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A/N: Sequel to Strength of Legends: Descent
"I don't think he's all they say he is. You've read those dime novels haven't ya Bill." Davey reclined against the cave wall and propped his feet up on the barrel that sat beside the small table where Lenny and Bill were playing cards. They had all been sitting there for three hours listening to the soft splashing far below. The lantern lights had begun to dim and they were almost ready for the next watch. "I mean we're talking a legend or at least the making of one and the man can't be over what, eighteen?" He sat up suddenly the sleep deprivation having given him a sense of overconfidence. "Don't you wonder what he looks like?" "I don't get paid to wonder." Bill flipped the toothpick in his mouth and set his cards facedown on the table before rising to his feet in the small alcove. "I gotta take a breather...don't go a cheatin'." He chuckled softly to himself as if there was any chance that the once vicious killer, Lenny, would have gathered his nerve back up. He paused beside Davey and warned the boy, "You're gonna bring a world of trouble on your head if you keep up with all that wonderin'" "You obviously do not value the importance of curiosity," Davey replied with a shake of his head. There was a loud splash followed by a muffled response and Davey moved past Bill giving him a disdainful look as he peered over the side of the drop-off into pitch-blackness. "Ya'll quiet down...we're trying to sleep." He chuckled and turned back to face Lenny, seeing that Bill had walked out into the night air to get out of the small enclosure. "I bet I could take him." Lenny smiled and looked down at his cards. "I think you're insane." Lenny shook his head. He was about to comment further when Davey came at him and shoved his forearm against his throat pinning him to the cave wall. "Say it again," Davey growled. Lenny choked out an inaudible sort of response as the pressure squeezed the passage of his throat and he felt his eyes begin to roll into the back of his head. Bill walked in and acknowledged the scene with a nonchalant glance. "Let the man go. I have money to win," he told Davey, who let Lenny suffer a moment longer before turning him loose. As Lenny coughed in a lung full of air, Bill sat and turned his attention to Davey. "What's wrong with you two?" "He doesn't think I can take Hickok," Davey explained. He received a scoff from Bill. "I don't either...man's had three books written about him...who's done that for you?" Bill replied with a knowing smile as he raised the stakes in the card game. Lenny matched him and they went on. "I've been out of the public eye." Davey was indignant. Of course, he had not been afforded the luxury of having a crowd watch some of his handy work. He knew he was good though...and fast. "Takes more than the public eye to make you worth writin' about." Bill laughed and then called. Lenny laid out his pair of aces and jacks to the surprise of Bill who merely kept laughing as he laid out his one pair of tens. "You got me fair and square Len...you got one hell of a poker face." Lenny was in mid smile when Davey walked by on his way to the edge of the ledge and smacked him in the back of the head. "That was for callin' me crazy," Davey warned him as he looked back over the edge. "Hickok...wake up!" Barnett woke with a start as his feet slipped from the desk and his chair nearly slipped backward threatening for all of a moment to spill him onto the floor. Yet, as he surveyed the still cluttered room, he realized that it would not have made much difference, save to wound his self-confidence. Buck was the only person present and he was engrossed in a stack of maps of the territory. As Barnett rose from his seat to get another cup of coffee, he heard the young Kiowa mutter something under his breath. Buck looked harried from hours of studious effort reviewing the maps, trying to keep sane by formulating some sort of plan by the time Sam arrived. Barnett swore though that the man was in the exact same position as he had seen him in before his accidental doze. Buck had been propped up on rigid outstretched arms leaning heavily on Teaspoon's desk searching those lines and squiggles as if the more he looked the better his chance was for success. Barnett gave a sigh and slumped back into his seat. He moved to prop his feet back up, wishing there was something else they could do besides sit around waiting for the men they needed to arrive. What worried Barnett was that they had yet to come up with what they could do against sixty men even with Sam's help. Reinforcements were not in ready supply. Barnett missed his desk with his feet and they landed askew shoving the chair beside his desk a good foot away from him as well as sending a slosh of coffee spilling from the cup and onto his pants. Jumping up, Barnett gave a cry and used a less than proper word as he took his handkerchief from his pocket and leaned over to wipe the liquid from the pants. Barnett was in mid stoop still wiping when he noticed a small white rectangular object wedged in beside the desk. It looked as