The group had headed to the stables and selected seven horses for the ride outside of the border. It appeared by the amount of talking Pavel was doing about the trip, that he had never been outside of the borders before. They gathered up the horses and mounted them. Jim Kirk, Spock, and Sulu had the necessary equipment that would ensure their safety for the trip there.

"Zees vill be wery exciting! I have never gone out of ze town before! I vonder vhat it looks like?" Pavel thought out loud.

"Kid, it's not going to look much different." Bones told him. Wouldn't want to give his hopes up when he actually saw the place.

"I zink ozzervise." Pavel replied sincerely.

"Alright, think what you want." Bones quickly gave up and headed to the front of the group with Jim and Spock. They were whispering among themselves in a secretive manner, which alerted and alarmed Bones. "Hey, everything alright?" Bones asked warily.

Spock and Jim looked at each other and then at Bones. "We are fearing that we might run into the natives of the land." Spock told Bones.

"Indians?" The last time Bones had dealt with Indians was when he traveled across the western border out near the sea. Indians were scattered all over the place. They had come at him with arrows on fire. Singed his best clothes. He had seen though, how Indians deal with their victims. Scalping, slow torture, so it would be bad to run into some on the way out.

"Yeah. There aren't many of them…but I'm still pretty sure that there are enough to at least take some of our crew down." Jim looked past the rundown homes and shops and stared into the open space.

"Well I've got a gun, but I need some bullets." Bines shrugged, pulling out his Revolver. Jim inspected the gun closely and upon finding that it was similar to one he had, Jim dug into of the saddle bags, fishing around for something. When he pulled his hand out, he brandished five brass bullets. All the same size and all for his gun.

"I used to have something like that…here are some extra bullets. Use them wisely thought. The Indians know how to move and they move quick. They will obviously know the land better than use…oh and watch Pavel. He's never been outside of the border…he Russian…He's the youngest. I think that he would be the Indians first choice in an assault."

"Alright. I'll watch him. Now you all have weapons, correct?" Bones asked, taking the bullets from Jim, opening the chamber in the gun, stuffing the bullets in. Five…five bullets.

"Hey, we've got all we can carry, which is enough. Trust me." Jim put a hand on Bones shoulder, giving him a reassuring pat. Bones nodded.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Bones asked, looking around.

"Uh, I think we're all ready to go. MEN! MOVE OUT!" Jim yelled. His voice echoed through the air, everyone around him shuffled their horses and they began to move forward as a well paced group.

They left the town borders quickly. Pavel glanced behind him at the small town, not sure whether to be frightened of leaving or excited. He had always wanted to escape away to the outside world when he was upset. But instead, he would go to a large barn that was within town limits, but was farther away from the people. It was a beautiful place actually, and he had it all to himself. That got Pavel thinking as he stared at Bones, who had dropped back to stay with him. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Pavel organized just some simple time to spend with Leo without the prying eyes of the town on them?

"Say…Leo, do you zink zat maybe tomorrov, ve could have a…ah pinic somevhere?" He asked. Bones looked at Pavel, who was already sweating under the hot sun.

"Who? Just you and me?" Bones asked as they trotted along the dirt path.

"Yes! I have zees place…I zink zat…you might like it. I vas hoping that ve could spend some time together?" Pavel wiped is forehead of sweat and smiled brightly. Bones thought for a moment. Being around Pavel was wonderful as is, and if he was able to get time to be alone with him and just spend time with him…it would be…amazing.

"Well…yeah, I guess so." Bones shrugged. "Tomorrow you said?"

"Yes!" Pavel nodded, bouncing in his seat.

"Alright. I guess we can. Better make most of our time before your dad comes back." Bones mentioned Pavel's father and Pavel's face fell.

"Vhat are you going to do vhen he comes back? Vhere are you going to go?" He asked solemnly. "Because I know zat you cannot stay forever, correct? You have a life?"

"You know, I don't know yet. I don't have a family to go to. I highly doubt they'd remember me. I don't have much of a life." Bones sighed. The last time he had seen his family was when he was fifteen. He was going to run away from family. He did think about going back, but he was already in Texas. That was when Bones decided he was going to put everything he learned from his father into being an outlaw. That would be his life. He never became a big outlaw, so he settled down somewhere with a girl…got married. That relationship ended shortly, and it resulted in Bones becoming a well known, notorious outlaw.

"Vell…you do know zat you can stay vith us." Pavel suggested.

"Yeah, I know that. It's just not my type of town…or people." Bones told him.

