Coal sat up and coughed, blood was running down his face from a nasty cut across his forehead, and his shirt was soaked in blood, but otherwise, he seemed unharmed.
“Thanks,” he said, once he caught his breath, followed by, “One sec.”
The bounty-hunter leaned over and casually drew his blade across his unseeing attacker’s throat. A river of dark blood spilled out across the floor, and the man’s eyes took on a more of a frantic look. For the first time Kyle looked around and realized that Coal was surrounded by five bodies, all of them either dead or dying. The scavenger opened his mouth as if to speak, but Coal beat him to it.
“We should go, now!” he said.
Kyle nodded dumbly and then he heard the sounds of running feet coming from outside.
“Right! You grab Miles!”
“You grab my fucking sword!”
Kyle turned and rushed back down the aisle, slowing just enough to snatch up Coal’s wayward blade, he leaped over Miles again and ran towards the door. Coal was right behind, and the half-breed dropped down and scooped up Miles in both of his arms as if he was carrying a blood-splattered bride across the threshold. Kyle shouldered the rifle as he ran outside and pulled his magnum instead, he turned and saw two more men just around the corner of the building, but when he raised the gun, the men darted back behind cover. Then, movement to his right caused him to turn just in time to see a man on the roof of the diner hurl a rusty hatchet at him, but it was a wild throw, and it bounced off the concrete at Kyle’s feet. The scavenger raised the magnum to fire, but Coal shouted from behind him.
“Don’t waste the shot, just get into the fucking car!”
Kyle swore and then heeding the bounty-hunters advice he turned and ran for the buggy, Coal trailing behind him carrying the old man. The scavenger dove into the driver’s seat and began flicking the series of switches that would bring the rover to life. A moment later Coal tossed Miles into the seat next to him and then climbed in after him. For the first time, Kyle noticed the bloody arrow protruding through Miles’ back.
“Oh god Miles!”
“Go, just go!” Coal shouted.
Kyle slammed the pedal to the floor, the heavy plastic wheels squealing against the asphalt for a moment before they caught hold and launched the rover forward. They raced across the diner’s parking lot and in his haste Kyle bounced over one parking median and then another. The second one may have saved his life because the moment they hit it, he heard the sharp hiss of an arrow behind them and the sharp crack as it shattered harmlessly against the body of the rover. Kyle ducked down as far as he could in his seat, while next to him Coal did the same, pulling Miles down with him. They exited the parking lot, and Kyle turned the buggy sharply guiding them up the ramp towards I-17.
“No, No, get off the road, off the road! There could be more of them ahead of us, in case we made a break for it!” Coal shouted.
Kyle nodded and pulled the vehicle sharply to the right cutting out across the desert. They raced across the desert for nearly a half a mile before the edge of the plateau came into view, and Kyle turned the vehicle north again.
“Is Miles still alive?” Kyle demanded.
Coal looked from the old man’s face to the bloody arrow sticking from his back and then looked at Kyle and simply shrugged.
“I’m stopping.”
“We’re still to close, you know those bastards aren’t going to give up that easy!” Coal objected.
“We’ve bought us some time, we're stopping, just get up top and cover us!” Kyle ordered shoving the rifle back into Coal’s hands.
The rover slide to a stop in the middle of the desert and a few heartbeats later their dust cloud caught up to them, choking out the rest of the world for a moment. Coal checked his rifle, loading his last three rounds and then climbed up to stand on top of the rover. Kyle jumped down and ran around to the passenger side of the buggy where Miles leaned forward awkwardly against the dash. The old man’s face looked pale, and Kyle hesitated for just a moment, before reaching up and checking for his friend’s pulse. To his relief, he found it, though it seemed somehow sluggish to Kyle and he suddenly wished Anna was here with them more than anything. He patted Miles on the shoulder gently and whispered, “I thought we lost you old man. You just hold on, we’re going to take care of you.”
Nearly a foot of the arrow was protruding out of the old man’s back, the broadhead and black shaft still glistened with blood, but otherwise, the wound was bleeding very little. Very carefully Kyle leaned his friend back far enough to see his chest and the few inches of the back of the arrow, including the green fletching now sticking out from his chest. Taking a breath Kyle rolled the old man on to his side, keeping the wound down and being careful not to disturb the arrow. The scavenger wanted nothing more than to pull that arrow out of his friend’s chest, but he knew once it was out that Miles could bleed to death.
“Is he alive?” Coal asked.
“Yeah, for now.”
“They chasing us?”
“It doesn’t look like it, there’s a lot of flat ground between us and them, and they know we got bullets now. I doubt they’ll be coming after us.”
“Good, we gotta get Miles patched up before we can move him any further.”
“I said they wasn’t coming after us right now, that don’t mean setting up camp in sight of the place where we just got bushwhacked is a good idea Kyle!”
Ignoring the Indian Kyle knelt down to examine Miles’ wound again, still not exactly sure what he should or even could do. For a moment he considered cutting the arrow down and leaving just an inch or two of the shaft exposed on either side. The arrow would keep the hole plugged and hopefully most of the old man’s blood on the inside of his body, then they could wrap a bandage over top of it making Miles much easier to move. Kyle set one finger on the shaft, considering where they should cut it, and Miles suddenly jerked awake.
