Young Writers Society

The moment Evaline started clarifying, James found himself doubting his train of thought. Over and over again, Evaline had been hinting that she might want to stay in Nye forever. Forget about the note, and stay. He was inclined to still believe it despite her hurried explanation afterward, but he wondered how sure she was of it.

It wasn't that he expected her to know for sure, but he did wonder.

He decided not to mention it, and a small pause passed as they came to the bottom of the slope, ready to turn the corner and make their way back to the river.

"So, you want to go off somewhere new and...?"

Live alone? would've been the end of his sentence, but he didn't finish his thought. As they started to turn the corner he felt something he could only attribute to instinct and a year of paranoia - the presence of something around the corner. But at that point, it was always too late. The feeling almost always came too late. If there was something dangerous, they hadn't even tried to be stealthy. It would know they were coming.

On occasion, his instincts were wrong, and his body told him he was in danger when he wasn't. But this time he practically felt the hairs rise on the back of his neck.

If he was wrong, he didn't care if Evaline would call him paranoid. He reached behind his back and grabbed the hilt of his dagger, and he rushed ahead of Evaline and Elliot.

All he had time to process was three figures with scarves pulled over their faces and wrapped over their heads. Two were further back, and one was right in front of him, holding out the blade of a sword.

He saw the swordsman shift his stance, and James ducked backward just as the blade came slashing diagonally through the air.

James felt the sword swoosh through the air, and as the sword went one way, he went the other. For a split second, as he stood back up, he looked back to Evaline and made eye contact. Then he dodged to the side, deflecting the blade with his dagger.

There was a lot of movement. The swordsman and a person wielding two daggers came up on either side of him, and the third thief sped past the three of them, too far out of James's range to hit or slow down, but he knew exactly where they were headed - it was Evaline and Elliot. She was running with him but hadn't gotten up in the saddle.

He needed to take care of these two as quickly as possible. His heart started pounding when he heard gunshots behind him.

He deflected the sword once again, and it barely missed his shoulder. He ducked a swing from a dagger and backed away quickly, in the opposite direction of Evaline. The person with the daggers started swiping, and James found himself spinning, ducking, and dodging over and over just to avoid getting hit. He kept looking for an opening.

When the swordsman drew back a step to led the one with the daggers surge forward, James took the opportunity to rush him, taking the small opening he had as he sliced at the man's wrist, on the same hand holding the sword. He cut deeper than he expected, and the man cried out with a hiss as he involuntarily dropped his sword to the ground.

James leaned back to avoid the free-falling blade, but he could see the other attacker out of the corner of his eyes, coming at him from behind.

He spun around, stomping his foot down on the sword's blade to buy him a little time in case the swordsman tried to pick it up with his other hand, and he managed to dodge one of the attacker's daggers, but they got a slice in his side. As the dagger sliced through his shirt and his skin he felt it rip through his bandages, right across an old, still-healing wound.

He bit down a cry and growled deep in his throat, meeting the eyes of the one wielding the daggers.

With his free hand, he punched them hard, square in the throat. As they sputtered and started to stumble, he sliced diagonally across their chest.

He spun back around to the swordless man just in time to see him reaching down to grab the hilt on the ground. James kicked up sand into the man's eyes and kicked him in the jaw. He felt the man start to lift the blade under his only grounded foot, so James leaned forward and rammed him back into the ground. The man let go of the sword and regained his footing in time to spin back around, roundhouse kicking the swordless man in the head just as he started to get back up.

He fell to the ground and laid still, knocked out.

James whirled back to the one with the daggers, ducking a swipe and using the same movement to grab the sword in the sand. When he stood back up he could feel his side throbbing, but he hardly had time to think about it.

He swung at the attacker once, twice, and they dodged each time. The third time he brought down the blade the person crossed their daggers in an "x" and caught his blade. For just a second, James pushed against it, but then he pulled back, and before the attacker had a chance to get in another hit, swung against their legs with the blunt edge of his sword. Their knees gave out and their back hit the sand with a thump.

