[Fanfic] Red West III. - Chapter twenty four
Title: RED WEST III.
Author: Kasumi
Rating: NC-17
Genre: Western, Drama, Romance, Adventure, Historical fiction
Warning: AKame pairing - AU; vulgarisms, violence, explicit content
Beta-reading:
atago4
Summary: A direct sequel of Red West II. - Masterpost
A strange company of three young gunslingers and one Indian is on their way to Montana, while the infamous Black Riders continue their fight against Silver King of Colorado… Will they succeed or fail in the clash with the cruel environment and heartless Governor? Will their friendship, brotherhood and love persevere or be destroyed by greed, bloodshed and vengeance?
Thank you: To Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin, because this story wouldn´t have existed without them.
A/N: Another chapter done... and the next one will follow soon.
I´m grateful for any opinion or advice, you help me hone my writing skills with them.
Thank you for taking time to read this story. I´ll be happy if you reward me with a comment for it.
Previously:
Prologue // Chapter one // Chapter two // Chapter three // Chapter four // Chapter five // Chapter six // Chapter seven // Chapter eight // Chapter nine // Chapter ten // Chapter eleven // Chapter twelve // Chapter thirteen // Chapter fourteen // Chapter fifteen // Chapter sixteen // Chapter seventeen // Chapter eighteen // Chapter nineteen // Chapter twenty // Chapter twenty one // Chapter twenty two // Chapter twenty three //
Collapse
There was nothing around but darkness and air full of dust.
The horrifying rumble stopped as quickly as it began. However, the mountain surrounding them did not return to its natural state of being just a pile of deadly silent rocks. Soft rustle of falling sand or soil in the dark and irregular, slight tremors under their feet clearly meant that the danger was far from over yet.
Shaking off the first shock, Jin realized he could - and definitely should - move. He pressed a sleeve to his face, to prevent himself from inhaling more of dusty air. Then he squatted and fumbled around carefully, searching for the kerosene lamp, which went out during the collapse.
A man started coughing somewhere on his left and then another spoke right next to him.
“Guys? Are you… okay?” a shaking voice revealed Koki.
“Not thanks to you, but I am,” Jin muttered still covering his mouth.
“I feel like shit,” Ryo croaked from the other side of the tunnel, gasping for air. “But I guess I´m still breathing.”
“We´re tryin´ to do the same,” the foreman´s voice came from the left side again, followed by the sound of match striking. A small, yellow light appeared, dimmed by thick dust. “Anyone else got a lantern?”
“Can´t find it,” growled Jin, his hand stinging from scratches, as he kept searching through the sharp stones.
“´Cause I´ve got it,” Ryo announced triumphantly.
“Good. Come to us, carefully. I´ll light it up,” Ned ordered.
Ryo started moving slowly, stumbling over the new debris and swearing quietly, while Jin turned to Koki.
“Can you move?”
The figure huddling against the wall chuckled bitterly: “I´ll try.”
“Fine,” Jin looked up again, trying to see through the impenetrable pollution around them. Ryo´s lantern was now lit up as well and it seemed there was a bent figure in front of them. “Kame? Can you help me with him?”
There was no reply. Jin´s stomach tightened with a bad hunch. His boyfriend was the only one whose voice he hadn´t heard yet. He stepped forward slowly. That crooked silhouette was no person; it was an ugly stone, which had fallen in the middle of the crossroads, almost completely blocking it.
Frightened, Jin shouted: “Kame!”
He winced, when a proper dose of sand from the disturbed ceiling spilled all over his hair and got into his eyes.
“He´s not… here?” Koki asked, somehow getting himself up on his feet. “Not this again,” he commented the blockade of the tunnel.
“Damn it, Kame!” Jin yelled, trying to blink the annoying mess out.
“What did I say about yellin´?” the mine foreman snapped, but Jin ignored him. He caught a faint moan somewhere behind that boulder and it terrified him.
“Light! Give me some light here!”
Just as Ryo set off toward him, there was another suspicious rattle in the depths of gold mine.
“We must go,” Coltrane wheezed. “Or we´re done for real.”
“Agreed,” Ned joined him. “You two - grab Tanaka and…”
Disregarding them completely, Jin took the lantern over from Ryo and faced the boulder again.“Akanishi!” the foreman hissed. “Stop fooling around!”
“Shut up,” growled Jin, looking for the best way to get over the obstacle. It seemed there was a gap on one side. Narrow, but still wide enough for a man.
“Did you hear him, Jin?” asked Ryo, all sweaty and anxious in the flickering light. “You heard Kame?”
“Yes,” he just confirmed shortly and hastily slipped around the stone, not paying an attention to the harsh surface hurting his back.
The swaying light in his hand revealed more, a way smaller stones, which had crumbled down from the ceiling.
“Over here…”
Hearing Kame´s voice more clearly now, Jin looked around frantically, until he finally saw him. He was lying on the ground and his body…
“Shit… Kame!” Jin jumped over another annoying boulder, slipped and almost fell down, but regained his balance in the last second.
There were huge, terrifying crackles both in the ceiling and in the floor of the mine, leading from one side to another, but he was blind to them as to everything else.
Jin kneeled down, put the lantern aside and grabbed Kame´s left hand. The warm eyes covered with the curtain of pain focused on him.
“Kazu…” Jin´s voice betrayed him and his words came out squeakily as slowly moving old hinges. “Just what…?”
“Sorry, I was… left behind,” Kame replied, obviously straining himself.
The small stones rattled as Ryo pushed himself around the boulder to their side as well, swearing nastily. Jin looked all over the huge stone, similar to the one blocking the tunnel, which was covering the right side of Kame´s body up to the waist.
This cannot be really happening… Not this… Is this a nightmare?
Jin felt overwhelmed and could not think straight.
“Crap… Kame!” frightened Ryo finally managed to reach them as well.
“Hey…” Kame took a deep, shaky breath. “It´s not so bad. I can feel it.”
His boyfriend´s voice stirred Jin from numbness. He took a slow breath, trying to collect himself.
“You mean your leg?” asked Ryo, with his eyes unnaturally wide.
“Yes. There must be a gap or something. It hurts, but… I´ve been worse.”
“Can you move?” Jin asked tensely, still squeezing Kame´s hand.
“That´s the thing. Not really… It must be stuck… Under this.”
Jin leant down, trying to see where exactly was Kame´s leg trapped, but in almost non-existing light, it was impossible to tell. Ryo started to walk around the boulder, trying to estimate its size, when Koki appeared in the gap between the stone and the wall. He looked at kneeling Jin and helpless Kame. Even though he seemed as if he was about to faint, his voice was urgent when he called back to the tunnel.
“Hey! Come here to help us!”
That was right; they had to do something about that shitty stone and more of them the better.
“It´s huge but uneven,” Ryo reported, stumbling back to them.
Jin raised his head, only unwillingly tearing his eyes from Kame´s pale face.
“So, we might sway it and pull him out,” he said with newly awaken determination.
Ryo nodded and turned to Koki who just staggered to them: “I told you to stay there!”
“I´m fine, I can help,” Koki replied stubbornly, probably running on adrenaline. “Just wait, Kame-chan, we´ll get you out right away.”
The dark rumble underlined his words and more of dry soil covered them all, making Ryo cough again.
“Hey! If you´re not goin´ with us, we´re gonna leave you here,” the foreman called from behind the boulder.
“Kamenashi´s trapped, come help us!” Ryo called in reply.
“Please!” Koki joined him pleadingly.
“Sweet Jesus and Maria Holy, these idiots are gonna kill us!”
Contrary to this reaction, both men started their strenuous push around the boulder, while Ryo and Koki were already trying to find the best spot to push the stone and not to endanger Kame even more. The ground beneath them was now trembling almost constantly.
Jin leant down again, right to Kame´s face, gently grabbing it between his palms. His boyfriend´s cheeks were wet with sweat and strangely cold.
“Just hold on a second, okay?” he urged.
“I will,” Kame whispered, with his eyes glassy, but at the same time full of trust.
Then Jin straightened up to face the two older men.
“Fuck this,” Ned assessed the situation. “We´re not gonna move it without some lever.”
“I´ll find something,” Coltrane offered and headed to the spot, where one of the wooden props broke.
“Okay, let´s try how tough this shit is,” Ned put the lantern aside to another stone. “You two, move more to the back of it. Akanishi, with me.”
The younger men followed the instructions of the more experienced one without objections. All four of them spread on the same side of the boulder.
“Kamenashi, do you hear me?” the foreman asked.
“Yes.”
“If you can use your hands, try to push it away as well.”
“Got it.”
“When I say three. One. Two. Three!”
All of them pushed forward with all their might, but the stone resisted and did not move an inch.
“Once again! One, two, three!”
Nothing but heavy panting echoed through the tunnel for a while.
“Damn it…” the foreman cursed. “Any change, Kamenashi?”
“…no.”
“Here, I´ve got something,” Coltrane rushed back to them with a part of the broken prop.
“Good, place it here,” Ned navigated him. “One more time!”
Five men struggled against the heavy obstacle again. The lever snapped, the stone reluctantly shifted and Kamenashi shouted out in pain, when the stony burden squeezed his right leg even more.
