Buck Wilmington woke in his bed, alone for once. He rose and put on his clothes, then he went and grabbed some breakfast. After that he made his way over to the sheriff's office where he found JD sitting on a chair on the porch. Buck grabbed a chair and sat down beside him.
"Anything happening today?" Buck asked.
"No, not that I know of," JD said and yawned.
"Bored, kid?"
"Yes, I'm so incredibly bored."
"I'm sure something will happen soon," Buck said.
+ + + + + + +
A couple of hours later Buck still sat outside the sheriff's office with JD, but Ezra and Vin had joined them. Nathan and Josiah had stopped by earlier and told them that they were going fishing and Chris had rode by them and said he was heading out. Knowing Chris, Buck knew that he'd be back in a day or so.
+ + + + + + +
"Okay, that's it," Buck said after a while and got up from his chair.
"What seems to be the problem, Mr. Wilmington?" Ezra drawled.
"I'm bored, I'm riding out for a while."
"Want some company?" Vin asked.
"Sure," Buck said and the two men went to the livery and retrieved their horses and rode out.
When they had gotten about an hours ride from Four Corners they heard gunshots. Both men stopped immediately and Vin pointed to the direction which the shot had been heard from. The two rode in that direction and when they reached the ridge they got off their horses and crept up it. Vin carefully looked over the ridge and gasped as he saw the scene below them.
"Nathan! Josiah!" Vin exclaimed and rushed down the ridge to the unconscious men.
"I'll ride back to get help," Buck said when he saw that both men had been shot.
"GO!" Vin yelled and Buck ran to his horse and rode as fast as he could back to town.
"Vin," Nathan's voice was suddenly heard.
"Nathan, you okay?" Vin asked.
"I'll live. Check on Josiah he was hit in the chest," Nathan said.
"Can you bandage your leg by your self?" Vin said and handed Nathan his bandana.
"Yep. Help Josiah, you have to stop the bleeding," Nathan said grimacing in pain as he tied the
bandana around his heavily bleeding leg.
Vin moved over to Josiah and checked if he was still breathing, and he was. Vin ripped up Josiah's shirt and found that he had been hit in the stomach and he was bleeding heavily. Vin ripped off his own shirt and put it over the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. After a while Josiah started coming to, groaning.
"Don't move, Josiah, don't move," Vin said as Josiah opened his eyes.
"Where's the stampede?" Josiah said.
"What?" Vin said certain that the preacher had lost his mind.
"It feels like a stampede has run over me," Josiah said with a small smile.
"You've been shot," Vin said. "Buck's gettin' help for you and Nathan."
"You okay, Josiah?" Nathan asked.
"I'll live if God wants me to," Josiah said. "You okay?"
"Fine, I was hit in the leg," Nathan said and crawled over to the two men.
"What the hell happened?" Vin asked. "Me and Buck heard a gunshot."
"Well, it went fast," Nathan started. "Josiah was hit first and then as I looked in the direction of the gunshot I was hit in the leg. I fell to the ground and I hit my head."
"You saw the shooter?"
"All I saw was someone that looked a lot like Ezra," Nathan said.
"Ezra?"
"Yeah, I mean he was wearing the same kind of clothes as Ezra," Nathan said.
"Well hopefully he shouldn't be too hard to find then," Vin said. "Josiah?"
"He's out again," Nathan said. "I need my medical supplies to help him."
"You? Help him?" Vin said. "You've been shot too, you know."
+ + + + + + +
An hour later Josiah was still unconscious and Nathan was drifting in and out of consciousness. Vin was worried for both of them, what was taking Buck so long. Just as he thought that he heard horses approaching. Within a minute Buck, JD and Ezra came riding over the ridge. JD was carrying Nathan's doctor's bag. As soon as the men had dismounted Ezra grabbed the medical bag and started examining Josiah. Nathan came to off and on and helped Ezra as much as he could. Later Ezra did his best with stitching up Josiah, he had been able to remove the bullet. With Nathan it had been easier, Buck had bandaged him up since the bullet had went straight through his leg. Josiah had lost
a lot of blood and now all they could do was hope that he would pull through.
JD came back after Buck had called him, he looked pale. Buck couldn't help but chuckle, JD had turned green when Ezra had operated on Josiah, JD had excused himself and run off.
"What are you boys doing?" Chris Larabee's voice was suddenly heard.
"They've been shot," Vin said and quickly explained what had happened to their leader.
"Can we risk moving, Josiah?" Chris asked after a while.
"I don't think so," Ezra said. "Unless we get a wagon."
"I'll ride back and get one," JD said and ran over to his horse and rode back to town.
"Smart move," Nathan's hoarse voice was heard.
"Mr. Jackson, I never thought I'd enjoy the sound of your voice that much," Ezra said.
"I suppose I should take that as a compliment," Nathan said. "How's Josiah?"
