Chapter 2

Apparently the bunch that we had hit earlier had sent someone to go get help because they rode straight at the wagons. Milt had stayed with the wagons and there he ordered Sam and the all women and four of the men that were walking wounded from the earlier fight to hole up.

Milt's group's volley stung them bad, but when both sides of the less than hundred yard wide valley opened up the Crow knew they were in the wrong place all together. They had already lost over half of their warriors when one of the boys on the north bank put a bullet right through the head of the man that turned out to be the big chief. That put them at sixes and sevens as they tried to decide whether to fight or run.

Now they all wanted out and they did their damnedest to make it out of the little hell we had created. That's when the six of us hit them head on at point blank range. It must have been the very last thing they were expecting because none of them even had an arrow notched up and ready so we got our first lick in for free. I had a pistol in each hand and Broken Knife had left the Hawken with Fran and he was using his bow with deadly accuracy as was White Wolf and the others.

I was in the process of holstering my .44's and drawing one of my .36's when one of the last five Crows rode his horse into me and Jack both, knocking us ass over tea kettle. I hit the ground and rolled just missing getting stuck in the ribs with a lance. I grabbed the lance that had just missed my side and managed to unhorse another warrior that was trying to ride me down, but unfortunately the lance stuck in his ribcage and was jerked out of my hands.

Another Crow that was on foot came running at me with a knife. I don't know what he was expecting, but I managed to get hold of both of his hands and stretch them out above my head. Since he had been in a head long charge I just fell backwards. As soon as I hit the ground I had both legs pulled up against my chest. When he started falling on top on me I kicked him for all I was worth, and I wasn't aiming for his stomach.

I ended up hitting his pelvic bone and I know it had to hurt, cause it hurt me. The kick sped his flipping over my head and I rolled over and pulled out my pride and joy, at least as far as knives go. The Laredo Bowie that's made by Cold Steel is a work of art, but it's a deadly work of art. At almost sixteen inches long and weighing in at just over a pound it can do some serious damage.

I had developed an interest in knives and swords as a kid. What kid didn't? But dear ole dad's money allowed me to take lessons, and when he couldn't come and see me in competition he would just call up Cold Steel and order something for me. I'll bet he never thought that I would need those lessons as much as I needed them right now. I was also wishing I had the Warrior version O Katana that dear old Dad had bought me for going to summer school but, alas, it was on Jake. The young Crow warrior had been stunned by my kick. That had made it easy for me to draw the Bowie. When he came running at me he came in with the knife in his right hand, blade down point forward. I waited till the last fraction of a second, gave him a head and shoulder fake to his right, and then side stepped him to the left and slashed hard across his body. The result was devastating. He had brought the knife across at the last second trying to stab me, with the knife in his right hand as I moved past his left. This made his right forearm go across his chest. While his arm kept me from cutting a deep gash all the way across his chest. The Bowie sliced his forearm to the bone and caused him to drop his knife.

By this time he was the only Crow warrior left alive. He looked all around him at his dead friends and, I'm sure, family, and started singing in a loud screaming voice. I could sew up his arm but he probably wouldn't have much use of it with all the ligament damage. I looked over at Broken Knife and the other Comanche. I was real glad to see that they were all alive even though the youngest of our band, Two Bears, had an arrow sticking out of his shoulder and Broken Knife had a nasty looking cut on his forehead.

"He's singing his death song." Broken Knife called out, "He says you are a great warrior and that he is proud to have fought you. You have to kill him, it would be too much shame for him to bear if you let him live."

The Crow turned to Broken Knife and asked him something in Crow I assumed. I looked at Broken Knife, "He wants to know your name."

"Tom, Tom Dunlap, but the Comanche call me White Bear." I ran my fingers through the hair that went up the middle of my belly to where more was sprouting on my chest.