A shrill whistle pierced the air and James heard one of the thieves call out in Letterran for them to fall back. James wasn't going to just let them flee without a fight.

He went in for another hit - and it would've been clean - but instead, he struck the ground, as the person rolled over and jumped to their feet, dashing to the side of their fallen comrade, who was still out cold.

James held back as he watched them pick up the man out of the sand and attempt to shake him to wakefulness. It only seemed to work partially, as they began to stumble clumsily towards the other man rushing away, with a bag over his shoulders.

That was one of theirs.

He saw Evaline with Elliot, holding his lead and calming him down. They both looked alright, aside from the missing saddlebag.

As he watched the thieves dash off through the desert, getting smaller and smaller, James felt the blood streaming down his side, sticking to his skin. He was breathing hard, and now that the adrenaline was already starting to fade - well, it already hurt like hell. But now it did even more-so.

Everything happened so fast. One second, Evaline was panicking because she didn't want James to think she was desperate to stay in Nye, and the next second, she was panicking because there were three hooded figures attacking them.

There was no time to react or say anything. She felt the adrenaline already pumping through her body as she and James only made eye contact for a brief second. She knew what he was trying to tell her just with his eyes: I'll hold them off, but you need to protect Elliot and get as far away as possible.

At least, that was how she interpreted it. These outlaws were unlikely to be random killers or bounty hunters, but instead, thieves who wanted to steal their resources.

Evaline immediately dashed off to the right as James started to back away in the opposite direction. She glanced back and saw that they were outnumbered: there were three hooded bandits, and one was running towards her now.

And there were gun shots zipping past her. The bandit coming after her had a gun.

She swallowed and gritted her teeth, knowing it was just a matter of time before these bullets would hit her or Elliot if they just kept running. She had to disarm him and deescalate the situation.

As she approached a patch of sloping rocks and cacti, she slowed down and let go of the lead rope on Elliot, watching as he zipped on ahead without her. Please, please don't go too far, she pleaded in her head as she dipped behind a rock and poked her head out to eye the thief. In the distance, she could see James fighting off the two other bandits with sharp weapons, but she didn't have time to analyze anything.

The gunman jogged by, looking wary as he seemed to know that she was hidden around the area. Without hesitation, Evaline kicked sand in his direction, trying to get it in his eyes as much as possible. He grunted out some curses an she quickly slid near his feet to grab his knees, using momentum as an attempt to knock him down.

Unfortunately, this man was sturdy, and Evaline cursed at herself for not having the time to observe this beforehand, although his cloak shrouded most of his body. She only had half a second to realize this mess-up as he only took a second to regain his footing from the lost balance, but luckily—for her physical well-being—he only looked down in response at her.

"You're a fighter, aren't cha?" he said with a deep, mocking voice and a thick accent. Although the scarf hid his mouth, she could hear the smirk in his voice, and she could see his dark eyes looking her up and down, like maybe she was someone worth stealing.

This only angered Evaline, and mixed with the adrenaline, any concept of risk was erased from her mind because she wanted to make sure this man knew his boundaries, whether it be with her or with Elliot. She let out a muffled scream as she pushed her feet off the ground and first used the gained momentum to knock down the back of his knee, and then as she kneeled on the ground, used the rest of the momentum to kick up between his legs.

Between the two moves, he grunted and instinctively bent over, but he quickly recovered, like this wasn't the first time this had happened before. She only saw the beginnings of a glare when she attempted to grab his wrist to disarm his gun, but he quickly swiveled around. She ended up grabbing his back, and then he swiveled around to complete a full circle and grabbed for her neck.

He was about to put her into a one-armed chokehold position, and suddenly, two memories flashed in her head: one, the day when Reed did exactly this and then had his gun pointed to her head, and two, the day that James taught her how to get out of this if this were to happen again.

She had asked to replay the lesson again and again to avoid the first situation with Reed, and the practice paid off when the gunman attempted to do the same to her.

