Chapter 4: The Trail

"This is my life now. I have climbed this hill and now I will die upon it."

 

"Shut up. We've only been hiking for twenty minutes."

 

We are off at this point.  Kid Mavericks giving me a hard time when surprisingly it's the Sun "the Chinaman" song on his tan golden horse that turns.  Maverick and Mooney's are up ahead. I'd just found out they had matching horses that they called Frick and Frack. Must be nice their little situation.

 

Maybe that's why I've focused so much on the mysterious Sun Song. Wit a nickname like the Chinaman, Song had made quite the name for himself in Mooney's gang. Judd told me stories of him taking in 10 men at once.   They said it was as though Jesus himself had turned into a gunslinger.

"You scaring me...Doc"  Yant tells me.

Yant offers me his canteen while we are on the trail after a while.  He'd caught me staring down the Chinaman as he pulls up his shirt on the trail. It was a sight to see. Golden skin on a golden horses. Talk, dark and mysterious. 

"Why so?"

 

Yant shrugs, "You're getting far too comfortable around these outlaws. You seem to be enjoying this more than you want."

 

"Enjoying. It's hell!"

 

"Right all the adventure, naked boys and mystery," he teases, "We must be in hell. Listen Doc—we are all here for a reason. Just you be careful with this type you have."

 

"Type."

"You like the ones with secrets."

Strange thing to say.  On perhaps I could have had Judd by now if I wanted. Don't get me wrong Judd was quite attractive just couldn't quite take him serious. Not like Sun Song.

"I like fixing broken things."

"Be careful. We are all here for a reason and some of their reasons, Doctor Samuels, are more sinister than others."

"What's your reason Yant?"

Between Judd and Yant Id found most of my entertainment. It's a different sort however. They are so damn opposite. But With Yant I preferred this lowkey moments between us where it wasn't all about boys jokin, bonding and sharing fluids all over the frontier.

I was going to spend a lot of time with these men.  The journey was just beginning. I'd get to know them. I might as well start.

"A local farmer dies on the way home from a drunken poker game. After the funeral, a large landholder claims the farmer gambled away his farm in his last game, and wants to kick off the farmer's widow.  I'm here to make sure she keeps her land."

"With the Sea Dog's gold?" I ask.

 

"That money is all for Mooney. All of it. Don't you get it. Mooney was that large landowner. The woman he took the land from was my betrothed Delores. As long as I work for him he lets her keep her land."

Shit. I feel bad for Yant but I understood now. I got the relucatancy

 

"I wish I had someone waiting for me back home."

 

Yant nods, "Focus on that. A nice sweet woman will do. Your a grown man, no offense. Kind of reckless to be chasing gunslingers around the frontier because your lonely. Don't you think?"

Yant doesn't wait for me to respond. He continues. I'd never had someone put me in my place in quite the way. It becomes quite clear now that Yant is actually the most intellectual man here.

 

I clearly wasn't.

 

I was here in the Wild. I could have escaped half a dozen times if I really wanted to. Maybe he was right. Maybe this is the most excitement I'd ever had in years. 

 

Maybe Ali was happy Miriam was really Miriam Mooney. Maybe happy that I'm here.

 

Because I feel well... awakened.

 

"I'm nervous too Yant..." I call out from over the dunes, "I'm nervous too."

 

I have more trouble with Sunny and the Chinaman turns back to help assist me.  He helps me control Sunny showing me how to really break a more aggressive frontier horse.

I'm not paying attention though. It's the Chinamans hand's.

 

"Thank you Song."

Song twitchesa but. We ride together then for a time. It's silent but it's nice. I'd spend time talking to everyone else in the gang but the Chinaman. The silence is peaceful though .  Sunny doesn't like the outlaws however, not even the Chinaman.. The goddam gang was all here...all save Miriam who'd stayed behind with at Pepper's. Mooney had made it clear that what we were going off to was no way place for a woman.

No place for me either, as far as I'm concerned.

 

"Where we headed?"




"To the Mataweee,"  Kid Maverick states, "We get one half of the Sea Dogs amp and head down to the Ahuli graveyard."



That was southeast of here.  It would take days.

"They just giving up the God Darn map?" I ask.

Mooney shakes his head, "No.  Kids gonna convince them to give it up.  Here I was thinking I was going to have to go to war with the damn tribe and out comes a little Indian teen boy and he tells me he can get the tribe to give up their biggest secret just that easy."