“Shit!” Ned threw the rest of the useless prop into the growling darkness.
“This won´t work,” Coltrane breathed out.
*
“Kame!”
He heard the voice calling his name, then the rushing steps and then Jin was with him again. He looked up to his dirty, worried face, which was somehow blurred. He could not see him clearly with his eyes filled with stinging tears.
“What is it, Kame? Did it move?”
He could not reply to him. He just couldn´t.
“This is useless. We must go,” he heard the foreman stating what was frightfully obvious.
“This can´t be true…” Koki yelped.
“Is there anything else we can try?” Ryo insisted.
“If we stay any longer, all of us will be buried here,” Ned reacted harshly.
No way, Kame thought. That was something he would not allow.
“Kame, talk to me!”
He hated that Jin´s voice sounded like that. All strangled and scared. How he would love to hear him speak in a way when they were alone, at home, in their bed…
It felt like someone robbed him of all the running blood in his veins when Kame finally admitted it to yourself and it took him a while before he was able to say it. It was the growing trembles and weird noises, which finally made him open his mouth. There was no time for self-pity.
“Leave me here…”
Everyone heard it and looked his way. Jin´s face contorted in disbelief and fury. He let go of Kame´s hand and stood up.
“Let´s try again!”
Kame took a deep breath: “Jin…”
“Guys, help me grab it from the other side!”
Nobody moved, nobody spoke, but Kame could feel it. They already knew and accepted that it was helpless. Only Jin did not.
“Jin!”
“Come on!” his boyfriend yelled insistently.
“Please, don´t die for me,” he breathed out pleadingly.
His lover froze, staring at the unmovable stone.
“Not you,” Kame urged quietly.
Once again, the mine warned them with deep, heavy rumble that they were not supposed to delay there any longer.
Jin turned to him, his eyes shining with tears and something warm, which somewhat made Kame feel better and even more determined to send all of them away.
*
Jin stood there with his hands in shaking fists.
He wanted to listen neither to Kame, nor to his reason, which was telling him the dark truth. He was not able to accept it.
“I´m not going to die here,” he said, ignoring the dull pain in his chest. “And neither are you. I´ll do it myself,” he turned to the others. “Get out of my way.”
“Jin. Please, run away. Please.”
The broken voice rooted him to the spot. He didn´t want to, but he had to. He turned his head to look at his partner in crime, his friend, his boyfriend, his love. Kazuya was his life. And in this moment, he had something in those kind eyes that Jin did not ever want to see - goodbye.
No. He could not. Not this.
“Don´t be like this, Kazuya,” he whispered hoarsely, with breath stuck in his lungs, his heart squeezed anxiously.
A faint, loving smile flickered on his boyfriend´s pale lips and then a raspy voice behind Jin said: “We´ve got no time for this.”
Someone´s hand half turned shaken up Jin around and a huge fist covered his vision, before his world blanked out.
*
The whole mine was shaking, as if during an earthquake.
The black foreman pushed paralyzed Jin to dumbfounded Ryo´s arms.
“Take him and let´s go.”
Then he looked at Kamenashi on the ground. The young man´s eyes were focused on Akanishi.
“Sorry, lad,” Ned muttered. “There´s nothing we can do.”
Kamenashi gave him an absent look: “I know…”
Without further ado, Ned and Coltrane took one of the lanterns and set off first.
Silently crying Koki helped deadly pale Ryo to support unconscious Jin, each of them grabbing him for one arm and then they looked at Kame as well.
“Kame-chan… I´m s-so sorry,” Koki managed to push across his shaking lips.
“Go. Get him out,” Kame encouraged them so quietly that they could not hear his voice in the growing noise anymore. Nevertheless, they both understood and turned away, feeling like the greatest traitors in the whole world.
*
Kame saw the foreman´s expression and realized what Ned was about to do. He was grateful for it, because without Jin´s resistance, the others had a chance at least. He was scared for his life, but the idea of Jin ending buried there with him and losing his life in vain terrified him even more.
He was unable to escape not only from under the boulder, which pinched his right leg, but also from haunting ideas in his mind. His chest was heavy with unshed tears and fear.
He did not want to die. He did not want to leave Jin, but the fate did not give him a choice. It was not Kame´s habit to complain, but he had a damn right to this time. Life was a damn unfair bitch.
There was so much of what he wanted to do in the reservation yet. So much to tell people in the city about Indians, to make them understand and be more tolerant. He was looking forward to bring Ukushi´s foal into the world. There were so many things, days and nights, which he wanted to share with Jin. Though all of the sudden, he would not be allowed to accomplish any of it. This realization hurt much more than any injuries the crumbling mine could have inflicted on him.
Kame could not hold back tears any longer and they ran down his temples. He did not want to imagine how Jin would feel like once he would awake and find out that he was gone…
Not being able to bear the sight of his friends leaving and taking the love of his life away from him, Kame closed his eyes.
After that, the world around him rumbled, shifted and the sharp, blinding pain made him cry out. Then the emptiness opened beneath him and he fell into the darkness.
***
Later on, neither Ryo nor Koki were able to recall just how they managed to go through the tunnel, which was literally falling apart.
It was a chaotic mess of shaking ground, falling stones and swinging shadows caused by the lanterns in the running men´s hands. Following the lead of Ned and Coltrane, they struggled to get to the exit, dragging unconscious Jin between them. They moved on without thinking, because otherwise they would die.
There was one moment when they had thought that everything was over for them. It was when they finally stumbled to the exit and found it buried under an avalanche of stones. However, Ned´s and Coltrane´s subordinates outside did not give up on them. They were working on the way out ever since the moment it had collapsed. They managed to create the hole, which was big enough for all of them to get through just in time.
Ryo was the last one inside, helping to get Jin out by pushing his unmoving body from behind. Then he looked back for one last time. From what he could see in the dim light of remaining lanterns, the whole mine was breaking apart. There was no chance for anyone who stayed behind to get out now…
With a heavy heart, he accepted the hands of men from outside to drag him out in the last second. He could literally feel the weight of the mountain on him just before his feet were finally free.
Miraculously, they got out, but he knew - they could not ever escape from happened inside the gold mine.
***
“Hey, man. What´s your name?”
Exhausted Koki raised his eyes to the owner of the voice, who stood above him with some writing-pad in his hands. It was Danny McFly, whose eyes widened in surprise. Only then Koki realized just whom was he facing.
Damn it.
McFly actually saw all the Black Riders from up close a couple of months ago, when they had captured Math Grenet, also thanks to help from himself.
Koki´s head was completely blank. He could not think clearly and did not know what to do. However, he would never expected what the youngster did after he clearly realized who Koki was. McFly diverted his look back to the papers and slowly repeated his question.
“Tanaka…” Koki blurted out faintly.
McFly wrote it down with a blank expression.
“Can you tell me if you know about anyone who didn´t get out?” he asked then.
Ryo, finally noticing their conversation, left his spot next to Jin, who was lying in the line of injured men and headed to them.
Koki took a deep breath: “Luke… Luke was there…”
McFly checked something on his list: “Harrow? Already got him. Anyone else?”
Koki wanted to speak, but could not find the words or even courage. It was Ryo, who approached them and spoke instead with a serious face.
“Kame…” he managed to say before his voice broke and he looked away. “Damn it.”
Dr. Best, so far carefully bandaging Koki´s head and not paying attention to their talk, froze.
“What?” Danny McFly looked up to him shocked. “Do you mean Kazuya Kamenashi?”
Ryo just nodded grimly.
“What happened inside?” the doctor asked them hoarsely, appalled by their revelation.
“He was trapped under the fallen stone,” Koki explained in a shaking voice. “We… We could not get him out.”
“Oh, my God…” Dr. Best shook his head helplessly.
“I don´t believe it,” McFly still stared at them with his eyes wide.
Ryo turned away from them, his eyes stinging, looked around and gasped for a breath.
“Jin! Jin, where are you going?”
All of them turned in the direction Ryo was looking. Akanishi regained consciousness and yet staggering and slowly, he was already heading toward the mine again.
Ryo rushed after him, caught up with him and reached for his shoulder.
“Hey… Stop for a minute. Let the doc see you, just to be sure…”
There was no reply, his friend just shook his hand off and proceeded. Ryo stopped, watching him, just as the others. Jin passed by a few miners who were cleaning up and trying to get at least some of the tools from under the mess around the entrance. He stopped in front of the pile of huge stones and stared at it motionless.
Dr. Best shook his head again, slowly finished bandaging and with a torn expression, he left to take care of the next injured man.
Koki did not even notice: “Shit… This is just wrong,” he whispered tearfully. “So fucking wrong…”
Danny McFly stood there wordlessly, reminding a living statue.
Ryo felt burning tears in his eyes, but did not let them to spill. He walked after Jin again and stood by his side. Worried, he observed his face - it was completely black and white as a freshly painted column.
“I´m sorry, Jin…” he said with his throat squeezed.
Not even this time his words had any effect. Jin just leant down and picked a stone. He threw it aside, without even glancing where and immediately grabbed another.
