Chapter 49

Present – Ben – Travel back to the bunker

Stacy complains about the pain but then asks me to carry her? There's no way in hell that's going to happen - not in this circus from hell. Besides, I need both hands free because I never know what the hell is going to happen next.

I give her a dirty look, get ready to explain this to her, when all hell breaks loose. A round zips past us and I yell, "Get down."

For being in 'so much pain' she sure doesn't waste any time making like a rug. I hear a couple more rounds, look over and about laugh my ass off! Bo and Patches are trying to hide behind trees which are much too small and their asses are sticking out. I yell, "Bo unless you and Patches want to get shot in the ass, then vamoose until I figure out whose firing at us. I'll whistle when I need you."

He neighs and they take off. For now the firing stops. Stacy crawls over beside me and asks, "Ben did Guy come back?"

I shake my head and tell her...

Present – Stacy – Travel back to the bunker

I can't believe it, someone is shooting at us and they are terrible shots. I worry and hope at first it's Guy because I want to torture him to death. I ask Ben about it and he shocks me when he says, "Not unless Guy has a forty-five Long Colt revolver like the Ruger you lost."

Geez, can't Ben ever let that one little mistake rest. I am tired of hearing about it and say, "Look Ben I'm sorry..."

I never get to finish because a few more shots hit the dirt right in front of us. Ben says, "Fuck this shit!" He jumps up and runs toward the apparent location of the firearm.

What's wrong with him, has he gone totally crazy? I yell, "Ben no!"

The shooting stops again so I listen closely! I don't believe it - Ben's laughing! This I have to see so I jump up and run toward Ben's laughter. I almost get to the clearing when Ben grabs me and pulls me behind a tree just as two more wild and crazy shots are fired.

Ben says, "Well I discovered what happened to your revolver."

I ask him, "What happened to it?"

He says, "Peek around the tree and look in the clearing."

I can't believe my eyes! Ben begins to laugh again so I ask...

Present – Ben – Travel back to the bunker

Stacy asks, "Ben what the hell is so funny about his."

I wipe the tears from my eyes and tell her, "Stacy this reminds me of a mission Jack and I were on in Africa. As we observed a terrorist camp, a chimp wandered in, picked up a loaded AK and it promptly shot the hell out of the place. Then he raised the AK over his head when he was done."

Stacy questions, "How did he figure out how to load the revolver?"

I reply, "They are smart as hell, plus he probably watched some old Western movies. Besides he's not really good at it. Look he's doing it again."

I chuckle as he opens the feed gate, tries to put a round in backwards, flips it around, puts it in the right way. He grabs two more and loads them. Then he closes the feed gate cocks the hammer, pulls the trigger and it goes click. He gets pissed (again) lets out some chimp grunts, cocks the hammer, pulls the trigger - this time it fires and he jumps!

I look at Stacy and ask, "I wonder what Samuel Colt would say about this?"

She questions, "What do you mean."

I reply, "Well, there's a famous old quote which many people wrongly attribute to him that goes, 'God made men, but Samuel Colt made them equal.'"

The damn chimp cocks the hammer, points it toward our tree and I say, "Get down."

We dive to the dirt as we hear a click and more grunts.

Stacy replies, "I bet he would now say, this monkey is making a fool out of us. Why don't you just wait until he stops to reload, charge him and take the revolver away from him?"

I give her a dirty look and answer, "Because he would kick my ass! Do you realize how strong chimps are?"

She doesn't answer, and I can't believe what she does...

Present – Stacy – Travel back to the bunker

Well if Ben's just going to sit here and do nothing, then I'm going to do something about it. I stand up walk into the clearing and demand, "Listen here, that's my gun now give it to me!"

The chimp begins making chimp noises then I realize what I did might be a mistake! It points the gun at me, smiles, cocks the hammer. Just in time Ben runs out, grabs me and throws me to the ground as the chimp pulls the trigger. Of course, the gun goes off - just missing me.

Then I hear a roar behind me, the chimp lets out a chimp scream, throws the revolver at whatever it is and takes off running.

I turn to see what the hell has scared off the chimp with a gun. I take one look at it and things go dark...

Present – Ben – Travel back to the bunker

Dammit all! That's the last fucking time I'm saving Stacy. The bullet missed her and grazed my arm. At least this time it's only a flesh wound. And to top it all off, she passed out again when her gorilla came and chased off the crazy chimp with her revolver.

I stand up as the gorilla walks up to me, hands me the revolver and I say, "Thanks." Then put it in my holster.

He points to Stacy, does some sign language crap (which I don't understand) and grunts. I begin patching up my arm and answer, "I really don't understand your sign language but she's going to be alright."

He walks over, points to a bloody spot on her back and I understand he's worried about her. I reply, "Let me finish my arm then we will look at her."

He sits right beside her and holds her hand. When I finish my arm I walk over with the medkit and say, "Yeah the spot on her back broke open again with all the stuff she's gone through."

I take her shirt off, take the bloody bandage off and I begin to clean it up. The gorilla points and I answer, "Yeah she was taken by a bad man and he did this and worse things to her. I'm just thankful she's out of it so she doesn't feel the pain or know what he did."

I finish cleaning her up and put on a new bandage. I want to check all her pads, but don't feel that comfortable with the gorilla here so I decide they can wait until we get to the bunker.