I look over at Kid.

"You betrayed your tribe."




I'm kind of shocked.  I'm not shocked that he was an outlaw.  I mean, Kid Maverick was the wrong side of an ass. But at the same time, he'd seemed more principaled when it came to loyalty.  

"How's this?" I suggest, "I hex you all a bunch of a bullets and I'm out your hair."

Yant arguing I liked being here with these guys was getting to me. I try to supress the primal urges of attraction as much as I can.

 

Mooney refers to Kid, "You know the good doctor longer Kid.  Think that a good idea."




Kid looks back with the same disapproving look.  He'd been all but a spoiler on this trip since I'd met him.  It was a mistake to get mixed up with him. He was trouble and he knew it.




"Nah besides no way to tell those bullets are hexed till we shoot em," Kid Maverick responds, "You wanna be the one across the field from the Sea Dog with sideways bullets, Mooney?  Didn't think I'd reckon your that kind of sucker."




I hadn't even had to wait for Mooney's reaction to know that Kid Maverick had a point.  He had a goddam good point t that. I hated it, wondering why it's possible for me to outsmart every man in this gang, including Mooney but somehow Kid Maverick keeps getting the better hand. 

 

"He stays," Mooney states.

"Good," Judd calls out from, "Maverick's sweet on our good doctor anyway."




Several eyes shoot over Maverick's way.  The Chinaman even lets out a bit of a laugh.  He don't speak much, just sits on his horse with that attractive look of his.  Truth is I'd fuck all of them. Perhaps I'd get Judd to clean up a little bit more and get the Chinaman to talk more.  But they were all attractive, all of them. Save perhaps maybe Tennessee Yant who seems to be the only one more uninterested in being here than I am.

"Sweeeeeet on me," I tease Kid.




Kid Maverick rides right up to Judd and gives him a good bashing.  Good enough to make me satisfied. Maybe I couldn't convince the outlaw to release me but I could get on his nerves and tease him.  That was good enough.

"Soft huh?" Mooney states.

Mooney gives Kid a smile, "Not like that."




"That true?" Mooney asks. 

 

I don't know who he's asking but I don't answer.  No point in making Mooney feel a spit less sickened by what was going on. 

"Let's just say I visited the doctor's office."




The men laugh. A cruel laughter amongst guys.  Even Judd, my silent ally in this little gang of theres finds Kid's joke funny.  They were acting like I wasn't even here. I wasn't really. Not to them. I was nothing more than a prisoner.  Someone to help them found the other half of that Ahuli map.

 

"And how was it?" Mooney asks.

"Reckon you'd like it," Kid Maverick asks, "You like that Doc?  Like the idea of being lost in the mountains. Ain't no woman with us, Doc?"




He's scaring me or trying to.  I can see his cruel laughter spin out a few seconds later.  What he doesn't expect however is for me not to back down.

"We can pull over right now.  Back in my day I used to bullride?




"Bullshit."




Even with Kid calling bullshit the others are certainly more entratined by our back and forth.  Judd goes on to mock the conversation for the next few minutes as the Chinaman puts a very intrigued look on his face as he silently stares from me to Maverick and back again.

 

"Looks like you've met your match, Kid," Judd teases.

Kid Maverick shoots me another look, "Nah.  Not my match. But I'd stick my cock up in him again.  I'd do that much."




Mooney gives Maverick a look, "Enough of that."




I'm shocked by what happens next.

Shocked when Mooney rides his horse right up to Maverick.  Think he is going to pick a fight with him or argue. Something.  That doesn't happen though. Instead it's a kiss. 

And then Mooney out of no where says the most curious thing.

"Don't get too comfortable.  He's not here to stay..."




And it's Maverick who replies even more curiously.