Broken Knife translated what I had said and then nodded to me. I stepped up and cut the young braves throat. My hands were shaking like an aspen leaf in a whirlwind. I walked the few yards to the creek and went to one knee. I was going to get a drink of water, but some of the Crow had fallen into the creek and it had a definite pink tint to it. I washed off the blood from the Bowie and sighed. I thought about how many men I had killed that day. I was just fixing to start feeling sorry for myself when Broken Knife put his hand on my shoulder. "Let your warrior heart rest Tom, we need the healer now."

I knew he was right, I whistled and Jack raised his head and trotted over to me, "Come on Jack, let's go get that saddle off you." Broken Knife helped Two Bears up on his horse and then mounted up himself and we rode back to the wagons.

Milt met us, "We've got some people hurt Tom, but nowhere what it would have been. I sure am glad you and your friends showed up today. Where do you want to start first?"

"Well first get four of your men and have them fan out and make sure we're not going to have any more guests."

I was looking around for Sam. "Sam has got all the wounded over there under the shade of that big Cottonwood and I'm pretty sure she has your doctoring stuff."

"Thanks Milt, can you get some one to fix some food for my friends? If they are half as hungry as I am they're starving." Broken Knife took Jack's reins to lead him off, I didn't have a whole lot of oats left but I told Broken Knife to give all of our horse's two double handfuls. Milt told Broken Knife not to worry about the feed, he'd send a man over with more oats for our horses as soon as he could.

God I was tired; with all the adrenalin gone I really just wanted to just curl up and go to sleep, but that wasn't going to happen. I looked to the west and extended my arm, three fist widths between the sun and the horizon, the sun would set in three hours. I sure hoped no one was badly hurt, but the first person I came to told me we weren't going to be lucky that way.

I saw Jana and asked, "Jana, I need a bucket of water and some soap."

She reached into a pocket on the already bloody apron and pulled out a bar of what could only be lye soap and handed it to me. She picked up a nearby bucket and poured some water over my hands. After giving my hands as good a scrubbing as I could, Jana rinsed them off and handed me a clean towel.

I quickly looked at each of the wounded. One of the men had taken an arrow just above his left eye. He had wanted to jerk the arrow out and Sam had to have Milt tie the man's hands behind his back to stop him. Milt returned and laughed, "Sam kept saying "no pull arrow out, bad! he got pretty mad about the whole thing, but we didn't let him or any of them pull it out."

"Yeah, well it tends to tear up more shit than I can fix," I replied as I dug the bag that held all of my drugs. When I found what I was looking for, "here take this pill and give it to him with some water. Wait, has he been given any whiskey by chance?"

"Twernt no chance, we gave him some on purpose," a man who had most of his front teeth missing replied.

"How much?"

"Just two or three swallows," the smiling gent answered.

"That should be just about right then," and handed the man the valium. With a little alcohol, and a little diazepam he'd be out like a light and we wouldn't have to worry about him for a while. It was a good thing because I already had a big problem, a young woman in her late teens or early twenties had an arrow stuck in her right side. "Milt, I need some chloroform or ether."

"Well, most of the wagons are hauling freight and there's one wagon with a bunch of boxes going to some doctor in Santa Fe," Milt explained.

"Go get those boxes and bring them here quick." I got down on my knees and started cutting away her dress right around the arrow trying to preserve as much of her dignity as I could.

She was in a lot of pain and she was frightened to death, she looked up at me with tears in her eyes whispering, "Am I going to die?"

I winked at her and smiled, "Not if I can help it. You're way too pretty for that. Here, take this pill for me, easy does it, now just a sip of water." She smiled; it was forced, but she tried. I took her hand in mine placing my index finger where I could get her pulse. It looked like the arrow was only in two or three inches but she was just a slip of a girl and there wasn't two or three inches of fat for that thing to be stuck in. The first thing she needed was some antibiotics. I had a bottle of combiotic in case any of my animals had got hurt. It was safe enough to use on humans, but boy howdy, back home there were lots of folks that would get their panties in a wad if they found out about using it on people. Seeing as how the federal government was going to be a long time catching up with me on any violations of their food and drug act I wasn't too worried. "Sam can you go get Jasper and bring him here?"

