Stranger in the Dark

Just to be safe, Ehawee decides to sneak back to the cabin and make sure there's no one still alive who could cause trouble. She figures it's worth the delay to be sure armed soldiers won't be coming up behind her while she's trying to free the men.

As she approaches the structure, she realizes that the cabin was built high enough off the prairie that it'll be hard to have a look in through the windows from the ground. To really find out, she'll have to go inside. Still cautious, she circles the cabin once from the outside, looking for obvious lights or movement, but sees nothing. Then she climbs the three steps up to the door and listens. She can't be certain at first, but she thinks she hears something. She pauses, pressing her ear hard up against the door and straining to make out what the noise might be. The longer she listens, the more clarity she gains. It sounds like the ragged breath of someone who is either hurt, or who is greatly afraid; the breathing is both rapid and shallow. It doesn't sound like it's coming from near the door, so she stands to the side and opens the door slightly, as quietly as she can. Her plan is to stop and listen after opening the door an inch or so, figuring that if the person inside can see the door moving from where they are, or hear it, it'll affect their breathing pattern. As soon as the door opens, however, there is a gasp, and she hears a pistol cock. She quickly leans even further away from the door, in case they decide to shoot, and tries to think of how many officers there might be on this base. The only one she can think of for sure, besides the lieutenant, is the white chief. Could this be him? Or someone else? Whoever it is, she's almost positive that they're alone. If there were any other people in the building, the man with the gun would have called out for them. If only she could see inside.... The moon is behind her, illuminating part of the room, but not enough, and she can't peek around the door to get a better look without giving her position away.

Ehawee decides to give up on the man, for now, figuring it's better to investigate after her people are freed than get shot while they're still prisoners. Whoever is inside the cabin seems either injured or scared. Either way, they aren't likely to emerge at the sound of gunshots. Or so she hopes.

She heads back to the area where the men are being held, grabbing a few more loaded pistols from some of the tents along the way. Approaching the area quietly, she aims a pistol at each of the guards, making sure the shots won't endanger any of her people if she misses. Then, after taking a steadying breath, she pulls the triggers. Two shots ring out, downing the guards and waking her people.

Ehawee moves forward quickly and begins searching the guards, hoping one of them will have the key to unlock the chains holding the men prisoner. Unfortunately, they have no keys of any kind. Her heart sinking at this realization, she takes a closer look at how the men are being held, hoping it might be possible to free them without the key. She sees two long lengths of chain coming out from the pole. Her people are chained to these lengths with shackles, and the chains look sturdy enough to withstand anything at hand. It will be almost impossible to free them without the key.

Trying not to let her desperation show in her voice, Ehawee addresses the waking men, many of whom are looking up at her with bewilderment in their eyes. "Who has the key? Does anyone know?"

"The white war chief," one man says. "In the wooden lodge."

Ehawee feels a mixture of relief and despair at these words. Relief that she knows where to look. Despair that the keys are in the one location that's defended by an armed man. With only one door, and the windows out of reach, how can she hope to get inside without being shot? Still, she has no choice but to try.

First, though, she looks for Kohana among the men, anxious to see how he's doing. She finally spots him among those who have not awoken yet, and has to fight the urge to go to him. It's vital for everyone that she get the keys, and if she goes to him, and he's badly hurt, she's not sure she'd be able to make herself leave again. Better not to know until afterward.

On the off chance that there are any soldiers still alive, besides the one in the cabin, Ehawee gives the healthiest looking men two of the loaded pistols she gathered. "Most of the whites are dead," she explains. "But in case any survivors arrive before I return, you may need these."

The men nod, still looking somewhat confused. Confident that they'll at least be able to defend themselves while she's gone, Ehawee hurries to where the women are being kept, wanting to let them know what's going on. In many ways they look in worse shape than the men, and she guesses that many of them have been ill-used by the whites. The sight of them makes her wish, for the first time, that the men she killed had suffered more before they died.

