royannahuggins
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Join date : 2013-10-13
 | | Rascals - Part 1 by Nightwalker | |
Starring
Pete Duel and Ben Murphy as
Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry
Guest Starring
Brighton Sharbino as Kathy McCarthy
Joe Mazzello as Thad McCarthy
& Brad Renfro as Tim McCarthy
Jared Padalecki as Bill McCarthy
Mary Stuart Masterson as Jane McCarthy
Daniel Craig as Seth Rascals
by Nightwalker
Two horsemen rode over the prairie, heading for higher ground. As they drew closer, they could be recognized as Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, riding hell bent for leather. A trailing dust cloud far behind them hinted that they were not alone out on the plains.
-o-o-o-
With the falling night, the scenery changed. Boulders and rocks were scattered over stony ground, forcing the friends to slow down the pace of their horses.
-o-o-o-
As the sun rose again, the weary riders halted their mounts on a ridge. They took a look around and noticed that the dust cloud was still following their path up to the hills. They exchanged a short glance before they turned their horses in unison and kicked them into a heavy-footed lope again.
-o-o-o-
The sun stood high in the sky, indicating it was about noon, and burned down merciless on the boys and their tired horses. They looked pretty worn by now; riders and mounts both covered with dust and sweat as they arrived at the foot of another rise, a steep wall reaching up for the sky. The ground was rocky and dry without any sign of water. Dry weeds and bushes were spread all over the place, and only intensified the repellent impression of the inhospitable terrain.
As Kid Curry’s horse stumbled, a jackrabbit jumped up, hightailing it towards the bluff, where it disappeared behind a curtain of dried vines.
The boys exchanged a surprised look. Kid Curry slid off his horse and followed the tracks of the small animal. As he pushed his hand between the vegetation, a low thud sounded. The blond gunslinger frowned, clenched his fist and bumped it a couple times against the hidden wall again, producing two more dull knocking sounds. He brushed a handful of vines aside, revealing the remainders of wooden boards, which had mostly become victims of the ravages of time.
The Kid turned to his partner. For a moment, the two friends locked eyes, initializing a short and nonverbal communication, which ended with a twofold smile. Simultaneously, they took off the saddlebags and scared the horses away.
“Let’s hope the posse follows their tracks to the next water hole,” Hannibal Heyes said. “If we’re lucky, they’ll lead them a couple of miles astray.”
His partner squinted his eyes. He nodded, his look following the disappearing horses. “Let’s hope so. It’s about time our luck turns again.”
As the hoofbeats faded away, the boys turned around and entered the dark tunnel leading into the hill. Now the place was deserted and quiet again. Nothing announced the presence of the tunnel or the fugitives.
As the posse passed by a while later, they didn’t even slow down their pace.
[Fade out]
[Well known Trailer]
[Fade in]
A small fire tried to scare the darkness away and illuminated the dead end of a tunnel. Vaguely visible at the edge of the light range was a fork where the old mine shaft split into two branches. Now and then dust trickled down from the ceiling. Heyes was pacing the rough ground while Kid Curry sat close to the fire, listlessly picking at a helping of beans.
“The waiting’s just trying our nerves,” Heyes stated. “We should get outta here; the sooner the better. If only the dang posse wasn’t around here anymore. But every time we peek out of this hole, we find new tracks. I’m just happy they don’t know the place well enough to find us here.” He reached the wall and whirled around. “We’re staying put way too long. We only found moldy water, and sooner or later we’re going to run out of supplies.” He paused and threw his friend a meaningful glance. “Rather sooner, I suppose,” he added before he turned around and resumed sizing the tunnel. “Just sitting around and waiting isn’t a good plan – no plan at all. We should have done better...” Heyes went on with his complaints.
“How?” Kid Curry replied stoically between bites.
“We should’ve changed directions on rocky ground.”
“There was no rocky ground when we needed it.”
“Then we should’ve circled back and tried it the other way around!”
“The horses were almost finished and the posse was too close.”
“Though...”
“Stop it, Heyes!” the Kid finally busted out, tossing his plate to the ground. “Just stop it! Or the posse will be satisfied by findin’ your cold dead body out there!” He jumped up and glared at his friend. “Two days of endless, senseless babblin’. Two endless days! There was no other way or we would’ve taken it!”
“But, Kid -” Heyes began again just to be cut off.
