section7mfu | The Yellowstone Affair Chapter 6 (Reply)

Chapter 1: http://pactnmmt.livejournal.com/10718.html
Chapter 2: http://pactnmmt.livejournal.com/10804.html
Chapter 3: http://pactnmmt.livejournal.com/11144.html
Chapter 4: http://pactnmmt.livejournal.com/11360.html
Chapter 5: http://pactnmmt.livejournal.com/11651.html

Author's Note: Some may not think it is realistic to have a character using only a lean-to made of a nylon tarp in subzero weather. It can be done comfortably if the camper has the right equipment (although I think they're nuts!). My photography teacher has done this. He has traveled solo across Yellowstone several times in the dead of winter. If you get a chance to see it around Christmas time there is a PBS program about him and Yellowstone titled "Silence and Solitude."

Charley Brighton shook hands with his passenger.

“Illya, this is where I leave you. Be careful out there! I know you are experienced with cold weather and storms, but Mother Nature has a wicked streak, young man, and is always looking for someone to make a careless mistake.”

“Thanks, Charlie. I will radio you on the park’s walkie talkie when I’m ready to be picked up.”

Kuryakin watched as the van equipped with snow treads instead of tires lumbered its way back down the road. He checked his watch, 16:00 and the sun, obscured by the heavy snow was already beginning to sink below the horizon. A dull silent gray settled as a giant pall on the countryside. It would be best to move away from the road, several hundred yards and set up camp.

Once the Russian had found a place with enough clearing to set up camp he stamped out an area with his snowshoes to form a hard packed area for his lean-to. He didn’t want to take the energy to unpack the pulk and set up the tent as he needed to be able to break camp quickly, besides the tarp for the lean-to was packed at the top of the equipment lashed to the pulk.

After he spread out his sleeping bag onto a foam pad, he fired up the backpack stove. It didn’t take long for the hissing of fuel to indicate the stove was ready to go. Illya had water boiling within fifteen minutes and prepared one of the freeze dried meals. The package said it served four, but Kuryakin ate the whole package. In the cold weather, it was important to consume as many calories as possible.

By 17:30, Kuryakin had cleaned up the area and turned in. He had stripped down to his long johns and placed his clothes and boots inside his down bag at the foot so they would stay relatively warm from his body heat.

He laid in his bag with the down collar/hood pulled up around his face with only his eyes and nose visible. Sleep didn’t come easily. The hour was early and the U.N.C.L.E. agent couldn’t get his mind off of his missing partner. He was worried as his usual uncanny sixth sense regarding Napoleon’s welfare wasn’t kicking in. If his friend survived the crash, did THRUSH have him? If not, was he injured? How was he dealing with the severe conditions? And if he had not survived…?

Illya looked at the luminous dial of his watch, 20:00. He turned over in his bag and forced himself to stop thinking about Napoleon. He had a long way to travel the next morning before daylight if he was to get to the suspected area of THRUSH activity. Within a few minutes he relaxed enough to drift into a restless sleep.

Napoleon didn’t think that he had ever been so incredibly sore and stiff as he was now. His back and legs were screaming with pain. They had stiffened while he slept and that made it difficult for him to move about. He didn’t have any choice, however. Nightfall was fast approaching and the snow was falling heavily. He needed to find a way to stay warm, Yeah, right, Solo, and dry.

He took the piece of scrap metal and wedged it between two lodge pole pine trunks growing closely together. Then he grabbed two six foot lengths of the salvaged wire and tied the metal to the trunks so the wind would not dislodge it.

Using the branch he found earlier for support, he picked up the jackknife and half crawled, half limped to a nearby spruce tree and began hacking off several of the lower branches. Then he dragged them and himself back to where the seat cushions and blankets were. Napoleon then stacked them up so they leaned against the metal to form a peak. The ground made up the third side of the crudely built shelter. The evergreen branches could help as a windbreak and keep out some of the snow. He left a narrow space that would face the fire once it was rebuilt.

Using his last bit of energy, the American agent then dragged the seat cushions and blankets into the shelter. He collapsed onto the seat cushions, totally exhausted.

Five minutes later, Napoleon realized that he had made a critical mistake! He had become overheated as he struggled with the shelter. His clothes, which were mostly made of cotton, had become soaked with perspiration which was sucking his body heat away. It wasn’t long before he started shivering and he knew he was in serious trouble.

Immediately, he grabbed some of the kindling he had collected earlier and with cold shaking hands started a new fire. He placed another piece of scrap metal behind the fire so it would reflect heat and light back towards the shelter.

He kept wood within an arm’s reach of the shelter so he could feed the fire all night long. Once he had the fire established he crawled into the shelter and stripped out of his wet clothes including his underwear and spread them out near the shelter’s opening with the hope of getting them to dry. Then he wrapped himself with the blankets, ate another candy bar, and laid down on the seat cushions. Then he prayed. He prayed for warmth and rescue. He prayed that he would not fall into a sleep from which he would never wake.