David’s horse didn’t lean down for Jim to get on like Buttercup had. No this horse just stood there waiting for him to get on. He grabbed on and tried to pull himself up. The ground hit him hard in return for his effort. The second attempt went much better. He actually made it up onto the horse. He held on tightly as the horse started walking around aimlessly. This definitely wasn’t going to be as easy as riding Buttercup and certainly wasn’t going to be as smooth.
As the boys took off towards Fort 24 Jim was finding it hard to keep up. This ride was not nearly as smooth as the previous ones. He noticed that the horse needed constant correction to stay on course. Buttercup had taken care of all of that for him. She knew where she was going and didn’t need him to get there. This horse was very different. He didn’t feel like he had complete control and was not comfortable riding as fast as the other boys. Jim knew that this was necessary though. David needed the smooth ride.
Jim glanced up at David on Buttercup. He was leaning over and barely upright. They had grabbed a bandage from Rick’s pack and wrapped it around David’s wound to apply pressure. The former white bandage was now a bright red. This did not look good. A knife wound like that would not be bleeding this much unless it had hit something important. They had to get him help quickly.
The land they were riding through was beautiful and he knew that if he wasn’t so worried about David he would have wanted to go much slower and take it all in. There were fields of grain, fenced in cows grazing, and a pond being fed by a natural stream. He could see geese swimming across the top of the water. The grass covered hills rose and fall all around them. All the while not a sound could be heard except the birds and their horses. He wanted to take it all in. Of course he also might have just wanted to go slower because he couldn’t control this horse.
As they crossed on final hill Jim got his first look at Fort 24. The building was an old brick building with one square barbwire fence enclosing another one around the outside. At the corners of the outer ring of fences were large wooden lookout towers and even from here Jim could tell that there were men with guns in them. Between the two fences Jim could see at least 3 armed men walking patrols. Behind the fort was a large field with multiple animal pens sectioned out and converging in a small pond. A large barn sat on the other side of the pens. Across the trail a large grain silo sat at the end of the forest. This strange site of farm and fort unnerved Joe. He couldn’t help but wonder why a farm would need so much security and even stranger secrecy.
As the boys started down the hill two horses rode out at top speed to meet them on the hill. “Hold there. Identify yourselves.”
Joe took point, “We’re the daily report from Fort Massac. We ran into some serious trouble a few miles back. David is hurt bad. We need to get him inside and get him help now.” Almost on queue David fell off of Buttercup and onto the ground.
The man who had addressed them turned to his partner. “Chris let the Fort know what is going on and get an emergency bed set up. I’ll bring David down.” As the second man rode off at full speed towards the Fort the speaking man turned back to face the boys. “Get him up on my horse. I’ll take him in and we’ll see what we can do for him. You boys need to get back to Fort Massac and let Sergeant Reynolds know what just happened here.”
Joe stepped towards the man. “We are not just leaving him here. This is my friend and I don’t give a damn about your secrecy I’m going to make sure he is ok before I go anywhere. Then I want to go with whoever goes out there to hunt the Ist that did this.
The man raised his voice, but it still had an air of control about it. “You will stand down now recruit. David is our friend too and he is the only one of you that has clearance to be in Fort 24. None of you are cleared for active combat either. You will report to Fort Massac as you have been ordered because even if I wanted to,” he pointed to one of the wooden towers, “those men would not let you in. We will take care of him, but every second I’m standing here arguing with you is a second that he is losing more blood. ”
“Damn it Joe; David doesn’t have time for this.” Frustration filled Rick’s voice. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but we have to get him in there. Besides he’s right that Sergeant Reynolds needs to know about this now. They were organized and the whole town could be in trouble.”
“Fine,” Joe pointed to the Miltia Guard. “if he dies I’m holding you personally responsible.”
Jim was getting very uncomfortable. He never cared for being around arguing, but in this case he also felt responsible. David was hurt protecting him and he could just as easily be the one laying on the ground bleeding out right now. The realization struck him hard. I could have died. This was just supposed to be a training day and this mission was just supposed to be a simple ride. I was stupid and because of it I could have been killed and David might still die.
Rick helped the man pull David onto his horse. Joe watched them both with a scowl the whole time and as soon as David was in the gates he took off full speed towards Fort Massac. Rick just shook his head, “You know the sad thing here Jim is that I agree with Joe. We should be in there with him, but standing out here arguing that was just doing more harm than good. If you don’t learn anything else from today you should at least learn that following your gut isn’t always the best thing to do.” He hopped back up on his horse. “Come on let’s get back. If everything I hear about GCs is true Buttercup here should be smart and loyal enough to follow without us needing to tie a rope onto her.”
No one spoke on the entire ride back to Fort Massac.