by E A Chance
“It’s your turn,” she whispered in Biscuit’s ear. “I trust you, friend. You have the courage to do this, and the sooner we get moving, the sooner we leave that raging battle behind us. Now, let’s go, boy.”
She climbed over the rail and tugged on his reins. He only hesitated an instant before stepping onto the tracks. The others clapped and patted Biscuit, telling him he was a good boy. He raised his head and got into step behind the cart. First hurdle managed, Riley thought as she walked along beside him. Only a thousand more to go.
They made steady progress along the tracks and had nearly reached the trestle when the sun rose behind them. They hadn’t passed a single person since leaving the house, so signs were promising for escaping from Charleston without incident. Riley was pleased the tides of fortune had shifted in their favor for once.
As Brooks led Echo at the head of the group, he looked back over his shoulder and said, “That escape was almost anticlimactic.”
Riley cringed and spit on her knuckles three times to ward off evil as her grandmother had taught. “You’ve jinxed it, Brooks. We’re in for trouble now.”
Adrian gave her a dismissive wave. “Ha, groundless superstition. You never struck me as someone who believes such nonsense.”
“Nonsense?” Coop said. “What about Newton’s law, ‘for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction?’”
“Or the theory of Quantum Entanglement,” Dashay said.
Coop pointed at her. “Excellent point.”
Adrian rolled his eyes. “None of you has the first idea what you’re talking about. How do those laws relate to Brooks’ comment about our uneventful escape? Life being what it is these days, we’re bound to have trouble no matter what any of us says, so that won’t prove your theory.”
Riley eyed him for a moment, then said, “Believe what you want, Adrian, but Grandma was never wrong.”
He rolled his eyes. “Nothing more than coincidence.”
“Hush,” Brooks said, as he reached the edge of the trestle. “Doesn’t look like this has been used for a while. Stay quiet so I can hear the creaks and cracks.”
Coop walked past him and stepped onto the first slat. “Let me test it before you bring Echo and the cart across.” He stepped gingerly along the ties until he’d covered fifteen feet. “Seems sturdy. Probably wouldn’t hold a train, but we should be safe.”
Brooks got Echo moving and Coop waited for them to catch up before walking ahead. The group was hushed at first as they crossed the bridge, but chatted quietly once they saw it was safe. The ground gradually dropped away into the gorge beneath them until they were suspended by at least a hundred feet. The scenery was breathtaking, but Riley couldn’t appreciate it with sounds of the raging battle echoing against the hills.
Riley was leading Biscuit and glanced at Dashay, who was walking on the other side of him. She was frowning down at her feet, oblivious of the scenery.
“Nico’s fine,” Riley said. “Like he told you last night, he’s in the safest place in the city.”
Dashay raised her eyes to Riley and shook her head. “But helpless to defend himself.”
“The military won’t destroy Charleston. They just want to control it. They’ll need the hospital intact.”
“That makes logical sense, Riley, but things get out of hand in wars. And what if he can’t escape once he’s recovered?”
“He’s smart and he won’t let anything stand in the way of finding you. He has his military training to fall back on. I just wish we could tell him how to find these tracks and give him our route.”
“He knows. Brooks visited him last night while I was there. He gave Nico a map he’d drawn with the direction we’re headed. If he survives to make it out, he’ll know where to go.”
“That should give you peace of mind.”
“Some, but Nico is a long way from strong enough to escape. If Kearns’ forces take the city, they won’t make the mistake of leaving this exit unguarded.”
That thought had crossed Riley’s mind, too, but speculation was pointless, and Nico was on his own. They walked in silence until they reached the halfway point on the trestle. Through the cracks between the ties, Riley could see a river snaking along the gorge below. A brisk wind had kicked up, making the rickety bridge supports groan and sway. She was anxious to reach the other side and get back on solid ground.
