Dawn broke to reveal another cold, sunny morning, and a forest full of exhausted regulators. They found a small rock outcropping that sheltered them a bit from the wind and tried to sleep close to each other for warmth. Still, only Josiah seemed to be able to get any sleep. Between the weather, the wind, Josiah's snoring, Ezra's complaining, and Larabee's coughing….the three remaining men mostly laid on their bedrolls counting the hours until dawn.
Chris wanted to see the Storm camp, so he and Vin took off early to do some additional scouting. They climbed up on a large cliff to the south of the gang to get a look into their camp. The gang set up six tents in a small valley surrounded by hills and cliffs. Vin counted 12 men. There were more than that at the Storm compound where Chris and Ezra had been held, so either some of the men parted ways or perished on the journey here.
As Vin was about to turn around and head back to their camp, he heard a gun cock behind him. Two men stood on the cliff behind Tanner and Larabee pointing weapons at them. Neither Vin nor Chris had time to go for their own weapons.
"Make that 14 men," said Vin.
When the two men approached the peacekeepers to tie their hands, Chris lashed out. He wrestled with a large, dark hairy man, but stopped abruptly when a gunshot rang out. He looked over to see Vin clasping his hands around a bloody wound in his left thigh. This only served to enrage Chris further, and he kicked out at the man and sent a boot to his groin. The man who shot Vin then turned and proceeded to fire a second shot, this time into Larabee.
Chris felt the bullet slam into his left shoulder and knew they were in trouble. It was going to be up to Ezra and Josiah now to take care of business.
The hairy fellow that Chris nailed in the nether-regions finished vomiting up his breakfast, and then came over and kicked Larabee in the stomach. He and Vin had been sitting on the snow-covered ground with their hands tied behind their backs, and Chris toppled over backwards with the blow to his midsection.
The two men hoisted their captives up and walked them back to the Storm camp at gunpoint. The journey down the rough hillside was painful for Chris, with his injured arm pulled tight behind his back, but it was excruciating for Vin who was required to climb and walk with his injured leg. Vin fell and tumbled down the hill on more than one occasion.
The blond gunslinger was fuming, at Storm's men and at himself. It was his hair-brained idea to attack the gunmen, and that got Vin and himself shot. He was behind Vin on the trail, so he could see that his younger companion was losing a lot of blood. Tanner seemed to be growing visibly weaker and more unsteady with each step.
They arrived in the Storm camp after about a 15-20 minute journey, and one of the two captors yelled out, "Lookie what we found wandering around this mornin."
Russell Storm came over, recognized the two men from Four Corners, and said, "well, howdy boys. You must have missed me an awful lot to come all the way out here lookin' for me. Tie their feet and set 'em over there next to the rock wall."
"Could we get some bandages or something to tend his leg?" asked Chris. He knew he was going to have to find a way to staunch the flow of blood; Tanner was fading fast.
"You shoulda thought of that before you went and pissed off Matt and Jack, huh Larabee?" chuckled Storm.
He was holding a towel in his hand and simply threw that on top of Chris' lap once he and Vin were tied and seated at the wall. "I guess that'll have to do," thought Larabee to himself. It wasn't easy with his hands and feet tied, but he managed to squat close to Vin, wrap the towel around his leg, and apply some pressure. The bullets went clean through both Tanner's leg and Chris' shoulder without breaking any bones. That was good in that infection wasn't likely to be as much of an issue, but bad in that there were two holes to bleed heavily instead of just one.
After holding pressure on Vin's leg for 10 or 15 minutes, it seemed like the flow of blood slowed down. Chris half-tied the towel on Tanner's leg. "How're you doin' Vin?" Chris questioned, looking into his friend's tired-looking blue eyes.
"Think I'm gettin' too old for this, Chris," Vin replied.
"As Josiah would say – amen to that," smiled Chris. If Vin was getting too old for this, he didn't even want to think what that meant for himself. Honestly, Chris didn't know exactly how old Vin was, but he knew Tanner was at least 10 years younger than him.
"Try to lie back and rest a bit; ya lost quite a bit of blood hiking down that hill," Chris coughed and continued to look at Vin with concerned green eyes. He knew they would have a much better chance to escape if Vin were healthy enough to walk on his own.
"Should check out your shoulder," said Vin. Given Chris' all-black attire, Vin was having a hard time discerning exactly how much Larabee's wound was bleeding.
"Bullet went clean through, and it doesn't feel like it's bleeding too badly. I'd rather keep our towel right where it is," answered Chris.
