After the Crash

Ignacio woke with difficulty, and his hand quickly went to his head. His head hurt and was still spinning. He felt blood, and groaned a little. Getting to his hands and knees, he glanced around. Where was she? Was she alright? Had he helped her? Was she dead?

He saw her lying not far away from him, and he crawled towards her slowly. He felt weak and dizzy but he was slowly coming back to his full senses. He touched her gently.

"Gushing Stream," he murmured. He stared at her face, and was relieved that he must have prevented some of the impact. There was no blood on her at all. She gave a little moan, and her eyes flickered open. He sighed with relief, and sunk to the ground next to her. He just needed to rest for a moment. Her hand reached for him and he held it firmly.

"Are you alright?" She whispered, just as he was trying to find the same words.

"I think so," he murmured. She was staring at him, and pulled herself into a side lying position to look more closely at his head.

"You're bleeding," she said, her voice catching a little. "Not…not too badly," she added, taking a deep breath. "Any pain anywhere else? Don't lie to me."

"Not sure yet. The wind was knocked out of me," Ignacio said honestly. He helped himself to his feet, wearily. "Stay there for a moment. Please," he added, watching her try to do the same. He scanned the environment. His instincts were urging him to do something, and he remembered the pistol shot. Standing made him a little clearer in the head, but he found he had to put a hand on the upturned buggy to catch his balance.

Something wasn't right. He had honoured that flash of intuition in the buggy and it had probably saved both of their lives. He'd had a moment to brace himself and Gushing Stream. He scanned the horizon, and worried about the lack of cover. If he had to fight he would want her hidden. Diego had said that he was doing patrols this afternoon. He wondered where he was. Not out of an impatient need, but out of curiosity.

There was a shrill scream from behind him. Gushing Stream!

"No Enrique!" She sounded petrified.

He whirled around, and this time when he drew his sword he felt good about it.

"Ignacio! Help me!"

Enrique was trying to force Gushing Stream up and drag her somewhere. She was terrified. He approached him, and hoped the man would fight and not stop to think about his advantage.

Some men would simply put a knife to the lady's throat and simply drag her away. Ignacio would have no choice but to let him. He had met men like that before.

It turned out that Enrique was stupid. He pushed her roughly to the ground, and drew his own sword. Ignacio didn't bother saluting and neither did his opponent. The swords clashed violently, and with such force that Ignacio could feel the impact shudder through his bruised body, reminding him physically that he had just endured a carriage accident.

"Get to safety as quickly as you can," Ignacio shouted to his wife, and blocked another blow. She glanced at him with fear in her eyes, and then scampered off towards the road. He hoped she would get to Zorro and be safe under his protection. He lunged at his opponent but was effortlessly blocked.

He contented himself with simple moves and tried to gauge the level of his opponent. Enrique was not a great swordsman. Ignacio would beat him easily in a fair fight. The carriage accident had been staged for Enrique's advantage. He was not completely stupid, he realised. Enrique had hoped to kill them both in the high speed crash, but had only succeeded in making Ignacio dizzy. Several options began to present themselves to Ignacio. He had been practising sword skills for years with a master tutor in Mexico City, and he had been something of a prodigy in Madrid.

He was tired and he would have to act on his options quickly. The dizziness was making his balance falter a little. What was that gambit that Zorro always used? He had no idea. Zorro was far too advanced to use as a reference point in any situation. He would just have to cope with what he could do, on his own.

Ignacio managed to regain his balance, even though the man used the dizziness to his advantage, and drove him to the ground a few times. He felt he was being played with, and maybe he was, because if he had been his opponent he would have finished him easily. It began to anger him, and spur him on, even when he realised some of his aches were increasing in intensity.

Adrenalin came to his aid, as he concentrated on what he was really fighting for. Gushing Stream was his real target and he needed to give her time to reach somebody, before Enrique finished with him. He wasn't fighting for his own life, which was probably at stake. He was fighting for her life. That was what made all the difference. His anger was contained and stored at the back of his head. He couldn't be disadvantaged in any way. Not when her life was on the line.

Strength flooded back to his body and his sword skills came instinctively. The clash of steel on steel wasn't a concern anymore. He wanted the man stopped, and if that meant killing him, so be it. He advanced, stepping forward more times than backwards. He was pushing the man away from the accident site, and he was satisfied. He hoped at the back of his head, that she had left to go for help. If he made a mistake, and was defeated, she would be next.

He fought a lot stronger, and more intensely than he had ever fought in his life. He hoped that the sound of steel on steel would bring help in itself, but it was an isolated stretch of land. Sound carried a long way over the plains near Los Angeles, and that knowledge gave him even more hope. Zorro was at large somewhere.

"No!" There was a terrified scream, and the retort of a pistol. Gushing Stream?

He whirled, and noticed Enrique had frozen to the spot as well. She lay in a crumpled mess on the ground behind him, not moving. He couldn't breathe for a moment, and Enrique recovered from the shock before he did. The man advanced while Ignacio's back was turned, and he whirled around to defend himself, and his rapier went straight into the other man. They looked at each other in shock, and then Ignacio pushed the sword harder into the man's body. He pushed it with all his strength and removed the sword. He was not Zorro. He preferred the man dead.

Zorro was there next to him, looking down at the dead man at their feet and sighed. Ignacio stood where he was and glanced back at his wife.

Zorro was the first one to move, making his way quickly to the lady's side. He cradled Gushing Stream's head, and felt for a pulse and breathing. Ignacio could hardly breathe, and sank onto his knees, his hand still holding his sword. It became a support, and he clung to it.

Zorro had turned to him and was speaking but he couldn't hear him. He stared at him for a moment, and shook his head. Zorro repeated it.

"She's not dead, Ignacio."