"Not your type of town? Vhat is your type?" Pavel asked.

"Well not a place where they beat up innocents, such as yourself. No shitty Sheriff. Grass…bigger population. I was just never able to find that." Bones shrugged.

"Ah. I see…" Pavel nodded as they rode on.

The cluster of them had been riding for thirty minutes, passing small canyons, cacti, and other wildlife that Bones had never seen in his life before. The sun was beating down on all of them and there was no shade anywhere. Pavel would keep saying that he saw lakes and puddles of water ahead of them, but Bones just had to keep reminding him that they were mirages and it wasn't real.

It was when they passed a semi large canyon, that Scotty, whom was in the front with Jim and his men, stopped his horse.

"I can't take it! I cannot take another damn minute in the sun! Can we please get out of here!?" Scotty yelled. Everyone stopped and looked at Scotty, who had been very quiet for a majority of the trip

"Scotty, we can't just stop. There's no where to go." Uhura pointed out.

"Yes there is! Down there!" Scotty wildly pointed at the canyon beside them. True, the walls were sloped enough that their horse could get down there, but coming up might prove difficult. "It's shady down there!"

Jim, Spock and Sulu all exchanged looks at each other. It seemed like they were mentally talking to one another, which Bones found amusing. He had never seen three men so in sync before.

"It would take many risks—"

"Aye! I don't care about the damn risks! I just want some shade!" Scotty interrupted. Jim sighed heavily and turned his horse to the right, walking towards the edge of the canyon. He peered over to look for signs of Indian campgrounds or poisonous snakes lurking and slithering among the cracks.

"Fine." Jim allowed passage through the canyon for the group. He went first, steadily easing his horse down the sloped, rocky walls that crumbled when touched. Everyone was wary about the stability of the wall.

As they eased down, Uhura's horse stumbled slightly, causing her to lurch forward on the saddle. Spock was over at her side in an instant, checking to see if she was okay. Bones smiled to himself, remembering what Uhura had told him about Spock.

When they reached the bottom of the canyon, the shade from the walls engulfed them. A cool breeze brushed over there sweating bodies, giving a chill to everyone. It was dead silent in the canyon, the wind blowing, being the only sound that there was.

"Finally!" Scotty exclaimed, throwing his hands up, but quickly returning them when his balance was thrown off.

Everyone was cautious as they walked through the canyon. Anything that moved down here could be dangerous. Bones had even heard legends of a giant jackrabbit with the antlers of a deer that was bloodthirsty and quite dangerous. It was said to live in canyons and feed on small birds and jackals.

"Zis feels amazing!" Pavel exclaimed with joy. "Zis also looks amazing! I have never seen anyzing like it! Leo look at all of it!" Pavel told Bones.

Bones glanced around the canyon slowly. Small flowers were growing on the sides of the canyon. Dark brown dirt covered the floor, showing that water had fallen in the canyon lately. The serenity and beauty of it all made Bones appreciate the world just a little more. He had always had a small vendetta against the world. Why did it have to be perfect and flawless, while he was stuck doing wrong deeds, leading a horrible life with no one to love him?

"It's beautiful kid." Bones told Pavel. He beamed proudly

"Aye! How do you three know if we are even goin' the right way?" Scotty asked. He was in a much better mood now that he had found shade.

"This canyon actually leads towards the place we are going. We just climb out after a few miles or so and our location should be close." Jim looked up gauging the location of the sun and the direction they were traveling. Scotty nodded and kept walking forward.

It had been silent for a long while. But then something broke the silence that none of them were expecting. From far off in front of them, there was a high pitched shriek and yelling coming from around the corner. They all stopped and Jim pushed his horse to the front. His eyes widened and heart dropped.

"Jim, what is it?" Bones asked.

"Son of a bitch…Indians…TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND!" Jim reared his horse up and turned around, herding everyone farther away, urging them to turn back.

"Dammit." Bones whispered to himself. He turned his horse back around and rode up to Pavel, who was looking around frantically. The high pitched voices and callings echoed off the walls of the canyon, giving a mysterious tone to it.

"Vhat ees going on?!" Pavled asked, stressed out to the max.

"Indians. Run kid." Bones urged Pavel forward with his horse.

The whole group took off galloping back the way they came, hearing the chanting and yelling bouncing off the walls. As they reached their entry point, they saw a whole tribe of Indians on painted horses cascading down the side and running down towards them.

