Cowgirl Thrillers

by Barbara Neville

“Holy shit!” whispers Spud as he jumps up into a squat. He peers around, gun in hand.

  I sit up with my pistol in hand and look around, confused. I don’t hear or see anything.

  “What?” I ask quietly.

  “Shh. They just ran through here.”

  ‘Splash.’

  “The river,” says Spud and he heads off at a trot.

  I look around our little camp. Everyone is gone except the unconscious girl. What the hell? I shove on my socks and boots and follow Spud.

  “Ow,” I whisper as I find the bushes and a branch slaps me in the face. Damn clouds have moved in, it’s dark.

  “Over here,” murmurs Spud. I stumble on a stick or something in the dark. He grabs my hand and leads me over behind a rock. Wolf is already there, staring intently over his rifle sights at the river.

  “There,” he says pointing with his chin, which is close enough I can see it. Spud has my rifle.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Sh. Wait,” says Spud.

  I wait. I stay shushed. I wait more. Am I grouchy when rousted out of bed in the middle of the night? Yes. And groggy. And wanting to close my eyes and drift back off. Cold, too.

  “Arrrrr!” growls something out in front of us.

  Then I see two figures. They rise up out of the mist, grappling with each other. They are fighting like rabid dogs. There is a lot of growling and some unintelligible exclamations.

  “Buzz?” I ask.

  “No, one’s a girl from the sound of it. It started right outside our camp. They run out here before I even got my gun out,” says Spud.

  “Who’s the other one?”

  “Dunno,” he adds.

  Wolf whispers, “He rode in on your horse, brother.”

  “Jinx?”

  “Mm-hm.”

  I say, “Dang.”

  “Okay, one’s a horsejacker. Nice we found Jinx though.” Spud looks at Wolf. “Too dark to see much.”

  “Hm.”

  “Got quiet,” I say. “These two kill each other already?”

  “Wolf go see,” Wolf says as he crawls off.

  “Wait, Wolf, they might be layin’ fer ya,” I say.

  Wolf keeps moving.

  “Wolf is careful, Annie, relax,” says Spud. “I’ve got a bead drawn out there.”

  “Maybe we should lay down some cover fire.”

  “That is not the definition of relax.”

  “Okay, damn. I like Wolf, would hate to lose him.”

  “Speakin’ to the choir, darlin’,” mumbles Spud. “Quiet now, he’s gettin’ close.”

  The clouds have parted somewhat. I look down my puny pistol sights, but the combatants are down behind a giant jack pile of logs, out of sight. There is a bit more light about, so I keep watching.

  Wolf looks back and waves at us.

  “I’m movin’ up,” murmurs Spud. “Cover me ‘til I wave you in.”

  “‘Okay.”

  He heads off in a low slouch.

  I flex some muscles here and there to wake my body up. It’s the middle of the damn night, is all my body has to say. Where’s the damn adrenaline?

  ‘Bang! Bang!’

  There it is. I’m finally alert. Still nothing to see. I blink to get my eyes to stay focused as the clouds begin to thin out and the moonlight brightens.

  I hear more grappling now. The fight is back on. I hear growls and someone saying ‘you fucking cocksucker’ and other such language.

  Spud waves me up. I can’t move too fast. My legs didn’t get the adrenaline, apparently. They are half-asleep. Geez, I’m in great shape for a gunfight.

  I get up to Spud’s position. We are in a nasty jumble of flood flotsam that the receding water has left. The big logs provide good cover, but going anywhere is a crawl over and through proposition. Wolf waves from off to our left and adds some fancy finger signals. Spud moves left and sends me right.

  I scramble and scrunch my way over, but not so far as to get downrange of my friends. I pick a good hole behind a three-foot diameter log and lay my arms across it to make a solid rest for my pistol. I have lost sight of Wolf again, but I can see the two combatants struggling away like drunkards. They have been at it long enough to be pretty well spent.

