Chapter 3

"Ok Eliot I think I need a rest." Nate said as he leaned against a tree. They had been walking for around four hours now and he was starting to feel it. He was unfit and the years of drinking had not done anything for him.

"Ok, well this is as good a place as any to have a little break, it's about another hour to the top." Eliot said as he took off his backpack.

Nate smiled and took off his backpack and then sat down leaning against the tree.

"A little unfit." Nate said as he pulled out his water and took a long drink.

"No problem you are doing fine." Eliot said.

"Thanks." Nate said sarcastically.

"So you ever hiked?" Eliot asked.

"Well if you count hiking out of a compound in Chechnya with a member of the Russian mob after you, carrying a Vermeer that they had stolen, yes I have hiked."

"You were in Chechnya?" Eliot asked surprised, that was not a place anybody wanted to be.

"Well I was following a stolen Vermeer."

"You really have no regard for your personal safety when you are on a job do you?" Eliot said bringing a smile to Nate's face. He remembered Maggie also having the same reaction, only a little more violent when she had heard what he had done where he had been and the fact that he came back with an injury or two.

"You were in Chechnya." Nate said looking at him.

"I'm a Hitter, it's my job to go to dangerous places and I am trained for it." Eliot said locking eyes with the man, it was not the same. "How many other places you been to that could have got you killed?"

Nate smiled at him and shook his head slightly. He had been to a few questionable countries, some hoping to get himself killed he knew, especially towards the end after Sam. His face darkened at the thought of his son and Eliot noticed the change in expression.

"Well we better get going again." Eliot said not pushing Nate for an answer to his question.

"Yeah let's go." Nate said standing up and putting his pack back on. Then he looked up at the sky and then back at Eliot. "Looks like a storm brewing."

"Yeah." Eliot said as he too looked at the sky. "But it won't hit until tonight and we will be home well before that."

They walked on and approached a wooded section of the trail that Eliot told him was near the top of the little peak they were climbing. As they walked Nate stopped to take a breath and Eliot turned around the see if he was alright. Nate looked up and him and smiled and then he moved swiftly forward pushing Eliot sideways as a Black Bear emerged from the bushes and rose on its hind legs behind him swinging his paws wildly. Eliot fell sideways with the force of Nate's push and was unable to stop the bear from striking Nate with both paws sending him crashing to the right and down the slope. Eliot was immediately on his feet shouting and making as much noise as he could waving his hands around in the air. The bear rose again but then fell back onto his four paws and beat a hasty retreat in the face of Eliot's onslaught.

"Nate…" Eliot called out as he moved to the edge of the slope Nate had disappeared down. "Dammit Nate talk to me." He said as he started down the slope as quickly as possible calling out for Nate and hoping for some sort of response but getting none.

Making it to the bottom of the slope he moved to Nate's side, he had rolled down the slope and into the small stream at the bottom. Blood was seeping from a gash on his head and his leg lay at an odd angle he was face down and Eliot, being careful of the leg rolled him over to reveal the torn shirt and long bloody streaks left by the claws of the bear on his chest and shoulders. He noted that the pack was also gone, he presumed torn off either by the bear or by the roll down the hill.

"Nate…" Eliot said slapping Nate's face gently but got no response. "Dammit Nate…dammit." He said surveying the rest of the man's body trying to see if there were any other wounds.

After checking him out he gently lifted him up and moved him off the shoreline of the stream and to a grassy patch beneath a tree a little way away. Laying him down as carefully as possible he looked him over again.

"Ok Nate I have to go back up to get my pack." Eliot told the unconscious man. Then he moved quickly making his way back up the hill to where he had dropped his pack. Retrieving it he made his way back down to Nate.

Eliot retrieved the medical kit he always carried with him and then removed Nate's shirt revealing the full extent of the injuries. He cleaned and bandaged them as much as possible giving Nate a tetanus shot as well. He was not sure how bad the knock on the head had been, but he cleaned the gash and dressed it as well. Then he turned his attention to Nate's leg. It was badly broken with the bone sticking out. He cursed softly and then pulled the leg straight thanking the stars that Nate was unconscious for that particular action. Then he bandaged it as well as he possibly could.

"Ok Nate, I am going to have to set the leg somehow so I am going to go see if I can find some wood for that ok." He said looking around him for any sign of suitable pieces of wood for a splint.

He returned ten minutes later with two longish pieces of straight branches that he could use to splint the leg. He was running out of bandage, so he took Nate's discarded shirt and ripped it into pieces using it to secure the splint in place. Then he removed his own shirt and lifting Nate slightly slipping it onto him covering his wounds. They had not brought along any jackets or warm clothing and he could not see how he was going to get Nate out and back to the cabin before nightfall. He sighed deeply and then looked down at the still unconscious man, they were going to have to spend the night here and then try and get out in the morning.

"Ok Nate I am going to go look for your pack, you had the phone in it, and we need help. I also need to get us some firewood it is going to be a long night." He said then stood and moved off back up the slope trying to follow the path Nate's descent had taken.

An hour later Eliot returned without Nate's pack, he had been unable to locate it, but he had gathered the firewood. He immediately set about getting a makeshift camp set up. He looked up at the sky and cursed, the storm was moving in and he could not see that they were going to find any real shelter from that. Moving over to Nate he looked down at him again taking his wrist he monitored his pulse and then watched him breath. He was not sure if the man had sustained internal injuries as they would not become apparent until later unless very severe.

"Dammit Nate could you not just have yelled out…" He said to the unconscious man. "What the hell man, what the hell." He was really scared now. Nate was severely injured, he had lost a lot of blood, his leg was badly broken, and he was worried about infections, then there was the head wound and the fact that Nate was not conscious not to mention the possibility of internal injuries. They had no means of communication and he was not sure how the hell he was going to carry Nate out without doing more damage to the man. He should never have suggested this hike, he should never have allowed Nate to come with him, if Nate died here on this damn mountain side, it would be his fault and he would never forgive himself.