She cupped her hands to the sides of her mouth and called for Coop to pick up the pace. As he spun to face her, Echo stepped on a rotted-out tie and it snapped beneath his weight. His front left leg went in up to his knee. He let out a cry of pain and struggled to free himself. Coop and Brooks ran to his side and worked to get his leg loose and keep him from heaving against the weight of the cart. After several tries, Brooks coaxed Echo to bend his knee and lift his leg. The instant he was free, he reared up on his hind legs, then slammed down, smashing more of the surrounding ties.
Brooks grabbed the bridle and pulled himself onto Echo’s back to stop him from galloping off. Echo hesitated for an instant before lurching forward with the cart. The front wheel dropped into the hole where Echo’s leg had been, knocking him off balance. Brooks flew off Echo’s back from the jolt and slammed into the trestle railing. Echo lost his footing and tumbled into Brooks, pinning him against the rail. The decaying wood bowed under their weight, then shattered like a twig.
Riley froze and watched in horror as Brooks fell through the opening. He locked eyes with her for an instant, as if saying goodbye, then plunged headlong into the gorge. His body splashed down in the river and was swept out of sight in the current. Visions of another river, another death, flooded into Riley’s mind and she began to tremble violently before dropping to her knees and vomiting over the edge of the bridge.
Coop wrapped his arms around her waist and carried her to the center of the trestle, away from the fractured barrier. Dashay stared in stunned silence at the gaping hole where Brooks had been only seconds earlier. Coop whistled to snap Dashay out of it and she slowly shifted her gaze to him.
“Riley’s in shock and needs your help,” he said. “Find a blanket.”
Dashay nodded numbly and headed for the demolished cart. Adrian knelt beside her, surrounded by their scattered belongings.
“I’ll get the blanket,” he said. “You’re in no better shape than Riley.”
Dashay crawled to where Riley had lowered herself onto the tracks and threw her arms around her. “Is Brooks really gone?” she asked in a stunned whisper.
Riley gave a muffled cry in answer. As she clung to her friend, Echo bellowed and started struggling to get on his feet. Coop left the women and ran to the horse’s side. He released the harness anchoring Echo to the cart. As soon as he was loose, Echo flailed his legs, fighting to stand.
Coop draped himself over Echo, and said, “Adrian, help me hold him down.”
Adrian climbed to his feet and dropped a blanket over Riley’s shoulder on his way to Coop.
“Riley, Echo’s hurt,” Coop called to her. “We need you to come examine his leg for breaks before we can let him stand. He’s too strong for us to hold him down for long. You need to hurry.”
Coop’s command brought Riley out of her stupor. She snapped into doctor mode and knelt beside Echo’s injured leg.
“I don’t know what broken horse bones feel like,” she told Coop, as she ran her hands along his leg.
Echo fought against her, so Coop patted his shoulder to calm him. “You’re the closest we have to an expert. It shouldn’t feel much different from a broken human bone.”
Riley closed her eyes and shut out thoughts of the horror she’d just witnessed. Taking a deep breath, she started again. The bones felt whole and steady beneath her palms and fingers. The skin was broken in places, but the abrasions appeared superficial.
She let out her breath and turned to Coop. “It’s impossible to tell if the bones have hairline cracks, but I don’t feel any large breaks.”
If Echo’s leg had even
hairline breaks, they’d have no choice but to put him down, but they wouldn’t know until his full eight was on the bones. Coop’s look told her he was thinking the same.
“Once he’s up, examine his side, too,” Coop said. “He went down hard on his ribs. You do have experience with broken ribs.”
Riley glanced at him, then gave a slight shake of her head. “If any of our medical supplies survived, I can disinfect these cuts, then bandage and tape his leg. Diagnosing broken ribs is out of my wheelhouse but I’ll do my best. If he puts his full weight on the leg without exhibiting signs of pain, that will tell us what we need to know.”
Dashay got up and searched through the supplies that hadn’t spilled into the gorge with Brooks. “Looks like the main med container is gone, but the emergency pack survived. It has enough of what we need to treat Echo’s cuts but not more.”
