A Cinnabar Sky

by Billy Kring

  “Lead the way, Dances with Wolves.”

  Adan grinned, half embarrassed, half pleased, and took off across the hill top. Hunter checked the terrain behind them, scanning all the hilltops but not worrying about the draws because of the cactus, and then gave a quick look to the direction they were going. She saw no one and felt a bit of relief, then trotted after Adan.

  She caught up with him on the next hill, and they continued toward the area where the hills ended and the flats began and went all the way to the highway. Both saw the pickup in the distance and angled toward it.

  Adan said, “I will feel safer when we reach Terlingua.”

  “Me, too.”

  The two slowed as they reached the Dodge Ram, walking the last forty yards to it. When they reached the front of the big vehicle, Hunter spotted a shadow that seemed out of place.

  The black man, John Factor, rose from the edge of a large creosote bush and aimed his silenced pistol at Hunter’s face. When Hunter ran at him, Factor instantly turned the pistol on Adan.

  She stopped in her tracks. Adan’s face looked as if he’s seen a monster. His mouth formed a small o, and he froze.

  “You two are a lot of trouble, you know that? Back there, when you changed direction, I lost you for a good bit. Only found you again when I spotted your heads above the brush.”

  Hunter motioned Adan to come over and stand behind her.

  “Uh-uh. Kid, move to her side, not behind her.” He wiggled the silencer to move him to where the kid presented a clear shot. Factor tossed him a pair of old Peerless steel handcuffs. “I’m out of plastic cuffs. Put one bracelet on her, and one on you.”

  Hunter said, “You need to let us go. It would be in your best interest.”

  John Factor smiled, “Probably would, but I already took the money. You two are going with me.”

  “Where are you taking us?”

  “A quiet place, out of the way.”

  Hunter studied him a second. “Mexico.”

  Factor nodded, “Some friends want to meet you two over there.” He pointed, “Leave your truck here, we’re going in mine.” He used the pistol again to point where they were to walk.

  Hunter’s mind raced, but came up with no easy answers. Factor’s vehicle was only a hundred yards away, hidden in a shallow wash with brush along both sides, and just wide enough for the pickup to fit.

  Factor nudged the two with the barrel of his pistol, “get going.” Hunter pushed through the brush to reach the door, then opened it and let Adan go in first before following. Factor followed, getting behind the wheel, saying, “I’ve got my pistol pointed under my arm at you. Start anything funny and I empty the pistol in you both.”

  They sat back, with Hunter telling Adan to put on his seat belt.

  As Factor backed out of the draw and turned the wheel in an open space to go out the gate, a man stepped to his window. It was Raymond. Hunter yelled as Factor shot Raymond in the chest as fast as he could pull the trigger.

  Raymond went down, and Hunter beat on the back of John Factor’s head, until he shot through the seat and the bullet grazed her side. He yelled, “I missed on purpose! I won’t miss again. Sit back and shut up!”

  Hunter’s ribs burned from the bullet, like a hot branding iron touching her skin.

  He drove out of the pasture and on the road to race toward Terlingua.

  Adan’s heart beat like a frightened rabbit’s, and he whispered to Hunter, “Let me help.”

  He lifted her shirt, revealing a raw, red groove in her flesh that seeped blood down to her waistband, staining them along the beltline.

  Adan had nothing to doctor it with, so he put his hand on the wound and pressed firmly. Hunter winced, but thanked him with a head nod.

  Factor drove fast, calling on his phone as he did so to tell someone he was coming with prisoners. “I’ll be at the crossing in an hour, yes, by Lajitas. have somebody there in case I get stuck.”

  Hunter fought not to cry, and listened as the man told the person on the phone, “I dropped some guy who walked up to my truck. Don’t know who he was, but I drilled him dead center.” He listened to the voice on the phone and replied, “Am I sure? Hell yes, I’m sure. Nobody survives six in the chest.”

  Hunter moved her free hand to her pocket, then realized the arrowhead was in the other pocket, the one she couldn’t reach while seated and handcuffed to Adan. She whispered, “arrowhead.”

