Rescue

Jack sat down on the wobbly bench carefully, holding a tinny plate in one hand and crooked spoon in the other. He observed his food ration for that day feeling rather disgusted. It was a small pile of horseshit, which the local cook dared to call the ´beans with beef´. Despite the fact that it included about as much of meat as the vegetable soup of his dear late mother.

While eating, he had to focus on not vomiting that foulness up, as well as on not moving much; he didn´t want that pain he had to bear for hours to get worse. At least, the blood finally stopped dripping from his wounds. The young Rider didn´t allow himself to complain about his situation though; Esler was in a worse condition than he was. The older man was also beaten up, and even tied up, without any food, or its imitation whatsoever. And it was all Jack´s fault.

He knew it would have been wiser to do everything they were told, waiting for a chance to get out, but he just couldn´t handle the haughty attitude of those bastards who supervised them. The guards treated them worse than the dust under their boots. A pretty collection of heartless men gathered in that gloomy mine.

Jack didn´t expect Cullen to defend him when he was whipped for being too cheeky. If the older man hadn´t involved himself though, that guarding maniac would have probably flayed his skin. But Jack really hated that Cullen had to pay for his actions. Not only they were arrested; being taken away to the Cursed Mine was even worse. Moreover, he didn´t think that the others would let it go easily. It was very likely that they had already figured out what happened to them. What if the rest of Riders got in troubles because of their greedy idea with that Opera House, too?

The unconfessed Rider finished his so-called dinner hastily, as he saw that some guards were approaching to chase the workers into their ´dormitory´ for the night, to switch with the night shift. He got up slowly, giving a long stare toward the stake behind the manager´s office, where a man´s figure could be seen, with his hands tied. Suddenly, Jack knew what he had to do.

They couldn´t just rot in that dirty place forever and it was better to try to escape, while they had any strength and resolve left. Working in the mines was very exhausting and already after a few days Jack felt like a used rag. He was aware of many guarding eyes, but in the night, it was easier to escape their attention than during the day. Not to mention that Cullen was already outside of their usual detention.

As quickly as his chains allowed him, Jack headed toward the ugly barracks, to be there among the first ones. Inside, the workers slowly gathered in three rows, to exchange the places with the night shift´s men, who had frightfully dark circles under their eyes. Hidden behind their line, Jack turned his bloody shirt inside out and tied a dirty scarf around his fair-haired head, just in case some guard would like to check them more closely.

It didn´t take much effort to persuade one comrade, an elderly man, who barely stood on his feet, to rest for the night, while Jack took his place. The old man was so grateful for the offer that his dry eyes flooded with tears. Suppressing the guilt from using that person for his own escape, Jack followed the already moving line of workers back outside. He took a deep breath under the dark open sky and squeezed the spoon, which he kept hidden, instead of giving it back to the kitchen before. He patiently stood in the line for working tools, chasing any doubts away.

Tonight is the night, Jack thought. We either escape, or die trying. And I won´t mind taking a few of those sons of bitches with us…

*

The age already softens me like butter, Cullen criticized himself, while trying to ignore the growing pins and needles in his arms and shoulders.

Any other time he would have let that stupid youngster eat up whatever he had prepared for himself. But no, this time he had to get involved and ended up being punished instead of Jack. Who would say that the sturdy guard would take one hit to his jaw so personally?

Cullen shifted his weight from the tip of one foot to another, even though he knew it was useless. They didn´t leave him much comfort, on the other hand they didn´t bother guarding him strictly either.

They tied him up pretty firmly; the blood from his hands was long gone. His throat was dry and sore and there were quite a few of swelling places on his face and stomach. Those stupid shitheads didn´t know where to hit though, it was unpleasant but not so painful, or at least he tried to persuade himself so. He hated his position the most.

The usual evening clamor made Cullen raise his head a little, carefully, as his stiffened neck protested against it. The changing of shifts started, with the zombies heading inside the barracks, and other creepy figures, which were just a little livelier, to the mines instead.

He watched that one part of routines in the mine feeling angry; but not at Jack, or even at the others, who had to learn not to be so hasty yet – he was angry with himself.

