Disclaimers: The following story is a work of fiction that will...at some point... contain sexual content between a man and a preteen boy. If this is not your kind of story, if you are too young to read this kind of story, or if it is not legal for you to read such content where you live please do not read any further.

Legal stuff: The following story is the property of me the author and may not be reproduced or posted to any other site without the consent of me, said author.

Contact info: If you want to write to me you can do so at papabear73_03@hotmail.com This is my first attempt at writing a story like this, so all hate mail or "flame" mail will be ignored so don't waste your time writing it because I won't waste my time replying. If you have something constructive to say please feel free to contact me. This will not be one of those short stories with sexual content in the first few seconds of it starting. Instead it will be somewhat longer building up to a loving and mutual sexual relationship between 2 of the characters. I hope you enjoy it.

And now we continue the story...

Fields of War

By

Papabear

Chapter 3

The Flood Gates Open

            I awoke sometime later and for the first time in my life I feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. From the seat at the front of the wagon I can hear Murray and Anderson talking, but I can't really make out what they're saying. I look over at Rick and see that he is still unconscious, but breathing so I take that as a good sign. Again, I kiss him on the lips and I swear I can hear him moan and feel him start to kiss me back, but I stop myself before I wake him up knowing that he needs to stay still and rest. My arm is sore, but I can deal with it until we get to the hospital. Right now, I'm more worried about Rick then I am about myself. Then, clear as a bell I hear Anderson say with a heavy sigh, "Well, there it is...dead mans pass." I get up from laying next to Rick to see it for myself and I'm treated to my first sunset. Beautiful shades of pink, blue, orange, violet and other colors I've never seen before, and could never describe with mere words explode across the sky. Under the sky, standing tall and proud, I see the mountains, which are another new beautiful sight to behold. Their massive size reaching up with their snowy white peaks beyond the few clouds that dot the sky bring only one word to my mind which is majestic. The only thing I can think at this moment is, "I wish Rick could see this...I want to share things like this with him so much it almost hurts."

            Murray then asks Anderson, "Well, what do you think? Should we go through tonight, or wait until morning?" Anderson answers simply, "I don't know." As they continue to talk, I come out of my state of awe, and see the very thing we have all dreaded since the start of our journey...dead mans pass. We are still pretty far away from it, and from this distance it doesn't look very scary, but we were all warned about what it could hold in store for us no matter what time of day or night we go through it. Still, I can feel the thin threads of a solution working its way into my mind. A puzzle in my head that isn't quite complete yet. Something that might get us past the enemy waiting for us in dead mans pass.

As I'm working this over in my mind Murray looks over his shoulder and notices that I'm awake. "Hey sleepy head. Feel better?" he asks with a little chuckle. "Yes thank you." I answer. Then I ask him, "How long was I asleep?" Murray just shrugs and says, "No idea. The sun was behind us when we first saw it, and now it's in front of us, so I guess all day." He then asks, "You hungry? We brought some beef and deer jerky. It's all we could bring since it won't spoil." Anderson lets out a little chuckle and answers for me by saying, "He's a growing boy. What do you think?" to which Murray can only grin as if to ask, "Yeah that was a dumb question wasn't it?"  Murray hands me a pouch with some jerky in it and a canteen filled with water. Anderson was right because my stomach instantly started to growl demanding food as soon as I opened the pouch and saw the jerky.

            Sitting with my "dinner" in the back of the wagon I start working the problem over in my mind again trying to put the pieces together. Something about the fog that will most likely be there once we get to dead mans pass...something about the compass...it's as if the solution is right there waiting for me to discover it but it just won't quite come together. The wheels in my head are turning but they aren't greased with the solution yet. Of course, I know we can't go any faster to try and get to dead mans pass before night, and the fog set in, because we take the chance of making Rick's wounds worse, so I know that's out of the question. I also know that stopping for the night to set up camp won't work either because we need to get Rick to the hospital as soon as possible. I just wish the solution would come to light so I can tell Murray and Anderson before we got to dead mans pass.

            BANG! I hear the gun shot and instantly I'm shocked out of my state of concentration. I see Murray turn to look behind us before he says to Anderson, "Shit! We got company!" I turn to look in the same direction and see 10 or 15 men on horse back coming up fast and firing away trying to hit us. Anderson yells out, "YAW!" and uses the reigns to get the horses moving at full gallop. The wagon starts lurching left and right...up and down as it picks up more and more speed going over the rough terrain through which we are traveling. Dust plumes up behind us as we speed through the deserted wasteland. Cactus after cactus speeds by us as we try to get away from the group of men that are almost on top of us.  He then tells Murray to get on the mini gun and start firing back. Within seconds Murray is in the back of the wagon with me and Rick. He opens a crate next to me and takes out what I guess is the mini gun and clamps it down onto the tail gate of the wagon. Instantly the air is filled with gun fire as the mini gun spits out round after round of ammo faster then anything I've ever seen. I hear the faint "ting" sound as one empty shell after another hits the floor of the wagon as he fires away. Murray yells at me, "Stay down! Try to keep the Captain still! I'm gonna get them off our tail as fast as I can!" The entire time he's telling me this he's blasting away at the men chasing us. I jump on top of Rick trying to keep him as still as possible while at the same time I try to keep my weight off of the debris lodged in his back. Next I hear Murray yell at Anderson, "Shit! They're trying to flank us!" I look up and see Anderson pull out his pistol and start firing at the men flanking us. One by one he shoots them down firing left and right. At the same time Murray is still firing away in the back with the mini gun trying to get the last of the men following us. Then I feel something warm and wet on my face. I bring up my hand and wipe it away. Looking at my hand I see two of my finger tips are smeared with blood. I look up at Murray and see the beginnings of a red spot on the back of his shirt up by his shoulder, but he's still firing away trying to bring down whoever shot him. I can hear Murray yelling, "You bastard! You shot me and now you're gonna pay!" Blast after blast from the mini gun as the bullets continue to be spewed out of it. I can hear the bullets from the men chasing us ricochet off of the wagon. The bullets that do make it through send pieces of wood flying across my field of vision while I lay on top of Rick. I begin to panic...to think that this will never end and we're all going to die right here and now! Then...finally...silence as the sounds of gunfire slowly echo away and the spent shells from the mini gun rattle on the floor in the back of the wagon. Even though my ears are ringing from the gun fire I can hear Murray saying, "We got `em! We got all those bastards! Yeah baby yeah!" I hear Anderson repeating over and over, "Whoa." as he tries to get the horses to slow down and get the wagon back under control.