"Dammit Jim! You said that they were coming the other way!" Bones yelled to Jim, who was frantically trying to turn everyone around.

"I thought they were! GO!" Jim waved everyone to go back and they took off as fast as they could on their horses. Behind him, Bones could hear the unmistakable pounding of un-horseshoed hooves rapidly following them. The yells were louder and the canyon was now flooded with sound.

Bones was at the front of the group with Jim, Sulu and Scotty, all catching up to him. Spock was in the back trying to hurry along Uhura and Pavel, who were the slowest riders. As they rode faster, arrows came flying past their heads, whizzing in their ears, falling to the ground in front of them.

"Dammit! Now they're shooting arrows! Soon enough they're going to shoot spears at us!" Bones yelled at Kirk over the loud noise of the whooping and yelling.

"It just means we have to ride faster!" Jim yelled back. Bones rolled his eyes and kicked his horse side harder, making it burst forward, past Jim. This was natural for Bones. Running away on a horse. He had been doing for god knows how long, so it came easily to him.

As he rode farther away, he heard the cry of a horse. And injured horse to be exact. Stopping abruptly, he turned his horse around. Jim, Scotty and Sulu came rushing past him, stopping when he stopped.

"Why'd you stop?!" Jim yelled.

"Didn't you hear that? A horse…it was…" Bones frantically searched for the injured horse, knowing well that it wasn't one of the Indians' horses.

"Keep going!" Jim told Bones.

"I can't!" Bones turned his horse more and rode back towards Spock, Uhura and Pavel. Sure enough, he saw Pavel's horse's leg with an arrow sticking out of it. The look in Pavel's eyes was frantic and worried. It was like he knew death was coming and it was following him mercilessly. Bones hurried his horse past Uhura and Spock, towards Pavel, who was falling back, nearing the mass of angry Indians with spears.

"Pavel! Over here!" Bones waved his hand at the young boy, who looked up at Bones, scared.

"Leonard! Help!" Pavled cried out. Bones pushed his horse farther, setting it up next to Pavel.

"You need to dismount!" Bones yelled as another arrow was thrown past his head.

"I can't! I can't!" Pavel vigorously shook his head.

"You have to! If you want to live, you have to!" Bones told him frantically. Pavel looked around, distressed and out numbered.

"I eem scared!" Pavel cried.

"Get off the saddle and jumped onto my horse!" Bones responded. More arrows were thrown past the two of them and Pavel's horse was getting slower and slower by the minute.

"But—" Pavel protested.

"I don't care! Jump!" Bones urged and yelled at Pavel. The young kid shook his head, but slowly removed a foot from a stirrup, resting it on the saddle, easing his other foot out of the other stirrup.

"I eem scared." Pavel whimpered.

"You've got to trust me." Bones told him. Just then an arrow came flying out of no where, nearly grazing Pavel's knee, hitting the horse straight in the head, causing it to whiny and rear up. Pavel attempted a jump, reaching his hands out to Bones' horse. Bones quickly grabbed Pavel's hand and tried to keep the kid above his own horse's feet, knowing well that he could get trampled.

Pavel's horse fell to the ground, crying and whinnying. Bones ignored it as he held Pavel's small hand, trying as hard as he could to not let go.

"Reach your other hand up!" Bones ordered loudly. More arrows flew past Pavel and Bones. Pavel forced his other hand up to the saddle, gripping the fine, leather edge, trying his best to pull himself up. Bones let go of his reins and used his other had to try and pull up Pavel. AS he turned to look behind him, he saw that the Indians were now on all sides of the group, nearly barricading them in.

With all his might, Bones pulled Pavel up and onto the saddle behind him. Scared and frightened, Pavel wrapped his arms around Bones' waist tightly, refusing to let go. Once Bones knew that they were safe, he pushed his horse back to the group, going as fast as he could.

"Jim!" Bones yelled out.

"What?" Jim responded without looking behind him.

"It looks like we might have to shoot them or something! There is no way we are getting out of this alive if we don't!" Bones yelled back.

"We can't! They're natives!" Uhura, who was riding right next to Bones inputted her thoughts into the conversation.

"Uhura, we just might have to. If we don't then we are going to be scalped and slowly tortured until we're dead. With them you don't know whether you're going to die today or die in two months. But however you do die…it will be painful and long." Bones tried to explain. Uhura now understood the danger of the natives. They could seem as peace, but you would never know when they would sneak up on you and kill you.

"Fine." She agreed. Bones nodded and clicked his heels against the horse's side, pushing past everyone to reach the front with Jim.

