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X. Fears come true
Epilogue
Chapter 10
Fears Come
True
Jimmy, Ike and Cody made camp as far away as they could from any Indian land, or at least they hoped they did. At a small meal, Cody told the others all that had happened since he and Buck had arrived at Lichtfield. When he came to when he had found out what had happened to Buck from Esaias, Ike interrupted him.
<He said that Buck was beaten?>
"Well, he didn't exactly say that I suppose. But that's what I guessed at the time. At least he helped me."
"Well, he got shot for his efforts," Jimmy said.
"Shot? What do you mean?"
"When we were looking for you and Buck, we ran into a man that had Buck's knife. He was about to get away when Esaias showed up. Got a bullet in him."
"Did he make it? Not that I care much about the man - he smelled like nothing I've smelled before - but he didn't mean any harm."
<We don't know. We took him to the Doc, and then Jimmy and I went after you.>
"I feel sorry for the old man."
"Don't worry about him. I want to know how you found Buck." Jimmy said impatiently.
"By pure luck, I tell you." Cody shook his head. "Buck must have manage to get to the trail somehow, and if my horse hadn't being scared, I'd probably wouldn't have noticed him. He was in pretty bad shape, so I figured we'd better found somewhere to rest. That's how I found the cave." Cody continued to tell them how he had come up with the plan to get the way free for Buck to get back to Lichtfield.
"And then I ended up here, and found you." Cody ended.
"Well, it sure looks like you've been through enough", Jimmy nodded.
<I'm worried about Buck> Ike added.
"We'll go and look for him tomorrow," Jimmy decided. "Right now I need some sleep."
As soon as the rays of sun broke over the horizon, the three riders were on their way. Cody tried desperately to remember where the cave where, but often he was mistaken and they had to go around large rocks and hills in vain. Ike became more and more impatiently, especially since they had to rest now and then to ease the burden on the horses.
<We'll never find that cave.> Ike signed morosely while staring angry at Cody during one of the breaks. Jimmy had gone down to a small pond to get them some fresh water.
"Hey", Cody objected. "I'm doing the best I can."
<Obviously its not good enough.>
"Damn it, Ike! What else would you have me to do then?" Cody was tired and Ike's frustration was more than he could put up with. Ike rose and faced Cody.
<You could have stayed with him.>
"I told you it wasn't possible!"
<He was sick. You left him.> Ike punched Cody on the chest with his open hand.
"I had no choice. When will you listen to me?" Cody answered, his anger growing.
<If he's dead…>
"What Ike? What will you do then? Kill me? Well, that sounds like a good idea. Why don't you shoot me right here and now, then?" Cody snarled. He hadn't more than finished the last sentence when Ike was over him, furious. Cody fought him back with the same intensity.
Jimmy walked slowly back from the pond, holding the water bottles in one hand. He didn't like where this search was heading, but he hadn't the stomach to tell Ike they should abandon the search for the cave and head back to Lichtfield. Suddenly he heard noises from where he had left the others, and he dropped the waterbottles and ran towards their resting-place. He came there just to see his two friends rolling around on the dusty ground in what looked like a serious fight. At first he just stared at them, then he came to his senses. He went over and started to separate the two fighters.
Finally he held them at an arms length from each other, staring at each other. If Jimmy hadn't placed himself between them, they would be at each other's throats. Like mad dogs, Jimmy thought.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he yelled at them. "Have you got mad?"
"Ask him!" Cody yelled back. "He started it!"
At his words, Ike pushed Jimmy's arm away and was about to hit Cody again, when Jimmy took up his gun and aimed it at the two antagonists.
"If you start to fight again, I swear I'll kill both of you!" he stated. Ike and Cody stopped staring at each other and looked in surprise at Jimmy.
"Put that down, Jimmy," Cody said nervously. He wasn't too fond of staring into the barrel of a gun.
<Put it down.> Ike looked earnestly at Jimmy.
"Will you stop?" Jimmy asked still pointing his gun at them.
"Yes! Now put it down!"
"Ike?"
<I won't do anything.>
"Thanks", Jimmy said a bit sarcastic and put his gun down. "What the hell happened?"
