Текст книги "Donners of the Dead"
Автор книги: Karina Halle
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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 15 страниц)
Chapter Thirteen
I was back at River Bend, sleeping in Uncle Pat’s hayloft. It was dark outside—dark as sin, and the sound of crickets filled the air.
I slowly got to my feet and breathed in the familiar smell of hay and wood and manure. It felt good to be back, as if I’d never gone anywhere, as if it had all been a realistic dream about blood, snow and a man.
Monsters.
I was about to head down the ladder when a strange sound caught my attention.
I walked to the edge of the hayloft and looked over the edge.
All the animals in the pens were gone. The house was completely black. My mother stood with her back to me in the middle of the paddock, muttering the same phrase over and over again.
She was speaking!
I tried to call after her but my throat froze, keeping my voice inside. Now I was the mute one.
I found my way through the dark, climbing down the ladder, and stealthily made my way towards my mother. I didn’t want to scare her, and yet something deep inside told me to approach with caution. Perhaps it was the strange, sour smell that was growing more pungent by the moment.
When I was close to her I finally began to make out what she was saying.
“You need to find it,” she whispered. “What’s out there.”
“You need to go. You need to find it. What’s out there.”
“What’s out there.”
“What’s out there.”
She kept repeating this over and over again in ragged little whispers.
Finally I found my voice.
“What’s out there?” I asked.
My mother stiffened and fell silent. The straps of her bonnet blew in the breeze. I stared at her back then down at her hands. They were paler than snow and dripping with blood.
“Mother?”
“You know what’s out there.”
I shook my head, wanting to reach out for her but being too afraid. That horrible aroma was growing stronger and there was something so terribly wrong about all of this.
I eyed the dark house. “Where is Uncle Pat?”
“They’re all gone.”
“Where did they go?”
“They were consumed.”
I nervously wrung my hands together. I’d lost all feeling in them. “They got consumption?” I asked carefully.
She shook her head. “No,” she said.
She turned around to face me. Her eyes were blue and blank, her skin pale grey. Blood was smeared around her mouth. “I consumed them.”
She smiled, and instead of having teeth, there was a row of gleaming eyeballs like bulging white grapes.
I woke up with a jerk and had to gasp for my breath. It was dusk, with only a faint, grainy light before me. I heard a faint dripping sound and Jake’s steady breathing, and had to take a few moments to bring myself back to the present.
It was a shame the present wasn’t much better than my dream had been.
I rolled onto my back, feeling the ache throughout my body and stared up at the ceiling. We could have only been sleeping for about an hour since there was a bit of natural light left. As scary as the dream was, I felt sleep pulling me back under, my body and mind aching for solitude. I could only hope that I would find it in a dreamless state.
I was in a half-asleep limbo when I smelled it. I couldn’t figure out whether the odor was in my dreams or in real life, but from the way my skin prickled with gooseflesh, the way the hairs stood up and my chest felt full of ice, I knew to trust my body. It knew the difference between the dangers that were real and the dangers that weren’t.
The danger was real.
I swallowed hard and gently nudged Jake. He awoke quickly but fell silent the moment he breathed in. He could smell it too.
We looked at each other, our eyes shining in the waning light. He slowly sat up and reached for the axe that was beside him. I went for the rifle that was nearby, my fingers grasping the cold steel. We got up to a crouch and then waited.
At first there was only the smell, slowly growing stronger until my eyes watered and it was painful to breathe it in.
Then came the sounds.
Scratching on the walls of the cabin. A shadow passing by the window.
Faint snarls, conjuring images in my head of wet saliva and sharp teeth bared by pulled back lips.
The thin line between man and animal.
I started to shake with fear, the rifle jangling in my hands. Jake put his hand on my arm and gave it a comforting squeeze. His eyes told me everything was going to be all right.
His eyes were lying.
We were surrounded by the living dead—how ever could we be all right?
We waited. It felt like forever.
The scratching continued, nails being run up and down the cabin walls. I wondered why on earth they were doing that, why they didn’t just come in and take us. Were they trying to frighten us? Were they too weak, gone too long without human meat, and this was the best they could do?
It was driving me mad. The scratching, those depraved moans and snaps from drooling mouths. Jake and I were trapped, completely surrounded, and we never knew when they were going to attack.
Then finally something happened.
The door to the cabin slowly swung open. We couldn’t see who or what had opened it. There was a thump.
