‘How many men is he bringing?’
‘Jesus Christ man, stop it, stop it, Jesus!’
‘How many?’
‘More than you can imagine, he’ll bring an army with him. Berg was the last of his kin, his sister’s son, some say he was the father but I don’t know man.’
Dallas spewed forth all the information he could, he couldn’t stop, he just wanted the pain to be over.
‘Okay, okay Dallas, we’re done,’ Dan said once he had heard enough. Dan wiped his bloody hand on Dallas’ pant leg and pushed himself to his feet once again.
Dan chambered a round and lowered the rifle to Dallas’ face.
‘He’ll not stop, you can only run,’ Dallas finally whispered.
‘I’ve never been a fan of running.’
Dan pulled the trigger.
*****
CHAPTER TWELVE.
Dan made his way up the side of the Mercedes; he found Dallas’ dropped Glock and slipped the loaded weapon in to the back of his jeans. He stopped at the open driver’s door and peered in, other than broken glass the car was spotlessly clean and Dan concluded it was a rental. He found a book of matches on the dash, there was a name of some club or bar written on the front flap: “Bunny’s” with a Boston phone number beneath the cheesy logo.
Dan tore off one of the matches and the head ignited, he put the match to the rest of the book and as the heads all flared to life he tossed the matchbook down in to the churned up soil.
Dan had smelt the diesel fumes for the last few minutes and now he could see it trickling from the rear of the Mercedes. He started up the sloping incline to where he had tied off Weiser.
Dan had almost made it to Weiser when he heard three rifle shots in the distance. The reports had come from the direction of his ranch. He heard two more shots, these sounded different to the first three, then two more shots sounded out.
Dan had one thought and one thought only.
‘Chloe!’
Dan scrambled up the slope and snagged Weiser’s reins from the sapling. He sheathed the rifle and swung himself up in to the saddle.
‘Come on boy,’ Dan said.
He turned Weiser in the direction of home.
Behind him the Mercedes’ fuel tank blew. Dan paid it no attention.
Weiser reached the top of the ridge and Dan turned the horse on the trail. He pulled up on the reins bringing Weiser to a halt and he leaned forwards in his saddle so that his mouth was close to Weiser’s left ear.
‘I’m going to push you fella, I have to, I know you’re one hell of a horse so don’t let me down.’
Dan patted Weiser’s powerful neck and loosened the reins giving Weiser more ‘head’. Dan dug his heels in to the sides of Weiser and made an exaggerated ‘tsk’ noise and Weiser took off.
Dan let Weiser pick his own path, only occasionally tugging on the reins to the left or right when the path Weiser chose was too hard. Dan wasn’t worried about the horse but some of the trails had too many low hanging branches and the last thing he needed was to be knocked from the saddle.
The horse charged along, the thunder of hooves and the snorting of his nostrils the only sounds and Dan rode him hard urging Weiser to greater speeds.
Horse and rider were as one and Dan leaned forwards in the saddle, lowering his head as much as possible to cut down on wind-drag, his hat had long been swept from his head. They came to the apex of a ridge and Dan pulled on Weiser’s reins bringing the horse to a halt.
Weiser shook his head and neck, the animal’s powerful muscles shone beneath a layer of sweat. Dan patted Weiser’s neck and rubbed a hand reassuringly along the side of the animal’s majestic face.
Before him was open grasslands that led down to the fenced paddock and the ranch house. Dan knew he was still four miles from home and he quickly looked for any sign of Chloe or her horse but he couldn’t see either.
‘Easy, let’s see what’s what.’
Dan pulled the rifle free and unsnapped the lens’ covers and raised the scope to his right eye. Dan quickly ranged in on the North gate, through the magnified scope he could tell that Chloe wasn’t at the gate. He scanned from right to left and back again; a sea of tall grass and wild flowers filled the scope. Dan kept sweeping left to right, each time moving the scope’s sight closer to the ranch.
He stopped when the scope picked up a shape, lying dead in the paddock was one of their horses, the scope’s magnification picked up the pool of blood spreading out from the once beautiful animal’s head.
