Ashton Daigle

Finally, the brought Namid into Doc Ogle’s office and laid her on one of the examination tables. Again, although she was sedated, she still moved slightly, moaning, tossing her head from side to side occasionally, as if caught in the grips of a bad dream.

It was at this point that Rakov looked first at Jesse and then the sheriff.

“Doctor Ogle and I would prefer some privacy with the patient so we can examine her,” Rakov said, staring at Jesse so there was no mistake.

“Like hell,” Jesse said.

It was the sheriff that saved the situation. He placed his hand gently on Jesse’s shoulder, and using the same tone of voice he used to cajole mothers who have just lost their sons to gunshot or knife wounds he said, “Come on Jesse. There’s no need to be stubborn about this. The doctors have this under control. We’d just be under their feet.”

Jesse didn’t like it none but he nodded and then asked, “Well what if she wakes up and starts thrashing around again?”

“We can handle it,” Rakov said. “It’s obvious you are quite fond of her; and you need to be focused on the hunt. There is really no reason to put yourself through the emotional duress. If its any consolation, she seems to have held up very well. In fact, her powers of recuperation almost seem unnatural.”

Ogle, who was taking her temperature agreed, adding, “Her core body Temperature is 98.6, normal. That’s amazing, almost impossible considering she was outside naked under these conditions. But Rakov is right, Jesse. You have nothing to gain by sitting in.”

Eventually, Jesse nodded again and he and the sheriff walked out of the examination room.

—– —– —— —-

Garvey paused about twenty feet down the street and turned around and stared at Ogle’s office. He still couldn’t believe that Jesse’s crazy Indian girl had knifed him. The wound throbbed in pain and was intensifying the more the whiskey he’d drunk earlier wore off.

But there was plenty of whiskey back at his camp, so that wasn’t going to be a problem. The problem was that he was losing blood. Not so much that it posed an immediate threat to his health. But, by the same token, it was just enough to make him lightheaded; just enough to be one more thing he had to worry about.

He was more concerned about not collecting the rest of the bounty. Hell, with all the wolves he’d either caught or killed, he reckoned he deserved a medal for making their town that much more safer. But he knew that wouldn’t happen.

Men like Garvey were what they were; no less, no more. His moral compass was skewed; but in some ways that was the same trait he shred with Jesse, Rokav and even the sheriff to a certain degree, although Russell was known to sometimes put on airs when out of town guests came to Grand Junction.

But it was true; men like him; and men like Jesse and Rakov were what they were. That was why, Garvey reckoned, they despised him so much; because they saw themselves in him; just an uglier wilder side.

Garvey made it another few steps down the street, when two men walked out from underneath the awning in front of the hotel.

“Who is that?” Garvey asked, thinking it ironic that someone might try to rob him. “Speak up before I shoot.”

“It’s true,” said one of the men. “He did lose too much blood.”

Another couple of steps and Garvey saw it was two of his men; Clint and blank.

“What the hell happened to you Jesse?” Clint asked. “Is it true that Indian gal stabbed you?”

“True enough,” Garvey said. “Look, I need you two to do something for me. I still think there’s a good chance that Jesse and that Russian are going to move that girl out of town. I heard the Russian has a space over in Henderson where he was doing some of his research. Inside the old bank building there.”

“Why would they go there?” Clint asked.

“Mainly just privacy,” Garvey said. “But also in case they put that girl under quarantine for rabies. They’d be fools not to. They almost have to, and here just isn’t a good place to do it.”

“Well then what do you want us to do?” blank asked.

“Follow them, get her alone and kill her,” Garvey said. “I can’t for obvious reasons.”

“Like what?’ blank asked.

“Well, first off they’d know it was me,” Garvey said. “Not to mention the fact that I’m damn near bleeding to death. Just follow them, stick with them and do what I told you. Bring me back her scalp.”

The two men walked down the street and disappeared in the shadows.

—— —— —– —–

Jesse was as nervous as a nervous hen and Russell told him as such as they stood outside in the cold, sipping some of Rakov’s vodka and smoking hand rolled cigarettes.

“It seems like they’ve been in there a lifetime,” Jesse muttered, as he paced back and forth. “What time is it anyway?”

“Only about fifteen minutes later than the last time you asked me Jesse,” Russell said. “Calm down man.”

“I can’t,” Jesse said. “I’m too wound up. Every minute we lay up here, that wolf’s trail is going to get colder.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Russell said. “The wolf seems to taken a shine to us. Three attacks and now its come this close to what, drop her off. It’s weird.”

“Actually it kind of makes sense if the wolf has figured out it has a regular food supply here,” Jesse said.

“Our townsfolk are not a food supply,” Russell said.

“Try telling that to the wolf,” Jesse said, and they both paused and laughed nervously.

Finally after they both had quieted down, Russell said, “Guess I need to apologize for back there. I didn’t mean to ruin the game plan.”

Jesse laughed and rolled his eyes.

“Believe me, you weren’t the one who blurted out that Garvey’s wolf wasn’t our wolf,” Jesse finally said, sounding aggravated at first, but then just shaking his head, smiling.

“What?” asked Russell.

“It’s just you were right,” Jesse said. “You said what needed to be said. The townsfolk needed someone to kick their asses back into line. It was like they were turning into some kind of mindless mob. They didn’t even resemble themselves.”

“Well, I think I got through to them,” Russell said. “That damn Garvey is a whole different story.”

