by J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Fan Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: PG
LINK TO PART ONE
~
I don’t know how long we sat there on the rock. I was still thinking of the feel of Adam’s face. Little things about it stood out--his cleft chin and what I suspect were dimples from his grin. But even having read his face that way, I still found myself puzzling over him. I couldn’t quite weave the bits and pieces I knew of him into a coherent picture.
Adam must have been absorbed in his own thoughts, for he kept quiet as we sat there. He was probably wishing that anyone but me had been there with him--for just about anyone else would have been more useful. I felt my face burn in anger at that. But it was an impotent anger. Expressing it would only have made matters worse.
At length I felt him stir beside me. “We need to get down to the wreckage,” he said. “We have to find the canteens. Those two injured men need water--and so will we, soon enough.”
The thought of us scrambling down that steep slope didn’t entice me--but neither did the thought of proving myself useless. So I nodded and put my arm around his back and helped him to his feet. Then I allowed him to lean against me and guide me as we started down the gulley.
It was slow going, for we had to navigate not only the usual rocks and such but the debris as well. Still, Adam proved to be an able guide. We slipped up only once--but that was enough to send both of us crashing to the ground. I sliced my arm open against a piece of splintered wood from the wreck.
I swore out loud at the sudden, biting pain.
“Damn it,” Adam said. Then I heard him settle himself into a seated position beside me. “Here," he continued. "Let me see your arm.”
I shifted myself to a seated position as well and held out the offending limb. He tore off the remainder of my sleeve and used it for a bandage. I’ll wager that stopped the bleeding, but the slice still hurt like the devil.
“That’s the best I can do for now,” Adam said grimly. “Let’s try again.”
“No,” I said. “You’re staying put--it was that leg of yours that caused us to stumble.”
“We need the water, Drew,” Adam snapped. “We don’t have a choice.”
“I’ll go find the water,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “You stay here and do your best to guide me down.”
I think Adam must have raised his eyebrows at that. “How do you expect to find the canteens on your own?” he demanded.
I shrugged. “I’m not helpless, Adam. I can feel for them. But I’m not bringing you--we’ll both break our necks if I try to get you down there.”
I heard him inhale sharply at that. He was longing to object--and he probably wanted to box my ears as well--but he knew that I was speaking the truth. I had to stop myself from grinning in triumph. It pleased me to no end that Adam was now feeling helpless and useless.
“Very well,” he said at length. His voice was taut, as if he were forcing himself to give in to common sense. “Start down now. And you’d best use your hands and make your way down backwards if you don’t want to fall and break your neck.”
I gritted my teeth. Adam would have the pleasure, once again, of seeing me crawl. And he was still determined to give orders. But I had invited that, I suppose, by admitting that I needed his guidance.
Between his instructions and my own careful progress I made it to the wreckage without any serious mishap. But my hands were cut up and full of splinters by the time I found the canteens. But at least I did find them--or four of them, at any event. I slung them over my shoulders.
I was just making my way back through the wreckage so that I could crawl back to Adam when my hands felt a sticky, coagulating liquid and something like pasty flesh beneath it. I cringed and forced myself to explore it with my fingers. It was a man’s bloodied face--there was no mistaking that. I ran my hands down his neck and felt for the shirt he was wearing. It was a heavy linen with fringes.
“Drew, what’s wrong?” Adam called down. “Did you find more canteens?”
“No,” I called back. “I’ve found a corpse. It’s part buried in the wreckage--was the driver wearing an old hunting frock?”
“No, but his companion was,” Adam said.
“Well, then I’ve found his companion. There’s no stench, but I imagine he’s been dead for a while.”
“There’ll be a stench soon enough in this heat,” Adam remarked. “We’ll have to leave him there for now. We’ll worry about burying him or getting his body back to Virginia City later.”
I frowned at that. “Some scavengers might get to him first,” I called up.
“I know,” he returned. “But there’s no helping that. If you can cover him up at all, do so--otherwise just get back up here.”
“Yes, sir,” I muttered under my breath, still resenting his orders. But I did exactly as he said.
It took some doing to reach him again. I almost slid backward just before I got to him, but he reached out and caught me by my good arm. Then he helped haul me up beside him.
“Good job,” he said as he took one of the canteens from me. There was, I think, a certain grudging admiration in his voice. “Let me see your hands.”
I held out my hands and allowed him to wash them off with a bit of water from the canteen. Then I kept still as he did his best to force out the splinters, lest they fester. He couldn’t get all of them by hand, but fortunately he had a pen knife in his pocket. I did my best to keep still as he dug into my skin with it.
That’s when a gun shot rang out. It wasn’t too far off by the sound of it. I jumped at it, but fortunately Adam kept cool and managed not to slice may palm apart with the knife.
I heard him sigh, though, as he put the knife away. “We’d better find out what that was for,” he said.
LINK TO PART NINE
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