"According to the other doc...neither am I."




~~~

 

I don't know what Kid Maverick means when he said he didn't have enough time.  I'm thinking about it. We ride for hours after that, much longer than I'd imagine we would.   We finally make camp by the mountains. 

"The mountain's good for hidin' out, but it gets mighty cold at night."


I hadn't thought too much about what he meant when he says it.  Judd is the only one asleep at this point. He'd been drunk as a skunk, did a hand stand, fell over, knocked over Kid Maverick, proceeded to get an asswhooping from Kid Maverick and did all this without losing his hat.  I liked Judd. He was winner. And he'd seemed to bring a light happy energy to the group which was much needed. 

 

He hands me the last bit of my canteen.




"You could have went on ahead with the Chinaman," I shrug,"I didn't need the company."




Yant had gone ahead with the Chinaman hunting I think.  Supposedly Kid Maverick was the best hunter but he'd stayed behind here at camp.  Right now he was taking back his Canteen and chewing at some tobacco. In the distance we both see Mooney cooley standing there and below us Judd is still asleep closeby. 

"You wanted it though," he explains to me.



"Did I?"




He looks around.  Clearly looking around while no one is watching.

"We going to keep playing this game?" he whispers over to me, "What was that earlier about you being a bronco?  Was that true?"



"Wouldn't you like to find out."




He grabs at his crotch.  Drives me crazy but he doesn't know.  I just keep pawing at the blanket that I have wondering if it would make me any warmer.



That's when I feel the body up against mine from behind.  The smell says it all. The smell of Kid Maverick. Kid keeps looking pressing his hands up against mine. 

 

"So warm down here," he states, "Why don't you let me stay here?"




"You get real comfortable when your friends aren't around."



"You know how it is?"



"How it is?"




He pauses, "I got a reputation.  One of the Deadliest Indian outlaws west of the Allegheny," he proudly trots, puffing up his chest so much that I can feel the muscles inflating up against my chest.  His chest is so hard it's almost painful.

 

"So you have to pretend to be an asshole to me."




"Just a litlte bit, but we both know the truth...."



"What truth?"




"When we get together it's fireworks.  Goddam fireworks. Like 4th of July. Come on Doc.  Let me celebrate my independence. Let's be free together.  What do you say?"




Goddam sexy outlaw.  I hated he'd done it to me.

"If I let you----you better be nicer around folks."




He won't be.  I know it and he knows it.  He's a goddam turncoat and I knew it. But sex is sex and one thing Kid Maverick knew was sex.  He had sexiness in spares. Whether it was the way those blue jeans fit on him or the way he smelled.  Maybe it was the scruffling silk hairs on his chin which were quite odd for an Indian.

 

"I swear I can die in here, Doc.  What did ya do to me? Why'd you hex me so?"



I wish it were true.  I wish it were more than just a drunk outlaw saying semi-sweet anythings so that he can pacify me long enough to separate my ass cheeks under these here blankets and stick his cock in me.  The cock does it job, thrusting as he chews on the back of my neck. We don't get the chance for pleasure to come though. Mooney's almost done with his fire and making his way back. I can see Maverick speeding us.  He's chasing a nut like it stole his coin purse (or at least my coin purse which the damn outlaw still hadn't given back).

 

"I want my coin purse back by the way."



"Anything you need," he states, "Anything.  Just let me die in this here."




"Thought you were already dying?"



He pauses.  I had expected a joke or maybe some sort of semi-sweet nothing tied into the emotions he's feeling now that I let him enter me after a whole day of treating me like crap.  He does neither of the two. 

 

"Ain't much funny about dying."

 

"You wanna live forever didn't ya?"

 

"At this point I'll be satisfied with just living."

I'm not sure what that means.

"What's wrong with ya?"

 

"I just have a lot—IN and. Ya know?"

"Like emotions?"

He laughs, "Emotions? What are those. No...not emotions. Something different. You believe in being cursed."

 

"Not really."

 

"Sea Dog is cursed."

I roll my eyes, "You ever meet the Sea Dog. Really. No bullshitting."

 

I'd felt they'd bullshitted me a bit till this point. I had to reckon half these stories about this Sea Dog character were made up. They weren't telling me the whole truth. Perhaps it was as they said.  Maybe it's just Shannon Mooney chasing a dead mans treasure.  

 

"No but..."

 

"He don't exist."

"You don't know why you're smoking. My people know he exists."

"It's made up."

 

"To hell with you Samuels!  We didn't make it up. The Mattawee knew the Sea Dog. He came to us long ago and...sought refuge. Shared his secrets."

