King of the Herd Book 1: Running Midnight

Chapter Nine: Riley's Escape and Rescue

When the lead mare landed on all four of her hooves, she broke into a run. Riley held on as tight as she could so she wouldn't fall off. Riley still had her head on the horse's neck and closed her eyes; she could feel the warmth of her body and the rhythm of the hooves. They ran for a while when she started to slow down into a loop then into a trot and finally to a walk. Riley lifted her head, looked around she saw the river on her left, and was facing upstream. "I'm almost home." she said to herself "Thank you" she said as she gave her a pat on the neck, she gave Riley a nicker then looked past behind Riley. Riley looked behind her she didn't hear anything but she heard something, "giddy-up, haw, come on, faster...."

"Oh no, they're on to us!" Riley told her, "I don't know where to go you'll have to lead the way." she said as she leaned towards her neck and was ready for her to run. "Let's go" she said as she gave her a little kick and she broke into a run going upstream. She took a quick glimpse behind her and saw that they were coming closer, and then she heard shots. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.....

They were shooting at her! She felt a quick pain in her left side and thigh, she looked back and another bullet went across her cheek.

Then she looked down and notice on the lead mare's left side of her neck was bleeding, she reached down to see how bad it was when she made a dead stop. There was a waterfall and they were blocked with what looked like a rockslide in front of them, a rock wall on the right, the river and a waterfall on left, and men who wanted to kill her were behind her. She didn't know what to do they were trapped; she looked around trying to find a way out. The river next to them had rock and dirt walls like years of erosion, the water didn't look that deep but the walls were pretty high.

"You decide girl, we can go back the way we came and take them or try and cross the river." she looked behind her one more time they were coming around the rock wall corner. "Okay, let's go!"

The lead mare decided to go across the river with a single jump she landed in the water. The river was no more then six inches but the water was rushing towards them fairly quickly but they were able to get the other side. She tried to jump and climb the wall, but it didn't work Riley was slipping and she knew it, still facing the dirt wall the lead mare turned her head to look behind her, Riley did the same thing. The men stopped their horses; they rode the same way as they first ambushed her. They were looking at her in amazement, and then Gus grabbed his shotgun and was pointing at her, the lead mare tired to take another leap to get over that wall. Bang! Riley got shot; she slipped off the lead mare's back and landed in the water. When she hit the water, she hit head on a rock and felt like she was going to pass out. She lifted her head out of the water and saw that the lead mare was able to climb the dirt wall and run off. Riley couldn't hold her head up any longer, she had to put her head back down her head was pounding like hammer hammering a nail. She let her head down and closed her eyes, she felt like she was starting to drift deeper and deeper into darkness when....splash! She heard water splashing coming closer and closer finally she felt water on her face; she forced her eyes open and looked up. She saw Gus standing over her and his shotgun hanging by his side. He chuckled over her then bent down beside her, and looked down at her.

"You have a fine way of getting yourself in trouble, don't you?" Riley didn't answer him, she tried to sit up but she couldn't, she felt weak and the cold water wasn't helping. She got shot in her right shoulder, she could see the blood starting to go downstream on her left and it looked like she was bleeding from her head too.

"This is not good" she thought to herself.

Neeeeeigh... Riley looked up and saw the lead mare standing at the top of the waterfall. The wind was blowing though her mane and tail, she looked like she jumped out of a dream. Until Gus made a short laugh, "I see she is trying to save you again." he said with an evil voice, "Well, she won't be able to this time." and he aimed his gun at the lead mare. This made Riley so angry, that she somehow found the strength to sit up and push the gun to the side, knocking Gus off balance. As he struggled to get up, Riley yelled out, "Get out of here Midnight!" and Midnight, the lead mare, ran off when she heard the gunshot.