10
Sarah! An echo heard repeated on the mountain. Jim split the group up into two search parties. They dug into the piles of snow looking for Sarah. Jenny had difficulties digging; her emotions were getting the best of her again. They dug for what seemed like hours.
"Found her!" yelled Adam. They all rushed over and found Sarah clinging to life. She was frost bitten on half her body. The cows rushed her into the shack. She had hypothermia. They slowly warmed her up.
"We better get going soon." Bessy said to the group, "And weâll need someone to stay behind and take care of Sarah."
"Iâll stay." a voice said from the group. Everyone looked at Stew.
"I donât think I can go on with my injury." he said.
The rest of the group left the next morning. Stew sadly watched the group walk up into the unknown and around a corner of mountain. He stood there for a couple minutes after they disappeared. He knew the danger they were in. Who knows what is in the lair that Rob had talked about. It could easily be an ambush. He turned and went to check on Sarah.
Chad looked back just as he turned the corner and saw Stew watching them walk up the deep snowy path towards base camp. The sun was still coming up over the Tibet plateau. They were high up and could see over it all. Chad never forgot that view. He turned the corner follow the group. They traveled through what seemed like a canyon. A shadow covered their whole path and the snow was deep. Another wide open plain of snow follow the canyon. Jim led through it. It ended up where the left of the path of a wall of rock. Ten feet right off the wall of rock was a steep drop that never seemed to end. The cows traveled slowly and carefully. They had traveled into the afternoon. Jim stopped the group. He started staring off into the distance. The cows tried to figure out what it was he was looking at. Adam noticed it next. Within the minute they all saw it. A small warehouse. It was off on a platform of rock to the right of narrow path. The area of the platform could fit around fifty cows. The warehouse dug into the mountain. A large rock sat to the left of the entrance of the warehouse. The cows hiked up to the platform. It had accumulated no snow during the storm and was the only area that actually showed rock. The cows walked onto the rock and stood in front of the warehouse.
"We're here," said Jim, Bessy, Adam, Jenny, Ryan, and Chad. All wondering if this was it. Would Tom and Mike be inside it? It was quite. No sound came from the warehouse.
"Letâs go." Jim said with a eerie tone to his voice. The cows moved forward. A screech came for the warehouse door. It became to open. A man walked out with a bull on both of his sides. The shadow of the mountain blocked his face.
He said to them, "Iâve been expecting you."
"Who are you!" yelled Jim. The man took a step forward out of the shadow.
"Itâs the farmer!" Jenny said in shock.
Jim charged at the farmer, Chad followed closely behind. The bull to his left knocked Jim back. The one to the right did the same to Chad.
"Adam! Ryan! Take out that bull! Chad and I got this one!" Jim instructed.
Bessy and Jenny watched in horror. Jenny started shaking while she watched the fight. She started sobbing. The farmer disappeared.
"It'll be alright." Bessy calmly reassured her.
"NO IT WON'T BE! WHAT IF THEY DIE? WHAT IF ADAM DIES! HE CANâT DIE! THEREâD BE NO POINT TO LIFE WITHOUT HIM!" she screamed in agony.
"Theyâll be fine. They know what theyâre doing."
Adam and Ryan pushed the bull back against the wall. The bull went after Adam, who was farther from the edge. Ryan took advantage of it and gored the bull in the side. The bull took little notice of it and rammed Adam. Adam fell back but didnât lose his footing. Adam and the bull charged at each other and their horns collided. The bullâs horn had cut Adam near his right ear. Blood slowly dripped down his face. Ryan tried again to deal a fatal wound to the bullâs side but the bull avoided it. Ryan turned sharply and charged the bull. The bull lowered his head. Another collision of horns with little effect. The bull backed up. Adam was on his left, Ryan ahead of him. Ryan charged again. The bull, again, lowered his head and charged toward Ryan. Adam charged toward the bull. Ryan and the bull collided head on. Adam took aim and lowered his head. His horn stuck the bull in the neck. It pieced deep through the neck and came out the nearly came out the other side. Adam backed up, removing his blood red horns from the dead bull.
