Story From a Map

How did I get here? This dreaded ice hole, nothing but white mist for miles in each direction. Snow piles up on my eyebrows, blurring my already limited vision. My blood vessels constrict in a flight or fight response to the shivering cold, limbs are all numb. Does this floating mass of ice have an end? The dry wind impales my face as if I was being pricked by an acupuncturist, shards of sleet follow with the icing on the cake. I scream out, "HEEEELLLLPPPP!!!" staring up at the sky, waiting for the silence of the shale clouds to break with God answering my prayer. Off in the distance I can see a blip of black slowly growing as it moves toward me. How could this be? Was someone out here to really save me? I got down on my knees, weeping for what seemed to be joy. My tears gelled to ice before they had a chance to drip from my chin. The figure came nearer and I could begin to make out characteristics of the person. They donned a ragged parka coat with rugged overalls and hiking boots; it appeared as if the fellow was carrying a rifle on his back also. I reached my hand out as he walked up to me, "Oh thank you, thank you thank you thank you," I cried, "why do you have a rifle?" 

The man, slowly lowered his head and dug his dark eyes into my face, "I hunt," he said in a monotonous tone. 

I inquired, "What is there to hunt out here?"

He pulled the rifle off his back, and wiped down the nozzle with his snow covered palm, "I hunt people like you who invade my territory."

He pointed the gun right down the bridge of my eyebrows, cocked the rifle, and clenched the trigger. I hurried, "Whoa, whoa I swear man, I don't even know how I got here, please I I I I" he interrupted, "Shut up! I'm how you got here and I'm how you will leave here" Click, click, BOOM!