All three men pulled furiously at the ropes binding them. The flames had engulfed the hay loft and part of the back wall. The smoke was thick and noxious, and Buck, Ezra, and Chris coughed violently as they worked to free themselves. It only seemed that the knots got tighter as they struggled.
Buck finally stopped fighting and said, "well boys, it's been real good ridin' with ya. I guess I'll see ya on the other side."
The flames continued to hungrily devour the barn structure. The smoke was so thick that the three men could barely breathe or see, but they could feel the heat of the fire and knew it was growing closer by the minute.
Chris coughed out, "Buck, you're a lot of trouble, but I wouldn't change a thing about you. Thanks for stickin' with me…. Ezra, I'm bettin' you're real sorry you ever met us about now," Larabee half-laughed/half-coughed, "but I'm not. You're a damn good man, and I hope I don't see either of you on the other side 'cause that likely means you went to the wrong place."
Ezra hoped they wouldn't be able to hear the fear in his voice, but he took the chance. "Gentlemen," he coughed, "I too have enjoyed our adventures together, and it makes little difference to me where we end up in the afterlife, so long as they have whiskey and cards."
"Amen!" Chris and Buck said at the exact same time, and all three men laughed despite their dire circumstances.
The air was hot, and it was becoming almost impossible to breathe. Ezra knew they likely only had enough oxygen for a few more minutes, and he was hoping that he would simply go to sleep. Dying of oxygen-deprivation sounded a lot more pleasant than being burned alive.
Chris could feel himself getting sleepy, and he too understood what that meant. "Hopefully I'll see you soon, Sarah and Adam," he thought to himself. No matter how much he joked with Buck and the others about going to Hell, he prayed that would not be the case….so he could see his wife and son again.
Buck was still hanging on, but he could see his two friends fighting to stay conscious. The fire was burning from the top and back, around to the right. That was closer to where Ezra and Chris were tied than himself. He focused his efforts on trying to keep his friends awake. "Chris! Ezra! Come on boys, you gotta wake up!" He had no idea what he wanted to wake them up for, but he felt like he had to do something. They couldn't just give up.
Vin carried the unopened letter up the steps to Nathan's clinic. He was surprised to see JD sitting on the bed when he entered. "Didn't mean to interrupt," Vin said, "you sick, JD?"
"Oh no," JD laughed and held up his hand, "Nate's gonna take a splinter out for me. Was helping Josiah over at the church this mornin', and I shoved a piece of wood in my hand."
Nathan came over with a bowl of water and began to work on JD's hand with a small knife and a pair of tweezers. "You ok, Vin?" Nathan asked, surprised to see the tracker in his clinic as well.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Vin pulled up a chair and sat down, "just getting worried about Chris, Ezra, and Buck. Shoulda been back by now."
"They said they might not be back until today. A-ha!" Nathan smiled as he pulled the offending splinter out of JD's palm.
"Chris said either last night or this mornin'," Vin looked down at the letter, "it's after noon."
"So, they're an hour or two late," JD chimed in, "maybe they stopped for a meal….or a drink?" JD knew Vin's gut feelings about these sorts of things were usually correct, so he was trying to convince himself that Buck and the others were ok as much as anybody else.
"I think it's time to open this letter," Vin said quietly.
"Vin, it ain't right," Nathan once again insisted.
"I'm gonna open it," Vin took out a knife and began cutting the envelope, "and JD's gonna read it."
"Why do I have to read it?" JD questioned.
Vin did his best impression of the Larabee glare and said, "just do it JD." Vin pulled the folded piece of paper out of the envelope and handed it to their youngest member.
"Dear George,
I hope that your travels went well and you have located the desired property. We have discussed the situation further and believe it will be necessary to carry out the full plan with LWT. Please advise by telegram, as we discussed, when the job is complete. The deadline is quickly approaching. Best wishes for a safe return home for you and your wife.
Sincerely,
TS"
JD handed the letter back to Vin and asked, "what do you think it means? Full plan and LWT?"
"I got no idea, JD," Vin answered honestly. "I was hopin' it would give a little more detail." Vin began pacing around the room. "Deadline for what? To find a piece of property? Maybe he's lookin' for someone else, but why lie to us about it…and I thought Buck said that Wiles' wife had left him."
"Could be some kind of money laundering thing," Nathan suggested, "need to get it hidden away or locked up in property as soon as possible?"
"It's possible," Vin continued to pace, "what the heck does LWT mean?"
"I dunno," Nathan shrugged his shoulders, "could be some fancy lawyer's abbreviation or somethin' – like Last Will and Testament. Maybe they're trying to spend up someone's money?"
Vin shook his head. Nathan's ideas were good, but deep down he knew this had something to do with his friends. "L and W could be for Larabee and Wilmington, but Ezra would be S."
All three men searched their minds for a reasonable explanation for the letter and for why their friends had yet to return.
"Oh my God, Vin!" JD jumped up. "T is for Tanner. Wiles was sent here to kill Chris, Buck, and you!"
"I'm headin' out after 'em." Vin walked toward the door.
