After more than a few scrapes and scratches, La Roux’s bulky frame finally emerged into the cave. With a groan of relief and pleasure, he rolled onto his back panting. He knew a fast escape from the place would be out of the question, but at least the caves entrance would be easy to defend. After a few moments, he raised himself up on his elbows and looked around.
A number of candles and a small fire cast a dim light over the interior of the cave, revealing a large open cavern. The enveloping darkness above the small ring of light made it appear as if the cave had no ceiling.
He looked toward the fire and watched as its smoke twisted its way into the gloom. He noticed that the thin plume of grayish vapor seemed to disappear into nothingness. This he knew meant there must be some kind of opening above, otherwise the cave would have quickly filled with smoke.
Around him, huddled on dirty blankets, sat the fifteen emaciated and terrified looking women. All but Izzy stared at him with a combination of fear and loathing. His eyes quickly tracked to where Callum lay unattended.
“Ain’t none of you checked on him!” La Roux growled angrily.
He clambered to his feet and quickly moved to his friend’s side. He found Callum in pretty much the same state as he had left him only minutes earlier. He was still unconscious and sweat beaded his brow. The big man dropped to his knees beside the young Ranger, then gently patted his cheek. When Callum did not wake, La Roux’s pats turned to slaps.
“Come on, Wentworth, wake up.”
Gradually, Callum began to stir, and his eyes slowly opened. “Where are we?”
Relieved, La Roux dropped back on his haunches and said, “We’re in a cave with the women from the camp. Seems ya had a bit of a run in with someone.”
Callum looked down at his mutilated wrist, and then closed his eyes. “I got jumped by some big ox from the camp. He tried to feed my hand to the undead in the pen, so I had no choice but to cut it off.”
Even though La Roux suspected as much, hearing the words coming from Callum’s mouth still shocked him. “You cut your own hand off?”
“The Lingerer had my fingers in its mouth, and I could feel its teeth cut through my glove and into my fingers. If its drool got into my system I would’ve ended up as one of them. You know as well as I do that bites are certain death … or worse. Losing a hand was the better option.” Callum eyed his surrounds groggily, and then asked, “Is there any water.”
La Roux pulled a canteen from his belt, then raised Callum’s head and held the water container to his parched lips. “Drink slowly, otherwise you might start puking.”
Callum took several small sips and then La Roux lowered his friend’s head to the blanket.
“I saw a pot boiling on a fire, so I held my wrist against it to stop the bleeding.”
La Roux winced. “That must’ve hurt like a sonofabitch.”
Callum smiled a little. “It did.”
“The big man who attacked you … did you kill him?”
Both Callum and La Roux looked in the direction of the weak voice. A mousey woman timidly returned their gaze.
“Why, yes, ma’am, I did.”
She nodded slowly. “I think that might have been my husband.”
“I … I’m sorry,” Callum stammered as he looked up at La Roux.
“Don’t be,” she said, “he was an out and out bastard.”
Izzy stood and moved to La Roux’s side. “Let me see what I can do for your friend. It won’t be much, but I’ve got used to fixing people up over the years.” She turned back to the cluster of women, all of whom looked a little less afraid now. “Mary, bring me the medicine box from over yonder.” She looked back toward Callum and then knelt beside him. “Since finding this place, we’ve managed to stash some provisions here. Luckily, we have a little phenol, so I will be able to clean your wound thoroughly. It’ll hurt like bejesus, and I’ll have to do it often, but it’ll be the only way of slowing or stopping infection.”
Callum nodded grimly. “Do what you have to do.”
La Roux placed the handle of his knife in Callum’s mouth and then nodded for Izzy to begin cleaning his friend’s injured wrist. Izzy cuffed at her brow, and then began to swab Callum’s wound with the phenol and water solution. As she worked, Callum’s eyes grew wider with pain. The muscles in his neck stood out like cords on a violin bow, and sweat drenched his body. Mary dabbed at his head with a wet cloth, but it did little to sooth the young Ranger’s anguish.
La Roux paced back and forth as the women worked. He felt both anger and pity in equal measure. Anger for the men of camp Maxwell, and pity for his friend. Finally, Callum’s eyes rolled up into his head and his body went limp. La Roux stopped abruptly, and stared down at his motionless friend.