After the wagon stops bouncing and swaying, I pick myself up off of Rick and check him. He's still unconscious and from what I can tell his wounds aren't any worse. I cover him back up with the blanket and say to Murray, "You've been shot." Murray says, "Yeah I know kid, but I think I'll be ok. I've been shot worse before. I just need to keep pressure on it." Hearing us, Anderson stops the wagon and climbs in back to check on Murray. He looks at the wound and says, "It's not too bad. Barely more than a scratch. Still, you better let me handle the driving so you don't move around too much and make it worse." Anderson takes his knife and cuts a piece of cloth off of one of the spare blankets and puts it on Murray's shoulder. He then has Murray take off his belt and uses it as a tourniquet to apply pressure to the wound. After he's done with Murray, Anderson checks on Rick to make sure he wasn't hit and that his wounds aren't any worse. Once he's satisfied that everyone is ok Anderson says, "Well, I guess we got our answer. We'll need to keep moving through dead mans pass, but I have no idea how I'm going to see to get through the fog."

            That's when it hits me and the flood gates of my idea bust open revealing itself to me. Mentally I kick myself for taking so long to come up with such a simple solution. I look at Anderson and say, "It's simple. You won't need to see to get through the fog. All you will have to do is follow the compass due west like Fredricks said, and that will get us through to the other end. Plus, with the cover of the fog the enemy won't be able to see us." Anderson's jaw just drops and he says, "You know kid? That just might work." It was Murray's turn to chuckle at Anderson and say, "Leave it to a kid to outsmart both of us, huh Anderson?" All Anderson could do is laugh at himself and say, "Yeah yeah just make sure you don't bleed to death before we get there ok?" Then he climbs back up in the seat of the wagon leaving me, Rick, and Murray in the back. Before long Anderson gets us moving again.

By this time the sun has disappeared behind the mountains and it's starting to get dark and cold, so I cuddle up under the blanket next to Rick. Murray looks at me with a crooked little smile on his face and asks, "You really do love him don't you, kid?" Feeling that this is the first time anyone has ever really understood how I feel about Rick, I look at Murray and ask, "You know?" Murray looks at me with the gentlest expression I've ever seen on his face and says, "Sure we know. Me and Anderson both know. And you know what? It's ok. We know that you have very strong feelings for the Captain, and I gotta say he's a very lucky man to have you love him so much. It's been a long time since he's had someone to love, and I think he'll need you just as much as you need him." At that very moment a barrage of questions fill my head "What does he mean it's been a long time? Who was it that Rick loved last? Was it a woman? A boy? And what did Murray mean when he said that Rick needs me as much as I need him? Does that mean that he's loved other boys before me? How long ago was that? If it is boys that he loves am I his "type of boy"? If it's only women that Rick likes can I take the rejection that could possibly be coming from Rick once he wakes up?"  All this is spinning around in my head and it's then that I can't hold back the tears any longer...the emotions...the uncertainty of what I might be setting myself up for just comes spilling out, and I look up at Murray with tears running down my face and a lump in my throat and say for the first time ever, "I love Rick more than anything else in the world. He saved my life and all I can think of is getting him to the hospital. If anything ever happened to him...with us I don't know what I would do." Murray says, "Hey...hey don't you worry about a thing Joey, me and Anderson...we're gonna get all of us there safely. You know...your idea might have just saved the Captain's life. Before you got up earlier me and Anderson were talking about stopping for the night and waiting for the fog to lift so we can get through dead mans pass. But now, we can keep moving and get to the hospital as soon as possible. I'm sure the doctors will have all of us fixed up in no time." Wiping the tears from my eyes I said, "I hope you're right because I can't lose Rick...I just can't!" Another wave of emotions takes over and I bury my face into Rick's neck and let it all out. Sob after sob rock through my body with no remorse on my emotions. Everything that I've kept in since we started on this journey...the love I have for Rick...the hoping that he will live long enough to make it to the hospital...watching him lay there wounded and knowing there is nothing I can do to make him better...it's all spilling out and I can no longer hold it back. All Murray can do is look on as I let my emotions take over. It isn't him I want to comfort me anyway...it's Rick! I want him to hold me...to rock me and tell me it will be ok. It's Rick I want to love me forever and ever! I don't care if I have both my arms and legs broken just as long as I know Rick will be with me...that's all I care about! But the thing that makes me cry the most is I have no idea if Rick feels the same way about me, and until he wakes up again I have no way to find out. Hoping is one thing, but I know that he could reject me, and that's more then I can take. Sure, I thought he kissed me back...I thought I heard him say that he loves me...I thought I felt him get hard when I was sitting in his lap but all of those things could have been nothing more then my own emotional need for Rick fooling me into thinking that he loves and wants me as much as I love and want him, and until I hear him say those word there are so many questions that I need answered. All of this...every bit of it flows out of me in a flood of tears that I fear will never stop, and just when I'm beginning to think the tears will flow forever I hear Rick ask, "Joey, why are you crying?"