Chapter 75 – Casualties
When they arrived at the hacienda, Felipe stopped the carriage by the front door. Don Alejandro climbed down first to help Diego out.
"Gracias," Diego said, walking a few steps towards the house without swaying so much to the sides as before. "Good. I feel much better already."
While Don Alejandro helped Victoria to step down, they heard a loud bang coming from the stables.
"Is that a gunshot?" Don Alejandro said, alarmed.
"I think so. Even I heard it," Diego said. "Get her into the house!"
"Where are you going? Come back here!" Don Alejandro said when Diego headed for the stables as fast as he could go, still staggering a bit, unable to walk totally straight yet. Shit!
ZZZ
When the group of horse thieves came into the stables, Pedro was grooming Toronado. As true professionals of their illicit trade, those men wearing bandanas to cover their face worked fast, selecting the best and more expensive horses with only a quick glance, choosing mainly the stallions, opening the stable doors and passing a rope around their neck to take them outside in seconds, handing them over to the comrades waiting outside still on horseback, so they could handle two or three horses each.
Pedro grabbed the first thing at hand he could use as a weapon, because the guns they had prepared in case of a surprise attack were at the opposite side of the stables, by the front door, out of reach, where the thieves had come in. Armed with a shovel, he confronted the thieves.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" he cried, brandishing his improvised weapon.
"Get out of the way, keep quiet, and nobody will get hurt!" said the bandit that was taking Apollo out of his pen.
"Leave that horse alone, you scumbag!" Pedro shouted, whacking the thief's head with the shovel. Immediately, another man drew his gun and shot Pedro, aiming at his head, but he covered his face with the shovel and the bullet ricocheted, missing him. "Hijo de puta!"
Pedro attacked that man with renewed energy, but he grabbed the shovel handle with one hand, struggling with Pedro until he got his second gun out of his belt to shoot him at point blank, hitting his upper abdomen. Pedro let go of the shovel and dropped to the ground on his side, holding his bleeding stomach while cursing and insulting that man. The bandit tossed the shovel and ignored him to help the dazed, injured thief up Apollo's back, and then grabbed the dangling rope, taking them both outside.
ZZZ
"Noooo!" Diego shouted, entering the stables through the back door just in time to see how that thief shot Pedro down. He ignored the bandits and the horses, running to Pedro's side, who lay on the floor cursing and screaming. Mierda, he thought when he pulled his hand out of the way and saw the large blood stain spreading over his stomach area. "Don't move. You are going to be fine. We'll get the doctor and he'll sort you out," he said, pressing with his hand on the wound.
At that point, Toronado got out of his pen to attack the thieves, defending his master and the fallen man.
"Don't let them get… Azabache," Pedro said, anxious, holding onto Diego's wrist.
"What? Say that again," Diego said, leaning with his left ear close to Pedro's mouth.
"Don't let them steal Toronado! You'll need him!"
"Don't worry, I don't think he will let them take him so easily, or his new friends. Not without a fight."
Toronado charged against the men then, biting and kicking, and the horse thieves replied brandishing whips and sticks, hitting him all over, viciously, even on his head.
"Get that black fury under control, for fuck sake!" the leader shouted as Toronado reared, attacking them with his hooves. Two men lassoed the black stallion then, passing ropes over his head, pulling from opposite directions to control him, while another one hit his hind quarters repeatedly with a sharp stick to make him bolt forward, towards the entrance.
"Do something!" Pedro cried, releasing his grip on Diego's wrist.
Diego grabbed the same shovel Pedro had used and stood up, approaching the men.
"Leave that horse alone!"
When another thief aimed a gun at him, Diego stopped in his tracks, looking back at Pedro, as if apologizing, and dropped the shovel, lifting his hands up. He knew it wasn't worth the risk, because his eyes were rolling again with the vertigo, so his chances of fighting successfully were close to none.
"Don't shoot!"
That man smiled then, flashing a row of rotten teeth under the colourful bandana, and shot him all the same, ignoring the fact the tall caballero had surrendered.
"Come on! We've got enough horses! Let's go!" said the leader when other workers and ranch hands arrived at the stables, armed with guns, swords and clubs.
The last bandits left the stables, getting on their horses. The one still holding onto Toronado's rope was about to give up on him and let go of the rope when the black horse instead of pulling back, suddenly lurched forward, following the other horses outside.
ZZZ
Don Alejandro climbed back into the carriage to grab the weapons he had hidden under the seats. Mierda! Please, not Diego, he thought when he heard the second shot. ¡Por favor, Señor, Diego no!
"Here!" Don Alejandro said, handing Victoria and Felipe a gun each. "Get into the house! Quick!"
"What are you going to do?" Victoria said.