if it may have slipped off the desk and he was sure that it could not have been there long, as it was not covered in dust. Hearing Buck sigh, Barnett shook his head, feeling for the lad. It was a hard thing to not know what to do, but Barnett had learned not to dwell; besides Sam always had a plan. Barnett took a drink from his mug and slowly unfolded the piece of paper. As he started to read, Buck slammed his hand on the desk almost scattering the papers and maps in one fell swoop. Barnett shook his head as Buck turned around and sat on the edge of the desk in frustration. "I don't suppose that nap helped you come up with a plan, did it?" Buck didn't try to cover the frustration in his voice. "I'll have you know that was not a nap...I was simply resting my eyes," Barnett replied as he continued to scan the letter while taking another big gulp in an effort to keep from dozing off again. He had the cup raised to his lips when he read the last line and then swung the arm with the letter in it out as far from him as he could manage in an attempt to keep the spray of coffee from marring it's surface. Buck pushed off the desk and grabbed the letter from Barnett to see what had him so agitated. He paled as he read the letter and then looked to Barnett in shock. It was a request for reinforcements from Fort Laramie to handle the Indian situation with the Cheyenne war band. Evidently, their number had grown greater than was previously thought. The most important thing though was the signature and date. "Sam's not coming." Buck breathed. Barnett nodded. He rose to his feet as well. "More importantly he was already here...meaning whoever got Teaspoon..." "We don't know that." Buck cut him off looking at Sam's signature and the day's date with a heavy heart. "They could be out scouting." "You want to ride out there and see?" Barnett scoffed. "Cause I'm betting they got kidnapped just like everyone else." "You're right." Buck grabbed his coat and hat and checked his ammo as Barnett looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Buck paused when he saw that Barnett was not getting ready to leave. "Get your coat. We can make the Cheyenne camp by three o'clock." "Buck it's already two in the morning. What in the world is finding the Cheyenne camp going to do for us this late?" Barnett was not sure where Buck was going with this. "If they went to scout then they'll have a camp set nearby," Buck replied as he grabbed one of the rifles from its resting-place over Teaspoon's desk. "You coming?" "This isn't the brightest plan Buck," Barnett mumbled as he got his things together for the trip. "But why not." Shrugging, he grabbed his coat and followed Buck out the door. "He'll be all right," Teaspoon mumbled tiredly from his hold on the wall of the deep dark water filled cave. He bobbed in the water a moment and adjusted his feet against the wall feeling his skin protesting from having been in the water so long. Rachel shifted her position as well, as she let her eyes find the patch of soft lantern light from the alcove that rested sixty feet over the water's surface. She slowly let her gaze drift downward as she imagined the two figures climbing in desperation along the wall. "You don't know that." She scowled at Teaspoon although she knew that he could not even see his hand in front of his face. She had a feeling he heard it in her voice though by the sudden shift in movement beside her. Most of the men had tried to climb as far out of the water as they could and get a comfortable place along the cave wall to sleep. It was hard to come by though. Comfort was in short supply for everyone. Rachel had given up hours ago. Now she kept her eyes focused through the blackness at where she could only imagine Kid was. She trailed downward further with her gaze until she was sure she was aimed at Cody and Ike resting below Kid in the water. The three of them had a plan. They were trying to scout the passage to see if they could take it without alerting the entire camp. Rachel heard a muffled cry as Kid's hold on the wall slip. That was followed by a loud splash as Rachel gasped. "I'm all right," Kid called softly. Rachel let out the breath she had held and turned her head towards Teaspoon, who simply said, "See." Kid let his breathing become slow and steady as he settled in between Cody and Ike holding onto the cave wall. "I'm going to go again." He panted finally. "Kid, we all want to get up there, but your not going to be any good to us if you wear yourself plum out," Cody replied. He hated being the voice of reason, but Ike was having a heck of a time fulfilling that role in total darkness. "Besides I'm the better climber and you know it." Cody heard the scoff from Kid as Kid punched his arm. "Hey," Cody interjected in his defense. He did not get any further though as a voice boomed down at them from above. "Hickok...wake up!" Ike pulled on Cody's sleeve seeming to ask for an explanation. Cody immediately realized that Ike must have been hopeful that Jimmy had escaped. "It ain't like that," Cody said quickly. "They think Jimmy is Kid for some reason...and I don't know who they think is Jimmy." "They