October skies

He closed his eyes again, panting rhythmically, replaying something in his head. Ben noticed he was shaking; his leathery, tobacco-stained lips trembled. The sight of that rattled Ben. He considered Keats unflappable, his gruff, unpolished demeanour impervious to anything. And yet here he was looking frail and frightened and, all of a sudden, a very old man.

He leaned closer to him. ‘Come on, what? Tell me, what was it?’

Keats’s eyes flickered open, focused on something a thousand miles away, then his gaze drifted across to Ben’s face, the here and now. ‘I saw it with my own eyes, Lambert. Ain’t no man… ain’t that son-of-a-whore Preston did those killin’s — like you was sayin’.’ He licked his dry lips again. ‘Saw somethin’ I can’t explain.’

Broken Wing spoke a word Ben had heard the Paiute men utter sombrely amongst themselves over the last few days.

Keats nodded weakly. ‘That’s right… Goddamn right. It ain’t nothin’ natural — nothin’ that by rights should be walkin’ this world.’

Ben heard Mrs Zimmerman gasp. ‘The angel,’ she whispered, ‘come down to punish us.’

‘White-face ssspirit,’ said Broken Wing.

‘That’s what I saw, Lambert,’ gasped Keats. ‘Goddamned fuckin’ demon — no angel. Came out of the trees and took Weyland’s head clean off.’

‘What did it look like?’

‘Bones, an’ a skull… Goddamned graveyard come to life,’ he snorted with a dry scaffold smile.

Bones.

‘Fuckin’ thing moved so fast. I got me a little powder, but no shot left… might’ve put a ball in it if I had. If I got me another few-’

Ben placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘Keats, listen to me. I think it might be Preston. It has to be.’ He looked around at the others. ‘Preston in some sort of… of a disguise.’

Keats grabbed his side and cackled. ‘Ain’t… that… fuckin’ zealot fool,’ he grunted. ‘Maybe them Paiutes was right… after all.’

‘What do you mean?’

Keats smiled. ‘Mebbe… we took a little madness into the woods with us.’ Keats grunted painfully, looking down at his seeping bandage. ‘Gonna have me a one helluva fuckin’ scar to show off.’

Broken Wing spoke, and gestured with some urgency towards Emily.

‘What? What’s that you’re saying?’ he said, looking up at the Indian.

He gestured to the trees. ‘It comess. Iss come for Am-ee-lee.’

‘What?’ Ben looked to Mrs Zimmerman. ‘Why? Why would Preston want her?’

She shook her head, confused. ‘Emily is his daughter… most of the children were his.’

Broken Wing shook his head. ‘Not Presss-ton.’

‘Then it’s the angel!’ whimpered Mrs Zimmerman. ‘The angel wants us all… all of th-those that followed Preston!’

‘It’s nothing of the sort!’ snapped Ben. ‘It’s a man, that’s all! And if it isn’t Preston, then it’s someone else amongst your group, someone who’s gone mad!’

‘It come,’ uttered Broken Wing, ‘it come this way.’

‘You’ve been followed?’

Broken Wing pointed to the fire, the column of smoke. ‘It seee sssmoke.’

‘Oh God have mercy on us,’ cried Mrs Zimmerman, burying her face in her hands and sobbing.

Ben turned back to Keats, perhaps the only other person here he felt he could engage with rationally. ‘Keats, what the hell do we do?’

There was no reply. The old man was lying perfectly still.

‘Keats?’

Broken Wing knelt down and held a hand above the guide’s nose and mouth, feeling tentatively for the warmth of his breath. Ben could see by the pallor of his skin that it was too late.

The Shoshone’s expressionless eyes met Ben’s. ‘Kee-eet… isss

…’ He splayed the fingers of one hand. Instinctively, Ben comprehended the unfamiliar gesture.

Dead.

Broken Wing anxiously looked over his shoulder, back into the woods. Speaking rapidly in Ute he pointed at the fire, the rising smoke, and then gestured towards the trees. And Ben realised what he was pointing out.

The smoke will attract… him… it, to this place.

‘We go… now!’ said Broken Wing, pointing towards the riverbank as he stepped around the fire towards Mrs Zimmerman, reaching out to grab an arm to lift her off the ground.

He’s right; we must stick to the riverbank. Stay in the open.

The apron of ground between where the trees petered out and the river flowed afforded them a chance to react if it attempted to rush them.

‘Come on,’ Ben said to Mrs Zimmerman, ‘we have to go now. He’s telling us this thing’s nearby and coming for us… for Emily. We have to move. Now.’

He bent down to pick up Emily, but she seemed no longer so listless and was able to pull herself up, as if inch by inch she was returning to this world.

‘Foll-ow ri-verrr,’ said Broken Wing, pulling Mrs Zimmerman to her feet.

All of a sudden, the stillness of the woods was shattered by something moving deep within, beyond sight — something moving too quickly to concern itself with stealth.

‘Oh shit!’ he whispered.

Emily looked towards the trees, no more than fifty yards away from where they stood on the riverbank. Her pale blue eyes came alive. She seemed to be almost back in this world with them. A small hand reached out for Ben’s poncho, and tugged on it.

‘Mr Lambert,’ she said in a quiet voice, ‘there really are angels.’