“SHUT UP!” The strong, growling voice of the angry gunslinger echoed throughout the dark veins crossing the hill and sent small rivulets of dust from the ceiling to the ground. Kid Curry froze and frowned while his suspicious eyes panned the ground.
Heyes shook the dust out of his hair and grimaced. “Now that was helpful!” he snapped sarcastically. “Come on! Do it again! Either they hear us and drag us outta here or the ceiling will come down and end this! Whichever happens, I won’t have to stand your bad temper anymore!”
“My bad temper...!?” the Kid growled, about to explode, but a small sound silenced both of them: two stones hitting one another. Alerted, they startled. They stared beyond the range of their fire, trying to penetrate the darkness with their eyes. As one, they turned their heads, listening to the left, where faint rays of daylight indicated the entrance.
They exchanged a short glance and drew their weapons. It was silent again, but not silent enough. Little sounds, too low to identify their origin, disturbed the quietness. Cautiously avoiding any noise, the Kid covered their small fire with a dented tin bucket. Spare rays of light seeped out of the pail’s cracks and along the ground. Criss-crossed sticks made it impossible to hide it completely, but most of the light was covered.
Again, they strained their ears, listening. More low sounds were to be heard.
“Shuffling feet?” mouthed Heyes.
Kid Curry shrugged his shoulders. “Somethin’s out there.”
“Something alive?” Heyes whispered and Curry shrugged again. It was hard to say if the sounds were really there, but the atmosphere had changed. A distinct feeling of tension filled the air.
Cautiously the friends moved closer to the tunnel’s fork, instinctively choosing the best position to cover each other. Heyes acquired an advanced position close to the corner; Kid Curry at the other side of the tunnel to gain a clear shot range and back him up.
More shuffling sounds, clearly identifiable now, not too far away.
The boys froze and held their breath.
Footsteps, more than one pair, accompanied by low whispering.
There were at least two voices, maybe more, but the echo off the stony walls distorted the sound, making it hard to be sure.
“You’re sure this is the place?” one voice asked.
“We've searched everywhere else,” another one answered. “This is the only hideout left.”
“You sure there was no chance to pass us by?”
“We would've seen ‘em. At least there would've been tracks. Have you seen any tracks?”
“No, but you sure-”
“I’m the sheriff! Ask me one more time and you’ll never be my deputy again!”
Heyes leaned forward to take a peek and saw the shapes: two of them. Pretty small shapes.
When he noticed details, he lifted his brows in surprise. The thoughts beginning to race through his mind were mirrored on his expressive face, as he hunted for a plan.
The sound of a cocking gun cut him off.
“Hold it, Kid!”
Heyes' warning was followed by a threefold high-pitched scream. He leaped forward and stopped their uninvited visitors. They spun around and ran into Kid Curry, who blocked the way back to the entrance and herded them towards their makeshift camp. Heyes turned around and kicked the covering bucket off the fire. Light flooded the area.
Three small figures appeared, the Kid rising up behind them like a silent giant. His blue eyes widened in surprise before he applied his poker face again. Slowly he holstered his weapon and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“What are you doing here?” Heyes asked the intruders sternly.
He was answered with big scared eyes, shuffling feet and low whimpering, not sure who of the threesome was the source of the latter. His eyes lingered on the tiny one on the left.
Two young boys and a tall girl faced him. The lower lip of the youngest trembled; he seemed to be close to breaking into tears. The girl nudged her elbow in his side, followed by a short resolute gesture of her head before she turned around, following Heyes’ movement as he stalked towards his partner.
“Nothing, sir,” she answered.
Heyes spun around and raised his brow. “Nothing?”
“We’re just playing-”
“Playing?!”
“Sheriff and outlaw!” She nodded towards the older boy. “Tim’s the robber. Thad and I are the sheriff and the deputy.”
“Never heard of deputizing girls before,” Heyes replied.
“That’s why I’m sheriff!” the girl countered cockily.
“Oh, I apologize, ma’am.” Heyes bowed towards her, addressing her with a half-dimpled smile.
The Kid tilted his head towards his partner and whispered, “What do we do now?”
“They haven’t seen anything suspicious yet,” Heyes answered sotto voce, “but we can’t let them go that easy. Kids talk, parents ask questions. The posse is too close to take a risk.”
He fixed his scrutinizing eyes on the girl again. Curry, who knew his partner, saw the reflection of his somersaulting thoughts in his eyes, as he tried to find a way out of their situation.
