Disclaimer: Don’t own ‘em, and never made a plug nickel off ‘em, I wish I did. The May 2003 Challenge (the Break a bone Challenge): offered by Heather
Day
six…
Madness hadn't sunk in yet.... though the mixed smells of sweat and old food was almost overwhelming.
But none of them left, they were afraid to. The fear of what may happen once they stepped over the threshold kept them
in place.
Seven of the Old West's toughest men played cards, though didn't drink any whiskey knowing that those women were laying in wait for them.
To snap bones, crush cartilage and more. Even constant exposure to Tanner's pungent coffee failed to drive them out.
They were tough...
a mere thirty days...
they could make it
if they stayed low
drawing no attention to themselves
but as day six began to come to a close, during an impromptu game of tag the players Dunne and Wilmington bumped into Standish who in turn
crashed into Tanner causing him to land atop Sanchez whoinadvertently flattened Jackson.
The domino effect left a tangled mass of arms and legs, standing far from the fallen, Larabee valiantly fought off the urge to burst out
laughing but failed to do so and was heartily chuckling as he went to help them up only to trip up on an uneven floorboard and fall.
A muffled 'Dammit' was clearly heard by all. "My nozth"
A snickering, high pitched giggle came through the window leaving them all to wonder how the hell those women fic writers got so damn close
and no one saw them coming.
Day
Seven…
Idiots
Fools
Had to play tag in cramped
quarters...
Chris Larabee would have shook his
head in dismay but unfortunately his busted nose seemed to be connected to
every muscle in the upper part of his body and looked a sorry sight to boot
with two black eyes. At least they hadn't swollen shut, Chris wished his ears
had swollen shut, the devil may care attitude of the previous day was gone, the constant ongoing bickering around him was wearing
on his nerves, Standish and his damn cards.
Ezra had skulked into a corner after
the fracas, snapping down the cards of his battered deck in a game of
solitaire, it hadn't escaped his attention that Larabee was watching him. The
gambler raised an eyebrow as if to ask what seemed to be the problem. Knowing
full well that their illustrious leader was in no shape for a verbal assault
Ezra pushed a little farther by breaking into a broad grin.
Vin snickered without turning from his position by the window
as he kept watch for the fiendish Challenger gaggle of women, he couldn’t help
laughing, those two had been at each other on and off all day. Supplies were
running low and tempers were flaring, despite that Buck and J.D. had been
hawing away at the floorboards starting and stopping at various points through
the small room with their knives trying to tunnel a way out since the early
morning.
“Don’t start…” Chris growled out.
“I honestly have no idea what you
are going on about Mr. Larabee.” Standish snapped down another card atop the
growing pile.
“Ez, I’m gonna cram those cards down
yer throat if ya don’t stop…” Even as Larabee spat out the words a stabbing
pain coursed from his damaged nose slicing through his head.
“Indeed… “ Ezra
scooped up the paste boards and stood up then abruptly disappeared from view as
a thunderous cracking sound filled the room. A gaping hole had swallowed up the
con man. A faint voice floated up.
“Gentlemen it seems I’ve found the
root cellar…Aw Hell!” The gambler’s words were drowned out by a booming crash.
“Whatever you broke down there I
ain’t fixing…. Ezra?” When Nathan didn’t get a
response he called out again “Ezra?”
“What if it was my posterior?”
“Don’t be a pain in the ass Ez, you
hurt or not?” The dark healer crouched and peered into the inky blackness
below.
“This is not in jest my dear man, I
cracked my derriere…” There was a pause before Ezra continued. “And not where
the Good Lord split it…” That started off a hardy chorus of chuckles all round
as they tossed down a line and five men set about bringing up their fallen.
Chris sank further down the wall
wondering when this insane standoff would end.
Day
eight…
Pain
in the ass
The indignity
The utter humiliation
Waiting
Buck and J.D. were down the cellar
with him preoccupied with their insane escape plan, tunneling their way out to
freedom with….
Spoons!
Of all things, the common ordinary
spoon was chosen by the duo to dig with. Granted they had two but still… at
least the pair was persistent in their endeavor having already burrowed a
four-foot tunnel into the cellar wall.