"I'm comin' too," JD followed in the tracker's footsteps.
"Nate, you and Josiah stay here in case they return. Come on kid, let's hit the road."
Nathan sure hoped that they were all wrong about Wiles and the letter, but he headed to the cabinet to check his medical supply stock. There was no harm in being prepared….just in case.
As the back wall started to collapse and embers and pieces of the barn rained down on Buck, Chris, and Ezra's heads, Wiles flung open the doors and rushed back into the barn. His knife easily and quickly cut the bindings of all three men. "I'll get Ezra," he said as he effortlessly scooped up the smaller gambler. "You help Chris," Wiley said to Buck.
Buck didn't ask any questions. He just did as his old friend asked him to do. He tried for a second to get Chris to wake up and walk out, and then said to hell with it. Chris went over his shoulder and out he ran behind Wiley and Ezra.
Wiles and Wilmington dropped their bundles outside and both fell to their hands and knees coughing and gasping for breath.
The cool, clean air aroused the other two men as well, and they lay on the ground trying to satiate their oxygen-deprived lungs and bodies.
Chris, Ezra, and Buck coughed and vomited up black soot all morning. As George Wiles watched the men try to recover, he felt ashamed for what he had done – two of these men had been his friends for over a decade. Why had he ever thought he would be able to pull this off and what the hell was he going to do now? He grabbed a canteen and offered water to the three men. He didn't know how else to help them. He hadn't realized how long the barn had been burning. If he had waited another 10 minutes, none of them would have survived.
Ezra took a huge, long drink of water. It felt wonderful on his dry, sore throat…..at least until it all came back up about two minutes later.
Chris still felt like he could not catch his breath. He had coughed so much and so hard that he didn't think his lungs, throat, and ribs (which had already been sore from the beating the night before) could take much more.
It was late in the afternoon before any of the men made an effort to do anything besides sit or lie down and hack up the trash in their lungs.
George came back from gathering more water, and he had the men's supplies from their horses and the previous-night's camp as well. It was a sure sign how terrible they were all feeling that none of them tried to escape or attack Wiles when he returned.
"Wiley," Buck coughed and continued, "you ever gonna tell us what the hell's goin' on?"
"Come and have some food, and I'll do my best to explain," George answered and motioned for the men to follow him back down the valley to their previous night's campfire. The fire was out, but there were a few logs and rocks on which they could sit.
Chris and Buck supported Ezra between them, to keep weight off of his injured left ankle. Chris was amazed at the amount of energy it took to make the half-mile trek. In fact, he had to ask Buck to stop halfway, so he could catch his breath for a couple of minutes.
The four men gathered around the old camp spot, and Wiley offered some bacon and biscuits that only Buck accepted. Standish's and Larabee's stomach were just not up to it yet. "So, spill it Wiley," Chris' voice was so hoarse that Wiles could barely hear him. He knew what he wanted to hear, nonetheless.
"I was asked to put an end to the Magnificent Seven," Wiles began. "They wanted me to make sure Larabee met with an unfortunate accident, and then I was to make sure that enough additional members were killed that the remaining peacekeepers would likely disband and move on."
"Who hired you?" Chris' scorched throat strained to say.
"Nobody hired me," George sighed, "but I wasn't completely truthful about my life. I was a farmer back in Illinois just like I said, but my wife didn't leave. Laura and I are very much in love…in fact, she's the real reason I'm here."
"Go on," Buck said as Wiley paused and took a bite of a biscuit.
"We've had a drought for the last few years, so funds were tight. I borrowed some money last year to plant mine and a neighbor's fields….to ensure we made enough to live on and to pay the loan back. Well, it didn't work out. The rains didn't come this summer either."
"So how did we get involved?" Ezra's southern accent seemed more pronounced through his abused throat.
"Somehow they found out that I was a friend of Buck and Chris' from the war." He saw the look that Larabee threw at him, and he followed with, "I swear that I didn't tell them. They just found out. Apparently one of their other clients, or money backers, or whatever you want to call 'em was somebody you guys ticked off…because he wanted you disbanded. Anyway, they kidnapped my wife and told me they would kill her if I didn't do it. They also said they would consider my debt paid." Wiles stared down at the old, burnt campfire. He couldn't bring himself to look any of these men in the eye.
Chris and Ezra didn't know whether to believe Wiles or not. It seemed awful convenient that the man used a kidnapped woman as his excuse. George knew Buck well enough to be certain that Wilmington would bite on that story: hook, line, and sinker.
"So, why the hell didn't you just tell us?" Buck tried to yell, which only caused him to cough. "We woulda helped ya get your wife back."
"I was supposed to complete the job within the next week," Wiley put his head in his hands. "I couldn't imagine there was time for me to come and get you guys, take you back to Chicago, and rescue Laura in that amount of time. They said they would kill her next Saturday."
"Well, that gives us eight days to come up with a plan," Buck said matter-of-factly.
Vin and JD rode hard but still had to stop and make camp before they arrived at the old man's property where their friends had gone a few days earlier.
