"Well Carlos, it is nice to see you wake up from your little nap." Eduardo said grinning as he took away Gordon's gun.
"Who set that damned sack trap? I'm gonna kill him!" Carlos replied, still showing a little bit of grogginess and rubbing the side of his head.
Miguel caught a quick look from Victor as he nodded towards the barn. And as if on que, someone, either Scott or Jorge moaned from inside the house, catching Eduardo's attention for just a split second. The other men were in the process of taking the guns away from John and Alan when the well time distraction occurred. Victor lifted up his crutch and brought it down on Eduardo's arm, sending the gun to the ground. Miguel bolted for the barn with two of Jorge's men in hot pursuit. Alan and John each attacked the remaining men, the ones who had taken the guns from them.
As Miguel was running as fast as he could, he could hear gunfire behind him. He couldn't tell if they were shooting at him or at the blue soldiers. But he had one goal in mind and he was focused 100% on reaching the barn. He could hear the footsteps catching up behind him. He had a slight smile on his face when he realized that he heard more than one set of pounding feet behind him. He just prayed that he could reach the barn before the men reached him. As soon as his feet hit bedding, he dove for the back wall sliding on the clean dry straw. He was able to slide half way through the hole on this one effort. It took just a quick pull of his arms and he was through. He looked up and grabbed the dangling rope, waiting, waiting.
The two men, taller and faster than Miguel were gaining quickly on the young man. 'Why is it he is going for the barn, does he not think that we will catch him there?' one of them thought. They both saw him dive into the barn and seemingly disappear. They stopped just short of entering the barn. They looked at each other, puzzled. There was a large pile of straw in the back. "Do you think he is under there?" one of the men asked. "It seems a bit obvious, doesn't it? Maybe there is a trap door under the straw and he is escaping through a tunnel." The other answered. And with that bit of knowledge both men dove into the barn and aimed straight for the pile of straw.
When Miguel heard the two men digging in the pile, he yanked on the rope and moved out of the way just as the bucket of rocks came flying out of the tree pulling the hidden rope that snaked throughout the barn and around the poles. There was a moment of hesitation when suddenly without the support of the now yanked poles, the entire roof caved in on the hapless men. The bucket missed the large rock on the first swing but then on the next round it lightly tagged it. Just enough to make it teeter then roll down the plank and block the hole that moments earlier Miguel slid through.
One man was knocked unconscious, and the other was pinned under the debris. Curse words mixed with cries of help flowed from the barn.
Miguel smiled, he couldn't believe his good fortune that he was able to catch two in this trap. He then turned his attention back to the house as he watched the melee between Jorge's men and Victor's friends. It was four on four. Victor was struggling with Eduardo, and John, Alan and Gordon each had one of Jorge's men. Miguel cringed everytime he heard a shot. Both John and Alan were struggling to get hold of the guns that their opponents held and periodically a shot would get fired. In one violent yank, John retrieved his gun from the rebel. That same instance another shot went off, this from Alan's gun. Victor jerked back and fell to the ground. Eduardo, now suddenly free of his enemy went for his gun on the ground near his feet. As he stood up ready to point it at John, he heard, "I won't if I were you!" and was staring down the barrel of a gun that Scott held. "Tell your men to stop. NOW! and drop their guns." Scott ordered and to put even more emphasis on the command he lifted his gun and pointed it right between the eyes of Eduardo. He complied "¡La parada! Deje caer sus fusiles!" he yelled.
When Miguel saw that the blue soldiers won the fight he came running. The smile left his face as he slid to a stop and saw his friend on the ground. He whispered, "Victor!"
"Victor?"
All the Tracy's heard what Miguel called their brother. They were all stunned. But before any of them could give into the luxury of tending to Victor/Virgil, they needed to tie all these men up. Scott looked up at Miguel, "Do you have any rope?" When Miguel did not answer, Scott barked a little louder, "MIGUEL! Do you have any rope?" Miguel snapped out of it and nodded yes. He ran back behind the barn and was able to grab a long length of rope left from the barn trap. He quickly ran back to the house and saw that his mother was already kneeling beside Victor.
"Victor, Victor!" cried Teresa as she knelt over him, brushing his hair off his forehead. Gordon, Alan and John, although they had ironclad grips on their prisoners, just gawked at the still figure on the ground. Scott didn't even look down. He was puzzling the actions that occurred inside the house. It was as if Virgil didn't recognize him. He was watching Eduardo carefully, with his peripheral vision on Miguel. But his mind was still mulling over what Virgil did to him. And the name Victor, where did that come from? Why is he calling himself Victor?