The scavenger took half a step back, and the old man’s eyes looked around wildly for a moment as if he had just awakened from a terrible dream. Then his eyes fell to his chest, and the length of green feathered shaft that was protruding from it. Miles’ mouth opened wide sucking in a sharp breath and Kyle could tell that the old man regretted it immediately, as his face went pale and he looked as if he would pass out again.
“It’s going to be okay Miles, just go back to sleep again.”
The old man’s eyes came up and focused on Kyle, and then Miles raised a finger and weakly pointed at his chest.
“I know, you got shot with an arrow,” Kyle said, trying to make his voice sound comforting.
Miles’ gaze seemed to sharpen, and he stared at Kyle for just a moment before he raised his hand again and gave the younger man the finger. Then Miles gestured towards the left side of his chest again, and this time a wet hiss escaped his lips.
“Don’t try and talk Miles, you probably have a punctured lung.”
As the words escaped Kyle’s lips he suddenly remembered a bloody night several years ago at the old clinic, a woman had been stabbed in the chest and had been brought to Anna for help. Back then Kyle’s role had been little more than holding thrashing patients down while Anna did what she could to save them. That night she had shoved a large catheter high into the woman’s chest to…to do…something? He shook his head, and suddenly he wasn’t sure if he had even witnessed Anna drive the thick needle home or if he had turned his head and looked away instead. But he was sure that when he looked back, the woman was breathing much easier and the catheter was bubbling and hissing frothy air and blood.
“Oh shit, Coal. I’m going to need you over here!”
The bounty-hunter jumped down from the top of the rover and knelt down next to his friend.
“Holy shit Miles, I’m glad you’re not dead, but you look like shit!”
The old man looked up at the half-breed, his breaths were coming quicker now and seemed to be more labored by the minute, but the old man was still able to raise a hand and
flip Coal the bird in reply.
“Something…something is happening inside his chest,” Kyle said.
“Yeah, no shit, it’s called an arrow.”
“That’s not what I mean, Anna explained it to me once a long time ago. Something about when a person has their lung punctured…”
“Like by an arrow?”
“Shut up, I’m trying to remember…something about pressure, it's like air is like…leaking.”
“How is the air leaking? The damn arrows got that hole plugged up tight,” Coal pointed out.
“Yeah, I know…but it’s the lung that’s leaking right? So where does that escaping air go?”
“Hell if I know Tonto, I’ve butchered more than my fair share of animals and some people to, and it’s not like there is any wasted space inside a chest cavity.”
Kyle blinked twice, and next to him Miles breathing had turned into a high pitched wheeze, the sound wasn’t much different from the hiss that had escaped the young woman’s chest that night long ago.
“Holy shit, that’s it, you’re right, there isn’t any fucking room in his chest. He’s building up pressure with every breath he takes, we need to relieve the pressure!”
“What are you talking about Kyle?”
“Quick, I need a big ass catheter or a syringe or something!”
“Where the fuck are we supposed to get something like that?”
Kyle jumped up and ran over to the buggy and grabbing Miles’ tool bag, he upended it in the front seat. After a few moments of frantic searching, he gave up and moved on to the first aid kit but again found nothing that would work. Then Coal shouted from behind him, “Hey, what about the arrow?”
“Enough about that fucking arrow, now help me!”
“No Kyle, I mean why not use the arrow like a big ass needle? I mean, it’s already in him.”
With that Coal reached over and grasping the arrowhead carefully gave the broadhead a sharp twist. Miles shuddered in reply, but the tip began to spin in Coal’s hand, and after a few turns it came off completely. The half–breed held the arrowhead up for Kyle to see and then said, “Fiberglass arrows are hollow, the head and the nock just screw in, pull them off, and we got us a hollow tube.”
“Like a catheter!” Kyle replied.
“Yeah, and like I said, It’s already in him.”
The two men carefully laid Miles on the ground, keeping the man’s wounded side down, something that Kyle remember Anna saying was important, but he couldn’t remember exactly why. The old man didn’t make a sound and barely moved, he seemed completely intent on his breathing something that was proving harder and harder by the moment.
“What now?” Coal asked.
“Now find something to pull off the end of the arrow, the nock or whatever it is you called it.”
“Right,” Coal replied.
The half-breed ran towards the buggy and quickly began looking through Miles’ tools while Kyle was still trying to come to grips with what they were about to do. As he stared at the now headless arrow sticking from Miles back he remembered something else that Anna had done that night so long ago.
“Coal, I’m going to need something…something plastic and flat, we have to make the wound on Miles’s back airtight, or it’ll just suck in more air, I think.”
“Ahhhh…ok, I got something that I think will work.”
A moment later Coal returned carrying an ancient looking set of pliers in one hand and Miles’ map in the other.
“Will this work?” Coal asked holding the map out for Kyle to see.
“We’re going to need that!”