don't know Jimmy is Hickok...We gotta keep it that way," Kid announced suddenly. "Why?" Cody questioned him in confusion. "Because as if Lou wasn't in enough danger being with Jimmy up there as Simmons' killers, if they knew he was Wild Bill Hickok there isn't any telling what they would do," Kid reasoned. "Hey these are outlaws...it could help." Cody grabbed a hold of the wall thinking well of his very logical reasoning. Kid, however, tossed that wise moment away with wherever he seemed to have done away with his sense of humor. "Cody, that name has never done a thing but make mountains out of molehills and you know it. Jimmy would be a lot better off if he changed it," Kid argued. "Especially if he's going to marry Lou." "Changing your name ain't exactly changing your reputation, Kid." Cody was not convinced in Kid's round about way of tackling this issue. "Death don't even get you out from under that." "Hickok! You awake?!" one of their captors bellowed. "Yeah," Kid called back. He immediately felt Ike grab his arm. "I'm not going to blow Jimmy's cover," he explained heatedly, shrugging Ike's hand away. "I'm calling you out," the man called from high above them. Kid furrowed his brow in confusion. If this man was that serious then this was his chance to do what they had been trying to do for the better part of their confinement. "All right! Throw me a rope!" "Kid," Cody clenched his teeth and grabbed Kid in protest. "What? Do you want to know what that entrance looks like or not?" Kid whispered as a rope fell to the water beside him. "Be careful," Cody replied in defeat. "I will." Kid grabbed a hold of the rope and began to climb. "You know that no matter how this goes, you're dead," Bill informed Davey, shocked that the boy could honestly think that he could get away with this. "You aren't looking at the bigger picture." Davey pulled on the rope to make sure that this Hickok was on his way up as Lenny emptied a gun of all but one bullet. Davey had asked him to perform the task once Hickok had agreed to this gunfight. "If I lose I'm dead and Simmons can't kill me for this. But if I win then I gain his respect as well as respect from near every man in the camp...making me a good candidate for the second in command role," Davey explained, very proud of himself. Bill watched him a moment and nodded. Bill actually seemed to think about Davey's point long and hard. "You know for once you're finally making sense," Bill acknowledged with an icy smile before looking around Davey and quickly saying to Lenny, "Grab the rope." Confused, Davey looked at Bill as if to say 'what rope'. Bill, drawing a knife from the sheath on his hip, moved faster then Davey thought was possible. The man grabbed Davey, covering the boy's mouth to keep his scream from being heard, and shoved the knife through his heart. "Can't be two of us at the top though," Bill whispered. "Lenny hold that rope steady...you may actually have a future that ain't as miserable as the past month." Bill felt Davey slump in his arms as he moved to set him to the side, propping him up in the previous seat. He looked over the ledge to see if Hickok had made it into the light yet. Bill grabbed Davey's handkerchief and wiped the blood from his hands as Lenny looked on in horror. "What?" Bill asked calmly, pausing with the handkerchief. "N... Nothing," Lenny stuttered. "Better be nothing...you know I actually asked around about you...you did the same thing to get ahead with good 'ol Joe so don't act all shocked," Bill reprimanded him. They both turned and looked when a grunt came from the direction of the ledge. A hand grabbed hold of the ledge and then a man slowly pulled himself up and over sprawling on the ground in utter exhaustion. As Bill walked over to the prone figure, he put his hand out towards Lenny for the gun with one bullet. Bill offered his hand to Wild Bill, but received only an angry glare as the man got to his feet. "Let's get on with this," Kid snarled as he gave the small alcove a look over. Bill smiled and shook his head. "I figured you'd be taller," he scoffed as he checked his own gun before returning it to its holster. "Do you have any idea how often I hear that?" Kid asked him in disbelief wondering if he could pull off Jimmy's attitude. Bill laughed out-loud. "Guess you're the kind that likes to get right to it." Bill motioned to Lenny who now had his own gun out and aimed at Kid. "There's only one bullet in that gun...you try anything other then this gunfight...and Lenny here is going to kill you. Got it?" "Got it." Kid did not have time for this. There were eighteen people down in that hole. Lou and Jimmy were still up here. He took the gun thinking of the times that Jimmy and he had faced off when they first met. The times he had stopped him from making what Kid had always thought of as mistakes. Now he was fulfilling that same role and offering to kill a man in a gunfight. This is not where Kid saw himself a few nights ago as he had been reevaluating where he was headed. "Alright.... I'm going to pace off...you stay there by the ledge," Bill ordered him loosing his smile, as he became serious. He