Army Days by Stuart G. Yates

Author:Stuart G. Yates [Yates, Stuart G]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Next Chapter

They came at last to another rise, and from there, Cole saw in the depression a small town. It wasn’t much, a collection of several clapboard buildings, some more not yet fully erected, clinging to a single tracked street. A church lay at the far end, the most impressive of all the buildings. The women pleaded with Cole to go with them into the town, but he refused, explaining that time was against him and Cairns had to face justice. At this, Cairns muttered a string of obscenities, forcing Cole to rap him around the back of the head with the butt of his revolver.

There was much hugging and tears when Cole finally departed, giving the group a final wave before he disappeared amongst the trees in the general direction of the Union fort he and the others had left days before.

Without speaking, Cole led Cairns, slumped and moaning on the back of his horse, through a landscape punctuated with trees and thickets, lush grass and undulating hills. This was a pleasant land, and in another life, he mused, it would be a good place to settle. His thoughts turned to the afternoon he’d spent with Penny and the regret loomed huge in his mind. He knew exactly what he would do as soon as he got back to camp and the thought brought a smile to his face.

They camped by a river, which gently gurgled its way down towards the distant sea. Cole laid out his bedroll and made a small fire. The weather was chill, and there was little to eat. Cairns, sullen, nibbled on the hard-tack Cole offered him. “This ain’t near enough, you idiot.”

“Just keep talking, Cairns, and I’ll give you another taste of my pistol.”

“You’re all tough and hardy now, ain’t you, Cole. You wouldn’t be spouting off so if we were standing toe-to-toe.”

Knowing this was a ruse to set him free, Cole ignored the man’s jibes. Instead, he walked over to him, lashed his wrists together and secured him to a nearby tree, allowing him enough slack to lie down comfortably. He then relieved Cairns of his boots and returned to his own place. He sat for a long time, staring into nothingness as the evening slowly gave way to night and the fire died into nothing but tiny, spluttering embers.

He awoke early, with the dawn nothing more than a smudged pencil mark across the horizon. After checking Cairns, he wandered off, cutting a path through the trees towards the banks of the river. There, he went through his exercises, limbering up, callisthenics and shadow boxing before stripping off his clothes and plunging into the river to cool his burning muscles. Afterwards, he sat, his mind going over all that had happened over the previous days. His eyes glazed over and, without any conscious thought or action, he cried. All of it rose unchecked from the very pit of his soul… the fears, anxieties, the fragility of his youth, Penny. So many regrets, so many actions he wished he’d never allowed.

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