"Then how did Mooney get those secrets?"  I ask, "You prob told him it all didn't you. The Sea Dog, him not being able to die, his weakness to the Ahuli. You probably told him ha—-Kid you traitor—-"

 

I'm joking really. Just joking but he takes it harsh. Makes me wonder how close I am to the truth.

 

I feel him softening in me almost immediately.  Something's turned him off, I presume. Really off.

 

"You don't inquire into a person's past around these parts.  You take a measure of a man for what he is today."



Odd an outlaw giving me the code to the West.  Fall in line with other unspoken rules like never order anything weaker than whiskey or Don't wave at a man on a horse, as it might spook the horse. A nod is the proper greeting was a head nod.  Or how about my very favorite: Never pass anyone on the trail without saying "Howdy".



Wonder how many howdy's the gentle outlaw had given lately.

 

He's soft now pulling out of me...just in time for Shannon Mooney to come up on us and see what's going on.  He takes a look at Kid and his man piece being held a few inches from my body. He knows what we were doing. I wonder if he feels a certain way about it, especially after knowing what his secret was. 

"No good?" he asks Maverick.

Maverick looks down at me, "Not like Luke or one of Pepper's."




He was comparing me to prostitutes.

"Burn in hell, Kid Maverick.  You're so crooked you could swallow nails and spit out cork screws."




"I outta----" Mooney offers.

I watch as Mooney puts up his fists.  He's about to pound on me right there were I am sleeping for talking to Kid Maverick the way that I do.  He doesn't seem to find our back and forth amusing, especially now. It's enough to make me want to scream out and shuffle away but surprisingly kid stops Shannon Mooney.

"No bother," Kid Maverick states, "He's not worth it."




And for some reason that hurts even more than Kid Maverick paying me especially unique attention.  I'd turn him off by asking him about his past. I'd turned him clean off. 

But I wondered why.

~





I don't get an answer to the question that day or the next or the day after that.

 

We travel for days.  The long trail leaves me mostly in an awful mood.  We don't stop at any towns. Shannon Mooney seems in a rush to get to the Matawee and I'm not quite sure why.  Not like us Indian Tribes traveled much. Kid's tribe wasn't going anywhere. 

The morning brings most of the men out by a watering hole when I wake up.  I walk on them and I have to say it's kind of a sight. All the men were naked and all in the water now save... Yant who was cleaning off his boots by the riverbend.  It isn't until I notice the silver hair spking up his chest and his round, bubbling butt that I realize I'm attracted to Yant too. Goddam all of them. Goddam how perfect Shannon Mooney looks as Maverick rubs his back.  Judd is making a joke about something. No one is noticing and it's pissing him off to the point he keeps running back and forth his long thin manhood nestled between blonde pubic hairs. Then there was the Asian apart from the others. From him I notice a  firm body, just as firm as Kid Mavericks with just as many of the defined muscles. He's as tall as Mooney, as muscular as Maverick and as removed as Yant. The only person he doesn't seem to fit in with is Judd who seems to get on everyone's nerves at times save the Chinaman.

 

When I descend the bank I see Judd walk over interested in having someone to talk to, "Hey Doc.  How's the day? Need some help with that."



"Wouldn't mind."

"I'd give you other things you don't mind."




Yant laughs at the thought before turning to me, "You better take him up on his offer now.  The boy barely bathes."




Judd looks embarrassed, "I bathe."



"Now you do, because you clearly want to get in the Doctor's pants."




Judd doesn't deny it.  He just laughs. It wasn't a surprise he'd been trying.  He wasn't aggressive like Maverick. He wasn't going to lay in the sack wiht me and stick his stick in me after barely asking for permission

 .

The others don't give me much attention. For the most part I talk to Yant.  He was a sophisticated gent and we'd had the most in common when it came to things.



That's when I see Maverick turn my way.

He hadn't been speaking to me.  Not ever since I asked him about his past.  Whatever I had done seemed like it was lasting.  Kid Maverick avoided me at all costs. And maybe that's why I do it.  It's childish perhaps but not like we could do much else on the frontier besides being childish.

And maybe that's why I get up on him.  Real close as I'm naked. And I kiss Judd.



KISS HIM HARD.

 

"Shit!" Mooney claws out.

 

At this point there's wild coughing.  The coughing comes from Kid Maverick. It's a sign, I think at first.  Maybe some sign that he was jealous.


But then we realize the coughing doesn't stop.  We also realize there's blood. And soon we're all circling around him.  All wondering the same thing as he lays there coughing up all his lungs. I wonder if this is happening because he's dying.