Ryo took a deep breath, gathering courage to say the damn words. The words with which he would condemn Kame to death again: “Jin… The whole mine collapsed. This… this is useless.”
“Hey! Watch what you´re doing!” one of the miners yelled, kicking the thrown stone, which almost ended up on his head.
“Sorry, man!” Ryo called out and tried to reach Jin one more time. “Listen to me, buddy. It´s impossible to clean all this up, okay?”
Without any reaction, Jin kept picking up stones. The nearby workers rather moved themselves aside, out of his reach, murmuring insults under their noses. At the current circumstances, nobody was willing to bother with him.
“Let him be,” a quiet voice made Ryo turn. “It´s not use. He doesn´t hear you,” Koki said, watching Jin painfully. “It´s no use,” he repeated heavily, turned to the side and started to vomit.
*
While the miners and volunteers from the city were busy with cleaning up works and treating the wounded, four men gathered in the foreman´s tent to discuss the situation.
Sitting at the head of the sturdy table, Cameron patiently waited until his black foreman and broad-shouldered leader of the morning shift finished drinking up the flasks of water. Both men were dirty, bruised and exhausted, but otherwise it seemed they escaped from the mine without any major harm. Which was a miracle considering everything he had learnt about the whole incident.
The fourth man completing their group was Cooper, who was standing at the tent´s entrance, looking out with a deep frown on his round face.
Seeing both men put aside the empty flasks, Cameron pushed a bottle of whiskey toward them. Coltrane grabbed it with a grateful nod: “Thank you, sir.”
Cameron clasped his hands on the table, eyeing all three men in front of him.
“So, tell me - what happened and what´s the current status of the mine?”
Ned and Coltrane exchanged the short look, before the black man started talking first.
“One of the miners said that he and his colleague encountered one of our guards shortly after the mornin´ shift started. He had a gun and they weren´t able to prevent him from blowin´ up the stack of dynamite he had prepared inside in advance.”
“I need names, Ned.”
“I had no chance to check who the attacker might´ve been yet, sir, but we´ll find out. Those who met him were Harrow and Tanaka.”
Coltrane took over: “Harrow´s caught the blow fully, he had no chance. Tanaka´s being treated by the doc.”
“All right, I´ll question him later. What about the mine itself?”
“Honestly, it´s over, sir.”
“No chance we might start mining again, then?”
Ned shook his head: “The damage was too vast, it would´ve been a futile effort.”
“What about creating a new tunnel from some other place? Would that be worth it?”
The black foreman turned to his subordinate: “Cooper, what about that hole? Did you find it?”
“Yes, but it´s too narrow and seems too steep. It´s impossible to access the mine through there.”
Ned noted his response with a nod: “I´ll check it myself later, sir, but I doubt it´ll be helpful. There´s not many possibilities to start minin´ elsewhere.”
Cameron carefully considered all the information he just received.
“How much of already extracted ogre is about to be cleared yet?” he asked then.
“I´ll double check today and provide you the precise number, sir,” Coltrane promised.
“Good.”
Danny´s figure suddenly appeared in the entrance of the tent: “Sir. I´ve got the list,” he announced in a strangely stiff tone.
“So? How many?” Cameron asked without even looking up from the table, immersed in thoughts regarding everything, which needed to be arranged yet.
“Five so far, hopefully not more.”
“It´s a miracle that the number is so low,” Coltrane murmured.
“Mostly thanks to you two, I assume,” Cameron reacted prudently. “And you´ll be rewarded appropriately.”
Danny took a deep breath: “Also Kamenashi, sir.”
Cameron forgot what he wanted to say next. He looked up to his assistant: “Repeat that, Danny.”
“Kamenashi perished in the mine as well, sir.”
He stared at the young messenger in disbelief. For the first time in years, something took Cameron aback and he did not enjoy such an unpleasant feeling at all.
No. This was not supposed to happen…
Kamenashi was about to suffer for what he had brought upon his late master, but not like this. It was not his plan.
“Is it for certain?” he asked, the words coming out from his lips as cubes of ice.
The youngster nodded quite unhappily: “The men who were inside with him say so.”
Cameron sat there, looking through Danny. He just could not believe it.
“We can confirm that as well, sir,” Ned noted gloomily. “He got trapped under the stone, nothin´ we could do for the guy…”
Cameron didn´t hear it though: “Impossible. Fucking impossible,” he muttered, his face unreadable.
*
Hearing his boss to swear in such a tone worried Danny so much he was almost afraid to continue, but he just had to.
“There´s one more thing, sir.”
“What is it?” Mr. Cameron asked stiffly.
“Well, miners complain about Akanishi.”
Cameron Henderson stood up slowly: “What about him? You mean to tell me that also he…?”
“No, nothing like this, sir. They got him out,” Danny clarified, shaking his head. “But now, he keeps removing the debris away from the collapsed entrance. He´s obstructing the cleaning up works and doesn´t react on anyone. Should we make him leave by force?”
Mr. Cameron fell silent for a long while. Nobody else dared to speak.
“No,” he finally disregarded Danny´s proposal. “I want to see this myself.”
***
A sweaty man, covered with a layer of dust, burst inside the Wallace´s Tavern like an avalanche and collapsed on one of the free stools by the short bar.
“Pour me some beer before I dry up like a badly excavated well,” he ordered the elderly, but still a very well built woman behind the counter.
“Sweetheart, I´ll pour you anything you want if you ask nicely,” the female bartender informed her quest with such a sweet smile, Jane´s teeth started to ache.
“Come on, Mary,” the man moaned. “I had a shitty day.”
“That doesn´t mean you can forget how to behave in my tavern.”
“All right, all right… Pretty please?”
“That´s a way better.”
Mentioned Mary started preparing the requested drink and Cullen - who had been on high alert since the door had opened - finally assumed the man was no threat and relaxed, returning to his own alcoholic beverage.
“So? What happened that you´re thirsty like a camel after the journey in the desert, huh? They forced you to actually work?”
“You wouldn´t be so mean if you knew,” the man scowled.
“If I knew what?”
“There´s been another collapse.”
“The gold mine again? Oh, my… I keep telling you to find a proper job and you just keep risking like this.”
“Keep you clever talk, woman and pour me another one.”
“Excuse me?”
“Can I ask for one more beer, please?”
Only now, the woman grabbed the empty tankard: “Certainly. Was it worse than the first time?”
“You cannot imagine! Not like the last time at all! They say some shithead came inside and blew it up, would you believe it?”
“Oh God, don´t say! I hope everyone got out?”
“What do you think? The whole morning shift was in there, when it all started. They aren´t sure how many were caught in the subsequent collapse. It´s impossible to get inside now.”
“That´s horrible…”
Jane thought the same: “I cannot even imagine what it must be like,” she whispered.
Leo nodded: “Mining´s a dangerous job, but worth it for many men.”
“Until something like this happens!” Jane opposed. “What it´s worth for their families then?”
“It´s a tough shit, yes,” Cullen commented, finishing his beer calmly.
Jane shot him an offended look.
“What?” he shrugged. “It doesn´t have anything to do with us.”
"Still, you shouldn´t talk like this," she scolded him.
Cullen scoffed: “I´m more worried about our scout who´s apparently not able to manage anything on his own.”
“You´re underestimating him,” Jane hissed. “Maybe he just can´t find them because they´re working!”
“Hopefully not in that mine.”
Jane stiffened: “That was a terrible joke, Cullen Esler.”
That made also the man upset: “When did you stop thinking, girl? Don´t call me like this here, for Christ´s sake.”
Leo eyed him frowning: “Do you want to check the situation yourself?”
“I rather should,” Cullen stood up from the table energetically. “Otherwise we´ll be stuck here forever.”
He reached for his hat on the hook, when the noisy complainer at the bar spoke again.
“And you know what? They say that our Indian Agent got trapped in that collapse as well.”
“What? What was he doing there?”
“Meddling into other people business as usual,” the man assumed caustically. “He was basically asking for it.”
Mary put her hands on hips and stabbed the man with a sharp look: “That´s an awful thing to say. Kamenashi is one of the most honest and kindest persons in this damn city!”
Cullen froze on the spot, Leo raised his head in shock and Jane went pale, her stomach clutching painfully.
“One more bad word about him and I´ll pour you literally nothing till the end of your days!” Mary snapped quite upset and grabbed the beer out of man´s reach, before he could finish it.
“Okay, okay, sorry… Give it back here!”
Very quietly, Cullen sat down at the table again.
Jane looked at him with her eyes wide: “I´d like to slap you right now,” she whispered hoarsely.
Leo reached out and squeezed her hand.
“No need, I already regret it enough,” Cullen replied with a heavy sigh.
***
The greatest fuss calmed down after they had taken all the wounded away to Dr. Best´s clinic in the city. The other miners cleaned up most of the tools and other stuff and locked it away. Almost everyone had already left.
Henderson left four guards watching over the gold ore on the edge of the forest. It was about to be carried away later. Apart from the men sitting around the small fireplace, there were only two more people on the site of the dynamite incident.
