A Deeper Walk Into The Woods
On the evening before All Hallows' Eve, Sebastian Lund found himself out in the middle of nowhere, doing a favor for Loretta. He already had a run-in with Bubba and the local Parish cops. What else could he experience in this dismal, gloomy dead of night?
Disclaimer: The characters and sets of NCIS: LA are all owned by CBS, Donald P. Bellisario, and Shane Brennan. I only own a copy of the DVDs from season 1-6. I do get to play with everyone, but they all have to be home by curfew.
A/N: All of my stories will be on temporary hiatus until further notice. I still need to have some medical procedures taken care of. Until they have been completed I have been told to spend limited time on the computer. The whole process may be done hopefully by mid-December. Until that time, I will post when I am able. When things have been successfully completed, I will again continue to post new chapters regularly. I am sorry if this disappoints people, but I have to take care of me so I can continue to write.
A/N 2: This is sort of a continuation of my short story 'A Walk in the Woods'. That story was written as a result of a prompt on FaceBook. This is my Halloween offering.
A/N 3: Thanks, Gina and Sue for being more than betas – reading, suggesting, always improving the work that I post.
New Orleans || October 30, 2015 – 23:30 hours
Sebastian Lund wished he never entered into that bet with Dr. Loretta Wade. He should have known that he couldn't have won. But who would have guessed that her ancestors had helped to defend the city of New Orleans from the British back in 1814? But she showed him proof that her great-great-great grandfather fought with Lacoste's Free Men of Color under Major Lacoste. Because of that wrong guess, Sebastian found himself dragging the dead body to the Federal Body Training Dump where they would use it in training classes to see how bodies decompose in the swamp.
He should have been back home by now, but Loretta had run into problems while doing the autopsy. The man had been buried in a pauper's grave almost a year ago, but now that land was needed for a new levee to be built to protect the city from disasters like Katrina. But before the body could be moved, a new autopsy had to be done.
But that's when the complications began. According to everything that Loretta could determine, the unnamed person died from a sword thrust through the heart. She also found a bullet wound in the shoulder, a through and through, that did not match any size projectile that she had ever seen. Complicating the matter still further, she could find no records of this man, so she had nothing to compare her findings with. She ultimately listed the final results as death by loss of blood due to traumatic damage to the heart.
Once she had determined the cause of death, she signed all the necessary paperwork and released the body to Sebastian to take to the Federal Body Training Dump outside the city. It was already late at night, but Sebastian had no plans for the evening, other than going home, having a couple of burgers and beers, and crawling into bed. Instead, he found himself walking through the woods, dragging a very dead body behind him.
When he thought back on it, he could see where others might think it a little odd to see a man dragging a body through the woods at night. But he couldn't believe his encounter with 'Bubba' and the other Parish law enforcement people. If these were the ones that King and the other agents had to deal with every day, he was glad that he was stuck in a lab with nonhuman machines surrounding him. The only other thing he could think of to explain it was 'inbreeding'.
When 'Bubba' and his crew finally left to look for their 'cereal killer' at a local diner, Sebastian shook his head. Just another complication to cause his delay. He looked up at the moon, that appeared to be giving up its life, from the fullness it had a few days ago. The fog had also started to move in, shrouding the tops of the trees and forming a gossamer drapery where it joined with the Spanish moss that dangled all the way down to the ground. Others might revel in the beauty of the natural setting, it only made Sebastian feel more cold and miserable. He needed to hurry and get this done, or he would not get home until way after midnight.
Finally, he came to the open area that was the Federal Body Training Dump. Sebastian looked for a good spot in which to pose the body. What he saw was this section of open bayou seemed to have a fence of trees, that mingled with the moss and fog, seemed to close off this property from the rest of the world. At that very moment, the moon went behind a cloud, and everything went pitch black. The young man thought that he heard a voice speaking, "Everyone is assembled. Let the games begin." He laughed to himself, wondering what had caused his imagination to make such a fantastic leap.
