Mathew's Story

Part Four

It took Debbie almost an hour of searching to find anymore signs of Mathew. She found a feather covered in blood laying on the ground. There was more blood on the ground and it was obvious to her that Mathew had been shot again and was bleeding badly again. Ten minutes later she found Mathew laying on the ground and trying to get up and walk away but his right leg would not work thanks to a gunshot wound.

Mathew looked up as she approached him slowly with her hands open and holding nothing in them. “It's just me Mathew. I'm not here to hurt you. You saved my life twice and now I'm going to save yours. Just tell me which way to go to reach your cave.” Mathew pointed in a direction and she held him as they walked that way. In a few minutes they reached a large cliff and Mathew pointed up.

“I can't fly Mathew. There is no way I can get up to the top with you in this bad of a condition. Mathew leaned forward and pushed a hidden latch and a section of the cliff wall slid open to reveal a familiar cave inside. Debbie opened the door the rest of the way then pulled Mathew in behind her before shutting the door to the cave entrance and effectively hiding it again from the outside.

“Twice in two days some assholes try to kill you. You sure know how to make things interesting. I wanted to see how you were doing again, but this is not what I had in mind. Now lets have a look at that leg of yours.” Debbie winced as she saw how bad it had been torn up by the bullet. We have to stop the bleeding Mathew or you'll bleed to death.”

Following Mathew's directions she got a small fire going as he crawled over next to it and reached out for a bone knife he had not far away. He held the knife blade in the fire for a few seconds then began to cut the bullet out of his leg while biting down on a piece of wood as his hand shakily cut over and over again into the leg until he had the bullet out. The bleeding had slowed down thanks to the hot 2knife cauterizing the wound as he cut. It was still a nasty looking hole in his leg and bleeding heavily as he shakily pointed to a needle and thread he had setting on a shelf he had carved out of the wall of the cave.

“This is going to hurt honey, but it needs to be done or you will die. Mathew shook his head yes and continued to bite down on the piece of wood as Debbie stitched the wound shut as best she could. Somewhere during the process of doing this he had passed out from the pain, blood loss, and shock. Mathew was laying on his side with the wrecked wing splint only partially holding his injured wing in place.

Debbie scrounged around and used sticks and rags he had placed in his cave since the last time to rebuild the splint for his wing as best she could. She covered Mathew up with several hides to keep him warm as he was shaking like he was cold. Debbie checked her phone and had no signal inside the cave. She walked to over near the entrance and found the latch to release the door and allow it to open.

She had signal just a few feet outside the cave. Debbie thought a moment then pushed a button on her phone and waited for it to call out. A few moments later someone answered her call. “Mom, it's me! I'm with Mathew in his cave and he's been shot again! Mom, listen to me a minute please! Put dad on the phone so he can tell me what to do next to help Mathew!” Debbie was silent a moment as she waited for her dad to answer the phone.