After and Again (11 page)

  “No, I think that we should catch up to the women and get the hell out of here, what do you think Zack?”

  “I say let them go, we might not even be able to catch them before they reach the rest of their gang. “Can I say I’m glad to see you now?” Zack said scanning the other men.

  “Ha ha, we’re glad to see
you
boy….. I mean Zack, sorry, old habits an all.” Tal Miller said apologetically.

  “It’s alright.” Zack said, not the least bit bothered by it. “Are you okay Mr. Sturgess?” Zack asked.

  “I will be, I saw my wife and girl back there, I’m the luckiest man alive.”

  “Well let’s catch up with them.” Toby said, turning his horse.

  “I think I’ll go grab up those two first.” said Jonus pointing out where two of the dead men’s horses had stopped some ways off from them. “Anyone come with me?”

  “I’ll come.” Tal said, “we’ll catch up.”

6

  Zack could see the question burning in Alejendro Reyes’ eyes while the group all sat for a quick meal before “putting some miles in between us and the enemy,” as Toby Martin had put it. The conversation was mostly of immediate concerns, and Kendra Goodman and Loren Sturgess were attending to Loren’s husband Brent’s wound. Alejendro Reyes, a man of few wasted words, waited until he felt the time was right to ask Zack what he most needed to know. “Was my son among them, Zack?” The conversation died out at the inquiry and the recently rescued women all looked uncomfortable, None would meet the man’s eyes.

  “Yes he was, sir, I’m sorry, he and Michael were both killed.” Zack replied his voice wavering a little.

  “I felt it in my heart,” Alejendro said, “How did it happen? That is if it’s not too difficult to share,” he added, noticing the tension among the women at the subject.

  “Well sir, the gang apparently takes males our age and makes them join up or kills them if they won’t.”

  Jonus interrupted, “Yea I seen that little rodent Frank Olsen ridin at us hell-bent until we started shootin, then he turned tail an ran with ‘em when he coulda come with us! I swear that boy wasn’t never right, wish I woulda put an arrow through him…. Damn. Sorry,” he said, looking between Zack and Alejendro apparently just realizing that he had interrupted.

  Zack continued, “Michael was killed in the gang’s camp for not doing what he was told to do. Santiago was with the men that came after us in the mountains. He was killed trying to save my life. Hopefully that’s enough for you sir. He died trying to save me.”

  Alejendro Reyes was a quiet man by nature, but he was also very intelligent and perceptive. He looked at Zack speculatively.

  “And why didn’t you bring his body along with hers?” he asked, nodding toward the blanket wrapped body of Sandra Whitehall.

  “Because your son raped Sandra Whitehall, right in front of her own mother and these two little girls!” Lacy Sturgess suddenly shouted advancing on Alejendro. That bastard wasn’t gonna ride back to Payne’s Station on the back of the same horse as Sandra!” she spat, pointing her finger at the man and bursting into tears.

  “Was that the way of it?” Alejendro asked scanning the women. There were nods of assent but none of the women spoke.

  “So he did this, and then tried to save Zack’s life,” he said, almost to himself.

  Holly Sanderson spoke. “I can’t speak for everyone Al, but for my part, I’m not sure how I’ll remember your son. I do acknowledge that he tried to atone for his actions at the end. It doesn’t change what he did but I won’t disregard it either.”  Alejendro Reyes stood up and brushed off his trousers. “Thank you Holly, Zack, I’ll just be going to retrieve my boy. I imagine that your backtrail will be easy enough to follow.”

  Toby Martin stood, “Now hold on a minute Al, you don’t know if those murderers are going to be coming back. Santiago is dead and I’m sorry, but there isn’t any sense in you being dead too.”

  “That boy was all I had Toby, you know that; I have to go and see my son gets buried,” he said while walking to his horse.

  “I’ll go with you then,” Jonus Hemphill spoke up.