As he dragged the corpse the last few feet, all of a sudden the arm he was pulling pulled back at him. The man's hand grabbed his arm and started to use it to pull himself up. Sebastian screamed in terror as he pushed the man away from him.
What the hell was happening? The dead man, the one on whom he watched Dr. Loretta Wade, the Medical Examiner for New Orleans, perform an autopsy, cutting deep into his dead flesh just a few hours ago, was getting up as if he were rousing from a long nap, All around him, Sebastian saw men rise up from the ground, brush the dirt off of themselves and then look around at each other. Every single one of them was dressed in archaic clothing, most of them in leather pants and jackets, and tri-cornered hats. Most of them had muskets, a couple of them had swords. Looking off on the other side, he could see what looked like soldiers, dressed in red jackets and black hats on their heads.
Redcoats? Here? Was this a Halloween prank, because he looked at his watch ... which he no longer had on his wrist. He was positive that 'Bubba' had held him up enough that it was after midnight. What he did see was that he was dressed in the same way as all the others.
Had he fallen in with a bunch of reenactors? Last year was the big anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. Two hundred years of history. When he thought about it, that was why Loretta knew about her ancestor. She must have researched her family tree. He had thought about it, but never found the time to do it.
"What's going on here?" Sebastian asked the man nearest him.
"You a new conscript? I've never seen you around before. This here is a scouting party, sent out by Major Paul Arnaud, commander of the Louisiana Militia Battalion. We heard that the British were trying to sneak around and enter the city. We were sent out to stop them."
Sebastian looked at him in disbelief and asked, "Who is the President of the United States right now?"
"Everyone knows that," came the reply, "It's James Madison. He's been the President throughout this damned war with the lobsterbacks."
The young tech wondered what had happened to him. Did he miss the alien ship hovering over the site, transporting them back in time? Did the government find a way to set up a time warp and he just happened to stumble into it? Certainly, this wasn't real. How could a man of science accept something like this? Let everyone say what they wanted about his conspiracy theories. Here was living proof that something was going on that no one could explain with 'official' methods.
The man with whom he had been talking poked him in the ribs and told him, "Get ready, Here they come."
The officer who was with them addressed the troops, "Remember, men. They have to fire first. We are not the aggressors."
Sebastian found that a musket had materialized in his hand. He took his place along with the rest of the men, thinking he was in the fight of his life. And that is what it turned out to be. The British fired first, and men around him fell. Sebastian and the rest of the men fired in retaliation, and the redcoats were less than they were before. Some of the men from both sides ran at their enemies, with swords and knives drawn. Others took the time to reload their muskets so they could fire another round. Sebastian did not know how to reload his musket but saw that the man next to him had fallen without firing his weapon. He picked it up and felt the sting in his leg as he tried to shoot another enemy soldier.
The whole area broke up into individual battles, men from both sides swinging their swords, knives, and muskets, trying to kill off the opposing troops. Something hit him in the back of the head, causing him to fall to his knees. He tried to get up, but his legs buckled under him, as he lost consciousness.
When he finally came to, Sebastian looked around him, and could see only the bodies of the Federal Body Training Dump. He saw a rock near his head with blood on it, and wondered if he had slipped, banged his head, and imagined everything that had gone on. As he got up, he noticed the pain that was in his leg. It looked like he had been shot and it hurt like hell. He sure didn't get that from tripping and hitting his head.
He hobbled all the way back to his car and drove back to the city. Since Loretta had gotten him to take care of the other body, he thought it was only fair that she should take care of him. He drove up to her place and leaned on her doorbell until she came to answer it.
"Sebastian, do you have any idea what time it is? Why the heck are you ringing my bell at this time of the morning?"
"Because I was shot while I was taking care of your body."
"What! Here. Let me help you in," she told him as she slipped his arm over her shoulder and led him to a chair. She tried to help him take off his pants, but Sebastian was rather reluctant to allow her to do that. "Come on, Sebastian. You know that I've seen it all before. It's not gonna bother me so it shouldn't bother you." Then she opened up his belt and slapped his hands away.