"Suit yerself, Larabee. But I'll have you know that I don't much feel like toting your butt outta here if you're lyin'," Vin shot back.
Although he was resting, Vin did not feel any better as the day wore on. The captives were not offered food or water, not that either of their stomachs felt up to it anyway...and the cold sapped what little strength they possessed.
Chris couldn't remember being this cold for a long time. The wound in his shoulder throbbed with every heartbeat, and he was worried about his friend who sat beside him in silence. Vin had clearly lost too much blood; his skin color was almost gray.
As Larabee started to check on Vin's leg again, he heard a sound coming from the forest behind him. He looked back quickly and caught a glimpse of Ezra peeking out from behind a large tree. He didn't know what the boys were up too, so he decided to sit quietly and make sure Storm's men didn't suspect anything.
As darkness began to fall and the men in the camp began to gather for the evening meal, Ezra jumped down off of the rock wall, crouched behind Chris and Vin, untied their appendages, and motioned for them to follow him up towards the south mountain face.
Both men walked unsteadily for a few steps but knew it was run or be killed. One of Storm's men shouted that the "prisoners are escaping" as they reached the rocky area to the left of the hill. Ezra went up first, and Josiah came out from behind a boulder and grabbed Vin to assist him up the slope. Larabee followed behind. Shots were fired from the camp, so the four men weaved and dodged in and out of the rocks for cover. As Ezra reached about three-quarter of the way up the slope, he pulled a stick of dynamite out of his coat and lit it. Just as his arm swung over his head to throw it, one of his feet stepped on a patch of ice and he fell. The dynamite landed, and soon detonated, on the hill about 50 feet down.
The hill was covered in snow, and the dynamite set off a massive avalanche. Josiah saw it first, grabbed Vin and dove further to the left while yelling, "avalanche," to warn Ezra and Chris. Chris saw Ezra get knocked head over heels by a wall of snow, and he attempted to position himself so that he could grab the tumbling gambler.
Ezra was coming too fast. Although Chris was able to touch him, the gambler's body immediately knocked Larabee over and sent him flying down the hill as well. Chris stopped fairly quickly, as the side of his torso collided with a large boulder. He felt ribs give way, and he saw Ezra continuing to tumble down the hill until he was buried and out of sight.
The avalanche was over in a couple of minutes, and it buried the entire Storm camp and all of the men in it. Chris jumped up and ran frantically toward the spot where he had last seen Ezra. He was digging furiously in the snow and was joined by Josiah soon thereafter. All of Larabee's hurts and injuries were forgotten in the panic to find Standish.
Ezra saw the avalanche only a split second before it took him off his feet. He felt himself crashing head over heels for what seemed like an hour. He saw Chris reach out for him, but then disappear as well. He continued on past at a ridiculously fast speed. On one crash, he felt his left arm bend and crack unnaturally, and then nothing.
Chris and Josiah continued to dig with all of their might. Both were exhausted, but adrenaline was keeping them going. After about 20 minutes of digging, Josiah finally saw something dark – Ezra's pants. "Chris, over here," yelled Sanchez.
Larabee ran as quickly as he could through the waist-deep snow and helped Josiah uncover the rest of Standish. Chris' heart sank when he saw that Ezra wasn't moving.
The gunslinger tried to pull Ezra out of the deep snow bank, but his injured limbs did not cooperate. "I've got him, Chris," said Josiah, who easily scooped the gambler up and carried him over beside Vin.
Vin watched from the rocks and could see that things did not look good for Ezra. He kept a rifle trained on the camp area just in case someone survived, but so far at least – there was no sign of life. "The only good news in all of this," he thought.
Josiah laid Ezra on the ground, and Chris immediately began checking for a pulse. "I can't tell if he's breathin'," yelled Chris. He sat on Ezra's legs, slapped his face a few times and pounded on his chest. Chris visibly jumped when Ezra all of a sudden coughed and opened his eyes.
Ezra had never felt so cold, there was a tremendous pain in his left arm, and Chris Larabee was sitting on him. "Ezra," Josiah questioned, "are you with us, son?"
"I'm not sure," replied the prone gambler.
Chris laid his head down on Standish's chest for a minute. He had never been so glad to hear that voice.
"I believe I would be better if Mr. Larabee would kindly remove himself from my person," Ezra then said.
"Right," Chris said as he jumped up. The wound to Larabee's shoulder had broken open and started bleeding again during the digging efforts. As he stood up quickly, he felt the world go dark and collapsed to the ground beside Ezra and Vin before he could say another word.
"Lord help me," prayed Josiah. He knew he was going to need some divine intervention to get his three injured friends out of these mountains.
