Will to Survive
Chapter 01

Copyright© 2015 by Ernest Bywater

Author’s Note: I’ve taken some poetic licence in the list of items in the survival packs in this story because it’s just too hard to get a real list of what’s currently in the ones used by the USAF and RAAF. Nor have I sought out the exact radio procedures they use today. Also, I’ve not named the Indian tribe due to issues I had in getting specific data on the family and social structure of the local tribes. So I used researched data on the ways of the major tribes from further east in the New Mexico Territory of that period.

Note: UK English is used in this story, except for dialogue by a US character where US English is used in the dialogue and some nouns.


On the Range

The radar technician looks up and says, “Red Flight is entering the area of tonight’s active exercise control zone for the range, Sir.”

The Captain in control of the practice range tonight looks over at the ’Activities Board’ to confirm there are no other activities in the range tonight. The line for ’Ground Activities’ has the ’No Exercises’ plate up while the ’Air Activities’ section lists only the one line saying ’Red Flight out of Luke AFB, night live fire exercise.’ He nods to the Australian Air Traffic Controller in the tower to conduct tonight’s exercise for the flight of Royal Australian Air Force pilots training on the new fighter planes just sold to the Australian Air Force.

The Australian Squadron Leader in charge of tonight’s training gives a return nod to indicate he has control, he turns to the officer in front of him at the control board and says, “Talk them in, Pilot Officer Mills.”

The Pilot Officer is already tracking the flight into the radar control zone of The Barry M Goldwater Air Force Range, Arizona, and she also has the vector they need to be on to reach the location of the live fire area set aside for tonight’s exercise. She activates her radio and says, “Red One, Range Control, turn ninety degrees to heading two, seven, zero. You are clear to arm weapons. Repeat, turn to two, seven, zero, and clear to arm weapons. Over.”

All hear the reply, “Range Control, Red One confirms turn to two, seven, zero, and clear to arm weapons. Roger. Out.” A moment, then they hear, “Red One to Red Flight, follow me and turn to two, seven, zero.” They all watch the radar displays while they wait. Seconds later the radar shows the flight has made the ninety degree turn to the west, and they hear, “Red One to Red Flight, arm weapons. Out.”

Things sound a bit confusing while each pilot confirms they have live weapons, but it’s an organised confusion with each pilot waiting their turn to radio the confirmation to the leader. Following a short break after the last pilot reports in they hear, “Range Control, Red One. Red Flight is on two, seven, zero, and weapons are armed. Over.”

“Red One, Range Control confirms Red Flight is on heading two, seven, zero with live weapons. Out.” Silence descends on them all while they watch the radar displays.

A little later the Captain looks up from his display and says, “Drone controllers start your vehicles. Range Control, they should be picking up the targets soon.”

The controller is about to activate her radio when they hear, “Range Control, Red One has two moving ground targets on radar bearing two, six, five, and moving right to left. Request attack authorisation. Over.”

Squadron Leader Davis looks at the main radar display, as there’s nothing else showing as in the area he says, “Attack authorised.”

Pilot Officer Mills activates her radio, “Red One, Range Control, attack authorised. Repeat, attack authorised. Over.”

“Range Control, Red One confirms attack authorisation given. Out.” A short delay, and, “Red One to Red Three and Red Four, make your attack run on the targets bearing two, six, five. Northern target for Red Three and Red Four the southern target. Over.” All of them hear the two pilots confirming their targets.

The radar displays show Red Three and Four heading down to attack the ground vehicles as the rest of the flight turns aside while it gains a lot more altitude to leave the field to the two pilots on their attack run.

A moment’s delay, then they hear, “Red Three has radar lock on a ground target moving south.”

Another voice with, “Red Four has radar lock on a ground target moving south.”

A short break, and Red Three says, “Commencing strafing run with cannon.”

One of the drone operators looks a bit worried as he has concerns over what he’s hearing of the radio transmissions as the location doesn’t seem right to him. He glances at his mate’s controls, then up at the main radar screen, and says, “Captain, abort, those aren’t our drones. They’re too far south and our vehicles are going north-east.” All of the other people’s heads come up in shock.