“Well, we ain’t going to need Mexico are we?”
Then Coal sliced away a corner of the map with his hunting knife and held it out for Kyle to take. The scavenger shook his head and accepted the piece of the map now roughly the size of his palm. He looked at it for a moment and realized that Coal was probably right and that it would seal the wound nicely, the map was a travel map printed on thick paper and coated to make it waterproof.
“I think this may just…wait? This is New Mexico!” Kyle pointed out.
“Whatever, I wasn’t planning on going there either.”
Then Coal gripped the arrow around the green feathers with one hand, doing his best to keep the shaft still, then he gripped the nock in the rusted pliers. Kyle looked down at the old man’s face and saw his eyes flutter slightly in reply. The two men exchanged a quick glance, and with a quick twist of his wrist, Coal pulled the nock from the end of the arrow.
“Now what?” Coal asked.
“Now we pull the arrow out the front, but not all the way out, we want to leave some of it stuck in his chest.”
“How much?”
“Maybe an inch I would guess,” Kyle replied.
“Ok.”
Coal then took his knife and notched a small line an inch from the end of the arrow.
“When I see the line I’ll know when to stop pulling,” he explained.
“Ok good, I’m going to push from the back and slap that chunk of map across the wound as quickly as I can, then we…”
Kyle reply was cut off by a sudden and frantic change in Miles’ breathing, the old man’s body began to shake and tremble, the sound that now escaped his lips was something between a muffled cry and a wet gasp. The scavenger realized his friend would die right here in his arms if they didn’t do something at that moment.
“Now Coal, pull it fucking now!”
The bounty-hunter set one hand on Miles’ chest and with a firm grip on the arrow’s shaft began to pull it out slowly but steadily. While on the other side of the dying man Kyle pressed the section of map flat against the end of the arrow with one hand and had a bandage ready in the other. Between them, Miles body shook and squirmed, but Kyle couldn’t tell if it was the pressure in the man’s chest or the pain of the arrow being pulled from his body. Finally, the end of the arrow disappeared into the man’s back leaving a small hole that immediately started to pour dark blood, but Kyle was ready. The scavenger pressed the section of torn map flat against the wound and then pressed the bandage over top of it.
“Is it far enough out yet?” Kyle shouted.
“Almost,” Coal replied through gritted teeth.
The bounty-hunter tried to pull the black shaft from the old man’s chest as smoothly as he could, but the wound was still leaking blood, and the shaft had quickly grown slippery in his hands. Then finally the notch in the arrow he had cut came into view and almost at the same moment Coal heard a sudden hissing sound. Miles reaction was immediate, the old man seemed to suddenly come alive and began to kick and squirm with more vigor. He took a series of haggard but deep breaths followed by a round of wet coughing. Coal glanced at the end of the arrow and found small squirts of blood and bubbles of air frothing from the open end of the fiberglass shaft.
“Help me with the bandage,” Kyle said.
Working together the two friends managed to secure the bandage around Miles’ chest, and at least for a moment, the bleeding seemed to have stopped. Kyle knelt down to check on Mile’s, his breathing was much improved but between the wet sound to his frequent coughing and the red froth coming from the end of the arrow he knew his friend still had some blood in his chest and maybe his lungs.
“He okay?” Coal asked.
“I think so, we’ve done all we can for him here.”
“Well that’s good news,” Coal said.
Kyle nodded and smiled, “It is.”
“Now are you ready for some bad?”
Kyle suddenly felt his heart drop and turning he quickly looked back at the desert behind them.
“Did you see something? Are they coming after us?”
“No, it’s worse than that.”
Coal stood and walked back over to the buggy where he had been standing moments before. The bounty-hunter picked up a few pieces of broken white plastic and held them up for Kyle to see.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing a
nymore, but it use to be a 5-gallon bucket of water, that last arrow shattered it.”
Kyle’s mouth slid slowly open, and he looked up to meet Coal’s eyes. The half breed shook his head slowly and then reluctantly asked.
“Kyle, what happened to the other bucket? The one you used to make the soup and that shitty coffee with this morning?”
The scavenger turned, and from here he could just make out the diner in the distance, and even though the sun was still low in the sky, it was already distorted by the heat rising off of the desert.
On the Hunt
The Seeker stopped and stood squarely in front of the white double doors, ignoring the dozens of not so quietly whispered conversations that had sprung up upon his arrival. The tall man ignored them as he always did and the rest of the Chosen gave him a wide and respectable berth. As the Seeker waited, he allowed his eyes to wander and they, of course, fell upon the two guards that now stood on each side of the doorway. The men were shirtless and heavily muscled with thick bands of human skin tied around each of their biceps, the mark of the Masters’ personal guards. Each man carried a five-foot spear with a wooden shaft and long thick blade. The weapons were obviously some piece of farming tool recut to have a more sinister, but in these days, a more practical intent. Another figure moved through the crowd, and it took a moment for him to realize that it was the same slave-messenger that had found him in the market earlier. The crowd went quiet as the slave presented himself before The Seeker and bowing deeply announced.
The Road North Page 20