Ryo was sitting on the pile of long logs, gloomily watching the setting sun. It had been hours since they managed to escape death by hair and yet it felt like days. The only thing, which was disrupting the strange peace around the previously busy gold mine, was constant scratching of moving stones.
At first, he wanted to go with badly injured Koki to the clinic and then to the outskirts of Bozeman to inform the others, but in the end, he did not. He just could not leave Jin here like this. And he had no idea what he would do if Jin wanted to stay also during the night.
The guards knew about them, but did not care. Ryo heard that the mine´s owner himself allowed Jin to stay. Which was weird, but he could not grasp what was behind it. They were also far enough not to hear or see them, so it felt like they were all alone there. Without anyone to talk to, Ryo was sinking in damn gloomy thoughts.
The sound of hooves made him turn to the only proper road, which led to the mine, with hope. He recognized the incoming riders right away and rose, feeling finally something like relief.
Leo, Jane and Cullen stopped their horses behind the tools shed and dismounted. Then they remained standing there for a moment, observing the scene in front of the mine, before they rushed to him. Ryo understood. He was not able to watch him for long himself.
“You´ve heard what happened?” he asked them tensely.
His leader and friend just nodded, his eyes focused behind Ryo´s back.
“So, it´s true?” Jane asked tearfully. “Kame is…?"
Ryo pressed his lips and averted his eyes. Jane understood what it meant and covered her face, shaking.
Cullen stood there, his expression grim: “Just what the hell was Kamenashi doing there?” he asked hoarsely. “Don´t tell me he caught a gold rush.”
Ryo shook his head: “No… Koki did. We managed to get him out. He´s in the hospital, but the doc said he´d be fine. But Kame… He was one of the rescuers and… He got trapped under the fallen stone…”
“Shit,” Cullen murmured, turning away from them.
“How long has Jin been like this?” Leo asked hoarsely.
With a tired sigh, Ryo closed his eyes for a moment. They were shiny and regretful when he opened them again: “He refused to leave Kame behind. We… we had to drag him out by force, so the foreman knocked him unconscious. He´s doing this ever since he came to his senses… Man, I didn´t know what to do with him. It´s just…”
“Stay here, all of you,” Leo requested. “I´ll try talk to him.”
*
Thoughtfully and slowly, Jin kept picking or digging up one stone after another and threw them aside. If he would keep this pace up, he was about to get inside soon, he just knew. Even with little breaks, he took from time to time to catch a breath and drink some water. He could do it.
The regular and strenuous activity helped him not to think about what happened inside the mine, which was good. He could not think about it. He dared not to. He had a feeling he would lose his mind if he did.
“Hey, Bro…”
Up until now, he ignored anyone, who had tried talking to him. He did not want to listen to what those unimportant people were saying. However, he could not ignore this voice.
Jin straightened up with another stone in his hands and turned around. With dark stubble on his cheeks and chin and with longer hair than he had remembered, but it was definitely his younger brother standing at the foot of the pile he was working on.
“Damn… Leo,” he breathed out, got rid of the stone and looked around. “What if somebody sees you?”
His younger sibling eyed him wordlessly for a while and from some reason, an expression of dismay was all over his face, before he got control over himself again.
“That´s what you call a fraternal welcome?”
Jin stared at him.
“Don´t worry, almost nobody but us is around,” Leo made two steps closer, his eyes running over the pile, before focusing on him again. “I´m glad to see you all right,” he stated more quietly.
There was just a blank space in Jin´s mind hearing it.
What was it exactly - ´to be all right´?
He stumbled down the pile and stood in front of Leo.
“Yeah… Good to see you too,” he said awkwardly and accepted the hand which Leo offered him.
*
It was worse than Leo had thought. Much worse. A closer look on his brother was terrifying.
Jin was covered with dirt and sweat, his clothes torn and bloody. And when he turned and faced him, his expression squeezed Leo´s heart. His brother´s face was like wax, stiff, and expressionless, with dark shadows under his wide, black eyes.
Jin grabbed his hand and squeezed his shoulder in a greeting, but it was as he was not there with him.
“Want something to drink?” Leo offered him a flask of water with mint, which Jane had prepared that morning.
“Thanks,” his brother grabbed it without hesitation and pressed it to his mouth.
At that moment, Leo noticed something strange. With a tight throat, he looked down on his clothes. On his right sleeve, where Jin had squeezed him before, there was a bloody handprint. It was the same with his shoulder.
Shocked by Jin´s ignorance to the state of his body, Leo watched him as he put the flask aside and started climbing up the collapse again. He gulped down heavily, trying to find the lost voice. The loss of his lover messed his brother up completely and he began to suspect that not even he would be able to help him now. Nevertheless, he had to try.
“Ryo told me what happened,” he noted, trying to keep his voice calm.
A stone in the size of a human head went flying toward the growing pile of them.
“Yeah, instead of doing something he just talks,” his brother growled and sank a pickaxe between other two boulders.
Leo frowned and went for a more straightforward approach: “Jin. There´s nothing you can do for Kame anymore.”
Nothing came from his brother, just scratches of hard iron against the rock.
“You need to accept it.”
Jin turned and stabbed him with dark, burning eyes: “He had never left me behind! He had never let me down! How the fuck am I supposed to do it to him now?”
“Believe me, I understand you,” Leo reacted seriously. “But he´s dead.”
His brother just growled something inaudible and returned to his work.
“Jin, please…”
“If you won´t help me then get out!” Jin snapped without even glancing back at him and proceeded in his useless fight against the stony obstacle.
*
“I assume it didn´t go so well,” Cullen commented Leo´s expression as he got back to them.
The Riders´ leader shook his head gloomily: “I´ve never seen him so upset. Not even after Pi died…”
“He´s in shock,” Jane whispered, hunching in the warm coat and yet she looked to be cold.
“But what are we gonna do now?” Ryo threw his hands up helplessly. “Leave him here all night?”
“Well, in the end, he´ll pass out from exhaustion, but I doubt that´s the best option,” Cullen assumed darkly.
“Damn… I don´t know,” Leo sighed. “I have no heart to drag him out of there by force.”
“We need to look after the horses at least,” Ryo remembered.
That took Leo´s attention: “The horses?”
“Yeah. I´ve got mine up there along with Kuro and Ukushi.”
Leo pondered their options for a while, remembering the special relation his brother had with his incredible horse.
“Take me to them.”
*
Another promising spot led him to another disappointment in the form of more stones. The sound of their fall down the pile made him remember the heat, the dust and the pained voice…
With an angry shout, Jin hurled the pickaxe away. He lost his balance, slipped and rolled down, ending up on the trampled surface in front of the pile. Not able to suppress a painful sob, he punched the ground so hard his shoulder began to tingle.
Everything ached him now - his hands, his legs, his back, his head. He was thirsty, hungry and exhausted. And absolutely useless.
He remained sitting there, breathing heavily and curled into a ball.
Useless, that he was. He did nothing but disappoint the person he cared for the most in the world.
What a useless piece of shit I am…
One heavy sob shook with his body, making him sick. What right did he have to cry?
Silence around him was suddenly disrupted by clatter of hooves. A soft snort was heard and warm presence of an animal approached him. Jin was not able to perceive it, until he felt the wet sniffing in his greasy hair. He did not intend to move from his spot at all, but the gentle snorts made him raise his head.
Kuro was leaning to him so close Jin saw nothing else but his big black head. His animal buddy was looking at him, standing there calmly, but his nostrils were trembling in worry and disapproval.
Then he saw himself in one of his warm eyes. He looked like a ghost.
Jin raised both his hands and Kuro pressed his head against him, so he ended up hiding his face on his noble neck.
“I´ve been a damn fool,” Jin whispered defeated. “Damn stupid fool…”
*
He had no idea for how long he remained like this, clinging on Kuro helplessly before restless neighing made him look around again. The whole mine site was slowly being covered with shadows of dusk. The only clearly visible thing was a pure white mare. It kept running around, looking at the former entrance to the mine and neighing pitifully.
Jin soothed Kuro´s neck slowly, before he stood up on heavy legs and approached the agitated mare, reaching his hand toward her. Ukushi ran around him twice, before she finally stopped, her chest heaving and came closer.
“I´m sorry, girl,” Jin apologized hoarsely. “I couldn´t save him.”
*
To Leo´s great relief, this time it seemed that Jin actually saw them, when they approached him.
Jane was the first to step forward. She stood in front of him for a while and then, despite Jin´s poor clothing and state, she hugged him.
He did not return it, but did not push her away either.
“Jin… Come with us, please,” Ryo pleaded quietly.
His brother lowered his head and then shook it wordlessly. It hurt to see his big brother like this.
“Hey… I bet Kame would be happy that you´re safe,” Jane joined the persuasion gently.
“You need rest, lad,” even Cullen spoke to him soundly.
“I´ve abandoned him…” Jin´s voice was hoarse and broken.
Jane shook her head, while Ryo opposed vigorously: “That´s not true and you know it.”
However, Jin continued weakly: “I left him to die in there alone…”
“Stop torturing yourself, Bro,” Leo emphasized imploringly and noticed that Jin staggered heavily. “Hey… Jin? Jin!”
Leo lunged forward to catch his brother just in time before he collapsed.
