I guess I never realized how many Lakota tales we knew about the Blood Moon until we started tellin' 'em all to Malone. I could see the disbelief in her eyes at the beginning, but it sure wasn't there when I finished with the tale about the disappearin' train. That one was told to us by Pappy many, many years ago.
We finally put our heads together and came up with a plan – rather, Ginny an Bart came up with a plan. I didn't have much to offer in the way of an idea, but they seemed to have everything just about worked out except the part about gettin' us outta the car we'd been in all day. An that's when the Lakota's and the Blood Moon stepped in.
How else do you explain a noise that starts out whistlin' like the wind an ends up howlin' louder than a big old gray wolf on a nighttime hunt? Wasn't no cause or reason for a sound like that, 'cept to give us a way outta that railroad car. An that's just what it did when the Daggett gang just kinda wandered out into the dark night to try an find out what the sound was an where it was comin' from. You know we were outta there as fast as we could be, and went scootin' straight back to the Marshal's car. Bart got us in and introduced us to Bane and Francis.
Malone was right, there was some kind of a door under the safe. It took all four of us to get it moved, and somewhere along the way of doin' that the howlin' stopped outside. Next thing I know Cafferty's outside yellin' about lettin' us live if we'll just turn over the money an Daggett. Yeah, like he was really gonna do that. Let us live, I mean. I thought maybe we could buy our way outta the whole thing, but I shoulda known better. It was all or nothin' with Cafferty and the bunch.
Ginny got the safe opened and they all got out while I was tryin' to convince Cafferty to take the deal I was offerin'. All except Bart, and he wasn't gonna go until I went. I told him to get the hell out, I'd be right behind him, and then rattled the chain around the door lock to make it sound like I was goin' to open the door. I got outta the trap door fast as I could but I knew there wasn't time to get far enough away before the dynamite blew up the car. I took the best shot I had at stayin' alive an slid underneath the rail car behind the one we'd been in with maybe a second or two to spare. The blast, when it came, was loud and painful.
I got hit in the face with a piece of some kinda debris and don't remember anything for a while. When I finally came to the air was full of smoke and burning flesh, and I was hoping the smell wasn't from me. My head hurt somethin' awful and I could taste blood in my mouth, but I was breathin' an that's what counts. I lay there for a few minutes tryin' to see just how bad off I was before comin' to the conclusion that nothin' hurt too much. I listened to the night sounds to make sure I didn't hear anybody around me and then tried scootin' back out from under the car. I heard a 'rip' as I did so and knew I'd ruined another coat. Oh, well. Better the coat than the body.
There was no one on my side of the train, and no bodies close enough for me to see. I got to my feet gingerly and felt a sharp pain in my right ankle, but I didn't think it was broken. I tried to hobble around to the other side of the car and as soon as I did the carnage became evident. The smell of flesh was strong here, and there were several mounds of something that used to be people scattered through the surrounding field. I couldn't stand the smell, it brought back too many memories of the war. Neither could my insides, which were soon protestin' my continued occupation of the area by the only way they knew how – I was back on the ground on my knees vomiting. That seemingly done for the moment, I staggered back to my feet and headed for what I thought was the same direction Bart and the others had run. I got about twenty or thirty feet away from the wreckage when my legs wouldn't carry me any further and I stumbled and fell. For some reason unknown to me, Ginny was close and I heard her yell, "Bret!" as I went down. At least I think it was her yellin'.
I musta passed out again, and when I came to the second time everything that I could see – which wasn't much in the darkness, gloom and smoke – was fuzzy. I heard Ginny again callin' my name, and this time I was sure it was her voice. Then I heard Bart tell her to wipe the blood off my face. He was there, but not as close as she was. Her touch was a lot gentler than I expected it to be, but when she wiped my right eye there was a whole lotta pain and I yelped.