A pale, spindly arm reached through the open door, long clawlike nails dragging on the dirt floor.
I gasped as another arm followed suit. Together they pulled along the ground until a torso came into view. It carried the face of death—hollow cheeks, pronounced bones stretched across wrinkled skin, thinning white hair, and frozen eyes. It turned its head, staring blankly at us. It opened its mouth to show just a few teeth and let out a terrible cry that went straight through me like a slick blade.
I raised the rifle at it and took aim.
“Blow its head off,” Jake said gruffly.
I pulled the trigger.
The bullet shot out in a black puff, the force rocking me back, but I had prepared for it this time. It struck the monster right in the head, and at that close range, it practically turned his brains into mud—red mud that splattered on the walls behind us and plopped down onto the floor.
“Nice shot,” Jake commented, one brow cocked. “I knew you were a natural.”
I smiled uneasily but there was no time to take pride in it. Though the scratching and moans stopped momentarily after the gunshot, they quickly started up again, louder this time and more menacing.
I looked at Jake, wishing I had more courage. “I have a feeling that the others won’t be so easy.”
“Well they obviously know we’re in here. What do you want to do? I don’t reckon we can hide in here forever. Something’s got to give. I’ve been in enough standoffs to know that.” He took the rifle from me and quickly began to reload the muzzle.
My body felt numb with fear. I wanted to close my eyes and wish the situation away. I wanted to be anywhere else but in this cabin, surrounded by creatures who wanted a taste of my flesh for their own attempt at immortality. I thought about Isaac and wondered if it had been worth it. If it had been worth it to kill Tim and eat him in hopes of living forever. It hadn’t worked for him—he hadn’t eaten enough of the stew to become fully monstrous even though he had been a monster to begin with. I wondered about the beasts outside, if they had all turned because they wanted a chance of survival, or if they were like Hank and Isaac and wanted a chance of being something more than human. Something completely inhuman.
He handed the rifle back to me then brought out the revolver from his holster, the axe in his other hand. We were a poorly armed ragtag team, but if the rest of the monsters were as decrepit as the last one, if there weren’t that many of them, then maybe we had a chance in hell.
I made a move toward the door when Jake stuck his arm out and held me back. He nodded at the fire. “When all else fails, I believe fire will work just as well.”
“I can’t exactly hold a torch around all this gunpowder, can I?”
“That’s why I said, when all else fails.”
I took in a deep breath. If we failed, we failed. There were no other options when you’re dead. Well, unless you wanted to become a monster. I know I certainly didn’t, even if it did mean a way to prolong my life.
All of a sudden the moaning and the scratching stopped. We looked at each other in wonder. I breathed in. The stench was still there, still pungent. There may have been no noise but they were definitely still outside the cabin.
Waiting.
I took in a deep breath, tightened my grip on the rifle, and walked toward the door. I had to know. I had to get this over with.
In unison, Jake and I stepped together into the doorframe, weapons drawn.
The sight took my breath away and replaced it with pure primal fear.
There were over a dozen monsters standing outside the cabin, staggered about, all of them facing us with expressions of hunger and mindless hate. Some were as close as ten feet away, close enough for me to note the glassiness of their eyes, the way their hair was falling out of their heads, the way their bare, blue cold feet shriveled in the snow. Their mouths were open, drooling, with grey tongues lolling around beside black gums.
All of them wanted to eat us.
We didn’t even get to make the first move.
The closest one lurched forward, long, spindly hands clawing for us beneath a snapping mouth.
Jake stepped in front and to the side of me, and with a war cry, swung the axe like a bat. It cleanly sliced the monster’s head right off so that it flew backward into the snow.
There wasn’t a moment to appreciate it. Now the monsters were staggering forward toward us, some faster than others, some looking more human. All were terrifying in their depraved addiction.
I screamed as one lunged for me and pounced at my feet, grabbing hold of my leg and trying to bite it. It felt too dangerous to shoot him without blasting my own leg off so I kicked him in the head with my other boot until he let go, his fingernails digging so deep into my skin that he ripped away the hem of my dress and the bottom of my pants.
Meanwhile, Jake was trying to take on two of them that had leaped for him at the last minute. He lobbed one head off but was tackled to the ground by the other, and in too close to properly swing the axe. I was wondering how risky it was for me to shoot and hope not to hit Jake when he managed to get an arm free and shoved the barrel of the revolver in the monster’s open mouth. He grinned at the beast before he pulled the trigger, and his head exploded in a red rain shower.