- To be continued -
Author: Kasumi
Rating: NC-17
Genre: Western, Drama, Romance, Adventure, Historical fiction
Warning: AKame pairing - AU; vulgarisms, violence, explicit content
Beta-reading:
atago4
Summary: A direct sequel of Red West II. - Masterpost
A strange company of three young gunslingers and one Indian is on their way to Montana, while the infamous Black Riders continue their fight against Silver King of Colorado… Will they succeed or fail in the clash with the cruel environment and heartless Governor? Will their friendship, brotherhood and love persevere or be destroyed by greed, bloodshed and vengeance?
Thank you: To Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin, because this story wouldn´t have existed without them.
A/N: Another chapter done... and the next one will follow soon.
I´m grateful for any opinion or advice, you help me hone my writing skills with them.
Thank you for taking time to read this story. I´ll be happy if you reward me with a comment for it.
Previously:
Prologue // Chapter one // Chapter two // Chapter three // Chapter four // Chapter five // Chapter six // Chapter seven // Chapter eight // Chapter nine // Chapter ten // Chapter eleven // Chapter twelve // Chapter thirteen // Chapter fourteen // Chapter fifteen // Chapter sixteen // Chapter seventeen // Chapter eighteen // Chapter nineteen // Chapter twenty // Chapter twenty one // Chapter twenty two // Chapter twenty three //
Collapse
There was nothing around but darkness and air full of dust.
The horrifying rumble stopped as quickly as it began. However, the mountain surrounding them did not return to its natural state of being just a pile of deadly silent rocks. Soft rustle of falling sand or soil in the dark and irregular, slight tremors under their feet clearly meant that the danger was far from over yet.
Shaking off the first shock, Jin realized he could - and definitely should - move. He pressed a sleeve to his face, to prevent himself from inhaling more of dusty air. Then he squatted and fumbled around carefully, searching for the kerosene lamp, which went out during the collapse.
A man started coughing somewhere on his left and then another spoke right next to him.
“Guys? Are you… okay?” a shaking voice revealed Koki.
“Not thanks to you, but I am,” Jin muttered still covering his mouth.
“I feel like shit,” Ryo croaked from the other side of the tunnel, gasping for air. “But I guess I´m still breathing.”
“We´re tryin´ to do the same,” the foreman´s voice came from the left side again, followed by the sound of match striking. A small, yellow light appeared, dimmed by thick dust. “Anyone else got a lantern?”
“Can´t find it,” growled Jin, his hand stinging from scratches, as he kept searching through the sharp stones.
“´Cause I´ve got it,” Ryo announced triumphantly.
“Good. Come to us, carefully. I´ll light it up,” Ned ordered.
Ryo started moving slowly, stumbling over the new debris and swearing quietly, while Jin turned to Koki.
“Can you move?”
The figure huddling against the wall chuckled bitterly: “I´ll try.”
“Fine,” Jin looked up again, trying to see through the impenetrable pollution around them. Ryo´s lantern was now lit up as well and it seemed there was a bent figure in front of them. “Kame? Can you help me with him?”
There was no reply. Jin´s stomach tightened with a bad hunch. His boyfriend was the only one whose voice he hadn´t heard yet. He stepped forward slowly. That crooked silhouette was no person; it was an ugly stone, which had fallen in the middle of the crossroads, almost completely blocking it.
Frightened, Jin shouted: “Kame!”
He winced, when a proper dose of sand from the disturbed ceiling spilled all over his hair and got into his eyes.
“He´s not… here?” Koki asked, somehow getting himself up on his feet. “Not this again,” he commented the blockade of the tunnel.
“Damn it, Kame!” Jin yelled, trying to blink the annoying mess out.
“What did I say about yellin´?” the mine foreman snapped, but Jin ignored him. He caught a faint moan somewhere behind that boulder and it terrified him.
“Light! Give me some light here!”
Just as Ryo set off toward him, there was another suspicious rattle in the depths of gold mine.
“We must go,” Coltrane wheezed. “Or we´re done for real.”
“Agreed,” Ned joined him. “You two - grab Tanaka and…”
Disregarding them completely, Jin took the lantern over from Ryo and faced the boulder again.“Akanishi!” the foreman hissed. “Stop fooling around!”
“Shut up,” growled Jin, looking for the best way to get over the obstacle. It seemed there was a gap on one side. Narrow, but still wide enough for a man.
“Did you hear him, Jin?” asked Ryo, all sweaty and anxious in the flickering light. “You heard Kame?”
“Yes,” he just confirmed shortly and hastily slipped around the stone, not paying an attention to the harsh surface hurting his back.
The swaying light in his hand revealed more, a way smaller stones, which had crumbled down from the ceiling.
“Over here…”
Hearing Kame´s voice more clearly now, Jin looked around frantically, until he finally saw him. He was lying on the ground and his body…
“Shit… Kame!” Jin jumped over another annoying boulder, slipped and almost fell down, but regained his balance in the last second.
There were huge, terrifying crackles both in the ceiling and in the floor of the mine, leading from one side to another, but he was blind to them as to everything else.
Jin kneeled down, put the lantern aside and grabbed Kame´s left hand. The warm eyes covered with the curtain of pain focused on him.
“Kazu…” Jin´s voice betrayed him and his words came out squeakily as slowly moving old hinges. “Just what…?”
“Sorry, I was… left behind,” Kame replied, obviously straining himself.
The small stones rattled as Ryo pushed himself around the boulder to their side as well, swearing nastily. Jin looked all over the huge stone, similar to the one blocking the tunnel, which was covering the right side of Kame´s body up to the waist.
This cannot be really happening… Not this… Is this a nightmare?
Jin felt overwhelmed and could not think straight.
“Crap… Kame!” frightened Ryo finally managed to reach them as well.
“Hey…” Kame took a deep, shaky breath. “It´s not so bad. I can feel it.”
His boyfriend´s voice stirred Jin from numbness. He took a slow breath, trying to collect himself.
“You mean your leg?” asked Ryo, with his eyes unnaturally wide.
“Yes. There must be a gap or something. It hurts, but… I´ve been worse.”
“Can you move?” Jin asked tensely, still squeezing Kame´s hand.
“That´s the thing. Not really… It must be stuck… Under this.”
Jin leant down, trying to see where exactly was Kame´s leg trapped, but in almost non-existing light, it was impossible to tell. Ryo started to walk around the boulder, trying to estimate its size, when Koki appeared in the gap between the stone and the wall. He looked at kneeling Jin and helpless Kame. Even though he seemed as if he was about to faint, his voice was urgent when he called back to the tunnel.
“Hey! Come here to help us!”
That was right; they had to do something about that shitty stone and more of them the better.
“It´s huge but uneven,” Ryo reported, stumbling back to them.
Jin raised his head, only unwillingly tearing his eyes from Kame´s pale face.
“So, we might sway it and pull him out,” he said with newly awaken determination.
Ryo nodded and turned to Koki who just staggered to them: “I told you to stay there!”
“I´m fine, I can help,” Koki replied stubbornly, probably running on adrenaline. “Just wait, Kame-chan, we´ll get you out right away.”
The dark rumble underlined his words and more of dry soil covered them all, making Ryo cough again.
“Hey! If you´re not goin´ with us, we´re gonna leave you here,” the foreman called from behind the boulder.
“Kamenashi´s trapped, come help us!” Ryo called in reply.
“Please!” Koki joined him pleadingly.
“Sweet Jesus and Maria Holy, these idiots are gonna kill us!”
Contrary to this reaction, both men started their strenuous push around the boulder, while Ryo and Koki were already trying to find the best spot to push the stone and not to endanger Kame even more. The ground beneath them was now trembling almost constantly.
Jin leant down again, right to Kame´s face, gently grabbing it between his palms. His boyfriend´s cheeks were wet with sweat and strangely cold.
“Just hold on a second, okay?” he urged.
“I will,” Kame whispered, with his eyes glassy, but at the same time full of trust.
Then Jin straightened up to face the two older men.
“Fuck this,” Ned assessed the situation. “We´re not gonna move it without some lever.”
“I´ll find something,” Coltrane offered and headed to the spot, where one of the wooden props broke.
“Okay, let´s try how tough this shit is,” Ned put the lantern aside to another stone. “You two, move more to the back of it. Akanishi, with me.”
The younger men followed the instructions of the more experienced one without objections. All four of them spread on the same side of the boulder.
“Kamenashi, do you hear me?” the foreman asked.
“Yes.”
“If you can use your hands, try to push it away as well.”
“Got it.”
“When I say three. One. Two. Three!”
All of them pushed forward with all their might, but the stone resisted and did not move an inch.
“Once again! One, two, three!”
Nothing but heavy panting echoed through the tunnel for a while.
“Damn it…” the foreman cursed. “Any change, Kamenashi?”
“…no.”
“Here, I´ve got something,” Coltrane rushed back to them with a part of the broken prop.
“Good, place it here,” Ned navigated him. “One more time!”
Five men struggled against the heavy obstacle again. The lever snapped, the stone reluctantly shifted and Kamenashi shouted out in pain, when the stony burden squeezed his right leg even more.