After a quick dinner and both men had lain down on their bedrolls, JD said, "how could this Wiles guy do this, Vin? He was Buck's friend? There ain't enough money in the world to ever make me hurt one of you guys."
"I know, JD," Vin said as he rolled over to face his younger friend. "Money does funny things to some folks, but we don't even know if this is about money. Wiles told Buck that his wife left him, but she was mentioned in the letter. What would you do if someone took Casey and said they'd kill her if you didn't put a bullet in me?"
JD shook his head in a sad understanding. "That would be a real tough choice," the young man thought to himself as he closed his eyes.
Wiley, Buck, Chris, and Ezra made their way down to the river that evening. Buck had suggested they try to wash up a bit. Maybe they could breathe better if they got the soot off of their clothes and themselves. Ezra and Chris were up for trying about anything at this point. Standish's ankle had improved enough that he could get around, but with a pronounced limp. He just could not seem to get the smell and choking sensation out of his lungs and mind. Buck laughed when Chris took off his hat.
"It looks like yer still wearin' a hat," Buck pointed it out to Ezra, who also chuckled. Chris had a black ring around the bottom of his head, in stark contrast to the blond hair on top. He was sure he and Ezra had the same problem, but the color difference wasn't nearly as noticeable.
The three men stripped down to their birthday suits and bravely entered the cold water. A set of clean clothes, from their bag, was waiting on the river banks. Wiles burned all of the dirty clothes, except for their hats and Ezra and Buck's jackets. Those he did his best to wash out in the river. Chris hadn't been wearing his duster.
The men washed up as quickly as possible. Ezra was so cold and tired by the time he got out of the water that he had trouble buttoning his shirt. It did feel good to be clean though. He laughed when he noticed Larabee walking back to the campfire with his shirt wide open as well. He clearly didn't have the energy either. Standish grinned, imagining what they all must look like with no hats, and none of them had bothered to bring a comb.
All four men bedded down for the night, with little thought to what their hair or clothing looked like. Although utterly exhausted, Chris and Ezra both struggled to sleep. If Nathan had seen them earlier, taking an icy bath just before bedding down in the cool, night air, he would have sworn they were all going to catch their death. Ezra wondered how the hell he would know if he came down with pneumonia. He couldn't stop coughing anyway.
Standish saw Chris get out of bed and walk away from the campsite. Larabee was trying desperately to clear out his lungs. Ezra rose and hobbled over to the darkly-dressed, lean figure. He winced in sympathy as he saw the tears shining on Chris' pale face and seriously wished that Nathan were here. It cannot be good to cough this hard.
Chris wiped off his face and hoarsely said, "you can't sleep either?"
"No, I'm honestly starting to wonder if this is all from the smoke or if we both have pneumonia." As if on cue, Chris and Ezra both coughed.
Chris laughed, "I'm guessin' we would know if we had pneumonia."
"I don't see how it could be any worse," Ezra insisted.
"I'd think we would have a fever," Chris took a deep breath to try to keep himself from coughing.
"Are you sure we don't? I can't remember ever feeling more dreadful than this."
Larabee turned and looked more seriously at the southerner. He put his hand on Ezra's forehead. "Ya do feel a little warm, but my hands are so damn cold that a day-old corpse would probably feel hot."
"My mother used to say the best way to check for a fever was with one's lips."
Chris huffed, "yeah, Sarah said the same thing…..but sorry Ezra, ain't no way I'm kissin' yer forehead."
Ezra touched his own face with his hand and then did the same to Chris. He did that back and forth a few times, and Buck approached and said, "what the hell are you two doin' exactly?"
"Ezra here's convinced that we're dyin' of pneumonia," Chris laughed.
"Well, there's no arguing that you two do sound awful," Buck agreed, "hard to sleep with all that hackin'."
"You're all heart, Mr. Wilmington," Ezra looked at the taller man, "I do apologize that my slow and painful demise was interfering with your beauty sleep."
Chris laughed and sent himself into another painful coughing fit. Buck walked up and hit him on the back, trying to do something to help. "Damn …..maybe Ezra's right. We need to get out of here tomorrow and get you boys to Nathan." Buck was thankful that he wasn't suffering nearly as serious of lung problems as his friends, but he wasn't sure why or how he was spared.
Chris sucked in a deep breath to get some air back into his lungs, "shit," he said and sat down on the ground. "Just knock me out and put me out of my misery."
Buck laughed.
"I'm serious Buck. Punch me, so I can get some damn sleep."
Wilmington realized that the blond was now on his third night with no rest, but said, "I ain't gonna knock you out Chris. I will help you guys get comfortable though. I assume it's easier to breathe if you're sittin' up?"
Buck carried and arranged the two men's bedrolls up the hillside close to the forested area.
"Thank you Mr. Wilmington," Ezra said, "yes, I think sleeping in a propped position will help." At least he hoped that was the case. He was on the second night without sleep himself.
Once Ezra and Chris lay down on the hill, Buck covered each man with a blanket and said a silent prayer that they felt better tomorrow.