By Joanna
Chapter VIII
Antithesis
Lou wasn't sure exactly how it was she ended up standing in the circle of a small campfire in her pink and white dress, but sure enough minutes after her adamant protest that she would under no circumstances go into the camp in her dress, she was wearing the garment. She hadn't worn it since Tyler Dewitt was alive, and she felt the bad memories haunting her. Still, the dress was very pretty, and there was also the memory of how flattered she'd been by his attention at first.
Suddenly she became aware that everyone was staring at her and she glared at Cody, "This is never going to work. Why would a woman be wondering around in the woods with a party dress on, Cody?"
Cody grinned her and held up Buck's hunting knife, "I thought of that."
"No Cody! You are not ruining my dress! I spent good money for this dress!" Lou growled, looking around the faces of the other rider's who looked uneasily away, not able to meet her eyes. Lou had a feeling Cody had already discussed his plan to mutilate her dress with them while she was changing.
"Lou, it's the only way. We'll buy you a new dress as soon as we get back to Sweetwater," Jimmy explained quietly.
"I don't want a new dress! I like this one!" Lou growled in irritation.
"Lou, we don't have time to argue. Dawn will be here in a few hours! Please?" Cody finally lowered himself to begging.
Lou glared at all of her friends, her eyes lingering on Kid as she hoped he might tell her it was too dangerous. The look in his eyes suggested he might think it was, but had been on the receiving end of her temper too many times to dare say a word.
Cody approached her slowly with the knife. Lou deliberately took a step back.
"Lou, we'll buy you whatever dress you like when we get back. I can't think of any other way."
"We could rush them," Kid suggested quietly, earning glares from the riders, none of whom had a death wish, and all of whom wanted to even the score with the bounty hunters that made them look like fools.
"Cody, you still owe me five dollars. How are you going to buy me a dress?"
"We'll all pitch in. I'm good for it Lou," Cody muttered, still advancing on her with the knife. The look on Lou's face changed from one of blatant refusal to one of indignant resignation.
She clenched her teeth together and refused to look at Cody or any of the others as he bent down and grabbed a hand full of material, sawing feverishly at it with the knife. The ripping sound sickened Lou and she closed her eyes as he continued, cutting jagged hunks out of the skirt.
"Okay," he finally sighed, sitting back on his heels.
Lou dared to observe his work, groaning aloud when she saw the dress had been destroyed. Not satisfied with mere destruction, Cody decided to add to insult to injury by digging beneath the snow and bringing up large handfuls of mud. With a face that was too delighted he began smearing mud on the hem and skirt, and then stood up and touched her face with the icy dirt.
Lou jumped back and glared at him, "What do you think you're doing?"
Cody shrugged, the mud still in his gloved hand, "Making you look convincing. Why would your dress be torn and your face perfectly clean?"
Lou bit her lip, unable to think of a logical line of argument. Cody grinned, his most evil grin, with his mouth curling devishly at the corners, and continued to smear mud on her face, throat, arms.
"This is the stupidest thing I've ever done," Lou murmured a while later as Cody finally stood back, waving his arms over Lou in proud demonstration of his creation.
The boys didn't know whether to smile or grimace as they looked at Lou. In addition to the now ragged, dirty dress, and filthy face, Cody had run muddy fingers through Lou's hair, making it stand nearly on end, and had stuck twigs and branches in it.
From the looks on the boys' faces, Lou guessed it was lucky she couldn't see herself.
"So what am I supposed to do?" Lou finally asked before the boys broke into laughter.
Cody set his arm around her shoulder and let her to the edge of the hill, looking down with her on the campsite.
"You're gonna creep around this hill and enter from that side of the camp. Make a lot of noise and start screaming. I want them to know it's a woman approaching so they don't shoot at you. I need you to look as out of your mind with fear as you possibly can, and somehow get the point across that the devil has stolen your husband or brother or someone...and turn their attention toward the direction you came in. We're going to circle around the back of this hill and come up behind them. Make sense?"
"Of all the hare brained..." Kid began, curling his lip in distaste of the whole idea, getting nervous now that it was time.
"It could work," Noah supposed.
Lou rolled her eyes, "Oh, all right, I'd better get going."