Ezra Standish lay on his belly in
the root cellar trying to ignore the throbbing ache in his backside. A dull
glow of the lantern cast long shadows throughout the dank space. He was
uncomfortable on so many levels. The gambler had found, much to his chagrin
that the earthen floor upon which he lay though cool was moist and doing untold
damage to his apparel.
Debased further by the knowledge
that because of the very nature of his injury he wouldn’t be going back up into
the cabin. There were scraping noises and hushed voices off to his left above
the muted conversations died off as the healthy regulators traded off the
continuous watch. For they knew they were still surrounded, but there had been
no sign of the women since the initial incident with Larabee. The seven’s
leader had recovered somewhat, though his temperament had not. At least the man
was napping now. Ezra wished he could delve head long into the land of Morpheus
but… the bottom line was he could not, the fiery agony at least had dulled some
thanks in part to draining the contents of his flask. There was nothing left to
do but wait.
A soft thud announced the tracker’s
arrival much to Ezra’s dismay. The gambler had been the butt of Tanner’s jokes
since falling through the hole.
“Ez?”
“Go away Mr. Tanner… do find your
amusement elsewhere.”
“But Ez…”
“Hasn’t my malady entertained you
and your compatriots enough?”
“Aw Ez… come on… hell I bet Buck
over there’ll even kiss it better.”
A loud thunk disrupted Vin’s weak attempt at humor, a puffy white creature had
dropped from above leapt over Standish’s prone form and plowed straight into the
Texan knocking the man flat out. An audible snap could be heard as the panicked
animal trod upon Tanner’s hand.
A sheep?
The mortified creature let out a
mournful bleat when it came to a halt staring wide-eyed at the men.
“Ma fingers!” came out in a hoarse
whisper.
Day nine…
Larabee's
nose was still swollen and had already turned some lovely hues of purple.
Standish had finally succumbed, and was snoring softly on the cellar floor.
They were
tired, the supplies were running low, and all that remained was a few a
petrified biscuits, some hardtack and two partial canteens of water. The
situation was bad.
baaaaa
baaaaa
baaaad
Squinting
at the wooly animal Vin wondered if... Nah that wasn't
possible. Was it? Then again the critter did just drop in. Where it bounded in
from no one could quite explain. All Tanner knew was his smashed fingers hurt,
Nathan had wrapped and splinted them, the healer had
done so grumbling something about finally an injury his could easily treat.
Since their
arrival to the cabin events had taken a decidedly bizarre turn. Tanner still
hadn't figured out where the sheep had come from, but there it was stinking up
the place, there were no real solutions as what to do with the creature. Though
he had to admit Josiah's suggestion was a mite amusing, the preacher offered up
that a good hard wind could cause the sheep to blow away, insisting that by
putting it anywhere near Standish would have the animal wafting into the air in
no time all. It was an image that caused the longhaired Texan to snicker.
“What's so
funny?” J.D wanted to know as he backed out onto his heels inspecting his work.
His hole-digging partner had gone up through the ragged gap in the floor for
some fresh air and to haul out up some of the dirt that was piling up.
“Nothing…
how's it going? Making headway?”
“On a hole…
get it… HOLE…” Dunne smiling, his white teeth stood out in stark contrast to
his blackened face, stopped and swiveled around in time to see Vin slowly shake
his head. “Ah heck … I thought we'd been done… by yesterday we dug out 'bout
ten feet and started digging up ain't seen the sky yet. Figured we would've by
now…. I 'm gonna get back to it.”
The soft
scraping of metal against hard rocky soil renewed.
A moment
later a clink was quickly followed by a high-pitched creak, a loud clunk and a
stifled yelp. The rapid sequence of odd sounds had Vin
calling out.
“J.D.?” He got no answer so he tried again after stepping
across the cramped cellar peering into the hole. “J.D. ya
awright?”
“No… gimme
a sec…” The stilted response had Tanner venturing farther into the dark earthen
tunnel clutching damaged digits into his mid section staggered after the
younger man following the amber glow of the lantern into the abyss.
Out of the
shadows hopped a rabbit of unusual size, pink nose twitching, watching him with
big black eyes and suddenly growled.
Growled?
"Uh Vin... " J.D. was doing his
best not to sound frightened but he was stuck hopelessly so, his toes were
painfully wedged under a door of all things.
A trap door to boot.
Dunne let
slip out a tight sounding titter at the particular thought.
