Escape from Endeavor

  ***

  Leo heard someone yelling off in the woods in the direction of town and assumed it was the rest of the posse. He yelled, “Hey I’m over here.” to let them know where he was. He hadn’t seen Mystique as she’d contemplated finishing the job Daemon had started.

  Thomas yelled, ”Yeah, yeah, we know,” back to Leo to let him know they were coming and not to shoot. A few minutes later the group was making camp around the fire. Mark and Steve went to collect more wood for the fire while Alan and Eleanor started cooking dinner.

  Steve screamed for help when he came across Jed’s remains. Everyone grabbed their guns and ran off to see what the trouble was.

  Mystique was the first to arrive, promptly decided she didn’t want to be there anymore, so she turned and left.

  Thomas led the rest of them to the location and found Steve vomiting next to a tree. The sight of Jed’s broken corpse made most of the group reconsider how dangerous their prey was. Arnold Leech was the only one who showed no sign of repulsion at seeing their comrade’s corpse, so Thomas told him to stay and bury Jed while the rest made their way back to camp.

  The group ate quietly.

  Thomas asked Leo, “So what happened?”

  “We followed the river a ways until Jed spotted where they had climbed out and started off through the woods. Their trail was pretty easy to follow, cuz after a while they stopped trying to hide it. I think they decided speed was more important because someone started cutting brush out of the way instead of going around it.” He took a swallow from his canteen. “Jed was in the lead and never saw Daemon hidden in the brush. I got a feeling and turned just as he lunged out at me. We wrestled around a bit until Jed started jabbing at Daemon with his rifle butt. I been in a few fights before and I’ll tell ya, Daemon coulda pinned me anytime he wanted but that woulda given Jed a clear shot. So he just toyed with me until Jed was close enough, then he hit me. The next thing I know I was waking up with a broken leg next to a pile of kindling. He even left me my hunting knife and flint to start the fire with.” Leo gave a confused shake of his head.

  “So what you’re telling me is that you and Jed walked right into a trap set by a halfwit,” Thomas stated, sarcasm dripping from every word.

  “No need to get mad at Leo; any of us could have gotten caught in that trap,” Alan Bench interjected, coming to Leo’s defense.

  Thomas turned his angry stare on Alan but when Alan refused to back down he turned back to Leo. “So how fast was he? I figure he has halfwit strength. I figure Angelica or that spacer wench came up with the idea of hobbling you to slow us down. They must have told Daemon where to wait for you.”

  “He was fast! I mean, I barely had a chance to see him before he was on top of me,” Leo replied, deciding the more dangerous he made Daemon sound the better his chances of Thomas not blaming him.

  “All right. Charlie, you and Gabe stand first watch. Paul, I want you and Craig to relieve them about zero one hundred. The rest of you get to sleep. We’ll break camp and leave at first light,” Thomas ordered.

  Mystique was the first to wrap herself in her bedroll for the night. She’d expected Thomas would want to get an early start and she wanted to have a look around before they did. The others didn’t take long before they were also lying down around the fire.