Chapter 2
It was at that time that they heard shots coming toward the stagecoach.
Travis told them all to get down to stay out of the way of the bullets.
Angie covered her children’s bodies with her own.
The salesman put his briefcase over his head.
Lydia started screaming about getting blood on her dress.
Travis took his six guns out and started shooting back out the window.
The robbers shot the guard, and he fell from the stagecoach.
They injured the driver and the reins fell from his hands.
The horses started running wild and much faster.
They deviated from the road. Travis was able to get two of the robbers and they fell off their horses and onto the ground.
They fell back and decided not to worry about this stagecoach.
Meanwhile, the stagecoach was out of control and heading towards the mountains.
The best they could do was to try to stop the coach before they crashed or turned over and many of them died inside the coach.
Travis put his guns back into his holsters.
He opened up the door of the coach and heard Lydia scream even more.
She was sure that she was going to fall out and die.
Travis swung himself up and out the door and up onto the top of the coach.
He pushed the driver out of the way and was able to grab the reins and start pulling the horses back under control.
It took all his strength to do so. Slowly the coach and horses slowed down to a much calmer rate until they stopped completely.
Travis checked out the driver and found him dead.
He carefully climbed down. He checked out each of the eight horses.
Two were limping. In the rush of running flat out for so long, they had lost a shoe.
They would not be able to pull the stagecoach.
The other six horses could be ridden, but it would take all eight to pull the coach.
Then, he went back to check on the riders in the coach.
Lydia was still screaming she was going to die.
Travis slapped her across the face to make her stop.
“Why did you do that?” She asked him and held her hand up to her face in shock.
“Something had to be done to get you to stop screaming. It worked. Settle down. You’re alive. We need to see what we’ve got and how to get to Angel Falls.” Travis told her calmly.
“Why can’t we just ride in the stagecoach?” She asked him.
“Because two of the horses are hurt, they can’t pull the stagecoach. Six of the horses can’t get the job done. We’ll have to ride the horses to get out of here.” Travis told her and hoped she wouldn’t start screaming again.
“I don’t ride horses. You’ll have to find another way out of here.
” Lydia told him with finality. She was a lady and ladies didn’t ride horses.
He was just asking too much of her. Travis turned away from her, he was ready to leave her out here to fend for herself.
He looked at the salesman. His head was bent at a strange angle.
He felt for his pulse. He was dead. Travis picked him up and put him on the top of the coach with the driver. He looked at Angie and her two boys.
“We’re fine. Just tell us what you want us to do.” She told him quietly.
“Thank you. We’re going to have to ride horses out of here.
We have six of them that will make the trip.
Two are lame. We can put some of our luggage on them, but they can’t pull the stage the way they are.
We can pull them with us with reins, so they won’t be left behind.
We have no food, and a limited supply of ammunition to get us food or supply us with protection.
Miss Hatcher tells me that she does not ride.
I’m ready to leave her out here.” Travis told her and smiled at his statement.
“You know you won’t, but I agree she is being difficult.
Let’s start taking out what we can from our trunks on the horses.
There are five of us for the six horses.
That doesn’t leave much to take with us.
I know you said we could use the two lame horses, but we can’t put much on them with them being lame.
” Angie told him and he nodded. They brought the trunks from on top of the stagecoach down to go through them.
Lydia told them she wasn’t leaving any of her belongings behind.
She needed her clothes to wear in Angel Falls.
Travis gave her a pillowcase and told her she could take whatever she could fit in the pillowcase, and that was it.
Then, he walked away. Angie was already getting what the boys and she would take with them.
Travis filled a pillowcase with a skillet, a pot to boil water in, all the ammunition he could find on the driver, the guard, and on the top of the coach.
He took his own guns, his rifle, and the rifle of the guard.
He asked if Angie knew how to shoot and gave her the other rifle when she said she could.
Lydia was still telling Travis that she wasn’t riding a smelly old horse. Travis picked her up and set her on the horse with her pillowcase.
“You fall off that horse or drop that pillowcase; I’m not going back for it or for you.
You start screaming and yelling, you’ll be calling the same robbers who shot the guard, driver, and the salesman to come and get us.
They’ll rape you and Angie before they kill all of us and take what they want from the stagecoach and us.
Do you understand?” He asked her and she finally nodded with a frown.
She would go with them, but she sure didn’t like it.
Angie’s boys knew how to ride a horse, thankfully, and he put a pillowcase on each side of them to give them something to fall on should they fall off.
He lifted Angie up on her horse and found that she didn’t weigh much more than a sack of feed.
She held the reins of both of her boys with her own reins.
Travis held his reins, Lydia’s reins, and the two lame horses, too.
It seemed to take them forever to get packed and ready to leave, but they finally took off.
He wanted to get far away from the dead men inside of the stagecoach before the buzzards came and told everyone where they were.
They started off, Lydia told them she hated sitting on the horse.
Travis asked her one time if she would rather walk, and she shut up.
She hated the man and the way he wasn’t giving in to her demands and wasn’t treating her like a lady.
She was going to give him a piece of her mind as soon as they reached civilization. That is if they reached civilization.
It seemed like they had traveled for hours, the sun was getting low in the horizon.
Travis was looking around for a place for them to spend the night.
The horses needed water. They needed water, food, and a safe place to sleep.
At least it didn’t look like it was going to rain, and that was good.
