Masheck looked up at the sky filled with snowflakes and said, “Minimum guards. No one but fools are out in this weather. I do, nonetheless, want double guards on the captives. Move the boys and girls into the lodge with the women, so the job will be easier. I'm going back to my wife and warm blankets.”
“Back to your lodges. There is no need for all of us to be standing out in the snow, it's too cold.” Zedock said and then as an afterthought said, “Luther, see to the movement of the captives and double the guards.”
“It will be done.”
Within ten minutes, the village grew as still as death, and the waiting attackers smiled. The Dog Soldiers were close enough to hear the whole conversation. His hands visible now, in the dim light of the rising sun, Amon signed, “Dooley, tell Mongoose and Colonel to bring the main force forward. Tell him all is ready.”
By full light, the Colonel and Mongoose were looking the village over closely. Snow was still falling and close to six inches covered the land in white. The leader of the attack would be Amon and he was in position and watching Colonel's arms.
Suddenly, Colonel's arms were raised and then dropped to his sides.
A loud war cry filled the early morning stillness and warriors began to run into the Snake village. A Snake ran from his lodge, but at least five bullets struck him, sending gore and blood exploding from his back. Men began to exit the lodges, but were cut down like wheat during harvest. A man beside Amon screamed, grabbed at his face and fell squealing. Bullets zinged as they struck rocks under the snow or the sides of lodges, sending lead flying off into space.
Men from both sides fell, with most being Snakes, and few dropped quietly. Screams and loud shrieks were heard as men, and some women, were struck and injured, or killed. Men were seen crawling toward their comrades, often not making the short distance before they were struck again and again. It was a brutal battle with no quarter asked and none given.
A bullet took Sergeant Dooley in the leg and down he went, screaming. Dropping his rifle, the Sergeant grabbed his leg with both hands, as blood ran between his fingers. As bullets kicked up dust and snow around Dooley, three Dog Soldiers pulled the wounded man from danger, and placed him behind a lodge. Ada, moving forward, stopped, bandaged Dooley's leg, and then moved forward with his men, leaving the injured man alone.
The Major ran toward Dooley, but screamed and fell to the snow, his head a mangled mess. The top of his head from his eyebrows up was missing. The Sergeant watched as hot blood melted the snow and a pool of crimson gathered under the man's head. Within minutes, the blood was starting to freeze.
Two women attempted to run across the open space between two lodges, but were immediately struck and killed by one side or the other. Both women landed on their backs and their bodies continued to jerk when hit by more bullets. Over just a few minutes, body parts began to fly into the air.
The sounds of rifles being fired grew intense, especially after the Snake warriors established a holding position near Zedock's lodge, and Amon knew this had to end.
“Ada, take three men and flank them. See if you can get a grenade or two in the group. The rest of us will give you cover fire.”
Ada and three men moved from the firefight and pulled back a few lodges. Then, one by one they ran for the trees. Moving forward they were all on edge, but they knew time was important. The longer the battle raged, the more of their men that would be injured or killed. Snow was still falling and it helped to mask their movements.
Finally, glancing to his left, Ada saw a group of about a dozen Snakes behind barriers. Using sign, he said, “You,” he pointed at the youngest warrior, “cover us as we move forward to toss the grenades.”
The young man nodded.
The three men walked a short distance, keeping trees between them and the Snakes. Finally they got down on their knees and after about twenty feet, they began to crawl forward. Ada finally stopped and pointed to a grenade in his hand and nodded.
The young man in the trees spotted a Snake warrior looking in their direction and saw his rifle start to turn. He flipped his gun to automatic and pulled the trigger. Bullets began to hit lodges and weapons, ricocheting through the air with loud pings. Men screamed in pain when struck, while others yelled in fear. Then three grenades flew through the air, their spoons going in different directions, and all waited for the explosions. One Snake warrior picked up a grenade and was looking at it with a dumb look in his eyes when it exploded, followed almost instantly by two additional explosions. When the smoke cleared, a few moans and groans were heard, but no rifle fire. The man who'd been holding the grenade was now hamburger and dead.