“Shit!” Ned threw the rest of the useless prop into the growling darkness.
“This won´t work,” Coltrane breathed out.
*
“Kame!”
He heard the voice calling his name, then the rushing steps and then Jin was with him again. He looked up to his dirty, worried face, which was somehow blurred. He could not see him clearly with his eyes filled with stinging tears.
“What is it, Kame? Did it move?”
He could not reply to him. He just couldn´t.
“This is useless. We must go,” he heard the foreman stating what was frightfully obvious.
“This can´t be true…” Koki yelped.
“Is there anything else we can try?” Ryo insisted.
“If we stay any longer, all of us will be buried here,” Ned reacted harshly.
No way, Kame thought. That was something he would not allow.
“Kame, talk to me!”
He hated that Jin´s voice sounded like that. All strangled and scared. How he would love to hear him speak in a way when they were alone, at home, in their bed…
It felt like someone robbed him of all the running blood in his veins when Kame finally admitted it to yourself and it took him a while before he was able to say it. It was the growing trembles and weird noises, which finally made him open his mouth. There was no time for self-pity.
“Leave me here…”
Everyone heard it and looked his way. Jin´s face contorted in disbelief and fury. He let go of Kame´s hand and stood up.
“Let´s try again!”
Kame took a deep breath: “Jin…”
“Guys, help me grab it from the other side!”
Nobody moved, nobody spoke, but Kame could feel it. They already knew and accepted that it was helpless. Only Jin did not.
“Jin!”
“Come on!” his boyfriend yelled insistently.
“Please, don´t die for me,” he breathed out pleadingly.
His lover froze, staring at the unmovable stone.
“Not you,” Kame urged quietly.
Once again, the mine warned them with deep, heavy rumble that they were not supposed to delay there any longer.
Jin turned to him, his eyes shining with tears and something warm, which somewhat made Kame feel better and even more determined to send all of them away.
*
Jin stood there with his hands in shaking fists.
He wanted to listen neither to Kame, nor to his reason, which was telling him the dark truth. He was not able to accept it.
“I´m not going to die here,” he said, ignoring the dull pain in his chest. “And neither are you. I´ll do it myself,” he turned to the others. “Get out of my way.”
“Jin. Please, run away. Please.”
The broken voice rooted him to the spot. He didn´t want to, but he had to. He turned his head to look at his partner in crime, his friend, his boyfriend, his love. Kazuya was his life. And in this moment, he had something in those kind eyes that Jin did not ever want to see - goodbye.
No. He could not. Not this.
“Don´t be like this, Kazuya,” he whispered hoarsely, with breath stuck in his lungs, his heart squeezed anxiously.
A faint, loving smile flickered on his boyfriend´s pale lips and then a raspy voice behind Jin said: “We´ve got no time for this.”
Someone´s hand half turned shaken up Jin around and a huge fist covered his vision, before his world blanked out.
*
The whole mine was shaking, as if during an earthquake.
The black foreman pushed paralyzed Jin to dumbfounded Ryo´s arms.
“Take him and let´s go.”
Then he looked at Kamenashi on the ground. The young man´s eyes were focused on Akanishi.
“Sorry, lad,” Ned muttered. “There´s nothing we can do.”
Kamenashi gave him an absent look: “I know…”
Without further ado, Ned and Coltrane took one of the lanterns and set off first.
Silently crying Koki helped deadly pale Ryo to support unconscious Jin, each of them grabbing him for one arm and then they looked at Kame as well.
“Kame-chan… I´m s-so sorry,” Koki managed to push across his shaking lips.
“Go. Get him out,” Kame encouraged them so quietly that they could not hear his voice in the growing noise anymore. Nevertheless, they both understood and turned away, feeling like the greatest traitors in the whole world.
*
Kame saw the foreman´s expression and realized what Ned was about to do. He was grateful for it, because without Jin´s resistance, the others had a chance at least. He was scared for his life, but the idea of Jin ending buried there with him and losing his life in vain terrified him even more.
He was unable to escape not only from under the boulder, which pinched his right leg, but also from haunting ideas in his mind. His chest was heavy with unshed tears and fear.
He did not want to die. He did not want to leave Jin, but the fate did not give him a choice. It was not Kame´s habit to complain, but he had a damn right to this time. Life was a damn unfair bitch.
There was so much of what he wanted to do in the reservation yet. So much to tell people in the city about Indians, to make them understand and be more tolerant. He was looking forward to bring Ukushi´s foal into the world. There were so many things, days and nights, which he wanted to share with Jin. Though all of the sudden, he would not be allowed to accomplish any of it. This realization hurt much more than any injuries the crumbling mine could have inflicted on him.
Kame could not hold back tears any longer and they ran down his temples. He did not want to imagine how Jin would feel like once he would awake and find out that he was gone…
Not being able to bear the sight of his friends leaving and taking the love of his life away from him, Kame closed his eyes.
After that, the world around him rumbled, shifted and the sharp, blinding pain made him cry out. Then the emptiness opened beneath him and he fell into the darkness.
***
Later on, neither Ryo nor Koki were able to recall just how they managed to go through the tunnel, which was literally falling apart.
It was a chaotic mess of shaking ground, falling stones and swinging shadows caused by the lanterns in the running men´s hands. Following the lead of Ned and Coltrane, they struggled to get to the exit, dragging unconscious Jin between them. They moved on without thinking, because otherwise they would die.
There was one moment when they had thought that everything was over for them. It was when they finally stumbled to the exit and found it buried under an avalanche of stones. However, Ned´s and Coltrane´s subordinates outside did not give up on them. They were working on the way out ever since the moment it had collapsed. They managed to create the hole, which was big enough for all of them to get through just in time.
Ryo was the last one inside, helping to get Jin out by pushing his unmoving body from behind. Then he looked back for one last time. From what he could see in the dim light of remaining lanterns, the whole mine was breaking apart. There was no chance for anyone who stayed behind to get out now…
With a heavy heart, he accepted the hands of men from outside to drag him out in the last second. He could literally feel the weight of the mountain on him just before his feet were finally free.
Miraculously, they got out, but he knew - they could not ever escape from happened inside the gold mine.
***
“Hey, man. What´s your name?”
Exhausted Koki raised his eyes to the owner of the voice, who stood above him with some writing-pad in his hands. It was Danny McFly, whose eyes widened in surprise. Only then Koki realized just whom was he facing.
Damn it.
McFly actually saw all the Black Riders from up close a couple of months ago, when they had captured Math Grenet, also thanks to help from himself.
Koki´s head was completely blank. He could not think clearly and did not know what to do. However, he would never expected what the youngster did after he clearly realized who Koki was. McFly diverted his look back to the papers and slowly repeated his question.
“Tanaka…” Koki blurted out faintly.
McFly wrote it down with a blank expression.
“Can you tell me if you know about anyone who didn´t get out?” he asked then.
Ryo, finally noticing their conversation, left his spot next to Jin, who was lying in the line of injured men and headed to them.
Koki took a deep breath: “Luke… Luke was there…”
McFly checked something on his list: “Harrow? Already got him. Anyone else?”
Koki wanted to speak, but could not find the words or even courage. It was Ryo, who approached them and spoke instead with a serious face.
“Kame…” he managed to say before his voice broke and he looked away. “Damn it.”
Dr. Best, so far carefully bandaging Koki´s head and not paying attention to their talk, froze.
“What?” Danny McFly looked up to him shocked. “Do you mean Kazuya Kamenashi?”
Ryo just nodded grimly.
“What happened inside?” the doctor asked them hoarsely, appalled by their revelation.
“He was trapped under the fallen stone,” Koki explained in a shaking voice. “We… We could not get him out.”
“Oh, my God…” Dr. Best shook his head helplessly.
“I don´t believe it,” McFly still stared at them with his eyes wide.
Ryo turned away from them, his eyes stinging, looked around and gasped for a breath.
“Jin! Jin, where are you going?”
All of them turned in the direction Ryo was looking. Akanishi regained consciousness and yet staggering and slowly, he was already heading toward the mine again.
Ryo rushed after him, caught up with him and reached for his shoulder.
“Hey… Stop for a minute. Let the doc see you, just to be sure…”
There was no reply, his friend just shook his hand off and proceeded. Ryo stopped, watching him, just as the others. Jin passed by a few miners who were cleaning up and trying to get at least some of the tools from under the mess around the entrance. He stopped in front of the pile of huge stones and stared at it motionless.
Dr. Best shook his head again, slowly finished bandaging and with a torn expression, he left to take care of the next injured man.
Koki did not even notice: “Shit… This is just wrong,” he whispered tearfully. “So fucking wrong…”
Danny McFly stood there wordlessly, reminding a living statue.
Ryo felt burning tears in his eyes, but did not let them to spill. He walked after Jin again and stood by his side. Worried, he observed his face - it was completely black and white as a freshly painted column.
“I´m sorry, Jin…” he said with his throat squeezed.
Not even this time his words had any effect. Jin just leant down and picked a stone. He threw it aside, without even glancing where and immediately grabbed another.