Evaline quickly ducked under his grip with almost-perfect technique, and right on cue, Elliot anxiously ran over with his hooves spraying sand everywhere. Elliot was approaching behind her, so the sand didn't reach her eyes, but it did with the thief.

She used this opportunity to disarm him again, not bothering to attempt to knock him down first. She almost was able to get her hands on the gun, but he swiped her hand away in time and furiously glared at her, kicking her away.

Evaline fell back with a grunt and watched as he seemed to think she was no longer worth his time, and instead turned her back on her and started to run after Elliot. Elliot! It was him they were after, and she had to stop him.

She pulled the knife James gave her out of her boot and furiously ran after him, first pulling on his cloak. With one arm, she wrapped her hand around his chest in a bear-hug position so that she could grab the arm with the gun. With the other arm, she attempted to stab him in the back.

Unfortunately, Evaline did not have a lot of stabbing experience. She didn't use quite enough force to deeply penetrate his muscular back, but it still did cause a minor wound, and some blood dripped down. She tried to swing his arm around towards her, but greatly underestimated his fighting stamina. He swatted her arm away and reach around to knock her down with the blunt end of the gun, eyes shooting daggers as she fell to the ground and lost her grip on the knife.

She opened her eyes and looked up to see that the gun was pointed at her.

"Hand over the horse, or else I shoot," he said in a cool voice, seeming to recognize her as a threat now.

Evaline stared at the gun pointed at her and slowly stood up with her hands up in the air, feeling her head spin and pulsate from the hit.

"Now," he gritted through teeth.

She glanced at Elliot, who was only several strides away, anxious and defensive.

"Okay, we can work this out," she said calmly, taking a small step towards him. "What is it that you need? Money? I can give you that right now."

"The horse," he said, starting to sound impatient. "Hand it over."

Evaline slowly took a few more steps closer. "Okay, okay, no need to get aggressive, I am just trying to help you out here," she said with the same calm voice. "Let's work out a deal for our items. Surely we can come to an agreement."

He cocked the gun. "Don't come any closer," he warned.

Evaline stood still, now only an arm's length away from the gun. She looked up at him with a weak, fake smile. "You wouldn't kill an innocent woman without a weapon, would you?"

She could see the smirk return to his eyes, and he turned the gun just to the side of her head and shot, letting out a loud, deafening noise around them as she could feel the wind of the bullet whizzing past her head.

She felt her heart racing against her chest, her head, her hands. So he was serious. But she knew that. And she got close enough to only do one more thing.

Evaline pushed herself forward, hands reaching for his wrist and side of gun so she could turn it away from her and disarm it.

But she failed. She didn't quite turn her body away in time, and she watched as he pulled the trigger, and felt as the bullet hit her shoulder.

Pain.

Intense pain.

Every single thought and emotion left her body as she felt the bullet lodge in her shoulder, and it was like she was shot by lightning and paralyzed with the pain that consumed her.

She fell down to the ground with a pathetic cry that was impossible to repress, and immediately she put her hand over the wound to stop the blood from gushing out, but it didn't do much. With a shaky hand, she momentarily let go as she looked down at the blood on her fingers, and she could hear James calling out her name.

But it was all so hazy.

Pain wasn't an emotion: it was a feeling. A physical sensation. One she couldn't control, but one she could easily manipulate time with.

She had to go back and try again.

She closed her eyes as the pain started to fade and her surroundings melted into a deep white. When she opened her eyes again, she was standing in front of the gunman with her arms still up in the air, feeling the wind of the bullet rush by her head again.

Evaline knew what she did wrong when trying to disarm him. She had to try again.

She lurched forward again, this time leaning to the side farther away from the gun as he pulled the trigger, and the bullet zipped past her through the air. With quick fingers, she grabbed his wrist and angled the gun away before twisting it and grabbing it so that the gun was in her hands.

Evaline took a few steps back, pointing the gun at him this time with a cold, emotionless expression.

"No," she hissed.

