“Richard, stop!” said Robert, as he jogged toward Richard.
Richard turned and walked back toward a damaged section of the fence and waited for Robert.
Robert jogged up to where Richard was leaning on the damaged fencerow. “You scared the crap out of that kid, Richard,” said Robert, short of breath and exasperated.
“I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to get an idea of where we are.”
“Let’s just stick to our plan and avoid people. We don’t need any more trouble, okay?”
Richard agreed. Both men looked beyond the fence, noticing that there were cattle in the pasture. They could see a house in the distance.
“Cattle ranch,” said Robert. “I bet that kid came from that house.”
“Look over there, Robert. What is that?” asked Richard, pointing toward a large bush on the other side of the fence.
“Something is dead over there,” said Robert. His eyes were squinting at a carcass that was barely hidden behind a bush. He looked at the damaged section of fence next to them and realized that the barbed wire had been cut. He easily jumped the remaining bottom wire in the damaged section of fence and walked toward the bush to have a closer look. Richard followed him. The two men discovered the remains of a cow that had been neatly butchered in the field, and another cow that did not have much more than the entrails removed. Both were freshly killed; there was no stench of rotting flesh.
Richard gave the carcass a quick kick and said, “Looks like the rancher gets to eat steak every night.”
Robert stared at the butchered cattle with a puzzled expression. He looked back at the damaged fence and then over to the farmhouse in the distance. “There’s something wrong with this picture, Richard.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone poached the cattle. That’s why the fence is damaged. Someone cut the wires on purpose. The damaged fence made it easy to get the butchered meat to the road. They must’ve got spooked and left the other dead cow to waste right here,” Robert said, as he looked around nervously. “We need to get out of here and take our chances with the storm. I’m going to tell Kyle what just happened.”
“Go ahead. There’s nobody around.” Richard withdrew his knife, testing the sharpness on his fingernail. “I’m going to cut a few steaks for us before I go anywhere. I’m starving.”
Robert shook his head. “Bad idea. I’m getting out of here.” Robert stepped through the damaged section of fence and jogged back toward the embankment under the bridge. At the top of the embankment, Robert looked down toward the river and saw Kyle stacking firewood. Robert took a few steps down the slope and then cupped his hands to his mouth to amplify his voice and yelled down to Kyle. “Hey, we have to go. We’re next to a cattle ranch and it looks like someone has been poaching the cattle. I think we should move downstream.”
Kyle dropped the bundle of wood he was carrying, pointed to the sky, and yelled back up the hill to Robert. “It looks like bad weather is on the way. We have some cover with this bridge. Where’s Richard?”
“There is a freshly killed cow up there. He thinks he’s going to cut some steaks off it. I told him that was a bad idea. We should go now. A kid on a bicycle saw us up there, so we aren’t a secret anymore.”
Kyle looked down at the pile of wood and then back up at the dark clouds to contemplate the situation.
Robert quietly waited for Kyle to respond as he considered their options. Suddenly, a noise broke the silence. It sounded like a rifle shot. Robert quickly, yet cautiously, went back to the top of the embankment to check on Richard. Robert looked across the unfamiliar horizon, but did not see Richard standing anywhere. Kyle had just gotten to Robert’s position at the top of the embankment. The two men stood behind a protruding section of concrete from the bridge’s foundation.
“I can’t see Richard,” said Robert. Robert pointed in the direction of the butchered cattle. “He was over there when I walked away.”
Kyle strained his eyes in the direction of the cattle. “Maybe he’s hiding. I would’ve got low if I heard a rifle. There’s a large bush over there. Maybe he’s past that and we just can’t see him.” Kyle took a deep breath, cupped his hands to his mouth, and was just about ready to yell Richard’s name.
“Hold it. Don’t make any noise. I don’t want to give away our position. Let me low- crawl over there and look around. That bush will cover me from the ranch house at this distance, if that’s where the shot came from.”
Robert crawled along the swale between the road and the fencerow. He occasionally stopped and looked back at the bridge to see Kyle peering from behind its concrete foundation. As he got closer to the damaged section of fence, the carcasses, and the large bush, he became more cautious. He stayed lower to the ground and moved even slower. Near the bush, he stopped and felt the small of his back, where he had tucked his pistol, and took a deep breath. He inched up next to the bush and concealed himself from the ranch house. Apprehensively, he changed to a kneeling position and was about to peer around the bush when he heard a faint sound of a horse galloping across the pasture. He reached for the pistol and chambered a round as the sound from the horse’s hooves became louder. Robert tried to separate some of the branches to peer through the bush, to no avail. If he wanted to see what was approaching, he would have to peek around the bush and risk being seen. Robert held the pistol in his right hand and lay prone on the ground. He slowly moved to the edge of the bush and saw a mounted horse approaching. He leaned his body further and saw that the rider was holding a rifle. Suddenly, he realized that Richard was lying on the ground, opposite of Robert’s position and just a few feet away. Richard was in plain sight of the approaching rifleman.
“Richard, you have to move,” Robert whispered desperately from behind the bush. “That man has a rifle. Move Richard, get up, you have to move, Richard,”
There was no response from Richard. Robert slid back behind the bush and listened to the horse’s gallop turn into a slow trot. The horse stopped on the opposite side of the bush, Robert could hear the horse breathing, and the sound of the saddle leather as the rider adjusted his position. He now feared the worst for Richard. Robert thought he was most likely shot and the rancher was riding out to inspect the target. Robert got a lump in his throat when he heard the horse slowly moving around the bush. The rancher spurred the horse and it turned around suddenly. Robert startled the man, so the man immediately tried to bring the rifle to his shoulder. Robert jumped up into a firing stance and was raising the pistol toward the rancher’s chest as the rancher’s rifle levelled at Robert in the same instant. In the rancher’s haste to shoulder his weapon, he accidentally spurred the horse just before he pulled the trigger. The startled horse reared, and the rifle discharged harmlessly into the sky. The bullet from Robert’s pistol knocked the rancher backward and out of the saddle. The frightened horse galloped away with the rancher’s foot caught in a stirrup. Robert stared at the horse’s retreat and the sight of the rancher’s body reacting with each bump in the ground as the horse galloped away. Robert took a step toward Richard’s body, knelt down, and felt for a pulse. There was no pulse. Richard was dead.
Robert looked up and saw Kyle running toward him with the rifle. As Kyle got closer, he slowed his pace, but his breathing was labored. Kyle tried to speak as he gasped for air. “I saw what happened. I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry, Robert.” As he got closer to Robert, he could see that Richard’s dead body was concealed on the other side of the bush. He stared in disbelief with wide eyes.
Robert moved closer to Kyle and said, “There was nothing you could have done, and now there is nothing we can do for Richard. We need to go.”