The zombie came back for my legs but Jake was able to throw off the decapitated one and get a good swing with the axe, chopping the monster right in half, intestines spilling out like ribbons. Unfortunately, it did nothing to slow the monster down, and it kept on going for my leg with its angry teeth and nails.
Jake reached down and pulled the monster back by its wiry white hair so its wrinkled grey-white throat was exposed. Before I realized what he was doing, he’d brought out the sharp Bowie knife and started slicing through the neck, spilling crimson rivulets of blood.
I looked away from the sight just in time to see another monster coming for us. With shaking hands, I brought the rifle up to my line of sight, but the movement from the monster at my legs was putting me off balance. If I missed, it would take time to reload and we may not even have the chance to.
The monster was right at us, its dead, leering eyes fixated on Jake. Just as it was about to reach him, Jake finished slicing through the other monster’s head. He turned and threw the knife at the attacker, getting him right through the eye where it remained lodged. I was free to move, and it gave Jake enough time to get back and swing the axe. This time the axe went right down the middle, splitting the head and brain into two neat halves.
We watched, our breaths in our throats, before the monster fell to the side, dead.
All victories were short-lived. The monsters kept coming, still about a dozen of them. Jake did what he could with the axe and I tried to save my shot for when it really counted. After he beheaded three more and still more came after us, he threw a crazed look back to the cabin.
“I can’t keep this up,” he said breathlessly. “We need to get my revolver reloaded. There are paper cartridges in the pack inside. If we bar the door, perhaps we can buy some more time before we take the rest of them out.”
He didn’t need to tell me twice. We turned back into the cabin and slammed the door behind us. There wasn’t much in the cabin to prop against it, but Jake ripped up a loose wooden plank and stuck it between the handle.
As soon as he did that, the door began to shake and blue fingers appeared under the door, wiggling at us, taunting us. It was only a matter of time before they decided to come through the window.
Luckily Jake was fast. He loaded up all the chambers of the revolver and then spun it around. He kissed it quickly and gave me a shy look. “It may not take someone’s head off but it’ll help. The Texas Navy made this gun. They’ll never let you down.”
“There’s no time to rhapsodize about your gun!” I admonished.
“Even after last night?” Jake asked with a wag of his brows.
I narrowed my eyes.
“Pine Nut,” he said quickly, “nothing wrong with a little joke before victory.”
“You better be certain about that,” I said just as the glass on the window shattered with a monster trying wildly to climb in.
Jake took aim and shot the monster in the head. The bullet barely did anything but it was enough to get him to pull back. Unfortunately, he was replaced by another monster.
At the same time the boards on the broken window—the one the first monster had crashed through all those nights ago—began to groan and splinter from the deathly hands pulling from the other side.
It was followed by a clunk above us and the frantic sound of the roof being ripped apart. They were mad and through with waiting—they were coming in.
It happened all at once. The door broke down, the windows were busted through, and a jagged hole appeared in the ceiling above us, two blue eyes peering down at us with hunger. We staggered backward toward the far wall and Jake started swinging.
I really thought he was going to kill them all. Despite his injury, he swung that axe like a god, his muscles great and straining, his strength seeming to be too large for the cabin to contain. He managed to decapitate nearly all of them, their heads and lifeless corpses scattered about.
He almost made it.
But it just wasn’t enough.
The monster from the ceiling dropped onto his back just as the two others went for his legs. He fell to the floor, collapsed under the weight, the axe under him and immovable.
“Eve!” Jake screamed. The terror in his eyes was unmistakable as they clawed their way into him. “Leave! Get out of here! Go!”
But I wouldn’t do that. I aimed the rifle at the monsters, trying to get a good shot, but it was nearly impossible.
“Eve, go!” he yelled again, fighting back against them with kicks and punches the best that he could. “Please leave, I can’t keep you safe if you’re here! Go, NOW!”
But I couldn’t.
“You promised me!” he bellowed in anguish.
I took aim at the one on his back, the strongest one, the one doing the most damage.
I pulled the trigger.
The gun blasted with a puff of black smoke.
And I missed. The bullet went flying into the door instead.
I couldn’t believe it.
I missed.
And that was the only shot I had.
Jake was screaming again. I gave him a sad look.