  From my position, what with the misty fog along the river, they look like two ghosts, grappling in long dusters. No way to pick which to shoot. They are leaning on each other more than anything. Their punches are weak. After a bit they break apart and both fall to their knees, gulping in air and breathing out like steam engine whistles. They get up slowly and go back to it. One rolls over a couple of times and comes up with a revolver. He aims it toward the other and…

  Suddenly, Wolf, on Scout, comes swarming in like a panther. The combatants don’t seem to notice him until he is in the mix. Scout knocks them apart with his weight. They fall and Wolf hops down, revolver ready.

  Spud sprints in to help. I hold my sights on the one on my side of Scout. Wolf is aiming at the other one. They are both talking up a storm, but I am too far away to make any of it out.

  Spud gets in and grabs the one I am watching. He pulls out a piggin string, ties the guy’s hands in front of him and makes him sit. Then he waves me in.

  I walk in to find Wolf and Spud still holding guns on them. Both are on the ground, hands tied, wheezing from their efforts.

  “Hello, Roxy,” says the smaller one.

  I squint at the talker, who is wearing a familiar shade of poisonous iridescent red lipstick. Oh shit, it’s that fucking boyfriend stealing bitch.

  “Crystal?” I ask, incredulous. “Fuck me.”

  “Yes, it fucking well its me, asswipe,” she says, scowling at me.

  Polite, too.

  “You know her, Annie?” asks Spud.

  “Unfortunately,” I say. “I actually worked alongside this bitch on Terrania.”

  Crystal spits at me. I step aside.

  “Missed,” I say.

  “Looks like you are old friends,” says Spud dryly.

  “We damn sure were, the best of friends, ‘til she double crossed me,” I say. “Don’t trust her, she is bad to the bone.”

  Spud looks hard at me and says, “Okay.”

  “Who is this guy?” I point at her opponent.

  “He is a freakin’ horse thief,” says Crystal. “Dropped out of a tree, pushed me off my horse and lit out fer the hills.”

  “Your horse?” asks Spud.

  A male voice chimes in, “She is the thief.”

  We look over at her opponent.

  “And you are?” asks Spud.

  “Zebulon Pike, pleasure to meet you,” he says and starts to stand up and extend his tied hands in an offer to shake hands with Spud. He winces, groans and sits back down, rubbing his leg.

  I walk over and look.

  “Broke?” I ask.

  “Hurts like a sum bitch,” he says.

  “Let me look.”

  Zebulon lays back, grimacing with pain. I ease his pants leg up and look. Don’t even need to touch it.

  “Ankle is swollen already,” I say. “At the very least, it’s a bad sprain.”

  “I hurt it swimming the river,” says Zeb. “My wife disappeared. I tried, but couldn’t find her. She maybe…”

  “I looked and looked,” he says, moaning. Then he puts his face in his hands and sobs. “Oh, Trixie.”

  “Come on, soon’s you get yore wits back, we’ll head to camp,” says Spud.

  “Zebulon here is gonna need he’p,” I say.

  “No,” he says. “I can walk.”

  He stands carefully and tries a step.

  “Ow.”

  Zeb stumbles when his ankle refuses to support him. He sits back down fast and looks up at us.

  “Crap,” he says. Then looks at me and says, “Pardon my French.”

  “No need, I speak French, too,” I say. “What brings you out here Zebulon?

  “Folks call me Zeb,” says Zebulon. “I was named after the old ti
me explorer. I am leading a party to Newzona. Someone stole our maps. We have been searching for weeks.”

  “Shee-it,” says Crystal. “High toned nonsense fer a thief.”

  The brothers have been keeping their rifles trained on them both.

  “Okay, I’ll help Zeb,” says Spud.

  He hands my rifle back and says, “Thanks fer the loan.”

  I sling it across my shoulder with one hand, keeping my pistol pointed at Crystal with the other. Spud unties Zeb’s hands and offers an arm to help reduce the weight on his ankle.

  Crystal holds her hands out, hoping I will untie them. I shake my head no.

  “You think I will try to escape?” Crystal asks.

  “Please do,” I hiss.

  “Perhaps you will,” Spud tells her. “But with the Annie trainin’ her gun on you, the only way out is a bullet.”