Ike shook his head.
<Sorry. I'm just worried.>
"Well. We all are worried. That's no reason for starting fights."
Cody suddenly burst out in laughter.
"What's so funny?" Jimmy frowned at him.
"You. You're funny." Cody managed to get out.
"What?" Jimmy said, looking at Ike, believing that Cody lost his mind and was going crazy. Ike shook his head.
"Did you hear what you just said?"
"Yes. I told you to stop fighting."
"Yes, you told us." Even Ike started to get the funny part of it all, and smiled faintly. Jimmy refused to see the humour, but Cody's laughter was contagious and soon he found himself smiling with the others. Their situation was not a humorous one, but the weariness, the worry and everything else was taking its toll on them, and the laughter was just a way to relieve them of that tension. Soon Cody wiped his eyes and calmed down.
"Let's go find Buck now, right?"
Ike nodded and got up to get the horses Cody looked at Jimmy who sat looking oddly at him.
"What's wrong?" Cody asked.
"Sometimes, Cody, I don't know if you're plain mad or if there's some sense in what you're doing."
"Then why bother yourself. Even I don't know whether I am or not", Cody replied cheerfully and rose, holding out a hand to help Jimmy get on his feet.
"Come on, now. We better find Buck quickly or Ike will kill me for sure."
With renewed hopes the three started their search again. A few hours later the three weary riders were about to give up.
"Maybe we should try and get back to Lichtfield", Jimmy suggested carefully. "Ike? What do you say?"
Ike stared out over the landscape. Jimmy could almost see the distress he was in. He felt it too. If they left for Lichtfield now, it felt as if they abandoned Buck, but if they remained here, they might miss important news from Teaspoon and the others. Hell if I know what to do, Jimmy thought.
"Ike?"
Ike took a deep breath and turned to face Jimmy.
<Let's go back.>
"You're sure? I mean, I don't mind go on searching." Jimmy said, looking at the pale face of Ike. He was about to give up, that was clear.
Ike shook his head.
<It's no use. Cody won't find the way.>
"All right, then we head back to Lichtfield. Cody, come on! Cody! What the hell are you staring at?" Jimmy yelled at the blond rider, who for the last minutes had been staring towards a shallow dale a few miles away. He didn't even move at Jimmy's word, so hard was he concentrating on whatever it was he had seen. Jimmy looked at Ike and sighed, and the two riders headed up to where Cody was standing.
"What are you doin'?" Jimmy asked angry.
Cody was still silent and Jimmy looked out over the landscape. He couldn't see anything that was worth staring at. He looked at Cody again.
"What's the matter with you?"
"If I'm not mistaken", Cody said with his voice trembling, "that's the valley below the cave."
Jimmy stared at him and Ike got a new light in his eyes.
"You're sure?"
"I wasn't at first, but now I'm pretty sure."
"Pretty sure? Is it the valley or not?" Jimmy asked, not intending to get his hopes up for nothing.
"It is."
<Then let's go over there.> Ike signed quickly, eager to go.
"You're absolute certain?" Jimmy asked again, as the others turned their horses towards the trail that lead to the valley.
"Yes, I'm sure", Cody replied cheerfully. "Come on, Jimmy, let's get over there!"
Jimmy turned his horse and followed them. The three urged their horses forward as fast as the ground permitted. They were all real anxious to get over to the cave and to find out what had happened there. Even if the news might be bad, they still wanted to know what had happened to Buck. Unfortunately for them there was no way they could get there as fast as they would like. The area between where they had been and the valley was covered with small, but steep gorges, and they had to take care that none of the horses slipped or lost its footing. Ike was impatient and at one occasion his horse stumbled and almost threw him off. They were close to a steep edge of a gorge and a fall could have resulted in Ike falling several feet down the rocky gorge. Jimmy rode up next to him and grabbed the reins of Ike's horse.
"Take it easy will you!" he exclaimed. "If you hurt yourself we'll be in trouble!"
<I'm OK.>
"Well, don't press your luck." Jimmy muttered "We'll get there, there's no need to rush."
Ike smiled faintly at him as he wanted to say that he'd think about it and Jimmy smiled back. At least they actually were heading somewhere instead of just roaming around the countryside, he thought.
