Back to Black

by Gorgolo Chick

Pulling out of the blackness is gut-twisting, almost more so than the explosive pain that awakens in my head just afterwards. I feel ill and in pain, dizzy before I even open my eyes. Breathing hurts, too. I'm wet, soaked through. Almost together I discover the taste of salt in my mouth and the overpowering scent of dead fish in my nostrils.

I'm cold, wet, hurt and miserable. Somewhere in what little mind I seem to have, something is telling me that I'm also in danger.

I stagger to my feet and brush the worst of the seawater out of my eyes. I spot a heavy wooden packing crate standing right beside me fast enough to lean on it instead of falling back down.

Then I figure out that the roaring in my ears isn't all in my head. I shake my head – big mistake – and finally manage to focus on the massive brawl going on down the dock from where I just woke up.

There must be about seven or eight burly dockworker types trying to lay their hands on a man in tight blue clothes… JIM! That's too many for even my rough-and-tumble partner to win against without a little help.

I may not be in any shape to join the fight, but I can still even the odds a bit, there. I stumble my way to a stack of crates marked 'Engine Parts' that are towering over the battle scene. I drag a good-sized lump of explosive out of one of my special pockets and cram it against the near edge of the bottom center crate. A piece of fuse and a match out of a waterproof pack later, and I yell "Coming down" and try to run for cover.

When it all goes 'BOOM' I almost pass out again, but I'm too worried about Jim to let that happen. I know he should have had no problem ducking the avalanche I just caused, with fair warning like I gave him, but still…

I drag myself along the dock until I can see that blue-clad form landing like an avalanche all his own on the last pair of his attackers. We win again. Then he looks around in my direction.

I really want to watch my partner come over to me, but he keeps wavering and spinning out of my line of vision.

"Artie!" All of the sudden he's there, lifting me off of the cold hard dock. "Come on, Artie, hang in there, I'll get you to a doctor."

"Get me back to the train for some dry clothes and a warm bed and I'll be fine." Well, I tried to say that firmly, but it sounded pretty slurred to me. I wish he'd stop pushing so hard against my side that way. It hurts like hell when he does that.

"Don't fight me, Artemus. I've got to get this bleeding stopped. Bullet went right through you, I think, but there's no way to tell how much damage it did."

I look down and see Jim's hands covered in scarlet – my blood. Now I remember the bullet hitting me as I was trying to examine the strange marks on the planks right at the edge of the dock. That and the shock of the waters of San Francisco Bay closing over me.

That's what James West and I are all about, in the end – always being there when your partner needs you.

I just hope Jim doesn't need me for a while, because it feels like he just lost his grip on me. Anyway, I'm falling back into…

END