Squadron Leader Davis doesn’t wait to confirm or argue, as he immediately activates his radio and says, “Red Flight, Exercise Control, abort attack, abort attack. Over.”


Flight Lieutenant William March is piloting Red Three while he’s busy with his attack run. He squeezes the trigger to shoot the drone with his cannon. He can see the fire from Red Four out of the corner of his eye, and he’s watching both lines of tracers head toward the targets. Then he hears, “Red Flight, Exercise Control, abort attack, abort attack. Over.”

He immediately takes his finger off the trigger while saying, “Red Four, Red Three. Head for the roof, out.” He pulls back on the controls to start climbing straight up at full power, away from the targets, while saying, “Exercise Control, Red Three, aborting attack and withdrawing. Over.”

Red Three and Red Four are very busy controlling their planes when the dark night is suddenly as bright as day while both of the aircraft are buffeted and they hear, “What the hell!” Will March looks to his left where his friend and wingman, Will Hall, should be, and he can’t see him due to a large fireball. Of more concern to him is the way his plane’s wing is coming apart. His training kicks in and he pulls the ejection handle.


Two large black SUVs are driving across the Arizona desert late at night. They’re driving across the Barry M Goldwater Range toward the Mexican border. They know the border patrol will be easier to avoid at the point they intend to break through the fence, and then they’ll race along the Mexican Federal Highway 2 to vanish into Mexico. They know it’s safe to cross the range tonight because their friends at Luke Air Force Base have seen the flight orders for all of the USAF Squadrons based there and none of them are having night exercises tonight. The four men smile when they think of the millions they’ll get paid for the four stolen tactical nuclear weapons (TNWs) in their two vehicles.

Suddenly the night is torn apart with cannon shells exploding in the two SUVs. The planes only fire their guns for a second, but they are rapid fire cannons and they fire at a very fast rate. Also, the targeting is spot on so all of the rounds are on target. In both SUVs the exploding cannon shells detonate and they activate the explosives used in the TNWs to slam the nuclear material together. These actions set off the four devices in a simultaneous explosion that turns the night into a bright day while also vaporising the thieves.


When Red Three and Red Four peel off to attack Red One turns the rest of Red Flight aside while gaining altitude, thus there can be no mistake about who is where and doing what. This is to minimise the risks of an accidental friendly fire incident. The fast fighters take only a few seconds to move well away from the two planes attacking the drones. He hears the abort order and he thinks it’s just an extra test of the pilots’ skills, until the desert is suddenly as bright as the noonday sun. He looks over to where the radar says the drones are, and he’s surprised to see an elongated fireball expanding up and out. He glances at his radar because the distance is already too far to pick out the two fighters by sight, especially in the light of the fireball, and he’s stunned when both planes vanish from his radar screen.

“Exercise Control, Red One, two planes are down. Red Three and Red Four are no longer on my radar. Over.” Control comes on the radio to order the flight to land back at Luke Air Force Base.


The explosion is too far away from the range control centre to see it in detail, but they can easily see the bright burst of light down that way. They all turn to stare at each other while they wonder what the hell is happening down there. After a moment everyone is soon busy carrying out the required Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to report a major range incident, and the SOP to report the loss of the two aircraft with their crews.


The next day Squadron Leader Davis has the sad duty of calling his sister to tell her his brother-in-law, Will March, is missing and believed dead. Thus she’s now a widow due to his aircraft being destroyed in a training accident.

The investigators do find most of the aircraft frames, engines, and one ejection seat; thus they can tell both pilots ejected, but nothing can be found of the pilots or the other ejection seat. It’s assumed the missing pilots and seat were totally destroyed in the fireball, like the canopies and some parts of the planes were. The investigation takes four months to be completed, but the main details are so obvious they’re in the preliminary report lodged at the end of the third week.

A month after the incident funerals are held in Australia for the two dead pilots. It takes time, but the families grieve and move on with their lives. Both men are missed by their family, friends, and workmates.