‘Motherfuckers!’ Dan cursed and Weiser began to scrape one hoof at the ground.
Dan then saw a second and a third horse, all down, all dead. Dan felt tears welling up in his eyes, he blinked the tears away and kept looking.
He found a body and his heart leapt in to his mouth until he realised that the body was that of a man, the right side of the man’s face a ragged mess.
‘At-ta girl,’ Dan whispered.
Soon he scoped in on a second man lying face down in the grass, Dan could see a hole in the back of the man’s head. He kept scanning and his fear increased when through the scope he located Sorbet. The Appaloosa that Chloe had been riding was crumpled in the dirt, its head and neck twisted down beneath the animal’s front two legs. Dan quickly concluded that someone had shot the horse head on and the animal had ploughed forwards in to the dirt.
‘No, no, no.’
Weiser must have caught the acrid scent of the spilled blood, the wind was right for it, and the horse began to chuff and stamp more urgently with his front hooves.
‘Easy boy, settle.’
Weiser settled and Dan swept the scope back to Sorbet. He scanned the area.
Weiser began to tremble beneath Dan, a thunderous roar sounded all around, and it took several seconds for Dan to realise that the noise was coming from him.
Through the scope’s magnification he caught sight of Chloe, her upper body was hidden by another fallen horse but Dan could see her legs and boots. He could clearly see the mass of blood pooling around her thighs, the long grasses around her were awash with blood.
‘No!’ Dan screamed. His voice one loud bellowing roar of pain, of anger and of loss.
Dan caught movement with his left eye and he raised the scope. He spotted another man, the man was clutching his left shoulder, blood dripping between the man’s fingers. He was unarmed and moving at a stagger towards Chloe’s body.
Dan watched as the man raised his blood soaked hand and waved back at the ranch. Dan quickly found one last man climbing the paddock’s fence near the stables. This man was armed, carrying an assault rifle similar to an M-14, and behind this last man was another black Mercedes with all of its doors wide open.
Dan could see that the car was empty and he scanned back to the other man, he hadn’t moved much. Dan located Chloe again and he almost cried out when he saw Chloe’s left leg move an inch or two. He saw her right hand come up from behind the horse.
Dan heard three quick popping sounds and he saw the wounded man collapse to his knees.
Damn, I love that fucking woman.
Dan lowered the rifle so that he could look at the broader picture.
Another shot sounded and Dan saw the kneeling man’s head snap backwards.
Dan spotted the last armed man starting to move through the paddock, he was moving in Chloe’s direction. Dan gauged the man to be a half mile from Chloe’s prone body. Dan raised his rifle and let off six shots in rapid succession, at this distance he knew that nothing would come of them, he’d just wanted to halt the last man, to buy Chloe some time. Dan watched as the final shooter dropped in to the grass and a second later two quick shots came back at him as the gunman returned suppressing fire.
Dan sheathed the rifle and tightened his hold on the reins.
‘Let her buck,’ Dan cried, Weiser was moving before the last word had left Dan’s mouth.
Weiser galloped hard at the ridge’s crest-line. Dan held on and leaned back in his saddl
e as the mountain horse did what it was born to do.
Dan hadn’t been lying when he had told Chloe that Weiser would have left Sorbet in his dust. The mountain horse’s stock proved hardy and brave as the horse charged down the steep incline. The incline’s seventy five degree angle would have bested most horses but to Weiser it came naturally. He had been born in the wilds of the Australian mountains and though tamed he still had that mountain horse blood flowing through his veins. His muscles were hard and his frame and build were purposely designed for terrain such as this.
Dan clamped his thighs hard to Weiser’s sides as the horse pushed harder down the slope, his hooves churning up the rocky ground beneath them.
Dan concentrated on keeping his seat as Weiser steamed down the hillside in a flurry of hooves and the flat grasslands came up on them faster than Dan had expected.
Weiser pushed on and Dan let the animal have its reach. Dan swept himself forwards in the saddle so that once more he was leaning low in the saddle to cut down on drag.
