Kiamichi Reunion: Book Five of the Kiamichi Survival Series

by C. A. Henry

  No matter how hard she tried, Helen couldn’t quite make sense of the confused thoughts that tumbled around in her mind. She started to stretch, flexing her shoulders, back, arms, and legs. When she tried to get to her feet, pain shot through the left one and she gave a little cry of pain as she fell back.

  Stevie jerked to a sitting position and turned to gape at her friend. Seeing the dark eyes focused and clear, she wanted to whoop with joy, but refrained. Jeff had cautioned them about making noise that might attract attention.

  “Helen! How do you feel?” Stevie whispered.

  “You…you’re Steve? I know you, don’t I?”

  Stevie’s smile faded a little. “Yes, I’m Steve when strangers are around. Stevie, Helen. Do you remember me?”

  “I think so. It’s confusing. My foot hurts, and I’m stiff and sore all over. What happened?”

  Stevie thought about alerting the others that Helen was awake, but decided that she might not stay awake long enough to gather everyone. She needed to get a better idea of all Helen’s aches and pains, before she drifted off again.

  “Do you know where we are? What do you remember, Helen?”

  Looking lost, Helen thought for several moments, then frowned. “I had to leave my motorhome. We crossed a river with…some men, I think, and we were going to my family. Have I been asleep a long time?”

  Stevie wasn’t sure how much to say. “We’re with Jeff, Massey, and Ross. They’re going with us to Kanichi Springs. You went out to check your snares. Do you remember anything about that?”

  Helen’s eyes grew big and she stared at Stevie. I caught a rabbit, then I was in a hut or shed or something. I…I…was raped. They beat me. Then I woke up here.” Tears began to slide down Helen’s cheeks.

  Nodding, Stevie smiled sadly. “Yes, that’s right. We think one of the men hit you on the head and knocked you out. You had a big knot on the back of your head. We came looking for you and tracked you to that place. Those men are dead, Helen; they can’t hurt you anymore. We carried you back here and we’ve been praying that you would wake up.”

  “You found me? How? And who killed the men?”

  “I think maybe we need to get you something to drink, and we’ll talk about all that later. You’ve been out for over a week, and only sipped a little water. You’re dehydrated, Helen. Fixing that is our first priority, if we’re going to get you well and strong enough to finish our trip.”

  Stevie rose and stepped out into the weak morning light. Jeff was on duty and the other men were sitting on the rock talking softly. Stevie waved Jeff over.

  “She’s awake. Confused, but mostly lucid. We need water and broth for starters, then we’ll see about solid food later, but she’s awake.”

  All three men started to move toward the tent, but Stevie hissed at them. “Not all at once. Massey, water, please. Jeff, keep your visit short, and let’s not overwhelm her.”

  Over the next half hour, Helen managed to drink a cup of water and a cup of broth. That, of course, made her need to pee, and that’s when they all realized that Helen’s foot was going to be a bigger problem than they’d thought.

  The three men hurriedly brainstormed, trying to come up with a way for Helen to relieve herself. Finally, Massey got out Helen’s little camp shovel and tested several spots on the flat area where they were camped on the side of the hill. There was only one spot where he was able to dig down very far, but then another problem became obvious.

  Helen couldn’t squat over a hole with her injured foot. Her first time to urinate in a week involved a total lack of privacy, and three men trying to keep her from falling or further injuring her foot while they looked the other way as much as possible

  After Helen went back to sleep, Jeff and Ross searched the immediate area and found nothing useful, then Ross remembered seeing some flat rocks on the way to the fishing hole. He and Massey set off to gather enough to build a seat of some sort for Helen.

  It took three trips, but they brought back several rocks, which they stacked on two sides of the hole Massey had dug. Then they used Helen’s manual chain saw, which was too small for cutting through more than a couple of inches, to cut several limbs from cedar trees.