Orientation Time

Will March blinks twice then he looks around him. There’s a short blank spot in his memory and he’s sure he wasn’t knocked out, but even if he was it couldn’t have been for long because he’s still hanging from his parachute with the ground still a long way down. What’s a big worry is there’s no sign of the fireball, fire, or aircraft wreckage. Being night he should be able to see the fire of his downed aircraft wreck burning, or what’s left of the drones that blew up in so spectacular a fashion.

A few seconds later he’s thinking, Was that the drones we shot and blew up? Now he’s not so sure of that because of the abort command. He thought it was a test, but the explosion now has him wondering about what did happen. Whatever went off did so in a big way, and he’s not seen anything make such a large fireball so quick before. It was way short of the film footage he’s seen of nuclear explosions so he rules that out as a possibility. Even so, there should be something still on fire, and he can’t see any flames at all.

He still has his helmet on with its built-in microphone so he reaches for the radio lead to plug it into the emergency radio unit on his flight suit. He turns the emergency radio on, but there’s nothing on the frequency. He looks down to check the power, the light shows it’s on so he activates the radio and says, “Exercise Control, Red Three, do you receive me? Over.” He gets no response so he repeats the call several times, but there’s no reply. This worries him because this radio is on the emergency frequency which is always listened to, and no answer means there’s a major communications breakdown for the whole area.

Will puts the matter aside to look at the ground as he’s now low enough he can start to make things out to decide where he wants to land. For now, all of his attention is on getting safely down on the ground in one piece, and that’s the way it should be.

Some minutes later he hits the ground and he rolls the way he’s been trained to do it. A moment to deflate the parachute before he takes a few minutes to roll it up the way he’s been taught. They can repack it for re-use, and if he’s really lost it’s a useful resource for shelter, warmth, etc.

He stuffs the chute away in its pack as per the SOP before he gets out his GPS (Global Positioning System) device to check it, only to be stunned by the screen saying, ’No signal.’ He should have several satellites in range here. Oh well. On with the SOP to check what he has to work with in the way of survival gear. The major items are in the big pack that’s part of the ejection seat which should have landed nearby, but it didn’t. However, his vest and small pack with the chute are on him.

Going through the survival items is necessary to ensure he knows what he has to work with, and also because the RAAF and USAF have different packs. He’s wearing a RAAF survival vest with some of the gear but the USAF pilots no longer use one. Plus the gear in the USAF seat and chute packs vary too. So he needs to sort out what he does have on hand. It takes him several minutes to go through it all and to move some of it to be a bit more ready to hand than where it’s first stored. He also changes the way the parachute and packs are strapped on so they’ll be more comfortable while he’s walking about. One of the first things he does is to ready and load the survival rifle in the pack. Things are just way too screwed up for him to be complacent about his situation. He moves out with everything still on him. The helmet is easier to carry strapped on his head, but with the visor up and out of the way.

He takes his time to look around the area, and when he spots a hill a few miles away he heads toward it. He figures to be able to see further from there when the sun comes up. A couple of hours later he’s near the top of the hill and he’s working his way under a bush to be out of sight while he sleeps for the rest of the night.


Time for a Walk

Will wakes up in bright sunlight. He glances at the sky, and he can tell the sun’s been up for a couple of hours, but not too long. He takes a moment to get out from under the bush, stand, stretch, unload excess fluids, and have a sip from his canteen. All of the time he’s looking about him, and all he sees is the same Arizona desert he’s seen since arriving a few weeks back. He gets out his monocular to start looking around.

For several minutes he closely examines everything within sight, and he isn’t happy with what he sees. The wreckage of the two planes and the drones or the burnt patches marking their wrecks should be visible. But there’s no burnt out areas, nor are there any of the roads he’s seen in the area when taking daylight training flights. He wonders if there was a very strong wind and he’s been blown far away from the wrecks. If that’s so the usual rule of waiting near the wreck for the recovery unit isn’t going to be of any use. Also, with no wreck in sight he’s got nothing to wait beside. Oh well, out with the compass and to pick out a sight target to the north-west because the city of Yuma is the closest major urban area and it should be in that general direction. He can fine tune his path when he has it in sight since the city is big enough to see from many miles off.

