Page 121 of The Outsider
He agreed, and I took off in the opposite direction to follow Danny’s patrol. He’d been on the northern route while I’d taken the eastern perimeter. It’d take some time to get there.
On the way, I kept trying to reach Danny, but he never responded. The silence of the night felt suddenly eerie. My chest was tight with worry. Danny was a jokester, but not about things that really mattered. He wouldn’t do this just for a laugh.
The northern route had the toughest terrain because there were only a few homesteads on this end of the Valley. The brush was thick, and the patrol path was narrow. The ground was rocky and uneven, which meant Ghost had to tread carefully.
The radio buzzed, and for a minute, only static came through. Then came Danny’s voice, weak and rough-sounding.
“Command to…”
He trailed off, and more static came through.
“Command, this is Ghost,” I replied, trying to keep my voice level. “What’s your position?”
No reply. My grip on the reins tightened. I continued along the patrol route, but I was slower than I needed to be. Static came through a couple more times.
“Danny,” I said into the radio, ditching protocol. My tone sounded more frantic than I liked. “If you can hear me, please tell me where you’re at. Come on, man.”
Nothing.God fucking damn it.
We reached a stretch of flatter ground, and I urged Ghost to go faster. The darkness deepened as we headed farther into the woods, and I had no choice but to use my flashlight. Almost as soon I clicked the light on, Danny called out, “Hey! Over here!”
I followed the direction of his voice, and just off the path up ahead, I came on the gruesome scene. Danny was lying on his back on top of some bushes, groaning with pain. He couldn’t move because from the knee down, his left leg was pinned underneath his horse, which was very dead. The horse’s head was bloody; he’d been shot.
“Fuck,” I muttered as I dismounted, rifle in hand, and grabbed my medical kit from my saddlebag. I waded through the brush to reach him. “What the hell happened?”
“Don’t know,” Danny replied through gritted teeth. “Heard a shot, then Bolt tumbled. Tried to call you, but…blacked out, I think.”
I ran my flashlight through the trees all around us, searching for anyone nearby, but it was dark and quiet now. Owls hooted in the distance. Could someone be watching through a scope? I didn’t know, but I also didn’t have a lot of options. Danny needed emergency care.
“You hurt anywhere else?” I asked, dropping beside him.
“Don’t think so,” he answered, wincing.
I did a quick exam to make sure, but other than some gnarly bruising, the rest of him seemed fine. I made a radio call to Will, telling him our location and calling for reinforcements. Kimmy was working at the clinic, so she’d be the one treating him. For now, I had to figure out how to move Bolt’s corpse off his leg as carefully as possible.
My medical kit had a small bottle of morphine for emergencies like this one. I loaded the syringe and injected Danny. I led Ghost over to the scene and unhooked a spool of rope from her saddle. Over the next few minutes, I tied Bolt’s legs together, then tied the loose ends around Ghost’s shoulders, building a makeshift harness.
I hoped she’d be able to drag the dead horse far enough that Danny could slide his leg out.
“A few inches is all we need,” I said.
“That’s what she said,” Danny replied, but whatever effect he wanted was ruined by his laboured breathing.
“Danny, now is not the time,” I growled. I knelt beside the horse corpse, shoving my arms underneath it. I clicked my tongue to signal Ghost, and as she pulled, I lifted the dead horse upward, off Danny’s leg.
“Now!” I said, and with a horrible scream, Danny slid his leg out. I let the horse fall back to the ground.
There was no way to soften the blow: his leg was gory as shit. Crushed below the knee, and his ankle was turned at an unnatural angle. Blood oozed from the site of a clean break, where his shin bone protruded from the skin.
Danny’s skin was ashen and pale, and his breathing was fast and shallow. His eyes were glazed, but he’d relaxed some, which I hoped meant that the morphine was working.
“Johnny,” he gritted out. “Don’t leave me here.”
I reached out and took his hand. “I’m not going anywhere, buddy.”
I waited for what felt like an eternity for a radio call. Danny passed out, which was probably for the best, and I wrapped up his leg as best I could. Finally, more outriders arrived. Someone had driven their truck as close to our location as possible so they could drive him to the clinic. With effort, we managed to get Danny over the rocky terrain and down to the vehicle without fucking up his leg even worse. Some of the others stayed behind to investigate the scene.
When we finally made it to the clinic, relief surged through me at Kimmy’s presence. She set to work immediately, barking orders at us like a drill sergeant as she prepared for surgery. Granny would’ve been proud.