She carried it to Riley, and they tended to Echo while Coop and Adrian emptied and righted the cart. The scene had an otherworldly feel as they went about their tasks, pretending they hadn’t just experienced a horrifying tragedy.
“The wheel isn’t broken, but that side panel is shattered,” she heard Coop say. “If we have enough rope, we can piece something together.”
Adrian nodded. “It won’t have to hold as much weight since more than half of the contents went over the side.”
Coop gave a slight nod and wiped Echo’s blood off his hands with a neckerchief. “Let’s do what we can. We’ll catalogue the remaining supplies later.”
Riley glanced up and saw Coop hesitate before lifting Brooks’ pack off the ground. She was sure he was blaming himself for the accident since he was their leader, but he was no more responsible than the rest of them.
Coincidence or jinx? she wondered, remembering their lighthearted jesting over Brooks’ comment that the escape from Charleston had been anticlimactic. Her eyes teared up as she whispered, “Grandma was never wrong.”
Echo squirmed, so she stroked his side and spoke comforting to him while Dashay finished bandaging his wounds. When they’d done what they could, Dashay shoved the materials into the backpack, and the two of them moved away to see if Echo would stand without help. He tucked his legs and rolled onto his chest, then looked around as if figuring out what to do next. Riley held her breath as he tossed his head from side to side before throwing his front legs out straight and pulling himself to his feet. He turned and stared at the group, looking as surprised as they were that he was upright.
Biscuit was tied to the opposite railing and tugged on his tether to get to Echo. Riley untied the reins and led him to his friend. They greeted each other joyfully for a moment, then Echo took off running until he reached the far side of the trestle. He stepped off the tracks onto a grassy mound and stuck his muzzle into a patch of clover.
“Guess the leg’s good,” Coop said as he walked back to their pile of provisions. “Let’s load the cart and get off this cursed bridge.”
Adrian picked up a twelve-pack of toilet paper and tossed it on top of a stack of boxes.
“Don’t overexert yourself,” Riley said under her breath as she lifted a case of canned goods into the cart.
Adrian straightened and glared at her, but let her comment pass. “What if Biscuit won’t pull the cart?”
“Biscuit will do what he needs to because he knows we’re counting on him,” she said.
Adrian huffed. “How can he know that? He’s a horse. He’s done nothing to earn your confidence that I’ve seen. He’s just a silly horse.”
Riley dropped the box she was holding and grabbed the front of Adrian’s shirt. “More than you,” she shouted in his face. “Your friend just died, and you want to argue about Biscuit? I’m sick of your constant bickering and negativity. What did your wife ever see in you?”
Coop rushed over and peeled Riley’s fingers from Adrian’s shirt before dragging her away from him. Dashay nudged Adrian to the opposite side of the bridge.
Coop grasped her by her wrists, and said, “Look at me. This isn’t about Adrian. You’re just lashing out.
While struggling to free herself, she said, “No, it’s about Adrian.”
“We don’t have time for this, Riley.”
She glanced up at him and caught his grief-stricken look. She wasn’t the only one in shock from Brooks’ death. She pulled Coop into her arms and whispered, “I’m sorry, babe.” She held him for a moment, then walked to Adrian. Holding out her hand, she said, “That was uncalled for. Please, forgive me.”
He stared at her hand for a moment, then shook it without a word before going back to loading supplies. She got into place beside him and lifted their tent into the cart. The four of them worked in silence until their remaining supplies were packed.
Riley watched anxiously as Coop strapped Biscuit into the harness, hoping her faith in him hadn’t been misplaced. When Coop urged him forward, Biscuit held his head high and marched along like the most important horse on Earth.
With less weight to pull, they crossed the second length of the trestle in half the time. Adrian had gone ahead to keep Echo from wandering off and to put some distance between himself and Riley. The two of them were waiting next to the tracks as Coop led Biscuit onto a nearby road. They rested when they got across the bridge, then quietly put the cart in order. Nobody one spoke as they worked.