“Is he dead?” he asked nervously.
“No,” Izzy replied calmly. “Ya should just thank The Lord that he finally passed out. He’s tough right enough, but sometimes it’s better to listen to what your body is telling ya. I think he would’ve passed out a while back, but he was just too stubborn to.”
La Roux smiled and relaxed a little. “Ya just described young Wentworth perfectly … stubborn.”
The big Cajun watched on in silence as Izzy carefully cleaned, then bandaged Callum’s injured arm. He was amazed by how tender and proficient she was at the task. Clearly, this woman had tended to many injuries throughout the years, and some may have been every bit as horrendous as Callum’s.
He looked around the dimly lit cave and saw the other women were watching Izzy every bit as intently as he. They seemed to look as her in the same way children look at their mothers. He saw both admiration and trust written in their tired and pallid faces, and realized they would follow her anywhere she went. If he were to have any chance of saving these people, then he would have to make sure Izzy stayed both alive, and on his side. If he lost her, then the women would most likely abandon him and return to the camp and their former lives.
As bizarre as this realization seemed to him, he had seen it before. Terrified people often chose the devil they knew. Such things made no sense to him, but he knew fear was a terrible motivator that often took people down the worst possible course. Keeping these women out of the Maxwell men's’ hands meant a battle on two fronts. First, he must win their trust, then he would need to best the Maxwells. In all honesty, he did not know which battle would be harder.
“I think he’ll sleep through ‘til morning,” Izzy said as she wiped her hands on an old rag.
Her words broke the Cajun’s line of thought, and his gaze turned to her once more. She looked back at him, and for the first time he noticed how big and brown her eyes were. He instantly pictured her as a frightened doe, but in reality, he knew she was far stronger than some fragile deer. Whether she knew it or not, this woman had enough strength for all her group.
“Good,” he said. “I’ll get some shut eye too. Have one of the women keep watch at the opening, if they see anything, then wake me.”
Izzy nodded then stood and move to La Roux’s side. She grabbed the lapel of his heavy leather coat and pulled so his massive, bearded face came closer to hers. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and then stepped back.
“Thank ya for all you’ve done,” she said as her eyes filled with tears.
“We ain’t out of the woods yet,” he replied as his hand went to his cheek. “I mean, we literally have to get out of these woods before we can breathe easy.”
She nodded. “I know this ain’t over yet, but I wanted to thank ya while I had a chance. Can I ask ya your first name? Calling you by your surname seems wrong somehow.”
La Roux grinned broadly. “My name’s Pierre, and I’d be right honored for you to use it.”
“Well, Pierre,” she said with a smile. “You get some rest and I’ll take first watch.”
With that, Izzy headed for the opening, and then disappeared off down the short tunnel that led to the outside world. La Roux watched her until she was completely out of sight, then he laid himself down and rested his head on his pack. He thought sleep might not come to him easily, but he was asleep within a minute.
Callum shielded his face against the shaft of light stinging his still closed eyes. In the hours since his arrival at the cave, he had drifted in and out of sleep. The pain in his arm had woken him often, but once awake, he could turn his cold, stoic brain to the task of burying his pain.
Over the years, Callum had become extremely good at burying things that caused him discomfort. Whether the discomfort grew from physical pain or emotional upset, he had found a way of squashing the sensations equally well. He would simply visualize the thing causing him pain as a tangible object. Sometimes he would picture the sensation as a ball, other times he imagined it as a tool of some kind. Once his discomfort had taken on a form, he would pick it up and place the object in a mental lock-box. Once the newly created object was safely inside the box, he would lock it with a key made of pure will.
This technique worked well during his waking hours, but it let him down when he slept. His dreaming mind lacked the focus to keep the box locked, and as a result, everything it contained often came spilling out. This not only meant he often suffered extremely vivid nightmares, but also any physical pain the box held came pouring out as well. This had led to a fitful night of sleep, and an almost unbearable headache.
