The Forge of Darkness (Darkness After Series Book 3) (8 page)

* * *

Benny was moving slow and stealthy through the woods, careful to stay back, well out of sight of the six men he followed. They were far too alert and too much on edge to risk shadowing them close, and besides there was still the other shooter to think about. Benny still had no idea where he was, so he had to consider the possibility of being spotted by him with every move he made.
 

As he pushed his way quietly through the wet pine branches, he wondered what David would do when he saw these other strangers. The men were bound to find the two dead steers, because they were plainly visible from the road. Then they’d spot the body of the dead boy he’d shot, lying just a short distance from where David and Tommy were hiding. When they closed in to investigate the scene, would David be able to keep his composure and remain quiet? Or would he panic and start firing at them at once? Benny didn’t know what to expect from David.
Hell, the boy didn’t even know who he was!
What he did know though, was that if he started shooting at those six men, he might get lucky and get one or two, but the rest would kill him quickly. Then they would find Tommy and it would be over for him too.

Benny was trying to come up with a plan, even as he eased closer. Six armed men in a group and another unaccounted for didn’t make for good odds in an outright gunfight. Then, there was the issue of the girls coming back with that travois for Tommy. They had no way of knowing these other men had arrived and Benny had no way to tell them, unless he circled around and tried to get to the house or meet them before they got back so he could head them off. But that would leave Tommy and David vulnerable. It was a choice Benny had to make, but Tommy was his
boy
. He had to see what was going on. Maybe… just maybe… if David could keep his composure and remain quiet… the strangers wouldn’t discover the two of them immediately. Then he might have a chance of somehow diverting their attention, drawing them away. He considered doing that even now, firing into the air or something to lure them back the other way, but the problem with that was that there were enough of them that they might split up. Then, some of them would still find Tommy and he wouldn’t be able to help, being occupied with evading those who were looking for him. At any rate, it was probably already too late for that. They’d had time to reach the spot of the shooting already, and Benny was half expecting at any moment to hear David fire Tommy’s rifle and then all hell to break loose. But that didn’t happen. Instead, what he heard was something else, a sound completely and totally unexpected, coming down the road behind him from the west, just as the six men had.
 

Benny turned at this new sound, peering through the branches to see. He had no doubt about what he was hearing; the sound was unmistakable. His eyes proved him right when the first of the horses appeared around the bend. Benny counted eight riders and at least as many more saddled animals on a string behind the one bringing up the rear. The horses were approaching at a trot when he’d first heard the sound of their hooves, now the lead rider raised his hand and the riders slowed their mounts to a quiet walk. Benny was absolutely stunned.
Where in the hell had all these men come from and what was he going to do now?
He’d thought it couldn’t get any worse when he saw that the cattle rustlers had six more companions. But now it was clear that there were more than twice as many yet again! This explained why the first two had been brazen enough to shoot into Doug Henley’s herd inside a fence on private property. There were enough of them that they felt they could do what they wanted with complete impunity.

Twelve
 

D
AVID
WORKED
QUICKLY
TO
pile leaves over Tommy as quietly as he could. He didn’t know what else to do. He had to retreat farther into the shadows before the men were on top of him. There was no possibility of moving Tommy by himself. To drag him, he would have to stand up and they would immediately see him even if they didn’t hear all the noise that would make. All he could hope for is that they wouldn’t look too closely and wouldn’t spot Tommy lying there under the leaves in the darkening woods. When he had done the best he could, he crawled backwards, working his way into some low-growing bushes another ten yards away. The men were crowded around the dead one now and he could hear everything they said:
 

“I’m sorry they got Ken Jr., Kenneth. Did you see how many of them there were?”

