The Hermit; a MacGyver story

By Judybear

Takes place near the end of the series; skews Mac's early history a little bit, but adds much to it. Our favorite troubleshooter is out in the wilds of Minnesota making more trouble, of course, when he gets some help from a suspicious and unexpected source. Hurt/angst, adventure. I don't own MacGyver, Pete or Mac's jeep. The rest comes out of my own little brain.

Chapter 1.

The rolling hills of northern Minnesota were as close to heaven as any person could imagine here on earth, from the stream tumbling alongside of the dirt roadway to the occasional eagle soaring overhead. My kind of office! Thought MacGyver as he studied the maps laid out on the hood of his jeep. The door to his jeep was open revealing a knapsack and a sample case on the floor and his jacket thrown casually across the seat. He shook his head slightly, comparing some aerial photos to the topo quad and the readings on his GPS unit scowling, "Nah. That can't be right? Where…?"

He reached across the hood for something with his right hand and froze, in pain. Grabbing his right shoulder, he tried to move but only caused more pain. "What did I do now? Agh!" He suddenly had a puzzled look on his face and pinched his right hand, then raised it a few inches with his left hand and let go – and it dropped onto the work surface. He painfully straightened up and noticed a red stain spreading across his shirt. "What?!" Opening his shirt he found a small metal object – an arrowpoint – just protruding from his skin from the INside, blood oozing around it. "Aw! AW, No!"

He moved himself to shelter on the far side of the jeep, or so he hoped, just as another arrow landed nearby. He looked at his shirt again; half of the right side of his shirt was now red. Squinting his eyes, he scanned the area around him, but could see nothing but woods. "Gotta get help," he murmured as he tried to get into the jeep, but too much of the arrow shaft was protruding from his back. He tried to reach it, but gave up. He belatedly removed his belt to use as a sling for his useless right arm, then dug the long handled pruners from the back of the jeep, but couldn't position them to any good purpose. He retrieved his papers from the hood of the jeep, awkwardly dodging two more arrows in the process. Looking at the trajectory of the arrows he could see that the shooter was making their way around to his side of the jeep. He had to hurry. He wedged the arrow shaft between the car's roll bar and door frame and braced himself, thinking, There's gotta be a better way!

Another arrow landed at his feet. Frantically he again braced himself against the jeep and with a cry of pain, twisted hard, snapping off about half of the shaft – enough to allow him to shakily get into the drivers' seat. Another arrow hit the side of the car before he could get the keys into the ignition and start the car, bumping the end of the arrow shaft against the seat of the car and yowling in pain once more, "YAGH!" before grabbing his arm and leaning forward, trying to keep control of the car.

Beyond MacGyver's view, high up on the hillside, an archer was taking aim toward the clearing when a glint of sunlight blinded him. He rubbed his eyes and shifted position – and was again blinded. In fact, it didn't seem to matter where he stood, the sun followed. He then saw a figure approaching him, silhouetted by the late afternoon sun. The shooter turned and ran. The other figure, replacing a small mirror into his pocket, headed for the clearing.

MacGyver got no more than thirty yards before crashing into a tree, banging his head against the windshield hard enough to break the glass.

::: Well, that's the opening scene. R & R if you like (I'd like!)

Topo quad is a United States Geological Survey (USGS) topographical map quadrangle