It was the middle of the night (or I'm guessing that's when it was, anyhow it was pitch black) when the lightning struck. A flash of white and then an enormous crack of thunder, comparable to a massive whip, shredding through the darkness and inducing terror.

I sat up and glanced at Slim, who was already slipping his boots on. I could see the whites of his eyes even through the black of night, and I knew he was panicking.

Lee jumped to his feet and ran to the horses, unhitching his buckskin.

"The cattle!" he cried out as he mounted, "We have to cut them off at the pass!"

Then it hit me: we had bedded the beeves down less than a fourth of a mile before the entrance to a canyon. This wouldn't have been an issue if the end of the canyon wasn't a drop off. If those steers made it to the entrance, there would be no way on heaven or on earth that we would be able to cut them off without risking our lives. I could already hear them moving, scared out of their wits by the commotion of the storm.

I grabbed my boots and slid them on as hastily as I could, then I headed for Traveler, who was wide awake, his eyes white and his legs quivering in the roar of the storm.

Then the rain started. My saddle was slick as all get out, and I had trouble staying seated. I got the poor old boy up to a canter before I reached the herd. The nighthawks were doing their best to circle the cattle, but several steers speedily strayed away and in the uproar, frightening the others. Another crack of thunder sounded and rang through my ears, piercing my insides. I could feel a quiet thud in my chest from the pressure of the roar and I knew the lightning was coming next.

Sure enough, another flash lit the sky as I rushed up behind the cattle.

"Get in front of them! They're headed towards the canyon!" Slim shouted, galloping Alamo towards the front of a thousand steers.

The rain came down in sheets, visibility was low, there was the heavy hanging sense that anything could go wrong at anytime, and a lump of dread filled the pit of my stomach. Rain whipped my face as I tried to get ahead of the cattle.

"Drive them in a circle! Drive them in a circle!" Lee kept repeating at the top of his lungs.

I reached point and drove them right, however there was nobody behind me and there was a window for escape.

"Turn them! Turn them!" I screamed at Joe, who was trying his level best to get his horse, Handsome, up to speed. The dapple gray pony caught his leg in front of a steer's horn, and as the cow leapt up behind him, Handsome and Joe were flipped backwards into the oncoming herd.

"No!" I cried. There was nothing I could do now, he was bound to be trampled to death.

The canyon loomed closer as another bolt of lightning etched the sketch like cracks in glass. We had to turn them before the first wave made it through the entrance.

All the drovers were now way behind the herd, doing their best to catch up. They stabbed the sides of their horses with their spurs, but the rain made the dry and rocky ground too muddy to properly maneuver on.

Slim was steadily racing next to Lee towards point and it looked like we were going to meet, but a flash of yellow at the corner of my eye caught my attention.

A blur of white rushed past me, and I was able to make out Andy in his yellow bandanna.

Oh God no.

He was galloping Juniper as fast as she could go, her little white legs browning with mud as they made their way towards the canyon entrance.

"Andy no!" Slim screamed, spurring Alamo in the sides.

I was falling behind, too concentrated on Andy to think about how fast I was going, or which direction the steers were headed.

Alamo started to huff and foam formed at his lips, his muscles wet with sweat and the oncoming rain storm.

"Jess!" Slim cried out, "Stop Andy! Grab him!"

I heard the words, but they took at least two seconds to register, everything was happening all at once, it was just too fast.

"GO!" Slim ordered.

I spurred Traveler on and leaned forward in the saddle, trying to stay seated as the rain continued to pelt my face. Traveler's breath came out in deep puffs and his muscles tightened with each step. He galloped across the muddy landscape, chasing Juniper.

"Come on, come on!" I hissed over the thunder cracks.

Foam seeped from the edges of his lips and whipped his sides, his strides slowly becoming smoother and his breath more strained. The mud squelched and slapped with every hoof beat and the lightning splashed the sky, painting a horrific picture of glowing veins through the purple and black clouds.

Traveler slowed and Juniper did the same, but we still weren't neck and neck.

"Andy!" I yelled, "Stop! For the love of God, come back!"

Andy looked back, fear apparent in his brown eyes and I glanced backwards to see the steers catching up with us.

Great.

The steers engulfed us, their horns drawing dangerously close to us. Traveler was rammed in the haunches by one of the stray horns and he squealed and reared. Another set of horns snatched his back legs and he went down like a tree.

I flew from the saddle into the wave of horns and wet cow flesh and I figured it was the end. I slapped into the mud and felt my back being trampled down by countless sets of hooves. I raised myself quickly to my knees (stupid, I know) and tried to stand up. I saw horns headed my direction and my pathetic life flashed before my eyes. Suddenly, I felt my shirt tighten around my neck, and I was once again flying. I was bounced up and an arm grasped under my arms and around my chest.

"Hold on!" Slim rasped, trying to get a good grip on my sopping wet body.

I reached one leg over the Alamo's rump and swung on behind Slim, grabbing around his waist.

"Take him!" Slim demanded, standing up in the saddle and getting ready to pounce on a rocky outcropping at the entrance of the canyon.

