Izzy leaped to her feet when she heard the explosion. It was miles from their location, but sound traveled well in the mountain’s night air. If she had to guess, then she would say the explosion emanated from the direction of her old prison and home, camp Maxwell.
“What the hell was that?” Mary asked as she grabbed up one of the rifles left by La Roux and Callum.
Izzy looked at her cousin worriedly, and said, “I’d say that was Pierre causing pa some hell. I think we should double the watch ‘til morning.”
Mary nodded, and gestured to one of the non-pregnant women. The woman nodded, took the rifle Mary had, and headed out of the hunters cabin to take up an additional watch position.
“What do we do now?” Mary asked as quiet and calmly as she could.
Izzy looked her in the eye. “We wait.”
* * *
La Roux rode away from the Maxwell camp as quickly as he dared. While it was relatively easy to navigate the tight and winding forest paths by day, at night—and on horseback—the going was both slow, and dangerous. Behind him, La Roux heard the shouts of the Maxwell men growing in intensity. Judging by the clarity of the voices reaching his ears, the men were now back in the camp, which lay a mere two hundred yards behind him. He brought the horses to a brief stop, and tried to estimate how many men he could hear. Then, the chorus of voices suddenly became very agitated and angry.
I guess they just found Pa Maxwell,
he thought as a slight grin crossed his lips.
Since lighting the fuse to the dynamite, La Roux had kept a countdown in his head. By his estimation, the dynamite would go off sometime in the next minute to minute and a half, which meant the disgruntled men now back at the camp would soon get a nasty surprise. He kicked his horse lightly, and started moving the three horse convoy deeper into the dark woodlands.
La Roux had barely traveled more than another thirty yards, when an ear splitting explosion filled the night air. As the sound of the explosion subsided, screams of pain and shock took its place.
It went off a little early. Damn fuses never burn as long as they should.
His mind then turned from the fuse, to the men suffering back in the camp. He found a grotesque pleasure in the sounds of agony coming from behind him. His mandate as a Ranger was to administer justice as best he saw fit, and he thought there was no more fitting a punishment for what those men had done, than burning alive.
Hope the sons-of-bitches burn in hell … they deserve everything they get.
Of course, he knew the explosion wouldn’t take out all of the Maxwell men. He did not even know for sure how many men had returned to the camp, or how many of those had fallen prey to the explosion. But he did know one thing for sure. The remaining Maxwell clan would think long and hard before attempting to hunt them down again.
They were now like wounded animals. Corner them, and they would most likely fight to the bitter end. Leave them alone, and they would more than likely sneak off somewhere to die. He felt sure the Maxwell clan had seen its last days, but that did not mean he would leave the surviving men alone. As soon as he had Callum safe and sound, he would bring back a team of Rangers and he would hunt down every last one of the surviving Maxwell scum.
But if the Maxwell men went into hiding, how would he identify them all? He had seen a few of the men, but by no means had he seen them all. His mind then turned to Izzy and Mary. Both women were brave and both wanted to see justice done. He knew both would readily agree to escort them on their hunt, and with them along, none of the Maxwell survivors would stand any chance of slipping through the net.
His mind then fixed on Izzy, and how much he admired her. Her physical beauty was undeniable, but it was her strength that he admired the most. A woman like that would be a fine catch indeed. She would make a spirited wife and a fine mother. As his mind worked over all the what ifs, an empty feeling began to pervade his stomach. There was no point day dreaming about wives and mythical lives filled with happiness. He was a Ranger, and Rangers did not take wives. But, he had been married before the Corps, and he had enjoyed being a husband. It was something that had brought him more joy than he had ever felt. For a long time, he thought such happiness would never be possible again… but Izzy, she could make him happy. If only….
His mind then turned to a discussion he had once overheard between high ranking members of the Rangers. His presence had nothing to do with the meeting, he simply made up one of the Ranger’s responsible for the meeting’s security. The three day meeting ranged over a wide variety of issues facing the Rangers in future years. For instance, what would happen to the Corps as the Lingering threat diminished? What role would Rangers play in the country’s future security? For some, these were all very interesting topics, but not for him. He was a work horse, and he did as he was told. If one day they told him to put down his gun, then put down his gun he would.
Even at the time, this one topic toward the end of the meeting had piqued his interest. The talk had turned to making the Rangers more like other military units, and allowing them more freedoms. Rangers were not celibate—they were allowed sex—but they were forbidden wives and families. Rangers were not allowed the distractions of worrying about what might be happening back at home. Rangers had to be totally focused on the task of ridding the country of the vast numbers of wandering undead. This meant life as a married man, or father, was out of the question.