Amon's warriors gave a loud cry of victory and ran into the barrier, firing at anything that moved. Minutes later, it grew quiet.
Ada and his men stood and yelled, “We're coming in.”
“Come!” Amon replied.
When they neared, Ada noticed the ground was covered in blood and gore. The bodies were torn and ripped by the grenades, but they had ended the battle for the village. Blood, steaming hot, was now running downhill under the snow, each line faintly seen by his eyes. He shuddered, because it reminded him of killing large numbers of cattle in open fields during times of snow in the past. It was bloody and gory work.
“Bring Lila to the village and let her look at the bodies! Maybe she can identify this Masheck, Luther or Zedock.” Amon said and then added, “Ada, secure all the women. When we return to the village, keep a sharp eye on them.”
“I hear you. Miller, come with me and bring Thomas.”
Sergeant Dooley limped forward, using his rifle as a crutch and said, “We kicked some serious ass here this morning. Good Job, sir.”
“You okay?”
“Took a stray round to my calf, so I'll heal.”
“Sergeant Dooley, if I can get it done, I want you promoted to lieutenant. It was your training that allowed us to defeat the Snakes. Without the guns and grenades, we'd have been massacred. Thank you.”
Dooley smiled and a runner arrived from Colonel who said, “Five men were spotted by Dog Soldiers as leaving the village just before the explosions. Three of the five were identified by a woman named Lila as being the leaders of this village.”
“Did she physically see them?”
“No, sir, but a Lieutenant Owns gave a pretty good description of the men.”
“Are we to go after them or will the Dog Soldiers kill them?”
“I have no idea; I'm just a runner, and don't make decisions. He wants you to gather the captives, make sure they have warm clothing and blankets, and then start moving back to the village.”
“Return to him and let him know we'll be moving shortly.”
Masheck was terrified, and ran with the others to escape the hail of bullets that flew through his lodge. His wife had stood and then screamed as a bullet struck her jaw. Blood was flooding down her naked body as she attempted to use her hands to stem the bleeding. When she made eye contact with him as he dressed, he saw her whole lower jaw was gone. Her blood-covered hand reached out for him, but he slipped his jacket on, grabbed his rifle, and ignored her. As he slipped out the door, she fell to her knees and realized he'd never loved her, only used her.
Running for the trees and relative safety, he was surprised to see Luther and Zedock waiting near some briar patches. Both turned their weapons toward him when he neared. Then, seeing it was him, they lowered the barrels.
“We need to move, and do it now.” Masheck said.
“Do we have what we need to survive?” Zedock asked.
Luther said, “Movement, coming from the village and right for us.”
The three men squatted and slipped the safeties off their rifles. When the two forms materialized from the falling snow, Luther said, “Stop.”
Both men stopped.
Zedock said, “They're our men. Come, join with us, and we must leave.”
“The Northern Mountain People have taken the village.”
; “We had to run, they were killing our wounded.”
“Shut your mouths, both of you, and follow us.” Masheck ordered as he started walking west, toward the mountains.
All day they moved west and snow continued to fall without letup. It was at the base of a mountain, where the snow was almost to Masheck's knees that he said, “We'll spend the night here. I have flint and steel, so all but one of you gather wood. You,” he said to Luther, “guard us as we get a campsite organized. It will be a long night without blankets or lodges, but we'll survive.”
Soon wood was stacked beside a fire, but the winds howled and screamed as the men worked to construct a shelter made of limbs, logs, and bits of wood. Once the shelter was in place, the men covered the whole thing with limbs of pine. The inside floor was covered with pine boughs as well, because it would make for warmer and softer sleeping.
Later, as they all huddled close to the fire, Luther asked, “What are we to do? We have nothing.”
“We have guns!” Masheck said, his tone filled with anger.