Seeking out Magaskawee, Ehawee updates her on the current situation. "Most of the whites are dead. I've killed the two that were guarding the men, but I need to find the key to the chains in order to free them. We'll need to leave this place as soon as possible afterwards. Can you pass the news to the other women, so they can get ready?"

"I will," Magaskawee answers, although her pleasure at seeing Ehawee doesn't quite seem to reach her eyes.

Ehawee hugs Magaskawee tightly, not quite knowing what to say. Magaskawee has a hard time letting her go, and Ehawee realizes that she's trembling. She holds onto her sister-in-law until the trembling begins to subside before reluctantly letting go. "I'll be back soon," she promises, looking as confident as she can. "Then we leave this place."

Magaskawee nods numbly.

Ehawee hurries off, stopping to grab a few more pistols before heading for the cabin again. She stops as she draws closer to it, trying to recall what she saw of its layout when she was inside, and where the man she heard might be located. When she thinks about it, she assumes whoever is in there would be best off if they'd knocked the big, heavy desk over to hide behind, protecting them from the door. However, there's a window opposite the door, behind that desk. Now all she needs to do is find a way to reach it.

Unable to find anything to climb up on, Ehawee removes her moccasins and begins growing her nails into claws. As the minutes slowly tick by, her finger and toenails begin to harden, then to grow ever so slowly. Almost half an hour passes before she is able to pull herself up the wall, sticking her fingers and toes into the cracks in the lumber. She climbs up to one side of the window, so she can peek in without exposing too much of her head, and takes a look inside. The room is dark within, the door now shut again. It is very hard to see anything, but she thinks she can barely make out a small figure hunched behind the desk in front of her. Wishing that the lieutenant had stuck around long enough to help with this last little bit, she stares at the figure, hoping her eyes will adjust and she'll be able to see better. She also listens carefully, wondering if the man is still breathing as heavily as he was before...if he's breathing at all.

Just as slowly as her nails changed, so do her eyes and ears. She hears the same raspy and frightened breathing as before, and sees that the figure behind the desk is holding a gun firmly in front of himself. Much to her surprise, he appears to be a boy, no older than herself. What is he doing in a soldier camp, she wonders?

Temporarily moving her attention away from the boy, Ehawee glances around the room, trying to see if there are any bodies on the floor. She quickly spots two lying motionless on either side of the door, which is why she didn't see them earlier. She studies the bedroom next, considering the possibility of entering the cabin through the window there, but realizes that the lieutenant closed the shutters to it while she was sleeping. Running low on options, she decides that her best chance of entering the room appears to be through the window she's peering in, since it is closed but not shuttered from the inside. She examines the window carefully, then slowly opens it, ready to stop the moment it makes noise. The wood of the sill makes a scraping sound as she lifts it, but just barely. For the high-strung boy inside, however, it must have sounded like a gunshot, because he leaps over to the other side of the desk with amazing speed.

Ehawee pulls her head back before the boy can turn, afraid that she might be silhouetted in the window. Then she holds still and listens, trying to hear what the boy is doing. She figures he isn't going to want to stay on the other side of the desk for long, since it leaves his back exposed to the door. Sure enough, she soon hears frantic scraping noises from inside the room, as if he's dragging the desk...probably into the corner between the window and the wall opposite the bedroom door. She risks taking a quick peek, counting on the fact that moving the desk will take some effort, so the boy probably won't be watching the window. She finds that he is, indeed, rather concerned at the moment with getting himself barricaded into the corner, holding the gun in his mouth by the handle, since his hands are rather occupied. Fear is giving him a certain amount of strength, so it doesn't appear that it will take him long to finish erecting his barricade...and once he does, he'll be almost impossible to get out.

"Deadwood"
Ehawee's Page | Ehawee's Story

All text on this page is © 2001 by Kris Fazzari.

Last modified on June 15, 2001 by Kris Fazzari.