After all those years of escaping the law he let himself be caught so easily and to top it off, be used as a damn slave. It was so… humiliating. That was a right word for how Cullen felt - humiliated.

What would Leo say, if he knew what happened? Were they back yet? And if they already found out about their failure, what were they planning to do? As he knew Leo, he would not let it go... And that would bring the young leader exactly into that kind of troubles, from which Cullen wanted to protect him.

Damn it all….

*

The wheels of the heavily loaded cart rumbled on the road, which cut the campsite in half. Two men sat at the trestle, not talking to each other and facing the first watch on the east side of the mine calmly.

The guards – two ominous men, the more muscular one carrying a single-shot rifle, and the other one two revolvers – literally stared at the approaching wagon, the weapons ready in their hands. Unseen, there were two other men on both sides of the road, behind the heaps of stones. As soon as the cart reached their position, one of guards raised a lantern on the long stick, while the other aimed his rifle at the trestle.

"Stop right here! What are you taking in that cart?"

"A little sign of appreciation from Tabor, fellows," the young man leading the horses stopped them and pushed his hat back from his face to show a wide smile.

"Really? What is it?" a doubtful question came.

"Some beer for all of you; you wanna check it out?"

"No kidding!" a stern face of the guard eased up a little, while the other was more suspicious.

"Why so late?"

"The road was bad, man. It was difficult to get it here…" the youngster complained wearily.

"Let me see," the guard requested.

"Sure thing," the smiling wagoner pointed over his back at the cargo in a few barrels.

While the suspicious guard went around the cart, to open the first accessible barrel, the other one focused on the faces of two arrivals more closely.

"Where are those other guys who usually bring us supplies?" he asked.

"We were told they ended up in bed recently, digestion problems or something like that," the youngster shrugged.

"They sit their asses on the latrine all the time," the other one noted disgusted. "So, they sent us this time."

The guard frowned: "Don´t you dare to drag some infection here into the camp. You two are all right?"

"Sure, no need to worry," both assured him hastily, just when the other man came back forward.

"It´s fine," he announced the result of his check. "Leave it behind the kitchen, somebody should be there, tell them about it. And I think we have some empty boxes and barrels to be carried away, back to the Johnson Gulch."

"Sure thing," the young wagoner saluted and smacked at the horses. The cart started moving again, heading deeper inside the camp.

*

Two brothers watched the cart with barrels crossing the yard in front of the building, which they assumed to be the manager´s office. With a rumpus, which reached even their ears, the cart continued its way toward the spacious building nearby, probably the guards´ dormitory with the kitchen.

Jin and Leo lay on their stomachs on the top of the cliff, which sheltered the entrance to the mine. They managed to find a convenient way to that place from the west, and to their satisfaction, they had a good overview of the whole campsite from there, as quite a lot of kerosene lanterns were spread along the main road and on each corner of the buildings scattered around as well. They had also seen the line of chained workers, which disappeared in the dark hole under them almost half an hour ago.

Both young gunslingers had the impressive rifles in their hands. The weapons were properly cleaned and loaded, and had something over two-hundred-yards of effective range.

"They have it pretty well-covered," the younger of the two noted, passing the small one-eyed telescope on to his brother. "Check it out."

Only unwillingly, the older Akanishi took it in his hand. Leo noticed that his brother was not very eager to tear his eyes off the still-moving cart and that his other hand remained on the rifle all the time; Jin was more anxious than he would expect.

"Four men at the driveway, two in front of the office, just one by the barracks…" Jin counted in a quiet voice, as he moved with the telescope all over the site. "And if I remember correctly, two more had the position close that ugly hole under us, then other two at that dynamite shelter, or whatever it is. What about the rest, though?"

"The main office, or their dormitory, I´d say," Leo reacted; content that Jin reached the same result as himself.

"If anything goes wrong, I take the left side," Jin stated, putting the telescope aside, at the rock between them.

"All right," Leo agreed. "But don´t start shooting at any squirrel, which might jump down there."

His older sibling glanced at him, measuring his face in the shadows: "What do you mean?"