"Follow that cheese brain I have for a son!" he said, placing several loaded guns in his belt, grabbing the rifle the last.
Felipe and Victoria looked at each other while the old don headed for the stables, armed to the teeth. Without the need for words, they both held onto their guns a bit tighter and followed him, ignoring his command to seek shelter in the house.
On the way there, they all cringed when they heard the third gunshot. Don Alejandro headed for the front door, where the thieves had gathered a group of his best horses, while Felipe and Victoria ran to the back door. Don Alejandro stopped and aimed his rifle to the closest thief. He fired, hitting his chest, and the man fell off his horse, releasing the rope holding Zeus. At that moment, Toronado got out of the stables, dragging a man behind him, on foot, until he also let go of the rope, and the black horse joined the other frightened stallions.
Another bandit aimed his gun at Don Alejandro, but the old don fired the second shot of his rifle first, hitting his arm. The bandit dropped his weapon and spurred his horse to flee.
"Let's go! That old man is a good shot!" he cried.
Don Alejandro dropped the rifle and grabbed two of his pistols, firing them with both hands at once, but he didn't hit anybody else.
"Come back here, you cowards!"
Pablo and some of the other vaqueros also fired their weapons, careful not to hit the horses, but the bandits got away with a large number of them, creating a more or less controlled stampede of galloping hooves in their getaway. Well trained by Don Alejandro, only Zeus returned to the stables, not following the group, with the rope still hanging from his neck.
"Attaboy," Don Alejandro said, catching him, patting his neck. He had the impulse of jumping on his back to give chase to the bandits, but he had to reject that crazy idea. If only I was twenty years younger… Besides, Diego wasn't there at the door with the others, so, despite his prayers, he feared the worst. "Come on, Zeus, let's find out what happened!" he said, taking the horse inside, at a trot.
ZZZ
When Felipe and Victoria got inside the stables, they found Pablo and another man crouching by the two injured men, checking on them.
"Diego! No!" she cried, running to his side, in a state, hysterical.
"Calm down!" Pablo said, grabbing her upper arms as she flumped by him, shaking her so she would focus on his face and his words. "He's alright! It looks bad, but the bullet only grazed his head. Please, take care of them. Vamos, Matías!"
The two men left for the front door then, with the others, with their guns ready, taking also Victoria's and Felipe's. While Felipe tended for Pedro, applying pressure to his bleeding wound as Diego had done before, Victoria checked on her husband. He was unconscious, lying on his back, with a superficial, but profusely bleeding long graze at the right side of his head. She ripped a long strip of cloth from the bottom of her skirt and wrapped it tightly around his head, applying pressure to stop the bleeding. When she looked at Pedro, who was screaming in agony while Felipe tried his best to help, she thanked God because Diego had been so lucky, avoiding a bullet to the head for the second time in only a few hours.
Don Alejandro rushed into the stables running alongside Zeus, who trotted to his pen on his own when the old don let go of the rope.
"How is he?" he cried, kneeling by Diego's side, in front of Victoria, as anxious as she was.
"He's alright, gracias a Dios. The bullet only scratched his head."
"Again? A shot to the head? And the bullet didn't hit him?"
Joder, Diego, maybe you really are bulletproof! he thought, checking the wound under the improvised bandage, and then his pulse, with a hand on his neck.
"You are right. That bullet hardly touched him. He's fine!"
"Not like him," she said, nodding towards Pedro. Don Alejandro stood up then and kneeled back down by his loyal worker, taking his shaky hand, that was covered with blood, dripping.
"I'm sorry, Boss," Pedro said, with a broken voice, while grimacing in pain.
"For what?"
"I couldn't stop them. They took your stallions. Sorry."
"Don't worry about that. They are only horses. We'll get them back," Don Alejandro said, tapping Pedro's hand while glancing worriedly at the wound in his stomach. The other men had returned to the stables, gathering around their fallen friend, and they all looked at him in silence, not expressing their own concerns about that serious, dreadful wound. "You were very brave, Pedro, facing them all on your own. Thank you."
Don Alejandro lifted his head then, looking at the men.
"Pablo! Go get the doctor!" he shouted to the air, because he could not see him, but Pablo was already ridding out after tacking his horse in record time.
"On my way!" he shouted from the entrance door, spurring his horse to a frantic gallop.
"Should we chase them?" Matías asked.
"No," Don Alejandro said. "It will be dark soon, and I don't want any more casualties. As I said, they are only horses. You guys are more important to me."
"They chose to strike late in the evening on purpose, so we could not track them until the morning. The bastards!" another man said, spitting to the ground.
"Yes. But, whoever wants to volunteer to track them down with me, we'll do it tomorrow," Don Alejandro said. The men talked all at once, expressing their wishes to take part in that dangerous search party. "Thank you, I didn't expect any less of you. Now, let's get Pedro and my son to a bed, vamos."