‘Push it Weiser,’ Dan roared.
The horse proved his worth and Dan felt the magnificent animal’s speed increasing. Dan could hear nothing but the thunder of hooves, the snorting of nostrils and his own heartbeat as Weiser thundered across the open grassland.
Dan saw the one mile marker coming up, the fence the perfect indicator of just how far the horse had travelled in such a short space of time. Weiser needed no encouragement from Dan and the horse cleared the fence in one heart-stopping leap.
Horse and rider cleared the fence and landed in a blurring of hooves. Dan raised his posture and through streaming eyes he looked ahead beyond Weiser’s head.
Dan could see the last gunman was nearing Chloe, he was already raising his rifle to aim at Chloe’s fallen body.
She’s alive; she has to still be alive.
Dan reached back and pulled the Glock from the back of his jeans, he raised his arm and fired a shot in to the sky.
The gunman spun and saw Dan charging towards him.
Half a mile...
Dan aimed forwards and let off two rounds, neither of which was in danger of hitting the gunman but Dan didn’t care, he just wanted the man’s attention.
The shooter raised his rifle (he was now aiming at Dan), and fired.
Over the sound of thundering hooves Dan heard the rifle spewing bullets. Dan grinned demonically, the shooter had no chance of hitting Dan or his horse, not yet, there was still too much ground between them.
Dan wiped at his eyes with the back of his gun hand and he blinked the sweat and tears away. He saw the gunman lowering his rifle and quickly ejecting the now empty magazine. Dan saw the man fumbling for another magazine and Dan leaned forwards in the saddle, once more lowering the resistance created by horse and rider.
‘Now Weiser, now!’
Weiser’s natural reserves of stamina kicked in pushing the horse beyond any pace set so far and the gallop went to a whole new level. Dan praised the horse’s ancestors and his own good fortune to own such a beast.
Dan watched the gunman, knowing that the man’s fear would soon kick in once he glanced up at the horse thundering towards him.
Dan fired off another round.
The gunman looked up at the sound of the gunshot and fumbled the magazine, his face turned white at the realisation of his current situation: that situation being that he was about to come face to face with one pissed off charging horse.
One hundred yards...
The gunman almost dropped the magazine but managed to hold on to it and he slammed the magazine in to the rifle and raised the weapon and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened. The gunman quickly realised that he hadn’t pulled back the firing mechanism, by not pulling on the rod the weapon was useless. The gunman quickly lowered the rifle and pulled on the firing mechanism.
The gunman started to raise the weapon, readying to aim.
It was too late.
Weiser slammed in to the gunman, knocking the man backwards and to the ground. The gunman was swallowed beneath Weiser’s pounding hooves.
Dan brought Weiser in a sweeping circle, slowing the horse until he was able to leap from the saddle. Dan ran towards the fallen gunman, he looked down at the broken, bloody mess as he sprinted past. Dan rounded the body of the dead horse and he dropped to his knees next to Chloe.
*****
Dan knelt next to Chloe, there was so much blood that he feared she was dead.
Chloe’s eyes flickered open and she even managed a painful smile, a smile full of sadness and loss.
‘They were shooting the horses,’ Chloe croaked, her voice barely a whisper. ‘I couldn’t let them do that.’
Dan nodded his head, he pulled his shirt off and pressed it against the hole in Chloe’s stomach.
Chloe cried out.
‘I know Chloe, it’s painful and it’s going to hurt even more but you’re not going to die. You hear me you crazy bitch, you are NOT GOING TO DIE!’
Chloe coughed and again she cried out.
‘It hurts so much.’
‘I know, listen to me baby. I have to hurt you even more but I have to, okay?’
Chloe slowly raised her left arm and her hand brushed his thigh.
‘Okay, but you...won’t be getting any...blowjobs any...time soon.’
Dan laughed and he snorted back a load of snot and tears.
‘Okay, are you ready?’