“I am so sorry,” I whispered, unable to process that we were going to lose this battle. I was going to lose him before my very eyes.
“I can’t lose you too!” he cried out as he flipped onto his back and punched the monster in the face. “I won’t lose you. Please go!”
I found strength somewhere deep inside me, coiling around my heart and guts like a steel cage. I could do this. I could save him.
I looked down into the flash pan on the rifle, still full of gunpowder.
I ran over to the fire, picking up a lit log.
“Jake!” I screamed. “Cover yourself.”
Jake figured out what I was going to do. He managed to punch the monster in the face enough so that he was able to crawl away a few feet.
I threw the rifle at the monsters. It landed at their feet. One even picked it up. I couldn’t have asked for better than that.
As the monster stared down the barrel in demented curiosity, I threw the flaming log over at him.
It collided with the rifle.
And everything exploded.
I went flying backward, landing on the ground in a heap. My head spun, wasting precious seconds while I tried to get my bearings. Once I did, I was up on my feet and making my way over to the wreckage.
Two of the monsters were fully engulfed in flames, writhing on the ground, while the other had exploded into charred crisps.
Jake was twitching, face down, his arm on fire.
I screamed and ran over to him, throwing off my cloak and wrapping it around his arm to put out the flames.
He groaned and I knew he was alive.
“I take it all back,” he said, his voice cracking in agony.
“Take what back? Jake, Jake are you going to be okay? Oh God.”
He tried to sit up, his eyelids fluttering. “I take it back, that you’re a good shot. You’re lousy. And you’re right stupid. You should have run.”
“I’d never leave you,” I told him, trying to get him to his feet.
“Don’t let that be your downfall,” he said.
“Can you get up?” I asked, still holding the cloak around his arm. The fire was out, but now I was afraid to look at the damage underneath.
He nodded and got up, clearly in pain. “I do think we need to get out of here. There’s no telling if this was all of them.”
“I sure hope it was.”
“I never saw Hank,” he remarked grimly.
I swallowed hard. “Neither did I.”
We exchanged a heavy look. It wasn’t over yet. We had no choice but to keep running.
I grabbed the pack and the weapons, and we left the bloody, smoldering massacre behind.
Chapter Fourteen
We ran for a long time, through the black night, through the rain that picked up again, until there stopped being snow beneath our feet. It didn’t relieve me—nothing would. I kept grabbing onto Jake every few minutes, knowing he was in pain from his burn but so grateful that he was alive. It was as if I had to keep making sure that he was safe and with me and that we had survived.
But I felt like our survival so far meant nothing until we got off the mountain. Yes, the monsters were all dead, but how did we know that was all of them? We had never seen Hank. Was it possible that he was still behind us, scavenging on his brethren? Was it possible that he was trailing us in the shadows?
We walked until we found the shelters that we had built our first night out. One was destroyed, the makeshift roof caved in, perhaps by the snow that had fallen, but the other one, the one I had slept in with Donna, was still standing. It pained me to think about Donna, and of course Avery, how long ago it felt in some ways, yet in others it felt like just this morning. Donna’s kind words, Avery’s comfortable presence.
Now Jake and I were hunkering down, wrapped in animal skins. He promised me he would keep watch, and as much as I wanted to help him, to tend to his wounds the best I could and make him better, I couldn’t. He didn’t have any alcohol for the pain and my body pulled me into sleep. Even fear couldn’t keep my eyes open. Not this time.
I woke up at the crack of dawn, my head nestled against Jake’s shoulder. He was awake but barely. He looked so terrible that I felt like crying. His skin was greenish white and clammy, his forehead feverish to the back of my hand.
“Jake,” I whispered, trying to get him to look at me. I brought his chin toward mine with my fingers.
He tried to smile but failed. His eyes were drooping shut and unfocused. I looked down at his arm and nearly dry-heaved. His jacket and shirt sleeve underneath had completely burned away, leaving his skin raw and exposed. It was a black and pink mess of burned and blistering flesh.
I put my hand to my mouth. “Jake. No. We have to fix you, now.”
I went for the pack but remembered I had used the last of the first-aid supplies on his shoulder, another thing we probably had to worry about.
He shrugged out of my grasp. “No, Eve, no. We have to go.”
He tried to get up but swayed unsteadily.
“But the burn,” I said. “It’ll probably lead to an infection.”
