Part II - The "Spark" for CROW and the CAVE, an adventure by John Bradford Branney

Figure One - Crow and the Cave by John Bradford Branney. Release Date March 8, 2018.

In case you missed Part One of this blog posting, here is the link to Part One. LINK to Part I of "Spark" and CROW and the CAVE.

In Part One, horned cattle were bludgeoning my German Shepherd Madd Maxx and me. I was pinned to the ground by the horns and hooves of an orange-colored devil cow and Madd Maxx was battling the rest of the herd. The story continues below.  

Every time the devil cow stepped on my legs, I cried out. The pain was excruciating. I could not breathe. I was wheezing, and I was not getting enough oxygen to satisfy my body’s needs. My fractured ribs felt like someone had impaled me with a spear! While the halfton cow ground me into the dirt, she rocked her head back and forth trying to impale me with her horns. At the same time, she was walking all over me. My entire body was on fire. I felt immersed in hot lava. The pain was beyond tolerance. I was bleeding all over the pasture.

Figure Two - The orange and white devil cow whose mission was to eliminate the threat. 

Lying there in agony while suffocating on dust, I had an epiphany. I realized this devil cow was not going to let up on her attack until I was dead. If I fought her, she would kill him. I stopped moving and went limp. I played dead. I laid there motionless in the dirt and the blood and the manure. That was hard to do. I was in extreme pain. At first, the horned beast did not buy it. She pawed at me with her hooves, trying to roll me over, but I spread my legs just far enough to prevent her from rolling me over. I had my arms wrapped around my head like a helmet. She shoved me with her horned skull, but I did not budge. I remember feeling her wet breath against my neck as she sniffed me for life. Every time the devil cow stepped on me, I wanted to scream, but I held it all in.

I finally satisfied the devil cow. She was convinced that I was no longer a threat. She rejoined the herd, leaving me lying there in my own blood, covered in dirt and cow dung. I was in very bad shape. All I wanted to do was lie there, but I heard my dog, sometimes barking, sometimes yelping. I struggled to my knees. The pain was beyond anything I had ever experienced. My left leg took the worst of the beating. It would not straighten. I spotted Madd Maxx. The cows were circling him in a cloud of dust. Funny how the mind works under the strangest of circumstances. I remember thinking how the scene reminded me of an old western movie with the Indians circling the cover wagons, but in this case, it was cows circling Madd Maxx. I crawled through the circling cows. Occasionally one of them bumped into me, but I kept going. I grabbed Madd Maxx by his furry neck and pulled him from the circle. Then, I collapsed on the ground.

Figure Three - A portion of the rest of the herd. Glad to have a fence between us. 

Madd Maxx was in very bad shape. The cattle had annihilated him. The herd had ripped off his steel training collar and long lead rope. He was bleeding profusely from his mouth and he had bloody patches of matted fur across most of his body. His ferocious German Shepherd bark was now whimpers of pain. I pulled him away from the herd. I still could not breathe. I was choking, exhausted, and in agony. My gums were bleeding and my front teeth were loose. I had bit my tongue and it was bleeding. My legs and back felt like someone had dipped me in molten steel. I could not stand. Crawling was its own challenge. The shredded backpack still hung from my back by one frayed strap. Madd Maxx and I sat there on the prairie, humbled and conquered.

Then, the strangest thing happened. The cows lined up in front of us. I could not believe it. I guess they thought we still were not convinced of their superiority or maybe I had eaten too many hamburgers in my lifetime. I don’t know why. The orange and white devil cow stood directly in front of me, no further than five feet away. I heard her breathing and watched her chew her cud. Her eyes were on me. I knew I was not walking anywhere so I commanded Madd Maxx to run for the vehicle. He needed no further encouragement. He took off, half limping and half trotting with his tail firmly placed between his legs. He had no fight left in him. He plowed through the strands of a barbed wire fence that separated this pasture from the next. He made it to our vehicle without further incident. Now, it was my turn. I stood up. I remember screaming in pain as I tried to straighten my legs. Every nerve in my body was screaming out. I balanced myself on my right leg, my halfway useful leg. The devil cow stood between me and the vehicle. She lowered her head and smashed into me, knocking me backwards several feet and onto the ground. That is the last thing I remember.

Figure Four - While I was dealing with the orange and white devil cow, Madd Maxx dealt with the herd. 

I do not know how long I laid in the pasture. When I woke up, I was freezing. The temperature had dropped. I would never survive a night on the prairie. I had to get out of there. Pulling myself along on hands and damaged knees, I crawled to the vehicle. The remains of the backpack drooped down in front of my chest, but I was not going to stop and take it off. Not while I was in that pasture. I spotted Madd Maxx at the back of the vehicle, waiting for me. He was ready to get the heck out of Dodge. I loaded him up and drove to the ranch house. I was still wearing sunglasses, but one of the lenses was gone. I honked the horn at the ranch house. I opened my vehicle door and fell to the ground. That’s where I stayed. Sometime later, flight for life shuttled me to a trauma center in Colorado while Madd Maxx made an emergency visit to the vet. That was what happened to me and Madd Maxx on December 3, 2016, a day before my sixty-second birthday. Experience cannot get more real than that. Climb aboard my time machine. I have the dial set for 8700 B.C.

I hope you enjoy Crow and the Cave.