THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE KIND REVIEWS! It really is wonderful motivation.
"Chris!?" Ezra screamed…the "Mr. Larabee" formalities forgotten in the panic to search for a pulse on the cold, clammy neck.
"Oh thank the Lord," he said when he felt the strong heartbeat.
Standish carefully turned the body over and searched for bullet holes and obvious broken bones. He found none, but there was an impressive amount of superficial bruises, cuts, and scrapes. Somebody had beat the hell out of Chris, so where was Buck? He would not have left his friend alone in this condition…..willingly. Was Wilmington and/or Wiles out here injured somewhere as well? There was only one way to find out.
"Mr. Larabee?" Ezra crouched down next to the prone man. He gently tapped the gunslinger's face and repeated, "Mr. Larabee." His efforts were finally rewarded with the opening of a pair of confused green eyes.
"Ezra?" the weak voice croaked out.
"At your service," Ezra smiled, showing his gold tooth. Chris struggled to sit up and was finally successful with some assistance from Standish. "Will you be all right here for just a moment?" Ezra questioned. Chris placed his hands on the ground to hold himself upright and shook his head, "yes." The gambler rushed to his horse and grabbed his canteen, and a few cloths.
"Here, have a drink," the gambler handed the canteen to Larabee, who quickly lifted it to his mouth with a shaking hand. "What in God's name happened to you?"
"George Wiles happened…..shoulda listened to Vin," Chris took another drink before continuing, "We gotta get back up there. He's got Buck handcuffed to a tree, and I got no idea what he's plannin' on doin' to him."
"Mr. Wiles did this to you?"
"Yeah, we fought a couple of times before I finally got away."
"How did you end up out here?" Ezra used some of the canteen water to wet a cloth and clean up the worst cuts on Chris' head.
"Came lookin' for you," Larabee glanced up at the sky to try and judge the time of day, "musta passed out or fell asleep…..don't remember."
"Well, thank heavens for your all-black attire, Mr. Larabee. If you had been dressed like Mr. Tanner, it is likely that I never would have noticed you lying in this field."
The blond went to stand, and Ezra helped steady him. "We gotta go get Buck," Chris said. Standish draped Larabee's arm over his shoulder and assisted the man out to the main road. The travel was awkward. Chris was tall, a few inches taller than Ezra, and the terrain was brushy and uneven. Thankfully, Larabee was lean and not overly heavy, and Ezra was finally able to get the injured man to the awaiting horse.
"Unfortunately I lack Mr. Jackson's abilities to judge exactly how injured you are," Ezra motioned to Chaucer, "do you think you will be able to ride?"
"Yeah."
"OK then," Ezra smiled. "Up you go." With some help, Chris swung his leg up and settled into the saddle. Larabee started to scoot back and allow Ezra to mount when Standish said, " I'll walk. It is not far to the campsite."
"We need a plan. Wiles will be waitin' for us," Chris hissed as he sat up straighter.
"I guess I can kiss my big property commission goodbye," Ezra sighed.
"Afraid so. I have no idea what he really wants. Wiles wouldn't say a word to us after the attack," Chris looked down at his companion. "He had plenty of chances to kill or shoot us…." Chris let the sentence fade.
"Do you believe he is trying to lure someone else to come after you?" Ezra asked, "Mr. Tanner maybe….for the bounty?"
"I don't know," Chris pinched the bridge of his nose to relieve the pounding headache temporarily. "Buck was adamant that Wiley would never accept money to capture or kill us, but I can't come up with any other reasonable explanation."
"Money is a wonderful motivator," Standish reflected.
"I guess what I'm gettin' at…..is there's a part of me that doesn't want to just go in there and shoot him," Chris knew it sounded crazy. "I want to know what Wiles is up to…..he could have killed me more than once….but didn't."
"I beg to differ, sir," Ezra looked up at the battered man, "from your current state, it appears that he did not pull any punches."
"But he was armed, and I wasn't."