Callum splayed the fingers of the hand shielding his face and gradually opened one eye. The interminably bright ray of light seemed to be coming from a small hole in the cave’s roof. The hole seemed no larger than three or four inches across, but it seemed to be letting in an almost unbelievable amount of light. With a groan, he lowered his hand and accepted the inevitable.
Slowly, he opened both eyes to a squint, then blinked them wide. After a few seconds, the light seemed not quite so bright and he set about the task of boxing up his demons and his pain. After a minute or so of intense concentration, the pain in his wrist had reduced to a dull but continual thudding, and all memories of his lost loved ones had evaporated. He raised himself up on his elbows and looked around.
The woman who had tended his wound looked over at him and smiled. She approached and then checked his bandages.
“How ya feeling?” she asked as she laid his damaged wrist back down.
“I’ll be fine,” Callum said as he looked around the cave. “”Where’s La Roux?”
“He went out hunting. There’s plenty of game around here, so I don’t reckon he’ll be too long. I’m Izzy by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” Callum replied as he got shakily to his feet.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You’ve suffered an extremely bad injury and….”
Caused by both his discomfort, and her unwanted advice, an anger rose in his chest and he cut her off. “Well, yer not me, so….”
Callum looked at Izzy, and by the look on her face he realized he had spoken to her out of turn. He knew his cold manner often upset people, but he did not want to upset these women, and especially not the one who had tended him so kindly. The last thing any of them needed was an asshole barking at them.
He forced a smile and said, “I’m right sorry for speaking to you like that, but I assure ya I’ll be fine. Now, where are my weapons?”
“Over yonder.” She pointed to a pile of equipment in the corner of the cave, but did not return his smile.
He moved to the pile and pulled out his tomahawk. After placing it in the holster on his belt, he picked up his six-shooter and checked to see if it was loaded. He clumsily held the gun under the crook of his left arm—the one missing the hand—and with his right hand, he opened the revolving chamber. He checked each cartridge; replacing the spent ones with fresh rounds, then snapped it shut and holstered it.
“I’m going outside to take a look around.”
“Callum, I think you should wait ‘til Pierre gets back.”
“I thank ya for your concern, Izzy, but I think it’s best I take a look around.”
She nodded slowly and said, “Well, if ya say it’s for the best, then I guess ya have to do what your heart tells ya. But just to be on the safe side, let me send one of the girls with ya. Mary would ya do our Mr. Wentworth here the honor of keeping him company on his wanderings.” A young woman he remembered from the night before stood and moved to his side. “If he becomes tired or in need of help, then come and get me. Is that clear?”
“Clear as day, Izzy,” Mary replied as she eyed Callum thoughtfully.
Callum huffed, but did not say any more on the subject. Instead, he simply headed out the cave on his elbows and knees. After thirty seconds of scrabbling in the dirt, he pushed his way through the bush concealing the caves opening and stood in the bright daylight of an almost perfect morning’s light. He raised his face to the sun and took in a deep lung full of the fresh, dewy air. His head instantly began to swim and his knees felt as if they would buckle.
“Steady,” Mary said as she took his arm and guided him to a nearby rock. “Yer still weak and the fresh air can sometimes make a poorly person feel faint.”
Callum berated himself inwardly for his light headedness, and for not hearing Mary’s exit from the cave. Normally, he could hear a sparrow’s fart at a hundred yards, yet he had not heard her approach from mere feet away.
He sat on the rock and lowered his head. After a minute or so, his head stopped spinning and he looked up at the woman still holding his arm.
“Thank you,” he said weakly, and rose once more.
He stood a good four inches taller than the petite blonde holding his arm. He looked down at her and saw how pretty, but stern her face was. Despite the fact Izzy had dark hair and brown eyes, she bore a striking resemblance to the blue eyed blonde now helping to support him. Mary was clearly a Maxwell, and a close relation to both Izzy and Tilly.
“Is Izzy your kin?” he asked as he gently pulled his arm free of her grip.
Mary nodded. “She’s my cousin. Her Pa and my Pa are brothers.”
At that moment, a rustling of branches caught Callum’s attention and he spun on his heels to see what had caused the noise. La Roux ambled out of the undergrowth with a bush turkey in each hand, and a couple of rabbits slung over one shoulder. He looked up, and on seeing Callum, his face erupted into a grin.
