“Shorty’s right,” Nathan threw in, scanning the unlit horizon and unable to discern any movement. “I didn’t hear a shot either. But I did see them both drop.”
“Just keep quiet for a bit,” Mackenzie advised, eyes narrowed and piercing. “Can all of you do that? Just shut up and keep quiet.”
Nathan fought to get his own thoughts in order, attempting to ascertain what had just happened. His constricted throat distracted him, feeling like a dry well steeped in salt. The purple sky gave no clues, and the shadows kept their secrets. So they all stayed there, feeling the seconds stretching out. Mackenzie was all still and watchful. Eli as well. Gilbert squirmed as if he’d dove directly on his quirt.
All that wiggling in the sand was getting on Nathan’s nerves.
“Stop moving,” Eli finally warned in an impatient tone. “Christ, Gilbert. You diggin’ for gold over there?”
“Just tryin’ to get some cover is all.”
“The man said be quiet.”
“That was a minute ago.”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “Sweet Mary and Joseph, shut the hell up, Gilbert. And stay still!”
Gilbert did as told, but Nathan didn’t think the man would stay put for long.
Jimmy moaned then.
“The hell was that?” Eli asked.
“That was Jimmy,” Mackenzie answered.
“You okay, Jimmy?” Nathan asked.
But Jimmy didn’t answer.
Leland released a gasp then, as if the life was being choked from him and he’d only just managed to break his attacker’s stranglehold.
“Shit, Leland, you all right?” Nathan asked and waited, watching the two men over the brim of his gear.
“They’re alive,” Mackenzie observed.
“They’re making noise, anyway,” Nathan said. “Not much else.”
“You been hit, Leland?” Gilbert asked since everyone else was talking.
Leland didn’t say a word. He did roll over onto his side, however, and one pallid arm flopped over and back, as if he were feebly combing his hair away from his face.
“Leland?” Nathan asked.
“I don’t think he’s all right,” Mackenzie said. “Gilbert, go check on him.”
“I ain’t getting my ass shot off.”
“You ain’t gonna get your ass shot off.”
“How do you know?”
“There’s been no shot,” Mackenzie insisted. “Listen to me. You listening? No one heard a shot; ergo, no shot’s been fired. No one’s shooting.”
Gilbert thought that over. “Well, they both ain’t right.”
“Which is why I’m telling you to go check on them.”
“I don’t wanna.”
“Christ,” Eli said in disgust and lifted himself into a low crouch with the help of his rifle. “Stay put, Dorothy, and keep quiet. I’ll check on them poor bastards.”
Jimmy groaned then, and tried moving.
“Best get going, Eli,” Nathan said. “We’ll watch the hills for you.”
“What hills?” Eli asked. “There ain’t no hills around. There ain’t shit around.”
All the same, the gun runner crouched low and waddled over to the two groaning men. He scuffed up sand while releasing the occasional huff and foul expletive, which Nathan would forever associate with the man.
Eli got within two feet of them before dropping his rifle and toppling over onto his side without so much as a word.
“The hell was that?” a startled Nathan whispered, unable to take his eyes off the fallen man.
“Oh shit!” Gilbert released in a squeal of barely suppressed terror and a quick working of his rifle lever.
“You stay quiet, Gilbert,” Nathan warned without taking his eyes off the newest victim.
“Eli?” Mackenzie called out. “Eli?”
“Say something,” Nathan added.
Eli didn’t say a word, however.
“Something sure as hell ain’t right,” Mackenzie muttered.
That comment surprised Nathan, and not in a good way. “That’s all you can say? Something sure as hell ain’t right?”
“I’m man enough to admit when I don’t know what’s going on.”
Leland groaned again, and to the remaining four’s surprise, he actually struggled to rise to his hands and knees.
“You okay over there, Leland?” Mackenzie whispered. “You get shot with something?”
Leland planted his head into the sand and stayed there, ignoring the question. Then, “Just… be quiet. For a minute.”
