Part 45 (1/2)

Jesse and I gazed at each other in the darkness.

”Uh-oh,” she said.

I slapped my hand down at the ground beside me. It splashed up water.

This didn't make a lick of sense. We were on a slope. Not much of a slope, to be sure, but enough of one so we shouldn't have water rising around us.

”It's me for the high ground,” Jesse said, jamming my hat onto her head.

As she scurried out from under our shelter, dragging the blanket after her, I grabbed hold of my Winchester and saddlebags. Then I plunged through the curtain of water spilling off the ledge and was drenched in a blink.

On my feet, I swung around and spotted Jesse. She was already in the clear, perched on a boulder off to the right. I waded toward her, water sucking at my boots, and climbed up some rocks till I got up there beside her.

”A real gullywasher!” she yelled.

”We ought to...” My voice went dead as an awful roar filled my ears. The roar wasn't thunder. I didn't know what it might be, but I didn't like it. ”What's that!” I shouted.

”Flash flood?”

”We'd best...”

”What about General?” she yelled.

Before I could think to answer, Jesse threw down the blanket, slipped the Bowie knife out of her boot and leaped off the boulder. I knew just what she aimed to do-cut the hobble so General could make his escape. It was what I should've done myself, but she'd beaten me to it.

Now she was gone. I couldn't see or hear her. There was just the darkness and the downpour and the awful noise roaring closer. I dashed up to some higher rocks, threw down my rifle and saddlebags, dropped my gunbelt, and hurried back to where Jesse'd jumped from. Just as I got there, lightning ripped across the sky.

In its jittery glare, I spotted General a few yards off. He was up to his elbows in the swirling dark flood. The flash lasted just long enough to let me see Jesse burst up out of the water beside him, raising her Bowie knife.

Well, I leaped as the dark came back. Landed on my feet and commenced to trudge through the currents, reaching out for Jesse and shouting her name. Not that she could hear my puny voice through the bedlam of thunder and that other other noise which sounded like a locomotive barreling toward us. noise which sounded like a locomotive barreling toward us.

Just when I wondered if I could ever reach her, the water suddenly went down. Splendid! I thought, feeling it slip away till it wasn't more than ankle-deep. I splashed on ahead, got brushed by General as he bolted past, and then collided with Jesse. We both went down splas.h.i.+ng, her on top.

She pushed herself off me. I sat up. Another flash of lightning came along just then. I saw her bending over, hair in her face, s.h.i.+rt drooping open. She reached for me with one hand while the other pushed the knife into her boot. And then a wall of water loomed up behind her.

”No!” I yelled.

I didn't see it smash Jesse, for the lightning quit. I darted my hand toward where she'd been, touched something that might have been her hand, then got myself slammed down by the monster wave. It shoved me along the ground, picked me up, tumbled me head over heels, sc.r.a.ped me against the rocks, bounced me off this and that. Fearing my brains might be dashed out, I hugged my head with both arms. Not a bit too soon, either. I'd no quicker covered up than a blow numbed my elbows and jammed my arms together so tight I thought they might crush my head.

I didn't know it just then, but the mighty wave had hammered me into the rocks not very far from our shelter-head first into a narrow gap.

It was a nice bit of luck, though I hardly considered it so at the time. I figured my arms were busted and I knew knew I was trapped. My arms and head were wedged in tight, the water piling over me, pus.h.i.+ng at me, twisting my legs and shoving me up as if it aimed to snap my spine. Of course, I couldn't breathe. But that seemed like a minor problem, as I judged the wave would likely break me to pieces before I could ever find the opportunity to drown. I was trapped. My arms and head were wedged in tight, the water piling over me, pus.h.i.+ng at me, twisting my legs and shoving me up as if it aimed to snap my spine. Of course, I couldn't breathe. But that seemed like a minor problem, as I judged the wave would likely break me to pieces before I could ever find the opportunity to drown.

Then it quit trying to kill me.

Like a grizzly deciding to chase after tastier prey, it let go and raced off.

As the water receded, I sucked in a chestful of air. My knees came down on something solid.

Without the wave ramming at my back, it didn't take much work to squirm myself free. That's when I saw the blocks of stone with the gap between them, and realized how lucky I'd been. If the gap hadn't caught me, no telling where I might've been swept off to.

It didn't seem likely that Jesse'd met with the same brand of luck.

The moment she entered my head, I forgot about all my hurts. I got to my feet, rather unsteady, and turned around to look for her. The rain was still coming down in a deluge. What with that and the dark, I couldn't see a thing below me.

Pretty soon, though, the sky lit up. Where we'd been camped was a wild, surging river. All but one of the trees was gone. I caught a glimpse of the rocky slopes just before the lightning blinked out. No sign of Jesse.