  Adan looked at her, then understood. He used his free hand and fished it out of her jeans, then held it hidden in his hands. She moved her free hand to where he could give the point to her without Factor seeing them, then both sat back. Both were silent as he drove, but Hunter’s mind was on Raymond. She knew he was probably dead, but she couldn’t imagine him deceased. Her heart thudded with heavy beats, and each one pulsed out a bit more blood from her side, even though Adan pushed strongly on it.

  They passed through Terlingua, with Factor saying, “You try anything funny going through town, I shoot the kid in the face.”

  “We’re not trying anything.”

  He drove on towards Lajitas, and as they passed by the golf course, Hunter whispered to Adan, “Be ready to swim.”

  Factor drove down to Comanche Creek, where it joined the Rio Grande and had deposited a long, wide sand bar that pushed toward the Mexico side of the river. Across the water were several men standing high on the bank, watching. One of them waved at John Factor.

  He pointed the vehicle into the creek bed and on toward the water, and when he was ten feet into the water and concentrating on where to drive, Hunter moved.

  Her free arm came up and over the backrest, and she held the small flint projectile point tightly between her thumb and index finger so that one-inch of the blade’s edge extended beyond the length of her thumb. Flint was many times sharper than a surgeon’s scalpel, and she hit and raked the blade across the side of Factor’s neck to sever the artery and shoot a small geyser of red into the vehicle. He reached for her hand, but she moved it and shoved the blade again to his neck, this time cutting the other side and half-through the windpipe.

  He gurgled and spat crimson onto the windshield as Hunter pulled against the hand gripping her forearm. Adan jumped up to reach into the front seat and grab the silenced pistol. He brought it back with him, holding it tight.

  She pushed open the door and pulled on Adan, moving them both into the water, where they floated downstream.

  Shouts came from the men on the far bank, and a shot spurted a fountain of water into the sky as Adan handed her the pistol. She brought it up–and froze.

  Ellis had an AR-15 pointed at Adan, his eyes on the sights, lining up the shot.

  Hunter touched the bottom with her toes and said, “don’t shoot, here it is.” She threw the pistol to the bank, where it landed at RL’s feet.

  Ellis said, “Get your asses over here, or I start shooting.”

  Hunter helped keep Adan’s head above water as they pushed and swam through the jade-colored river, until both could stand.

  Ellis came down the bank and said, “You screwed the pooch on this one, Kincaid.”

  She looked at the green water flowing around them, and at the flowing red ribbons in it, courtesy of John Factor, still in the half-floating pickup. She said, “Give me back that pistol and let’s try again.”

  He lowered the rifle and as her eyes followed the weapon, hit her flush on the mouth with a hard right that dropped Hunter to her knees. “Say something else, smart ass.” He looked at Adan, “Kid, drag her ass up to the car and get in. Now.”

  Hunter staggered to her feet as her split upper lip swelled and blood dribbled down the front of her shirt. Adan pulled her arm across his shoulders and started up the trail on the slick river bank as bad men waited above for them.

  RL waited for them, but he didn’t look happy about it. When he saw Hunter’s lip, he took out his handkerchief and held it out to her, “Its clean, I put it in my pocket this morning.”

  Sh
e took the cloth and held it to her lip, putting enough pressure to make it sting and her eyes water. They ushered her and Adan into a pale green Land Cruiser with oversized tires, and one of the men shoved them into the rear seat. He said, “Don’t say a goddamn word,” and shut the door. He said, “Now we have to drive for a whole damn day to get from here to there.”

  Ellis stepped beside him and said in a soft voice, “We can leave you here.”

  “No, that’s all right. I was just grumbling is all.” The whites of his eyes showed as he looked at Ellis.

  Ellis said to RL, “We’ll meet you in La Linda. We’re going to Del Rio and across, then down from the east side. We’ll pick up some food and drinks. Flavio wants to cook while we’re in the ghost town, says the wood in that area seasons the meat better, or some such shit.” He turned his eyes to Hunter, “You two, take your pants off, and your shoes and socks.”

  Hunter looked at him, and he said, “We’re not gonna rape you, but it should stop you from escaping and running through the brush. You try that, you’ll be cut to shreds in no time. Now, get them off.”