"You seem to be quite willing to do that if anything is even a little suspicious," Leo stated, checking on the cart, which had just stopped. "Do not do anything hasty, Brother."

"It´s quite normal to be worried in a situation like this," Jin announced stiffly.

"Of course, just don´t worry too much…"

"You tell me this? Last time I checked, it was your girlfriend crouching in that barrel," the older Akanishi reminded him curtly.

"But you act as if she´s yours," Leo snapped back, not very willing to admit he really was nervous about that fact.

"Jane maybe not, but Kame definitely is," his brother reacted harshly, making Leo glance at him confused.

"What?"

"My friend, I mean…" he completed the previous sentence, focusing his eyes at the happenings under them again.

Leo eyed him for a while yet: "They can do it, Jin… Have some faith in them."

The older one replied only after a short pause: "Yeah, I know they can…"

Jin focused on the small shadowy figures down there, rather than on his brother´s face. He really was anxious as hell. All of them saw what that mine was like and they had just sent four of them, including Kazuya, down there, right among who-knew-how-many crazy gunmen. Nevertheless, he should have been more careful about what he was saying…

Through the long eyelet, he could see two dark shadows slipping out from under the cart and one more popping up from the barrel just behind the trestle. It definitely wasn´t very pleasant for Jane to be squeezed in there; that thing had to stink as hell.

Non-invited figures gathered with the waggoneers for a brief moment, and then two youngsters sneaked away, avoiding the pools of light on the way.

"Kame and Ryo are on the move," he announced, giving the telescope back to Leo. Jin tried to spot the two mentioned even then, but it was almost impossible, without anything to help his eyes to accustom to the play of shadows around the campsite. The only fact, which made Jin calmer, was that the guards would not see them either like that.

"What the hell…" Leo murmured suddenly.

"What is it?" Jin flinched with his eyes at him startled.

"They don´t continue together…" the younger brother announced a little confused. "I spotted just Ryo heading for the barracks, but Kame is not with him."

"Let me see," Jin urged, literally tearing the thing off Leo´s hand. "Which way they went?"

"Around the manager´s office."

Jin searched for the most probable and the darkest route the younger one might have used and then something caught his attention. It was almost out of their eyesight, covered by the building partially, so they didn´t notice at first.

"There´s somebody tied up to the stake," he said, frowning unsatisfied, as he was trying to focus his eye more. There was only one lantern at the office´s veranda, so it was impossible to recognize the face of the man, but he was somehow familiar. Then he spotted a careful, yet very fast movement of the slim figure over that yard. Kame… The younger one was heading toward the captured man.

"Could it be Esler?" Jin asked forcing the telescope back to his brother.

Leo swore quietly, letting Jin know he was right: "Yeah, I think so. And there´s someone under the balcony…"

"That´s Kame," the older one stated, trying to ease his tense voice up.

"Carl or Patrick had to notice Cullen tied up there on their way around," Leo assumed. "So, Kame´s going to set him free first…"

"I don´t like it," Jin murmured, running with his eyes all over the office´s surroundings. "There´re still those two guards in front of it, but I don´t see any on that side, where Esler is. And somehow I doubt there´s no one."

"Yeah, you´re right… But I think Kame is careful enough not to alert them so quickly," the younger Akanishi stated.

"He is," Jin confirmed, but still tapped his rifle anxiously.

*

Cullen´s jaw literally dropped, when he realized that a sneaking figure, which suddenly emerged from the dark shadow of the office´s building was not any figment of his imagination, but Kamenashi with the black scarf around his neck.

"What the hell are you…" the Rider gaped at the youngster, who approached him with a knife in his hand.

"Ssh!!" Kamenashi hushed him urgently and stood on his tiptoes to cut the man´s ties. "The guard is just behind the corner, at the balcony above us."

The rope around Cullen´s wrists slackened and then fell, along with his hands, which were completely numb. Cullen staggered and almost collapsed, but Kamenashi supported the older man firmly.

"Can you move?" he asked whispering.

The Rider took two deep breaths and nodded: "I´ll manage somehow…"

"Good… Take off your coat then."