“I saw three in all, but I think there was at least one more. First, there was the one that slipped up along that fence line and got the drop on Kenny. He was saying something to him, probably about the cattle, and he was pointing a rifle at him. I decided I’d better take him out before it went too far. I hit him dead center and he went down, but then this other one comes running out of the woods all crazy-like and throws a spear at Kenny! It missed him and Kenny moved in on the lunatic with his blade. I was gonna let him have at it, because I could see that the fool didn’t have a weapon, other than that stick spear he’d already thrown. Kenny would have gutted him easily, but then I hear a shotgun blast from out of nowhere and see Kenny go down hard. He never had a chance because some other son of a bitch
neither one of us knew was there ambushed him! I tried to shoot the one that had been carrying the spear, but he dove into cover with his buddy somewhere behind those trees over there. Then somebody else opened up on me with what sounded like a .22. I’ll bet they must have shot 20 rounds!”

“I know; we heard it.”

“When the shooting finally stopped and I looked up, they had moved the one I knocked down. I guess they dragged him back to wherever they came from. I never saw any of them again after that. I waited a while to make sure, and was finally coming down here to see about Kenny when I saw y’all coming.”

From what he’d heard already, David gathered that the man who had spoken was the father of the dead boy Benny had killed. He was bent down over the body now, and David could hear what he was saying:

 
“Kenny, I don’t know what you expect me to tell your mama now! I’ve been telling you over and over again you needed to be more careful. I thought you’d listen eventually, but you never did, and now it’s too late. I hate it for you, son. I really do. All I can tell you is that we’ll find those folks that shot you and they’ll pay. We’ll kill them all and round up every last one of their cattle. There’s a house around here somewhere and we’ll find it. If any of them are still in it, there won’t a one of them be alive come daylight. I promise you that, Kenny.”

“How many head was in that cattle herd?” David heard one of the others ask the man as he got to his feet again.

“I counted 25, including those two over there. I hit another one but didn’t put it down.”

“Well, if that’s the case there’ll be enough to feed everyone for weeks, just on the beef. And there’ll probably be other stuff in the house when we find it. I’d say we scored pretty good on this one, Kenneth, other than losing your boy.”

“I’ve been expecting it to happen. But there’s nothing any of us can do about it now. How far back is Drake with the horses?”

“He’s close. We sent Jimmy on to get him. They should be here any minute. But you know the others probably won’t get here for a couple of days. The rain ain’t helping; you know how it is.”

“It doesn’t matter. When Drake shows up there’ll be enough of us to do what needs doing without them. We don’t need to wait for them. We can go ahead and find the house and get moved in.”

“Yep, and if the folks that shot at you were dragging a wounded man, there ought to be a trail,” one of the other men said.

“Let’s find it then, before it gets too dark,” another said.

David’s worst fear came true in the next instant. All of the men were walking straight towards the clump of trees where Tommy was lying hidden under the leaves! David didn’t see how he could stop them from finding his friend now. There were too many of them for him to shoot them all by himself and Tommy was helpless, unable to move. All David could do was watch as the men began combing the ground looking for sign.

“Well would you look at this!” one of them said with delight. “Hey Kenneth, it looks like your new friends gave up on their man and lit out for home! They tried to bury him before they left, though!”

“Is he dead?” One of the others asked as he walked up to the one who’d found him.
 

Before he answered and before David could grasp what was about to happen, much less react, the man who he now knew was the dead boy’s father stepped up as he reached for something behind his back. Then he suddenly knelt down and hit Tommy hard with it, the sound of the impact a dull whack that made David shudder when he heard it.

“I don’t really think he was, but I
know
he is now, the sorry bastard! That was for Kenny, and I’ll get the one that shot him too!”

When the man stood back up, David could now see that he was holding what looked like a hatchet or tomahawk in one hand.
He had just hit Tommy in the face with it—hit him and killed him right in front of his eyes and there was not a thing he could do about it!
David wanted to shoot them all. He wanted to make them pay for what they did to his friend, but if they killed him too, who was going to warn Lisa and Stacy? And what about Samantha and April with her little girl back at the house? This was turning out far worse than Benny had thought when he left to look for the one who’d shot Tommy. There were so many of these men! And they were talking about even more people that were further behind, all of them coming here too! David knew he had to get away alive. He had to warn the rest of his friends what was coming. It was too late to help Tommy but maybe he could save the others. He didn’t know where Benny was or if he was even coming back and there was no time to look for him. Besides, these men could have already found him and killed him too. David just didn’t know.
 