The man slowly put his hands up in the air as the gun pointed towards him. "You wouldn't kill an innocent man without a weapon, would you?" he mocked.

Without even thinking about it, she slightly angled the gun so it was at the side of his head and shot, redoing the same shot he did to her. The sound of the bullet leaving the gun ricocheted around them.

She angled the gun back at him, but he lowered his arms and started to dart away towards Elliot. In a distressed attempt to stop him, she pushed her fingers along the trigger again, but...

That was the last bullet. He had tricked her.

She cursed under her breath. The thief was already approaching Elliot, and in an impulsive angry attempt to stop him, Evaline placed the useless gun the band of her pants while she reached for the knife on the sand behind her, and then she bolted towards him with fury in her eyes.

Although he tried to grab for Elliot's lead rope, Elliot was fighting back and yanking his head around. His feet when flying up as it looked like he tried to knock the thief down. As Evaline approached him with the knife in hand, he seemed to quickly glance between her and Elliot and quickly calculated the risk in his head.

Before Evaline could get closer to him, he grabbed one of the two saddlebags off of Elliot and sprinted away, whistling loudly and then yelling something in a different language. She watched as the two thieves James was fighting also retreated, and one of them seemed to be getting dragged away by the other. The three of them seemed to disappear into their surroundings.

Evaline slowly let the tension leave her body before finally turning over to Elliot, who was unhurt and calming down. She tucked the knife back in her boot and then gently grabbed the lead rope and petted his mane.

"Maybe that was a little lucky," she said softly with steely eyes. "I only had to go back once."

She paused for a second and then glanced back to see James who appeared to look okay, and she hurriedly led Elliot towards him. As she got closer, she could see that he was holding a sword - probably stolen from the thieves - and he appeared to have a tense and uncomfortable expression as his hands were awkwardly out in front of him. Naturally, as she approached, she looked down to see what he was hiding, and then she saw it.

Blood. He got hurt.

Evaline felt the panic return, as well as the guilt for not noticing until it was over. She rushed over and instinctively let go of the lead rope, standing in front of him wide-eyed and staring at the hole on his shirt. "Are you—" she began, but immediately faltered. Of course he wasn't okay.

"Is it bad?" she asked softly, meeting his eyes and hoping that by hiding her own panic, it would help James.

James looked back, but his gaze was unfocused. He tucked his dagger back into its sheath, back into his belt with a barely-trembling arm.

He looked down at the sword in his hands, then over to Elliot.

"You should tie him up," he said stiffly. "So he doesn't run off again. I can - need to stop the bleeding."

James didn't answer her question.

Evaline quickly shook her head and then looked off to the side where Elliot was, deciding to lean in and grab the lead rope again before facing him.

"How bad is it?" she asked again, sounding more demanding. Her aching head buzzed with a thousand thoughts as she turned again to go through their one saddlebag, hoping they didn't steal the one with the bandages.

They didn't. She fished for it out, not trying to think about the bag they did steal.

Food. And all the supplies that related to it.

"Should I..." she began, her throat feeling dry. She tried again. "I can go back. If it's bad."

She found the roll of bandages and then turned towards him again, eyes serious as she extended her arm out for him to take it.

"Is it bad?" she asked again, emphasizing each word with a cool voice.

James took in a deep breath.

"I won't die," he said steadily. "If we take care of it now. Don't go back. We got lucky this time. I don't want to take our chances again."

He threw that words again: lucky. But now was not the time to bring such a thing up.

Evaline had to stop herself from peeling James's shirt off and inspect the damage herself, especially since he seemed too shy to do that right now in front of her. Why couldn't he just... do something about it right now?

"Okay," she said stiffly, holding back her thoughts. "Tell me what you need."

James took a second. He needed to collect himself. He needed to think clearly, and rationally, and not all of the things rushing through his head again. Stop the bleeding. That was a priority.