She started forward. Cody smacked her encouragingly on the backside and Lou flung herself around, eyes wide in surprise. Again, there was an evil smile, and he laughed.
"Good luck, Lou," he told her, and a chorus of well wishes followed.
Shaking her head, Lou tucked her gun into the waste band of the ruined dress and started down the hill through the snow.
She heard Noah's soft voice drift above her soft crunching, "Think she'll go through with it?"
"If Lou said she'll do it, she'll come through for us," Jimmy's voice held no doubt.
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Lou again questioned her and Cody's sanity as she tromped in the pitch blackness, only three tiny dots of light from the hunters' campfire keeping her oriented. Her nerves were on edge still, not only from the mad flight and the fall down the hill, but from the desperation of their situation. If they didn't get their horses and provisions back, they could die.
She drew a deep breath and waited at the edge of the camp, watching the sleeping men. Her heart thundered in her throat as it always did before a fight. The waiting was the hardest part, she knew. Once her limbs started moving forward, all doubts usually left her.
She didn't wait long before she heard Buck's nearly perfect imitation of a night owl. Hoping it really was Buck and that they were in place, she suddenly slammed sideways into a small tree, shaking it rapidly and letting loose a high-pitched, blood curdling scream that made her head hurt.
She started running blindly forward through the snow, screeching at the top of her lungs, interrupted only by sobbing breaths.
She heard heavy male voices, startled from sleep when the men began sitting up, she chose her moment.
"Oh please help me!" She finally screeched, bursting into the clearing.
The men, upon seeing the filthy and crazy looking young woman burst into their camp, quickly struggled to their feet, not bothering to pick up their guns as they did so. They backed slowly away from her until they realized she was in fact a woman and not an apparition.
"Whoa there, Miss! What's the matter?"
"Help me! Oh, dear God, save us all!" Lou raved, weaving side to side, crashing on her knees in the snow and scrambling back up in time to grab the lapels of one of the hunter's coat, "He's come! I saw him! He stole my husband!"
"What are you talking about lady?" The man asked, quickly prying the lunatic woman's hands off his coat and setting her on her own two feet.
"There's no time! My God, those eyes! All the fires of hell burned in those eyes as he carried my husband away! It was Satan, I tell you! Lucifer himself!"
"You saw Satan ma'am?" another asked, half interested in his profit, half afraid that they really would find this devil horse.
"Yes and I'll see him every waking and sleeping moment of my life! Oh my poor husband! Please help me find him!" Lou screeched, doing a convincing job of sobbing. The wind was whipping tears from her eyes, which made her role that much more believable.
Seeing a business opportunity, the leader Lou remembered as the one who laughed at Jimmy stepped forward and placed a reassuring arm around her shoulders, "Now, Ma'am, we'll be glad to help you find your husband, if you'll just tell us where you saw this horse!"
Lou sniffed and hiccoughed, shivering violently, "That way." She pointed an unsteady hand in the direction she'd come, "I don't know how far I ran..."
"Shh, there there..." the men began moving forward as one to the edge of the clearing as if they might be able to penetrate the darkness with their collective stare and find the mystery behind the stallion.
Lou hid a smile as she watched them move further and further from their guns and their gear. Cody's plan had worked to startle them out of their senses, just as their plan had worked earlier in the evening.
"Bravo Lou," a voice that belonged to none of the hunters sounded from behind them all, and Lou quickly backed away and drew her own gun as the startled group of men turned.
"Howdy there, fellas. Glad we could be so much help and lead you this far. But, I hate to tell you, the trail ends here for you,." Jimmy's explained quietly.
The men started forward as one but Kid shook his head, "I wouldn't do that."
Seeing they were caught, the men stood dead still in the snow.
"Well, I say we tie them up and let the coyotes have them," Noah suggested.
"Or call the Indians to get them," Buck shrugged, "Either way would be fine."
"You boys aren't serious?" one of the men asked nervously.
Cody's merriment was gone as he walked up to the man and shoved him roughly backwards. "As serious as you when you stole our horses and provisions and left us to die!"
"You're smart boys. We knew you'd get back to town alright."
Jimmy shook his head, "You also know the punishment for horse thieves.
Get a rope, Ike."
"Now just hold on a second," the leader of the hunters began, holding up his hands, "There ain't no need for that."