He remained as still and quiet as he possibly could until the men lost interest in Tommy and turned to discussing their plans for finding the house. As soon as they moved farther away to regroup by the road, David wormed his way backwards on his belly until he felt it was safe to stand. Then he turned and ran back towards the house for all he was worth, practically running right into Lisa, who was aiming her rifle at his face when emerged from the woods into her view.

* * *

“David!” Lisa whispered as she lowered her rifle. “What are you doing? Why are you running? We’ve got the travois to get Tommy.”

“It’s too late, Lisa. They killed Tommy! One of those men killed him!”

Lisa could see that David was both terrified and overcome with sadness. “What do you mean they killed him? Are you sure he’s dead? Did he die from the gunshot?”

“No. It wasn’t the gunshot, Lisa. But it was the same man that shot him. It was that dead boy’s daddy. But there are a
lot
more of them too, Lisa! That’s why I couldn’t help Tommy. I wanted to, but there were too many!”

“You mean there are more than we thought? Where is Uncle Benny now?”

“Yes, a lot more. They came from down the road the way Benny said he thought the other two did. I don’t know where Benny went. He went in the woods and didn’t come back. The men that came after that all have guns, Lisa. And I heard them talking about even more of their friends coming that are on horses! They were talking about finding our house and killing everybody in it and eating all the cows!”

“You heard them say all that? Samantha asked.”

“Yes! I heard everything they said. I was hiding really close. I tried to cover Tommy up with leaves and hide him too, but they found him anyway. And then that man that shot him hit him right in the face with a hatchet!”

“Oh my God! You saw him do that?”
 

“We were too late,” Lisa said, before David could answer. “This wouldn’t have happened if we had gotten here sooner and moved Tommy before they found him.”

“We came as fast as we could though,” Stacy said. “How could we know there were more men coming?”

“We couldn’t have,” Samantha said, before turning back to David: “I’m so sorry, David. I know Tommy was your best friend, but you did the right thing. There would have been no point in you dying too, trying to save him.”

“I didn’t know what to do,” David said.

“Samantha’s right,” Lisa said. “But are you sure they didn’t see you, David?”

“No. They didn’t. I waited until they walked back over by the road before I moved. I knew you were coming and I wanted to stop you before you got there. Those men will kill you if you go there, Lisa. They killed Tommy like they just didn’t care! If Benny had been there to help, we might have stopped them, but I don’t know where he is and he might be dead too!”

Lisa said she didn’t think so, but she wondered how far away Uncle Benny could be to not see or hear so many men coming down the road like that. The only explanation she could think of was that he was well away from the road, off in the woods trying to track down the one that shot Tommy in the first place. When he didn’t find him, would he return to where David was supposed to be waiting with Tommy, unaware these other men were there and run right into them? It was possible, but then she remembered that Uncle Benny was a real woodsman, like her dad and her brother. Surely he would be careful. It wouldn’t do any good for the four of them to go looking for him now with all those strangers already intent on finding the house. And April was alone there with Kimberly, unaware of the much more serious danger they were now facing.

“We’ve got to get back to the house,” she said. “There’s nothing we can do for Tommy, and we don’t know where Uncle Benny is. We’ve got to tell April what’s going on and we’ve got to do it before those men get there first. Just leave the travois here. We don’t need it now. Let’s go!”

* * *

April had been pacing the living room floor with Kimberly since the moment Samantha and the girls disappeared down the drive. She couldn’t help but worry with them going out there while the trespasser who’d shot Tommy was still unaccounted for. They didn’t know that he wasn’t still lurking around and there was no guarantee Benny would find him. Of all the nights that Mitch could pick to stay out hunting, this had to be the worst. Since she’d arrived there, he’d only done this one other time, when he and Jason and Corey had been unsuccessful until the third day of a hunt. Mitch had told her then when they returned that he expected their hunting would be taking them farther afield, as the deer were becoming too wary closer to home. Providing for eleven people was putting a lot of pressure on the local game.