"Alive," Ezra said. "I did exactly what you told me. I was able to remove the bullet."
"Good. And now JD's getting a wagon," Nathan said.
+ + + + + + +
Three hours later the seven came back into town, with Josiah and Nathan in the wagon. Vin and Chris was leading Josiah and Nathan's horses along. They stopped in front of Nathan's office and everyone dismounted. Ezra, Chris, Vin and Buck grabbed the temporary stretcher that Josiah was placed on and pulled it out of the wagon.
"Oh Lord, he's heavy," Ezra said as they made their way upstairs to the bed.
"You wouldn't want it any other way," Josiah suddenly said.
"Josiah!" Buck exclaimed. "You okay?"
"Well to use Vin's expression... Most of me," Josiah smiled slightly.
"Good to hear," Chris said as they set the stretcher down in the bed.
"Who shot us?" He asked.
"We don't know yet. But Nathan said it was someone who looks like Ezra," JD said. "We're gonna go look for him."
"Ezra, you stay with Nathan and Josiah," Chris ordered. "We'll be back at sundown."
"Good luck, gentlemen," Ezra said and the four men headed out of the room.
+ + + + + + +
About an hour before sundown Vin was still tracking and the men became more and more alarmed as the tracks were leading back to Four Corners. They sped up hoping that the man hadn't made it into Four Corners yet.
Back in Nathan's office, Josiah and Nathan was asleep, while Ezra sat shuffling his deck of cards. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Ezra, believing that it was one of his friends, called for them to come in. Ezra kept shuffling his cards as an unknown man came in through the door.
"May I help you?" Ezra asked eyeing the man suspiciously.
"No, but I can help you," the man said in the same southern accent that Ezra had.
"And how can you be of my assistance?" Ezra looked at the man's impeccable red jacket, much like the one Ezra owned himself.
"Well I can kill these men," the man drawled and in the blink of an eye he was holding a gun in his hand, pointing it directly at Nathan's head.
Ezra quickly figured that this was the man who had shot Josiah and Nathan earlier. The man was dressed almost exactly like Ezra and he was holding a gun, similar to Ezra's own gun. Ezra sat, still shuffling his cards, trying to look as calm as he could. Just as Ezra made an attempt to reach for his gun the man aimed the gun at Ezra. Then he ordered Ezra to put his gun on the floor and kick it over. Ezra had no other choice than to obey and he kicked away his gun, preying that the man didn't know about the derringer up his sleeve.
"Well, why would you do that?" Ezra asked casually, he had to keep the man occupied.
"These men are not our friends. That black gentleman hates us and you know that preacher's condemn gambling. These men are not our friends."
"Yes, they are," Ezra said.
"Liar!" The man exclaimed.
"No," Ezra said. "Perhaps me and Mr. Jackson don't always get along, but he's still my friend, so is
Mr. Sanchez."
"You're lying," he said walking up to Nathan and putting the gun to his head.
"Perhaps I am," Ezra said in an attempt to calm the man.
"That's good," the man said and stepped away from Nathan.
"So... Who are you?" Ezra asked.
"I'm you," he said. "But you can call me Mr. Standish."
"Alright, Mr. Standish. What is it that you want. Really?" Ezra said.
"Kill them," he said again.
"Okay..," Ezra said suddenly coughing, in another attempt to stall, Ezra was running out of ideas how to keep the man busy.
Suddenly the door was kicked in and Ezra reacting quickly flicked his wrist and fired his derringer, hitting the man in the leg. The man collapsed to the floor screaming in pain, clutching his leg. Chris had kicked the door in after hearing their conversation and now he and Vin came into the room, guns drawn, aiming at the man.
When JD took the man away to jail, Ezra felt a flood of relief wash over him. Josiah and Nathan were okay, they had heard everything but none of them were able to help.
+ + + + + + +
Later that evening Ezra sat outside the saloon with a bottle of whiskey and a glass, playing solitaire. After a while Chris and JD came over to him from the sheriff's office and they joined him.
"You okay, Ez?" Chris asked.
"Yes, I believe I am, Mr. Larabee. How is Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sanchez?"
"Well Buck's watching them now. Nathan seems just fine, Josiah complains about being tired but I think he'll live," Chris smiled.
"I still don't get what he wanted," JD said.
"Well, to put it simple, he thought he was me," Ezra said. "He had seen me and Mr. Jackson argue sometime and figured that me and him were foes."
"And because of that he wanted to kill Nathan, but why Josiah?" JD continued.
"Because the man thought Josiah was a priest," Chris said. "Priests doesn't really approve of gambling."
"I'm just glad that it's over," Ezra said and downed a shot of whiskey.
"Well one thing's for sure," JD said.
"What?" Chris and Ezra said in unison.
"I'll never complain about a day being boring again," JD smiled.
The End