A moment to double check everything is secure, take out an energy bar to nibble on, set the rifle in his hand for use, and start walking. He’s not happy with having to walk out, but he can’t see any other option. So he takes his time and great care. He walks slowly to conserve his energy while he keeps to the shade as much as possible to avoid heatstroke. Near noon he takes a long break in the little shade available. He has some food prior to taking a two hour nap through the heat of the day.

After waking up he sets off again. Late in the afternoon he tops a fair sized hill and he stops to survey the path ahead of him as well as all of the surrounding area. Using the monocular he has a good look around him. He’s about to put it away when he spots movement on a rise near the limit of his vision to the north. Up comes the monocular again to get a better view. He’s shocked to see a group of a dozen or so Indians on horses carrying bows while one has a very long rifle. He holds still as he watches while they check out the area before moving off to the east.

While they’re moving off to the north-east Will thinks, They look like they belong in a film set in the mid 1800s. Modern Indians all use saddles and they dress in normal work clothes like jeans, except when they put on a show for people. I wonder what sighting that group of Indians means?

He continues to walk through the remaining day and twilight, only stopping when he walks up to a large scrubby bush after he figures it’s getting too dark for him to see his way well. While crawling under the bush he thanks the powers that be for the tough gear he has because he doesn’t have to worry about getting them torn up by the bushes. A moment to find a comfortable position, a bit of food, and a sip of drink, then he settles down for a night’s sleep. The bush will protect him from most of the desert wildlife and it’ll give him warning about the rest.


The next morning he wakes up soon after dawn and he gets out from his overnight bush. He does the usual daily preparations while looking around, then he starts walking toward Yuma while eating an energy bar. Today he sights nothing except the desert, and that’s a worry because there are roads and old buildings he should be passing, but he doesn’t.

Again he stops for a two hour nap through the worst of the day’s heat. After the nap he keeps moving until near the end of the twilight before taking refuge under a large bush for the night. While having his evening feed he’s real worried because he figures he should’ve sighted the outskirts of Yuma by now, and he’s not seen a thing.


Today he wakes up in time to watch the dawn while going through his morning preparation. When he moves off he thinks, Bedding down at twilight means I get a good night’s sleep and I’m still up early the next day. I like it, but I do wish I could find someone and find out what’s up. Sighing, he continues his slow and steady walk toward Yuma.

He takes his usual midday nap under a bush on the southern slope of a hill, just down from the ridge line. When he wakes up he thinks he can hear a horse in the distance so he stops to listen harder, but he’s not sure if it was a horse or his imagination. He gets going and stops on the hill to look around, but he can’t see anything except desert so he gets going.

In the mid-afternoon Will is nearing a small hill when he hears guns being fired on the other side of the hill. He’s not sure what’s going on so he decides to be careful. He takes a moment to remove his pack and the flight suit he’s still wearing, which he secures to the top of the pack. That takes him down to the desert pattern fatigues he has on under the flight suit. He also makes sure his pistol and rifle are ready to use with their spare magazines on hand. Wanting to blend into the desert while still keeping his helmet on he gets the poncho out of the survival kit to put it on with the hood over the helmet. It’s not a combat helmet, but it’s still more protection than no helmet at all.

Will carries everything up the hill and he stops just below the ridge top, right behind a bush on it. He puts the pack down. With his monocular in one hand and his rifle in the other he duck-walks up behind the bush until he can see what’s going on over the hill.

Stunned at the sight before him he puts the monocular to his eye and he has a very good look around the area. Below is a stream with a cabin, a barn, a fenced corral, a group of about twenty-five Indians attacking the cabin, plus one Indian on a slight rise waving directions with a short spear. It looks just like the Indian attacks on ranchers he’s seen in many of the western films, except there are no cameras around, no make-up van, no food van, and no cars of any sort. He studies the scene for a moment, then he moves to a better position to fire from.

While taking aim Will thinks, With nothing else to indicate otherwise I’ll assume I’m watching an Indian attack on a rancher, so I’ll act to end it. This rifle is a twenty-two firing subsonic hollow-points intended to help me hunt small animals, but it has the range needed here. First, the guy in charge of the attack then the three in the stream gully.