"Maybe he has a strict code of fighting fair, or maybe Mr. Wiles just prefers to beat his victims to death with his bare hands. Whatever the reason, Mr. Larabee, I cannot promise that I won't fire my weapon if I find myself threatened by him in any way."
"Understood," Chris shook his head. "Just keep what I said in mind."
"So, what is our plan?" Ezra stopped walking and halted Chaucer.
"Why don't I try to sneak back in – figure out what's goin' on….talk to Buck. You stay hidden, and I'll come get ya if I can. We'll make a new plan then, or if I don't come back - you come in after us, guns blazin' if necessary."
"I would be remiss if I did not point out that your person likely cannot endure additional punishment today. We could ride back to town and wire our associates in Four Corners," Ezra suggested.
"Not enough time; Vin'll come lookin' if we don't make it back in a day or two."
Ezra didn't like the thought of Vin, Josiah, JD and/or Nathan riding blindly into this mess or of Larabee having to battle with the large ex-soldier once again, but he agreed that they needed to get Buck back as soon as possible. "Was Mr. Wilmington injured?"
"Wiles knocked him out; busted his head up a bit, but I didn't see anything else. Buck didn't say he was hurt, but it's Buck – so who knows?"
"Yes, I know the type," Ezra replied dryly.
The two men re-started their trek to the north. Within 30 minutes, they arrived at the property.
They waited until dusk and left Chaucer along the river. Buck, Chris, and Wiles' horses were still there as well. Larabee's legs were wobbly at first, but in a minute or two he got his bearings and the two men headed into the woods.
As the trees began to thin out, Ezra found a hiding spot in a dense area of brush. Chris continued on to where he had last seen Buck. When Larabee arrived at the spot, there was no one there. He knew he was at the correct location. There were scrape marks on the tree from Buck's handcuffs, and he could see the remnants of Wiles' campfire from the night before.
"Shit," he said out loud.
"Ya might as well come on out, Ezra," Chris walked back down the hill. "They're gone."
"But their horses are still at the river," Ezra reminded Larabee, "they can't have gone far."
"I hope you're right," Chris started back up the hill. In his exhausted state, Larabee neglected to pick his foot up high enough and tripped over a large tree root. He fell into Ezra, and the surprised southerner grabbed onto Chris and did his best to keep them both upright. "Shit," Chris cursed again.
"Are you all right, Mr. Larabee?" Ezra asked once they both regained their footing.
"Fine," Larabee answered, but Standish knew better. It was obvious that Chris was hurting and exhausted, but nothing was going to stop the blond until Buck was found. The two men kept walking.
Chris showed Ezra the camp from last night, and suggested they "head up the valley but stick to the treeline."
"It's almost dark," Ezra responded quietly, "if they have not made a fire, it might prove difficult to ascertain their location before sunrise."
"I know," Chris sighed and shivered as the temperature continued to plummet, "but we gotta try."
The valley between the forested hillsides stretched on for miles under the moonlit, starry sky, and Larabee and Standish walked for half an hour before they smelled the campfire. It was only another few minutes until they saw the glowing flames. The campfire was just up the hill from a dilapidated barn on the far side of the valley. The man sitting next to the campfire was too bulky to be Buck.
"Looks like we found our Mr. Wiles," Ezra said between chattering teeth. What he wouldn't give to be able to shoot Wiles and curl up by his campfire right now.
"Maybe he's got Buck tied up in the barn?" Chris said more as a question than a statement. "Let's try to sneak around the back," Larabee motioned back down the hill, around a bend in the valley, where they should be able to cut across the field without being seen.
Ezra was cold, tired, and his feet hurt from walking, but he simply sighed and followed behind the older man. Chris moved stiffly but quickly. The way that Larabee held his left arm suggested to Standish that the seven's leader may have broken ribs, but there wasn't anything the gambler could do about it.
They successfully crossed the valley, but it was slow-going trying to walk quietly through the woods. The leaves were crunching under their boots, and Wiles' campfire was only about 20 yards from the treeline. The big man was lying on his bedroll, but neither Chris nor Ezra could tell if he was asleep.
