Vin, Buck, and Nathan woke early and readied for another day on the trail. Buck had lost track of exactly how far they had gone; he certainly never expected to be searching for this kid for 4 or 5 days. He figured that Chris and Ezra would be returning to Four Corners either today or tomorrow, and they would wonder where he, Tanner, and Nate were.
Vin still coughed at night, and his ribs were sore, but overall he continued to feel more and more like himself. He even got up and made the coffee that morning. Drinking Buck or Nathan's brews were more like drinkin' water; he preferred coffee that could stand up by itself.
After they finished complaining about Vin's coffee, Buck and Nathan helped Vin load up the supplies, and they continued on their journey.
Just before noon, the three men rode their horses on top of a bluff. They could see in the desert below, a large homestead, but it wasn't a typical homestead. It consisted of three large buildings; maybe a house, some stables, and a shop. That wasn't so unusual. What was unusual was the layout of the grounds. There were multiple penned in areas. Cattle was kept in some, there looked to be a couple of large holes or pits in the ground of another area, and one area had an extremely tall fence with barbed wire at the top – almost like a prison yard. The regulators could see a number of men moving around down there, at least 20, and they watched a little boy go out into a back yard area of the house. They found where the tracks led to, but why bring a 6-yr-old boy out here to a place like this….and then turn him lose to play in the yard?
The two sore and sunburned men awoke the next day with an even stronger urgency to formulate a plan of escape. Ezra had not experienced a sunburn in years and forgot how tight and painful they felt. He felt like his face would split if he were to smile; fortunately, he didn't have anything to smile about at the moment.
Chris awoke to his stomach growling and was surprised to see his companion awake as well. "What I wouldn't give for a cup of coffee or bottle of whiskey," Chris said hoarsely from his dry throat.
Ezra whole-heartedly agreed, and said "if we find our way back to Four Corners someday, I promise to purchase and share the most expensive bottle of whiskey that Inez has in stock."
"WHEN we get back to Four Corners, Ez, not if," smiled Chris….although his face hurt when he did it.
"Oh, so you have a plan, do you?" teased Ezra. "Are we leaving right now?"
Chris shrugged his shoulders and said, "hopefully they will take us up top soon, and then we'll make a break for it. We may have to come back with reinforcements to get the boy, or maybe Vin and Buck are waiting out there now to rescue us. I would have thought Vin could have tracked these guys down here by now."
Ezra understood the implication in Larabee's last sentence. Chris was afraid something had also happened to Buck and Vin, or they should have already been here. Buck was Chris' oldest friend and saw him through the toughest of times, including the death of his wife and son. Vin was Chris' soul mate. Larabee and Tanner connected strongly and permanently the first moment their eyes met that fateful day on the streets of Four Corners.
Just as the sun was becoming uncomfortable once again on their exposed skin, a guard showed up and unlocked the door to the pit. A ladder was thrown down in the hole, and the two men ordered to come up one at a time. Larabee climbed up first, hoping he could take out the guard and toss him back down in the hole while Ezra climbed out. Unfortunately, when he reached the top, he saw that there were four armed fellows watching him very closely. He subtlety shook his head "no" to Ezra, and Ezra went ahead and climbed up.
Vin Tanner got out his scope and looked more closely at the compound. They were trying to come up with a plan to get the boy out without alerting all 20+ men on the property. As he scanned the grounds, he saw a familiar-looking blond head climbing up out of one of the pits. Vin almost dropped the scope.
"Ah Shit!" he exclaimed. "Boys, things just got more complicated."
Buck and Nathan rushed over, and Buck took the scope in time to see Ezra climb out of the large hole as well. "What in the hell is going on here," asked Buck as Nathan took his turn to look. Nate took the longest look, as he was trying to judge the condition of the two captured men.
"It all must've been a ruse," said Vin. "Storm's people used the Miller boy to distract us or somethin'?"
"Yeah, I expect you're right Vin. They didn't want to have to fight 5 or 6 of us to rescue junior," Buck said. "So, now what? How'd Chris and Ezra look, Nathan?"
"They're bruised and sunburned, but they're both moving around ok on their own. It looks to me like they could ride and maybe fight if need be," answered the healer. "Strange thing is that they don't have no shirts, boots or hats."