  Hunter nodded at Adan, and both did as they were told, with Hunter handing the clothes and shoes to Ellis. His eyes lingered on Hunter’s legs as he took them. He left after one last look, taking the clothes and shoes.

  RL wasn’t looking forward to twelve or thirteen hours of driving over rough roads and through rough country, but he wasn’t about to argue. He said, “See you there.”

  RL got in the Green vehicle, with another armed man in the passenger’s seat to guard the prisoners. RL said to Hunter and Adan, “Don’t give us any trouble, okay?”

  Hunter nodded, mumbling through the cloth she held on her lip, “No trouble.”

  RL drove on the dirt road for hours, seeing only a single small farmhouse in the first hour as they proceeded south to skirt the mountains. Wildlife showed everywhere on the slopes, from a bear in the piñon pines on a ridge, to deer and smaller animals on the lower slopes and grassy flats. RL asked, almost absently, “Did you know there were this many animals out here? I always thought it was desolate.”

  Hunter said, “It is a high desert, lots of wildlife.”

  The armed passenger in the front seat, a dark-skinned Mexican named Pablo Huerta, pointed up the slope,

  “And water, too. There is a nice spring up that way.”

  RL asked him, “You from this area?”

  “Not right here, but across the mountains, Nueva Rosita.”

  “We go through there.”

  “Yes, and then onto the long dirt road.”

  RL thought for a moment, “So you know all this country.”

  “Not all, but I explored these mountains with friends, when we were growing up.”

  Hunter let them talk as she tried to think of a plan.

  RL said, “I used to think that all I would see in deserts was cactus and spines on every bush, maybe a lot of creosote, too.”

  Pablo said, “That’s a small part. Deserts are more than that.”

  RL turned his head and said, “Hunter, you hear all that? Did you know about all this in the desert?” He glanced at her long, bare legs.

  “You let us go, I’ll tell you a lot more.”

  “You know I can’t do that. Ellis would have my hide.”

  “I thought you liked me.” Hunter turned on the charm.

  “I do.”

  “You wanted us to go out sometime, right?”

  RL’s cheeks showed rose-colored spots as he cast a sideways glance at Pablo, “I still do. But Ellis is tough, so I’m sorry.”

  Hunter sighed, “That’s a shame. I would have shown you a great time.”

  The tip of RL’s tongue touched his lower lip, “Oh man.”

  Pablo punched RL on the shoulder, “She’s baiting you, stupid. She wants to escape.”

  RL glowered, “Maybe not. Maybe she likes me.”

  Adan piped in, “She does, she told me so.”

  Pablo turned and slapped Adan, then pointed a finger at Hunter, “Shut up!”

  RL said, “Don’t hit the kid.”

  “Then all of you behave.”

  RL was three inches taller than Pablo, and thirty pounds heavier, most of it in the chest and shoulders. He said, “You don’t give orders.”

  Pablo said, “I didn’t mean you, you’re the boss in this vehicle.”

  RL relaxed his grip on the steering wheel so his knuckles didn’t show white. “Just so we understand each other.”

  Hunter turned her head so the men in the front seat couldn’t see, and winked at Adan.

  RL drove in silence after his confrontation with Pablo, with occasional surreptitious glances in the rearview mirror to glimpse Hunter’s legs. They passed through the village of San Jose De Las Piedras, where some poor families lived in - and under - great hollowed out boulders at the mountain’s base, but they did not stop there.

  When they crossed through the pass and by the mountain where the large, castle-like palisade stones they called La Cuesta de Malena crowned the top, and named after a woman who for decades sold coffee and small breakfast meals to miners and vehicle drivers working at the mines in the area. The sun caught the formation and it gleamed like a palette of pale cream and rose and orange brush strokes of color.

  The terrain remained a mix of valleys and mountains, with the valleys filled with grasses and small bushes and some trees, while the coniferous forests grew on the mountains where they were not cut down by clear-cutting.