  They were careful to cut only from trees that were further up the hill, so it wouldn’t be noticeable. Those limbs became a privacy screen for what Stevie dubbed “Helen’s luxury bathroom.” They fashioned a seat using the tabletop from the lean-to. Ross cut a hole in the middle of it with the little survival saw. The job wouldn’t have won any prizes for looks, but when they balanced the new seat across the stacks of rock, it worked. To keep the odor down, one of them would shovel a little dirt into the hole after each use.

  A routine developed quickly after the toilet was finished. When Helen needed to go, two of the men carried her, then turned their backs and let her hold their arms while she stood on one foot and Stevie got her jeans down. Then Helen, still holding on, lowered herself onto the seat. They reversed the process when she was ready to return to the tent.

  Later that evening, Helen asked if she could sit on the rock beside the tent. She felt hungry and was ready to be up for a little while. Massey had three rabbits roasting over the fire, and along with some dried fruit, that was their meal. Helen sighed with enjoyment at the flavorful meat.

  ~~~~

  They sat in silence for several minutes, listening to the breeze and looking at the moon and stars, then Helen cleared her throat.

  “I remember everything, at least all that happened when I was conscious. I have questions, and I hope you won’t try to sugarcoat the answers. I know they raped me. I remember two men, and the abuse they dished out. I want you to know that I’m not going to let myself fall apart because of the rapes. Yes, plural, but unless they were diseased, I can manage to continue to function. I’m not fragile, and I’ve decided that what they did doesn’t make me any different from what I’ve always been.

  “I really don’t want to dwell on it, but we shouldn’t pretend it didn’t happen. It’s something that was done to me, not something I did, and I refuse to feel guilty about it. I know it will scar me, and I know I’ll probably go to pieces at some later date, but for now, I can hang on to my sanity long enough to get home.”

  She paused to gather her thoughts. “I’m aware that my foot might be broken, but I’m fairly sure it’s just badly bruised. It may take a while to heal, and I hate to hold everyone back. Any of you are, of course, free to take off if that’s what you want.”

  “No way. I’m in this for the duration. I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re not going anywhere without you, Helen,” Jeff insisted.

  The other three nodded, so Helen continued. “Thank you. I felt I should at least open that door in case anyone felt that another delay is one too many. Okay. I think we’re in okay shape for food, thanks to Stevie’s idea of bringing the duffle bags. I’m pleased to see you guys have been adding fresh meat to our diet. Good job, by the way. So, how does my foot look now, compared to what it looked like when you first rescued me?”

  Stevie considered the foot Helen stuck out. “It’s not as swollen, and it was really purple before. Now, it’s greenish and yellow, and not as big.”

  “That’s good. I think that if I had some way to stabilize it, to keep it from flexing when I walk, I might be able to travel in a few days. I broke a toe once, and with a stiff-soled boot that strapped on, I could walk a little the first day. I want you to be thinking of some way to make a stiff platform we can fasten to my foot. I’ve seen some ingenuity and intelligence in this group, and I have no doubt you’ll figure something out.”

  “But Helen, you wouldn’t be able to go far, even with a boot. Doctors always tell us to stay off injured feet and legs. Massey and I should know; we got injured in sports often enough,” Ross grinned.

  “True,” Massey agreed. “We’ll work on getting you a platform, but we aren’t leaving any time soon. This is a good spot, and we’ve put some effort into fixing it up. It
works, and we might not find another spot as good. Plus, how would you do without your fancy bathroom if we’re hiking through the forest?”

  Helen grimaced, then chuckled. “Touché, Massey. That’s the deciding factor. We’ll stay here until I can manage to squat and do my business without help.

  “Now, I want to know how you found me, and what happened when you did. Please, fill in the blanks for me.”

  Jeff started the tale. “You remember setting snares that morning? I went with you to learn, but you went alone to check them that evening. That’s a lesson learned the hard way: nobody goes off alone from now on. Anyway, when you didn’t return, we got worried, so Massey and I went looking for you. We found where you’d gutted a critter, and saw where someone had dragged you away, but a storm hit. High winds, lots of lightning, and heavy rain. We knew we couldn’t do you any good if we got hit by lightning, so we hustled back to camp and waited for the storm to pass.”