Will takes careful aim at the base of the man’s neck, and he fires. His target falls forward and off his horse. Working left to right he aims between the shoulder blades of the three Indians in the gully, each slumps forward when hit. Being a sub-sonic round the sound of each shot is a low pop compared to the harsh bangs and booms of the guns being used by the ranchers and the Indians, so his shots are lost in the general combat sounds. However, the rifle flash is visible, and he can see he’s been spotted when two of the Indians on horses point up at his bush before they lead a charge of five Indians toward his position.

The attackers are heading straight toward Will so there’s no need to aim in front of them, just two simple shots straight at the two in the lead has both of them slumping down to fall off their horses. The other three turn aside to gallop off to the east, and they’re soon followed by the rest of the Indians still alive. Will waits to see what’s happening. After about a minute he stands, retrieves his pack, puts it on, and he starts to walk down the hill while keeping a watchful eye on everything all around him.

He sees the door of the cabin open and some people walk out with guns in their hands. Will raises the monocular to look at them. Their clothes and guns are in line with the 1800s western theme of the attack.

Will soon reaches the horses of his last two kills as they ran on a little from where their riders fell off before stopping. Taking the rope reins in hand he leads the horses to their last riders, confirms the men are dead, and lays them on the horses. One has a pistol Will sticks in the leg pocket of his trousers while the other has a rifle he picks up and carries. Then over to the leader, put him on his horse which hasn’t moved, and adds the spear and a pistol to his collection. While moving to where the three are in the gully he notices the people from the cabin are watching him.

At the stream he ties the horses to a nearby bush and he places the gear from the dead on the ground beside the bush, along with his pack. He goes into the gully to drag the three dead out, one at a time, retrieving two pistols and a rifle. A bit of work and the Indians are two to a horse. He puts his pack on, picks up his gear, and he goes toward the cabin.

While leading the horses to the cabin Will thinks about what he’s seen and the gear he just collected, Percussion cap revolvers and rifles along with standard frontier type clothing and behaviour. I wonder if I’ve, somehow, been thrown back in time to the mid 1800s?

A man and woman in their mid-thirties are standing on the porch while watching him walk up. Will stops near the two steps to the porch and he ties the horse reins to one of the posts. He puts the collected rifles on the porch, drags the dead off the horses, and he starts stripping the bodies of everything he can use. In a few minutes he has six naked dead men on the ground along with everything off the horses.

The woman asks, “Why are you taking their loincloths?”

Will glances at her as he replies, “Everything can be used. The cloths can be either sewn together to make a bigger cloth, or cut up to use as ties or patches on other things. All I have now is right here in front of you, so I intend to keep and use everything I can.” She slowly nods in reply.

A young woman’s voice comes from inside the cabin, “Pa, Ma, you need to look at Jim’s leg. It’s not bleeding much, but the ball is still in there and he can’t stand.”

Will looks up, “Want me to have a look at it? I’m not a doctor but I’ve had a bit of training on how to treat bullet wounds and the like!” He’s not a qualified paramedic but he does have a Certificate in Advanced First Aid plus a few extra courses on combat medicine. He figures they put him a little ahead of most people, especially those in the 1800s.

The man looks him over, nods yes, and says, “You and the women can look to Jim. I’ll take two of your horses to bring in the two we killed in the back, if you don’t mind!” Will nods his approval while moving toward the door.

Walking into the two-room cabin Will sees many things to confirm his working assumption about being in the mid 1800s. He also sees a late teen girl helping a slightly older boy onto the rough table in the room.


Doctoring

Will says, “Right! First, get them pants down and off, along with the boots.” The boy goes to speak, so he adds, “Getting them off will hurt less than me having to cut them off, and this way you can patch them to keep using them afterwards.” The woman nods her agreement, so the boy starts to undo his pants when Will takes his pack off. While the boy strips Will gets out his first aid kit.

In a moment the boy is sitting on the table with just his shirt on and Will says, “I want a pot and a pan of boiling water.” The girl turns to the fireplace to start arranging them. Turning to the woman he asks, “Got any whisky or moonshine about?”

She looks at him for a moment, then she goes into the other room. Returning with a quart bottle she asks, “You want me to get him drunk so you can work on his leg?”