"Wow, Larabee must be real ticked that they took 'is hat," smiled Vin. He was relieved to hear Nathan say that the two men looked relatively healthy.
But the joking nature was quickly over when the three men figured out where the Storm gang was taking Larabee and Standish.
"Come on boys, time for the fun," one of the guards said, as Chris and Ezra looked back and forth at each other.
The two bare-footed, shirtless men were marched into an arena with a 10 ft. fence topped with barbed wire. This was not going to be an easy place to escape, but that wasn't their biggest concern. On the other side of the arena stood a 1600 lb. horned bull, and he looked ready to kill any human who came within a mile of him.
From a seating area up above, spoke old man Storm. "The object, gentlemen, is to not get gored or trampled. Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? Diablo here is my prized fighting bull, and we are ready to see a good show."
With that, the gate closed, and Standish and Larabee were left alone in the 20 x 20 ft. pin with a monstrous, angry bull.
"We gotta move, boys," said Buck as the gates closed and his two comrades were locked inside the ring with the bull.
"Buck, we can't just go charging in there," said Vin. "There's too many of 'em."
"Can you take them out from here, Vin?" Buck asked. Vin was the best long shooter in the group and was known to hit targets that most sharpshooters wouldn't even attempt.
"Too far, Bucklin," answered Vin right as the bull made its first charge for Larabee and Standish.
Chris and Ezra split off one to each side when the bull charged, and the men in the Storm compound cheered and laughed. The bull went towards Ezra, and Standish immediately started climbing the fence. There was a stick on the ground, and Larabee picked it up and poked the bull's backside to give Ezra a chance to get away. As soon as the bull felt the stick, he turned quickly on Chris.
The bull plowed into Larabee but fortunately used his nose to lift and throw him instead of using the horns. Chris flew like a rag doll, bounced off the fence, and landed hard not far from Ezra. Chris' cracked ribs screamed in pain, but he knew he had to get up or risk being trampled. He then climbed the fence beside Ezra, but that didn't deter Diablo. He stuck his horns in the fence and began to shake it violently. The fencing was already tilted in and hard to hold onto, and both men were knocked loose with the bull's vicious shaking….once again hitting the hard-packed ground with a thud.
Ezra was so exhausted from lack of food and sleep that he considered lying there and hoping the bull didn't notice him. Chris hopped back up and took off, so fortunately for Ezra – the bull followed again after Larabee.
"We need a plan," said Vin watching the two men get knocked around by the behemoth animal. "At the very least, we need to get close enough to take out the bull. We may be able to circle in from the west. There's another small bluff over there that might be close enough to get off a shot."
"Sounds good, Vin," said Buck. "Why don't you try to get up there and shoot the animal, and Nathan and I will get as close as we can to the boys. We'll stay outside the compound until you cause your distraction. Once they start looking for a shooter, we'll try to get Chris and Ez out of there."
Ezra and Chris were both ready to drop. They had been running and climbing non-stop for more than 30 minutes. On the latest charge, Standish slipped, and the bull managed to stab his pants' leg. Ezra sustained a good cut on his calf and was thrown hard into the fence as the bull's horn ripped through his trousers. He lay there not moving. The crowd cheered, and Larabee rushed over to try and protect Standish as best he could. His legs, too, refused to move, so he simply pulled the gambler as close to the fence as possible and laid his body across Ezra's. The bull charged high on the first pass, and grazed Larabee's back with his horns. The cut was long and bloody, but for the most part Diablo missed his target. The bull backed up to try again, and just as quickly as he began to charge, the bull dropped like a stone to the arena floor.
It took a minute for Storm's men to realize what happened, and then they spread out and began to search for the sniper. Vin was already down from his post, heading towards the compound, as a number of the guards headed west towards the bluff. Vin untied Larabee and Standish's mounts. He got the horses out the south side of the compound, found the boy, then headed north up to the original bluff to wait for Nathan, Buck, and hopefully Chris and Ezra.
After a number of the men went after Vin, that left 8 of the gang at the arena. Two guards went down to get Chris and Ezra, leaving 6 up in the seating area. Nathan and Buck jumped down on the 6 men from above and got the four remaining men to surrender by saying, "drop 'em boys, or your boss and his boy gets it." The two men held their guns firmly to Daniel and Russell Storm's heads.