Coop finally gathered the others around him and said, “I get that we’re all still reeling from Brooks’ death, but it was nothing more than a freak accident. No one is to blame.”
“Except Echo,” Adrian mumbled.
Riley clenched her fists and took a step toward him. “Haven’t you learned anything? He’s a damned horse, you idiot.”
Coop put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her away from him. “Enough, Riley. Let it go. Let’s get camp set up for the night. Tomorrow is soon enough to gather our wits and put this tragic day behind us.”
Adrian and Dashay walked to the cart to unload it. Riley silently watched as Dashay ignored the tears streaming down her face while she stacked boxes on the grass.
Coop wrapped his arm around Riley’s waist. “We’ll find time to mourn later, but we’ve got to put Charleston behind us first.”
She put her hand over his, more grateful than ever to have him at her side. “Let’s see if our jackets survived. It’s going to be a chilly night.”
Riley scanned the terrain below the trestle, searching for their scattered supplies, searching for Brooks, searching for peace. She’d been trying and failing all morning to keep her mind focused on the job at hand. There was no time to inspect the gorge. The round trip and accompanying search would take most of the day. From what they could see, Brooks and the supplies were carried away by the river. They would just have to hope they had enough supplies to get to the next weigh station and they could scrounge what they needed along the way.
Riley watched the swollen river rushing past, conjuring up older memories she’d been fighting to suppress since the accident. Hannah’s drowning felt like another lifetime, but in reality had only been months earlier. Riley had descended into a dark void in the aftermath of that tragedy, believing it was the worst possible thing that could happen. She’d had no way of knowing what was still to come.
With the love and help of Coop and Julia, she’d pulled herself together and moved on. Her experiences since had strengthened her, and she refused to descend into that dark place of vulnerability and self-pity. The others needed her strength. Her baby depended on her.
Still, it wasn’t healthy to pretend the emotions churning beneath the surface didn’t exist. Her resistance to facing those dark thoughts was draining energy she didn’t have to spare. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to mourn Brooks’ death and pay homage to the memory of Hannah. Coop came up behind her and laid his hand on her shoulder, waiting in silence as she poured out her grief.
When her tears were spent, she dried her face and looked up at him with gratitude. Riley stood and brushed the mud from he
r knees. “I am. Brooks’ death and being here are dragging up memories of Hannah, and I tumbled down that rabbit hole. Why does it always have to be a river?”
“I’ve been having the same struggle, but as I told you last night, there will be time to mourn.”
“Will there?” When Coop raised an eyebrow, she said, “Strike that. I just wish we could find Brooks’ body and have a burial. It would give us closure, which is in short supply lately.”
“He’s miles downstream by now, Riley, but we can hold a memorial before we leave for Huntington.”
She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. “That would help. How’s Dashay? I haven’t seen her since breakfast.”
“I think she headed downriver to see if she could spot Brooks. I didn’t stop her. This must be rough on her so soon after leaving Nico. She lost the two most important people in her life in two days.”
Riley pulled away and looked up at him. “Her real family is gone, and now her surrogate one, too. She was much closer to Brooks than we were. We’ll need to help fill that void.”
“A task I’ll willingly take on. Let’s find her and take another load up top. Come away from the edge. Looking down here gives me the creeps. Feels like an enormous grave.”
Riley shivered as she took hold of his hand. “Now who’s down the rabbit hole?”
Riley held her hands over the fire in their camp that was only a half mile from the end of the trestle. As Riley waited for the others to join her to start the memorial, she considered what she could say about her brief acquaintance with Brooks. She’d come to consider him a friend after moving past their tumultuous beginning and had even grown to respect him. She regretted never taking the time to tell him and hoped he’d known.
“I’d like to go first,” she told the others once they were gathered around the fire. “Brooks is the first person in my life who started as an enemy and later grew to be my friend. On the night Julia was shot, and Branson’s thugs took us hostage, Brooks was the only one who helped us get what we needed to save Julia’s life. If it hadn’t been for his quick actions, she wouldn’t have survived.”