"Tie up Elliot. Get the..." he stopped, realizing Evaline was holding out the bandages towards him. He hadn't registered it. He threw the sword to the side and grabbed it. "Okay," he said, nodding. He looked down at his side, but he couldn't get a clear idea of what was happening under the bloodied shirt. He sat down in the sand and grabbed the bloodied corner of his shirt. In one sweeping motion of his arm, he pulled it over his head, but his entire face tensed, and he gritted his teeth.

He held the bloody shirt out to Evaline.

"Get me a clean one. Grab the blanket, and -- salve, from Nathan."

He was seeing spots. The heat of the morning sun suddenly felt so much warmer.

Evaline tried not to let the sorry pity show in her eyes as James visibly tried to not let the pain show, but it came out anyways, especially since she wasn't doing anything but watch as he sat and peeled out of his shirt.

She simply nodded at his directions, taking the bloodied shirt and then turning back to the saddle bag to grab the items he needed. New shirt, blanket, and salve. It took her a little bit of time to find these things, but when she did, she turned back to set them on the ground beside him.

"I'll be right back," she said softly with Elliot's lead rope stll in her hand. She quickly went off in the direction of the nearest rock that was tall enough to tie him up.

Maybe a minute or two passed as she rushed over and quickly tied Elliot up, grateful that he was being calm. The daily riding lessons must have really increased their trust with one another. When finished, she gave Elliot one last pat and then turned to rush back to James.

"What else do you need?" she asked as she approached, kneeling down in front of him.

James had gotten up and laid the blanket on the ground. It was better than lying on the sand, and though he knew it would get bloody, he preferred it to the possibility of getting sand in the wound.

He'd managed to peel off the bandages that had already been sliced through, revealing the partially healed wound between two of his ribs, and the new one that sliced straight down, creating an "x" that was spilling out blood. He'd started unrolling the new bandages with unsteady fingers.

His mind felt foggy, and he couldn't shake the feeling from two months ago that crept back, like a dark shadow over his mind. He flinched when Evaline kneeled in front of him, which made him lose his grip on the bandage, and he cursed under his breath as he dropped it.

He heard her question, but he wasn't in the state of mind to answer it.

Evaline stared at the open wound and could see that James was biting down pain. She certainly didn't help the situation by kneeling in front of him and causing him to lose his focus. He said something under his breath that she didn't know the language of, but it was likely an expletive.

She quickly reached over for the roll of bandages before it rolled away, and then she turned to face him again, about to offer it back to him.

But then it fully sank in: he didn't answer her question, and for all she knew, he was one small thread away from crying in pain. Many weeks ago he was upset that she saw any of his torturous wounds, but reopening the injury must have shifted that problem away since he didn't seem to care that she saw him like this.

Evaline gingerly gave set the roll of bandages on the ground in front of him and then turned to the medical kit where the gauze was. They needed something to stop the bleeding before he wrapped it up, which she was sure James knew, but given his condition, he may not be thinking with a straight head.

She opened up the kit and saw that there was a small pack of gauze, and she opened it up and picked the biggest pad before turning back towards James and placing it over his wound gently.

"Put your hand over this," she instructed. "Keep pressure on it to stop the bleeding. I'm going to clean up the blood around it."

She waited until his hands were over the gauze and then she took a clean rag in the kit and wiped off the nearby excess blood on him, avoiding touching any other bandages or exposed wounds.

Next, the salve would go on, and then they could wrap it up tight with the bandages. It'll be good enough until they could go somewhere safe.

"You good?" she calmly asked before doing any of these things, slinking back a little to determine his expression.

James was focused on following her instructions. His mind felt like every passing thought melted in the fire of pain and memories he didn't want to think of, but he could do this. He knew how. Put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding.

He pressed down as hard as he could muster, but he felt his breathing starting to shudder. No, he was not going to cry.

He pressed his lips together tightly and nodded, not meeting Evaline's eyes.

James was not okay. But at least he was trying.

Evaline quickly glanced at Elliot and around their surroundings just to make sure they were safe. James usually scanned the area for them, but it barely looked like he could pay attention to what was directly in front of him right now.