‘No.’ Chloe managed a brief nod and Dan rolled her slightly so that he could feel beneath her back.
‘Thank god, there’s no exit wound.’
After her scream of pain had subsided Chloe said, ‘I’m totally fucked.’
‘No, you’re gut shot, they’re painful as fuck but it takes a long time to die.’
Dan didn’t know if this was true but he didn’t know what else to tell his wife.
Dan wiped his shirt across her stomach and he waited to see how fast the blood spilled from her, a second later and blood began to bubble forth. He didn’t think any major arteries had been hit.
But again what the fuck do I know!
Dan wadded the shirt and pressed it to the wound.
Chloe cursed loudly.
Dan took her hands and pressed them to the blood soaked shirt. He lowered his face to hers and looked her straight in the eyes, eyes that were no longer a vivid blue. Dan could see that she was struggling to hold on to consciousness and the colour of her skin, once so healthy and tanned, was now waxy and pallid.
‘Listen up, you’re going to keep your hands pressed to that wound. Through all the pain you’re gonna keep the pressure there.’
Dan wiped at his face spreading tears and blood across his cheeks.
‘Keep your eyes open, no matter how hard it gets, DO NOT close them, don’t even think about just resting them, do you understand me Chloe?’
‘Yes,’ Chloe said softly.
Dan slapped her face, as hard as he could. Chloe’s eyes cleared a little and he saw her anger and fight coming up from the depths of her reserves.
‘I’m ordering you to keep your fucking eyes open. Ordering goddamnit. Do you fucking understand me?’
‘Yes,’ Chloe said and this time there was more life in her voice.
‘Right, I have to leave you for a few minutes. I’m gonna get the four by four. We can’t wait for an ambulance to get out here. I’ll be back in five minutes, count the seconds off.’
‘Tell me you love me.’
Dan shook his head, ‘I will, when I come back, just fucking stay with me.’
‘You bastard,’ Chloe said with a smile. ‘One...two...three.’
Dan was on his feet and moving fast.
Dan swung himself up in to the saddle and kicked Weiser in to a run. Dan could see just how laboured the horse was, thick foam spilling from the horse’s mouth and the horse was bathed in sweat.
Weiser made it to the fence and Dan climbed down, he quickly unfastened the saddle and yanked it from Weiser’s
back, he unclipped the bridle and left Weiser to shake it free.
Dan clambered over the fence and ran for the stables where he knew he had a spare set of keys.
Dan had the keys and swung the Volvo’s door open and climbed in behind the wheel. He turned his head and saw Weiser standing at the trough slaking his thirst and Dan nodded his head. He slammed the door, turned the ignition key and put the Volvo in to gear.
Dan turned the 4x4 in a tight circle and he pressed down on the accelerator and drove straight for the fence. He crashed through the fence and accelerated hard in to the paddock.
*****
‘Two hundred and one twenty,’ Chloe said in a confused croak as Dan lifted her in to the passenger seat of the Volvo. He reclined the seat as much as possible and secured her seatbelt and slammed the door.
The Volvo bounced across the paddock and Dan pressed hard on the accelerator as he saw another fence coming up. The sturdy vehicle smashed through the fence and bounced up on to the highway.
Dan straightened the wheel and pressed his foot to the pedal and the Volvo surged forward. Dan kept the accelerator pressed to the floor and raced for Rockspur.
*****
PART TWO.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
Time held no meaning. Dan had lost all track of it and he wouldn’t be able, if asked, to say what time of the day it was, or even for that matter what day it actually was.
From the moment he had slammed through the emergency centre’s front doors time had become his enemy. Every minute that ticked by was another sixty seconds of time that Chloe had lost.
Later he would think about how he must have looked charging in to the main reception area. Drenched in blood, carrying a young lady also drowning in a tide of red, he must have made for one Hell of a sight.
Dan had to admit that despite the scene that greeted them the medical staff had quickly come to his aid, any concerns they may have had about him were pushed to the side as their training and professionalism kicked in.
On Deadly Ground (Dan & Chloe Book 2) Page 9