"That's good, he's alive," I heard Bart say, and there was relief in his voice. Then he went quiet and Ginny moved away from me, and I could hear her talkin' to my brother. Only problem is he wasn't answerin' her. I couldn't have been that far away from him, but I couldn't see much of anything out of that right eye. I tried to sit up and didn't have much luck with that either. I don't know how much time passed before Ginny was back next to me and I tried to open my eyes again and see her, but I got nowhere with that. "Why is it so dark?" I asked, and got no answer, so I tried a different question. "How's Bart?"
"He'll be fine," a man's voice answered.
It sounded like Bane, so I asked. "Bane?"
"Yeah, Maverick, it's me. Thanks for gettin' us outta there." There was a brief pause, then Bane asked, "You wanna try gettin' up again?"
"Yeah," I told him, and could see enough to spot the hand he was offerin' me.
"Careful, Bret," I heard Ginny say, "there's pieces of train everywhere." This time I got to my feet, with Bane's help. She directed her question to the man that had just pulled me up. "Can you carry Bart? I can help Bret."
"No problem," Bane answered her, and I finally got a good look at Agent Malone. Dirty an dusty, but she seemed uninjured.
"You alright?" I asked her.
"I'm fine, she said to the man with blood all over his face."
"Is that what's goin' on?" I questioned her. "What's wrong with Bart?"
"I can't keep him awake," she told me.
"Francis an Daggett?"
"Already went back to our car."
"And the gang?"
That didn't take much explanation. "Dead, far as I can tell." She grabbed my hand and led me back to the railroad car. "Watch out for the steps," she told me, and I could see just well enough to make it inside. It looked like Daggett was cuffed over one of the seats and Francis had a gun trained on him. Bane had set Bart down across one a the other seats, and I half walked, half stumbled over to my brother who was, at this moment, awake.
"You alright?" I questioned.
He raised his head to look at me. "Better than you, from the look of things," he babbled, and closed his eyes again.
I glanced at Malone, who was standing next to me with a wet cloth in her hands. "Is that for me?"
"Yes," she answered. "I know this is gonna hurt, but you need to let me get you cleaned up. I don't know how you can see anything."
"I can't. Haven't you noticed?" When she didn't answer, I asked her, "Does it look that bad?"
"Yes," came her answer again, and I believed her as she started wiping my face. I still didn't know what I'd gotten hit with, or what kind of damage it'd done, but everything she touched hurt. Especially on the right side where my eye was. "Your coat's ripped," was the next thing she told me.
"I'm not surprised. Did you see where I was?"
"Under the next car? I saw. Why didn't you get out sooner? Trying to keep our friends in the blast area?"
"See, you figured me out. You don't look real happy right now." That was an understatement. She was givin' me one a those 'that wasn't a good idea' looks.
"I don't like the way this gash above your eye looks."
I grabbed her hand and pulled it away from my face. "I'll be fine. Go see what you can do for Bart."
She twisted my grip loose and resumed her clean-up. "Sit still. He's out again, anyway."
I sighed. "That's the problem," I told her. "He needs to be kept awake."
"Concussions?"
"Too many to count," I explained.
"Alright, hold this right here until I come back. And I'm serious. If I look over and your hand is gone – "
"Yes, mother," I answered her and chuckled. Ginny went over and tried to rouse my brother, who responded kinda slowly to her gentleness. "Shake him," I told her, and she did, finally.
"Awake, awake, awake," Bart mumbled.
"Make him sit up," I advised Ginny, and she tried. He was uncooperative, to say the least. "Alright, son, it's time to get up," I told him, ignoring Malone's warnin' and bendin' down to sit him up straight. That was a bad move on my part, as my almost instant dizziness attested to. I let go of my brother and he stayed upright, which is somethin' I didn't do. The next thing I saw was Malone's face lookin' down at me.
"See what happens when you ignore me?" she asked.
"Just help me up, would ya?" She did and then pushed me back into the seat right next to Bart. "We make some pair, don't we?"
"Yes," she answered, shaking her head. "You two make some pair."