The thunder took a while in coming, so the storm seemed to be moving on.

Off in the distance was the freight train noise same as I'd heard when the b.l.o.o.d.y wave was approaching. I was all set to scamper for higher ground, but then noticed that the roar was fading, so stayed where I was and waited for another lightning flash.

When it came, I looked again for Jesse on the rocks. If she was there, the short burst of brightness didn't give me enough time to spot her.

So I took to searching.

I was none too steady on my legs. They didn't hurt as much as my arms, but they were awful sore and wobbly. The rocks were slick and, except when lightning came, I couldn't see where I was going. I fell a few times, and once even tumbled down into the water. Didn't quit, though. Kept at it, searching low and high, crisscrossing the slope time and time again. Finally, there was no more point. Jesse was gone. That huge d.a.m.n wave had carried her off.

I climbed on up to where I'd dropped my guns and saddlebags. They were high enough that they hadn't gotten swept away. I strapped on my belt, then just sat there in the rain.

Jesse hadn't been with me even one full day.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO.

The Body Some time during the night, the rain stopped. I didn't notice when it happened, though I never did fall asleep. Just sat there, mulling over Jesse, hating it that I hadn't grabbed her before she could jump down to cut General free, remembering how she'd looked just before the wave took us, remembering everything everything about the hours she'd been with me, and all the while missing her, aching for her to be alive and come back. about the hours she'd been with me, and all the while missing her, aching for her to be alive and come back.

Over and over again, I pictured Jesse under water, trying to fight her way to the surface but always being towed down deeper by the rough current, running out of breath so her lungs burned, getting hurled along, tumbled, smashed against rocks, torn asunder until she was dead. Even after she was dead, the flood wouldn't leave her be, but rushed her limp and broken body down through the endless desert beyond where I could ever find it.

A few times, that night, I heard Jesse call out my name. But I knew it was only the wind howling its agony through the night, and not Jesse at all.

Once, she came to me. She sauntered out of the dark, hair shaking in the wind, s.h.i.+rt flapping behind her, a smile on her face and a merry spark in her eyes. ”Can't get rid of me that easy,” she said, and my heart swelled up with joy. Then a bolt of lightning ripped through the clouds and I saw she wasn't there at all and I wept.

That wasn't the only vision I had that night. In the other, I was carrying her dead body in my arms. All the region's kites were swooping down at us. They were going for her eyes, her lovely green eyes, no longer alight with mischief, but flat and dull. As my arms were full, I couldn't fight off the buzzards. One of the big, stinky things finally perched on her chest, so I bit off its head. I left the carca.s.s in a heap on top of Jesse as a warning to the others. They stayed away, and finally Jethro Lazarus came down the trail in his wagon. He was just the man I'd been looking for. I hailed him, and said I needed to buy a bottle of the Glory Elixir. ”Sold my last bottle no more than a hour ago,” he explained. I cried out, ”No!” Lazarus grinned and shook his head. ”You had your chance to buy some, lad. It's all your fault.” I shrieked, ”No!” again and slapped leather and shot him.

Except I didn't shoot Lazarus. My slug whinged off a boulder no more than six feet in front of me and I wasn't lugging Jesse's body along the trail, at all. I was sitting in the rain, all by myself among the rocks.

Those were the two visions I had that night. They weren't dreams or nightmares, as I was awake when they came to me. After getting over the upset about each of them, I took to wondering what they might mean. They might be omens or premonitions, maybe. But I didn't rightly believe in such malarkey. More than likely, they meant nothing. They were only just my mind going sour on me from too much weariness and grief.

It wasn't till the sun came up that I noticed the rain had stopped.

The sunlight put a new slant on things.

I took a notion that Jesse might not be dead, after all. I'd I'd survived the flood. Maybe she'd lived through it, too. It was a slim chance, and I knew it. But even if she had perished, as seemed likely, I needed to hunt for her, bury her decent if I could find her body. survived the flood. Maybe she'd lived through it, too. It was a slim chance, and I knew it. But even if she had perished, as seemed likely, I needed to hunt for her, bury her decent if I could find her body.

Getting myself off the ground was no easy trick. Some of me was numb, the rest unG.o.dly sore. But I made it to my feet, then stretched this way and that to get the kinks out. I felt like somebody'd taken a sledgehammer to my elbows and shoulders. They were stiff and achy, and I swung my arms around until they limbered up, then practiced drawing my Colts a few times. Once I got my arms working decent, I bent over low enough to pick up my saddlebags and rifle.

Then I turned around and gazed down the slope. Our campsite was dry except for a few puddles which mostly seemed to be in holes where the trees had been uprooted and carried off. The rocks we'd used for a fire ring were gone, along with every trace of burned wood and ashes. The flood had also carried off my saddle, bridle, bedroll, everything.