"Well, we been walking in the snow all night, and I got to tell you, we don't agree," Noah snapped, "You'll have to forgive our short tempers."
"Maybe we can work out a deal?"
"Here's the deal. We string you up, and you die. Easy as that," Jimmy responded as Ike returned from their stolen gear with a rope. Jimmy scratched his chin and pointed, "Now that there looks like a good hanging tree, don't you think Billy?"
"Yep. Ain't no way that branch is going to give."
Lou stood back, trying to work some of the mud from her hair with her fingertips and hid a smile. She knew good and well that none of the boys were planning on a hanging, but after her near heart attack, she was glad to see the men turn various shades of gray and green.
"Ma'am, you're not going to let them do this?" One of the men suddenly pleaded with her.
Lou smiled demurely and shrugged, "You should have asked me that before I ran through the snow and fell down a hill. Now, I'm not so generous either."
"Oh please, don't hang us!" one of them finally sobbed, falling on his knees as Jimmy and Ike methodically fashioned a noose out of the rope. Lou's eyes darted nervously from Jimmy, Ike, and Cody, wondering just how far they intended on taking the charade. She was of the mind it had gone on long enough. Kid shifted uncomfortably as well.
Jimmy cocked the hammer to his gun and crunched through the snow, holding out the noose, "Who's first?"
The men all shrank back in fear.
"Jimmy," Kid finally admonished his friend quietly, shaking his head.
With a regretful look at the unused noose, Jimmy sighed and dropped the rope.
"You mean you're not really gonna hang us?" One of the men wondered in a trembling voice.
"Well, we ought to, and we may change our minds yet, but no. Not now," Buck told them, "Unless you give us a reason."
"What're you gonna do with us?"
"We're gonna leave you here. We'll be taking your horses of course to insure you don't follow us," Kid told them.
"But you can't! We'll starve to death or freeze to death!"
"You weren't so worried about that when it was you leaving us behind!" Lou snapped at them.
Kid nodded, "That's right. It would serve you right to be left with only a day's worth of food. What we ought to do is march you down the mountain and turn you into the marshal. But seeing as we're finally on the right trail, we ain't turning back. So here's what we're gonna do. We'll leave you with two days supply of food. You can keep your knives but we're taking your guns and your horses. You track us for two days. By the end of the first day, you'll find your packhorses and your weapons. By the end of the second day you'll find your riding horses tied up and waiting for you. That'll give us a chance to get a good lead. We'll only leave you enough food to get you back to Trail's End."
"But..." one of them began to protest angrily.
Jimmy pulled out his gun and cocked the hammer again, a mad gleam in his eye, "Want to go with my plan?"
The men hastily agreed and were docile as Noah, Ike, and Buck held guns on them while Cody, Kid, Lou, and Jimmy readied the horses and rationed out food for the hunters.
Lou changed back into her riding clothes, leaving the pink and white dress in the woods, knowing it was beyond hope of mending. Seeing this, Cody put an apologetic hand on her shoulder.
"What are you looking so sad about? You're buying me a new one. Remember?" Lou growled, her eyes stormy as she turned her back on the dress and Tyler Dewitt forever.
Cody sighed and knew Lou's price would not be cheap, "That's what I'm sad about."
The sky was turning a pale gray with dawn when they finally all swung onto their hostage's saddles, leaving the sullen hunters behind, tied up in ropes that they would be able to break in an hour's time according to Buck.
They turned and headed back in the direction of the previous night's campsite to uncover their saddles and get their own horses ready.
Finally, heavy lidded and exhausted, they found the trail and started out for another day of travel.
The sky was never warmed by the sun's rays. Instead a ceiling of heavy clouds blocked out the mountain tops. The air had a wet, cold feel to it, and Buck shook his head after they traveled a few hours and murmured, "I think we're about to see some snow."
No sooner had the words escaped his lips than the first slow, beautiful flakes drifted down to light upon their shoulders and eyelashes. Lou blinked and smiled, looking up again, and enjoying all the snow they'd seen.
The snow didn't continue to gently drift however. The wind picked up, weaving through the trees, emitting a ghostly howl and biting into them with icy teeth.
At midday, they stopped and left the hunters pack and riding horses tethered securely, knowing if the weather continued to worsen they would need the animals to survive. Buck felt sure the hunters would find them before the worst of the storm hit.