“Damn it, Masheck,” Zedock said, “guns won't fill our bellies or keep our asses warm tonight when the temperature drops below zero.”
“You can last one night. Tomorrow we'll return to the village.”
“Have you lost your damned mind? All is gone! The last I saw, our women and the captives were being led away.”
“I have some weapons, food, and medical supplies buried near my lodge, in the trees. We couldn't risk digging it up earlier, because we would've been seen. Tomorrow there will be no enemies there and we can take it all. Then, we'll move south, to maybe some remote village and with our guns, take control.”
“It's possible, but we're taking one hell of a risk.”
Meeting Zedock's eyes, he replied, “Risks, my friend, is what makes life interesting.”
Chapter 24
BLANKETS WERE PROVIDED to those captives that didn't have any and Mongoose said, “Ada, take them all to the village. Amon, you will take ten of your Dog Soldiers and go after the five that got away. I will go with you and we must kill them. Not because they're Snakes, but because they have guns. We cannot allow five men to run loose in the mountains armed, or they'll soon take another village. It'll happen with the first good weather, too.”
“When do we leave?”
“Now. We'll move to the village and wait. They have nothing and need much to survive this weather. I honestly expect them to return for any blankets, clothing, or food they can find. I know it looked as if we left nothing, but who knows?” As she talked snow blew around her head.
“It will be cold.”
“I have a plan. Make sure you bring grenades and the mines we have. I suspect we'll be able to wait in a lodge, away from the village center, and hear if anyone enters.”
They were less than a mile from the village, so smiling, Amon gathered ten of his best Dog Soldiers. It was cold and getting colder as they moved back to the village.
Once there, Amon threw a few blankets on top of the snow and then they planted mines around them in the hard soil. It was time consuming work, but once completed, they covered the mines lightly with soil and then sprinkled snow on top. In the middle of the blankets was a buckskin bag that one of the men had found in the village, and it held dried beef. Under the bag was a grenade, with the pin removed, so if someone got past the mines, but picked up the bag, the spoon on the grenade would fly off and it would explode. The snow was tapering off and he figured it'd stop within an hour.
They quickly gathered up any loose clothing on the ground or foods that they could find and there was little. Moving to a lodge where they could still see the blankets from the window, they sat on the hard cold floor to wait.
It would be a long chilled wait, because the Snake warriors would not return on this day. Amon glanced at Mongoose. She met his eyes and smiled, as only a lover and wife would do.
The day was long, cold and boring for Masheck and his men, with little to do but sleep or watch the snow fall. One of the warriors, a man called Nimrod, had a few strips of jerky, which he shared with the group. Finally, once the snow stopped, the other warrior, Ned, decided to hunt for rabbits, which were usually found in abundance around the base of mountains.
An hour later, the men heard a shot, followed about ten minutes later by another. Masheck was not worried about being followed by the Cheyenne Mountain warriors, because the falling and blowing snow had covered their tracks. No one could track if tracks could not be seen.
A little later, Ned returned packing two rabbits, which he quickly skinned and gutted. He then skewered the rabbits whole and placed them over the small fire to roast.
“Cold as hell out there.” he said as he sat on a log beside the fire.
“It's below zero.” Zedock said and then asked, “Did you see any tracks?”
“Just animal tracks, no human. I think anyone with any sense will be holed up right now, because the snow is deep enough that just moving in it caused me to sweat. I had to open my coat to allow myself to cool as I moved. An inexperienced warrior would continue to sweat and then once he stopped, it'd freeze over and kill his ass.”
“It's called hypothermia.” Masheck said.
“What is?”
“The lowering of the bodies internal temperature and it's serious business.”
“Yep, it's serious and I've seen a few men get it before. We had to stop, get a fire going and feed them hot drinks.”
“That's enough talk. Words carry far in snow country and we have no idea if the warriors will come for us, but if they do, I'd not be the least be surprised if they wore snowshoes.”
The rabbit was good and the men left no scraps of meat on the bones as they tossed them in the woods around them.
