Chapter 4

A short Story Chapter IV

The heat and dust were bad enough thought Lily Mea, and now we ride all day with a  threatening shadow to the right of us moving when we move, stopping when we stop,“I haven’t slept for days and my nerves are about to break, I honestly don’t think I can take anymore. Can it  possibly get worse than this?” Everyone was on edge even Baby Bonnie was crying more than normal.  Each day started even hotter and dryer than the day before. The entire wagon train was grumbling about the heat and lack of even a little breeze. The air was stifling  and no one wanted to move. Trying to use as little effort as possible packing up the wagons  no one was really paying attention to any thing but the heat. They never had a chance ,the band of travelers was taken completely by surprise when the Indians attacked.  The Paspahegh  attacked with no warning,  quickly killing the armed guards Joe had hired. The men and women of the wagon train fought back with all their might. They held off the Indians for a long time. It seemed like days when in fact it had only been hours. The dead both white and Indian lay sprawled everywhere, blood forming puddles in the dirt. Lily Mea watched this all unfold in front of her eyes in horror. She could hear herself screaming and she couldn’t seem to stop. The baby was crying loudly from somewhere behind her and Mrs Walker lay dead in front of her but Lily Mea was to afraid to move.She heard a loud curdling scream and when she looked to see just what had made that sound Lily Mea wished she hadn’t. Standing outside her wagon a bloody savage of a man stood holding the French maids skull by the hair high in the air letting the blood drip down his arm. Lily Mea saw Joe get hit from behind and crumple to the ground dead or dying and all hope left her. Shortly after seeing Joe fall it all got quite except for Bonnie crying. Lily Mea coward for a long while in the wagon before finally peeking out the back flap. What she saw brought her right back to her knees. They were all dead, everyone, the young boys, the brothers with the fiery red hair and funny songs, Mr Levinson Lay almost on top of Mrs Levinson who even in death held tight to her unborn child. Mr Walker had one of his boys in his arms and another lay under him. Lily Mea could only imagine why she had been left alive and she was praying just as hard as she could that she would just die. It wasn’t long after that when the savages came for her, they seemed unconcerned that she might try and run from them they didn’t even tie her up. They stood there taking turns touching her hair holding it in the sunlight and talking excitedly to one another.Lily Mea had never been more scared in her life. It was then Lily Mea heard the baby crying softly from somewhere behind her. Bonnie was hungry and and without the French maid there was no milk for Bonnie. Lily took a tentative step towards the baby and the Indians let her go, following close behind. Lily Mea picked up the baby with a real sadness in her heart thinking that Bonnie wouldn’t live  very long with nothing to eat. Sitting down on the ground trying not to cry Lily Mea began to rock the baby as she had seen the French Maid do a hundred times. ” Hush little baby don’t you cry its going to be alright just you wait and see.” Lily began cooing to the baby and she  did settle down a little but Bonnie was hungry and couldn’t really settle down completely. All of a sudden Lily Mea felt a foot at her back as it lightly kicked her and she heard a gruff grunt above her head. Looking up to see what new horror life was about to bring her Lily Mea was relieved to see her worst fear wasn’t about to happen but instead one of the warriors was standing over her with a leather pouch of some sort with what looked like a nipple over it. The savage mimicked feeding the baby and handed her the pouch. Before giving it to Bonnie, Lily Mea tasted it herself and was happy to taste warm creamy milk. Lily Mea didn’t even try to think about where the milk came from and simply fed Bonnie who eagerly sucked at the make shift nipple. Once the baby was fed and the wagons completely ransacked and emptied of what ever passed as bounty to the Indians, the savages and their hostages were on their way.

Walking all night and into the morning hours Lily Mea was sure she was going to drop dead in her tracks, she didn’t she just kept walking and stumbling sometimes down right falling. One of the warriors would pick her up and push her forward never uttering a word.Not that Lily Mea would understand anyway. She had been listening to them talk to each other and could not make head or tails of it. The speech was nothing like she had ever heard before. She could tell by their actions and the emotion when they spoke that something was worrying them and they wanted to move fast. When the sun was high up in the sky and the heat of the day started settling in the band of warriors found some trees and set up camp for the afternoon. As Lily Mea lay down to sleep she suddenly realizes they are  headed back east.

Lily woke with a start when she felt a light kicked in the small of her  back. The same Indian that had given her the leather pouch with milk was standing over her with a fussing Bonnie and a fresh pouch of milk. This time while Bonnie was feeding Lily Mea did began to wonder where were they while Bonnie was feeding Lily Mea did began to wonder where were they getting the milk. A quick look around showed her what she had been to frightened and tired to see before, this pack of Indians it seems travel with a goat.

The group of Indians and their yellow haired hostage traveled mostly by night and off the more well used trails. Making travel difficult for Lily Mea, her eyes quickly became accustomed to the dark but their path was full of rocks and tangled brush. Lily Mea was either twisting her ankle on the rocks or the tangled thorny brush would be tearing at her dress and pulling her down. Lily Mea was thankful they didn’t make her carry the baby because she surely would have dropped her by now. They traveled like this for many days, enough that Lily Mea had lost count and then one day everything changed. The Indians seemed to be more relaxed and were now traveling by day.  Lily Mea had to admit to herself that it was much easier to travel over the mountains with out a wagon. The narrow steep paths are much easier on foot. Even the Indians got off their horses and lead them up and around the mountain paths. Once the group made its way out of the mountains it was as if there was no more need to hurry. A lake came into view  Lily Mea didn’t dare to hope that she might get the chance to wallow in the cool clear water and feel clean again. However much to her surprise not only did she get to wallow in the water when she got out of the water, camp was set up after only walking half a day and from the looks of the camp Lily Mea got the idea they may stay a while.