Chris and Ezra were up by then, and the gates unlocked, when they saw Buck and Nathan. They didn't know why Nathan was with Buck instead of Vin, but Chris knew Vin was around – he had to have been the one to make the head shot to the bull.
Chris and Ezra attacked and knocked the two guards' guns free, and then grappled hand-to-hand with the men. Ezra suffered a bloody nose, and Chris got punched in his injured ribs. But, they eventually prevailed. Storm's men were dumped in the pit, and the four peacekeepers took off riding double on Buck and Nathan's mounts to meet up with Vin and the Miller boy.
Nobody said a word until they reached the bluff, and even then it was a quick "good to see you boys." Everyone mounted up with the boy riding with Buck. They tossed a couple of extra shirts to Chris and Ezra so as to prevent a worse sunburn, and Nathan handed Ezra a wet cloth to clean up his busted nose. They rode far enough and fast enough that they figured the men from the compound would no longer be in pursuit of them.
Fortunately that happened at about the same time that Ezra slid from his mount. Nathan jumped off and declared that it was time to make camp.
Larabee managed to stay on his horse, but his legs buckled upon dismounting. Buck was close by and managed to grab him. "Wo there Stud. I think you need to go lie down with Ezra," Buck said as he helped the shaky Larabee to a second bedroll that Nathan laid out.
Nathan quickly checked over the Miller boy and found him to be in good shape. While Nathan went to examine Ezra, Vin came over to Chris, "how you doing Cowboy?" said Vin who then broke into a nasty coughing fit. Chris raised an eyebrow and said, "by the sound of things, better than you." Vin laughed; they all had a lot of things to catch up on over the next day or two.
Nathan instructed Buck to get some food ready; he suspected that was a big factor in Standish's and Larabee's conditions.
Nathan could not remember ever seeing Ezra so disheveled. The gambler was un-shaven, he was wearing an ill-fitting shirt of Buck's, his pants were ripped, he was covered in bruises, and his hair was a mess. He knew Standish would be horrified if he could see himself right now. The healer checked Ezra's shoulder, and cleaned the cuts on his arm and leg. Nothing seemed like it should cause too much trouble; his nose was not broken, and the sunburn would heal itself in time. Ezra was just plumb worn out. He was ordered to stay awake long enough to get some food in him, and then he could pass out for the night. Nate would check him again in the morning, and hopefully he would be able to ride. All of them were eager to get home.
Nathan then went to Larabee, and like Ezra – Nathan could tell he was utterly exhausted. Chris' stubbled- and battered-face was gaunt and his eyes looked hollow, but he put his arm out to Nathan and shook his hand and smiled. "Thank you boys for rescuing us," he said.
"We had no idea you guys were there, "said Nathan. "We thought we were just going after the boy."
Chris shook his head in acknowledgment, and Nate went to work cleaning the cut on his back, and the scratch on his head. He wrapped Chris' ribs, and it looked to the healer like Larabee suffered a concussion a few days back. His pupils were almost back to normal though, so Nathan thought he too should be fine after a good meal and a good night's rest.
All of the men sat down for supper and tried to fill each other in on what happened over the last few days. Nathan told of Vin's illness, and how he came to help the tracker get well. Chris thought Vin looked pale and thinner when he saw him after their rescue but hadn't the time to ask about it until now.
When Chris told Vin that though, Vin replied, "have ya seen yurself lately Larabee? Calling me scrawny right now is like the pot calling the kettle black." Lord, how Chris missed these guys, and he didn't know what he would do if something happened to any one of them.
Chris then told of their captivity, and the fact that the boy was Russell Storm's son. Ezra was trying to chime in and listen to all of the stories, but he was so damn tired that he gave up on eating and listening about half-way through and went to his bedroll. Larabee's shrunken stomach didn't allow him to eat much either, but he still felt a lot better. Chris, like Nathan, was confident they would all be well enough to ride for home tomorrow morning.
Buck watched Chris head over to go to bed, and the "what could've beens" started creeping into his mind. They didn't even know that Chris and Ezra were in trouble. What if they hadn't shown up when they did? One look at the battered and bruised faces of his two friends was too great of a reminder of what might have happened. Hell, they almost lost Vin to the fever that week too. They had all cheated death so many times that it was inevitable one of them would lose the battle someday. But that someday wasn't today, and Buck slipped off to sleep very thankful for that.