“Settle in, no talking, and pass the time. I want two guards on duty all the time, until we leave in the morning. All will stand guard except Masheck, and I don't expect a chief to guard.” Zedock said.
“Who's first and how long are the shifts?” Ned asked.
“Me and Nimrod, then Luther and you. Four on and four off, until we leave this place.”
The day passed slowly, with nothing to do except sleep, stare at the flickering flames of the fire, or whittle on soft pine. It was late afternoon, when Ned said, “I'm going hunting. Maybe I can down something for supper.”
“Do as you wish, but get your ass back in time to pull your shift.”
Grinning, he replied, “Hell, you worry about you, Nimrod, because I'll be back in plenty of time to pull my shift. Just thinking another bite of food will help us sleep better.”
Nimrod nodded, but said nothing.
Right at dark, Ned walked from the shadows, threw two rear quarters of a small deer by the fire and said, “Caught a doe in a clearing by the lake. I had to leave the rest and was lucky to get here with this, because wolves moved in on me.”
“Damn me,” Masheck said, “that'll make a fine meal. Seems you're the only one with any brains in this group, Ned, so from this point on, consider yourself the chief of my scouts. Thanks to you and you alone, we'll not gone hungry while here. That makes your position fourth in total leadership of the tribe.”
Ned laughed and asked, “What scouts and what tribe? I'm not being a smart-ass, but our tribe consists of five men, with no women. If we consider Nimrod a scout, I'm a chief scout to one warrior.”
Masheck, livid by the comment, didn't show it and said, “Once we've recovered, we will attack a small village of Fish People I know by the lake. We'll gain control easily with our guns. Then, we'll allow men who will swear allegiance to us to live, give them a few women each, and slowly build our tribe up again. The only ones with guns will be us. We'll rule by fear and intimidation, which always works well.”
Nimrod was cutting the dark red meat into chunks and placing each on a stick, which was sharpened at both ends. He then pushed the sharpened end furthest from the meat into the hard soil by the flames, leaning it toward the heat of the fire. A couple
of minutes later, oils started dropping into the fire, which caused flames to flare up, and oils to sizzle. The wonderful scent of roasting meat filled the small camp.
Not waiting for the meat to completely cook, the men pulled a stick and started eating. Nimrod placed more meat on sticks to cook as they ate.
“Ned,” Zedock said as he ate, “this meat is a real lifesaver. It will only fill our bellies, but improves our morale, which is important.”
“I strongly agree.” Masheck said, and then wiped blood from his chin with his hand.
“It's funny,” Luther said, “how a simple thing like a good meal can make a man feel good about life again.”
“We have enough meat for now, breakfast, and all day tomorrow, so we're in good shape. I just got lucky is all.” Ned said.
“Lucky or not, if Zedock or Luther falls in future battles, you'll be promoted into their position.”
Zedock, his anger obvious by his red face and narrow eyes, said, “Now, that's some shit to bring up with us sitting beside you.”
The chief smiled and said, “Yes it is, but in our current situation, it's very likely one or both of you will die. Hell, I might even die, then he'll be the grand chief—of one man. Relax, I didn't mean to anger you, just telling what could come to pass. Anyway, as of this moment, Ned, you'll have two wives, if we ever get any women.”
“I'll smile about the wives if I survive this and we overrun a village.”
All laughed and then Masheck said, “We're all survivors, that's why out of all in the village, we're the only ones by this fire. Now, we have to remain smart, like a small pack of wolves and select our prey, or villages, carefully. I see no reason why we can't be sleeping in the Fish People's village in a few days.”
“Well, I hope so. Now, as the new leader of the scouts, I suggest we eat all we can hold, quiet down, and then get some sleep. That is, if you still plan to return to the village in the morning.”
“We need to return, if nothing else to dig up the supplies and gear I have hidden. I also think we might find some foods left behind or blankets. Then, we'll move toward the Fish People and look the place over.” Masheck said.
Eagle People Page 24