“I didn’t expect to see ya up and about so soon. How’s the arm?”
Callum looked down at his mutilated wrist. On seeing the blood covered bandages that wrapped his stump, his mental fortitude momentarily wavered. Suddenly, a new and intense pain rushed him like a pack of attacking dogs. The pain was not only physical, but emotional too. He knew the Ranger Corps did not tolerate weakness of any kind, and what was weaker than a Ranger missing a hand? He now realized his life as a Ranger was all but over, which caused a wave of nausea to rise from his gut. The sensation threatened to consume him, so he closed his eyes and forced the bile and fear back down into his stomach where it belonged. He then quickly and systematically, stowed away both his worrisome doubts and his physical pain in one of the many mental boxes that lined the walls of his mind. Finally, he looked up at La Roux, and offered him a weak smile.
“It hurts, but I’ll make it. I see you’ve been busy.”
La Roux looked at the dead birds in his hands, then at the rabbits hung over his shoulder. “A man has to eat,” he said with a comical lick of the lips. “Are ya hungry?”
“Not particularly, but I’ll force something down.”
“I’m starving, and I know my kin are too,” Mary blurted uncontrollably.
Both men turned to look at her, and they saw that she seemed embarrassed by her outburst.
“Well I am, and so are they,” she said sheepishly. “Here give ‘em to me.” She approached La Roux and took his catches. “I’ll get one of the others to come out and help me clean ‘em. In a few hours we’ll all have full stomachs, which always makes things seem better. I know it’ll take more than a full stomach to get us out of this, but it’s a heck of a good place to start.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” La Roux said as he moved and sat on the rock beside Callum. He then looked at his friend intently and said, “We need to talk.”
Callum nodded. “I know we do. Firstly, how the hell are we going to take that camp?”
La Roux looked at the young Ranger in disbelief. “Callum, there’s no way in hell we can take that camp. The priority now is making sure all these women get out of here in one piece. You do realize we’ll be lucky to get out of these here mountains alive.” La Roux looked off thoughtfully toward the tree line. “Although, I have to say I’ve seen no signs of us being pursued. Last night I heard people and Lingerers hunting us, they seemed to be everywhere, but now the woods seem empty of everything but game. By now we should have the whole Maxwell clan after us, plus all the Lingerers they held at that camp.”
Puzzled, Callum looked at La Roux and asked, “What makes you think they’d release their Lingerers.”
“When I found ya, you were out cold. I had to fight off a whole bunch of undead before I could get ya out of there.”
“The undead you fought were most likely the ones that broke out of the pen after I cut off my hand. They most likely tracked me by the smell of my blood, but there’s nothing to suggest they’d release the rest. Lingerers aside, why haven’t they started looking for us yet?”
La Roux looked off into the undergrowth. “Good question, and it’s one I don’t have an answer to.”
“I know why.”
Both men looked toward the voice, and they saw Izzy stood by the bush that sheltered the mouth of the cave. Mary, along with the youngest looking girl of the group, stood at her side. Izzy turned to Mary and said, “While I have a yarn with our two new friends, you and Jess start on cleaning them there animals.”
Mary nodded and took Jess by the hand. She led the girl to the small pile of dead game, then they both crouched and started inspecting the animals.
Mary’s gaze then turned to the two Rangers. “I don’t suppose one of ya gentlemen could lend me something to skin these here varmints?”
La Roux pulled his knife from his belt and strolled over to the two. “It’s right sharp so watch how ya use it.”
Mary frowned at him. “Ya do realize I’ve skinned a rabbit or two in my time, and I managed to do it without losing a single finger.”
La Roux’s cheeks turned red beneath his beard. “Sorry, ma’am, I didn’t mean to insult ya.”
Mary smiled. “Don’t assume all women are frail and helpless. Some of us can look after ourselves.”
He tugged at his hat, and nodded his understanding. He then turned to Izzy. “You say ya know why there’s no one tracking us yet. Why would ya know something like that?”
Izzy looked at Mary, and as if she had given some unspoken order, her two kin picked up the game and moved away. She waited for Mary and Jess to move out of earshot before she explained further.