Meanwhile, the Kid’s protective streak took over. “Didn’t your ma ever tell you to keep away from dark and scary places?” Curry asked.
The girl stepped forward towards Heyes and returned his glare, but answered the Kid’s question. Heyes smothered a smile away as he noticed it.
“This place isn’t scary! We’ve been here before. It’s exciting! You know-”
“Excitin’?” the Kid growled. “It’s dangerous!”
Again, the ground seemed to respond to his anger, but now it was more noticeable. There was some sort of vibration in the rocks, accompanied by a low rumble. A quick glance towards Heyes and the frown on his face told him that he sensed it, too.
He received a questioning look from his dark-haired friend and nodded acknowledgment.
“Alright, keep calm,” Heyes took over again. “There’s nothing to fear. We’ll all get out of here and talk outside. Just-”
He was cut off by a deep low growl raising off the ground, which trembled visibly now, much stronger than before. They all were fighting to keep their balance. More dust and small stones rained down on them. One of the kids let out a scared squeak. The Kid and Heyes exchanged another glance.
“Out! Now!” Kid Curry took the lead to the exit, the two boys were right on his tail, followed by the girl whose longer legs would let her catch up to them soon. Heyes grabbed their saddlebags and brought up the rear.
Another shock shook the earth; the ground bucked hard and left all of them staggering. More rock slid off the ceiling. Clouds of dust filled the air.
“Too far, get cov-” But Heyes' warning came too late.
The next wave nearly sent all of them off their feet. Heyes grabbed the kid closest to him; it was the girl. He pulled her against his chest, cupped her head with his hand and turned the girl back towards the tunnel wall to cover and steady both of them.
Another shock ran through the earth. The girl screamed and struggled against Heyes' firm grip.
Following her look, he turned his head and noticed the unfolding drama. From the corner of his eye he saw Kid Curry on his knees, hunched down, both boys hidden under his outspread arms, sheltering them with his body.
Blue eyes and brown eyes locked.
Just then a part of the ceiling finally lost its hold and crashed down on Curry, covering him from further sight with stone shards and dust.
Heyes instinctively turned to help his partner, but something hard hit his head and his world went dark...
-o-o-o-
It was dark.
He moaned in pain.
As hard as he tried to breathe, he couldn’t.
“Wake up!” an unfamiliar voice told him. He refused to open his eyes, instead he slowly rolled over to his side.
“WAKE UP!” The second call was followed by a slap in his face.
Hannibal Heyes tore his eyes wide open.
It was dark.
He moaned in pain.
As hard as he tried to breathe, he couldn’t. Thick clouds of dust filled the air.
He sat up and coughed. His face distorted in pain, he curled himself up and held his aching head.
“Kid?” he asked. He was answered with a relieved sigh.
“I’m here, sir,” the unfamiliar voice told him.
Heyes squinted his eyes and poured out a stream of questions as one: “Where am I? Why is it dark? Where’s the Kid?” A sequence of pictures flashed up in the darkness of his mind: Kid Curry on his knees, blue eyes fixed on him, the collapsing tunnel!
Instantly, Heyes jumped onto his feet, or at least he tried. He bumped into something soft – a body. Vertigo and the lack of balance sent him down on his knees. He let out a painful groan which was accompanied by a high-pitched scream.
“Stop that! What are you doing?”
“Who is it?” Heyes asked.
“Katherine McCarthy. Kathy. You remember me?”
They coughed in chorus.
“Yeah. I guess. The girl. The cave-in.”
They shared another coughing fit.
“Are you alright?” he asked into the darkness.
“Yes, I think so. But the dust...”
Thinking was a difficult task with the lack of air. The strain of it showed on the ex-outlaw’s face. Suddenly his face lit up. With stiff movements, Heyes stripped off his shirt and tore it into pieces. He reached his hand out towards the voice, offering one of the strips to his invisible companion.
“Here, take this. Cover your nose and mouth.”
It took several tries before their hands eventually met. When the girl took the cloth out of his hand, he picked up another one and tied it around his own head. It took a moment to adjust, but soon the breathing came easier and the coughing fits faded.
