Disclaimer: I own nothing and all mistakes are mine. I'm apologising in advance for this one, I feel like I need to write but if I'm Vin my Chris just left for China so I'm kind of not with it at the moment.
Confined
Vin Tanner did not like to be confined. Chris figured this out when the fake marshal Yates had Tanner locked up in Four corner's jail before he was going to move him on to Tascosa. Vin had paced the perimeter of the cell nearly the entire time he was in there. Like some kind of tiger trapped in a cage, yearning for freedom and deadly in its desire to reach it. The others had noticed too, Vin never seemed to stay inside for very long, though none of the seven knew the reason behind it they had learnt to accept the fact that the Texan didn't like being anywhere even remotely small for long periods of time, just like they had learnt to accept JD's hat. This was the reason why the seven now desperately needed to get Vin out of his current predicament.
The Wilsons, a family living about an hour's ride out of town, had sent their eldest son into Four Corners to get help. The recent rain had caused a landslide and they wanted some help to try and repair their home. All seven had gone to help knowing that they worked best together and that if there was another landslide the farmers would need all the help they could get.
They had arrived less than an hour later. JD and Buck had 'argued' the entire journey about Buck's latest romantic conquest and Ezra, Nathan and Josiah had been talking animatedly about last night's poker game and how Ez had wiped them out…again. The view when they arrived cut off all conversation. The land that was owned by the farmers was half-buried under the mudslide, wooden shards from the fences were scattered among the debris along with various bits of the local landscape. The tree that had been next the barn had been knocked over by the force of the slide and had smashed through the barn roof. Several braches were all that could be seen, small clumps of green in a mountain of dark brown earth. It was a miracle that no one had been hurt. Thankfully the damage to the main house was superficial, so the Wilson's would at least have somewhere dry. They had unfortunately lost almost half of their livestock.
Mr and Mrs Wilson were at the bottom of the mountain of dislodged earth with their youngest son, Jimmy, trying to work out where their fences and out buildings had been before the entire area had been buried under the wave of mud. They turned at the sound of approaching horses and their faces spoke of unending gratitude. Mr Wilson was the first to express this verbally, "Thanks for coming out this far fellas, I don't think we can do this ourselves" with and easy grin Buck replied "Where do you want us to start Pard?"
By three that afternoon the seven plus Mr Wilson and his four sons had managed to cut the tree into smaller parts and move them out from the barn. The Wilson's had decided that they would rebuild the barn on the other side of the house, but that it would not require the seven's help. All they needed to do now was to find the well. Otherwise they would not have a water source around for nearly 3 miles. Vin and Jimmy set off to find the well whilst the others moved scavenged any usable bits of wood from the wreckage that used to be the barn.
"I think it's around here somewhere, we cover it with wooden planks to try and keep out some of the dust. Hopefully they didn't break and let the mud in. Digging a new well would sure be a pain." Vin nodded his agreement he didn't want to get roped into digging a well either, but they had been looking for the old one for nearly an hour and hadn't had any luck yet. It seemed to Vi n that the kid didn't even know where the well had been as all the places where they had dug looked random to him. They were on the seventh hole and all the others were sitting in the shade of the house when they finally found the well, Jimmy had turned excitedly to the others yelling and waving his arms when Vin first heard the faint creak of the wood they were standing on. The weight of the mud had weakened the boards and the boy's rapid and jerky movements weren't helping. Grabbing Jimmy's arm Vin attempted to spread their weight out.
Chris and the others looked up at Jimmy's yell and realised that they must have found the well, they were curious when Jimmy turned suddenly to look back at Vin and when Vin grabbed the boys arm. Both figures froze and this was when the seven realised something was wrong, standing as one they rushed towards Vin. Chris' eyes met Vin's when the boards finally gave was and the fear that Chris saw caused him to lose his breath. Vin grabbed Jimmy, pulling him towards his chest, as the wood splintered beneath them, wrapping his arms around the smaller boy to protect him.
"Noooooo!" Chris and the others reached the well in time to hear the splash from the bottom.