  “No Jonus, this is my business, I’ll see you all back in town….what’s left of it anyhow.” Alejendro Reyes mounted his horse, gave a short tip of his hat, and rode toward the mountains. No one from Payne’s Station ever saw him again.

  “Bad business,” Tal Miller said shaking his head. “This is all bad business.”

  They stopped to camp at dusk, which was around eight o’clock, next to a small copse of scrub oaks that had managed to muscle their way onto the plain. After a short deliberation they decided to go ahead and have a small campfire using what little deadwood they could gather from around the trees. The consensus was that if the gang was coming then they were coming regardless of a campfire. Zack and the women believed that they would not be pursued again.

  After passing around more of Toby Martin’s smoked pork and a canteen of Mrs. Martin’s apple wine, they talked in length, answering each other’s questions that there had not been time for earlier, again there were moments of happiness tinged with sadness. Kendra Goodman had disinfected Zack’s wound with some of Tal Miller’s whiskey and then wrapped it in a fresh bandage. Next she set to attending the various cuts and abrasions that the women with unprotected legs and feet had sustained on their trek through the forest. Brent Sturgess told of his trip out to the Sanderson ranch to do some roof repairs on one of the barns that he’d agreed to with Burt Sanderson in exchange for ten pounds of beef. Being at the ranch saved his life and the life of Hal and Mary King, who lived in a small house on the Sanderson spread. Hal was a hand, and Mary did housekeeping and helped Holly Sanderson cook. They were also the parents of Dalia Martin, Toby Martin’s daughter-in-law. Hal had wanted to come with Toby and the others but Toby had convinced him to stay and help Heath and Molly Renfew bury the dead. Holly Sanderson was happy to hear that Hal and Mary were alive but was visibly upset that there was no news of her husband. Rebecca Mccarron couldn’t wait to see her mother and brothers; she also insisted that her father must have escaped although no one had seen him. Eileen Deveroux cried softly when there was no news of her parents. Holly Sanderson did her best to comfort the girl.

  Zack sat in between his mother who had not improved at all, and Emily, who had finally taken his hand after waiting for what she felt was ample time for him to do it first. Zack took the hand readily enough but felt a little awkward around her now. He had told her he loved her; which he did of course, but he would have never said it aloud had he thought that he was going to survive the fight on the plain. He sat and half-listened to Toby Martin talking to the Goodman women about arranging to take them to Huntsville to look for survivors. They both thought that their husbands were dead but they had other family and friends there. After that Toby and Tal were trading off telling how Toby’s wife Miranda had shamed them for letting
that brave boy
go after the town’s women on his own, regardless of whether or not there was any proof that the gang had even taken them. “You should have at least gone with him to look,” she had said. “Of course she was right, and we should have come to that conclusion ourselves,” Toby conceded.

  Zack wanted to tell everyone about the cave, and of the man who had found the time rip, but he decided to wait until they were back in Payne’s Station.

  He walked a few hundred yards from the camp and heaved some of the pork that Toby had given out into the grass. He hadn’t seen the wolf that evening but had a feeling he was nearby and hoped that he hadn’t been injured in his fight with the giant Trask. Zack wished that he would come close enough for him to attempt to hand feed him (somehow he knew it was male) but was doubtful that the wolf would come very close to the camp with this many people around. He waited a few minutes and then walked back.

  Later Zack was rubbing down Grace when Toby Martin spoke from behind him. “She’s quite a horse, isn’t she?”

  “Yes sir… I mean, Toby , she really is amazing.” Zack replied not turning from his work.

  “You’re pretty amazing yourself, Zack, the real thing. A whole load of courage, and a goodly share of brains to match. A rare combination in a man, leastways from what I have seen.”

   Zack felt a flush at the older man’s praise and simply said, “Thank you.”

  “I want you to have her.” Zack stopped in mid-brush and turned to face Toby.

  “I don’t know if I could do that,” Zack said, really wanting to accept but not feeling right about taking such a large gift.