Ryo took a deep breath, gathering courage to say the damn words. The words with which he would condemn Kame to death again: “Jin… The whole mine collapsed. This… this is useless.”
“Hey! Watch what you´re doing!” one of the miners yelled, kicking the thrown stone, which almost ended up on his head.
“Sorry, man!” Ryo called out and tried to reach Jin one more time. “Listen to me, buddy. It´s impossible to clean all this up, okay?”
Without any reaction, Jin kept picking up stones. The nearby workers rather moved themselves aside, out of his reach, murmuring insults under their noses. At the current circumstances, nobody was willing to bother with him.
“Let him be,” a quiet voice made Ryo turn. “It´s not use. He doesn´t hear you,” Koki said, watching Jin painfully. “It´s no use,” he repeated heavily, turned to the side and started to vomit.
*
While the miners and volunteers from the city were busy with cleaning up works and treating the wounded, four men gathered in the foreman´s tent to discuss the situation.
Sitting at the head of the sturdy table, Cameron patiently waited until his black foreman and broad-shouldered leader of the morning shift finished drinking up the flasks of water. Both men were dirty, bruised and exhausted, but otherwise it seemed they escaped from the mine without any major harm. Which was a miracle considering everything he had learnt about the whole incident.
The fourth man completing their group was Cooper, who was standing at the tent´s entrance, looking out with a deep frown on his round face.
Seeing both men put aside the empty flasks, Cameron pushed a bottle of whiskey toward them. Coltrane grabbed it with a grateful nod: “Thank you, sir.”
Cameron clasped his hands on the table, eyeing all three men in front of him.
“So, tell me - what happened and what´s the current status of the mine?”
Ned and Coltrane exchanged the short look, before the black man started talking first.
“One of the miners said that he and his colleague encountered one of our guards shortly after the mornin´ shift started. He had a gun and they weren´t able to prevent him from blowin´ up the stack of dynamite he had prepared inside in advance.”
“I need names, Ned.”
“I had no chance to check who the attacker might´ve been yet, sir, but we´ll find out. Those who met him were Harrow and Tanaka.”
Coltrane took over: “Harrow´s caught the blow fully, he had no chance. Tanaka´s being treated by the doc.”
“All right, I´ll question him later. What about the mine itself?”
“Honestly, it´s over, sir.”
“No chance we might start mining again, then?”
Ned shook his head: “The damage was too vast, it would´ve been a futile effort.”
“What about creating a new tunnel from some other place? Would that be worth it?”
The black foreman turned to his subordinate: “Cooper, what about that hole? Did you find it?”
“Yes, but it´s too narrow and seems too steep. It´s impossible to access the mine through there.”
Ned noted his response with a nod: “I´ll check it myself later, sir, but I doubt it´ll be helpful. There´s not many possibilities to start minin´ elsewhere.”
Cameron carefully considered all the information he just received.
“How much of already extracted ogre is about to be cleared yet?” he asked then.
“I´ll double check today and provide you the precise number, sir,” Coltrane promised.
“Good.”
Danny´s figure suddenly appeared in the entrance of the tent: “Sir. I´ve got the list,” he announced in a strangely stiff tone.
“So? How many?” Cameron asked without even looking up from the table, immersed in thoughts regarding everything, which needed to be arranged yet.
“Five so far, hopefully not more.”
“It´s a miracle that the number is so low,” Coltrane murmured.
“Mostly thanks to you two, I assume,” Cameron reacted prudently. “And you´ll be rewarded appropriately.”
Danny took a deep breath: “Also Kamenashi, sir.”
Cameron forgot what he wanted to say next. He looked up to his assistant: “Repeat that, Danny.”
“Kamenashi perished in the mine as well, sir.”
He stared at the young messenger in disbelief. For the first time in years, something took Cameron aback and he did not enjoy such an unpleasant feeling at all.
No. This was not supposed to happen…
Kamenashi was about to suffer for what he had brought upon his late master, but not like this. It was not his plan.
“Is it for certain?” he asked, the words coming out from his lips as cubes of ice.
The youngster nodded quite unhappily: “The men who were inside with him say so.”
Cameron sat there, looking through Danny. He just could not believe it.
“We can confirm that as well, sir,” Ned noted gloomily. “He got trapped under the stone, nothin´ we could do for the guy…”
Cameron didn´t hear it though: “Impossible. Fucking impossible,” he muttered, his face unreadable.
*
Hearing his boss to swear in such a tone worried Danny so much he was almost afraid to continue, but he just had to.
“There´s one more thing, sir.”
“What is it?” Mr. Cameron asked stiffly.
“Well, miners complain about Akanishi.”
Cameron Henderson stood up slowly: “What about him? You mean to tell me that also he…?”
“No, nothing like this, sir. They got him out,” Danny clarified, shaking his head. “But now, he keeps removing the debris away from the collapsed entrance. He´s obstructing the cleaning up works and doesn´t react on anyone. Should we make him leave by force?”
Mr. Cameron fell silent for a long while. Nobody else dared to speak.
“No,” he finally disregarded Danny´s proposal. “I want to see this myself.”
***
A sweaty man, covered with a layer of dust, burst inside the Wallace´s Tavern like an avalanche and collapsed on one of the free stools by the short bar.
“Pour me some beer before I dry up like a badly excavated well,” he ordered the elderly, but still a very well built woman behind the counter.
“Sweetheart, I´ll pour you anything you want if you ask nicely,” the female bartender informed her quest with such a sweet smile, Jane´s teeth started to ache.
“Come on, Mary,” the man moaned. “I had a shitty day.”
“That doesn´t mean you can forget how to behave in my tavern.”
“All right, all right… Pretty please?”
“That´s a way better.”
Mentioned Mary started preparing the requested drink and Cullen - who had been on high alert since the door had opened - finally assumed the man was no threat and relaxed, returning to his own alcoholic beverage.
“So? What happened that you´re thirsty like a camel after the journey in the desert, huh? They forced you to actually work?”
“You wouldn´t be so mean if you knew,” the man scowled.
“If I knew what?”
“There´s been another collapse.”
“The gold mine again? Oh, my… I keep telling you to find a proper job and you just keep risking like this.”
“Keep you clever talk, woman and pour me another one.”
“Excuse me?”
“Can I ask for one more beer, please?”
Only now, the woman grabbed the empty tankard: “Certainly. Was it worse than the first time?”
“You cannot imagine! Not like the last time at all! They say some shithead came inside and blew it up, would you believe it?”
“Oh God, don´t say! I hope everyone got out?”
“What do you think? The whole morning shift was in there, when it all started. They aren´t sure how many were caught in the subsequent collapse. It´s impossible to get inside now.”
“That´s horrible…”
Jane thought the same: “I cannot even imagine what it must be like,” she whispered.
Leo nodded: “Mining´s a dangerous job, but worth it for many men.”
“Until something like this happens!” Jane opposed. “What it´s worth for their families then?”
“It´s a tough shit, yes,” Cullen commented, finishing his beer calmly.
Jane shot him an offended look.
“What?” he shrugged. “It doesn´t have anything to do with us.”
"Still, you shouldn´t talk like this," she scolded him.
Cullen scoffed: “I´m more worried about our scout who´s apparently not able to manage anything on his own.”
“You´re underestimating him,” Jane hissed. “Maybe he just can´t find them because they´re working!”
“Hopefully not in that mine.”
Jane stiffened: “That was a terrible joke, Cullen Esler.”
That made also the man upset: “When did you stop thinking, girl? Don´t call me like this here, for Christ´s sake.”
Leo eyed him frowning: “Do you want to check the situation yourself?”
“I rather should,” Cullen stood up from the table energetically. “Otherwise we´ll be stuck here forever.”
He reached for his hat on the hook, when the noisy complainer at the bar spoke again.
“And you know what? They say that our Indian Agent got trapped in that collapse as well.”
“What? What was he doing there?”
“Meddling into other people business as usual,” the man assumed caustically. “He was basically asking for it.”
Mary put her hands on hips and stabbed the man with a sharp look: “That´s an awful thing to say. Kamenashi is one of the most honest and kindest persons in this damn city!”
Cullen froze on the spot, Leo raised his head in shock and Jane went pale, her stomach clutching painfully.
“One more bad word about him and I´ll pour you literally nothing till the end of your days!” Mary snapped quite upset and grabbed the beer out of man´s reach, before he could finish it.
“Okay, okay, sorry… Give it back here!”
Very quietly, Cullen sat down at the table again.
Jane looked at him with her eyes wide: “I´d like to slap you right now,” she whispered hoarsely.
Leo reached out and squeezed her hand.
“No need, I already regret it enough,” Cullen replied with a heavy sigh.
***
The greatest fuss calmed down after they had taken all the wounded away to Dr. Best´s clinic in the city. The other miners cleaned up most of the tools and other stuff and locked it away. Almost everyone had already left.
Henderson left four guards watching over the gold ore on the edge of the forest. It was about to be carried away later. Apart from the men sitting around the small fireplace, there were only two more people on the site of the dynamite incident.
Ryo was sitting on the pile of long logs, gloomily watching the setting sun. It had been hours since they managed to escape death by hair and yet it felt like days. The only thing, which was disrupting the strange peace around the previously busy gold mine, was constant scratching of moving stones.