  “That’s perfectly logical,” Helen agreed.

  Stevie took over the story. “These two,” she mock-glared at Massey and Jeff, “tried to boss me and Ross into staying in camp, but we explained to them that they didn’t know how many people had taken you. We took down the tent and tied all our gear, except our rifles and other weapons, of course, high up in the trees, and we tracked you to that lean-to where you were being held.”

  “Stevie insisted that she was going to take an active role in the rescue. I believe her words were ‘cut out his heart and feed it to a coyote,’ or something of that nature,” Jeff added. “She was a tigress, and I hope she never gets that mad at me.”

  Massey chuckled, then sobered. “We could see two men, both asleep, and you, tied up at the other end of the lean-to, so Stevie and I, being the quietest of the group, slipped up on those two guys. Stevie slit the skinny guy’s throat, but he jerked and twitched, and woke the other guy up before I was close enough to get him. He grabbed me, and we fought. That guy had martial arts training; I’d bet on it. I thought he was going to get the best of me, then he just fell over, and landed in their fire.”

  “Why did he do that? He have a heart attack or something?” Helen asked.

  “No.” Massey smiled softly at Stevie. “Our little redhead stabbed him in the back. She may have saved my life; she definitely saved my face,” he answered, rubbing his jaw at the memory.

  “The guys decided to use the top of the table from the lean-to as a stretcher to bring you back here,” Stevie explained. “Ross took the legs off, and we each carried a corner. Now that table is the seat for your fancy bathroom. That’s about it. You were unconscious for several days, with abrasions on your back and, uh, butt, bruises almost everywhere, an injured foot, and a knot the size of a tennis ball on your head. I think you were better off staying out. You’d have been in a lot of pain if you’d been awake.”

  “Well, I assume someone retrieved my snares, since we had rabbit for dinner,” Helen concluded. “Thanks for that, and thanks for taking care of me. I shouldn’t have gone off alone, and I should have been paying a lot more attention to my surroundings. I got careless, and now we’re all paying for it.”

  “Not a problem, as far as I’m concerned,” Jeff commented, “Look what happened to me. Look what almost happened to Stevie, and to Massey and Ross. We’ve all been in danger, and we’ve all needed help. I think we make an excellent team.”

  “We’re not a team,” Stevie disagreed, a smug look on her face. “We’re a family.”

  Chapter Thirty-two

  May 5 – Arkansas

  Helen reluctantly stayed off her foot for another few days. Ross, after consulting with Massey, had used some of his time to fashion a wooden sole out of cedar. It was designed to tie on with paracord or shoelaces, through holes Ross painstakingly drilled in the wood, using the awl and the tiny knife on his multi-tool. He pulled the lace out of her left boot and threaded it through the holes, adding the insole from the boot for padding. Under the circumstances, he’d done a fair job of creating the stiff support for her foot that she’d asked for.

  She wouldn’t be able to wear the boot with it, though. The wood was almost an inch thick, and with the boot, would have made her walk unevenly. In addition, her foot was still a little swollen, so the boot would be too tight. Ross planned that she would wear two socks on that foot, and he’d figure out a way to hook her boot onto his pack, so she’d have it when she was able to wear it again.

  Helen improved every day. Her scrapes had scabbed over, and the scabs started coming off. The lump on her head was gone, although the spot was still a little tender to the touch. The only real problem that remained was her foot. Even with the new sole Ross had made, she couldn’t put any weight on it without pain. She was able to hobble around a little with help, but she was far from ready to set out across the state.

  The men continued to bring in rabbits, squirrels, and occasionally, fish, but without the extra food in the duffle bags, the group would have been in serious trouble. That had been one of the smartest things Stevie had suggested, and her agile brain continued to impress the others.