  Crystal says, “I didn’t do nothin’. Zebulon here is the thief.”

  “Crystal…” I start to say, but Spud interrupts.

  He says, “Let’s just concentrate on getting back to the fire. We can figure it all out there.”

  I wiggle my pistol barrel at Crystal some more.

  Wolf looks over at me questioningly.

  I murmur, “Like I said, bad to the bone.”

  “Mm-hm.”

  We trudge back to camp. It is way past my rollover and go back to sleep time. Wolf stops on the outskirts, before we get close enough to the fires to ruin his night vision. Whereupon, he proceeds to set himself up for guard duty.

  When we get to camp Spud lowers Zeb onto a log. Then he throws sticks on the fires for light and we settle down.

  Restless, I tie Crystal’s ankles together so we don’t have to watch her so closely. Then, I dig a candle out of my saddlebags.

  “Best to see a man’s eyes when he answers questions,” I say. I strike a match, hold it to the wick and hand Spud the lit candle.

  We walk over to the new guy and look at him.

  “Why did you steal the horse?” I ask.

  Zeb looks at the ground, “I found the horse. He was loose, grazing. Reins dragging, still bridled. I was goin’ to go look fer his owner. But first I needed to find Trixie. We got separated trying to cross. I didn’t think the water could be that fast and strong. I never crossed a river before. I was riding the horse up and down the bank of the river, looking fer my wife, when that Crystal jumped on me from off of a big log and threw me off. I reached up and grabbed her leg and pulled her down, too. Then we started wrestling.”

  He starts coughing over and over. Like he is going to hawk up something nasty.

  “I swallowed a lot of water. Like to drown myself,” he says, then starts coughing again.

  “Hey, buddy. Here take my arm. You need to look at this lady over here,” says Spud.

  “Lady?” he asks. “Could it be my wife?”

  “Dunno. Let’s go see.”

  He extends an arm and helps Zeb to his feet. They walk in between the fire beds. Spud lifts the blanket back from the face of the girl we saved. I hold the candle so Zeb can see her face.

  “Oh my gods! Trixie! Trixie!” he says and starts to cry.

  Trixie rolls her head slowly and groans but doesn’t awaken.

  “Is she okay? Why isn’t she waking up?”

  “She got pretty beat up out there. We pulled her off a log in the river. Cold, hurt. She needs rest,” I say. “You too. Here lay down next to her, get some rest. Keep her warm. Don’t jostle her.”

  We get Zeb down and throw his duster over the two of them. Then we return to Crystal, who we tie to a tree so we can sleep. She lays down next to the trunk, duster buttoned for warmth.

  She says, “I got halfway across the river when a big log knocked into me and I lost hold of my horse. Later, I caught Zeb riding him. He is the thief.”

  “He is my horse,” says Spud. “One of you stole him from me. Sounds like you took him from our camp first.”

  “No, I found him saddled.”

  “Crystal, yore story is changing already,” I say. “You always were a forgetful liar. I know you well enough to know that you are up to some kind of no good.”

  Spud and I head away to our blankets.

  I turn and ask Spud, “You know of Zeb? He come from some ranch nearby?”

  “Naw, nobody lives around here thet I know of,” says Spud, “and I pretty much know all the country folk. Not that many folk on the Rock at all. Might be three hundred of us includin’ dogs and cats. Not many consider us a planet worth settlin’ on. Keeps it nice and quiet. They must be pilgrims. I heard that a bunch came in a while back.”

  “From where?”

  “Terrania, I heard.”

  “Shit.”

  “What’s wrong with Terrania?”

  “Michael and I got warrants there, thanks to that evil bitch Crystal.”

  “Hey, darlin’,” Spud whispers, then kisses me. “Relax, Wolf and I are watchin’ over ya.”

  “But…”

  “We could be up all the rest of the night talkin’ and trying to sort this out. I say we get some shut eye ourselves,” says Spud. “I’ll take the second watch.”

  So we call it a night. Good thing, cause it seems like sunrise comes way too early.

  38 Deuce