turned and walked towards the opening of the cave that led to the camp outside. Kid stood there as Lenny cocked his gun in preparation of some not so noble action on Kid's part. "I ain't got a gun belt," Kid called as Bill finished pacing off and turned to face him. Bill nodded and quickly removed his own. "Doesn't matter...whoever can raise and fire first still has the best advantage." Bill nodded and then let his arm go lax at his side easily weighing the gun in his hand nervously. "On Lenny's mark, raise and fire." Kid did the same as Bill, trying to get a good feel for the gun. He was trying to keep focused on Bill, but something in the room was completely off. Kid looked at the figure slumped back in a chair nearby and noticed a red stain growing across the man's shirt. Suddenly, he realized that was the man that had practically pushed him off the ledge earlier. "Wait...what happened to him?" Kid asked, wondering just what kind of people these men were. Kid also put his mind to ease that the man could not get off a surprise shot at him in his present condition. "He was demoted...Focus on the damn draw," Bill reprimanded. Kid pursed his lips together in anger and weighed the gun with more determination as Lenny began the count. As Lenny called mark, Kid raised the gun and fired. He pulled the trigger and gasped in horror as a resounding hollow click met his ears seconds before the gunshot from Bill's own gun rang in his ears. Kid staggered and saw a blur of movement as Lenny turned his gun on Bill and shot him in the center of the chest. Bill gasped falling backwards as Kid stumbled back over the side of the ledge before Lenny could turn his attention back to him and finish him off. Kid screamed when he hit the water and the bullet hole in his left shoulder turned to molten agony. He felt hands grab onto him as every thing faded into a pitch-black whirlwind of disaster. He didn't know which thought plagued him the most as he sank into that hollow void, the fact that Lou had whispered Lenny's name in conjunction with a nightmare of rape, or the fact that if there had been a bullet in the gun he had just had that Kid would have killed his first man in a gun fight, in what he had always considered cold blood. "This isn't promising is it?" Barnett whispered as he scooted along the ground next to Buck. "No Barnett." Buck adjusted his sights on the camp, feeling remiss at not finding a single shred of evidence that Sam or any party as large as his had been anywhere near the area. "I think you're right." Buck slowly rose to his feet and walked back to his horse. "About what?" Barnett scrambled up behind him. "I think Sam and his men were kidnapped or killed, just like everyone else," Buck replied sadly. He looked over the rise to the camp below and felt himself entertaining a notion that he never thought Red Bear let alone himself would employ. There was a saying about letting wars that did not belong to a family fight themselves out...so long as they did not hurt those on the side. Buck looked over the camp, as the plan became solid in his mind. He turned to Barnett abruptly. "Barnett, I have an idea." "Great." Barnett smiled brightly until Buck explained to him what it entailed. In a world where every day was a risk in and of itself it seemed like blasphemy to taunt death by running headlong into it. Even when there was a good reason to do it. No matter how much of chance it would give the others in Simmons' camp, Barnett had a good idea of what he and Buck's chances for survival were. Barnett felt sick at his stomach and looked between the camp and Buck as if the young brave had lost his mind. The truth was that despite the insanity involved in concocting a plan like that impulsively, Barnett was not sure what about the plan scared him the most. That they could fail...or that they could succeed. "You really think you can pull that off?" "If I can't then we're all as good as dead," Buck said sadly. "Well then I guess I should ask if you think we can pull it off," Barnett continued as he gathered his nerve, "In a plan like this, I would think having a back up is always a good idea...one of us could go down along the way...the other might make it through." Buck looked on Barnett with newfound respect as he offered him his hand out of friendship. "You know you really don't have to do this." "What kind of man would I be if I let you do it all by yourself?" Barnett smiled nervously. "A smart one." Buck returned the smile. "Never claimed to be that." Barnett chuckled as he mounted his horse. Buck nodded. "Neither have I...to a good journey." Buck mounted his horse. "Good journey," Barnett agreed. Teaspoon had pushed off the wall along with Rachel, Sam, and Alex in an attempt to get there before Kid had ascended the rope. They did not make it in time, but Cody filled them in. They had been sitting there in tension filled silence trying to hear what they could. Unfortunately, it was hard to make out words so far above them. The gunshots that rang out caused them all to jump before they saw a body fall from the ledge. "Move out of the way!" Sam called out as Alex grabbed Rachel and pulled