"Jim, we have to do this now…or we're dead….literally." Bones informed Jim.

"I know. Let's just…let's do it. SPOCK! I NEED YOU ON MY LEFT! SULU! ON MY RIGHT! WEAPONS AT THE READY." Jim soon began to bark out orders and the other two men pulled to their places, pulling out their own guns. Bones pulled out his gun, holding it closely.

"SHOOT AT WILL!" Jim yelled. A wave of gunfire bounced off the canyon walls, droning out the sound of the Indians yelling and screaming. All three men were faced backwards, shooting at far range, or shooting Indians that had made it to the sides of their group. Bones saw one coming up behind Spock, who was shooting at Indians on the left side of the canyon and oblivious to the one behind him. With precision and aim, Bones was able to knock that one right off it's horse, startling Spock, making him turn around. Bones gave a slight smile and wave. Spock nodded at Bones in return.

They were nearing the end of the canyon. A straight, 90 degree wall that no one could climb up. Boulders were placed on each side of the wall beside them, causing the slope to disappear.

"It looks like we'll have to split up and climb up the boulders!" Jim announced.

"Are ya crazy?! We could get lost in here!" Scotty yelled.

"It's the only way. We won't get split up much. This canyon doesn't go anymore, so where ever we come out, the others won't be far behind." Jim told him. Scotty shook his head and stopped talking.

"See you all on the other side!" Jim announced, speeding off with his horse, disappearing around the bend of the wall.

"Looks like we're on our own now." Bones muttered. The Indians weren't fare behind. Any wrong move and fall, they would be caught. There was a feeling of desperation and giving up inside of Bones. Pavel squeezed Bones tighter, leaning his head up against his back. Then Bones realized that he couldn't give up. The person behind him…didn't deserve any more pain in his life.

Bones followed Jim around the bend, losing him instantly, only left with rocks and natural boulder bridges that rose high in the sky. Pushing ahead, Bones began riding up a series of boulders that teetered under the horse's weight. Pavel held himself against Bones tightly, afraid to let go. Bones reared the horse, meaning to jump to another boulder, but when the horse got up on it's hind legs, it tumbled under the boulder and fell down the hill with Bones and Pavel still on. The two of them came loose when they hit the bottom of the canyon bed, landing beside the horse. Bones was quick to jump up, but Pavel, whose leg was stuck under the horse and badly injured, stayed on the ground.

"Vhere ees eweryone?" Pavel asked wearily.

"They're gone. They must've found different ways to get up. I think—" Bones was about to say that he thought they had lost the Indians, but that thought was thwarted when he heard their cries coming back around. He saw the shadows cast of them on the walls, brandishing spears this time. "We've gotta go!" Bones told Pavel.

"I can't! I eem stuck!" Pavel cried out.

"Sh! Sh! They'll hear you!" Bones hushed Pavel, leaning down and pulling the kid out from under the horse. "Come on. It looks like we have to walk…run, back to the top." Bones told Pavel, watching him carefully. He would have to asses the damaged later. But now was no time. The Indians were rounding the corner. "Come on!" Bones grabbed Pavel's hand and started to run.

The two of them clambered up the large boulders, trying to do so with ease, but also haste. One wrong move and you were back down on the ground. Bones would climb up the boulder first and then help Pavel up. The Indians were steadily climbing up the mountain of rocks, more careful than Bones ever was.

"Come on kid!" Bones urged Pavel who was starting to lag behind.

"I…I can't." He moaned. Bones grabbed Pavel's hand and started to drag him along, in between boulders, over them, but no matter what he did, the Indians were catching up to them. It left Bones no choice but to result to hiding and hoping that the Indians wouldn't find them.

Bones hurried ahead, jumping down a steep incline and out of sight of the Indians.

"Vhat are you doing?" Pavel asked.

"We are hiding. Come on." Bones pulled the kid into a small overhang, crouching against the back wall. "Just pray they won't find us. If they do…fight. Do all you can. If they take me…I want you to run. Run as fast as you can." Bones told Pavel.

"But—"

"No. I don't want to hear it. Will you run?" Bones asked.

"I—"

"Dammit! Will. You. Run?" Bones shook Pavel by the shoulders lightly.

"…Yes…" Pavel responded heavily. Bones encased him in a hug.

"Okay. Now just stay here. We will wait until their gone." Bones told Pavel, holding him closely to his chest. Overhead, he heard the stomping of horse hooves stop.