“Be quiet?” Mackenzie repeated in confusion. “He just say that?”
“That’s what I heard,” Nathan said. “The boss wants quiet, so we be quiet. You hear that, Gilbert?”
“Uh-huh.”
“That means no shooting. At all. Until Leland says otherwise. Got that?”
“I got it,” Gilbert answered in an anxious tone that suggested Leland better say something otherwise pretty damn quick.
Jimmy rolled over onto his side. He moaned, sounding like a man who just had his balls kicked up into his throat.
“Go on over there and help them out, Gilbert,” Mackenzie said.
The nervous gun runner’s head did a double take. “Now?”
“Right now. They aren’t dead. And they haven’t been shot.”
So Gilbert stood, hunched over and bare-ass naked, with his rifle firm against his shoulder. He crept towards the fallen men.
Nathan had an idea. “Hold on, Gilbert.”
That stopped him in his tracks.
“You take your time, you hear? Go—go slower than Eli, if you can. And let us know if you hear or see anything.”
“Hear or see anything?” Mackenzie asked.
“What for?” Gilbert asked.
“Just do it, all right?”
“All right, Nathan,” Gilbert replied uneasily, knowing full well he was being sent to the slaughter. Or the next worst thing to being slaughtered, which had obviously laid out three men more than capable of defending themselves. Gilbert crept ahead, well aware he was closing in on an unidentified danger.
“See anything?” Nathan asked.
“Nothing,” Gilbert answered. “But… but something weird’s goin’ on.”
A chill enveloped Nathan then, despite the hot sand he lay upon. “What?”
“Heart’s beatin’ real hard. And my teeth are achin’. Real bad.”
“Jesus Christ,” Mackenzie whispered.
Without another word, Gilbert dropped as if all his limbs suddenly became boneless. He landed in a heap as twisted as the winter gear he’d left behind.
“Well, that was interesting,” Nathan observed.
“What was interesting?” Mackenzie asked, more than a little annoyed. “‘Cause right now all I see are four of ours face down in the sand.”
“That was interesting,” Shorty said from behind them, agreeing with the assessment.
“What?” Mackenzie asked again. “Tell me for Christ’s sake.”
“Well, for one, they aren’t being shot,” Nathan said. “Or anything else for that matter.”
“But something’s dropping them,” Shorty said from behind.
“Right around where Gilbert and Eli fell,” Nathan said. “That’s the marker.”
Leland lay back down and became silent.
“Leland?” Nathan asked and got no reply. “You okay? Leland?”
But the gang leader failed to answer. The next few seconds were hard ones to wait through. “All right,” Nathan finally decided. “I’m going on ahead.”
That nearly twisted Mackenzie’s head off his shoulders.
“I think that’s unwise,” he offered, staying right where he was. “Something’s still laying them out.”
“Yeah,” Nathan said as he hefted a Colt. He held the weapon before him, not at all confident.
“You really going over there?” Mackenzie asked.
“Gonna have to,” Nathan said, and took one step forward. �
�Can’t ask you to go over. And Shorty sure as shit ain’t gonna take an order from a hard case like myself. So it’s me or no one.”
“Just wait,” Mackenzie said. “Jimmy looks like he’s coming around.”
Jimmy was stirring, but didn’t sound as if he was capable of doing much.
“I’m going,” Nathan said. “Stupid as that sounds. Just pay attention to what happens.”
“It’s damn obvious what’s going to happen, Nathan,” Mackenzie said. “Just wait a few minutes.”
Nathan couldn’t wait however. Ignoring Mackenzie, he started forward another cautious step, followed by another.
“You stubborn bastard,” Mackenzie scolded then. “Let us know what’s happening.”
“Nothing yet,” Nathan said as he passed the two dark lumps that were Eli’s and Gilbert’s gear. Four steps from that, both men were sprawled out as if shot in the head. Leland’s right hand waved weakly, but Nathan wasn’t sure if that was a warning or an invitation.
Two more steps, and his heart was pounding in his chest.