Sam lit out like she was on fire. I looked at the other three men lying in the shade of that old Cottonwood. Two Bears and another man had arrows in their arms. And then there was the fellow with the arrow in his head, but I didn't think it was all that bad. He was obviously hard headed and I didn't think that the arrow had gone much farther than his sinus cavity.

Sam returned with Jasper and I went to digging through the pack where the combiotic and syringes were supposed to be. I decided to give her two cc and hope the hell she'd not be allergic to it, I'd prick a place on her arm and test it, but still there was no way to be certain. As I was walking back to my patient I noticed I had attracted a crowd and it was growing. I needed some other stuff so I decided to put them to work, "I need a table, strong and stable enough that I can put her on it so I can get that arrow out. It needs to be about this high." I pointed about mid way up on my abdomen... "And I needed all that shit an hour ago." For a minute there it looked like the keystone cops, men and women running every which way.

Milt showed up with six men carrying three big boxes. Milt handed me some paper work I figured was an invoice. Half way down the page I spied it, ether and even more amazing, a Morton inhaler. I'd seen one in one of my EMT text books; it was about the first piece of modern anesthetising equipment ever made. There were also a full set of surgical tools. We were set. I decided that for this girl to have a chance I would have to do everything in my power. That meant the plastic bag of glucose and two bags of saline would come into play. I got them out as the men were fixing my operating table. Two and a half hours to sunset, I really needed to get a move on.

I sent Jana after sheets and Fran to boiling water in case I used up all my steril saline. I shooed every one away and leaned down to the girl, "Look I need to take your clothes off so I can fix you up. We'll put a sheet over you, all right?"

She just nodded, thankfully the valium was kicking in ... I started the IV and then Sam and Fran cut her dress off but left it covering her until Jana came back. When Jana got there with the sheets we covered her up save for where the arrow was. There was iodine in the doctor's supplies so I used it and cleaned the area around the arrow. I had all of my scalpels, forceps, needles and suture material. I was as ready as I was ever going to get. I put some ether into the inhaler and put it over the girl's mouth and nose and she was out like a light. I took it off and told Fran to watch her real close and if it looked like she was waking up put a little of the liquid in the inhaler and put it over her mouth and nose but not to leave it there for too long. I took one of my disposable scalpels and started making an incision.

When I got her open I saw that she had indeed been lucky. The arrow had nicked her intestines in three places. I was able to sew these up and using most of the gauze and some of the saline I was able to clean up the area around it. I realised that the one thing that I needed most was something to suction out the area. A one gallon jug and all of the extra plastic tubing that I had and ta-daa! A suction machine. Fran put it together while Jana and Sam helped me. Just fill the jug with water and turn it upside down. The water needs the air to replace the water that's running out of it and a vacuum is formed. I was looking to make sure I had everything when I ran across her appendix. I knew that back home if you had one and they were cutting on your tummy they took it out. I figured if I left it that it would go bad just from the germs I had already exposed it too. So what the hell I thought. I went in to the base of it and sutured it up. Once I was sure it was tied off, I cut it and used the last of my saline to irrigate and suck it clean.

I closed her back up, but left a gauze drain. It had taken me an hour and a half and I was fast running out of light. I was able to cut the two arrows out of Two Bears and Tim Gables. I gave both a shot of combiotic. Next was my hard headed friend, I had some men lift him up and lay him on the table. The arrow came out easy enough but I needed to flush it, but if he had a hole into his brain cavity that would kill him. So I made the outside hole bigger. Then I was able to feel that the arrow had not punctured the brain cavity. I stitched him up using the light from a lantern, now it was up to time and the Gods to heal them.

As soon as I stopped it felt like everything had caught up to me all at once. I was hungry and tired beyond belief. It felt as though I could have put my hands straight up in the air above my head and fallen through my own asshole.