The two men finally made it to the back side of the building, where Wiles could not see them enter. Ezra slowly opened the heavy door and was relieved to see Buck Wilmington sitting on the floor in the middle of the barn. He started to turn and tell Chris that they had found Buck, but just as he said, "Mr. Wilm….." he heard a loud crack and disappeared through the floor.
"What the hell?" Chris ran forward and looked down in the hole made by Standish. The boards were so old and rotten that they had simply given way under Ezra's feet. "You ok, Ezra?"
All the response he got was a yelp of pain from the man below, and he heard a voice behind him say, "welcome back Chris." George Wiles had, of course, heard all the commotion. He was standing behind Larabee with a gun pointing at his back.
Chris ignored Wiles and turned his attention back to Standish. "Ezra, give me your hand." He had fallen about 6 feet down, so when the southerner struggled to his feet his head was just below the barn floor. Wiles' moved his gun now to point at Wilmington, so the other two wouldn't get any ideas.
Standish yelled once more, out of pain and frustration, as he tried to stand and said, "that, my good sir, is more difficult than it sounds. My ankle seems to be refusing to support me."
"Shit," Chris said quietly. "I'll lift you out of there if you can stand up." He could hear Ezra struggling to get up. Finally the man's shoulder was within reach, and Larabee put his hands under Standish's arms and pulled him back up into the barn despite the pain it caused his own abused ribs and body.
"Nice job," Wiley said, as he removed Ezra's firearms while the gambler continued to moan from the pain in his ankle, "now both of you get over there next to Buck."
Larabee supported the shorter man the entire way, praying that Standish's ankle wasn't broken. They didn't need any additional hindrances to their chance of escape. Once they were in the middle of the large, old barn, Wiles roughly shoved Chris and Ezra to the floor. He quickly dragged Larabee over and tied his arms behind one support and then did the same to Ezra on the adjacent post. Buck was tied to the post about 6 feet to Chris' right. As before, Wiles simply walked away at that point, presumably back to his campfire, without saying another word.
"Alright, both of ya, tell me how and where you're hurt," Chris clearly needed to formulate a new plan.
"I'm fine," Buck quickly answered, "he just marched me up here and tied me up again."
"Are you tied or hand-cuffed?"
"Tied this time…..but I haven't been able to get 'em loose."
"Your turn, Ezra," Chris turned to his left and looked at the younger man.
"As you know, my ankle was injured when I fell through the floor of our current domecile."
Chris was relieved to hear Ezra sounding like his old self but asked, "is it broken?"
"Mr. Larabee, I am not a physician," Ezra sighed. "It hurts…..badly, and I am unable to bear weight on it, but I am unsure if it is broken."
"How are you doin' Chris?" Buck questioned after a few minutes of silence.
"I'm alright," Chris bent his legs up to his chest to try to warm up a bit.
"Where'd you run into Ezra?" Buck continued.
"I believe it would be more factual to state than I ran into Mr. Larabee," Ezra hissed as he tried to find a comfortable position for his injured foot. "He was out cold, lying in a field about a mile south of the original camp. It is a wonder that I saw him. I guess Josiah would say that the fate's were smiling on us today."
"Don't look like they're smilin' any more," Larabee retorted, somewhat miffed that Standish had to tell Buck that he hadn't made it to the road.
Wilmington shook his head in disbelief. How could something that was supposed to be fun turn into a mess like this? Two of his friends had been injured, and he had absolutely no idea what their captor had in store for them.
Buck didn't have time to think on it for long. Wiles opened the other entry to the barn. The captors could see that the sun was just beginning to illuminate the world outside. Wiles said, "I'm sorry boys," and threw a burning stick from his campfire up into the rafters.
The old barn possessed enough dried-out wood and hay that it caught fire immediately.
"This is not good," Ezra began wiggling and working furiously at his bonds.
"Ah hell," Chris began doing the same with the rope holding his wrists.
Buck yelled, "WILEY!" George had already turned and shut the door.