“I think he’ll get along soon here too,” said Jesse. “Once he realizes there’s nothing to be had by staying here.”

“Yeah, I reckon your right,” Russell said. “Boy your Russian sure was something tonight; even if he did go running off at the mouth about that wolf, and ruining the plan.”

“Nope,” said Jesse. “He didn’t really ruin nothing either. Just like you, he also said what needed to be said. The people needed to know the truth about the wolf. If you remember right, I never was comfortable with the idea of keeping it from them in the first place.”

“No,” Russell agreed. “Come to think of it, you weren’t.”

“We’re just lucky there hasn’t been another attack,” Jesse said. “That would have been on us. At least now, people can be prepared.”

“Which will be fine as long as everybody doesn’t break into a huge panic,” Russell said..

The kid walked outside and asked Jesse for a smoke and Jesse handed him one grinning and adding, “But you better be careful kid. It might stunt your growth.”

The kid just smiled and he took the bottle of vodka that the sheriff handed him, as Russell said, “Well if you’re smoking with the men, you might as well drink with them too.”

The kid took a big swallow of the clear liquid and could not disguise his look of disgust.

“This stuff sure tastes like crap, but it does the trick of keeping you war,” the kid said.

“That it does,” Jesse said. “What’s going on in there? Is everything all right? I heard some kind of ruckus in there.”

“Every time she wakes up, or comes to or whatever, she goes to growling and trying to throw everything around,” the kid said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. No disrespect intended Jesse, but it’s like she’s a wild animal. She’s going to have to try to be still so they can treat her.”

“Give her time, she’ll calm down eventually,” Jesse said. “At least I hope she does.”

They all nodded solemnly because they knew what the alternative would be; that she would stay wild and crazed forever. And that was a thought none of them were comfortable with.

—— —– ——- ——-

Garvey was half asleep, and half unconscious from losing blood as he drifted in and out while staring at the fire. Silas and Clem were passed out cold, dead to the world. Garvey figured he could be on deaths door and it wouldn’t bother them none.

He tried to doctor the wound the best he knew how. He’d poured almost an entire bottle of whiskey on the wound, and that had burned like hell, and he screamed and damn near passed out from the pain.

In the meantime, he drank steadily from another bottle of whiskey, which was damn near empty. As much as he fought to stay awake, he kept slipping into unconsciousness and he realized that the area where the wound was, as well as other parts of his body, were extremely cold.

He dozed again but was woken slightly by a gentle nudging. He couldn’t open his eyes, or didn’t want to, but instead felt with his hands. He felt a small mass of fur and he opened his eyes to see that the wolf cub had worked its way off its makeshift leash. He was apprehensive at first, but then realized the animal smelled his blood and was trying to lick his wounds.

“You see,” he muttered to the pup. “I taught you how to respect and now you do it. That there is a good pup.”

He drifted off again, as the animal continued to nuzzle at his wound.

Garvey woke again to a gentle tugging that seemed to awaken every nerve ending in his body. It was a decidedly weird moment, because Garvey could not make out what the problem was, but he could eel that something was horribly amiss.

Drunk, weak and his eyes still adjusting to the darkness and dying light and shadows from the camp fire, Garvey felt, rather than saw that something was wrong. The next thing to register as he felt another gentle tug; was the wolf pup, standing some twenty feet in front of him, but crouched down like a dog who was playing fetch with its master.

Jesse felt another tug, this one more urgent, actually hurting and stretching his abdomen in some sort of way. It almost felt as if there was an invisible chord attached to his wound that was being yanked on.

Damn it hurt.

And it was with great horror that Garvey screamed weakly as he saw the cause of his discomfort. There was in fact a chord attached to his abdomen that was being pulled. It was his large intestine. The wolf pup had unwound it like a ball of twine, and now had it in its mouth, twisting, stretching and yanking it playfully, as pups are apt to do.

Garvey tried, calmly at first, to try to call the wolf pup to him.

He wept, but tried to remain calm as he called out to the pup.

“Good boy, that’s a good boy,” Garvey said, in a high pitched tone that was rapidly bordering on hysteria.

But Garvey’s calls seemed to provoke the animal more and it snarled playfully and shook the end of the intestine, causing Garvey to wince and nearly pass out from pain. He tried to call out to the animal again, but it didn’t heed his calls.

Garvey tried to wake his companions, but they were still far too drunk to hear his cries, which were weakening with each passing moment. Garvey then tried pulling, reeling his own intestine back to himself; but the pup pounced on it, pinning it; this time snarling, in warning at Garvey.

“Come see me, come see me,” Garvey said, and acted like he was reaching into his pocket. “I have treats.”

For a moment, the pup cocked its head in curiosity, but then went back to tugging on Garvey’s intestine. Garvey tried to grab his rifle but it was too far out of reach and the effort made him vomit blood. He then felt his knife, the very one the Indian bitch had stabbed him with earlier and pulled it out calmly.

With every ounce of wavering concentration he had left, Garvey took aim and then hurled the knife. It missed the pup by a good three feet, off to the left. But the aggressive move didn’t go unnoticed by the wolf pup. With a vigorous pull it jerked Garvey’s intestine. Then it turned to face the other direction and took off running.

The agony was like none Garvey had ever felt in his life, as he idly wondered just how damn long an intestine was. It seemed to stretch into eternity, before Garvey realized it had snapped off and was no longer attached to his body.

Only after the pup knew for sure that Garvey was dead, did it return to feast on the rest of his innards.