A step away from Gilbert’s unmoving ass and Nathan’s teeth started aching, as if someone were driving nails into them. The pain bloomed so quickly that it enveloped his head. A buzzing flooded his ears and forced him to squeeze his eyes shut.
“Teeth are achin’,” Nathan growled, as the sensation flowed downward in a shocking gush.
And the last thing he heard before an unexpected blackness overtook him was “You okay—”
Then the sensation of falling and he knew no more.
29
A hand slapped his face—then another—quickly evolving into a more frantic version of patty cake.
“Christ,” someone said. “Ease off, Mackenzie. That ain’t a set of ass cheeks you’re slapping.”
Nathan fended off the attacking palm with two of his own. “Lord almighty,” he winced and saw a headless face looming above his chest.
“He’s coming around,” Leland said, and a shadow behind the headless face straightened.
“You okay, Nathan?” the headless face asked in Mackenzie’s voice.
“Huh?”
“Asked if you were okay?”
Nathan took a moment to process that. “Yeah.”
“You were out cold.”
“I was?”
“Like us all.”
“After we crossed over,” Jimmy added. “That haunted place.”
“You still going on about that haunted place?” Eli demanded.
“I like it better than your explanation.”
“I don’t have an explanation,” Eli grumped. “All I know is that I walked a few feet then got knocked out.”
“For about twenty minutes,” Jimmy said.
“What?” Nathan asked weakly, struggling to sit up. Mackenzie moved back to let him do just that.
“About twenty minutes or so,” Leland said. “Senseless for most of it myself, but the boys were watching over us.”
“That’s me and Shorty,” Mackenzie said. “Nervous times.”
“You waited that long?”
“Waited and watched,” Mackenzie replied. “Like I said we should in the first place. Next time, listen to me.”
“Leland was moving. So was Jimmy.”
“Senseless. Out on their feet. Like a man reeling from a solid uppercut to the jaw.”
“Don’t remember a thing,” Leland said. “Started in my teeth, and before I could say a word, all I remember was waking up and spitting out sand.”
“We’re across now,” Jimmy said. “So that’s a good thing.”
“We’re across?” Nathan asked and looked at Mackenzie and Shorty. “You fellows, too?”
Mackenzie’s darkened face nodded. “Tried to go around, and Shorty walked right into it. Dropped dead on the spot. I stayed back, and by that time Jimmy was conscious and Leland was coming around. They sounded fine enough. I figured that whatever had knocked them down was only temporary, so I decided to try for myself but at a different point.”
“He fell like the rest of us,” Jimmy said. “Not like that one, though,” he said, indicating Shorty. “The ground shook when he hit.”
“The ground did not shake,” Shorty said, unamused.
“How the hell would you know?” Eli challenged. “You were as dead to the world like the rest of us.”
“So where are we now?” Nathan asked.
“On the other side,” Leland said, facing the unseen boundary that had rendered them unconscious. “Your gear is over there.”
Nathan saw that it was, along with the other men’s winter clothing, guns, and ammunition.
“So how do we get it?”
“Walk on over there and get it,” Jimmy said with a sad smile.
“But that means crossing that line again.”
“So it does,” Leland said.
Nathan’s thoughts were still muddled, but he was coming to his senses fast. “You mean one of us has to go back?”
“One of us already has.”
Nathan realized Gilbert was missing.
Shorty Charlie Williams glanced ponderously over his shoulder.
There, just a few feet away from his belongings, was the crumpled form of Gilbert.
When Gilbert regained consciousness and was fully functional, he tossed across whatever items the men had left behind that invisible pitfall. They gathered up their belongings, and once organized, encouraged Gilbert to return, who was none too pleased about the prospect of being knocked out for a third time.
“Maybe it won’t happen,” Eli said.
“It’s gonna happen.”
“How do you know?”
“It’s gonna happen.”
“Well, maybe it won’t. Stop fussing like an old woman.”
“Mack?” Gilbert pleaded. “It’s gonna happen, ain’t it?”
“Probably.”