Kamenashi let him lean over the stake and walked away for a while. He came back with a rather big stone, which he wrapped into some cloth. Cullen pulled himself together a little and without unnecessary questions, he stripped off his dirty coat, hissing with the pain in his back. Then the younger one tied both sleeves to the loose ends of the rope and added the wrapped stone between them, to make it look like a bowed head. Cullen stared at the result appreciatively – in the dark it was hard to say there was nobody standing there.

"Follow me," that incredible youngster instructed him. Cullen had no idea how Kamenashi got inside the heavily guarded campsite, but he was definitely not alone, so he gulped the questions down for later.

They retreated into the deep shadow under the balcony just in time; they could already hear the steps of the guard walking above their heads. They waited frozen on the spot anxiously, but fortunately, no yell of surprise or warning came, and the man walked around the whole side of the house, continuing his watch.

Kamenashi looked back at Cullen and the older man nodded, to let him know he was ready to move on. They ran across the yard, toward the shelter for wood supplies and cowered behind it they got further away from the office, without being noticed. They needed to cross just the short space between it and the shed for tools, and then they stopped at the next corner. The youngster peeped out from behind and then gestured Cullen to continue toward the other building – the kitchen and dining room. Cullen spotted the cart standing there and some men around.

"Who else is here with you?" he asked whispering.

"That´s Carl and Patrick over there," Kamenashi explained hastily. "Ryo went for Jack."

"And Leo?" Cullen insisted on being aware of the whole situation.

"He´s backing us with Jin from the cliff above the mine," the youngster replied impatiently.

"Ryo will need back-up himself," Cullen approached the corner now too, looking out carefully at the empty road. "There´s a full barrack of workers, all of them sleeping, he won´t find Jack so easily."

"That´s why we´re planning to let all of them go," Kamenashi explained. "Go now."

The surprised Rider turned to him in disbelief: "You cannot make such a reckless…!"

But Kamenashi didn´t listen to his urgent objections anymore, as his slim figure once again disappeared in the night.

"Damn!" Cullen swore, as he limped across the road toward the cart.

They forced the workers to have their chains all the time, so Ryo would have to unlock them first. They couldn´t do it without keys, which only a few of the guards had. They could only hope that one of them was guarding that building now…

*

The room full of exhausted men gradually fell silent. No matter that they had to sleep on the floor, any rest was more than a welcome change from hard mining in the bedrocks or smelting of ore. The heavy thud didn´t disturb their sleep, and the door opening startled just those few who lied close to them. A sudden light from the big kerosene lantern brought more of them to their senses, and the clinging of keys worked even better.

The enslaved men, even some boys, and a few women squinted in the light confusedly. It was not a time for another shift yet; they hardly got any sleep at all. The stranger carrying the lantern stopped in the middle of their poor bedroom, and raised his other hand with a bunch of heavy keys up, letting them cling again. More of awoken workers sat up, and stared at the tall man with a black scarf over his face first, before their eyes were attracted to the shine of metal in the stranger´s hand.

"So, who wants to get out of here?" the young voice asked.

Considering the expressions on all faces around, the workers probably wondered if they had a crazy dream or mass hallucination. Somebody else entered the barracks then and the second youngster with a scarf appeared.

"Stop flaunting and start unlocking," he hissed at his companion reproachfully.

"Kame…" the other one whined. "Let me have at least two minutes of this good feeling."

"We don´t have two minutes!" the younger one reacted almost angrily. "And don´t call me by name! What´s gotten into you?"

"All right, all right, I´m sorry," the first incomer somewhat slackened his attitude. "Ok, then, everyone! Which key is the right one?"

The deadly silent room, full of wide-open eyes now, didn´t reply.

"Oh, come on! I know you´re happy to see your saviors, but please – hurry up!" the youngster looked around impatiently, while his companion checked the outside of the barracks shortly.

"It´s separated," a child´s voice was heard at the end of one line of workers. "Three keys, three kinds of locks."