He saw smoke rising from a group of rocks up ahead, and that usually meant that a hot spring was there.
To be able to soak his sore muscles and injuries would be a blessing, he’d also bet that Lydia would need to soak her backside just to be able to ride tomorrow morning.
There was a small stream nearby for water and plenty of grass for the horses to eat.
He pulled up under several trees to give them some coverage.
He lifted Angie down first, then her boys.
He asked them to start gathering some firewood for a fire.
They nodded and started getting it for him.
Then, he lifted down Lydia…she almost collapsed.
Her legs wouldn’t hold her up. She moaned; she was in so much pain. It hurt to even try to stand up.
“You’ll have to carry me to the fire, Travis. I just can’t move…it just hurts too much.” She told him and tried to look pitiful.
“If you can’t move, you’ll stay there all night.” He told her and walked away. He’d be damned if he’d start giving in to her and making her a princess.
She stamped her foot and hit her hand on the ground. Slowly she stood up and moaned the entire time. She slowly walked to the clearing as if she were an old woman. Once there she collapsed on the ground and vowed she wasn’t moving another inch.
Travis disappeared to try and get them something to eat.
Angie and her boys kept bringing back some firewood to keep them warm all night.
Her majesty just lay there as if she was the only one who was sore from riding the horses all day.
Travis came back with several rabbits that he skinned and put over spits once he got a fire going.
The boys were thrilled to sit and help turn them to keep them from burning. They smelled really good to everyone.
“Angie, just over those rocks is a hot spring. Go over them and get in the hot water and soak the kinks out of your body from riding the horse all day long. Don’t dawdle very long.
Come back and you can turn the spit while I take the boys and get in the hot spring for a short while before the rabbits are done for dinner. ” Travis told her.
“Wait a minute! When do I get in the hot spring? A hot bath sounds wonderful.” Lydia asked him sitting up and almost yelling at him.
“You told us you couldn’t move and you sure didn’t help us set up camp.
I’m not carrying you over to the hot spring and you sure can’t stay in there very long.
There’s a lot of animals that will come to the hot spring when it gets dark, and I don’t want any of us in that water when that happens.
Do you understand that?” Travis asked her and saw her nod.
“I’ll be fast. I promise.” She told him and made herself get up and hobble to the hot water. Angie looked at Travis and winked. She would make her get out of the water even if she were naked.
Lydia’s sigh as she sank into the hot water could be heard even from where they were sitting.
Travis frowned. It was a good thing he went hunting before she got into the water.
Lydia didn’t want to get out of the water, but Angie didn’t want her boys getting in the water if there were wild animals around.
She made her get out and pushed her back to the fire.
Travis and the boys jumped in very quickly and very quickly got out again.
Lydia was still pouting about having to get out so quickly when she saw yellow eyes near the rocks as Travis, Will, and Bobby come back to the fire.
Suddenly, she understood what Travis was talking about.
The rabbit fell off the bones it was so well-done, it was also greasy.
They ate every bite of those rabbits and looked around for more to eat.
They washed up and then lay down to try and get some sleep.
Travis told them that he slept with one eye open from staying alive in the war.
They believed him and fell asleep immediately.
It had been a long day for all of them, and tomorrow wasn’t going to be any easier.
He wondered exactly where they were and if anyone would send out a posse to look for them when the stagecoach didn’t come in on time.
He sure hoped so. The horses had traveled so far off the beaten path that he had no idea of where they were or how far from Angel Falls they were.
He didn’t think it would take them more than two or three days to get there.
But he didn’t think he could take being in Lydia’s presence for that long without putting her over his knee and spanking her to make her see how spoiled she was and self-centered.
He finally lay down for a few hours of sleep.
He hurt in every bone of his body especially his side and his leg.
He had trouble getting comfortable and knew that riding a horse for long hours was the worst thing he could do in helping his recuperation, but what could he do?
Morning came way too early. He got them all up, much to the prima dona’s hateful words.
She didn’t want to wake up and kept rolling over to block out his words.
He finally filled his hat with water and dumped it on her.
She came up spitting mad and let loose with more colorful language than he had heard from a lady in a very long time.
“You yellow-bellied Yankee cur, how dare you dump that water on me to wake me up! I don’t want to get up yet!
I need my beauty sleep! You keep your damn son-of-a-bitch self away from me today and every day or I’ll shoot you myself before we get to Angel Falls!
” Lydia told him and shook the water out of her eyes and hair.
“We leave in five minutes. If you have to go to the bathroom, do it now. If you want to go back to sleep, do it. We’ll leave you here.
Personally, I don’t care. You are a royal pain in my butt to bring you with us, you don’t help with anything, you want to be waited on, you complain about everything…
well listen up, I don’t want to hear it.
If it’s not to tell us you are bleeding, or that we’re about to have company…
you will keep your mouth shut all day.” Travis told her and walked away.
He helped Angie on her horse and both her boys.
He put out the fire and then picked up Lydia and put her on her horse without her going to the bathroom.
She didn’t move when he told her to…so be it.
She could suffer from her inactivity when he told her to go to the bathroom. He simply didn’t give a damn.
Lydia wanted to yell at him, scream at him, curse him out, but one look at his face told her he would do just what he said he would.
He would leave her here and go on without her.
Just wait until they got to Angel Falls and her aunt heard about Travis Buchanan.
He wouldn’t be able to show his face in town ever again.