Chapter Text
"Let's see what's worth dying for".
They walk over to the fallen men. The black duffel bag is full of money. The aluminum briefcase is unlocked, a handcuff dangling off it. Nyush opens it to see a large quantity of pharmaceuticals encased in plastic and foil packaging. Each tab is almost translucent, and has a runic double lightning bolt imprinted on it.
***
It's late summer, and a couple days since the start of their senior year of high school. The trees are starting to show a hint of color from the drought, and the evening sky is a brilliant red from all the dust in the air.
The brothers are watching a doe and its yearling lick on the remnants of a salt block on the edge of a long-ago abandoned gravel pit. Teisha guesses correctly which of his brother's hands holds the pebble, and so it is he who begins to stalk closer, carrying an old Savage lever action rifle with peep sights. He's about to shoulder the .250, when he hears a vehicle coming from off in the distance. The deer spook and rush away to cover. Teisha finds a depression and camouflages himself with some moss and grass clumps. Nyush jogs up to a small clump of scrub aspen and hides there, ready to draw attention away from his brother if he is spotted.
The vehicle, a grey Toyota 4Runner with decals on the door, drives the length of pit, then stops at the far end, near to where the boys are hiding. Its engine shuts off, but no one gets out. A buzzing sound grows in the distance, and soon a white plane with red trim circles overhead, then lands on the other end of the pit and taxies up towards the waiting SUV. The nose of the plane points up in the air at a rakish angle, and it has big tires. After the propeller stops and the dust settles, the pilot gets out, and then helps his passenger find the tiny foothold on the fuselage and dismount. The other man is carrying a briefcase, handcuffed to his wrist.
The two men in the Toyota get out at this time. One is carrying a duffel bag in his left hand, his sport coat unbuttoned. The other just stays near the 4Runner.
The boys listen as the men speak. The pilot, an older man wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses and a jean jacket, says that he's circled the area, and there is no traffic within five miles; I'd have seen the dust, he explains. So let's get this exchange done before it gets dark.
His passenger removes the handcuff from his wrist as he walks forward into the middle ground between the Toyota and the plane, spins the number sequence into the two combination locks. The man with the duffel bag in his left hand approaches warily.
The pilot munches away on an apple, unconcerned. He makes a sour face, and then lobs the apple toward the SUV. While the other men are looking at it, his hand darts to his jean jacket, and he pulls out a Glock 19 pistol.
GUN, the man near the Toyota yells, as he goes for his own a split second later.
The apple explodes, BOOM, its fragments shatter the windshield of the Toyota and knock down the man next to the 4Runner.
The pilot shoots the briefcase and duffel bag carriers as they draw their weapons from concealment. BANG-BANG. BANG-BANG. Then brings his gun to bear on the SUV man, who is lying on his side on the ground, eviscerated, but still in the fight, and is lining up his pistol on the pilot. The pilot starts dumping his mag at him, dusting him with rocks and pebbles and scoring a few peripheral hits, when the grotesquely wounded man fires a single sighted shot, and the pilot drops instantly, shot in the head. And then everything is still.
The dying man looks up to see a tall lean Indian boy running up to him. He sees a shorter boy behind him with long black hair held back by a leather headband, walk slowly towards him, holding an old lever action rifle at the ready. The taller Indian youth kneels beside him and grasps his right hand in his. You fought bravely. Your enemy is dead.
The teenager takes his left hand, wipes some blood that is dribbling from his mouth. The man feels him make the sign of the cross on his forehead, and hears the words "remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return. Repent and believe in the Gospel."
The man grips his hand firmly, then goes limp. Nyush closes his eyes.
What should we do now, Nyush? Teisha asks.