The bigwigs had discussed lifting this ban as the Ranger’s role became less hazardous and more like that of an ordinary soldier. It was true that none of the men at the meeting saw this happening any time soon, but it did offer him at least a glimmer of hope. He was not trying to fool himself. He knew Izzy would most likely never take a second look at someone like him, but that did not mean that one day a wife and child would not be a part of his life.
A groan from Callum brought La Roux back to his reality. He was surprised to see it was almost dawn, and that the hunter’s shack was now only a mile or so away. By daybreak he would be back with the women, and Izzy.
Izzy felt tired, but the rays of the rising sun on her face felt magnificent. She looked out over the mist covered mountains, and for the first time in a long time, she felt safe and at peace. The explosion she heard many hours earlier had at first unsettled her. Now she saw it as a signal of a new beginning. If—as she believed—the explosion marked the end of her father’s camp, then soon she and her kin could start their lives anew.
But what if the explosion signaled something else? What if it marked the end of La Roux and Callum? She shook her head and washed away the images of the two Rangers dead at her father’s hand. Her pa did not have anything that could have caused such a violent explosion. It had to be Pierre and his dynamite that caused the sky filling roar the night before. No, the Rangers were alive, she just had to wait for them to return.
“Over there!”
Izzy looked toward Mary perched on a rock high above the cabin. She was pointing toward the path that curved down to the shack. “What do ya see?”
Mary looked down at her cousin and smiled. “I see a massive man on a horse, and he’s leading two others behind him. He’s still a ways away, but it looks like La Roux.”
Izzy’s heart pounded with excitement and relief. “Is Callum with him?”
“I can’t tell, but there’s something laid across the saddle of the second horse. It could be a man, but it could be something else. I guess we’ll know soon enough.”
“Go tell the others to be ready to move at a moment’s notice,” Izzy shouted as she started to run toward the path.
A huge sense of relief permeated every cell of her body. She tried to convince herself that the relief was purely due to the fact they had someone to guard and watch over them, but in truth, she knew the relief stemmed from a more self-centered place. Pierre had forced a large hole in her heart, and knowing he was still alive filled her with joy.
Almost out of breath from her sprint up the steep path, Izzy finally saw La Roux. On seeing her, his face lit into a smile, and she saw nothing else but him. He wasn’t handsome—not in a traditional sense—but to her, he looked like a man who could be trusted, loved, and treasured.
“Thank God yer alright,” she panted as she drew to a stop just in front of his horse.
“I’m fine, but Callum is close to death.”
It was then she spotted the figure strewn across the second horse’s saddle. She dashed to the unconscious Ranger and gently undid the leather wrapping covering his injured wrist. The smell that assailed her nose confirmed her worse fears. The moist conditions of his leather wrist covering, made the ideal environment for gangrene to take hold. If something wasn’t done soon, then Callum would not make it through the next twenty-fore hours.
She leaped up onto the rear horse and yelled, “Hurry, Pierre, we need to get him inside the cabin.”
La Roux spurred his horse into action, and he led the small procession back down to the hunter’s shack as fast as he dared go.
As they came into the small clearing surrounding the cabin, Izzy jumped from the still moving horse and ran toward Mary.
“Callum’s wrist is gangrenous, he’ll die if we don’t do something. That dead deer we saw on the way here, run to it and gather as many maggots from it as ya can. Now hurry!”
Mary wasted no time asking questions, instead she bolted into the woods in search of the deer carcass.
Izzy then turned to the small group of women gathered outside the cabin’s door. “Jess, you and Josie grab some buckets and head down to the spring. The water is like ice there, and we can bathe him in it to bring down his fever. The rest of ya, keep clear so we can get him inside.”
The group parted and Izzy’s two young cousins ran off toward the spring, each with a bucket in hand. Izzy then turn back to La Roux. He had already lifted his friend from the horse and was heading for the shack.
“Lay him on the bed,” she said as she moved into step beside him. “And strip off all his clothes. He’s burning up, and unless we can get his fever down, he’ll die.”
* * *
With Callum laid naked on the old bed, the smell from his wound became overpowering in the confined space of the small shack. Without hesitation, Izzy ordered all but those needed to tend to the fallen Ranger to leave. In truth, no such order was needed, as the stench from his wrist was enough to drive everyone else out. With their eyes locked on the all but dead man in the bed, the remaining women still inside the cabin began to leave. Izzy knelt by his side, and carefully washed his wrist with water boiled on the nearby stove. She then turned to La Roux and saw how worried he looked.
“Pierre, make yourself useful. Put out that stove and open the shutters and door. I want as much fresh air in here as we can get.”