Will is still sorting things out so he replies without looking up, “No! He’ll pass out if it hurts too much. I want the alcohol to clean out the wound. That way he shouldn’t get gangrene.” He only takes out what he thinks he’ll need: tweezers, antiseptic fluid, a gauze pad, a syringe without its separate needle as he leaves the needle in the pack, his torch, the kit’s small metal mug, and he opens one of the survival kit’s knives.

The pan of hot water is ready so he places the instruments in it for a moment. For the knife he rests the handle on the edge with the blade in the water. He’s surprised about how quick the water is boiled.

He has the woman pour him a cup of the alcohol and he sniffs it. It’s powerful stuff. He rolls the boy over to be face down so he can flush out the wound better. Using the torch for light, and getting a shocked look from the woman, Will probes the wound with the tweezers until he has the ball and several threads out. Next is to fill the syringe with the booze, he pushes it as far into the wound as he can then he forces the liquid into the wound. The boy gasps and screams from the sting. Will does this twice, and he’s happy to see a few more threads wash out of the wound.

The woman asks, “What are you doing? And Why?”

He replies, “I’m washing out the wound to get all the dirt and cloth threads out so the wound won’t fester. Also, the alcohol will clean it.”

Another thorough check with the torch: nothing is in sight except human skin and muscle. No serious bleeding, and only some muscle damage. He should heal well, if they can avoid an infection. Will rolls the boy onto his back, and he bends the leg to keep the thigh off the table.

“Now I need a strip of clean cloth about as wide as your hand and as long as your arm plus a pad about the size of the palm of your hand when folded over twice so it has four layers,” is Will’s next set of orders. “When you have them ready I want them boiled in the pot for five minutes. I need some soap as well.” The woman frowns, but she does as he wants. Soon the cloth is in the water being boiled while he’s rinsing the used instruments in the remaining water in the pan. When that’s done he uses the water and soap to wash his hands.

After pouring some of the antiseptic into the wound he places the gauze on it, uses the tweezers to get the pad cloth out, wrings it out, folds it, and places it over the wound. Next is to get the long cloth out, wring it out, and use it as a bandage. Last is to give the boy an antibiotic tablet.

The man is back by the time the bandage is on. Will packs up his gear while saying, “The pad and bandage will have to be changed a few times each day. Whenever you do that have the replacement on hand. It needs to be a just boiled clean cloth, and also wash your hands before handling it. That’s to minimise the risk of germs infecting the wound.”

The man asks, “What are these germs you speak of?”

Looking over at the man Will says, “You know animals come in many sizes, some big and some small?” The man nods yes. “Germs are smaller than gnats. So small you can’t see them with just your eyes. They’re all over the place. They like to set up house in wounds and multiply.”

The woman asks, “Are they what causes gangrene?” Will nods yes. “The alcohol and hot water kills them?” Another nod. “Thank you.”

Will adds, “A good soap will also kill most germs, but the lye is just as bad if it gets into the wound. If it gets infected we’ll need to clean it out with a stiff brush and lye soap then rinse it well with water as hot as he can stand before a final rinse with the alcohol. As long as we keep the leg and the bandages clean he should heal well. However, I may not have been able to get all of the cloth threads out. Only time will tell us. If the wound gets hot and red he has an infection then we’ll have to deal with it. That’ll mean I’ll have to open the wound to get a better look into it for threads, but I think I rinsed them all out.” Both the adults nod to show they understand. “Do you have any willow-bark tea or a similar remedy for a fever treatment?” She nods yes. “Give him some every few hours as it’ll help with his recovery and further reduce the chance of infection.”

The man asks, “Can you stay for a few days to keep an eye on Jim?”

Will nods yes as he says, “Will March,” while holding out his hand.

The man takes his hand, “Sam Wilson. My wife Betty, son Jim, and daughter Ann. Thanks for helping out with the Indians. We get on well with the local tribe, so I don’t know why they attacked.”

“Neither do I. Where can I stack my gear and set up a pad to sleep?”

The woman points to a spot beside the fireplace on the side away from the kitchen area, saying, “You should be nice and warm there.”