the both of them to the wall so that whoever was on the way down didn't hit them. Teaspoon and Sam flattened themselves against the wall as well and Cody and Ike moved out into the water so that they could reach whoever it was quickly. "Got him," Cody called out pulling an unconscious figure from the water. "Is it Kid?" Sam asked in horror. "It's Kid," Cody said after feeling around and finding the familiar feeling belt buckle that Kid wore often. "Is he breathing?" Rachel choked out pulling herself away from Alex to get to Cody and Ike. "I don't...Yeah... he's got a bullet in the shoulder...probably bleeding pretty bad," Cody replied. "Move outta the way...Rachel come on...we got to get this bleeding stopped," Teaspoon ordered as he pulled Kid out of Cody's and Ike's arms. "Hang in there, Kid." "You alright?" Jimmy whispered turning his head to the side as if it would help him get a look at Lou. It was impossible, though. They were tied tightly back to back and no matter how he positioned himself he could not get a look at her. "Was I alright an hour ago?" Lou asked in disbelief. "How about half an hour ago...or the fifteen minutes you asked before that? No Jimmy I'm in a man's camp whose brother... I shot in the head. I'm tied to my lover...who won't ...and for the life of me I can't figure out why...ask me to marry him...even though I'm about a few hours away from bringing his baby into the world." Lou managed to get out as another contraction hit her. She cried out and doubled over pulling the ropes so tight that they cut into the already ugly looking gashes that were being cut into Jimmy's wrists. Jimmy bit his own lip to keep from crying out from the raw flesh that was stripped further away as she began to relax again. "So no Jimmy...I'm not alright...but how are you doing?" Lou asked vehemently. "Can't complain," Jimmy replied panting along with Lou who almost collapsed as she leaned back against him in exhaustion. "Let's see if I can get a few complaints." The Undertaker walked into the tent and walked around the couple seemingly sizing up the situation. Lou straightened defiant of her condition to meet the man's eyes as she tried not to betray her own weakness...or the fact that she had gone into labor shortly after being tied back to back with Jimmy. The two of them had been left alone for hours...seeing only the army of guards that had been sent to watch over them. She felt Jimmy's muscles tighten as he took her hand in his in the only show of support he had available. "All I want is the answer to one simple question," The Undertaker asked as he knelt a good way back from them. He settled equidistant between them so that they could both get a good look at him. "Which one of you..." He paused intentionally, as if heightening the fear that had enveloped the room regardless of how stoically fearless everyone seemed to be. It was a poker champion's worst nightmare. Simmons took his pistol from his gun belt and popped open the cylinder. "...killed my brother?" "I did," Lou and Jimmy replied in perfect flawless harmony. William paused as a sinister smile began to spread across his face. "Pick a number one through six," he said to Jimmy as he placed one bullet in the gun. "We can solve this with a little old fashioned game of chance." "I already said I did it," Jimmy growled. "Pick a number," William said as he pointed the gun at Lou. "Or I'll kill her right now." "Two," Jimmy reluctantly offered. William smiled and spun the cylinder he then pointed the gun at Lou again and cocked the hammer. "You bastard." Jimmy began to struggle for everything he was worth until the rest of the guns in the room were leveled at him. "Let the games begin." The Undertaker's smile broadened as he pulled the trigger. "Use all the shot from the rifles then all but two from the pistols...we won't have time to fire on the ride into camp, but we may not have a chance to reload when we get into the camp." Buck took a few deep breaths as he drew his rifle from the back of his horse. " We want to make sure they get a good look at us and we wake as many of them as possible," Buck explained further as he tried to still the tremble that raced down his arm and through his fingers as he took aim. "You ready?" "Never...but get on with it," Barnett replied as he took aim. It felt like his breath was out of control as he looked down the site of his gun to the Cheyenne war camp and felt his chest tighten at the reality of what he had just agreed to do. There was no time to back out. The gunshots rang out from both guns simultaneously as they unloaded first their rifles then all but two shots from their pistols. Both men saw the angry war party as the Cheyenne roused the camp and got ready for battle. Buck shared a terrified glance with Barnett before they turned their horses away from the war camp and rode towards Simmons' camp. "How many are following?" Barnett screamed in a horror. "All of them!" Buck called back with an insane smile. Barnett returned it. "Great!" Barnett's smile slowly faded as he chanced a glance behind him and his heart took a nose-dive into his stomach. To Be Continued... Email AmaraHOME |