The black-haired one gasped at the dirty boy around fifteen years: "What? Oh, shit…"

"We should hurry up then!" his younger companion closed the door and rushed to the other one, taking the keys. He crossed the room and approached the kid, to show him the bunch of metal more closely. "Do you remember which one belongs to yours?"

The small worker nodded, reached up his hand with broken nails and touched one of the keys.

"Great," the masked gunman kneeled to his legs. "Do you have any decided order for the places where you sleep?" he continued asking, while the other one just goggled at him above the scarf.

"Well," the boy hesitated, with his dark eyes observing the slim hands unlocking the thing, which stole his freedom away for so long. "Yes, they always say to each newcomer, where to lie down."

"What does it matter?" the first one asked confused.

"It seems that Koki is contagious…" the younger one murmured so quietly, that only the boy could hear it, and then straightened up: "It may mean that the same key belongs to this whole line," he separated the key from the ring and forced it into his baffled companion´s hand. "Try it," he said and moved on to the second row, which has already started to stir; the workers got excited, when they saw the boy standing with his legs free.

"Do you mean it, guys?" an elder man from the last line asked, his shaking hand reaching toward them. "Do you really mean to get us out of here?"

Very kind, brown eyes focused on him: "We will definitely try," the young stranger reacted, with the guilt hidden in his voice.

*

"What a pretty girl like you is doing at the ugly place like this?" a hairy and stinky man, who obviously had a lot of self-confidence, but made Jane sick, grabbed her wrist to drag the brunette closer to the light.

Jane forced an almost apologetic smile on her lips: "I´m just helping out my family, Mister."

Her task was annoying, but it worked more than well. Well, of course, it did. Many men, whom Jane got to know in her life, were idiots thinking with their crotch. It didn´t took her much effort to distract the gunmen in the kitchen enough for Carl and Patrick to unload the barrels with so-called beer, as it was only in one of them. Already stealing that single one in the Johnson Gulch was a pain in the ass. Then the guys loaded something completely else instead – Cullen in torn-out clothes, whom she managed to notice through the half-open door, making a note in her mind to kick Carl for not closing them properly.

"Oh, you´re a nice girl, aren´t you?" the other present gunman noted with a randy smile, dousing his cigarette. "What about being nice to us, too?"

"Yeah, good idea, man," the other one agreed and strengthened the grip around her wrist.

Suppressing the urge to vomit, Jane leant forward to whisper into the man´s ear: "Maybe next time, Mister. It´s quite late, I need to go back quickly."

"Don´t worry, sweetheart, we can make it very quick…"

Both guards laughed nastily over that disgusting joke.

"But that would be not so enjoyable then," Jane purred, scratching the man´s chin with the stubble and in her mind praying for…

The door opened fully without knocking and two youngsters with black scarves across their faces came inside.

Yes, for that exactly I prayed for... Jane appreciated.

The stinky man was faster to understand the situation than his companion was, seeing the revolvers in the incomers´ hands. However, he reached only for the empty sheath, as his gun was already in Jane´s hand. She aimed at his head with much more honest smile than before.

"Not a move, Mister," she asked him, while her companions moved toward the other guard to tie him up. "Pretty please, as I´m a nice girl."

*

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Ryo swore, as soon as he made sure that the sleeping building was empty. "How comes he´s not here?"

Kame was unpleasantly surprised as well, but tried hard to remain calm. He expected some fuss about the unusual movements of the workers they let go every second, and that would mean they had to retreat as soon as possible.

"You´re looking for someone, sir?" that boy, whom they freed as the first, was ironically the last one to stay, as he supported an old man during the walk. Hearing Ryo´s desperate swearing, the pair stopped at the corner.

Ryo glanced at them, confused about what they were still doing there.

"Yes. Our friend…" he murmured unhappily.

"He has a fair hair and a little scar under his eye; he got here only recently. Do you remember someone like that?" Kame asked.

"Yes, that might be him," the old man, leaning over the boy´s shoulder, reacted. "Some blonde kid wanted to change shifts with me today."

Their rescuers looked at each other wordlessly.

"You mean he´s inside the mine now?" Ryo asked baffled.

The old man nodded. This time, both youngsters cursed their bad luck at the same moment.