"What's wrong with him?" I ask.

 

No one answers. 

Something was wrong though.  Something wrong.



"Fuck...fuck this isn't happening now."




"What's happening?"




I'm ignored.  Mooney pushes me as though I'm nothing more than an annoyance.  

 

 

"You boys know the drift."



The drift?



I'm watching as the men get their ropes from their horses.  I'm still in the water like an idiot when these naked men begin to circle him.

They are feeding him something but I can't see what.

I think about moving closer when there is a change in the wind.

"Guys?"

 

No one replies.  Something is odd.  I swear I hear something but when I turn there's nothing.  I start making my way to the shore. As I look down at my clothes I notice something. They were gone.  Removed. So were the rest of our clothes.

Someone had stolen them.

 

"GUYS!" 

The outlaws are busy doing some sort of weird sick ritual with Kid Maverick.  It must be a gang thing as I'm halfway confused on what it is. All I know is that Maverick is sick laying there and he's coughing his lungs out.   Soon the coughing begins to mild but not before I start seeing the shadows.



The stupid outlaws don't notice it, not even Shannon.  All those skills thrown right out the window. I notice though.  And I scream. I scream something crazy when I see the first of our `visitors'



It's enough to get Mooney's attention.

It's enough to make Mooney turn and say, "What's this here."




"We're surrounded," I tell him.

He hadn't noticed it until it was too late.  The others hadn't either. All around us there were Native Americans.  They were Indians. Natives. I know that we're being taken and there's nothing none of us can do about it.

 

"Goddam it," I hear Yant whisper under his breath.

~

 

Before we know it we're being paraded.  The Indians speak their own language and I'm not sure of it.  But I do keep hearing one word.

Cursed.

They keep saying the word cursed.




"What's happening?" I say to Judd.




Judd shakes his head. "Won't get Kid beating me up today."




He was scared.  I look over at the others.  We were being marched quietly.  I didn't see where they'd taken Shannon and Kid Maverick.  I knew we were prisoners though and these people were definitely no where near as welcoming as I had assumed. 

"We shouldn't have brought him," I hear Yant whisper to the Chinaman.

The Chinaman just grunts.

Yant was definitely uneasy.  More uneasy than the others. He was nervous.  Probably regretted coming here his damn self. 

I grab him by his arm so quick a few of the Indians get nervous and give us a few looks.  I can't help it though. Now or never. I needed to know what was going on wiht him.

"What's wrong with him?" I ask Yant.



Yant doesn't answer.  He looks away. 

 

We're approaching an area.  The tribe is surrounding Kid Maverick.  There is more talk about being cursed. More words similar to cursed being used amongst the Matawwee people.  It's clear there is something wrong with Maverick.

 

"Yant. We're the same.  You can talk to me."




I was trying to get him to see that him and I were both educated men.  Hoping that would be enough for him to reveal what was going on in this situation. 

It's clear that the outlaws aren't talking about Kid Maverick for a reason.

 

"What's happening?"

 

They get taken away to the road. I feel the Indians grabbing me up.

 

"Don't struggle," I hear a voice stare.

I turn shocked by who I see.

 

The Asian Outlaw was speaking to me. In clear english. But not an accent. Not an Country accent or even an American accent. Hell he wasn't even speaking with any  Asian accent I could discern. It was a clear English accent.

 

"Chinaman?"

 

"Goddam it..." the Chinaman states, "I'm not a outlaw, Doctor Samuels...I'm under cover..."

 

Shit.

 

I knew he was off!  I'm shocked he'd been able to infiltrate Mooney's gang. The fact that he'd been undercover for years shocked me to be honest.   He'd been under cover for some years now! Years!

 

Must have been a serious fucking case.

 

"Bah-he Java!"  One of the Indians sticks me for talking.  

 

Ahead of us, Shannon Mooney is getting the shit kicked out of him for saying something slick though. 

 

It causes enough of a distraction to me move closer to the Chinaman. I grab him. 

 

"You're with the law! Oh thank god!  I'm saved."

 

I couldn't wait to testify against that piece of shit Mooney.  What if they took down Miriam too! I'd finally get my payback.

 

"I'm not with the law...this isn't about Mooney."

 

"If your not with the law then who are you?"

"I'm with church."

That's when this man. This man Who'd dick I'd sucked through a hole was a preacher by the name of father Gideon Langley.

 

He's here to investigate someone.

 

Not Mooney though.

Father Gideon shakes leans in and lays a cross on me, "You'll need this. What I have I tell you next will change everything..."

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