He was trusting me with his horse, hoping my horsemanship skills could get me through that herd; he was trusting me with Andy's life. I didn't realize it then, I only thought of why he was handing the reins to me. I was lighter, and I knew how to get the horse up to speed, that's all the reasoning I could muster honestly.

I grabbed the reins and when Slim jumped off onto the canyon wall, I spurred that horse until he was rasping. He was going to die at this rate, but his spirit was too strong to quit.

I could faintly see Andy's yellow bandanna in the distant herd of steers, and I pushed Alamo through the ocean of horns.

The steers were crying and howling through the raging thunderstorm, and showed no signs of slowing. The purple sky showed up ahead through the canyon walls and I knew the drop off was imminent. I could already hear the sharp cries of steers as they fell, fading as they reached the bottom of the drop off and meeting their grisly fate.

Andy knew there was a drop, and I saw him press Juniper against the canyon wall and precariously turn her around to go against the grain of steers. She refused to move and Andy started to look helplessly in my direction. Alamo's breath was suddenly vacant and his strides were now abrupt and wobbly.

His front legs collapsed and he screeched out one last time. I leapt from the saddle before his back legs went down and I slammed myself against the canyon wall, trying desperately to climb up above the speeding cows. My boots slipped against the wall, and I felt like a mouse dangling in front of a cat, swinging by the tail and waiting for the beast below to leap up and snatch me, bringing me down to my death.

I reached one arm up, straining my muscles as I left all my body weight on a single hand grasping a jutting rock.

I reached the other arm up and deemed my legs useless as there were no sturdy footholds. Upper body strength was all I had, and my gloves were wet and muddy, not to mention slippery. I could feel my back, arms, and stomach aching and stinging with the effort. I gritted my teeth and powered onward, finally slapping a hand on the top of the canyon wall. I reached a leg over and rolled onto my side, breathing heavily.

There was no pausing to catch my breath, I had to rescue Andy. I got to my feet, but my knees were jelly and I kept tripping and falling.

"Andy!" I shouted, sliding on my belly as I reached the point of the canyon where he was sitting on Juniper.

I looked down and called his name again. He heard me and looked up, panic in his eyes.

"Jess!" he whimpered.

"I'm comin' to getchya buddy, just hang on!"

I turned myself around and slid down the canyon wall, my back towards the rain and my chest against the muddy rock. I felt a tree sticking out from the rock, and I decided it would hold my weight. I sat on the branch carefully and slid along it towards Andy.

"Grab my hand!" I ordered, stretching my wet and dirty arm towards him. I was upside down at this point and God knows where my hat had gone.

Andy's face creased with worry and he held tighter around Juniper's neck.

"Come on!" I said, desperate for him to reach out.

Andy delicately sat up in the saddle and reached a hand out. Before we could touch, a steer's horn pierced Juniper's chest and she screamed, being pushed back several feet.

Andy yelped and clamped himself tighter around her neck. She cried in pain as blood gushed out of her wound. I knew she would go down any second.

I hastily moved to the other side of the branch and reached my arm out again.

"Grab my hand!" I screamed.

Andy's eyes were wide as saucers and I knew he couldn't do it. Blue eyes stared into brown and I saw his complete lack of trust in me, something I had never seen before.

"I won't let you go! I promise! Trust me!" I assured him.

He shook his head and tears streamed down his face.

"Jess I can't!" he sobbed, looking at me the whole time.

I could feel my own eyes widening and forehead creasing.

"Please, God damn it! Just do it!" I helplessly pleaded.

Juniper was pushed again and she was only a couple feet from the drop off. Andy was now out of my reach and I had to act quickly.

I jumped from the tree and grasped a ledge, pulling one half of my body onto the outcropping while my other leg and arm draped over the side.

I was now dangerously close to the drop off, and I knew death was looking me right in the face.

I reached my arm out once more.

"Andy!" I said, exhaustion now present in my voice.

Andy looked at me and was frozen with fear. I made a lunge of faith and grabbed his wet shirt just as Juniper was pushed over the edge. She slid out from underneath him and all of his weight was suddenly, without warning, all on my left arm.

I could only reach one arm out, if I used the other, I'd fall off the ledge and we'd both be dead.

I clenched his sopping shirt as tightly as I could with my gloved hand, my fingers and arm on fire.

You know how when you were a kid and you'd go down to the lake to try and see who of your friends could hold their breath longer? And you know how you'd put your head under the surface of the water and after maybe fifteen seconds, your lungs would start to burn? But you were so determined to stay down the longest, that you tried to power through it? And how you knew you were going to drown if you didn't resurface, so you made your way to the top all while you felt like your insides would explode? That's exactly how I felt now, and my breaking point was inevitable.

I let out an inhuman cry of pain and anger as I threw him up in the air by the back of his shirt and grasped his yellow bandanna. My hand clenched around the bandanna, but the weight was suddenly all gone.

I opened my eyes in time to see the bandanna unraveled and Andy falling over the drop off, his eyes staring back into mine as he plummeted to his death. I was holding his bandanna in my hand and I couldn't comprehend what had just happened.

You let me down.

I heard his voice in my head and then my own.

I won't let you go. I promise. Trust me.

What have I done.