  One morning, Stevie was helping Helen wash up a little while Jeff cleaned fish and the brothers stood guard. All of their clothes had seen better days, but washing them down at the creek and hanging them to dry seemed like too much of a risk.

  Helen sat on the rock, letting Stevie comb and braid her hair. Stevie had a knack for it; so far, she’d done a rope braid, French and Dutch braids, a three-strand, and a fishtail.

  “Did your mom teach you how to do all those braids?” Helen asked. “You sure know a lot of different ones, for a girl who wore her hair in a pixie cut.”

  Stevie grinned. “I wore my hair short, but most of my friends wore theirs long, so I asked mom to teach me. I’d get to games early and braid my teammates’ hair so it wouldn’t get in their way. Sometimes, I did it on the bus on the way to a game. Usually, they’d decide which style and I’d do everyone to match.”

  “You are a young woman of many talents, Stevie. I can do my own hair if you get tired of doing it.”

  “No, I enjoy it. It brings back a lot of memories of my friends and my mom. Really, I don’t mind a bit.”

  “You seem a little quiet today, sort of subdued. Is there something on your mind?”

  Stevie got the braid secured with a ponytail holder, then sat down beside Helen.

  “Yeah. I didn’t want to burden you with it, and neither did the guys, but I think you should know. We’ve been delayed long enough to make a bit of a dent in our food supplies. We’re not in the danger zone yet, but we’re headed that way. I was wondering if there’s a way to supplement by foraging. Is it the right time of year to find some things that are edible?”

  “Yes, I’m quite sure there are some plants around that would be both tasty and nutritious. I wish I could hike around the area and find them for us, but I can’t. How do you propose to find them?” Helen knew that Stevie would have an idea. The girl was smart and wouldn’t have brought it up without a solution to offer.

  “Well, I was thinking,” Stevie began, as Helen’s efforts to hide her smile failed. “What?” Stevie asked, looking confused.

  “Oh, sweetie, I just made a bet with myself that you had another one of your great ideas, and I was right. Now, what’s your plan?”

  Stevie frowned a little, then admitted, “Yeah, I have a plan, but I need your help. What if I go up this hill, which should be safer than wandering around down below, and find plants. I can bring sprigs of different ones to you and you can tell me which ones are good to eat. I’ll throw the others away and take the edible ones with me to look for more of the same.”

  “I wish I’d thought of that. It’s a great idea, Stevie. I think we should do it, except there are two things to consider: I think there’ll be more plants down near that creek where the guys have been fishing. It won’t hurt to look further up the hill, but try the creek area, too. And I’m not sure you should go anywhere alone. That’s a lesson I le
arned the hard way, remember? One of the men can go with you to stand guard.”

  “Okay. I’ll ask Ross.”

  Helen gave her a confused look. “Why Ross? I kinda thought you’d ask Massey.”

  A pink blush spread over Stevie’s face. “Well, I would, but…don’t you think that’s a little, uh, obvious?” she whispered.

  “No, but apparently you do, and it’s your decision,” Helen quietly assured her. “You might want to catch all three of them together and ask for a volunteer. I bet Massey will speak up before the others can open their mouths.”

  “I like him. I mean, I really like him. I don’t want to mess it up.”

  “You won’t. I’m pretty sure he likes you, too,” Helen murmured. “Just be yourself and see how things roll. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. Just don’t rush into anything, okay?”

  “I won’t. It’s just, well, this is different. I’ve had boyfriends, but it was really something I could take or leave. It was more to just have somebody to have fun with, without any real feelings involved. Massey and I have already been through so much together.”

  “I know, and that’s why I say don’t rush things. Fighting beside someone, struggling to survive with them, can make feelings seem stronger than they are. This may be real; I’m not saying it isn’t. Just make sure, okay?

  “Now, you do know what poison ivy looks like, don’t you?”

  Stevie grinned. “Oh, yeah. I got into some when I was about five. Ever seen a redhead with a rash all over? It wasn’t pretty.”

  Helen chuckled, then sobered. “Keep your eyes open for snakes, too, and things that sting. Now, if you’ll bring me my pack, I need to see if I can figure out an approximate date for today. All this time I’ve been laid up, I forgot about the calendar.”

  “Today is the fifth of May, Helen. I kept it going for you.”