When she got his pants off and got a good look at the wound, she told him, "Let me get my kit and I'll take care of it for you." She came back and gave him a local anesthetic, and when it took hold started to dig for the bullet. "How did this happen?" she asked.
When Sebastian was done telling her what he encountered that night, Loretta rolled her eyes, and asked him, "So what conspiracy story is that from?"
"No. Honest. That's what actually happened." the young man declared.
Just then the doctor pulled the bullet from the wound. She looked at it in shock. It did not come from any modern weapon. It was a mini ball, normally fired by a musket. Could Sebastian's story be true? She would have to look into it more after she got some more sleep. The doctor cleaned the wound and put a bandage over it, wrapping it up to control the bleeding. She sent him home with a prescription for some painkillers, telling him to stop in and have her check it later that day.
Sebastian went home and crawled into bed. When he got up later that day, he went downtown to the museum and went to the exhibit that had the history of the battles that occurred in that war. Most of the historical references dealt with the major battle that occurred in December of 1814. But he did find one vague reference to some of the smaller battles that led up to the major battle. One of these included a reference to the Louisiana Militia Battalion under the command of Major Paul Arnaud. There was a list of the men that fought with that group. Imagine Sabastian's surprise when he read the name of Ormund Gavin Lund as one of the members of that group.
He stepped back, shook his head, and then ran his fingers through his hair. He didn't notice the little old lady dressed in black sitting near the exhibit. As he turned to leave, she asked him, "You were out there, and fought in the skirmish, weren't you?"
"Excuse me," he said, looking at the lady carefully and wondering why she was talking to him.
"I noticed that you were limping, my guess it was from a mini ball fired from a British musket back in 1814. That you were out at a certain site after midnight last night and participated in one of the smaller conflicts of that war."
"What do you know about it? Is it a time warp? How did I end up there and how did I get back?"
The woman patted the bench that she was sitting on, indicating that the young man should sit next to her. Sebastian was curious as to what she could tell him, so he accepted her invitation.
"My name is Belinda Delacroix. Some people claim that I am a witch. I will let you decide for yourself what you might think I am. Let me tell you a little story about the War of 1812, that very few of the people of New Orleans know anything about."
"Okay..." Sebastian offered.
"There were several small battles that took place before the major battle. One of them happened on All Hallow's Eve, commonly called Halloween. Because of the enchanted night that it is, that battle gets reenacted every year. The only difference from one year to another is that each year, one more soldier from each side gets added to the army. If you would have counted last night, you would have found that there were two hundred and one men on the US side and on the British side. My guess is that you were the final one to get added to the US troops."
"Maybe that's what it meant..."
"What do you mean by that?" the lady asked.
"Just before the battle commenced, I thought I heard a voice saying 'Everyone is assembled.'"
"I have never heard that before. Are you sure you heard that?"
"Yes, ma'am. I am almost certain that is what I heard."
"Well, the legend has it that every year on All Hallow's Eve, these men are forced to go through the battle one more time. They were resurrected for one night each year."
"But why was I included. I wasn't dead and I certainly had not fought in that battle."
"The story goes that if your ancestor, who fought in that battle, survived the evening, then one of his descendants can fill in his spot." She looked at him with a twinkle in her eye, and asked, "Did one of your ancestors fight there?"
"I found a man with a last name like mine, but I don't know if he is my ancestor."
"Trust me, he is," Belinda told him.
She patted him on his uninjured leg and got up. When she had walked down a small corridor, she turned the corner and disappeared. Sebastian wanted to ask her where he could reach her, he followed, but when he got to the corner, she was nowhere to be seen.
Shaking his head at the encounter, he returned back to the office. When Loretta looked at his wound to see if it was getting infected or not, he told her of his encounter with Belinda Delacroix.
Loretta dropped the scissors she was holding. "Are you sure?" she asked him.
"Yes. It just happened less than an hour ago." the man answered.
"I don't see how that could be possible," she told the young man. "Belinda Delacroix was burned to death when the Union army took New Orleans. I know this because her house was near where I live and the story is well known in my neighborhood."
Both of them just looked at each other and did not speak of the incident again.