mention whatsoever about the search for the missing woman. That was totally off the record as far as the Lodge management were concerned – the women simply never existed. How one could have survived and not been found was a mystery. This they simply couldn’t understand. No clothing had been found and she just couldn’t have travelled too far as she would have been exhausted. If she survived the night it would be a miracle and she certainly couldn’t survive two nights out there with no food and surrounded by hungry coyotes and other predators. When she was not found on the second day they gave up looking and assumed the bears had got her and the coyotes would remove all the evidence. It was case closed as far as they were concerned. The police had accepted their story as plausible and that was that. The woman never existed and the other women had been buried and would never be found – or so they believed. All the other hunters would return home to their wives and carry on as if nothing had happened. Their wives would never suspect a thing; certainly not the horrific events that had actually taken place. They would never believe in a million years that their husbands would be capable of such things, not their husbands. They had just gone away on a hunting trip to a lodge up north. While they may not like the idea of their husbands hunting Bambi for fun, they figured that there were far worse things he could be doing. How right they were on that point – but they would never think of this.

  ***

  The following morning Paul set off early in the boat to visit the logging camp and see just what the situation was over there. He would row across the lake and along the shoreline a little way, but the rest had to be done on foot in order to avoid being seen. Gwen had told him that the men were usually away all day, but one could show up at any time if they got hurt or felt ill or something so he had to be careful. He had studied the layout that Gwen had given to him so he knew what was where in the camp now and could act accordingly. The weather was ideal that morning, it was quite warm with a gentle cooling breeze and the lake was placid. The only ripples were those that he was making as he rowed across to the other side and those made by the odd fish that would jump up to take a look around or to catch a fly. There was no sound out there in the middle of the lake; it was so peaceful and idyllic. He would rest on his oars from time to time to soak it all up. This perhaps is what heaven must be like he thought to himself, totally relaxing, but with your loved ones close by. He pondered on that for a few minutes and picked up the oars again. He was on a mission here; there was no time to daydream.

  Back at the camp Andre had disappeared into the forest as Gwen was tidying up and washing the breakfast dishes. When he had not returned after what seemed like ages, Gwen went looking for him. She knew now that she had to move stealthily in the forest and she was doing so. She hadn’t gone too far when she heard the familiar sound of someone sobbing. This was a regular feature of life in the logging camp – but this time it was Andre she was hearing.

  “Andre, honey, what is it, what’s wrong?”

  Andre was startled by Gwen’s appearance as he had not heard her come up to him.

  “Oh I’m sorry; I didn’t want you to see me like this that’s why I came out here.”

  “Whatever is wrong, Andre, tell me? God knows I have told you all my troubles, the least I can do is listen to yours.”

  “It’s not something we talk about, Gwen?”

  “Who’s “We”, do mean you and Paul?”

  “Yes, it’s something that happened some time ago and sometimes it comes back to haunt us. That’s why we came out here to try to put it behind us – nothing else has worked.”

  “So just sit there and tell me the whole story, I may not be able to help, but I can certainly listen. Sometimes that helps to put things in perspective, Andre, and it just might be of some help.”

  “You are already helping Gwen, just by being here right now.”

  With that he told Gwen the whole story. The things that both he and Paul had seen and how they had dealt with them. The friends that they had lost and how it had affected them. He even told her about Paul’s recurring dream with the baby crying and pleading to be told “Why?” Gwen listened intently and never spoke a word. She just took it all in, every single word of it as she cuddled Andre and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. He broke down in tears several times, but Gwen took it all in stride. She now had a completely different opinion of these two men. Like herself, these two unicorns were damaged goods, but they were most definitely unicorns. They had hearts of gold and they were very caring men. Andre had been nothing but caring and gentle with her and this now resonated with Gwen big time. This big powerfully built man was a gentle giant, but like her, he too had his demons. Out here alone in this huge forest perhaps they just might be able to comfort each oth
er and possibly ease each other’s pain a little. As they sat there just holding each other, each in their own world – a chord had been struck. Neither of them realized it at the time, but the flame had been lit. Romance was the last thing on their minds out there, it simply wasn’t a consideration – but there was a magnetic pull all the same. Given time Gwen just might be able to repair this broken Unicorn if given the opportunity – but that thought had yet to cross her mind – but it would before she left that forest.

  ***

  When Paul reached the other bank of the lake he rowed along the shoreline for a while before pulling the boat up on the bank. He sat down for a while to gather his strength; it was hard work rowing that boat and physically taxing. Once he’d had his break he set off to find the logging camp. After a while he began to get a whiff of burning wood, it was coming from the camp and the cooking stoves that the women were using. They were not cooking anything right now, but the stoves had been lit in readiness for the afternoon meal. As Paul crept up to the camp silently he would stop and listen periodically to get a sense of the atmosphere. His military training had kicked in and he was in full stealth mode now. Gwen’s map had shown him where the kitchen was and he had seen several women in there. Some of them had departed now, but he could see at least one in there still. He waited until nobody else was in sight and then he went into the kitchen silently via the canteen. He paused once he was inside to see if he could hear anything other than the woman – he didn’t. Stealthily he crept up behind her and clamped his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming out.

  “Shush” he said, “please keep quiet and don’t make a sound. Gwen sent me to rescue you. Well not you specifically, just any of the women here. Gwen is safe with us, but I can only take one woman back with me for now. We have to move very quickly so you must move fast. Can I release my hand?”

  The woman nodded assent. When he did she asked, “Who is we?”

  “That is my friend Andre, but we don’t have time now to discuss it. We have to move quickly and travel light; you can’t carry anything in your hands as you’ll need them to be free. I want you to go back to your hut, or whatever you call it, put on as many sets of clothing as you can move comfortably in and maybe bring me a couple of your skirts. I can maybe wear them if I don’t zip them, it might give you a few more outfits to wear. Gwen has nothing other than what she stands up in so perhaps you can share some of these items with her. While you are doing that I’ll see if I can pocket a few food items. I can’t pinch too much as they’ll know you had help escaping and that we mustn’t do. Oh what is your name by the way?”