ZZZ
Doctor Hernández had a quick look at Diego's wound first, complementing Victoria for her improvised pressure bandage. He agreed the wound was superficial, and Diego should wake up soon after that shock. He washed the wound quickly and applied another bandage, leaving the room to concentrate on Pedro, who was waiting in the adjacent one.
As he searched for the bullet, everybody in the building cringed with Pedro's screams of pure agony, until he passed out and a heavy silence fell on the house. In the end, Doctor Hernández had to give up, because he could not find it. The bullet had perforated the frontal part of the stomach wall, and he hoped it was still inside and had simply fallen to the bottom, where he could not reach it, because the other alternative, perforating also the back of the stomach wall, was much worse, and carried a very bad prognosis. Hoping for the best, he cut a larger incision in the skin and muscles to locate the hole in the stomach and sutured it, leaving the gunshot wound in the abdomen open, for drainage.
By the time he returned to Diego's room, he was awake, and arguing with his father.
ZZZ
"Diego, they are only horses, for crying out loud! Don't worry. It's not worth it. The important thing here is that you are alive, and well."
"Father, that black horse has saved my life more times that I can count or recall. I owe him so much more than this. And I spent too much time taking care of Apollo to leave him now in the hands of some cabrón who can push that weak bone too hard until it breaks again. If it was only the other horses, maybe I would give up. But for them two, I have to go. I must find them, and then I have to end this wave of crimes before those bastards go too far. They have already gone far enough: trying to rape Victoria and shooting me when I had no weapons and I had already surrendered, los hijos de puta!" he cried with uncharacteristic anger, cursing mad.
"Diego, I understand all that, but you can't go anywhere right now! You still suffer from vertigo, and it is too dark now to track the hoofprints accurately, even with your excellent skills. And look, your guardian angel must really love you, because you nearly died twice today. Please, don't push your luck!"
Diego ignored him and tried to get out of bed, taking his hands to his face when the whole room spun around him, forcing him back on the pillows.
"Mierda. This is hopeless!" Diego cried, cursing a bit more.
"Diego, we already lost Esteban to impatience. I'll tie you to that bed if I have to, but you are not going anywhere tonight, either as Zorro or not!" Don Alejandro shouted back, losing it.
"Don't worry. Even if I could walk a couple of steps without falling over, I can't go out as Zorro without Toronado, ridding on another horse. And I can't be tracking the horses and fighting those men as Diego either. Aaargh!" he cried, frustrated to the core, stumping his fists on the bed.
"Diego, calm down, please," Victoria said. "We understand your frustration, but you have to take it easy. Rest, please. Tomorrow will be another day," she added, kissing his forehead gently.
"I hope you are happy now. Zorro can't ride without his horse," he said, staring at her with a sad face.
"How could I be even remotely happy about this, Diego?
"Because I know you don't want me to ride as Zorro ever again. Now that you know who I am, it's not the same, is it? I may be half deaf, but I'm not blind."
"No, it's not the same, you're right. How could it be? But please, calm down. First, get better, and then we'll take one step at a time."
"I'm sorry, Son, but there is not much we can do at the moment for those horses. I'll try to spur Mendoza into action tomorrow, and also organize a citizen patrol. These bastards can't take over our pueblo like this, not without a fight."
"I hope that plan of yours doesn't end up with a lot of casualties," Diego said.
"Yes. Me too, Son. Me too. Come on, rest now. Please, Doctor, you tell him."
"Diego, you know the drill: lots of rest and bark infusion," the doctor said, agreeing with Don Alejandro. "You had two lucky escapes today, but those near misses still shocked your brain badly. Take it easy."
"And don't worry, Toronado will be fine," Don Alejandro said. "I think that clever horse of yours went with the others on purpose to protect them, instead of coming back to the stables as Zeus did."
"I hope so."
"We'll see what happens. Rest now while we bring you something to eat, and don't think too much, all right?"
"All right. Don't think too much," Diego said, sinking on the pillows, with a long, deep sigh. "I'll try my best."
ZZZZZ
A.N. – As I am abusing a bit the "what happens after that gunshot" cliffie, I cut the last chapter a bit short and I had to bend the next one too to accommodate this chapter without one. Yes, I gave up on a cliffie on purpose… OMG, the world is coming to an end soon! (You are welcome).
Thanks, "A big fan", but I can't post a chapter daily. The word count would get to a million words otherwise, hahahaha (let alone the hard work to write so much).
"Dapet", thanks for your nice review on the "A New Swordsman in LA" story. Much appreciated. It doesn't matter if the review comes one day or one year after something is posted. It is always nice to get reviews.
And once again, thank you all for your support and your interest in this story. Keep the reviews coming! XXX