"Okay," she said back, mostly to herself.

She reached for the salve and opened it. She was about to dip her finger in there and instruct him to move the gauze over so she could quickly apply it, and normally, she'd do this without hesitation, but, well...

It felt nonsensical to ask, but she did it anyways.

"Mind if I—?" she said, unable to to finish her sentence, but she held the salve out in front of her in case he wanted to do it himself.

It took James a second to realize, and then he pulled his hands away quickly, with a wince. He set the bloodied gauze down on the blanket and set his palm flat on the ground, using his arm to support his upper body to keep it upright. It resulted in him leaning forward a little, but Evaline would still be able to do what she needed to do.

Evaline went to work, applying the salve on the open wound, trying to use it to clot any blood that came down. She felt James wince when the cool ointment touched his wound, and he took a small, sharp inhale. Evaline tried her best to quickly finish using soft, long strokes to minimize any discomfort.

There was no use in asking him for permission for every single action. He said some short phrases to her earlier, but now, he was so preoccupied by the pain, he could barely talk.

When finished, she set the salve aside and took out a new pad of gauze since the other one was soaked with blood. She set the new gauze on to the wound, gently pressing down on it again.

"Hold this," she instructed as she patiently waiting for James to do that.

Evaline used the other side of the soaked gauze to wipe off any remaining blood on him, and then she began to unroll the bandages.

"I'm going to wrap this tightly on you," she said in a collected voice as she placed one end of the roll on the gauze. "Here. Hold this too."

James did as she asked and she began to wrap the bandage around his chest. She had to do it tightly so that there would be pressure on the wound and the bleeding would stop, but she knew this wasn't going to be comfortable for James. As she did this, James closed his eyes and his brows knitted together. He seemed to be breathing more heavily.

She wrapped the bandages around his body a few time until everything was fully covered and the tension felt appropriate. She fished for the other end and made a knot, securing it in place.

Her hands hovered above the knot for a second, but then she nodded and scooted back, trying to meet his eyes again, but he was staring blankly at the ground with a face set in stone.

"It's done," she announced quietly, then looked around their surroundings again, suddenly feeling more paranoid. If anything were to attack them now, they would be especially vulnerable.

"Can you walk?" she asked, turning back towards him. She wasn't sure if he wanted to talk, but the day just started, and they couldn't just lay out in the open.

James nodded, and it looked like he swallowed hard. "I can walk," he said. "We should get back to the river, at least. We'll need to wash everything."

"Okay." She realized that she kept resorting to this word, but she wanted to let him know that she was listening. "Let me help you up," she said, coming over to his side and wrapping her hand under his shoulders and arms. "Whenever you're ready."

James took in a deep breath, and he put his arm behind her back, grabbing her shoulder firmly.

"Ready."

Evaline helped lift him up and James let out a grunt, but it felt like he supported most of his own weight. When they were on their feet, she let go and started to scoop up the items on the ground: the salve, the kit, the roll of bandages, and his shirt that she wasn't going to have him put on since it wasn't that far of a walk from the river.

"Stay there, I'm going to get Elliot," she said as she headed towards Elliot to put the items away in the saddlebag, making sure everything was secure. She untied him from the rock and led Elliot back towards James, who she saw rolling up the blanket with a pained expression.

Evaline scowled for two reasons: one, she forgot to grab the blanket, and two, James was taking the initiative to put it away for her. She snatched it out of his hands for him and quickly put it away, then turned back towards him, trying her best to remain patient.

She decided to ask again.

"Can you walk, or do you need help to get on Elliot?" she asked.

James's eyes still looked a little glazed. He closed them tightly and sighed.

"...Walk. I'll walk," he said, as his hand went to cradle his side.

Evaline paused, her eyes naturally looking down where he was hurt.

"...Okay," she said again, deciding to bite back more words for his sake. "Let's walk. I'll take Elliot and we'll go your speed."

James nodded, and started walking slowly, but at a steady pace.