"Should we go back?" Jimmy yelled at one point, tugging his hat down low to keep it on his head. He turned the collar of his coat high against the snow flakes that melted against his warmth and sent icy rivulets of water down his neck.
Buck shook his head, "I don't know. I don't think it makes any difference. It's going to get worse before it gets better. I think we'd better look for shelter for ourselves and the horses. There's nothing back the way we came."
The words frightened Lou. If even the horses should be out of the weather, it must be bad. She instinctively cast a nervous glance at Kid, who looked every bit as uneasy and offered her little reassurance with his eyes or face.
It was miserable, hard going. The snow was relentless, driven nearly horizontal by the wind, and working against them. The horses were disagreeable and balky, flattening their ears and determined to follow their instincts and turn their backs to the wind. The ground was rocky, and the thick blanket of snow that grew thicker every minute was deceiving to both rider and animals as they stumbled along.
The wind wouldn't let up, and Lou felt chilled straight through. She ached everywhere despite the layers of clothing she kept adding. They were forced to dismount and lead the horses, and several times she slipped. Her tight hold on Lightning's mane the only thing keeping her upright as he dragged her along until she found her own stride again. Already weary from little to no sleep the night before, the riders faltered along silently.
"Everybody sound off so we know you're here," Kid's voice seemed miles away although he was directly in front of Lou.
The wearisome, raspy voices called out weakly, no match for the wind; "Jimmy," "Lou," "Billy," "Buck and Ike," "Noah."
Lou sighed in relief to find everyone still capable of speech. She listened with only half interest as Kid and Buck shouted back and forth into the wind.
"This is bad, Buck, it's turning into a blizzard fast," Kid's strained voice charged their leader.
"We've got to find shelter first. We can't stop until we do, or we won't make it through the night!" was Buck's nervous answer.
They plodded on, the snow continued to fall.
Funny thing about the snow, Lou thought idly as she slipped again and fought the hysterical urge to giggle, it wraps around you and holds you. Almost like it wants to protect you. But the deeper you fall into the embrace, the more you slip away from yourself... Her thoughts were the poetically composed ones of disaster, the cool, coherent thoughts of a man condemned.
An odd rumbling sound caught her ears. It was like thunder muffled under slowly running water. She looked up at the swirling sea of white, feeling her orientation leave her. White everywhere, she thought idly, above, below, beside, behind. There was nothing but white left.
Her disconnected thoughts were interrupted by another odd sound. This time it wasn't the rumble, but rather a shattering growl, not altogether different than a bobcat, but infinitely larger, angrier. It was in the same hazy state that she came to the realization that what she heard had indeed been thunder, and the cracking growl was lightning.
How out of place, she thought, thunder and lightning in the middle of a blizzard.
All the while, the whiteness swirled dizzily, relentlessly. It taunted them, fooled them, mislead them all. For all Lou knew her next step could be off the edge of a cliff. For all Lou knew, she might not be moving at all anymore. She could have fallen into a snow drift where she plodded along step after step without moving anywhere. For all she knew the coarse horsehair under her numbed hand could easily be a handful of snow, snow that would never melt because her icy hands would never thaw.
She had to keep thinking. The thinking was all that distinguished her from the white. If she stopped thinking, it would claim her.
Where were the others? The question was an idle one. She was sleepy. The snow was blanketing the ground, coming up past her knees. How soft it would be under her cheek, how welcoming to close her eyes and let it cover her, warm her. How wonderful to dream of warm places and warm times.
The others...they should have been around. They should have called out their names. Were they there? Was she there? Where was there? Her eyes were nearly frozen closed, but she still peered ahead. Whiteness.
She should have called to them, but she envisioned opening her mouth, and thousands of snowflakes flying inside, choking her, filling her lungs, drowning her slowly. She didn't dare open her mouth.
The same gurgling thunder and shrieking lightning hit her ears, but she could see nothing. Not her hand, not her horse. Were her eyes closed? She wondered. Surely they couldn't be. If her eyes were closed, there would be blackness.
It was the antithesis of blackness though, this place.
Whiteness, white light, white sky, white ground, white walls, white air. And no doors.
Only whiteness...never ending whiteness.
To be continued...Chapter 9
Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author