He gave me a lazy but pained glance. “Darlin’, you saved my life back there. It won’t be for nothing. I promise you that. We’ll get ourselves to River Bend. It’s not far now. And we’ll get ourselves both fixed up.”
As much as I wanted to argue with him, I knew that I couldn’t. He was right. Unless I found a natural healing agent such as wild honey, which was impossible at this point, we couldn’t do a thing. It tore me up inside—yes I did save his life, but it was my fault for missing in the first place. If I had just shot properly, the monster would have died and Jake would have survived unscathed.
This time I carried the pack, the axe, and the rifle. As dirty and tired and hungry as I was, I wasn’t about to let him shoulder all the weight.
We went off into the woods, at first walking as fast as we could, but over time Jake grew tired. His pace slowed, his long legs tripping him up. A few times he started to pitch one way or the other, and it took all of my minute strength to keep his massive body from both falling to the ground and crushing me.
We were moving into new terrain, I could feel it in the air around me. The smell of sweet pine and decaying leaves, the freshness to the ground that was untouched by snow and sprinkled with light rain. The ground beneath our feet became more level and the path wider. The carved-in ruts of wagons appeared. Here and there I could make out horse tracks in the dirt, some of them even heading in our direction. There was no time to check on how fresh they were though, there was only time to get us home.
It was early afternoon when Jake collapsed.
I wasn’t positioned well enough to get a good hold on him. He buckled to his knees and then fell face forward with a thump.
“Jake!” I screamed, and dropped to the ground beside him. He was completely motionless—dead weight.
Frantically, I tried to turn him over but he was too heavy. I put my fingers to his neck, and despite him being cold as stone, I could find a faint pulse. He was alive but that barely did anything to abate the pinch in my heart. How was I going to get him out of here? How could I make him better?
He was going to die out here from the burn and I was going to be forced to watch. It wasn’t fair. After everything, it wasn’t fair.
I spied the trees alongside the path and put my pack and weapons down over there. Then I went back over to Jake. I would drag him over to the tree and sit him up with what little resolve I had left.
I grabbed under his shoulders and tried to pull, both sorry and relieved when he gave out a small moan of pain.
Then I froze.
The quiet snap of a branch behind me.
Oh dear Lord, no.
I eyed the weapons that were so close and yet so far and slowly turned around, afraid to let go of Jake.
An Indian man was standing in the trees, his bow raised and arrow aimed right at me.
I didn’t know what to do. The man just stared at me, his eyes yielding nothing. He kept the arrow pointed in my direction. He was obviously Paiute but wasn’t one of the two men we had met on our way up.
“Please help me,” I said in English before trying to find the word in Paiute. I could only say “Please.” I hoped the pleading in my eyes and the futility of the situation would be enough to convey the rest.
I waited, holding my breath, not wanting to let go of Jake if this was to be the end. I’d never been so afraid of my own kind before, but then I’d never had an arrow aimed at me. I wished more than anything that my father was here.
Finally, the man lowered the arrow. He turned around and walked back into the forest until he was swallowed by the trees.
I watched and waited, thinking he would come back and shoot me. Then I was afraid he wouldn’t come back at all. He could help heal Jake better than I could.
I carefully placed Jake’s upper body back on the ground and took off into the trees after the man. I ran, tripping over roots, my hair wild in my face, as I searched for him. Despite the cowhide smell from his clothes, I couldn’t track him, couldn’t follow his path. I turned around, feeling lost and trapped, and realized I was alone and had left Jake undefended.
I began to panic and tried to follow my tracks back the way I came, my senses warped and frayed. Just when I thought I was following the right trail, I heard another snap behind me.
I whirled around and waited, my breathing short and tense, my nerves fried. I felt like something was watching, but who? The man? Or something else?
“Hello?” I said, trying to sound forceful. “Is anyone there?” I tried to repeat the same thing in Paiute as best I could.
Only silence. Was there an arrow to my head or was it all in my imagination?
I breathed in deep, expecting to find traces of rotten death in the air but instead there was something else. Something I’d smelled before yet couldn’t place for the life of me. My heart was racing too fast, the whoosh of my blood too loud in my ears for me to pick up anything but my own fear and desperation.
Another snap came rattling through the deep woods.
Then another.
In the shadows something was moving, coming toward me at a steady pace.
I had no weapons. I had nothing.
With my heart in my throat, I turned around to flee.