La Roux did as she asked and then moved back to her side.
“I should leave soon,” he said as he felt his young friend’s brow.
Izzy shot a bewildered glance in his direction. “Why?”
“Callum needs a doctor, and I need to get some men up here to start hunting down survivors of your pa’s men.”
For the first time since La Roux’s return, her mind turned to her family. “Is pa … dead?”
La Roux nodded and then moved to the door.
To her surprise, the news of her father’s death meant very little to her at that moment. What mattered more was keeping La Roux close at hand. “Don’t go, we need ya here.”
La Roux looked back at her. “Callum needs me more. He’ll die if I don’t find a doctor.”
Izzy rose to her feet and moved to the Cajun’s side. “What if pa’s remaining men come after us? Who will protect us?”
“I don’t reckon the rest of your pa’s men will pose much of a threat anymore—you’ll be fine.”
He went to go, and she grabbed his arm. “Pierre … I need you here.” He looked down at her hand on his arm, and she quickly released her grip. “I’ll send Mary and Josie to get a doctor. Both a good horse women, and they’ll ride every bit as fast as you can. One of them can return with the doctor, while the other heads off to the Ranger fort. What’s it called?”
La Roux looked back to his sick friend and mumbled, “Miles … Fort Miles.”
“Yes,” she said eagerly as she grabbed his arm again. “Yes, Fort Miles. One can bring the doctor here from Fountainhead, the other can head to Fort Miles. It’ll be quicker than you going, because one can head in each direction. You’d have to get the doctor, then bring him back here before ya headed out again.”
La Roux nodded. “Makes sense … alright, I’ll stay.”
Izzy rapped her arms around him, and he almost, but not quite, returned her embrace.
“How long will it take to get the doctor back here?”
Izzy released him and thought for a moment. “If he’s in town and not out on his rounds, then by nightfall.”
“Who will go where?” La Roux asked as he moved back to Callum’s side.
Izzy followed. “I think Mary is a stronger rider, so she should head for the fort. Josie’s been to Fountainhead before, so she’ll fetch the doctor.”
At that moment, Mary entered the shack with the skirts of her dress cradled in her hands. Izzy waved her over.
“Pierre, there’s some freshly boiled sheets on the line. Run and bring me one.”
La Roux returned a minute later with a sheet gray from age. “What do ya want with this?” he asked.
“Rip it into strips about a foot square.”
He instantly followed her instruction, and passed her the first of the makeshift dressings. It was then he saw a bowl semi filled with maggots. “What are ya going to do with those?”
Izzy placed Callum’s rotten wrist on the handkerchief sized piece of old sheet, and then scooped up a handful of the maggots and placed them on and around Callum’s septic wound. She then covered the wrist with the rest of the rag and bound it loosely with a length of yarn. The improvised bandage moved and pulsed as the maggots began eating away at Callum’s necrotic flesh.
“The maggots will only eat the dead and rotten part of his wrist, and they’ll leave the uninfected parts untouched. They’ll slow the spread of the infection,” Izzy said as she got to her feet. “As soon as the other two get back with the water, we’ll start bathing him to bring down his fever. We’ll dress and apply more maggots every couple of hours, but that’ll be about all we can do ‘til the doctor gets here.”
La Roux let out a tired groan and said, “I guess he’s in God’s hands now.” He ran his hands over his face and then looked at the pile of blankets piled in the corner of the room. “I’m going to grab a little shut eye. Wake me if I’m needed.”
Izzy patted his arm as she passed him. “Will do.”
He stripped off his heavy, protective leather coat and threw it down by the pile of blankets. He then removed all his weaponry, followed by his hat. Soon, he stood there in only his boots, pants and shirt. He looked in Izzy’s direction, and caught her studying the broad and muscular expanse of his chest. For a moment, their eyes met and both knew what the other felt. Embarrassed, she looked away and turned her attention to what had to be done.
After checking on Callum once more, she moved outside with Mary at her side. She explained to her cousin about the need for her to ride to Fort Miles. Mary nodded stoically, grabbed a canteen of water, and then mounted a horse and galloped off. Izzy watched as her cousin disappeared from view, and then she returned to Callum’s side in the shack.
Five minutes after Mary’s departure—and after returning with the ice cold water from the spring—Josie took the two remaining horses and headed out for Fountainhead. In the meantime, Izzy and Jess took it in turns to bathe Callum with the water. It would be a long and worry filled day, but Izzy resolved herself to face it head on. Her gaze turned to the snoring giant in the corner of the room, and a little of her resolve melted. She wanted him, but did he want her?