Chapter 8 The Posse

Jason, Jeremy, and Joshua paused at the site where the coach had been. The horses were dead, Corky and Swede buried the one woman who had died. They left a trail so that the others could see which way to follow. Moving swiftly, and silently the Bolt brothers and the posse who were with them, followed the trail. They saw a large bush that looked like it had been blown over by a giant windstorm. The area was much like that at the caves that Jeremy had found Candy. It was rocky and dry.

"I think it will be better for us to split up into three posse's!" Jason said as he took a sip from his canteen.

"Joshua, go with Rance and Daniel, Jermey go with Hart, Johnson, and Rick. The rest will follow me!" As soon as he finished everyone split into their groups since they had been heading south each group took a different direction. Joshua was leading Rance and Daniel towards the east side of the mountain. Jeremy took his group to the west side. Jason took his off to the North side.

As Joshua, Rance and Daniel went around the other side of the mountain, they heard a noise.

"Sounds like a gunshot!" Rance said as he stopped to listen. Joshua was about to answer when he felt something hit his shoulder. He almost fell off his horse. Rance and Daniel both jumped from their horses and used them as a shield. Joshua was already under his horse. Rance saw a rock formation a few feet on the left of them, he got Josh's attention and slowly he and Josh made it to the rock formation before the next shot was fired. Daniel was not so lucky, he ended up across from them with the horses, doing his best to hide behind a medium-sized boulder. Another shot was fired but missed Joshua who had finally gotten behind a large boulder. He was in pain and was trying to stop the bleeding, when a shot flew over his head and ricocheted off the rock behind him and would have hit him in the head instead, Rance pushed Joshua down and took the bullet in his head! Daniel had decided to run to them just at that time and made it without getting hit with a bullet. One more shot was fired, but he and Joshua were on the ground!

On the west side, Hart, Rick, Johnson, and Jeremy were coming around the side of the rock formation when they heard the shots. Just as they were about to pull up and stop, Patch and Buck jumped Hart and Johnson. They were knocked off their horses and a fight ensued. Jeremy and Rick both stopped their horses and were about to get down when they heard a click of a rifle.

"You two had better get down off those horses right now!" Mitch said as he aimed the rifle at Jeremy. They both stood by helplessly watching as Patch and Buck fought with Hart and Johnson.

"Pretty even fight, don't you think?" asked Mitch as he took a rope and made Rick first tie Jeremy to a post and then he tied Rick to a post as well. Patch and Buck were just about finished. They had knocked Hart out and he was tied up as well as Johnson.

"Well, what are we going to do now?" Buck asked as he used his knife to clean his fingernails. Mitch looked at all the people he had tied up and then he said:

"Well, the small one he is a Bolt, I know that RJ would want us to keep him alive. But maybe we can torture the others?"

"Yeah! Lets have a little Barbecue!" Patch said eagerly going over to the campfire.
"Not yet, we need to see who RJ has captured first!" Just as Mitch finished, he saw RJ coming with Joshua and Daniel tied to a horse. He got off his horse and then took Joshua over to where Jeremy was. Daniel was standing behind the horse tied to the saddle. Mitch slapped the horse on its back and the horse ran dragging Daniel through the brush and rocks. When the horse stopped, Daniel was bleeding and bruised. Patch went over and dragged Daniel to the campfire and threw him down roughly near the fire. Daniel could not move, he felt as if every bone in his body had been broken.

There was some noise just outside of the camp and three riders rode in. Mitch and RJ greeted them. They got down and talked with RJ a few minutes then they went over to the camp fire. They saw Daniel and looked at Mitch and he nodded, and they each took a turn kicking him.

Joshua was hurting and his shoulder was bleeding. Jeremy, could only look at him and tried to say:

"J-j-josh, i-it-it-will b-b-be all right!" Joshua looked at his brother, they had been tied opposite each other so they could see each other. RJ walked over and said to them:
"Don't worry, we will patch you up in a little while, we need to capture the Big Billy Goat first! And you will be the bait!" Both Josh and Jeremy could only groan and whimper. Daniel had passed out and was no longer coherent. The men by the fire pushed him closer to the hot coals. This group was not interested in keeping hostages alive, so whatever they could do to those they did not need, they would do. Sometimes the hostages would die and other times, they would live but never be the same again.

Jason and the others had seen what was happening in that camp. They knew that Jeremy and Joshua were in trouble.

"We need to find out what happened to Corky and Swede" Whispered Jason.

"I saw some tracks around the other side of this here rock. I wonder if they might not be on the other side as well!" said a man who was one of the mill workers. Suddenly there was a shot from behind that man and he dropped dead. Jason quickly disappeared behind a bush. The other men, were captured but they could not find Jason.

These men were brought back into the camp by Abe and Patch.

"Thanks, Abe! But where is Jason?" said Mitch.

"He was gone when we got there!" said Patch. Mitch did not like it at all. He then said, "Bring the Bolt brothers and the two we have hidden in the cave. We will get all of them together!" He said.