“Eve?”
Someone called my name.
Not just any someone.
I stopped and looked over my shoulder.
Stepping out from between the pines were the two Indian fellows I had originally met, the ones that looked the same. They had their hands raised in peace with concerned looks on their faces.
And behind them was a tall white boy with golden hair.
“Avery!” I cried out, unable to believe it. I blinked a few times before I started running toward him. He ran to me and caught me just as my legs gave out, my whole body succumbing to the relief and exhaustion.
“Careful,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m not one hundred percent yet.”
“You’re alive,” I sobbed into his chest as he held me up. “How are you still alive?”
“With a little help,” he said. “But we’ll get to that later. Where is everyone else?”
I shook my head. “There is no one else. There’s only Jake and I. I had to leave him when I saw the other Indian. He needs help, Avery. His arm is burned. I think it’s infected and killing him.”
He patted my head. “If you want these Indians to fix him, they can.”
“Of course I do!” I cried out and looked up at him. Tears welled in my eyes. “Please, Avery, I’d do anything for him.”
He gave me a funny look then said to the others, motioning forward, “There is another man. Needs help.”
Though they probably understood the gist of it, I repeated “man” and “help” to them in their language. Finally they got it and started off the way I had come, their tracking skills far better than mine at this point.
I watched them go, and then Avery patted my head again. “It’s nice to see you again, Eve. Jake will be good as new when they’re done with him. Then we’re almost home.”
I nearly cried from relief. Then I plumb fainted.
* * *
I came to when a vile stench filled my head. My eyes burst open to see a cup of ammonia-scented liquid being swayed underneath my nose. I looked up to see Avery holding it.
“I reckon it’s like smelling salts,” he explained with a shrug. “They haven’t worked on Jake though.”
I sat up, my head woozy, and looked around. We were gathered in a long but low-ceilinged cabin that looked as if pioneers had built it. Now it was taken over by the Paiute Diggers. I was lying on a bed of animal hides by a fire that burned in the middle of the room. On the other side of the fire was an old man with deep, wrinkled grooves in his old face and long white hair. The jewelry around his neck and the wise look in his eyes as I stared at him across the fire told me he was a respected elder, perhaps even a chief. To the side of him were the two familiar Diggers and the straight-faced one that had the arrows. Nearest to me was Jake, who was also lying on animal hides.
He was bare-chested and his arm was covered in something black and shiny, as was the wound on his shoulder. He looked as if he was out cold, his breath slow and laborious.
“Is he going to be okay?” I croaked. The sight made my heart bleed.
Avery nodded and put a bowl of dried meat in front of me. I couldn’t stand the thought of eating it, but he only put the bowl closer to my mouth. “It’s dried venison, Eve. Nothing else. You must eat.”
Gingerly, I took a piece and sighed in relief when I realized it was venison. Still, it took a lot of effort to keep it down. I kept thinking about the monsters.
When Avery was satisfied with the two pieces, he handed me some roasted pine nuts which I managed to eat with more enthusiasm.
“Slow, slow,” the old man across the fire said in a rich voice. I looked to him in surprise. He smiled kindly. “You have been starving. You must eat slow or you will get sick.”
“You speak English?”
He gave a simple nod.
I eyed Jake. “Is he really going to be okay?”
He nodded again. “Yes. Bad burn but he will heal. So will his bullet wound.”
I felt myself tearing up. “Thank you, thank you so much.”
A small smile teased his lips. “My name is Brave Dicutta. Your friend here has told me what happened to you in the mountains.”
I placed a small amount of the pine nuts in my mouth and closed my eyes, savoring the taste. I just wanted to think about food and the relative safety around me. I wanted to think about Jake and how he was going to be all right. I didn’t want to relive what happened to us.
So I asked about Avery instead.
“Well,” Avery said, drawing his knees up to his chest, “I couldn’t tell you what exactly happened other than I was ambushed from above. One minute I was riding hard and the next one I was nearly knocked off my horse. I fought back but the creature was strong. Took a few bites of my side and back.” He lifted his arm to point out the area. I could now see there was bandaging underneath his shirt. He shivered from the memory. “I did what I could to fight back and I guess it was enough. It fell to the side and I somehow stayed on. My horse kept going like mad, but eventually I fell off too. I don’t really remember. I was just certain I was going to die. Then I woke up to see our old Indian friends here. They took me back, healed me up.”