Jim and Chad stood side by side. They charged the other bull. The bull avoided both Jim and Chad. Chad charged first this time. Jim stayed back and followed by the side. Both the bull and Chad lowered heads. The bull pushed Chad to the side on contact. Chad fell off balance. The bull went to finish off Chad. The Jim rammed into the bullâs side, giving time for Chad to recover. The bull, enraged, turned and smashed into Jim. Jim fell on and landed on the rock. The bull charged at Jim. Jim knew he was finished. He had fallen. Once you lose your feet, youâre done for. Jim had an effort to get back up, but there was enough time. The bullâs horns were on target, headed for the heart. Horns made contact with flesh. They sunk in deep. Bessy screamed. The bull smirked. He removed his horns to find the other cow. Chad was nowhere in sight. The bull turned back to see that Chad had jumped in between Jim and the bullâs horns. Jim was on his feet again. Hatred filled Jimâs eyes. He charged the bull for the last time. The bull was caught off guard. Jim killed the bull. The cows rushed to Chadâs side. Bessy inspected Chad. Adam was comforting Jenny. She was still shaking. The horn had missed all of Chadâs vital organs and missed all the veins and arteries. Chad would recover. Ryan stayed with Chad while Jim, Bessy, Adam, and Jenny entered the warehouse to find Tom and Mike. They searched the warehouse. Nothing was found but a locked door. No key was found. Jim rammed the door down with the help of Adam. They walked into a dimly light room. A figure moved in the corner.
"Mike? Tom?" asked Bessy excitedly.
"Yes and no. This is Mike." the figure responded.
"MIKE!!! Youâre here! Whereâs Tom?" asked Jenny.
"The mafia took him away, I donât know if he's alive or not. He attempted to escape on our way to here. I wish he hadn't, they wanted someone to step out of line so they could make an example of them. There were other cows with Tom and me. I donât what happened to them. I donât know where I am. This isn't," he hesitated, "Jim, Bessy? No, Iâm crazy."
"Mike, it is us! Weâre here." said Jim.
"Poor Tom." Jenny said solemnly.
They released Mike and told him of what had happened on their way. The cows walked outside with Mike.
"Whereâs the farmer? He wasnât in the warehouse!" exclaimed Jim.
Something suddenly landed on Jenny back.
"What was that?" asked Jenny, "Something landed on me, wait, itâs the farmer!"
The farmer jumped onto Jenny's back. Jenny bucked into attempt to get him off her. From all her bucking, she was getting dangerously close to the end. Ryan jumped from aiding Chad to try and help Jenny. Adam ran from the group to help too. Ryan got their late. Adam was less than ten feet from Jenny when she successfully got the farmer off her back. She started to stumble off balance. The farmer flew up and nearly fell off the side of the mountain. He was barely holding on, hanging on the side of the cliff. He started to slip and grabbed out and caught Jennyâs leg. Jenny slipped and was pulled off the cliff with the farmer. Adam dived after Jenny, trying to save her. The farmer, Jenny, and Adam fell to their death. Adam caught Jenny in midair and held her. The cows seemed to be paralyzed. They stood there, taking in what had just happened in the last twenty seconds. Ryan solemnly walked back to Chad. Tears streamed down the cows faces. Bessy collapsed. Jim just stared into the distance. He seemed to be in a trance. Mike fell down and screamed, memories of the torture the mafia put Tom through before taking him away returned to his mind.
Jim ran to the edge and looked down. He yelled until he couldnât speak. He broke down and just fell to the ground, sobbing. Bessy went over and tried to comfort him, but couldnât. She too broke down. Chad lay there, he was screaming in his head. He couldnât do anything. He closed his eyes and cried. Ryan fell against the warehouse wall. All he could think about was how he couldâve saved them. A replay of the seconds before Jenny's fall played in a loop in his head.
The cows silently walked down to the shack. It was slow and silent. They helped Chad get along. Mike slowed them down too, he was in horrible condition. They made it to the shack late that night.
"Mike, youâre back!" Sarah said "What's wrong? What happened to Chad? Whereâs Adam, Jenny and Tom?" fearfully asked Sarah, she had began to recover.
"NO! HOW?!" Stew asked, he began to sob uncontrollably. Sarah realized what happened and joined Stew. Ryan tried to comfort them even though it hurt him on the inside. Ryan blamed himself for the death of Jenny and Adam. The cows lied down the sleep. Sarah cried herself to sleep. Jim stared off into the distance till he fell asleep. Nightmares filled the cows and their dreams. They stayed in the shack for the next day. Few words were spoken. Jim stared out into the distance. Ryan joined him. The beauty of the view of the Tibet Plateau calmed them down. Chad didnât move the whole day. Mike stayed with Chad; he needed to recover from being the mafiaâs prisoner. The next day, they began their descent down the mountain, back to their cabin. It was slow again. They made it down in two days. Still, little talking went on. Each day Jim seemed to become more distant from the other cows. He was suffering from Jenny and Adamâs death worse than any other cow. They made it back to the cabin the next day. They settled in again. Mike went into the empty room.
"Look what I found in Adamâs bagâ¦" Bessy said. The other cows came to see. An engagement ring was in his bag. No words were spoken. There were no words to speak. The cows had a day of remembrance for all the cows they lost on their journeys, all forty four of them. There was still one out there, Tom.
Fin
