California and Montana

One of the passengers stood, as if to try and stop the man, but he sat back down, with an appologetic look to me, when my captor drew his gun.

"Sit down and shut up," my captor snarled.

The passenger car went silent, except for my cries and fighting.  The group of us deboarded the train and it started moving, again.

Tears were sliding down my cheeks, as the man swung me onto a horse, and climbed on behind me.  "Please, Sir, just leave me here...please."

I was ignored, as one of the man's compainions said, "Danny, I don't think that this is such a good idea.  We've never taken anyone before.  What if she has a family that will come looking for her?"

My captor glared at the two men and said, "See you two later."

The other two men sighed and rode off.  Danny, my captor turned to me and said, "Now...what am I going to do with you?"

"Leave me here," I answered, hopefully.

The man laughed, a loud, booming laugh, from deep in his chest.  "You're funny."

I sighed and bowed my head, against the blinding sun, sobbing softly.  I felt myself slowly slipping into sleep.

When I reopened my eyes, I was being lifted off of the horse.  My brain didn't comprehend the situation, until he laid me on the ground.

I rolled away from him.  "Don't touch me."

Danny sat, squatting, staring at me, as if I had two heads.  "What?  You're telling me to do something?"

"No. I'm telling you not to do something.  I don't want you to touch me.  Got it?"  I snapped.

"You can't demand me to do anything.  You're in no place to do that.  Got it?" Danny said, gripping my neck with one hand.

I glared at him, as he pulled my head toward his face.  The look on his face said that he had a feeling he was winning.  That's why I had such pleasure saying, "You're touching me."

His eyes narrowed and he released my neck, shoivng my head away from him.  He spun on his heel and stalked into the trees on the other side of the clearing.

I sat up, looking around me.  It was dark out and I could see the stars directly over my head.  It was also very cold.  Shivering, I pulled my knees up to my chin and wrapped my arms around my legs.

A loud gunshot brought me to my feet.  It was silent, again, until a loud crashing came from the trees behind me.  I spun around and backed away, terrified when another gun shot rang out, making the crashing louder and faster.

Suddenly, Danny exlpoded out of the trees.  "Come on.  We're leaving."

More gunshots followed, as he threw me onto the horse, jumped on behind me, and rode out, through the trees, and into the wide, open land.  Danny had the horse running at a dead sprint.  I turned and looked behind us.

There were two black stallions right behind us, running at about the same speed as us.  The two men seated on the backs of the stallions each held nasty looking guns...aimed right at us.

"What the - " I started, but screamed when they shot at us.

"Just shut up, okay?" Danny yelled, in my ear.

I went silent, but my heart continued to scream.

The next gunshot was sent straight into our horse's hind leg.  The horse crumpled and sent Danny and me falling to the side.  I felt something 'pop' in my ankle, as the horse landed on it.

I screamed and Danny jumped to his feet, a couple of feet away.  The horse tried to jump back up, but fell, again.

"What's wrong?" Danny yelled, pulling me into his arms.

"My ankle," I said, looking down and seeing my ankle was already begining to swell.

Danny clicked his tongue and started running for the edge of the canyon.  His horse forced itself to its feet and stumbled over to us.

Turning around and facing the two following us, Danny whispered, "Hang on a second."

The horses continued to come toward us.

I screamed, "What are you doing?"

Suddenly, when I was sure the horses would trample us, Danny threw himself to one side.  He pulled me on top of him, right before we hit the ground, cushioning me from the hard ground.

I heard the horses neighing, wildly, and the two men shouting.  Looking up, I saw the horses sliding on the rocky edge, trying to stay on the solid ground, but they both slid over the side.  Wild gunshots were fired, as the men fell, along with their horses.

Danny sighed, under me, and said, "I think it's safe to move, now."

I was scooped upa nd into Danny's arms, as he carried me to the trees off to the side.  His horse hobbled along behind us, until we reached a stream in the forest.

Danny knelt next to me, after setting me on a large boulder, and pulled my shoe off.  "Sorry," he said, when I winced.

"It's okay..." I said, softly.

"Slide down to the edge of the water," Danny said, patting the ground.

As I slid down the rock and to the water, I studied Danny's face.  He wasn't as mean and harsh as he had been.  He placed my swollen foot in the cool water.

"Who were they?" I asked, watching him, carefully.