That was met with a deep silence, which Eli filled with a quietly put, “You shithead, Mack.”
Gilbert slung his belongings over and held his face for a few seconds, as if contemplating a mad dash across the mysterious line.
“Do it and get it over with,” Jimmy said.
“Catch me if you can, Eli.”
“Sure, Gilbert, sure,” the gun runner said with impatience, and placed his stuff on the sand. He waved Gilbert on with both hands. “C’mon then. I’m damn well waitin’ here.”
Gilbert charged.
And crashed headfirst in a spray of sand.
Eli dropped his arms and took in that deep royal sky.
“You didn’t catch him,” Shorty said.
“Gotta tell him something to get his ass moving,” Eli muttered before studying Gilbert’s heap. After a few seconds, he selected one outstretched arm and dragged the unconscious gun runner a safe distance away from the sinister border.
“That was an asshole thing to do,” Nathan said in an accusatory tone.
Eli released Gilbert, letting the limb flop to the ground like a length of riverboat rope. “Guess I’ve been called one enough times that it comes natural to me, now. And before you all get bitchy about this, just remember, we got bigger things to worry about. Like finding our way back to that goddamn train.”
“We’ve got something bigger to worry about,” Leland said quietly, drawing the men’s attention to himself.
“Yeah, what’s that?” Jimmy asked.
The gang leader’s shoulders heaved as he took a deep breath. “Like who put that invisible wall there? And why…?”
*
Two hours and three rest stops later, the sun still hadn’t made up its mind on whether it was coming or going. The heat didn’t intensify, however, so that was all fine, but the gang was powerfully thirsty, and the desert was an unending carpet of sand, scrolling towards a featureless horizon that didn’t seem to get any closer. No breeze blew, so there was no relief from that quarter either.
“Where the hell are we?” Eli panted, and he almost staggered to his knees. Gilbert stopped bes
ide him, ready to help his companion if necessary.
“Still in a desert,” Nathan said.
“An alien desert,” Mackenzie added. “Another part of your rabbit hole, Nate.”
Nathan was beginning to wish he’d never heard stories of other worlds and the secret passages to them.
“I ain’t never heard of a desert like this before,” Eli rasped.
“Well, now you have,” Shorty said.
“Fuck off, Shorty.”
Nathan sensed Eli was one hour past the end of his rope.
“How long we been walking now?” Mackenzie asked.
“Five or six hours,” Leland said up ahead, where he and Jimmy walked side-by-side once again.
“Milton’s long gone by now,” Mackenzie said.
“Maybe,” Nathan said, the damp weight he carried slowly stretching his arms.
“What’s that?”
“I said ‘maybe’. I’ve been thinking. When you guys were outside of that tunnel, you said you were only there a few seconds, right? To me it was much longer. Like ten minutes or so. I think time is just as warped as this damn desert we’re walking across. I don’t know why, but if doorways can appear and disappear, if we can go from a train to a sea serpent and then to a desert, well, anything can happen. Including time being stretched out. Or shortened. So maybe, just maybe, if we’ve been here for five or six hours, maybe it’s only been a few seconds for poor old Milton.”
“Maybe it’s been longer,” Jimmy suggested. “Like days.”
“Maybe,” Nathan granted.
“Interesting thought, Nate,” Mackenzie allowed. “Interesting.”
“Yeah,” Nathan said, not seeing that way at all. If time was so unstable in such a manner, he wondered what it would mean for them—or what it might do to them.
Mackenzie scanned the sky and slowly stopped in his tracks.
“Something wrong?” Nathan asked, noticing his companion.
“Maybe,” Mackenzie said. “Look over that way.”
Nathan did. “Yeah? So?”
Shorty stopped behind them and did the same, while the others trudged onwards.
“The sky seem darker over there to you?” Mackenzie asked.
“Yeah, it does,” Nathan answered, taking a moment to gauge the difference in colors. The shades were lighter along the skyline, signaling an approaching dawn.
The Majestic 311 Page 19