Josiah ripped pieces of cloth off of his shirt and did his best to staunch the blood flow from Chris' shoulder and got his and Vin's gunshot wounds wrapped up. Chris woke a few minutes after collapsing to the ground and looked sheepishly around. The ex-preacher removed his coat and laid it over the shivering gambler.
"Well, boys," started Josiah. "We have a lot of things to do, so I suggest we try to move back to our camp. We have some medical supplies there and food and water. I'm not sure how many, if any of you, would be able to walk on your own, so my plan is to go back and bring the horses. Hopefully riding will be faster and easier."
Josiah could see that Chris was going to say something, but stopped him in his tracks with, "Chris, you stay here and keep an eye on these two. I think all of the Storm gang is taken care of, but keep an eye out for that as well."
"Alright, you be careful Josiah," Chris knew if something happened to their largest and healthiest man that the others would be in trouble.
Tanner and Larabee talked about their options, and how they needed to set Ezra's arm. They discussed the timing and manner of their descent from the mountains. Ezra said nothing; just closed his eyes and tried to deal with the pain as best as he could. And as promised, Josiah soon showed up with horses to carry them back to their own make-shift camp.
"I brought all four horses, but I can take anybody who doesn't feel up to riding alone on my horse too," Sanchez looked from Vin to Ezra when he said this.
"I can make it," said Vin.
The statement was quickly followed by, "I'll ride close to him," from Chris. "I think you should probably take Ezra on your horse, Josiah. We don't even know if he can stand up."
Ezra continued to be suspiciously quiet. He didn't really feel like moving at all, but he knew he would get better care (and dry clothing) back at their camp. His neck was wrenched in the avalanche and hurt when he tried to move it, and the pain in his left forearm was almost unbearable. Any movement was excruciating and made him feel sick to his stomach.
"Sound like a plan, brother Ezra?" Josiah questioned. When Ezra nodded his head, the big preacher proceeded over and mostly carried the injured gambler over and up onto his horse.
Chris helped Vin over to Peso, although it was debatable who was helping whom. Both men were unsteady on their feet, whether it was from blood loss, pain, exhaustion, dehydration, or all of the above Josiah didn't know.
The horses slowly and steadily marched back to last night's camp. Ezra moaned all the way, holding his arm as tightly as he could while getting jostled by the horse. Josiah knew they needed to set his arm to at least give him a bit of relief. Ezra was understandably nervous about the prospect, but he eventually conceded that he wasn't going to be able to function if the pain continued at its current level. They had some meager medical supplies with them, but no laudanum or other pain medication.
After he helped Vin from his horse, Chris volunteered to hold Ezra while Josiah tried to straighten the broken bone. Chris wrapped his arms around Ezra's upper body and right arm, and Josiah readied himself for the task. Lord, he hoped he could get it on the first try...
Josiah grabbed a hold of Ezra's left wrist and pulled quick and hard. Thankfully the bones popped into place, but Ezra screamed and bucked like a wild animal. He ended up getting his right arm lose in the struggles and elbowed Larabee on the same side as his broken rib. That caused Chris to howl and let go of Standish. Ezra then got up and bolted from the campsite. He only made it about 10 paces before passing out and crumbling to the ground.
Josiah followed Ezra and carried him back to camp. He fashioned a rough splint and sling and put them on as gently as he could. Ezra woke up as Josiah finished tying the sling. The gambler remained quiet; he could not believe the situations he let himself get into with these men.
Josiah used Nathan's supplies to clean up Vin and Chris' bullet wounds, and then set about making some food. His three injured companions did take some water and a tiny bit of food, but it was obvious that all of them felt pretty lousy.
Chris wanted to get his men back down to warmer temperatures as soon as possible, so he sat up with Josiah trying to make plans after the two youngest of their friends went to bed. Larabee was afraid Ezra was going to have permanent damage in his arm if they couldn't get him to a doctor soon, and he didn't know if Vin's leg wound would become infected. Of course Josiah was wondering the latter about Larabee's bullet wound as well.
As Josiah and Chris went to lie down, Sanchez donated one of his blankets to Ezra, who was still shivering badly. They put dry clothes on the gambler, but ever since they pulled him from the snow, Standish had been unable to get warm.
Blood loss made Vin so weak that he was dead asleep. He didn't even stir when the other men came over, and Chris knew that was not like Tanner at all. They often joked that Vin slept with one eye open because he was always the first to awaken at any noise or movement.
As he drifted off to sleep, Josiah said a silent prayer that his companions would be well enough to travel the next day.