Jana and Fran were suddenly in front of me. My hands were washed and a plate of beans and buffalo meat were shoved into my hands. I only ate five or six bites before I was shoving the plate away, "I'll eat tomorrow, I need some rest right now." I explained to the girls.

Before going to sleep though I went and checked on my patients. Matt Sampson, the man with the head wound, was still sleeping. Two Bears and Tim Gables were both resting comfortably in their blankets. Beth Ann Thompson was in a lot of pain. I gave her some more pain relievers and told the women who were to watch her through the night that if any thing happened to come find me. With that I let Jana and Fran lead me to my sleeping bag.

Jana and Fran had abandoned their former sleeping quarters underneath one of the Abernathy's wagons and had joined me and the Comanches. Sam scooted her naked body up against me and put her rock hard nipples into my back. Fran and Jana saw that she had stripped down and they followed suit. Three naked females and me too damn tired to do anything about it, and if that's not the shits I don't know what is.

I awoke around midnight and it was mostly quiet in camp, Jana and Fran were fast asleep when I sat up. Broken Knife sat up and looked at me, "Trouble?" he whispered.

I shook my head, "I want to go check on the girl," I whispered. I slipped on my new buckskins and the moccasins that Sam had made me, and walked over to the nearby wagon where I found Beth Ann awake. "How are you feeling?"

"Weak and sore," she reached for my hand, "who are you?"

"Tom Dunlap," I replied.

"No. Well, maybe the better question is, what are you? You're what seventeen or eighteen? What's going on?"

I wasn't sleepy anymore so I gently woke the woman who had been sitting with Beth Ann and sent her back to her wagon. "Well, I'm eighteen but it would probably surprise you to know my birthday." I smiled at her, she had a pretty face. "I was born on the second day of January 1988."

She sat in shocked silence for several minutes, "How? How did you get here?"

I shook my head, "I have no idea. I went to sleep in a thunderstorm in the year 2006 and woke up now. When ever now is." I reached over and lifted the sheet that was covering her enough to check the bandage. "I took your appendix out while I was in there. In my time it's standard procedure to remove it if they open up your tummy."

"Were you a doctor back there." She asked as she reached down to where I had cut her open.

"Lord no, I was just out of high school," she looked quizzically at me, "twelfth grade."

"But the medicine? They teach that in grade twelve?"

I sighed, "No, let me give you the short story." We talked for over an hour as I explained my life so far after extracting a promise to keep my secret. I wasn't real sure how I knew I could trust the woman but I knew. I saw her wince from the pain. "Starting to hurt?"

She nodded her head and blushed, "I need to..."

"Enough said, I'll go get the girls to come help and I'll get you something for the pain." I got Fran and Jana and told them to go give her a hand. While they were helping her I pulled out my drug bag, then I remembered that one of the boxes had some Laudanum in it. I found the paperwork and the right box and found a three gallon jug of the opiate. After digging around in the all three boxes I was finally able to decant a few drops into a small bottle of water. Returning to Beth Ann, the girls had helped her take care of her problem, and were now busy making some tea.

Jana turned to me as I walked up, "Master would you like some tea?"

I glared at her, "What did I tell you about that? And yes, I would like some tea." She cringed and I had to smile to soften my words a little. And when Jana brought me my tea, I sat it down and pulled Jana into a hug, "I'm not angry with you. Okay? But you're no one's slave and I'm no one's master." She looked up at me and smiled. I leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

As I started to release her from our hug she blushed, "I like it when you hold me like that. I..." as impossible as it seemed her face turned even redder and she fled the light of the campfire so that she could hide her embarrassment in the darkness.

I walked back to Beth Ann and gave her a spoonful of the Laudanum, "Now go to sleep, if you need anything just call out and I mean that. You mess around and pull my stitches I'll have Sam tie you to the bed like a papoose."