At first, he wanted to go with badly injured Koki to the clinic and then to the outskirts of Bozeman to inform the others, but in the end, he did not. He just could not leave Jin here like this. And he had no idea what he would do if Jin wanted to stay also during the night.
The guards knew about them, but did not care. Ryo heard that the mine´s owner himself allowed Jin to stay. Which was weird, but he could not grasp what was behind it. They were also far enough not to hear or see them, so it felt like they were all alone there. Without anyone to talk to, Ryo was sinking in damn gloomy thoughts.
The sound of hooves made him turn to the only proper road, which led to the mine, with hope. He recognized the incoming riders right away and rose, feeling finally something like relief.
Leo, Jane and Cullen stopped their horses behind the tools shed and dismounted. Then they remained standing there for a moment, observing the scene in front of the mine, before they rushed to him. Ryo understood. He was not able to watch him for long himself.
“You´ve heard what happened?” he asked them tensely.
His leader and friend just nodded, his eyes focused behind Ryo´s back.
“So, it´s true?” Jane asked tearfully. “Kame is…?"
Ryo pressed his lips and averted his eyes. Jane understood what it meant and covered her face, shaking.
Cullen stood there, his expression grim: “Just what the hell was Kamenashi doing there?” he asked hoarsely. “Don´t tell me he caught a gold rush.”
Ryo shook his head: “No… Koki did. We managed to get him out. He´s in the hospital, but the doc said he´d be fine. But Kame… He was one of the rescuers and… He got trapped under the fallen stone…”
“Shit,” Cullen murmured, turning away from them.
“How long has Jin been like this?” Leo asked hoarsely.
With a tired sigh, Ryo closed his eyes for a moment. They were shiny and regretful when he opened them again: “He refused to leave Kame behind. We… we had to drag him out by force, so the foreman knocked him unconscious. He´s doing this ever since he came to his senses… Man, I didn´t know what to do with him. It´s just…”
“Stay here, all of you,” Leo requested. “I´ll try talk to him.”
*
Thoughtfully and slowly, Jin kept picking or digging up one stone after another and threw them aside. If he would keep this pace up, he was about to get inside soon, he just knew. Even with little breaks, he took from time to time to catch a breath and drink some water. He could do it.
The regular and strenuous activity helped him not to think about what happened inside the mine, which was good. He could not think about it. He dared not to. He had a feeling he would lose his mind if he did.
“Hey, Bro…”
Up until now, he ignored anyone, who had tried talking to him. He did not want to listen to what those unimportant people were saying. However, he could not ignore this voice.
Jin straightened up with another stone in his hands and turned around. With dark stubble on his cheeks and chin and with longer hair than he had remembered, but it was definitely his younger brother standing at the foot of the pile he was working on.
“Damn… Leo,” he breathed out, got rid of the stone and looked around. “What if somebody sees you?”
His younger sibling eyed him wordlessly for a while and from some reason, an expression of dismay was all over his face, before he got control over himself again.
“That´s what you call a fraternal welcome?”
Jin stared at him.
“Don´t worry, almost nobody but us is around,” Leo made two steps closer, his eyes running over the pile, before focusing on him again. “I´m glad to see you all right,” he stated more quietly.
There was just a blank space in Jin´s mind hearing it.
What was it exactly - ´to be all right´?
He stumbled down the pile and stood in front of Leo.
“Yeah… Good to see you too,” he said awkwardly and accepted the hand which Leo offered him.
*
It was worse than Leo had thought. Much worse. A closer look on his brother was terrifying.
Jin was covered with dirt and sweat, his clothes torn and bloody. And when he turned and faced him, his expression squeezed Leo´s heart. His brother´s face was like wax, stiff, and expressionless, with dark shadows under his wide, black eyes.
Jin grabbed his hand and squeezed his shoulder in a greeting, but it was as he was not there with him.
“Want something to drink?” Leo offered him a flask of water with mint, which Jane had prepared that morning.
“Thanks,” his brother grabbed it without hesitation and pressed it to his mouth.
At that moment, Leo noticed something strange. With a tight throat, he looked down on his clothes. On his right sleeve, where Jin had squeezed him before, there was a bloody handprint. It was the same with his shoulder.
Shocked by Jin´s ignorance to the state of his body, Leo watched him as he put the flask aside and started climbing up the collapse again. He gulped down heavily, trying to find the lost voice. The loss of his lover messed his brother up completely and he began to suspect that not even he would be able to help him now. Nevertheless, he had to try.
“Ryo told me what happened,” he noted, trying to keep his voice calm.
A stone in the size of a human head went flying toward the growing pile of them.
“Yeah, instead of doing something he just talks,” his brother growled and sank a pickaxe between other two boulders.
Leo frowned and went for a more straightforward approach: “Jin. There´s nothing you can do for Kame anymore.”
Nothing came from his brother, just scratches of hard iron against the rock.
“You need to accept it.”
Jin turned and stabbed him with dark, burning eyes: “He had never left me behind! He had never let me down! How the fuck am I supposed to do it to him now?”
“Believe me, I understand you,” Leo reacted seriously. “But he´s dead.”
His brother just growled something inaudible and returned to his work.
“Jin, please…”
“If you won´t help me then get out!” Jin snapped without even glancing back at him and proceeded in his useless fight against the stony obstacle.
*
“I assume it didn´t go so well,” Cullen commented Leo´s expression as he got back to them.
The Riders´ leader shook his head gloomily: “I´ve never seen him so upset. Not even after Pi died…”
“He´s in shock,” Jane whispered, hunching in the warm coat and yet she looked to be cold.
“But what are we gonna do now?” Ryo threw his hands up helplessly. “Leave him here all night?”
“Well, in the end, he´ll pass out from exhaustion, but I doubt that´s the best option,” Cullen assumed darkly.
“Damn… I don´t know,” Leo sighed. “I have no heart to drag him out of there by force.”
“We need to look after the horses at least,” Ryo remembered.
That took Leo´s attention: “The horses?”
“Yeah. I´ve got mine up there along with Kuro and Ukushi.”
Leo pondered their options for a while, remembering the special relation his brother had with his incredible horse.
“Take me to them.”
*
Another promising spot led him to another disappointment in the form of more stones. The sound of their fall down the pile made him remember the heat, the dust and the pained voice…
With an angry shout, Jin hurled the pickaxe away. He lost his balance, slipped and rolled down, ending up on the trampled surface in front of the pile. Not able to suppress a painful sob, he punched the ground so hard his shoulder began to tingle.
Everything ached him now - his hands, his legs, his back, his head. He was thirsty, hungry and exhausted. And absolutely useless.
He remained sitting there, breathing heavily and curled into a ball.
Useless, that he was. He did nothing but disappoint the person he cared for the most in the world.
What a useless piece of shit I am…
One heavy sob shook with his body, making him sick. What right did he have to cry?
Silence around him was suddenly disrupted by clatter of hooves. A soft snort was heard and warm presence of an animal approached him. Jin was not able to perceive it, until he felt the wet sniffing in his greasy hair. He did not intend to move from his spot at all, but the gentle snorts made him raise his head.
Kuro was leaning to him so close Jin saw nothing else but his big black head. His animal buddy was looking at him, standing there calmly, but his nostrils were trembling in worry and disapproval.
Then he saw himself in one of his warm eyes. He looked like a ghost.
Jin raised both his hands and Kuro pressed his head against him, so he ended up hiding his face on his noble neck.
“I´ve been a damn fool,” Jin whispered defeated. “Damn stupid fool…”
*
He had no idea for how long he remained like this, clinging on Kuro helplessly before restless neighing made him look around again. The whole mine site was slowly being covered with shadows of dusk. The only clearly visible thing was a pure white mare. It kept running around, looking at the former entrance to the mine and neighing pitifully.
Jin soothed Kuro´s neck slowly, before he stood up on heavy legs and approached the agitated mare, reaching his hand toward her. Ukushi ran around him twice, before she finally stopped, her chest heaving and came closer.
“I´m sorry, girl,” Jin apologized hoarsely. “I couldn´t save him.”
*
To Leo´s great relief, this time it seemed that Jin actually saw them, when they approached him.
Jane was the first to step forward. She stood in front of him for a while and then, despite Jin´s poor clothing and state, she hugged him.
He did not return it, but did not push her away either.
“Jin… Come with us, please,” Ryo pleaded quietly.
His brother lowered his head and then shook it wordlessly. It hurt to see his big brother like this.
“Hey… I bet Kame would be happy that you´re safe,” Jane joined the persuasion gently.
“You need rest, lad,” even Cullen spoke to him soundly.
“I´ve abandoned him…” Jin´s voice was hoarse and broken.
Jane shook her head, while Ryo opposed vigorously: “That´s not true and you know it.”
However, Jin continued weakly: “I left him to die in there alone…”
“Stop torturing yourself, Bro,” Leo emphasized imploringly and noticed that Jin staggered heavily. “Hey… Jin? Jin!”
Leo lunged forward to catch his brother just in time before he collapsed.
- To be continued -