Heyes tucked the remaining cloths behind his belt, murmuring, “I sure hope we’ll need ‘em soon.” Louder he declared, “We need light. There’s a candle in my saddlebag. It has to be somewhere behind me. I dropped it when I covered you.” Cautiously he started groping the ground. “If I could only be sure where ‘behind me’ is.” While he was searching, he resumed the conversation with the girl. “You better now?”
“Uh-huh.”
“How are you? Are you hurt?
“I... no. I don’t know,” she sounded a bit uncertain, but there was no pain in her voice.
“If you don’t know, it can’t be serious. Just stay where you are. I’ll try to make some sort of light.”
“But Tim and Thad! We have to help them!”
“I know, but we can’t if we don’t see what we’re doing.” Suddenly his fingers touched leather. He pulled the item out of the gravel and shook the dust off saddlebags. “Let’s hope that it's the right one.”
Quickly he browsed through its contents. Just a moment later he held a candle and matches in his hands. Another blink later, he struck one of the matches and blinding light scared the darkness away. It took a few attempts until the candle caught fire but then it burned steadily and spread a small range of light.
Opposite of him appeared the dirty face of the girl. He noticed some abrasions and bruises but no serious injuries, at least not at first sight. As soon as he lit the candle, she was about to jump up.
“Easy, Kathy! We have to be careful,” he admonished her before he called for his partner. “Thaddeus!?”
Heyes listened carefully, but didn’t notice any response.
“They don’t answer! They can’t! I called them while you were still sleeping,” she told him ungraciously.
“Thanks, ma’am. Very kind of you, letting me take my nap in peace. I just wouldn’t call it sleep,” he snapped back and cautiously touched his head. Even the brief touch made him wince. Then he stiffened and knit his brow. “Did you really slap me?”
The girl looked a little bit contrite and nodded.
“Well done,” Heyes said and patted her shoulder, showing the hint of a smile in the corner of his eyes.
Turning around, he studied the place where he had seen his partner the last time. There was no sign of him or the boys to be seen, only a solid heap of soil and gravel that reached for the ceiling. The exit was blocked; his partner was buried underneath the debris. The shock was unmistakably displayed on his face. But within a blink he had composed himself and was focused again; his eyes panning the surroundings.
“We have to keep calm; panic wouldn’t do any good for anyone,” he told the girl. “First we have to get better light and tools. I guess we can find what we need in the dead end. Come on, Kathy, you can help me!”
In the dead end Heyes found embers of the suffocated campfire which he cautiously shoved into the metal bucket while Kathy picked up wooden boards and splinters. “That’s for the light problem,” Heyes stated. “Let’s see if we can find tools.”
In a corner they found a rusty pick axe and a partially broken shovel. Heyes gave the tools a doubtful glance, but as nothing else was available, they would have to do. Hastily the compulsory companions hurried back to the cave-in.
“Kathy, can you start a fire? We need as much light as we can get.”
“Sure, I can,” she answered cockily. “It’s part of my daily chores.”
Heyes grinned. When he reached the foot of the heap, the flames already blazed behind him. “Alright, you’re pretty fast, I’ll give you that,” he admitted.
A short look revealed no sign of the missing. Quickly, but cautiously, he started to remove gravel and boulders where he recalled the last place the three had been seen.
Kathy approached him from behind. “What can I do?”
“I’ll need your help as soon as we know where they are. ‘Till then you can get us more firewood. And water. We’ll need both. There were a few ponds-”
“I know them,” she cut him off. “And I know where to find clear water, too! I’ll take the bucket and the canteen I’ve seen in the rubble. I’ll be back soon.” Voice and attitude resembled a teacher more than a girl.
Heyes raised his brows and pursed his lips. “Yes, ma’am,” he mumbled while she was already making off. He then resumed his work and didn’t interrupt it anymore. Sometimes small aftershocks trembled throughout the ground, but he ignored them.
“I just wish I knew how much time we have,” Heyes told no one in particular. “How long have I been out cold? How much air do you have down there, Kid? I’d be real upset if you’d let me dig like that only for you to disappoint me! You can’t scare me by keeping silent. You can’t!”
As fast as possible he dug his way deeper through the debris, knocking on larger stones now and then, calling for his friend...
Last edited by royannahuggins on Thu 06 Feb 2020, 9:48 pm; edited 2 times in total | |
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After reading through your VS story, I have to admit that I would never have guessed this was your first time writing one! 
for a very entertaining first VS story. I look forward to reading part two and finding out how all the conflicts are resolved.