Will walks over, places his pack at the spot, takes off his poncho and helmet, and puts them with the pack. He walks outside and he returns with all his booty from the fight to add it to the pile while saying, “I want to have all these cloths and blankets hot washed with soap. Can you show me what I can use to do that tomorrow?” Both Betty and Ann nod yes in reply. He turns to Sam, “What should we do about the dead?”


Visitors

Sam starts to speak, but he stops when they hear horses approaching so they grab their guns and go out to see who it is. It’s another group of Indians so Will checks his gun. Sam smiles and says, “This is Long Snake, the leader of the local tribe. Also, they don’t have weapons in hand and up ready to use them, so this is a friendly visit.” Will smiles.

Most of the Indians stop at a good distance and only two come up to the cabin. One of them greets Sam in a variant of Spanish, very much like the Mexican Spanish Will was taught by a neighbour when he was in high school. She was a lady of Mexican descent who married a Texan who worked for one of the computer companies and he got posted to Sydney. Sam responds in the same language and he also introduces Will.

After the exchange of greetings Long Snake looks at the dead lying on the ground and says, “I see I’m too late to warn you about Dark Wolf talking some of the young braves into making some raids. I see you made Dark Wolf pay for attacking you. I’ll find the others and deal with them myself. Now Dark Wolf is dead they should settle down.”

Will speaks up in the hopes he can resolve the problem of disposing of the dead. He says, “Long Snake, all of the young braves died like warriors in battle. I killed three when I shot them from behind while they were attacking the house and the others were killed from the front while attacking us. However, Dark Wolf was killed while running away from me when I shot the others.” This gets the attention of the listening braves. “We do not know the proper ceremonies to honour the dead warriors to see them properly on their journey into the next world. Will you please take them with you so their families can know what happened to them, and so they can perform the proper ceremonies for them?”

Long Snake stares at Will for a moment, then he smiles and says, “Yes! It is proper their families know of what happened and see them on their way into the next life.” He signs to the other Indians. In a moment the dead are all across horses and they’re ready to be taken back to their families. “I thank you for thinking of their families and their honour.” The Indians are on their way again after a few more words with Sam.

While they walk back into the house Sam says, “That was a neat way to get rid of the dead Indians.”

“It saved us some work. It also shows them we want to get on with them and to let them worship in their own way. I think he liked me asking them to do it right.”

“Oh, he definitely did. I know they often have to steal their dead back if they want to bury them right. If that’s what they do with them!”

“I’ve no idea what their rites are. But I’ll let them perform them.”

After putting his new horses in the corral, and giving them food and water, Will spends the remainder of the day with Sam going over the guns to make sure they’re all working and are safe to use. The revolvers are all working .36 calibre Paterson Revolvers, but some parts are in a better condition than other parts are. It’s a little work to take them all apart and to then reassemble the best parts into better guns with the worst parts made into not so good guns. Will now has two good pistols. One of the rifles is very worn and it’s not accurate to shoot at anything except close range while the other is still good to use at long and medium ranges.

Sam and Will sit and talk about many things until Betty calls them to the table to eat. They talk while eating and for a short while after that, then they settle down for the night. During the talk Will learns he’s in the same area he thought he was in. However, at this time it’s the Territory of New Mexico and he’s in the spring of the year 1857. Yuma isn’t a city yet, just a small town called Arizona just across the Colorado River from Fort Yuma, California, which is reached by a cable ferryboat.

While bedding down for the night Will’s mind is busy trying to get around his situation and to think of what he knows of US history of this time period. The only two things he’s sure of are the 1849 Gold Rush and the US Civil War which starts in early 1861. He decides he has to get himself set up somewhere safe well before the war starts, and he’s sorry he’s too late to make use of the little knowledge he has of the gold rush.


Before he falls asleep Will says a short prayer for his family he won’t be seeing again. He’s very pragmatic due to his family background and his training, thus his focus is now on surviving in this here and now. He has no time to worry about the future which is in his past. Like many of his grandmother’s ancestors have learned: accept tragedy, survive, and look to the future. Today is now his main concern and he needs to establish a new family in this time and place. However, that’s for tomorrow and the days after it. Right now it’s time for sleep.

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