The
rabbit's wide eyed stare was more than a little unnerving but when the large
creature began muttering as it hopped even closer. Dunne couldn't quite make
out what it was saying but it sounded like. "...Phalanges...
metacarpals... metatarsals... coccyx ... "
"Vin,
could you hurry!" J.D. squeaked out as he tried fruitlessly to scramble
backward still hopelessly stuck.
A gunshot
roared through the cramped space that sent the rabbit skittering away.
"Ya awright kid?" Vin had squatted up next to him re-holstering his mare's leg
as he checked out the situation.
"Yeah...
think I busted my toes... "
J.D.
replied as he sagged back onto the cool dirt while Tanner crawled over him and
tugged open the door one handed. A searing bolt of
pain screamed up his leg briefly robbing him of his breath, but as soon he
could manage Dunne gasped out.
"What
the heck was that?"
In the dim
light the tracker gave him a lopsided grin before answering.
"Plot bunny."
"Plot
bunny? No way... It was huge..."
"Lucky
for you it weren't rabid...things are nasty otherwise you'd be much worse
off... Blind... Paralyzed... "
"A woman?"
"Yep.. Even turned into a woman..."
Vin’s last comment had the young man wondering when would the
madness end?
Day ten…
How embarrassing
To be frightened
by of all things ...
An
overgrown rabbit
Simple fact was that those women
didn't fight fair. Didn't matter what Vin said what
they were doing was bad enough.
Hell they had resorted to lobbing
a puffy sheep into their midst, then there were the holes appearing out of no
where and now there was the dang trapdoor. J.D.'s toes still ached unmercifully
within the confines of his boot despite Nathan's care wrapping them. The healer
had even gone so far as to suggest that the young sheriff leave the boot off
until the injury healed. Due to the current circumstances Dunne willingly
endured the agony involved in pulling the boot back on.
No way was he going to be caught
off guard and unprepared again.
The sound of his friends' voices
had him struggling back up on his feet and limping across the earthen floor
just as a brilliant blue light flooded the root cellar.
"I ain't gonna touch it...
You touch it!"
"Uh uh you touch it... My
fingers are busted... 'sides I opened it."
"Don't seem right... I don’t
like the looks of it..." Wilmington squatted down and tried to look past
the shimmering depths. He had been arguing with Vin on
just how to proceed.
The bickering had been going on
for a full moment before Buck and Vin realized J.D.
was standing behind them. Both the big mustached ladies man and the tracker
looked back at the younger man for a brief second before continuing their
mutual badgering leaving the bewildered youth staring down into the shimmering
blue pool that resembled water. The substance completely filled the opening of
the trap door. A small ripple started at its center and gained in intensity
began overlapping the edges.
"Guys... "
His companions unintentionally
ignored J.D.'s quiet words, as they continued in their raucous banter, so he
tried again. "Uh guys... What is that?"
He had no sooner said the words
when the blue light suddenly liquefied and shot up, hit Wilmington square in
the chest sending him flying across the small cellar. The rush of liquid light
violently slammed him into the far wall.
As quickly as the assault started
it ended leaving Buck in a crumpled heap groaning. The blue light was gone the
earthen room abruptly darkened then the low light of the single lantern
returned. Vin and J.D. quickly ran to their friend's
side.
"Where ya hurt? The question
came out as a simultaneous chorus.
"...ribs... "
"You stay put Bucklin...I'm
gonna get Nathan..."
Tanner loped away. Dunne sat down
by the injured Wilmington.
"What the heck was
that?"
"shit...J.D.,
that there.... is one of them... fancy plot devices..." Buck gasped out.
"My dear friend... could
have been far worse... "
"Hey Ez... I thought you was sleeping?"
"Indeed as did I but all the
commotion woke me..."
“So what would be worse than a
plot whatsit?”
“The dreaded cliffhanger comes to
mind.”
“I can’t believe you said that
Ez… ooof” Buck’s sudden outburst was cut off as an unwise move sent a searing
pain through his side.
A loud thunderous crash came from
above garnering the attention of the remaining cellar occupants. As they
strained to hear what was going on, a chilling howl drifted down echoing
through the cramped quarters followed quickly by panicked shouting and gunfire.
Buck’s tight whisper was almost lost in the din.
“Ya had to say cliffhanger!”
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