  Pablo talked as if they were on a vacation, and he was the guide pointing out highlights, “All this was La Babia, one of the great ranches of Mexico. It contained almost five-hundred-thousand acres at its peak. Smaller than Don Luis Terrazas’ holdings were, but still very large.”

  The scenery was beautiful, but Hunter was more interested in escaping. She watched for any opportunity, but none appeared. More hours of driving passed and RL turned on a well-maintained dirt road, saying, “This is the La Linda road. It’s long, with nothing on it but miles of desert, so take a nap if you want to.”

  Hunter held up her and Adan’s cuffed wrists and said in a soft voice, “Could you take these off so we can get comfortable?”

  RL almost did it, but Pablo said to him, “Hombre, we can’t do that.” Both men glanced at Hunter’s long, bare legs, and looked wistful.

  RL said, “We can’t, but maybe when we get there.”

  Two long, boring hours later on the dirt road, and they reached La Linda.

  Chapter 13

  RL drove by the abandoned and decrepit buildings and homes, on to the rise and to the small white church sitting alone on the low rise outside of the village.

  When RL stopped in front of it, Ellis walked out of the building to the vehicle’s back door, and opened it. He tossed Hunter and Adan their pants and shoes. “Put ‘em on.”

  Pablo gave her his full attention while she dressed, leering at Hunter when she caught him looking at her.

  RL walked between Pablo and Hunter to block his view, looking at him with no smile on his face. “Go inside the church.”

  “I can wait here.”

  “Go inside.”

  Pablo waited a second, then left them and entered the half-ruined interior of the church to disappear in a darkened interior dotted with beams of sunlight from the broken places in the roof.

  RL said to Hunter, “We can go when you’re ready.” He had his back to them while they dressed.

  Hunter didn’t think it would hurt, so she said, “Thank you, RL.”

  He stood a bit straighter, but didn’t speak. While his back was turned, she looked around for anything that would help them. The barricaded river crossing that ended Texas Farm to Market road 2627 showed cold and rusting a half-mile from the church and across the Rio Grande. She spotted no one around, except in the distance where the sun glinted off what appeared to be a vehicle windshield. Brush masked it so well she couldn’t see the color, but the top edge of the windshield glass winked when
she turned her head slightly to the left.

  Ellis stepped from the church and said, “Come on.”

  RL turned and said, “We have to go.” He let her and Adan walk ahead to the church.

  The interior was hard used, with burn marks from fires, and vandalism at several places on the plaster walls. She looked up at the ruined ceiling near the entrance, so damaged that Hunter could see blue sky through the pillow-sized holes.

  Four men stood together in the rear corner of the church. Ellis pointed at the men and told Hunter and Adan, “Go back there. They want to talk to you.”

  He pushed her and the boy toward the men. Hunter saw Winston Hart, and his son, Mike in the center of the group.

  Winston drew the first word out long, “Well. The two troublemakers.”

  Hunter said, “Not us. You’re the horse’s ass around here.

  “Careful, Kincaid, you’re in enough of a mess as it is.”

  “For what?”

  Ellis swung a backhand at her face, but Hunter ducked under it and butted his chin with her head.

  His teeth clicked and Ellis staggered, losing his footing to fall on his back.

  Mike Hart stepped to Hunter’s side and grasped her arm, “Hold it!” He didn’t look angry, only worried.

  Ellis climbed to his knees, then his feet and rushed at the woman, but Mike stepped in front of her, “Nope, you brought that on yourself.”

  Ellis looked at him, a hard, mean stare. He opened his mouth to talk, but Winston said, “Behave, Ellis.”

  Hunter said, “Why do you want us?” I’m a federal Agent and you could get in a ton of trouble for this.”

  RL stood to the side, shifting his feet.

  Winston smiled, “Wonderful, you are a Federal Agent, oh my.”

  Hunter wasn’t sure what was going on here, but she was ready to fight if she could.

  Winston said, “You’ve stirred up a mess you can’t even fathom. But I’m here now, and we will take care of it, and take care of you two.”

  Hunter’s nostrils flared with anger, but she was scared, too. Glancing out of the church entrance, she glimpsed Raymond in the distance, coming across the bare ground in a crouching run.