When Miguel came back with the rope, Scott said, "Miguel, cut the rope up into 2 to 3 foot pieces." Nodding, he ran into the house to get a sharp knife. He looked down at the still figure of Jorge and spat on him. "This time you lose." He said vehemently in Spanish. He then found the small sharp knife that his mother had used on Victor and proceeded to cut the rope into manageable lengths. When he had enough for all of Jorge's men, he went back outside. As he passed by the table he grabbed a few of the bandages that his mother had recently cleaned for Victor. He didn't see Jorge open his eyes, meanness just glaring through them.
Miguel handed a piece of rope to each of the Tracy brothers so that they could tie up their charges. Scott gave him his gun to hold on Eduardo, while he tied his hands behind him. Once the more important tasks had been completed, Scott and John knelt down next to Virgil. Both afraid to touch him to see if were alive. They had come so far, found him on pure luck, only to have him die,*again*. Holding out a shaky hand, Scott felt for Virgil's pulse.
"He's alive!" he said as he looked up at his brother's. "He has as strong pulse." Turning to John, "Help me roll him over to see where he was hit." When they gently rolled him over, John, the first to see his back, gasped, "Oh my God, what happened to him? Look at his back!"
Teresa volunteered what she knew, "I think he was caught in the mortar attack on the village last week. Those are shrapnel wounds on his back. But they are almost all healed now."
They rolled him completely onto his front and found the bullet hole. A collective sigh could be heard from all four brothers as they saw that although it will be painful, the bullet hit no major organs or blood vessels. It went through the thick muscle of his back, the Latisimus dorsi, just under his right shoulder. It seemed to have missed the ribs as well.
Gordon was able to take his eyes off of his brother for a moment and noticed that Eduardo was looking around suspiciously. He started to look around too when he realized that no one really knew how many men Jorge came with. In fact, it was that very fact that got them into this firefight to begin with. "Uh, guys? How many men have we got accounted?" Gordon asked.
John looked up from Virgil and said, "there is a dead man in a pit on the other side of the paddock. Another one tied up. I put him in the pit with the dead fella." Alan made a face when John said that, "Eeeewwwwww!" John continued, "I also tied up a muddy guy who was just coming to in the paddock. I'm guessing that Virgil took him out."
Miguel looked up. That was the first time he heard Victor's real name. "Virgil? His name is Virgil?" John nodded yes.
"So, that accounts for three men, what about you Alan?" Gordon asked.
"I have one trussed up against a tree. He's not going anywhere for a while."
"That's four. We have this guy here and his three cohorts, and the two in the barn. That's 10, plus that Jorge guy, who's tied up inside the house. That's eleven." Gordon purposely did a count to watch Eduardo's reaction. Maybe he would be hoping that one of the other men that John and Alan got would be able to help them. His reaction was slight, but he would never make a good poker player. Gordon was satisfied that it was a look of disappointment. There were no "extra" unaccounted for men on the periphery.
Scott looked to Teresa, "Senora? What can you tell me of Virgil's injuries?"
"Virgil?" she said softly. "That seems to fit him better than Victor. He said that he thought his name began with V but couldn't quite find the right name. We came up with Victor."
Scott could see that she was extremely fond of Virgil. He kept quiet and let her continue.
She spoke as she started to dress the newest injury. "I have never met a man so accident prone. Is he always like this?"
Before anyone could answer, she went on, "Miguel, my son, wanted to go to the village to find out more about you men. This was 2 days after you rescued the children. He found your friend on the way there and brought him back. He was very cold. I thought he would die. You see his back. His chest wounds are pretty much from the fall. What Miguel thinks is that he fell near the church. That is the steepest part of the ravine. I am surprised he survived that." She pointed to his left arm. "He had a very bad infection there." Then pointing to his knee, "His knee is badly damaged too but I do not know what is wrong. He can hardly put any weight on it."
She looked up "He cannot remember anything. He does not know his name, who you are, where he came from. Nothing."
A cloud of worry shadowed all of the faces of the Tracy brothers.
"Please, if you don't mind, untie my friends."
Suddenly the face of worry became a face of alarm as the brothers turned towards the doorway of the house. There stood Jorge with a machine gun in his hand, freshly cut ropes dangling from his wrists, and the knife that Miguel had just used to cut the ropes but left inside.