It took them a little more than two hours to finally reach their objective. Jimmy looked at the valley in front of him.
"You're sure this is the right place?" he asked Cody again.
Cody nodded.
"Definitely. I rode out of here, before I ended up in a gorge over there. We just have to get through these woods and then there's a glade. You can see the cave from it."
"Then let's go over there. But we better be careful - we don't if any of Dodgson's men are lurking in the neighbourhood."
As slowly as they could they rode into the forest, Cody first and the others following him closely. Occasionally they stopped and listened for sounds that would reveal if there were anybody around.
<Can Buck hear us if he's there?> Ike asked at one occasion.
"I don't know", Cody replied. "I suppose the sound might be a bit muffled in the cave. Any way, if he's asleep, I don't think he'll hear us. Be silent, now, the glade is just ahead of us."
They dismounted and slowly crept closer to the glade. There they lay in the shield of some bushes and looked over the area. All they could see was the remains of a fire and a few things laying around, revealing that there once had been a camp there.
After a few minutes of their scrutiny, Cody spoke up:
"I don't think there's any danger. There's nobody here."
<It's too silent.> Ike agreed, feeling a bit uneasy. The place looked deserted and suddenly he got a feeling that Buck was no longer there. He looked at the others and realised they had been thinking the same thing.
"Maybe he got away, and managed to get back to Lichtfield," Cody mumbled without conviction.
"We can't find that out by laying here", Jimmy stated. "Let's have a look around."
The three rose and went into the glade, looking around them. There was something eerie about the place, and Jimmy drew his gun. For safety, he told himself, trying to shake off the unpleasant feeling that something was wrong.
It was Ike who spotted the graves. He grabbed Jimmy by the arm and pointed at the two roughly made graves, marked simply by two sticks forming a cross. Jimmy swallowed hard as they approached them. There was no marks or items left by the graves to identify the persons in them.
"Maybe Buck had to fight his way out", Cody said without conviction, suddenly feeling very dry in his mouth.
"I thought you said you managed to get all of them away." Jimmy looked at Cody.
"Maybe two stayed behind?"
"And who buried them? If Buck was in such bad shape as you said, I doubt he could have buried them!"
"Hell, Jimmy I don't know!"
Ike interrupted them by grabbing Cody's arm. He pointed up to the side of the hill.
<Is that's the cave?>
"Yes." Cody nodded. "That's where I left him."
<Let's get up there.>
They left the two graves and walked to the beginning of the hill.
"There's another way up, but you have to go around the hill…" Cody silenced as they approached the steep hillside. Just by the foot of the hill there was another grave, marked in the same simple way as the others, this one without any items to reveal the poor soul it harboured. They just stood there staring for a few seconds, then Jimmy raised his eyes to the hill. What he saw made him tighten his lips and he looked harshly at Cody and pointed without saying anything. Cody saw it too and bit his lip. Ike immedately noticed that his friends had discovered something, and looked at them.
<What?> he demanded. Jimmy nodded towards the hillside, turning away.
There where several marks on the hillside. Marks that only could have been created by one thing. Somebody had been dragged down the hillside. Ike swallowed hard, then he signed to the others.
<I'm going up there.>
"Not alone. We're going with you." Cody stated and Jimmy nodded.
<What about the horses?>
"They're not going anywhere. Come on, let's go up there."
Panting, they reached the cave. Hesitating, fearing what they might see, they slowly approached the entrance. They didn't have to take many steps until they saw it. On the ground close to the entrance there was a large pool of a dark substance. Smaller pools lead from the entrance down the hill and they all know what it was. Blood. Somebody had been seriuosly injured, and had either been moved or moved himself down the hill.
"That's a lot of blood", Jimmy mumbled, not knowing what to say or do.
Suddenly Cody took two steps into the cave.
"Buck!" he shouted. "Buck!"
There was no reply. The cave was empty.
Ike covered his face in his hands and sank down on a rock. Jimmy looked at him, feeling utterly lost. Cody just stared around him in disbelief.
"What the hell happened here?" he asked in desperation.
But there was no one that could answer him.