  “Suit yourself then,” Toby said, I don’t have much use for her anymore so I guess that you could just turn her loose when you’re finished there.” Zack couldn’t see Toby Martin’s face very well in the shadows but could clearly hear the smile behind the last statement.

  “That won’t be necessary….” Zack said, then, “wow, thanks a lot, really.”

  “Glad for you to have her, you’ve earned her many times over,” Toby said, turning back toward where the others were around the campfire. “Oh and Zack; I’m really sorry about your mom, I hope that she comes around.”

  “Thank you Toby, for everything; mostly for saving my life today.”

  “If we would have gone with you from the start, like we should have, then we wouldn’t have needed to,” Toby said walking away. Zack turned back to the horse; his horse, and heard another set of footsteps behind him. He turned.

   “Your mom is sleeping,” Emily said walking up to him.

  “That’s good,” Zack said, not being able to think of anything else to say. She closed the distance between them putting her hands flat on his chest, and then lightly touched the bandage over his gunshot wound.

  “Does it hurt bad?” She asked.

  “Like fire,” he answered truthfully.

  “Did you mean what you said to me today? That you loved me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then kiss me,” she said. He did.

  Desmond Trask woke up in hell, or so he thought at first. He was flat on his back in the dirt, every inch of his body was screaming with pain. He couldn’t open his eyes; had the hellhound gouged his eyes out? He moved his right arm, just a little, it worked. He lifted his hand to his face, felt the gashes there and dismissed them for later inspection. He let his finger move over his eyes; not gouged out, just crusted over with blood, so
that
was alright. He scraped away the dried blood from one eye, then the other. He opened them.

  Alejendro Reyes walked the horse up the trail that Zack and the women had used earlier that day. His grief at the death of his only son, and the guilt that he felt at what his son had done weighed heavily on his mind. He rounded a corner and saw the dead horse; this was the place. He tied his mare to a tree and walked around the dead animal and two dead men. Then he saw his son, lying face up on the path. Crying now, he walked over to the body and stood over it grief-stricken. Movement from the corner of his eye caused him to raise his head.

The apparition that stood before him was more hideous than the worst of his childhood nightmares. “Are you the devil…. here for my son?” Alejendro Reyes asked.

  “Oh yes,” answered Desmond Trask, “but I don’t want your corpse of a son, just your horse,” he said, driving the long knife into Alejendro Reyes just as had done to Santiago. The bloody, dirt-crusted, ruined looking thing that was Desmond Trask let Alejendro Reyes’ body fall on top of his son’s, and shambled toward the other man’s horse without a look back.

7

  The wolf gazed through the grass of the plain in the darkness. Staring across the distance at the flickering campfire he longed for the companionship that the people shared. The Boy/Man was there; the one who had shared food, like the wolf’s own mother had before she and the rest of the pack had stopped coming. His littermates had all died—starving, he had finally eaten them—and he’d abandoned the den to search for food and water. He somehow survived, at first off of things that crawled or moved slowly, and then later he thrived, by becoming cunning, and eventually strong. He knew that he belonged with the Boy/Man, and would protect him as he had done in the forest if he was threatened. Alone, but no longer completely lonely, the wolf slept.

8

  The tired, filthy, and hungry group came into view of the Martin ranch at noon, a day and a half after the night that Zack was both gifted the mare and kissed by Emily Hodgkins. Heath Martin was taking his lunch on the porch with Dalia and Molly Renfew when he spotted them. “Mom, better break out some more food!” he shouted, getting up from his seat and running to the front door. Seconds later, Lisa, Henry, and young Caden Mccarron came out to the porch, soon followed by Martha Miller and the three Miller boys- Brad, Evan, and Chris, all shouting at the top of their lungs for their papa. Miranda Martin, more worried about making sure that her husband had returned than how hungry he would be, told her son that the food could wait and exited the house as well. The large group all moved down to the dooryard, craning their necks and shading their eyes with their hands to see who had returned.